Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 87
The Eighty Seventh Psalm.
A Psalm or song for the sons of Corah.
1. ‖The foundation thereof, or The foundation or beginning thereof is on the hills of holiness.Hisa. foundation is in the holy mountain.
Paraphrase. The eighty seventh Psalm is a brief comparison, first betwixt Sion the place of Gods worship, and all Judaea besides; and then betwixt it and all other heathen people, particularly in respect of the numerousness of eminent persons in the one, above what was to be found in all the others. It seems to have been composed as a prophetick scheme to foretell the returne of the Jews captivity (as Isa. liv. 1. &c.) and the great prosperity of Jerusalem consequent to it, and was designed to be sung by the posterity of Corah.
2. The Lord loveth the gates of Sion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
The Lord of heaven hath chosen one place on all the earth, wherein he is pleased to reside in a peculiar manner, to exhibite himself to his people that call upon him there; and as this he hath by promise determin'd to the cities of Judah, rather than any other nation upon the earth, so hath he now of all them chosen out Jerusalem, and on the north side thereof Psal. xlviii. 2. the hill of Sion, and there he appointed the Temple to be sumptuously and magnificently built, and many Schools of learning to be erected there.
3. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.
This then is the place of Gods residence (the emblem of his future incarnation, or inhabitation of his glorious Majesty among men, as also of the Christian Church, wherein God by his grace exhibites and presentiates himself) and all that ever have spoken of this place, have given it huge elogies, for the beauty of the situation, beyond all other places, Psal. xlviii. 2.
4. I will make mention ofb. Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia and Tyre, withc. Aethiopia;‖this was this man was borne there.
5. And of Sion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her; and the highest himself shall establish her.
And if it be compared with all other nations, Aegyptians, Babylonians, Philistims, Tyrians, and Arabians, the difference will be found very great, especially in respect of the number of eminent pious men produced by the one, much greater than in all the other. To which also must be added one supereminent advant…ge, viz. that the onelyonly true God by his special presence and providence will continue this flourishing condition to this place above all others.
6. The Lord shall count, †in the writing or the book of the people, that this was—whend. he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.
7. *But the singers as the minstrels shall count, all—As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
Among the nations very few can be found considerable for piety, and those discernible only by God, who exactly knows and considers every man living; whereas through Gods special favour to the Jews, in taking such care for the instructing them in his will, and ingaging them to his service, the number of eminent knowing and pious men is so great, that the burthen of the song, by which they are praised and celebrated, sounds to this sense, that whole fountains are here to be found, when all other places yeeld but their single drops; vast multitudes of pious men are here to be met with, and in comparison with them very few in all other nations.Annotations on Psalm LXXXVII.
V. 1. Foundation] Of the meaning of this phrase here in the front foreign,foreign no judgment can be made, till it be first resolved what is the designe of this Psalm. Herein the Hebrew interpreters do in a manner concur, that it is a Panegyrick on Sion: And if it be so, then probably this first verse is but a part of the title, thus, To the sons of Coreh, foreign a Song-Canticle, or Canticle-Song, foreign the beginning or foundation whereof foreign is of, or on the hills of holiness, i. e. Gods holy hills, those of Sion, whereon the Temple was built, and of which the next verse (which must then be the first of the Psalm) begins expresly, The Lord loveth the gates of Sion— Thus from foreign fundavit, foreign is sometimes metaphorically used for a beginning, Ezr. vii. 9. The first day of the first monethmonth, wh…ch is foreign the beginning of the going up out of Babel. And to this construction here the Chaldee accord, who read it thus conjoyned in the title, By the hands of the sons of Coreh was said foreign the Canticle that was founded. If this will not be allowed (as indeed beside the Lxxii. and Syriack and other interpreters, Kimchi, Sol. Jarchi, and Midrasch Tehillim