Psalms · Chapter 102

Verse 1. Hear my prayer] The chief parts of the Psalm answer well to the title: it is the language of the deepest distress, and well directed to Him from whom alone help can come.

1. Hear my prayer—The invocation of verses 1, 2 is replete with those familiar forms which appear often in the Davidic psalms, and which are common, also, to all earnest, agonizing prayers. See Psalm 18:6; 27:9; 39:12; 143:7.

V. 3. An hearth-An hearth is heated or burnt by the coals which are laid upon it.

Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke] He represents himself (for the psalmist speaks in the name of the people) under the notion of a pile of combustible matter, placed upon a fire, which soon consumes it; part flying away in smoke, and the residue lying on the hearth in the form of charred coal and ashes. The Chaldeans were the fire, and the captive Jews the fuel, thus converted into smoke and ashes.

Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke — Which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Hebrew, ˆv[b, into, or, in smoke. As wood, or any combustible matter put into the fire, wasteth away in smoke and ashes, so are my days wasted away. Or, as some interpret the words, “My afflictions have had the same effect on me as smoke has on things which are hung up in it, that is, have dried me up, and deformed me.” And my bones — The most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed least likely to suffer any injury by my trouble; are burned as a hearth — Either as a hearth is heated, or burned up by the coals which are laid upon it; or, as the hearth, being so heated, burns up that Which is put upon it. But dqwmk, here translated, as a hearth, may be rendered, (as it is by many,) as a fire-brand, or, as dry wood, which seems most applicable to the subject here spoken of. For, as Dr. Horne observes, “The effects of extreme grief on the human frame are here compared to those which fire produces upon fuel. It exhausts the radical moisture, and by so doing consumes the substance. A man’s time and his strength evaporate in melancholy, and his bones, those pillars and supports of his body, become like wood, on which the fire hath done its work, and left it without sap, and without cohesion.”

3. My days are consumed like smoke—Or, My days have ended in smoke. Life, once so real, so desirable, has passed away like “smoke,” which dissolves and disappears. The same is an Eastern proverb to this day. Burned as a hearth—Consumed like a fagot. The judgments of God have dried up my bones like a fagot, or brand, in the fire. Psalm 69:3.

Verse 4. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass] The metaphor here is taken from grass cut down in the meadow. It is first smitten with the scythe, and then withered by the sun. Thus the Jews were smitten with the judgments of God; and they are now withered under the fire of the Chaldeans.

Verses 4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word taq, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.

4. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass—The word here translated “smitten,” in Psalm 121:6, denotes a sunstroke. “Withered like grass,” is an allusion to the effect of the sirocco, or, perhaps, to the June sun, which, in that climate, withers the grass upon the hills to a brown and desolate appearance. On the sirocco, see note on Psalm 103:16, and on the heat of the sun in May and June, see Matthew 13:6. Forget to eat my bread—The loss of appetite is a natural effect of great sorrow. Psalm 107:18; Job 33:20.

V. 5. Skin-My flesh being quite consumed.

Verses 4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word taq, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.

5. Bones cleave to my skin—From emaciation. Job 19:2; Lamentations 4:8.

V. 6. A pelican-Is a solitary and mournful bird.

Verse 6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness] It may be the pelican or the bittern. The original, taq kaath, is mentioned Leviticus 11:18, and is there described. See the note. See Clarke “Leviticus 11:18”. Owl of the desert.] cwk cos, some species of owl; probably the night raven. See the notes referred to above.

Verses 4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word taq, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.

Verse 6. I am like a pelican, wandering alone in the desert, or an owl that utters her notes in the night. The pelican belongs to the genus of anseres [geese.] The head is naked, the feet palmated, the bill straight, but crooked at the end. Thirty species of this genus have been counted, as the cormorant, the graculus, vulgarly called the shag, the sulla or booby, the aquilus, &c. This bird is provided with a bag to carry flesh to feed her young; and pulling the bloody prey from her bag gave rise to the vulgar error, that she feeds them with her own blood. A gross mistake in heraldry.

6. Like a pelican of the wilderness—The idea is solitariness. The “pelican,” taq, (kaath,) though under some circumstances a social bird, is noted for its habits of retiring to solitary places to rear its young, also to devour its prey, when it will sit, for hours together, motionless. It is a water bird, large, clumsy; inhabiting lakes and swamps in desert or retired places. The word is translated cormorant, Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. In the law it is placed among the unclean birds. Leviticus 11:18. Owl—Another of the birds of solitary habits, called by the Arabs “mother of the ruins.”

Verse 7. As a sparrow alone] rwpx tsippor, seems to be often used for any small bird, such as the swallow, sparrow, or the like. Bochart supposes the screech owl is intended.

Verses 4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word taq, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.

7. As a sparrow—On the original word for “sparrow,” see note on Psalm 84:3. Solitariness is, here, the idea, as in verse 6, and is the characteristic of the bird alluded to. But the common “sparrow” is excessively lively, gregarious, and bold. The text better suits the habits of the blue thrush, (Petrocossyphus cyoneus.) “This bird is fond of sitting on the tops of houses, uttering its note, which, however agreeable to itself, is monotonous and melancholy to the human ear.”—Wood.

