Psalms 105 commentary

Our devotion is here stirred up, that we may stir up ourselves to praise God. Seek his strength; that is, his grace; the strength of his Spirit to work in us that which is good, which we cannot do but by strength derived from him, for which he will be sought. Seek to have his favour to eternity, therefore continue seeking it while living in this world; for he will not only be found, but he will reward those that diligently seek him.

Let us remember the Redeemer's marvellous works, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. Though true Christians are few number, strangers and pilgrims upon earth, yet a far better inheritance than Canaan is made sure to them by the covenant of God; and if we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, none can do us any harm. Afflictions are among our mercies. They prove our faith and love, they humble our pride, they wean us from the world, and quicken our prayers. Bread is the staff which supports life; when that staff is broken, the body fails and sinks to the earth. The word of God is the staff of spiritual life, the food and support of the soul: the sorest judgment is a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Such a famine was sore in all lands when Christ appeared in the flesh; whose coming, and the blessed effect of it, are shadowed forth in the history of Joseph. At the appointed time Christ was exalted as Mediator; all the treasures of grace and salvation are at his disposal, perishing sinners come to him, and are relieved by him.

As the believer commonly thrives best in his soul when under the cross; so the church also flourishes most in true holiness, and increases in number, while under persecution. Yet instruments shall be raised up for their deliverance, and plagues may be expected by persecutors. And see the special care God took of his people in the wilderness. All the benefits bestowed on Israel as a nation, were shadows of spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in Christ Jesus. Having redeemed us with his blood, restored our souls to holiness, and set us at liberty from Satan's bondage, he guides and guards us all the way. He satisfies our souls with the bread of heaven, and the water of life from the Rock of salvation, and will bring us safely to heaven. He redeems his servants from all iniquity, and purifies them unto himself, to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

PSALM 105

The Psalmist magnifies the singular grace of God displayed in selecting and freely adopting one people from amongst all nations of the world. To show that it was not in word only that he had made a covenant with Abraham and his offspring, God did not cease, after having delivered them from Egypt, to confer upon them innumerable benefits; and his design in this was, that those who had been delivered might on their part faithfully keep his covenant, and devote themselves unfeignedly to his service. This psalm has no title in the Hebrew or Chaldee, but in the Vulgate, Septuagint, Æthiopic, and Arabic versions, the hallelujah which concludes the preceding psalm is prefixed as the inscription. The first fifteen verses correspond with the first part of a song of thanksgiving, which David composed to be sung after the ark had been brought from Obed-edom to Zion. — See 1 Chronicles 15:8-22. Hence some conclude, that David was its inspired penman, and that he probably enlarged it at some subsequent period of his history, that it might supply a more complete commemoration of God’s signal and extraordinary goodness towards the Israelites from the days of Abraham to their final settlement in the land of Canaan; while others conclude, that it was enlarged by some Hebrew bard, at the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity. This psalm bears a strong resemblance to the 78th, as well in the subject as in the style, except perhaps that the diction here is rather of a more simple cast.

Psalm 105:1-5

1. Praise ye Jehovah; invoke his name: announce his works among the peoples. 2. Sing ye to him: sing psalms to him: speak ye of all his wonders. 3. Rejoice ye in his holy name: In the French version it is, “Praise ye his holy name.” Hammond, agreeably to this, would read, “Praise ye the name of his holiness;” thinking that ב, beth, in, is a pleonasm. let the heart of those who seek Jehovah rejoice. 4. Seek ye Jehovah, and his strength: seek his face continually. 5. Remember the marvelous works which he hath performed; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.

