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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1710)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>P S A L M S</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>PSALM LXXVIII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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This psalm is historical; it is a narrative of the great mercies God
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had bestowed upon Israel, the great sins wherewith they had provoked
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him, and the many tokens of his displeasure they had been under for
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their sins. The psalmist began, in the foregoing psalm, to relate God's
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wonders of old, for his own encouragement in a difficult time; there he
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broke off abruptly, but here resumes the subject, for the edification
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of the church, and enlarges much upon it, showing not only how good God
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had been to them, which was an earnest of further finishing mercy, but
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how basely they had conducted themselves towards God, which justified
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him in correcting them as he did at this time, and forbade all
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complaints. Here is,
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I. The preface to this church history, commanding the attention of the
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present age to it and recommending it to the study of the generations
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to come,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:1-8">ver. 1-8</A>.
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II. The history itself from Moses to David; it is put into a psalm or
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song that it might be the better remembered and transmitted to
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posterity, and that the singing of it might affect them with the things
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here related, more than they would be with a bare narrative of them.
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The general scope of this psalm we have
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:9-11">ver. 9-11</A>)
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where notice is taken of the present rebukes they were under
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:9">ver. 9</A>),
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the sin which brought them under those rebukes
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:10">ver. 10</A>),
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and the mercies of God to them formerly, which aggravated that sin,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:11">ver. 11</A>.
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As to the particulars, we are here told,
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1. What wonderful works God had wrought for them in bringing them out
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of Egypt
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:12-16">ver. 12-16</A>),
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providing for them in the wilderness
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:23-29">ver. 23-29</A>),
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plaguing and ruining their enemies
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:43-55">ver. 43-53</A>),
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and at length putting them in possession of the land of promise,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:54,55">ver. 54, 55</A>.
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2. How ungrateful they were to God for his favours to them and how many
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and great provocations they were guilty of. How they murmured against
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God and distrusted him
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:17-20">ver. 17-20</A>),
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and did but counterfeit repentance and submission when he punished them
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:34-37">ver. 34-37</A>),
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thus grieving and tempting him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:40-42">ver. 40-42</A>.
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How they affronted God with their idolatries after they came to Canaan,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:56-58">ver. 56-58</A>.
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3. How God had justly punished them for their sins
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:21,22">ver. 21, 22</A>)
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in the wilderness, making their sin their punishment
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:29-33">ver. 29-33</A>),
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and now, of late, when the ark was taken by the Philistines,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:59-64">ver. 59-64</A>.
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4. How graciously God had spared them and returned in mercy to them,
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notwithstanding their provocations. He had forgiven them formerly
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:38,39">ver. 38, 39</A>),
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and now, of late, had removed the judgments they had brought upon
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themselves, and brought them under a happy establishment both in church
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and state,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:65-72">ver. 65-72</A>.
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As the general scope of this psalm may be of use to us in the singing
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of it, to put us upon recollecting what God has done for us and for his
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church formerly, and what we have done against him, so the particulars
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also may be of use to us, for warning against those sins of unbelief
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and ingratitude which Israel of old was notoriously guilty of, and the
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record of which was preserved for our learning. "These things happened
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unto them for ensamples,"
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+10:11,Heb+4:11">1 Cor. x. 11; Heb. iv. 11</A>.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Ps78_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Importance of Religious Instruction.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1> <! -- Date --> </FONT></TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<CENTER>
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<P> Maschil of Asaph.</P>
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Give ear, O my people, <I>to</I> my law:
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incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
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2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings
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of old:
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3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
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4 We will not hide <I>them</I> from their children, showing to the
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generation to come the praises of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, and his strength, and
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his wonderful works that he hath done.
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5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law
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in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make
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them known to their children:
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6 That the generation to come might know <I>them, even</I> the
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children <I>which</I> should be born; <I>who</I> should arise and declare
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<I>them</I> to their children:
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7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the
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works of God, but keep his commandments:
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8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
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generation; a generation <I>that</I> set not their heart aright, and
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whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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These verses, which contain the preface to this history, show that the
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psalm answers the title; it is indeed <I>Maschil--a psalm to give
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instruction;</I> if we receive not the instruction it gives, it is our
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own fault. Here,</P>
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<P>
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I. The psalmist demands attention to what he wrote
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>):
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<I>Give ear, O my people! to my law.</I> Some make these the psalmist's
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words. David, as a king, or Asaph, in his name, as his secretary of
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state, or scribe to the sweet singer of Israel, here calls upon the
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people, as his people committed to his charge, to give ear to his law.
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He calls his instructions his <I>law</I> or <I>edict;</I> such was
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their commanding force in themselves. Every good truth, received in the
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light and love of it, will have the power of a law upon the conscience;
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yet that was not all: David was a king, and he would interpose his
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royal power for the edification of his people. If God, by his grace,
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make great men good men, they will be capable of doing more good than
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others, because their word will be a law to all about them, who must
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therefore give ear and hearken; for to what purpose is divine
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revelation brought our ears if we will not incline our ears to it, both
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humble ourselves and engage ourselves to hear it and heed it? Or the
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psalmist, being a prophet, speaks as God's mouth, and so calls them
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<I>his people,</I> and demands subjection to what was said as to a law.
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Let him that has an ear thus <I>hear what the Spirit saith unto the
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churches,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+2:7">Rev. ii. 7</A>.</P>
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<P>
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II. Several reasons are given why we should diligently attend to that
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which is here related.
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1. The things here discoursed of are weighty, and deserve
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consideration, strange, and need it
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>):
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<I>I will open my mouth in a parable,</I> in that which is sublime and
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uncommon, but very excellent and well worthy your attention; <I>I will
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utter dark sayings,</I> which challenge your most serious regards as
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much as the enigmas with which the eastern princes and learned men used
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to try one another. These are called <I>dark sayings,</I> not because
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they are hard to be understood, but because they are greatly to be
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admired and carefully to be looked into. This is said to be fulfilled
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in the parables which our Saviour put forth
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+13:35">Matt. xiii. 35</A>),
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which were (as this) representations of the state of the kingdom of God
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among men.
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2. They are the monuments of antiquity--<I>dark sayings of old which
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our fathers have told us,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
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They are things of undoubted certainty; we have heard them and known
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them, and there is no room left to question the truth of them. The
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gospel of Luke is called a <I>declaration of those things which are
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most surely believed among us</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+1:1">Luke i. 1</A>),
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so were the things here related. The honour we owe to our parents and
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ancestors obliges us to attend to that which our fathers have told us,
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and, as far as it appears to be true and good, to receive it with so
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much the more reverence and regard.
