PSALM 69 THE ARGUMENT This Psalm of David consists of his complaints and fervent prayers, and comfortable predictions of his deliverance, and of the ruin of his enemies. But the condition of this Psalm is like that of divers others, wherein although the matter or substance of it agree in some sort t... [ Continue Reading ]
IN DEEP MIRE, Heb. _in the mire of the deep waters_. I am not in the shallows, or nigh the bank, but in the middle and deepest parts, and in the very mire, which is at the bottom of the waters. NO STANDING; no firm and sure footing, but I sink in deeper and deeper, and, without thy speedy and almigh... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM WEARY OF MY CRYING; I have prayed and cried to God long and fervently, and yet God seems to neglect and forsake me. MY THROAT IS DRIED with loud and frequent cries. MINE EYES FAIL with looking to God for that assistance which he hath promised, and I confidently expected, but in vain.... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT A CAUSE; without any injury or occasion given them by me. RESTORED THAT WHICH I TOOK NOT AWAY; either because they unjustly and violently forced me to it, or because I was willing to do it to my own wrong for peace sake. By this one kind of wrong he understands all those injuries and violenc... [ Continue Reading ]
This is added, either, 1. As a proof of his innocency, which he had now asserted by way of appeal to God. Do thou, O Lord, judge between me and them, whether I be guilty of those rallies and sins which they lay to my charge. And such appeals indeed David useth, PSALMS 7:3,4, and elsewhere; but then... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM THAT WAIT ON THEE, i.e. thy godly people, who rely upon thy promises which thou hast made to all thine in general, and to me in a special manner, wherein they also are concerned. ASHAMED, i.e. frustrated of their just hopes; which will make them ashamed, either to look upon God, or to look upon... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THY SAKE; for my trust in thy promise, and obedience to thy commands, and zeal for thy glory, and against all wickedness; all which they turn into matter of derision and reproach. MY FACE; in which man's majesty and glory is most evident, which I am in a manner ashamed to show amongst men.... [ Continue Reading ]
My nearest kinsmen estranged themselves from me; partly out of fear, test they should be involved in my sufferings; and chiefly out of dislike of his piety and excessive zeal in religion, as it here follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR: this is the reason of that alienation of my brethren and others from me, because there is a vast difference and contrariety in our tempers. They mind not the concerns of God and of religion, but are wholly intent upon wealth, and honour, and worldly greatness. THE ZEAL OF THINE HOUSE; that ferv... [ Continue Reading ]
WEPT for their impiety and reproaches which they cast upon God and godliness. CHASTENED; which word is here understood out of PSALMS 35:13; as it is also in 2 CHRONICLES 10:11,14, out of 1 KINGS 12:11, where it is expressed. MY SOUL; either my body, or myself; the soul being oft used both ways. That... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GARMENT; wearing it next to my skin, in token of my humiliation and hearty sorrow, as the manner then was in days of fasting. A PROVERB TO THEM; they used my name proverbially of any person whom they thought vainly and foolishly religious.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT SIT IN THE GATE; either, 1. Vain and idle persons, that spend their time in the gates and markets, in which there used to be a confluence of people. Or rather, 2. The judges and magistrates, who _used to sit_ (which was their posture, EXODUS 18:14 PROVERBS 20:8, &c.) _in the gates_ of cit... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT MY PRAYER IS UNTO THEE; but whilst they scoff I will pray, and not be driven from God, and from my prayers and other duties, by all their reproaches or other discouragements. IN AN ACCEPTABLE TIME, Heb. _in a time of acceptation_, or _grace_, or _thy good will_, or _good pleasure_. These words m... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM THAT HATE ME; whereby he explains his meaning in these metaphors of mire, and waters, and deep, and pit.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
