Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 143
The Hundred Fourty Third Psalm.
A Psalm of David. The hundred fourty third is a mournfull supplication for deliverance from powerfull enemies, and was composed by David, ‖foreign, when his son pursued him, Lxxii.as some think, at the time of Absoloms rebellion; as†R. Kimchi others more probably, and in harmony with the two former, at the time of his being pursued by Saul, in the Cave of Engedi.
1. HEare my prayer, O Lord, give eare to my supplications; in thy faithfulness answer me,*in anda. and in thy righteousness.
Paraphrase. O Lord, I beseech thee to hear and answer my requests which my present distresses force me to present to thee, and thy abundant grace and promises of never-failing mercy give me confidence that thou wilt favourably receive and performe unto me.
2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
I know my sins have justly provoked and brought down these pressures on me; but thou art graciously pleased to be reconciled with humbled penitent sinners, thou hast promised by a covenant of mercy not to charge on such, with severity, all the sins of which they have been guilty: and were it not for that covenant, 'twere impossible for any fraile imperfect sinful creature, such as every mere man is, to appear with hope or comfort before thine exact tribunal. To this thy promised mercy mine onelyonly appeale lies; and having sincerely vow'd to performe unto thee all faithfull (be it never so mean and imperfect) obedience, I can put in my claime, founded on thy faithfull promise (v. 1.) and hope and begge for this seasonable mercy and deliverance from thee.
3. For the enemy hath persecuted my soule, he hath‖beate—to foreign smitten my life down to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in darkness,b. as†the dead of the age. those that have been long dead.
For my malicious enemies have calumniated first, then persecuted me, and now at length brought me to a very sad and dejected estate, forced me to hide my selfe under ground, to fly from one cave to another, from the cave of Adullam 1 Sam. 22. to the cave of Engedich. 24.
4. *And foreignTherefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate.
5. I remember the dayes of old; I meditate on all thy works, I muse on the work of thy hands.
This hath cast me into great perplexity (see Psal. cxlii. 3.) filled me with a most anxious horror, wherein yet I have been able to support my selfe by reflecting on thy former mercies and deliverances which thy acts of power have been signally interposed to worke for me.
6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soule‖is to thee as— foreign thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land, Selah.
To thee therefore I address my prayers with all the earnestness which my distresses can infuse into me. The ground that is parcht with heat and drought, and gaspes for some showre from the clouds to refresh it, is an emblem of me at this time, who pant and gaspe and call importunately for some refreshment and relief from thee, having no other means in the world to which I can apply my selfe.
7. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that goe down into the pit.
O Lord, I beseech thee hasten to my relief, my present exigences challenge and importune it from thee: If thou doe not interpose in my behalf, I shall suddenly be overwhelmed by mine enemies and destroyed.
8. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soule unto thee.
O be thou graciously pleased to shew forth thy pity and thy bounty timely and speedily to me, who have no other refuge to resort to, but that of thine overruling sovereign aide: in this is my confidence, for this I offer up the humblest devotions of my soule. O be thou my guide, to direct me to that course, whatever it is, which thou shalt chuse, and wilt prosper to me.
9. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies:c. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Lord, to thee do I betake my selfe, as to mine onelyonly refuge; under the safeguard of thy protection I desire to secure my selfe: O be thou graciously pleased to afford me that mercy, and thereby to rescue me out of mine enemies hands.
10. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God:†let thy good spirit lead me foreign thy spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness.
Above all, by thy paternal goodness I beseech thee, be thou pleased so to conduct me in all my wayes, that I may do nothing but what is perfectly good and acceptable in thy sight. To which end, Lord, let thy gracious and sanctifying spirit, the only fountain and author of all goodness and holiness, direct and assist me in every turne and motion of my life, and bring me into a steady constant course of all strict and righteous living, (that antepast or first part of heaven on earth, which thou wilt be sure to crown with a state of perfect purity and impeccability hereafter.)
11. ‖Thou shalt—Quicken me, O Lord, for thy names sake: for thy righteousness sake†thou shalt bring my soule out of trouble.
12. And of thy mercy*shalt thou cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soule; for I am thy servant.
And thus, O Lord, I trust thou wilt answer my requests, restoring to me that chearfull and comfortable state of which these my sad distractions have deprived me. Two ingagements thou hast to this, the honour of thy Name, which is concerned in thy protecting thy servants and suppliants, and thine own gracious and mercifull disposit…on, which inclines thee to relieve and assist those that most stand in need of it. And the same goodness of thine and mercy to me, as to one who am resolved for ever to continue thy constant servant, doth oblige thee to take my part against these my malicious adversaries; and accordingly thy power will certainly interpose, and magnify it selfe in their utter excision and destruction.
Annotations on Psalm CXLIII.