agree to make the first verse a part not of the title but the Psalm) then still applying the Psalm to the Temple, foreign will hold good in the ordidinary notion of a foundation, thus, The foundation thereof, i. e. of the Temple, is on the holy hills; so the Jewish Arab, A Psalm which is a description of the Sanctuary, the foundations of which are in the mountain of holiness. (but then His foundation will have no sense.) To this designe of the Psalm, the Hebrew writers generally agreeing, I have thought best to accord the whole interpretation of the Psalm; yet I shall not omit to advertise the reader, that 'tis not improbable the Psalm should be of another scheme, a Carmen Genethliacon at the celebrating the nativity of some eminent person, pointed out to the Jews by God (such was Hezekiah, celebrated by the Prophecy of Isaiah ch. ix. 6. To us a chi…de is born, &c.) And the use of these is known among the Jews as well as other nations, the Scripture having left us several copies of them, Hannahs hymn in the old Testament, Zacharies, and Simeons, and the Angels in the New. And if this should be the designe of this Psalm, then foreign will most probably be rendred, His original, beginning, extraction, is from the holy hills; the person whom we celebrate was borne in the royall Palace, upon the holy hill, contiguous to the Temple, nothing being more frequent in such composures then the mention of the place of his birth. If this which professes to be but a conjecture should be deemed the right, it must then be consequent, that all the Psalm have an interpretation agreeable. As when v. 4. he saith foreign foreign&c. it must then be rendred, not I will mention, but, I will attest Rahab, i. e. Aegypts, Tyres, Babels, and the Chushites Kings, ‖see 2 Ki. xviii. 21. & xix. 9. & xx. 12.confederate with this Prince (suppose Hezechiah) who were jealous of the Assyrian greatness, and secured of so formidable an enemy by his defeat before Jerusalem, and so were fit to give the most competent account of this glorious Prince, and so to be attested to that purpose by the Psalmist. So again v. 5. if it look this way, foreign foreignmust be rendred this, even this man, this notable person was born there. But the interpretation I adhere to, as most allowed, being the extolling and praising of Sion, to that sense I shall apply all the parts thereof, thinking it sufficient to have made this mention of the other.
V. 4. Rahab] From foreign to be strong, is foreign foreignthe title of Aegypt. The Chaldee here render it foreign the Aegyptians (so Psal. Lxxxix. 11. of Rahab they adde foreign this is Pharaoh) the mention whereof in this place joyned with Babylon, and Philistia, and Tyre, and foreign or Arabia (see note c.) was designed as an instance of so many of the chief and eminentest of the heathen nations, which yet were no way able to compare with mount Sion, the subject of this present Psalm. This is here exprest by the opposition betwixt its being said of these foreign foreignthis was borne there, i. e. some one particular, and perhaps contemptible, person, and mens saying foreign foreignthis and that man, i. e. many eminent men, were borne in that. For 1. foreign this, is but a forme of contempt, either this without any addition, or this fellow, or the like; whereas foreign a man is a note of some honour: and 2. foreign is some one, and no more, but foreign man and man, or man after man, denotes a multitude of several men, as Isa. Lxi. 7. double signifies great, and as etiam atque etiam, again and again signifies very often, and as in all languages, repetition signifies greatness of that which is spoken of, as thrice happy, &c. What sort of eminence it is that is here spoken of, and attributed to the Jews in Sion, before all other nations, cannot be obscure, when the advantages of the Jews above all others are famously known, Rom. iii. 2. where yet the oracles of God being committed to them is taken notice of as the chief. And to that the Chaldee seems to refer in this place, who in the first verse rendring the gates of Sion, the gates foreign of the houses of learning, or the schools which are built in Sion (of which sort the Jewish writers tell us there were very many in Jerusalem) implies this to be the matter of the comparison betwixt the Jews and all other nations here, that they have among them many more learned and knowing men, viz. in the wayes of God, the true, most valuable learning, those that have more understanding of the divine laws than all other people in the world, according to that of the Psalmist, He hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments they have not known them, Psal. cxlvii. 20.
