_The Prophet in his prayer maketh a grievous complaint: he taketh comfort in the eternity and mercy of God. The mercies of God are to be recorded: he sustaineth his weakness by the unchangeableness of God._ A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE— Or, according to the original בעשׁן _beashan, in smoke._ "My afflictions have had the same effect upon me, as smoke has on things which are hung up in it; i.e. have dried me up, and deformed me." _As an hearth,_ is rendered by some _as dry wood;_ which is most ap... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT I FORGET— _Because I forget._ Green. Mudge joins the end of this to the next verse, _I forget to eat my bread for the voice of my groaning._... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM LIKE A PELICAN OF THE WILDERNESS— There are two species of _pelicans,_ one of which lives in the water, upon fish; the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles. By the _owl of the desert,_ many understand the _bittern;_ and by _the bird_ which sits solitary on the house-top, _the owl... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY THAT ARE MAD AGAINST ME, &C.— _And my slanderers,_ &c. Mudge renders, _And in their madness swear against me;_ and Green, _The insolent boasters use my name in their oaths:_ Psalms 102:9. _Because I eat ashes,_ &c.: Psalms 102:10. _On account of thy indignation and wrath,_ &c. According to... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I HAVE EATEN ASHES— The serpent in Genesis is condemned to go on his belly, and to eat dust, to which his prone posture inevitably subjects him. Casting ashes upon themselves, or rolling themselves in ashes, was a ceremony to express deep distress and sorrow among the Orientals; and if we may su... [ Continue Reading ]
MY DAYS ARE LIKE A SHADOW THAT DECLINETH— _My days are as a shadow which is gone down._ The shadow which is gone down, seems not so much to describe a common shadow, as the shadow of a dial; which in that of Ahaz is said to _go down,_ (the same original word) as the hour goes on. Mudge.... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THE SET TIME IS COME— The time fixed for the continuance of the Babylonish captivity was 70 years. The _set,_ or _fixed time,_ here seems to mean, the time appointed for the restoration of the people, and the rebuilding of the temple. See Jeremiah 39:10, and the first note on this psalm.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THY SERVANTS TAKE PLEASURE, &C.— _Thy servants also bear an affection to her ruins, and commiserate her dust:_ Green; in conformity to the version of the Liturgy of the church of England, as well as to many of the ancient versions.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE HEATHEN SHALL FEAR THE NAME, &C.— _Then shall the nations fear thy name, O Lord;_—ver. 16. _When the Lord shall have built up Sion, and his glory shall again be seen in Jerusalem;_—ver. 17. _When he shall have regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not have rejected their petition._ See Bi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PEOPLE WHICH SHALL BE CREATED, &C.— _And the people to be born shall praise the Lord._ Mudge; who reads the two next verses in a parenthesis.—Ver. 19. (_When the Lord looketh out from the height of his holiness; from the heaven he beholdeth the earth._—Ver. 20. _To hear,_ &c.)—Ver. 21. _In o... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WEAKENED MY STRENGTH— The connection is this, "Notwithstanding these glorious hopes of being speedily restored to my native country, I find that through continual afflictions God _hath weakened my strength,_ even whilst I thought that I was _in the way_ to that happiness; and that on account of t... [ Continue Reading ]
OF OLD HAST THOU LAID THE FOUNDATION, &C.— See Isaiah 51:6 where the prophet tells us, that the heaven and earth shall wax old like a garment; but the Psalmist here goes one step further than the prophet; and not only acquaints us that the heavens and the earth shall wax old as a garment, but, like... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A VESTURE SHALT THOU CHANGE THEM— This refers to changes of raiment. God should invest himself with new heavens, as a man would change his garment. This passage is quoted by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 1:12 who has followed the LXX in reading, _Thou shalt fold them up._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF THY SERVANTS— _Let the sins of thy servants be settled, and their seed be established before thee._ This is a concluding prayer that their posterity might be settled in Jerusalem for ever: _Before thee,_ or _in thy presence,_ belongs in common to both clauses. REFLECTIONS.—1st, This... [ Continue Reading ]