This plaintive cry for help falls into two divisions, each of which may be subdivided into three stanzas. i. The Psalmist entreats God to rescue him from the deadly foes who beset him (Psalms 69:1-6). He urges as the ground of his prayer that it is for God's sake that he is being persecuted (Psalms... [ Continue Reading ]
_the waters_&c. He is like a drowning man. The flood of calamity has risen till it threatens his life. For the metaphor cp. Psalms 18:16; Psalms 32:6; Psalms 66:12; Psalms 124:4; Lamentations 3:54; and for _unto my soul_see Jeremiah 4:10; Jeremiah 4:18; Jonah 2:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Psalmist appeals to God for help, pleading the extremity of his plight.... [ Continue Reading ]
He is like a man floundering in a morass or quicksand where there is no footing and his struggles only plunge him deeper, or fording a river and in imminent danger of being swept away by the current. Quagmires, -treacherous to the last degree," are common in Palestine. See Thomson's _Land and the Bo... [ Continue Reading ]
He is worn out and exhausted in mind and body by the prolonged strain of prayer unanswered. Cp. Psalms 22:1-2; Psalms 22:15; Psalms 6:7; Jeremiah 45:3; Psalms 119:82; Psalms 119:123; Lamentations 2:11; Lamentations 4:17. For _I am weary of_&c., render with R.V. I am weary wi [ Continue Reading ]
The number and the virulence of his foes, and the groundlessness of their hostility. For the language comp. Psalms 40:12; Psalms 35:19; Psalms 38:19. The quotation in John 15:25 agrees with the LXX. _moe_ This archaism for -more," which has disappeared from modern Bibles, is restored by Scrivener i... [ Continue Reading ]
Chastisement is not undeserved; but he commits himself to the mercy of the Omniscient, and pleads for a hearing on the ground that the cause of all God's servants is bound up with his cause. If he is abandoned they must be discouraged and exposed to the contempt of the world. _Thou_is emphatic. Simi... [ Continue Reading ]
Let not those that wait on thee be ashamed through me, O Lord, Jehovah of hosts: Let not those that seek thee be brought to dishonour through me, O God of Israel. Cp. Psalms 25:3; Psalms 38:15-16. The divine titles are significant. They appeal to God's sovereignty and to His relation to His peopl... [ Continue Reading ]
So Jeremiah pleads, "Know that for thy sake I bear reproach" (Jeremiah 15:15). _shame_&c. cp. Psalms 44:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
Such discouragement must be the inevitable consequence if he is abandoned, for it is for God's sake that he is persecuted and defamed. Comp. the plea of the nation in Psalms 44:14 ff.... [ Continue Reading ]
Even his nearest relations treat him as a stranger and a foreigner. Cp. Psalms 38:11; Job 19:13 ff.; Jeremiah 12:6. _my mother's children_ The sons of my own mother expresses a closer degree of relationship than _my brethren_, the children of the same mother being always regarded as bound to one an... [ Continue Reading ]
His jealousy for the honour of God's house was like a consuming fire within him. Cp. Psalms 119:139; Psalms 39:3; Jeremiah 20:9. It is difficult to determine whether -thine house" means the Temple only, or as in Numbers 12:7; Hosea 8:1, bears the wider meaning of the land or the people of Israel. (1... [ Continue Reading ]
When I wept, (and chastened) my soul with fasting, It was turned to reproaches for me: When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword unto them. In shame and penitence for the dishonour done by his countrymen to God, he fasted and mourned; but they only mocked and derided him for doing wha... [ Continue Reading ]
They that sit in the gate talk of me, And the songs of them that drink strong drink (make sport of me). In the gate where men gather to hear the last gossip as well as to transact business (Psalms 9:14; Jeremiah 17:19 f.) he is the talk of the city: his austerities and oddities furnish a subject f... [ Continue Reading ]
It is best to divide the clauses somewhat differently: But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Jehovah, At the time thou pleasest, O God, in the abundance of thy lovingkindness, Answer me in the truth of thy salvation. _In an acceptable time_, lit. _a time of good pleasure_(Psalms 40:13; Psalms... [ Continue Reading ]
From the hardheartedness of men he turns to the mercy of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
In his prayer he repeats the words which he had previously used to describe his plight (Psalms 69:2_; Psalms 69:4_). It is difficult to see why the R.V. has substituted _overwhelm_for _overflow_here and not in Psalms 69:2, the Heb. word being the same in both cases. _let not the pit_&c. Either the g... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear me_ Answer me. _for thy lovingkindness_is _good_ So Psalms 109:21. _turn unto me_&c. According to the abundance of thy compassions turn thee unto me. Cp. Psalms 51:1 note; Lamentations 3:32. -Turning" or -looking" unto him (Psalms 25:16; Psalms 119:132) is the opposite of that -hiding of God... [ Continue Reading ]
The Psalmist pleads his calling: surely God cannot continue to withhold His favour and help from one who is bound to His service and devoted to His cause. The plea would have special force if the Psalmist was a prophet like Jeremiah (Amos 3:7). Cp. Psalms 27:9; Psalms 31:16; Psalms 44:24; &c. _for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Draw nigh_ Cp. the acknowledgement of answered prayer in Lamentations 3:57-58, -Thou drewest nigh in the day when I called upon thee … thou redeemedst my life." _deliver me_ Or, as R.V., ransom me. Cp. Jeremiah 15:21. _because of mine enemies_ Who will triumph if I am abandoned to their malice, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast known_ Rather, THOU knowest. _Thou_, as in Psalms 69:5, is emphatic. See note there for references to Jeremiah's use of this phrase. _all before thee_ They are all in Thy sight. He pleads with God as he might with men, who are more easily moved to pity by the sight of suffering than by m... [ Continue Reading ]