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3. They are to be transmitted to posterity, and it lies as a charge
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upon us carefully to hand them down
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>);
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because our fathers told them to us <I>we will not hide them from their
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children.</I> Our children are called <I>theirs,</I> for they were in
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care for their seed's seed, and looked upon them as theirs; and, in
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teaching our children the knowledge of God, we repay to our parents
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some of that debt we owe to them for teaching us. Nay, if we have no
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children of our own, we must declare the things of God to <I>their</I>
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children, the children of others. Our care must be for posterity in
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general, and not only for our own posterity; and for the generation to
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come hereafter, the children that shall be born, as well as for the
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generation that is next rising up and the children that are born. That
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which we are to transmit to our children is not only the knowledge of
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languages, arts and sciences, liberty and property, but especially the
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praises of the Lord, and his strength appearing in the wonderful works
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he has done. Our great care must be to lodge our religion, that great
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deposit, pure and entire in the hands of those that succeed us. There
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are two things the full and clear knowledge of which we must preserve
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the entail of to our heirs:--
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(1.) The law of God; for this was given with a particular charge to
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teach it diligently to their children
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>):
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<I>He established a testimony</I> or covenant, and enacted a law, in
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Jacob and Israel, gave them precepts and promises, which he
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<I>commanded them to make known to their children,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+6:7,20">Deut. vi. 7, 20</A>.
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The church of God, as the historian says of the Roman commonwealth, was
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not to be <I>res unius ætatis--a thing of one age</I> but was to
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be kept up from one generation to another; and therefore, as God
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provided for a succession of ministers in the tribe of Levi and the
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house of Aaron, so he appointed that parents should train up their
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children in the knowledge of his law: and, when they had grown up, they
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must arise <I>and declare them to their children</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>),
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that, as one generation of God's servants and worshippers passes away,
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another generation may come, and the church, as the earth, may abide
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for ever; and thus God's name among men may be as the days of heaven.
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(2.) The providences of God concerning them, both in mercy and in
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judgment. The former seem to be mentioned for the sake of this; since
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God gave order that his laws should be made known to posterity, it is
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requisite that with them his works also should be made known, the
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fulfilling of the promises made to the obedient and the threatenings
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denounced against the disobedient. Let these be told to our children
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and our children's children,
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[1.] That they may take encouragement to conform to the will of God
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>):
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<I>that, not forgetting the works of God</I> wrought in former days,
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<I>they</I> might <I>set their hope in God and keep his
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commandments,</I> might make his command their rule and his covenant
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their stay. Those only may with confidence hope for God's salvation
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that make conscience of doing his commandments. The works of God, duly
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considered, will very much strengthen our resolution both to set our
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hope in him and to keep his commandments, for he is able to bear us out
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in both.
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[2.] That they may take warning not to conform to the example of their
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fathers
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>):
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<I>That they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
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generation.</I> See here, <I>First,</I> What was the character of their
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fathers. Though they were the seed of Abraham, taken into covenant with
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God, and, for aught we know, the only professing people he had then in
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the world, yet they were stubborn and rebellious, and walked contrary
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to God, in direct opposition to his will. They did indeed profess
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relation to him, but they did not set their hearts aright; they were
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not cordial in their engagements to God, nor inward with him in their
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worship of him, and therefore their <I>spirit was not stedfast with
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him,</I> but upon every occasion they flew off from him. Note,
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Hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy. Those that do not set their
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hearts aright will not be stedfast with God, but play fat and loose.
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<I>Secondly,</I> What was a charge to the children: <I>That they be not
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as their fathers.</I> Note, Those that have descended from wicked and
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ungodly ancestors, if they will but consider the word and works of God,
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will see reason enough not to tread in their steps. It will be no
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excuse for a vain conversation that it was received by tradition from
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our fathers
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+1:18">1 Pet. i. 18</A>);
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for what we know of them that was evil must be an admonition to us,
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that we dread that which was so pernicious to them as we would shun
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those courses which they took that were ruinous to their health or
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estates.</P>
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<A NAME="Ps78_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_12"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps78_13"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Wonders Wrought in Behalf of Israel; The Crimes of the Israelites;
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<BR>Judgments Brought on the Israelites.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1> <! -- Date --> </FONT></TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>9 The children of Ephraim, <I>being</I> armed, <I>and</I> carrying bows,
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turned back in the day of battle.
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10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in
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his law;
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11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had showed
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them.
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12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in
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the land of Egypt, <I>in</I> the field of Zoan.
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13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he
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made the waters to stand as a heap.
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14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the
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night with a light of fire.
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15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave <I>them</I> drink
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as <I>out of</I> the great depths.
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16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters
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to run down like rivers.
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17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most
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High in the wilderness.
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18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their
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lust.
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19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a
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table in the wilderness?
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20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and
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the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide
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flesh for his people?
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21 Therefore the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> heard <I>this,</I>
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and was wroth: so a fire
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was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
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22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his
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salvation:
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23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened
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the doors of heaven,
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24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given
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them of the corn of heaven.
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25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
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26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his
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power he brought in the south wind.
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27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls
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like as the sand of the sea:
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28 And he let <I>it</I> fall in the midst of their camp, round about
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their habitations.
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29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them
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their own desire;
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30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their
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meat <I>was</I> yet in their mouths,
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31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of
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them, and smote down the chosen <I>men</I> of Israel.
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32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his
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wondrous works.
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33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their
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years in trouble.
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34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned
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and enquired early after God.
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35 And they remembered that God <I>was</I> their rock, and the high
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God their redeemer.
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36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they
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lied unto him with their tongues.
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37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they
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stedfast in his covenant.
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38 But he, <I>being</I> full of compassion, forgave <I>their</I>
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iniquity, and destroyed <I>them</I> not: yea, many a time turned he
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his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
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39 For he remembered that they <I>were but</I> flesh; a wind that
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passeth away, and cometh not again.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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In these verses,</P>
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<P>
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I. The psalmist observes the late rebukes of Providence that the people
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of Israel had been under, which they had brought upon themselves by
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their dealing treacherously with God,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:9-11"><I>v.</I> 9-11</A>.
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<I>The children of Ephraim,</I> in which tribe Shiloh was, though they
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were well armed and shot with bows, yet <I>turned back in the day of
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battle.</I> This seems to refer to that shameful defeat which the
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Philistines gave them in Eli's time, when they took the ark prisoner,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+4:10,11">1 Sam. iv. 10, 11</A>.
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Of this the psalmist here begins to speak, and, after a long
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digression, returns to it again,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:61"><I>v.</I> 61</A>.
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Well might that event be thus fresh in mind in David's time, above
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forty years after, for the ark, which in that memorable battle was
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seized by the Philistines, though it was quickly brought out of
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captivity, was never brought out of obscurity till David fetched it
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from Kirjath-jearim to his own city. Observe,
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1. The shameful cowardice of the children of Ephraim, that warlike
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tribe, so famed for valiant men, Joshua's tribe; the children of that
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tribe, though as well armed as ever, turned back when they came to face
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the enemy. Note, Weapons of war stand men in little stead without a
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martial spirit, and that is gone if God be gone. Sin dispirits men and
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takes away the heart.