Verse 8. They that are mad against me are sworn against me.] The Chaldeans are determined to destroy us; and they have bound themselves by oath to do it. See a similar case related Acts 23:12-14, where a number of Jews had bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had slain Paul.

Verse 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day — This my misery hath exposed me to the scorn of mine enemies, who do nothing but upbraid me with my calamities. And they that are mad against me — Or, my slanderers, as Dr. Waterland renders, yllwhm, moholalai, are sworn against me, — Or, they swear by me. They make use of my name and misery, in their forms of swearing and imprecation; for when they would express their malicious and mischievous intentions against any one, they swear they will make him as miserable as a Jew. Or, their form of swearing is this, “If we break our oaths, may the gods pour down their vengeance upon us, and make us as miserable as this captive Jew.”

8. Mine enemies reproach me—This was a chief source of his distress. They taunted him as one forsaken of God. Psalm 42:3, 10; Micah 7:10. Mad against me—They rage “against me.” They act like men devoid of reason. Sworn against me—The peculiar form of the expression would indicate that they used him as a common formula of cursing, as in the passage, “The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab,” Jeremiah 29:22. See, also, Isaiah 65:15. We know this was the reproach of the exiles while in Babylon, Zechariah 8:13. This accords well with the historic occasion of the psalm.

V. 9. Bread-The sense is, dust and ashes are as familiar to me as the eating of my bread; I cover my head with them; I sit, yea, lie down in them, as mourners often did.

Verse 9. I have eaten ashes like bread] Fearful of what they might do, we all humbled ourselves before thee, and sought thy protection; well knowing that, unless we were supernaturally assisted, we must all have perished; our enemies having sworn our destruction.

Verses 9, 10. I have eaten ashes like bread — That is, instead of eating my bread, I have laid down in dust and ashes. Or, dust and ashes are as constant and familiar to me as the eating of my bread; I cover my head with them; I sit, yea, lie down among them, as mourners often did, by which means the ashes might easily be mingled with their meat as tears were with their drink, as mentioned in the next clause. And mingled my drink, &c. — He alludes to the custom of mingling their wine with water. Because of thy indignation, &c. — Because I not only conflict with men, but with the Almighty God, and with his anger. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down — As a man lifts up a person or thing as high as he can, that he may cast it down to the ground with greater force. Or, he aggravates his present reproach and misery by the consideration of that great honour and happiness to which God had formerly advanced him, as Job did, chap. 29., 30., and the church, Lam. 1:7.

9. Eaten ashes like bread—As a mourner, he sits in, and covers himself with, ashes. (Lamentations 3:16,) and they mingled with his scanty food. Or, by a strong figure, it may mean “ashes instead of bread.” So, also, “My tears have been my food”— “bread of tears.” Psalm 42:3; 80:5.

V. 10. Lifted me-As a man lifts up a thing as high as he can, that he may cast it to the ground with greater force.

Verse 10. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.] Thou hast lifted me on high, that thou Lightest dash me down with the greater force. We were exalted in thy favour beyond any people, and now thou hast made us the lowest and most abject of the children of men.

Verses 9, 10. I have eaten ashes like bread — That is, instead of eating my bread, I have laid down in dust and ashes. Or, dust and ashes are as constant and familiar to me as the eating of my bread; I cover my head with them; I sit, yea, lie down among them, as mourners often did, by which means the ashes might easily be mingled with their meat as tears were with their drink, as mentioned in the next clause. And mingled my drink, &c. — He alludes to the custom of mingling their wine with water. Because of thy indignation, &c. — Because I not only conflict with men, but with the Almighty God, and with his anger. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down — As a man lifts up a person or thing as high as he can, that he may cast it down to the ground with greater force. Or, he aggravates his present reproach and misery by the consideration of that great honour and happiness to which God had formerly advanced him, as Job did, chap. 29., 30., and the church, Lam. 1:7.

10. Lifted me up, and cast me down—Both honour and shame, prosperity and adversity, are from God; the one, the reward of obedience; the other, the punishment of sin. This was true of the nation. Compare Psalm 30:7; 104:28, 29.

Verse 11. My days are like a shadow that declineth] Or rather, My days decline like the shadow. I have passed my meridian, and the sun of my prosperity is about to set for ever. There may be here an allusion to the declination of the sun towards the south, which, by shortening their days, would greatly lengthen their nights. Similar to the exclamation of a contemporary prophet, Jeremiah 8:20: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” There is now scarcely any human hope of our deliverance.

Verses 11, 12. My days are like a shadow — Which “never continueth in one stay, but is still gliding imperceptibly on, lengthening as it goes, and at last vanisheth into darkness. The period of its existence is limited to a day at farthest. The rising sun gives it birth, and in the moment when the sun sets it is no more.” — Horne. And just so, the psalmist intimates, the hopes which they had sometimes entertained of a restitution were quickly cut off and disappointed. But thou shalt endure for ever — But this is my comfort, although we die, and our hopes vanish, yet our God is unchangeable and everlasting, and therefore not to be conquered by his and our enemies, however numerous and powerful, but is constant in his counsels and purposes of mercy to his church, steadfast and faithful in the performance of all his promises; and therefore he both can and will deliver his people. And thy remembrance unto all generations — To the end of time, nay, to eternity: thou shalt be known and honoured; and “the remembrance of thy former works and mercies comforts our hearts, and encourages us to hope, nay, even to rejoice, in the midst of our sorrow and tribulation.”

