Annotations on Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, Annotations 2 · Psalm 102
PSAL. CII.
THe Penman of this Psalm is unknown. It was made either in the time of theQuisquis ex Prophetis fuerit autor Psalmi, certum est, eum dictasse precandi formam pro Templi & urbis reparatione. Quod restringunt quidam ad tempus quo impediebatur à vicinis gentibus Templi aedificatio, mihi non placet: potiùs existimo ante reditum populi, quum jam instaret promistae redemptionis tempus, compositum fuisse Psalmum. Tunc enim caeperunt Prophetae Isaiae magis erigere piorum animos, juxta illud vaticinium Jesa 40. 1. Consilium autem Prophetae fuit non modo animare populum ad fiduciam, sed curam & solicitudinem injicere pro Ecclesiae salute. Calvinus. Babylonish Captivity, or Prophetically before it, for the benefit of the Saints in that time.
Poureth out his complaint, or meditation.] Pouring forth intimates plenty of matter and earnestness in uttering it, but withall a kinde of disrespecting of words and order.
Vers. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.] It is an earnest asking with loudness of the desire, though not of the voice.
Come unto thee] Sig. to give heed unto it.
Vers. 2. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble.] He notes a desire of favour in deprecating the contrary.
Incline thine ear unto me in the day when I call, answer me speedily.] Whensoever I call, make haste. Answer me speedily.] To answer is more than to hear, viz. returning word again to a person concerning the matter whereof he hath spoken, and to incline ones …ar is to use great and favourable attention, as a man which gives another leave to come so near him, that he may even lay his ear to his mouth and hear his whisperings, if he had more secret and important matter to speak of.
Vers. 3. For my daies are consumed like smoak] Without all comfort, vainly, andSunt hyperbolicae loquutiones, sed quae tamen verè exprimunt quam graviter pios animos sauciare debet Ecclesiae desolatio. Calvinus. In fumo Plant. sensu minus commodo attamen Psal. 37. 20. eadem phrasis occurrit, ubi omnes ita legunt exceptis LXX, & S. Hieron, qui legunt sicut fumus, at Robert. Steph. & Munst. scribunt per Caph sicut funus. Atque sic legerunt LXX & Hieron. item Chald. Paraphras. quos omnes sequuntur recentiores: & sanè haec lectio longè est commodior. Consumpti sunt dies mei sicut fumus, hoc est quam facilè & velociter evanescit fumus, tam facilè & cito perit vita m…a, atque eò alludere videtur Jacobus Epistola c. 4. v. 14. Capel. Critic. Sac. l. 3. c. 19. to no purpose.
And my boxes are burnt as an hearth.] That is, all his strength was quite dried up, so that no marrow and moisture remained.
Vers. 4. My heart is smitten and withered like grass.] This is more emphaticall,Quae Ebraei exponunt de humore nativo, qui dolore ac maestitia nimium quantum exsiccatur, cum humorem existimant significari vocabulo cordis. Ego veterum sententiam contemnendam non puto, ut illud cor meum percussum est, accipiatur, pro illo, ego percussus sum, & sit sensus, qualis herba sole adusta: sic ego misera aerumna contabui. Sic LXX. interpretes hunc locum convertunt, percussus sum ut herba & aruit cor meum. Drus. Observat. Sac. l. 7. c. 10. say some, than I am smitten.
Vers. 5. My bones cleave to my skin, or flesh.] So Calvin and Ainsw.Quo genere l…c…tionis, extremam maciem denotavit, caro pro cute hic sumitur, contra cutis pro carne Job 18. 13. Drusius.
Vers. 6. I am like a Pellican of the wilderness.] A bird living in wilde and desolateQuia aves sunt Judaeis quoque incognitae, simpliciter tenere sufficiat, notari hoc versu funestas aves, quae in latebrosis montibus ac desertis habitant, quarum adeò amaenus & suavis cantus non est, ut horrorem potius incutiat; ac si diceret, se ab hominum consuetudine remo…um similem propè fuisse bestiae sylvestri. Calvinus. places, Zeph 2. 14. Isa. 34. 11. Hierom writing upon these words, saith, when the Pellican beholdeth her young ones brought almost to death by the sting of a Serpent, she diggeth a hole in her breast with her beak, and from thence fetcheth out blood, which lighting upon, and besprinkling them, doth kill the poison of the Serpents sting, and restore them to life; but Christ was contented to have his breast, his head, his sides, his hands and feet pierced and opened, that he might besprinkle us with his blood, and so revive us that were dead in sins, by the poysonous sting of the old Serpent, Rev. 12. 9.
Vers. 7. I watch, and I am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.] Was keptIsta similitudo luctum inqui…tudinis plenum denotat. Calvinus. sleepless and unable to take his naturall rest, and that by reason of his being comfortless and friendless, and destitute of all means of safeguarding him from danger, as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Vers. 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day: and they that are mad against me, Quidam existimant jutant positum pro conju…ant, sed …rare pro conjurare est insolens Hebraeis sermo. Potius hic hoc dicit per me …uran…, id est, execrantur. Vide Num. 5. 21. Jesa 65. 25. vel jurant per ae…umnam ac miseriam meam. …rus. Observat. Sac. l. 8. c. 7.are sworn against me.] His enemies traduced him, and bound themselves with oaths to do him mischief.