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2. The causes of their cowardice, which were no less shameful; and
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these were,
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(1.) A shameful violation of God's law and their covenant with him
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>);
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they were basely treacherous and perfidious, for <I>they kept not the
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covenant of God,</I> and basely stubborn and rebellious (as they were
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described,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
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for they peremptorily refused to walk in his law, and, in effect, told
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him to his face they would not be ruled by him.
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(2.) A shameful ingratitude to God for the favours he had bestowed upon
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them: They <I>forgot his works and his wonders,</I> his works of wonder
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which they ought to have admired,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
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Note, Our forgetfulness of God's works is at the bottom of our
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disobedience to his laws.</P>
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<P>
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II. He takes occasion hence to consult precedents and to compare this
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|
with the case of their fathers, who were in like manner unmindful of
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God's mercies to them and ungrateful to their founder and great
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|
benefactor, and were therefore often brought under his displeasure. The
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narrative in these verses is very remarkable, for it relates a kind of
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|
struggle between God's goodness and man's badness, and mercy, at
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|
length, rejoices against judgment.</P>
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<P>
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1. God did great things for his people Israel when he first
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incorporated them and formed them into a people: <I>Marvellous things
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did he in the sight of their fathers,</I> and not only in their sight,
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but in their cause, and for their benefit, so strange, so kind, that
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one would think they should never be forgotten. What he did for them in
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the land of Egypt is only just mentioned here
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>),
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but afterwards resumed,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>.
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He proceeds here to show,
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(1.) How he made a lane for them through the Red Sea, and caused them,
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gave them courage, to pass through, though the waters stood over their
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heads as a heap,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
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See
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+63:12,13">Isa. lxiii. 12, 13</A>,
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where God is said to <I>lead them by the hand,</I> as it were,
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<I>through the deep that they should not stumble.</I>
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(2.) How he provided a guide for them through the untrodden paths of
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the wilderness
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>);
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he led them step by step, <I>in the day time by a cloud,</I> which also
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sheltered them from the heat, and <I>all the night with a light of
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fire,</I> which perhaps warmed the air; at least it made the darkness
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of night less frightful, and perhaps kept off wild beasts,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+2:5">Zech. ii. 5</A>.
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(3.) How he furnished their camp with fresh water in a dry and thirsty
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land where no water was, not by opening the bottles of heaven (that
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would have been a common way), but by broaching a rock
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:15,16"><I>v.</I> 15, 16</A>):
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<I>He clave the rocks in the wilderness,</I> which yielded water,
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though they were not capable of receiving it either from the clouds
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above or the springs beneath. Out of the dry and hard rock he gave them
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drink, not distilled as out of an alembic, drop by drop, but in streams
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<I>running down like rivers,</I> and as out of the great depths. God
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gives abundantly, and is rich in mercy; he gives seasonably, and
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|
sometimes makes us to feel the want of mercies that we may the better
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|
know the worth of them. This water which God gave Israel out of the
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rock was the more valuable because it was spiritual drink. <I>And that
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rock was Christ.</I></P>
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<P>
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2. When God began thus to bless them they began to affront him
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>):
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<I>They sinned yet more against him,</I> more than they had done in
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Egypt, though there they were bad enough,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+20:8">Ezek. xx. 8</A>.
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They bore the miseries of their servitude better than the difficulties
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|
of their deliverance, and never murmured at their taskmasters so much
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as they did at Moses and Aaron; as if they were <I>delivered to do all
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these abominations,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+7:10">Jer. vii. 10</A>.
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As sin sometimes takes occasion by the commandment, so at other times
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|
it takes occasion by the deliverance, to become more exceedingly
|
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sinful. <I>They provoked the Most High.</I> Though he is most high, and
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they knew themselves an unequal match for him, yet they provoked him
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and even bade defiance to his justice; and this in the wilderness,
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where he had them at his mercy and therefore they were bound in
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|
interest to please him, and where he showed them so much mercy and
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|
therefore they were bound in gratitude to please him; yet there they
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said and did that which they knew would provoke him: <I>They tempted
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God in their heart,</I>
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
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Their sin began in their heart, and thence it took its malignity.
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<I>They do always err in their heart,</I>
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+3:10">Heb. iii. 10</A>.
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Thus they tempted God, tried his patience to the utmost, whether he
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would bear with them or no, and, in effect, bade him do his worst. Two
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|
ways they provoked him:--
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(1.) By desiring, or rather demanding, that which he had not thought
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|
fit to give them: <I>They asked meat for their lust.</I> God had given
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|
them meat for their hunger, in the manna, wholesome pleasant food and
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|
in abundance; he had given them meat for their faith out of the heads
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of leviathan which <I>he broke in pieces,</I>
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+74:14">Ps. lxxiv. 14</A>.
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But all this would not serve; they must have meat for their lust,
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|
dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite. Nothing is more
|
|
provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment and indulging
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the desires of the flesh.
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(2.) By distrusting his power to give them what they desired. This was
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tempting God indeed. They challenged him to give them flesh; and, if he
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did not, they would say it was because he could not, not because he did
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not see it fit for them
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>):
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<I>They spoke against God.</I> Those that set bounds to God's power
|
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speak against him. It was as injurious a reflection as could be cat
|
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upon God to say, <I>Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?</I> They
|
|
had manna, but the did not think they had a table furnished unless they
|
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had boiled and roast, a first, a second, and a third course, as they
|
|
had in Egypt, where they had both flesh and fish, and sauce too
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+16:3,Nu+11:5">Exod. xvi. 3, Num. xi. 5</A>),
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dishes of meat and salvers of fruit. What an unreasonable insatiable
|
|
thin is luxury! Such a mighty thing did these epicures think a table
|
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well furnished to be that they thought it was more than God himself
|
|
could give them in that wilderness; whereas the <I>beasts of the
|
|
forest,</I> and all the <I>fowls of the mountains,</I> are his,
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+50:10,11">Ps. l. 10, 11</A>.
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Their disbelief of God's power was so much the worse in that they did
|
|
at the same time own that he had done as much as that came to
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>):
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<I>Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out,</I> which
|
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they and their cattle drank of. And which is easier, to furnish a table
|
|
in the wilderness, which a rich man can do, or to fetch water out of a
|
|
rock, which the greatest potentate on the earth cannot do? Never did
|
|
unbelief, though always unreasonable, ask so absurd a question: "Can he
|
|
that melted down a rock into streams of water give bread also? Or can
|
|
he that has given bread provide flesh also?" Is any thing too hard for
|
|
Omnipotence? When once the ordinary powers of nature are exceeded God
|
|
has made bare his arm, and we must conclude that nothing is impossible
|
|
with him. Be it ever so great a thing that we ask, it becomes us to
|
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own, <I>Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst.</I></P>
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<P>
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3. God justly resented the provocation and was much displeased with
|
|
them
|
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|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>):
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<I>The Lord heard this, and was wroth.</I> Note, God is a witness to
|
|
all our murmurings and distrusts; he hears them and is much displeased
|
|
with them. <I>A fire was kindled</I> for this <I>against Jacob;</I> the
|
|
<I>fire of the Lord burnt among them,</I>
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+11:1">Num. xi. 1</A>.
