TITLE. A Psalm or Song of Asaph.
This is the last occasion upon which we shall meet with this
eloquent writer. The patriotic poet sings again of wars and
dangers imminent, but it is no godless song of a thoughtless
nation entering upon war with a light heart. Asaph the seer is
well aware of the serious dangers arising from the powerful
confederate nations, but his soul in faith stays itself upon
Jehovah, while as a poet preacher he excites his countrymen to
prayer by means of this sacred lyric. The Asaph who penned this
song was in all probability the person referred to in 2Ch 20:14,
for the internal evidence referring the subject of the Psalm to
the times of Jehoshaphat is overwhelming. The division in the
camp of the confederate peoples in the wilderness of Tekoa not
only broke up their league, but led to a mutual slaughter, which
crippled the power of some of the nations for many years after.
They thought to destroy Israel and destroyed each other.
DIVISION. An appeal to God in a
general manner fills Ps 83:1-4; and then the psalmist enters
into details of the league, Ps 83:5-8. This leads to an earnest
entreaty for the overthrow of the enemy, Ps 83:9-15, with an
expression of desire that God's glory may be promoted thereby.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Keep not thou silence, O God. Man is
clamorous, be not thou speechless. He rails and reviles, wilt
not thou reply? On word of thine can deliver thy people;
therefore, O Lord, break thy quiet and let thy voice be heard. Hold
not thy peace, and be not still, O God. Here the appeal is
to EL., the Mighty One. He is entreated to act and speak,
because his nation suffers and is in great jeopardy. How
entirely the psalmist looks to God; he asks not for "a
leader bold and brave, "or for any form of human force, but
casts his burden upon the Lord, being well assured that his
eternal power and Godhead could meet every difficulty of the
case.
Verse 2. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult.
They are by no means sparing of their words, they are like a
hungry pack of dogs, all giving tongue at once. So sure are they
of devouring thy people that they already shout over the feast. And
they that hate thee have lifted up the head. Confident of
conquest, they carry themselves proudly and exalt themselves as
if their anticipated victories were already obtained. These
enemies of Israel were also God's enemies, and are here
described as such by way of adding intensity to the argument of
the intercession. The adversaries of the church are usually a
noisy and a boastful crew. Their pride is a brass which always
sounds, a cymbal which is ever tinkling.
Verse 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy
people. Whatever we may do, our enemies use their wits and
lay their heads together; in united conclave they discourse upon
the demands and plans of the campaign, using much treachery and
serpentine cunning in arranging their schemes. Malice is cold
blooded enough to plot with deliberation; and pride, though it
be never wise, is often allied with craft. And consulted
against thy hidden ones. Hidden away from all harm are the
Lord's chosen; their enemies think not so, but hope to smite
them; they might as well attempt to destroy the angels before
the throne of God.
Verse 4. They have said, Come, and let us cut them
off from being a nation. Easier said than done. Yet it shows
how thorough going are the foes of the church. Theirs was the
policy of extermination. They laid the axe at the root of the
matter. Rome has always loved this method of warfare, and hence
she has gloated over the massacre of Bartholomew, and the
murders of the Inquisition. That the name of Israel may be no
more in remembrance. They would blot them out of history as
well as out of existence. Evil is intolerant of good. If Israel
would let Edom alone yet Edom cannot be quiet, but seeks like
its ancestor to kill the chosen of the Lord. Men would be glad
to cast the church out of the world because it rebukes them, and
is thus a standing menace to their sinful peace.
Verse 5. For they have consulted together with one
consent. They are hearty and unanimous in their designs.
They seem to have but one heart, and that a fierce one, against
the chosen people and their God. They are confederate against
thee. At the Lord himself they aim through the sides of his
saints. They make a covenant, and ratify it with blood,
resolutely banding themselves together to war with the Mighty
God.
Verse 6. The tabernacles of Edom. Nearest of
kin, yet first in enmity. Their sire despised the birthright,
and they despise the possessors of it. Leaving their rock built
mansions for the tents of war, the Edomites invaded the land of
Israel. And the Ishmaelites. A persecuting spirit ran in
their blood, they perpetuated the old grudge between the child
of the bondwoman and the son of the freewoman. Of Moab.
Born of incest, but yet a near kinsman, the feud of Moab against
Israel was very bitter. Little could righteous Lot have dreamed
that his unhallowed seed would be such unrelenting enemies of
his uncle Abraham's posterity. And the Hagarenes—perhaps
descendants of Hagar by a second husband. Whoever they may have
been, they cast their power into the wrong scale, and with all
their might sought the ruin of Israel. Children of Hagar, and
all others who dwell around Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia, are
of the seed which gendereth to bondage, and hence they hate the
seed according to promise.
Verse 7. Gebal was probably a near neighbour of
Edom, though there was a Gebal in the region of Tyre and Sidon. And
Ammon, and Amalek. Two other hereditary foes of Israel,
fierce and remorseless as ravening wolves. In the roll of infamy
let these names remain detestably immortalised. How thick they
stand. Their name is legion, for they are many. Alas, poor
Israel, how art thou to stand against such a Bloody League? Nor
is this all. Here comes another tribe of ancient foemen, the
Philistines; who once blinded Samson, and captured the ark
of the Lord; and here are old allies become new enemies; the
builders of the temple conspiring to pull it down, even the
inhabitants of Tyre. These last were mercenaries who cared
not at whose bidding they drew sword, so long as they carved
something for their own advantage. True religion has had its
quarrel with merchants and craftsmen, and because it has
interfered with their gains, they have conspired against it.
