This
psalm was penned, as is supposed, not upon occasion of any particular
providence, but for the solemnity of a particular ordinance, either that of
the new-moon in general or that of the feast of trumpets on the new moon of
the seventh month, Lev. xxiii. 24; Num. xxix. 1. When David, by the Spirit,
introduced the singing of psalms into the temple-service this psalm was
intended for that day, to excite and assist the proper devotions of it. All
the psalms are profitable; but, if one psalm be more suitable than another
to the day and observances of it, we should choose that. The two great
intentions of our religious assemblies, and which we ought to have in our
eye in our attendance on them, are answered in this psalm, which are, to
give glory to God and to receive instruction from God, to "behold the
beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple;" accordingly by this
psalm we are assisted on our solemn feast days, I. In praising God for what
he is to his people (ver. 1-3), and has done for them, ver. 4-7. II. In
teaching and admonishing one another concerning the obligations we lie under
to God (ver. 8-10), the danger of revolting from him (ver. 11, 12), and the
happiness we should have if we would but keep close to him, ver. 13-16.
This, though spoken primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning,
and is therefore to be sung with application.
To the chief musician upon Gittith. A
psalm of Asaph.
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a
joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Take a psalm, and bring
hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. 3 Blow
up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast
day. 4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a
law of the God of Jacob. 5 This he ordained in Joseph for
a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I
heard a language that I understood not. 6 I removed his
shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the
secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
When the people of God were gathered together in the solemn day, the day
of the feast of the Lord, they must be told that they had business to
do, for we do not go to church to sleep nor to be idle; no, there is that
which the duty of every day requires, work of the day, which is to be done
in its day. And here,
I. The worshippers of God are excited to their work, and are taught, by
singing this psalm, to stir up both themselves and one another to it, v.
1-3. Our errand is, to give unto God the glory due unto his name, and in all
our religious assemblies we must mind this as our business. 1. In doing this
we must eye God as our strength, and as the God of Jacob, v.
1. He is the strength of Israel, as a people; for he is a God in covenant
with them, who will powerfully protect, support, and deliver them, who
fights their battles and makes them do valiantly and victoriously. He is the
strength of every Israelite; by his grace we are enabled to go through all
our services, sufferings, and conflicts; and to him, as our strength, we
must pray, and we must sing praise to him as the God of all the wrestling
seed of Jacob, with whom we have a spiritual communion. 2. We must do this
by all the expressions of holy joy and triumph. It was then to be done by
musical instruments, the timbrel, harp, and psaltery; and by blowing the
trumpet, some think in remembrance of the sound of the trumpet on Mount
Sinai, which waxed louder and louder. It was then and is now to be done by
singing psalms, singing aloud, and making a joyful noise. The
pleasantness of the harp and the awfulness of the trumpet intimate to us
that God is to be worshipped with cheerfulness and joy with reverence and
godly fear. Singing aloud and making a noise intimate that we must be warm
and affectionate in praising God, that we must with a hearty good-will show
forth his praise, as those that are not ashamed to own our dependence on him
and obligations to him, and that we should join many together in this work;
the more the better; it is the more like heaven. 3. This must be done in the
time appointed. No time is amiss for praising God (Seven times a day will
I praise thee; nay, at midnight will I rise and give thanks unto thee);
but some are times appointed, not for God to meet us (he is always ready),
but for us to meet one another, that we may join together in praising Do.
The solemn feast-day must be a day of praise; when we are receiving the
gifts of God's bounty, and rejoicing in them, then it is proper to sing his
praises.
II. They are here directed in their work. 1. They must look up to the divine
institution which it is the observation of. In all religious worship we must
have an eye to the command (v. 4): This was a statute for Israel,
for the keeping up of a face of religion among them; it was a law of the
God of Jacob, which all the seed of Jacob are bound by, and must be
subject to. Note, Praising God is not only a good thing, which we do well to
do, but it is our indispensable duty, which we are obliged to do; it is at
our peril if we neglect it; and in all religious exercises we must have an
eye to the institution as our warrant and rule: "This I do because God
has commanded me; and therefore I hope he will accept me;" then it is
done in faith. 2. They must look back upon those operations of divine
Providence which it is the memorial of. This solemn service was ordained
for a testimony (v. 5), a standing traditional evidence, for the
attesting of the matters of fact. It was a testimony to Israel, that they
might know and remember what God had done for their fathers, and would be a
testimony against them if they should be ignorant of them and forget them.
