Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 49
The Forty Ninth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, a Psalm for the sonnes of Coreh.
Paraphrase. The forty ninth Psalm is a consolation against the terrors of death, in time of old age or sickness, and withall a meditation of the transitoriness of all worldly greatness and prosperities here, which are so sure to fade suddenly. It was committed to the prefect of the Musick to be sung by the posterity of Coreh.
1. Hear this all ye people; give eare all ye inhabitants of the world,
2. Botha. low and high, rich and poor together.
The matter of this insuing Psalm is very fit meditation for all sorts of people in the world, Jews and Gentiles, of the meaner and poorer, and of the nobler and wealthier rank;
3. My mouth shall speak‖wisd…e foreign of wisdome; and the meditation of my heart†understanding foreign shall be of understanding.
Being that which I have learnt from God, and consequently is not of certain truth only, but most valuable and profitable to be considered by all, much more for our turns, than any secular wisdome of the subtilest worldling: This therefore shall be the subject of my compositions at this time.
4. I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will open myb. darke saying upon the harp.
And I will performe it carefully, weigh it as exactly as I can, do as Musitians doe, when they tune their instruments, lay their ear close to them, that, if there be any harshness or unevenness in the sound, they may discern it; so will I carefully observe my present composure, being on a matter well worth every mans heeding, and therefore I will set it to the harpe, by that means to sweeten and instill it into all minds. And this is the summe of it, by way of answer to this question.
5. Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evill, whenc. the*evill. iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
When dayes of sadness, and the discomforts of old age approach, and make their close siege about men, and death it selfe is just ready to seize upon and devour them, can this be any real matter of terror to a truly pious man, that hath placed all his trust and confidence in God? Undoubtedly it cannot. Or wherefore should I subject my selfe to those terrors which are apt to haunt men at such times?
6. ‖Confide… men boast themselves in their wealth, cal the—They thatd. trust in wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
7. †One shall not by any means redeem, ma… shall not give his ransome to God.None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransome for him;
8. (For the redemption of the soul*shall be pretious, and shall cease— is pretious, and it ceaseth for ever)
9. ‖He shall yet live.That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
'Tis ordinary for the bold temerarious confident men of the world to place their full trust in wealth, and never fear any thing else, if they have but abundance of that. But 'tis not in their power to rescue either any other, or themselves from death. This sentence which sin brought into the world, will certainly pass on the richest and proudest and stoutest of them; none can ever buy his own, or any other mans immunity or liberty from this, so as to be quit from ever dying: That indeed of immortal duration, being a gemme of too great a price for all the wealth in the world to purchase: there is but one way of coming to it, and that is by death and resurrection, and that also is the worke of the Messias, who by dying once, offering one single sacrifice for him, never to be repeated, Heb. ix. 25, 26. and x. 13. shall overcome death, work an eternal redemption, Heb. ix. 11. and then sit down at the right hand of God, Heb. x. 12. and there live and reign for ever. This he shall doe in the fulness of time, in the end of the age, then coming in the flesh to atchieve this victory, and more fully in the end of the world, when he shall call all that are dead out of their graves to judgment, on which shall follow an everlasting life.
10. For he‖shall see the wise dy, together shall the fool and brute perish. seeth thate. wise men dy, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to*or strangers. others.
Mean-while the most pious vertuous men must expect to dye, their piety, the one true wisdome, will not rescue them from that which Christ himselfe Gods eternal wisdome shall once tast. As for wicked men, whose irrational folly hath equalled them to brute beasts, 'tis certain the same fate expects them: their souls being so little removed above that of a beast, 'tis less wonder that they should dye as a beast doth; and though they may be thought by themselves or others to have provided against this danger, to have fenced and secured themselves, yet shall they come together, and after the same manner to the grave, and so be fain to take leave of those possessions which they have acquired with so much industry. And then no man knows into whose hands their wealth shall fall, whether strangers, or perhaps enemies, shall live to injoy the fruits of all their labours.
11. ‖Among them their houses shall be for ever, their Tabernacles from age to age: they have imposed their names on their lands.Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations: they call their lands after their own names.
Whosoever they are, the possession being now setled in them, shall never revert to the former owners: these new comers shall establish themselves in their room, and so impose their names upon their dwellings; the very memory of the former inhabitants being soon lost.
12. †And …Nevertheless man*abides not in honour. being in honourf. abideth not, but is like the beasts that perish.