Verse 8. Assur is also joined with them. It was
then a rising power, anxious for growth, and it thus early
distinguished itself for evil. What a motley group they were; a
league against Israel is always attractive, and gathers whole
nations within its bonds. Herod and Pilate are friends, if Jesus
is to be crucified. Romanism and Ritualism make common cause
against the gospel. They have holpen the children of Lot.
All these have come to the aid of Moab and Ammon, which two
nations were among the fiercest in the conspiracy. There were
ten to one against Israel, and yet she overcame all her enemies.
Her name is not blotted out; but many, nay, most of her
adversaries are now a name only, their power and their
excellence are alike gone. Selah. There was good reason
for a pause when the nation was in such jeopardy: and yet it
needs faith to make a pause, for unbelief is always in a hurry.
Verse 9. Do unto them as unto the Midianites.
Faith delights to light upon precedents, and quote them before
the Lord; in the present instance, Asaph found a very
appropriate one, for the nations in both cases were very much
the same, and the plight of the Israelites very similar. Yet
Midian perished, and the psalmist trusted that Israel's present
foes would meet with the like overthrow from the hand of the
Lord. As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison.
The hosts were swept away by the suddenly swollen torrent, and
utterly perished; which was a second instance of divine
vengeance upon confederated enemies of Israel. When God wills
it, a brook can be as deadly as a sea. Kishon was as terrible to
Jabin as was the Red Sea to Pharaoh. How easily can the Lord
smite the enemies of his people. God of Gideon and of Barak,
wilt thou not again avenge thine heritage of their bloodthirsty
foes?
Verse 10. Which perished at Endor. There was
the centre of the carnage, where the heaps of the slain lay
thickest. They became as dung for the earth, manuring it
with man; making the earth, like Saturn, feed on its own
children. War is cruel, butt in this case it avengements were
most just,—those who would not give Israel a place above
ground are themselves denied a hiding place under the ground;
they counted God's people to be as dung, and they became dung
themselves. Asaph would have the same fate befell other enemies
of Israel; and his prayer was a prophecy, for so it happened to
them.
Verse 11. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like
Zeeb. Smite the great ones as well as the common ruck.
Suffer not the ringleaders to escape. As Oreb fell at the rock
and Zeeb at the winepress, so do thou mete out vengeance to
Zion's foes wherever thou mayest overtake them. They boastfully
compare themselves to ravens and wolves; let them receive the
fate which is due to such wild beasts. Yea, all their princes
as Zebah, and as Zalmunnua. These were captured and slain by
Gideon, despite their claiming to have been anointed to the
kingdom. Zebah became a sacrifice, and Zalmunna was sent to
those shadowy images from which his name is derived. The
psalmist seeing these four culprits hanging in history upon a
lofty gallows, earnestly asks that others of a like character
may, for truth and righteousness' sake, share their fate.
Verse 12. Who said, Let us take to ourselves the
houses of God in possession. Viewing the temple, and also
the dwellings of the tribes, as all belonging to God, these
greedy plunderers determined to push out the inhabitants, slay
them, and become themselves landlords and tenants of the whole.
These were large words and dark designs, but God could bring
them all to nothing. It is in vain for men to say "Let us
take, "if God does not give. He who robs God's house will
find that he has a property reeking with a curse; it will plague
him and his seed for ever. "Will a man rob God?" Let
him try it, and he will find it hot and heavy work.
Verse 13. O my God, make them like a wheel;
like a rolling thing which cannot rest, but is made to move with
every breath. Let them have no quiet. May their minds eternally
revolve and never come to peace. Blow them away like thistle
down, as the stubble before the wind. Scatter them, chase
them, drive them to destruction. Every patriot prays thus
against the enemies of his country, he would be no better than a
traitor if he did not.
Verse 14. As the fire burneth a wood. Long
years have strewn the ground with deep deposits of leaves; these
being dried in the sun are very apt to take fire, and when they
do so the burning in terrific. The underwood and the ferns
blaze, the bushes crackle, the great trees kindle and to their
very tops are wrapped in fire, while the ground is all red as a
furnace. In this way, O Lord, mete out destruction to thy foes,
and bring all of them to an end. The flame setteth the
mountains on fire. Up the hill sides the hanging woods glow
like a great sacrifice, and the forests on the mountain's crown
smoke towards heaven. Even thus, O Lord, do thou conspicuously
and terribly overthrow the enemies of thine Israel.
Verse 15. So persecute them with thy tempest, and
make them afraid with thy storm. The Lord will follow up his
enemies, alarm them, and chase them till they are put to a
hopeless rout. He did this, according to the prayer of the
present Psalm, for his servant Jehoshaphat; and in like manner
will he come to the rescue of any or all of his chosen.
Verse 16. Fill their faces with shame; that they
may seek thy name, O Lord. Shame has often weaned men from
their idols, and set them upon seeking the Lord. If this was not
the happy result, in the present instance, with the Lord's
enemies, yet it would be so with his people who were so prone to
err. They would be humbled by his mercy, and ashamed of
themselves because of his grace; and then they would with
sincerity return to the earnest worship of Jehovah their God,
who had delivered them.
Verse 17. Where no good result followed, and the men
remained as fierce and obstinate as ever, justice was invoked to
carry out the capital sentence. Let them be confounded and
troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish.
What else could be done with them? It was better that they
perished than that Israel should be rooted up. What a terrible
doom it will be to the enemies of God to be "confounded,
and troubled for ever, "to see all their schemes and hopes
defeated, and their bodies and souls full of anguish without
end: from such a shameful perishing may our souls be delivered.
