_David persuadeth to patience and confidence in God, by the different estate of the godly and the wicked._ _A Psalm_ of David. _TITLE._ לדוד _LEDAVID._— This Psalm was made by David in his old age; and it is an excellent hymn on the equal providence of God, at that time exercised towards the Jews;... [ Continue Reading ]
SO SHALT THOU DWELL, &C.— Some render it, _Dwell in the land, and feed upon faith._ Green renders it, _And be filled with its plenty._ The word is rendered, Nehemiah 11:23. _A certain portion of provisions._ The LXX read here, _With its riches or abundance;_ which is very suitable to the place.... [ Continue Reading ]
BRING FORTH THY RIGHTEOUSNESS AS THE LIGHT, &C.— i.e. "Perfectly clear up and vindicate thy integrity; which may for a time be obscured by calumnies and slanders, as the sun is by mists and clouds." _Judgment,_ in the next clause, is only another word for righteousness or integrity.... [ Continue Reading ]
FRET NOT THYSELF IN ANY WISE TO DO EVIL— _It is only to his own prejudice._ Mudge. See Psalms 15:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT HIS DAY IS COMING— i.e. The day of his punishment: so Jeremiah 5:31. _For thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee._ See Psalms 137:7. Job 18:20. Isaiah 9:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WICKED HAVE DRAWN OUT THE SWORD, &C.— I cannot but think, says a writer on the Psalms, that these are figurative expressions; and that David understood by these weapons, with which he has furnished the ungodly, their bitter and malicious invectives, their foul and false reproaches, &c. These wer... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WICKED BORROWETH, &C.— This description of the wicked and the righteous, is designed not to shew the _dispositions_ of one and the other, as their _abilities._ "The wicked shall be so poor, as to be ever obliged to borrow, and incapable of paying; while the righteous shall have wherewithal to be... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE BEEN YOUNG, &C.— From the whole scope of this Psalm nothing can be plainer, than that it was intended by the author for a hymn on the equal providence of God; which at that time he did not fail to exercise towards the Jews; and an exhortation to those for whose use it was written, to depend a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DWELL FOR EVERMORE— _Dwell in the land for ever,_ according to Bishop Hare; i.e. "Enjoy a long and prosperous life in the land, with great tranquillity and peace." In the second clause of the next verse, inorder to begin the period with an ע _ain,_ the Bishop reads ענוים _anavim, the humble; the... [ Continue Reading ]
NOR CONDEMN HIM WHEN HE IS JUDGED— _Nor shall he_ [_the wicked_] _condemn him when he is judged._ It seems more to the purpose to say, that God would not suffer the wicked man to condemn the righteous or find him guilty, (for that, probably, is the way in which he proposed to murder him,) than that... [ Continue Reading ]
SPREADING HIMSELF LIKE A GREEN BAY-TREE— _Like a native plant,_ or _a tree in its native soil._ Mudge. _Like a flourishing cedar._ Houbigant, after the LXX, and many of the ancient versions. See Psalms 92:12. He likewise reads the beginning of the next verse after the same versions, and with much pr... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BE DESTROYED TOGETHER— Or, _at once:_ "They shall all at once be totally destroyed." See Psalms 49:10 in the Hebrew. REFLECTIONS.—1st, The way of duty is made very plain, and therefore we are more inexcusable, if we depart from it. 1. The Psalmist cautions us against envy and fretful-ness bec... [ Continue Reading ]