Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 88
The Eighty Eighth Psalm.
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Corah, to the chief Musitian upon ‖the hallow instruments for answering.Maalath a.Leannoth, Maschil of b.Heman the Ezrahite.
Paraphrase. The eighty eighth Psalm being a sad complaint addrest unto God in time of some heavy affliction, (most probably in the t…me of the * captivity, as Ps. 89.) was committed to the Praefect of the Musick to be sung by the posterity of Corah, the hollow instruments, pipe, flute,foreign it was written in the person of them that were in captivity. Kimchi. &c. being appointed to answer their voices. It was set to the tune called Maschil (see note on Psal. xxxii. a.) from the title of a divine song composed by Heman the son of Zerah, the son of Iudah.
1. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee;
2. Let my prayer come before thee, incline thine eare unto my cry.
Thou, O God, art he from whom my deliverance must come, no other means can be effectual for me, to thee I continually address my prayers; O be thou gratiously pleased to hear and a…swer them.
3. For my soule is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto†hedes foreign the grave.
4. I am accounted with them that go down unto the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
For this I am one way competently qualified, viz. by the great measure of my present troubles and dangers, mine own absolute impotence, and the deplorablenesse and desperatenesse of my condition.
5. c.Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou remembrest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand.
I am now so low, that I begin to have the priviledges of dead men, those that are at the lowest, or that being brought down to the grave are out of the malice and thought of their enemies: I am laid aside as one not considered, or concerned in the affairs of this world, sequestred from the conversation of men, and (which is the worst part of my misery) from the Sanctuary, accounted by men as one wholly forgotten and forsaken by thee, no part of thy care, and as uncapable of restauration by thy power as those that are dead already.
6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
Thou hast permitted me to be brought to a state of the utmost distress and destitution.
7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
The effects of thy displeasure lie very pressing upon me, as one that leans with his whole weight upon another; my afflictions come in one upon the neck of another, as waves of the sea beating upon any vessel.
8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance farre from me, thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
The sharpness of thy punishments hath averted all men from me, they account me forsaken by thee, and so they forsake me, get aloofe from me, as from an execrable thing, and so leave me as in a prison, a state of restraint and perfect solitude, from which I cannot discern any way of rescue or redress.
9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
I look, and waite, and languish, but receive no mitigation to my afflictions; I continually pray and importune thee, my voice and hands (and heart) are for ever imployed in sending up my complaints to the.
10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall thed. dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
11. Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12. Shall thy wonders be known in the darke, and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Thou hast promised me relief, and so thy fidelity is concerned in it, which therefore I am confident I shall at length receive from thee; O when wilt thou please to reach it out and afford it me? If thou dost not speedily, I am likely to be consumed and destroyed by my pressures, and then there will be no remedy, no capacity of thy relief; unless thou work a miracle for me, and raise me when I am dead, out of the grave again, and so exercise not only thy special extraordinary providence and mercy, but even thine omnipotent creative power in my restauration.
13. But unto thee have I cryed, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
All that I have to doe, O Lord, is in prayer and with importunity daily and duly to solicite thee, after this manner,
14. Lord, why castest thou off my soule? why hidest thou thy face from me?
Lord, be thou at length pleased to receive my prayers, which proceed from an humble and devout soule, to restore thy favour and mercy to me.
15. I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted.
My pressures are very extreme and of long duration, and the continual new dangers that incompass me put me in great anxiety and consternation.
16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off.
The sense of thy displeasure, and the direfull expectation of all the miserable effects thereof (till thou art pleased to look favourably on me) do even overwhelme and destroy me.
17. They came round about me‖all the day foreign daily like water, they compast me about together.
And like continual floods of water inclosing me round about, leave no way of passage out of them.
18. Lover and friend hast thou put farre from me, and minee. acquaintance†sculke or hide themselves. into darkness.
As for any humane aid of friends or neighbours, I have not the least tender of that, they from whom I had most reason to expect it are affrighted with the sight of my afflictions, fly from me, lest I should implore their aid, and keep themselves at a great distance from me. 'Tis thou, O Lord, which hast thus punisht me for my sins; and from the return of thy mercy alone am I to expect relief.
Annotations on Psalm LXXXVIII.