11. Shadow that declineth—Which lengthens and darkens till it loses itself in night. Withered like grass—See on verse 4.

V. 12. Remembrance-Thy name, Jehovah, which is called by this very word, God’s remembrance, or memorial, and that unto all generations, Exodus 3:15.

Verse 12. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever] Our life is a shadow; we can scarcely be called beings when compared with thee, for thou art eternal. Have mercy upon us, creatures of a day, and thy kindness shall be a memorial in all our generations.

Verses 11, 12. My days are like a shadow — Which “never continueth in one stay, but is still gliding imperceptibly on, lengthening as it goes, and at last vanisheth into darkness. The period of its existence is limited to a day at farthest. The rising sun gives it birth, and in the moment when the sun sets it is no more.” — Horne. And just so, the psalmist intimates, the hopes which they had sometimes entertained of a restitution were quickly cut off and disappointed. But thou shalt endure for ever — But this is my comfort, although we die, and our hopes vanish, yet our God is unchangeable and everlasting, and therefore not to be conquered by his and our enemies, however numerous and powerful, but is constant in his counsels and purposes of mercy to his church, steadfast and faithful in the performance of all his promises; and therefore he both can and will deliver his people. And thy remembrance unto all generations — To the end of time, nay, to eternity: thou shalt be known and honoured; and “the remembrance of thy former works and mercies comforts our hearts, and encourages us to hope, nay, even to rejoice, in the midst of our sorrow and tribulation.”

12. But thou, O Lord—The complaint is ended. Faith lifts the curtain and opens a new scene. The remainder of the psalm is illumined with the joy of hope. Shalt endure for ever—The word rendered “endure,” here, would be better translated enthrone, as in Psalm 2:4; 9:7; Isaiah 14:13; Lamentations 5:19; Zechariah 6:13. “But thou, Jehovah, shall for ever sit [enthroned].” It was this doctrine of the everlasting dominion of Jehovah which sustained faith, and gave comfort and the joy of hope in the darkest adversity.

V. 13. The set time-The end of those seventy years which thou hast fixed.

Verse 13. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion] While he is humbled at the footstool of mercy, and earnestly praying for mercy, an answer of peace is given; he is assured, not only that they shall be delivered, but that the time of deliverance is at hand. The set time-the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah, was ended; and God gave him to see that he was ever mindful of his promises.

Verses 13, 14. Thou shalt have mercy upon Zion — Upon Jerusalem, or thy church and people; for the set time is come — The end of those seventy years which was the time fixed for the continuing of the Babylonish captivity: see Jeremiah 25:12, and 29:10; Daniel 9:2. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, &c. — Thy people value the dust and rubbish of the holy city more than all the palaces of the earth, and passionately desire that it may be rebuilt. “From this passage, and what follows.” says Dr. Horne, “it appears that the suppliant, in this Psalm, bewails not only his own miseries, but those of the church. Israel was in captivity, and Zion a desolation. A time, notwithstanding, a set time there was at hand, when God had promised to arise, and to have mercy upon her. The bowels of her children yearned over her ruins; they longed to see her rebuilt, and were ready, whenever the word of command should be given, to set heart and hand to the blessed work.”

13. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion—Here is touched the point of the psalmist’s grief, (the miserable state of the people,) and the object of his chiefest hope, (their restoration to Zion.) As fixing the historic date and occasion of the psalm, this is decisive. The set time— “The set time” for terminating the captivity, and bringing back the people. See Dan. 9:2; Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10; Isaiah 40:2. God has just limits to his chastisements, and remembers “mercy” in due time.

Verse 14. Thy servants take pleasure in her stones] Though Jerusalem was at this time in a heap of ruins, yet even her rubbish was sacred in the eyes of the pious; for this had been the city of the great King.

Verses 13, 14. Thou shalt have mercy upon Zion — Upon Jerusalem, or thy church and people; for the set time is come — The end of those seventy years which was the time fixed for the continuing of the Babylonish captivity: see Jeremiah 25:12, and 29:10; Daniel 9:2. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, &c. — Thy people value the dust and rubbish of the holy city more than all the palaces of the earth, and passionately desire that it may be rebuilt. “From this passage, and what follows.” says Dr. Horne, “it appears that the suppliant, in this Psalm, bewails not only his own miseries, but those of the church. Israel was in captivity, and Zion a desolation. A time, notwithstanding, a set time there was at hand, when God had promised to arise, and to have mercy upon her. The bowels of her children yearned over her ruins; they longed to see her rebuilt, and were ready, whenever the word of command should be given, to set heart and hand to the blessed work.”

Ver. 14. Thy servants take pleasure in her stones. This prayer refers to the promise, Leviticus 26:41, that when the Hebrews were led captive for their sins, and should be humbled and cry to the Lord—he answers: “Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and remember the land.” To this may be associated all the promises of the Hebrew restoration, and their conversion to Christ.

