| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Psalm Ninety-five
Psalm 95
Chapter Contents
part. An exhortation to praise God. (1-7) A warning not
to tempt Him. (7-11)
Commentary on Psalm 95:1-7
(Read Psalm 95:1-7)
Whenever we come into God's presence, we must come with
thanksgiving. The Lord is to be praised; we do not want matter, it were well if
we did not want a heart. How great is that God, whose the whole earth is, and
the fulness thereof; who directs and disposes of all!, The Lord Jesus, whom we
are here taught to praise, is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles,
and God over all, blessed for evermore. To him all power is given, both in
heaven and earth. He is our God, and we should praise him. He is our Saviour,
and the Author of our blessedness. The gospel church is his flock, Christ is
the great and good Shepherd of believers; he sought them when lost, and brought
them to his fold.
Commentary on Psalm 95:7-11
(Read Psalm 95:7-11)
Christ calls upon his people to hear his voice. You call
him Master, or Lord; then be his willing, obedient people. Hear the voice of
his doctrine, of his law, and in both, of his Spirit: hear and heed; hear and
yield. Christ's voice must be heard to-day. This day of opportunity will not
last always; improve it while it is called to-day. Hearing the voice of Christ
is the same with believing. Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all distrust
of the Lord. The sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in
their steps. The murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition. God is
not subject to such passions as we are; but he is very angry at sin and
sinners. That certainly is evil, which deserves such a recompence; and his
threatenings are as sure as his promises. Let us be aware of the evils of our
hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for
believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and
perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 95
Verse 3
[3] For
the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
God's —
Above all that are called God's angels, earthly potentates, and especially the
false gods of the Heathen.
Verse 4
[4] In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is
his also.
Hand —
Under his government.
Strength —
The strongest or highest mountains.
Verse 7
[7] For
he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
To day if ye will hear his voice,
Pasture —
Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which he hath
appropriated to himself.
The sheep —
Which are under his special care.
Today —
Forthwith or presently.
Verse 8
[8]
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation
in the wilderness:
Harden not — By
obstinate unbelief.
Provocation — In
that bold and wicked contest with God in the wilderness.
Temptation — In
the day in which you tempted me.
Verse 9
[9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Works —
Both of mercy, and of justice.
Verse 10
[10]
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people
that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Do err —
Their hearts are insincere and bent to backsliding.
Not known —
After all my teaching and discoveries of myself to them; they did not know, nor
consider, those great things which I had wrought for them.
Verse 11
[11] Unto
whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
My rest —
Into the promised land, which is called the rest, Deuteronomy 12:9.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
TITLE. This Psalm has
no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as "in
David." (Heb 4:7.) It is true that this may merely signify that it is
to be found in the collection known as David's Psalms; but if such were the
Apostle's meaning it would have been more natural for him to have written,
"saying in the Psalms; "we therefore incline to the belief that David
was the actual author of this poem. It is in its original a truly Hebrew song,
directed both in its exhortation and warning to the Jewish people, but we have
the warrant of the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Hebrews for using its
appeals and entreaties when pleading with Gentile believers. It is a psalm of
invitation to worship. It has about it a ring like that or church bells, and
like the bells it sounds both merrily and solemnly, at first ringing out a
lively peal, and then dropping into a funeral knell as if tolling at the
funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness. We will call it THE
PSALM OF THE PROVOCATION.
DIVISION. It would be
correct as to the sense to divide this psalm into an invitation and a warning
so as to commence the second part with the last clause of Ps 95:7: but upon the
whole it may be more convenient to regard Ps 95:6 as "the beating heart of
the psalm, "as Hengstenberg calls it, and make the division at the end of
Ps 95:5. Thus it will form (1) an invitation with reasons, and (2) an
invitation with warnings.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. O come, let us sing unto the LORD. Other nations sing unto
their gods, let us sing unto Jehovah. We love him, we admire him, we reverence
him, let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our noblest
faculty for its noblest end. It is well thus to urge others to magnify the
Lord, but we must be careful to set a worthy example ourselves, so that we may
be able not only to cry "Come", but also to add "let us
sing", because we are singing ourselves. It is to be feared that very much
even of religious singing is not unto the Lord but unto the car of the
congregation: above all things we must in our service of song take care that
all we offer is with the heart's sincerest and most fervent intent directed
toward the Lord himself. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our
salvation. With holy enthusiasm let us sing, making a sound which shall indicate
our earnestness; with abounding joy let us lift up our voices, actuated by that
happy and peaceful spirit which trustful love is sure to foster. As the
children of Israel sang for joy when the smitten rock poured forth its cooling
streams, so let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. The author
of this song had in his mind's eye the rock, the tabernacle, the Red Sea, and
the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all in this first part of his
hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock, and in him we find
deliverance and safety, therefore it becomes us to praise him with heart and
with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we
assemble as his people for public worship.
"Come
let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
it
becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and
especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for
public worship.
"Come
let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
it
becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and
especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for
public worship.
"Come
let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
Verse
2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Here is
probably a reference to the peculiar presence of God in the Holy of Holies
above the mercy seat, and also to the glory which shone forth out of the cloud
which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is present, but there is a
peculiar presence of grace and glory into which men should never come without
the profoundest reverence. We may make bold to come before the immediate
presence of the Lord—for the voice of the Holy Ghost in this psalm invites us,
and when we do draw near to him we should remember his great goodness to us and
cheerfully confess it. Our worship should have reference to the past as well as
to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for what we have already received,
how can we reasonably look for more. We are permitted to bring our petitions,
and therefore we are in honour bound to bring our thanksgivings. And make a
joyful noise unto him with psalms. We should shout as exultingly as those do
who triumph in war, and as solemnly as those whose utterance is a psalm. It is
not always easy to unite enthusiasm with reverence, and it is a frequent fault
to destroy one of these qualities while straining after the other. The
perfection of singing is that which unites joy with gravity, exultation with
humility, fervency with sobriety. The invitation given in the first verse (Ps
95:1) is thus repeated in the second (Ps 95:2) with the addition of directions,
which indicate more fully the intent of the writer. One can imagine David in
earnest tones persuading his people to go up with him to the worship of Jehovah
with sound of harp and hymn, and holy delight. The happiness of his exhortation
is noteworthy, the noise is to be joyful; this quality he insists upon
twice. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in ordinary
services, people are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be serious
that they put on the aspect of misery, and quite forget that joy is as much a
characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself.
Verse
3. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
No doubt the surrounding nations imagined Jehovah to be a merely local deity,
the god of a small nation, and therefore one of the inferior deities; the
psalmist utterly repudiates such an idea. Idolaters tolerated gods many and
lords many, giving to each a certain measure of respect; the monotheism of the
Jews was not content with this concession, it rightly claimed for Jehovah the
chief place, and the supreme power. He is great, for he is all in all; he is a
great King above all other powers and dignitaries, whether angels or princes,
for they owe their existence to him; as for the idol gods, they are not worthy
to be mentioned. This verse and the following supply some of the reasons for
worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the Lord.
