TITLE. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith.
Very little is known of the meaning of this title. We have given
the best explanation known to us in connection with Psalm 8 in
Vol. 1 of this work. If it be intended to indicate a vintage
song, it speaks well for the piety of the people for whom it was
written; it is to be feared that in few places even in Christian
countries would holy hymns be thought suitable to be sung in
connection with the winepress. When the bells upon the horses
shall be holiness unto the Lord, then shall the juice of the
grape gush forth to the accompaniment of sacred song. A Psalm of
Asaph. This poet here again dwells upon the history of his
country; his great forte seems to be rehearsing the past in
admonitory psalmody. He is the poet of the history and politics
of Israel. A truly national songster, at once pious and
patriotic.
DIVISION. Praise is called for to
celebrate some memorable day, perhaps the passover; whereupon
the deliverance out of Egypt is described, Ps 81:1-7. Then the
Lord gently chides his people for their ingratitude, and
pictures their happy estate had they but been obedient to his
commands.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Sing, in tune and measure, so that the
public praise may be in harmony; sing with joyful notes, and
sounds melodious. Aloud. For the heartiest praise is due to our
good Lord. His acts of love to us speak more loudly than any of
our words of gratitude can do. No dulness should ever stupefy
our psalmody, or half heartedness cause is to limp along. Sing
aloud, ye debtors to sovereign grace, your hearts are profoundly
grateful: let your voices express your thankfulness. Unto God
our strength. The Lord was the strength of his people in
delivering them out of Egypt with a high hand, and also in
sustaining them in the wilderness, placing them in Canaan,
preserving them from their foes, and giving them victory. To
whom do men give honour but to those upon whom they rely,
therefore let us sing aloud unto our God, who is our strength
and our song. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. The God
of the nation, the God of their father Jacob, was extolled in
happy music by the Israelitish people; let no Christian be
silent, or slack in praise, for this God is our God. It is to be
regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our
congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part we
delight in full bursts of praise, and had rather discover the
ruggedness of a want of musical training than miss the
heartiness of universal congregational song. The gentility which
lisps the tune in well bred whispers, or leaves the singing
altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The
gods of Greece and Rome may be worshipped well enough with
classical music, but Jehovah can only be adored with the heart,
and that music is the best for his service which gives the heart
most play.
Verse 2. Take a psalm. Select a sacred song,
and then raise it with your hearty voices. And bring hither the
timbrel. Beat on your tambourines, ye damsels, let the sound be
loud and inspiriting. "Sound the trumpets, beat the
drums." God is not to be served with misery but with
mirthful music, sound ye then the loud timbrel, as of old ye
smote it by "Egypt's dark sea." The pleasant harp with
the psaltery. The timbrel for sound, must be joined by the harp
for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for
variety. Let the full compass of music be holiness unto the
Lord.
Verse 3. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon.
Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the
Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and
shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the
Redeeming Lord. In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment:
God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no
ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews
not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month
which had been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the
olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel
the same exultation, and never speak of the Sabbath as though it
could be other than "a delight" and "honourable."
Those who plead this passage will keep such feasts as the Lord
appoints, but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.
Verse 4. For this was a statute for Israel, and a
law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all
the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to
commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's
due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it
can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and
other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute,
we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much
our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the
ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric,
"Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not
clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian
liberty.
Verse 5. This he ordained in Joseph for a
testimony. The nation is called Joseph, because in Egypt it
would probably be known and spoken of as Joseph's family, and
indeed Joseph was the foster father of the people. The passover,
which is probably here alluded to, was to be a standing memorial
of the redemption from Egypt; and everything about it was
intended to testify to all ages, and all peoples, the glory of
the Lord in the deliverance of his chosen nation. When he went
out through the land of Egypt. Much of Egypt was traversed by
the tribes in their exodus march, and in every place the feast
which they had kept during the night of Egypt's visitation would
be a testimony for the Lord, who had also himself in the
midnight slaughter gone forth through the land of Egypt. The
once afflicted Israelites marched over the land of bondage as
victors who trample down the slain.
Where I heard a language that I understood not. Surely the
connection requires that we accept these words as the language
of the Lord. It would be doing great violence to language if the
"I" here should be referred to one person, and the
"I" in the next verse to another. But how can it be
imagined that the Lord should speak of a language which he
understood not, seeing he knows all things, and no form of
speech is incomprehensible to him? The reply is, that the Lord
here speaks as the God of Israel identifying himself with his
own chosen nation, and calling that an unknown tongue to himself
which was unknown to them. He had never been adored by psalm or
prayer in the tongue of Egypt; the Hebrew was the speech known
in his sacred house, and the Egyptian was outlandish and foreign
there. In strictest truth, and not merely in figure, might the
Lord thus speak, since the wicked customs and idolatrous rites
of Egypt were disapproved of by him, and in that sense were
unknown. Of the wicked, Jesus shall say, "I never knew you;
"and probably in the same sense this expression should be
understood, for it may be correctly rendered, "a speech I
knew not I am hearing." It was among the griefs of Israel
that their taskmasters spake an unknown tongue, and they were
thus continually reminded that they were strangers in a strange
land. The Lord had pity upon them, and emancipated them, and
hence it was their bounden duty to maintain inviolate the
memorial of the divine goodness. It is no small mercy to be
brought out from an ungodly world and separated unto the Lord.
