Through thee will we push down our enemies,.... The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "through the Word": the essential Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the church's King and God, and has wrought out complete deliverance and salvation for his people; and he is the horn of salvation, by which, though weak in themselves, they push down their...
For I will not trust in my bow,.... In any carnal weapon, in any creature help and assistance, or in an arm of flesh, but in the word of the Lord, and in his name; see Psalms 20:7; neither shall my sword save me; that is, I will not ascribe salvation to it; the church's weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; not the sword of the civil magistrate,...
But thou hast saved us from our enemies,.... Spiritual ones, and not we ourselves; and therefore will not trust in ourselves, nor in anything of ours, but in the Lord, and give him the glory of salvation; and hast put them to shame that hated us; the men of the world, the seed of the serpent, and the serpent himself, when his works were destroyed,...
In God we boast all the day long,.... Or, as the Targum, "in the word of the Lord", in Christ, who is God over all, and who of God is made to his church and people wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; so that there is always matter of glorying and boasting in him; and praise thy name for ever and ever; in this world, as long as...
But thou hast cast off,.... This, with what follows to Psalms 44:17, describe the desolate and afflicted state of the church, under the Gospel dispensation, in some parts and ages of it; and in the light in which it was viewed by the church, previous to the encouragement she took from the consideration of favours and benefits formerly bestowed,...
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy,.... In the times of Eli, according to Arama; but may he understood of some of the visible members of the church, and professors of religion, not being valiant for the truth, and deserting the cause of God and Christ, by reason of tribulation and persecution arising because of the word; and they which...
Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat,.... To be butchered, and then eaten as sheep are; and therefore are called "the flock of slaughter", Zechariah 11:4; as the church was, not only under the ten persecutions of Rome Pagan, but through the butcheries and massacres of Rome Papal; who have worried many of Christ's sheep, have eaten...
Thou sellest thy people for nought,.... So God, when he is said to deliver up his people into the hands of their enemies, is said to sell them to them; see Judges 2:14; and selling them for nought suggests, that in their apprehensions he had no esteem of them and value for them; just as men, when they have any person or thing to dispose of they...
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,.... Which is the common lot of Christians: Christ and his apostles have given reason for the saints in all ages to expect it, and have fortified their minds to bear it patiently, yea, to esteem it an honour, and greater riches than the treasures of the antichristian Egypt; a scorn and a derision to them...
Thou makest us a byword among the Heathen,.... Among the Papists, as the Jews were among the Gentiles, Deuteronomy 28:37; calling them schismatics, heretics, fanatics, and what not? a shaking of the head among the people; by way of indignation, scorn, and contempt; see Psalms 22:7.
My confusion [is] continually before me,.... Meaning that which is the occasion of it; and the shame of my face hath covered me; not by reason of sin, which is often the cause of confusion and shame in God's people; see Jeremiah 3:25; but on account of what follows.
For the voice, of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth,.... That is, antichrist, to whom a mouth speaking blasphemies has been given, and which he has opened in blasphemy against God, attributing that to himself which belongs to God; blaspheming his name, his tabernacle, and them that well in heaven; see Revelation 13:5; by reason of the enemy and...
All this is come upon us,.... Not by chance, but according to the purpose and counsel of God; not for sin, and as a punishment of it, but for Christ's sake and his Gospel; for a profession of faith in him, and for the trial of it; yet have we not forgotten thee; not the being and perfections of God, on which they often meditated, especially as...
Our heart is not turned back,.... To its original hardness, blindness, and bondage, to its former sin and folly, to cherish, gratify, and fulfil its lusts and desires; not from God, from love to him, faith in him, and desires after him; nor from his worship and service; their trials had no such influence upon them as to cause them to apostatize...
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons,.... Where men, comparable to dragons or their poison and cruelty, dwell; particularly in Rome, and the Roman jurisdiction, both Pagan and Papal, the seat of Satan the great red dragon, and of his wretched brood and offspring, the beast, to whom he has given his power; here the saints and...
If we have forgotten the name of our God,.... As antichrist, and the antichristian party did in those times, Daniel 11:36; or stretched out our hands to a strange god; as not to any of the Heathen deities under the Pagan persecutions, so not to any images of gold, silver, brass, and wood, under the Papal tyranny; not to the Virgin Mary, nor to...
Shall not God search this out?.... Undoubtedly he would, was it so, and expose it, and punish for it; as he will the Balaamites and children of Jezebel, Revelation 2:18; this seems to be an appeal to God for the truth of all that the church had said concerning her steadfastness and integrity under the most trying exercises; for he knoweth the...
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long,.... These words are cited by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:36; and are applied to his times, showing the then close attachment of the saints to Christ, and their strong love and affection for him; and they have the same sense here, being an instance and proof of the church's integrity and...
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?.... Not that sleep properly falls upon God: the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; his eyes are always upon his people; he never withdraws them from them, and he watches over them night and day: but sometimes he seems and is thought to be asleep; as when wicked men flourish and triumph over the...
Wherefore hidest thou thy face?.... See Psalms 10:1; [and] forgettest our affliction and our oppression. Not that the Lord does really forget either the persons of his people, which he cannot, since they are engraven on the palms of his hands, and a book of remembrance is written for them: nor the afflictions of his people; he knows their souls in...