mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 78.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lxxix" n="lxxix" next="Ps.lxxx" prev="Ps.lxxviii" progress="48.55%" title="Chapter LXXVIII">
<h2 id="Ps.lxxix-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lxxix-p0.2">PSALM LXXVIII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lxxix-p1">This psalm is historical; it is a narrative of the
great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, the great sins
wherewith they had provoked him, and the many tokens of his
displeasure they had been under for their sins. The psalmist began,
in the foregoing psalm, to relate God's wonders of old, for his own
encouragement in a difficult time; there he broke off abruptly, but
here resumes the subject, for the edification of the church, and
enlarges much upon it, showing not only how good God had been to
them, which was an earnest of further finishing mercy, but how
basely they had conducted themselves towards God, which justified
him in correcting them as he did at this time, and forbade all
complaints. Here is, I. The preface to this church history,
commanding the attention of the present age to it and recommending
it to the study of the generations to come, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.1-Ps.78.8" parsed="|Ps|78|1|78|8" passage="Ps 78:1-8">ver. 1-8</scripRef>. II. The history itself from Moses
to David; it is put into a psalm or song that it might be the
better remembered and transmitted to posterity, and that the
singing of it might affect them with the things here related, more
than they would be with a bare narrative of them. The general scope
of this psalm we have (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.9-Ps.78.11" parsed="|Ps|78|9|78|11" passage="Ps 78:9-11">ver.
9-11</scripRef>) where notice is taken of the present rebukes they
were under (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.9" parsed="|Ps|78|9|0|0" passage="Ps 78:9">ver. 9</scripRef>), the sin
which brought them under those rebukes (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.10" parsed="|Ps|78|10|0|0" passage="Ps 78:10">ver. 10</scripRef>), and the mercies of God to them
formerly, which aggravated that sin, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.11" parsed="|Ps|78|11|0|0" passage="Ps 78:11">ver. 11</scripRef>. As to the particulars, we are here
told, 1. What wonderful works God had wrought for them in bringing
them out of Egypt (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.12-Ps.78.16" parsed="|Ps|78|12|78|16" passage="Ps 78:12-16">ver.
12-16</scripRef>), providing for them in the wilderness (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.23-Ps.78.29" parsed="|Ps|78|23|78|29" passage="Ps 78:23-29">ver. 23-29</scripRef>), plaguing and ruining
their enemies (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.43-Ps.78.55" parsed="|Ps|78|43|78|55" passage="Ps 78:43-55">ver.
43-53</scripRef>), and at length putting them in possession of the
land of promise, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.54-Ps.78.55" parsed="|Ps|78|54|78|55" passage="Ps 78:54,55">ver. 54,
55</scripRef>. 2. How ungrateful they were to God for his favours
to them and how many and great provocations they were guilty of.
How they murmured against God and distrusted him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.17-Ps.78.20" parsed="|Ps|78|17|78|20" passage="Ps 78:17-20">ver. 17-20</scripRef>), and did but
counterfeit repentance and submission when he punished them
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.34-Ps.78.37" parsed="|Ps|78|34|78|37" passage="Ps 78:34-37">ver. 34-37</scripRef>), thus
grieving and tempting him, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.40-Ps.78.42" parsed="|Ps|78|40|78|42" passage="Ps 78:40-42">ver.
40-42</scripRef>. How they affronted God with their idolatries
after they came to Canaan, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.13" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.56-Ps.78.58" parsed="|Ps|78|56|78|58" passage="Ps 78:56-58">ver.
56-58</scripRef>. 3. How God had justly punished them for their
sins (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.14" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.21-Ps.78.22" parsed="|Ps|78|21|78|22" passage="Ps 78:21,22">ver. 21, 22</scripRef>) in
the wilderness, making their sin their punishment (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.15" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.29-Ps.78.33" parsed="|Ps|78|29|78|33" passage="Ps 78:29-33">ver. 29-33</scripRef>), and now, of late,
when the ark was taken by the Philistines, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.16" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.59-Ps.78.64" parsed="|Ps|78|59|78|64" passage="Ps 78:59-64">ver. 59-64</scripRef>. 4. How graciously God had
spared them and returned in mercy to them, notwithstanding their
provocations. He had forgiven them formerly (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.17" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.38-Ps.78.39" parsed="|Ps|78|38|78|39" passage="Ps 78:38,39">ver. 38, 39</scripRef>), and now, of late, had
removed the judgments they had brought upon themselves, and brought
them under a happy establishment both in church and state,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.18" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.65-Ps.78.72" parsed="|Ps|78|65|78|72" passage="Ps 78:65-72">ver. 65-72</scripRef>. As the
general scope of this psalm may be of use to us in the singing of
it, to put us upon recollecting what God has done for us and for
his church formerly, and what we have done against him, so the
particulars also may be of use to us, for warning against those
sins of unbelief and ingratitude which Israel of old was
notoriously guilty of, and the record of which was preserved for
our learning. "These things happened unto them for ensamples,"
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p1.19" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.11 Bible:Heb.4.11" parsed="|1Cor|10|11|0|0;|Heb|4|11|0|0" passage="1Co 10:11,Heb 4:11">1 Cor. x. 11; Heb. iv.