(1.) The psalmist, in the people's name, puts himself in mind of the general
work of God on Israel's behalf, which was kept in remembrance by this and
other solemnities, v. 5. When God went out against the land of Egypt,
to lay it waste, that he might force Pharaoh to let Israel go, then he
ordained solemn feast-days to be observed by a statute for ever in their
generations, as a memorial of it, particularly the passover, which perhaps
is meant by the solemn feast-day (v. 3); that was appointed
just then when God went out through the land of Egypt to destroy the
first-born, and passed over the houses of the Israelites, Exod. xii. 23, 24.
By it that work of wonder was to be kept in perpetual remembrance, that all
ages might in it behold the goodness and severity of God. The psalmist,
speaking for his people, takes notice of this aggravating circumstance of
their slavery in Egypt that there they heard a language that they understood
not; there they were strangers in a strange land. The Egyptians and the
Hebrews understood not one another's language; for Joseph spoke to his
brethren by an interpreter (Gen. xlii. 23), and the Egyptians are said to be
to the house of Jacob a people of a strange language, Ps. cxiv. 1. To
make a deliverance appear the more gracious, the more glorious, it is good
to observe every thing that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear
the more grievous. (2.) The psalmist, in God's name, puts the people in mind
of some of the particulars of their deliverance. Here he changes the person,
v. 6. God speaks by him, saying, I removed the shoulder from the
burden. Let him remember this on the feast-day, [1.] That God had
brought them out of the house of bondage, had removed their shoulder from
the burden of oppression under which they were ready to sink, had
delivered their hands from the pots, or panniers, or baskets, in which
they carried clay or bricks. Deliverance out of slavery is a very sensible
mercy and one which ought to be had in everlasting remembrance. But this was
not all. [2.] God had delivered them at the Red Sea; then they called in
trouble, and he rescued them and disappointed the designs of their enemies
against them, Exod. xiv. 10. Then he answered them with a real answer, out
of the secret place of thunder; that is, out of the pillar of fire,
through which God looked upon the host of the Egyptians and troubled it,
Exod. xiv. 24, 25. Or it may be meant of the giving of the law at Mount
Sinai, which was the secret place, for it was death to gaze (Exod. xix. 21),
and it was in thunder that God then spoke. Even the terrors of Sinai were
favours to Israel, Deut. iv. 33. [3.] God had borne their manners in the
wilderness: "I proved thee at the waters of Meribah; thou didst
there show thy temper, what an unbelieving murmuring people thou wast, and
yet I continued my favour to thee." Selah--Mark that; compare
God's goodness and man's badness, and they will serve as foils to each
other. Now if they, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind
their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath,
to call to mind a more glorious redemption wrought out for us by Jesus
Christ from worse than Egyptian bondage, and the many gracious answers he
has given to us, notwithstanding our manifold provocations.
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Expostulation
with Israel.
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8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto
thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; 9 There shall no
strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD
thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide,
and I will fill it. 11 But my people would not hearken to my
voice; and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto
their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in
my ways! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned
my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of the LORD
should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have
endured for ever. 16 He should have fed them also with the
finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied
thee.
God, by the psalmist, here speaks to Israel, and in them to us, on whom the
ends of the world are come.
I. He demands their diligent and serious attention to what he was about to
say (v. 8): "Hear, O my people! and who should hear me if
my people will not? I have heard and answered thee; now wilt thou hear me?
Hear what is said with the greatest solemnity and the most unquestionable
certainty, for it is what I will testify unto thee. Do not only give
me the hearing, but hearken unto me, that is, be advised by me, be
ruled by me." Nothing could be more reasonably nor more justly
expected, and yet God puts an if upon it: "If thou wilt
hearken unto me. It is thy interest to do so, and yet it is questionable
whether thou wilt or no; for thy neck is an iron sinew."
