Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 4 · Psalm 103
The Hundred and Third Psalm.
|Davids. foreign‖ A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The hundred and third Psalm is a solemn acknowledgment of the great and abundant mercies and deliverances of God, especially that of pardoning of sin, and not exacting the punishments due to it, which must interweave in every mercy or deliverance which is bestowed on sinfull men, whose demerits have so much provoked the contrary. It was composed by David, as 'tis†so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. thought, on a recovery from sickness, and is also aforeign * foreign it was spoken by prophecie, Chald. prophetick description of the state of Christians under the Gospel.
1. Bless the Lord, O my soule, and all that is within me bless his holy name.
2. Bless the Lord, O my soule, and forget not all his benefits:
When I behold God in himselfe and his glorious divine attributes, but especially in his works of mercy toward me, I am obliged with my whole heart, and all my most ardent affections of devotion, to bless and praise his name for all the mercies and favours which in great bounty he hath afforded me.
3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases:
4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with‖mercy foreign loving kindness and†commiseration, or bowels foreign tender mercies:
5. Who satisfietha. thy mouth with good things, so thatb. thy youth is renewed like the Eagles.
6. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Particularly that for some time having corrected me for my good, to bring me to repentance, he hath now returned to me in mercy, pardoned my sins, which most justly deserved this his wrath, and withdrawn his punishments from me; and not only rescued me from the greatest dangers hanging over my life, out of the bowells of his compassion to his distressed creature, but restored me to a perfect health, and to a most prosperous condition, a confluence of all mercies, to surround me, and satisfie all my desires, and so made my old age like that of the Eagle, when she hath moulted the old, and comes out furnished and adorned with new young plumes, as fresh and flourishing as in youth it ever had been; hereby exercising that signal property of his, to vindicate the cause of all those that suffer injuries, to punish the oppressor, aod relieve those that are not able to defend themselves.
7. He made known his wayes unto Moses,c. his*inclinations or nature acts unto the children of Israel.
8. The Lord‖mercifull foreign is mercifull and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Thus did he once proclaim his name to Moses and the Israelites, Exod. xxxiv. and therein his glorious nature, and the manner of his dealing with men, all exactly according to the rules of the most abundant mercy, in giving and forgiving, and sparing long, and never sending out his thunderbolts or destructions, till our provocations, continued in impenitently, extort and force them from him.
9. He will not allwayes chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
And this is Gods constant course; though he rebuke and express his just displeasure, and punish us for our sins, yet upon our reformation and serious returne to him he takes off his punishing hand again, and will not proceed with us according to that measure that our sins might justly expect from him.
11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercyd. †or abovetoward them that fear him.
On the contrary, to them that love and fear and serve him faithfully, his mercy is most abundantly poured out, as much above the proportion of their services, as heaven is above the earth, nay infinitely more, there being indeed no proportion between them.
12. As farre as the East is from the West, so farre hath he removed our transgressions from us.
And by that mercy of his it is, that at this time he hath so perfectly reconciled himselfe to us, and freed us from the punishments due to our sins:
13. Like as a father pittieth his children, so the Lord pittieth them that fear him.
And so he constantly will deal with all that sincerely returne from their sins to new obedience, having the bowels of a father to all such, which will never permit him to be wrath with penitents, to scourge but rather compassionate that childe that reformes that for which the punishment was sent.
14. For he knows our frame, he remembreth that we are dust.
For he knows and considers the fraileness and sickleness and great infirmities of our lapsed sinfull nature, our first original out of the dust of the earth, an emblem of our meanness and vileness, to which theforeign ‖ foreign Our evill concupiscence that hurreis us to sin. Chald. corruption introduced by Adams first sin, (see note on Psal 51.3.) and hereditarily derived to us, hath added wicked inclinations, which oft betray us to actual sin, if we do not strictly watch and guard our selves; and such is our weakness in this lapst state, that the most perfect, being not able to keep allwayes upon so diligent and strict a watch, do oft slip and fall: All which God is gratiously pleased to weigh, and not to deal in rigor with us, to punish us, or to cast us out of his favour, or withdraw his grace from us for every sin that we commit through this weakness, but in all his proceedings with us, to make an allowance for such sins as are committed through infirmity, suddain surreption, continual incursion of temptations, &c. and for these to afford his mercy (in Christ) to all that sincerely endeavour his service, and do not indulge themselves to any deliberate sin.