11</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxix-p1.20" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78" parsed="|Ps|78|0|0|0" passage="Ps 78" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxix-p1.21" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.1-Ps.78.8" parsed="|Ps|78|1|78|8" passage="Ps 78:1-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.78.1-Ps.78.8">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxix-p1.22">The Importance of Religious
Instruction.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lxxix-p1.23">
<p id="Ps.lxxix-p2">Maschil of Asaph.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxix-p3">1 Give ear, O my people, <i>to</i> my law:
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.   2 I will open my
mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:   3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  
4 We will not hide <i>them</i> from their children, showing to the
generation to come the praises of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxix-p3.1">Lord</span>, and his strength, and his wonderful works
that he hath done.   5 For he established a testimony in
Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our
fathers, that they should make them known to their children:  
6 That the generation to come might know <i>them, even</i> the
children <i>which</i> should be born; <i>who</i> should arise and
declare <i>them</i> to their children:   7 That they might set
their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his
commandments:   8 And might not be as their fathers, a
stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation <i>that</i> set
not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with
God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p4">These verses, which contain the preface to
this history, show that the psalm answers the title; it is indeed
<i>Maschil—a psalm to give instruction;</i> if we receive not the
instruction it gives, it is our own fault. Here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p5">I. The psalmist demands attention to what
he wrote (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.1" parsed="|Ps|78|1|0|0" passage="Ps 78:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>):
<i>Give ear, O my people! to my law.</i> Some make these the
psalmist's words. David, as a king, or Asaph, in his name, as his
secretary of state, or scribe to the sweet singer of Israel, here
calls upon the people, as his people committed to his charge, to
give ear to his law. He calls his instructions his <i>law</i> or
<i>edict;</i> such was their commanding force in themselves. Every
good truth, received in the light and love of it, will have the
power of a law upon the conscience; yet that was not all: David was
a king, and he would interpose his royal power for the edification
of his people. If God, by his grace, make great men good men, they
will be capable of doing more good than others, because their word
will be a law to all about them, who must therefore give ear and
hearken; for to what purpose is divine revelation brought our ears
if we will not incline our ears to it, both humble ourselves and
engage ourselves to hear it and heed it? Or the psalmist, being a
prophet, speaks as God's mouth, and so calls them <i>his
people,</i> and demands subjection to what was said as to a law.
Let him that has an ear thus <i>hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.2.7" parsed="|Rev|2|7|0|0" passage="Re 2:7">Rev. ii. 7</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p6">II. Several reasons are given why we should
diligently attend to that which is here related. 1. The things here
discoursed of are weighty, and deserve consideration, strange, and
need it (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.2" parsed="|Ps|78|2|0|0" passage="Ps 78:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>I
will open my mouth in a parable,</i> in that which is sublime and
uncommon, but very excellent and well worthy your attention; <i>I
will utter dark sayings,</i> which challenge your most serious
regards as much as the enigmas with which the eastern princes and
learned men used to try one another. These are called <i>dark
sayings,</i> not because they are hard to be understood, but
because they are greatly to be admired and carefully to be looked
into. This is said to be fulfilled in the parables which our
Saviour put forth (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.13.35" parsed="|Matt|13|35|0|0" passage="Mt 13:35">Matt. xiii.
35</scripRef>), which were (as this) representations of the state
of the kingdom of God among men. 2. They are the monuments of
antiquity—<i>dark sayings of old which our fathers have told
us,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.3" parsed="|Ps|78|3|0|0" passage="Ps 78:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. They
are things of undoubted certainty; we have heard them and known
them, and there is no room left to question the truth of them. The
gospel of Luke is called a <i>declaration of those things which are
most surely believed among us</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Luke.1.1" parsed="|Luke|1|1|0|0" passage="Lu 1:1">Luke
i. 1</scripRef>), so were the things here related. The honour we
owe to our parents and ancestors obliges us to attend to that which
our fathers have told us, and, as far as it appears to be true and
good, to receive it with so much the more reverence and regard. 3.
They are to be transmitted to posterity, and it lies as a charge
upon us carefully to hand them down (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.4" parsed="|Ps|78|4|0|0" passage="Ps 78:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>); because our fathers told them to
us <i>we will not hide them from their children.</i> Our children
are called <i>theirs,</i> for they were in care for their seed's
seed, and looked upon them as theirs; and, in teaching our children
the knowledge of God, we repay to our parents some of that debt we
owe to them for teaching us. Nay, if we have no children of our
own, we must declare the things of God to <i>their</i> children,
the children of others. Our care must be for posterity in general,
and not only for our own posterity; and for the generation to come
hereafter, the children that shall be born, as well as for the
generation that is next rising up and the children that are born.