14. Take pleasure in her stones… favour the dust—Not the “stones” to be prepared for the new city and temple, but the ruins of the old, as left by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. See Psalm 79:1; 74:2, 3. The “stones” and “dust”—rubbish and debris of the old city—are still dear to them. Their hearts lingered here. Psalm 137:5, 6. So the spiritual Zion, the true Church, in glory or in reproach is dear to the hearts of all her true children.

Verse 15. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord] It is granted that after the edict of Cyrus to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which was about four hundred and ninety years before Christ, the name of the true God was more generally known among the heathen; and the translating the Sacred Writings into Greek, by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, about two hundred and eighty-five years before the Christian era, spread a measure of the light of God in the Gentile world which they had not before seen. Add to this, the dispersion of the Jews into different parts of the Roman empire, after Judea became a Roman province, which took place about sixty years before the advent of our Lord; and we may consider these as so many preparatory steps to the conversion of the heathen by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to this last general illumination of the Gentile world the psalmist must allude here, when he speaks of “the heathen fearing God’s name, and all the kings of the earth his glory.”

Verse 15. So the heathen shall fear the Lord, &c. — Shall have high thoughts of him and his people, and even the kings of the earth shall be affected with his glory. They shall think better of the church of God than they have done, when God, by his providence, thus puts honour upon it; and they shall be afraid of doing any thing against it, when they see God taking its part. Thus it is said, Esther 8:17, that many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. This promise was in some sort fulfilled, when the rebuilding of the temple and city of God was carried on and completed, to the admiration, envy, and terror of their enemies, notwithstanding the many and great difficulties and oppositions which the Jews had to encounter, Nehemiah 6:16; Psalm 126:2; but it was much more truly and fully accomplished in the building of the spiritual Jerusalem by Christ, unto whom the Gentiles were gathered, and to whom the princes of the world paid their acknowledgments.

15. So the heathen shall fear the name—Both the exile and the deliverance shall bear such marks of the supremacy and providence of Jehovah, that the nations shall be impressed with fear of his name. The result of all will be glory to God. This was literally true.

Verse 16. When the Lord shall build up Zion] It is such a difficult thing, so wholly improbable, so far out of the reach of human power, that when God does it, he must manifest his power and glory in a most extraordinary manner.

Verses 16-18. When the Lord shall build up Zion — They take it for granted it would be done, for God himself had undertaken it; he shall appear in his glory — His glorious power, wisdom, and goodness shall be manifested to all the world. He will regard the prayer of the destitute — That is, of his poor, forsaken, despised people in Babylon. And not despise their prayer — That is, he will accept and answer it. This shall be written for the generation to come — This wonderful deliverance shall not be lost nor forgotten, but carefully recorded for the instruction and encouragement of all succeeding generations. And the people which shall be created — Who shall hereafter be born; or, who shall be created anew in Christ Jesus; shall praise the Lord — For his answers to their prayers, when they were most destitute. This may be understood, either, 1st, Of the Jews, who should be restored to, their own land, for they had been, in a manner, dead and buried in the grave and mere dry bones, as they are represented Isaiah 26:19, and Ezekiel 37.: or, 2d, Of the Gentiles who should be converted, whose conversion is frequently, and might very justly be called, a second creation.

16. When the Lord shall build—A repetition of the thought of verse 15. The building up Zion, and the Lord’s appearing in his glory, are simultaneous. See Isaiah 40:1-5.

Verse 17. The prayer of the destitute] הערער haarar of him who is laid in utter ruin, who is entirely wasted.

Verses 16-18. When the Lord shall build up Zion — They take it for granted it would be done, for God himself had undertaken it; he shall appear in his glory — His glorious power, wisdom, and goodness shall be manifested to all the world. He will regard the prayer of the destitute — That is, of his poor, forsaken, despised people in Babylon. And not despise their prayer — That is, he will accept and answer it. This shall be written for the generation to come — This wonderful deliverance shall not be lost nor forgotten, but carefully recorded for the instruction and encouragement of all succeeding generations. And the people which shall be created — Who shall hereafter be born; or, who shall be created anew in Christ Jesus; shall praise the Lord — For his answers to their prayers, when they were most destitute. This may be understood, either, 1st, Of the Jews, who should be restored to, their own land, for they had been, in a manner, dead and buried in the grave and mere dry bones, as they are represented Isaiah 26:19, and Ezekiel 37.: or, 2d, Of the Gentiles who should be converted, whose conversion is frequently, and might very justly be called, a second creation.

17. The prayer of the destitute—Although the deliverance of the exiles was signally the work of God, and promised, yet they were to pray for it as a condition of fulfilment. Jeremiah 29:12, 13; Ezekiel 36:37; Daniel 9:2, 3. Destitute—Literally, Naked. The word denotes utter poverty and helplessness. Yet God despises not their prayer.

V. 18. This-This wonderful deliverance shall be carefully recorded by thy people.

Verse 18. The people which shall be created] “The Gentiles, who shall be brought to the knowledge of salvation by Christ,” as the Syriac states in its inscription to this Psalm: how often the conversion of the soul to God is represented as a new creation, no reader of the New Testament need be told. See Ephesians 2:10; 4:24; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15. Even the publication of the Gospel, and its influence among men, is represented under the notion of “creating a new heaven and a new earth,” Isaiah 65:17, 18.

