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pleasure to deliver me : make haste, O Lord, to help me.

17 Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that seek after my soul (t) to destroy it : let them be driven backward, and put to rebuke, that wish me evil.

18 Let them be desolate, and rewarded with shame that say unto me, "Fie upon thee, fie

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upon thee."

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21 Thou art my helper and redeemer make no long tarrying, O my God.

Lessons for the Eighth Day of the Month throughout the Year.

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v.6 ข.8.

v. 9.

4 I said, "Lord, be merciful unto me heal my soul, for I "have sinned against thee."

5. Mine enemies speak evil of me: "When shall he die, and "his name perish?"

6 And if he (y) come to see me, he speaketh vanity and his heart conceiveth falsehood within himself; and when he cometh forth, he telleth it.

7 All mine enemies whisper together against me: even against me do they imagine this evil;

8 "Let (z) the sentence of "guiltiness proceed against him : " and now that he lieth, let him "rise up no more."

9 Yea, even mine own familiar friend (a), whom I trusted : who did also eat of my bread, hath laid great wait for me.

10 But be thou merciful unto me, O Lord raise thou me up again, and I shall reward them.

(y)

"He," i. e. mine enemy. (x)" Let," &c. These are the words of his enemies; this the evil they imagine, or wish.

(a)" Friend," probably Ahitophel, who joined Absalom against him.

See

2 Sam. xv. 12.-xvi. 23. It is to this verse our Saviour is supposed to refer, when, in foretelling Judas's perfidy, he says, John xiii. 18. "I know whom I

have chosen, but that the Scripture 66 may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread "with me bath lifted up his heel against

me" not, probably, that he meant that this passage was written prophetically with a view to Judas, but merely referring to it, as applicable to him. It was a common mode of expression, to say that a particular thing was done "that a pas "sage in scripture might be fulfilled, though the scripture passage had no prophetic allusion to that particular thing, and though nothing more was meant than that in that thing also the passage would be verified. See ante 44. note on

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11 By this I know thou favourest me that mine enemy doth not triumph against me.

12 And when I am in my health, thou upholdest me and shalt set me before thy face for

ever.

13 Blessed (b) be the Lord God of Israel: world without end. Amen.

Psalm xlii. (c)

LIKE as the hart desireth the water-brooks: so longeth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul is athirst (d) for God, yea, even for the living God when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

3 My tears have been my meat day and night while they daily say unto me, "Where is now thy "God?"

4 Now when I think thereupon. I pour out my heart by myself for I went (e) with the

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person.

(b) This benediction is supposed to 13 have been added by the compiler, on the conclusion of the first book.

(c) This is the first Psalm of the Second Book. It is supposed to have been written by David on his flight from Absalom. He laments his absence from the tabernacle at Jerusalem, complains of the taunting reproaches of his enemies, points out the greatness of his distress, but declares at the same time his firm reliance upon God. See Ps. lxxxiv.

(d) "Athirst." The same idea oc• *. curs, Ps. lxiii. z. "My soul thirsteth for

thee, my flesh also longeth after thee, "in a barren and dry land, where no "water is." And Ps. cxliii. 6. "My "soul gaspeth unto thee as a thirsty land."

(e) "I went," &c. He here calls v.4 to mind the triumphant manner in which he used to go up to the tabernacle, where

multitude, and brought them forth into the house of God;

5 In the voice of praise and thanksgiving among such as keep holy-day.

6 Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me?

7 Put thy trust in God: for (f) I will yet give him thanks for the help of his countenance.

8 My God, my soul is vexed within me therefore will I remember thee concerning (g) the land of Jordan, and the little hill of Hermon.

9 One deep (b) calleth another, because of the noise of the waterpipes all thy waves and storms are gone over me.

10 The Lord hath granted his loving-kindness in the day-time: and in the night-season did I sing of him, and made my prayer unto the God of my life.

II I will say unto the God of my strength, "Why hast thou Why hast thou "forgotten me why go I thus heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?"

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2 For thou art the God of my strength; why hast thou put me from thee and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?

3 O (1) send out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling.

4 And that I may go unto the altar of God, even unto the God of my joy and gladness and upon the harp will I give thanks unto thee, O God, my God.

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(4) This is supposed to be a continuation of the preceding Psalm. It might be added upon some new trouble. It appeals anxiously to God for deliverance, and seems to have been written when there was no power of going up to the usual place of worship.

(1) The joy of going up to the taber- v.3. nacle is here again referred to. See Ps. xlii. 3.

