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