That which we are to transmit to our children is not only the
knowledge of languages, arts and sciences, liberty and property,
but especially the praises of the Lord, and his strength appearing
in the wonderful works he has done. Our great care must be to lodge
our religion, that great deposit, pure and entire in the hands of
those that succeed us. There are two things the full and clear
knowledge of which we must preserve the entail of to our heirs:—
(1.) The law of God; for this was given with a particular charge to
teach it diligently to their children (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.5" parsed="|Ps|78|5|0|0" passage="Ps 78:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>He established a
testimony</i> or covenant, and enacted a law, in Jacob and Israel,
gave them precepts and promises, which he <i>commanded them to make
known to their children,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.7" osisRef="Bible:Deut.6.7 Bible:Deut.6.20" parsed="|Deut|6|7|0|0;|Deut|6|20|0|0" passage="De 6:7,20">Deut.
vi. 7, 20</scripRef>. The church of God, as the historian says of
the Roman commonwealth, was not to be <i>res unius ætatis—a thing
of one age</i> but was to be kept up from one generation to
another; and therefore, as God provided for a succession of
ministers in the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron, so he
appointed that parents should train up their children in the
knowledge of his law: and, when they had grown up, they must arise
<i>and declare them to their children</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.6" parsed="|Ps|78|6|0|0" passage="Ps 78:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), that, as one generation of God's
servants and worshippers passes away, another generation may come,
and the church, as the earth, may abide for ever; and thus God's
name among men may be as the days of heaven. (2.) The providences
of God concerning them, both in mercy and in judgment. The former
seem to be mentioned for the sake of this; since God gave order
that his laws should be made known to posterity, it is requisite
that with them his works also should be made known, the fulfilling
of the promises made to the obedient and the threatenings denounced
against the disobedient. Let these be told to our children and our
children's children, [1.] That they may take encouragement to
conform to the will of God (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.7" parsed="|Ps|78|7|0|0" passage="Ps 78:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>): <i>that, not forgetting the works of God</i> wrought
in former days, <i>they</i> might <i>set their hope in God and keep
his commandments,</i> might make his command their rule and his
covenant their stay. Those only may with confidence hope for God's
salvation that make conscience of doing his commandments. The works
of God, duly considered, will very much strengthen our resolution
both to set our hope in him and to keep his commandments, for he is
able to bear us out in both. [2.] That they may take warning not to
conform to the example of their fathers (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.8" parsed="|Ps|78|8|0|0" passage="Ps 78:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): <i>That they might not be as
their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation.</i> See here,
<i>First,</i> What was the character of their fathers. Though they
were the seed of Abraham, taken into covenant with God, and, for
aught we know, the only professing people he had then in the world,
yet they were stubborn and rebellious, and walked contrary to God,
in direct opposition to his will. They did indeed profess relation
to him, but they did not set their hearts aright; they were not
cordial in their engagements to God, nor inward with him in their
worship of him, and therefore their <i>spirit was not stedfast with
him,</i> but upon every occasion they flew off from him. Note,
Hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy. Those that do not set their
hearts aright will not be stedfast with God, but play fat and
loose. <i>Secondly,</i> What was a charge to the children: <i>That
they be not as their fathers.</i> Note, Those that have descended
from wicked and ungodly ancestors, if they will but consider the
word and works of God, will see reason enough not to tread in their
steps. It will be no excuse for a vain conversation that it was
received by tradition from our fathers (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p6.11" osisRef="Bible:1Pet.1.18" parsed="|1Pet|1|18|0|0" passage="1Pe 1:18">1 Pet. i. 18</scripRef>); for what we know of them that
was evil must be an admonition to us, that we dread that which was
so pernicious to them as we would shun those courses which they
took that were ruinous to their health or estates.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxix-p6.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.9-Ps.78.39" parsed="|Ps|78|9|78|39" passage="Ps 78:9-39" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.78.9-Ps.78.39">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxix-p6.13">Wonders Wrought in Behalf of Israel; The
Crimes of the Israelites;</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxix-p7">9 The children of Ephraim, <i>being</i> armed,
<i>and</i> carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.  
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his
law;   11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had
showed them.   12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of
their fathers, in the land of Egypt, <i>in</i> the field of Zoan.
  13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and
he made the waters to stand as a heap.   14 In the daytime
also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of
fire.   15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave
<i>them</i> drink as <i>out of</i> the great depths.   16 He
brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down
like rivers.   17 And they sinned yet more against him by
provoking the most High in the wilderness.   18 And they
tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.   19
Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in
the wilderness?   20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the
waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread
also? can he provide flesh for his people?   21 Therefore the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxix-p7.1">Lord</span> heard <i>this,</i> and was
wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up
against Israel;   22 Because they believed not in God, and
trusted not in his salvation:   23 Though he had commanded the
clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,   24 And
had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the
corn of heaven.   25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them
meat to the full.   26 He caused an east wind to blow in the
heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.   27 He
rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as
the sand of the sea:   28 And he let <i>it</i> fall in the
midst of their camp, round about their habitations.   29 So
they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own
desire;   30 They were not estranged from their lust. But
while their meat <i>was</i> yet in their mouths,   31 The
wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and
smote down the chosen <i>men</i> of Israel.   32 For all this
they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.  