1 Praise ye Jehovah, etc. The object of these opening words simply is, that the offspring of Abraham should place all their blessedness in the free adoption of God. It was indeed a blessing not to be despised that they had been created men, that they had been cherished in the world by God’s fatherly care, and that they had received sustenance at his hand; but it was a far more distinguished privilege to have been chosen to be his peculiar people. While the whole human race are condemned in Adam, the condition of the Israelites was so different from all other nations, as to give them ground to boast, that they were consecrated to God. This is the reason why the prophet heaps together so many words in commendation of this grace. He does not treat of the government of the whole world as he did in the preceding psalm, but he celebrates the fatherly favor which God had manifested towards the children of Israel. He indeed names in general his works, and his wonders, but he limits both to that spiritual covenant by which God made choice of a church, that might lead on earth a heavenly life. He does not intend to include as among these wonders, that the sun, moon, and stars, daily rise to give light to the world, that the earth produces its fruit in its seasons, that every living creature is supplied with abundance of all good things for its food, and that the human family are liberally provided with so many conveniences; but he celebrates the sovereign grace of God, by which he chose for himself from amongst the lost race of Adam a small portion to whom he might show himself to be a father. Accordingly, he enjoins them to rejoice in the name of God, and to call upon him; a privilege by which the Church alone is distinguished. Whence it follows, that this language is addressed to none but true believers, whom God would have to glory in his name, since he has taken them under his special protection.

PSALM 105

Psa 105:1-45. After an exhortation to praise God, addressed especially to the chosen people, the writer presents the special reason for praise, in a summary of their history from the calling of Abraham to their settlement in Canaan, and reminds them that their obedience was the end of all God's gracious dealings.

1. call ... name--(Psa 79:6; Ro 10:13). Call on Him, according to His historically manifested glory. After the example of Abraham, who, as often as God acquired for Himself a name in guiding him, called in solemn worship upon the name of the Lord (Ge 12:8; 13:4).

among the people--or, "peoples" (Psa 18:49).

deeds--or, "wonders" (Psa 103:7).

3-4. Seeking God's favor is the only true mode of getting true happiness, and His strength [Psa 105:4] is the only true source of protection (compare Psa 32:11; 40:16).

Glory ... name--boast in His perfections. The world glories in its horses and chariots against the Church of God lying in the dust; but our hope is in the name, that is, the power and love of God to His people, manifested in past deliverances.

5-6. judgments ... mouth--His judicial decisions for the good and against the wicked.

7. Rather, "He, Jehovah, is our God." His title, "Jehovah," implies that He, the unchangeable, self-existing Being, makes things to be, that is, fulfils His promises, and therefore will not forsake His people. Though specially of His people, He is God over all.

8-11. The covenant was often ratified.

word--answering to "covenant" [Psa 105:9] in the parallel clause, namely, the word of promise, which, according to Psa 105:10, He set forth for an inviolable law.

commanded--or, "ordained" (Psa 68:28).

to a thousand generations--perpetually. A verbal allusion to De 7:9 (compare Ex 20:6).

12-15. few ... in number--alluding to Jacob's words (Ge 34:30), "I being few in number."

yea, very few--literally, "as a few," that is, like fewness itself (compare Is 1:9).

strangers--sojourners in the land of their future inheritance, as in a strange country (He 11:9).

16. God ordered the famine. God

called for a famine--as if it were a servant, ready to come at God's bidding. Compare the centurion's words, as to disease being God's servant (Mt 8:8, 9).

upon the land--namely, Canaan (Ge 41:54).

staff of bread--what supports life (Le 26:26; Psa 104:15; Is 3:1).

17-21. Joseph was sent of God (Ge 45:5).

22. To bind--Not literally bind; but exercise over them absolute control, as the parallel in the second clause shows; also Ge 41:40, 44, in which not literal fettering, but commanding obedience, is spoken of. It refers to Psa 105:18. The soul that was once bound itself now binds others, even princes. The same moral binding is assigned to the saints (Psa 149:8).

teach ... senators wisdom--the ground of his exaltation by Pharaoh was his wisdom (Ge 41:39); namely, in state policy, and ordering well a kingdom.

23-25. Israel ... and Jacob--that is, Jacob himself is meant, as Psa 105:24 speaks of "his people." Still, he came with his whole house (Ge 46:6, 7).

sojourned--(Ge 47:4).

land of Ham--or, Egypt (Psa 78:51).

