Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 107
PSALM CVII.
The hundred and seventh the first of the last Book of Psalms, is an invitation to all sorts of men to take notice of, and acknowledge Gods special mercies in rescuing them from the several dangers that every part of their lives is subject to, peculiarly from hunger, prison, disease, and danger by Sea. It seems probably to have been written presently after the captivity, when the nation had been exercised by siege and famine, by deportation, and imprisonment, and the land had been made desolate for want of cultivation, yet withall so contrived as to have respect to the deliverance out of Aegypt. Twas a Psalm of Answering or parts to be sung alternately, having a double burthen, or intercalary verse oft recurring.
1. O Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever.
Paraphrase. The great and daily bounty of God is such, his mercies and preservations so constant and perpetual, in all the turns and varieties of our lives, that we are most strictly obliged to take notice of them, and pay the …ribute of most gratefull hearts, and the obedience of our whole lives in acknowledgment thereof.
2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the East, and from the West, from the North, and from thea. South.
This is in a most eminent manner incumbent on those that have been taken, and carried captive by oppressing invaders, and by the good providence of God reduced and recollected from their dispersions, and brought home safe to their own countrey againe.
4. They wandered in the wilderness, in a‖solitude, they found not the way to an inhabited city, solitaryb. way, they found no city to dwell in,
5. Hungry and thirsty, their soule fainted in them,
6. Then they cried unto the Lord†when distress was upon them see Psal. cvi. 44. in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might goe to a city of habitation.
So is it on all them which when they have been permitted by God for some time to a state of seeming destitution, deprived of all the necessaries of life, harbour, and all kinde of food &c. have yet upon their devout addresses to heaven in prayer, found present relief, and deliverance from their pressures, God by his gracious providence directing them to some auspicious successefull means of supplying their wants, and either returning them to their old, or bringing them to some new more fruitfull possession.
8. ‖Let them acknowledg to the Lord, his mercy, foreignO that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderfull works to the children of men.
9. For he satisfieth the longing soule, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
This certainly is an act as of a special and undeserved bounty, so of an overruling omnipotent prov…dence, to provide so liberally for those that are so thirsty, and hungry, v. 5. i. e. alltogether destitute, and that both these should be thus exercised and imployed for the only benefit of us unw…rthy sinfull sons of Adam, is matter of infinite comfort to us, and acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God.
10. Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,
11. Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most high,
12. Therefore he brought down their heart with labour, they fell down, and there was none to help;
13. Then they cried unto the Lord†See v. 6. in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress.
14. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
In like manner is he pleased to deal for those that are in prison, and expectation of present death, when in this valley of Achor they fly to him for rescue: 'Tis most just and so most ordinary with God to deliver men up to be chastised for their sins, wh…n they are so proud and stout, as to resist, or neglect the commands of God, 'tis but seasonable discipline, to exercise them with afflictions, to bring distresses upon them, persecution, imprisonment, &c. thereby to teach them that necessary lesson of humility. And if then they shall speedily returne to him that strikes, and with obedient penitent hearts, and servent devotions indeavour to atone him, he will certainly be propitiated by them, and deliver them out of their distresses, be they never so sharpe, and in the eye of man irremediable.
15. *See v. 8.O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderfull works to the children of men,
16. For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the barrs of iron in sunder.
This certainly is another act of his special and un…eserved bounty, and withall an instance of his omnipotence, thus to rid them of those gives that none else can loose, to preserve those that in humane judgment are most desperately lost, and abundantly deserves to be acknowledged and commemorated by us.
17. Fools,‖from or because of the way of c.because of their transgression, and because of their iniquity, are afflicted.
18. Their soule abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19. Then they cry unto the Lord†See v. 6. in their trouble, he saveth them out of their distresses.
20. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them out of their destructions.
So again when the follies and stupidities of men betray them to wilfull sins, and God punisheth those with sickness and weakness, brings them so low that nature is almost wholly exhausted in them, and present death is expected, If from their languishing bed they shall apply themselves to the great and soveraign Physitian, forsake the sins that brought this infliction upon them, and thus timely make their solid peace wi h heaven, and then pray, themselves and others (see Jam. v. 14 15, 16. Ecclus xxxviii. 9) imploring his gratious hand for their recovery, there is nothing more frequently experimented, than that, when all other means faile, the immediate blessing of God interposeth for them, and restores them to life and health again.
21. *See v. 8.O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderfull works to the children of men.
