Chapter 104

73:1. Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

73:2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

73:3. Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

73:4. And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

Their ensigns, etc.... They have fixed their colours for signs and trophies, both on the gates, and on the highest top of the temple: and they knew not, that is, they regarded not the sanctity of the place. This psalm manifestly foretells the time of the Machabees, and the profanation of the temple by Antiochus.

73:5. And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

73:6. They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.

73:7. They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.

73:8. They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.

73:9. Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no more.

73:10. How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?

73:11. Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever?

73:12. But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

73:13. Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.

The sea firm.... By making the waters of the Red Sea stand like firm walls, whilst Israel passed through: and destroying the Egyptians called here dragons from their cruelty, in the same waters, with their king: casting up their bodies on the shore to be stripped by the Ethiopians inhabiting in those days the coast of Arabia.

73:14. Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him to be meat for the people of the Ethiopians.

73:15. Thou hast broken up the fountains and the torrents: thou hast dried up the Ethan rivers.

Ethan rivers.... That is, rivers which run with strong streams. This was verified in Jordan, Jos. 3, and in Arnon, Num. 21.14.

73:16. Thine is the day, and thine is the night: thou hast made the morning light and the sun.

73:17. Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.

73:18. Remember this, the enemy hath reproached the Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.

73:19. Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.

73:20. Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.

The obscure of the earth.... Mean and ignoble wretches have been filled, that is, enriched, with houses of iniquity, that is, with our estates and possessions, which they have unjustly acquired.

73:21. Let not the humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.

73:22. Arise, O God, judge thy own cause: remember thy reproaches with which the foolish man hath reproached thee all the day.

73:23. Forget not the voices of thy enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually.

Psalms Chapter 74

Confitebimur tibi.

There is a just judgment to come: therefore let the wicked take care.

74:1. Unto the end, corrupt not, a psalm of a canticle for Asaph.

Corrupt not.... It is believed to have been the beginning of some ode or hymn, to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung. St. Augustine and other fathers take it to be an admonition of the spirit of God, not to faint or fail in our hope: but to persevere with constancy in good: because God will not fail in his due time to render to every man according to his works.

74:2. We will praise thee, O God: we will praise, and we will call upon thy name. We will relate thy wondrous works:

74:3. When I shall take a time, I will judge justices.

When I shall take a time.... In proper times: particularly at the last day, when the earth shall melt away at the presence of the great Judge: the same who originally laid the foundations of it, and as it were established its pillars.

74:4. The earth is melted, and all that dwell therein: I have established the pillars thereof.

74:5. I said to the wicked: Do not act wickedly: and to the sinners: Lift not up the horn.

74:6. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not iniquity against God.

74:7. For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert hills:

74:8. For God is the judge. One he putteth down, and another he lifteth up:

74:9. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture. And he hath poured it out from this to that: but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink.

74:10. But I will declare for ever: I will sing to the God of Jacob.

74:11. And I will break all the horns of sinners: but the horns of the just shall be exalted.

Psalms Chapter 75

Notus in Judaea.

God is known in his church: and exerts his power in protecting it. It alludes to the slaughter of the Assyrians, in the days of king Ezechias.

75:1. Unto the end, in praises, a psalm for Asaph: a canticle to the Assyrians.

75:2. In Judea God is known: his name is great in Israel.

75:3. And his place is in peace: and his abode in Sion:

75:4. There hath he broken the powers of bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle.

75:5. Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting hills.

75:6. All the foolish of heart were troubled. They have slept their sleep; and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands.

75:7. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, they have all slumbered that mounted on horseback.

75:8. Thou art terrible, and who shall resist thee? from that time thy wrath.

From that time, etc.... From the time that thy wrath shall break out.

75:9. Thou hast caused judgment to be heard from heaven: the earth trembled and was still,

75:10. When God arose in judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.

75:11. For the thought of man shall give praise to thee: and the remainders of the thought shall keep holiday to thee.

75:12. Vow ye, and pay to the Lord your God: all you that are round about him bring presents. To him that is terrible,

75:13. Even to him who taketh away the spirit of princes: to the terrible with the kings of the earth.

Psalms Chapter 76

Voce mea.

The faithful have recourse to God in trouble of mind, with confidence in his mercy and power.

76:1. Unto the end, for Idithun, a psalm of Asaph.

76:2. I cried to the Lord with my voice; to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me.

76:3. In the day of my trouble I sought God, with my hands lifted up to him in the night, and I was not deceived. My soul refused to be comforted:

76:4. I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit swooned away.

76:5. My eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not.

76:6. I thought upon the days of old: and I had in my mind the eternal years.

