{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"PSA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Psalms","commonName":"Psalms","introduction":"The Hebrew title of this book is Tehilim (\"praises\" or \"hymns\"), for a leading feature in its contents is praise, though the word occurs in the title of only one Psalm (the hundred forty-fifth). The Greek title (in the Septuagint, a translation made two hundred years before Christ) is psalmoi, whence our word \"Psalms.\" This corresponds to the Hebrew word mizmoi by which sixty-five Psalms are designated in their inscriptions, and which the Syriac, a language like the Hebrew, uses for the whole book. It means, as does also the Greek name, an ode, or song, whose singing is accompanied by an instrument, particularly the harp (compare Ch1 16:4-8; Ch2 5:12-13). To some Psalms, the Hebrew word (shir) \"a song,\" is prefixed. Paul seems to allude to all these terms in Eph 5:19, \"singing . . . in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.\"\n\nTITLES.--To more than a hundred Psalms are prefixed inscriptions, which give one or more (and in one case, [Psalm 60], all) of these particulars: the direction to the musician, the name of the author or the instrument, the style of the music or of the poetry, the subject or occasion. The authority of these inscriptions has been disputed by some writers. They say that the earliest translators, as the Greek and Syriac, evince a disregard for their authority, by variations from a proper translation of some, altering others, and, in several instances, supplying titles to Psalms which, in Hebrew, had none. It is also alleged that the subject of a Psalm, as given in the title, is often inconsistent with its contents. But those translators have also varied from a right translation of many passages in the Bible, which all agree to be of good authority; and the alleged inconsistency may be shown, on more accurate investigation, not to exist. The admitted antiquity of these inscriptions, on the other hand, and even their obscurity, raise a presumption in their favor, while such prefaces to a composition accord with the usages of that age and part of the world (compare Isa 38:9).\n\n\"The Chief Musician\" was the superintendent of the music (compare \"to oversee,\" Ch1 15:21, Margin). \"To\" prefixed to this, means, \"pertaining to\" in his official character. This inscription is found in fifty-three Psalms and is attached to Habakkuk's prayer (Hab. 3:1-19). The same Hebrew preposition is prefixed to the name of the author and translated \"of,\" as \"a Psalm of David,\" \"of Asaph,\" except that to \"the sons of Korah,\" it is translated \"for,\" which is evidently wrong, as the usual direction, \"to the chief musician,\" is given, and no other authorship intimated. On the apparent exception to this last remark, see below, and see on Psa 88:1, title. The explanations of other particulars in the titles will be given as they occur.\n\nAUTHORS.--This book is often called \"The Psalms of David,\" he being the only author mentioned in the New Testament (Luk 20:42) and his name appearing in more titles than that of any other writer. Besides about one-half of the Psalms in which it thus appears, Psalms 2 and 95 are ascribed to him (Act 4:25 and Heb 4:7). He was probably the author of many others which appear without a name. He used great efforts to beautify the worship of the sanctuary. Among the two hundred eighty-eight Levites he appointed for singing and performing instrumental music, we find mentioned the \"sons of Korah\" (Ch1 9:19); including Heman (Ch1 6:33-38); and also Asaph (Ch1 6:39-44); and Ethan (Ch1 15:17-19). God was doubtless pleased to endow these men with the inspiration of His Spirit, so that they used those poetic talents which their connection with the kindred art of music had led them to cultivate, in the production of compositions like those of their king and patron. To Asaph are ascribed twelve Psalms; to the sons of Korah, eleven, including the eighty-eighth, which is also ascribed to Heman, that being the only instance in which the name of the \"son\" (or descendant) is mentioned; and to Ethan, one. Solomon's name appears before the seventy-second and hundred twenty-seventh; and that of Moses before the ninetieth. Special questions respecting authorship will be explained as they arise.\n\nCONTENTS.--As the book contains one hundred fifty independent compositions, it is not susceptible of any logical analysis. The Jews having divided it into five books, corresponding to the Five Books of Moses (First, Psalms 1-42; Second, Psalms 43-72; Third, Psalms 73-89; Fourth, Psalms 90-106; Fifth, Psalms 107-150), many attempts have been made to discover, in this division, some critical or practical value, but in vain. Sundry efforts have been made to classify the Psalms by subject. Angus' Bible Hand Book is perhaps the most useful, and is appended.