II. He puts them in mind of their obligation to him as the Lord their God
and Redeemer (v. 10): I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out
of the land of Egypt; this is the preface to the ten commandments, and a
powerful reason for the keeping of them, showing that we are bound to it in
duty, interest, and gratitude, all which bonds we break asunder if we be
disobedient.
III. He gives them an abstract both of the precepts and of the promises
which he gave them, as the Lord and their God, upon their coming out of
Egypt. 1. The great command was that they should have no other gods before
him (v. 9): There shall no strange god be in thee, none
besides thy own God. Other gods might well be called strange gods, for it
was very strange that ever any people who had the true and living God for
their God should hanker after any other. God is jealous in this matter, for
he will not suffer his glory to be given to another; and therefore in this
matter they must be circumspect, Exod. xxiii. 13. 2. The great promise was
that God himself, as a God all-sufficient, would be nigh unto them in all
that which they called upon him for (Deut. iv. 7), that, if they would
adhere to him as their powerful protector and ruler, they should always find
him their bountiful benefactor: "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill
it, as the young ravens that cry open their mouths wide and the old ones
fill them." See here, (1.) What is our duty--to raise our expectations
from God and enlarge our desires towards him. We cannot look for too little
from the creature nor too much from the Creator. We are not straitened in
him; why therefore should we be straitened in our own bosoms? (2.) What is
God's promise. I will fill thy mouth with good things, Ps. ciii. 5. There is
enough in God to fill our treasures (Prov. viii. 21), to replenish
every hungry soul (Jer. xxxi. 25), to supply all our wants, to answer
all our desires, and to make us completely happy. The pleasures of sense
will surfeit and never satisfy (Isa. lv. 2); divine pleasures will satisfy
and never surfeit. And we may have enough from God if we pray for it in
faith. Ask, and it shall be given you. He gives liberally, and
upbraids not. God assured his people Israel that it would be their own
fault if he did not do as great and kind things for them as he had done for
their fathers. Nothing should be thought too good, too much, to give them,
if they would but keep close to God. He would moreover have given them
such and such things, 2 Sam. xii. 8.
IV. He charges them with a high contempt of his authority as their lawgiver
and his grace and favour as their benefactor, v. 11. He had done much
for them, and designed to do more; but all in vain: "My people would
not hearken to my voice, but turned a deaf ear to all I said." Two
things he complains of:-- 1. Their disobedience to his commands. They did
hear his voice, so as never any people did; but they would not hearken to
it, they would not be ruled by it, neither by the law nor by the reason of
it. 2. Their dislike of his covenant-relation to them: They would none of
me. They acquiesced not in my word (so the Chaldee); God was willing to
be to them a God, but they were not willing to be to him a people; they did
not like his terms. "I would have gathered them, but they would
not." They had none of him; and why had they not? It was not because
they might not; they were fairly invited into covenant with God. It was not
because they could not; for the word was nigh them, even in their mouth and
in their heart. But it was purely because they would not. God calls them hi
people, for they were bought by him, bound to him, his by a thousand ties,
and yet even they had not hearkened, had not obeyed. "Israel, the seed
of Jacob my friend, set me at nought, and would have none of me."
Note, All the wickedness of the wicked world is owing to the wilfulness of
the wicked will. The reason why people are not religious is because they
will not be so.
V. He justifies himself with this in the spiritual judgments he had brought
upon them (v. 12): So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts,
which would be more dangerous enemies and more mischievous oppressors to
them than any of the neighbouring nations ever were. God withdrew his Spirit
from them, took off the bridle of restraining grace, left them to
themselves, and justly; they will do as they will, and therefore let them do
as they will. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. It is a
righteous thing with God to give those up to their own hearts' lusts that
indulge them, and give up themselves to be led by them; for why should his
Spirit always strive? His grace is his own, and he is debtor to no man, and
yet, as he never gave his grace to any that could say they deserved it, so
he never took it away from any but such as had first forfeited it: They
would none of me, so I gave them up; let them take their course. And see
what follows: They walked in their own counsels, in the way of their
heart and in the sight of their eye, both in their worships and in their
conversations. "I left them to do as they would, and then they did all
that was ill;" they walked in their own counsels, and not according to
the counsels of God and his advice. God therefore was not the author of
their sin; he left them to the lusts of their own hearts and the counsels of
their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must lie upon their own
hearts and the blood upon their own heads.
