Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 74
The Seventy Fourth Psalm.
MAschil of Asaph.
Paraphrase. The Seventy Fourth Psalm composed by Asaph (see note on Ps. 73. a.) and set to the tune known by the name of Maschil or intelligent (see note on Psal. xxxii. a.) is a prayer for deliverance and safeguard of Gods Church and people from their enemies, and seems to have been endited under the captivity, and describes the sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadonosor, and their state of sadness under the deportation.
1. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? ‖shall thy- foreignWhy doth thy anger smoak against the sheep of thy pasture?
O God, return to us in mercy, we beseech thee, and let us not allwayes lye under thy displeasure, and the sharp expressions of it, who are thine own chosen peculiar people.
2. Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased of old, a.the†nation or Kingdome. rod of thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed, this mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt.
We are thy Church which long agoe thou wert pleased to gather, and account of as thine own, as a man doth the possession which he hath purchased with his price; we are a nation which thou once broughtest out of Aegypt with a mighty hand, many signes and wonders being shewed for the rescuing us one of the Aegyptian slavery; and since that time all the successions of us have been thine: among us hath the Arke of the Covenant resided, and therein the continued exhibition of thy presence, in Mount Sion, the place consecrated to thy solemn service. O doe not thou forget and renounce all these thy gratious relations toward us.
3. Lift up thy feet*or because of the utter destructions, all evil hath the enemy done in, or on— unto theb. perpetual desolations, even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in thy Sanctuary.
The enemies both of thee and us, the Chaldeans have sacked thy Temple, and used it reproachfully, being (for our sins, most justly) permitted by thee to worke desolations among us, and even to invade and destroy thy holy place consecrated to thy peculiar presence and service. But those that are thus malicious, God will at length (interpose his power, and) utterly destroy. (Thus it fared as with the Philistims of old, so soon after this with the Chaldeans, and at length with heathen Rome.)
4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensignesc. for‖or trophees foreign signes.
For a while tyrannical unjust oppressors may invade Gods people, and sacrilegiously break in upon his holy place, and prove victorious and successfull therein,
5. †They shew themselves as one that lifts up axes on high in the thicket of trees.A man wasd. famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees:
Hew down and destroy, as one that comes to a wood well grown with instruments of excision in his hand, and presently sets about the execution.
6. ‖And ןBut now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
And thus doe our enemies now lay wast the rich and beautifull sculptures, designed for thy honour and service, and use all means of violence they can think of, to perfect their malicious designes hewing, and knocking, and
7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary; they have†violated or destroyed to the ground the foreign defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground.
Setting on fire and utterly demolishing the fabricks erected for thy presence. (How this was eminently fulfilled on the Temple of Jerusalem, see Mat. xxiv. 2.)
8. They said in their hearts,*their children together, or at once. Let use. destroy them together; they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land.
And that they might make but one work of it, to root out all religion both from the present and future ages, burning down and destroying all sorts of sacred assemblies, oratories, or synagogues all the nation over.
9. We see not our signes; there is no more any Prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
And to increase our misery, the gift of prophecy by which we were wont to have signes given, to make known Gods will to us, is now ceased and lost from among us, and we have now none to consult or enquire of, how long this desolation shall continue. (This was most fully completed in the destruction by Titus, when though there were many ominous and prodigious signes, yet there was no Prophet sent by God, of whom they might ask or be advised in any thing.)
10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
Blessed Lord, let not our enemies any longer have this occasion to scoff at and deride our affiance in thee, and to reproach and blaspheme thee our God, as if thou wert unable to rescue us, or chastise them.
11. Why‖recallest, see note f. withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand?f. †from within thy bosome destroy.pluck it out of thy bosome.
But be thou at length pleased to shew forth thy power, in executing thy judgments on them, in subduing and bringing them down.
12. For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
For thou alone art he that hast guided and defended us from the beginning, giving many signal and illustrious deliverances to thy people.
13. Thou didst*drive, or cause to recede, see note h. divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
When the Aegyptian hosts pursued them at their departure out of Aegypt, by thy power the red sea was driven back, to give passage to the Israelites, but returned with violence on the Aegyptians, and destroyed them.
14. Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat tog. the people inhabiting the wilderness.
And in the same destruction Pharaoh the oppressive King was himself inclosed and drowned, and so devoured by the fishes, which the Ichthyophagi, (so called from their eating of fish) inhabiting the desert on the shores of that sea, doe feed on.
