Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 66
The Sixty Sixth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Song or Psalm.
Paraphrase. The sixty sixth Psalm is made up wholly of acknowledgements of Gods mercies and deliverances, that of old from Aegypt v. 6. &c. as an image of some other remarkable one now received, at the writing of this Psalm. (By the*foreign. Title given it in the Greek copies, it appears to have been used in the Greek Church on Easter day.)
1. Make a joyfull noise unto God, all ye lands.
2. Sing forth the honour of his name,‖or, give him glory by his praise, or by praising him. a.make his praise glorious.
It is the obliged duty of all the men in the world to celebrate with all joy, and thanksgiving, and praise, the great and gracious God of heaven and earth;
3. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works? through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies†feign obedience to thee: see note on Ps. xviii. …. submit themselves unto thee.
To proclaim the wonderfull and dreadfull works of his vengeance on his enemies, by which even those which are most wicked are yet constreined to acknowledge, and hypocritically to subject themselves to him.
4. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing to thy name. Selah.
5. Come and see the works of God, he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.
Very ma…velous things hath he done towards us, the acts of his providence among men are very remarkable: O let us all adore and magnify his name for them.
6. He turned the sea into dry land, they went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoyce in him.
When the children of Israel were, according to h s promise to the fathers, brought out of bondage in Aegypt, 'twas done in a miraculous manner; the sea on a suddain, at their approach, departing before them, and giving them a free passage through it, but returning with violence upon the Aegyptians, who pursued them, and were drowned with that which did them no hurt. And afterward when they were to enter into the promised land, by passing†foreign by the River Jordan Chald. over Jordan, at the Priests entring on the brink of the river with the Arke on their shoulders, the waters stood, and arose up on a heap, Jos. iii. 16. and by other the like restraints interposed by Gods special power, all the Israelites passed over on dry ground v. 17. And this certainly in both parts of it was matter of great joy to our ancestors, and just occasion of magnifying his power (and vengeance) and mercy to us.
7. He ruleth by hisb. power†over the world. for ever, his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
And as over the Aegyptians and seaven nations, so hath he absolute dominion over all other nations of the world: And that may be a good admonition to all obstinate impious oppressors, timely to return and repent, that they fall not irreversibly under his vengeance.
8. O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard,
9. Which holdeth our soule in life, and suffereth not our feet to slip.
'Tis he that surrounds our lives in time of danger, and preserves them from all miscarriage, and accordingly is to be blest and magnified by all that have received this mercy from him, to be preserved so long, when if he had not supported, they had each minute been cast down.
10. For thou, O God, hast proved us; thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
He hath sometimes brought trouble and affliction upon us, upon the same designes that metallists are wont to throw gold or silver into the fire, to discern whether it be pure or no, and if it be not, to melt and separate all the dross and false metal from it. Thus he dealt with the Israelites of old in the iron furnace of Aegypt; and proportionably thus he hath now dealt with us: And this hath been his one gratious purpose in all his inflictions, to approve our sincerity of adherence to him, and to reforme and purge out all that is vitious in us.
11. Thou broughtst us into the net, thou laidst*restraint foreign affliction upon our loyns.
One while he hath permitted us to be insnared and subdued by our enemies, as in Aegypt our Fathers were.
12. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads: we went through fire and through water, but thou broughtst us out into a‖watered— foreign wealthy place.
Another while he hath permitted them to oppress and tyrannize over us: But then as after the example of those, he hath by his providence chosen to permit very sharp afflictions to befall us, so hath he gratiously brought us through, and out of them again. As he brought our fathers to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, after the fire of the brick-kilns, and the water of the sea, and the floods of the River Jordan; so hath he oft delivered us out of the most pressing distresses, brought us out of drowning, to blessing waters, to a well-watered irrigated countrey, and returned us to all kinde of prosperity.
13. I will goe into thy house with burnt-offerings; I will pay thee my vows.
14. Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.
When we were in any distress, we made our addresses to thee, besought thee to avert them, and upon thy hearing our prayers, promised reformation of life, and voluntary oblations, for the acknowledgment of that deity from whence we expected and begged our relief. And now being heard and answered by thee, we are under the strictest obligation of justice and gratitude, and performance of promise, to returne our most chearfull acknowledgments to thee.
15. I will offer unto thee burnt-sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rammes: I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.
And this I will now doe in the liberallest and most magnificent manner that can be.
16. Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soule.
And proclaim to all pious men, for their incouragement, how gratiously God hath dealt with me all my life long.
17. I cryed unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.
How, as soon as I made my prayers unto him, he granted them presently, and gave me cause to convert them into praises.
18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
19. But verily God hath heard me, he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Which is, beside the blessing granted, a farther matter of joy and comfort to me, that that God, which cannot patronize any sin, hath been pleased to h…arken to my request, and so to signe unto me his approbation of my sincerity.
20. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
His name be for ever magnified, for this honour of hearing my prayers, and the deliverance consequent thereto.
Annotations on Psalm LXVI.
V. 2. Make his praise glorious] foreign here the Jewish Arab renders in the notion of giving, foreigngive him glory, (and so regularly foreign posuit put] is used for dedit gave, and is here v. 9. joyned with foreign to give, as a synonymon, and so to put to him honour] is to giuegive it him;) but he, as well as others, avoids making foreign to be in regimine, so as to govern the noune that follows, the glory of his praise:] for then (as in the beginning of this verse, foreign the honour of his name) the vowel should be changed from foreign to foreign It is then possible that the nouns should be put by apposition; and then foreign may be in the ordinary notion of put, or make,] make glory his praise, i. e. either your glory] as Aben Ezra would have it, make your glory his praise, let it be your glory to praise him) or his glory,] make his glory his praise. But 'tis yet more probable, that the difficulty may be best removed by understanding a preposition in foreign: the Jewish Arab supplies it by foreign from, or of his praise; it may be as fitly [by his praise] i. e. by your praising of him. To this sense the Chaldee may be interpreted, foreign give him glory by his praise, and the Lxxii. foreign give glory by his praise, or by praising him: and that seems to be the most ready rendring of it. There are …everal wayes of giving glory to God; one by confessing of sins, Josh. vii. 19. my sonne give glory to God, and make confession to him, and tell me what thou hast done; and so 1 Sam. vi. 5. ye shall give glory to God, peradventure he will lighten his hand, and Jer. xiii. 16. and elsewhere. And another by praising him, Isa. xLii. 12. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise; so Rev. ii. 9. when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks; And so here, give him glory, by what means? foreign by his praise, or by praising him.
V. 7. Power for ever] That foreign, as the English age, signifies not only time and duration, but also the men that live in any time, there is no question. And then foreign foreignmust here most properly be rendred, ruling the world, or over the world; and so the Chaldee certainly understood, who read foreign which exerciseth dominion over the world: and so I suppose the Lxxii. their foreign, having dominion over the world,] doth import, though the Latine hath rendred it amiss, (and against their meaning,) in aeternum. The Syriack, by following the Hebrew, and rendring it foreign in seculum, is capable of the right sense, he that hath dominion over the world; the very paraphrase of foreign, by which God is known in the Crede, the ruler of all things.