Once more he lays before God the severity of his sufferings, and the inhumanity of his enemies.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath broken my heart_ Cp. Jeremiah 23:9. _I am full of heaviness_ Or, as R.V. marg., _sore sick_. A cognate word is frequently used in Jer., e.g. Jeremiah 15:18, A.V. _incurable_. _and I looked_&c. Or, _and I waited for some to sympathise, but there was no one_.... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is connected with the preceding one. Not content with merely refusing sympathy, they aggravated and embittered his sufferings, as though one were to mock a hungry man by offering him bitter and poisonous food, or a thirsty man by giving him sour and undrinkable wine. The language is plain... [ Continue Reading ]
Let their table before them become a snare; Yea, when they are at peace, let it become a trap. The language is suggested by the metaphors of the preceding verse. They had aggravated the sufferings of a joyless life: let their own enjoyments turn to their ruin. The idea of the transformation of the... [ Continue Reading ]
At the thought of the intolerable inhumanity of his enemies he can no longer restrain himself, and breaks out into fierce imprecation. Some commentators, feeling the difficulty of such imprecations proceeding from the Psalmist, have regarded these verses as the utterance of the Psalmist's enemies, i... [ Continue Reading ]
Let the eyes which gloated over another's misfortunes be blinded: let the limbs which are the seat of the strength they have abused be palsied.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Psalms 79:6; Jeremiah 10:25. _and let_&c. R.V., and let the fierceness of thine anger overtake them.... [ Continue Reading ]
_their habitation_ Rather, as R.V. marg., their encampment; cp. Genesis 25:16; Numbers 31:10; Ezekiel 25:4 (R.V.). The language is a survival from the habits of nomad life, with which however the Israelites must always have been familiar. Cp. Jeremiah 4:20; Jeremiah 10:20. To the Oriental no prospec... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they persecute_&c. They had no commission to aggravate the sufferings of one who was already smitten with the rod of chastisement by God Himself. We think of Job and his friends (Job 19:21-22), and of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 53:4). Cp. Isaiah 47:6. _they talk to the grief_ R.V... [ Continue Reading ]
Some commentators, retaining the A.V. rendering of Psalms 69:26, regard Psalms 69:27 as the words of the Psalmist's enemies, directed against him and his fellow sufferers. This interpretation has been advocated, as removing from the mouth of the Psalmist at any rate the most terrible anathemas. But... [ Continue Reading ]
_the book of the living_ Or, as R.V., the book of life. The figure is borrowed from the lists or registers of citizens (Jeremiah 22:30; Ezekiel 13:9). God has a book in which the names of those who are to be preserved alive are inscribed. The righteous have their names recorded in it (cp. Habakkuk 2... [ Continue Reading ]
But as for me, who am afflicted and sore pained, Thy salvation, O God, shall set me up on high. The verb may be rendered as a prayer (A.V.), or as an expression of confidence (P.B.V.). God's deliverance will set him as it were in a high fortress, out of the reach of his enemies. Cp. Psalms 59:1 no... [ Continue Reading ]
In contrast to the fate which his enemies deserve, the Psalmist looks forward to his own deliverance, and predicts the restoration of Jerusalem and the reestablishment there of the true people of God. Such a sudden change of tone is quite characteristic of Jeremiah, e.g. Jeremiah 20:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
And it shall please Jehovah better than an ox, (Or) a bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The Massoretic accentuation makes one clause of the verse, reading it _better than an ox-bullock_: but the division of the clauses adopted by R.V. is preferable. The epithets are not merely ornamental: the hor... [ Continue Reading ]
When the meek see it, they shall be glad: Ye that seek after God, let your heart revive. Cp. Psalms 22:16, and with Psalms 69:33 cp. Psalms 22:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the poor_ R.V. the needy, as Psalms 9:18; Jeremiah 20:13, and frequently. _his prisoners_ Though He has cast them into the prison of captivity for their sins, He will not reject their prayers. Cp. Psalms 22:24; Psalms 102:17; Psalms 102:20; Psalms 107:10 ff. After the capture of the city in b.c. 5... [ Continue Reading ]
All creation is summoned to join in a chorus of praise to God for the redemption of Zion, for it is an event of universal significance. Cp. Isaiah 44:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
So Jeremiah couples -Jerusalem and the cities of Judah," Psalms 33:10 ff., Psalms 34:7: and the prediction of restoration corresponds to the prophecies collected in his -Book of Consolation," chaps, 30 33. The language does not presume that Jerusalem was already in ruins, any more than do those prop... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Isaiah 65:9; Isaiah 65:23. _they that love his name_ Cp. Psalms 5:11; Psalms 119:132. The citizens of Zion will all be true Israelites, faithfully observing the first and great commandment of the law (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Deuteronomy 6:13).... [ Continue Reading ]