68:35. Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.
68:36. For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.
Sion... The catholic church. The cities of Juda, etc., her places of worship, which shall be established throughout the world. And there, viz., in this church of Christ, shall his servants dwell, etc.
68:37. And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalms Chapter 69
Deus in adjutorium.
A prayer in persecution.
69:1. Unto the end, a psalm for David, to bring to remembrance that the Lord saved him.
69:2. O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.
69:3. Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul:
69:4. Let them be turned backward, and blush for shame that desire evils to me: Let them be presently turned away blushing for shame that say to me: 'Tis well, 'tis well.
'T is well, 't is well... Euge, euge. St. Jerome renders it, vah, vah! which is the voice of one insulting and deriding. Some understand it as a detestation of deceitful flatterers.
69:5. Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation say always: The Lord be magnified.
69:6. But I am needy and poor; O God, help me. Thou art my helper and my deliverer: O lord, make no delay.
Psalms Chapter 70
In te, Domine.
A prayer for perseverance.
70:1. A psalm for David. Of the sons of Jonadab, and the former captives. In thee, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion:
Of the sons of Jonadab... The Rechabites, of whom see Jer. 35. By this addition of the seventy-two interpreters, we gather that this psalm was usually sung in the synagogue, in the person of the Rechabites, and of those who were first carried away into captivity.
70:2. Deliver me in thy justice, and rescue me. Incline thy ear unto me, and save me.
70:3. Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength: that thou mayst make me safe. For thou art my firmament and my refuge.
70:4. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the sinner, and out of the hand of the transgressor of the law and of the unjust.
70:5. For thou art my patience, O Lord: my hope, O Lord, from my youth.
70:6. By thee have I been confirmed from the womb: from my mother's womb thou art my protector. Of thee I shall continually sing:
70:7. I am become unto many as a wonder, but thou art a strong helper.
70:8. Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may sing thy glory; thy greatness all the day long.
70:9. Cast me not off in the time of old age: when my strength shall fail, do not thou forsake me.
70:10. For my enemies have spoken against me; and they that watched my soul have consulted together,
70:11. Saying: God hath forsaken him: pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.
70:12. O God, be not thou far from me: O my God, make haste to my help.
70:13. Let them be confounded and come to nothing that detract my soul; let them be covered with confusion and blame that seek my hurt.
70:14. But I will always hope; and will add to all thy praise.
70:15. My mouth shall shew forth thy justice; thy salvation all the day long. Because I have not known learning,
Learning... As much as to say, I build not upon human learning, but only on the power and justice of God.
70:16. I will enter into the powers of the Lord: O Lord, I will be mindful of thy justice alone.
70:17. Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth: and till now I will declare thy wonderful works.
70:18. And unto old age and grey hairs: O God, forsake me not, Until I shew forth thy arm to all the generation that is to come: Thy power,
70:19. And thy justice, O God, even to the highest great things thou hast done: O God, who is like to thee?
70:20. How great troubles hast thou shewn me, many and grievous: and turning thou hast brought me to life, and hast brought me back again from the depths of the earth:
70:21. Thou hast multiplied thy magnificence; and turning to me thou hast comforted me.
70:22. For I will also confess to thee thy truth with the instruments of psaltery: O God, I will sing to thee with the harp, thou holy one of Israel.
70:23. My lips shall greatly rejoice, when I shall sing to thee; and my soul which thou hast redeemed.
70:24. Yea and my tongue shall meditate on thy justice all the day; when they shall be confounded and put to shame that seek evils to me.
Psalms Chapter 71
Deus, judicium tuum.
A prophecy of the coming of Christ, and of his kingdom: prefigured by Solomon and his happy reign.
71:1. A psalm on Solomon.
71:2. Give to the king thy judgment, O God, and to the king's son thy justice: To judge thy people with justice, and thy poor with judgment.
71:3. Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice.
71:4. He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor.
71:5. And he shall continue with the sun and before the moon, throughout all generations.
71:6. He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth.
71:7. In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away.
71:8. And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
71:9. Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down: and his enemies shall lick the ground.
71:10. The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts:
71:11. And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him.
71:12. For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper.
71:13. He shall spare the poor and needy: and he shall save the souls of the poor.
71:14. He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity: and their names shall be honourable in his sight.
71:15. And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia, for him they shall always adore: they shall bless him all the day.
71:16. And there shall be a firmament on the earth on the tops of mountains, above Libanus shall the fruit thereof be exalted: and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth.