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|
Or it may be understood of the fire of God's anger which came up
|
|
against Israel. To unbelievers our God is himself a consuming fire.
|
|
Those that will not believe the power of God's mercy shall feel the
|
|
power of his indignation, and be made to confess that <I>it is a
|
|
fearful thing to fall into his hands.</I> Now here we are told,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Why God thus resented the provocation
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>):
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|
<I>Because</I> by this it appeared that <I>they believed not in
|
|
God;</I> they did not give credit to the revelation he had made of
|
|
himself to them, for they durst not commit themselves to him, nor
|
|
venture themselves with him: <I>They trusted not in the salvation</I>
|
|
he had begun to work for them; for then they would not thus have
|
|
questioned its progress. Those cannot be said to trust in God's
|
|
salvation as their felicity at last who cannot find in their hearts to
|
|
trust in his providence for food convenient in the way to it. That
|
|
which aggravated their unbelief was the experience they had had of the
|
|
power and goodness of God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:23-25"><I>v.</I> 23-25</A>.
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|
He had given them undeniable proofs of his power, not only on earth
|
|
beneath, but in heaven above; for <I>he commanded the clouds from
|
|
above,</I> as one that had created them and commanded them into being;
|
|
he made what use he pleased of them. Usually by their showers they
|
|
contribute to the earth's producing corn; but now, when God so
|
|
commanded them, they showered down corn themselves, which is therefore
|
|
called here <I>the corn of heaven;</I> for heaven can do the work
|
|
without the earth, but not the earth without heaven. God, who has the
|
|
key of the clouds, <I>opened the doors of heaven,</I> and that is more
|
|
than <I>opening the windows,</I> which yet is spoken of as a great
|
|
blessing,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+3:10">Mal. iii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
To all that by faith and prayer ask, seek, and knock, these doors shall
|
|
at any time be opened; for the God of heaven is rich in mercy to all
|
|
that call upon him. He not only keeps a good house, but keeps open
|
|
house. Justly might God take it ill that they should distrust him when
|
|
he had been so very kind to them that he <I>had rained down manna upon
|
|
them to eat,</I> substantial food, daily, duly, enough for all, enough
|
|
for each. <I>Man did eat angels' food,</I> such as angels, if they had
|
|
occasion for food, would eat and be thankful for; or rather such as was
|
|
given by the ministry of angels, and (as the <I>Chaldee</I> reads it)
|
|
such as descended from the dwelling of angels. Every one, even the
|
|
least child in Israel, did <I>eat the bread of the mighty</I> (so the
|
|
margin reads it); the weakest stomach could digest it, and yet it was
|
|
so nourishing that it was strong meat for strong men. And, though the
|
|
provision was so good, yet they were not stinted, nor ever reduced to
|
|
short allowance; for <I>he sent them meat to the full.</I> If they
|
|
gathered little, it was their own fault; and yet even then they had no
|
|
lack,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+16:18">Exod. xvi. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
The daily provision God makes for us, and has made ever since we came
|
|
into the world, though it has not so much of miracle as this, has no
|
|
less of mercy, and is therefore a great aggravation of our distrust of
|
|
God.
|
|
|
|
(2.) How he expressed his resentment of the provocation, not in denying
|
|
them what they so inordinately lusted after, but in granting it to
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
[1.] Did they question his power? He soon gave them a sensible
|
|
conviction that he could <I>furnish a table in the wilderness.</I>
|
|
Though the winds seem to blow where they list, yet, when he pleased, he
|
|
could make them his caterers to fetch in provisions,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>He caused an east wind to blow and a south wind,</I> either a
|
|
south-east wind, or an east wind first to bring in the quails from that
|
|
quarter and then a south wind to bring in more from that quarter; so
|
|
that <I>he rained flesh upon them,</I> and that of the most delicate
|
|
sort, not butchers' meat, but wild-fowl, and abundance of it, <I>as
|
|
dust, as the sand of the sea</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>),
|
|
|
|
so that the meanest Israelite might have sufficient; and it cost them
|
|
nothing, no, not the pains of fetching it from the mountains, for <I>he
|
|
let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their
|
|
habitation,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
We have the account
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+11:31,32">Num. xi. 31, 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
See how good God is even to the evil and unthankful, and wonder that
|
|
his goodness does not overcome their badness. See what little reason we
|
|
have to judge of God's love by such gifts of his bounty as these;
|
|
dainty bits are no tokens of his peculiar favour. Christ gave dry bread
|
|
to the disciples that he loved, but a sop dipped in the sauce to Judas
|
|
that betrayed him.
|
|
|
|
[2.] Did they defy his justice and boast that they had gained their
|
|
point? He made them pay dearly for their quails; for, though he <I>gave
|
|
them their own desire, they were not estranged from their lust</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:29,30"><I>v.</I> 29, 30</A>);
|
|
|
|
their appetite was insatiable; they were well filled and yet they were
|
|
not satisfied; for they knew not what they would have. Such is the
|
|
nature of lust; it is content with nothing, and the more it is humoured
|
|
the more humoursome it grows. Those that indulge their lust will never
|
|
be estranged from it. Or it intimates that God's liberality did not
|
|
make them ashamed of their ungrateful lustings, as it would have done
|
|
if they had had any sense of honour. But what came of it? <I>While the
|
|
meat was yet in their mouth,</I> rolled under the tongue as a sweet
|
|
morsel, <I>the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of
|
|
them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>),
|
|
|
|
those that were most luxurious and most daring. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+11:33,34">Num. xi. 33, 34</A>.
|
|
|
|
They were fed <I>as sheep for the slaughter:</I> the butcher takes the
|
|
fattest first. We may suppose there were some pious and contented
|
|
Israelites, that did eat moderately of the quails and were never the
|
|
worse; for it was not the meat that poisoned them, but their own lust.
|
|
Let epicures and sensualists here read their doom. The end of those who
|
|
make a <I>god of their belly is destruction,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+3:19">Phil. iii. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>The prosperity of fools shall destroy them,</I> and their ruin will
|
|
be the greater.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. The judgments of God upon them did not reform them, nor attain the
|
|
end, any more than his mercies
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>For all this, they sinned still;</I> they murmured and quarrelled
|
|
with God and Moses as much as ever. Though God <I>was wroth and smote
|
|
them, yet they went on frowardly in the way of their heart</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+57:17">Isa. lvii. 17</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>they believed not for his wondrous works.</I> Though his works of
|
|
justice were as wondrous and as great proofs of his power as his works
|
|
of mercy, yet they were not wrought upon by them to fear God, nor
|
|
convinced how much it was their interest to make him their friend.
