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Psalm Seventy-nine
Psalm 79
Chapter Contents
The deplorable condition of the people of God. (1-5) A
petition for relief. (6-13)
Commentary on Psalm 79:1-5
(Read Psalm 79:1-5)
God is complained to: whither should children go but to a
Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy
city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people
defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by
their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire
God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than
death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the
guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.
Commentary on Psalm 79:6-13
(Read Psalm 79:6-13)
Those who persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of
prayer, are the ungodly. How unrighteous soever men were, the Lord was
righteous in permitting them to do what they did. Deliverances from trouble are
mercies indeed, when grounded upon the pardon of sin; we should therefore be
more earnest in prayer for the removal of our sins than for the removal of
afflictions. They had no hopes but from God's mercies, his tender mercies. They
plead no merit, they pretend to none, but, Help us for the glory of thy name;
pardon us for thy name's sake. The Christian forgets not that he is often bound
in the chain of his sins. The world to him is a prison; sentence of death is
passed upon him, and he knows not how soon it may be executed. How fervently
should he at all times pray, O let the sighing of a prisoner come before thee,
according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed
to die! How glorious will the day be, when, triumphant over sin and sorrow, the
church beholds the adversary disarmed for ever! while that church shall, from
age to age, sing the praises of her great Shepherd and Bishop, her King and her
God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 79
Verse 8
[8] O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy
tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.
Prevent — Prevent our utter extirpation.
Verse 11
[11] Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee;
according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed
to die;
The prisoner — Of thy poor people now in
captivity.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
Other Works
TITLE AND
SUBJECT. A Psalm of Asaph. A Psalm of complaint such as Jeremiah might
have written amid the ruins of the beloved city. It evidently treats of times
of invasion, oppression, and national overthrow. Asaph was a patriotic poet,
and was never more at home than when he rehearsed the history of his nation.
Would to God that we had national poets whose song should be of the Lord.
DIVISION. From Ps
79:1-4 the complaint is poured out, from Ps 79:5-12 prayer is presented, and,
in the closing verse, praise is promised.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. It is
the cry of amazement at sacrilegious intrusion; as if the poet were struck with
horror. The stranger pollutes thine hallowed courts with his tread. All Canaan
is thy land, but thy foes have ravaged it. "Thy holy temple have they
defiled." Into the inmost sanctuary they have profanely forced their
way, and there behaved themselves arrogantly. Thus, the holy land, the holy
house, and the holy city, were all polluted by the uncircumcised. It is an
awful thing when wicked men are found in the church and numbered with her
ministry. Then are the tares sown with the wheat, and the poisoned gourds cast
into the pot. "They have laid Jerusalem on heaps." After
devouring and defiling, they have come to destroying, and have done their work
with a cruel completeness. Jerusalem, the beloved city, the joy of the nation,
the abode of her God, was totally wrecked. Alas! alas! for Israel! It is sad to
see the foe in our own house, but worse to meet him in the house of God; they
strike hardest who smite at our religion. The psalmist piles up the agony; he
was a suppliant, and he knew how to bring out the strong points of his case. We
ought to order our case before the Lord with as much care as if our success
depended on our pleading. Men in earthly courts use all their powers to obtain
their ends, and so also should we state our case with earnestness, and bring
forth our strong arguments.
Verse
2. "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be
meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of
the earth." The enemy cared not to bury the dead, and there was not a
sufficient number of Israel left alive to perform the funeral rites; therefore,
the precious relics of the departed were left to be devoured of vultures and
torn by wolves. Beasts on which man could not feed fed on him. The flesh of
creation's Lord became meat for carrion crows and hungry dogs. Dire are the
calamities of war, yet have they happened to God's saints and servants. This
might well move the heart of the poet, and he did well to appeal to the heart
of God by reciting the grievous evil. Such might have been the lamentation of
an early Christian as he thought of the amphitheatre and all its deeds of
blood. Note in the two verses how the plea is made to turn upon God's property
in the temple and the people:—we read "thine inheritance, ""thy
temple, ""thy servants, "and "thy saints." Surely the
Lord will defend his own, and will not suffer rampant adversaries to despoil
them.
Verse
3. "Their blood have they shed like water round about
Jerusalem." The invaders slew men as if their blood was of no more
value than so much water; they poured it forth as lavishly as when the floods
deluge the plains. The city of holy peace became a field of blood. "And
there was none to bury them." The few who survived were afraid to
engage in the task. This was a serious trial and grievous horror to the Jews,
who evinced much care concerning their burials. Has it come to this, that there
are none to bury the dead of thy family, O Lord? Can none be found to grant a
shovelful of earth with which to cover up the poor bodies of thy murdered
saints? What woe is here! How glad should we be that we live in so quiet an
age, when the blast of the trumpet is no more heard in our streets.