A firmament on the earth, etc... This may be understood of the church of Christ, ever firm and visible: and of the flourishing condition of its congregation.
71:17. Let his name be blessed for evermore: his name continueth before the sun. And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him.
71:18. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone doth wonderful things.
71:19. And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever: and the whole earth shall be filled with his majesty. So be it. So be it.
71:20. The praises of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Are ended... By this it appears that this psalm, though placed here, was in order of time the last of those which David composed.
Psalms Chapter 72
Quam bonus Israel Deus.
The temptation of the weak, upon seeing the prosperity of the wicked, is overcome by the consideration of the justice of God, who will quickly render to every one according to his works.
72:1. A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!
72:2. But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.
72:3. Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.
72:4. For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.
72:5. They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.
72:6. Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.
72:7. Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.
Fatness... Abundance and temporal prosperity, which hath encouraged them in their iniquity: and made them give themselves up to their irregular affections.
72:8. They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.
72:9. They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.
72:10. Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.
Return here... or hither. The weak among the servants of God, will be apt often to return to this thought, and will be shocked when they consider the full days, that is, the long and prosperous life of the wicked; and will be tempted to make the reflections against providence which are set down in the following verses.
72:11. And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
72:12. Behold these are sinners; and yet, abounding in the world they have obtained riches.
72:13. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.
72:14. And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.
72:15. If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.
If I said, etc... That is, if I should indulge such thoughts as these.
72:16. I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:
72:17. Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.
72:18. But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.
Thou hast put it to them... In punishment of their deceits, or for deceiving them, thou hast brought evils upon them in their last end, which, in their prosperity they never apprehended.
72:19. How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.
72:20. As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.
72:21. For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:
72:22. And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.
72:23. I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.
72:24. Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.
72:25. For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?
72:26. For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.
72:27. For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.
72:28. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
Psalms Chapter 73
Ut quid, Deus.
A prayer of the church under grievous persecutions.
73:1. Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?
73:2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.
73:3. Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
73:4. And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,
Their ensigns, etc... They have fixed their colours for signs and trophies, both on the gates, and on the highest top of the temple: and they knew not, that is, they regarded not the sanctity of the place. This psalm manifestly foretells the time of the Machabees, and the profanation of the temple by Antiochus.
73:5. And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,
73:6. They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.
73:7. They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.
73:8. They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.
73:9. Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no more.
73:10. How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?
73:11. Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever?
73:12. But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
73:13. Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.
The sea firm... By making the waters of the Red Sea stand like firm walls, whilst Israel passed through: and destroying the Egyptians called here dragons from their cruelty, in the same waters, with their king: casting up their bodies on the shore to be stripped by the Ethiopians inhabiting in those days the coast of Arabia.
73:14. Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him to be meat for the people of the Ethiopians.
73:15. Thou hast broken up the fountains and the torrents: thou hast dried up the Ethan rivers.
Ethan rivers... That is, rivers which run with strong streams. This was verified in Jordan, Jos. 3, and in Arnon, Num. 21.14.
73:16. Thine is the day, and thine is the night: thou hast made the morning light and the sun.
73:17. Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.
73:18. Remember this, the enemy hath reproached the Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.
73:19. Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.
73:20. Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.
The obscure of the earth... Mean and ignoble wretches have been filled, that is, enriched, with houses of iniquity, that is, with our estates and possessions, which they have unjustly acquired.
73:21. Let not the humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.
73:22. Arise, O God, judge thy own cause: remember thy reproaches with which the foolish man hath reproached thee all the day.
73:23. Forget not the voices of thy enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually.
Psalms Chapter 74
Confitebimur tibi.
There is a just judgment to come: therefore let the wicked take care.
74:1. Unto the end, corrupt not, a psalm of a canticle for Asaph.
Corrupt not... It is believed to have been the beginning of some ode or hymn, to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung. St. Augustine and other fathers take it to be an admonition of the spirit of God, not to faint or fail in our hope: but to persevere with constancy in good: because God will not fail in his due time to render to every man according to his works.
74:2. We will praise thee, O God: we will praise, and we will call upon thy name. We will relate thy wondrous works:
74:3. When I shall take a time, I will judge justices.
When I shall take a time... In proper times: particularly at the last day, when the earth shall melt away at the presence of the great Judge: the same who originally laid the foundations of it, and as it were established its pillars.
74:4. The earth is melted, and all that dwell therein: I have established the pillars thereof.