26. Moses ... chosen--both what they were by divine choice (Psa 78:70).

27. signs--literally, "words of signs," or rather, as "words" in Hebrew means "things," "things of His signs," that is, His marvellous tokens of power (Psa 145:5, Margin). Compare the same Hebraism (Psa 65:3, Margin).

28-36. The ninth plague is made prominent as peculiarly wonderful.

they rebelled not--Moses and Aaron promptly obeyed God (He 11:27); (compare Ex 7:1-11:10 and Psa 78:44-51, with which this summary substantially agrees). Or, rather, the "darkness" here is figurative (Jr 13:16), the literal plague of darkness (Ex 10:22, 23) being only alluded to as the symbol of God's wrath which overhung Egypt as a dark cloud during all the plagues. Hence, it is placed first, out of the historical order. Thus, "They rebelled not (that is, no longer) against His word," refers to the Egyptians. Whenever God sent a plague on them, they were ready to let Israel go, though refusing when the plague ceased.

his word--His command to let Israel go [Hengstenberg]. Of the ten plagues, only eight are mentioned, the fifth, the murrain of beasts, and the sixth, the boils, being omitted.

37. with silver and gold--presented them by the Egyptians, as an acknowledgment due for their labors in their bondage (compare Ex 12:35).

one feeble person--or, "stumbler," unfit for the line of march. Compare "harnessed," that is, accoutred and marshalled as an army on march (Ex 13:18; Is 5:27).

38. (Compare Ex 12:33; De 11:25).

39. covering--in sense of protection (compare Ex 13:21; Nu 10:34). In the burning sands of the desert the cloud protected the congregation from the heat of the sun; an emblem of God's protecting favor of His people, as interpreted by Isaiah (Is 4:5, 6; compare Nu 9:16).

42-45. The reasons for these dealings: (1) God's faithfulness to His covenant, "His holy promise" of Canaan, is the fountain whence flowed so many acts of marvellous kindness to His people (compare Psa 105:8, 11). Ex 2:24 is the fundamental passage [Hengstenberg]. (2) That they might be obedient. The observance of God's commands by Abraham was the object of the covenant with him (Ge 18:19), as it was also the object of the covenant with Israel, that they might observe God's statutes.

remembered ... and Abraham--or, "remembered His holy word (that is, covenant confirmed) with Abraham."

O give thanks - He had been meditating on God's gracious dealings with their fathers; and he calls upon himself and all others to magnify God for his mercies.

Talk ye of all his wondrous works - נפלאתיו niphleothaiv, "of his miracles." Who have so many of these to boast of as Christians! Christianity is a tissue of miracles; and every part of the work of grace on the soul is a miracle. Genuine Christian converts may talk of miracles from morning to night; and they should talk of them, and recommend to others their miracle-working God and Savior.

Glory ye in his holy name - Show the name Jesus: exult in it - praise it. His name was called Jesus; because he came to save his people from their sins.

Let the heart of them rejoice - That is, the heart of those shall rejoice who seek the Lord: therefore it is added: -

Seek the Lord - Worship the one only Supreme Being, as the only and all-sufficient good for the soul of man.

And his strength - Man is weak; and needs connection with the strong God that he may be enabled to avoid evil and do good.

Seek his face - Reconciliation to him. Live not without a sense of his favor.

Evermore - Let this be thy chief business. In and above all thy seeking, seek this.

Remember his marvellous works - Keep up communion with thy Maker, that thou mayest neither forget him nor his works.

The judgments of his mouth - Whatsoever he has spoken concerning good or evil. His commands, promises, threatenings; and particularly what he has foretold, and what he has done.

O ye seed of Abraham - Ye Jews especially, who have been the peculiar objects of the Divine favor.

He is the Lord our God - He is Jehovah, the self-existent and eternal God. He is our God, he is our portion; has taken us for his people, and makes us happy in his love.