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years
in trouble.   34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and
they returned and enquired early after God.   35 And they
remembered that God <i>was</i> their rock, and the high God their
redeemer.   36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their
mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.   37 For
their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in
his covenant.   38 But he, <i>being</i> full of compassion,
forgave <i>their</i> iniquity, and destroyed <i>them</i> not: yea,
many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his
wrath.   39 For he remembered that they <i>were but</i> flesh;
a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p8">In these verses,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p9">I. The psalmist observes the late rebukes
of Providence that the people of Israel had been under, which they
had brought upon themselves by their dealing treacherously with
God, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.9-Ps.78.11" parsed="|Ps|78|9|78|11" passage="Ps 78:9-11"><i>v.</i> 9-11</scripRef>.
<i>The children of Ephraim,</i> in which tribe Shiloh was, though
they were well armed and shot with bows, yet <i>turned back in the
day of battle.</i> This seems to refer to that shameful defeat
which the Philistines gave them in Eli's time, when they took the
ark prisoner, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.4.10-1Sam.4.11" parsed="|1Sam|4|10|4|11" passage="1Sa 4:10,11">1 Sam. iv. 10,
11</scripRef>. Of this the psalmist here begins to speak, and,
after a long digression, returns to it again, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.61" parsed="|Ps|78|61|0|0" passage="Ps 78:61"><i>v.</i> 61</scripRef>. Well might that event be thus
fresh in mind in David's time, above forty years after, for the
ark, which in that memorable battle was seized by the Philistines,
though it was quickly brought out of captivity, was never brought
out of obscurity till David fetched it from Kirjath-jearim to his
own city. Observe, 1. The shameful cowardice of the children of
Ephraim, that warlike tribe, so famed for valiant men, Joshua's
tribe; the children of that tribe, though as well armed as ever,
turned back when they came to face the enemy. Note, Weapons of war
stand men in little stead without a martial spirit, and that is
gone if God be gone. Sin dispirits men and takes away the heart. 2.
The causes of their cowardice, which were no less shameful; and
these were, (1.) A shameful violation of God's law and their
covenant with him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.10" parsed="|Ps|78|10|0|0" passage="Ps 78:10"><i>v.</i>
10</scripRef>); they were basely treacherous and perfidious, for
<i>they kept not the covenant of God,</i> and basely stubborn and
rebellious (as they were described, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.8" parsed="|Ps|78|8|0|0" passage="Ps 78:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>), for they peremptorily refused to
walk in his law, and, in effect, told him to his face they would
not be ruled by him. (2.) A shameful ingratitude to God for the
favours he had bestowed upon them: They <i>forgot his works and his
wonders,</i> his works of wonder which they ought to have admired,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.11" parsed="|Ps|78|11|0|0" passage="Ps 78:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. Note, Our
forgetfulness of God's works is at the bottom of our disobedience
to his laws.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p10">II. He takes occasion hence to consult
precedents and to compare this with the case of their fathers, who
were in like manner unmindful of God's mercies to them and
ungrateful to their founder and great benefactor, and were
therefore often brought under his displeasure. The narrative in
these verses is very remarkable, for it relates a kind of struggle
between God's goodness and man's badness, and mercy, at length,
rejoices against judgment.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p11">1. God did great things for his people
Israel when he first incorporated them and formed them into a
people: <i>Marvellous things did he in the sight of their
fathers,</i> and not only in their sight, but in their cause, and
for their benefit, so strange, so kind, that one would think they
should never be forgotten. What he did for them in the land of
Egypt is only just mentioned here (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.12" parsed="|Ps|78|12|0|0" passage="Ps 78:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>), but afterwards resumed,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.43" parsed="|Ps|78|43|0|0" passage="Ps 78:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>. He proceeds
here to show, (1.) How he made a lane for them through the Red Sea,
and caused them, gave them courage, to pass through, though the
waters stood over their heads as a heap, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.13" parsed="|Ps|78|13|0|0" passage="Ps 78:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>. See <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.63.12-Isa.63.13" parsed="|Isa|63|12|63|13" passage="Isa 63:12,13">Isa. lxiii. 12, 13</scripRef>, where God is said to
<i>lead them by the hand,</i> as it were, <i>through the deep that
they should not stumble.</i> (2.) How he provided a guide for them
through the untrodden paths of the wilderness (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.14" parsed="|Ps|78|14|0|0" passage="Ps 78:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>); he led them step by step,
<i>in the day time by a cloud,</i> which also sheltered them from
the heat, and <i>all the night with a light of fire,</i> which
perhaps warmed the air; at least it made the darkness of night less
frightful, and perhaps kept off wild beasts, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.6" osisRef="Bible:Zech.2.5" parsed="|Zech|2|5|0|0" passage="Zec 2:5">Zech. ii. 5</scripRef>. (3.) How he furnished their camp
with fresh water in a dry and thirsty land where no water was, not
by opening the bottles of heaven (that would have been a common
way), but by broaching a rock (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p11.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.15-Ps.78.16" parsed="|Ps|78|15|78|16" passage="Ps 78:15,16"><i>v.</i> 15, 16</scripRef>): <i>He clave the rocks
in the wilderness,</i> which yielded water, though they were not
capable of receiving it either from the clouds above or the springs
beneath. Out of the dry and hard rock he gave them drink, not
distilled as out of an alembic, drop by drop, but in streams
<i>running down like rivers,</i> and as out of the great depths.