|
|
Those hearts are hard indeed that will neither be melted by the mercies
|
|
of God nor broken by his judgments.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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 <I>slew the fattest of them,</I> but a lingering chronical
|
|
distemper
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Therefore their days did he consume in vanity</I> in the wilderness
|
|
<I>and their years in trouble.</I> By an irreversible doom they were
|
|
condemned to wear out thirty-eight tedious years in the wilderness,
|
|
which indeed were consumed in vanity; for in all those years there was
|
|
not a step taken nearer Canaan, but they were turned back again, and
|
|
wandered to and fro as in a labyrinth, not one stroke struck towards
|
|
the conquest of it: and not only in vanity, but in trouble, for their
|
|
carcases were condemned to fall in the wilderness and there they all
|
|
perished but Caleb and Joshua. Note, Those that sin still must expect
|
|
to be in trouble still. And the reason why we spend our days in so much
|
|
vanity and trouble, why we live with so little comfort and to so little
|
|
purpose, is because we do not live by faith.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
6. Under these rebukes they professed repentance, but they were not
|
|
cordial and sincere in this profession.
|
|
|
|
(1.) Their profession was plausible enough
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:34,35"><I>v.</I> 34, 35</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When he slew them,</I> or condemned them to be slain, <I>then they
|
|
sought him;</I> they confessed their fault, and begged his pardon. When
|
|
some were slain others in a fright cried to God for mercy, and promised
|
|
they would reform and be very good; then <I>they returned to God, and
|
|
enquired early after him.</I> So one would have taken them to be such
|
|
as desired to find him. And they pretended to do this because, however
|
|
they had forgotten it formerly, now <I>they remembered that God was
|
|
their rock</I> and therefore now that they needed him they would fly to
|
|
him and take shelter in him, <I>and</I> that <I>the high God</I> was
|
|
<I>their Redeemer,</I> who brought them out of Egypt and to whom
|
|
therefore they might come with boldness. Afflictions are sent to put us
|
|
in mind of God as our rock and our redeemer; for, in prosperity, we are
|
|
apt to forget him.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They were not sincere in this profession
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:36,37"><I>v.</I> 36, 37</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They did but flatter him with their mouth,</I> as if they thought by
|
|
fair speeches to prevail with him to revoke the sentence and remove the
|
|
judgment, with a secret intention to break their word when the danger
|
|
was over; they did not <I>return to God with their whole heart, but
|
|
feignedly,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+3:10">Jer. iii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
All their professions, prayers, and promises, were extorted by the
|
|
rack. It was plain that they did not mean as they said, for they did
|
|
not adhere to it. They thawed in the sun, but froze in the shade. They
|
|
did but <I>lie to God with their tongues, for their heart was not with
|
|
him,</I> was not right with him, as appeared by the issue, for <I>they
|
|
were not stedfast in his covenant.</I> They were not sincere in their
|
|
reformation, for they were not constant; and, by thinking thus to
|
|
impose upon a heart-searching God, they really put as great an affront
|
|
upon him as by any of their reflections.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
7. God hereupon, in pity to them, put a stop to the judgments which
|
|
were threatened and in part executed
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:38,39"><I>v.</I> 38, 39</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity.</I> One
|
|
would think this counterfeit repentance should have filled up the
|
|
measure of their iniquity. What could be more provoking than to <I>lie
|
|
thus to the holy God,</I> than thus to <I>keep back part of the
|
|
price,</I> the chief part?
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:3">Acts v. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
And <I>yet he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity</I>
|
|
thus far, that he did not destroy them and cut them off from being a
|
|
people, as he justly might have done, but spared their lives till they
|
|
had reared another generation which should enter into the promised
|
|
land. <I>Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+65:8">Isa. lxv. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Many a time he turned his anger away</I> (for he is Lord of his
|
|
anger) <I>and did not stir up all his wrath,</I> to deal with them as
|
|
they deserved: and why did he not? Not because their ruin would have
|
|
been any loss to him, but,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Because he was <I>full of compassion</I> and, when he was going to
|
|
destroy them, <I>his repentings were kindled together,</I> and he said,
|
|
<I>How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee,
|
|
Israel?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+11:8">Hos. xi. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Because, though they did not rightly remember that he was their
|
|
rock, he <I>remembered that they were but flesh.</I> He considered the
|
|
corruption of their nature, which inclined them to evil, and was
|
|
pleased to make that an excuse for his sparing them, though it was
|
|
really no excuse for their sin. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+6:3">Gen. vi. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
He considered the weakness and frailty of their nature, and what an
|
|
easy thing it would be to crush them: <I>They are as a wind that
|
|
passeth away and cometh not again.</I> They may soon be taken off, but,
|
|
when they are gone, they are gone irrecoverably, and then what will
|
|
become of the covenant with Abraham? They are flesh, they are wind;
|
|
whence it were easy to argue they may justly, they may immediately, be
|
|
cut off, and there would be no loss of them: but God argues, on the
|
|
contrary, therefore he will not destroy them; for the true reason is,
|
|
<I>He is full of compassion.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_40"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_41"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_42"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_43"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_44"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_45"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_46"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_47"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_48"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_49"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_50"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_51"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_52"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_53"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_54"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_55"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_56"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_57"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_58"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_59"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_60"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_61"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_62"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_63"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_64"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_65"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_66"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_67"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_68"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_69"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_70"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_71"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ps78_72"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Judgments and Mercies; Wonders Wrought for Israel;
|
|
Renewed Mercies <BR>to Israel.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1> <! -- Date --> </FONT></TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, <I>and</I> 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, <I>nor</I> 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 <I>among them.</I>
|
|
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 <I>their</I>
|
|
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, <I>even
|
|
to</I> this mountain, <I>which</I> 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 <I>this,</I> he was wroth, and greatly abhorred
|
|
Israel:
|
|
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent
|
|
<I>which</I> 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, <I>and</I> 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 <I>palaces,</I> 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.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness again reflected on, because
|
|
written for our admonition
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:40,41"><I>v.</I> 40, 41</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>How often did they provoke him in the wilderness!</I> Note once, nor
|
|
twice, but many a time; and the repetition of the provocation was a
|
|
great aggravation of it, as well as the place,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
God kept an account how often they provoked him, though they did not.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+14:22">Num. xiv. 22</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>They have tempted me these ten times.</I> By provoking him they did
|
|
not so much anger him as grieve him, for he looked upon them as his
|
|
children (<I>Israel is my son, my first-born</I>), and the undutiful
|
|
disrespectful behaviour of children does more grieve than anger the
|
|
tender parents; they lay it to heart, and take it unkindly,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:2">Isa. i. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
They grieved him because they put him under a necessity of afflicting
|
|
them, which he did not willingly. After they had humbled themselves
|
|
before him they <I>turned back and tempted God,</I> as before, and
|
|
<I>limited the Holy One of Israel,</I> prescribing to him what proofs
|
|
he should give of his power and presence with them and what methods he
|
|
should take in leading them and providing for them. They limited him to
|
|
their way and their time, as if he did not observe that they quarrelled
|
|
with him. It is presumption for us to limit <I>the Holy One of
|
|
Israel;</I> for, being <I>the Holy One,</I> he will do what is most for
|
|
his own glory; and, being <I>the Holy One of Israel,</I> he will do
|
|
what is most for their good; and we both impeach his wisdom and betray
|
|
our own pride and folly if we go about to prescribe to him. That which
|
|
occasioned their limiting God for the future was their forgetting his
|
|
former favours
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They remembered not his hand,</I> how strong it is and how it had
|
|
been stretched out for them, nor <I>the day when he delivered them from
|
|
the enemy,</I> Pharaoh, that great enemy who sought their ruin. There
|
|
are some days made remarkable by signal deliverances, which ought never
|
|
to be forgotten; for the remembrance of them would encourage us in our
|
|
greatest straits.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
<I>signs</I> God <I>wrought in Egypt</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>),
|
|
|
|
the <I>wonders</I> he wrought <I>in the field of Zoan,</I> that is, in
|
|
the country of Zoan, as we say, <I>in Agro N.,</I> meaning in such a
|
|
country.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(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, <I>for they were worthy,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:44"><I>v.</I> 44</A>.