15. ‖The dayes of man foreignAs for man, his dayes are as grass; as a flour of the field, so he flourisheth.
16. For the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto childrens children,
18. To such as keep his covenant, to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Man is a pittifull, weak, feeble, frail creature, fit to be compared with the most short-lived herbe, or floure, which in its height of flourishing is suddenly blasted and destroyed, and gone, never to returne again. And herein is the infinite mercy of God toward his servants to be seen, that it is much more durable than their lives: If they adhere faithfully to him in constant loyalty to his precepts, performe their part of the Covenant made with him, that of uniforme, sincere, though not of never-sinning obedience, his mercies shall continue to them even after death (and then what matter is it, how short their present life is?) to their persons in eternal immarcescible joy and bliss in another world, and to their posterity in the blessings of this life, which he hath promised not only to the third and fourth, but to the thousandth generation, Exod. xx. 6. and being thus by promise obliged, will be sure to performe it to all those that are carefull to observe the condition of it.
19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdome ruleth over all.
This is he surely able to do, being the omnipotent God of heaven and earth, sitting in heaven as a great Monarch in his throne, and exercising dominion over all creatures in the world, who are all most ready to obey him, and doe whatsoever he will have them. But most eminently this will he doe, by sending his Son the Messias into the world, the spring of all grace and mercy, who, after his birth and death, shall rise, and ascend, and enter on his regal office in heaven, subduing the whole heathen world in obedience thereto. See Rev. iv. 2.
20. Bless the Lord, ye his Angels, that excell in strength, that do his commandments,e. †at hea…ing the—hearkening unto the voice of his word.
21. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
A natural and proper consequent to this it is, that (as Rev. iv. 8. at the erecting of Christs throne, all the living creatures rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy—so) the Angels of heaven (meant by those living creatures) those Courtiers that attend his throne, and are by him indued with the greatest power of any, that incompass him, many Myriads of them, and do whatsoever he commands them with all the readiness and speed imaginable, these glorious creatures that are witnesses and ministers of his great and wonderfull acts of mercy, should for ever bless and magnify his sacred name.
22. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soule.
And that all the men in every corner of the world acknowledge and bless and praise his name, as being all the subjects of his kingdome as well as works of his power; among whom it is most just that I, that have received such mercies from him, should take up my part of the Antheme, make one in the quire and consort of those that sing continuall praises to him.
Annotations on Psalm CIII.
V. 5. Thy mouth] What foreign foreignhere signifies, is not agreed among interpreters. The Chaldee renders foreign the dayes of thy old age, referring it, saith Schindler, to foreign old, worn out clothes, opposed to the renewing of the age, which here follows. But the word is used for the mouth Psal. xxxii. 9. foreign whose mouth must be holden— the Lxxii. there render it foreign his jawes. According to this notion it is that the Syriack here render it foreign thy body, but the Lxxii. foreign, thy desire, or sensitive appetite, the satisfying of which is the providing for the body all the good things it standeth in need of, and so is a commodious paraphrase for filling the mouth, the organ of conveying nourishment to the body. Aben Ezra, and Kimchi, that refer this Psalm to David s recovery from sickness, give this farther account of the phrase, because in sickness the soule refuseth meat, Job xxxiii. 20. and the Physitian restreins from full feeding, and prescribes things that are nauseous: In which respects the blessing of health is fitly described by the contrary. Abu Walid recites two interpretations; 1. that of our translators, 2. taking foreign in the notion of ornament, that multiplieth thy adorning with good, i. e. that abundantly adorneth thee with good, Aben Ezra approves the notion of ornament, but applies it to the soule, the ornament of the body, i. e. who satisfieth thy soule with good: And an Hebrew Arabick Glossary renders foreign thy body.
