PSALM CXX _The psalmist, in great distress, calls on the Lord for_ _deliverance from calumny and defamation_, 1, 2; _shows the punishment that awaits his persecutor_, 3, 4; _deplores the necessity of his residence with the ungodly_, 5-7. NOTES ON PSALM CXX This Psalm, and all the rest that fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:2. _LYING LIPS_, AND _FROM A DECEITFUL TONGUE._] From a people without faith, without truth, without religion; who sought by lies and calumnies to destroy them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:3. _WHAT SHALL BE GIVEN UNTO THEE?_] Thou art worthy of the heaviest punishments.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:4. _SHARP ARROWS_] The _Chaldee_ has, "The strong, sharp arrows are like lightning from above, with coals of _juniper_ kindled in hell beneath." On the _juniper_, Job 30:4, where this passage is explained. _Fiery arrows, or arrows wrapped about with inflamed_ _combustibles_, were fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:5. _THAT I SOJOURN IN MESECH_] The _Chaldee_ has it, "Wo is me that I am a stranger with the Asiatics, (אוסאי _useey_,) and that I dwell in the tents of the Arabs." _Calmet_, who understands the Psalm as speaking of the state of the captives in _Babylon_ and its _provinces_, says,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:6. _MY SOUL HATH LONG DWELT WITH HIM THAT HATETH PEACE._] A restless, barbarous, warlike, and marauding people.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 120:7. _I_ AM FOR _PEACE_] We love to be quiet and peaceable; but they are continually engaged in excursions of rapine and plunder. It is evident that the psalmist refers to a people like the _Scenitae_ or _wandering Arabs_, who live constantly in _tents_, and subsist by robbery; plunde... [ Continue Reading ]