|
|
|
|
[2.] The flies and frogs which infested them, mixtures of insects in
|
|
swarms, in shoals, <I>which devoured them, which destroyed them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>.
|
|
|
|
For God can make the weakest and most despicable animals instruments of
|
|
his wrath when he pleases; what they want in strength may be made up in
|
|
number.
|
|
|
|
[3.] The plague of locusts, which devoured their increase, and that
|
|
which they had laboured for,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:46"><I>v.</I> 46</A>.
|
|
|
|
They are called <I>God's great army,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joe+2:25">Joel ii. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
[4.] The <I>hail,</I> which <I>destroyed</I> their trees, especially
|
|
<I>their vines,</I> the weakest of trees
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:47"><I>v.</I> 47</A>),
|
|
|
|
and <I>their cattle,</I> especially <I>their flocks</I> of sheep, the
|
|
weakest of their cattle, which were killed with <I>hot
|
|
thunder-bolts</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:48"><I>v.</I> 48</A>),
|
|
|
|
and the <I>frost,</I> or congealed rain (as the word signifies), was so
|
|
violent that it destroyed even the <I>sycamore-trees.</I>
|
|
|
|
[5.] The death of the first-born was the last and sorest of the plagues
|
|
of Egypt, and that which perfected the deliverance of Israel; it was
|
|
first in intention
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+4:23">Exod. iv. 23</A>),
|
|
|
|
but last in execution; for, if gentler methods would have done the
|
|
work, this would have been prevented: but it is here largely described,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:49-51"><I>v.</I> 49-51</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The anger of God was the cause of it. Wrath had now come
|
|
upon the Egyptians to the uttermost; Pharaoh's heart having been often
|
|
hardened after less judgments had softened it, God now <I>stirred up
|
|
all his wrath;</I> for he <I>cast upon them the fierceness of his
|
|
anger,</I> anger in the highest degree, <I>wrath and indignation</I>
|
|
the cause, <I>and trouble (tribulation and anguish,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+2:8,9">Rom. ii. 8, 9</A>)
|
|
|
|
the effect. This from on high he cast upon them and did not spare, and
|
|
they could not <I>flee out of his hands,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+27:22">Job xxvii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>He made a way,</I> or (as the word is) <I>he weighed a path, to his
|
|
anger.</I> He did not cast it upon them uncertainly, but by weight. His
|
|
anger was weighed with the greatest exactness in the balances of
|
|
justice; for, in his greatest displeasure, he never did, nor ever will
|
|
do, any wrong to any of his creatures: the path of his anger is always
|
|
weighed. <I>Secondly,</I> The angels of God were the instruments
|
|
employed in this execution: <I>He sent evil angels among them,</I> not
|
|
evil in their own nature, but in respect to the errand upon which they
|
|
were sent; they were destroying angels, or angels of punishment, which
|
|
passed through all the land of Egypt, with orders, according to the
|
|
weighed paths of God's anger, not to kill all, but the first-born only.
|
|
Good angels become evil angels to sinners. Those that make the holy God
|
|
their enemy must never expect the holy angels to be their friends.
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> The execution itself was very severe: <I>He spared not
|
|
their soul from death,</I> but suffered death to ride in triumph among
|
|
them and <I>gave their life over to the pestilence,</I> which cut the
|
|
thread of life off immediately; for <I>he smote all the first-born in
|
|
Egypt</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>the chief of their strength,</I> the hopes of their respective
|
|
families; children are the parents' strength, and the first-born the
|
|
<I>chief of their strength.</I> Thus, because Israel was precious in
|
|
God's sight, he <I>gave men for them and people for their life,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+43:4">Isa. xliii. 4</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) By these plagues on the Egyptians God made a way for <I>his own
|
|
people to go forth like sheep,</I> distinguishing between them and the
|
|
Egyptians, <I>as the shepherd divides between the sheep and the
|
|
goats,</I> having set his own mark on these sheep by the blood of the
|
|
lamb sprinkled on their door-posts. <I>He made them go forth like
|
|
sheep,</I> not knowing whither they went, and <I>guided them in the
|
|
wilderness,</I> as a shepherd guides his flock, with all possible care
|
|
and tenderness,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:52"><I>v.</I> 52</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>He led them on safely,</I> though in dangerous paths, so that
|
|
<I>they feared not,</I> that is, they needed not to fear; they were
|
|
indeed frightened at the Red Sea
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+14:10">Exod. xiv. 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
but that was said to them, and done for them, which effectually
|
|
silenced their fears. <I>But the sea overwhelmed their enemies</I> that
|
|
ventured to pursue them into it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:63"><I>v.</I> 63</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was a lane to them, but a grave to their persecutors.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. It is carried down as far as their settlement in Canaan
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:54"><I>v.</I> 54</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,</I> to that land in
|
|
the midst of which he set up his sanctuary, which was, as it were, the
|
|
centre and metropolis, the crown and glory, of it. That is a happy land
|
|
which is the border of God's sanctuary. It was the happiness of that
|
|
land that there God was known, and there were his sanctuary and
|
|
dwelling-place,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+76:1,2">Ps.lxxvi. 1, 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
The whole land in general, and Zion in particular, was <I>the mountain
|
|
which his right hand had purchased,</I> which by his own power he had
|
|
set apart for himself. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+44:3">Ps. xliv. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
He <I>made them to ride on the high places of the earth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+58:14,De+32:13">Isa. lviii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
They found the Canaanites in the full and quiet possession of that
|
|
land, but God <I>cast out the heathen before them,</I> not only took
|
|
away their title to it, as the Lord of the whole earth, but himself
|
|
executed the judgment given against them, and, as Lord of hosts, turned
|
|
them out of it, and made his people <I>Israel tread upon their high
|
|
places, dividing</I> each tribe <I>an inheritance by line,</I> and
|
|
making them <I>to dwell</I> in the houses of those whom they had
|
|
destroyed. God could have turned the uninhabited uncultivated
|
|
wilderness (which perhaps was nearly of the same extent as Canaan) into
|
|
fruitful soil, and have planted them there; but the land he designed
|
|
for them was to be a type of heaven, and therefore must be <I>the glory
|
|
of all lands;</I> it must likewise be fought for, for <I>the kingdom of
|
|
heaven suffers violence.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The sins of Israel after they were settled in Canaan,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:56-58"><I>v.</I> 56-58</A>.