Verse 18. That men may know that thou, whose name
alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
Hearing of the Lord's marvellous deeds in defeating such a
numerous confederacy, the very heathen would be compelled to
acknowledge the greatness of Jehovah. We read in 2Ch 20:30, that
the fear of God was on all the neighbouring kingdoms when they
heard that Jehovah fought against the enemies of Israel. Jehovah
is essentially the Most High. He who is self existent is
infinitely above all creatures, all the earth is but his
footstool. The godless race of man disregards this, and yet at
times the wonderful works of the Lord compel the most unwilling
to adore his majesty. Thus has this soul stirring lyric risen
from the words of complaint to those of adoration; let us in our
worship always seek to do the same. National trouble called out
the nation's poet laureate, and well did he discourse at once of
her sorrows, and prayers, and hopes. Sacred literature thus owes
much to sorrow and distress. How enriching is the hand of
adversity! The following attempt to verify the Psalm, and tune
it to gospel purposes, is submitted with great diffidence.
O God, be thou no longer still,
Thy foes are leagued against thy law;
Make bare thine arm on Zion's hill,
Great Captain of our Holy War.
As Amalek and Ishmael
Had war for ever with thy seed,
So all the hosts of Rome and hell
Against the Son their armies led.
Though they are agreed in nought beside,
Against thy truth they all unite;
They rave against the Crucified,
And hate the gospel's growing might.
By Kishon's brook all Jabin's band
At thy rebuke were swept away;
O Lord, display thy mighty hand,
A single stroke shall win the day.
Come, rushing wind, the stubble chase!
Come, sacred fire, the forests burn!
Come, Lord, with all thy conquering grace,
Rebellious hearts to Jesus turn!
That men may know at once that thou,
Jehovah, lovest truth right well;
And that thy church shall never bow
Before the boastful gates of hell.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. "A Song or Psalm." When
the two words (Shir, Mizmor, )occur together, the meaning
seems to be, a lyric poem appointed to be sung. John Jebb.
Title. This Psalm, according to the title, was
composed by Asaph. In accordance with this, we read, in 1Ch
20:14, that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehasiel, of the
sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. This Jehasiel is
probably the author of the Psalm. Our Psalm is a true picture of
the state of feeling which prevailed throughout the people
during the danger under Jehoshaphat. According to the history of
Chronicles, they praised God at that time, in the midst of their
danger, with loud voice, 2Ch 20:19; and here in the title, which
is an appendage to that of Psalm 48, the Psalm is called a song
of praise; and it is such in reality, although it bears the
form of a prayer, —a song of triumph sung before the
victory,—no contest, no doubt, the distress is simply
committed to God. The mention of the Amalekites among the
enemies of Israel, in Ps 83:7, renders it impossible to come
down to times later than that of Jehoshaphat. The last remains
of the Amalekites were, according to 1Ch 4:43, rooted out by the
Simeonites, under Hezekiah. From that time they disappear
altogether from history. Ewald's assertion that Amalek stands
here "only as a name of infamy applied to parties well
known at the time, "is to be considered as a miserable
shift. The Psalm must have been composed previous to the
extension of the empire of the Assyrians over Western Asia. For
the Assyrians named last, in the eighth verse, appear here in
the very extraordinary character of an ally of the sons of Lot. E.
W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 1. Keep not thou silence, O God. In
Scripture there are three reasons why the Lord keeps silence
when his people are in danger, and sits still when there
is most need to give help and assistance. One is, the Lord doth
it to try their faith, as we clearly see, Mt 8:24, where
it is said that our Lord Christ was asleep: There arose a
great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered
with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to
him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. We
read more fully in Mark 4 and Luke 8, he left them, when the
ship was covered with waves, and they were rowing for their
lives, their Lord was asleep the while, and he said to
them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that you have no
faith? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the
sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great
calm. Truly, the Lord will not suffer his people to be overwhelmed,
that is certain, but he will suffer them to come very near, that
the waves cover them, and fear and horror shall cover
their souls, and all to try their faith. . . . I find
another reason in Isaiah 59, and that is, the Lord doth keep
silence in the midst of the troubles of his people, to try
men's uprightness of heart. For if God should always appear
for his cause, God and his cause should have many favourites and
friends; but sometimes God leaves his cause, and leaves his
people, and leaves his gospel, and his ordinances to the wide
world, to see who will plead for it and stick to it. . . . There
is a third reason: God, as it were, keeps silence in the
midst of the greatest troubles, that he may, as it were, gather
the wicked into one faggot, into one bundle, that they may be
destroyed together. There is a great deal of ado to "gather
the saints" in this world; and truly there is some ado
to gather the wicked. So God withdraws himself from his
people, yet he hath a hook within their hearts, he holds
them up secretly by his Spirit, that they shall not leave him;
yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left
them, and all their ordinances and his gospel and everything;
and there the wicked come together and insult, whereby
God may come upon them at once, and destroy them, as we
find ten nations in the Psalm. And so in Genesis God stirs up
the nations against Abraham and his posterity, and there are ten
nations that God promised to cut off before Abraham at once, the
Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Canaanites, etc. So God heaps
them together, and burns them like stubble. Those that burn
stubble have rakes, and they gather it to heaps,
and then they fire it. This is the way of God's keeping
silence among his people, and sitting still in the
midst of their miseries, thus God gathers their enemies in heaps
as stubble, that he may burn them together. Gualter (Walter)
Cradock, in "Divine Drops." 1650.
