Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 50
The Fiftieth Psalm.
A Psalm ‖for foreignof Asaph.
Paraphrase. The fiftieth Psalm is a solemn magnifying of Gods power and majesty, and a description of the calling of the Gentiles, and of the true Evangelical way of worshipping God. It was composed (‖but the Chaldee seems to make Asaph the composer of it, foreign by the hand of Asaph. probably by David) and appointed to be sung by Asaph, a Levite, appointed by David to attend the Ark, and to record, and to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel, 1 Chron. xvi. 5.
1. The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and*he will call foreign called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
The decree is gone out from the Omnipotent God of heaven, the supreme eternity, Lord and Judge over all the world, that he will assemble and convocate the whole nation of the Jews from Dan to Bersheba, from sea to sea, from East to West, to reduce and take them off from their hypocritical and abominable practises, and bring them to the due acknowledgement and pure worship of the true God, and the practise of all virtue.
2. †From Sion from the perfection— foreignOut of Sion the perfection of beauty God‖will shine foreign hath shined.
To this end, as God hath fixt his tabernacle on Mount Sion, presentiated himself as illustriously there, as he did at the giving the law on Mount Sinai, so shall the Son of God, in the fulness of time, descend to this earth of ours; the true light, John 1.9 shall shine forth; the Messias shall be born of our flesh, of the seed of David, and (having preacht repentance to the Jews, and being rejected by their Sanhedrim, and crucified by them) he shall rise from death, and ascend to his Father, and then send his spirit on his Apostles, thereby commissionating them to reveal his Gospel to all the world, beginning from the place where God hath been pleased in a special manner to reside, this most beautiful mount of Sion: there he now presentiates himself, and from thence he shall then begin to shine forth, and inlighten the heathen world; the preaching of his Gospel to all the world shall commence and proceed from thence.
3. Our God shalla. come, and shall not*be idle, delay. keepb. silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
What is thus decreed shall certainly come to pass in its appointed time, and be lookt on as an extraordinary and signal work of Gods power, wherein much of his divine presence shall be discernible; and the immediate attendants of it shall be very dreadful and terrible, above that of the giving the law to the Jews from mount Sinai:
4. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
And it shall begin with a summons as to a solemne Assises, for the examining the actions of men, good and bad, those that have resisted and despised the Messias, and th…se th…t have subjected themselves to him. All shall be judged by him; the former punished, and the latter rewarded. And*foreign he shall call the …ngels, Chald. Angels and men shall be summoned and called in, to be executioners of these his judgments.
5. Gather my Saints together unto me, those that have made a Covenant with me‖for or concerning foreign by sacrifice.
And the good Angels his ministers of preservation shall be appointed to take special care of all the pious believing Jews, (Mat. xxiv. 31. Rev. vii. 3.) who have sincerely given themselves up to his service, received the Christian faith, and in their baptism made vow of performing it faithfully, which adore, and†foreign &c. which give themselves to prayer, which is like sacrifice. Chald. pray constantly to him; and not to suffer any harme to come nigh to these.
6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; for God is Judge himself. Selah.
And so accordingly shall‖foreign Chald. the high Angels— they doe, rescuing all faithful believers out of the calamities that attend the crucifiers. A thing much to be taken notice of, as an act of most righteous judgment in God, and a testimony that all that should pass, should be from Gods particular disposing. (And to it was in the story before the fatal siege of Hierusalem, all the Christians in obedience to Christs admonition, Mat. xxiv. 16. fled out of Judea, unto Pella; and so none of them were found in Jerusalem at the taking of it. See note on Mat. xxiv. g.)
7. Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testifie against thee; I am God, even thy God.
Then shall he establish a new law with these his faithfull servants the disciples of Christ, the members of the Christian Church, entring into a stedfast covenant of mercy with them, ratified and sealed in the death of his son.
8. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings,†before … continually foreign to have been continually before me.
And abolish the old Mosaicall way of sacrifices, and holocausts of bullocks &c. constantly offered up unto God by the Jews,
9. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy fold.
And never any more put the worshipper to that chargeable grosse sort of service (of burning of flesh upon Gods Altar, that the smoak might goe up to heaven, and atone God for them, as was formerly required, whilst the Jewish Temple stood.)