Verses 16-18. When the Lord shall build up Zion — They take it for granted it would be done, for God himself had undertaken it; he shall appear in his glory — His glorious power, wisdom, and goodness shall be manifested to all the world. He will regard the prayer of the destitute — That is, of his poor, forsaken, despised people in Babylon. And not despise their prayer — That is, he will accept and answer it. This shall be written for the generation to come — This wonderful deliverance shall not be lost nor forgotten, but carefully recorded for the instruction and encouragement of all succeeding generations. And the people which shall be created — Who shall hereafter be born; or, who shall be created anew in Christ Jesus; shall praise the Lord — For his answers to their prayers, when they were most destitute. This may be understood, either, 1st, Of the Jews, who should be restored to, their own land, for they had been, in a manner, dead and buried in the grave and mere dry bones, as they are represented Isaiah 26:19, and Ezekiel 37.: or, 2d, Of the Gentiles who should be converted, whose conversion is frequently, and might very justly be called, a second creation.

18. This shall be written— “The only place in the psalms where the memory of great events is said to be preserved in writing.”—Perowne. Elsewhere left to oral transmission. Psalm 44:1; 48:13; 78:2. The people which shall be created—That is, the Jewish nation, which should be resuscitated by the restoration. Calvin: “Their return was as a second birth—a new creation.” Same as “a people that shall be born,” Psalm 22:31.

V. 19. Looked-From heaven.

Verse 19. For he hath looked down] This, with the three following verses, seems to me to contain a glorious prophecy of the incarnation of Christ, and the gathering in of the Jews and the Gentiles to him. The Lord looks down from heaven, and sees the whole earth groaning and travailing in pain; his eye affects his heart, and he purposes their salvation.

Verses 19-22. For he hath looked down — Namely, upon us, and not as an idle spectator, but with an eye of pity and relief; from the height of his sanctuary — From his higher or upper sanctuary, namely, heaven, as the next clause explains it, which is called, God’s high and holy place, Isaiah 57:15. To loose those that are appointed to death — To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, to deliver mankind from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction. To declare the name of the Lord, &c. — That they, being delivered, might publish and celebrate the name and praises of God in his church. When the people are gathered together, &c. — When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the praise and worship of the true God, and of the Messiah. This verse seems to be added to intimate, that although the psalmist, in this Psalm, referred to the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, yet he had a further design, and a principal respect unto that great and more general deliverance of his church and people by Christ.

19. Looked down—Compare Deuteronomy 26:15; Isaiah 63:15. So manifestly was their salvation above all human power and skill. It came directly from Heaven.

V. 20. To loose-To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and from the chains of sin and eternal destruction.

Verse 20. To hear the groaning] By sin, all the inhabitants of the earth are miserable. They have broken the Divine laws, are under the arrest of judgment, and all cast into prison. They have been tried, found guilty, and appointed to die; they groan under their chains, are alarmed at the prospect of death, and implore mercy.

Verses 19-22. For he hath looked down — Namely, upon us, and not as an idle spectator, but with an eye of pity and relief; from the height of his sanctuary — From his higher or upper sanctuary, namely, heaven, as the next clause explains it, which is called, God’s high and holy place, Isaiah 57:15. To loose those that are appointed to death — To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, to deliver mankind from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction. To declare the name of the Lord, &c. — That they, being delivered, might publish and celebrate the name and praises of God in his church. When the people are gathered together, &c. — When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the praise and worship of the true God, and of the Messiah. This verse seems to be added to intimate, that although the psalmist, in this Psalm, referred to the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, yet he had a further design, and a principal respect unto that great and more general deliverance of his church and people by Christ.

20. To loose those that are appointed to death—Hebrew, the sons of death. They were rescued from under the “death” sentence. Same as Psalm 79:11. So imminent was the danger and opportune the help!

V. 21. To declare-That they might publish the name and praises of God in his church.

Verse 21. To declare the name of the Lord] To publish that Messenger of the Covenant in whom the name of the Lord is, that Messiah in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt; and to commence at Jerusalem, that the first offers of mercy might be made to the Jews, from whom the word of reconciliation was to go out to all the ends of the earth.

Verses 19-22. For he hath looked down — Namely, upon us, and not as an idle spectator, but with an eye of pity and relief; from the height of his sanctuary — From his higher or upper sanctuary, namely, heaven, as the next clause explains it, which is called, God’s high and holy place, Isaiah 57:15. To loose those that are appointed to death — To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, to deliver mankind from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction. To declare the name of the Lord, &c. — That they, being delivered, might publish and celebrate the name and praises of God in his church. When the people are gathered together, &c. — When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the praise and worship of the true God, and of the Messiah. This verse seems to be added to intimate, that although the psalmist, in this Psalm, referred to the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, yet he had a further design, and a principal respect unto that great and more general deliverance of his church and people by Christ.

21. To declare the name of the Lord in Zion—The climax of this wonderful deliverance is, that Jehovah’s name should once more be celebrated in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem. This was the realization of their highest hopes—of the nation’s greatest glory.