Verse 1. Keep not thou silence, etc. The Hebrew
words have great emphasis, and express the main causes of
silence—closing the mouth, deafness of the ears, and a
tranquility maintained to such an extent as to reject all
disquietude.
The first clause, let not thy mouth be closed, and thy
tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, immovably, properly
denotes, from the inherent force of the word jqs whose root
means to fix to and compact firmly, what is fastened with
lime or daubed with plaster...
The second clause, be not thou deaf, properly pertains
to the ears, as Mic 7:16, Their ears shall be deaf. The
third, be not still, suggests the course of the thoughts
of the mind when it is brought to a state of clear tranquility,
all cares and commotions being laid aside. The word (Heb.) is
properly to settle, to settle down, as when the disturbed
dregs of liquor settle down and seek the bottom, whence it is
applied to the mind when freed from a great fermentation of
cares and the sediments of anxieties and bitterness, a mind
serene, clear, and refined...
Let us now see what the poet had in mind when he poured out
these prayers, or what he wished to indicate. He hinted, that
the people were reduced to these earnest entreaties, because
unless God should speedily bring help to them, it might seem
that Jehovah, the God of Israel, is like the false gods, a sort
of deity, either mute, or deaf, or at his ease. Hermann
Venema.
Verse 1. Is the Lord silent? Then be not thou silent;
but cry unto him till he breaks the silence. Starke, in
Lange's Bibelwerk.
Verse 1. The reference to tumult in the
following verse gives force to the earnest appeal in this.
Amidst all the tumult of gathering foes, he earnestly calls on
God to break his silence, and to speak to them in wrath. W.
Wilson.
Verse 2. For, lo. The prayer begins with the
particle lo, which has not only the force of arousing
God, but also give the idea of something present, with
the view of pointing out the opportune moment for God to gird
himself for the work. Hermann Venema.
Verse 2. Thine enemies make a tumult. The whole
world is but like an army, a brigade of men (as it
were) under a general; and God is the Lord of Hosts, that
is the Lord of his armies: now when there is a tumult in
an army, they complain to the officers, to the general
especially; and he must come and suppress it. Therefore, saith
he, Thou Lord of hosts, thou art general of the world; lo, there
is a tumult in the world, a mutiny. Walter Cradock.
Verse 3. Thy hidden ones. This representation
of God's people is worthy our notice. It may be taken two ways.
First, As referring to their safety. We often hide only
to preserve. This is the meaning of the word in the parable,
with regard to the discovery of the treasure in the field;
"which, when a man hath found, he hideth it." His aim
is not to conceal but to secure; and the cause is put for the
effect. Thus God's people are hidden. He hid Noah in the Ark,
and the waters that drowned the world could not find him.
When his judgments were coming over the land, "Come, my
people, "saith he, "enter thou into thy chambers, and
shut thy doors about thee: hide thee also for a little season,
until the indignation be overpast." Hence the promise,
"Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from
the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion
from the strife of tongues." Hence the confidence expressed
by David, "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his
pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he
shall set me upon a rock." The Saviour could say, "In
the shadow of his hand hath he hid me." And, "All the
saints are in his hand." They are kept by the power of God,
through faith, unto salvation. For he himself is their
"refuge, "their "hiding place." They are his
hidden ones. Secondly. As intimating their concealment.
This is not absolute. But it holds in various respects and
degrees. It is true with regard to the nature of the spiritual
life. Our life, says the Apostle, is hid with Christ in God;
and that he refers to its invisibleness, rather than to its
safety, is obvious from the words following: "When he who
is our life shall appear, we also shall appear
with him in glory." ...The heart of the believer only knows
his own bitterness; and a stranger intermeddleth not with his
joy. The manna on which he feeds is hidden manna. And no one
knoweth the new name in the white stone given him, but the
receiver... They are sometimes hidden by persecution. For
though this does not prevent their being Christians, it hinders
them from appearing as such; especially by secluding them from
their social and public assemblies... They are sometimes hidden
by the obscurity of their stations. Not many of the wise, and
mighty, and noble are called: but when they are called
they are also exhibited. They are like cities set on
hills, which cannot be hid. A little religion in high life goes
a great way, and is much talked of, because it is so often a
strange thing. But God has chosen the poor of this world; and
they are often rich in faith. Yet how is their moral wealth to
be known? How few opportunities have they for religious display
or exertion! There may be the principle of benevolence, where
there is no ability to give. And the Lord seeth the heart, but
men can only judge from actions. Many who are great in the sight
of the Lord are living in cottages and hovels; and are scarcely
known, unless to a few neighbours equally obscure. They are
sometimes hidden by their disposition. They are reserved,
and shrink back from notice. They are timid and self diffident.
This restrains them in religious conversation, especially as it
regards their own experience. This keeps them from making a
profession of religion, and joining a Christian church. Joseph
of Arimathaea was a disciple of Jesus; but secretly, for fear of
the Jews. And Nicodemus, from the same cause, came to Jesus by
night. They had difficulties in their situations, from which
others were free. They ought to have overcome them; and so they
did at last, but it was a day of small things with them at
first. Others are circumstanced and tried in a similar way: and
we must be patient towards all men. They are sometimes hidden by
their infirmities. We would not plead for sin; but grace
may be found along with many imperfections. The possessors have
what is essential to religion in them; but not everything that
is ornamental, and lovely, and of good report. The same will
also apply to errors. Here, again, we are far from
undervaluing divine truth. It is a good thing that the heart be
established with grace. But it is impossible for us to say how
much ignorance, and how many mistakes, may be found, even in the
Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. William Jay.