\n\nStill the Psalms have a form and character peculiar to themselves; and with individual diversities of style and subject, they all assimilate to that form, and together constitute a consistent system of moral truth. They are all poetical, and of that peculiar parallelism (see Introduction to the Poetical Books,) which distinguished Hebrew poetry. They are all lyrical, or songs adapted to musical instruments, and all religious lyrics, or such as were designed to be used in the sanctuary worship.\n\nThe distinguishing feature of the Psalms is their devotional character. Whether their matter be didactic, historical, prophetical, or practical, it is made the ground or subject of prayer, or praise, or both. The doctrines of theology and precepts of pure morality are here inculcated. God's nature, attributes, perfections, and works of creation, providence, and grace, are unfolded. In the sublimest conceptions of the most exalted verse, His glorious supremacy over the principalities of heaven, earth, and hell, and His holy, wise, and powerful control of all material and immaterial agencies, are celebrated. The great covenant of grace resting on the fundamental promise of a Redeemer, both alike the provisions of God's exhaustless mercy, is set forth in respect of the doctrines of regeneration by the Spirit, forgiveness of sins, repentance toward God, and faith toward Jesus Christ, while its glorious results, involving the salvation of men \"from the ends of the earth\" [Act 13:47], are proclaimed in believing, prophetic prayer and thankful praise. The personal history of the authors, and especially David's in its spiritual aspects, is that of God's people generally. Christian biography is edifying only as it is truth illustrated in experience, such as God's Word and Spirit produce. It may be factitious in origin and of doubtful authenticity. But here the experience of the truly pious is detailed, under divine influence, and \"in words which the Holy Ghost\" taught [Co1 2:13]. The whole inner life of the pious man is laid open, and Christians of all ages have here the temptations, conflicts, perplexities, doubts, fears, penitent moanings, and overwhelming griefs on the one hand, and the joy and hope of pardoning mercy, the victory over the seductions of false-hearted flatterers, and deliverance from the power of Satan on the other, with which to compare their own spiritual exercises. Here, too, are the fruits of that sovereign mercy, so often sought in earnest prayer, and when found, so often sung in rapturous joy, exhibited by patience in adversity, moderation in prosperity, zeal for God's glory, love for man, justice to the oppressed, holy contempt for the proud, magnanimity towards enemies, faithfulness towards friends, delight in the prosperity of Zion, and believing prayer for her enlargement and perpetuity.\n\nThe historical summaries of the Psalms are richly instructive. God's choice of the patriarchs, the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt, their exodus, temptations of God, rebellions and calamities in the wilderness, settlement in Canaan, backslidings and reformations, furnish illustrations of God's providential government of His people, individually and collectively, tending to exalt His adorable grace and abase human pride. But the promises and prophecies connected with these summaries, and elsewhere presented in the Psalms, have a far wider reach, exhibiting the relations of the book to the great theme of promise and prophecy:\n\nTHE MESSIAH AND HIS KINGDOM.--David was God's chosen servant to rule His people, as the head at once of the State and the Church, the lineal ancestor, \"according to the flesh\" [Act 2:30; Rom 1:3], of His adorable Son, and His type, in His official relations, both in suffering and in triumph. Generally, David's trials by the ungodly depicted the trials of Christ, and his final success the success of Christ's kingdom. Typically, he uses language describing his feelings, which only finds its full meaning in the feelings of Christ. As such it is quoted and applied in the New Testament. And further, in view of the great promise (Sa2 7:12-16) to him and his seed, to which such frequent reference is made in the Psalms, David was inspired to know, that though his earthly kingdom should perish, his spiritual would ever endure, in the power, beneficence, and glory of Christ's. In repeating and amplifying that promise, he speaks not only as a type, but \"being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne,\" he \"foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. His incarnation, humiliating sorrows, persecution, and cruel death are disclosed in the plaintive cries of a despairing sufferer; and His resurrection and ascension, His eternal priesthood, His royal dignity, His prophetical office, the purchase and bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit, the conversion of the nations, the establishment, increase, and perpetuity of the Church, the end of time, and the blessedness of the righteous who acknowledge, and the ruin of the wicked who reject this King in Zion, are predicted in the language of assured confidence and joy.