ข.6.

บ.2.

2.2.

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(m) For "will" read " shall."

(n) An anxious Prayer to God for deliverance, written after some calamities and in a time of great dismay, calling to mind what God had before done for the nation, ascribing their former successes to his assistance, appealing to their continuance in God's worship during their distress, and still professing their confidence in him. It is supposed to have been written in Hezekiah's time, about 713 years before the birth of Christ, when Sennacherib King of Assyria, after having taken the fenced cities of Judah, sent a great host against Jerusalem. See 2 Kings xviii, 13. 17.-Isaiah xxxvi.

I, 2.

(o)" Planted them," i. e. our fathers. (p) For "cast them out" read "made "them," (i. e. our Fathers) "to

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8 But it is thou that savest us from our enemies and puttest them to confusion that hate us.

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9 We make our boast of God all day long and will praise thy Name for ever.

10 But now thou art far off, and puttest us to confusion : and goest not forth with our armies.

11 Thou makest us to turn our backs upon our enemies : so that they, which hate us, spoil our goods.

12 Thou lettest us be eaten up like sheep and hast scattered us among the heathen.

13 Thou sellest thy people for nought (r) and takest no money for them.

14 Thou makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours to be

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"flourish” them, in both parts of the verse refers to "our Fathers;" and the antithesis is, between what God had done to the Heathen, and for them. It alludes probably to the driving out the nations from the land of Canaan in Joshua's time.

(q) For "will" read “shall."

(r) "For nought," i. e. treatest them as what is better parted with for nothing, than kept. When Moses denounced upon the people what they should suffer for disobedience, he told them (among other things) Deuter. xxviii. 68. "Ye shall "be sold unto your enemies for bond

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men and bondwomen, and no man shall "buy you." Meaning probably that they should be so much despised, that scarcely any one would be willing to give any thing for them,

.15.

laughed to scorn, and had in derision of them that are round about us.

15 Thou makest us to be a by-word among the heathen : and that the people shake their heads (s) at us.

16 My confusion is daily before me and the shame of my face hath covered me;

17 For the voice of the slanderer (t) and blasphemer: for the enemy and avenger.

18 And though all this be come upon us, yet do we not forget thee: nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy covenant.

19 Our heart is not turned back: neither our steps gone out of thy way;

20 No, not when thou hast smitten us into the place of dragons (u) and covered us with

the shadow of death.

(s) "Shake their heads," i. e. in ridi

cule and contempt.

(t)" Slanderer," &c. Sennacherib

0.17. told the people of Jerusalem," doth not

ข.20.

"Hezekiah persuade you to give over "yourselves to die by famine and by "thirst, saying "the Lord our God shall "deliver us out of the hand of the king of "Assyria. Who was there among all the

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gods of those nations that my fathers "utterly destroyed, that could deliver "his people out of mine hand, that your "God should be able to deliver you out "of mine hand," &c.; and his servants spake yet more against the Lord God. He wrote letters also to rail on the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying," as the gods of the nations of "other lands have not delivered their "people out of mine hand, so shall not "the God of Hezekiah deliver his people "out of mine hand." 2 Chron. xxxii. 11 to 19-and see 2 Kings xviii. 22.and xix. 4. 16.-Isaiah xxvi. 20.xxvii. 4. 10, 11, 12. 13. (u) "Place of dragons." A figurative expression, to denote the utmost misery.

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21 If we have forgotten the Name of our God, and holden up (x) our hands to any strange god: shall not God search it out? for he knoweth the very secrets of the heart.

22 For thy sake (y) also are we killed all the day long and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain.

23 Up, Lord, why sleepest thou awake, and be not absent from us for ever.

24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our misery and trouble?

25 For our soul is brought low, even unto the dust our belly cleaveth unto the ground.

26 Arise, and help us and deliver us for thy mercies sake.

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(y) "For thy sake," i. e. because of v.22. our adherence to thy religion, because we will not distrust thee, or join in worshipping other gods.

(z) This Psalm has been supposed to have been written upon Solomon's marriage with Pharoah's daughter; and if so, as Solomon was a type of the Messiah, the author might be led into expressions more applicable to the Messiah than to Solomon. Some writers think it applied to the Messiah only, and had no reference to Solomon's marriage. Bishop Patrick thinks it referred to both. "Many of the expressions, (he observés,)

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are so magnificent, that it is in a very "poor and low sense only that they can "be applied to Solomon, and his bride: 66 some of them scarce at all. On the

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