74:5. I said to the wicked: Do not act wickedly: and to the sinners: Lift not up the horn.
74:6. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not iniquity against God.
74:7. For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert hills:
74:8. For God is the judge. One he putteth down, and another he lifteth up:
74:9. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture. And he hath poured it out from this to that: but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink.
74:10. But I will declare for ever: I will sing to the God of Jacob.
74:11. And I will break all the horns of sinners: but the horns of the just shall be exalted.
Psalms Chapter 75
Notus in Judaea.
God is known in his church: and exerts his power in protecting it. It alludes to the slaughter of the Assyrians, in the days of king Ezechias.
75:1. Unto the end, in praises, a psalm for Asaph: a canticle to the Assyrians.
75:2. In Judea God is known: his name is great in Israel.
75:3. And his place is in peace: and his abode in Sion:
75:4. There hath he broken the powers of bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle.
75:5. Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting hills.
75:6. All the foolish of heart were troubled. They have slept their sleep; and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands.
75:7. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, they have all slumbered that mounted on horseback.
75:8. Thou art terrible, and who shall resist thee? from that time thy wrath.
From that time, etc... From the time that thy wrath shall break out.
75:9. Thou hast caused judgment to be heard from heaven: the earth trembled and was still,
75:10. When God arose in judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.
75:11. For the thought of man shall give praise to thee: and the remainders of the thought shall keep holiday to thee.
75:12. Vow ye, and pay to the Lord your God: all you that are round about him bring presents. To him that is terrible,
75:13. Even to him who taketh away the spirit of princes: to the terrible with the kings of the earth.
Psalms Chapter 76
Voce mea.
The faithful have recourse to God in trouble of mind, with confidence in his mercy and power.
76:1. Unto the end, for Idithun, a psalm of Asaph.
76:2. I cried to the Lord with my voice; to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me.
76:3. In the days of my trouble I sought God, with my hands lifted up to him in the night, and I was not deceived. My soul refused to be comforted:
76:4. I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit swooned away.
76:5. My eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not.
76:6. I thought upon the days of old: and I had in my mind the eternal years.
76:7. And I meditated in the night with my own heart: and I was exercised and I swept my spirit.
76:8. Will God then cast off for ever? or will he never be more favourable again?
76:9. Or will he cut off his mercy for ever, from generation to generation?
76:10. Or will God forget to shew mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies?
76:11. And I said, Now have I begun: this is the change of the right hand of the most High.
76:12. I remembered the works of the Lord: for I will be mindful of thy wonders from the beginning.
76:13. And I will meditate on all thy works: and will be employed in thy inventions.
76:14. Thy way, O God, is in the holy place: who is the great God like our God?
76:15. Thou art the God that dost wonders. Thou hast made thy power known among the nations:
76:16. With thy arm thou hast redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and of Joseph.
76:17. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled.
76:18. Great was the noise of the waters: the clouds sent out a sound. For thy arrows pass:
76:19. The voice of thy thunder in a wheel. Thy lightnings enlightened the world: the earth shook and trembled.
76:20. Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in many waters: and thy footsteps shall not be known.
76:21. Thou hast conducted thy people like sheep, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalms Chapter 77
Attendite.
God's great benefits to the people of Israel, notwithstanding their ingratitude.
77:1. Understanding for Asaph. Attend, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
77:2. I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter propositions from the beginning.
Propositions... Deep and mysterious sayings. By this it appears that the historical facts of ancient times, commemorated in this psalm, were deep and mysterious: as being figures of great truths appertaining to the time of the New Testament.
77:3. How great things have we heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
77:4. They have not been hidden from their children, in another generation. Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers, and his wonders which he hath done.
77:5. And he set up a testimony in Jacob: and made a law in Israel. How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children:
77:6. That another generation might know them. The children that should be born and should rise up, and declare them to their children.
77:7. That they may put their hope in God and may not forget the works of God: and may seek his commandments.
77:8. That they may not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation. A generation that set not their heart aright: and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
77:9. The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: they have turned back in the day of battle.
77:10. They kept not the covenant of God: and in his law they would not walk.
77:11. And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders that he had shewn them.
77:12. Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis.
77:13. He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.
77:14. And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire.
77:15. He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.
77:16. He brought forth water out of the rock: and made streams run down as rivers.
77:17. And they added yet more sin against him: they provoked the most High to wrath in the place without water.