\" While these great themes have supplied the people of God with a popular theology and a guide in religious experience and Christian morality, clothed in the language of devotion, they have provided an inspired liturgy in which the pious, of all creeds and sects, have, for nearly three thousand years, poured out their prayers and praises. The pious Jew, before the coming of Christ, mourned over the adversity, or celebrated the future glories, of Zion, in the words of her ancient king. Our Saviour, with His disciples, sang one of these hymns on the night on which He was betrayed [Mat 26:30]; He took from one the words in which He uttered the dreadful sorrows of His soul [Mat 27:46], and died with those of another on His lips [Luk 23:46]. Paul and Silas in the dungeon [Act 16:25], primitive Christians in their covert places of worship, or the costly churches of a later day, and the scattered and feeble Christian flocks in the prevalence of darkness and error through the Middle Ages, fed their faith and warmed their love with these consoling songs. Now, throughout the Christian world, in untold forms of version, paraphrase, and imitation, by Papists and Protestants, Prelatists and Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Methodists--men of all lands and all creeds, in public and private worship, God is still adored in the sentiments expressed in these venerable Psalms. From the tone of sorrow and suffering which pervade their earlier portions we are gradually borne on amid alternate conflicts and triumphs, mournful complaints and awakening confidence; as we approach the close the tones of sorrow grow feebler, and those of praise wax louder and stronger--till, in the exulting strains of the last Psalm, the chorus of earth mingles with the hallelujahs of the multitude, which no man can number, in the sanctuary above. \n\n\n\nNext: Psalms Chapter 1\n\n","order":19,"numberOfChapters":149,"sha256":"bce573c5d547438781f40f59aab598ce89543e427dcc5c370e3d07d4ea20b442","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PSA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PSA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":150,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PSA/150.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PSA","chapter":150},"totalNumberOfVerses":799},"chapter":{"number":40,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["a new song--(See on Psa 33:3). \n\nfear, and . . . trust--revere with love and faith.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Blessed-- (Psa 1:1; Psa 2:12). \n\nrespecteth--literally, \"turns towards,\" as an object of confidence. \n\nturn aside--from true God and His law to falsehood in worship and conduct.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["be reckoned up in order--(compare Psa 5:3; Psa 33:14; Isa 44:7), too many to be set forth regularly. This is but one instance of many. The use of the plural accords with the union of Christ and His people. In suffering and triumph, they are one with Him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than the mere expression of grateful devotion to God's service. He represents Christ as declaring that the sacrifices, whether vegetable or animal, general or special expiatory offerings, would not avail to meet the demands of God's law, and that He had come to render the required satisfaction, which he states was effected by \"the offering of the body of Christ\" [Heb 10:10], for that is the \"will of God\" which Christ came to fulfil or do, in order to effect man's redemption. We thus see that the contrast to the unsatisfactory character assigned the Old Testament offerings in Psa 40:6 is found in the compliance with God's law (compare Psa 40:7-8). Of course, as Paul and other New Testament writers explain Christ's work, it consisted in more than being made under the law or obeying its precepts. It required an \"obedience unto death\" [Phi 2:8], and that is the compliance here chiefly intended, and which makes the contrast with Psa 40:6 clear. \n\nmine ears hast thou opened--Whether allusion is made to the custom of boring a servant's ear, in token of voluntary and perpetual enslavement (Exo 21:6), or that the opening of the ear, as in Isa 48:8; Isa 50:5 (though by a different word in Hebrew) denotes obedience by the common figure of hearing for obeying, it is evident that the clause is designed to express a devotion to God's will as avowed more fully in Psa 40:8, and already explained. Paul, however, uses the words, \"a body hast thou prepared me\" [Heb 10:5], which are found in the Septuagint in the place of the words, \"mine ears hast thou opened.\" He does not lay any stress on this clause, and his argument is complete without it. It is, perhaps, to be regarded rather as an interpretation or free translation by the Septuagint, than either an addition or attempt at verbal translation. The Septuagint translators may have had reference to Christ's vicarious sufferings as taught in other Scriptures, as in Isa 53:4-11; at all events, the sense is substantially the same, as a body was essential to the required obedience (compare Rom 7:4; Pe1 2:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Then--in such case, without necessarily referring to order of time. \n\nLo, I come--I am prepared to do, &c. \n\nin the volume of the book--roll of the book. Such rolls, resembling maps, are still used in the synagogues. \n\nwritten of me--or on me, prescribed to me (Kg2 22:13). The first is the sense adopted by Paul. In either case, the Pentateuch, or law of Moses, is meant, and while it contains much respecting Christ directly, as Gen 3:15; Gen 49:10; Deu 18:15, and, indirectly, in the Levitical ritual, there is nowhere any allusion to David.