God gives abundantly, and is rich in mercy; he gives seasonably,
and sometimes makes us to feel the want of mercies that we may the
better know the worth of them. This water which God gave Israel out
of the rock was the more valuable because it was spiritual drink.
<i>And that rock was Christ.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p12">2. When God began thus to bless them they
began to affront him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.17" parsed="|Ps|78|17|0|0" passage="Ps 78:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>): <i>They sinned yet more against him,</i> more than
they had done in Egypt, though there they were bad enough,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.20.8" parsed="|Ezek|20|8|0|0" passage="Eze 20:8">Ezek. xx. 8</scripRef>. They bore the
miseries of their servitude better than the difficulties of their
deliverance, and never murmured at their taskmasters so much as
they did at Moses and Aaron; as if they were <i>delivered to do all
these abominations,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.10" parsed="|Jer|7|10|0|0" passage="Jer 7:10">Jer. vii.
10</scripRef>. As sin sometimes takes occasion by the commandment,
so at other times it takes occasion by the deliverance, to become
more exceedingly sinful. <i>They provoked the Most High.</i> Though
he is most high, and they knew themselves an unequal match for him,
yet they provoked him and even bade defiance to his justice; and
this in the wilderness, where he had them at his mercy and
therefore they were bound in interest to please him, and where he
showed them so much mercy and therefore they were bound in
gratitude to please him; yet there they said and did that which
they knew would provoke him: <i>They tempted God in their
heart,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.18" parsed="|Ps|78|18|0|0" passage="Ps 78:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>.
Their sin began in their heart, and thence it took its malignity.
<i>They do always err in their heart,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.5" osisRef="Bible:Heb.3.10" parsed="|Heb|3|10|0|0" passage="Heb 3:10">Heb. iii. 10</scripRef>. Thus they tempted God, tried
his patience to the utmost, whether he would bear with them or no,
and, in effect, bade him do his worst. Two ways they provoked
him:—(1.) By desiring, or rather demanding, that which he had not
thought fit to give them: <i>They asked meat for their lust.</i>
God had given them meat for their hunger, in the manna, wholesome
pleasant food and in abundance; he had given them meat for their
faith out of the heads of leviathan which <i>he broke in
pieces,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.74.14" parsed="|Ps|74|14|0|0" passage="Ps 74:14">Ps. lxxiv. 14</scripRef>.
But all this would not serve; they must have meat for their lust,
dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite. Nothing is
more provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment and
indulging the desires of the flesh. (2.) By distrusting his power
to give them what they desired. This was tempting God indeed. They
challenged him to give them flesh; and, if he did not, they would
say it was because he could not, not because he did not see it fit
for them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.19" parsed="|Ps|78|19|0|0" passage="Ps 78:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>):
<i>They spoke against God.</i> Those that set bounds to God's power
speak against him. It was as injurious a reflection as could be cat
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 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.8" osisRef="Bible:Exod.16.3 Bible:Num.11.5" parsed="|Exod|16|3|0|0;|Num|11|5|0|0" passage="Ex 16:3,Nu 11:5">Exod. xvi. 3,
Num. xi. 5</scripRef>), dishes of meat and salvers of fruit. What
an unreasonable insatiable thing is luxury! Such a mighty thing did
these epicures think a table 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.50.10-Ps.50.11" parsed="|Ps|50|10|50|11" passage="Ps 50:10,11">Ps. l.
10, 11</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p12.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.20" parsed="|Ps|78|20|0|0" passage="Ps 78:20"><i>v.</i>
20</scripRef>): <i>Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters
gushed out,</i> which 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 own, <i>Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p13">3. God justly resented the provocation and
was much displeased with them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.21" parsed="|Ps|78|21|0|0" passage="Ps 78:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Num.11.1" parsed="|Num|11|1|0|0" passage="Nu 11:1">Num. xi.