Ibid. Aethiopia] foreign foreignChushi, which is here joyned with Tyre and Philistia, though it be by the Lxxii. rendred foreign the people of Aethiopia (reading foreign with, as if it were foreign the people) is by the Chaldee rendred foreign the Chushites. Who these are there can be little doubt, if (not the authority of Philo and Josephus, and others that follow them, but) the evidence of several texts of the Scripture and the express paraphrase of Jonathan be considered. Gen. x. 6. For the Hebrew Chush that hath foreign Arabia. And to that the testimonies of Scripture agree. Hab. iii. 7. Chusan (the diminutive of Chush) is all one with Madian following in that verse; and accordingly Moses's wise Sephora the Chushite Num. xii. 1. is the daughter of the priest of Midian Ex. ii. 16. and Midian or Madaan is by Josephus and Ptolemaeus and others generally placed in Arabia, on the shore of the Red sea. So Ezec. xxix. 10. Where the total desolation of Aegypt is exprest by making it desolate from Syene to Chush, setting those two as opposite points, the one on one side, the other on the other side of Aegypt; and then Syene being the boundary of Aegypt toward Aethiopia by acknowledgement of all, foreign saith‖de bell. Jud. l. v. c. 1. see Plin. l. v. c. 9. Solon. c. 35. Strabo l. xvii. p. 817. Josephus, Syene divides Aegypt from the Aethiopians, it follows of necessity that Chush must signify Arabia, which borders on Aegypt in the point most opposite to Aethiopia. So when Ezec. xxx. 9. immediately after the visitation of Aegypt, follows, Messengers shall go from me in ships to make careless Chush afraid, this is very appliable to Arabia, to which they oft pass by ship from Aegypt by the Red Sea, but not to Aethiopia, to which they cannot pass by Nilus, because of the cataracts near Syene. So 2 Chron. xxi. 16. the Arabians are said to be neighbours of the Aethiopians: and accordingly when Sennacherib besieged Libna in the tribe of Judah, 2 King. xix. 9. Tirhacha King of Chush came upon him unawares, which their neighbours the Arabians might do, but the Aethiopians could not without first subduing Aegypt, which lay betwixt them. So when Isa. xx. 5. Chush is said to have been the Expectation of Ashdod or Azotus v. 1. (the city of the Philistims) this may well be understood of their neighbours the Arabians, but not of the Aethiopians so farr removed from them. To these doth the learned Bochart adde Isa. xviii. 1. where Aegypt is by the Prophet in Jewry said to be beyond the rivers of Chush, which cannot be applied to Aethiopia, which is directly beyond Aegypt. This then may be safely resolved, that Chush in this and other places must signify the inhabitants of Arabia, those that were vulgarly called Scenitae, because they dwelt in tents, called thence the tents of Chushan Hab. iii. 7. and accordingly for the tents of Kedar Cant. i. 5. the Chaldee reads foreign as the sonnes of Chush, which dwell in those black tents, or tents of Kedar.
V. 6. When he writeth up] From foreign scripsit, descripsit, is foreign foreignhere in writing, in setting down, foreign in the description, or writing, say the Lxxii. To this the insuing foreign is to be annext, as in the genitive case, the writing of the people: foreign the writing of the people and Princes, say the Lxxii. and Latine, foreign say the Syriack, in the book of the people. And what this signifies the Chaldee have more largely exprest by foreign the book in which are written the numbrings of all the people, i. e. the roll, or matricula, wherein the names of all the inhabitants are set down. This book as appears by v. 4. must refer to the nations there named, in the view, or on the inspection of which, God, to whose eyes all mens hearts are discernible, shall count, saith the Psalmist (as before v. 4.) foreign this (or this fellow) was borne there, some one pious man or servant of God in an age, in a nation, as Job and the like, Job i. 1. whereas v. 7. foreign foreignthe singers foreign foreignas, or like, the minstrels, shall recite or count (so the Ellipsis must be supplied, by repeating the verb used in the beginning of the 6. verse) foreign foreignall my fountains are in thee. In which words must be explained 1. what the singers and minstrels referrs to, 2. what is meant by all my fountains. For the former it is sufficiently known that the singers and minstrels joyned in celebrating the praises of eminent men, as also in the service of God. And as at the removal of the Arke the singers goe before, and the minstrels follow after, the singers begin and lead the tune, as the Praecentors, and the players on instruments followed after, as the quire; so here the singers are supposed to begin, and the minstrels or players on instruments, taberers tympanistae, saith the Jewish Arab, follow to the same tune, both joyning in this celebration of the divine knowledge and piety of those that dwell in Zion, and the great multitude of such; which is the most probable importance of the last words whereof their Antheme consists, All my fountains are in thee. 2. Then for my fountains, it will best be explained by foreign they that were from the veine or (as the Lxxii. foreign) fountains of Israel, Psal. Lxviii. 26. By vein of Israel there the people of Israel were meant, and those as numerous as the drops of water coming from a spring, or dust of any metall in a minerall vein; and so here my fountains, or springs, or flowings of water, are the great multitude of pious people, which as such are called my, i. e. Gods fountains. And so these two verses 6. and 7. are but the same which had been said v. 4. and 5. only varied in the expression. The Jewish Arab reads, the singers and taberers shall describe [set forth, or reherse] all your root, or stock, which is as a fountain to you.