15. Thouh. didst‖bring out cleave the fountain and the flood, thou driedst up†rapid foreign mightyi. rivers.
And as in the wilderness to satisfie their thirsts, thou causedst a full current of water to flow out of an hard rock, only by Moses striking the rock with his rod; so when there was need, thou driedst up great and violent rivers, some others (it seems) as well as that of Jordan, to give an easy passage to thy people.
16. The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared k the*moon light and the sun.
17. Thou hast‖appoin… all the bounds foreign made all the borders of the earth, thou hast made summer and winter.
In summe, thou which hast made the day and the sun to rule that, the night and the moon to give light to that, which hast setled all the climes of the earth, and all the various seasons of the year, dost also with the conduct of thy providence dispose all other inferior effects, and conditions of men, and canst restrain and punish, defend and support, and restore to prosperity, as thou pleasest.
18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, ‖or, the Lord foreign, Lxxii.O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
Be thou therefore now pleased to interpose on our behalfe, and repress our adversaries, which have not only reproached and triumpht over us, but at once violated thy blessed and holy name, blasphemed and contemned the God we worship and depend on.
19. O deliver not the soule ofl. thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
O Lord, we are like turtles, in an afflicted, and so a mournfull condition; and yet, as turtles, constant in our fidelity to thee, have not taken in any rival into thy service, O let not an helpeless multitude of such, whose innocence delivers them up to the hatred of vultures, become for ever a prey to them: either repress them, I beseech thee, or s…cure us, that wait only on thee, and depend on thy aid against our enemies.
20. Have respect unto the Covenant; for the darke places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
Thou hast promised thy aids and protections to all that uprightly serve and adhere unto thee, and hast still an holy covenant, Dan. 11.30. by force of which we still, how low soever we are brought, are confident to receive deliverance from thee. And now there is special need of it, the multitude being so great of unjust and cruel oppressors, which secretly lay and manage their designes of darkness against us. O be thou now pleased seasonably to make good thy promise to us.
21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.
O let not our trust and reliance on thee be disappointed, suffer not our oppressors still to triumph over us; but return our captivity, rescue us out of our present low dejected estate, that we may have the comfort of receiving deliverances from thee, and thou the just honour of our acknowledgements.
22. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause; remember†thy reproach from the fool every day foreign how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
23. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the*noise foreign tumult of those that rise up against thee‖ascends, goes up foreign encreaseth continually.
Lord, it is not against us only that their reproaches are meant, but they advance higher, even against thy sacred Majesty, whom they scoffe at and blaspheme daily. This is a most horrible crying sin, that cannot chuse but provoke thine indignation; and yet of this are these Atheists continually guilty (their successes against us and prosperous impieties puffe them up into this high degree of profaneness to scoffe at the God we worship, as one that is not able to protect his clients.) O let this excite and engage thee to interpose thy hand, to shew forth thy power, to undertake our defense and patronage, to repress and so confute their folly, that at length they may acknowledge their sins, and adore thy Majesty.
Annotations on Psalm LXXIV.
V. 2. The rod.] From the notion of foreign foreigna rod or scepter, is that other notion of it, for a Kingdome, or Empire; and being here joyned with foreign of thine inheritance, it signifies a nation, which through all successions, God had a peculiar right and title to.
