Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 85
The Eighty Fifth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
Paraphrase. The eighty fifth Psalm is a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods mercy in returning their captivity, and an humble importunate prayer for the confirming, continuing, and perfecting this mercy to them. It hath some degree of propriety to Davids return to Jerusalem after his flight from Absolom, but much more to the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the captivity. It was committed to the Praefect of the Musick, to be sung by the posterity of Coreh.
1. Lord, thou hast been favourable to thy land; thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
2. Thou hasta. forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
3. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath, thou hast turned thy selfe from the fierceness of thy anger.
It is thy special mercy and compassion to us, O Lord, that we that were chased and carried captive from our countrey, are now restored to it again. Our sins that brought these sad effects of thy displeasure upon us, thou hast now been pleased to pardon, and so being reconciled to us, of thine own abundant free grace and mercy, to release us from those severe punishments, which have most justly lain upon us for our provoking offences.
4. Turne us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
From thee, O blessed Lord, all our deliverance proceeds; be thou pleased to interpose thy hand, to perfect this work of mercy and reconciliation and restauration, which thou hast so gratiously begun for us, and pardon the deviations that since our returne we have most unexcusably been guilty of.
5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thy anger to all generations?
6. Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoyce in thee?
We have long been exercised under thy sharp hand of punishments, and allmost been tempted to despair of any release either to our selves or our posterities; and since thou hast brought us back to our countrey, our new fresh provocations have again withheld thy loving kindness from us, cast back the work of rebuilding thy Temple. O be thou now pleased, as thou hast begun to give us some essay of thy mercy, to perfect and complete it to us, to restore unto us that life and pleasure and joy, which we were wont to enjoy in approaching to and attending on thee in thy Sanctuary.
7. Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.
This is a divine worke of mercy and deliverance, O Lord, be thou gratiously pleased to afford it us.
8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints:b. ‖and they shall not, or let them not—but let them not turne again to folly.
And this I am confident thou wilt now do in return to our prayers, if we be but duly qualified to receive so great a mercy, sincerely penitent for our former sins, faithfully resolved on a new and holy life, and continue constant in these vows of never relapsing to our former provoking sins: All which we shall after such correction certainly be carefull to performe, if we be not the most stupid fools in the world.
9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
God certainly on his part will be most ready to perfect this mercy to us, that thy Temple may be rebuilt, and the glorious majestatick presence or inhabitation of God may returne and be resetled in Jerusalem; if we only be on our parts carefull to qualify our selves for the receiving it, by sincere reformation, and persevering obedience to his divine precepts.
10. c.Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Let us be carefull to approve the sincerity of our obedience to God, and he will certainly crown that with his mercies, all felicity and prosperity.
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Let our hearts fructifie in good works, and God will cherish and reward them.
12. Yea the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase.
These two things shall never be separated, our bringing forth fruits of righteousness, and Gods heaping all manner of good upon us.
13. Righteousness shall goe before him, and‖he shall set his steps in, or to the way: see note c. shall set us in the way of his steps.
Our duty it is to walke obediently before him, and then he will follow in performing his part of the Covenant of mercy, bring us to all that is desirable or valuable to us.
Annotations on Psalm LXXXV.
V. 2. Forgiven the iniquity] foreign,foreign literally thou hast borne, or taken away iniquity, is by the Chaldee rendred foreign pardoned, (and so by the Syriack) by the Lxxii. foreign remitted. And this, with all that follows, of covering their sin, taking away his wrath, &c. a lively expression of what went before, v. 1. the bringing back their captivity. It is a Maxime among the Jewish Doctors, that Captivity is one way of expiation, and so to returne from thence was a sure indication that the sin, for which it was inflicted, was remitted, or done away. This, saith†on Levit. xvi. Abarbanel, was obumbrated in the Azazel, or scape-goat, which, as the other that was slain, was a sin-offering, as appears Lev. 16. v. 5. He shall take— two kids for a sin-offering— And then the confessing the sins over him, mentioned v. 21. (Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel &c. putting them on the head of the goat: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land of separation, v. 22.) shews that they were to carry their sins with them into the land of their captivity, meant by the foreign the land of separation, that land, whatsoever it was, whither the divine providence had designed their deportation. From whence therefore being now returned, their sins for which they were thus punished, are supposed to be left behinde them, no more to be laid to their charge, if their return to their former sins do not cause them to be called to remembrance. Thus indeed they did, as appears by the books of Ezra c. ix. 1. and Nehem. c. v. and c. xiii. and that gave sufficient occasion as for the fast Ezra ix. 3. and Nehem. ix. 1. so for the earnest deprecations here following in this Psalm v. 4.