Verse
4. "We are become a reproach to our neighbours."
Those who have escaped the common foe make a mockery of us, they fling our
disasters into our face, and ask us, "Where is your God?" Pity should
be shown to the afflicted, but in too many cases it is not so, for a hard logic
argues that those who suffer more than ordinary calamities must have been
extraordinary sinners. Neighbours especially are often the reverse of
neighbourly; the nearer they dwell the less they sympathize. It is most
pitiable it should be so. "A scorn and a derision to them that are
round about us." To find mirth in others' miseries, and to exult over
the ills of others, is worthy only of the devil and of those whose father he
is. Thus the case is stated before the Lord, and it is a very deplorable one. Asaph
was an excellent advocate, for he gave a telling description of calamities
which were under his own eyes, and in which he sympathized, but we have a
mightier Intercessor above, who never ceases to urge our suit before the
eternal throne.
Verse
5. "How long, Lord?" Will there be no end to these
chastisements? They are most sharp and overwhelming; wilt thou much longer
continue them? "Wilt thou be angry for ever?" Is thy mercy
gone so that thou wilt for ever smite? "Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire?" There was great cause for the Lord to be jealous, since idols
had been set up, and Israel had gone aside from his worship, but the psalmist
begs the Lord not to consume his people utterly as with fire, but to abate
their woes.
Verse
6. "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known
thee." If thou must smite look further afield; spare thy children and
strike thy foes. There are lands where thou art in no measure acknowledged; be
pleased to visit these first with thy judgments, and let thine erring Israel
have a respite. "And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy
name." Hear us the prayerful, and avenge thyself upon the prayerless.
Sometimes providence appears to deal much more severely with the righteous than
with the wicked, and this verse is a bold appeal founded upon such an
appearance. It in effect says—Lord, if thou must empty out the vials of thy
wrath, begin with those who have no measure of regard for thee, but are openly
up in arms against thee; and be pleased to spare thy people, who are thine
notwithstanding all their sins.
Verse
7. "For they have devoured Jacob." The oppressor
would quite eat up the saints if he could. If these lions do not swallow us, it
is because the Lord has sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths. "And
laid waste his dwelling place," or his pasture. The invader left no
food for man or beast, but devoured all as the locust. The tender mercies of
the wicked are cruel.
Verse
8. "O remember not against us former iniquities."
Sins accumulate against nations. Generations lay up stores of transgressions to
be visited upon their successors; hence this urgent prayer. In Josiah's days
the most earnest repentance was not able to avert the doom which former long
years of idolatry had sealed against Judah. Every man has reason to ask for an
act of oblivion for his past sins, and every nation should make this a
continual prayer. "Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we
are brought very low." Hasten to our rescue, for our nation is
hurrying down to destruction; our numbers are diminished and our condition is
deplorable. Observe how penitent sorrow seizes upon the sweeter attributes, and
draws her picas from the "tender mercies" of God; see, too, how she
pleads her own distress, and not her goodness, as a motive for the display of
mercy. Let souls who are brought very low find an argument in their abject
condition. What can so powerfully appeal to pity as dire affliction? The quaint
prayer-book version is touchingly expressive: "O remember not our old
sins, but have mercy upon us, and that soon; for we are come to great
misery." This supplication befits a sinner's life. We have known seasons
when this would have been as good a prayer for our burdened heart as any that
human mind could compose.
Verse
9. "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy
name." This is masterly pleading. No argument has such force as this.
God's glory was tarnished in the eyes of the heathen by the defeat of his
people, and the profanation of his temple; therefore, his distressed servants
implore his aid, that his great name may no more be the scorn of blaspheming
enemies. "And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's
sake." Sin,—the root of the evil—is seen and confessed; pardon of sin
is sought as well as removal of chastisement, and both are asked not as matters
of right, but as gifts of grace. God's name is a second time brought into the
pleading. Believers will find it their wisdom to use very frequently this noble
plea: it is the great gun of the battle, the mightiest weapon in the armoury of
prayer.
Verse
10. "Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their
God?" Why should those impious mouths be filled with food so sweet to
them, but so bitter to us? When the afflictions of God's people become the
derision of sinners, and cause them to ridicule religion, we have good ground
for expostulation with the Lord. "Let him be known among the heathen in
our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed."
Justice is desired that God may be vindicated and feared. It is but meet that
those who taunted the people of God because they smarted under the Lord's rod,
should be made themselves also to smart by the same hand. If any complain of
the spirit of this imprecation, we think they do so needlessly; for it is the
common feeling of every patriot to desire to see his country's wrongs
redressed, and of every Christian to wish a noble vengeance for the church by
the overthrow of error. The destruction of Antichrist is the recompense of the
blood of the martyrs, and by no means is it to be deprecated; far rather is it
one of the most glorious hopes of the latter days.