Verse 3. The less the world knows thee, the better for
thee; thou mayest be satisfied with this one thing—God knows
them that are his: not lost, although hidden is the
symbol of a Christian. Frisch, in Lange's Bibelwerk.
Verse 4. That the name of Israel may be no more in
remembrance. This desperate and dreadful scheme, and
wretched design of theirs, took not effect; but, on the
contrary, the several nations hereafter mentioned, who were in
this conspiracy, are no more, and have not had a name in the
world for many hundreds of years; whilst the Jews are still a
people and are preserved, in order to be called and saved, as
all Israel will be in the latter day, Ro 11:25. So Diocletian
thought to have rooted the Christian name out of the world; but
in vain. John Gill.
Verse 5. For they have consulted together with one
consent. Margin, as in Hebrew, heart. There is no
division in their counsels on this subject. They have one desire—one
purpose—in regard to the matter. Pilate and Herod were
made friends together against Christ (Lu 23:12); and the world
divided and hostile in other matters, has been habitually united
in its opposition to Christ and to a pure and spiritual
religion. Albert Barnes.
Verse 5. They have consulted together with one
consent, etc. To push on this unholy war, they lay their
heads together, and their horns, and their hearts too. Fas
est et ab hoste doceri. Do the enemies of the church act
with one consent to destroy it? Are the kings of the earth of
one mind to give their power and honour to the beast? And shall
not the church's friends be unanimous in serving her interests?
If Herod and Pilate are made friends that they may join in
crucifying Christ, sure Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Peter, will
soon be made friends, that they may join in preaching Christ. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 5. They have consulted together, etc.
Though there may fall out a private grudge betwixt such as are
wicked, yet they will all agree and unite against the saints: if
two greyhounds are snarling at a bone, yet put up a hare between
them, and they will leave the bone, and follow after the hare;
so, if wicked men have private differences amongst themselves,
yet if the godly be near them, they will leave snarling at one
another, and will pursue after the godly. Thomas Watson.
Verse 5. They are confederate against thee.
"They have made a covenant, "vtyrkytyrk berith
yachriths, "they have cut the covenant sacrifice."
They have slain an animal, divided him in twain, and passed
between the pieces of the victim; and have thus bound themselves
to accomplish their purpose. Adam Clarke.
Verse 6. The tabernacle of Edom, etc. The prophet
having entered his suit and complaint in general, he comes to
particulars, and tells God who they are that had done this. God
might say, Who are these that conspire against me, and against
my people, and hidden ones? Lord, saith the prophet, I will tell
thee who they are... He names some ten nations that
joined together against one poor Israel. It is a thing
you should observe, that when the people of God are conspired
against, God rests not in general complaints, but he will
know who they are. As I told you, He is the Lord of
Hosts, the great general. When there is mutiny the
general asks, what officer, or what corporal, or what sergeant,
or who did begin the mutiny? and it is a fearful thing when the
poor persecuted saint shall bring thy name as a persecutor
before the God of heaven. When a poor saint shall go home and
say, There is a confederacy in London, a conspiracy against the
saints of God; and when a poor saint shall say, such a
magistrate, such a minister, such a man in such a street, such a
woman set her husband against the saints, and against thine
ordinances; it is a fearful thing. Therefore I remember a
blessed woman, if it be true that is reported of her in the Book
of Martyrs, that when the wicked abused her, and reproached
her, and oppressed her, she would say no more but this, "I
will go home and tell my Father" give over, or else I will
bring your names before God, and tell him: there was all, and
that was enough; for he would presently take it up. A man may
better bear a pound of dirt on his feet, than a grain of
dirt in his eye; the saints are "the apple of God's
eye." Walter Cradock.
Verse 6. Hagarenes. These people dwelt on the
east of Gilead; and were nearly destroyed in the days of Saul,
being totally expelled from their country, 1Ch 5:10, but
afterwards recovered some strength and consequence. Adam
Clarke.
Verses 6-8. It may be observed that these were on all
sides of the land of Israel; the Edomites, Ishmaelites, and
Amalekites, were on the south; the Moabites, Ammonites, and
Hagarenes, were on the east; the Assyrians on the north; and the
Philistines, Gebalites, and Tyrians, on the west; so that Israel
was surrounded on all sides with enemies, as the Lord's people
are troubled on every side, 2Ch 4:8; and so the Gog and Magog
army, of which some understand this, will encompass the camp of
the saints about, and the beloved city, Re 20:9. John Gill.
Verses 6-8. The enemies of Israel, as enumerated by
the psalmist, fall into four main divisions: 1st, those most
nearly connected with the Israelites themselves by the ties of
blood relationship, the descendants of Esau and Ishmael; 2ndly,
the two branches of the descendants of Lot along with their
respective Arabian auxiliaries, viz., the Moabites, who had
engaged the assistance of the Hagarenes, and the Ammonites, who
had gathered round their standard the Giblites and Amalekites;
3rdly, the inhabitants of the coast, the Philistines and Tyrians;
4thly, the more distant Assyrians. Of all these the bitterest in
their hostility to Israel were those who were the most nearly
allied to them in blood,—the Edomites. Their hostility was
founded upon hatred. From their conduct to the Israelites
through a long course of years it would seem as though in them
were lastingly perpetuated that older hatred wherewith their
forefather Essau had hated Jacob because of Isaac's blessing.
