Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Is that the way you pray, dear friend? I know there are some that, if they have uttered certain good words — got through a form of prayer — are perfectly satisfied. As to whether God hears them or not, that does not trouble them. But if you...
Draw me not away with the wicked,.... That is, with those who are notoriously wicked; who are inwardly and outwardly wicked; whose inward part is very wickedness, and who sell themselves and give up themselves to work wickedness: the sense is, that God would not suffer him to be drawn away, or drawn aside by wicked men, but that he would deliver...
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. We are often afraid lest we should get numbered with them. “Oh! were it not for grace divine, Their fate so dreadful had been mine.” “Gather not my soul with sinners,” is the prayer of many a godly man. When...
Give them according to their deeds,.... According to the demerit of them, which is death, even death eternal; and according to the wickedness of their endeavours; for though wicked men do not always succeed; yet their want of success does not excuse their wickedness; give them after the work of their hands; see 2 Timothy 4:14; render to them their...
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. And a just mind feels that such ought to be the case. God is a judge, and he will punish sin, and gracious men do not wish that it should be otherwise. Even to that terrible side of God’s...
Because they regard not the works of the Lord,.... Neither the work of creation, as if there was no first cause of all things; nor the work of Providence, taking no notice either of the judgments or of the mercies of God; as though they believed that God had forsaken the earth, and would do neither good nor evil; and still less the work of...
Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. Can you say this? Excuse me putting the question again and again to all now present, for it is a very vital question. If you never knew what answered...
Blessed [be] the Lord,.... Which must be understood, not as invoking nor as conferring a blessing on him, neither of which can be done by a creature; nor does he stand in need of any, he being Elshaddai, God all sufficient, God over all, blessed for ever; but as ascribing all blessedness to him, congratulating his greatness and happiness, and...
The Lord [is] my strength,.... That is, the author both of natural and spiritual strength; that gave him strength of body, and fortitude of mind, to bear up under all the exercises he was tried with; the strength of his life, spiritual and temporal, and of his salvation; the strength of his heart under present distresses, and who he knew would be...
The Lord [is] their strength,.... The strength of his people, mentioned in Psalms 28:9; not only the strength of David in particular, but of all his people in general; see Psalms 37:39; and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed; meaning either himself, as before, who was anointed by Samuel king of Israel, and therefore had not invaded and...
Save thy people,.... The psalmist begins the psalm with petitions for himself, and closes it with prayers for the people of God; whom God has chosen for his people, taken into covenant to be his people, and given them to his son as such; these he has resolved to save, and has appointed Christ, and sent him into the world, to be the Saviour of...
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 29 A Psalm of David. In the Vulgate Latin version is added, "at the finishing of the tabernacle"; suggesting that this psalm was composed at that time, and on that occasion; not at the finishing of the tabernacle by Moses, but at the finishing of the tent or tabernacle which David made for the ark in Zion, 2 Samuel 6:17. The...
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,.... The Targum refers this to the angels, "give praise before the Lord, ye companies of angels, sons of the Mighty;'' these are mighty ones, and excel all other creatures in strength; and are the sons of the Mighty, or of God; it is their duty and their business to glorify and to worship him and his Son Jesus...
It is the probable conjecture of some very good interpreters that David penned this psalm upon occasion, and just at the time, of a great storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, as the eighth psalm was his meditation in a moon-light night and the nineteenth in a sunny morning. It is good to take occasion from the sensible operations of God's power...
Ver. 1. Give, i.e., ascribe. Neither men nor angels can confer anything upon Jehovah, but they should recognise his glory and might, and ascribe it to him in their songs and in their hearts. Unto the Lord, and unto him alone, must honour be given. Natural causes, as men call them, are God in action, and we must not ascribe power to them, but to...
Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name,.... Or "the glory of his name" (x): which is suitable to his nature, agreeable to his perfections, and which belongs unto him on account of his works; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; the Lord is only to be worshipped, and not any creature, angels or men; not Jehovah the Father only, who is...
The voice of the Lord [is] upon the waters,.... What follows concerning thunder, the voice of the Lord, gives so many reasons why he should have glory given him and be worshipped; the Heathens (y) paid their devotion to thunder and lightning: but this should be done to the author of them; which may be literally understood of thunder, and is the...
The voice of the Lord [is] powerful,.... Or "with power" (a); as thunder, in the effect of it, shows; and so is the Gospel, when it comes, not in word only, but is attended with the power of God to the conversion and salvation of souls; it is then quick and powerful, Hebrews 4:12; and the word of Christ personal, when here on earth, was with...
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars,.... Such an effect thunder has upon the tallest, strongest, and largest trees, as to break them into shivers; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon; a mountain in the north part of the land of Judea, so called from its whiteness, both by reason of the snow with which some part of it is covered in...
He maketh them also to skip like a calf,.... That is, the cedars, the branches being broken off, or they torn up by the roots, and tossed about by the wind; which motion is compared to that of a calf that leaps and skips about; Lebanon and Sirion, like a young unicorn; that is, these mountains move and skip about through the force of thunder, and...