10. For every beast of the forrest is mine, and the cattell upon a thousand hills.
11. I know all the fouls of the mountains; and thec. wild beasts of the field are*with me foreign mine.
12. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
For indeed this kinde of service was never appointed by God, as that which he had any need of, or pleasure in it. If he had, he might have provided himself whole hecatombs, without putting the Israelites to the charge or trouble of it, having himselfe the plenary dominion of all the cattel on the earth, and fouls of the aire, and the certain knowledge where every one of them resides; so that he could readily command any or all of them, whensoever he pleased. But it is infinitely below God to want or make use of any such sort of oblations: sure he feeds not on flesh and blood of cattel, as we men doe. There were other designes of his appointing the Israelites to use these services; viz. to adumbrate the death of his own eternal Son, as the one true means of redemption and propitiation for sin, and the more spiritual sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving, and almes to the poor members of Christ, which may receive real benefit by our charities, which cannot be imagined of God.
14. Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto th… most High.
And such are the sacrifices which under the Messias are expected and required of us, 1. that of the Eucharist, (the blessing God for all his mercies, but especially the gift of his Son to dye for us) and this brought to God with penitent, contrite,*foreign— Repress thy evil desire, and it shall be accounted before God as a sacrifice of confession. Chald. mortified hearts, firme resolution of sincere new obedience, and constantly attended with an offertory, or liberal contribution, for the use of the poor, proportionable to the voluntary oblations among the Jews, and these really dedicated to God, and accepted by him, Phil. iv. 18. Heb. xiii. 16.2. That of prayer and humble addresse unto God in all time of our wants, to which there is assurance of a gratious returne; and that must ingage us to give the praise and glory of all to the Messias, in whose name our prayers are addrest to God.
15. And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifie me.
That of prayer and humble address unto God in all time of our wants, to which there is assurance of a gratious return; and that must ingage us to give the praise and glory of all to the Messias, in whose name our prayers are addrest to God.
16. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to doe to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth?
17. Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behinde thee.
But as for those that make no other use of these mercies of God, than to incourage themselves to goe on in their courses of sin, which think to performe these sacrifices of prayer and praise, and yet still continue*which repent not, and pray in prevarication. Chald. in any wilfull known vice unreformed, make their formal approaches unto God, but never heed his severe commands of reformation; these have no right to the mercies of this Evangelical Covenant, and doe but deceive themselves, and abuse others, when they talke of it; and the more so, the more solemnly they pretend to piety, and talk of, and perhaps preach it to others.
18. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.
Such are not only the thief and adulterer, those that are guilty of the gross acts of those sins, but such as any way partake with them in these.
19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
Such the evil speaker and lyer.
20. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mothers son.
The backbiter and slanderer.
21. These things hast thou done, and‖or, I delai'd, or let thee alone. see note b. I kept silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
When men commit such sins as these, God doth not alwayes inflict punishment on them immediately, but deferres and gives them space to repent and amend, that they may thus prevent and escape his punishment. And some make so ill use of this indulgence and patience of his, which is†foreign I deferred or expected that thou mightest repent. Chald. designed only to their repentance, as to interpret it an approbation of their course, and an incouragement to proceed securely in it. But those that thus deceive themselves, and abuse Gods mercies, shall most deerly pay for it: God shall bring his judgments upon them here, cut them off in their sins, and poure out‖foreign I will ordain the judgment of hell in the world to come. Chald. his indignation on them in another world.
22. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
This therefore is matter of sad admonition to every impenitent sinner, that goes on fearless in any course of evill, immediately to stop in his march, to returne be times: lest if he deferre, Gods judgments fall heavily upon him, seise him and carry him to that place of torment, for then there is no possible escaping.
23. Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me; and to him that†disposeth his way foreign ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation of God.
Whereas on the other side, the Christian duties required, v. 14. Repentance, and charity, &c. and the orderly spending of these few dayes of our life in this world, are, beyond all the sacrifices of the Law, an eminent means of glorifying God, and providing for the present blisse, and eternal salvation of our souls.
Annotations on Psalm L.
