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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
P S A L M S
PSALM LXXVIII.
This psalm is historical; it is a narrative of the great mercies God
had bestowed upon Israel, the great sins wherewith they had provoked
him, and the many tokens of his displeasure they had been under for
their sins. The psalmist began, in the foregoing psalm, to relate God’s
wonders of old, for his own encouragement in a difficult time; there he
broke off abruptly, but here resumes the subject, for the edification
of the church, and enlarges much upon it, showing not only how good God
had been to them, which was an earnest of further finishing mercy, but
how basely they had conducted themselves towards God, which justified
him in correcting them as he did at this time, and forbade all
complaints. Here is,
I. The preface to this church history, commanding the attention of the
present age to it and recommending it to the study of the generations
to come,
II. The history itself from Moses to David; it is put into a psalm or
song that it might be the better remembered and transmitted to
posterity, and that the singing of it might affect them with the things
here related, more than they would be with a bare narrative of them.
The general scope of this psalm we have
where notice is taken of the present rebukes they were under
(ver. 9),
the sin which brought them under those rebukes
(ver. 10),
and the mercies of God to them formerly, which aggravated that sin,
As to the particulars, we are here told,
1. What wonderful works God had wrought for them in bringing them out
of Egypt
(ver. 12-16),
providing for them in the wilderness
(ver. 23-29),
plaguing and ruining their enemies
(ver. 43-53),
and at length putting them in possession of the land of promise,
2. How ungrateful they were to God for his favours to them and how many
and great provocations they were guilty of. How they murmured against
God and distrusted him
(ver. 17-20),
and did but counterfeit repentance and submission when he punished them
(ver. 34-37),
thus grieving and tempting him,
How they affronted God with their idolatries after they came to Canaan,
3. How God had justly punished them for their sins
in the wilderness, making their sin their punishment
(ver. 29-33),
and now, of late, when the ark was taken by the Philistines,
4. How graciously God had spared them and returned in mercy to them,
notwithstanding their provocations. He had forgiven them formerly
(ver. 38, 39),
and now, of late, had removed the judgments they had brought upon
themselves, and brought them under a happy establishment both in church
and state,
As the general scope of this psalm may be of use to us in the singing
of it, to put us upon recollecting what God has done for us and for his
church formerly, and what we have done against him, so the particulars
also may be of use to us, for warning against those sins of unbelief
and ingratitude which Israel of old was notoriously guilty of, and the
record of which was preserved for our learning. “These things happened
unto them for ensamples,”
| The Importance of Religious Instruction. | |
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Maschil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my law:
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings
of old:
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the
generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and
his wonderful works that he hath done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law
in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make
them known to their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the
children which should be born; who should arise and declare
them to their children:
7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the
works of God, but keep his commandments:
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and
whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
These verses, which contain the preface to this history, show that the
psalm answers the title; it is indeed Maschil–a psalm to give
instruction; if we receive not the instruction it gives, it is our
own fault. Here,
I. The psalmist demands attention to what he wrote
(v. 1):
Give ear, O my people! to my law. Some make these the psalmist’s
words. David, as a king, or Asaph, in his name, as his secretary of
state, or scribe to the sweet singer of Israel, here calls upon the
people, as his people committed to his charge, to give ear to his law.
He calls his instructions his law or edict; such was
their commanding force in themselves. Every good truth, received in the
light and love of it, will have the power of a law upon the conscience;
yet that was not all: David was a king, and he would interpose his
royal power for the edification of his people. If God, by his grace,
make great men good men, they will be capable of doing more good than
others, because their word will be a law to all about them, who must
therefore give ear and hearken; for to what purpose is divine
revelation brought our ears if we will not incline our ears to it, both
humble ourselves and engage ourselves to hear it and heed it? Or the
psalmist, being a prophet, speaks as God’s mouth, and so calls them
his people, and demands subjection to what was said as to a law.
Let him that has an ear thus hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches,
Rev. ii. 7.
II. Several reasons are given why we should diligently attend to that
which is here related.
1. The things here discoursed of are weighty, and deserve
consideration, strange, and need it
(v. 2):
I will open my mouth in a parable, in that which is sublime and
uncommon, but very excellent and well worthy your attention; I will
utter dark sayings, which challenge your most serious regards as
much as the enigmas with which the eastern princes and learned men used
to try one another. These are called dark sayings, not because
they are hard to be understood, but because they are greatly to be
admired and carefully to be looked into. This is said to be fulfilled
in the parables which our Saviour put forth
which were (as this) representations of the state of the kingdom of God
among men.
2. They are the monuments of antiquity–dark sayings of old which
our fathers have told us,
v. 3.
They are things of undoubted certainty; we have heard them and known
them, and there is no room left to question the truth of them. The
gospel of Luke is called a declaration of those things which are
most surely believed among us
(Luke i. 1),
so were the things here related. The honour we owe to our parents and
ancestors obliges us to attend to that which our fathers have told us,
and, as far as it appears to be true and good, to receive it with so
much the more reverence and regard.