The following abstract of the history of the Israelites presents but few difficulties. See the notes on Psalm 78 (note).

But a few men - When all appearances were against them, and nothing but the arm of God could have brought them through their difficulties, and given them a settlement in the promised land.

When they went from one nation to another - From several circumstances in the history of the travels of the ancient Hebrews, we find that the wilderness through which they then passed was well peopled.

Touch not mine anointed - It is supposed that the patriarchs are here intended; but the whole people of Israel may be meant. They were a kingdom of priests and kings unto God; and prophets, priests, and kings were always anointed.

Until the time that his word came - This appears to refer to the completion of Joseph's interpretation of the dreams of the chief butler and baker.

The Word of the Lord tried him - This seems to refer to the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, called אמרת יהוה imrath Yehovah, "the oracle of the Lord," because sent by him to Pharaoh. See Gen 41:26, and Kennicott in loco.

He turned their heart - "Their heart was turned." So the Syriac and Arabic. After befriending the Hebrews on Joseph's account, to whom they were so deeply indebted, finding them to multiply greatly in the land, and at last to become more powerful than the Egyptians themselves, they turned their attention to the adoption of measures, in order to prevent the Hebrews from possessing themselves of the government of the whole land; they curtailed them of their privileges, and endeavored to depress them by all possible means, and by a variety of legal enactments. This appears to be the sole meaning of the phrase, "He turned their heart;" or, "their heart was turned."

They showed his signs - Here is a reference to the plagues with which God afflicted the Egyptians. See Exodus 7-12 (note), Psa 78:43 (note), and the notes on them.

They rebelled not against his word - Instead of ולא מרו velo maru, "they rebelled," some think that a ש shin has been lost from before the word, and that it should be read ולא שמרו velo shamru, "they did not observe or keep his word." Or the words may be spoken of Moses and Aaron; they received the commandment of God, and they did not rebel against it. They believed what he had spoken, and acted according to his orders. It could not be spoken of the Egyptians; for they rebelled against his words through the whole course of the transactions.

He smote their vines also, and their fig trees - This is not mentioned in Exodus; but we have had it before, Psa 78:47.

He opened the rock, and the waters rushed out - See the note on Exo 17:6, to which I can now add, that a piece of this rock, broken off by the hand of my nephew, E. S. A. Clarke, in the course of the present year [1822,] now lies before me. It is fine granite; and so well distinguished as a granite, that the feldt-spar, the mica, and the quartz, of which granite is composed, appear very distinctly. It is worthy of remark, that, as granite is supposed, in the most accredited systems of geology, to be the very basis of the earth, the original rock, and all other substances to be superimpositions upon it, and as the decompositions of the feldt-spar produce pure vegetable earth, this rock should be used for this purpose, and should be an emblem of Jesus Christ, the Creator and Redeemer of the human race; and that it should signify him who is the basis of all things; who upholds all by the word of his power; without whom nothing is stable, nothing fruitful; from whom alone the water of life proceeds; and in whose name only is salvation. And that rock (in the wilderness) was Christ! and it is the only remaining emblem of him in creation.

That they might observe his statutes - That they might be properly instructed, and properly disciplined. This is the end proposed by Divine revelation: men are to be made wise unto salvation, and then to be brought under the yoke of obedience. He who is not conformed to God's word shall not enter into Christ's kingdom.

Glory - Glory in the God whom you serve, as the only true God.

Seek - The Lord in his strength, in his sanctuary, or before the ark, which is called God's strength. Face - His gracious presence.

Judgments - The punishments which he brought upon Egypt by his mere word.

Of Jacob - The only branch of Abraham's seed to whom the following blessings belong.

Judgments - God executes his judgments upon all nations and people.

Remembered - So as to perform it. The word - The promise. Commanded - Established. Thousand generations - To all generations.

Oath - Wherewith he ratified the covenant with Isaac, Gen 26:3.

A law - That it might be as firm and irrevocable as a law.

