Psalms 114
PATTo the chief Musician upon Neginoth. A Psalm or Song. This excellent Psalm,- all agree, hath the same author with the former; which I have made it probable (see Psal. lxvi.) was composed. by David; who, being settled in his throne after miserable confusions, and having brought the ark to Jerusalem, and offered burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings, (as he promised in the Psalm foregoing, ver. 15.) blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts; (2 Sam. vi. 17,18.) pronounced, that is, this Psalm (as I conjecture), wherein he manifestly imitates that form of blessing, which the priests were appointed to use on solemn occasions; (as you may read Jtfumb. vi* 23 — 25.) beseeching God to continue his favour to them, and to make them such an example of his loving-kindness, that it might invite all nations, to whom the fame of it should come, to submit themselves unto his government. It is no argument against this, to say, that he doth not bless them here in the name of the Lord; which is used in the blessing which Moses taught them. For it is certain he alludes, in the beginning of the next Psalm, to the form of prayer used at the setting forward of the ark, (Numb. x. 35.) and yet there also he uses tho word Elohim instead of Jehovah, as he doth in this Psalm; which he delivered afterward to the master of music, to be sung as the fourth Psalm. But what difference there is between a Song-Psalm and a Psalm-Song (in which the titles of the fifty-fifth and of this and the next differ from the foregoing, as the title of tho thirtieth doth from the forty-eighth), I am not able certainly to resojve. For some think that a Psalm-Song, or Psalm of a Song, began with voices, the musical instruments following after; and a Song-Psalm, or Song of a Psalm, began with instruments, the voices following after; others give a quite contrary aceount; for, taking a Psalm to be properly the sound of instruments (whereof there were six or seven sorts), and a Song to be the voice of singers; they will have a Psalm-Song to be that where, the sound of instruments preceding, the singing voices followed; and a Song-Psalm that where, the voices preceding, the instrumental music followed. But Kimchi ingenuously confesses, in his preface to the Book of Psalms, that their nation can give no account of suchlike things, which we meet with in the title of the Psalms. employment; but, with your best affections, praise the power, wisdom, and goodness, of his eternal providence. As the foregoing Psalm puts them in mind of several works of the Divine Providence, about particular persons: so this makes a brief narration of some miracnlous work; wherein the Lord declared his power, when he brought the whole Jewish nation out of the Egyptian bondage. Vcr.L ff HEN Israel uJent out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language.] When our forefathers, with their whole family, were brought out of Egypt; and not one of them left behind among that barbarous people who had long oppressed them;
Psalms 114:1
fjrOD be merciful unto ns, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. Be gracious unto us, O God, and complete the happiness which thy almighty goodness hath begun to bestow upon us; let us not fall again into those dismal calamities, out of which thou hast delivered us; but declare thou lovest us, by continuing thy gracious presence with us.
Psalms 114:2
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. That the fame of thy wonderful providence over us, and of the deliverances thou workest for us, being spread not only here in this country, but throughout all other nations; they may be moved thereby to acknowledge and worship thee as the only God. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.] Praise him now in this present age; and wish that those incomparable perfections of his maybe celebrated with the praises of those that live in future times, as long as the world shall last. Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.] There was a most glorious appcaranpo of God among them, by that bright cloud; the token of his presence: which then had no other peculiar place for its sanctuary; but stood over the whole camp of Israel, (Exod. xiii.21. Numb. xiv. 14.) whom he then took for his peculiar kingdom, (Exod. xix. 6.)
Psalms 114:3
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O that we might sec that happy day; O that the people would confess and praise thee, O God; that all the people every where, with one consent, would confess and praise thee. From tlte rising of the sun, unto the going dotvn of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised.] And not only here in this littJe spot of earth; but wheresoever the sun shines, and lets men see how splendid and glorious his majesty is. The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back.] At which appearance the Red Sea forsook its channel, and left a dry path for them to march through: (Exod. xiv. 21. 24.) and so did Jordan also afterward; to make way for their easy entrance into Canaan, (Josh, iii.'
Psalms 114:4
O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy; for thou shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. O that the nations were so sensible what a happiness it is to be under thy care, that they might rejoice and shout for joy, to know that thou hrt the governor of the world! who by thy power oppressest none, but distributest equal justice unto all; and graciously providest for the welfare of those who become thy subjects, and commit themselves unto thy conduct. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.] For all the nations of the earth are his; and but a little parcel of his supreme dominion; which extends far beyond the sun, and moon, and stars; whose light is but a dim resemblance of the brightness of his glory. The mountains skipped tike rams, and the little hills like lambs.] All the mountains, great and small, which adjoined unto Sinai, trembled and leaped, like so many affrighted rams, or little lambs, before the same most dreadful majesty, (Exod. xix. 18.)
Psalms 114:5
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. We cannot often enough wish to see them so happy; but must again and again repeat our desires, that the people would confess thee, O God, to be the Lord of all: that all the people every where would, with one consent, celebrate thee with their praises, and confess that thou alone canst make them happy. Who is likeunto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high?] Do not think that any of them (though worshipped by other nations as gods) is comparable to that great Lord, and our most gracious God, whom we adore: for the very place where his glorious majesty resides is far higher than they. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?’] To what else shall we ascribe that sudden ebb of the sea? and that, no less strange, retreat of Jordan, when it overflowed all its banks?
Psalms 114:6
Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. As thou dost us, whose land of late hath been so exceeding fruitful, (2 Sam. vi.19.) that we may look upon it as an earnest of future blessings: which may it please our good God, w f hose people we are by peculiar covenant, to multiply upon us. Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth. f ] And it is a great condescension in him, that he will have any respect to the most illustrious of those celestial bodies: though he be so gracious also as to extend his kind and careful providence, even to us who dwell upon this earth. Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?] What made the mountains and hills leap up, like affrighted rams or lambs; as if they would run away from the place where they were so firmly fixed?
Psalms 114:7
God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. With this prayer let us conclude as Ave began, that God would be pleased still to pour down his benefits upon us: that so the people, who live in the remotest parts of the earth, may all devoutly worship and serve him. He raiseth the poor out of tlte dust, and lifteth Hue needy out of the dunghill.] Where, among other manifest tokens of his stupendous goodness, he is pleased to take special notice of those whom the world despises: and to raise them out of a mean, nay, sordid condition, to such a pitch of honour and dignity. Tremble, thou earth, at tlte presence of the Lord s at the presence of the God of Jacob.] But only the glorious presence of the Divine Majesty, who was then bringing his people to the rest he had promised to give them. And let the whole earth be afraid and tremble before that great Lord who hath honoured us so far, as peculiarly to be our God:
Psalms 114:8
That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people. That at last they are advanced to sit upon a throne; and made the governors of his own people, (1 Sam. ii. 8. 2 Sam. vii. 8, 9. compared with 1 Sam. xxiv. 14.) Wliich turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of tvaters.]- And was so kind as to supply the necessities of our forefathers, even when they murmured against him, by a new miracle: bringing out of hard rocks, as hard as flint, such plenty of water, as if they had been dissolved into lakes or rivers, (Exod. xvii. 8. Numb. xx. 11.)
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother ofchildrm. Praise ye the Lord. And, which is still more strange, he opens the barren womb (which according to the course of nature would have brought forth nothing), and makes a numerous family spring from thence, to the great joy of her that bears them, (1 Sam. i. 20. ii. 21.) Praise the Lord in these, and such-like wonderful works of his.