Verse
4. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. He is the
God of the valleys and the hills, the caverns, and the peaks. Far down where
the miners sink their shafts, deeper yet where lie the secret oceans by which
springs are fed, and deepest of all in the unknown abyss where rage and flame
the huge central fires of earth, there Jehovah's power is felt, and all things
are under the dominion of his hand. As princes hold the mimic globe in their
hands, so does the Lord in very deed hold the earth. When Israel drank of the
crystal fount which welled up from the great deep, below the smitten rock, the
people knew that in the Lord's hands were the deep places of the earth. The
strength of the hills is his also. When Sinai was altogether on a smoke the
tribes learned that Jehovah was God of the hills as well as of the valleys.
Everywhere and at all times is this true; the Lord rules upon the high places
of the earth in lonely majesty. The vast foundations, the gigantic spurs, the
incalculable masses, the untrodden heights of the mountains are all the Lord's.
These are his fastnesses and treasure houses, where he stores the tempest and
the rain; whence also he pours the ice torrents and looses the avalanches. The
granite peaks and adamantine aiguilles are his, and his the precipices and the
beetling crags. Strength is the main thought which strikes the mind when gazing
on those vast ramparts of cliff which front the raging sea, or peer into the
azure sky, piercing the clouds, but it is to the devout mind the strength of
God; hints of Omnipotence are given by those stern rocks which brave the fury
of the elements, and like walls of brass defy the assaults of nature in her
wildest rage.
Verse
5. The sea is his. This was seen to be true at the Red Sea
when the waters saw their God, and obediently stood aside to open a pathway for
his people. It was not Edom's sea though it was red, nor Egypt's sea though it
washed her shores. The Lord on high reigned supreme over the flood, as King far
ever and ever. So is it with the broad ocean, whether known as Atlantic or
Pacific, Mediterranean or Arctic; no man can map it out and say "It is
mine"; the illimitable acreage of waters knows no other lord but God
alone. Jehovah rules the waves. Far down in vast abysses, where no eye of man
has gazed, or foot of diver has descended, he is sole proprietor; every rolling
billow and foaming wave owns him for monarch; Neptune is but a phantom, the
Lord is God of ocean. And he made it. Hence his right and sovereignty. He
scooped the unfathomed channel and poured forth the overflowing flood; seas
were not fashioned by chance, nor their shores marked out by the imaginary
finger of fate; God made the main, and every creek, and bay, and current, and
far sounding tide owns the great Maker's hand. All hail, Creator and Controller
of the sea, let those who fly in the swift ships across the wonder realm of
waters worship thee alone! And his hands formed the dry land. Whether fertile
field or sandy waste, he made all that men called terra firma, lifting
it from the floods and fencing it from the overflowing waters. "The earth
is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." He bade the isles upraise their
heads, he levelled the vast plains, upreared the table lands, cast up the
undulating hills, and piled the massive Alps. As the potter moulds his clay, so
did Jehovah with his hands fashion the habitable parts of the earth. Come ye,
then, who dwell on this fair world, and worship him who is conspicuous wherever
ye tread! Count it all as the floor of a temple where the footprints of the
present Deity are visible before your eyes if ye do but care to see. The
argument is overpowering if the heart be right; the command to adore is alike
the inference of reason and the impulse of faith.
Verse
6. Here the exhortation to worship is renewed and backed with a
motive which, to Israel of old and to Christians now, is especially powerful;
for both the Israel after the flesh and the Israel of faith may be described as
the people of his pasture, and by both he is called "our God." O
come, let us worship and bow down. The adoration is to be humble. The
"joyful noise" is to be accompanied with lowliest reverence. We are
to worship in such style that the bowing down shall indicate that we count
ourselves to be as nothing in the presence of the all glorious Lord. Let us
kneel before the Lord our maker. As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not
presumptuous; familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as
creatures before their maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something;
prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart
should show its awe by prostrating the body, and bending the knee.
Verse
7. For he is our God. Here is the master reason for worship.
Jehovah has entered into covenant with us, and from all the world beside has
chosen us to be his own elect. If others refuse him homage, we at least will
render it cheerfully. He is ours, and our God; ours, therefore will we love
him; our God, therefore will we worship him. Happy is that man who can
sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to himself. And we
are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. As he belongs to us,
so do we belong to him. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." And we
are his as the people whom he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not
ours, but his; we draw all our supplies from his stores. We are his, even as
sheep belong to the shepherd, and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our
government, our succour, our source of supply. Israel was led through the
desert, and we are led through this life by "that great Shepherd of the
sheep." The hand which cleft the sea and brought water from the rock is
still with us, working equal wonders. Can we refuse to "worship and bow
down" when we clearly see that "this God is our God for ever and
ever, and will be our guide, even unto death"? But what is this warning
which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people,
and is not one whir the less required by ourselves. The favoured nation grew
deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it
is written, "My sheep hear my voice": will this turn out to be our
character also? God forbid. To day if ye will hear his voice. Dreadful
"if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and
provoked their God." Today, "in the hour of grace, in the day of
mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator.
Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limiteth a certain day, "he presses
for immediate attention, for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience.
Shall we yield it? The Holy Ghost saith "Today, "will we grieve him
by delay?
Verse
8. Harden not your heart. If ye will hear, learn to fear
also. The sea and the land obey him, do not prove more obstinate than they!
"Yield
to his love who round you now
The bands of a man would east."
We
cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be
fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts
against our own mercies. While mercy reigns let not obduracy rebel. "As in
the provocations, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (or,
"like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the wilderness"). Be not
wilfully, wantonly, repeatedly, obstinately rebellious. Let the example of that
unhappy generation serve as a beacon to you; do not repeat the offences which
have already more than enough provoked the Lord. God remembers men's sins, and
the more memorably so when they are committed by a favoured people, against
frequent warnings, in defiance of terrible judgments, and in the midst of
superlative mercies; such sins write their record in marble. Reader, this verse
is for you, for you even if you can say, "He is our God, and we are the
people of his pasture." Do not seek to turn aside the edge of the warning;
thou hast good need of it, give good heed to it.
Verse
9. When your fathers tempted me. As far as they could do so
they tempted God to change his usual way, and to do their sinful bidding, and
though he cannot be tempted of evil, and will never yield to wicked requests,
yet their intent was the same, and their guilt was none the less. God's way is
perfect, and when we would have him alter it to please us, we are guilty of
tempting him; and the fact that we do so in vain, while it magnifies the Lord's
holiness, by no means excuses our guilt. We are in most danger of tills sin in
times of need, for then it is that we are apt to fall into unbelief, and to
demand a change in those arrangements of providence which are the transcript of
perfect holiness and infinite wisdom. Not to acquiesce in the will of God is
virtually to tempt him to alter his plans to suit our imperfect views of how
the universe should be governed. Proved me. They put the Lord to needless
tests, demanding new miracles, fresh interpositions, and renewed tokens of his
presence. Do not we also peevishly require frequent signs of the Lord's love
other than those which every hour supplies? Are we not prone to demand
specialities, with the alternative secretly offered in our hearts, that if they
do not come at our bidding we will disbelieve? True, the Lord is very condescending,
and frequently grants us marvellous evidences of his power, but we ought not to
require them. Steady faith is due to one who is so constantly kind. After so
many proofs of his love, we are ungrateful to wish to prove him again, unless
it be in those ways of his own appointing, in which he has said, "Prove me
now." If we were for ever testing the love of our wife or husband, and
remained unconvinced after years of faithfulness, we should wear out the utmost
human patience. Friendship only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence,
suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God, true and immutable, be day after
day suspected by his own people? Will not this provoke him to anger? And saw my
work. They tested him again and again, through out forty years, though each
time his work was conclusive evidence of his faithfulness. Nothing could
convince them for long.