And so the conclusion is most certain, and general reaching to all; How flourishing soever their condition is at the present, there is no possibility of continuance here: be the man never so great, he comes to a speedy end, as the beasts of the field doe, is perfectly like them in his death, and not so long lived as many of them: our space of abode here is not so long as to be fitly compared to so much as a nights lodging in an Inne, no consistence of steddy rest is to be had for the least space. And the tenure which is posterity hath, is of the same nature, very short and uncertain also; nay, oft times the greatest honours and wealth, unjustly gotten by the parent, descend not to any one of his posterity (as the beasts when they dye leave nothing behind them to their young ones, but the wide world to feed in) but fall into other hands immediately, for which he never designed to gather them.
13. This their way isg. ‖or folly to them; yet their followers are pleased with them.their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
They flatter themselves, that they shall perpetuate the wealth and greatnesse which they have gathered; but are very wide of their expectations, finde themselves foully deceived and frustrated. And yet they that succeed them in their estates goe after them in the same track, imitate that folly which was so fatal to them, and think themselves happy that they shall enjoy the fruits of it.
14. Like sheep they are†put into Hades. laid in theh. grave: death shall*conduct them. feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their‖forme shall do so, when Hades shall fail to be an habitation to it. beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
But then death comes upon them all, and defeats all their expectations. As sheep, or other such creatures, they dye, remove from all their splendid possessions to those dark invisible plains, where they continue as a flock in a pasture, till that great morning of the resurrection, when the righteous shall be assumed by God to assist in judicature, and so shall arise in their old shapes, when the earth shall give up her dead; and the grave, wherein their beauty, strength, and forme decayed and was consumed, shall at length it selfe decay and lose its strength, death having lost its sting, and the grave its victory, and so being no longer the mansion for the bodies of just men.
15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for he shalli. receive me. Selah.
And accordingly my comfort is that God will after my death one day restore me again to life, into his hands I commend my spirit, not doubting but he will hereafter receive me to glory. And so for all others that constantly adhere to, and wait on God, what ever terrors they meet with here, they have this full matter of confidence, that God hath particular care of them, and will either deliver them out of their dangers, or convert them to their greatest good, rewarding them abundantly in the resurrection.
16. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased.
It is therefore most unreasonable to be troubled at, or to envy the increase of worldly riches, or honour, or any kind of greatnesse or prosperity to the worldly man.
17. For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him.
For death will soon overtake him, and then he cannot carry his wealth with him; his present glory and greatness shall not then yeeld him the least advantage.
18. k.‖for in his lifetime.Though whilst he lived he blest his soule;†but the… shalt be praised for doing wel unto thy selfe. and men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy selfe.
Indeed might his own word be taken, he were an happy man, for so he flattereth himselfe that he hath goods laid up for many years, and as long as this life lasts, he entertains no other thoughts. But when death comes, all these flattering fallacies vanish. 'Tis not thine own mouth but anothers, whose commendation will be worth the having; and that will not be had, but for the real kindnesses and good turns thou dost unto thy selfe, in doing that which will prove thy durable good, and not in saying magnificent things of thy present state, applauding thy temporal felicities.
19. He shalll. goe to the generation of his fathers: they shall never see light.
The just shall be gathered to their fathers in peace, dye indeed, as their fathers did before them; but the wicked shall be destroyed for ever, their death shall be their entrance into endless unexpressible darkness and misery, and to that they shall be for ever confined.
20. Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish.
The conclusion then is, There is not a more brutish creature (more fit to be pitied than envied) than a worldly wicked man, advanced to greatness in this world, and pleasing himselfe in it: he doth not at all understand his own condition, he triumphs, and thinks himself very happy; and whilst he doth so, death unexpectedly seises upon him, and confutes him, sweeps him away, helpless, and friendless, as a beast of the field, that just now took himself for one of the greatest men in th… world; just as they perish and leave all behinde them, so doth he. (Only the wise and virtuous, the upright v. 10.14. have better hopes, and shall not faile of atteining them.)
Annotations on Psalm XLIX.
V. 2. Low and high] The difference between foreign foreignand foreign may here briefly be noted. The former is taken for a great or eminent person, in any respect, of virtue, extraction, strength, &c. So 1 Sam. xxvi. 15. Art thou not foreign a man? is expounded by what follows, and who is like thee in Israel? signifying there the military valour and reputation of Abner; and many the like. Whereas foreign foreignfrom foreign earth, signifies an earthy, or frail, mortal, mean man. And so foreign here, sons of this mean man,] are the lower and ordinary sort of men: foreign sons of the earth, say the Lxxii. not that they read foreign earth, for foreign, but because they would in their reading allude to the original of the word, as oft they doe. And then foreign are the contrary to these, persons of the higher quality. The Chaldee express the former phrase by the sons of old Adam, the latter by the sons of Jacob; making this difference between the rest of mankinde, and the people of Israel, and giving the latter the preeminence over all other; and so they make them comprehensive words, containing Gentiles and Jews, i. e. all the men in the world: and that very fitly, the Psalm following being the equal concernment of them both. But 'tis more likely, that the phrases denote only the several conditions of men, of the lower, and higher rank; for so the consequents interpret it, rich and poor; the former (according to the sacred style frequently observable) explicative of the latter of those, and the latter of the former by way of foreign.