3. They are to be transmitted to posterity, and it lies as a charge
upon us carefully to hand them down
(v. 4);
because our fathers told them to us we will not hide them from their
children. Our children are called theirs, for they were in
care for their seed’s seed, and looked upon them as theirs; and, in
teaching our children the knowledge of God, we repay to our parents
some of that debt we owe to them for teaching us. Nay, if we have no
children of our own, we must declare the things of God to their
children, the children of others. Our care must be for posterity in
general, and not only for our own posterity; and for the generation to
come hereafter, the children that shall be born, as well as for the
generation that is next rising up and the children that are born. That
which we are to transmit to our children is not only the knowledge of
languages, arts and sciences, liberty and property, but especially the
praises of the Lord, and his strength appearing in the wonderful works
he has done. Our great care must be to lodge our religion, that great
deposit, pure and entire in the hands of those that succeed us. There
are two things the full and clear knowledge of which we must preserve
the entail of to our heirs:–
(1.) The law of God; for this was given with a particular charge to
teach it diligently to their children
(v. 5):
He established a testimony or covenant, and enacted a law, in
Jacob and Israel, gave them precepts and promises, which he
commanded them to make known to their children,
Deut. vi. 7, 20.
The church of God, as the historian says of the Roman commonwealth, was
not to be res unius ætatis–a thing of one age but was to
be kept up from one generation to another; and therefore, as God
provided for a succession of ministers in the tribe of Levi and the
house of Aaron, so he appointed that parents should train up their
children in the knowledge of his law: and, when they had grown up, they
must arise and declare them to their children
(v. 6),
that, as one generation of God’s servants and worshippers passes away,
another generation may come, and the church, as the earth, may abide
for ever; and thus God’s name among men may be as the days of heaven.
(2.) The providences of God concerning them, both in mercy and in
judgment. The former seem to be mentioned for the sake of this; since
God gave order that his laws should be made known to posterity, it is
requisite that with them his works also should be made known, the
fulfilling of the promises made to the obedient and the threatenings
denounced against the disobedient. Let these be told to our children
and our children’s children,
[1.] That they may take encouragement to conform to the will of God
(v. 7):
that, not forgetting the works of God wrought in former days,
they might set their hope in God and keep his
commandments, might make his command their rule and his covenant
their stay. Those only may with confidence hope for God’s salvation
that make conscience of doing his commandments. The works of God, duly
considered, will very much strengthen our resolution both to set our
hope in him and to keep his commandments, for he is able to bear us out
in both.
[2.] That they may take warning not to conform to the example of their
fathers
(v. 8):
That they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation. See here, First, What was the character of their
fathers. Though they were the seed of Abraham, taken into covenant with
God, and, for aught we know, the only professing people he had then in
the world, yet they were stubborn and rebellious, and walked contrary
to God, in direct opposition to his will. They did indeed profess
relation to him, but they did not set their hearts aright; they were
not cordial in their engagements to God, nor inward with him in their
worship of him, and therefore their spirit was not stedfast with
him, but upon every occasion they flew off from him. Note,
Hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy. Those that do not set their
hearts aright will not be stedfast with God, but play fat and loose.
Secondly, What was a charge to the children: That they be not
as their fathers. Note, Those that have descended from wicked and
ungodly ancestors, if they will but consider the word and works of God,
will see reason enough not to tread in their steps. It will be no
excuse for a vain conversation that it was received by tradition from
our fathers
(1 Pet. i. 18);
for what we know of them that was evil must be an admonition to us,
that we dread that which was so pernicious to them as we would shun
those courses which they took that were ruinous to their health or
estates.
| Wonders Wrought in Behalf of Israel; The Crimes of the Israelites;
Judgments Brought on the Israelites. |
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9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in
his law;
11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had showed
them.
12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in
the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he
made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the
night with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink
as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters
to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most
High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their
lust.
19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a
table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and
the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide
flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the LORD heard this,
and was wroth: so a fire
was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his
salvation:
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened
the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given
them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his
power he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls
like as the sand of the sea:
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about
their habitations.
29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them
their own desire;
30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their
meat was yet in their mouths,
31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of
them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his
wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their
years in trouble.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned
and enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high
God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they
lied unto him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they
stedfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their
iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he
his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that
passeth away, and cometh not again.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist observes the late rebukes of Providence that the people
of Israel had been under, which they had brought upon themselves by
their dealing treacherously with God,
The children of Ephraim, in which tribe Shiloh was, though they
were well armed and shot with bows, yet turned back in the day of
battle. This seems to refer to that shameful defeat which the
Philistines gave them in Eli’s time, when they took the ark prisoner,
Of this the psalmist here begins to speak, and, after a long
digression, returns to it again,
Well might that event be thus fresh in mind in David’s time, above
forty years after, for the ark, which in that memorable battle was
seized by the Philistines, though it was quickly brought out of
captivity, was never brought out of obscurity till David fetched it
from Kirjath-jearim to his own city. Observe,
1. The shameful cowardice of the children of Ephraim, that warlike
tribe, so famed for valiant men, Joshua’s tribe; the children of that
tribe, though as well armed as ever, turned back when they came to face
the enemy. Note, Weapons of war stand men in little stead without a
martial spirit, and that is gone if God be gone. Sin dispirits men and
takes away the heart.
2. The causes of their cowardice, which were no less shameful; and
these were,
(1.) A shameful violation of God’s law and their covenant with him
(v. 10);
they were basely treacherous and perfidious, for they kept not the
covenant of God, and basely stubborn and rebellious (as they were
described,
v. 8),
for they peremptorily refused to walk in his law, and, in effect, told
him to his face they would not be ruled by him.