"They
saw his wonders wrought,
And then his praise they sung;
But soon his works of power forgot,
And murmured with their tongue."
"Now
they believe his word,
While rocks with rivers flow;
Now with their lusts provoke the Lord,
And he reduced them low."
Fickleness
is bound up in the heart of man, unbelief is our besetting sin; we must for
ever be seeing, or we waver in our believing. This is no mean offence, and will
bring with it no small punishment.
Verse
10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. The
impression upon the divine mind is most vivid; he sees them before him now, and
calls them "this generation." He does not leave his prophets to
upbraid the sin, but himself utters the complaint and declares that he was
grieved, nauseated, and disgusted. It is no small thing which can grieve our
long suffering God to the extent which the Hebrew word here indicates, and if
we reflect a moment we shall see the abundant provocation given; for no one who
values his veracity can endure to be suspected, mistrusted, and belied, when
there is no ground for it, but on the contrary the most overwhelming reason for
confidence. To such base treatment was the tender Shepherd of Israel exposed,
not for a day or a month, but for forty years at a stretch, and that not by
here and there an unbeliever, but by a whole nation, in which only two men were
found so thoroughly believing as to be exempted from the doom which at last was
pronounced upon all the rest. Which shall we most wonder at, the cruel
insolence of man, or the tender patience of the Lord? Which shall leave the
deepest impression on our minds, the sin or the punishment? unbelief, or the
barring of the gates of Jehovah's rest against the unbelievers? And said, It is
a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
Their heart was obstinately and constantly at fault; it was not their head
which erred, but their very heart was perverse: love, which appealed to their
affections, could not convert them. The heart is the main spring of the man,
and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. If sin were
only skin deep, it might be a slight matter; but since it has defiled the soul,
the case is bad indeed. Taught as they were by Jehovah himself in lessons
illustrated by miracles, which came to them daily in the manual from heaven,
and the water from the flinty rock, they ought to have learned something, and
it was a foul shame that they remained obstinately ignorant, and would not know
the ways of God. Wanderers in body, they were also wanderers in heart, and the
plain providential goodness of their God remained to their blinded minds as
great a maze as those twisting paths by which he led them through the
wilderness. Are we better than they? Are we not quite as apt to misinterpret
the dealings of the Lord? Have we suffered and enjoyed so many things in vain?
With many it is even so. Forty years of providential wisdom, yea, and even a
longer period of experience, have failed to teach them serenity of assurance,
and firmness of reliance. There is ground for much searching of heart
concerning this. Many treat unbelief as a minor fault, they even regard it
rather as an infirmity than a crime, but the Lord thinketh not so. Faith is
Jehovah's due, especially from those who claim to be the people of his pasture,
and yet more emphatically from those whose long life has been crowded with
evidences of his goodness: unbelief insults one of the dearest attributes of
Deity, it does so needlessly and without the slightest ground and in defiance
of all sufficient arguments, weighty with the eloquence of love. Let us in
reading this psalm examine ourselves, and lay these things to heart.
Verse
11. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into
my rest. There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and
miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with
the land which flowed with milk and honey. Canaan was to be the typical resting
place of God, where his ark should abide, and the ordinances of religion should
be established; the Lord had for forty years borne with the ill manners of the
generation which came out of Egypt, and it was but right that he should resolve
to have no more of them. Was it not enough that they had revolted all along
that marvellous wilderness march? Should they be allowed to make new Messahs
and Meribahs in the Promised Land itself? Jehovah would not have it so. He not
only said but swore that into his rest they should not come, and that oath
excluded every one of them; their carcases fell in the wilderness. Solemn
warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring
and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in because of unbelief,
"let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his
rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it." One blessed
inference from this psalm must not be forgotten. It is clear that there is a
rest of God, and that some must enter into it: but "they to whom it was
first preached entered not in because of unbelief, there remaineth therefore a
rest to the people of God." The unbelievers could not enter, but "we
which have believed do enter into rest." Let us enjoy it, and praise the
Lord for it for ever. Ours is the true Sabbatic rest, it is ours to rest from
out own works as God did from his. While we do so, let us "come into his
presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms."
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole
Psalm. These six psalms, 95 to 100, form, if I mistake not, one entire
prophetic poem, cited by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, under the
title of the Introduction of the First Born into the world. Each Psalm has its
proper subject, which is some particular branch of the general argument, the
establishment of the Messiah's Kingdom. The 95th Psalm asserts Jehovah's
Godhead, and his power over all nature, and exhorts his people to serve him. In
Psalm 96th all nations are exhorted to join in his service, because he cometh
to judge all mankind, Jew and Gentile. In the 97th Psalm, Jehovah reigns over
all the world, the idols are deserted, the Just One is glorified. In the 98th
Psalm, Jehovah hath done wonders, and wrought deliverance for himself: he hath
remembered his mercy towards the house of Israel; he comes to judge the whole
world. In the 99th, Jehovah, seated between the cherubim in Zion, the visible
Church, reigns over all the world, to be praised for the justice of his
government. In the 100th Psalm, all the world is called upon to praise Jehovah
the Creator, whose mercy and truth are everlasting.—Samuel Horsley.
Whole
Psalm. This Psalm is twice quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as a
warning to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, in the writer's day, that they
should not falter in the faith, and despise God's promises, as their
forefathers had done in the wilderness, lest they should fail of entering into
his rest; see He 3:7, where verse 7 of this Psalm is introduced with the words,
"As the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, "and see
He 4:7, where it is said, "Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in
David, Today." It has by some been inferred from these words that the
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews ascribes this Psalm to David. It may be
so. But it seems not improbable that the words "in David" mean simply
"the Book of Psalms, "the whole being named from the greater part;
and that if he had meant that David wrote the Psalm, he would have written,
"David spake, "or, "the Holy Ghost spake by David, "and not
as it is written, "as it is said in David."—Christopher
Wordsworth.
Verse
1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, etc. The first verse of the
Psalm begins the invitation unto praise and exultation. It is a song of three
parts, and every part (like Jacob's part of the sheep) brings forth twins; each
a double string, as it were, in the music of this praise, finely twisted of two
parts into a kind of discordant concord, falling into a musical close through a
differing yet reconciled diapason. The first couple in this song of praise are
multitude and unity, concourse and concord: "O come", there's
multitude and concourse; "let us, "there's unity and concord. The second
twisted pair, are tongue and heart, "let us sing, "there's the voice
and sound; and "heartily rejoice, "there's the heart and soul. The
third and last intertwisted string, or part in the musick, is might and mercy,
(rock or) strength and salvation; God's strength and our salvation: "to
the strength (or rock) of our salvation."—Charles Herle (1598-1659)
in a "Sermon before the House of Lords", entitled, "David's
Song of Three Parts".
Verse
1. Come. The word "come" contains an exhortation,
exciting them to join heart and lips in praising God; just as the word is used
in Genesis, where the people, exciting and encouraging each other, say,
"Come, let us make bricks; "and "Come, let us make a city and a
town; "and, in the same chapter, the Lord says, "Come, let us go
down, and there confound their tongue."—Bellarmine.
