Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 76
The Seventy Sixth Psalm.
TO the ‖Master of the stringed instruments (see Psalm. note a.)chief Musitian upon Neginoth, a Psalm or song of Asaph.
Paraphrase. The seventy sixth Psalm is a commemoration of the power and Majesty, and mercifull presence of God unto his people, in hearing and answering them, and executing judgments on their enemies, overthrowing their†foreign an ode on the Assyrian Lxxii. foreign &c. of Senacherib and his company, Jarchi. heathen invaders, It was composed by Asaph, and committed to the Praefect of the stringed instruments.
1. In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel:
Though God have done abundantly sufficient to reveal his power and glorious attributes to all the men in the world, yet in a most signal manner hath he exhibited himself to the people of the Jews:
2. In Salem also is his Tabernacle, and his dwelling in Sion.
And that especially in the holy place of publick assembly, where when pious men meet devoutly to offer up their sacrifices and requests to him, they receive certain answers of mercy from him, most evident demonstrations of his peculiar presence and audience there.
3. There brake hea. the†or lightnings, or fires. arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battel. Selah.
*so the Chald.Whilst we kept close to his service there, we never failed to receive portentous aids from him, to obtain the most illustrious victories over our enemies, to secure our selves, and destroy them in their most furious and formidable assaults; and whatsoever we have at any time atchieved in this kinde, it hath been no strength of ours, but his peculiar interposition.
4. Thou art more glorious and excellent then the mountains of prey.
Thy presence, O God, in this hill of Sion hath a farre greater and more glorious vertue for the guarding of us, and overcoming our opposers, than the mountains of most strength and advantage, where our malicious enemies in their siege and designes of taking our City, make their randezvous, are for the fortifying themselves, or annoying of us.
5. The stoutest-hearted‖have despoiled or disarmed themselves they sleep. are spoiled, they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might b have found their hands.
The stoutest and most able men in the world, the most warlike and victorious Assyrians, have by this means without any considerable strength of ours, been utterly discomfited, when they had betaken themselves to their rest, 2 Chron. xxxii. 21. in the midst of their security the Lord sent an Angel, and cut off all their mighty men of valour, they slept but never waked again; and so their whole army (see Is. xxxvii. 36.) like men asleep, have been able to doe nothing, not so much as to move an hand to hurt us.
6. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
'Twas the secret interposition of thy power, O Lord, that wrought this signal destruction upon so potent and numerous an army.
7. Thou, even thou art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight‖from the minute of thy anger foreign when once thou art angry?
Thou art most terrible and irresistible in thy judgements, and consumest all before thee in the first minute that thou art pleased to execute them.
8. Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earthc. feared, and was still,
9. When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
When thou, though in heaven, didst please to interpose for thy oppressed people in imminent pressing danger, to deliver them from the violences of men, and to punish those that injured them, then thy Angels came forth on thy messages, with thunder and lightning and earthquakes; by these the proudest sinners were stricken with horror, dreaded these thy thunderbolts, and had no means imaginable to secure them from them, were all destroyed and put to flight, and so left thy people to their rest and quiet, whom they came to besiege and conquer.
10. Surely the wrath of man shall†or confess praise thee; the remainder of wrath shaltd. thou*or gird on, restrain.
And thus art thou praised and acknowledged, and in some degree honoured by the miscarriage and frustration of unjust and wicked men, and occasionally by their very sin, their cruelty and blasphemies when they came to be restrained and quelled, and remarkably punished by thee: or, Against their rage thou preparest rage; they begin in fury against pious blameless men, afflicting and oppressing them, and thou in thy time dealest with them in wrath, repayest them, as they have deserved.
11. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God: ‖alllet all that be round about him bring presents to†the terrible. foreign him that ought to be feared.
Our God is a gratious and a dreadfull God, gratious to us in defending us against the most savage oppressors, dreadfull to them that continue thus to provoke and blaspheme him. O let us all, that profess his service, consecrate (and performe) to him the fruits of our lips, all possible praises and thanksgivings, all works of piety and charity. And let those that have provoked, make speed to attone him by reformation, and the meet fruits thereof.
12. e.He shall*bring down. cut off the spirit of Princes, he is terrible to the Kings of the earth.
Else be they never so great and prosperous, never so proud and stout, God will in a most terrible manner deal with them, and at length be sure to bring them low enough, as he hath done the proud Senacherib, and Rabshakeh, and the whole Assyrian army.
Annotations on Psalm LXXVI.