V. 22. When-When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the worship of the true God.

Verse 22. When the people are gathered together] When all the Gentiles are enlightened, and the kings of the earth brought to pay homage to the King of kings.

Verses 19-22. For he hath looked down — Namely, upon us, and not as an idle spectator, but with an eye of pity and relief; from the height of his sanctuary — From his higher or upper sanctuary, namely, heaven, as the next clause explains it, which is called, God’s high and holy place, Isaiah 57:15. To loose those that are appointed to death — To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, to deliver mankind from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction. To declare the name of the Lord, &c. — That they, being delivered, might publish and celebrate the name and praises of God in his church. When the people are gathered together, &c. — When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the praise and worship of the true God, and of the Messiah. This verse seems to be added to intimate, that although the psalmist, in this Psalm, referred to the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, yet he had a further design, and a principal respect unto that great and more general deliverance of his church and people by Christ.

22. When the people are gathered—An anticipation, not unfrequent, of the submission of the nations to Jehovah, as in Psalm 22:27; 72:11, and in the later prophecies of Isaiah; but realized fully only in gospel times.

V. 23. He-God. The way-In the midst of the course of our lives. Some think the psalmist here speaks of the whole commonwealth as of one man, and of its continuance, as of the life of one man.

Verse 23. He weakened my strength in the way] We are brought so low in our captivity by oppression, by every species of hard usage, and by death, that there is now no hope of our restoration by any efforts of our own.

Verse 23. He — Namely, God, whom he considered as bringing these calamities upon them for their sins, and to whom therefore he applies for relief; weakened my strength in the way — That is, soon impaired the prosperity and flourishing condition of our church and commonwealth, in the course of our affairs. “They were for many ages,” says Henry, “in the way to the performance of the great promise made to their fathers, concerning the Messiah, longing as much for it as ever a traveller did to be at his journey’s end; the legal institutions led them in the way; but when the ten tribes were lost in Assyria, and the two almost lost in Babylon, the strength of that nation was weakened, and, in all appearances, its days shortened, for they said, Our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts, Ezekiel 37:11.” “The prophet,” says Dr. Horne, “in the person of captive Zion, having, from verses 13 to 22, expressed his faith and hope in the promised redemption, now returns to his mournful complaints as at verse 11. Israel doubts not of God’s veracity, but fears lest his heavy hand should crush the generation then in being, before they should behold the expiration of their troubles. They were in the way, but their strength was so weakened, and their days shortened, that they almost despaired of holding out to their journey’s end.” Bishop Patrick, however, supposes that the psalmist spake of himself personally, and interprets the passage thus: “I had hopes to have lived to see this blessed time, (namely, of the redemption from Babylon, and the accession of the Gentile nations to the church of God, spoken of in the preceding verses,) “and thought I had been in the way to it, Ezra 3:8. But he hath stopped our vigorous beginnings, Ezra 4:4, and thereby so sorely afflicted me, that I feel I am like to fall short of my expectations.” Dr. Dodd understands the words nearly in the same sense, observing, “The connection is this: ‘Notwithstanding these glorious hopes of being speedily restored to my native country, I find that through continual affliction God hath weakened my strength, even while I thought I was in the way to that happiness; and that, on account of the short remainder of my life, I shall not be able to attain it.’” This interpretation of the words connects well with the following verse.

23. He weakened my strength in the way—The psalmist returns to a brief reminiscence of his affliction and the agony of his prayer, but in a more hopeful strain than in his complaint, verses 1-11. “In the way,” here, may be understood by means of “the way,” as “in fetters” means, by means of “fetters,” (Psalm 105:18,) and in “the way” means, because of “the way,” (Numbers 21:4,) or, it may signify that the visitations of God “along the way,” had bowed down his “strength.” But the former is the more probable sense. The allusion is to the journeyings of Israel in the desert. See Exodus 18:8; Numbers 17:12, 13; Deuteronomy 8:2; especially, Numbers 21:4, “And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” The abrupt transition of verses 23, 24, is exceedingly impassioned and plaintive.

V. 24. I said-Do not wholly destroy thy people Israel. In the midst-Before they come to a full possession of thy promises and especially of that fundamental promise of the Messiah. Thy years-Though we die, yet thou art the everlasting God.

Verse 24. I said, O my God] This and the following verses seem to be the form of prayer which the captives used previously to their deliverance. Thy years are throughout all generations.] This was a frequent argument used to induce God to hear prayer. We are frail and perishing; thou art everlasting: deliver us, and we will glorify thee.

