1. A Psalm. By Asaph. Only good to Israel (is) God, to the pure of heart. This last expression is added to limit or explain the application of the national name Israel, as here denoting not the race or nation, simply as such considered, but the true Israel, the sincere and spiritual members of the ancient church. To these God is good, and only good, i. e. never otherwise, never unmerciful, or even indifferent. This is the theme of the whole psalm, and the peculiar form in which it is propounded has reference to the previous conflicts and misgivings of the Psalmist, through which he had passed in reaching the conviction here expressed. As if he had said, “ I once thought otherwise, but now I know that God is only good, and always good, to the true Israel, his real people.” He then goes on to describe the conflicts thus tacitly referred to, first, by a statement of the facts out of which they sprang, ver. 2-11, then of the effect which these produced upon his mind, ver. 12-16, and then of the means by which he had been disabused, ver. 17-20, and under the influence of which he now condemns his own irrationality, ver. 21, 22, adores the grace by which he had been rescued from the consequences of his error, ver. 23, 24, and concludes with an expression of his hearty reliance upon that grace for his safety and happiness hereafter, ver. 25-28. There is not the slightest ground for doubting the correctness of the title, which ascribes the psalm to Asaph, the contemporary of David and his chief musician, and himself moreover an inspired psalmist. This last fact, which is matter of recorded history (see above, on Ps. 1. 1), together vnih the fact that where only one name is mentioned in the title of a psalm it is uniformly that of the writer, may suffice to set aside the supposition that Asaph is only named as the performer.
2. And I (or as for me), my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. The pronoun in the first clause is emphatic. I, who so confidently make this profession of my faith in God’s unchanging goodness, am one whose feet were almost gone, literally inclined or hent, either from the straight course or from an erect position. See above, on Ps. lxii. 3 (2), where the same verb is applied to a wall inclined or bent by violence. The phrases rendered almost and well nigh strictly mean like little and like nothing, and imply that it wanted little or nothing of a fearful fall on his part, in other words, that he had narrowly escaped it. Slipped, literally poured out, which seems to be a figure both for weakness and divergence. Instead of pursuing a direct course, or remaining in a firm position, his steps were scattered and without effect, like water poured upon the ground. See above, on Ps. xxii. 15 (14).
3. For I was envious at the proud; the peace of wicked (men) / see (and must see). He now proceeds to state more distinctly the nature of the fall from which he had so narrowly escaped. It was the sin and folly of denying the justice and fidelity of God because of providential inequalities and mysteries. The proud or insolent, a general description of the wicked, as in Ps. v. 5 (4). The common version in both places (foolish) is less probable, but does not materially change the sense. In the last clause, he reverts to his experience at an earlier date, and expresses himself as he might have done at that time. This relation of the clauses may be rendered clearer by supplying a word or phrase between them. “ I was envious at the proud (and said), the peace,” &c. Peace, as the negation and the opposite of all disturbing causes, really suggests the idea of prosperity in general. The future form of the verb has respect, not to the date of composition, but to that of the events recorded, when the Psalmist not only saw, but expected long to see, the undisturbed prosperity of sinners.
4. For there are no hands at their death; and fat, i. e. healthy or robust, (is) their strength. Some understand the first clause to mean that they are not bound or forced to die like other men. The more obvious sense is, that when they do die, they are not in bonds or chains like other men, but free, common figures for distress or suffering and its opposite.
5. In the labour of man they are not, they are not partakers in the common troubles of humanity, and with mankind they are not smitten (or afflicted). The use of the future is precisely the same as in ver. 3. They are not, and to all appearance never will be, sharers in the common calamities of life.
6. Therefore pride has enchained them, the garb of violence (injustice or cruelty) covers them. The first verb strictly means to encircle or adorn the neck, perhaps with allusion to the carriage of that member as indicative of pride. See Isa. iii. 16, Job xv. 26.
7. Their eyes stand out with fatness; the imaginations of the heart pass (out, come forth, or are disclosed). The common version of the last clause, they have more than heart could wish, assumes as the literal meaning of the words, they sur2)ass the desires of their heart. According to the other construction above given, the meaning is that as their eyes stand out with fatness, so their hearts overflow with evil thoughts. Compare Mat. xii. 35, XV. 19, Mark vii. 21, Luke ii. 35, vi. 45.