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["I have preached--literally, \"announced good tidings.\" Christ's prophetical office is taught. He \"preached\" the great truths of God's government of sinners.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["may be rendered as an assertion, that God will not withhold (Psa 16:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["evils--inflicted by others. \n\niniquities--or penal afflictions, and sometimes calamities in the wide sense. This meaning of the word is very common (Psa 31:11; Psa 38:4; compare Gen 4:13, Cain's punishment; Gen 19:15, that of Sodom; Sa1 28:10, of the witch of En-dor; also Sa2 16:12; Job 19:29; Isa 5:18; Isa 53:11). This meaning of the word is also favored by the clause, \"taken hold of me,\" which follows, which can be said appropriately of sufferings, but not of sins (compare Job 27:20; Psa 69:24). Thus, the difficulties in referring this Psalm to Christ, arising from the usual reading of this verse, are removed. Of the terrible afflictions, or sufferings, alluded to and endured for us, compare Luk 22:39-44, and the narrative of the scenes of Calvary. \n\nmy heart faileth me-- (Mat 26:38), \"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.\" \n\ncannot look up--literally, \"I cannot see,\" not denoting the depression of conscious guilt, as Luk 18:13, but exhaustion from suffering, as dimness of eyes (compare Psa 6:7; Psa 13:3; Psa 38:10). The whole context thus sustains the sense assigned to iniquities.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["(Compare Psa 22:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Psa 5:11), though the former sense is not inconsistent with Christ's prayer for the forgiveness of His murderers, inasmuch as their confusion and shame might be the very means to prepare them for humbly seeking forgiveness (compare Act 2:37).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["for a reward--literally, \"in consequence of.\" \n\nAha--(Compare Psa 35:21, Psa 35:25).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["(Compare Psa 35:27). \n\nlove thy salvation--delight in its bestowal on others as well as themselves.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["A summary of his condition and hopes. \n\nthinketh upon--or provides for me. \"He was heard,\" \"when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save him from death\" [Heb 5:7].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Psalms Chapter 41\n\n"]}],"introduction":"In this Psalm a celebration of God's deliverance is followed by a profession of devotion to His service. Then follows a prayer for relief from imminent dangers, involving the overthrow of enemies and the rejoicing of sympathizing friends. In Heb 10:5, &c., Paul quotes Psa 40:6-8 as the words of Christ, offering Himself as a better sacrifice. Some suppose Paul thus accommodated David's words to express Christ's sentiments. But the value of his quotation would be thus destroyed, as it would have no force in his argument, unless regarded by his readers as the original sense of the passage in the Old Testament. Others suppose the Psalm describes David's feelings in suffering and joy; but the language quoted by Paul, in the sense given by him, could not apply to David in any of his relations, for as a type the language is not adapted to describe any event or condition of David's career, and as an individual representing the pious generally, neither he nor they could properly use it (see on Psa 40:7, below). The Psalm must be taken then, as the sixteenth, to express the feelings of Christ's human nature. The difficulties pertinent to this view will be considered as they occur. (Psa. 40:1-17)\n\nThe figures for deep distress are illustrated in Jeremiah's history (Jer 38:6-12). Patience and trust manifested in distress, deliverance in answer to prayer, and the blessed effect of it in eliciting praise from God's true worshippers, teach us that Christ's suffering is our example, and His deliverance our encouragement (Heb 5:7-8; Heb 12:3; Pe1 4:12-16). \n\ninclined--(the ear, Psa 17:6), as if to catch the faintest sigh.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PSA/40.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PSA","chapter":40},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PSA/41.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PSA","chapter":41},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PSA/39.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PSA","chapter":39},"numberOfVerses":13}