Verse
11. "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee."
When thy people cannot sing, and dare not shout aloud, then let their silent
sigh ascend into thine ear, and secure for them deliverance. These words are
suitable for the afflicted in a great variety of conditions; men of experience
will know how to adapt them to their own position and to use them in reference
to others. "According to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those
that are appointed to die." Faith grows while it prays; the appeal to
the Lord's tender mercy is here supplemented by another addressed to the divine
power, and the petitioner rises from a request for those who are brought low,
to a prayer for those who are on the verge of death, set apart as victims for
the slaughter. How consoling is it to desponding believers to reflect that God
can preserve even those who bear the sentence of death in themselves. Men and
devils may consign us to perdition, while sickness drags us to the grave, and
sorrow sinks us in the dust; but, there is One who can keep our soul alive, ay,
and bring it up again from the depths of despair. A lamb shall live between the
lion's jaws if the Lord wills it. Even in the charnel, life shall vanquish
death if God be near.
Verse
12. "And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their
bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord."
They denied thine existence, mocked thy power, insulted thy worship, and
destroyed thy house; up, therefore, O Lord, and make them feel to the full that
thou art not to be mocked with impunity. Pour into their laps good store of
shame because they dared insult the God of Israel. Recompense them fully, till
they have received the perfect number of punishments. It will be so. The wish
of the text will become matter of fact. The Lord will avenge his own elect
though he bear long with them.
Verse
13. "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee
thanks far ever; we will shew forth thy praise to all generations."
The gratitude of the church is lasting as well as deep. On her tablets are
memorials of great deliverances, and, as long as she shall exist, her sons will
rehearse them with delight. We have a history which will survive all other
records, and it is bright in every line with the glory of the Lord. From the
direst calamities God's glory springs, and the dark days of his people become
the prelude to unusual displays of the Lord's love and power.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole
Psalm. This Psalm is, in every respect, the pendant of Psalm 74. The
points of contact are not merely matters of style (Ps 79:5, "how long for
ever?" with Ps 74:1,10 79:10, edwy, with Ps 74:5 79:2, the giving over to
the wild beasts, with Ps 74:19,14 79:13, the conception of Israel as of a
flock, in which respect Psalm 79 is judiciously appended to Ps 78:70-72, with
Ps 74:1 and also with Ps 74:19.) But the mutual relationships lie still deeper.
Both Psalms have the same Asaphic stamp, both stand in the same relation to
Jeremiah, and both send forth their complaints out of the same circumstances of
the time, concerning a destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, such as only
the age of the Seleucidae (1 Maccabees 1:31 3:45 2 Maccabees 8:3), together
with the Chaldean period can exhibit, and in conjunction with a defiling of the
Temple and a massacre of the servants of God, of the Chasîdîm (1
Maccabees 7:13 14:6), such as the age of the Seleucidae exclusively can
exhibit. The work of the destruction of the Temple which was in progress in Ps
74:1-23, appears in Ps 79:1-13 as completed, and here, as in the former Psalm,
one receives the impression of the outrages, not of some war, but of some
persecution: it is straightway the religion of Israel for the sake of which the
sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are massacred.—Franz Delitzsch.
Verse
1. Thy holy temple have they defiled. This was not only the
highest degree of the enemy's inhumanity and barbarity, ...but also a calamity
to the people of God never to be sufficiently deplored. For by the overthrow of
the temple the true worship of God, which had been instituted at that temple
alone, appeared to be extinguished, and the knowledge of God to vanish from
among mankind. No pious heart could ponder this without the greatest grief. Mollerus.
Verse
1. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. They have made
Jerusalem to be nothing but graves. Such multitudes were cruelly slain
and murdered, that Jerusalem was, as it were, but one grave.—Joseph Caryl.
Verses
1-4. In the time of the Maccabees, Demetrius, the son of Seleuces,
sent Bacchides to Jerusalem; who slew the scribes, who came to require justice,
and the Assideans, the first of the children of Israel who sought peace of
them. Bacchides "took of them threescore men, and slew them in one day,
according to the words which he wrote, the flesh of thy saints have they cast
out, and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none
to bury them." And in that last and most fearful destruction, when the
eagles of Rome were gathered round the doomed city, and the temple of which God
had said, "Let us depart hence; "when one stone was not to be left
upon another, when the fire was to consume the sanctuary, and the foundations
of Sion were to be ploughed up; when Jerusalem was to be filled with slain, and
the sons of Judah were to be crucified round her walls in such thick multitudes
that no more room was left for death; when insult, and shame, and scorn was the
lot of the child of Israel, as he wandered an outcast, a fugitive in all lands;
when all these bitter and deadly things came upon Jerusalem, it was as a
punishment for many and long repeated crimes; it was the accomplishment of a
warning which had been often sent in vain. Yea, fiercely did thy foes assault
thee, O Jerusalem, but thy sins more fiercely still!—"Plain
Commentary."
