Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 69 – Psalm 70
The Sixty Ninth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian upon ‖the six-stringed instruments. see Psal. xlv. note ….Shoshannim, A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Sixty ninth Psalm is a prayer and complaint to God against his enemies, and a prediction of the judgments that should befall them. 'Twas composed by David in time of eminent distress, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick to be sung to the instruments of six strings.
1. Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soule.
Lord, be thou pleased to interpose thy hand of deliverance in this so seasonable a time of exigency, when I am so neer to be overwhelmed with dangers.
2. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am not able to secure or defend my selfe, to finde any way to support me in this distress, or deliver me out of it; my enemies are many and mighty, and without thy help I am sure to be overborne by them.
3. I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried, mine eyes faile, while I wait for my God.
I have long called and uncessantly made my complaint to thee, and am ready to faint, and to be disheartned, because thou art not yet pleased to hearken to me.
4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; ‖my enemies that oppress me wrongfully foreignthey thata. would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
And mine adve…saries daily increase beyond number, have nothing from me to provoke them, nothing but patience of their injuries, and re…diness (when I have not in the least offended them) to satisfy their causeless quarrels by mine own diminutions; and yet they are so farre from being melted or mollified with my soft returns, that they still grow more obstinate and obdurate: and as they are very willing, so are they very able to mischief me.
5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee.
To thee, O Lord, I make my appeal, who perfectly knowest what I have done amiss, either through ignorance, or more criminously, and canst certainly testifie for me, that I have not been guilty of any thing whereby to deserve this usage from them.
6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
If thou forsake, and do not vindicate my cause, if thou permit me to be thus overborn by injurious men, 'twill be a great discouragement and reproach to those that faithfully serve and depend on thee. Thy glory therefore is concerned in it; O let this move thee to hasten to my relief.
7. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face.
For I have been oft scofft at, and upbraided by men, for relying on thee, and keeping fast mine hold on thee, whilst I receive no deliverance from thee.
8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien to my mothers children.
Those that are nearest to me in blood, and such like relations, avoid me, and disclaim me, because I am resolved to adhere to thee, and expect with patience the issues of thy providence.
9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
I have shewed my selfe very affectionately zealous for thy honour and worship, and this hath brought hatred and persecutions upon me; all the scoffs that blasphemous Atheists have cast on thee are become my portion, because I owne depending on thee. (This had a more eminent completion in Christ, see Joh. ii. 17. Rom. xv. 3. when his zealous expressions of dislike to the corruptions of the Jews brought his crucifixion upon him.)
10. When I wept†in the fasting of my soule and chastenedb. my soule with fasting, this was to my reproach.
11. I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb unto them.
If at any time, either by fasting or wearing of sackcloth, I seemed to them to performe any special act of devotion to God, this was made matter of scorne and reproach and bitter sarcasme.
12. They that sit in thec. gate speak against me, and I*am was the song of the drunkards.
And thus have I been used both by the grave men that sit in the seats of judicature, and by the vainest and lightest, that spend their time in drinking excessively, they please themselves by scoffing at me.
13. But‖I make my— foreign as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy merciemercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
In this sad distrest condition, as in a season most capable of thy mercifull interposition, I humbly address my prayer to thee: O be thou pleased for thy abundant mercies, and for thy righteous promise sake, to receive and answer it.
14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not†or stick foreign sink: Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Lord, suffer me not to remain any longer in this disconsolate and dangerous condition, these present pressures, and continual expectations of being overwhelmed by them, but hasten timely, I beseech thee, to my rescue.
15. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
How low soever my condition, and how imminent soever my danger is, Lord, doe thou support, that I perish not under it.
16. Heare me, O Lord, for thy loving kindness isd. ‖gracious, or bountifullgood: turne unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
17. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.
Lord, thou art a God of infini…e mercies, of the tenderest and most compassionate affections to those that are in any distress, O be thou pleased at this time thus to exhibite thy selfe to me, to rescue me out of this distress, and no longer to delay thy timely succours.