Nish bagnu jurant in me, that is, they wish all evil to befall me, that I may become an execration, so Numb. 5. 27. & Isa. 65. 15. a pattern of misery, so that all men might say when they cursed, the Lord make thee like David.
Vers. 9. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.] That is, when I did eat and drink, I had then little joy in my food, for I wept abundantly in the midst of my meals.
He did count himself so vile a sinner, that he was not worthy to feed upon any better food, and that dust and ashes were too good for him. In the daies of old they were wont in times of sorrow and sadness in a Fast, to sprinkle dust and ashes upon their heads, from whence our Ashwednesday hath its name, being dies cinerum, a day wherein men humbled themselves before the Lord in dust and ashes; he means he did fast exceeding much.
Vers. 10. Because of thine indignation and thy wrath, for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.] That is, had most vehemently cast him down, as a man which lifts up a thing first, that he may throw it down with more strength and vehemency.
Vers. 11. And I am withered like grass.] Before he said his heart withered like grass, that is, all his comfort and cheerfulness was dashed, now he saith himself was withered, which is something more then the withering of his heart, it signifies that he was even ready to die and perish through extremity of sorrow.
Vers. 12. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever, and thy remembrance unto all generations.] God himself is eternall, and he will give cause to those which live in one age as well as another to remember his truth, goodness and great works.
Vers. 13. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come.] Gods power is noted in the word Arise, the appointedDan. 9. 24, 25. Jer. 29. 10. time is come, God had limited their Captivity to seventy years, which were ready to be expired.
Vers. 14. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.] That is, were greatly gladded to think of her repairing and re-edifying, and pitied her dust, that is, were moved with great remorse and compassion at the consideration of her ruines.
Vers. 15. So the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord: and all the Kings of the earth thy glory.] That is, become true Christians, and shew it, as by performing his whole worship, so by fearing his Name, shall know the glorious mystery of the Gospel, so as shall work them to a holy fear of that glory: Or by the glory of God may be meant Christ here, who is made known in the Gospel, whom Simcon calleth the glory of the people of Israel.
Vers. 16. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in glory.] That is, the Church, he shall then appear in his spirituall glory.
Vers. 17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.] Some take the word rendred destitute, to signifie the heath or wilderness, so we translate it, Jer. 17. 6. Utterly broken, so others, Jer. 51. 58. The Hebrew word signifies a poor shrub that stands alone in the wilderness, liable to every blast, trodden by the feet of beasts, that is, when they pray he will cast a favourable eye, and grant their requests.
Vers. 18. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which His verbis significat memorabile fore hoc Dei opus, cujus laus propaganda sit in multas aetates. Calvinus. Respexit ut misereretur. Hieron.shall be created, shall praise the Lord] This, that is, the coming of Christ in glory and goodness to the poor destitute soul. Shall be written, that is, set down in a book, recorded and published by the Scriptures of the Apostles and Evangelists, and propagated to all succeeding ages to the worlds end.
Vers. 19. For he hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary: from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.] His high and holy place, this is taken from Deut. 26. 15. the sons of men which inhabit the earth.
Vers. 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death.] Not only such who are imprisoned for well-doing, but all those to whom sin is a prison, whether they be otherwise prisoners or not.
Those that are appointed to death] Which have deserved death for sin, and such as are by men condemned to death for their righteousness sake, free them from the danger of eternall death.
Vers. 21. To declare the Name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem.] The Jews the inhabitants of it should magnifie it.
Vers. 22. When the people are gathered together, and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord.] That is, when the Gentiles which shall be converted shall meet together to perform publick worship unto God.
Vers. 23. He weakned my strength in the way] This present life which is as it were a way leading to the life that is to come hereafter.
Vers. 24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my daies: thy years are throughout all generations.] He deprecates eternall death, of which untimely is a forerunner. q. d. I resolved to pray and beseech the Lord, because he is my God joyned to me in a faithfull Covenant of grace, that he would be pleased not to let this affliction continue so grievous upon me, as to bring me to death untimely, even in the midst of my daies, in so undue a time, when after the course of nature I might have continued as long again in the world.
Thy years are throughout all generations.] That is, thou livest for ever, and therefore art able to save thy people from destruction, how extream and heavy soever their affliction be.
Vers. 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth.] That is, from the beginning of the world before time anciently when things first begun to be laid, making and setling it in the place and standing wherein it is, before thou madest other things, as the foundation of that great building.
And the heavens are the work of thy hands.] A thing created by thee: by hands metaphorically are meant Gods mighty power, because they which work any thing do it usually with their hands.
Vers. 26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, yea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.] Heaven and earth, and so the things therein perish, that is, come to nothing and cease to be.
Endure.] That is, continually the same for ever, without change or end. Heb. stand, that is, be the same constantly, Heb. 1. 11.
A garment.] Which by little and little grows rotten and comes to nothing. God shall by little and little bring the world and all things in it to end.
Vers. 27. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.] Constant without alteration.
Thou art he.] That is, the same that thou promisedst to be, and thy people expected thee to be.
Vers. 28. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established for ever.] Children, that is, godly sons of godly parents, qui a fide parentum non d…sciscunt. Thou shalt have a Church here in the midst of all the changes of the world, and they also shall inherit everlastingness.
Their seed.] That is, by thy power shall be made stedfast and firm in heavenly glory.