(2.) A shameful ingratitude to God for the favours he had bestowed upon
them: They forgot his works and his wonders, his works of wonder
which they ought to have admired,
Note, Our forgetfulness of God’s works is at the bottom of our
disobedience to his laws.
II. He takes occasion hence to consult precedents and to compare this
with the case of their fathers, who were in like manner unmindful of
God’s mercies to them and ungrateful to their founder and great
benefactor, and were therefore often brought under his displeasure. The
narrative in these verses is very remarkable, for it relates a kind of
struggle between God’s goodness and man’s badness, and mercy, at
length, rejoices against judgment.
1. God did great things for his people Israel when he first
incorporated them and formed them into a people: Marvellous things
did he in the sight of their fathers, and not only in their sight,
but in their cause, and for their benefit, so strange, so kind, that
one would think they should never be forgotten. What he did for them in
the land of Egypt is only just mentioned here
(v. 12),
but afterwards resumed,
He proceeds here to show,
(1.) How he made a lane for them through the Red Sea, and caused them,
gave them courage, to pass through, though the waters stood over their
heads as a heap,
See
where God is said to lead them by the hand, as it were,
through the deep that they should not stumble.
(2.) How he provided a guide for them through the untrodden paths of
the wilderness
(v. 14);
he led them step by step, in the day time by a cloud, which also
sheltered them from the heat, and all the night with a light of
fire, which perhaps warmed the air; at least it made the darkness
of night less frightful, and perhaps kept off wild beasts,
(3.) How he furnished their camp with fresh water in a dry and thirsty
land where no water was, not by opening the bottles of heaven (that
would have been a common way), but by broaching a rock
(v. 15, 16):
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, which yielded water,
though they were not capable of receiving it either from the clouds
above or the springs beneath. Out of the dry and hard rock he gave them
drink, not distilled as out of an alembic, drop by drop, but in streams
running down like rivers, and as out of the great depths. God
gives abundantly, and is rich in mercy; he gives seasonably, and
sometimes makes us to feel the want of mercies that we may the better
know the worth of them. This water which God gave Israel out of the
rock was the more valuable because it was spiritual drink. And that
rock was Christ.
2. When God began thus to bless them they began to affront him
(v. 17):
They sinned yet more against him, more than they had done in
Egypt, though there they were bad enough,
They bore the miseries of their servitude better than the difficulties
of their deliverance, and never murmured at their taskmasters so much
as they did at Moses and Aaron; as if they were delivered to do all
these abominations,
Jer. vii. 10.
As sin sometimes takes occasion by the commandment, so at other times
it takes occasion by the deliverance, to become more exceedingly
sinful. They provoked the Most High. Though he is most high, and
they knew themselves an unequal match for him, yet they provoked him
and even bade defiance to his justice; and this in the wilderness,
where he had them at his mercy and therefore they were bound in
interest to please him, and where he showed them so much mercy and
therefore they were bound in gratitude to please him; yet there they
said and did that which they knew would provoke him: They tempted
God in their heart,
v. 18.
Their sin began in their heart, and thence it took its malignity.
They do always err in their heart,
Heb. iii. 10.
Thus they tempted God, tried his patience to the utmost, whether he
would bear with them or no, and, in effect, bade him do his worst. Two
ways they provoked him:–
(1.) By desiring, or rather demanding, that which he had not thought
fit to give them: They asked meat for their lust. God had given
them meat for their hunger, in the manna, wholesome pleasant food and
in abundance; he had given them meat for their faith out of the heads
of leviathan which he broke in pieces,
Ps. lxxiv. 14.
But all this would not serve; they must have meat for their lust,
dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite. Nothing is more
provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment and indulging
the desires of the flesh.
(2.) By distrusting his power to give them what they desired. This was
tempting God indeed. They challenged him to give them flesh; and, if he
did not, they would say it was because he could not, not because he did
not see it fit for them
(v. 19):
They spoke against God. Those that set bounds to God’s power
speak against him. It was as injurious a reflection as could be cat
upon God to say, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? They
had manna, but the did not think they had a table furnished unless they
had boiled and roast, a first, a second, and a third course, as they
had in Egypt, where they had both flesh and fish, and sauce too
dishes of meat and salvers of fruit. What an unreasonable insatiable
thin is luxury! Such a mighty thing did these epicures think a table
well furnished to be that they thought it was more than God himself
could give them in that wilderness; whereas the beasts of the
forest, and all the fowls of the mountains, are his,
Their disbelief of God’s power was so much the worse in that they did
at the same time own that he had done as much as that came to
(v. 20):
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, which
they and their cattle drank of. And which is easier, to furnish a table
in the wilderness, which a rich man can do, or to fetch water out of a
rock, which the greatest potentate on the earth cannot do? Never did
unbelief, though always unreasonable, ask so absurd a question: “Can he
that melted down a rock into streams of water give bread also? Or can
he that has given bread provide flesh also?” Is any thing too hard for
Omnipotence? When once the ordinary powers of nature are exceeded God
has made bare his arm, and we must conclude that nothing is impossible
with him. Be it ever so great a thing that we ask, it becomes us to
own, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst.
3. God justly resented the provocation and was much displeased with
them
(v. 21):
The Lord heard this, and was wroth. Note, God is a witness to
all our murmurings and distrusts; he hears them and is much displeased
with them. A fire was kindled for this against Jacob; the
fire of the Lord burnt among them,
Num. xi. 1.