1</scripRef>. 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
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.22" parsed="|Ps|78|22|0|0" passage="Ps 78:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>):
<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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.23-Ps.78.25" parsed="|Ps|78|23|78|25" passage="Ps 78:23-25"><i>v.</i> 23-25</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.5" osisRef="Bible:Mal.3.10" parsed="|Mal|3|10|0|0" passage="Mal 3:10">Mal. iii. 10</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.16.18" parsed="|Exod|16|18|0|0" passage="Ex 16:18">Exod. xvi. 18</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.26" parsed="|Ps|78|26|0|0" passage="Ps 78:26"><i>v.</i> 26</scripRef>. <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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.27" parsed="|Ps|78|27|0|0" passage="Ps 78:27"><i>v.</i>
27</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.28" parsed="|Ps|78|28|0|0" passage="Ps 78:28"><i>v.</i> 28</scripRef>. We have the account <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.10" osisRef="Bible:Num.11.31-Num.11.32" parsed="|Num|11|31|11|32" passage="Nu 11:31,32">Num. xi. 31, 32</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.29-Ps.78.30" parsed="|Ps|78|29|78|30" passage="Ps 78:29,30"><i>v.</i> 29, 30</scripRef>); 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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.31" parsed="|Ps|78|31|0|0" passage="Ps 78:31"><i>v.</i> 31</scripRef>), those that were most luxurious
and most daring. See <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.13" osisRef="Bible:Num.11.33-Num.11.34" parsed="|Num|11|33|11|34" passage="Nu 11:33,34">Num. xi. 33,
34</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p13.14" osisRef="Bible:Phil.3.19" parsed="|Phil|3|19|0|0" passage="Php 3:19">Phil. iii.
19</scripRef>. <i>The prosperity of fools shall destroy them,</i>
and their ruin will be the greater.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p14">4. The judgments of God upon them did not
reform them, nor attain the end, any more than his mercies
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.32" parsed="|Ps|78|32|0|0" passage="Ps 78:32"><i>v.</i> 32</scripRef>): <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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.57.17" parsed="|Isa|57|17|0|0" passage="Isa 57:17">Isa. lvii. 17</scripRef>); <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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p15">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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.33" parsed="|Ps|78|33|0|0" passage="Ps 78:33"><i>v.</i> 33</scripRef>): <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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p16">6. Under these rebukes they professed
repentance, but they were not cordial and sincere in this
profession. (1.) Their profession was plausible enough (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.34-Ps.78.35" parsed="|Ps|78|34|78|35" passage="Ps 78:34,35"><i>v.</i> 34, 35</scripRef>): <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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.36-Ps.78.37" parsed="|Ps|78|36|78|37" passage="Ps 78:36,37"><i>v.</i> 36, 37</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.3.10" parsed="|Jer|3|10|0|0" passage="Jer 3:10">Jer. iii.
10</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p17">7. God hereupon, in pity to them, put a
stop to the judgments which were threatened and in part executed
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.38-Ps.78.39" parsed="|Ps|78|38|78|39" passage="Ps 78:38,39"><i>v.</i> 38, 39</scripRef>):
<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? <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p17.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.5.3" parsed="|Acts|5|3|0|0" passage="Ac 5:3">Acts v.
3</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p17.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.65.8" parsed="|Isa|65|8|0|0" passage="Isa 65:8">Isa. lxv.
8</scripRef>. <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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p17.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8" parsed="|Hos|11|8|0|0" passage="Ho 11:8">Hos. xi. 8</scripRef>. (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 <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p17.5" osisRef="Bible:Gen.6.3" parsed="|Gen|6|3|0|0" passage="Ge 6:3">Gen. vi. 3</scripRef>. 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>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxix-p17.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.40-Ps.78.72" parsed="|Ps|78|40|78|72" passage="Ps 78:40-72" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.78.40-Ps.78.72">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxix-p17.7">Judgments and Mercies; Wonders Wrought for
Israel; Renewed Mercies</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxix-p18">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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p19">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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p20">I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness
again reflected on, because written for our admonition (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.40-Ps.78.41" parsed="|Ps|78|40|78|41" passage="Ps 78:40,41"><i>v.</i> 40, 41</scripRef>): <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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.17" parsed="|Ps|78|17|0|0" passage="Ps 78:17"><i>v.</i> 17</scripRef>. God kept an account how often
they provoked him, though they did not. <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.22" parsed="|Num|14|22|0|0" passage="Nu 14:22">Num. xiv. 22</scripRef>, <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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.2" parsed="|Isa|1|2|0|0" passage="Isa 1:2">Isa. i. 2</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.42" parsed="|Ps|78|42|0|0" passage="Ps 78:42"><i>v.</i> 42</scripRef>): <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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p21">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,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.12" parsed="|Ps|78|12|0|0" passage="Ps 78:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>, &amp;c.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p22">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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.43" parsed="|Ps|78|43|0|0" passage="Ps 78:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>),