Verse 6. I removed his shoulder from the burden.
Israel was the drudge and slave of Egypt, but God gave him
liberty. It was by God alone that the nation was set free. Other
peoples owe their liberties to their own efforts and courage,
but Israel received its Magna Charta as a free gift of divine
power. Truly may the Lord say of everyone of his freed men, I
removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from
the pots. He was no longer compelled to carry earth, and
mould it, and bake it; the earth basket was no more imposed upon
the people, nor the tale of bricks exacted, for they came out
into the open country where none could exact upon them. How
typical all this is of the believer's deliverance from legal
bondage, when, through faith, the burden of sin glides into the
Saviour's sepulchre, and the servile labours of self
righteousness come to an end for ever.
Verse 7. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered
thee. God heard his people's cries in Egypt, and at the Red
Sea: this ought to have bound them to him. Since God does not
forsake us in our need, we ought never to forsake him at any
time. When our hearts wander from God, our answered prayers cry
"shame" upon us. I answered thee in the secret place
of thunder. Out of the cloud the Lord sent forth tempest upon
the foes of his chosen. That cloud was his secret pavilion,
within it he hung up his weapons of war, his javelins of
lightning his trumpet of thunder; forth from that pavilion he
came and overthrew the foe that his own elect might be secure. I
proved thee at the waters of Meribah. They had proved him and
found him faithful, he afterwards proved them in return.
Precious things are tested, therefore Israel's loyalty to her
King was put to trial, and, alas, it failed lamentably. The God
who was adored one day for his goodness was reviled the next,
when the people for a moment felt the pangs of hunger and
thirst. The story of Israel is only our own history in another
shape. God has heard us, delivered us, liberated us, and too
often our unbelief makes the wretched return of mistrust,
murmuring, and rebellion. Great is our sin; great is the mercy
of our God: let us reflect upon both, and pause a while. Selah.
Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down a while and
meditate is very profitable.
Verse 8. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto
thee. What? Are the people so insensible as to be deaf to
their God? So it would seem, for he earnestly asks a hearing.
Are we not also at times quite as careless and immovable? O
Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. There is much in this
"if." How low have they fallen who will not hearken
unto God himself! The deaf adder is not more grovelling. We are
not fond of being upbraided, we had rather avoid sharp and
cutting truths; and, though the Lord himself rebuke us, we fly
from his gentle reproofs.
Verse 9. There shall no strange god be in thee.
No alien god is to be tolerated in Israel's tents. Neither shalt
thou worship any strange god. Where false gods are, their
worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that
the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are
there the birds will be eager to return. No other god had done
anything for the Jews, and therefore they had no reason for
paying homage to any other. To us the same argument will apply.
We owe all to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: the
world, the flesh, the devil, none of these have been of any
service to us; they are aliens, foreigners, enemies, and it is
not for us to bow down before them. "Little children keep
yourselves from idols, "is our Lord's voice to us, and by
the power of his Spirit we would cast out every false god from
our hearts.
Verse 10. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee
out of the land of Egypt. Thus did Jehovah usually introduce
himself to his people. The great deliverance out of Egypt was
that claim upon his people's allegiance which he most usually
pleaded. If ever people were morally bound to their God,
certainly Israel was a thousand times pledged unto Jehovah, by
his marvellous deeds on their behalf in connection with the
Exodus. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Because he had
brought them out of Egypt he could do great things for them. He
had proved his power and his good will; it remained only for his
people to believe in him and ask large things of him. If their
expectations were enlarged to the utmost degree, they could not
exceed the bounty of the Lord. Little birds in the nest open
their mouths widely enough, and perhaps the parent birds fail to
fill them, but it will never be so with our God. His treasures
of grace are inexhaustible,
"Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins."
The Lord began with his chosen nation upon a great scale,
doing great wonders for them, and offering them vast returns for
their faith and love, if they would but be faithful to him. Sad,
indeed, was the result of this grand experiment.
Verse 11. But my people would not hearken to my
voice. His warnings were rejected, his promises forgotten,
his precepts disregarded. Though the divine voice proposed
nothing but good to them, and that upon an unparalleled scale of
liberality, yet they turned aside. And Israel would none of me.