22. And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoycing.
And this certainly is a third instance of Gods infinite power and goodness, this of unhoped, unexpected cures of the feeblest patients, which exacts the most solemn gratefull acknowledgments from those that have received them from his hand.
23. They that goe down to the sea in ships, and do business in great waters,
24. These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
25. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof:
26. They mount up to the heaven, they goe down again to the depths, their soule is melted because of trouble:
27. d.They‖are giddy, or turned round. reel to and fro, they stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end.
28. Then they cry unto the Lord†see v. 6. in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresse.
29. Hee. *stilled the storms into a calme,maketh the storms a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
30. Then are they glad, because they be quiet, so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
So again the great navigators, traffickers and merchants of the world, when in their voyages by sea, they meet with terrible amazing tempests, waves that toss their ships with that violence, as if they would mount them into the aire, and at another turne, douse them deep into the vast Ocean, as if they would p…esently overwhelm them, and the passengers are hereby striken into sad trembling fits of consternation and amazement, and expectation of present drowning; in this point of their greatest danger they oft experiment the soveraign mercy and power of God, and receive such seasonable returns to their devout prayers, that they finde the storme presently turned into the perfectest calme, and by the friendliest gales are safely wasted to that port which they designed to saile to.
31. ‖see v. 8.O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderfull works toward the children of men.
And this certainly is a fourth most eminent instance of Gods infinite power and goodness, which exacts our most fervent offerings of praise and thanksgiving.
32. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of thef. people, and praise him in the assembly of the Elders.
And not only such as are sent up to God from our single brests or closets, but it deserves the most solemn publick commemorations in the Temple, in the united lands of the whole congregation, Elders and people answering one the other.
33. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground:
The same act of his power and providence it is to convert the greatest abundance of waters into perfect drought:
34. A fruitfull land into†saltness foreign barrennesse, for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein.
Thereby to punish those with utter sterility and fruitlesseness (after the manner of his judgments on Sodome) whose plenty had been infamously abused, and misspent on their lusts.
35. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water springs:
36. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation,
37. And sow the fields and plant vineyards which may yeeld fruits of increase.
38. He blesseth them also so that they are multiplied greatly, and*diminished not foreign suffereth not their cattel to decrease.
And the same act again it is of his bounty and power together, to improve the barrennest desart into the fruitfullest pastures, most commodious for habitation and plantations, and thither to bring those who had formerly lived in the greatest penury, and by his auspicious providence onelyonly, without any other observable means, to advance them to the greatest height of wealth, and prosperity of all kinds, making them a numerous and powerfull nation, remarkable for the blessings of God upon them.
39. Again they are minished, and brought low through‖evill oppression foreign oppression, affliction and sorrow.
40. He poureth contempt upon Princes, and causeth them to wander in the†solitude foreign wildernesse, where there is no way.
41. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.
And when they are thus signally favoured by him, 'tis yet in the power of their sins to dishpate all this their prosperity: Upon their forsaking God, and falling to any course of evill (see the Chaldee, and v. 11. 17.) 'tis most just, and so to be expected from God, that he should give them up into the hands of wicked men (which are allwayes ready for such offices) to oppress and afflict them sadly, to subdue their Governours, eject them out of their dominions, bring them to the state of greatest destitutions, without any visible means or way of evading; and just when they are brought to the lowest,foreign ‖ foreign and when they return to the Law, Chald. upon their humiliation, contrition, and sincere reformation, to rescue them out of this deplored condition, and immediately advance them to the greatest height of plenty, order, and peace.
42. The righteous shall see it, and rejoyce, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43. *Who is wise? he will lay up these things, and they—Who so is wiseg. and will observe these things, even they shall understand the‖bounties loving kindness of the Lord.
By these so wise, so just, and so gratious dispensations of God, 'tis but reasonable that all sorts of men should be effectually wrought on. All pious and good men have here matter of infinite joy, that they are under the protection of so gratious a father, who if they adhere to him, will never be wanting to them. All wicked men will here disce…n the cause of all the calamities that overtake them in this world, as prognosticks of their farre greater sufferings to come in another world, if Gods scourge here be not permitted to rouse, and awake, and work reformations upon them, and in all their sufferings will have nothing to object, or quarrel at, the sole original of all being from themselves. And so as the wicked will have incomparable advantages from this meditation, if they be but wise to their own greatest interests and concernments; so all the true servants of God will here learn how gratious a master, how liberal a rewarder it is, to whom they perform their services.
Annotations on Psalm CVII.