18. Draw nigh unto my soule and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.
Thou canst not but take notice of the pride and malice of mine opposers: O doe not thou permit them*foreign Chald. that my enemies may not lift up themselves against me. to triumph over me, as they certainly will, when they think me forsaken by thee.
19. Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour; mine adversaries are all before thee.
Thou seest how contumeliously I have been used by them, thou discernest every word and thought of theirs against me, which are by interpretation against thy selfe also.
20. Reproach hath broken mine heart, I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I founde none.
And this is it that so extremely pricks and wounds me, that makes my sorrow so comfortless and unsupportable, that when I have prayed for and expected relief from thee, I have yet been disappointed, and so scoft at by my enemies for the vanity of my hopes, which being reposed on thee, have not as yet been answered by thee.
21. They gave me also gall†t…— foreign for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink.
In such a distress, men of any tolerable good nature would have had some compassion upon me, and at least afforded me some allayes, if not relief; but these hard-hearted men have studied to adde to my weight, and farther to imbitter my sufferings to me. (How this had a more eminent and more literal completion in the souldiers usage to Christ upon the Cross, see Mat. xxvii. 34. Mar. xv. 23. Joh. xix. 28, 29.)
22. *Their table shall be for—Let their table become a snare before them; and‖their peace-offerings f…r a trap. thate. which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
But Gods vengeance shall finde these out, that have dealt thus barbarously with me: their oblations and prayers shall be so far from pacifying him, or being accepted by him, or bringing them any advantage, that, (like the offerings to false Gods, stiled the preparing a table, &c. Is. 65.11.) they shall provoke God, and turne to their mischief. (How this was fulfilled of the Jewish crucifiers of Christ, whose worship and temple was abolished and destroyed for that fact, see Rom. xi. 9.)
23. †Their eyes shall—Let their eyes be darkned that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
And their end shall be occaecation and terrors, obduration and despair. (And so also of the impenitent Jews, after the crucifixion of Christ.)
24. Poure out thine indignation upon them; and let thy wrathfull anger take hold of them.
The severest punishments of God shall overtake them, and all the most miserable effects of his displeasure.
25. Let their habitation be desolate, and no man to dwell in their tents.
And in fine, utter desolation and eradication. (This had a most eminent completion in the final destruction of the Iews presently after their crucifying of Christ.)
26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, andf. they‖adde. talke to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
For when God was pleased to withdraw his countenance, and fatherly to chastise his servants for their good, these cruel unmercifull men, instead of coming in to their comfort or relief, indeavoured to heap afflictions and reproaches upon them.
27. g.†Give, or, PermitAdde iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness.
And accordingly God in his just displeasure shall withdraw his grace from them, and permit them to accumulate one sin upon another, so as never finally to returne to amendment of life, and capacity of his mercy.
28. h.Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
And then suddenly cut them off in the midst of their sins, and not suffer them to live any longer among pious men, who are so maliciously bent against them. (How signal a completion this had in Iudas, after his betraying of Christ, see Act. 1.20.)
29. But I am poore and sorrowfull: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
Meanwhile, O Lord, be thou pleased to deliver me out of this sad distrest disconsolate condition.
30. I will praise the name of God with a song, and magnify it with thanksgiving.
That I may be excited thereby and ingaged to make my most solemn and thankfull acknowledgments to thee.
31. This also shall please the Lord better than an oxe or bullock that hath hornes and hoofes.
That being the most acceptable sacrifice that can be presented to thee, and which alone shall be used by the Christian Church instead of all the Mosaical.
32. The humble shall see this and be glad; and your heart shall live that seek God.
This shall be a joyfull spectacle to all that depend and rely on God. Thy seasonable interposing for me that rely on thee, and stand in such need of thy relief, and am resolved never to give over my affiance on thee, will be the most soveraign cordial to all that have espoused thy service, the greatest matter of joy and transportation to their very hearts.
33. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
An instance to confirme their belief of that great truth, and divine axiome, that God never was or will be wanting to any faithfull servant of his in time of distress, that continues his prayers to and affiance in him.
34. Let heaven and earth praise him, the sea and every thing that*treadeth, or creepeth in them foreign moveth therein.
For this and all other thy glorious excellencies, and emanations of goodness toward us thy unworthy creatures, may all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, and all the inhabitants of this inferior globe, pay their due tributes of lauds and thanksgiving to thee.
35. For God will save Sion, and will build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and have it in possession.
For what ever distress befalls his people, he will timely deliver them out of it, returne their captivities, when they have reformed their lives (forsaken their sins, which bring their punishments on them) and restore them to a prosperous peaceable state.
36. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
Which they and their posterity shall successively injoy, as long as they make good their piety and constant obedience to his commands.
Annotations on Psalm LXIX.
V. 4. Would destroy] From foreign succedit, to cut short, is foreign foreignhere, those that cut me short, i. e. oppress or persecute me: the Lxxii. render it so, and joyne it with foreign falsely, foreign, they that persecute me unjustly.
V. 10. My soule] The word foreign foreignsignifying the sensitive soule or animal faculty, which in fasting or abstinence is afflicted, 'tis ordinary in scripture to describe bodily fasting by afflicting the soule, which is no more than simply fasting. So the Chaldee renders it, exactly according to the Hebrew, foreign, and I wept in the fasting of my soule. The Lxxii. paraphrase it by foreign, and I bowed down my soule by fasting.
V. 12. Gate] foreign,foreign the gate, is frequently taken for the place of judicature, which was wont to be in the gate of the city. So Deut. xxv. 7. Let his brothers wife go up to the gate to the Elders; the Chaldee read, to the gate foreign of the house of judgment. So Ruth. iii. 11. all the foreign gate of my people] is by the Chaldee rendred, all that sit in the gate of the Sanhedrim: & so Ruth. 6.1. Boaz went up to the gate, i. e. to the gate of the house of the judgement of Sanhedrim. So Hest. ii. 19, & 21. Mordecai sat in the Kings gate,] is by some learned men understood of his sitting in the Sanhedrim, which the King instituted. And so in all reason it is to signify here, and denotes the solemnest and gravest Senators; as after, the more unworthy, the d…unkards, &c.
V. 18. Good] The word foreign foreignin this, as in many other places, signifies abundance of goodness or mercifulness. So in S. Paul Rom. v. 7. foreign a good man, in opposition to foreign a righteous man,] is a mercifull-minded man in a high degree, above the proportion of foreign mercifulness, which is oft exprest by foreign righteousness. Accordingly the Lxxii. here render it foreign bountifull or gratious, and so the Latine benignae. And to this is proportionable what follows, the multitude of thy tender mercies.