And though they had once and again succeeded, according to the
prophecy, in breaking Israel's yoke from off their neck, yet
they never could wrest away from Israel the possession of the
birthright, and with it of the promises, which their ancestors
had profanely despised; from Israel, not from Edom, was the
Redeemer of the world to spring, and in Israel were all the
families of the earth to be blessed. The Edomites may
accordingly be appropriately viewed as the types of those whom
the Church of Christ has ever found her bitterest foes, the
sceptics who have refused to acknowledge that redemption through
a personal Redeemer, on which, as on a basis, the church is
founded, whose intellectual pride is offended by the humbling
doctrines of Christianity, and who hate those that hold them for
their possession of blessings which they have wilfully
neglected; whose human learning has nevertheless all along been
subservient on the whole to the edification of the church, in
spite of the violence with which they have striven, and for a
while, as it should sometimes appear, successfully, to gain the
mastery over her by opposing her, and to exercise a temporary
dominion. Dwelling themselves in tabernacles, they cannot bear
that others, more blessed that they, should have the houses of
God in possession: "owning themselves to be astray, and
unable to find the way to the truth, they are yet most
importunate and imperious that others should come away from the
ancient paths, and try to join them, or at least, wander as they
are wandering." In conjunction with the Edomites, the
psalmist makes mention of the Ishmaelites. And these, as the
descendants of the bondwoman, may fitly represent those Jewish
opponents of Christianity, still, perhaps, locally, if not
generally, formidable, who in their rejection of Christian
doctrine have been swayed by the same feelings of intellectual
pride as the sceptics of Christian descent; who professing to
hold fast to that covenant of Mount Sinai which gendereth to
bondage, persecuted, so long as they were able, those born after
the Spirit.
In the descendants of Lot and their Arabian auxiliaries, we
have the types of a different class of foes. The historical
origin of the former marks them as the appropriate
representatives of the slaves of sinful lusts; who hate the
church not for the humbling tone of her doctrines, but for the
standard of holiness which she exacts and for which she is
continually witnessing. And experience shews how such persons
are wont, in their attacks upon the church, to enlist into their
service those who are more wildly, but at the same time more
ignorantly, unholy than themselves; how in order, if possible,
to uproot those fences and safeguards of the law of holiness on
which, having transgressed them, they hate to look, they appeal
to the unbridled passions of the lawless multitude by whom the
very existence of the fences had been utterly disregarded. From
the enemies of the Church who are animated by feelings of
positive hatred we pass to those who act from calculation rather
than passion, and whose proceeding are all directed with a view
to their own earthly aggrandisement. The Philistines and Tyrians
had engaged in the hostile confederacy with the hope of
obtaining Israelitish captives, from whom they might reap a
profit by selling them abroad as slaves. It does not appear that
they regarded the Israelites in themselves with other feelings
than those of mere selfish indifference. Both nations had
tendered their service to Israel in the days of Israel's
prosperity; for the Philistines had probably furnished the
Cherethites and Pelethites of David's body guard, and the
Tyrians had furnished Solomon with materials and workmen for the
building of the temple: both nations were now seeking to enrich
themselves at Israel's expense in the days of Israel's
adversity. And these then are the fitting types of all who in
their varying professions of friendliness or hostility to the
Church of God are actuated by the mere mercenary desire of
lucre; favouring, and even zealously favouring her interests,
when they can procure a good recompense for their services;
unhesitatingly combining with her bitterest enemies to vilify
and despoil her, whenever the opportunity offers of increasing
their worldly substance thereby. The last class of enemies are
those of whom Assyria is the type; the worldly potentates,
whether ecclesiastical or temporal, papal or imperial, who are
unscrupulously ready to employ all means for the ultimate
accomplishment of their one object, that of extending and
consolidating their dominion. Such potentates seem to represent
most truly that determined and resolute selfishness, which, to
eyes that are not dazzled by the grandeur of its proportions or
the gorgeousness in which it is arrayed, must ever appear as one
of the most terrible embodiments of the enmity of the world to
God. Pride of intellect and unbelief,—unholiness and
lawlessness of life,—covetousness,—worldly ambition,—such
are the characteristics of four important classes of those by
whom God's church is threatened. Joseph Francis Thrupp.
Verse 7. Gebal.
1. It is generally supposed to indicate the mountainous tract
extending from the Dead Sea southward to Petra, still named Jebal.
But some of the best writers identify it with No. 2, as
mentioned in conjunction with Tyre.
2. A place spoken of in connection with Tyre, Eze 27:9. Most
probably the residence of the Giblites, and therefore to the
north of Palestine, Jos 13:5. The Giblites were employed by
Hiram, king of Tyre, in preparing materials for Solomon's
temple, 1Ki 5:18, margin. The Greek name of this place was
Byblus. The town is called Jebeil, and has a population
of about six hundred. It is about seventeen miles north of
Beyroot. The ancient ruins are very extensive. Immense numbers
of granite columns are strewn about in the village and over the
surrounding fields. These columns are mostly small, varying from
one foot to two feet in diameter. Some of the stones measure
nearly twenty feet in length. The citadel is the most remarkable
ruin. The port is nearly choked up with sand and ruins. George
H. Whitney's "Hand Book of Bible Geography." 1872
Verse 8. Assur also, etc. This determines the date of
this Psalm to the latter times of the Jewish kingdom; for the
other nations here mentioned had molested them before, but the
Assyrians not till towards the end. William Wall, 1645 or
1646-1727-8.
Verse 9. Do unto them as unto the Midianites. That is,
dash their heads together, make their policies to cross one
another. Walter Cradock.