Lot - The portion assigned to you by lot.

They went - Both in Canaan, where there were seven nations, and in Egypt.

Anointed - My prophets, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who are called God's anointed, because they were consecrated to be his peculiar people, and to be kings and princes in their families. And they are called prophets, because God familiarly conversed with them and revealed his will to them, and by them to others.

Staff of bread - Bread, which is the staff or support of our lives.

His word - That word or revelation which came first to Pharaoh in a dream, and then to Joseph concerning the interpretation of it. Purged - From those calamities which were cast upon him, and so prepared the way for his release.

Ham - Ham was the father of Mizraim, or the Egyptians, Gen 10:6.

Turned - That is, suffered them, to be turned.

They - Moses and Aaron, who inflicted that plague after Pharaoh had threatened them.

Land - Their country. In chambers - Which entered into the chambers. Kings - Of Pharaoh and his sons, and his chief nobles and governors.

Coasts - In all their land, even to the utmost borders of it.

Feeble - Diseased or unable for his journey: which in so vast a body, and in a people who had been so dreadfully oppressed, was wonderful.

Covering - To protect them from the heat of the sun.

Quails - He speaks of the first giving of quails, Exo 16:13, which God gave them as a refreshment, notwithstanding their sin in desiring them, which he graciously pardoned. Bread - With manna which came out of the air, commonly called heaven.

River - They flowed in channels which God provided for them, and followed the Israelites in their march.

Labour - The fruits of their labour; their cities, vineyards, olive - yards.

1 O Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name ; make known his deeds among his people .

Or, proclaim his name, i. e. the same and glory of his works, as it follows.

Each of you amongst his and your people, or even among the Heathens, as you have opportunity.

Marginal references: 1 Chron. 16. 8. Isai. 12. 4.

3 Glory ye in his holy name : let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD .

Glory in the God whom you serve, as the onely true God, and one of infinite power and goodness.

That seek his face or presence, as it follows, his acquaintance and favour, above all the World.

4 Seek the LORD, and his strength : seek his face evermore.

i. e. by a figure called Hendiaduo, the Lord in his strength, to wit, in his Sanctuary, or before the Ark, which is called Gods strength, Psal. 63. 3. and 78. 61. and the ark of his strength, Psal. 132. 8.

i. e. His gracious presence in his Sanctuary and the blessed fruits of it. See on Psal. 27. 8.

5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth .

Either 1. the laws delivered from his mouth. Or rather 2. the Plagues or punishments (as this same word is used here v. 7. and every where) which he brought upon Egypt by his meer word or command, as is oft noted in the History of them in Exodus.

6 O ye seed of Abraham his servants, ye children of Jacob his chosen.

To whom he restrains the former more general expression, because these were the onely branch of Abrahams Seed to whom the following Covenant and Blessings belong.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] ones.

7 He is the LORD our God, his judgments are in all the earth .

Either, 1. the fame of his judgments upon the Egyptians is spread over the face of the earth. Or, 2. God executes his Judgments upon all Nations and people. Which may be here noted as a foil to magnifie God's Grace to them who were the Monuments of his mercy, when all the World besides them fell under his just severity.

8 He hath remembred his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations .

Practically, so as to perform it; as that word is frequently used in Scripture.

The word of promise or the Covenant, as is explained both in the foregoing and following words. And so the word is taken, Iudg. 13. 12. Luke 1. 38.

i. e. Established or ordained or appointed, as this word is oft taken, as Psal. 68. 28. & 71. 3. & 133. 3. Isai. 13. 3. & 23, 11.

To all generations; a certain number being put for an uncertain. He seems to allude to that passage, Exod. 20. 6.

9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac.

Wherewith he ratified the Covenant with Isaac, Gen. 26. 3.

Marginal references: * Gen. 17. 2. & 22. 16, &c. & 26. 3. & 28. 13. & 35. 11. Luke 1. 73. Heb. 6. 17.