V. 22. That which should have been for their welfare] What foreign foreignad paces, for prosperities, here signifies, may perhaps best be learned from the Chaldee Paraphrast, who explains it by foreign (from foreign mactavit) their victims or sacrifices, frequently called peace-offerings, and so here abbreviated into foreign for peace, as sin-offerings are stiled foreign of, or for sin; and though the word, when it is used for peace-offerings, is without ו, and vowel'd with', yet is foreign peace scarce ever found in the plural, as here, but in the notion of peace-offerings. And besides, the preposition prefixt foreign (wherein the poetry of the verse seems to consist, almost all the words beginning with foreign) being rendred of, or for, accords well, Offerings of, or for, peace. To this the context also agrees, joyning the table and these peace-offerings in the same sense, to denote a sacrifical feast, of which the foreign or portions were wont to be the furnishing of a feast for the Sacrificers. Abu Walid reads, to those that are in peace, i. e. as he saith, to themselves, who have long been secure and safe from the turnings of the world, let their table be now a trap and snare to them. The Lxxii. read foreign, and for a retribution, in the same sense as foreign, and foreign, for a snare, and a stumbling-block. The account of which is to be taken from the distant notions of foreign, (noted Ps. vii. note c.) for returning evil, as well as good (and accordingly the Jewish Arab, as there Ps. vii. 4. so here interprets it by those that are contrary to me, or oppose themselves against me.) From the version of the Lxxii. when S. Paul cites this verse Rom. xi. 9. he only reads, let his table be made a snare, reteining the sense completely in that variety of words; the true notion of foreign being conteined in the mention of the table, as the sacrifice is oft comprehended under the mention of the Altar. That this and the following verses are to be understood in the future sense by way of prediction, and not as an imprecation, see Saint Augustine de Civ. l. xvii. c. xix. Haec non optando sunt dicta, sed optandi specie, prophetando, These things are not said by way of wishing, but under the shew or scheme of wishing, by prophecy. And indeed the Hebrew foreign is in the future, and is most fitly rendred, shall be. And so doth the Jewish Arab Interpreter observe, that such seeming imprecations, as here and elsewhere occurre in this book of Psalms, are not so much foreign by way of imprecation, as foreign by way of Prophecy, or prediction of what in Gods just judgments would certainly befall these.
V. 26. They talke] The Hebrew foreign foreignin this place seems to be best rendred by the Lxxii. foreign, they added to. So the Syriack, Latine, Arabick, & Aethiopick read also: & this agreeably enough to the Theme, foreign, which signifies to number, and of that we know addition is one sort. And accordingly the learned Castellio reads, sauciorum tuorum numerum adaugentes, increasing the number of thy wounded.
V. 27. Adde iniquity] That foreign foreignto give, signifies also to permit, appears by Esth. ix. 13. foreign let it be given to the Jews, i. e. permitted them. So Exod. xii. 23. and shall not suffer (the Hebrew hath foreign give) the destroyer to come in; the Chaldee read foreign permit, and the Lxxii. foreign, to the same sense. So Psal. xvi. 10. Thou shalt not suffer (foreign again, give) thy holy one to see corruption. And so foreign give wickedness, is no more than permit: for so 'tis ordinary with God, as a punishment of some former great sin or sins, though not to infuse any malignity, yet by withdrawing his grace, and delivering them up to themselves, to permit more sins to follow, one on the heels of the other, and so to be so farre from reforming & amending, as daily to grow worse and worse, to be more obdurate, and so finally never to enter into Gods righteousness, i. e. into that way of obedience required by him, and which will be accepted by him, or (as foreign foreignin the notion of mercy may signify, being applied to God) into his mercy, so as to be made partakers of it.
V. 28. Book of the living] The phrase foreign foreignthe book of the living, is to be interpreted, according to the custome of those times, of a register of names of those who live in any kingdome. Thus Luk. ii. 1. we have the foreign the inrolling of all in the Emperors dominions: and accordingly foreign is ordinarily taken for a catalogue, and the catalogue of the living, is the number of those that are alive at any time, who when they die, their names are blotted out, and so are no longer written in this book or catalogue of the living. See Psal. cxxxix. 16. where Gods book is this register, or censual book, or roll, where all that are born are inrolled: so Exo. xxxii. 32. blotting him out of Gods book, is no more than dying, instead of the people.
The Seventieth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance.
Paraphrase. The seventieth is a mournfull affectionate prayer to God for relief out of his present miseries, a beseeching God that he will at length remember him see: Psal. xxxviii. 1.
1. Make haste, O Lord, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.
See the same very little varied Psal. xl. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
2. ‖or, They shall.Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soule: let them be turned back and put to confusion that desire my hurt.
3. †or, They shall.Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, Aha.
4. Let all those that seek thee rejoyce and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
5. But I am poor and needy, make hast unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer, O God make no tarrying.