V. 3. Arrows] The Hebrew foreign foreignsignifies fire, Job v. 7. where sparkes that fly upward are poetically exprest by foreign the sons of the fire. So Psal. Lxxviii. 48. it is used not for thunderbolts or lightnings, as our margin reads, but simply for fire, shot out of the clouds, and running along upon the ground Exod. ix. 23. And from thence by metaphor it is applied to an arrow or dart, shot out of a bow, and by the swiftness of the motion supposed to be inflamed, see Cant. viii. 6. where of love it is said, that foreign (not the Coals, but) the arrows thereof are arrows of fire, it shoots, and wounds, and burns a mans heart, inflames it vehemently by wounding it. Here we have the word twice, and if the former of them doe not signify arrows simply, it will not be found in that sense in the Bible: nor doe the Lxxii. render it in the notion of an arrow, but in this place express it by a general word, foreign the strengths of the bowes, referring to that which is supposed to be the cause of inflaming the arrows, the strength of the bow from which they are shot out. The Syriack in some degree of complyance with them render it foreign the armes of the bow, that which the bow reacheth out as a man doth his arme, and by which, as by an arme, it reacheth to, and forcibly seiseth on that which is distant from it. The poetical expression will best be conserved by reteining some notice of the primary sense in the rendring of it, fires or lightnings, of the bow, i. e. those hostile weapons which are most furious and formidable, as fire shot out from a bow.
V. 5. Found their hands] foreign may be rendred, have not found their hands, i. e. have not been able to use them for resistance, for the offending others, or even for their own defense; the Hebrew foreign foreign(as the Syriack foreign by which they here render it) signifying as to finde, or get, so to have in readiness, in their power, to be able to use. To this the Chaldee look in their paraphrase, foreign they could not take their weapons in their hands, i. e. they could not use their hands to manage their weapons. The Lxxii. have but little varied the phrase, foreign, they found nothing with their hands, i. e. they were able to doe nothing with them, (their vast army atchieved nothing, but returned wi…h shame of face to their own land 2 Chron. xxxii. 21.) Which the Latine seems to have a little mistaken, when they add the preposition in] to what they found in the Lxxii. nihil invenerunt in manibus, they found nothing in their hands; but that still interpretable to the former sense, they found nothing, i. e. they had neither weapons nor strength in their hands, their whole army was utterly routed and discomfited, without striking a stroak; for which the Syriack read, foreign, their hands were not able, or impotent. And this well agrees to the beginning of the verse; foreign foreignthey have been cut off or perished, they are gone, saith Abu Walid, or have despoiled themselves, (the reciprocal from foreign praedatus est,) they have cast away their weapons, saith the Chaldee; foreign, they were troubled, say the LXXII. as when in a Panick terror men are amazed, discomfited, throw away their weapons, and fly, and by that astonishment are like men in a sleep, their strength and sense tyed up; but it more punctually referrs to the time wherein the Angel smote the Assyrian army, in the deep of the night, when they had put off their garments and weapons both, were fast asleep in their tents, and at once 185000. of them slain, Is. xxxvii. 36. This is poetically described by sleeping their sleep; and as is added v. 6. foreign men in a dead sleep, dura quies, ferreus somnus, an hard and thorny sleep. Were they never so strong or valiant, had they never such strength of body, skill in armes, courage of minde, and all that was necessary for a conquest, in the midst of their security, they were smitten, and so utterly vanquisht, and returned re infectâ, without doing of any thing.
V. 8. Feared] What is meant by the earths fearing here,foreign must be judged by proportion with the judgments being heard from heaven in the former part of the verse. In the history 2 Chron. xxxii. 21. the Angel of the Lord wrought that great execution on the Assyrians army. Now the descent of an Angel, when he came commissioned for any act of power, was generally furnished by God with some sensible attestation from nature, thunders and earthquakes, neither of which would probably be wanting in so eminent a worke as the slaughter of eighty five thousand.foreign Of the thunder there can be no doubt, the judgements being heard from heaven, refers to foreign, which indifferently signifies voice, and thunder, which is a vocal, and so audible judgment, coming out of the aire, which in scripture is stiled heaven. And then for the earthquake, that that is signified by the foreign the earths fearing, may be guessed from 1 Sam. xiv. 15. There was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people, the garrison and the spoilers they also trembled, and the earth quaked, so it was a very great trembling, or a trembling of God. Here a trembling of God, or such as is caused by the appearance of Angels sent by God, is made up not only of the trembling of men, but of the earth it self. And so Matth. xxviii. 2. at the appearance of Angels there was a very great earthquake. And this to very good purpose, that they that opposed Gods people might evidently perceive that it was not chance, or ordinary sickness, or suddain infection, that cut them off, but the displeasure of an omnipotent Deity. Now because among us trembling is an effect of fear, and where trembling is visible outwardly, fear is supposed to be within, therefore it is here an easy poetick figure, to express an earthquake by the fearing of the earth. And then that which follows, foreign foreignand was still, as it is elegantly opposed to the trembling, or fear forementioned, so it imports the effect of this earthquake to the children of Israel, this short commotion gave rest and quiet to the land: as Jud. iii. 30. foreign (just the same phrase as here) the land had rest eighty years, and so ch. v. 31. and viii. 28. and in several other places, the land had rest, or the countrey was in quiet. And so in S. Paul foreign rest] is quiet from the persecutors of the Christians. (see note on Heb. iii. c.) Abu Walid from its conjunction with foreign fearing here, would make it one of those which have contrary significations, and so to signify here stirred or moved. But the Jewish Arab renders it, some of the people of the earth feared, and some were still, i. e. saith he, the oppressors feared, and the oppressed had rest.