Verses
1, 4, 5. Entering the inhabited part of the old city, and winding through
some crooked, filthy lanes, I suddenly found myself on turning a sharp corner,
in a spot of singular interest; the "Jews' place of Wailing." It is a
small paved quadrangle; on one side are the backs of low modern houses, without
door or window; on the other is the lofty wall of the Haram, of recent date
above, but having below five courses of bevelled stones in a perfect state of
preservation. Here the Jews are permitted to approach the sacred enclosure, and
wail over the fallen temple, whose very dust is dear to them, and in whose
stones they still take pleasure. Ps 102:14. It was Friday, and a crowd of
miserable devotees had assembled—men and women of all ages and all nations
dressed in the quaint costumes of every country of Europe and Asia. Old men
were there,—pale, haggard, careworn men tottering on pilgrim staves; and little
girls with white faces, and lustrous black eyes, gazing wistfully now at their
parents, now at the old wall. Some were on their knees, chanting mournfully
from a book of Hebrew prayers, swaying their bodies to and fro; some were
prostrate on the ground, pressing forehead and lips to the earth; some were
close to the wall, burying their faces in the rents and crannies of the old
stones; some were kissing them, some had their arms spread out as if they would
clasp them to their bosoms, some were bathing them with tears, and all the
while sobbing as if their hearts would burst. It was a sad and touching
spectacle. Eighteen centuries of exile and woe have not dulled their hearts'
affections, or deadened their feelings of devotion. Here we see them assembled
from the ends of the earth, poor, despised, down trodden outcasts,—amid the
desolations of their fatherland, beside the dishonoured ruins of their ancient
sanctuary,—chanting now in accents of deep pathos, and now of wild woe, the
prophetic words of their own psalmist,—O God the heathen are come into thine
inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled...We are become a reproach to
our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long,
Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever?—J. L. Porter, in "The Giant Cities of
Bashan." 1865.
Verse
2. "The dead bodies of thy servants, "etc. It is a
true saying of S. Augustine, The care of our funeral, the manner of our burial,
the exequial pomp, all these magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia
mortuorum, are rather comforts for the living than any way helps for the
dead. To be interred profiteth not the party deceased; his body feels it not,
his soul regards it not; and we know that many holy martyrs have been excluded
from burial, who in a Christian scorn thereof bespoke their persecutors in
words of those which were slain at Pharsalia: "You effect nothing by this
anger; what matters it whether disease dissolve the body, or the funeral
pile!" But yet there is an honesty (i.e. a right, a proper respect)
which belongeth to the dead body of man. Jehu commanded Jezebel to be buried;
David thanked the people of Jabesh Gilead for burying of Saul. Peter, who
commanded Ananias and Sapphira, those false abdicators of their patrimony, to
die, commanded to have them buried being dead. It is an axiom of charity, Mortuo
non prohibeas gratiam, withhold not kindness from the dead. It shows our
love and regard for men in our own flesh to see them buried; it manifests our
faith and hope of the resurrection; and therefore when that body which is to
rise again, and to be made glorious and immortal in heaven, shall be cast to
the fowls of the air or beasts of the field, it argues in God great indignation
against sin (Jer 22:19, of Jehoiakim, "He shall be buried as an ass is
buried, and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem"); in man inhuman
and barbarous cruelty.—John Dunster, in "Prodromus." 1613.
Verses
2, 3. (The following extract is from the writings of a godly monk who
applies the language of the Psalm to the persecutions of his time. He wrote at
Rome during the period of the Reformation, and was evidently a favourer of the
gospel.) At this day what river is there, what brook, in this our afflicted
Europe, (if it is still ours) that we have not seen flowing with the blood of
Christians? And that too shed by the swords and spears of Christians? Wherefore
there is made a great wailing in Israel; and the princes and elders mourn; the
young men and virgins are become weak, and the beauty of the women is changed.
Why? The holy place itself is desolate as a wilderness. Hast thou ever seen so
dire a spectacle? They have piled up in heaps the dead bodies of thy servants
to be devoured by birds: the unburied remains of thy saints, I say, they have given
to the beasts of the earth. What greater cruelty could ever be committed? So
great was the effusion of human blood at that time, that the rivulets, yea,
rather, the rivers round the entire circuit of the city, flowed with it. And
thus truly is the form of our most beautiful city laid waste, and its
loveliness; and so reduced is it, that not even the men who carry forth dead
bodies for burial can be obtained, though pressed with the offer of large
rewards; so full of fear and horror were their minds: and this was all the more
bitter, because "We are become a reproach to those round about
us," and are spoken of in derision by the infidels abroad and by
enemies at home. Who is so bold as to endure this and live? How long therefore
shall this most bitter disquietude last?—Giambattista Folengo.