VI. He testifies his good-will to them in wishing they had done well for
themselves. He saw how sad their case was, and how sure their ruin, when
they were delivered up to their own lusts; that is worse than being given up
to Satan, which may be in order to reformation (1 Tim. i. 20) and to
salvation (1 Cor. v. 5); but to be delivered up to their own hearts' lusts
is to be sealed under condemnation. He that is filthy, let him be filthy
still. What fatal precipices will not these hurry a man to! Now here God
looks upon them with pity, and shows that it was with reluctance that he
thus abandoned them to their folly and fate. How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? Hos. xi. 8, 9. So here, O that my people had hearkened!
See Isa. xlviii. 18. Thus Christ lamented the obstinacy of Jerusalem. If
thou hadst known, Luke xix. 42. The expressions here are very affecting
(v. 13-16), designed to show how unwilling God is that any should
perish and desirous that all should come to repentance (he delights not in
the ruin of sinful persons or nations), and also what enemies sinners are to
themselves and what an aggravation it will be of their misery that they
might have been happy upon such easy terms. Observe here,
1. The great mercy God had in store for his people, and which he would have
wrought for them if they had been obedient. (1.) He would have given them
victory over their enemies and would soon have completed the reduction of
them. They should not only have kept their ground, but have gained their
point, against the remaining Canaanites, and their encroaching vexatious
neighbours (v. 14): I should have subdued their enemies; and
it is God only that is to be depended on for the subduing of our enemies.
Not would had have put them to the expense and fatigue of a tedious war: he
would soon have done it; for he would have turned his hand against
their adversaries, and then they would not have been able to stand
before them. It intimates how easily he would have done it and without any
difficulty. With the turn of a hand, nay, with the breath of his mouth,
shall he slay the wicked, Isa. xi. 4. If he but turn his hand, the haters
of the Lord will submit themselves to him (v. 15); and, though
they are not brought to love him, yet they shall be made to fear him and to
confess that he is too hard for them and that it is in vain to contend with
him. God is honoured, and so is his Israel, by the submission of those that
have been in rebellion against them, though it be but a forced and feigned
submission. (2.) He would have confirmed and perpetuated their posterity,
and established it upon sure and lasting foundations. In spite of all the
attempts of their enemies against them, their time should have endured
for ever, and they should never have been disturbed in the possession of
the good land God had given them, much less evicted and turned out of
possession. (3.) He would have given them great plenty of all good things (v.
16): He should have fed them with the finest of the wheat, with the
best grain and the best of the kind. Wheat was the staple commodity of
Canaan, and they exported a great deal of it, Ezek. xxvii. 17. He would not
only have provided for them the best sort of bread, but with honey out of
the rock would he have satisfied them. Besides the precious products of
the fruitful soil, that there might not be a barren spot in all their land,
even the clefts of the rock should serve for bee-hives and in them they
should find honey in abundance. See Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. In short, God
designed to make them every way easy and happy.
2. The duty God required from them as the condition of all this mercy. He
expected no more than that they should hearken to him, as a scholar
to his teacher, to receive his instructions--as a servant to his master, to
receive his commands; and that they should walk in his ways, those
ways of the Lord which are right and pleasant, that they should observe the
institutions of his ordinances and attend the intimations of his providence.
There was nothing unreasonable in this.
3. Observe how the reason of the withholding of the mercy is laid in their
neglect of the duty: If they had hearkened to me, I would soon have
subdued their enemies. National sin or disobedience is the great and
only thing that retards and obstructs national deliverance. When I would
have healed Israel, and set every thing to-rights among them, then the
iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and so a stop was put to the cure,
Hos. vii. 1. We are apt to say, "If such a method had been taken, such
an instrument employed, we should soon have subdued our enemies:" but
we mistake; if we had hearkened to God, and kept to our duty, the thing
would have been done, but it is sin that makes our troubles long and
salvation slow. And this is that which God himself complains of, and wishes
it had been otherwise. Note, Therefore God would have us do our duty
to him, that we may be qualified to receive favour from him. He delights in
our serving him, not because he is the better for it, but because we shall
be.
Contents
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