10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law , and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,

Either that it might be as firm and irrevocable as a Law; or, that it might have the use and force of a Law towards God, because God did hereby put himself under an obligation of making it good in regard of his own truth and righteousness.

Marginal references: Heb. a statute.

11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:

The portion assigned to you by lot and the designation of Divine Providence. See on Deut. 32. 9. Psal. 16. 6.

Marginal references: Gen. 13. 15. & 15. 18.; Heb. the cord.

12 When they were but a few men in number : yea, very few, and strangers in it.

Heb. Men of number, i. e. few, who could easily be numbred, very few, as the next words explain it.

Marginal references: Gen. 34. 30. Deut. 26. 5.; Heb. men of number.

13 When they went from one nation to another , from one kingdom to another people.

Both in Canaan, where there were seven Nations, Deut. 7. 1. and in Egypt, &c.

14 He suffered, no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes,

Both verbally, and really, by his judgments. See Gen. 12. 17. and 20. 3.

15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed , and do my prophets no harm.

Hurt not, as this word is used of these very persons, Gen. 26. 11, 29. and elsewhere.

My Prophets, as the next words explain it, to wit, Abraham and Isaac and Iacob, as is evident; who are called Gods anointed because they were eminently blessed of God, and consecrated to be his peculiar people and to be Kings and Priests in their Families, and replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, in respect whereof many persons are said to be anointed in Scripture, who never had any material Oyl applied to them, as Psal. 45. 8. Isa. 61. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 21. And they are called Prophets, because God did familiarly converse with them and revealed his mind and will to them and by them to others; and because they were instructers or teachers of others in the true Religion. See Gen. 18. 19. and 20. 7.

16. Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread .

(i. e.) He effectually procured, as this word is used, 2 Kings 8. 1. Isai. 47. 1, 5. & 56. 7. Rom. 4. 17.

(i. e.) Bread which is the staff or support of our animal Lives. See Levit. 26. 26. Psal. 104. 15. Ezek. 4. 16.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 41. 54.; [illegible: 1 word] 3. 1.

17. He sent a man before them, even Joseph who was sold for a servant.

By the direction of his secret Providence.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 45. 5. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]0.; [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 37. 28.

18. Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron .

Heb. his soul came into iron. Which seems to be added emphatically to aggravate his imprisonment, and to shew how grievous it was to his very soul, which must needs sympathize with his body, and moreover was greatly vexed to consider both the great injury which was done to him, and yet the soul and publick scandal which lay upon him.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 39. 20.; [illegible: 1 word] his soul [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] iron.

19. Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him .

Till which time, his eminent Prudence, and Innocency, and Piety gave him no relief.

Either, 1. Iosephs word, or his Prophecie concerning the chief Butler and Baker; which is said to come when it was fulfilled, as that word is used Iudg. 13. 12, 17. Ezek. 24. 24. and elsewhere. But the event confutes this; for Ioseph was not delivered at that time, but two years after it, Gen. 41. 1. Or rather 2. the word of the Lord, as it follows; the Pronoun Relative being here put before the Substantive to which it belongs, as it is also Exod. 2. 6. Iob 33. 20. Prov. 5. 22. & 14. 13. He seems to speak of that word or revelation which came first to Pharaoh in a Dream, Gen. 41. 1, 2, &c. and then to Ioseph concerning the interpretation of it, v. 15, 16. For the word of the Lord is said to come, not only when it comes to pass, but also and most commonly when it is first revealed, as Ier. 7. 1. & 11. 1. & 18. 1. and God is said to come when he doth reveal it, as Gen. 20. 3. & 31. 24.

Either, 1. tried his sincerity and constancy. But that was not done by Gods word, but by his rod. Or rather, 2. discovered him, to wit, unto Pharaoh and his Courtiers, how innocent, and holy, and knowing a person he was; or purged him from those calumnies which were cast upon him, and so prepared the way for his release, which here follows v. 20. This Verse may well be rendred thus, Until the time that his word came, even the word of the Lord, which tried him: such Ellipses being most [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] Hebrew Text.