Verse 24. But, I said, O my God, take me not away, &c. — I prayed most earnestly to him, and said, O my God, who hast so graciously begun our deliverance, take me not away before it be completely finished, but let me see thy promise fulfilled, which thou, who diest not, as we do, I am sure, wilt not fail to make good. Yes: “though I should not live to have any share in the public joy for that restoration, yet thou, who art an everlasting and immutable God, whose years are throughout all generations, wilt not fail to make those who survive me happy therein.” Those who consider the psalmist, as personating the captive Jews, interpret the verse as follows: O my God, take we not away in the midst of my days — Do not wholly cut off and destroy my people Israel before they come to a full age and stature in the plenary possession of thy promises, and especially of that great and fundamental promise of the Messiah, in and by whom alone their happiness is to be completed, and until whose coming thy church is in its nonage, Galatians 4:1-4. Thy years are throughout all generations — Though we successively die and perish, yet thou art the everlasting and unchangeable God, who art, and wilt ever be, able to deliver thy people, and faithful in performing all thy promises; and therefore we beseech thee to pity our frail and languishing state, and give us a more settled and lasting felicity than we have yet enjoyed.

24. In the midst of my days—In the half of “my days”—when my life is only half spent. This cutting short of life was regarded as a great calamity—often a sign of judgment. As applied to the nation it was what Jeremiah had foretold to Judah, and Amos to Israel, that their “sun should go down at noon.” Jeremiah 15:9; Amos 8:9. Perowne says: “This deprecation of a short life springs not, in this instance, from a natural clinging to life, as in the case of Hezekiah, (Isaiah 38:10, 11,) but from the intense desire to see God’s glory manifested in Israel’s restoration.” Thy years are throughout all generations—The consolation here drawn from the eternity of God is not in the abstract idea of his existence, but in the connecting idea of his covenant relation to his people. The generations of men perish, but the immutable word of God, like his own eternity, remains the same, and by that word Israel must be restored. See on Psalm 90:1; and compare Psalm 103:15-18; Isaiah 40:6-8.

Verse 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation] None taught of God ever imagined the world to have been eternal. Of old, לפנים lephanim, before there were any faces or appearances, thou didst lay the foundations of the earth. It was created by thee; it did not grow by accretion or aggregation from a pre-existent nucleus. There was nothing; and thou didst produce being-substance or matter. Out of that created matter thou didst make the earth and the heavens.

Verse 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth — The eternity of God looks both backward and forward: it is both without beginning and without end. The latter is affirmed and illustrated verses 24, 26, 27, the former is implied in this verse. Thou hadst a being before the creation of the world, when there was nothing but eternity, but the earth and heaven had a beginning given them by thy almighty power.

Ver. 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth. The Elohim, Qeiothv or Godhead, created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1. Psalm 33:6. The rabbins admit that the Messiah, the Eternal Wisdom and Word, was in the bosom of the Father, when he laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth. Proverbs 8:22. Ecclus. 24. St. Paul therefore knew they could not rebut the application of this text to Christ. Hebrews 1:10.

25. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth—What is here affirmed of God, is, in the New Testament, quoted and affirmed of Christ. Hebrews 1:10. This is repeatedly done. Compare Jeremiah 17:10; Revelation 2:23. We are thus taught the personality and unity of the Father and the Son: “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” John 5:23. “For what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.” John 5:19.

V. 26. Perish-As to their present nature and use.

Verse 26. They shall perish] Nothing can be eternal a parte ante, or a parte post, but thyself. Even that which thou hast created, because not necessarily eternal, must be perishable; necessary duration belongs to God only; and it is by his will and energy alone that universal nature is preserved in existence, and preserved from running into speedy disorder, decay, and ruin.

Yea, all of them shall wax old] Every thing must deteriorate, unless preserved by thy renewing and invigorating energy. Even the heavens and the earth are subject to this law; for that which is not, from the infinite perfection of its own nature, ETERNAL, must be perishable; therefore the heavens and the earth must necessarily come to an end. They contain the seeds of their own dissolution. It is true that in sublunary things, the vicissitudes of seasons is a sort of check to the principle of dissolution; but it only partially corrects this tendency. Even the productions of the earth wear out or deteriorate. Plant the same seed or grain for several years consecutively, and it degenerates so as at last not to be worth the labour of tillage, however expensively the soil may be manured in which it is planted. I may instance in wheat and in the potatoe, the two grand supporters of life in European countries. All other seeds and plants, as far as they have fallen under my observation, are subject to the same law.

Verse 26. They shall perish — Either as to the substance of them, which shall be annihilated, or as to their present form, fashion, and use, which shall be entirely changed: see the margin. The heavens and the earth, although they be the most permanent of all visible beings, and their continuance is often mentioned to signify the stability of things; yet, if compared with thee, they are as nothing, for they had a beginning, and shall have an end. All of them shall wax old — That is, shall decay and perish, like a garment — Which is worn out, and laid aside, and exchanged for another. And so shall this present frame of heaven and earth be. As a vesture shalt thou change them — Isaiah tells us, Isaiah 51:6, that the heaven and earth shall wax old like a garment; but the psalmist here goes one step further than the prophet; and not only acquaints us that the heavens and earth shall wax old, but, like a worn-out garment, shall be changed for new. And what can he intend but the new heavens and new earth, mentioned by St. Peter in the New Testament, and said to be the expectation of believers, according to God’s promise? 2 Peter 3:13.