They would not consent to his proposals, they walked in direct
opposition to his commands, they hankered after the ox god of
Egypt, and their hearts were bewitched by the idols of the
nations round about. The same spirit of apostacy is in all our
hearts, and if we have not altogether turned aside from the
Lord, it is only grace which has prevented us.
Verse 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts'
lust. No punishment is more just or more severe than this.
If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their
teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are
thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out
their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions
than to our hearts' lusts. And they walked in their own
counsels. There was no doubt as to what course they would take,
for man is everywhere wilful and loves his own way,—that way
being at all times in direct opposition to God's way. Men
deserted of restraining grace, sin with deliberation; they
consult, and debate, and consider, and then elect evil rather
than good, with malice aforethought and in cool blood. It is a
remarkable obduracy of rebellion when men not only run into sin
through passion, but calmly "walk in their own
counsels" of iniquity.
Verse 13. O that my people had hearkened unto me,
and Israel had walked in my ways! The condescending love of
God expresses itself in painful regrets for Israel's sin and
punishment. Such were the laments of Jesus over Jerusalem.
Certain doctrinalists find a stumbling stone in such passages,
and set themselves to explain them away, but to men in sympathy
with the divine nature the words and the emotions are plain
enough. A God of mercy cannot see men heaping up sorrow for
themselves through their sins without feeling his compassion
excited toward them.
Verse 14. I should soon have subdued their enemies.
As he did in Egypt overthrow Pharaoh, so would he have baffled
every enemy. And turned my hand against their adversaries. He
would have smitten them once, and then have dealt them a return
blow with the back of his hand. See what we lose by sin. Our
enemies find the sharpest weapons against us in the armoury of
our transgressions. They could never overthrow us if we did not
first overthrow ourselves. Sin strips a man of his armour, and
leaves him naked to his enemies. Our doubts and fears would long
ago have been slain if we had been more faithful to our God. Ten
thousand evils which afflict us now would have been driven far
from us if we had been more jealous of holiness in our walk and
conversation. We ought to consider not only what sin takes from
our present stock, but what it prevents our gaining: reflections
will soon show us that sin always costs us dear. If we depart
from God, our inward corruptions are sure to make a rebellion.
Satan will assail us, the world will worry us, doubts will annoy
us, and all through our own fault. Solomon's departure from God
raised up enemies against him, and it will be so with us, but if
our ways please the Lord he will make even our enemies to be at
peace with us.
Verse 15. The haters of the Lord should have
submitted themselves unto him. Though the submission would
have been false and flattering, yet the enemies of Israel would
have been so humiliated that they would have hastened to make
terms with the favoured tribes. Our enemies become abashed and
cowardly when we, with resolution, walk carefully with the Lord.
It is in God's power to keep the fiercest in check, and he will
do so if we have a filial fear, a pious awe of him. But their
time should have endured for ever. The people would have been
firmly established, and their prosperity would have been stable.
Nothing confirms a state or a church like holiness. If we be
firm in obedience we shall be firm in happiness. Righteousness
establishes, sin ruins.
Verse 16. He should have fed them also with the
finest of the wheat. Famine would have been an unknown word,
they would have been fed on the best of the best food, and have
had abundance of it as their every day diet. And with honey out
of the rock should I have satisfied thee. Luxuries as well as
necessaries would be forthcoming, the very rocks of the land
would yield abundant and sweet supplies; the bees would store
the clefts of the rocks with luscious honey, and so turn the
most sterile part of the land to good account. The Lord can do
great things for an obedient people. When his people walk in the
light of his countenance, and maintain unsullied holiness, the
joy and consolation which he yields them are beyond conception.
To them the joys of heaven have begun even upon earth. They can
sing in the ways of the Lord. The spring of the eternal summer
has commenced with them; they are already blest, and they look
for brighter things. This shows us by contrast how sad a thing
it is for a child of God to sell himself into captivity to sin,
and bring his soul into a state of famine by following after
another god. O Lord, for ever bind us to thyself alone, and keep
us faithful unto the end.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. It is remarkable that as Psalm 80 treats of the
church of God under the figure of a vine, so the present is
entitled, "upon Gittith, "literally upon the
winepress. Whether the expression was meant to refer to a
musical instrument, or to some direction as to the tune, is
uncertain. In our Saviour's adoption of the figure of a vineyard
to represent his church, he speaks of a winepress dug in it, Mt
21:33. The idea refers itself to the final result in some sense,
in a way of salvation of souls, as the same figure of a
winepress is used in Revelation 16 of the final destruction of
the ungodly. W. Wilson.
Verse 2. Timbrel. The toph, English
version tabret, timbrel, LXX., tumpanon, once qalthrion.
