Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 135
The Hundred Thirty Fifth Psalm.
‖Hallelujah.Praise ye the Lord. The Hundred thirty fifth is a Psalm of thanksgiving to God, for all his mercies and deliverances afforded to his people; and was intitled Hallelujah, (see note a on Psal. cvi.)
1. PRaise ye the name of the Lord, praise him O ye servants of the Lord;
2. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
3. Praise ye the Lord, for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant.
Paraphrase. It is now a season of singing most solemn praises, and making the most humble acknowledgments unto God, for all his goodness, and mercy, and grace afforded us. O let all his faithfull servants, those especially whose office it is to wait at his altar, joyne ardently and uniformely in the performance of so joyous and pleasant a duty.
4. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob to himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.
And two things especially are to be the ingredients in our lands: First, that God hath vouchsafed to us the dignity and prerogative beyond all other nations in the world, that of being his own special eare and charge, whom he hath peculiarly chosen and espoused, to poure out his liberalities among us.
5. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all Gods.
Secondly, that the power and greatness of this our God doth infinitely exceed all that is so much as pretended to by all the false Idol-deities, which are worshiped by other nations.
6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.
The latter of these is evident in the works of his creation and preservation; all that is or ever was in the several parts of the universe, the heavens, and earth, and ocean, being at first produced, and ever since continued, by this power of his.
7. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth, he maketh lightnings for the raine, he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.
All the vapours that ascend from any part of this lower world, are drawn up by means which he in his wisdome hath appointed for that work, and out of them he frameth in the aire meteors of diverse kinds; clouds that dissolve in raine, and flashes of lightning which often accompanie that raine, and yet neither dry up that, nor are quencht by it, (a work of his wonderfull managery) and then the most boysterous winds, which no man can imagine whence they come or whither they goe, but only that they are laid up by God in some unknown receptacle, and from thence brought forth when or for what uses he pleaseth.
8. Who smote the first born of Aegypt‖from man to foreign both of man and beast.
9. Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Aegypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants.
And this omnipotent power of his was he pleased to interpose for us in bringing our ancestors out of Aegypt, after he had shewed forth many prodigies of judgments upon the King and all the people of Aegypt, at length causing a sad lamentation through the whole land, by killing every first-born both of Pharaoh the King, and of all other the greatest and meanest inhabitants, and extending the stroke even to the first-born of cattel, (by which act of severity upon them they were perswaded to dismiss the people out of their land.)
10. Who smote great nations, and slew mighty Kings,
11. Sihon King of the Amorites, and Og King of Basan, and all the Kingdomes of Canaan;
12. And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.
So again did he magnify his transcendent controlling power, in subduing those gyantly Kings and people, Sihon and the Amorites, Num. xxi. 24. and Og the King of Basan and his army, v. 34, 35. and the whole Kingdome of Canaan, the Kings and all their cities, Num. xxi. 3. whom by no power of their own, but by Gods delivering them into their hands, v. 2. they utterly destroyed. And having thus evidenced his power (which was the latter thing mentioned v. 5.) he also magnified his mercy to us (which was the former thing v. 4. to which the Psalmist goes back, after the Scripture style, see note on Mat. vii. b.) in giving us this whole land of Canaan, a fruitfull and pleasant land, for us and our posterity to injoy by his divine gift, as if it had descended to us from our fathers.
13. Thy name, O God, endureth for ever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.
14. For the Lorda. will†plead for judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.
Thus are the power and bounty of our God magnified toward us, and we obliged never to forget either of them, but commemorate them to all ages. For though God for our sins doth sometimes justly permit us to be opprest and disturbed by our enemies; yet such is his goodness and mercy to us still, that upon our returning and repenting, he is pleased to returne and repent also, to pardon our sins, to take our parts, and avenge us on our enemies. See Deut. xxxii. 36.
14. The Idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of mens hands.
15. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not:
16. They have ears, but they hear not;b. *a nose, but there is no breath in their nostrills.neither is there any breath in their mouths.
17. They that make them are like unto them, and so is every man that trusteth in them.
On the other side, the gods of the heathen world v. 5. are all but liveless inanimate images, (see Ps. cxv. 4, 5. &c.) not able to afford the least aid to any of their votaries. A sad reproach that to all those that first make, and then pray to, and expect assistance from them, and an argument that they are but a sort of stocks and stones and images themselves, that can believe in, or hope for good from, such senseless pictures of men, whom they worship for Gods.
18. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel; bless the Lord, O house of Aaron.
19. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord.
20. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth in Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.
