1_O Jehovah! hear my prayer _This earnestness shows, again, that these words were not dictated to be pronounced by the careless and light-hearted, which could not have been done without grossly insulting God. In speaking thus, the captive Jews bear testimony to the severe and excruciating distress w... [ Continue Reading ]
2_Hide not thy face from me in the day of my affliction _The prayer, that God would not hide his face, is far from being superfluous. As the people had been languishing in captivity for the space of nearly seventy years, it might seem that God had for ever turned away his favor from them. But they a... [ Continue Reading ]
3_For my days are consumed like smoke _These expressions are hyperbolical, but still they show how deeply the desolation of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the people of God. Let every man, therefore, carefully examine himself on this head. If we do not prefer the Church to all the other obj... [ Continue Reading ]
4_My heart is smitten, and dried up like grass _Here he employs a third similitude, declaring that his heart is withered, and wholly dried up like mown grass. But he intends to express something more than that his heart was withered, and his bones reduced to a state of dryness. His language implies,... [ Continue Reading ]
6_I have become like a pelican of the wilderness _Instead of rendering the original word by _pelican, _some translate it _bittern, _and others the _cuckoo. _The Hebrew word here used for _owl _is rendered by the Septuagint νυκτικοραξ, which signifies _a bat. _(141) But as even the Jews are doubtful... [ Continue Reading ]
8._My enemies have reviled me daily _The faithful, to excite the compassion of God towards them, tell him that they are not only objects of mockery to their enemies, but also that they swore by them. The indignity complained of is, that the ungodly so shamefully triumphed over God’s chosen people, a... [ Continue Reading ]
9_For I have eaten ashes like bread _Some think that the order is here inverted, and that the letter כ, _caph, _the sign of similitude, which is put before לחם, _lechem, _the word for _bread, _ought to be placed before אפר, _epher, _the word for_ashes; _as if it had been said, I find no more relish... [ Continue Reading ]
10._On account of thy anger and thy wrath _He now declares that the greatness of his grief proceeded not only from outward troubles and calamities, but from a sense that these were a punishment inflicted upon him by God. And surely there is nothing which ought to wound our hearts more deeply, than w... [ Continue Reading ]
11._My days are like the shadow which declineth _(146) When the sun is directly over our heads, that is to say, at mid-day, we do not observe such sudden changes of the shadows which his light produces; but when he begins to decline towards the west the shadows vary almost every moment, This is the... [ Continue Reading ]
12._And thou, O Jehovah! shalt dwell for ever _When the prophet, for his own encouragement, sets before himself the eternity of God, it seems, at first sight, to be a far-fetched consolation; for what benefit will accrue to us from the fact that God sits immutable on his heavenly throne, when, at th... [ Continue Reading ]
13._Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion_. We have here the conclusion drawn from the truth stated in the preceding verse — God is eternal, and therefore he will have compassion upon Zion. God’s eternity is to be considered as impressed upon the memorial, or word, by which he has brought himse... [ Continue Reading ]
14._For thy servants take pleasure in her stones _To restrict this to Cyrus and Darius is altogether unsuitable. It is not at all wonderful to find the Jewish doctors hunting, with excessive eagerness, after foolish subtilties; but I am surprised that some of our modern commentators subscribe to suc... [ Continue Reading ]
15._And the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah _The prophet here describes the fruit which would result from the deliverance of the ancient tribes; which is, that thereby God’s glory would be rendered illustrious among nations and kings. He tacitly intimates, that when the Church is oppressed, t... [ Continue Reading ]
The concluding part of the 16th verse, _He hath appeared in his glory, _refers to the manifestation which God made of himself when he brought forth his Church from the darkness of death; even as it is said in another place concerning her first deliverance, “Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his do... [ Continue Reading ]
17_He hath regarded the prayer of the solitary _It is worthy of notice, that the deliverance of the chosen tribes is ascribed to the prayers of the faithful. God’s mercy was indeed the sole cause which led him to deliver his Church, according as he had graciously promised this blessing to her; but t... [ Continue Reading ]
18._This shall be registered for the generation that is to come _The Psalmist magnifies still more the fruit of the deliverance of his people, for the purpose of encouraging himself and others in the hope of obtaining the object of their prayers. He intimates, that this will be a memorable work of G... [ Continue Reading ]
19._For he hath looked down from the high place of his holiness _Now the prophet contemplates the deliverance after which he breathes with anxious desire, as if it had been already accomplished. That the malignity of men might not attempt to obscure such a signal blessing of Heaven, he openly and in... [ Continue Reading ]
20._To hear the groaning of the prisoner _Here the prophet repeats once more what he had previously touched upon concerning prayer, in order again to stir up the hearts of the godly to engage in that exercise, and that after their deliverance they might know it to have been granted to their faith, b... [ Continue Reading ]
21_That the name of Jehovah may be declared in Zion _Here is celebrated a still more ample and richer fruit of this deliverance than has been previously mentioned, which is, that the Jews would not only be united into one body to give thanks to God, but that, when brought back to their own country,... [ Continue Reading ]
23._He hath afflicted my strength in the way _Some improperly restrict this complaint to the time when the Jews were subjected to much annoyance after the liberty granted them to return to their own land. We are rather to understand the word _journey _or _way _in a metaphorical sense. As the manifes... [ Continue Reading ]
What then does the prophet mean when he prays, _Let us not perish in the midst of our course? _(160) The reason stated in the clause immediately following, _Thy years are from generation to generation, _seems to be quite inapplicable in the present case. Because God is everlasting, does it therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
25_Thou hast aforetime founded the earth _Here the sacred writer amplifies what he had previously stated, declaring, that compared with God the whole world is a form which quickly vanishes away; and yet a little after he represents the Church as exempted from this the common lot of all sublunary thi... [ Continue Reading ]
28._The children of thy servants shall dwell_. By these words the prophet intimates that he does not ask the preservation of the Church, because it is a part of the human race, but because God has raised it above the revolutions of the world. And undoubtedly, when He adopted us as his children, his... [ Continue Reading ]