8. They mock and speak in wickedness (or malice); oppression from on high they speak. To speak oppression is to speak words tending to the injury of others. From on liiyh, proudly, with arrogant contempt of others. They speak as if from a superior position.
9. T’liey set their mouth in heaven, and their tongue goes on earth. The idea in the first clause is the same as in the last clause of the foregoing verse. Thej’^ speak as if they thought themselves superior beings, their mouth in heaven and their tongue on earth. Goes, runs, is actively employed.
10. Therefore he brings hack his people hither, and waters of fulness are wrung out to them (or drained by them). This obscure verse admits of several interpretations, the most natural of which understands the sense to be, that God still suffers or requires his people to survey the painful spectacle and drain the bitter draught presented by the undisturbed prosperity of wicked men. According to the masoretic reading in the margin of the Hebrew Bible, the first verb is intransitive, his people shall (or must) return hither. See above, on Ps. xiv. 7, liii. 7 (6).
11. And they say, how should God know, and (how) can there he knowledge in the Highest? Some interpreters regard these as the words of the prosperous sinners whom he has been describing. But according to the sense just put upon the tenth verse, the eleventh must express the misgivings of God’s people, with respect to the providential inequalities in question. When still brought back to the sight of these, they are constrained to ask how they can possibly be reconciled with the hypothesis of God’s omniscience. This is much more natural than to suppose that the sinners themselves admit the being of a God, and yet gratuitously question his omniscience. In the latter case the how would be unmeaning; in the former, it is the most natural expression of the doubt supposed. An atheist, whether theoretical or practical, would hardly ask, how can God know? Even a wicked theist would be rather apt to say, he does not know. But nothing can be more appropriate in the mouth of a perplexed and tempted believer than the question, how can God know this and yet suffer it?
12. Lo, these are wicked (men), and (yet they are) secure for ever, they increase strength (or substance). These are still the words of the perplexed believer, expressing his surprise at the prosperity of sinners. See, these are wicked men, and yet instead of being wretched, or prospering only for a little while, they are prosperers of eterj^ity, perpetually prospered and at ease, secure from change. See above, on Ps. xxx. 7. Instead of losing what they have, they still gain more, and go on adding to their wealth, and to the power which it gives them. See above, on Ps. lx. 14 (12).
13. Only (in) vain have I cleansed my heart, and in innocence have washed my hands. These may be taken either indefinitely as the words of any person in the painful situation just described, or more specifically as the words of the Psalmist, by whom the whole class was, in fact, represented. They contain the inference which would be naturally drawn in such a situation, even by a true believer, but one tempted to repine and doubt by the sight of providential enigmas. “ Since, then, it is the wicked who enjoy God’s favour, all my efforts to avoid sin and to do his will have been gratuitous and fruitless.” With the first words of the verse compare Ps. xxxix. 6, 12 (5,11).
14. And I have been smitten all the day, and my chastisement (has been inflicted) every morning, literally at (or in) the mornings. A similar form of expression occurs twice in Job vii. 18. Smitten, literally touched, i. e. by the hand of God, a common expression for affliction, and especially for bodily disease considered as a divine judgment. The same idea was meant to be conveyed by the common version (plagued.) The psalmist here contrasts his own afflictions with the undisturbed enjoyments of his wicked neighbours. “ While they, though wicked, still increase in wealth and seem secure for ever, I, who have faithfully endeavoured to avoid sin and to do the will of God, am subjected every day, and all day, to privation and distress.”
15. If I have said, I will declare thus, behold, the generation of thy sons I have perfidiously treated. This is equivalent to saying, if I did say so, I should be acting falsely towards thy children. It is indeed the only Hebrew form in which such a hypothetical proposition could well be clothed. Said^ i.e. to myself, proposed it, formed the purpose. Thus declare, i. e. publicly express my doubts and sceptical misgivings. This, as it has been well observed, the true believer never does, until he is able to announce his conflict and his victory together. Behold, or lo, is here equivalent to our idiomatic why then, meaning in that case, or on that supposition, and expressing at the same time some surprise at his own suggestion as a strange one. The generation of thy sons, the contemporary race of true believers, called the sons of God, not only as the objects of his love, but as partakers of his nature (2 Pet. i. 4). Treated perfidiously, proved false to them, by weakening the foundation of their hope, instead of strengthening their faith and allaying their misgivings. See above, on Ps. xxv. 3.