V. 4. Dark saying] The Hebrew foreign foreigna proverb or parable, is of great latitude: signifies primarily any similitude, by which another thing is exprest; thence a figurative speech, either by way of fiction and fable, such are riddles or significant apologues, as that of Jotham Jud. ix. 7. and many others in Scripture, both in the old and new Testament; or by way of application of some true example or similitude, as when the sluggard is bid goe to the ant, the impenitent sinner to the swallow and crane, which return at their certain seasons, and so are fit to preach returning or repentance to sinners. And finally it belongs to all moral doctrine, either darkly, or only sententiously delivered, because the wise men of the world were wont to deliver that in short concise sentences, or foreign, sometimes in schemes or figures, sometimes without, (as we see in Solomons foreign Proverbs or Parables, many of them are plain moral sayings, foreign without any figure, or darkness, or comparison (from whence yet they are called foreign) in them, as The fear of God is the beginning of wisdome &c. and so 1 Sam. xxiv. 13. as saith the Proverb of the Antients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.) Of this sort is that which is here spoken of, a moral sentence, not much veiled with figures, nor so concise as ordinarily Proverbs are, but a larger declaration of this wise Ethical maxime, the vanity of all wicked mens prosperity: and this is by the Lxxii. rendred foreign, which signifies literally a comparison, but is more loosely taken for any moral sentence; as is also foreign, which Hesychius fully defines foreign a saying profitable for mens lives, and foreign, exhortations, advises, admonitions, for the rectifying of manners and passions; so called indeed, as being foreign or foreign, beside the ordinary road, in figures or artificiall schemes, or poetical, and so not vulgar expressions, (many of which will be discovered here in this Psalm) but used more loosely also, and indifferently for those which have no figure in them. And of the same kinde is foreign foreignmy riddle, that here follows, from foreign to speak acutely or darkly, used for a riddle in the story of Samson Jud. xvii. for questions of some difficulty, such as the Queen of Sheba askt Solomon, 1 King. x. 1. and accordingly 'tis here rendred by the Lxxii. foreign my Problem or difficult question: which yet is not only the asking of such a question, (which is here done v. 5.) but the answering of it also, (as 'tis there in the following words) and so the stating or resolving, or giving an account of any difficulty (as we know those of Aristotle and Aphrodisaeus were, and some of them moral, as well as natural;) and then it belongs very fitly to the matter in hand, the wise, moral foreign here delivered, but somewhat obscurely in the rest of the Psalm.
V. 5. Iniquity of my heels] What is meant by foreign foreignevill of my heels, will be best judged by taking the words asunder. And first foreign signifies evil both of fault, and punishment; frequently in the former, but sometimes in the latter also. So 1 Sam. xxviii. 10. when Saul sware to the witch, that no foreign (that must be punishment) should happen to her for this. So Isa. Liii. 11. he shall bear foreign, their iniquities we read, it must be the punishments of their iniquities; and so v. 6. The Lord hath laid on him foreign not the iniquity, but, the punishment of us all: and so Psal. xxxi. 10. my grief and my sighing, and foreign my (not iniquity, but) punishment, belong to the same matter, and interpret one the other. And thus most probably 'tis taken here. Then for foreign foreignmy heels, 'twill best be understood in the notion which Aben Ezra and Jarchi have of it: foreign my heels, saith Sol. Jarchi, foreign my latter end, and so it frequently signifies in Arabick; and then the evill of my heels, saith Aben Ezra, is foreign the dayes of old age, called the evil dayes Eccl. xii. 1. and to this the Chaldee here may seem to referre, adding in their paraphrase foreign in my end. And this evil of our heels is said to incompass us, when old age and approach of death surround us on every side, and so is ready inevitably to seize upon us. This therefore is no obscure interpretation of the question-part of this probleme, or parable, on the understanding of which all the subsequent part of the Psalm depends, Why should I fear in my decrepit age, in sickness, or in death? Is there any reason for a pious man to apprehend death with any disquiet, when it begins its close approaches, and is most unavoidably ready to seize on him?