1490-1559.
Verse
2. "Dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat
unto the fowls." With what unconcern are we accustomed to view, on all
sides of us, multitudes, "dead in trespasses and sins, "torn in
pieces, and devoured by wild passions, filthy lusts, and infernal spirits,
those dogs and vultures of the moral world! Yet, to a discerning eye, and a
thinking mind, the latter is by far the more melancholy sight of the two.—George
Horne.
Verse
2. "Thy servants." "Thy saints." No
temporal wrath, no calamities whatsoever can separate the Lord's children from
God's love and estimation of them, nor untie the relation between God and them:
for here, albeit their carcases fall, and be devoured by the fowls of heaven and
beasts of the earth, yet remain they the Lord's servants and saints under these
sufferings.—David Dickson.
Verse
4. "We are become a reproach." If God's professing
people degenerate from what themselves and their fathers were, they must expect
to be told of it; and it is well if a just reproach will help to bring us to a
true repentance. But it has been the lot of the gospel Israel to be made
unjustly a reproach and derision; the apostles themselves were "counted as
the off scouring of all things."—Matthew Henry.
Verse
4. "A scorn and derision to them that are round about
us." This was more grievous to them than stripes or wounds, saith
Chrysostom, because these being inflicted upon the body are divided after a
sort betwixt soul and body, but scorns and reproaches do wound the soul only. Habet
quendam aculeum contumelia, they leave a sting behind them, as Cicero
observeth.—John Trapp.
Verse
4. It is the height of reproach a father casts upon his child when
he commands his slave to beat him. Of all outward judgments this is the sorest,
to have strangers rule over us, as being made up of shame and cruelty. If once
the heathen come into God's inheritance, no wonder the church complains that
she is "become a reproach to her neighbours, a shame and derision to
all round about her."—Abraham Wright.
Verse
5. "How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?"
The voice of complaint says not, How long, Lord, shall this wickedness of our
enemy endure? How long shall we see this desolation? But, How long, O Lord?
Wilt thou be angry for ever? We are admonished, therefore, in this passage,
that we should recognize the anger of God against us in all our afflictions,
lest as the nations are accustomed, we only accuse the malice of our enemies,
and never think of our sins and the divine punishment. It cannot be that he who
acknowledges the anger of God that is upon him, should not at the same time
acknowledge his fault also, unless he wishes to attribute the iniquity to God
of being angry and inflicting stripes upon the undeserving.—Musculus.
Verse
5. The word "jealousy" signifies not mere revenge
but revenge mingled with love, for unless he loved, says Jerome, he would not
be jealous, and after the manner of a husband avenge the sin of his wife.—Lorinus.
Verse
6. Neglect of prayer by unbelievers is threatened with punishment.
The prophet's imprecation is the same in effect with a threatening, see Jer
10:25, and same imprecation, Ps 79:6. The prophets would not have used such an
imprecation against those that call not upon God, but that their neglect of
calling on his name makes them liable to his wrath and fury; and no neglect
makes men liable to the wrath of God but the neglect of duty. Prayer, then, is
a duty even to the heathen, the neglect of which provokes him to pour out his
fury on them.—David Clarkson.
Verse
7. "They have devoured Jacob." Like wolves who
cruelly tear and devour a flock of sheep. For the word which follows signifies
not only a habitation in general, but also a sheepcote.—Mollerus.
Verse
8. "O remember not against us former iniquities."
The prophet numbers himself with the people not only in their affliction, but
also in their distress, and liability to the anger of God because of the crimes
committed. He was not a partner in those enormous sins by which they had
provoked the jealousy of God, and yet he exempts not himself from the people at
large. Thus, in the following verse, he says, "And purge away our
sins." He says not, Remember not the iniquity of this people; nor, And
purge away their sins: But, Remember not our iniquities: and Purge away our
sins. In this way the prophets, though holy men, were wont to make themselves
sharers of the people's sins, not by sinning, but by weeping and praying and
imploring the mercy of God. See Isaiah 59:12. "Our transgressions are
multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us." . . . Daniel
9:5. "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly, and have rebelled," etc. 1. Let us also follow this example,
that so far we may have fellowship with the whole Church, that we may be
partners of those who truly love and worship God. 2. Then, that abstaining from
false worship, we may not sin wickedly with the wicked. 3. That whenever we
ought to weep or pray, we may mourn and confess not only our own, but also the
shortcomings of the whole church corporate, as if they were common to
ourselves, even if we have no part in them, and may implore for them the mercy
of God.—Musculus.