Or it may be understood of the fire of God’s anger which came up
against Israel. To unbelievers our God is himself a consuming fire.
Those that will not believe the power of God’s mercy shall feel the
power of his indignation, and be made to confess that it is a
fearful thing to fall into his hands. Now here we are told,
(1.) Why God thus resented the provocation
(v. 22):
Because by this it appeared that they believed not in
God; they did not give credit to the revelation he had made of
himself to them, for they durst not commit themselves to him, nor
venture themselves with him: They trusted not in the salvation
he had begun to work for them; for then they would not thus have
questioned its progress. Those cannot be said to trust in God’s
salvation as their felicity at last who cannot find in their hearts to
trust in his providence for food convenient in the way to it. That
which aggravated their unbelief was the experience they had had of the
power and goodness of God,
He had given them undeniable proofs of his power, not only on earth
beneath, but in heaven above; for he commanded the clouds from
above, as one that had created them and commanded them into being;
he made what use he pleased of them. Usually by their showers they
contribute to the earth’s producing corn; but now, when God so
commanded them, they showered down corn themselves, which is therefore
called here the corn of heaven; for heaven can do the work
without the earth, but not the earth without heaven. God, who has the
key of the clouds, opened the doors of heaven, and that is more
than opening the windows, which yet is spoken of as a great
blessing,
To all that by faith and prayer ask, seek, and knock, these doors shall
at any time be opened; for the God of heaven is rich in mercy to all
that call upon him. He not only keeps a good house, but keeps open
house. Justly might God take it ill that they should distrust him when
he had been so very kind to them that he had rained down manna upon
them to eat, substantial food, daily, duly, enough for all, enough
for each. Man did eat angels’ food, such as angels, if they had
occasion for food, would eat and be thankful for; or rather such as was
given by the ministry of angels, and (as the Chaldee reads it)
such as descended from the dwelling of angels. Every one, even the
least child in Israel, did eat the bread of the mighty (so the
margin reads it); the weakest stomach could digest it, and yet it was
so nourishing that it was strong meat for strong men. And, though the
provision was so good, yet they were not stinted, nor ever reduced to
short allowance; for he sent them meat to the full. If they
gathered little, it was their own fault; and yet even then they had no
lack,
The daily provision God makes for us, and has made ever since we came
into the world, though it has not so much of miracle as this, has no
less of mercy, and is therefore a great aggravation of our distrust of
God.
(2.) How he expressed his resentment of the provocation, not in denying
them what they so inordinately lusted after, but in granting it to
them.
[1.] Did they question his power? He soon gave them a sensible
conviction that he could furnish a table in the wilderness.
Though the winds seem to blow where they list, yet, when he pleased, he
could make them his caterers to fetch in provisions,
He caused an east wind to blow and a south wind, either a
south-east wind, or an east wind first to bring in the quails from that
quarter and then a south wind to bring in more from that quarter; so
that he rained flesh upon them, and that of the most delicate
sort, not butchers’ meat, but wild-fowl, and abundance of it, as
dust, as the sand of the sea
(v. 27),
so that the meanest Israelite might have sufficient; and it cost them
nothing, no, not the pains of fetching it from the mountains, for he
let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their
habitation,
v. 28.
We have the account
See how good God is even to the evil and unthankful, and wonder that
his goodness does not overcome their badness. See what little reason we
have to judge of God’s love by such gifts of his bounty as these;
dainty bits are no tokens of his peculiar favour. Christ gave dry bread
to the disciples that he loved, but a sop dipped in the sauce to Judas
that betrayed him.
[2.] Did they defy his justice and boast that they had gained their
point? He made them pay dearly for their quails; for, though he gave
them their own desire, they were not estranged from their lust
(v. 29, 30);
their appetite was insatiable; they were well filled and yet they were
not satisfied; for they knew not what they would have. Such is the
nature of lust; it is content with nothing, and the more it is humoured
the more humoursome it grows. Those that indulge their lust will never
be estranged from it. Or it intimates that God’s liberality did not
make them ashamed of their ungrateful lustings, as it would have done
if they had had any sense of honour. But what came of it? While the
meat was yet in their mouth, rolled under the tongue as a sweet
morsel, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of
them
(v. 31),
those that were most luxurious and most daring. See
They were fed as sheep for the slaughter: the butcher takes the
fattest first. We may suppose there were some pious and contented
Israelites, that did eat moderately of the quails and were never the
worse; for it was not the meat that poisoned them, but their own lust.
Let epicures and sensualists here read their doom. The end of those who
make a god of their belly is destruction,
Phil. iii. 19.
The prosperity of fools shall destroy them, and their ruin will
be the greater.
4. The judgments of God upon them did not reform them, nor attain the
end, any more than his mercies
(v. 32):
For all this, they sinned still; they murmured and quarrelled
with God and Moses as much as ever. Though God was wroth and smote
them, yet they went on frowardly in the way of their heart
they believed not for his wondrous works. Though his works of
justice were as wondrous and as great proofs of his power as his works
of mercy, yet they were not wrought upon by them to fear God, nor
convinced how much it was their interest to make him their friend.
Those hearts are hard indeed that will neither be melted by the mercies
of God nor broken by his judgments.