77:18. And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their desires.
77:19. And they spoke ill of God: they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
77:20. Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide a table for his people?
77:21. Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.
77:22. Because they believed not in God: and trusted not in his salvation.
77:23. And he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven.
77:24. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven.
77:25. Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.
77:26. He removed the south wind from heaven: and by his power brought in the southwest wind.
77:27. And he rained upon them flesh as dust: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.
77:28. And they fell in the midst of their camp, round about their pavilions.
77:29. So they did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and he gave them their desire:
77:30. they were not defrauded of that which they craved. As yet their meat was in their mouth:
77:31. And the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones amongst them, and brought down the chosen men of Israel.
77:32. In all these things they sinned still: and they behaved not for his wondrous works.
77:33. And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.
77:34. When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned, and came to him early in the morning.
77:35. And they remembered that God was their helper: and the most high God their redeemer.
77:36. And they loved him with their mouth: and with their tongue they lied unto him:
77:37. But their heart was not right with him: nor were they counted faithful in his covenant.
77:38. But he is merciful, and will forgive their sins: and will not destroy them. And many a time did he turn away his anger: and did not kindle all his wrath.
77:39. And he remembered that they are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not.
77:40. How often did they provoke him in the desert: and move him to wrath in the place without water?
77:41. And they turned back and tempted God: and grieved the holy one of Israel.
77:42. They remembered not his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of him that afflicted them:
77:43. How he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Tanis.
77:44. And he turned their rivers into blood, and their showers that they might not drink.
77:45. He sent amongst them divers sorts of flies, which devoured them: and frogs which destroyed them.
77:46. And he gave up their fruits to the blast, and their labours to the locust.
77:47. And he destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.
77:48. And he gave up their cattle to the hail, and their stock to the fire.
77:49. And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.
77:50. He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.
77:51. And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.
77:52. And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
77:53. And he brought them out in hope and they feared not: and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
77:54. And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: the mountain which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the Gentiles before them: and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.
77:55. And he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
77:56. Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: and they kept not his testimonies.
77:57. And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.
77:58. They provoked him to anger on their hills: and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.
77:59. God heard, and despised them, and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.
77:60. And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.
77:61. And he delivered their strength into captivity: and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.
77:62. And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.
77:63. Fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not lamented.
77:64. Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.
77:65. And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.
77:66. And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: he put them to an everlasting reproach.
77:67. And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
77:68. But he chose the tribe of Juda, mount Sion which he loved.
77:69. And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever.
As of unicorns... That is, firm and strong like the horn of the unicorn. This is one of the chiefest of the propositions of this psalm, foreshewing the firm establishment of the one, true, and everlasting sanctuary of God, in his church.
77:70. And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,
77:71. To feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance.
77:72. And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Psalms Chapter 78
Deus, venerunt gentes.
The church in time of persecution prayeth for relief. It seems to belong to the time of the Machabees.
78:1. A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.
78:2. They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.
78:3. They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.
78:4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
78:5. How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?
78:6. Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
78:7. Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.
78:8. Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.
78:9. Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name's sake:
78:10. Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:
78:11. Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.
78:12. And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
78:13. But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.
Psalms Chapter 79
Qui regis Israel.
A prayer for the church in tribulation, commemorating God's former favours.
79:1. Unto the end, for them that shall be changed, a testimony for Asaph, a psalm.
79:2. Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel: thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep. Thou that sittest upon the cherubims, shine forth
79:3. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses. Stir up thy might, and come to save us.
79:4. Convert us, O God: and shew us thy face, and we shall be saved.
79:5. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy servant?
79:6. How long wilt thou feed us with the bread of tears: and give us for our drink tears in measure?
79:7. Thou hast made us to be a contradiction to our neighbours: and our enemies have scoffed at us.
79:8. O God of hosts, convert us: and shew thy face, and we shall be saved.
79:9. Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
79:10. Thou wast the guide of its journey in its sight: thou plantedst the roots thereof, and it filled the land.
79:11. The shadow of it covered the hills: and the branches thereof the cedars of God.
79:12. It stretched forth its branches unto the sea, and its boughs unto the river.
79:13. Why hast thou broken down the hedge thereof, so that all they who pass by the way do pluck it?
79:14. The boar out of the wood hath laid it waste: and a singular wild beast hath devoured it.
79:15. Turn again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard:
79:16. And perfect the same which thy right hand hath planted: and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.