Verse
1. If it be so that one "come, let us" goes further than
twenty times go and do, how careful should such be whom God hath raised to
eminence of place that their examples be Jacob's ladders to help men to heaven,
not Jeroboam's stumbling blocks to lie in their way, and make Israel to sin.—Charles
Herle.
Verse
1. There is a silent hint here at that human listlessness and
distraction of cares whereby we are more prompt to run after other things than
to devote ourselves seriously to the becoming praises and service of God. Our
foot has a greater proclivity to depart to the field, the oxen, and the
new wife, than to come to the sacred courts, Lu 14:18, seq. See Isa 2:3,
"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord."—Martin
Geier.
Verse
1. Joyful noise. The verb eyrh, signifies to make a loud
sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the psalms, it
generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the
Temple service. This wide sense of the word cannot be expressed otherwise in
the English language than by a periphrasis.—Samuel Horsley.
Verse
1. The rock of our salvation. Jesus is the Rock of ages, in
which is opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness; the Rock which attends the
church in the wilderness, pouring forth the water of life, for her use and
comfort; the Rock which is our fortress against every enemy, shadowing and
refreshing a weary land.—George Horne.
Verse
2. Let us come before his presence. Hebrew, prevent his
face, be there with the first. "Let us go speedily ...I will go
also", Zec 8:21. Let praise wait for God in Sion, Ps 65:1.—John Trapp.
Verse
2. (second clause). Let us chant aloud to him the measured
lay. twrmz, I take to be songs, in measured verse, adjusted to the bars of
a chaunt.—S. Horsley.
Verse
3. He that hath a mind to praise God, shall not want matter of
praise, as they who come before princes do, who for want of true grounds of
praise in them, do give them flattering words; for the Lord is a great God,
for power and preeminence, for strength and continuance.—David Dickson.
Verse
3. The Supreme Being has three names here: la El, hwhy
Jehovah, Myhla Elohim, and we should apply none of them to false
gods. The first implies his strength; the second, his being
and essence; the third, his covenant relation to mankind.
In public worship these are the views we should entertain of the Divine Being.—Adam
Clarke.
Verse
3. Above all gods. When He is called a great God and King
above all gods, we may justly imagine that the reference is to the
angels who are wont to be introduced absolutely under this name, and to the
supreme Judges in the land, who also wear this title, as we have it in
Ps 82:1-8.—Venema.
Verse
4. In his hand. The dominion of God is founded upon his
preservation of things. "The Lord is a great King above all gods."
Why?
In
his hand are the deep places of the earth. While his hand holds, his hand hath
a dominion over them. He that holds a stone in the air exerciseth a dominion
over its natural inclination in hindering it from falling. The creature depends
wholly upon God in its preservation; as soon as that divine hand which sustains
everything were withdrawn, a languishment and swooning would be the next turn
in the creature. He is called Lord, Adonai, in regard of his
sustentation of all things by his continual influx, the word coming of Nwa,
which signifies a basis or pillar that supports a building. God is the Lord of
all, as he is the sustainer of all by his power, as well as the Creator of all
by his word.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse
4.
"In
whose hand are the recesses of the earth
And the treasures of the mountains are his."
—Thomas J. Conant's Translation.
Verse
4. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. This affords
consolation to those; who for the glory of the divine name are cast into
prisons and subterraneous caves; because they know, that even there it is not
possible to be the least separated from the presence of Christ. Wherefore He
preserved Joseph when hurled by his brethren into the old pit, and when thrust
by his shameless mistress into prison; Jeremiah also when sent down into the
dungeon; Daniel among the lions, and his companions in the furnace. So all who
cleave to Him with a firm faith, he wonderfully keeps and delivers to this
day.—Solomon Gesner, 1559-1605.
Verse
4. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. As an
illustration of the working and presence of the Lord in the mines amid the
bowels of the earth we have selected the following: "The natural
disposition of coal in detached portions", says the author of an excellent
article in the Edinburgh Review, "is not simply a phenomenon of geology,
but it also bears upon natural considerations. It is remarkable that this
natural disposition is that which renders the fuel most accessible and most
easily mined. Were the coal situated at its normal geological depth, that is,
supposing the strata to be all horizontal and undisturbed or upheaved, it would
be far below human reach. Were it deposited continuously in one even
superficial layer, it would have been too readily, and therefore too quickly,
mined, and therefore all the superior qualities would be wrought out, and only
the inferior left; but as it now lies it is broken up by geological
disturbances into separate portions, each defined and limited in area, each
sufficiently accessible to bring it within man's reach and labour, each
manageable by mechanical arrangements, and each capable of gradual excavation
without being subject to sudden exhaustion. Selfish plundering is partly
prevented by natural barriers, and we are warned against reckless waste by the
comparative thinness of coal seams, as well as by the ever augmenting
difficulty of working them at increased depths. By the separation of seams one
from another, and by varied intervals of waste sandstones and shales, such a
measured rate of winning is necessitated as precludes us from entirely robbing
posterity of the most valuable mineral fuel, while the fuel itself is preserved
from those extended fractures and crumblings and falls, which would certainly
be the consequence of largely mining the best bituminous coal, were it
aggregated into one vast mass. In fact, by an evident exercise of forethought
and benevolence in the Great Author of all our blessings, our invaluable fuel
has been stored up for us in deposits the most compendious, the most
accessible, yet the least exhaustible, and has been locally distributed into
the most convenient situations. Our coal fields are so many Bituminous
Banks, in which there is abundance for an adequate currency, but against
any sudden run upon them nature has interposed numerous checks; whole reserves
of the precious fuel are always locked up in the bank cellar under the
invincible protection of ponderous stone beds. It is a striking fact, that in
this nineteenth century, after so long an inhabitation of the earth by man, if
we take the quantities in the broad view of the whole known coal fields, so
little coal has been excavated, and that there remains an abundance for a very
remote posterity, even though our own best coal fields may be then worked
out."
But
it is not only in these inexhaustible supplies of mineral fuel that we find
proofs of divine foresight, all the other treasures of the earth rind equally
convince us of the intimate harmony between its structure and the wants of man.
Composed of a wonderful variety of earths and ores, it contains an
inexhaustible abundance of all the substances he requires for the attainment of
a higher grade of civilisation. It is for his use that iron, copper, lead,
silver, tin, marble, gypsum, sulphur, rock salt, and a variety of other
minerals and metals, have been deposited in the veins and crevices, or in the
mines and quarries, of the subterranean world. It is for his benefit that, from
the decomposition of the solid rocks results that mixture of earths and
alkalies, of marl, lime, sand, or chalk, which is most favourable to
agriculture. It is for him, finally, that, filtering through the entrails of
the earth, and dissolving salutary substances on their way, the thermal springs
gush forth laden with treasures more inestimable than those the miner toils
for. Supposing man had never been destined to live, we well may ask wily all
those gifts of nature useless to all living beings but to him why those vast
coal fields, those beds of iron ore, those deposits of sulphur, those hygeian
fountains, should ever have been created? Without him there is no design, no
purpose, in their existence; with him they are wonderful sources of health or
necessary instruments of civilisation and improvement. Thus the geological
revolutions of the earth rind harmoniously point to man as to its future lord;
thus, in the life of our planet and that of its inhabitants, we everywhere find
proofs of a gigantic unity of plan, embracing unnumbered ages in its
development and progress.—G. Hartwig, in "The Harmonies of
Nature", 1866.