5. They persisting in their sins, God proceeded in his judgments, but
they were judgments of another nature, which wrought not suddenly, but
slowly. He punished them not now with such acute diseases as that was
which slew the fattest of them, but a lingering chronical
distemper
(v. 33):
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity in the wilderness
and their years in trouble. By an irreversible doom they were
condemned to wear out thirty-eight tedious years in the wilderness,
which indeed were consumed in vanity; for in all those years there was
not a step taken nearer Canaan, but they were turned back again, and
wandered to and fro as in a labyrinth, not one stroke struck towards
the conquest of it: and not only in vanity, but in trouble, for their
carcases were condemned to fall in the wilderness and there they all
perished but Caleb and Joshua. Note, Those that sin still must expect
to be in trouble still. And the reason why we spend our days in so much
vanity and trouble, why we live with so little comfort and to so little
purpose, is because we do not live by faith.
6. Under these rebukes they professed repentance, but they were not
cordial and sincere in this profession.
(1.) Their profession was plausible enough
(v. 34, 35):
When he slew them, or condemned them to be slain, then they
sought him; they confessed their fault, and begged his pardon. When
some were slain others in a fright cried to God for mercy, and promised
they would reform and be very good; then they returned to God, and
enquired early after him. So one would have taken them to be such
as desired to find him. And they pretended to do this because, however
they had forgotten it formerly, now they remembered that God was
their rock and therefore now that they needed him they would fly to
him and take shelter in him, and that the high God was
their Redeemer, who brought them out of Egypt and to whom
therefore they might come with boldness. Afflictions are sent to put us
in mind of God as our rock and our redeemer; for, in prosperity, we are
apt to forget him.
(2.) They were not sincere in this profession
(v. 36, 37):
They did but flatter him with their mouth, as if they thought by
fair speeches to prevail with him to revoke the sentence and remove the
judgment, with a secret intention to break their word when the danger
was over; they did not return to God with their whole heart, but
feignedly,
Jer. iii. 10.
All their professions, prayers, and promises, were extorted by the
rack. It was plain that they did not mean as they said, for they did
not adhere to it. They thawed in the sun, but froze in the shade. They
did but lie to God with their tongues, for their heart was not with
him, was not right with him, as appeared by the issue, for they
were not stedfast in his covenant. They were not sincere in their
reformation, for they were not constant; and, by thinking thus to
impose upon a heart-searching God, they really put as great an affront
upon him as by any of their reflections.
7. God hereupon, in pity to them, put a stop to the judgments which
were threatened and in part executed
(v. 38, 39):
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity. One
would think this counterfeit repentance should have filled up the
measure of their iniquity. What could be more provoking than to lie
thus to the holy God, than thus to keep back part of the
price, the chief part?
And yet he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity
thus far, that he did not destroy them and cut them off from being a
people, as he justly might have done, but spared their lives till they
had reared another generation which should enter into the promised
land. Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,
Isa. lxv. 8.
Many a time he turned his anger away (for he is Lord of his
anger) and did not stir up all his wrath, to deal with them as
they deserved: and why did he not? Not because their ruin would have
been any loss to him, but,
(1.) Because he was full of compassion and, when he was going to
destroy them, his repentings were kindled together, and he said,
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee,
Israel?
Hos. xi. 8.
(2.) Because, though they did not rightly remember that he was their
rock, he remembered that they were but flesh. He considered the
corruption of their nature, which inclined them to evil, and was
pleased to make that an excuse for his sparing them, though it was
really no excuse for their sin. See
He considered the weakness and frailty of their nature, and what an
easy thing it would be to crush them: They are as a wind that
passeth away and cometh not again. They may soon be taken off, but,
when they are gone, they are gone irrecoverably, and then what will
become of the covenant with Abraham? They are flesh, they are wind;
whence it were easy to argue they may justly, they may immediately, be
cut off, and there would be no loss of them: but God argues, on the
contrary, therefore he will not destroy them; for the true reason is,
He is full of compassion.
| Judgments and Mercies; Wonders Wrought for Israel;
Renewed Mercies |
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40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve
him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy
One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he
delivered them from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in
the field of Zoan:
44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods,
that they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured
them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their
labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees
with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks
to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and
indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from
death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their
strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided
them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the
sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even
to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them
an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in
their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept
not his testimonies:
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers:
they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and
moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred
Israel:
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent
which he placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory
into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth
with his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were
not given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no
lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a
mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to
a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not
the tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the
earth which he hath established for ever.
70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds:
71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to
feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and
guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former,
showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, how provoking
they had been, what judgments he had brought upon them for their sins,
and yet how, in judgment, he remembered mercy at last. Let not those
that receive mercy from God be thereby emboldened to sin, for the
mercies they receive will aggravate their sin and hasten the punishment
of it; yet let not those that are under divine rebukes for sin be
discouraged from repentance, for their punishments are means of
repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store for
them. Observe,
I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness again reflected on, because
written for our admonition
(v. 40, 41):
How often did they provoke him in the wilderness! Note once, nor
twice, but many a time; and the repetition of the provocation was a
great aggravation of it, as well as the place,
God kept an account how often they provoked him, though they did not.