IS GOOD, i.e. is eminently and unspeakably good; the positive degree being put for the superlative, as it is LUKE 1:28 1 CORINTHIANS 12:23, &c. It is most ready to communicate itself to indigent and miserable creatures.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAW NIGH UNTO MY SOUL, to support and relieve it, O thou who seemest to be departed far away from me. BECAUSE OF MINE ENEMIES; partly because they persecute it, and greedily seek to destroy it; and partly because they are thine as well as mine enemies, and if they succeed, will triumph not only ove... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST KNOWN MY REPROACH, & c.; thou seest how much of it I suffer, and that for thy sake; as he said, PSALMS 69:7. ARE ALL BEFORE THEE; thou knowest them thoroughly, and all their injurious and wicked devices and implacable malice against me, and all their impiety and contempt of thee; for which... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH BROKEN MY HEART: for reproach is most grievous to the most generous and noble souls; and besides, this was the highest degree and the worst kind of reproach, being cast upon him for God's sake, and upon God also for his sake. NONE, i.e. few or none, as that word is frequently used, both in sacr... [ Continue Reading ]
GALL, or _poison_, or _bitter herbs_, HOSEA 10:4. See DEUTERONOMY 29:18 JEREMIAH 9:15 LAMENTATIONS 3:19. Instead of giving me that pity and comfort which my condition required, they barbarously added to my afflictions. These things were metaphorically fulfilled in David, but properly and literally h... [ Continue Reading ]
These and the following words, which are expressed in the form of imprecations, are thought by divers to be and that the imperatives are put for the as sometimes they are. And accordingly they translate the words thus, _Their table shall become a snare_, But if they be imprecations, here was suffici... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR EYES; not the eyes of their bodies, (for so this was not accomplished in David's nor in Christ's enemies,) but of their minds, that they may not discern God's truth, nor their own duty, nor the way of peace and salvation. Punish them in their own kind; as they shut their eyes and would not see... [ Continue Reading ]
In such other ways and judgments as thou shalt think fit.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR HABITATION, Heb. _their palace_, as this word signifies, GENESIS 25:16 NUMBERS 31:10 SONG OF SOLOMON 8:9. Either, 1. Their temple, in which they place their glory and safety. Or rather, 2. and more generally, Their strongest and most magnificent buildings and houses, in which they dwelt, as i... [ Continue Reading ]
SMITTEN; which is an act of barbarous cruelty and inhuman malice. They talk; reproaching them with and insulting and triumphing in their calamities.... [ Continue Reading ]
ADD INIQUITY TO THEIR INIQUITY; give them up to their own vain minds and vile lusts, and to a reprobate sense, and take off all the restraints of thy grace and providence, and expose them to the temptations of the world and of the devil, that so they may grow worse and worse, and at last may fill up... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THE LIVING; or, _of life_: either, 1. Of this life. Out of the number of living men; which anciently used to be written in catalogues, out of which the names of those who died were blotted. Or rather, 2. Of eternal life, as both Jewish and Christian interpreters commonly understand it; which ag... [ Continue Reading ]
Out of the reach of mine enemies; or, lift me out of the deep waters, and the mire, in which I was sinking, PSALMS 69:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
This sincere and hearty sacrifice of praise is and shall be more grateful to God than the most glorious legal sacrifices, for so such moral services ever were, 1 SAMUEL 15:22 HOSEA 6:6, and such sacrifices shall be accepted when those legal ones shall be abolished. THAT HATH HORNS AND HOOFS: this is... [ Continue Reading ]
BE GLAD; those pious persons who are grieved for my calamities shall have occasion to rejoice, and they will heartily rejoice in my deliverance and exaltation. SHALL LIVE, or _be revived_, to wit, with joy, which were dejected, and in a manner dead with sorrow. Compare GENESIS 45:27 PSALMS 22:26, PS... [ Continue Reading ]
Those who are in prison, or any straits and afflictions for his sake; which is my case, PSALMS 69:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEAVEN AND EARTH; either, 1. Angels and men. Or rather, 2. The heaven and earth themselves, as in the next branch, THE SEAS, AND EVERY THING THAT MOVETH THEREIN: all which by a usual figure he invites to praise God, as he doth elsewhere, because they all give men occasion to praise God.... [ Continue Reading ]
ZION; the city of Zion or Jerusalem; and his church and people, which are frequently expressed under that title. THEY; the _humble and poor_, PSALMS 69:32,33, or _his servants_, as is explained in the following verse. DWELL THERE; in the literal Canaan for a long time, and in the heavenly Canaan for... [ Continue Reading ]
Their posterity shall flourish after them, and partake of the same happiness with them.... [ Continue Reading ]