V. 6. Trust] foreign foreignfrom foreign confidit, signifies confident, secure men: such was he that said, he had goods laid up for many years, and thereupon gave himself up to enjoy the pleasures of this life, to eat, drink, and be merry. Of these saith the Psalmist here, foreign foreignthey will glory, triumph, or applaud themselves foreign over, or for, or in their wealth, foreign and in the strength, or multitude of their riches. This is the most literal importance of the verse, making of it selfe a complete proposition, Confident men boast themselves in their wealth, &c. and then follows, with good connexion, foreign a brother by redeeming shall not redeem, i. e. no man shall in any wise be able to redeem either another or himselfe, foreign &c. a man shall not give his ransome to God, i. e. no meer man shall ever be able to pay foreign a price of equal value, to rescue one sinner from the power of death, to which he is sentenced. This the Lxxii. seem to have thus read, though now in the copies it is much deformed; 'Tis now thus read, foreign, or foreign. But with a light change of the punctation, and of foreign for foreign, 'tis exactly consonant to the Hebrew, foreign &c. A brother shall in no wise redeem, a man shall not give &c. Then follows foreign for the redemption of their soul or life shall be precious, i. e. of a great and high rate, foreign and ceaseth for ever; shall be a high-prized redemption, which costs very dear, but then it is also a singular eternal redemption, that being once wrought, shall need never to be repeated again: whereon it follows, and he shall yet live for ever, so foreign is literally to be rendred, and so the Chaldee paraphrases it foreign and he shall yet live an eternal life, never dying any more, death having no more dominion or power over him. And thus it belongs expresly to Christ, of whom the Apostle resolves, for in that he died, he died unto sin, or to put away sin once, or but once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so certainly the next words foreign he shall not see corruption] are peculiarly applyed to Christ Psal. xvi. 10. and in that sense frequently appealed to by the Apostles Act. ii. 27, and 31. c. xiii. 35, and 37. to which purpose the words of Moses Hadarsan are very observable. This verse, saith he, is spoken foreign of the King Messiah, foreign who shall dye to redeem the fathers, and after that shall live for ever, he shall not see corruption: which expresly interprets the whole passage to this matter. And the gloss of Siphra and Midras Tehillim is worth taking notice of: foreign &c. A man shall not say, my father was righteous, by his merit I shall escape, or be delivered, Abraham delivered not his son Ishmael, and Jacob delivered not his brother Esau: he saith a brother shall not &c. to signifie that no meer man shall redeem any.
V. 10. Wise men] The difference in this place betwixt wise men, and foolish is to be taken from the generall use of Scripture, where, according to sacred idiome, the nouns are used in a moral practick sense, for piety and impiety. And thus it is most agreeable to the aime of the Psalm designing to shew the different future state of the good and bad: foreign foreignthe wise may dye as their redeemer did, who was wisdome it selfe, but then foreign foreignthe fool or wicked man, he, foreign and the brute, or brutish person, foreign shall (more then dye) even perish together, and then no longer possess or receive benefit from their wealth, in which they so much confided, but leave it foreign to strangers; so the Lxxii. render it, foreign to others, which are not of their family, and for whom they never desired to gather it. Of which strangers it follows v. 11. foreign foreignamong them, i. e. among these strangers, that succeed to their possessions, foreign foreigntheir houses shall abide or continue for ever, never reverting to the kindred of the former possessor, foreign their Tabernacles the places of their transitory abode shall abide from generation to generation: and then as the antient possessors are irreversibly gone, so is their memory; the new possessors foreign foreigncall by their names over their land, i. e. (by an usuall hypallage) impose their names on their lands, or call the lands after their names. And so this is a very literal and obvious sense of these words, which the antient Interpreters have generally mistaken, reading their sepulchers for foreign, either from the vicinity of foreign a sepulchre to foreign the middle or inner part, or because foreign may signifie the inner part, or closer recess of their large and nobler sepulchres, Davids being so large, as to receive the bodies of many of his successors, (Abrahams from the name Machpelah is supposed to have been double) and the Heroes being among the antient heathens buried in adytis, in the recesses or vaults of the Temples, from whence consequently the Responses of Oracles were delivered.
V. 12. Abideth not] The Hebrew foreign foreignshall not abide is visibly mistaken by the LXXII. for foreign shall not understand, which they after found v. 20. and accordingly they render it here, as there, foreign understood not: And herein the Syriack, and Latine, and Arabick follow them; but the Chaldee accord with our Hebrew, foreign shall not lodge, or stay a night, for so the Chaldee foreign (the root from which is foreign house) signifies.
