make them and their princes like Oreb and Zeeb, yea, make all their kings like as Zebah and Salmunna, who said; 'let us take to ourselves 'the habitations of God in possession.' IV. so they too may perish. II 12 like as the fire that burneth up the wood, O my God, make them like unto the chaff, and as the stubble before the wind, and as the flame that consumeth the mountains; 13 14 persecute them even so with Thy tempest, 15 and make them afraid with Thy storm, fill their faces with shame, 16 that they may seek Thy name, O Jehovah ! let them be confounded and troubled for ever, let them be put to shame and perish, 17 and they shall know that Thou, whose name is JEHOVAH, art only the most Highest over all the earth. 18 Ver. 11. Oreb and Zeeb, cp. Judg. vii. 25. Zebah and Salmunna, cp. Judg. viii. 5-10, 18-21. Ver. 13. chaff, cp. Is. xvii. 13, 'They shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.' Ver. 14. flames—consumeth, cp. Deut. xxxii. 22. THIS § 128. PSALM LXXVIII. HIS is one of the great didactic Psalms of the Jewish nation. The prophets of the Captivity were never weary of reminding their countrymen that the promises of God were not absolute, inalienable gifts, the hereditary possession of a particular line, but that they were blessings attaching only to those who willingly co-operate with God in His moral government of the world'. It is with feelings such as these that the Psalmist appeals to history as the rich source of hope, warn 1 Cp. Is. xxvii. 11; Jer. xxvi. 1—6; Ezek. xviii, xix, xxii, xxiv, &c. ing and encouragement in the darkness which was continually threatening to envelope the nation. Bent on justifying the ways of God to man, he regards the whole history from this one point of view. He shews that God's ways are not unequal, but that the laws of His Providence are eternal, and that He dispenses the blessings of Gerizim and the curses of Ebal1 to His servants according as they obey or disobey His commandments; that as at one time the passage of the Red Sea, so at another the 'graves of lust,' are the marks of God's dealings with His people. He shews how within the nation itself the first of the tribes had become last and the last first according to the changes of their character. The most remarkable example of this law, the most striking instance of great opportunities misused, was to be found in the varying fate of the tribe of Ephraim, at first the possessor of the national sanctuary of Shiloh, the ruling tribe of the confederacy during the whole era of Joshua and the Judges; but afterwards falling away to the heathen worship around them, losing sight of their mission, and letting the Ark-the testimony of God's covenant and the very symbol of the national existence-fall into the hands of the Philistine. History completes the lesson, and shews how the northern tribes, when deservedly dethroned from their supremacy, would fain have regained their position at the price of apostasy3; how under the rule of a succession of half-heathen kings they finally lost all sense of their high calling and became fused into the mass of nations which they had been intended to purify; finally, how they became content with this degrading amalgamation, and how, when the more faithful part of the nation gladly seized the opportunity of return, the northern tribes had already lost even the desire to re-establish themselves in the home of their ancestors. If we are to seek for the special occasion of a Psalm, the burden of which was continually in the mouths of the Prophets, we may find it in the culminating point of the antagonism between the North and the South, when the Samaritans headed the heathen confederacy, which impeded the restoration in the time of Nehemiah 5. 1 Deut. xi. 29. 3 I Kings xii. 28; 2 Kings xvi. 5. 4 Hos. iv. 15-17; Amos ii, vii; Is. xxviii. 2 vv. 28-30, and note. 5 § 127, Introduction, Neh. iv. 2. I. The Psalmist calleth the people to listen to the lessons of their past history. Hearken unto my teaching, O my people, I incline your ears to the words of my mouth ; I will open my mouth in a parable, 2 I will declare the dark things of old! the things which we have heard and known, and such as our fathers have told us— we will not hide them from their children, 3 4 but shew to the generation to come the honour of Jehovah, His might and His wonderful works that He hath done: 5 for He established a statute in Jacob, and gave Israel a law, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, that their posterity might know it, 6 and the children which were yet unborn, that when they came up