Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 48
The Forty Eighth Psalm.
A Song and Psalm for the sons of Corah.
Paraphrase. The forty eighth Psalm is a Hymn in honour of Jerusalem, as particularly chosen for the place of Gods worship, and so defended by his more immediate care from all hostilities of invading enemies; a chearfull forme of singing lauds to God, particularly for that mercy of permitting men to meet in his solemn service, (and so in the mysticall sense, an acknowledgement of his glorious mercies afforded to the Church of Christians under the Gospel) the greatest dignation in the world. It seems to have been composed after some signal defeat of an invading army, v. 4. and was appointed to be sung by the posterity of Corah, in the†foreign, Lxxii. Munday service.
1. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
The God of Israel is a God of all power and Majesty, and so hath illustriously shewed himself to that people which he hath chosen to himselfe; and therefore ought in all reason to be solemnly adored and magnified by all the inhabitants of this land, by bringing up their offerings to Jerusalem, that place where he hath ordained to be worshipt.
2. a.Beautifull for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion,‖on the north side foreign on the sides of the North, the city of the great King.
The hill of Sion, where the Arke is now placed, and the service of God is performed, is in it selfe a most pleasant delightfull place; the situation very advantageous for beauty, the most delectable of any in the whole land. It is on the north side of Jerusalem, and so fenceth it from the most boysterous winds; and God the King of all the earth in a most signal manner inhabites and presentiates himselfe there. (And so in the mystical sense, the being a member of the Church of Christ is in many regards a delightfull state, much more prizable by any rational considering man, than all the pleasures and advantages of sin; 'tis a guard from the fiercest temptations, and hath the blessing and gratious presence of God alwayes adjoyned to it)
3. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
Here in this sort of Sion, this high and fair building, is the solemn residence of the Arke of the Covenant, and so of God himselfe, who is to be worshipt and consulted there, and from thence gives relief to all that address themselves to him there.
4. For loe the Kings were assembled, they passed by together.
Of this we have had a late eminent experience. For when the Kings of the heathens round about us confederated, and joyned both their counsels and forces against the people of God, in fine they departed without any attempt. (see note on Psal. 42. e.)
5. They saw it, and so they marvelled: they were troubled, and†affrighted foreign hasted away.
They soon discerned Gods taking our parts, were astonished at it, and in great perturbation and disorder fled away, seeing the*Chald. wonders and signes that were wrought by God for us, and against them.
6. Fear took hold upon them*there was pain foreign there and pain, as of a woman in travail.
The terrors that vehemently and suddenly surprised them, cannot better be exprest, than by the pangs and throwes of a woman bringing forth.
7. Thou breakest the ships ofb. Tarshish with an East winde.
Thus when thou pleasest, thou disappointest the Tyrian merchants, when they come home with their lading of gold and silver, and other metals, as rich as the most prosperous voyage can make them; a winde of thy sending shatters their fleet, and casts them away, and their wealth with them.
8. As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.
And so in all other things God doth magnifie his power and mercy to his people: the promises which he hath made to Abraham are fulfilled on us, and so will certainly be performed to all that follow and adhere to the saith of Abraham, to the Jewish first, and (on their defection) to the Christian Church, to the end of the world.
9. Wec. have‖awaited thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of the Temple.
To thee, whensoever we have wanted any thing, hath been our constant resort and addresse; we have diligently made our prayers to thee in thy appointed place of hearing requests, and then quietly attending thy time, with full confidence of a seasonable audience from thee, we have never been disappointed.
10. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth:†or righteousness consecrateth thee. Thy right hand is full ofd. righteousnesse.
Thy name is spoken of over all the world, and wherever the mention of it is come, men admire and celebrate thy glorious works of mercy to thy people. Innumerable are the acts of goodness which have been wrought by thy right hand, through the special interposition of thy power for us thy unworthy servants, and thereby art thou set out most holy and most renouned in the eyes of all men, thy justice and thy mercy being for ever discernible in the exercise of thy power.
11. Let Mount Sion rejoyce, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
Let Jerusalem the Metropolis, and all the lesser cities of Judah, and the people therein, joyne all in a festival celebration of thy great and wondrous works of deliverance, and all sorts of blessings which God hath afforded them.
12. Walk about Sion, and goe round about her; tell the towers thereof.
There is nothing so deserving our solemnest meditations as this goodness of God unto his people, exhibited in his Sanctuary, in answer to their prayers. A man may very comfortably and profitably spend all his time in contemplation of it, walking about the city, and seeing whether God have not exactly guarded it, not any one tower of it demolisht; but especialy considering this his Sanctuary on the hill of Sion, surveighing the very external fabrick, numbring the towers of it as emblems, but very imperfect ones, of the lustre and magnificence of that God that inhabits there, and from thence signally answers the prayers of his people.
13. Marke ye well her bulwarks,e. ‖divide, sever, distribute.consider her palaces, that ye may†number them foreign tell it to the generations following.