V. 13. Their folly] foreign foreignis literally folly to them, i. e. though this their way (the worldlings trust in his wealth,) seem to them a piece of speciall wisdome, yet in the event it proves otherwise, it becomes perfect folly to them (the LXXII. seem to have read foreign scandal) when they come to discern their frustrations. And then it fitly follows, their successors, they that possesse what they part with, foreign foreignare pleased at their mouth, i. e. (as foreign is as an expletive Exod. xii. 14.) with them.
V. 14. Grave] That foreign foreignis here taken for the state of the dead, there can be no doubt, the whole context inforcing it, which is of the perishing of men like sheep, v. 10, 12, 20. So that this phrase foreign as sheep they are put into that state of the dead, is exactly parallel to [they are compared to the beasts that perish] twice repeated in this Psalm: for as foreign as sheep] is directly al one with their being compared to beasts] so foreign being put in Scheol] is the paraphrase of perishing.] This then will be a key to the opening the next part of the expression, foreign foreigndeath shall deal with them as a shepherd with a flock of sheep, foreign, death shall do with them as a pastor doth, say the Lxxii. The Hebrew foreign foreignis to give the sheep pasture, or look to them, when they are feeding, Gen. xxix. 7. water ye the sheep and go foreign feed them, or lead th…m to their pastures, for that purpose. So Gen. xxx. 32. foreign I will return, I will feed, I will keep thy sheep: where foreign foreigncontains under it all the care and conduct, in order to their feeding, as foreign the defending and seeing that they come to no harm. Now this feeding of sheep is very distant from feeding on them, as much as the Kings office of preserving his people, from the enemies invasive arms for the slaughtering them. The same word is frequently used for ruling, governing; and so tis generally, when tis applied to men, the ruler of whom is ordinarily styled foreign pastor in all dialects. In this place the metaphore of sheep must needs rule the signification of it. As sheep are put into a pasture, there to continue together in a common place; so men are put into foreign, the state of the dead, in the former words, and to that regularly follows, death foreign is as the shepherd that conducts or leads them into this pasture (those Elysian fields.) An excellent piece of divine poesie, to signifie how men like sheep, like beasts, go by flocks and herds out of this life; or more plainly, that men die as ordinarily, and regularly, as sheep are lead to their pasture. Then for the next part of this verse, foreign which the Lxxii. render not amiss, foreign, the just shall have dominion of them in the morning, the full meaning of it will be,foreign that after this night of death shall follow a morning in the resurrection, in which the just shall judge the world, and so subjugate the wicked worldlings to all eternity. Then follows, foreign foreignand their beauty, or form, or figure (so foreign signifies from foreign eff…nxit, formavit, foreign being a contraction of foreign) which being an imperfect sense, must be supplied from that which went before, and their form, i. e. so likewise shall their form do; as the upright shall in the resurrection have dominion over the wicked, rise and raign joyfully, so likewise shall their form, or figure, referring to the restauration of their bodies, they shall rise again in their old shapes, foreign to the failing of Hades from an habitation to it, i. e. where Hades shall fail to be an habitation to it, i. e. when the grave, or common repository of the dead, in which their beauty, form, and figure was consumed, shall it self decay and lose its strength, death having forfeited her sling, and the grave her victory, no longer to be a mansion to the bodies of the just. And this being here spoken in general of all just men, is by David particularly applied to himself v. 15. But God will deliver my soul from the power of the grave, &c. For foreign foreign] the Lxxii. read foreign their help] (as from foreign petra, a rock, and by metaphore, strength, refuge, and so help:) and the Latine follows them: but the Syriack reads foreign their form or image. And so this is the interpretation of this whole verse, the principal part of difficulty in this parable, or dark saying, for which this Psalm was designed.
V. 15. Receive me] Gods receiving here is to be understood in the same sense as Enochs being received, foreignor taken by God, Gen. v. 24. or as we finde Psal. LXXIII. 34. thou shalt after receive me to glory. Thus Jonah iv. 3. he prayes, take, I beseech thee, my life—And then it will signifie Gods future receiving him to glory.
V. 18. Though whilst he lived] The Hebrew of the 18. verse is thus literally and clearly rendred, foreign foreignfor in his living, or life time, he blest his soul; the impious worldling applauded much his own present state, foreign foreignbut men shall praise thee, or, thou shalt be praised, foreign if, or when thou dost well to thy self, i. e. for doing well to thy self, for doing that which may tend really and eternally to thy good, and not for saying well, for applauding thy present felicity.
V. 19. Shall go] To go or to be gathered to the fathers, is a known expression of dying in peace, and the same is the importance of the phrase here foreign foreignhe shall go to the generation of his fathers; So the Chaldee read it, foreign &c. the memory of the just shall come, and be added to the generation of their fathers, but the wicked shall never see light.