V. 3. The South] The Hebrew here readeth foreign from the sea, foreignfor which the Chaldee reads foreign from the south sea. The word is most frequently taken for the great or mediterranean sea, which is west to Judaea, and generally when foreign the sea is put for any of the Cardinal points, it then signifies the West; and accordingly Gen. xii. 8. Bethel foreign is Bethel on the west, foreign on the west, saith the Targum, and Exod. x. 19. foreign a wind of the sea, we duly render it a west wind. But 'tis elsewhere taken for the Red sea, Psal. cxiv. 3. and Lxxii. 8. which is on the south of Judaea, and so in respect to that, the sea here signifies the south sea, as both the enumeration of the other three, East, West, and North, demonstrates, and the consideration of the matter in hand, the quarters whither they were dispersed, or carried captive, East, West, and North, and Aegypt, whither they shall goe in ships, Deut. xxviii. 68. by the way that they came, i. e. by the Red sea.
V. 4. Solitary way] The Hebrew here may best be rendred,foreign they wandred foreign in the desolate wildernesse, or, as the Syriack, foreign in the desert Assimon, (for the word is used appellatively) the Jewish Arab accordingly, foreign in the way of Alsamawa, (transposing the words) as likewise Ps. Lxviii. 8. and Lxxviii. 40. and cvii. 14. And so Saadias in his version of the Law, Num. xxi. 21. and xxiii. 28. and Deut. xxxii. 10. useth the same word, as also Abu Walid in the root foreign, and the Jewish Translators of the Historical books 1 Sam. xxiii. 24. Then follows, foreign they found not the way to an inhabited city. Thus the Chaldee may be rendred also, foreign the way to the city, and not foreign in a desolate way, as their Latine render it. Thus 'tis evident the Lxxii. read, foreign they sound not the way of an habitable city, and so the Syriack, and Latine, and Arabick. And so the sense very well bears, their passage through the wilderness being not a journeying, such as when men pass on in a road to some inhabited place, and though at the present they be in the wilderness, yet if they have provision for a while, they will soon and safely come to their journeys end; but a wandring up and down from all path and road, and so in an endless maze of desolation. In opposition to which we have v. 7. He led them by the right way, that they might goe to a city of habitation, or habitable city; the going to which there corresponds with the way to it here.
V. 17. Fools] For foreign foreignfools, which the Chaldee reteins, and renders foreign fools, the Lxxii. seems to have read some other word, foreign, or the like, for they render it foreign he helped them; and so the Syriack, foreign he helped them, and the Latine, and Arabick, and Aethiopick. But there is no reason to misdoubt our Hebrew reading, which the Chaldee hath adhered to. In the next place foreign,foreign which we render because, literally signifies, as the Lxxii. render it, foreign from, or because of the way of their wickedness, as elsewhere the way of wickednesse signifies their sinfull course, or actions. And the word foreign way seems designedly to allude to the same word set twice before, v. 4. they wandred in a solitary way, or as the Lxxii. and all other interpreters have it, foreign they found not the way to an inhabited city, (see note b.) and v. 7. He (God) led them by the right way. The like correspondence is observable in other parts of the Psalm, as between v. 4. they found no city, and v. 7. to goe to a city, and v. 36. a city for habitation; between sit in darkness, v. 40. and he brought them out of darkness, 14. between bound in affliction and iron, v. 10. and he cut the barrs of iron, v. 16. between the longing soule, v. 9. and their soule abhorring &c. v. 18. between gathering from the sea, v. 3. (see note a.) and going down into the sea, v. 23.
V. 27. They reel] foreign foreignfrom foreign circumgyratus est, being whirled or turned round, may here fitly be applied to the tossing of the ship in the tempest, and so of the passengers that are in it, to signify their uncertain and dangerous state, sometimes whirled round, sometimes tottering▪ and ready to overturne, which is here called staggering &c. But it may also be understood of the men, and not of the ship, and so signify (by the metonymy of the Cause for the Effect) they were giddy, which is the natural effect of such turning. The Chaldee read foreign trembled, and the Syriack foreign to the same sense, were moved, or trembled, and so the Lxxii. foreign were troubled; all joyning to denote the effect of this their danger on the men, their fear, perturbation, astonishment, giddinesse, (not knowing which way to turne in this condition) and not only the danger it selfe, which had been poetically exprest, v. 26. The Jewish Arab reads foreign and they goe up and down; so Abu Walid, they goe and pass up and down, hither and thither, as a drunken man: and he compares the word in this notion to the same root in the Arabick, where it signifies coming or going. And then the word will not be sitly appliable to the ship, or any inanimate thing, in his judgment.