V. 1. And in thy righteousness] The Hebrew reads foreign foreignin thy righteousness, without any Copula, and neither the Chaldee nor Lxxii. think fit to supply it. And this seems to be the truer rendring. For taking foreign righteousness in the notion frequently exemplified, of mercy or favour, 'tis an act of that in God, viz. of divine mercy and grace, to answer in faithfulness, i. e. to performe his promise: for the promise of God being free, but yet conditional, and so not due by any tenure or claime (but that of his promise) to be performed to any, and not so also to any but him that performs the condition, and our sins and frailties being such, that we stand in need not onelyonly of Gods grace, but also his mercy and foreign, his moderation of strict right, v. 2. his grace to qualify us for a due performance of that condition, and his mercy to make us capable of being accepted in the number of those who have performed the condition; it follows, that it must be an act of Gods meer mercy and goodness to performe to any man that which he hath promised to his faithfull servants, and so it must be foreign in Gods righteousness or mercy that he answers the Psalmist foreign in thy, i. e. Gods, truth or faithfulness. And this is most fully exprest by reading in thy righteousness, without any copula or forme of conjoyning it to faithfulness.
V. 3. Long dead] What foreign foreignhere signifies, is not clear. The Lxxii. render it, foreign, as the dead of the age; the Syriack foreign for ever. The Chaldee hath foreign as they that lie along (see Psal. Lxxxviii. 5.) in, or of that age. What they mean by that style, may perhaps be guest by other parts of their dialect. The grave or sepulchre they usually style foreign the house of the age, (as we ordinarily style it our long home.) So Isa. xiv. 18. where from the Hebrew we render, all of them lie in glory, every one in his house, the Chaldee reads foreign in the house of his age; and this from the description of death, Eccl. xii. 5. foreign to the house of his age, which the Chaldee there render foreign to the house of his sepulchre. To this belongs the phrase Tob. iii. 6. of foreign, eternal place, for the grave, just answerable to foreign the house of the age, for which the Hebrew of Paulus Fagius's edition (for Munster's leaves it out) hath foreign the house appointed for every one living. So Ezech. xxvi. 20. I will bring thee down with them that descend unto the pit, foreign to the people of the age. And the ground of the phrase is there exprest, I will place thee foreign in the infernal land, foreign in the solitudes from the age, i. e. in those infernal vast recesses, whither from the beginning of the world all men have descended, and there remained in condition of desolation, though the number of them that are there be never so great. In proportion to which dialect foreign will here be literally rendred, as the dead of the age (by the age meaning the place or state of the dead, hades, or Scheol) but according to sense, as the dead in the grave, the very same which Psal. Lxxxviii. 5. is exprest by foreign they that lie in the grave.
V. 9. I flee unto thee to hide me] So we paraphrastically render foreign.foreign The Lxxii. read foreign, I have fled to thee as to a refuge. The Chaldee foreign thy word I have set up for my redeemer. The Radix foreign signifies to hide, and so in Piel (as here it is) Psal. xxxii. 5. foreign, I have not hid, Psal. xliv. 15. foreign hath covered me, and lxix. 7. foreign hath covered my face. Accordingly the Interlinear render it, ad te abscondi me, to thee have I hid me. The learned Val. Schindler supposes an Ellipsis, thus to be supplied, tibi revelavi quod homines celavi, I have revealed to thee what I have concealed from men, so Kimchi, To thee alone have I cried, or made my petition in secret, viz. not revealing his case to men, as not hoping in them for help. And if this notion for hiding must be reteined (as 'tis in all other places wherein 'tis used in the Bible, and so generally and constantly rendred by foreign and the like) then the rendring must be, to, or at thee I have hid my selfe; as those things which we are afraid to lose, we hide in a sure place; and thus it is all one with depositing in Gods hands. So the Jewish Arab, With thee have I sought to be hid, or for an hiding place, or refuge. So Abu Walid, to thee have I fled for refuge, and with thee sought for an hiding place, making it contrary to Isa. lvii. 8. foreign which the Interlinear renders, quia à me discooperuisti & ascendisti, and our English, thou hast discovered thy selfe to another then me and art gone up. But 'tis not unusual with Hebrew words to inlarge their significations, and so it is reasonable to believe (though it cannot be demonstrated from any other place of the Bible) that foreign to hide, may in Piel signify to fly unto as a refuge, because such foreign refuges are either really or metaphorically hiding places. And then the Lxxii. their foreign, I have fled, will be a literal rendring of foreign, and so the Latine confugi.
V. 10. Land of uprightness] foreign foreignis literally to be rendred to or in a straight ground: so the Chaldee, foreign into a straight ground, and the Jewish Arab, in a right or straight region, and so the Latine in terram rectam; by which we are to judge of the reading of the Lxxii. foreign, in the right, that it should be undoubtedly, as Asulanus's copie hath it, foreign in a straight ground. By this style is metaphorically signified a regular course of life, in obedience to all the commands of God, the onelyonly rule of the good mans walking. The Syriack have duly explain'd it by foreign into thy way of life, that course of living which thou requirest, or which may be acceptable to thee.