And the sadder the condition is of such worshippers, of all the gentile world which is thus infatuated, the more are we of Israel obliged to bless and magnify the Lord of heaven, if it be but for that blessing bestowed so graciously and happily upon us, of rescuing us out of the blindness, and sottishness, and utter darkness, which possesseth the hearts of the farr greater part of the world. And on this account, as also for all other his mercies, it is the special duty of this whole nation, thus assumed by him to be his people, but especially the Priests and Levites, and all his faithful servants, whom he hath yet more obliged, separated them from the rest of this people, and assumed them yet nearer to himself, to bless and praise and magnify his holy and glorious name, to assemble together at the place of his solemn worship, the place where he is pleased in a most special manner to reside, and presentiate, and exhibite himself unto them that address themselves to him there, and there to sing continual Hosannahs and Hallelujahs to him.
Annotations on Psalm CXXXV.
V. 14. Judge] The Hebrew foreign;foreign from foreign, signifies frequently not only to judge, or give sentence of punishment, but to contend in judicature; and that again, not onelyonly as an accuser or Plaintif, in the notion of foreign (answerable to it) for suing 1 Cor. vi. 1. but also as Defendant or Advocate; and so 'tis to plead, or take ones part, and patronize his cause, and so to bring sentence of mulct or punishment against the adversary. In this notion of defending or pleading for, foreign is oft used: see Psal. vii. 8. x. 18. xxvi. 1. xxxv. 24. xLiii. 1. Lxxii. 4. And so is foreign also: so Gen. xxx. 6. foreign God hath judged me, saith Rachel, and heard my voice, i. e. taken my part, given me a son, whose name therefore she called Dan, a word from this theme. So Deut. xxxii. 36. whence this whole verse is verbatim taken. In like manner the nounes, both foreign and foreign, being joyned with foreign doing, are not so fitly rendred doing judgment, as pleading a cause. So Psal. cxL. 12. I know that the Lord foreign foreignwill plead the cause of the afflicted, and again, foreign the right of the poore. And so Ps. ix. 4. foreign foreignthou hast pleaded my right and my cause: to which is there added, thou sattest in the throne judging right; not as the same again, but differing from it, as the part of a judge doth from that of an advocate, the Psalmist there signifying that God had taken both parts, first contended for him, then judged the controversie on his side, defended him, and so pleaded his cause, and overthrown his enemies, which was the passing of right judgment for him; for that seems to be the full importance of that Verse. And so, we know our Saviour is both our Advocate, and our Judge; and herein our happiness consists, that he which is our Judge, is our Advocate also. Then for foreign,foreign that may be either from foreign to grieve, and then 'tis duly rendred, will repent himself; or else from another, if not contrary, notion of the same word, for taking comfort, and so by the Lxxii. 'tis rendred foreign shall be comforted, and so by the Syriack, takes comfort; but by the Latine, deprecabitur. This rendring of the Latine, as it may seem to be an imitation of the Greek foreign, but not in the notion of being comforted, but intreated, and so to be in a passive (though unusual) sense, deprecabitur, shall be deprecated; yet doth it well sort with the former notion, that of repenting: for so God is said to doe, when he is intreated for his people, and removes their punishments from them. So the Jewish Arab understood it, who renders it, will spare or pardon his servants. And to this notion of repenting the context both here, and Deut. xxxii. 36. (where we have the same words) inclines it, viz. Gods repenting himselfe of his anger, of which we often read, i. e. returning to mercy and favour toward those with whom he was formerly displeased; and so the whole verse shall signify Gods returning from punishing, to assisting and taking the part of his people: and that the Chaldee hath of all others best exprest by foreign he shall returne in mercies or compassions toward his just servants. And then pleading for, and such returning, doe perfectly accord.
V. 17. Neither is there any breath] That foreign foreignsignifies a nose, is unquestionable; and that it so signifies here, is first the affirmation of the Chaldee, who render it foreign nostrils, and so of the Arabick also, which thus interprets it, and transcribes the following verse also from Ps. cxv. and herein recedes from the Lxxii. contrary to their use. And secondly, when 'tis considered that here it comes in conjunction with mouths, and eyes, and eares, there will be less doubt of this rendring. And thirdly, when 'tis evident, the foregoing verses do clearly answer the fourth and fifth and part of the sixth verse of Psal. cxv. and there follows foreign a nose to them, or, they have a nose, and they smell not, there will remaine no question but so it is to be rendred here also, foreign, a nose, i. e. a nose they have, they have no breath in their nostrils (foreign having no peculiarity to signify the mouth in distinction from the nose) their no breath being fairely equivalent to no smelling, no foreign, by which they should foreign smell.