They have tempted me these ten times. By provoking him they did
not so much anger him as grieve him, for he looked upon them as his
children (Israel is my son, my first-born), and the undutiful
disrespectful behaviour of children does more grieve than anger the
tender parents; they lay it to heart, and take it unkindly,
They grieved him because they put him under a necessity of afflicting
them, which he did not willingly. After they had humbled themselves
before him they turned back and tempted God, as before, and
limited the Holy One of Israel, prescribing to him what proofs
he should give of his power and presence with them and what methods he
should take in leading them and providing for them. They limited him to
their way and their time, as if he did not observe that they quarrelled
with him. It is presumption for us to limit the Holy One of
Israel; for, being the Holy One, he will do what is most for
his own glory; and, being the Holy One of Israel, he will do
what is most for their good; and we both impeach his wisdom and betray
our own pride and folly if we go about to prescribe to him. That which
occasioned their limiting God for the future was their forgetting his
former favours
(v. 42):
They remembered not his hand, how strong it is and how it had
been stretched out for them, nor the day when he delivered them from
the enemy, Pharaoh, that great enemy who sought their ruin. There
are some days made remarkable by signal deliverances, which ought never
to be forgotten; for the remembrance of them would encourage us in our
greatest straits.
II. The mercies of God to Israel, which they were unmindful of when
they tempted God and limited him; and this catalogue of the works of
wonder which God wrought for them begins higher, and is carried down
further, than that before,
&c.
1. This begins with their deliverance out of Egypt, and the plagues
with which God compelled the Egyptians to let them go: these were the
signs God wrought in Egypt
(v. 43),
the wonders he wrought in the field of Zoan, that is, in
the country of Zoan, as we say, in Agro N., meaning in such a
country.
(1.) Several of the plagues of Egypt are here specified, which speak
aloud the power of God and his favour to Israel, as well as terror to
his and their enemies. As,
[1.] The turning of the waters into blood; they had made themselves
drunk with the bloods of God’s people, even the infants, and now God
gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy,
v. 44.
[2.] The flies and frogs which infested them, mixtures of insects in
swarms, in shoals, which devoured them, which destroyed them,
v. 45.
For God can make the weakest and most despicable animals instruments of
his wrath when he pleases; what they want in strength may be made up in
number.
[3.] The plague of locusts, which devoured their increase, and that
which they had laboured for,
They are called God’s great army,
Joel ii. 25.
[4.] The hail, which destroyed their trees, especially
their vines, the weakest of trees
(v. 47),
and their cattle, especially their flocks of sheep, the
weakest of their cattle, which were killed with hot
thunder-bolts
(v. 48),
and the frost, or congealed rain (as the word signifies), was so
violent that it destroyed even the sycamore-trees.
[5.] The death of the first-born was the last and sorest of the plagues
of Egypt, and that which perfected the deliverance of Israel; it was
first in intention
(Exod. iv. 23),
but last in execution; for, if gentler methods would have done the
work, this would have been prevented: but it is here largely described,
First, The anger of God was the cause of it. Wrath had now come
upon the Egyptians to the uttermost; Pharaoh’s heart having been often
hardened after less judgments had softened it, God now stirred up
all his wrath; for he cast upon them the fierceness of his
anger, anger in the highest degree, wrath and indignation
the cause, and trouble (tribulation and anguish,
Rom. ii. 8, 9)
the effect. This from on high he cast upon them and did not spare, and
they could not flee out of his hands,
Job xxvii. 22.
He made a way, or (as the word is) he weighed a path, to his
anger. He did not cast it upon them uncertainly, but by weight. His
anger was weighed with the greatest exactness in the balances of
justice; for, in his greatest displeasure, he never did, nor ever will
do, any wrong to any of his creatures: the path of his anger is always
weighed. Secondly, The angels of God were the instruments
employed in this execution: He sent evil angels among them, not
evil in their own nature, but in respect to the errand upon which they
were sent; they were destroying angels, or angels of punishment, which
passed through all the land of Egypt, with orders, according to the
weighed paths of God’s anger, not to kill all, but the first-born only.
Good angels become evil angels to sinners. Those that make the holy God
their enemy must never expect the holy angels to be their friends.
Thirdly, The execution itself was very severe: He spared not
their soul from death, but suffered death to ride in triumph among
them and gave their life over to the pestilence, which cut the
thread of life off immediately; for he smote all the first-born in
Egypt
(v. 51),
the chief of their strength, the hopes of their respective
families; children are the parents’ strength, and the first-born the
chief of their strength. Thus, because Israel was precious in
God’s sight, he gave men for them and people for their life,
Isa. xliii. 4.
(2.) By these plagues on the Egyptians God made a way for his own
people to go forth like sheep, distinguishing between them and the
Egyptians, as the shepherd divides between the sheep and the
goats, having set his own mark on these sheep by the blood of the
lamb sprinkled on their door-posts. He made them go forth like
sheep, not knowing whither they went, and guided them in the
wilderness, as a shepherd guides his flock, with all possible care
and tenderness,
He led them on safely, though in dangerous paths, so that
they feared not, that is, they needed not to fear; they were
indeed frightened at the Red Sea
but that was said to them, and done for them, which effectually
silenced their fears. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies that
ventured to pursue them into it,
It was a lane to them, but a grave to their persecutors.
2. It is carried down as far as their settlement in Canaan
(v. 54):
He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to that land in
the midst of which he set up his sanctuary, which was, as it were, the
centre and metropolis, the crown and glory, of it. That is a happy land
which is the border of God’s sanctuary. It was the happiness of that
land that there God was known, and there were his sanctuary and
dwelling-place,
The whole land in general, and Zion in particular, was the mountain
which his right hand had purchased, which by his own power he had
set apart for himself. See
He made them to ride on the high places of the earth,
Isa. lviii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 13.