Verse
8. "O remember not against us former iniquities."
The Jews have a saying, that there is no punishment happens to Israel, but
there is an ounce in it for the sin of the calf; their meaning is, that this is
always remembered and visited, according to Exodus 32:34; the phrase may take
in all the sins of former persons, their ancestors, and of former times, from
age to age, they had continued in, which had brought ruin upon them; and all
their own sins of nature and of youth, all past ones to the present time.—John
Gill.
Verse
8. "O remember not against us former iniquities."
Old debts vex most; the delay of payment increases them by interest upon
interest; and the return of them being unexpected, a person is least provided
for them. We count old sores, breaking forth, incurable. Augustus wondered at a
person sleeping quietly that was very much in debt, and sent for his pillow,
saying, "surely there is some strange virtue in it, that makes him rest so
secure." My brethren, if one debt unto God's law be more than the whole
creation can satisfy, what do any of us mean to rest secure with so vast a
burden upon our consciences and accounts? Ah! take heed thou beest not
surprised and arrested with old debts. O God, thou rememberest former
iniquities against us. God will call over, and charge thy sins upon thee,
when all the sweet is gone.—Elias Pledger (—1681), in "Morning
Exercises."
Verse
8. "O remember not against us former iniquities."
The only right way to remedy a miserable condition, is to sue for the remission
of sins, and for the renewed evidence of reconciliation: for before the church
here do ask any thing for their outward delivery, they pray, "O
remember not against us former iniquities."—David Dickson.
Verse
8. "Speedily." Lest they come too late, for we are
at our last gasp.—John Trapp.
Verse
8. "Prevent." God's mercy must anticipate, "come
to meet," man's necessity.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
8. "We are brought very low." Literally, "We
are greatly thinned." Few of us remain.—Adam Clarke.
Verse
8. "We are brought very low." We are very greatly
exhausted (emptied out): that is, we are utterly destitute of all things, both
fortune, and strength of mind and body, just like a well or a vessel completely
emptied.—Martin Geier.
Verse
8. "Very low." Past the hopes of all human help,
and therefore the glory of our deliverance will be wholly thine.—Matthew
Pool.
Verse
8. "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy
name and deliver us." "Help us" under our troubles, that we
may bear them well; "help us" out of our troubles, that the spirit
may not fail. "Deliver us" from sin, and from sinking.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse
9. "God of our salvation." If human reason were to
judge of the many and great blows wherewith God so often smote and wasted his
people, it would call God not the Saviour of the people, but the destroyer and
oppressor. But the faith of the Prophet judges far otherwise of God, and sees
even in an angry and pursuing God, the salvation of his people. The gods of the
nations, though they do not afflict even in temporal things, are gods not of
the salvation of their worshippers but of their perdition. But our God, even
when he is most severely angry, and smites, is not the God of destruction, but
of salvation.—Musculus.
Verse
9. "For thy name's sake." Twice the appeal is made "for
thy name's sake;" that revelation of God which he had made of himself
to Moses when he passed by and proclaimed the name of Jehovah, Ex. 24:6, 7.
Compare Ps. 20:1, 23:3; 29:2.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
9. "For thy name's sake." The good which God doth
unto his church, be it temporal or spiritual, is for his own sake. What I do
(saith God), I do for mine holy name's sake; there is nothing to move me but
mine own name; that is holy, great, and glorious, and I will for my name's sake
do much for my church and people. That they were preserved in Babylon, was for
his holy name's sake; that they were brought out of Babylon, was for his holy
name's sake; that they were replanted in Canaan, was for his holy name's sake;
that they had a temple, sacrifices, priests, prophets, ordinances again, was
for his name's sake; when they were near to destruction often, in former days,
God wrought for his name's sake, Ezek. 20; so Isaiah 48:8, 9. It is not for the
enemies' sake that God doth preserve or deliver his people; nor for their
sakes, their prayers, tears, faith, obedience, holiness, that he doth great
things for them, bestows great mercies upon them; but it is for his own name's
sake. For man's sake God cursed the earth, Gen. 8:21; but it is for his name's
sake that he blesseth it. The choicest mercies God's people have, are for his
name's sake; they have pardon of sin for his name's sake, Ps. 25:11, 1 John
2:12; purging of sin for his name's sake; Ps. 79:9; leading in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake, Ps. 23:2; quickening of their dead and dull
hearts for his name's sake, Ps. 143:11. Though his people offend him, yet he
forsakes them not, for his great name's sake.—William Greenhill.