It was what would now be called a tambourine, being played by
the hand; and was specially used by women. It is thrice
mentioned in the Ps 81:2 Ps 149:3 150:4. Joseph Francis
Thrupp.
Verse 2. The Psaltery. It is probably
impossible to be sure as to what is intended by a psaltery. The
Genevan version translates it viol, and the ancient viol
was a six stringed guitar. In the Prayer book version, the
Hebrew word is rendered lute, which instrument resembled
the guitar, but was superior in tone. The Greek word "psalterion"
denotes a stringed instrument played with the fingers.
Cassidorus says that the psaltery was triangular in shape, and
that it was played with a bow. Aben Ezra evidently considered it
to be a kind of pipe, but the mass of authorities make it a
stringed instrument. It was long in use, for we read of it in
David's time as made of fir wood (2Sa 6:55), and in Solomon's
reign, of algum trees (2Ch 9:11), and it was still in use in the
days of Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 3. Blow up the trumpet, etc. The Jews say
this blowing of trumpets was in commemoration of Isaac's
deliverance, a ram being sacrificed for him, and therefore they
sounded with trumpets made of ram's horns: or in remembrance of
the trumpet blown at the giving of the law; though it rather was
an emblem of the gospel and ministry of it, by which sinners are
aroused, awakened and quickened, and souls are charmed and
allured, and filled with spiritual joy and gladness. John
Gill.
Verse 3. The trumpet. The sound of the trumpet is very
commonly employed in Scripture as an image of the voice or word
of God. The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount
Sinai, were heard together (Ex 19:5,18-19), first the trumpet
sound as the symbol, then the reality. So also John heard the
voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet (Re 1:10 4:1), and the
sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the
harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great
glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead
to life, and make all things new (Mt 24:31 1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16).
The sound of the trumpet, then, was a symbol of the majestic,
omnipotent voice or word of God; but of course only in those
things in which it was employed in respect to what God had to
say to men. It might be used also as from man to God, or by the
people, as from one to another. In this case, it would be a call
to a greater than usual degree of alacrity and excitement in
regard to the work and service of God. And such probably was the
more peculiar design of the blowing of trumpets at the festivals
generally, and especially at the festival of trumpets on the
first day of the second month. Joseph Francis Thrupp.
Verse 3. "In the new moon, "etc. The
feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by sound of
trumpet. For want of astronomical knowledge, the poor Jews were
put to sad shifts to know the real time of the new moon. They
generally sent persons to the top of some hill or mountain about
the time which, according to their supputations, the new moon
should appear. The first who saw it was to give immediate notice
to the Sanhedrim; they closely examined the reporter as to his
credibility, and whether his information agreed with their
calculations. If all was found satisfactory, the president
proclaimed the new moon by shouting out, wdqm mikkodesh!
"It is consecrated." This word was repeated twice
aloud by the people; and was then proclaimed everywhere by blowing
of horns, or what is called the sound of trumpets.
Among the Hindus some feasts are announced by the sound of the conch,
or sacred shell. Adam Clarke.
Verse 3. In the time appointed. The word rendered the
time appointed, signifies the hidden or covered
period; that is, the time when the moon is concealed or covered
with darkness. This day was a joyful festival, returning every
month; but the first day of the seventh moon was most solemn of
the whole; being not only the first of the moon, but of the
civil year. This was called the feast of trumpets, as it was
celebrated by the blowing of trumpets from sunrising to sun
setting; according to the command, "It shall be a day of
the blowing of trumpets to you." This joy was a memorial of
the joy of creation, and the joy of giving the law; it also
preindicated the blowing of the gospel trumpet, after the dark,
the covered period of the death of Christ, when the form of the
church changed, and the year of the "redeemed" began;
and finally, it prefigured the last day, when the trumpet of God
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. Alexander Pirie.
Verse 5. I heard a language that I understood not.
The language that he then heard—the religious worship
of idolaters,—vows offered up "to birds and fourfooted
beasts, and creeping things, "Ro 1:23, and strength and
mercy sought from every object in nature, except himself,
—was a language unknown to him—"he knew it not." William
Hill Tucker.
Verse 6. Pots, or burden baskets.
Compare Ex 6:6-7. Rosellini gives a drawing of these baskets
from a picture discovered in a tomb at Thebes. "Of the
labourers, "says he, "some are employed in
transporting the clay in vessels, some in intermingling it with
straw; others are taking the bricks out of the form, and placing
them in rows; still others with a piece of wood upon their
backs, and ropes on each side, carry away the bricks already
burned or dried. Their dissimilarity to the Egyptians appears at
the first view: their complexion, physiognomy and beard permit
us not to be mistaken in supposing them to be Hebrews." Frederic
Fysh.
