Works Volume 4, Book 5 · Psalm 130
The Hundred and Thirtieth PSALM.
A Pſalm of Degrees.
The hundred and thirtieth is an affectionate devout prayer to God for mercy, pardon and propitiation, together with a confident affiance and dependence on him for it, and ſeems to have been campoſed in time of the captivity, for deliverance out of it.
1. OUT of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
2. Lord, heat my voice; let thine ear be attentive to the voice of my ſupplication.
3. If thou, Lord, ſhouldeſt mark iniquities, O Lord, who ſhall ſtand?
Paraphrase. 1, 2. Lord, we are deeply implunged in an ocean of miſeries: to thee do we addreſs our prayers for our releaſe; be thou graciouſly pleaſed to hear and anſwer us.
Paraphrase. 3. There is not a man to be found who hath not ſome fault or failing, which if thou ſhouldeſt proceed with us in thy juſt ſeverity, would render us uncapable of thy abſolution.
4. But there is forgiveneſs with thee, that thou mayeſt be feared.
Paraphrase. 4. But thou art a God of grace and mercy, which alloweſt place of repentance to thoſe that have offended, and wilt allow pardon to the penitent. Were it not for this, we were all in an hopeleſs deſperate condition, and that utter deſperation of mercy would ingage us for ever in our courſe of ſin, without any thought of returning or repenting. But being by thy mercy reſpited, and by thy gracious call invited, and by the attraction of thy ſpirit (if we do not reſiſt) effectually drawn to repentance, and aſſured of thy acceptance if we come, here is a full concurrence of all arguments, and motives, and aids, to bring us, and oblige and ingage us to it.
5. I wait for the Lord: my ſoul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
Paraphrase. 5. In thee therefore my hope and full truſt is repopoſed; thy mercies and gracious promiſes are the onelyonly anchor and ſupport of my ſoul.
6. My ſoul ‖haſteneth to the Lord from the guards in the morning, the guards in the morning.waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning; I ſay more than they which watch for the morning.
Paraphrase. 6. To thee I daily betake my ſelf early in the morning; at the time that the Prieſts offer their morning-ſacrifice in the temple, I conſtantly addreſs my prayers and my very ſoul before thee.
7. Let Iſrael †to the Lord foreignhope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8. And he ſhall redeem Iſrael from all his iniquities.
Paraphrase. 7, 8. And the ſame is the duty of all true Iſraelites: let all ſuch apply themſelves diligently and conſtantly to God, as to a God of mercy▪ and pardon and propitiation, that will be reconciled to all truly penitent faithfull ſervants of his, not imputing to them their frailty and ſins of infirmity, if they be guilty of no other, nay nor their groſſer ſins knowingly and deliberately committed, if they be retracted and forſaken by confeſſion, contrition, and renovation of mind, and their pardon humbly ſued out by conſtant prayer. For as a remedy for all ſuch the blood of the Meſſias was moſt ſufficient, and that decreed and deſigned by God to all the world, for the obtaining of actual redemption, and pardon and reſtitution to his favour (as of captive Iſraelites to their countrey and temple) upon their ſincere change and reformation.
Annotations on Pſal. CXXX.
foreignV. 4. Feared] For foreign that thou mayeſt be feared, our copies of the LXXII. have foreign, for thy names ſake, and that joyned with foreign I have waited for thee, O Lord, following. But the Hebrew no way inclining to that reading of foreign name, and the Latin which moſt commonly follows the LXXII. reading propter legem tuam ſuſtinui te, Domine, for thy law I have waited for thee, and the Hebrew foreign (read without points) being eaſily miſtaken for foreign law, in all probability the original reading of the LXXII. was foreign (not foreign) foreign, for thy laws (not for thy names) ſake. But this, as it is evident, by a double miſtake; one in the reading of foreign for foreign, the other (whether in the Latin only, or in the LXXII. alſo, 'tis uncertain) by taking that word from the end of the former, and joyning it to the latter period. But without either of theſe, the Hebrew reading is very current, But (ſo foreign is oft to be rendred) there is foreign pardon, foreign, ſay the LXXII. propitiation, with thee, foreign that thou mayeſt be feared, by the fear of God ſignifying obedience to his laws, to which his pardoning of the frailties and ſlips of our lives invites and draws us, when a deſperation of all mercy for ſuch would certainly avert us from it.