Verse
9. If God could not he more glorified in our peace and
reconciliation, than in our death and damnation, it were a wicked thing to
desire it. But God hath cleared this up to us, that he is no loser by acts of
mercy. In this lies the greatest revenue of his crown, or else he would not
love "mercy rather than sacrifice." God is free to choose what suits
his own heart best, and most conduceth to the exalting of his great name: and
he delights more in the mercy shown to one than in the blood of all the damned,
that are made a sacrifice to his justice. And, indeed, he had a higher end in
their damnation than their suffering; and that was the enhancing of the glory
of his mercy, in his saved ones. This is the beautiful piece God takes delight
in, and the other but the shadow of it. Then thou art in a fit disposition to
pray for peace, and mayest go with encouragement when thy heart is deeply
affected with the honour that will accrue to God by it. It is an argument God
will not deny. "This," said Abigail to David, "shall be no grief
to thee nor offence of heart unto my Lord," 1 Sam. 25; she meant, he should
never have cause to repent that he was kept from Shedding blood. Thus mayest
thou plead with God, and say, O Lord, when I shall with saints and angels be
praising thy pardoning grace in heaven, it will not grieve thee that thy mercy
kept thee from shedding my blood, damning my soul in hell.—William Gurnall.
Verse
9. When the Lord's people are brought very low, let them not look
for a lifting up or relief except from God only; therefore say they here, "Help
us, O Lord." Such as have laid hold on God for salvation promised in
the covenant, may also look for particular deliveries out of particular
troubles, as appendices of the main benefit of salvation; therefore, "Help
us, O God of our salvation," say they. When men do ask anything, the
granting whereof may glorify God, they may confidently expect to have it; and
in special when God may be so glorified, and his people may also be preserved
and comforted: "Help us (say they) for the glory of thy name:
and deliver us." As the conscience of sin useth to step in oftener
between us and mercy, so must we call oftener for remission of sin; for earnest
affection can double and treble the same petition without babbling; "Deliver
us, and purge away our sins." It is the glory of the Lord to forget
sin, and when remission of sins is prayed for according to God's promise, the
Lord's glory is engaged for the helping of faith to obtain it: "Purge
away our sins, for thy name's sake."—David Dickson.
Verse
11. "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee."
The propriety of styling the sons of Adam "prisoners," can
scarcely fail to be discerned when we remember the restraint which the immortal
spirit endures whilst it inhabits its present earthly house, or recollect the
hardships to which many of our race are subjected, or, once more, the degrading
slavery to which they reduce themselves by serving their own lusts and refusing
to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ would make them free. Now, in
whichever of these senses men are prisoners, it is clear that they have
occasion and that they are wont to sigh, and that it is the part of the pious
and faithful believer in God to bear this in mind, and, inasmuch as he has put
on bowels of compassion, to say, as well for others as for himself, "Let
the sighing of the prisoner came before thee." Three things, then, are
suggested by the first clause of the passage before us. The first is, that all
who live in this world are prisoners . . .. We would go on to remark, secondly,
that these various prisoners have their respective sorrowful sighings. Thirdly,
then, let it be observed, will the believer, conscious of these several
sighings of the crowd of prisoners whom he sees all around him, pray to the
Almighty that they may come before his everlasting presence.—W. C. Le Breton.
(1849.)
Verse
11. "The sighing." The nature of a sigh will suggest
to us some important particulars connected with the state of bondage spoken of
in the text. A sigh is an unexpressed declaration. Although we do not
speak, still we can tell a long tale of sorrow with a sigh. How often the
mourner who will not tell a human being of his grief, will vent it when he is
alone, with a long-drawn, an uneven sigh! Now, I direct your attention to this,
because it is a perfect picture of the spiritual condition in which some men
are. They are not loud in their complaints; they are not standing in the
corners of the streets proclaiming their exceeding sinfulness; they are not
continually making their neighbours and their friends hear them preach about
their vileness—a vileness which, if any one else attributed to them, would stir
up all their wrath. Theirs is not the character of men in strife; but of men
bearing a heavy burden, which presses from them an evidence of what they
endure. And if any of you, brethren, thus walk in sighs and sorrow before God,
he takes these sighs as applications to him for relief. Your misery, if
entirely pent in, would be obstinate impenitency, but if vented, even in a
sigh, is a declaration of your need. Let me encourage you, brethren, not to
spare these evidences of your state. There are times when you feel so dead that
you cannot enter into long confessions; when the spirit is so weary that you
feel that you cannot speak. Much might at such a season be spoken by a sign.
"Destroy it not," we say, "for a blessing is in it:" pour
it forth, find it will reach the throne. And here it will prove to be not only an
unexpressed declaration of your state, but also an unexpressed wish for
deliverance therefrom. When the captive gazes through the bars of iron
which night and day stand like mute sentinels before the narrow window of his
cell, and when his eyes fall upon the green fields and groves beyond, he sighs,
and turns away from the scene with a wish. He spake not a word, yet he wished.