V. 8. Not turne to folly] For foreign foreignand they shall not, or, and let them not returne to folly, (which the Chaldee and Syriack render to that sense) the Lxxii. have foreign, and to them that turne their heart to him, and the Latine, & ad eos qui convertuntur ad cor, and to them that are converted or returned to their heart. This they seem to have drawn from some affinity of the Hebrew words, which with some light changes produce this, reading for foreign not, foreign to, and so joyning it in construction with foreign (twice foregoing;) and for foreign to folly, foreign the heart, Selah: which because it still makes an imperfect sense, and to them that turne the heart, Selah, they have therefore supplied the seeming Ellipsis, the Lxxii. by addition of foreign to him, i. e. to God, the Latine by inserting ad before cor, returning to the heart, which is a phrase to signify repentance or resipiscence, growing wise again (and so better agrees with the Hebrew, which indeed signifies, not returning to folly.) That they thus did read the Hebrew words, is not so likely, as that by occasion of this affinity of phrases they thus thought fit to paraphrase the Hebrew, which is not unusual with them in other places. And in this place, though the words be quite changed, the sense doth not suffer much by this paraphrase, this being on both sides the condition of Gods removing his judgements, that they which receive them be sincerely penitent, and then they will not returne again to the folly of their former wayes of sin.
V. 10. Mercy and truth] foreign foreigntruth, from foreign fidus fuit, is frequently used for fidelity, and is all one with foreign in the passive sense for faithfulness, and in that notion doth well agree with foreign foreignrighteousness in the latter part of the verse (and is by the Lxxii. rendred foreign righteousness, Gen. xxiv. 49. Isa. xxxix. 19.) as foreign foreignmercy, and foreign foreignpeace (all prosperity given us by God) are in effect all one also. And then the meeting of these pairs, mercy and truth or fidelity, and (by way of foreign, very frequent in Scripture) of righteousness and peace, will signify the performance on Gods part proportionable to the qualification on ours: where truth or fidelity is made good towards God, there mercy will undoubtedly be had from him; where righteousness on our part, there peace on Gods, i. e. all the felicity and prosperity imaginable. This rendring of the place is most agreeable to the matter here in hand, the confidence that God will pardon their sins which unfeignedly return to him, v. 7, 8, 9. And to the same purpose is that which follows v. 11. As truth or uprightness (sincere reformation) springs out, and ascends from the earth, the hearts of men, the proper soil for it to grow in; so shall foreign righteousness in the other notion, very frequent, that for mercy (and to pass from one notion of a word to another is an elegance, and no rarity in these writings) look down from heaven, as the sun doth upon the world, when it sheds its influences upon it, and cherishes the germina or sprouts, all productions of the earth here below. And so again v. 12. to the Lords giving foreign foreignthe good, indefinitely, i. e. all good things, is annexed, our land shall give foreign.foreign The word signifies from foreign in Hiphil, produxit, all the sorts of fruits which the earth brings forth, and by analogy with v. 11. where Truth was to sprout out of the earth, must signify that sort of fruit or productions, i. e. truth, or sincerity of obedience to God; and so that again (by way of regressus, naming that first which had been last, and that last which had been first) is all one with v. 11. in the notion we have assigned it. And once more v. 13. Righteousness, in the notion of v. 10. uprightness and fidelity, foreign foreignshall goe or walk foreign foreignbefore his face, i. e. the face of God, mentioned in the former verse; foreign and he, i. e. God, shall set foreign foreignhis feet foreign foreignto the way, foreign into the way say the Lxxii. i. e. shall follow after, where righteousness goes before; having such a Prodromus or Usher, to prepare the way before him, God will solemnly and in state come on in the Procession, as Psal. Lxxxix. 14. mercy and truth are said to goe before the face of God, as Heralds to engage his following after. The Chaldee read foreign shall set him foreign in a good way, i. e. set him at liberty, in a prosperous condition, rescue, and return the captivity of them that walke uprightly before him. All these but various expressions (as in a Poeme it is ordinary) of the same thing, Gods never failing to return in mercy to them that sincerely convert to him by repentance. The Jewish Arab reads this last verse in another sense, They that seek equity or justice, shall walk before him, and shall set their steps in his wayes; as likewise before, v. 10. the people of goodness and truth have met together, &c. But the former sense is more probable.