V. 10. Restrain] What foreign foreignsignifies here, is not agreed among the interpreters, the word signifying 1. to gird, and 2. to restrain. In the notion of restraining it will have a very commodious sense, applyed to Senacherib to whom this Psalm belongs. For as by the slaughter of the eighty five thousand in his army, he was forced to depart, and dwell at Niniveh, 2 King. xix. 36. so after his return thither, there be some remainders of his wrath on the Jews that dwelt there. We may see it, Tob. i. 18. If the King Senacherib had slain any, when he was come and fled from Judaea, I buried them privily (for in his wrath he killed many) &c. This was the racemation, as it were, or gleanings of his wrath, and this was restrained by God; for he soon falls by the hands of his sons Adramelech and Sharezer, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his God. 2 Ki. xix. 37. And to this sense Kimchi interprets it, thou shalt so repress the malice of our enemies, that the other nations shall not dare to fight against us: so likewise Aben-Ezra. And thus it must be, if the remainder of wrath, be mans wrath, as the former part of the verse inclines it, Surely the wrath of man &c. But foreign in the primary notion signifies girding, or putting on, araying ones self; cinxit, accinxit, praecinxit. Girding, we know, signifies putting on, and is applied to garments, ornaments, armes; foreign Gird thy sword upon thy thigh Ps. xlv. 3. and frequently elswhere: and so girding with gladness, is putting on festival ornaments. And agreeable here in a poetical phrase, thou shalt gird on the remainder of wrath, parallel to putting on the garments of vengeance for cloathing, Isa. Lix. 17. will signify Gods adorning and setting out himself by the exercise of his vengeance, vulgarly exprest by his wrath, and the word foreign foreignwrath, most fitly used with reflexion on foreign the wrath of man in the beginning of the verse. Mans wrath is the violence and rage and blasphemy of the oppressor, upon the meek or poor man foregoing. This begins, goes foremost, in provoking God; and then foreign foreignthe remnant or second part of wrath is still behinde for God, and with that he girds himself, i. e. sets himself out illustriously and dreadfully, as with an ornament, and as with an hostile preparation, in the eyes of men. And so in this sense also it is agreeable to the context. The wrath of man, Rabshake's railings and blasphemies, foreign foreignshall confess or praise thee, as being brought down by God, and signally refuted by him, (for then after so eminent a vindication of Gods honour, his opposition and reproaches did but illustrate that glory which he endeavoured to ecclips, and become a kinde of confession to him.) One of the Targums read foreign they shall convert, and confess to thy name, and praise thee, in reference to other men that look on, & admire, & give honour to God, who thus seasonably interposes, and girds on the remainder of wrath, comes in opportunely to rescue the oppressed, and execute judgment on the oppressor. And so in either sense the parts of this verse are perfectly answerable the one to the other. To this latter rendring of foreign the Chaldee inclines us, paraphrasing it by foreign thou hast girded on, or prepared, or made ready the remainder of fury (meaning Gods fury) for the destroying of the nations. And so the Interlinear, residuum irarum accinges, thou shalt gird on thee the residue of wraths; and Castellio, exuberantibus furoribus decoraris, thou art adorned with exuberant furies, in the notion of an ornament or festival garment; to which also if the Lxxii. referre not by their foreign, the remnant of wrath shall celebrate to thee a feast, it will be hard to guess what they meant by it. This the Latine render from them, reliquiae cogitationis diem festum agent tibi, the relicks of thought (so interpreting foreign) shall keep an holy-day to thee.
V. 12. Cut off] foreign foreignspirit, seems here to denote the proud, and cruel and fastuous spirit of oppressing Nimrods (such Senacherib was) lifted up with the successes of their impiety; so the Chaldee foreign he shall repress the grossness, or elation, or pride of the spirit of the great ones (so foreign signifies, the same phrase by which they paraphrase the pride of the countenance, Ps. x. 4.) And Gods cutting it off, bringing it low, (so foreign foreignfrom foreign minuit, signifies) is his not only repressing, and not permitting it to proceed farther, but his inflicting severe punishments upon it, cutting off the tyrant in his bloody pursuits, as it fared with Senacherib (see note d.) The LXXII. as we now read it, having foreign, taking away the spirits of Princes, may be thought by spirits to signify no more then their lives: but the Latine reading spiritum in the singular, and so the Syriack foreign spirit, shew that foreign not foreign is the right reading; and then nothing hinders, but that they might take it in this sense for pride and elation of spirit, which as it may be taken away by other means of humbling, beside that of death, so it is then surely subdued and brought low, when it brings destruction on him in whom it is. Abu Walid here renders foreign shall exalt, and hinder the enemies from them; and so Kimchi in his Rootes shall exalt them, and strengthen them. But withall he saith, it may be interpreted, shall cutt off, or bring low, the radical signification being, as he resolves, the notion of hindering, keeping in, or restraining.