V. 6. More than they that watch for the morning] This verſe is very perſpicuous in the Original, foreign literally my ſoul to the Lord, foreignwhere is an Ellipſis neceſſarily to be ſupplied by riſeth, or cometh, or haſteneth, or the like, foreign from the watchers or warders, or guard in the morning, i. e. as early, from that time that they come or haſten to their watches: then follows again repeated foreign the guard or watchers in the morning; which repetition in Hebrew Dialect ſignifies the daily ſeveral watchers of every morning, as foreign man man, i. e. every man one after another, the Hebrews wanting forms of diſtribution (ſee note on Mar. 6. e.) And ſo this is the full importance of the verſe, The guards every morning that haſten to their watches, are not yet earlier than I in my daily addreſſes to God. What theſe watchers or guards of the morning are, the Chaldee hath beſt expreſt; they that obſerve the morning watches, ſay they, foreign that they may offer the morning oblation; i. e. the Prieſts which in their turns officiated: or rather ſome officers of theirs, which were peculiarly appointed from a tower to expect the firſt appearance of break of day, the manner of which is at large deſcribed in the Talmud, Cod. Joma. The Chaldee for foreign from the watchers, reade foreign, juſt to the ſame ſenſe, which yet their Latin render pluſquam obſervantes, more than they that obſerve. But the words do not ſo import, nor could it truly be ſaid, that he waited, or obſerved his offices more than the Prieſts, or guards in the Temple did, who never miſt the performing of their daily offices there. The LXXII. reade foreign from the morning watch till night, by the addition of till night, thinking to ſupply what was wanting, and to the term from which he began his watch, adding the term to which he continued it, hereby evidencing their underſtanding of foreign in the notion of from. And ſo the Syriack do alſo, who reade foreign from the watches of the morning, foreign &c. and untill the morning watch, i. e. from one morning watch unto another. Whereby they rightly render the former part, but obſerve not the elegancy in the repetition, but ſuppoſe the prepoſition ל to to be there wanting, which they thus ſupply. But the interpretation we have given is moſt agreeable both to the ſenſe, which is to expreſs his daily conſtant earlineſs in the ſervice of God, equal to that of the Prieſts in the Temple, every morning of every day, and to the Hebrew idiome alſo. Of theſe watches ſomewhat hath been ſaid note on Pſal. 119. hh. Yet in this place it will not be amiſs to add a little more, what this morning watch was, or of how many hours it conſiſted, becauſe in this matter, the computation of the Old and New Teſtament doth appear to differ. In the Old Teſtament we find but three watches in the night, and then each muſt conſiſt of four hours. The firſt is called foreign the beginning of the watches, Lam. 2.19. the ſecond, foreign the middle watch (an evidence that there were but three) Judg. 7.19. the third is foreign the morning watch, Exod. 14.24. and accordingly here we have foreign the watchers in the morning. And ſo in the Talmud tr. Berachoth, Rabbi Eliezer ſaith, foreign there are three watches in the night; and ſo afterward R. Iſaac alſo. And that thus the night was divided among the Grecians alſo, appears by Homer in the 11th of the Iliads,
— foreign
foreign,
the larger part of the night, that of two portions of it, was paſt, and now the third portion of diviſion remained. On which ſaith Euſtathius, foreign, he makes the night according to the ancients to be divided into three watches, in like manner as the day alſo, ſaying, foreign, morning, or evening, or midday. Yet in the New Teſtament it is evident there were four watches in the night among the Jews, (introduced as ſeveral other cuſtoms, from the Romans) mentioned Mar. 13.35. under the ſtyles of evening, midnight, cockcrowing, and morning: and ſo Matth. 14▪ 25. Jeſus came to them in the fourth watch of the night. The verſe is by the Jewiſh Arab rendred, So my ſoul is to him of, or from, the keepers or guard by day, and the keepers or guard by night; and in a note he ſaith that this is not a literal verſion, yet a rendring (as he ſuppoſed) of the ſenſe, to expreſs his continual doing it through the whole courſe of night and day. Kimchi reads, My ſoul is to the Lord of the watchers for the morning, i. e. waiteth in the night for the Lord, that it may be of thoſe that watch for the morning, i. e. that riſe in the morning-watch to pray; and the repeating the words ſheweth their continual courſe and cuſtom ſo to doe.