V. 3. Lift up thy feet &c.] What foreign foreignlifting up thy feet, here signifies, will be best learnt from Gen. xxix. 1. There of Jacob 'tis said, foreign he lift up his feet, and went into the East countrey. For foreign there, the Syriack hath foreign, the same word which here we have; and that foreign are all one with foreign feet, is evident from the scripture-use of it, Ps. xvii. 5. and in many other places. And then as lifting up the feet, is there in Genesis no more different from the going that follows, then opening the mouth from speaking; so Gods coming, or presence, being in scripture-dialect frequently used for his inflictions of punishment, this will consequently be the meaning of the phrase here, when to it is immediately joyned, foreign to desolations. Abu Walid renders it, Tread hard upon thine enemies. The J…wish Arab, Shew forth thy punishment, adding in a note that the lifting up the feet implies punishment, the bringing under by force being usually exprest by treading under the feet. There is another notion of foreign for a mall or hammer, Is. xLi. 7. and Kimchi would have that the meaning here, foreign lift up thy mall, in opposition to the axes and hammers v. 6. and thus also Abu Walid, lift up thy dashing instruments. And the Lxxii. that read foreign, lift up thy hands, come neerer that: But the Chaldee puts it out of question, foreign lift up thy goings or footsteps, i. e. come. For foreign foreignto vastations, or destructions, from foreign with ש, the Lxxii. as from foreign with ש to lift up) read foreign upon their prides, or elations (see note on Ps. Lxxiii. h.) yet differ not much in the sense: Gods lifting up his …eet, or coming, as to act revenge upon their prides, being in effect the destroying of them. Thus Abu Walid also, because of the utter destructions which the enemy hath made, and because of all the evil that he hath done in, or on the sanctuary. And Aben Ezra, because of the perpetual vastations i. e. because of thine inheritance which is wast. But the Chaldee again is most express, foreign to lay wast the nations, viz. those that had dealt so cruelly with Jerusalem, the Chaldaeans, in revenge of whose desolations and vastations, God should now come to his desolations on them. To desolations here is added foreign foreignperpetuity, to signify final, utter desolations, confronted to the perpetuity of Gods absence, v. 1. And then as the reason to excite God to this, follows, foreign &c. all evil hath the enemy done in or on thy sanctuary. God had deserted his sanctuary, by the going up of the Schecina from between the Cherubims, Ezec. x. 4. and in consequence to that, the heathen people had invaded that holy place, and laid it wast: he is now besought to returne, and come to them again in mercy and reconciliation to them, and in vengeance to those that in wasting them had opposed him; and this is the full importance of this verse.
V. 4. Signes] foreign signifies a signe, and from thence a standard, or ensigne in militia; and the setting up this in any place which hath been taken by armes, is a signe of that victory; and so an ensigne or standard thus set up is in effect a trophee. And this gives the different rendrings to the same word in this place. In the first place foreign foreigntheir ensignes; but then being set up, they become foreign foreigntrophees. There is another notion of foreign ver. 9. for such signes as diviners give, to foretell things to come; and of these Jarchi understands it, that having finisht their conquest according to the auspicia or signes of southsayers, Ezek. xxi. 21. The King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way to use divination, he made his arrows bright, he consulted with Teraphim, he lookt in the liver) they resolve their divinations were true, their signes foreign real signes. And this is no improbable interpretation of the words.
V. 5. Famous] foreign foreignin Niphal (from foreign knew) signifies to be known, or, in the notion of Hithpael, reciprocally, to make himself known, to set himselfe out, to shew himself: and being in the singular number, Abu Walid seems to understand it of the stroke or punishment from God. Let it be known, as the stroak of him that lifteth up axes. But it more probably connects with the enemies in the former verse, either as 'tis ordinary to change the numbers, or else as understanding each or every of them, that were before spoken of; and so this verse well connects with the former, they, or every of them, shew themselves foreign foreign— as one makes to ascend foreign on high, i. e. lifts up foreign axes, instruments of hewing or cutting down, of excision, foreign foreignin the thicket (from foreign perplexus fuit) of wood, or as the Lxxii. not amiss, foreign in a cops or wood o… trees. Thus the Chaldee interprets this verse: but the Lxxii. for the former part of it, so as will hardly be intelligible, foreign, and they knew not as to an entrance on high, as in a wood of trees with axes; and yet the Latine follow them, & non cognoverunt (for foreign was known) and they knew not, sicut in exitu as in the end (for foreign as one that lifts) super summum on the top (for foreign up, or on high) and then in the beginning of the next verse quasi in sylva lignorum securibus—as in the wood of trees with axes. But in the former way of construction the sense is obvious, and such as well connects with that which follows, foreign and now, not as a notation of time, but as an expletive, or bare copulative, which the Chaldee express by foreign and so, as the foreign or counter-part of the similitude, as they cut down wood, so these break and cut down foreign foreigncarved works from foreign aperuit, in the notion of sculpture, when applyed to such materials, Zach. iii. 9. for which the Lxxii. read foreign their doors as in the notion of foreign from the same root, that so signifies.
V. 8. Destroy them] foreign foreignis by all the antient interpreters, the Syriack only excepted, rendred as from foreign filius; foreign their children, saith the Chaldee, foreign their kindred, say the Lxxii. and so the Latine, (and Arabick and Aethiopick) cognatio eorum: yet the Syriack foreign let us destroy them, deducing it, as 'tis thought, from foreign vim intulit, oppressit. And thus Abu Walid deduceth it, and Aben Ezra, as likewise Kimchi approves it. But the former seems more regularly the rendring of it, and being here joyned with foreign together, (their posterity at once, or together) it is a proverbial expression, to signifie utter destruction, as we know it is when they and their children at once are involved in the same calamity. The Jewish Arab follows this notion of children, or posterity, but renders it of the enemies. So that their posterity have said of us in their mindes, all of them, when they have burnt up all the synagogues of the Almighty in the land, that we doe not see our signes, &c. i. e. as he gives his note, the second order or progeny of our enemies have said of us, that we have not seen our signes, &c.