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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p23">(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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.44" parsed="|Ps|78|44|0|0" passage="Ps 78:44"><i>v.</i> 44</scripRef>. [2.] The flies and
frogs which infested them, mixtures of insects in swarms, in
shoals, <i>which devoured them, which destroyed them,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.45" parsed="|Ps|78|45|0|0" passage="Ps 78:45"><i>v.</i> 45</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.46" parsed="|Ps|78|46|0|0" passage="Ps 78:46"><i>v.</i>
46</scripRef>. They are called <i>God's great army,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.4" osisRef="Bible:Joel.2.25" parsed="|Joel|2|25|0|0" passage="Joe 2:25">Joel ii. 25</scripRef>. [4.] The <i>hail,</i>
which <i>destroyed</i> their trees, especially <i>their vines,</i>
the weakest of trees (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.47" parsed="|Ps|78|47|0|0" passage="Ps 78:47"><i>v.</i>
47</scripRef>), 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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.48" parsed="|Ps|78|48|0|0" passage="Ps 78:48"><i>v.</i> 48</scripRef>), 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.7" osisRef="Bible:Exod.4.23" parsed="|Exod|4|23|0|0" passage="Ex 4:23">Exod. iv. 23</scripRef>),
but last in execution; for, if gentler methods would have done the
work, this would have been prevented: but it is here largely
described, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.49-Ps.78.51" parsed="|Ps|78|49|78|51" passage="Ps 78:49-51"><i>v.</i>
49-51</scripRef>. <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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.9" osisRef="Bible:Rom.2.8-Rom.2.9" parsed="|Rom|2|8|2|9" passage="Ro 2:8,9">Rom. ii. 8, 9</scripRef>) 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.10" osisRef="Bible:Job.27.22" parsed="|Job|27|22|0|0" passage="Job 27:22">Job xxvii.
22</scripRef>. <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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.51" parsed="|Ps|78|51|0|0" passage="Ps 78:51"><i>v.</i> 51</scripRef>), <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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p23.12" osisRef="Bible:Isa.43.4" parsed="|Isa|43|4|0|0" passage="Isa 43:4">Isa. xliii. 4</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p24">(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,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.52" parsed="|Ps|78|52|0|0" passage="Ps 78:52"><i>v.</i> 52</scripRef>. <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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p24.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.14.10" parsed="|Exod|14|10|0|0" passage="Ex 14:10">Exod. xiv.
10</scripRef>), 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p24.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.63" parsed="|Ps|78|63|0|0" passage="Ps 78:63"><i>v.</i> 63</scripRef>. It was a lane to them,
but a grave to their persecutors.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p25">2. It is carried down as far as their
settlement in Canaan (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.54" parsed="|Ps|78|54|0|0" passage="Ps 78:54"><i>v.</i>
54</scripRef>): <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,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.76.1-Ps.76.2" parsed="|Ps|76|1|76|2" passage="Ps 76:1,2">Ps.lxxvi. 1, 2</scripRef>. 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 <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.44.3" parsed="|Ps|44|3|0|0" passage="Ps 44:3">Ps. xliv.
3</scripRef>. He <i>made them to ride on the high places of the
earth,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p25.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.58.14 Bible:Deut.32.13" parsed="|Isa|58|14|0|0;|Deut|32|13|0|0" passage="Isa 58:14,De 32:13">Isa. lviii. 14;
Deut. xxxii. 13</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p26">III. The sins of Israel after they were
settled in Canaan, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.56-Ps.78.58" parsed="|Ps|78|56|78|58" passage="Ps 78:56-58"><i>v.</i>
56-58</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p26.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.16 Bible:Deut.32.21" parsed="|Deut|32|16|0|0;|Deut|32|21|0|0" passage="De 32:16,21">Deut. xxxii. 16, 21</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p27">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>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.1" osisRef="Bible:Amos.3.2" parsed="|Amos|3|2|0|0" passage="Am 3:2">Amos iii. 2</scripRef>. Idolatry is
winked at among the Gentiles, but not in Israel, 1. God was
displeased with them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.59" parsed="|Ps|78|59|0|0" passage="Ps 78:59"><i>v.</i>
59</scripRef>): <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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.60" parsed="|Ps|78|60|0|0" passage="Ps 78:60"><i>v.</i>
60</scripRef>. 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
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.61" parsed="|Ps|78|61|0|0" passage="Ps 78:61"><i>v.</i> 61</scripRef>): <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
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.5" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.4.11" parsed="|1Sam|4|11|0|0" passage="1Sa 4:11">1 Sam. iv. 11</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.62-Ps.78.63" parsed="|Ps|78|62|78|63" passage="Ps 78:62,63"><i>v.</i> 62, 63</scripRef>): <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. <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.13.12" parsed="|Isa|13|12|0|0" passage="Isa 13:12">Isa. xiii. 12</scripRef>, <i>I will make a man
more precious than fine gold,</i> so that <i>seven women shall take
hold of one man,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.4.1 Bible:Isa.3.25" parsed="|Isa|4|1|0|0;|Isa|3|25|0|0" passage="Isa 4:1,Isa 3:25">Isa. iv.