they might shew their children the same; that they might put their trust in God, 8 and not to forget the works of God, but to keep His commandments, and not be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not steadfastly unto God. II. 9 ΙΟ Like as the children of Ephraim who being harnessed and ro carrying bows turned themselves back in the day of battle, Ver. 1. my teaching-parable, these words mark the didactic character of the Psalm. The Psalmist addresses the people as a prophet, or teacher. dark things, i. e. the riddle of their past history-why God at one time supported and at another rejected them. Ver. 10. who being harnessed and carrying bows, i. e. who though armed with bows and having the power to cast out the heathen failed to do so during their ascendancy. Ephraim is compared to the bow that fails at the moment of need, cp. Hosea vii. 16. II they kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law, but forgat what He had done, 12 and the wonderful works that He had shewed for them: marvellous things did He in the sight of their forefathers, in the land of Egypt even in the field of Zoan; He divided the sea and let them go through, He made the waters to stand on an heap; 13 14 in the daytime also He led them with a cloud, 15 and all the night through with a light of fire; He clave the hard rocks in the wilderness, 16 and gave them drink thereof as it had been out of the great depths; He brought water out of the stony rock, so that it gushed out like the rivers. 17 III. Yet for all this they sinned yet more against Him, 18 and provoked the most Highest in the wilderness; they tempted God in their hearts, 19 and required meat for their lust; Ver. 13. the field of Zoan, i. e. the country round the ancient city of Tanis, the abode of the shepherd kings. Though Zoan is not mentioned in Exodus, it is supposed to have been the abode of the Israelites in their bondage. Ver. 14. He-heap. A quotation from the song of Miriam, Ex. xv. 8, 'With the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap.' See $155 in Supplement. Ver. 15. For the smoke-like cloud, alternating with fire, as the beacon on their march, cp. Exod. xiii. 21, 22. A remarkable passage in Curtius, v. 2, 7, describing Alexander's army on the march, mentions a beacon hoisted on a pole from the head-quarters as a signal for marching; 'observabatur ignis noctu, fumus interdiu.' This was probably adopted from an Eastern custom. Similarly the Persians used as a conspicuous signal, an image of the sun enclosed in crystal (Curtius, iii. 3, 9). 'Caravans are still known to use such beacons of fire and smoke, the cloudlessness and often stillness of the sky giving the smoke great density of volume, and boldness of outline.' Bib. Dic. on 'pillar of cloud.' Vv. 16, 17. For the murmuring at Rephidim, and the water from the rock of Horeb, cp. Exod. xvii. 1-6. Part of ver. 17 is a quotation from Numb. xx. 8, which contains an account of the similar gift at Kadesh. Ver. 19. for their lust, i. e. out of mere lust, cp. Numb. xi. 4, 5, ‘And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, 'Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt." they spake against God also, saying, 'shall God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 'He smote the stony rock indeed that the water gushed out, 21 He rained down manna also upon them for to eat, and gave them the bread of heaven. 25 IV. So they did all eat angels' food, 26 He sent them food enough; He caused the east wind to blow under heaven, 27 and through His power He brought in the south wind; He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust, 28 and feathered fowl like as the sand of the sea; He let it fall among their tents, 29 even round about His habitations; Ver. 20. prepare a table, cp. § 25. xxiii. 5, 'Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me, Thou hast anointed my head with oil (as for a feast) and my cup shall be full.' Ver. 24. The Psalmist passes to the description of the gift and does not return to the punishment till ver. 31. Ver. 26. they, i. e. every man. Cp. Exod. xvi. 16, 'Gather it every man according to his calling, an omer for every man.' angels' food, i.e. the bread of the strong or mighty ones, i. e. the bread of Heaven, ver. 25. § 144. CV. 39. Cp. Wisd. xvi. 20. Ver. 27. under heaven, i. e. from heaven, or through His power, as the next line has it. Ver. 28. flesh, the quails that were given in wrath at the fatal Kibroth-hattaavah, or 'the graves of lust,' cp. Numb. xi. 31-35. Ver. 29. His habitations, i. e. the land of the chosen people. |