Verse 6. Pots. The bricklayer's baskets;
hanging one at each end of a yoke laid across the shoulders. William
Kay.
Verse 7. To answer in the secret place of thunder,
refers us to the pillar of cloud and fire, the habitation of the
awful Majesty of God, whence God glanced with angry eyes upon
the Egyptians, filled them with consternation and overthrew
them. Venema.
Verse 10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Surely this teaches us, that the greater and more valuable the
blessings are which we implore from the divine beneficence, the
more sure shall we be to receive them in answer to prayer...But,
though men are to be blamed, that they so seldom acknowledge God
in any thing, yet they are still more to be blamed, that they
seek not from him the chief good. Men may, however, possibly cry
to God for inferior things, and apply in vain. Even good men may
ask for temporal blessings, and not receive them; because the
things we suppose good, may not be good, or not good for
us, or not good for us at present. But none shall
seek God for the best of blessings in vain. If we ask enough,
we shall have it. While the worldling drinks in happiness, if it
will bear the name, with the mouth of an insect, the Christian
imbibes bliss with the mouth of an angel. His pleasures are the
same in kind, with the pleasure of the infinitely happy God. John
Ryland.
Verse 10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
You may easily over expect the creature, but you cannot over
expect God: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it;
"widen and dilate the desires and expectations of your
souls, and God is able to fill every chink to the vastest
capacity. This honours God, when we greaten our expectations
upon him, it is a sanctifying of God in our hearts. Thomas
Case (1598-1682), in "Morning Exercises."
Verse 10. Open thy mouth wide. This implies,
1. Warmth and fervency in prayer. To open the mouth is in
effect to open the heart, that it may be both engaged and
enlarged... We may be said to open our mouths wide when our
affections are quick and lively, and there is a correspondence
between the feelings of the heart and the request of the lips;
or when we really pray, and not merely seem to do so. This is
strongly and beautifully expressed in Ps 119:131: I opened my
mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
2. It implies a holy fluency and copiousness of expression,
so as to order our cause before him, and fill our mouths with
arguments. When the good man gets near to God, he has much
business to transact with him, many complaints to make, and many
blessings to implore; and, as such seasons do not frequently
occur, he's the more careful to improve them. He then pours out
his whole soul, and is at no loss for words; for when the heart
is full, the tongue overflows. Sorrow and distress will even
make those eloquent who are naturally slow of speech.
3. Enlarged hope and expectation. We may be too irreverent in
our approaches to God, and too peremptory in our application;
but if the matter and manner of our prayer be right, we cannot
be too confident in our expectations from him... Open thy mouth
wide then, O Christian; stretch out thy desires to the
uttermost, grasp heaven and earth in thy boundless wishes, and
believe there is enough in God to afford the full satisfaction.
Not only come, but come with boldness to the throne of grace: it
is erected for sinners, even the chief of sinners. Come to it
then, and wait at it, till you obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need. Those who expect most from God are likely
to receive the most. The desire of the righteous, let it be ever
so extensive, shall be granted. Benjamin Beddome.
Verse 10. I will fill it. Consider the import
of the promise: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
"Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find."
Particularly,
1. If we open our mouths to God in prayer, he will fill them
more and more with suitable petitions and arguments. When we
attempt to open the mouth, God will open it still wider. Thus he
dealt with Abraham when he interceded for Sodom; the longer he
prayed, the more submissive and yet the more importunate he
became. By praying we increase our ability to pray, and find a
greater facility in the duty. "To him that hath shall be
given, and he shall have more abundantly."
2. God will fill the mouth with abundant thanksgivings. Many
of David's psalms begin with prayer, and end with the most
animated praises. No mercies so dispose to thankfulness as those
which are received in answer to prayer; for according to the
degree of desire will be the sweetness of fruition...
3. We shall be filled with those blessings we pray for, if
they are calculated to promote our real good and the glory of
God. Do we desire fresh communications of grace, and
manifestations of divine love; a renewed sense of pardoning
mercy, and an application of the blood of Christ? Do we want
holiness, peace, and assurance? Do we want to hear from God, to
see him, and be like him? The promise is, My God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,
Php 4:19. You shall have what you desire, and be satisfied: it
shall be enough, and you shall think it so. "The Lord will
give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them
that walk uprightly." Benjamin Beddome.
Verse 10. The custom is said still to exist in Persia
that when the king wishes to do a visitor, an ambassador for
instance, especial honour, he desires him to open his mouth
wide; and the king then crams it as full of sweetmeats as it
will hold; and sometimes even with jewels. Curious as this
custom is, it is doubtless referred to in Ps 81:10: Open thy
mouth wide, and I will fill it; not with baubles of jewels,
but with far richer treasure. John Gadsby.