Verse
4. The deep places of the earth, penetralia terrae, which are
opposed to the heights of the hills, and plainly mean the deepest and most
letired parts of the terraqueous globe, which are explorable by the eye of God,
and by his only.—Richard Mant.
Verse
4. The strength of the hills. The word translated
"strength" is plural in Hebrew, and seems properly to mean fatiguing
exertions, from which some derive the idea of strength, others that of extreme
height, which can only be reached by exhausting effort.—J.A. Alexander.
Verse
4. The strength of the hills is his also. The reference may
be to the wealth of the hills, obtained only by labour Gesenius,
corresponding to the former—"the deep places of the earth", explained
as referring to the mines Mendelssohn. Go where man may, with all his
toil and searching in the heights or in the depths of the earth, he cannot find
a place beyond the range of God's dominion.—A.R. Faussett.
Verse
4. Hills, The Sea, the dry land. The relation of areas of
land to areas of water exercises a great and essential influence on the
distribution of heat, variations of atmospheric pressure, directions of the
winds, and that condition of the air with respect to moisture, which is so
necessary for the health of vegetation. Nearly three fourths of the earth's
surface is covered with water, but neither the exact height of the atmosphere
nor the depth of the ocean are fully determined. Still we know that with every
addition to or subtraction from the present bulk of the waters of the ocean,
the consequent variation in the form and magnitude of the land would be such,
that if the change was considerable, many of the existing harmonies of things
would cease. Hence, the inference is, that the magnitude of the sea is one of
the conditions to which the structure of all organised creatures is adapted,
and on which indeed they depend for wellbeing. The proportions between land and
water are exactly what the world as constituted requires; and the whole mass of
earth, sea, and air, must have been balanced with the greatest nicety before
even a crocus could stand erect. Or a snowdrop or a daffodil bend their heads
to the ground. The proportions of land and sea are adjusted to their reciprocal
functions. Nothing deduced from modern science is more certain than this.—Edwin
Sidney, in "Conversations on the Bible and Science."
Verse
5. The sea is his. When God himself makes an oration in
defence of his sovereignty, Job 38:1 his chief arguments are drawn from
creation: "The Lord is a great King above all gods. The sea is his, and he
made it." And so the apostle in his sermon to the Athenians. As he
"made the world, and all things therein, "he is styled "Lord of
heaven and earth, "Ac 17:24. His dominion also of property stands upon
this basis: Ps 84:11, "The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as
for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them." Upon this
title of forming Israel as a creature, or rather as a church, he demands their
services to him as their Sovereign. "O jacob and Israel, thou art my
servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant, O Israel, "Is 44:21. The
sovereignty of God naturally ariseth from the relation of all things to himself
as their entire creator, and their natural and inseparable dependence upon him
in regard of their being and wellbeing.—Stephen Charrwick.
Verse
5. He made it.
The
Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved,
Appeared not: over all the face of Earth
in ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm
Prolific humour softening all her globe,
Fermented the great mother to conceive,
Satiate with genial moisture; when God said,
Be gathered now, ye waters under Heaven
unto one place and let dry land appear.
Immediately
the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
unto the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
own sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters.—John Milton.
Verse
6. You hold it a good rule in worldly business, not to say to your
servants, "O come", arise ye, go ye; but, Let us come, let us go, let
us arise. Now shall the children of this world be wiser in their generation
than the children of light? Do we commend this course in mundane affairs, and
neglect it in religious offices? Assuredly, if our zeal were as great to
religion, as our love is towards the world, masters would not come to church
(as many do) without their servants, and servants without their masters;
parents without their children, and children without their parents: husbands
without their wives, and wives without their husbands; but all of us would call
one to another, as Esau prophesied (chap. 2:3): "Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, "and as David here
practised.—John Boys.
Verse
6. Let us worship and bow down. To fall upon the ground is a
gesture of worship, not only when the worshipper mourns, but when the
worshipper rejoiceth. It is said (Mt 2:10,11) that the wise men when they found
Christ, "rejoiced with exceeding great joy", and presently,
"they fell down, and worshipped him". Neither is this posture
peculiar to worship in times or upon occasions of extraordinary joy and sorrow;
for the ordinary invitation was, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let
us kneel before the Lord our maker".—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
6. "Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord
our maker." Not before a crucifix, not before a rotten image, not before a
fair picture of a foul saint: these are not our makers; we made them, they made
not us. Our God, unto whom we must sing, in whom we must rejoice, before whom
we must worship, is a great "King above all gods": he is no god of
lead, no god of bread, no brazen god, no wooden god; we must not fall down and
worship our Lady, but our Lord; not any martyr, but our Maker not any saint,
but our Saviour: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation." Wherewith: with voice, "Let us
sing; "with soul, "Let us heartily rejoice"; with hands and
knees, "Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel"; with all that is
within us, with all that is without us; he that made all, must be worshipped
with all, especially when we "come before his presence".—John
Boys.
Verse
6. Bow down. That is, so as to touch the floor with the forehead,
while the worshipper is prostrate on his hands and knees. See 2Ch 7:3.—John
Fry, 1842.
Verse
6. Worship, bow down, kneel. Kimchi distinguishes the several
gestures expressed by the different words here used. The first we render,
worship, signifies, according to him, the prostration of the whole body on the
ground, with the hands and legs stretched out. The second a bowing of the head,
with part of the body; and the third a be drag of the knees on the ground.—Samuel
Burder.
Verse
7. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
See how elegantly he hath transposed the order of the words, and as it were not
given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to
be "the sheep", who are also "the people." He
said not, the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his hand; which might be
thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the pasture; but he said, "the
people of his pasture": the people themselves are sheep. But again,
since we have sheep which we buy, not which we create; and he had said above, "Let
us fall down before our Maker"; it is rightly said, "the sheep
of his hand." No man maketh for himself sheep, he may buy them, they
may be given, he may find them, he may collect them, lastly he may steal them;
make them he cannot. But our Lord made us; therefore "the people of his
pasture, and the sheep of his hand", are the very sheep which he hath
deigned by his grace to create unto himself.—Augustine.
Verse
7. The sheep of his hand, is a fit though figurative
expression, the shepherd that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it
by his hand, which manages the rod and staff (Ps 23:4), by which they are
administered. The Jewish Arabs read, the people of his feeding or, flock, and
the sheep of his guidance.—H. Hammond.
Verse
7. For we are his people whom he feeds in his pastures, and his
sheep whom he leads as by his hand. (French Version.) Here is a reason to
constrain us to praise God; it is this,—that not only has he created us, but
that he also directs us by special providence, as a shepherd governs his flock.
Jesus Christ, Divine Shepherd of our souls, who not only feeds us in his
pastures, but himself leads us with his hand, as intelligent
sheep. Loving Shepherd, who feeds us not only from the pastures of Holy Wilt,
but even with his own flesh. What subjects of ceaseless adoration for a soul
penetrated by these great verities! What a fountain of tears of joy at the
sight of such prodigious mercy!—Quesnel.