16. And I meditated to know this; a trouble (was) it in my eyes. Although he abstained from openly expressing what he thought, he still did think, he pondered the whole matter, with a view to understand it, to discover some solution of the mystery, which not only puzzled but distressed him. The apparent inequality of God’s providential dealings was a toil, a trouble, an unhappiness in his esteem.
17. Until I come to tJte sanctuaries of God, I will consider (or observe) their end. The futures have reference, as in ver. 3, 5, to the date of the anterior experience here recorded. “ But I said to myself, I will wait till I come into God’s presence and inquire of him, and then, or in the mean time, I will look at or attend to the end as well as the beginning and the progress of their lives.” The plural form holy places, is the same as in Ps. lxviii. 36(35). It denotes the sanctuary in its whole extent, as the earthly residence of God, and the place where he communed with his people. See above, on Ps. xxviii. 2.
18. Only in slippery places thou wilt set them, or art setting them, (and now) thou hast let (or mside) them fall into destruction. However honourable and happy their position may appear to themselves, the Psalmist can see nothing but its danger, as implied in his use of the word only. Smoothnesses, smooth or slippery places, where their foothold is precarious and fall inevitable. He sees God, by his providential favours, placing them in this desired but fearful situation, and then allowing them to drop into destruction. The last word in Hebrew occurs only here and in the next psalm, where it means ruins. If this sense be adopted here, we must suppose a change of figure and an allusion to the fall, not of a man from a slippery precipice, but of a building crumbled by decay or violence.
19. How are they (brought) to desolation as (in) a moment! They have ceased, they are consumed iiith terrors! He here expresses his surprise at the abruptness and completeness of their ruin. The meaning of the last clause seams to be, that their very apprehensions were sufficient to destroy them, much more the actual experience of what they apprehended.
29. As a dream on waking, Lord, in wa,king, their image thou wilt scorn. The word translated image means an appearance, as opposed to the substance or reality. See above, on Ps. xxxix. 7 (6). The present prosperity of wicked men will seem hereafter, and to God’s eye now seems, like an empty dream, worthy only of contemptuous oblivion. The only dubious expression in the verse is that translated waking in the second clause, which is entirely different from the one so rendered in the first clause. The Hebrew phrase (“1^X?2) is used in more than fifty other places, and in all of them means in the city. See, for example, Ps. lv. 10 (9). This meaning is retained by some interpreters in the case before us. The reference will then be either to the holy city, as in Ps. lxxii. 16, or to the city where the previous scene is supposed to have been laid, as in Ps. xxxi. 22 (21). The old interpretation takes the word as an infinitive, from a verb which, however, is always transitive, and means to aivaJcen, except, perhaps, in Job viii. 6f and in Ps. xxxv. 23 above. To this interpretation it is furthermore objected, that it supposes an unusual contraction (T^S for 1*ITT3), and that the sense which it conveys is an incongruous one. But that God should despise them in the act of waking is, to say the least, as intelligible as that he should despise them m the city. In either case, the general meaning of the sentence is too clear to be mistaken.
21. For my heart is soured, and (i)i or as to) my reins I am pierced. The Hebrew verbs are of the future form, although really relating to past time, which the psalmist’s memory recalls as a state of things then likely to continue. See above on ver 3, 5. The verbs are also properly reflexives, my heart exacerbates itself, I pierce myself, and are perhaps intended to describe his sufferings as the fruit of his own sin and folly.
22. And I (am) brutish and know not (the true state of the case); a least have I been with thee. The last noun is in the plural number (beasts), as if to signify a beast by way of eminence, in which sense it is literally applied to one of the wonders of the animal kingdom (Job xl. 15). With the first clause compare Prov. xxx. 2, and see above, on Ps. xlix. 11 (10). These strong expressions contain an acknowledgment of his own irrationality in questioning God’s faithfulness and kindness. In this verse there is an insensible transition from the present to the past, from the ideal to the real time of the events in question. With thee suggests an aggravating circumstance, to wit, that this folly was committed in the presence of God, and as it were in his society. See above, on Ps. xviii. 26, 27 (25, 26).