Verse 11. My people would not hearken to my voice;
and Israel would none of me. Know, sinner, that if at last
thou missest heaven, which, God forbid! the Lord can wash his
hands over your head, and clear himself of your blood: thy
damnation will be laid at thine own door: it will then appear
there was no cheat in the promise, no sophistry in the gospel,
but thou didst voluntarily put eternal life from thee, whatever
thy lying lips uttered to the contrary: My people would have
none of me. So that, when the jury shall sit on thy murdered
soul, to inquire how thou camest to thy miserable end, thou wilt
be found guilty of thy own damnation. No one loseth God, but he
that is willing to part with him. William Gurnall.
Verse 11. And Israel would none of me. It is
added, and Israel would none of me, more closely, was
not borne to me by a natural bent. For this is the original
force of the word hka, as it still survives in Job 9, where it
is used of the ships borne outward by a favourable wind and
tide. Venema.
Verse 11. Israel would none of me. That is,
would not be content alone with me, would not take quiet
contentment in me (as the Hebrew word signifies); the Lord
was not good enough for them, but their hearts went out from him
to other things. Thomas Sheppard, 1605-1649.
Verse 12. So I gave them up. The word give
up suggests the idea of a divorce, whereby a husband
sends away a capricious wife, and commands her to live by
herself...Transferred to God, it teaches us nothing else than
that God withdraws his protecting and guiding hand
from the people, and leaves them to themselves; so that he
ceases to chasten and defend them, but, on the other hand,
suffers them to become hardened and to perish. Venema.
Verse 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts'
lusts, etc. A man may be given up to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved, but to be
given up to sin is a thousand times worse, because that is the
fruit of divine anger, in order to the damnation of the soul;
here God wounds like an enemy and like a cruel one, and we may
boldly say, God never punished any man or woman with this
spiritual judgment in kindness and love. John Shower
(1657-1715), in "The Day of Grace."
Verse 12. I gave them up unto their own hearts'
lusts. O dreadful word! The same will the Spirit do upon our
rejecting or resisting of his leading. He may long strive, but
he will "not always strive, " Ge 6:3. If the person
led shall once begin to struggle with him that leads him, and
shall refuse to follow his guidance, what is then to be done,
but to leave him to himself? Continued, rooted, allowed
resistance to the Spirit, makes him so to cast off a person as
to lead him no more... Let it be your great and constant care
and endeavour to get the Spirit's leading continued to you. You
have it; pray keep it. Can it be well with a Christian, when
this is suspended or withdrawn from him? How does he wander and
bewilder himself, when the Spirit does not guide him! How
backward is he to good, when the Spirit does not bend and
incline him thereunto! How unable to go, when the Spirit does
not uphold him! What vile lusts and passions rule him, when the
Spirit does not put forth his holy and gracious government over
him! O, it is of infinite concern to all that belong to God, to
preserve and secure to themselves the Spirit's leading! Take a
good man without this, and he is like a ship without a pilot, a
blind man without a guide, a poor child that has none to sustain
it, the rude multitude that have none to keep them in any order.
What a sad difference is there in the same person, as to what he
is when the Spirit leads him, and as to what he is when
the Spirit leaves him!
OBJECTION.—"But does the Spirit at any time do this to
God's people? Does he ever suspend and withdraw his guidance
from persons who once lived under it?"
ANSWER.—Yes; too often. It is what he usually does, when
his leadings are not followed. This is a thing that grieves him;
and when he is grieved he departs, withholds, and recalls his
former gracious influences, though not totally and finally; yet
for a time and in such a degree. As a guide, that is to conduct
the traveller; if this traveller shall refuse to follow him, or
shall give unkind usage to him, what does the guide then do?
Why, he receded, and leaves him to shift for himself. It is thus
in the case in hand: if we comply with the Spirit, in his
motions, and use him tenderly, he will hold on in his leading of
us; but if otherwise, he will concern himself no more about us.
O, take heed how you carry yourself towards him: not only upon
ingenuousness, it is base to be unkind to our Guide, (Hast
thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken
the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way? Jer 2:17,)but
also upon the account of self love: for "as we behave
ourselves to him, so he will behave himself to us:" "Ita
nos tractat, ut a nobis tractatur." Thomas Jacombe
(1622-1687), in "Morning Exercises."