|
|
|
|
The children were <I>like their fathers,</I> and brought their old
|
|
corruptions into their new habitations. Though God had done so much for
|
|
them, yet <I>they tempted and provoked the most high God</I> still. He
|
|
gave them his testimonies, but they did not keep them; they began very
|
|
promisingly, but they turned back, gave God good words, but dealt
|
|
unfaithfully, and were <I>like a deceitful bow,</I> which seemed likely
|
|
to send the arrow to the mark, but, when it is drawn, breaks, and drops
|
|
the arrow at the archer's foot, or perhaps makes it recoil in his face.
|
|
There was no hold of them, nor any confidence to be put in their
|
|
promises or professions. They seemed sometimes devoted to God, but they
|
|
presently <I>turned aside,</I> and <I>provoked him to anger with their
|
|
high places and their graven images.</I> Idolatry was the sin that did
|
|
most easily beset them, and which, though they often professed their
|
|
repentance for, they as often relapsed into. It was spiritual adultery
|
|
either to worship idols or to worship God by images, as if he had been
|
|
an idol, and therefore by it they are said to <I>move him to
|
|
jealousy,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:16,21">Deut. xxxii. 16, 21</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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. <I>You only have I known of all the families of the earth,
|
|
therefore I will punish you,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+3:2">Amos iii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
Idolatry is winked at among the Gentiles, but not in Israel,
|
|
|
|
1. God was displeased with them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When God heard this,</I> when he heard the cry of their
|
|
iniquity, which came up before him, <I>he was wroth,</I> he took it
|
|
very heinously, as well he might, and he greatly abhorred Israel, whom
|
|
he had greatly loved and delighted in. Those that had been the people
|
|
of his choice became the generation of his wrath. Presumptuous sins,
|
|
idolatries especially, render even Israelites odious to God's holiness
|
|
and obnoxious to his justice.
|
|
|
|
2. He deserted his tabernacle among them, and removed the defence which
|
|
was upon that glory,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:60"><I>v.</I> 60</A>.
|
|
|
|
God never leaves us till we leave him, never withdraws till we have
|
|
driven him from us. His name is <I>Jealous,</I> and he is a jealous
|
|
God; and therefore no marvel if a people whom he had betrothed to
|
|
himself be loathed and rejected, and he refuse to cohabit with them any
|
|
longer, when they have embraced the bosom of a stranger. The
|
|
<I>tabernacle at Shiloh</I> was <I>the tent God had placed among
|
|
men,</I> in which God would <I>in very deed dwell with men upon the
|
|
earth;</I> but, when his people treacherously forsook it, he justly
|
|
forsook it, and then all its glory departed. Israel has small joy of
|
|
the tabernacle without the presence of God in it.
|
|
|
|
3. He gave up all into the hands of the enemy. Those whom God forsakes
|
|
become an easy prey to the destroyer. The Philistines are sworn enemies
|
|
to the Israel of God, and no less so to the God of Israel, and yet God
|
|
will make use of them to be a scourge to his people.
|
|
|
|
(1.) God permits them to take the ark prisoner, and carry it off as a
|
|
trophy of their victory, to show that he had not only forsaken the
|
|
tabernacle, but even the ark itself, which shall now be no longer a
|
|
token of his presence
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:61"><I>v.</I> 61</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He delivered his strength into captivity,</I> as if it had been
|
|
weakened and overcome, <I>and his glory</I> fell under the disgrace of
|
|
being abandoned <I>into the enemy's hand.</I> We have the story
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+4:11">1 Sam. iv. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
When the ark has become as a stranger among Israelites, no marvel if it
|
|
soon be made a prisoner among Philistines.
|
|
|
|
(2.) He suffers the armies of Israel to be routed by the Philistines
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:62,63"><I>v.</I> 62, 63</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He gave his people over unto the sword,</I> to the sword of his own
|
|
justice and of the enemy's rage, for he <I>was wroth with his
|
|
inheritance;</I> and that wrath of his was the <I>fire which consumed
|
|
their young men,</I> in the prime of their time, by the sword or
|
|
sickness, and made such a devastation of them that <I>their maidens
|
|
were not praised,</I> that is, <I>were not given in marriage</I> (which
|
|
is honourable in all), because there were no young men for them to be
|
|
given to, and because the distresses and calamities of Israel were so
|
|
many and great that the joys of marriage-solemnities were judged
|
|
unseasonable, and it was said, <I>Blessed is the womb that beareth
|
|
not.</I> General destructions produce a scarcity of men.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+13:12">Isa. xiii. 12</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>I will make a man more precious than fine gold,</I> so that <I>seven
|
|
women shall take hold of one man,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+4:1,Isa+3:25">Isa. iv. 1; iii. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
Yet this was not the worst:
|
|
|
|
(3.) Even <I>their priests,</I> who attended the ark, <I>fell by the
|
|
sword,</I> Hophni and Phinehas. Justly they fell, for they made
|
|
themselves vile, and were sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and
|
|
their priesthood was so far from being their protection that it
|
|
aggravated their sin and hastened their fall. Justly did they fall by
|
|
the sword, because they exposed themselves in the field of battle,
|
|
without call or warrant. We throw ourselves out of God's protection
|
|
when we go out of our place and out of the way of our duty. When the
|
|
priests fell <I>their widows made no lamentation,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:64"><I>v.</I> 64</A>.
|
|
|
|
All the ceremonies of mourning were lost and buried in substantial
|
|
grief; the widow of Phinehas, instead of lamenting her husband's death,
|
|
died herself, when she had called her son <I>Ichabod,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+4:19">1 Sam. iv. 19</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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 <I>grieved for the miseries of Israel</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jdg+10:16">Judg. x. 16</A>)
|
|
|
|
and concerned for his own honour, <I>fearing the wrath of the enemy,
|
|
lest they should behave themselves strangely,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:27">Deut. xxxii. 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
And therefore <I>then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:65"><I>v.</I> 65</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine,</I> not only
|
|
like one that is raised out of sleep and recovers himself from the
|
|
slumber which by drinking he was overcome with, who then regards that
|
|
which before he seemed wholly to neglect, but like one that is
|
|
refreshed with sleep, and whose heart is made glad by the sober and
|
|
moderate use of wine, and is therefore the more lively and vigorous,
|
|
and fit for business. When God had delivered the ark of his strength
|
|
into captivity, as one jealous of his honour, he soon put forth the arm
|
|
of his strength to rescue it, stirred up his strength to do great
|
|
things for his people.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He plagued the Philistines who held the ark in captivity,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:66"><I>v.</I> 66</A>.