Verse 9. The brook of Kison. The river Kishon
traverses the plain (of Esdraelon) and terminates in the Bay of
Acre or Akka. This is the stream regarding which it is written,
after Barak and Deborah had gained their victory over Sisera,
"The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river,
the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down
strength." Although it is now no insignificant stream, yet
it needs heavy rains to make it really considerable in
magnitude: it is very unequal in size, and seems to be only
temporary in its character. At any rate, when Robinson passed
its head waters in midsummer, he found the channels all dry, and
they had been so for a whole year. On the other hand, in the
winter the waters are often exceedingly abundant; particularly
in the northern and southern chief tributaries; so that, in
1799, at the time of the French invasion, many of the vanquished
Turks perished in the floods which swept down from Deburieh, and
which inundated the plain. It was a scene like that described in
Judges 5 regarding the fate of Sisera's hosts. Carl Ritter
(1779-1859), in "The Comparative Geography of Palestine and
the Sinaitic Peninsula." Translated by William L. Gage.
1866.
Verse 10. They became as dung for the earth. The land
was enriched or made fertile by their flesh, their blood, and
their bones. Albert Barnes.
Verse 10. They became as dung for the earth. In
the year 1830, it is estimated that more than a million bushels
of "human and inhuman bones" were imported from the
continent of Europe into the port of Hull. The neighbourhood of
Leipsic, Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc., where the principal battles
were fought some fifteen or twenty years before, were swept
alike of the bones of the hero, and the horse which he rode.
Thus collected from every quarter, they were shipped to Hull,
and thence forwarded to the Yorkshire bone grinders, who, by
steam engines and powerful machinery, reduced them to a
granulary state. In this condition they were sent chiefly to
Doncaster, one of the largest agricultural markets of the
country, and were there sold to the farmers to manure their
lands. The oily substance gradually evolving as the bone
calcines, makes better manure than almost any other
substance—particularly human bones. K. Arvine.
Verse 11. The word nobles is placed in
antithesis with the names Oreb and Zeeb. The word
mykyrg nobles, denotes properly liberal, munificent, and beneficent
men, such as princes and potentates ought to be among men, but
the names Oreb and Zeeb have the very opposite
signification, for the one signifies a raven, the other a
wolf. When into such rapacious and truculent beasts their
nobles have degenerated, as a just reward the hostile shock
shall come upon them. Hermann Venema.
Verse 13. A wheel. What sort of vegetable is this
whose stems our muleteers are cutting up and chewing with so
much relish? It is a wild artichoke. We can amuse ourselves with
it and its behaviour for a while, and may possibly extract
something more valuable than the insipid juice of which our men
are so fond. You observe than in growing it throws out numerous
branches of equal size and length in all directions, forming a
sort of sphere or globe a foot or more in diameter. When ripe
and dry in autumn, these branches become rigid and light as a
feather, the parent stem breaks off at the ground, and the wind
carries these vegetable globes whithersoever it pleaseth. At the
proper season thousands of them come scudding over the plain
rolling, leaping, bounding with vast racket, to the dismay both
of the horse and his rider. Once, on the plain north of Hamath,
my horse became quite unmanageable among them. They charged down
upon us on the wings of the wind, which broke them from their
moorings, and sent them careening over the desert in countless
numbers. Our excellent native itinerant, A—-F—-, had a
similar encounter with them on the eastern desert beyond the
Hauran, and his horse was so terrified that he was obliged to
alight and lead him. I have long suspected that this wild
artichoke is the gulgal, which, in Ps 83:13, is rendered wheel,
and in Isa 17:13, a rolling thing. Evidently our
translators knew not what to call it. The first passage reads
thus: O my God, make them like a wheel; second, Rebuke
them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the
chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling
thing—gulgal—before the whirlwind. Now, from the nature
of the parallelism, the gulgal cannot be a wheel,
but something corresponding to chaff. It must also be something
that does not fly like the chaff, but in a striking manner rolls
before the wind. The signification of gulgal in Hebrew
and its equivalent in other Shemitic dialects, requires this,
and this rolling artichoke meets the case most emphatically, and
especially when it rolls before the whirlwind. In the encounter
referred to north of Hamath, my eyes were half blinded with the
stubble and chaff which filled the air; but it was the
extraordinary behaviour of this rolling thing that
riveted my attention. Hundreds of these globes, all bounding
like gazelles in one direction over the desert, would suddenly
wheel short round at the bidding of a counter blast, and dash
away with equal speed on their new course. An Arab proverb
addresses this "rolling thing" thus: "Ho! akkub,
where do you put up tonight?" to which it answers as it
flies, "Where the wind puts up." They also derive one
of their many forms of cursing from this plant: "May you be
whirled, like the akkub, before the wind, until you are caught
in the thorns, or plunged into the sea." If this is not the
wheel of David, and the rolling thing of Isaiah,
from which they also borrowed their imprecations upon the
wicked, I have seen nothing in the country to suggest the
comparison. W. M. Thomson, in "The Land and the
Book."
Verse 13. Make them like a wheel. That is,
cause them to fall into such great calamities that they can find
no counsel or remedy for their misfortunes, and that they may
run hither and thither like a wheel or a ball, and yet see not
where they ought to stop, ot whither they ought to escape. Such
are the minds of wicked men in calamities, wherever they turn
they find no harbour wherein to rest, no certain consolation can
they discover. They are tossed with perpetual disquietude; by
running hither and thither and seeking various remedies they but
weary themselves the more and plunge themselves the more deeply
in their woes. This must necessarily happen to those who seek to
cure evil with evil. Therefore Isaiah also says, the wicked
are like the troubled sea. Mollerus.