Verse
7. Today if ye will hear his voice. If we put of repentance
another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.—W.
Mason.
Verse
7. He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hath not promised
to preserve our lives till we repent.—Francis Quarles.
Verse
7. You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it
may be too late.—Thomas Fuller.
Verse
7. If ye will hear his voice. Oh! what an if is here!
what a reproach is here to those that hear him not! "My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me"; "but ye will not come to
me that ye might have life." And yet there is mercy, there is still
salvation, if ye will hear that voice. Israel heard it among the thunders of
Sinai, "which voice they that heard it entreated that the word should not
be spoken to them any more"; so terrible was the sight and sound that even
Moses said, "I exceedingly quake and fear": and yet they heard too
the Lord's still voice of love in the noiseless manna that fell around their
tents, and in the gushing waters of the rock that followed them through every
march for forty years. Yet the record of Israel's ingratitude runs side by side
with the record of God's mercies—"My people would not hearken to my voice,
and Israel would none of me."—Barton Bouchier.
Verse
7. If ye will hear his voice. And yet, as S. Bernard tells
us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing it; on the contrary, the
difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is it in
enunciation, so constant in appeal. Yet there are many who do not hear, from
divers causes; because they are far off; because they are deaf; because they
sleep; because they turn their heads aside; because they stop their ears;
because they hurry away to avoid hearing; because they are dead; all of them
topics of various forms and degrees of unbelief.—Bernard and Hugo
Cardinalis, in Neale and Littledale.
Verse
7. If ye will hear his voice. These words seem to allude to
the preceding words, in which we are represented as the sheep of God's pasture,
and are to be considered as an affectionate call of our heavenly Shepherd to
follow and obey him.—From "Lectures on the Liturgy, from the Commentary
of Peter Waldo", 1821.
Verses
7-8. It will be as difficult, nay, more difficult, to come to Christ
tomorrow, than it is today: therefore today hear his voice, and harden not
your heart. Break the ice now, and by faith venture upon your present duty,
wherever it lies; do what you are now called to. You will never know how easy
the yoke of Christ is, till it is bound about your necks, nor how light his
burden is, till you have taken it up. While you judge of holiness at a
distance, as a thing without you and contrary to you, you will never like it.
Come a little nearer to it; do but take it in, actually engage in it, and you
will find religion carries meat in its mouth; it is of a reviving, nourishing,
strengthening nature. It brings that along with it, that enables the soul
cheerfully to go through with it.—Thomas Cole (1627-1697) in the
"Morning Exercises."
Verse
8. Harden not your hearts. An old man, one day taking a child
on his knee, entreated him to seek God now—to pray to him, and to love
him; when the child, looking up at him, asked, "But why do not you
seek God?" The old man, deeply affected, answered, "I would, child;
but my heart is hard—my heart is hard."—Arvine's
Anecdotes.
Verse
8. Harden not your heart.—Heart is ascribed to
reasonable creatures, to signify sometimes the whole soul, and sometimes the
several faculties appertaining to the soul.
1.
It is frequently put for the whole soul, and that for the most part when it is
set alone; as where it is said, "Serve the Lord with all your heart",
1Sa 7:20.
2.
For that principal part of the soul which is called the mind or understanding.
"I gave my heart to know wisdom", Ec 1:17. In this respect darkness
and blindness are attributed to the heart, Eph 6:18, Ro 1:21.
3.
For the will: as when heart and soul are joined together, the two essential
faculties of the soul are meant, namely, the mind and will: soul put for
the mind, heart for the will "Serve the Lord with all your heart and with
all your soul", De 6:13.
4.
For the memory. "I have hid thy word in my heart", saith the prophet,
Ps 119:11. The memory is that faculty wherein matters are laid up and hid.
5.
For the conscience. It is said that "David's heart smote him", that
is, his conscience, 1Sa 24:5 2Sa 24:10. Thus is heart taken, 1Jo 3:20-21.
6.
For the affections: as where it is said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", Mt
22:37. By the mind is meant the understanding faculty; by the soul,
the will; by the heart, the affections.
Here
in this text the heart is put for the whole soul, even for mind, will, and
affections. For blindness of mind, stubbornness of will, and stupidity of
affections go together.—William Gouge.
Verse
8. In Massah—in Meribah. Our translators say, in the
provocation, in the day of temptation. But the places were denominated by
names taken from the transactions that occurred in them; and the introduction
of those names gives more liveliness to the allusion. See to the same effect Ps
81:7; where the Bible translation retains the proper name.—Richard Mant.
Verse
8. Let us not fail to notice, that while it is the flock who speak
in Ps 95:1-7, it is the Shepherd who takes up their expostulating words,
and urges them home himself at Ps 95:8, to the end, using the argument which by
the Holy Ghost is addressed to us also in Heb 3:7-19. There is something very
powerful in this expostulation, when connected with the circumstances that give
rise to it. In themselves, the burst of adoring love, and the full out pouring
of affection in Ps 95:1-7 are irresistibly persuasive; but when (Ps 95:8) the
voice of the Lord himself is heard (such a voice, using terms of vehement
entreaty!) we cannot imagine expostulation carried further. Unbelief alone
could resist this voice; blind, malignant unbelief alone could repel The
flock, and then the Shepherd, inviting men now to enter the fold.—Andrew
A. Bonar.
Verse
9. Your fathers tempted me. Though God cannot be tempted with
evil he may justly be said to be tempted whenever men, by being dissatisfied
with his dealings, virtually ask that he will alter those dealings, and proceed
in a way more congenial to their feelings. If you reflect a little, you will
hardly fail to perceive, that in a very strict sense, this and the like may be
called tempting God. Suppose a man to be discontented with the appointments of
providence, suppose him to murmur and to repine at what the Almighty allots him
to do or to bear; is he not to be charged with the asking God to change his
purposes? And what is this if it is not tempting God, and striving to induce
him to swerve from his plans, though every one of those plans has been settled
by Infinite Wisdom?
Or
again, if any one of us, notwithstanding the multiplied proofs of Divine
lovingkindness, doubt or question whether or not God do indeed love him, of
what is he guilty, if not of tempting the Lord, seeing that he solicits God to
the giving additional evidence, as though there was a deficiency, and
challenges him to a fresh demonstration of what he has already abundantly
displayed? This would be called tempting amongst men. If a child were to show
by his actions that he doubted or disbelieved the affection of his parents, he
would be considered as striving to extract from them new proofs, by asking them
to evince their love more, though they may already have done as much as in
wisdom and in justice they ought to do. And this is clearly tempting them, and
that too in the ordinary sense of the term. In short, unbelief of every kind
and every degree may be said to tempt God. For not to believe upon the evidence
which he has seen fit to give, is to provoke him to give more, offering our
possible assent if proof were increased as an inducement to him to go beyond
what his wisdom has prescribed. And if in this, and the like sense, God may be
tempted, what can be more truly said of the Israelites, than that they tempted
God in Massah? ...We are perhaps not accustomed to think of unbelief or
murmuring as nothing less than a tempting God, and therefore, we do not attach
to what is so common, its just degree of heinousness. It is so natural to us to
be discontented whenever God's dealings are not just what we like, to forget
what has been done for us as soon as our wishes seem thwarted, to be impatient
and fretful under every new cross, that we are scarcely conscious of committing
a sin, and much less one more than usually aggravated. Yet we cannot be
dissatisfied with God's dealings, and not be virtually guilty of tempting God.