V. 11. Pluck it] From foreign consumptus est, is foreign foreignin Piel, consume thou, so Psal. Lix. 14. 'tis twice used, foreign Consume in thy wrath, consume. And so in all reason 'tis here to be rendred, and being joyned with foreign foreignfrom within thy bosome, it must signify drawing out the hand thence to destroy: and so 'tis paraphrased by the Chaldee, draw it (i. e. thy right hand preceding) out of the midst of thy bosome, and destroy. And thus it coheres with the former part of the verse, foreign foreignwhy returnest thou thy hand, or recallest it into thy bosome? The Jewish Arab reads, Turne not from them thy hand, even thy right hand, but consume them out of the midst of thy house, giving a note that the house of God is called foreign. For foreign the Lxxii. read foreign, and the Latine, in finem, from the notion of foreign finitus est.
V. 14. The people inhabiting the wilderness] What is here meant by foreign foreignthe people of the wildernesse, may seem somewhat uncertain. By Leviathan, the whale is literally meant, but Poetically, Pharaoh, the King of Aegypt, as by the Dragons v. 13. his army that pursued Israel. Now of these it is said Ex. xiv. 30. that Israel saw the Aegyptians dead on the sea shore, and then being thus made a prey to the wild-beasts and birds, 'tis not improbable that these wild-beasts, and birds should here be exprest by foreign the people of the wilderness, as being the only proper inhabitants thereof. That foreign people, hath sometimes that interpretation in Scripture, appears by Prou. xxx. 25. & 26. where the ants are styled foreign a people, and so the coneys also. And in analogy with this interpretation it is, that God in the Prophets expresses the defeat and slaughter of an army, by making a great feast, and inviting a multitude of guests to it, Isa. Lvi. 9. meaning beasts and birds of prey. But though to the bodies of the Aegyptians drown'd in the sea, and here meant, this interpretation of people for beasts be most agreeable, yet because Aegyptians are here not named, but poetically exprest by Leviathan and the Dragons, and those are more proper food for men then for birds and beasts, and because the*foreign. Pausan, in Attic. inhabitants of that desert lying by the red sea, did feed wholly on fish, and were therefore called Ichthyophagi, fish-eaters, it will be most reasonable to interpret this foreign people of the wilderness, of these Ichthyophagi, neer whose shore Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned. Of their feeding on the Leviathan, or Whale, when they meet with it, as well as on lesser fishes, Agatharcides tells us, cap. xx. foreign, they feed and live on the whales which are cast on dry land: and so Diodorus Siculus l. 3. foreign &c. they are fed or nourished by whales, and other foreign fishes of a vast size, foreign, which because of their greatness are hard to be taken; answerable to the foreign dragons v. 13. Of these Aben Ezra interprets this place, foreign the inhabitants of the wilderness by the shore of the sea, the same that are mentioned by the name foreign Ps. Lxxii. 9. they that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; which were men sure, and not beasts, and particularly these Ichthyophagi by the red sea, which was one of the seas mentioned v. 8. Of this sea†l. 3. Diodorus Siculus hath a remarkable passage pertinent to our present purpose, It is, saith he, a tradition among the Ichthyophagi that dwell near, which they have conserved from their ancestors, that at a certain great foreign ebb or recess of the sea, foreign, every place of that sinus was dried up, foreign, the sea departing to the other opposite parts, and then again foreign flowing back with a huge flote, it was restored to its former course. Which certainly refers to this part of history, and sets it down most exactly according to the truth: not that the sea so parted asunder, that the Israelites might pass from one side to the other on dry land, as over Jordan they did, (for that they did not thus pass over, but came out at the same side of the sea that they went in; see note i.) but that as in a great ebb, (such as was never seen before, nor since) the sea departed so farre from the banks of Aegypt, that the Israelites first, and the Aegyptians after them, went in, and marcht in the midst of the channel on dry ground, and then the waters returned, Ex. xiv. 28. i. e. flowed back again, and drowned the Aegyptians, and cast up their bodies on the shore, as the text saith, Ex. xiv. 30. and thereby made the parallel more complete betwixt Pharaoh with his Aegyptians armies, and Leviathan, and the Dragons, or great fishes, which are wont to be cast upon the shore by the tides; and so the Ichthyophagi come out at set times to gather them, twice a day, saith Agatharcides, at the third and ninth hour, foreign, when the tide comes in from the sea to the dry land. Which being consider'd, it now appears how farre these two interpretations are from being unreconcileable, they being both most true, one in the historical, the other in the poetical sense. In the historical sense, Pharaoh and the Aegyptians were drowned in the sea, then cast upon the shore, and devoured by the beasts and birds of the wilderness, which must then be the foreign people in the wilderness; but this here poetically described by the Whale and other great fishes cast upon the shore by the tide, and gathered up and used for food by the Ichthyophagi, which are properly, and not poetically styled, foreign the people of the wilderness. And so this is the complete importance of this verse.