Verse 13. Like a wheel. Mortals, like
cylinders, are rolled hither and thither, oppressed with
innumerable ills. Aurea Carmina.—Pythagoras
Verse 13. There is no greater evidence against error,
than that it is not constant to itself, no greater argument
against these pretended great spirits, than that they cannot
sit, know not where to fix, are always moving, as if the
psalmist's curse had taken hold of them, as if God had made them
like a wheel and as stubble before the wind, that can sit
nowhere, rest at nothing, but turn about from one uncertainty to
another. The Holy Spirit is a spirit that will sit still, and be
at peace, continue and abide. Mark Frank.
Verses 13-14. In imagery both obvious and vivid to
every native of the gusty hills and plains of Palestine, though
to us comparatively unintelligible, the psalmist describes them
as driven over the uplands of Gilead like the clouds of chaff
blown from the threshing floors; chased away like the spherical
masses of dry weeds which course over the plains of Esdraelon
and Philistia—flying with the dreadful hurry and confusion of
the flames, that rush and leap from tree and hill to hill when
the wooded mountains of a tropical country are by chance
ignited. William Smith, in "A Dictionary of the
Bible." 1863.
Verse 14. Mountains on fire. Many of the mountains in
this country are covered with dense forests. The leaves which
fall every autumn accumulate, sometimes for years, until we have
a particularly dry summer, when, somehow or other, either by
accident or design, they are always set on fire, and burn
sometimes for several days. The mountains in one of the States
of the neighbouring Republic are on fire at this very moment
while I am now writing, and have been burning for more than a
week, and we can distinctly see the red glare in the sky above
them, although from their great distance, even the tops of the
mountains themselves from whence the flames arise are beyond the
limits of our horizon. From "Philip Musgrave: or Memoirs
of a Church of England Missionary in the North American
Colonies." 1846.
Verse 14. Fire has greater force on a mountain,
where the wind is more powerful, than upon a wood
situated in a valley. Honorius Augustodunensis.
Verse 14. Humboldt saw forests on fire in South
America and thus describes them. "Several parts of the vast
forests which surround the mountain, had taken fire. Reddish
flames, half enveloped in clouds of smoke, presented a very
grand spectacle. The inhabitants set fire to the forests, to
improve the pasturage, and to destroy the shrubs that choke the
grass. Enormous conflagrations, too, are often caused by the
carelessness of the Indians, who neglect, when they travel, to
extinguish the fires by which they have dressed their
food."
Verse 14. Let us pray the divine aid to break this
power and enmity of the natural man; that it may yield unto the
word of grace; and let the wood, hay and stubble of all false
doctrine perish before the brightness of the face of God. Edward
Walter. 1854.
Verse 18. That men may know that thou, whose name
alone is JEHOVAH, etc. Early English History informs us,
that some bloodthirsty persecutors were marching on a band of
Christians. The Christians, seeing them approaching, marched out
towards them, and at the top of their voices, shouted,
"Hallelujah, hallelujah!" (Praise Jehovah). The name
of the Lord being presented, the rage of the persecutors abated.
Josephus says, that the Great Alexander, when on his triumphal
march, being met near Jerusalem by the Jewish high priest, on
whose mitre was engraved the name of Jehovah, "approached
by himself and adored that name, "and was disarmed of his
hostile intent. There was significance and power in the glorious
old name as written by the Jews. But the name of Jesus is now
far more mighty in the world than was the name Jehovah in these
earlier ages. "The Dictionary of Illustrations, "
1872.
Verse 18. JEHOVAH is one of the incommunicable
names of God, which signifies his eternal essence. The Jews
observe that in God's name Jehovah the Trinity is
implied. Je signifies the present tense, ho the
preterperfect tense, vah, the future. The Jews also
observe that in his name Jehovah all the Hebrew letters are literae
quiescentes, that denotes rest, implying that in God and
from God is all our rest. Every gracious soul is like Noah's
dove, he can find no rest nor satisfaction but in God. God alone
is the godly man's ark of rest and safety. Jehovah is the
incommunicable name of God, and is never attributed to any but
God: Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH.
Verse 18. The most high. His being the High and
lofty One, notes forth the transcendancy and super excellency of
his divine being in himself, and that it is utterly of another
kind from creatures, and indeed that it only is truly being.
When the Psalmist says, That men may know that thou, whose
name alone in JEHOVAH art the MOST HIGH over all the earth,
he thereby argues his height from his name, that his name is
alone Jehovah, and therefore he is most high, and in that very
respect. Now Jehovah is the name of his essence, "I AM,
" and he is MOST HIGH in respect of such a glorious being
as is proper alone unto him. Thomas Goodwin.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The long silence of God, the reasons for it,
and our reasons for desiring him to end it.
Verse 3. Thy hidden ones.
1. Hidden as to their new nature, which is an enigma to men.
2. Hidden for protection, as precious things.
3. Hidden, for solace and rest.
4. Hidden, because not yet fully revealed.
Verse 4. The immortality of the church.
Verse 5. The confederacies of evils against the
saints.
Verses 13-15. The instability, restlessness and
impotence of the wicked; their horror when God deals with them
in justice.
Verse 16. A prayer for the Pope and his priests.
Verse 17. The righteous fate of persecutors, and
troublers.
Verse 18. The Golden Lesson: how taught, to whom, by
whom, through whom?
WORK UPON THE EIGHTY-THIRD PSALM
"Expositions and Observations on Psalm
LXXXIII., "in "Divine Drops distilled from the
Fountain of Holy Scriptures: delivered in several Exercises
before Sermons, upon Twenty and Three Texts of Scripture. By
that worthy Gospel Preacher, GUALTER CRADOCK, late Preacher at
All Hallows Great in London... 1650."