79:17. Things set on fire and dug down shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Things set on fire, etc... So this vineyard of thine, almost consumed already, must perish, if thou continue thy rebukes.
79:18. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand: and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.
The man of thy right hand... Christ.
79:19. And we depart not from thee, thou shalt quicken us: and we will call upon thy name.
79:20. O Lord God of hosts, convert us and shew thy face, and we shall be saved.
Psalms Chapter 80
Exultate Deo.
An invitation to a solemn praising of God.
80:1. Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for Asaph himself.
For the winepresses, etc... Torcularibus. It either signifies a musical instrument, or that this psalm was to be sung at the feast of the tabernacles after the gathering in of the vintage.
80:2. Rejoice to God our helper: sing aloud to the God of Jacob.
80:3. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel: the pleasant psaltery with the harp.
80:4. Blow up the trumpet on the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity.
80:5. For it is a commandment in Israel, and a judgment to the God of Jacob.
80:6. He ordained it for a testimony in Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not.
80:7. He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in baskets.
80:8. Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee: I heard thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of contradiction.
In the secret place of tempest... Heb., Of thunder. When thou soughtest to hide thyself from the tempest: or, when I came down to mount Sina, hidden from thy eyes in a storm of thunder.
80:9. Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken to me,
80:10 There shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange god.
80:11. For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
80:12. But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me.
80:13. So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall walk in their own inventions.
80:14. If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:
80:15. I should soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on them that troubled them.
80:16. The enemies of the Lord have lied to him: and their time shall be for ever.
Their time shall be forever... Impenitent sinners shall suffer for ever.
80:17. And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock.
Psalms Chapter 81
Deus stetit.
An exhortation to judges and men in power.
81:1. A psalm for Asaph. God hath stood in the congregation of gods: and being in the midst of them he judgeth gods.
81:2. How long will you judge unjustly: and accept the persons of the wicked?
81:3. Judge for the needy and fatherless: do justice to the humble and the poor.
81:4. Rescue the poor; and deliver the needy out of the hand of the sinner.
81:5. They have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be moved.
81:6. I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High.
81:7. But you like men shall die: and shall fall like one of the princes.
81:8. Arise, O God, judge thou the earth: for thou shalt inherit among all the nations.
Psalms Chapter 82
Deus, quis similis.
A prayer against the enemies of God's church.
82:1. A canticle of a psalm for Asaph.
82:2. O God, who shall be like to thee? hold not thy peace, neither be thou still, O God.
82:3. For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
82:4. They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy saints.
82:5. They have said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation: and let the name of Israel be remembered no more.
82:6. For they have contrived with one consent: they have made a covenant together against thee,
82:7. The tabernacle of the Edomites, and the Ishmahelites: Moab, and the Agarens,
82:8. Gebal, and Ammon and Amalec: the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
82:9. Yea, and the Assyrian also is joined with them: they are come to the aid of the sons of Lot.
82:10. Do to them as thou didst to Madian and to Sisara: as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson.
82:11. Who perished at Endor: and became as dung for the earth.
82:12. Make their princes like Oreb, and Zeb, and Zebee, and Salmana. All their princes,
82:13. Who have said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God for an inheritance.
82:14. O my God, make them like a wheel; and as stubble before the wind.
82:15. As fire which burneth the wood: and as a flame burning mountains:
82:16. So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest: and shalt trouble them in thy wrath.
82:17. Fill their faces with shame; and they shall seek thy name, O Lord.
82:18. Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever and ever: and let them be confounded and perish.
82:19. And let them know that the Lord is thy name: thou alone art the most High over all the earth.
Psalms Chapter 83
Quam dilecta.
The soul aspireth after heaven; rejoicing in the mean time, in being in the communion of God's church upon earth.
83:1. Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for the sons of Core.
83:2. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
83:3. my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.
83:4. For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
83:5. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever.
83:6. Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps,
In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps, etc... Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit. As by steps men ascended to the temple of God situated on a hill; so the good Christian ascends towards the eternal temple by certain steps of virtue disposed or ordered within the heart: and this whilst he lives as yet in the body, in this vale of tears, the place which man hath set: that is, which he hath brought himself to: being cast out of paradise for his sin.
83:7. In the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set.
83:8. For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.
83:9. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.
83:10. Behold, O God our protector: and look on the face of thy Christ.
83:11. For better is one day in thy courts above thousands. I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.
83:12. For God loveth mercy and truth: the Lord will give grace and glory.