V. 15. Cleave] foreign foreignas it signifies to cleave, so also to bring forth or fetch out; expressisti, saith Seb Castellio. It is used of birds disclosing or hatching their young ones, Isa. xxxiv. 15. and lix. 5. because that is done by the young ones cleaving, or breaking the shell with their bills. And accordingly 'tis here used of Gods wonderfull work, of cleaving, and so bringing or causing to break out (the lxxii. well express it by foreign, the Latine by dirupisti,) waters out of the rock, and that in such plenty that it became a river, which ran along with them in their journeyings (see note on 1 Cor. x. 4.) in respect of its first coming out of the rock 'tis here called foreign foreigna fountain; but in respect of the current, here is added foreign foreignand a flood, or torrent.
Ibid. Rivers] What the strong rivers were which were here referred to,foreign the Chaldee hath undertaken to specifie, Arnon, and Jabbok, and Jordan. That the red sea was not in this verse referred to, is probable, because that had been before mentioned v. 13. and that under another style foreign foreign, from that notion of foreign to goe back, or recede, wherein the Arabs use it; and so God by his strength dealt with that, made it goe back, and give place to the Israelites entring into the Channel, not so as to part asunder, for them to goe quite over from one side to the other: for 1. the way from Aegypt to Canaan led them not cross the red sea, 2. their journeyings set down Num. xxxiii. 6. and 8. shew that as before their entring into the sea, they were in Etham in the edge of the wilderness, so after they were come out of the sea, they came into the same wilderness of Etham, and went three dayes journey in it, an evidence that the Israelites came out on the same side of the sea as they went in. That this and no more is the meaning of foreign passing through the red sea Heb. xi. 29. their walking on dry land in the midst of the sea. Exod. xiv. 29. see note on Heb. xi. b. But then Jordan, that was dried up, and gave them an easie passage over it, Jos. iii. 16. But as for any miraculous drying up either of Arnon or Jabbok, there is no History of it in scripture, onelyonly one intimation there is Num. xxi. that may incline us to credit the Targums tradition. For there on the mention of their remove, and pitching on the other side of Arnon, v. 13 it follows, wherefore it is said in the Book of the warres of the Lord, what he did in the red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon. Where the comparing and joyning Gods miraculous works in the red sea, with those he did in the brooks of Arnon, is an indication that some such like thing was done for the Israelites at those brooks, as was before done at the red sea, viz. at the time of its receding before the Israelites. And from that book of the warres of the Lord the Chaldee by tradition might have it.
V. 16. The light] From foreign luxit is foreign foreignin general any luminary or receptacle of light, indifferently the Sun and the Moon, Gen. i. 16. But being joyned with, and so opposed to, the Sun, as here the night is to the day, it must needs signify the luminary of the night, the Moon, as the Sun is of the day: and accordingly the Chaldee renders it foreign the Moon, and the LXXII. foreign, and so the Syriack foreign and the Jewish Arab, Thou hast prepared the Moon with the Sun. Only the Latine reads auroram the morning.
V. 19. Thy Turtle] From foreign the original of our Latine turtur, which is but the doubling of it, is foreign foreignhere thy turtle; which being by the Psalmist designed poetically to signifie the pious, faithfull servants of God, who make good their fidelity to him, which in the spirituall sense is parallel to the purity and chastity of the turtle, the Chaldee and lxxii. have chosen to paraphrase it, the former by foreign those that learn thy law, with respect to foreign law, which hath such affinity with it; the other by foreign confessing to thee, as if it were foreign, the letters whereof differ so little from it.