Tit. Leannoth] That foreign foreignsignifies hollow instruments, hath been taken notice of note on Psal. Liii. a. To this our English hath joyned Leannoth, as if both together, Maalath-Leannoth were a proper name. But as the former was a mistake, so the latter is a double addition to it; first in that it is joyned to it, when in the original 'tis not, 2. in that the importance of it, which is plain, is not considered, foreign foreignis literally (as from the Lxxii. their foreign the Vulgar and the Interlinear read it) ad respondendum, for answering, for which the Learned Castellio reads alternis, by way of answer, or alternation. This, I suppose, refers to the custome in singing their Anthems to instruments, or the conjunction of vocal and instrumental Musick, mentioned note on Psal. Lxxxvii. d. where the Corabites, or singers beginning the tune, as a praecentor, the instruments follow to the very same tune, which is properly stiled answering them; this being the primary use of foreign (as to begin, so) to continue a song, to proceed, or go on in a tune begun by any. So 1 Sam. xviii. 7. foreign and the women answered playing, and said— which phrase is expounded by the former verse, which tells us, that the women came out of all cities, singing and dancing, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of Musick, and so their singing going first, they followed or answered their voices with tabrets and instrumental Musick. Proportionable to this was the antient Greek custome, poetically exprest by Apollo and the Muses, Apollo singing, and they following foreign, answering with Musical instruments to the tune which he began. So in Homer in a funeral, there are first foreign, the beginners or praecentors of the lamentations, and then foreign the company stood about waiting, and foreign the women came after, or answered in their moaning, this wailing bearing then proportion with the Musick which was after used in their Funerals. See note on Matth. ix. h. And although the Hebrew Musick be not much known or discernible to us of these times, yet perhaps some foreign may be taken notice of in this Psalm, by which to judge of that which now we speak of, their alternation, or answering. For this Psalm seems to be composed of two parts, the one reaching to v. 9. the other beginning at v. 9. and continued to the end of the Psalm, and the several parts of each of these very agreeable and answering the one to the other. Thus when v. 1. the first part begins.
O Lord God I have cried day and night before thee; the second answers v. 9. in the very same scheme, Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
When v. 3. we read, For my soule— my life draweth nigh unto the grave;
The tenth bears proportion, Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?
Again v. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkness in the deeps:
And then v. 11. Shall thy loving kindness be shewed in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction?
So when v. 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.
The answer is in the 14, 15, & 16. v. Lord, why castest thou off my soule? why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up, while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath—
Lastly, as v. 8. Thou hast put away my acquaintance farre from me,—
So v. 18. Lover and friend hast thou put farre from me and mine acquaintance—
In each of these the analogy is so very discernible in respect of the matter, that we may not unreasonably resolve that the alternation here was not betwixt the first and second verses, and so on betwixt the third and fourth, but betwixt the first and second part, and the several lesser partitions of the one and other. As when among us a tune is made up of many lines or measures, and when that is done, it begins again, and is again completed in the same number of lines or feet, and one of these is performed by vocal, and the other to the very same tune by instrumental Musick. And this seems to be the scheme or sort of the foreign for answering, or alternation, in this place. The Jewish Arab renders it, A Psalm with which the waiters of the sons of Korah praised [God] by playing on the tabrets, and answering with understanding (so they render Maschil) Heman the Ezrahite answering them. And he explains it in a note, that this Psalm David delivered to the sons of Korah, and the sons of Heman, there with to praise [God] commanding the sons of Korah to play on the instruments, and the sons of Heman to answer them with their voices.
Tit. Ezrahite] Of Heman foreign foreignthe Ezrahite, we have mention 1 King. iv. 31. as of a very eminent person, famous for learning, he and his three brothers, Ethan and Chalcol and Darda; for to set out the wisdome of Solomon not only above the Orientals and Aegyptians v. 30. but even above all men v. 31. it is added, he was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Chalchol and Darda the sons of Mahol. Who these foure learned men were, appears 1 Chron. ii. 6. where Zerah the son of Jud…h by Tamar is recorded to have five sons, Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Dara (for foreign Dara some copies of the Lxxii. read foreign, the Syriack foreign Dardaa.) Hence appears the reason of their name Ezrahite, both there and here, and in the title of Psal. Lxxxix. because they were the sons of Zerah; so the Chaldee interprets it in their rendring 1 Kin. iv. 31. he was wiser than all men foreign than Ethan the son of Zerah— And whereas it is said in that place 1 King. iv. 31. that they were the sons of Mahol, it must be resolved that Mahol was the name of a woman, Zerah's wife, whose wisdome transfused to her children, seems to be the cause, that in a comparison of wisdome, her name is set down, and not her husbands, though in that other place 1 Chron. ii. his name is set down, and not hers, and so likewise in their being called Ezrahites from Zerah their father. Now that this Heman the grandchilde of Judah, and Ethan his brother, both antienter than Moses, were the Authors of this and the next Psalm, inscribed foreign foreignto or of Heman, and foreign foreignto or of Ethan (as other Psalms foreign to or of David, a signification of his being the Author) will not be very reasonable to define, there being in the next Psalm inscribed to Ethan, such express mentions of David, and Gods oath to him, v. 3, 19, 20, 35. of Gods judgments on the Aegyptians, v. 10. and of all other things of a date much later than the age of Judah's grandchilde, that it is not probable that they should be so expresly prophesied of by one which is not taken notice of in Scripture as a Prophet, when neither Moses nor any other of the Patriarchs had foretold these, or any other such things so expresly. Whether this consideration were it that moved the Chaldee to inscribe Psal. Lxxxix. foreign that it was spoken by the hand of Abraham, who came out of the East, as thinking this more reasonable, to attribute it to that great Patriarch and Prophet, than to Ethan, I cannot define. But that which seems to me most probable, is, that both this and the next Psalm were written by an unknown Author, and that foreign foreignforeign foreignMaschil of Heman, and so likewise Maschil of Ethan, are but the names of the tune (as of Maschil hath been resolved note on Psal. xxxii. a.) to which these two Psalms were set, each of those wise men having composed a song known by that name.