It may seem a harsh definition of a slight and scarcely avoidable fault, but
nevertheless it is a true definition. You cannot mistrust God, and not accuse
him of want either of power or of goodness. You cannot repine, no, not even in
thought, without virtually telling him that his plans are not the best, nor his
dispensations the wisest which he might have appointed in respect of
yourselves. So that your fear, or your despondency, or your anxiety, in
circumstances of perplexity, or peril, are nothing less than the calling upon
God to depart from his fixed course—a suspicion, or rather an assertion that he
might proceed in a manner more worthy of himself, and therefore, a challenge to
him to alter his dealings if he would prove that he possesses the attributes
which he claims. You may not intend thus to accuse or to provoke God whenever
you murmur, but your murmuring does all this, and cannot fail to do it. You
cannot be dissatisfied without virtually saying that God might order things
better; you cannot say that he might order things better without virtually
demanding that he change his course of acting, and give other proofs of his
Infinite perfections.—Henry Melvill.
Verse
9. Your fathers tempted me. There are two ways of
interpreting the words which follow. As tempting God is nothing else
than yielding to a diseased and unwarrantable craving after proof of his power,
we may consider the verse as connected throughout, and read, They tempted me
and proved me, although they had already seen my work. God very justly
complains, that they should insist upon new proof, after his power had been
already amply testified by undeniable evidences. There is another meaning,
however, that may be given to the term "proved", —according to
which, the meaning of the passage would run as follows:—Your fathers tempted me
in asking where God was, notwithstanding all the benefits I had done them; and
they proved me, that is, they had actual experience of what I am, inasmuch as I
did not cease to give them open proofs of my presence, and consequently they
saw my work.—John Calvin.
Verse
9. Proved me, put me to the proof of my existence, presence,
and power, by requiring me to work, i.e. to act in an extraordinary
manner. And this desire, unreasonable as it was, I gratified. They not only
demanded, but they war-Mg likewise saw my work, i.e. what I could do.—J.A.
Alexander.
Verse
9. Forty years. To understand this passage we must bear in
mind the event referred to. The same year in which the people of Israel came
forth from Egypt, they were distressed for water at Rephidim, (Ex 17:1); and
the place had two names given to it, Massah and Meribah, because the people
tempted God and chided with Moses. The Lord did not swear then that they
should not enter into the land of Canaan; but this was in the following year,
after the return of the spies. (Nu 14:20-38.) And God said then that they had
tempted him "ten times"; that is, during the short time since their
deliverance from Egypt. It was after ten temptations that God deprived them of
the promised land. Bearing in mind these facts, we shall be able to see the
full force of the passage. The "provocation" or contention, and
"temptation" refer clearly to the latter instance, as recorded in Nu
14:1-45 because it was then that God swore that the people should not enter
into his rest. The people's conduct was alike in both instances. To connect
"forty years" with grieved, was the work of the Punctuists, and this mistake
the Apostle corrected; and it is to be observed that he did not follow in this
instance the Septuagint, in which the words are arranged as divided by
the Masorites. Such a rendering as would correspond with the Hebrew is as
follows,—
"Today
when ye hear his voice,
8.
Harden not your hearts us in the provocation, In the day of temptation in the
wilderness.
9.
When your fathers tempted me, they proved me And saw my works forty years:
10.
I was therefore offended with that generation and said, Always do they go
astray in heart, And they have not known my ways;
11.
So that I swore in my wrath, `They shall by no means enter into my rest.'"
The
meaning of the ninth verse is, that when the children of Israel tempted God,
they proved him, i.e., found out by bitter experience how great his
displeasure was, and saw his works or his dealings with them forty years. He
retained them in the wilderness during that period until the death of all who
disbelieved his word at the return of the spies; he gave them this proof of his
displeasure.—John Owen, of Thrussington, 1853.
Verse
10. O the desperate presumption of man, that he should offend his
Maker forty years! O the patience and longsuffering of his Maker, that
he should allow him forty years to offend in! Sin begins in the heart,
by its desires wandering and going astray after forbidden objects;
whence follows inattention to the ways of God, to his dispensations, and
our own duty. Lust in the heart, like vapour in the stomach, soon affects the
head, and clouds the understanding.—George Horne.
Verse
10. Forty Years. It is curious to know that the ancient Jews
believed that "the days of the Messiah were to be forty years." Thus
Tanchuma, F. 79, 4. "Quamdiu durant anni Messiae? R. Akiba dixit, 40
annos, quemadmodum Israelitae per tot annos in deserto fuerunt." It is
remarkable, that in forty years after the ascension, the whole Jewish nation
were cut off equally as they who fell in the wilderness.—John Brown, in
"An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews." 1862.
Verse
10. Was I grieved. The word is a strong wold, expressive of loathing
and disgust.—J.J.S. Perowne.
Verse
10. This generation. The word rwd, dor, signifies an
age, or the allotted term of human life; and it is here applied to the men of
an age, as if the psalmist had said, that the Israelites whom God had delivered
were incorrigible, during the whole period of their lives.—John Calvin.
Verse
10. It is a people that do err in their heart. We may observe
here, that he does not simply say, This people errs. What mortal is there that
does not err? Or where is there a multitude of mortals, exposed to no errors?
But he adds, "In their heart." Every error therefore is not
blamed here, but the error of their heart is fastened upon. It is to be noted,
therefore, that there is a twofold kind of error:
1.
One is of the intellect, by which we go astray through ignorance. In this kind
of erring Paul erred when he persecuted the Church of Christ; the Sadducees
erred, not knowing the Scriptures, Mt 22:29; and to this day many in the Church
go astray, endowed with zeal for God, but destitute of a true knowledge of Him.
2.
The other kind of erring is of the heart and affections, by which men go
astray, not through ignorance, but through corruption and perversity of heart.
This error of heart is a mind averse to God, and alienated from the will and
way of God, which is elsewhere thus described in the case of this very people:
"And their heart was not right with Him."—Musculus.
Verse
10. It is a people that do err in their heart. In err in heart
may mean either to err in judgment, or in disposition, intention: for the
Hebrew bbl, and after it the Greek kardia, means either animus, judicium,
or, mens, cogitatio, desiderium. I understand kardia here, as used
according to the Hebrew idiom (in which it is often pleonastic, at least it
seems so to us,)so that the phrase imports simply, They always err, i.e.
they are continually departing from the right way.—Moses Stuart.
Verse
10. Err in their heart. He had called them sheep, and now he
notes their wandering propensity, and their incapacity for being led; for the
footsteps of their Shepherd they did not know, much less follow.—C.H.S.
Verse
10. They have not known my ways; that is, they have not
regarded my ways, have not allowed of them, or loved them; for otherwise they
were not ignorant of them; they heard his words, and saw his works.—David
Dickson.
Verse
10. They have not known my ways. This ungrateful people did
not approve of God's ways—they did not enter into his designs—they did not
conform to his commands—they paid no attention to his miracles—and did not
acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands.—Adam Clarke.