Spend your time in a diligent consideration of the fortifications and stately lofty buildings thereof, survey them severally; that ye may be able perfectly to decipher them to posterity: and by that imperfect measure, think what a powerfull and admirable Deity it is that inhabits there, and what a glorious Church he will provide himselfe in the dayes of the Messias, of which this is but a darke, feeble adumbration.
14. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he shall be our guidef. unto death.
Let us therefore all praise and magnifie this glorious God of Israel, and adhere constantly to him, in despite of whatsoever temptations to withdraw us from him, and be guided and ruled by him to the end of our lives.
Annotations on Psalm XLVIII.
V. 2. Beautifull for situation] For foreign foreignfair in situation (in the notion of foreign for a clime, or province, or tract of ground) the Romane Lxxii. reads foreign, some other antient Copies foreign, for so Apollinaris hath it; and (as the Latine of that) S. Augustine and S. Ambrose read dilatans dilating. This latter may not improbably have respect to a notion of foreign, usual in the Misneh for the boughs or top branches of a tree; which some of the Jews also would have take place here, as comparing Sion to a beautifull well-spreading tree. But the vulgar hath fundatur: which though it imperfectly expresseth foreign. yet it seems rather to respect that then foreign, and gives us reason to read it otherwise than the ordinary copies now will have it, neither foreign with the Romane, nor foreign with*Concord. T. 11. p. 285. Kircher, but foreign, an adjective neuter, agreeing with [foreign, the hill of Sion] for which again the ordinary copies read corruptly foreign the hills. That these two errors of the Scribe are thus to be amended, appears by the Latine, Fundatur— mons Sion, the mount Sion is founded, rooting and founding being so neer in sense, that there can be no doubt, but they thus rendred foreign. And of this rendring the account also may most probably be fetcht from the forementioned notion of foreign, for boughs: for though the boughs be contrary to the root, and so foreign to foreign, yet the well settling of the roots being the cause of the flourishing of the boughs, the one may pass for a periphrasis of the other. But the other notion of foreign, for a clime, or tract of ground, may well be accepted; and then foreign will be no more then among us Bellositum, faire in situation. And to this also the Greek foreign may well accord, the situation being not unfitly exprest by foreign root, and the foreign being a denotation of the beauty. But of this the Latine fundatur] is not expressive. Here follows in our reading of the Lxxii. foreign, imitated also by the Latine exultatione. But here also tis not improbable the Copies of the Lxxii. are corrupt, being so easily changed from foreign, or foreign, a rejoycing, or a kinde of rejoycing of the whole earth, as the Syriack, as well as the Chaldee, literally render. And that being admitted, the Lxxii. which are now remote enough, will be exactly answerable to the Hebrew, foreign, The hill of Sion is well rooted, or well seated, the perfection of beauty, Psal. L. 2. Lam. ii. 15. (built very advantagiously in respect of Situation) the joy of the whole land; so again Ierusalem is stiled Lam. ii. 15. the sides (literally according to the original foreign foreign) of the North, i. e. on the north side of Jerusalem—
V. 7. Tarsis] Of Tarsis, what place it is,foreign Phalag. l. iii. c. vi. and Canaan l. 1. c. xxxiv. and how variously interpreted by the Antients, is set down at large by the learned Bochart, whose opinion of it he hath solemnly confirmed; viz. that it belonged to Spain neer to Gadir or Gades (now softned into Cades) and was the same that Authors call Tartessis or Tartessus, a most opulent place (by the Poets therefore turned into the Elysian fields) and by Geographers called Hercules pillars, beyond which was no passing. That in this place were foreign foreign, mines of Gold and Silver, see Stephanus Byzant. foreign. in the word foreign, a city of Tartessia, saith he, i. e. Tarshis, who addes Tinn also in the word foreign · and Strabo both brass and iron, of which sorts, as also of silver, Geogr. l. iii.foreign, saith he, there is neither so much, nor so good as yet discovered to be in any part of the earth. Hence was it that the Phoenicians, i. e. the old inhabitants of Canaan, ejected by Josuah, and retired up to the sea side, to Tyre and Sidon, and setting up for navigation and merchandize, made their very successfull voiages thither, foreign,Bib. l. v. saith Diodorus Siculus out of Posidonius, buying silver at the very cheap rate of other mean commodities which they carried with them. The one known place in Aristotle, *Basil. Ed. p. 553. e.foreign. will make all farther testimonies unnecessary: foreign, They say the first Phoenicians (which he carefully by the word [first] distinguishes from those which in the following words he styles foreign, the Phoenicians that inhabite Gadir or Gades, i. e. Cades, for this was after these first Phoenicians made these successfull voiages) sailed to Tartessus, and brought back their ships fraught with so much silver, which they bought for oile, and other such mean lading, that they could neither carry nor would receive any more, but were forced at their departure to make all their utensils of silver, and even their very anchors. This which hath been said, as it gives a clear account of that character of Tarshis given Ezech. xxvii. 