1; iii. 25</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.64" parsed="|Ps|78|64|0|0" passage="Ps 78:64"><i>v.</i>
64</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p27.10" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.4.19" parsed="|1Sam|4|19|0|0" passage="1Sa 4:19">1 Sam. iv.
19</scripRef>, &amp;c.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p28">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> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Judg.10.16" parsed="|Judg|10|16|0|0" passage="Jdg 10:16">Judg. x.
16</scripRef>) and concerned for his own honour, <i>fearing the
wrath of the enemy, lest they should behave themselves
strangely,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p28.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.27" parsed="|Deut|32|27|0|0" passage="De 32:27">Deut. xxxii.
27</scripRef>. And therefore <i>then the Lord awaked as one out of
sleep</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p28.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.65" parsed="|Ps|78|65|0|0" passage="Ps 78:65"><i>v.</i> 65</scripRef>),
<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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p29">1. He plagued the Philistines who held the
ark in captivity, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.66" parsed="|Ps|78|66|0|0" passage="Ps 78:66"><i>v.</i>
66</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p29.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.6.5" parsed="|1Sam|6|5|0|0" passage="1Sa 6:5">1
Sam. vi. 5</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p30">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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.67" parsed="|Ps|78|67|0|0" passage="Ps 78:67"><i>v.</i> 67</scripRef>. The ruins of that place
were standing monuments of divine justice. <i>God, see what I did
to Shiloh,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.12" parsed="|Jer|7|12|0|0" passage="Jer 7:12">Jer. vii.
12</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.3" osisRef="Bible:Rom.11.12" parsed="|Rom|11|12|0|0" passage="Ro 11:12">Rom. xi. 12</scripRef>. When
God <i>chose not the tribe of Ephraim,</i> of which tribe Joshua
was, he <i>chose the tribe of Judah</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.68" parsed="|Ps|78|68|0|0" passage="Ps 78:68"><i>v.</i> 68</scripRef>), 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 out of the hands of the
Philistines, was in the tribe of Judah. There it took possession of
that tribe; but thence it was removed to Zion, <i>the Mount Zion
which he loved</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.68" parsed="|Ps|78|68|0|0" passage="Ps 78:68"><i>v.</i>
68</scripRef>), which was <i>beautiful for situation, the joy of
the whole earth;</i> there it was that he <i>built his sanctuary
like high palaces</i> and <i>like the earth,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.69" parsed="|Ps|78|69|0|0" passage="Ps 78:69"><i>v.</i> 69</scripRef>. David indeed erected only a
tent for the ark, but a temple was then designed and prepared for,
and finished by his son; and that was, (1.) A very stately place.
It was built like the palaces of princes, and the great men of the
earth, nay, it excelled them all in splendour and magnificence.
Solomon built it, and yet here it is said <i>God built it,</i> for
his father had taught him, perhaps with reference to this
undertaking, that <i>except the Lord build the house those labour
in vain</i> that build it, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.1" parsed="|Ps|127|1|0|0" passage="Ps 127:1">Ps. cxxvii.
1</scripRef>, which is a psalm for Solomon. (2.) A very stable
place, like the earth, though not to continue as long as the earth,
yet while it was to continue it was as firm as the earth, which God
<i>upholds by the word of his power,</i> and it was not finally
destroyed till the gospel temple was erected, which is to continue
<i>as long as the sun and moon endure</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p30.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.89.36-Ps.89.37" parsed="|Ps|89|36|89|37" passage="Ps 89:36,37">Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37</scripRef>) and against which the
<i>gates of hell shall not prevail.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxix-p31">3. He set a good government over them, a
monarchy, and a monarch after his own heart: <i>He chose David his
servant</i> out of all the thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre
into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and who was
to be a type of him, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p31.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.70" parsed="|Ps|78|70|0|0" passage="Ps 78:70"><i>v.</i>
70</scripRef>. Concerning David observe here, (1.) The meanness of
his beginning. His extraction indeed was great, for he descended
from the prince of the tribe of Judah, but his 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 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, but <i>from following the ewes,</i> especially those <i>great
with young,</i> which intimated that of all the good properties of
a shepherd he was most remarkable for his tenderness and compassion
to those of his flock that most needed his care. This temper of
mind 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 lead those that are with young,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p31.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.40.11" parsed="|Isa|40|11|0|0" passage="Isa 40:11">Isa. xl. 11</scripRef>. (2.) The greatness of
his advancement. God preferred him to <i>feed Jacob his people,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p31.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.71" parsed="|Ps|78|71|0|0" passage="Ps 78:71"><i>v.</i> 71</scripRef>. 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> (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 (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p31.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.72" parsed="|Ps|78|72|0|0" passage="Ps 78:72"><i>v.</i> 72</scripRef>): <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. [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> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxix-p31.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.11.3-Isa.11.4" parsed="|Isa|11|3|11|4" passage="Isa 11:3,4">Isa. xi. 3, 4</scripRef>. 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>
</div></div2>