|
|
|
|
He smote them with emerods <I>in the hinder parts,</I> wounded them
|
|
behind, as if they were fleeing from him, even when they thought
|
|
themselves more than conquerors. He put them to reproach, and they
|
|
themselves helped to make it a perpetual reproach by the golden images
|
|
of their emerods, which they returned with the ark for a
|
|
trespass-offering
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+6:5">1 Sam. vi. 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
to remain <I>in perpetuam rei memoriam--as a perpetual memorial.</I>
|
|
Note, Sooner or later God will glorify himself by putting disgrace upon
|
|
his enemies, even when they are most elevated with their successes.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
<I>refuse the tabernacle of Joseph;</I> he never sent it back to
|
|
Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:67"><I>v.</I> 67</A>.
|
|
|
|
The ruins of that place were standing monuments of divine justice.
|
|
<I>God, see what I did to Shiloh,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+7:12">Jer. vii. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
But he did not wholly take away the glory from Israel; the moving of
|
|
the ark is not the removing of it. Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has
|
|
not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men,
|
|
though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the
|
|
rejection of Shiloh is the election of Zion, as, long after, the fall
|
|
of the Jews was the riches of the Gentiles,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+11:12">Rom. xi. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
When God <I>chose not the tribe of Ephraim,</I> of which tribe Joshua
|
|
was, he <I>chose the tribe of Judah</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:68"><I>v.</I> 68</A>),
|
|
|
|
because of that tribe Jesus was to be, who is greater than Joshua.
|
|
Kirjath-jearim, the place to which the ark was brought after its rescue
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out of the hands of the Philistines, was in the tribe of Judah. There
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it took possession of that tribe; but thence it was removed to Zion,
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<I>the Mount Zion which he loved</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:68"><I>v.</I> 68</A>),
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which was <I>beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth;</I>
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there it was that he <I>built his sanctuary like high palaces</I> and
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<I>like the earth,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:69"><I>v.</I> 69</A>.
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David indeed erected only a tent for the ark, but a temple was then
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designed and prepared for, and finished by his son; and that was,
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(1.) A very stately place. It was built like the palaces of princes,
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and the great men of the earth, nay, it excelled them all in splendour
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and magnificence. Solomon built it, and yet here it is said <I>God
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built its,</I> for his father had taught him, perhaps with reference to
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this undertaking, that <I>except the Lord build the house those labour
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in vain</I> that build it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+127:1">Ps. cxxvii. 1</A>,
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which is a psalm for Solomon.
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(2.) A very stable place, like the earth, though not to continue as
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|
long as the earth, yet while it was to continue it was as firm as the
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earth, which God <I>upholds by the word of his power,</I> and it was
|
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not finally destroyed till the gospel temple was erected, which is to
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continue <I>as long as the sun and moon endure</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+89:36,37">Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37</A>)
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and against which the <I>gates of hell shall not prevail.</I></P>
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<P>
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3. He set a good government over them, a monarchy, and a monarch after
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|
his own heart: <I>He chose David his servant</I> out of all the
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thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose
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loins Christ was to come, and who was to be a type of him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:70"><I>v.</I> 70</A>.
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Concerning David observe here,
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(1.) The meanness of his beginning. His extraction indeed was great,
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|
for he descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, but his
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|
education was poor. He was bred not a scholar, not a soldier, but a
|
|
shepherd. He was <I>taken from the sheep-folds,</I> as Moses was; for
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|
God delights to put honour upon the humble and diligent, to raise the
|
|
poor out of the dust and to set them among princes; and sometimes he
|
|
finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning of
|
|
their time in solitude and contemplation. The Son of David was
|
|
upbraided with the obscurity of his original: <I>Is not this the
|
|
carpenter?</I> David was taken, he does not say from leading the rams,
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but <I>from following the ewes,</I> especially those <I>great with
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|
young,</I> which intimated that of all the good properties of a
|
|
shepherd he was most remarkable for his tenderness and compassion to
|
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those of his flock that most needed his care. This temper of mind
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|
fitted him for government, and made him a type of Christ, who, when he
|
|
feeds his flock like a shepherd, does with a particular care <I>gently
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|
lead those that are with young,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+40:11">Isa. xl. 11</A>.
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(2.) The greatness of his advancement. God preferred him to <I>feed
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|
Jacob his people,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:71"><I>v.</I> 71</A>.
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It was a great honour that God put upon him, in advancing him to be a
|
|
king, especially to be king over Jacob and Israel, God's peculiar
|
|
people, near and dear to him; but withal it was a great trust reposed
|
|
in him when he was charged with the government of those that were God's
|
|
own inheritance. God advanced him to the throne that he might feed
|
|
them, not that he might feed himself, that he might do good, not that
|
|
he might make his family great. It is the charge given to all the
|
|
under-shepherds, both magistrates and ministers, that they <I>feed the
|
|
flock of God.</I>
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(3.) The happiness of his management. David, having so great a trust
|
|
put into his hands, obtained mercy of the Lord to be found both skilful
|
|
and faithful in the discharge of it
|
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:72"><I>v.</I> 72</A>):
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<I>So he fed them;</I> he ruled them and taught them, guided and
|
|
protected them,
|
|
|
|
[1.] Very honestly; he did it <I>according to the integrity of his
|
|
heart,</I> aiming at nothing but the glory of God and the good of the
|
|
people committed to his charge; the principles of his religion were the
|
|
maxims of his government, which he administered, not with carnal
|
|
policy, but with <I>godly sincerity, by the grace of God.</I> In every
|
|
thing he did he meant well and had no by-end in view.
|
|
|
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[2.] Very discreetly; he did it <I>by the skilfulness of his hands.</I>
|
|
He was not only very sincere in what he designed, but very prudent in
|
|
what he did, and chose out the most proper means in pursuit of his end,
|
|
for his God did instruct him to discretion. Happy the people that are
|
|
under such a government! With good reason does the psalmist make this
|
|
the finishing crowning instance of God's favour to Israel, for David
|
|
was a type of Christ the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first
|
|
and then exalted, and of whom it was foretold that he should be filled
|
|
with the <I>spirit of wisdom and understanding</I> and should <I>judge
|
|
and reprove with equity,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+11:3,4">Isa. xi. 3, 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
On the integrity of his heart and the skilfulness of his hands all his
|
|
subjects may entirely rely, and <I>of the increase of his
|
|
government</I> and people <I>there shall be no end.</I></P>
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