76:7. And I meditated in the night with my own heart: and I was exercised and I swept my spirit.

76:8. Will God then cast off for ever? or will he never be more favourable again?

76:9. Or will he cut off his mercy for ever, from generation to generation?

76:10. Or will God forget to shew mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies?

76:11. And I said, Now have I begun: this is the change of the right hand of the most High.

76:12. I remembered the works of the Lord: for I will be mindful of thy wonders from the beginning.

76:13. And I will meditate on all thy works: and will be employed in thy inventions.

76:14. Thy way, O God, is in the holy place: who is the great God like our God?

76:15. Thou art the God that dost wonders. Thou hast made thy power known among the nations:

76:16. With thy arm thou hast redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and of Joseph.

76:17. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled.

76:18. Great was the noise of the waters: the clouds sent out a sound. For thy arrows pass:

76:19. The voice of thy thunder in a wheel. Thy lightnings enlightened the world: the earth shook and trembled.

76:20. Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in many waters: and thy footsteps shall not be known.

76:21. Thou hast conducted thy people like sheep, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalms Chapter 77

Attendite.

God’s great benefits to the people of Israel, notwithstanding their ingratitude.

77:1. Understanding for Asaph. Attend, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

77:2. I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter propositions from the beginning.

Propositions.... Deep and mysterious sayings. By this it appears that the historical facts of ancient times, commemorated in this psalm, were deep and mysterious: as being figures of great truths appertaining to the time of the New Testament.

77:3. How great things have we heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

77:4. They have not been hidden from their children, in another generation. Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers, and his wonders which he hath done.

77:5. And he set up a testimony in Jacob: and made a law in Israel. How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children:

77:6. That another generation might know them. The children that should be born and should rise up, and declare them to their children.

77:7. That they may put their hope in God and may not forget the works of God: and may seek his commandments.

77:8. That they may not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation. A generation that set not their heart aright: and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

77:9. The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: they have turned back in the day of battle.

77:10. They kept not the covenant of God: and in his law they would not walk.

77:11. And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders that he had shewn them.

77:12. Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis.

77:13. He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.

77:14. And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire.

77:15. He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.

77:16. He brought forth water out of the rock: and made streams run down as rivers.

77:17. And they added yet more sin against him: they provoked the most High to wrath in the place without water.

77:18. And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their desires.

77:19. And they spoke ill of God: they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

77:20. Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide a table for his people?

77:21. Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.

77:22. Because they believed not in God: and trusted not in his salvation.

77:23. And he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven.

77:24. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven.

77:25. Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.

77:26. He removed the south wind from heaven: and by his power brought in the south-west wind.

77:27. And he rained upon them flesh as dust: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.

77:28. And they fell in the midst of their camp, round about their pavilions.

77:29. So they did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and he gave them their desire:

77:30. they were not defrauded of that which they craved. As yet their meat was in their mouth:

77:31. And the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones amongst them, and brought down the chosen men of Israel.

77:32. In all these things they sinned still: and they believed not for his wondrous works.

77:33. And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.

77:34. When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned, and came to him early in the morning.

77:35. And they remembered that God was their helper: and the most high God their redeemer.

77:36. And they loved him with their mouth: and with their tongue they lied unto him:

77:37. But their heart was not right with him: nor were they counted faithful in his covenant.

77:38. But he is merciful, and will forgive their sins: and will not destroy them. And many a time did he turn away his anger: and did not kindle all his wrath.

77:39. And he remembered that they are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not.

77:40. How often did they provoke him in the desert: and move him to wrath in the place without water?

77:41. And they turned back and tempted God: and grieved the holy one of Israel.

77:42. They remembered not his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of him that afflicted them:

77:43. How he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Tanis.

77:44. And he turned their rivers into blood, and their showers that they might not drink.

77:45. He sent amongst them divers sorts of flies, which devoured them: and frogs which destroyed them.

77:46. And he gave up their fruits to the blast, and their labours to the locust.

77:47. And he destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.

77:48. And he gave up their cattle to the hail, and their stock to the fire.

77:49. And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.

77:50. He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.

77:51. And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.

77:52. And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

77:53. And he brought them out in hope and they feared not: and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

77:54. And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: the mountain which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the Gentiles before them: and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.

77:55. And he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.

77:56. Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: and they kept not his testimonies.

77:57. And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.

77:58. They provoked him to anger on their hills: and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.

77:59. God heard, and despised them, and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.

77:60. And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.

77:61. And he delivered their strength into captivity: and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.

77:62. And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.

77:63. Fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not lamented.

77:64. Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.

77:65. And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.