Verse 12. I gave them up...and they walked in their
own counsels. That was to give them up to a spirit of
division, to a spirit of discontent, to a spirit of envy, and
jealousy, to a spirit of ambition, of self seeking and
emulation, and so to a spirit of distraction and confusion, and
so to ruin and destruction. Such, and no better, is the issue,
when God gives a people up to their own counsels; then they soon
become a very chaos, and run themselves into a ruinous heap. As
good have no counsel from man, as none but man's. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 12. God calls upon Israel to hear and obey him,
they will not: But my people would not hearken to my voice;
and Israel would none of me. What was the result of their
refusal? So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and
they walked in their own counsels. God doth not testify his
anger for their contempt of him be sending plague, or flames, or
wild beasts among them. He doth not say, Well, since they thus
slight my authority, I will be avenged on them to purpose; I
will give them up to the sword, or famine, or racking diseases,
or greedy devouring lions, which would have been sad and
grievous; but he executes on them a far more sad and grievous
judgment, when he saith, So I gave them up unto their own
hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. God's
leaving one soul to one lust, (One's soul to one's lust?) is far
worse than leaving him to all the lions in the world. Alas! it
will tear the soul worse than a lion can do the body, and rend
it in pieces, when there is none to deliver it. God's giving
them up to their own wills, that they walked in their own
counsels, is in effect a giving them up to eternal wrath and
woe. George Swinnock.
Verse 12. God moves everything on his ordinary
providence according to their particular natures, God moves
everything ordinarily according to the nature he finds it in.
Had we stood in innocency, we had been moved according to that
originally righteous nature; but since our fall we are moved
according to that nature introduced into us with the expulsion
of the other. Our first corruption was our own act, not God's
work; we owe our creation to God, our corruption to ourselves.
Now since God will govern his creature, I do not see how it can
be otherwise, than according to the present nature of the
creature, unless God be pleased to alter that nature. God forces
no man against his nature; he doth not force the will in
conversion, but graciously and powerfully inclines it. He doth
never force nor incline the will to sin, but leaves it to the
corrupt habits it hath settled in itself: So I gave them up
unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own
counsels; counsels of their own framing, not of God's. He
moves the will, which is sponte mala, according to its
own nature and counsels. As a man flings several things out of
his hand, which are of several figures, some spherical,
tetragons, cylinders, conics, some round and some square, though
the motion be from the agent, yet the variety of their motions
is from their own figure and frame; and if any will hold his
hand upon a ball in its motion, regularly it will move according
to its nature and figure; and a man by casting a bowl out of his
hand, is the cause of the motion, but the bad bias is the cause
of its irregular motion. The power of action is from God, but
the viciousness of that action from our own nature. As when a
clock or watch hath some fault in any of the wheels, the man
that winds it up, or putting his hand upon the wheels moves
them, he is the cause of the motion, but it is the flaw in it, a
deficiency of something, is the cause of its erroneous motion;
that error was not from the person that made it, or the person
that winds it up, and sets it on going, but from some other
cause; yet till it be mended it will not go otherwise, so long
as it is set upon motion. Our motion is from God,—Ac 17:28, In
him we move, —but not the disorder of that motion. It is
the fulness of a man's stomach at sea is the cause of his
sickness, and not the pilot's government of the ship. God doth
not infuse the lust, to excite it, though he doth present the
object about which the lust is exercised. God delivered up
Christ to the Jews, he presented him to them, but never
commanded them to crucify him, nor infused that malice into
them, nor quickened it; but he, seeing such a frame, withdrew
his restraining grace, and left them to the conduct of their own
vitiated wills. All the corruption in the world ariseth from
lust in us, not from the objects which God in his providence
presents to us: 2Pe 1:4, The corruption that is in the world
through lust. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me,
etc. God sometimes doth not mind his children when they cry,
that they may hereby take occasion to remember how oft he hath
cried and they have not minded him. Doth not the Lord cry out to
his people of duty and they do not hear him? Doth he not
complain here of this neglect, not only as a dishonour, but as a
grief unto him? No marvel then if God let his people cry out of
misery, and doth not hear them. The Lord shuts his ear that we
might consider how we have shut our ears; yea, he shuts his ears
that he may open ours. We are moved to hear and answer the call
and command of God, though we find that he doth not hear nor
answer our call and cry. If the Lord should always be swift to
hear us, how slow should we be in hearing him, and while we have
our desires, forget most of our duties. Abraham Wright.
Verse 13. Oh that my people had hearkened, etc.
God speaks as if he were comforted when he is but heard, or as
if we comforted him when we hear him. God beseecheth us, and
speaks entreaties to us, that his counsels and commands may be
heard: Oh that my people had hearkened unto me. The Lord
tells them indeed it would have proved their consolation (Ps
81:14): I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned
my hand against their adversaries. Yet while he speaks so
pathetically, he seems to include his own consolation in it as
well as theirs. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me:
it would have been good for them, and it would have given high
content to myself. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me,
etc. There is to us a deep mysteriousness in all this; but the
desire of God for our salvation and right moral state, is here
most obviously manifested: and let us proceed on that which is
obvious, not on that which is obscure. Thomas Chalmers.
Verse 13. Walked in my ways. None are found in
the ways of God, but those who have hearkened to
his words. W. Wilson.