V. 5. Free] From foreign to free, is foreign foreignhere, free (in opposition to servitude) manumitted, set at liberty. The use of this word may more generally be taken from 2 Chron. xxvi. 21. where of Uzziah being a leper 'tis said, that he dwelt foreign In an house of freedome, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. The meaning is, that after the manner of the lepers, he was excluded from the Temple, and dwelt foreign saith the Chaldee there, in some place without Jerusalem, which is therefore called the house of freedom, because such as were there were exempt from the common affairs and shut up from the conversation of men. And in proportion with these, they that are dead & laid in their graves, are here said to be free, i. e. removed from all the affairs and conversation of the world, even foreign from the commandments, say the Jews, of them that are dead, Nidda, fol. 76. Thus is death described, Job iii. by lying still, and quiet, and at rest, v. 13. in desolate places, v. 14. where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest, v. 17. where the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor, v. 18. and where the servant is foreign (as here) free from his master, v. 19. In this verse there seems to be a gradation. To be slain is more then to dye, to be in the grave more then either, but to dye by a foreign to be cut off by excision, not to have foreign the remembrance of blessing, to be utterly sorgot, and have no share in the world to come, which they say every Israelite hath, is the utmost pitch of misery.
V. 10. Dead] That foreign foreignhere signifies the dead, those that lye in the grave, there can be no question. The Chaldee render it foreign the carcasses that are putrified in the dust. So Isa. xxvi. 14. foreign shall not rise, is but the interpretation of what went before, they are dead, they shall not live, and so v. 19. the earth shall cast out foreign the dead bodies. So Prov. xxi. 16. the man that wandreth from the way of understanding shall remain foreign in the congregation of the dead: the Chaldee reads foreign with the sons of the earth. The same word is elsewhere used for gyants, Gen. xiv. 5. and Isa. xvii. 5. which makes it probable that the word comes from a notion of the root foreign not ordinarily taken notice of by Lexicographers (who generally take it for healing and curing) such as may be common to these two so distant derivatives, dead men, and gyants. The gyants we know are in most languages exprest by phrases taken from the bottome or bowels of the earth foreign, and terrae silij, borne from, or sons of the earth: and just so the Chaldee even now rendred foreign where 'twas used for dead bodies Prov. xxi. 16. which gives us reason to resolve, that the Radix originally signified something pertaining to the lower parts of the earth, and so 'twill be fitly communicated to these two, which in the notion of healing it will not be. And to this accords a notion of the word foreign among the Hebrews, for metals, minerals, gold, silver, coral, &c. which are digged out of the earth, and from the very bottome of the sea, the abysse, which is very agreeable to both these notions of the word, the dead being there laid and disposed of, after their departure out of this world, their bodies in the grave, and their animal souls in Scheol, the state of separation, not otherwise capable of being described but by foreign, hades, foreign disappearing, the abysse, or deep; and the gyants by their great strength and exercise of it (in invading and oppressing others) and by being of uncertain originals, phansied to have received their birth from some subterranean powers, and so called by that title. The Lxxii. deducing the word from foreign to heale, render it here and elsewhere foreign Physitians, and the Latine medici, but the Syriack foreign strong men or gyants.
V. 18. Acquaintance] From foreign was darkned, is foreign foreignhere, an obscure darke place, an hole, or hiding-place; and then foreign a darke place, or hole to my acquaintance, signifies the lying hid, and sculking of friends, hiding themselves, for fear they should be seen by him, and called to help him. The Jewish Arab reads. And mine acquaintance are become as darkness.