They found the Canaanites in the full and quiet possession of that
land, but God cast out the heathen before them, not only took
away their title to it, as the Lord of the whole earth, but himself
executed the judgment given against them, and, as Lord of hosts, turned
them out of it, and made his people Israel tread upon their high
places, dividing each tribe an inheritance by line, and
making them to dwell in the houses of those whom they had
destroyed. God could have turned the uninhabited uncultivated
wilderness (which perhaps was nearly of the same extent as Canaan) into
fruitful soil, and have planted them there; but the land he designed
for them was to be a type of heaven, and therefore must be the glory
of all lands; it must likewise be fought for, for the kingdom of
heaven suffers violence.
III. The sins of Israel after they were settled in Canaan,
The children were like their fathers, and brought their old
corruptions into their new habitations. Though God had done so much for
them, yet they tempted and provoked the most high God still. He
gave them his testimonies, but they did not keep them; they began very
promisingly, but they turned back, gave God good words, but dealt
unfaithfully, and were like a deceitful bow, which seemed likely
to send the arrow to the mark, but, when it is drawn, breaks, and drops
the arrow at the archer’s foot, or perhaps makes it recoil in his face.
There was no hold of them, nor any confidence to be put in their
promises or professions. They seemed sometimes devoted to God, but they
presently turned aside, and provoked him to anger with their
high places and their graven images. Idolatry was the sin that did
most easily beset them, and which, though they often professed their
repentance for, they as often relapsed into. It was spiritual adultery
either to worship idols or to worship God by images, as if he had been
an idol, and therefore by it they are said to move him to
jealousy,
Deut. xxxii. 16, 21.
IV. The judgments God brought upon them for these sins. Their place in
Canaan would no more secure them in a sinful way than their descent
from Israel. You only have I known of all the families of the earth,
therefore I will punish you,
Amos iii. 2.
Idolatry is winked at among the Gentiles, but not in Israel,
1. God was displeased with them
(v. 59):
When God heard this, when he heard the cry of their
iniquity, which came up before him, he was wroth, he took it
very heinously, as well he might, and he greatly abhorred Israel, whom
he had greatly loved and delighted in. Those that had been the people
of his choice became the generation of his wrath. Presumptuous sins,
idolatries especially, render even Israelites odious to God’s holiness
and obnoxious to his justice.
2. He deserted his tabernacle among them, and removed the defence which
was upon that glory,
God never leaves us till we leave him, never withdraws till we have
driven him from us. His name is Jealous, and he is a jealous
God; and therefore no marvel if a people whom he had betrothed to
himself be loathed and rejected, and he refuse to cohabit with them any
longer, when they have embraced the bosom of a stranger. The
tabernacle at Shiloh was the tent God had placed among
men, in which God would in very deed dwell with men upon the
earth; but, when his people treacherously forsook it, he justly
forsook it, and then all its glory departed. Israel has small joy of
the tabernacle without the presence of God in it.
3. He gave up all into the hands of the enemy. Those whom God forsakes
become an easy prey to the destroyer. The Philistines are sworn enemies
to the Israel of God, and no less so to the God of Israel, and yet God
will make use of them to be a scourge to his people.
(1.) God permits them to take the ark prisoner, and carry it off as a
trophy of their victory, to show that he had not only forsaken the
tabernacle, but even the ark itself, which shall now be no longer a
token of his presence
(v. 61):
He delivered his strength into captivity, as if it had been
weakened and overcome, and his glory fell under the disgrace of
being abandoned into the enemy’s hand. We have the story
When the ark has become as a stranger among Israelites, no marvel if it
soon be made a prisoner among Philistines.
(2.) He suffers the armies of Israel to be routed by the Philistines
(v. 62, 63):
He gave his people over unto the sword, to the sword of his own
justice and of the enemy’s rage, for he was wroth with his
inheritance; and that wrath of his was the fire which consumed
their young men, in the prime of their time, by the sword or
sickness, and made such a devastation of them that their maidens
were not praised, that is, were not given in marriage (which
is honourable in all), because there were no young men for them to be
given to, and because the distresses and calamities of Israel were so
many and great that the joys of marriage-solemnities were judged
unseasonable, and it was said, Blessed is the womb that beareth
not. General destructions produce a scarcity of men.
I will make a man more precious than fine gold, so that seven
women shall take hold of one man,
Isa. iv. 1; iii. 25.
Yet this was not the worst:
(3.) Even their priests, who attended the ark, fell by the
sword, Hophni and Phinehas. Justly they fell, for they made
themselves vile, and were sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and
their priesthood was so far from being their protection that it
aggravated their sin and hastened their fall. Justly did they fall by
the sword, because they exposed themselves in the field of battle,
without call or warrant. We throw ourselves out of God’s protection
when we go out of our place and out of the way of our duty. When the
priests fell their widows made no lamentation,
v. 64.
All the ceremonies of mourning were lost and buried in substantial
grief; the widow of Phinehas, instead of lamenting her husband’s death,
died herself, when she had called her son Ichabod,
1 Sam. iv. 19,
&c.
V. God’s return, in mercy, to them, and his gracious appearances for
them after this. We read not of their repentance and return to God, but
God was grieved for the miseries of Israel
and concerned for his own honour, fearing the wrath of the enemy,
lest they should behave themselves strangely,
Deut. xxxii. 27.