Verse 14. Turned my hand. God expresseth the
utter overthrow of the enemies of his people, but by the turning
of a hand: if God do but turn his hand, they are all gone
presently, soon subdued. If he do but touch the might, the pomp,
the greatness, the riches and the power of all those in the
world that are opposers of his church, presently they fall to
the ground: a touch from the hand of God will end our wars. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. The rock
spiritually and mystically designs Christ, the Rock of
salvation, 1Co 10:4; the honey out of the rock, the
fulness of grace in him, and the blessings of it, the sure
mercies of David, and the precious promises of the everlasting
covenant; and the gospel, which is sweeter than the honey or the
honeycomb, and with these such are filled and satisfied who
hearken to Christ and walk in his ways; for, as the whole of
what is here said shows what Israel lost by disobedience, it
clearly suggests what such enjoy who hear and obey. John
Gill.
Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. God extracts
honey out of the rock—the sweetest springs and pleasures from
the hardness of afflictions; from mount Calvary and the cross,
the blessings that give greatest delight; whereas the world
makes from the fountains of pleasure stones and rocks of
torment. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. Most
travellers who have visited Palestine in summer have had their
attention directed to the abundance of honey, which the bees of
the land have stored up in the hollows of trees and in crevices
of the rock. In localities where the bare rocks of the desert
alone break the sameness of the scene, and all around is
suggestive of desolation and death, the traveller has God's care
of his chosen people vividly brought to mind, as he sees the
honey which the bees had treasured up beyond his reach,
trickling in shining drops down the face of the rock. John
Duns.
Verse 16. When once a people or a person are accepted
of God, he spares no cost, nor thinks anything too costly for
them. He would have fed them also with the finest of the
wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied
thee. I would not have fed thee with wheat only, that's
good; but with the finest wheat, that's the best. We put in the
margin, with the fat of wheat; they should not have had
the bran, but the flour, and the finest of the flour; they
should have had not only honey, but honey out of the rock,
which, as naturalists observe, is the best and purest honey.
Surely God cannot think anything of this world too good for his
people, who hath not thought the next world too good for them;
certainly God cannot think any of these outward enjoyments too
good for his people, who hath not thought his Son too good for
his people; that's the apostle's argument, Ro 8:32: He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things? even
the best of outward good things, when he seeth it good for us. Joseph
Caryl.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Congregational singing should be general,
hearty, joyful. The reasons for this, and the benefits of it.
Verses 1-3.
1. Praise should be sincere. It can come from the people of
God only.
2. It should be constant: they should praise God at all
times.
3. It should be special. There should be seasons of special
praise.
(a) Appointed by God, as Sabbaths and solemn feasts.
(b) Demanded by providence on occasion of special
deliverances and special mercies.
4. It should be public: "sing aloud:" "bring
hither, "etc. G. R.
Verse 4. The rule of ordinances and worship; pleas for
going beyond it; instances in various churches; the sin and
danger of such will worship.
Verse 5. What there is in the language of the world
which is unintelligible to the sons of God.
Verse 6. The emancipation of believers. Law work is
burdensome, servile, never completed, unrewarded, more and more
irksome. Only the Lord can deliver us from this slavish toil,
and he does it by grace and by power. We do well to remember the
time of our liberation, exhibit gratitude for it, and live
consistently with it.
Verse 7.
1. Answered prayers,—bonds of gratitude.
2. Former testing times,—warning memories.
3. The present a time for new answers as it is also for fresh
tests.
Verse 7. Waters of Meribah. The various test
points of the believer's life.
Verses 8-10.
1. A compassionate Father, calling to his child: O my
people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt
hearken unto me.
2. A jealous sovereign, laying down his law: There shall
no strange god be in thee.
3. An all sufficient Friend, challenging confidence: I am
the Lord thy God: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Richard Cecil. 1748-1810.
Verses 8, 11, 13. The command, the disobedience, the
regret.
Verses 11, 12.
1. The sin of Israel. They would not hearken. The mouth is
opened in attentive hearing: open thy mouth wide; but my
people, etc. Their sin was greatly aggravated
1. By what God had done for them.
2. By the gods they had preferred to him.
2. The punishment.
1. Its greatness: I gave them up, etc.
2. Its justice: They would none of me. G. R.
Verses 8, 11, 13. The command, the disobedience, the
regret.
Verse 13. The excellent estate of an obedient
believer.
1. Enemies subdued.
2. Enjoyments perpetuated.
3. Abundance possessed.
Verses 13-14. The sin and loss of the backslider.
Verse 14. Spiritual enemies best combatted by an
obedient life.
Verse 16.
1. Spiritual dainties.
2. By whom provided.
3. To whom given.
4. With what result—"satisfied."