12. Tarshish was thy merchant (with whom thou i. e. Tyre or Phoenice tradedst) by reason of the multitude of all kinde of riches, with silver, iron, tin and lead they traded in thy faires; so it renders us the reason of this phrase here, the ships of Tarshis, viz. those that the Phoenicians or Tyrians, the next borderers on Israel, used in fetching in all their wealth from those remote parts, and therefore were excellently well built by those great navigators (foreign, in Homer. Odys. xv. foreign— saith*foreign. p. 117. Dionysius, the Phoenicians famous for shipping, who first exercised that trade of navigation, and so of merchandise by sea. foreign. Ibid.) These ships of theirs, the onelyonly tools and instruments of their wealthy trading, God, when he pleases, splits upon a rock, tosseth and breaks to pieces by a contemptible despicable means, by a winde, which no man knows whence, or on what errand it comes, which there is no preventing, or appeasing, or flying from, but comes of a sudden, and shatters the ships, doth great execution among them: foreign saith the Lxxii. a violent blast, such, it seems, the East winde was wont to be in those parts;foreign so we have Exod. xiv. 21. a strong East winde, such as made the sea goe back, and turned the channel into dry land, as there it follows. And Job xxvii. 21. with the tempests and storm hurling him out of his place, is joyned, the East winde carrieth him away, and he departeth. So Ier. xviii. 17. I will scatter them as with an East winde, to note a most violent scattering; as Isa. xxvii. 8. the day of the East winde is a terrible day, and Hab. 1.9. they shall come all for violence, they shall sup up as the East winde. All evident testimonies, that the Lxxii. their paraphrase was very reasonable, whilst for foreign the East winde, they read, a violent blast, the means by which God thus disappoints the greedy Phoenician merchants.
V. 9. Have thought] The Hebrew foreign and foreign and foreign belong all to the same signification,foreign of quiet, rest, silence, patient expecting, thinking, considering, and must be determined to any of these senses by the context. And here that of expecting or patient waiting with affiance in him, and without all distrust or repining at his delayes, seems to be most proper for it. For coming to the Sanctuary to pray for mercy, 'tis most agreeable to say, we wait for it there, as in the place where he hath promised to afford it, in return to prayers. The Syriack renders it, we hoped; the Lxxii. foreign, we expected. What follows in their ordinary copies, foreign in the midst of the people, and so is followed by the Arabick and Aethiopick, is doubtless an error of the Scribe, for foreign Sanctuary; and so appears by the Latine and Syriack, who both seem to follow the LXXII. and yet render it Temple.
V. 10. Righteousness] The acception of foreign foreignrighteousness for charity and mercy and loving kindness, is so ordinary, that it needs only to be mentioned here, for the clearing the sense of this verse (which then flows currently) foreign foreignrighteousness fills thy right hand, or consecrates thee, for so filling the hand constantly signifies in the Hebrew idiome (from that ceremony in the Law at the consecration of a Priest to fill his hands with parts of the sacrifices) and is oft rendred foreign, to consecrate, Exod. xxix. 9. and 35. and elsewhere.
V. 13. Consider] The Hebrew foreign foreignsignifies to exalt, but in the Chaldee notion of it, to divide or distinguish; and so the Lxxii. here render it, foreign, distribute, separate each from other, which in things that cohaere is necessary to be done, or els it will be impossible to number them exactly.
V. 14. Unto death] There is little reason to doubt, but the right reading here is foreign foreigntill death. Yet 'tis probable the Chaldee, who render it, foreign in the dayes of our childehood, did read it in one word foreign which signifies childhood. But the dividing it into two words, which is exactly rendred, to, or till death, is acknowledged by Kimchi among the Jews, and followed by S. Jerome, and best accords with the antecedent, he is our God for ever: and 'tis possible, the Chaldee being not a version but a paraphrase, might from the affinity of these two, foreign, and foreign, make choise of this expression, not as a literal rendring of the word, but as that which competently secured the sense, [from our youth] signifying [from the beginning to the end of our life;] and so likewise, that the LXXII. who read foreign, did not read either foreign secula, as 'tis conceived, or foreign, in the faeminine, to that sense, but indeed rendred foreign till death] by that other phrase [foreign for ages, or for ever the end of our life being the conclusion of our foreign, our age, or our ever. Yet after all this, the Jewish Arab Interpreter doth profestly take it for one word, deriving it from foreign or foreign, and renders the phrase, he shall reduce or restore us to the state foreign of childehood or youth, i. e. returne us to the condition from whence we are fallen. But the whole Psalm being an foreign, or song of triumph, and having nothing of sadness in it, cannot so fitly end with such hopes of restitution only. The confidence of persevering in their present state of joy, and so of Gods guidance foreign till death, is more agreeable to it. The Syriacks reading is more plausible, he shall lead us, foreign above from death.