Psalms 60
DOYLYPsalms 60:6
- They return at evening: &c.] The messengers of Saul, coming after David in the evening, besetting his house, and blocking up the approaches to it, are here compared to a set of hungry dogs in quest of their prey. Bp. Horne. See note on ver. 14.
Psalms 60:7
- Behold, they belch out &c.] Behold, their hearts are full of malice, which burst out at their mouths in open threats to kill me; for, Who, say they, shall call us to account for it? Bp. Patrick.
Psalms 60:9
- Because of his strength &c.] It is probable that the beginning of this verse should be the same with that of verse 17. Bp. Louth.
Psalms 60:10
- — shall prevent me.] That is, shall make way for my timely escape. Dr. Wells.
Psalms 60:11
- Slay them not, &c.] Do not utterly destroy them, lest my countrymen lose the remembrance of it: but let them remain a just monument of thine anger. Travell.
Psalms 60:14
- — like a dog, &c.] Dogs are found in great numbers in the cities of the East, and crowd the streets. They do not appear to belong to any particular persons, as our dogs do, nor to be fed distinctly by such as might claim some interest in them, but get their food as they can. Harmer.
Psalms 60:15
- — and grudge if they be not satisfied.] And murmur because they are not satisfied. Dr. Chandler. See the margin.
Nothing gives us such support, and administers such confidence and courage to expect a deliverance from God Almighty out of any persecution or danger that invades us, as the consciousness of innocence. Not that we may conclude, that guiltless men cannot be oppressed,
even to the loss of their lives, as well as their fortunes; or, that evil men cannot prevail against those who are less evil than they: we may not only be very innocent in those particulars of which we are condemned and brought into misery, but therefore condemned, because we are known to be innocent; and yet we may be guilty enough in other particulars, to deserve a greater punishment and misery than we undergo: and since every sin is in opposition to God’s will and directions, it is his usual method to punish sinners by others who are most opposite to the sins they practised. Our deliverance therefore may be for a time deferred, till the fire of adversity hath well purged the dross and corruption which our prosperity had contracted, and we shall then find, that our constancy and patience in suffering hath made God propitious to us, and provided a crown of glory for our reward. Lord Clarendon.
Psalm LX. — Shushan-eduth.] The meaning of this word is quite uncertain.
— to teach.] Either, that David might teach posterity what things he had done; or, implying that this Psalm was given to the chief musician, that he might teach the infernoun ones. Rosenmuller.
— Aram] The Syrians; so called, because they were the descendants of Aram the son of Shem, Gen. x. 22. Poole.
— naharaim] Those Syrians that lived between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Bp. Patrick.
— Aram-zobah.] Those Syrians that lived adjoining to the former, in that part of Syria called Zobah, 2 Sam. vii. 5. Bp. Patrick.