83:13. He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Psalms Chapter 84
Benedixisti, Domine.
The coming of Christ, to bring peace and salvation to man.
84:1. Unto the end, for the sons of Core, a psalm.
84:2. Lord, thou hast blessed thy land: thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.
84:3. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people: thou hast covered all their sins.
84:4. Thou hast mitigated all thy anger: thou hast turned away from the wrath of thy indignation.
84:5. Convert us, O God our saviour: and turn off thy anger from us.
84:6. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever: or wilt thou extend thy wrath from generation to generation?
84:7. Thou wilt turn, O God, and bring us to life: and thy people shall rejoice in thee.
84:8. Shew us, O Lord, thy mercy; and grant us thy salvation.
84:9. I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me: for he will speak peace unto his people: And unto his saints: and unto them that are converted to the heart.
84:10. Surely his salvation is near to them that fear him: that glory may dwell in our land.
84:11. Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed.
84:12. Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven.
84:13. For the Lord will give goodness: and our earth shall yield her fruit.
84:14. Justice shall walk before him: and shall set his steps in the way.
Psalms Chapter 85
Inclina, Domine.
A prayer for God's grace to assist us to the end.
85:1. A prayer for David himself. Incline thy ear, O Lord, and hear me: for I am needy and poor.
85:2. Preserve my soul, for I am holy: save thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee.
I am holy... I am by my office and profession dedicated to thy service.
85:3. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.
85:4. Give joy to the soul of thy servant, for to thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.
85:5. For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.
85:6. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer: and attend to the voice of my petition.
85:7. I have called upon thee in the day of my trouble: because thou hast heard me.
85:8. There is none among the gods like unto thee, O Lord: and there is none according to thy works.
85:9. All the nations thou hast made shall come and adore before thee, O Lord: and they shall glorify thy name.
85:10. For thou art great and dost wonderful things: thou art God alone.
85:11. Conduct me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth: let my heart rejoice that it may fear thy name.
85:12. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever:
85:13. For thy mercy is great towards me: and thou hast delivered my soul out of the lower hell.
85:14. O God, the wicked are risen up against me, and the assembly of the mighty have sought my soul: and they have not set thee before their eyes.
85:15. And thou, O Lord, art a God of compassion, and merciful, patient, and of much mercy, and true.
85:16. O look upon me, and have mercy on me: give thy command to thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid.
85:17. Shew me a token for good: that they who hate me may see, and be confounded, because thou, O Lord, hast helped me and hast comforted me.
Psalms Chapter 86
Fundamenta ejus.
The glory of the church of Christ.
86:1. For the sons of Core, a psalm of a canticle. The foundations thereof are the holy mountains:
The holy mountains... The apostles and prophets. Eph. 2.20.
86:2. The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.
86:3. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.
86:4. I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.
Rahab... Egypt, etc. To this Sion, which is the church of God, many shall resort from all nations.
86:5. Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her.
Shall not Sion say, etc... The meaning is, that Sion, viz., the church, shall not only be able to commemorate this or that particular person of renown born in her, but also to glory in great multitudes of people and princes of her communion; who have been foretold in the writings of the prophets, and registered in the writings of the apostles.
86:6. The Lord shall tell in his writings of peoples and of princes, of them that have been in her.
86:7. The dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing.
Psalms Chapter 87
Domine, Deus salutis.
A prayer of one under grievous affliction: it agrees to Christ in his passion, and alludes to his death and burial.
87:1. A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.
Maheleth... A musical instrument, or chorus of musicians, to answer one another.-Ibid. Understanding... Or a psalm of instruction, composed by Eman the Ezrahite, or by David, in his name.
87:2. O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.
87:3. Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.
87:4. For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.
87:5. I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,
87:6. Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
87:7. They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.
87:8. Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.
87:9. Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:
87:10. My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.
87:11. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?
87:12. Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?
87:13. Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?
87:14. But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.
87:15. Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?
87:16. I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.
87:17. Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.
87:18. They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.
87:19. Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.
Psalms Chapter 88
Misericordias Domini.
The perpetuity of the church of Christ, in consequence of the promise of God: which, notwithstanding, God permits her to suffer sometimes most grievous afflictions.
88:1. Of understanding, for Ethan the Ezrahite.
88:2. The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. I will shew forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.
88:3. For thou hast said: Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens: thy truth shall be prepared in them.
88:4. I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant:
88:5. Thy seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up thy throne unto generation and generation.