This psalm is historical; it is a narrative of the
great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, the great sins
wherewith they had provoked him, and the many tokens of his
displeasure they had been under for their sins. The psalmist began,
in the foregoing psalm, to relate God's wonders of old, for his own
encouragement in a difficult time; there he broke off abruptly, but
here resumes the subject, for the edification of the church, and
enlarges much upon it, showing not only how good God had been to
them, which was an earnest of further finishing mercy, but how
basely they had conducted themselves towards God, which justified
him in correcting them as he did at this time, and forbade all
complaints. Here is, I. The preface to this church history,
commanding the attention of the present age to it and recommending
it to the study of the generations to come,
Maschil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: 3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: 6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: 7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
These verses, which contain the preface to this history, show that the psalm answers the title; it is indeed Maschil—a psalm to give instruction; if we receive not the instruction it gives, it is our own fault. Here,
I. The psalmist demands attention to what
he wrote (
II. Several reasons are given why we should
diligently attend to that which is here related. 1. The things here
discoursed of are weighty, and deserve consideration, strange, and
need it (
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. 10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; 11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had showed them. 12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as a heap. 14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. 18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. 19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? 21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; 22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full. 26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. 27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: 28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. 29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; 30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, 31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. 32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. 33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. 34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God. 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. 36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. 37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist observes the late rebukes
of Providence that the people of Israel had been under, which they
had brought upon themselves by their dealing treacherously with
God,
II. He takes occasion hence to consult precedents and to compare this with the case of their fathers, who were in like manner unmindful of God's mercies to them and ungrateful to their founder and great benefactor, and were therefore often brought under his displeasure. The narrative in these verses is very remarkable, for it relates a kind of struggle between God's goodness and man's badness, and mercy, at length, rejoices against judgment.
1. God did great things for his people
Israel when he first incorporated them and formed them into a
people: Marvellous things did he in the sight of their
fathers, and not only in their sight, but in their cause, and
for their benefit, so strange, so kind, that one would think they
should never be forgotten. What he did for them in the land of
Egypt is only just mentioned here (
2. When God began thus to bless them they
began to affront him (
3. God justly resented the provocation and
was much displeased with them (
4. The judgments of God upon them did not
reform them, nor attain the end, any more than his mercies
(
5. They persisting in their sins, God
proceeded in his judgments, but they were judgments of another
nature, which wrought not suddenly, but slowly. He punished them
not now with such acute diseases as that was which slew the
fattest of them, but a lingering chronical distemper (
6. Under these rebukes they professed
repentance, but they were not cordial and sincere in this
profession. (1.) Their profession was plausible enough (
7. God hereupon, in pity to them, put a
stop to the judgments which were threatened and in part executed
(
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. 42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan: 44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. 45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. 48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. 50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51 And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: 52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. 55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: 57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: 60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; 61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. 62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. 63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. 64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation. 65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. 66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach. 67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. 69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. 70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: 71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former, showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, how provoking they had been, what judgments he had brought upon them for their sins, and yet how, in judgment, he remembered mercy at last. Let not those that receive mercy from God be thereby emboldened to sin, for the mercies they receive will aggravate their sin and hasten the punishment of it; yet let not those that are under divine rebukes for sin be discouraged from repentance, for their punishments are means of repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store for them. Observe,
I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness
again reflected on, because written for our admonition (
II. The mercies of God to Israel, which
they were unmindful of when they tempted God and limited him; and
this catalogue of the works of wonder which God wrought for them
begins higher, and is carried down further, than that before,
1. This begins with their deliverance out
of Egypt, and the plagues with which God compelled the Egyptians to
let them go: these were the signs God wrought in
Egypt (
(1.) Several of the plagues of Egypt are
here specified, which speak aloud the power of God and his favour
to Israel, as well as terror to his and their enemies. As, [1.] The
turning of the waters into blood; they had made themselves drunk
with the bloods of God's people, even the infants, and now God gave
them blood to drink, for they were worthy,
(2.) By these plagues on the Egyptians God
made a way for his own people to go forth like sheep,
distinguishing between them and the Egyptians, as the shepherd
divides between the sheep and the goats, having set his own
mark on these sheep by the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their
door-posts. He made them go forth like sheep, not knowing
whither they went, and guided them in the wilderness, as a
shepherd guides his flock, with all possible care and tenderness,
2. It is carried down as far as their
settlement in Canaan (
III. The sins of Israel after they were
settled in Canaan,
IV. The judgments God brought upon them for
these sins. Their place in Canaan would no more secure them in a
sinful way than their descent from Israel. You only have I known
of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you,
V. God's return, in mercy, to them, and his
gracious appearances for them after this. We read not of their
repentance and return to God, but God was grieved for the
miseries of Israel (
1. He plagued the Philistines who held the
ark in captivity,
2. He provided a new settlement for his ark
after it had been some months in captivity and some years in
obscurity. He did indeed refuse the tabernacle of Joseph; he
never sent it back to Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim,
3. He set a good government over them, a
monarchy, and a monarch after his own heart: He chose David his
servant out of all the thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre
into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and who was
to be a type of him,