23. And (yet) 2 (am) still with thee; thou hast held (me) by my right hand. Notwithstanding his ungrateful’ and irrational conduct in God’s presence, he had not been driven from it, as he justly might have been. The word translated still properly means always, and denotes that there had been no change or interruption in the previous relation of the parties. There is a perfectly analogous usage of the French toujnurs. In the last clause he seems to return to the metaphor with which he set out. As the fatal error which he had escaped is in ver. 2 represented as a fall, so here his preservation from it is ascribed to God’s having held him up by his right hand. See above, on Ps. xvii. 5, xli. 13 (12), lxiii. 9 (8).
24. In (or by) thy counsel thou wilt guide me, and after glory thou wilt take me. The form of the original is such that it may either express consent or confident expectation; but the latter in this case really includes the former. By thy counsel, thy instruction and advice, considered as a means of safety; or in thy counsel, i. e. in the execution of thy plan or purpose, as the end to be accomplished. The last clause is obscure. To the common version (and afterward receive me to glory) it has been objected, that it takes the preposition after as an adverb, and assumes an unusual sense and construction of the verb, and also that it makes the guidance and the glory too distinct and successive. The construction which it is proposed to substitute is, thou wilt take me after glory, i. e. make me overtake it, cause me to attain it, bring me to it. The same construction may be made to yield another sense, to wit, after honouring me here thou wilt receive me to thyself, after honour thou wilt take vie. This, it is true, is liable to some of the objections brought against the usual construction. But the choice at best is one of difficulties, and some of the objections spring entirely from the wish to exclude a reference to a future state, which, however, is as evident in this verse as it is in ver. 16,19, if interpreted in any natural and reasonable manner.
25. Whom have 1 in heaven? And with thee I have not desired (any) upon earth. The literal translation of the first clause is, who (is) to me in heaven, i. e. what protector or provider? The idea of another besides God may be supplied in this clause from the next, where with thee can denote either combination or comparison. I have desired none in addition or in preference to thee; thou art alone and all-sufficient.
26. Spent is my flesh and my heart; the rock of my heart and my portion (is) God to eternity. The first clause is by some understood as meaning even if ox even when my flesh, &c. But the Psalmist rather assumes the actual occurrence of the extreme case here described, or places himself in it as an ideal situation. Flesh and heart, body and soul, the whole man, or the whole life, outward and inward, bodily and mental. The rock of my heart, the support of my life, that on which it rests as on a solid basis. The idea is not simply that of strength but of a strong foundation. See above, on Ps. xviii. 3 (2). My portion, the source of my subsistence and my happiness. See above, on Ps. xvi. 5, and with the whole verse compare Job xix. 25-27.
27. For lo, those far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all (or every one) whoring from thee. This verse assigns his reason for relying upon God and making him his portion. Those far from thee, literally, thy far (ones). They certainly will perish, for all such have perished heretofore. The union between God and his people being often represented by the figure of a conjugal relation, their violation of the covenant is spoken of as spiritual whoredom or adultery. See above on Ps. xlv. 1, and compare Lev. XX. 6, Num. xiv. 33. In the same sense our Saviour calls the unfaithful Israel of his day a wicked and adulterous generation. See Mat. xii. 39, xvi. 4, Mark viii. 38. The persons threatened with destruction here are not merely sinners in general, but the wicked members of the ancient church or chosen people in particular.
28. And I, or as for me—the approach of God to me (is) good; I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my trust, to declare all thy doings. The absolute nominative at the beginning puts himself in strong contrast with the apostates of the foregoing verse. Compare the beginning of ver. 2, 23, above. The nearness or approach of God is an ambiguous expression, as in Isa. lviii. 2, where it may either mean God’s drawing near to the people or their drawing near to him. In the case before us both may be implied, as in James iv. 8, both are expressed. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. To me may be connected either with approach, as in Ps. xxvii. 2, or with good, as in ver. 1 above. Good is here to be taken in the absolute sense of the sum num bonam or chief good. The meaning is not merely that nearness to God is a good thing in itself, or a useful thing to man, but that it comprehends whatever he can wish or hope for. “ Let apostates wander far from God and perish; I am resolved to seek my highest happiness in being near him.” The Lord Jehovah is a combination expressive of God’s sovereignty}’, self-existence, and covenant relation to his people. My trust, my hiding-place or refuge. See above, on Ps. xi. 1. The last clause shews that he wishes to be something more than a mere passive beneficiary. He desires not only to enjoy but to celebrate God’s goodness. The word translated doings is applied both to acts and to affairs or business.