V. 29. Maketh the stormes calme] The Hebrew foreign,foreign from foreign stetit, stabilis est, cannot be better rendred here than by quieted, or stilled, because of the foreign foreignthat follows, which must literally be rendred into a silence, or calme. The Lxxii. read foreign, he commanded the tempest, and it stood, or was stilled into a calme, taking in somewhat of the notion of foreign foreignto command or decree; but the Syriack foreign he dismist, or quieted it; the Jewish Arab foreign, he maketh to stand in the place of a tempest a calme, using foreign a word taken up from the Greek foreign, by those that live near the sea, as he notes.
V. 32. People] foreign foreignthe people is here evidently opposed to foreign Elders, and both signify the whole assembly or congregation. For among the Jews, the Doctors, Rulers of the Synagogue and Elders, had a distinct appartement from the people, and the service being much in Antiphona or response, part was spoken by them that officiated in the seat of the Elders, and the rest by the multitude of common men, the foreign that answered Amen at least, at their giving of thanks.
V. 43. Who is wise, and will] The Hebrew here is by way of interrogation foreign foreignwho is wise? so the Chaldee, foreign who is wise? and the Lxxii. foreign;foreign And then foreign must be rendred not, and, but, he shall keep, lay up, observe; the ןן. in this scheme of speaking being either an expletive redundant, or of such significancy as will be best exprest by also, thus, who is wise? he that is so, if he be but wise for the world, wise in this generation, will adde to his former notions of humane wisdome this consideration of these providences of God, in the foregoing Psalm. The Syriack have best rendred this according to sense, foreign, he that is wise will observe these things. And then follows foreign foreignand they shall understand, in the plural, some copies of the Lxxii. read foreign, he, in the singular; and from thence the Syriack hath foreign, and the Vulgar intelliget; which if the right reading, must apply it to the who is wise? and interpret both parts of the pious, truly wise man. But as the Hebrew and Chaldee read this second clause in the plural, so doe the most emendate copies of the Lxxii. foreign, they— And then it will not be amiss to remember one part of the Scripture-style frequently exemplified (see note on Mat. vii. 6.) called foreign, reverting or going back, when, two things being said, the discourse inlarged upon both speaks first of the latter, and then last of the former of them. This is taken notice of by the Jews as an idiome of their language. Aben Ezra on Psal. xliii. saith, foreign He speaks of the eare before he does of the eye, because in the foreign seventh verse he spake last of the care, and according to custome therefore begins with it. Thus it may well be here: the concernments both of the righteous and the wicked in the matter of this Psalm being mentioned v. 42. The righteous shall rejoyce, and iniquity shall stop her mouth; to the latter of these is probably returned the first, who is wise? wise in any the lowest degree, he shall observe, or lay up, ponder, consider these things; either learn by Gods judgments on other men, or else being awaked by his own smart, and having nothing to object against the justice of his sufferings, he will think fit, if he be not a most insensate fool, to reforme, and so benefit by them, and prevent the yet future evils, which will certainly attend these, if he repent not. And then the discourse reverts to the former part, the subject of which was the righteous, in the plural, foreign,foreign v. 42. and concludes of them what is most obvious, and they shall understand foreign foreignthe mercies or gratiousnesses or bounties of the Lord; those so oft mentioned in the former part of the Psalm, Praise the Lord for foreign his goodnesse, and here by way of recapitulation Emphatically referred to, The righteous shall observe these wonders, and experimentally know this his goodnesse. It is true, the wise in Scripture-style doth most frequently signify the Godly; and 'tis no news to pass from the singular to the plural number, without varying the subject, when the context shews this to be necessary; and where it is not necessary, 'tis yet possible. But it is as certain, that wisdome is sometimes to be taken in a greater width, for humane wisdome, understanding, considering, to which wicked men are frequently called (O consider this ye that forget God, and many the like:) Secondly, that iniquity (as that signifieth all wicked men) is spoken of v. 42. as well as the righteous: Thirdly, that not onelyonly the Hebrew letter, but the Paraphrase of the Chaldee (as the Lxxii. also) varies the number; which if it do not without cause, then there is a place here for the ordinary figure of foreign, and then the wise will be the wicked man, that is not utterly a fool to his worldly interests. But this only as a conjecture. The Jewish Arab reads, And he that is wise let him observe these sayings, that he may understand the bounty of the Lord, the goodnesse, as that is taken for the same with bounty.