Ibid. Thy youth is renewed like the Eagles] Of the Eagle S. Augustine affirms,foreign that the beak grows out so long, that it hinders her taking her food, and so would endanger her life, but that she breaks it off upon a stone; and of this he interprets the renewing her youth here. But S. Hierome on Isa. xl. 30. more fitly expounds it of the changing of feathers. Of all birds it is known, that they have yearly their moulting times, when they shed their old, and are afresh furnished with a new stock of feathers. This is most observable of Hawks and Vultures, and especially of Eagles, which when they are near an hundred years old, cast their feathers, and become bald, and like young ones, and then new feathers sprout forth. From this shedding their plumes, they seem to have borrowed their name, foreign an Eagle from foreign or foreign decidit, defluxit to fall or shed. To their bareness, or baldness, the Prophet Micah referrs, c. 1.16. inlarge thy baldness as the Eagle, foreign as the Eagle whose feathers shed. And to the coming again of their feathers Isaiah relates, c. xl. 30. they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength foreign as Eagles they shall send up their feathers: foreign, they shall sprout out their feathers, say the Lxxii. and so the Syriack foreign they shall send out their wings; but the Chaldee foreign and they shall be renewed to their youth, just as here foreign thy youth shall be renewed as an Eagle; foreignwhich therefore in all reason must refer to the new or young feathers, which the old Eagle yearly sprouts our. Aquila longam aetatem ducit, dum vetustis plumis fatiscentibus, novâ pennarum successione juvenescit. The Eagle is very long-lived, whilst the old plumes falling off, she grows young again with a new succession of feathers, saith S. Ambrose Serm. Liv. So the Jewish Arab reads, So that thy youth is renewed like the feathers of Eagles.
V. 7. His acts] From foreign to machinate, to designe, to study, to attempt to do any thing, is foreign foreignhere annext to foreign his way, by these to signify the nature and wayes of God, or his dispensations toward men. The place here evidently refers to Exod. xxxiii. There Moses petitions God, shew me thy way that I may know thee, v. 13. and I beseech thee shew me thy glory, v. 18. by his way and glory meaning his nature, and his wayes of dealing with men, that they might discern what to conceive of him, and expect from him. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord, v. 19. by which his nature is signified: and what that name is, is set down by enumeration of his attributes, c. xxxiv. 6. The Lord, the Lord God mercifull and gratious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness, just as here in the next verse, The Lord is mercifull— Which concludes that God's foreign here are his nature, that which in men would be called studium or indoles, disposition or inclination, as foreign foreignhis way is his dealings, his methods or course of dealing with men, the first his attributes, the second his actions, all which are totally made up of mercy and compassion, and grace, not punishing his servants according to their sins. The Lxxii. fitly render it foreign his wills, or inclinations, but the Chaldee foreign his doings (and so the Syriack foreign) but the learned Castellio most fully to the sense of the place in Exodus, naturam suam, his nature. The Jewish Arab foreign his nature or properties in the plural (for so the word here is.)
V. 11. Toward] Though foreign foreignsignify on, and toward, as well as above, or over, and be fitly so rendred v. 13. and 17. where (as here) God's mercy is said to be foreign upon his children, and foreign upon them that fear him; yet the comparison that is here made betweeen the heaven and the earth, and the height or excellence of one foreign (not upon, but) above the other, being answered, in the foreign, by the greatness or strength (so foreign signifies) of Gods mercy foreign, that phrase must by analogy be rendred, above, not upon, or toward them that fear him. And then the meaning must needs be this, that whatsoever our fear or obedience to God be, his mercy toward us is as farre above the sise or proportion of that, as the heaven is above the earth, i. e. there is no proportion between them, the one is as a point to that other vast circumference; nay the difference farr greater, as Gods mercy is infinite, like himself, and so infinitely exceeding the pitifull imperfect degree of our obedience. The other expression that follows v. 12. taken from the distance of the East from West, is pitcht on, saith Kimchi, because those two quarters of the world are of greatest extent, being all known and inhabited. From whence it is that Geographers reckon that way their Longitudes, as from North to South their Latitudes.
V. 20. Hearkning] The notation of foreign foreignin this place seems best exprest by the Arabick, statim atque audiunt, as soon as they hear, for that is the character of the Angels obedience, that as soon as they hear the voice of Gods word, as soon as his will is revealed to them, they promptly and presently obey it. The Chaldee render it foreign at his voices being heard, the Lxxii. foreign as they hear, or as soon as they hear.