That sigh was a wish that he could be set free. And such sighs as these are
heard by God. Your longings, your sorrows, when they are not fulfilled, your
sad thoughts,—"Oh! when shall I be delivered from the burden of my sin,
and from the coldness of my heart!"—all these wishes were your sighs, and
they have been heard on high.—Philip Bennett Power.
Verse
11. "The prisoner." An eastern prison is still a
place of great misery, chiefly from the limited supply of water to the
prisoners.—Daniel Cresswell.
Verse
11. "Come before thee."
Though
not a human votes he hears,
And not a human form appears
His solitude to share,
He is not all alone—the eye
Of him who hears the prisoner's sigh
Is even on him there.
—J.
L. Chester.
Verse
11. "Preserve thou those that are appointed to die." Ought
not pious people more closely to imitate their heavenly Father in caring for
those who have been condemned to die? An eminent Christian lady keeps a record
of all who have been sentenced to death, so far as she hears of them, and prays
for them every day till their end come. Is not such conduct in sympathy with
the heart of God!—William S. Plummer.
Verse
12. "Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their
bosom," etc. This may seem to be contrary to common justice; because
that the punishment should not exceed the fault. But here you are to know, that
this hath not respect unto what the enemies of God's church have acted, but
what they have deserved. And therefore when the prophet here says, "Render
unto our neighbours sevenfold," it is not sevenfold beyond their
deserts; for one scorn that a wicked man poureth upon a child of God (and so
upon God), cannot be recompensed with ten thousand reproaches poured upon
wicked men. The least reproach poured upon God is an infinite wrong. And the reproach
of his people is so much his, as he reckons it as his own; and will therefore
render to their enemies their reproach "sevenfold" (and that's
but equal) "into their bosom."—Abraham Wright.
Verse
12. "Unto our neighbours." Because their scorn was more
intolerable, and also more inexcusable than the oppression of distant enemies.—J.
J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
12. "Into their bosom." An expression which
originally seems to have had reference to the practice of carrying and holding
things in the lap, or the front fold of the flowing oriental dress, has in
usage the accessory sense of retribution or retaliation.—Joseph Addison
Alexander.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse
4. Saints the subject of derision to sinners. When justly so. When
unjustly. What do they see to excite ridicule; what shall we do under the
trial; how will it end?
Verse
5.
1.
The cause of anger: jealousy.
2.
The moderation of it. If it continued for ever, the people would perish, the
promises be unfulfilled, the covenant fail, and the Lord's honour be impeached.
3.
The staying of it. By prayer; by pleading his name, his glory, and the blood of
Jesus.
Verse
8. A sinner's confession, petition, and plea.
Verse
9. I. A threefold prayer. II. An encouraging title: "God of our
salvation." III. A victorious plea.
Verse
10.
I. The Prayer. "Help us," etc.
1. Purge away sin.
2. Deliver us from our troubles.
3. Help us to serve thee in future.
II. The Plea.
1. For thy name's sake.
2. The glory of thy name.
3. The glory of thy name as our salvation. The order in both cases is
inverted.—G. R.
Verse
10. The revenge for the martyrs, which it is lawful and incumbent
upon us to desire.
Verse
11.
I. The prisoner.
1. Under forced bondage to sin.
2. Under the bondage of conviction.
3. In the dungeon of despair.
II. The prisoner's application for relief.
III. The source from which he looked for help.—P. B. Power.
Verse
11.
I. The degree of protection solicited: "According to the greatness of thy
power."
II. The protection itself: "Preserve thou."
III. The objects of it: "Those that are appointed to die."—W. C.
Le Breton.
Verse
11.
I. Mournful condition. A prisoner, sighing, appointed to die.
II. Hopeful facts: a God, a God hearing sighs, a God of great power.
III. Suitable prayers: "come before thee": "preserve."
Verse
11. "Appointed to die," used as a description of
deep spiritual distress. Fears of the divine decree, of having apostatised, of
having sinned away the day of grace, of the sin which is unto death, etc. How
these cases can be effectually met.
Verse
13. The obligations of the Protestant church based on her martyrs'
blood, her great deliverances, her nearness to God. She ought to secure gospel
teaching to coming generations.
Verse
13.
I. Relation claimed: "We thy people, the sheep of," etc.
II. Obligation admitted: "So we," etc., when thou hast interposed for
our deliverance, we will praise thee.
III. Resolution formed. 1. To give thanks for ever. 2. To transmit his praise
to generations following.—G. R
WORK UPON THE
SEVENTY-NINTH PSALM
"Prodromus,
or the Literal Destruction of Jerusalem as it is described in the 79th
Psalm...1613" (By JOHN DUNSTER.)
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》