V. 3. Shall come] The notion of Gods coming must here first be established, foreignas that on which the due interpretation of the whole Psalm depends. The coming of God ordinarily signifies in Scripture any judicial proceeding of his, Gods punishments and vengeance on his enemies (see Psal. xviii. note d.) But this Psalm seems peculiarly to look forward to the times of the Messias, and so to denote some coming of his. The Chaldee applies it to the foreign the day of the great judgment. But this phrase, I suppose, may be taken in some latitude, in that Paraphrast, not to denote the last judgment (though thus*De Civit. l. xx. c. xxiv. S. Augustine will have this Psalm understood, de judicio Dei novissimo, of the last judgment of God) but as their Paraphrase on v. 2. seems to interpret it, some great destruction that was to be wrought in the foreign beginning of the creation of the age; meaning, I suppose, by the age, the age of the Messias, which, as 'tis there said, was to come out of Sion, which is not applicable to any other age but that. Now there be three comings of Christ exprest in the Scripture. The first in humility, by his being born in our flesh; the last in glory, for the judging of the whole world in the day of the universal doom: And a middle coming, which was not to be corporall, but spiritual, a mighty work wrought in the world by the power of that spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, beginning in a terrible vengance upon his crucifiers, the notable destruction of the Jewish Temple, and of Jerusalem, and so of the Mosaical worship, and the Judaical politie, and proceeding to the propagation of the Christian faith to all the world; wherein were many glorious acts of Gods power and mercy, and are all together oft stiled in Scripture the coming of Shilo, of the desire of all nations, of the kingdome of God, of the son of man, of Christ, (see note on Mat. xvi. o. xxiv. b. Joh. xxi. b.) And this is it to which this Psalm most signally seems to belong, (as also Psal. xcvi. 10, 11, 12, 13.) and conteins these several stages or branches of it: 1. the terrible manner of this his coming, v. 3. 2ly the formality of it, a judicature used in it, v. 4. 3ly the preservation and rescue of the believing Jews out of the common ruine, v. 5, 6. 4ly the rejection of legal worship, of sacrifices of beasts, v. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 5ly the establishing of the Christian service, the spiritual oblation of prayer and thanksgiving, v. 14, 15. and lastly, the destruction of the impenitent Jews, which having received the Law of God, and entred into Covenant with him, would not yet be reformed by Christs preaching, v. 16. &c. to the end.
V. 3. Silence] The Hebrew foreign foreignhath several significations. But that which is most agreeable to this place, is that of doing nothing, being idle, delaying, tarrying, as applied to the actions, not the speech only. So 2 Sam. xix. 10. foreign is best rendred, Why do you deferre or delay to bring back the King? foreign, say the LXXII. Why are you silent? in that other notion applied to the tongue: but the Chaldee foreign is a word which belongs to the actions, as well as words; the learned Schindler there renders it, cessatis, cunctamini, deferre or delay. The Syriack there renders it foreign from foreign, whence is foreign, and the participle foreign which hath that signification among others, of cessavit, moratus, tardatus fuit, and is by the Latine translator rightly rendred haesitatis: and so the Arabick appears there to understand it. And so the context inforces by another phrase, used there in the same matter, v. 11. and 12. Why, saith he, are ye foreign last to bring back the King? i. e. very backward and dilatory. So the Arabick expresses that also, Why do you deferre or neglect? And so Psal. xxviii. 1. the sense carries it, foreign do not deferre or neglect to answer me; neglect me not, saith the Arabick. And thus 'twill best be rendred here, Our God shall come and not delay: not neglect, saith the Arabick, as in the place of Samuel. And the Chaldee foreign &c. which though it may signifie shall not keep silence, yet it is also not deferre, or delay, and so is determined here by the remainder of their paraphrase foreign to worke vengeance for his people. So the Jewish Arab. foreign and shall not withhold or refrain from it. And thus the phrase seems to be made use of, and interpreted by the Apostle, Heb. x. 37. foreign, he will come, and not delay, or tarry, i. e. he will certainly come. Which I suppose to be the reason of the learned Castellio's rendring this place, veniet Deus noster sine dubio, Our God shall come without doubt; the coming and not delaying] being all one with his [certain coming.] The word foreign is again used v. 21. and rendred by the Chaldee foreign I stayed or expected, that thou mightest repent; which is a full proof of this notion of the word for delaying. Where the Jewish Arab reads, as here, I withheld from thee, adding, foreign delaying.
V. 11. Wild beasts] For foreign foreignbeast, the Lxxii. seem to read foreign beauty, and render it foreign, and the Latine pulchritudo, the Chaldee foreign the cocke of the wood (whose feet stand on the earth, and his head touches the heaven) of which Elias Levita in his Thisbi, p. 273. taking notice, addes foreign this is a new thing, not without reason expressing his wonder at their rendring: but the Syriack is clear foreign and the beast.