Psalms 75

A Psalm of David. Theodoret thinks this Psalm was composed by David during Saul’s persecution, when he was betrayed by those whom he took for friends, or not for his enemies: such as Doeg, the Ziphites, and many others. But the matter of this Psalm inclines me to consider it as a meditation, on some such occasion as moved him to pen the foregoing. For he blesses God in the latter part of it (ver. 7, 8.) for the victories he had got over his enemies, and for the peace he enjoyed: and yet complains in the beginning of it, of some men who molested him, and sought an occasion to do him a mischief. See 2 Sam. xxi. 18 — 20. where we read of three battles between his forces and the Philistines, after that mentioned in the argument of Psalm xxvii. when, it is likely, some of his own subjects took an opportunity to give him some disturbance. Ver.l. %JNTO thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit J] O Lord, to whom alone I betake myself for safety, and under whose protection nothing can hurt me; I make my most earnest prayer unto thee, that thou wilt defend me. Do not deny me, I most humbly beseech thee; lest, while I am so importunate with thee, and confide so entirely in thee, and yet thou takest no notice of me,. I look like one that is abandoned by thee to destruction. To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, the Servant of the Lord. This Psalm, composed by David, and delivered by him to the chief master of music in the tabernacle, seems to have been penned, as the former and many others were, during the persecution he suflered from Saul.- It is hard to say, to what part of that time it peculiarly belongs. The most probable opinion is, that it hath respect to the beginning of it: when Saul had a jealousy of him, and a hatred to him; but hid it secretly in his heart, and counterfeited friendship to him, and desire of his alliance; (as you read 1 Sam. xviii.) and yet could not carry the matter so cunningly, and so wholly suppress and conceal his intentions to destroy him, but that they broke out in some fits; (as you find there, veT. 11. and in the next chapter, ver. 10.) and by the very preferment he gave him, made it plainly appear he designed his ruin. This treachery David here describes (without naming Saul, to whom be preserved a due reverence); and opposes thereunto the fidelity and goodness of God, who rules the whole world, and takes care of beasts as well as men; and therefore would not, he hoped, desert him, nor any else that depend on him, and are bis faithful servants; as he, in a special manner, professed himself, and was obliged to be. To the chief Musician. Al-taschith. A Psalm or Song of Asaph, I take this Psalm to have been made by Asaph the seer, mentioned 2 Chron. xxix. 30. (see Psal. lxxiii,) after the great deliverance, which, by the strange destruction of Sennacherib’s army, God gave the good king Hezekiah. For whose use Asaph composed this Psalm, and delivered it to the chief master of music in the tabernacle; that he might therein make his public profession of his. obligations to Almighty God, and his resolution to serve him, and to depend upon him: as he advises all men else to do, if they would not be undone; or if they hoped for. any good, of which he is the sole and absolute dispenser. If Al-taschith be more than a note, that this Psalm was to be sung like to the fifty-seventh, and those that follow; it’ may signify as much as, thou shalt not, or wilt not, destroy: and be applied either to Sennacherib, who, the prophet told them, should not accomplish his design of destroying them, as he had done other nations, (2 Kings xix. 17. 2 Chron. xxvii. 14.) or to God, who had not given him commission, as he pretended, to destroy Jerusalem, (2 Kings xviii. 25.) but would defend it, (2 Kings xix. 34.) and not suffer it to be laid desolate. Symmachus gives a more spiritual sense of the word, and calls this a triumphal Song concerning immortality; be-* cause it contains, as Theodoret explains it, a prediction of the righteous judgment of God in the destruction of the wicked, and rewarding the lovers of virtue: which should admonish us not to suffer any godly thoughts we have in our mind to perish; but to preserve them whole and entire, that we may inherit immortality. What is to be understood by a Psalm-Song, see in the Argument of Psalm Ixvii. Ver. . (UNTO thee, O Pod, do ive give thanks, unto thee do ive give’thanks: for that thy name is near thy tvondrous

Psalms 75:1

J. HE transgression of the vjicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. The wicked may use many artsto disguise and cloak his evil intentions; but his actions, directly contrary to all the laws of humanity, as well as the law of God, discover what he is, and make me resolve not to trust him; because, without all doubt, he hath no regard to God, nor will be restrained by the fear of him from doing me still more mischief.