And therefore then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep
(v. 65),
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, not only
like one that is raised out of sleep and recovers himself from the
slumber which by drinking he was overcome with, who then regards that
which before he seemed wholly to neglect, but like one that is
refreshed with sleep, and whose heart is made glad by the sober and
moderate use of wine, and is therefore the more lively and vigorous,
and fit for business. When God had delivered the ark of his strength
into captivity, as one jealous of his honour, he soon put forth the arm
of his strength to rescue it, stirred up his strength to do great
things for his people.
1. He plagued the Philistines who held the ark in captivity,
He smote them with emerods in the hinder parts, wounded them
behind, as if they were fleeing from him, even when they thought
themselves more than conquerors. He put them to reproach, and they
themselves helped to make it a perpetual reproach by the golden images
of their emerods, which they returned with the ark for a
trespass-offering
(1 Sam. vi. 5),
to remain in perpetuam rei memoriam–as a perpetual memorial.
Note, Sooner or later God will glorify himself by putting disgrace upon
his enemies, even when they are most elevated with their successes.
2. He provided a new settlement for his ark after it had been some
months in captivity and some years in obscurity. He did indeed
refuse the tabernacle of Joseph; he never sent it back to
Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim,
The ruins of that place were standing monuments of divine justice.
God, see what I did to Shiloh,
Jer. vii. 12.
But he did not wholly take away the glory from Israel; the moving of
the ark is not the removing of it. Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has
not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men,
though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the
rejection of Shiloh is the election of Zion, as, long after, the fall
of the Jews was the riches of the Gentiles,
When God chose not the tribe of Ephraim, of which tribe Joshua
was, he chose the tribe of Judah
(v. 68),
because of that tribe Jesus was to be, who is greater than Joshua.
Kirjath-jearim, the place to which the ark was brought after its rescue
out of the hands of the Philistines, was in the tribe of Judah. There
it took possession of that tribe; but thence it was removed to Zion,
the Mount Zion which he loved
(v. 68),
which was beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth;
there it was that he built his sanctuary like high palaces and
like the earth,
v. 69.
David indeed erected only a tent for the ark, but a temple was then
designed and prepared for, and finished by his son; and that was,
(1.) A very stately place. It was built like the palaces of princes,
and the great men of the earth, nay, it excelled them all in splendour
and magnificence. Solomon built it, and yet here it is said God
built its, for his father had taught him, perhaps with reference to
this undertaking, that except the Lord build the house those labour
in vain that build it,
which is a psalm for Solomon.
(2.) A very stable place, like the earth, though not to continue as
long as the earth, yet while it was to continue it was as firm as the
earth, which God upholds by the word of his power, and it was
not finally destroyed till the gospel temple was erected, which is to
continue as long as the sun and moon endure
and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.
3. He set a good government over them, a monarchy, and a monarch after
his own heart: He chose David his servant out of all the
thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose
loins Christ was to come, and who was to be a type of him,
Concerning David observe here,
(1.) The meanness of his beginning. His extraction indeed was great,
for he descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, but his
education was poor. He was bred not a scholar, not a soldier, but a
shepherd. He was taken from the sheep-folds, as Moses was; for
God delights to put honour upon the humble and diligent, to raise the
poor out of the dust and to set them among princes; and sometimes he
finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning of
their time in solitude and contemplation. The Son of David was
upbraided with the obscurity of his original: Is not this the
carpenter? David was taken, he does not say from leading the rams,
but from following the ewes, especially those great with
young, which intimated that of all the good properties of a
shepherd he was most remarkable for his tenderness and compassion to
those of his flock that most needed his care. This temper of mind
fitted him for government, and made him a type of Christ, who, when he
feeds his flock like a shepherd, does with a particular care gently
lead those that are with young,
Isa. xl. 11.
(2.) The greatness of his advancement. God preferred him to feed
Jacob his people,
v. 71.
It was a great honour that God put upon him, in advancing him to be a
king, especially to be king over Jacob and Israel, God’s peculiar
people, near and dear to him; but withal it was a great trust reposed
in him when he was charged with the government of those that were God’s
own inheritance. God advanced him to the throne that he might feed
them, not that he might feed himself, that he might do good, not that
he might make his family great. It is the charge given to all the
under-shepherds, both magistrates and ministers, that they feed the
flock of God.
(3.) The happiness of his management. David, having so great a trust
put into his hands, obtained mercy of the Lord to be found both skilful
and faithful in the discharge of it
(v. 72):
So he fed them; he ruled them and taught them, guided and
protected them,
[1.] Very honestly; he did it according to the integrity of his
heart, aiming at nothing but the glory of God and the good of the
people committed to his charge; the principles of his religion were the
maxims of his government, which he administered, not with carnal
policy, but with godly sincerity, by the grace of God. In every
thing he did he meant well and had no by-end in view.
[2.] Very discreetly; he did it by the skilfulness of his hands.
He was not only very sincere in what he designed, but very prudent in
what he did, and chose out the most proper means in pursuit of his end,
for his God did instruct him to discretion. Happy the people that are
under such a government! With good reason does the psalmist make this
the finishing crowning instance of God’s favour to Israel, for David
was a type of Christ the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first
and then exalted, and of whom it was foretold that he should be filled
with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and should judge
and reprove with equity,
Isa. xi. 3, 4.
On the integrity of his heart and the skilfulness of his hands all his
subjects may entirely rely, and of the increase of his
government and people there shall be no end.
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