Verse
10. A people that do err in their heart, & c. These
words are not to be found in Nu 14:1-45; but the inspired Psalmist expresses
the sense of what Jehovah said on that occasion. "They do always err in
their heart", (Heb 3:10). They are radically and habitually evil. They
have not known my ways. God's "ways" may mean either his
dispensations or his precepts. The Israelites did not rightly understand the
former, and they obstinately refused to acquire a practical knowledge—the only
truly valuable species of knowledge—of the latter. The reference is probably to
God's mode of dealing: Ro 11:33 De 4:32, 8:2, 29:2-4. Such a people deserved
severe punishment, and they received it. So I sware in my wrath, They shall
not enter into my rest. The original words in the Hebrew are, "If
they shall enter into my rest." This elliptical mode of expressing
oaths is common in the Old Testament: De 1:35 1Sa 3:14 Ps 89:35 Isa 62:8. This
awful oath is recorded in Nu 14:21-29: "But as truly as I live, all the
earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which
have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt, and in the
wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to
my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers,
neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: but my servant Caleb,
because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I
bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the
Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you
into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. And the Lord spoke unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation,
which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel
which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the
LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcases shall
fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your
whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against
me." The words of the oath seem here borrowed from the account in De 1:35.
There are many threatenings of God which have a tacit condition implied in
them; but when God interposes his oath, the sentence is irreversible. The curse
was not causeless, and it did come. We have an account of its actual
fulfilment, Nu 26:64-65. The "rest" from which they were excluded was
the land of Canaan. Their lives were spent in wandering. It is termed
"God's rest", as there he was to finish his work of bringing Israel
into the land promised to their fathers, and fix the symbol of his presence in
the midst of them,—dwelling in that land in which his people were to rest from
their wanderings, and to dwell in safety under his protection. It is His
rest, as of His preparing, De 12:9. It is His rest—rest like His, rest
along with Him. We are by no means warranted to conclude that all who died in
the wilderness came short of everlasting happiness. It is to be feared many of
them, most of them, did; but the curse denounced on them went only to their
exclusion from the earthly Canaan.—John Brown.
Verses
10-11. And said. Mark the gradation, first grief or disgust with
those who erred made him say; then anger felt more heavily
against those who did not believe made him swear. The people had
been called sheep in Ps 95:7, to sheep the highest good is rest, but into this
rest they were never to come, for they had not known or delighted in the ways
in which the good Shepherd desired to lead them.—John Albert Bengel.
Verse
11. The word swearing is very significant, and seems to import
these two things. First, the certainty of the sentence here pronounced. Every
word of God both is, and must be truth; but ratified by an oath, it is truth
with an advantage. It is signed irrevocable. This fixes it like the laws of the
Medes and Persians, beyond all possibility of alteration and makes God's word,
like his very nature, unchangeable. Secondly, it imports the terror of the
sentence. If the children of Israel could say, "Let not God speak to us,
lest we die, what would they have said had God then sworn against them?"
It is terrible to hear an oath from the mouth but of a poor mortal, but from
the mouth of an omnipotent God, it does not only terrify, but confound. An oath
from God is truth delivered in anger; truth, as I may so speak, with a
vengeance. When God speaks, it is the creature's duty to hear; but when he
swears, to tremble.—Robert South.
Verse
11. That they should not enter into my rest. There is
something unusual and abrupt in the conclusion of this psalm, without any
cheering prospect to relieve the threatening. This may be best explained by
assuming, that it was not meant to stand alone, but to form one of a series.—J.A.
Alexander.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse
1. An invitation to praise the Lord.
1.
A favourite method of worship—"let us sing."
2.
A fitting state of mind for singing—joyful gratitude.
3.
A fitting subject to excite both gladness and thankfulness—the rock of our
salvation.
Verse
1. The rock of our salvation. Expressive imagery. Rock of
shelter, support, indwelling, and supply—illustrate this last by the water
flowing from the rock in the wilderness.
Verse
2.
1.
What is meant by coming before his presence? Certainly not the holiness of
places, etc.
2.
What offering is most appropriate when we come into his presence?
Verse
3.
1.
The greatness of God as god. He is to be conceived of as great in goodness,
power, glory, etc.
2.
His dominion over all other powers in heaven or earth.
3.
The worship which is consequently due to him.
Verses
4-5. The universality of the divine government.
1.
In all parts of the globe.
2.
In all providences.
3.
In every phase of moral condition. Or, Things deep, or high, dark or perilous
are in his hand; circumstances shifting, terrible, overwhelming as the sea, are
under his control as much as the comfortable terra firma of peace and
prosperity.
Verse
6. A true conception of God begets
1.
A disposition to worship.
2. Mutual incitement to worship.
3. Profound reverence in worship.
4. Overwhelming sense of God's presence in worship.
—C.A. Davis.
Verses
6-7. God is to be worshipped—
1.
As our Creator—"our maker."
2. As our Redeemer, "the people," etc.
3. As our Preserver, "the sheep," etc.
—George Rogers.
Verse
7. The entreaty of the Holy Ghost.
1.
The special voice—"the Holy Ghost saith"—
(a)
In Scripture.
(b) In the hearts of his people.
(c) In the awakened.
(d) By his deeds of grace.
2.
A special duty, "hear his voice", instructing, commanding, inviting,
promising, threatening.
3.
A special time—"today." While God speaks, after so long a time, in
the day of grace, now, in your present state.
4.
The special danger—"harden not your hearts", by indifference,
unbelief, asking for signs, presumption, worldly pleasures, etc.
Verse
7. Sinners entreated to hear God's voice. "Hear his
voice", because—
1.
Life is short aud uncertain;
2.
You cannot properly or lawfully promise to give what is not your own;
3.
If you defer, though but till tomorrow, you must harden your hearts;
4.
There is great reason to fear that, if you defer it today, you will never
commence;
5.
After a time God ceases to strive with sinners;
6.
There is nothing irksome or disagreeable in a religious life, that you should
wish to defer its commencement.
—Edward
Payson.
Verse
7. The Difference of Times with respect to Religion.—Upon a
spiritual account there is great difference of time. To make this out, I will
shew you,
1.
That sooner and later are not alike, in respect of eternity.
2.
That times of ignorance and of knowledge are not alike.
3.
That before and after voluntary commission of known iniquity, are
not alike.
4.
That before and after contracted naughty habits, are not alike.
5.
That the time of God's gracious and particular visitation and the time
when God withdraws his gracious presence and assistance, are not alike.
6.
The flourishing time of our health and strength, and the hour of sickness,
weakness, and approach of death, are not alike.
7.
Now and hereafter, present and future, this world and the world to
come, are not alike.
—Benjamin
Whichcot.
Verse
7. This supposition, If ye will hear, and the consequence
inferred thereupon, harden not your hearts, doth evidently demonstrate
that a right hearing will prevent hardness of heart; especially hearing of
Christ's voice, that is, the gospel. It is the gospel that maketh and keepeth a
soft heart.—William Gouge.
Verses
8-11.
1.
Israel's fearful experiment in tempting God.
2. The awful result.
3. Let it not be tried again.
—C.A. Davis.
Verse
10. The error and the ignorance which are fatal.
Verse
11. The fatal moment of the giving up of a soul, how it may be
hastened, what are the signs of it, and what are the terrible results.
Verses
10-11. The kindling, increasing, and full force of divine anger, and its
dreadful results.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》