Psalms 75:2

Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle. Grant my desires, therefore, when with ardent affection I seek thy favour, and, renouncing all dependance on human succour, implore thy help; which thou art wont to send from thy holy place. For heflattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.] Though he flatter and soothe up himself in his own conceit, imagining he carries things so cunningly and smoothly, that none can accuse him; yet at length his iniquity shall be found out, and make him odious to all the world.

Psalms 75:3

Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity; which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. Let not that destruction seize on me, which is the portion of the wicked: nor suffer inc to be involved in the same punishment with those pernicious wretches, who make no conscience what villanics they commit; and yet pretend the greatest friendship to their neighbours, when they design and are contriving their ruin. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.’] When he pretends great kindness to me, and professes I am dear to him, his meaning is to do me mischief, and to cheat and ensnare me into danger. He was once a better man, and better affected towards me; but now his passions have so blinded bis judgment, and perverted his will, that he knows not what belongs to justice and equity, much less to goodness and charity.

Psalms 75:4

Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. It is fit that they suffer as they have done, and reap the fruit of their manifold wickedness: dispense a reward to them according to their works; and deal with them (which is the measure whereby I desire thou wilt proceed with me) as they have dealt with others. He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth Mm– self in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.] For’ whatsoever he may say in public of his affection to me, when he is retired he is contriving how to ruin me. He* muses of nothing else when he lies down to sleep, and when he awakes: and is not transported merely by a sudden fit of jealousy and anger against me; but hath set himself (with an obstinate resolution to persist in it) in a course so void of all piety, justice, or charity, that there is no wickedness, though never so abominable, at which he sticks, to com-* pass his design to destroy me.

Psalms 75:5

Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. I know thou wilt: because they regard not the wonderful things thou hast done for me, and by. me; particularly that great work (which is to be ascribed to thy power alone) of making me their king; thou wilt utterly overturn them without any hope of their being raised up again. Thy mercy (O Lord) is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the cloztds.] My comfort is, that ■ his hatred and falsehood cannot be so great, but thy goodness and loving-kindness, O Lord, and thy faithfulness to thy word, are infinitely greater: on these I rely, which I’ know will not deceive me; being no less conspicuousand - constant (as well as unmeasurable) than the heavens.

Psalms 75:6

Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. And I ought never to forget (that which they neglect) the singular providence of the Lord over me; whom I therefore bless and praise, because he heard my prayer when I was in distress; and desire all ages may ever praise him. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.] Thy -justice, also, in the administrations of all affairs, appears as visibly, and is as unmoveable, as the highest mountains; which the greatest power on earth cannot shake, nor make to bend to their inclinations. The * deepest plots they can lay arc shallow, add easily disappointed by thee; whose orders and decrees shall be executed and brought to pass, by ways and means that we cannot fathom: and therefore I will trust in thee, Lord; whosecareful providence extends not only to men, but to beasts also, which have no sense of thee.

Psalms 75:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is to me instead of a fortress and shield, when my enemies assault me: I heartily confided in him, that he would defend me; and, behold, he sent seasonable succour to me, (2 Sam. xxi. 17.) which fills my heart with such exceeding joy, that (as I cannot express it, so) I am not able to contain myself;, but I must compose a hymn in his praise, and say, -, How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.] For if thou hast such care of their wellbeing, O God; thy loving-kindness, sure, and tender merc^, are incomparably greater to those that know thee, and depend upon thee. It is impossible to express the value of them; and to know how rich, how safe, and secure, they are, who, in all troubles and dangers, can confide in thee for thy powerful protection.

Psalms 75:8

Tlie Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. It is the Lord that gives courage and strength to those that are on my side: he is the fortress that preserves in safety him whom he hath appointed to be the king of his people: They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness

Psalms 75:9

Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever. Whose good and happiness I seek; beseeching thee, O Lord, to preserve thy people, and to pour down thy blessings upon those whom thou hast appropriated to thyself, out of all other nations: take care of them, as a shepherd doth of his flock; and make them victorious over all their enemies, both now and in all future generations.