26. They shall perish—That is, being created, they are perishable. Their existence is not necessary, but dependent; not inherent, but derived. “They continue this day according to thine ordinances,” (Psalm 119:91;) but not from any self-sustaining power. Therefore, nothing in man or nature is to be trusted, but God only, the Eternal, the Creator, the Faithful. Shalt thou change them—That is, If it be thy will so to do it will not contradict thine attributes. But the implication is, Thou wilt sooner change them than alter, or fail, in thy word of promise to thy Church. Thus the same form expressed more fully, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away,” (Matthew 24:35,) is to be explained by “until heaven and earth pass away,” etc,, or, “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass,” etc., (Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17,)—that is, it is a conditional proposition. But the Hebrews held to the doctrine that the earth and its atmosphere, and even the whole system of nature, would be destroyed, and from the ruins would spring a new and renovated state of things. The text, with many other passages, harmonizes with this view. See Job 14:12; Psalm 72:5, 7; Isaiah 51:16; 65:17, 18; 66:22. The same is taught in the New Testament. 2 Peter 3:10, 12, 13; Revelation 20:11; 21:1. In many other places the destruction of the heavenly bodies, and the darkening of the sun and moon, represent, symbolically, the downfall and catastrophe of nations, as in Isaiah 13:10, 11, 13; 34:5; Ezekiel 32:7. “These very figurative expressions presuppose the literal idea,” (Knapp,) particularly as far as this earth is concerned. The word “change,” (plj,) in the text, properly denotes a progressive change—a passing on to a further stage, (Isaiah 51:6; 65:17, 18; Revelation 21:27; 2 Peter 3:13;) and this geology itself makes probable, in the doctrine of catastrophe and renewal, and of progressive species. The text, with Zephaniah 1:14-18, especially verse 15, as rendered in the Vulgate, (Dies irae dies illa, etc.,) and 2 Peter 3:10, are supposed to have suggested that incomparable poem of the ages, “Dies Irae,” (Day of Wrath,) which, for five hundred years, has been the admiration of the Christian world, having passed into eighty versions. It is used in the Romish Church as the sequence for All Souls’ Day, and in all masses for the dead.

Verse 27. But thou art the same] awh htaw veattah HU, but thou art HE, that is, The ETERNAL; and, consequently, he who only has immortality. Thy years shall have no end.] wmty al lo yittammu, “they shall not be completed.” Every thing has its revolution-its conception, growth, perfection, decay, dissolution, and death, or corruption. It may be said that regeneration restores all these substances; and so it does in a measure, but not without deterioration. The breed of animals, as well as vegetables, wears out; but God’s eternal round has no completion. I repeat it,—what is necessarily eternal is unchangeable and imperishable; all created beings are perishable and mutable, because not eternal. God alone is eternal; therefore God alone is imperishable and immutable.

Verse 27. But thou art the same. &c. — “Amidst the changes and chances of this mortal life,” says Dr. Horne, “one topic of consolation will ever remain, namely, the eternity and immutability of God our Saviour, of him who was, and is, and is to come. Kingdoms and empires may rise and fall; nay, the heavens and the earth, as they were originally produced and formed by the WORD of God, the Son, or second person in the Trinity, to whom the psalmist here addresses himself; (see Hebrews 1:10;) so will they, at the day appointed, be folded up, and laid aside, as an old and worn-out garment; but Jehovah is ever the same; his years have no end, nor can his promise fail, any more than himself. Heaven and earth, saith he, shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, Matthew 24:35.”

27. But thou art the same—Hebrew, But thou art he. Equal to, Thou art the unchangeable One. Compare “I am he,” Isaiah 41:4; 46:4.

V. 28. Continue-Though the heavens and earth perish, yet we rest assured that our children, and their children after them, shall enjoy an happy restitution to, and settlement in their own land.

Verse 28. The children of thy servants shall continue] Thy Church shall be permanent, because founded on thee; it shall live throughout all the revolutions of time. And as thy followers are made partakers of the Divine nature, they shall live in union with God in the other world, deriving eternal duration from the inexhaustible Fountain of being. Nothing can be permanent but by God’s supporting and renewing influence.

Verse 28. The children of thy servants shall continue — Though the heavens and the earth perish, and though we, thy servants, pine away in our iniquities, according to thy righteous sentence and threatening, Leviticus 26:39, and die in captivity; yet, by virtue of thy eternal and unchangeable nature, and thy promises made to Abraham and his seed, we rest assured that our children, and their children after them, shall enjoy the promised mercies, even a happy restoration to and settlement in their own land, and the presence of our and their Messiah. And their seed shall be established before thee — In the place of thy gracious presence, either here in thy church, or hereafter in heaven. Perhaps this expression, before thee, might be intended further to intimate, that their happiness did not consist in the enjoyment of the outward blessings of the land of Canaan, but in the presence and fruition of God there, which he mentions as the consummation of their desires and felicities.

28. The children of thy servants shall continue—Faith has thus reached the conclusion, “Because he lives, we shall live also.” The beginning and closing of this psalm exhibit the contrast between the contemplation of affliction from the human side, and from that of faith. Continue—Hebrew, dwell, that is, in the full expression, “dwell in the land,” as Psalm 37:29; 69:36.

The application to Christ of verses 25-27, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, is, as above stated, according to a common practice, or law, in Messianic quotations, whereby what is said of Jehovah in the Old Testament is sometimes applied to Christ in the New. See on verse 25.