77:66. And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: he put them to an everlasting reproach.

77:67. And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

77:68. But he chose the tribe of Juda, mount Sion which he loved.

77:69. And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever.

As of unicorns.... That is, firm and strong like the horn of the unicorn. This is one of the chiefest of the propositions of this psalm, foreshewing the firm establishment of the one, true, and everlasting sanctuary of God, in his church.

77:70. And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,

77:71. To feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance.

77:72. And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Psalms Chapter 78

Deus, venerunt gentes.

The church in time of persecution prayeth for relief. It seems to belong to the time of the Machabees.

78:1. A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.

78:2. They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.

78:3. They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.

78:4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

78:5. How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?

78:6. Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

78:7. Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.

78:8. Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.

78:9. Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake:

78:10. Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:

78:11. Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.

78:12. And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

78:13. But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.

Psalms Chapter 79

Qui regis Israel.

A prayer for the church in tribulation, commemorating God’s former favours.

79:1. Unto the end, for them that shall be changed, a testimony for Asaph, a psalm.

79:2. Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel: thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep. Thou that sittest upon the cherubims, shine forth

79:3. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses. Stir up thy might, and come to save us.

79:4. Convert us, O God: and shew us thy face, and we shall be saved.

79:5. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy servant?

79:6. How long wilt thou feed us with the bread of tears: and give us for our drink tears in measure?

79:7. Thou hast made us to be a contradiction to our neighbours: and our enemies have scoffed at us.

79:8. O God of hosts, convert us: and shew thy face, and we shall be saved.

79:9. Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it.

79:10. Thou wast the guide of its journey in its sight: thou plantedst the roots thereof, and it filled the land.

79:11. The shadow of it covered the hills: and the branches thereof the cedars of God.

79:12. It stretched forth its branches unto the sea, and its boughs unto the river.

79:13. Why hast thou broken down the hedge thereof, so that all they who pass by the way do pluck it?

79:14. The boar out of the wood hath laid it waste: and a singular wild beast hath devoured it.

79:15. Turn again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard:

79:16. And perfect the same which thy right hand hath planted: and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.

79:17. Things set on fire and dug down shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

Things set on fire, etc.... So this vineyard of thine, almost consumed already, must perish, if thou continue thy rebukes.

79:18. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand: and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.

The man of thy right hand.... Christ.

79:19. And we depart not from thee, thou shalt quicken us: and we will call upon thy name.

79:20. O Lord God of hosts, convert us and shew thy face, and we shall be saved.

Psalms Chapter 80

Exultate Deo.

An invitation to a solemn praising of God.

80:1. Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for Asaph himself.

For the winepresses, etc.... Torcularibus. It either signifies a musical instrument, or that this psalm was to be sung at the feast of the tabernacles after the gathering in of the vintage.

80:2. Rejoice to God our helper: sing aloud to the God of Jacob.

80:3. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel: the pleasant psaltery with the harp.

80:4. Blow up the trumpet on the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity.

80:5. For it is a commandment in Israel, and a judgment to the God of Jacob.

80:6. He ordained it for a testimony in Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not.

80:7. He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in baskets.

80:8. Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee: I heard thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of contradiction.

In the secret place of tempest.... Heb., Of thunder. When thou soughtest to hide thyself from the tempest: or, when I came down to mount Sina, hidden from thy eyes in a storm of thunder.

80:9. Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken to me,

80:10. there shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange god.

80:11. For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

80:12. But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me.

80:13. So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall walk in their own inventions.

80:14. If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:

80:15. I should soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on them that troubled them.

80:16. The enemies of the Lord have lied to him: and their time shall be for ever.

Their time shall be forever.... Impenitent sinners shall suffer for ever.

80:17. And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock.

Psalms Chapter 81

Deus stetit.

An exhortation to judges and men in power.

81:1. A psalm for Asaph. God hath stood in the congregation of gods: and being in the midst of them he judgeth gods.

81:2. How long will you judge unjustly: and accept the persons of the wicked?

81:3. Judge for the needy and fatherless: do justice to the humble and the poor.

81:4. Rescue the poor; and deliver the needy out of the hand of the sinner.

81:5. They have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be moved.

81:6. I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High.

81:7. But you like men shall die: and shall fall like one of the princes.

81:8. Arise, O God, judge thou the earth: for thou shalt inherit among all the nations.

Psalms Chapter 82

Deus, quis similis.

A prayer against the enemies of God’s church.

82:1. A canticle of a psalm for Asaph.

82:2. O God, who shall be like to thee? hold not thy peace, neither be thou still, O God.

82:3. For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.