21. He made him Lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance .

Heb. of all his possession (i. e.) of his whole Kingdom.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 41. 40.; [illegible: 1 word] possession.

22. To bind his Princes at his pleasure, and teach his Senators wisdom.

By his commands, and, if they were refractory, to punish them.

His wisest Counsellors, whom he commanded to receive instructions from Ioseph upon all occasions.

23. Israel also came into Egypt: and Jacob sojourned in the Land of Ham .

Iacob in his Person, and with his Children.

(i. e.) Egypt, so called here also, Psal. 78. 51. & 106. 22. from that cursed Ham, Gen. 9. 22. who was the Father of Mizraim, or the Egyptians, Gen. 10. 6. And the Psalmist seems to call it by this name, to intimate that they were the People of Gods curse, and thereby to caution the Israelites against returning to that land, which they were particularly forbidden to do, Deut. 17. 16.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 46. 6.

24. And he increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.

Not really, but according to their Enemies apprehensions and expressions, Exod. 1. 9. Or, more numerous, as this word is elsewhere used. So this latter branch answers to the former. And this was true; for though they were not simply more in number than the Egyptians, yet they multiplied much faster.

Marginal references: Exod. 1. 7.

25. He turned their heart to hate his people , to deal subtilly with his servants .

Not by putting this wicked hatred into them, which is not consistent either with the holiness of Gods nature, or with the truth of his word, and which was altogether unnecessary, because they had that and all other wickedness in them by nature; but partly by withdrawing the common gifts and operations of his spirit, and all other restraints and hinderances to it, and wholly leaving them to their own mistakes and passions, and corrupt affections, which of their own accord were ready to take that course; partly by ordering the affairs of his people in such manner, as might give them occasion of hatred; and partly by directing and governing that hatred, which was wholly in and from themselves; so as it should fall upon the Israelites rather than upon other People.

To destroy them by crafty devices: of which see Exod. 1. 11, &c.

Marginal references: Exod. 1. 8.

26. He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen .

To be the companion and interpreter of Moses in this expedition, of which see Exod. 3. 10. & 4. 12, &c. This clause he adds, to shew that Aaron was no less called and chosen by God to this work than Moses, which otherwise was not so evident from the History: Or, this clause may belong to both Moses and Aaron.

Marginal references: Exod. 3. 10.

27. They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

Heb. the words of his signs, an emphatical expression. First, they boldly declared the Word and Will of God concerning the several Plagues, and then they actually inflicted them.

Marginal references: Exod. 7. 9.; Heb. words of his signs.

28. He sent darkness, and made it dark: and they▪ rebelled not against his word .

Either, 1. the darkness and other Plagues; which obeyed Gods word, and instantly came at Gods call. So this may be a reflexion upon the Egyptians, that those brutish or unreasonable Creatures were more obedient to the will and command of God than they were. Thus diseases are said to come or go at Gods command, Matt. 8. 8. Or rather, 2. Moses and Aaron, mentioned v. 26. and called they, v. 27. whose obedience in denouncing and inflicting these Plagues, and especially that Plague of darkness, is noted and commended here as an act of great faith and fortitude, because they inflicted that Plague after Pharaoh had threatned them, Exod. 10. 10. as the obedience of their Parents is commended as a great act of faith, because they preserved and hid their Son contrary to the express command of the King of Egypt.

Marginal references: Exod. 10. 22.

30. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their Kings .

Their Country: for otherwise they were produced by their Rivers, Exod. 8. 3.

Which entred into the Chambers.

Of Pharaoh and his Sons, and his chief Nobles and Governours of Provinces under him; for such persons are oft called Kings in Scripture, Iudg. 1. 7. 1 Kings 20. 1, 12. Isa. 19. 2.

Marginal references: Exod. 8. 6.

31. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts .

Or, Borders, (i. e.) in all their Land, even to the utmost Ends or Borders of it.

Marginal references: Exod. 8. 17. 24.

36. He smote also all the first-born in their land: the chief of all their strength .

To wit, their first-born, as it is in the first clause, who are so called Gen. 49. 3. Psal. 78. 51. and the beginning of their strength, Deut. 21. 17.

Marginal references: Exod. 12. 29.

37. He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

Diseased or unable for his journey: which in so vast a Body, and in a time of such Mortality as it had been in Egypt, and in a People which had been so long and so dreadfully oppressed as the Israelites were, was wonderful; but they all journeyed on foot, Exod. 12. 37.

Marginal references: Exod. 12. 35.

38. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.

(i. e.) Of the Israelites, left God for their sakes should destroy them.

Marginal references: Exod. 12. 33.

39. He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light in the night.

To protect them from the heat of the Sun, which in that hot and open Country had otherwise been intolerable to them, especially in so long a Journey.

Marginal references: Exod. 13. 21.

40. The people asked, and he brought quails : and satisfied them with the bread of heaven .

He speaks of the first giving of Quails, Exod. 16. 13. which God gave them as a refreshment, notwithstanding their Sin in desiring them, which he graciously pardoned; and not of that second giving of Quails, which God gave them in judgment, Numb. 11. and therefore would not have been numbered here amongst Gods favours vouchsafed to them.

With Manna which came out of the Air, which is commonly called Heaven.

Marginal references: Exod. 16. 12, &c.; Psal. 78. 24, 25.

41. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out: they ran in the dry places like a river .

They flowed in Channels which God provided for them, and followed the Israelites in their March, as is noted 1 Cor. 10. 4. Hence they complained no more of want of Water till they came to Kadesh, Numb. 20. which was many Years after this time.

Marginal references: Exod. 17. 6. Num. 20. 11. 1 Cor. 10. 4.

42. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.

Or rather, with (as this Particle is oft used) Abraham, made with or to Abraham.

Marginal references: Gen. 15. 14.

44. And gave them the land of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people :

The Fruits of their labour, their Cities, Vineyards, Oliveyards, &c.

Marginal references: Deut. 6. 10, 11. Josh. 3. 17.

Thanksgiving Hymn in Honour of God Who Is Attested in the Earliest History of Israel

We have here another Psalm closing with Hallelujah, which opens the series of the Hodu-Psalms. Such is the name we give only to Psalms which begin with הודו (Ps 105, Ps 107, Ps 118, Ps 136), just as we call those which begin with הללויה (Ps 106, Psa 111:1, Psa 117:1-2, Ps 135, Psa 146:1) Hallelujah-Psalms (alleluiatici). The expression להלּל וּלהודות, which frequently occurs in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, points to these two kinds of Psalms, or at least to their key-notes.

The festival song which David, according to 1Ch 16:7, handed over to Asaph and his brethren for musical execution at the setting down of the Ark and the opening of divine service on Zion, is, so far as its first part is concerned (1Ch 16:8-22), taken from our Psalm (Psa 105:1), which is then followed by Psa 96:1-13 as a second part, and is closed with Psa 106:1, Psa 106:47-48. Hitzig regards the festival song in the chronicler as the original, and the respective parallels in the Psalms as “layers or shoots.” “The chronicler,” says he, “there produces with labour, and therefore himself seeking foreign aid, a song for a past that is dead.” But the transition from Psa 105:22 to Psa 105:23 and from Psa 105:33 to Psa 105:34, so devoid of connection, the taking over of the verse out of Ps 106 referring to the Babylonian exile into Psa 105:35, and even of the doxology of the Fourth Book, regarded as an integral part of the Psalm, into Psa 105:36, refute that perversion of the right relation which has been attempted in the interest of the Maccabaean Psalms. That festival song in the chronicler, as has been shown again very recently by Riehm and Köhler, is a compilation of parts of songs already at hand, arranged for a definite purpose. Starting on the assumption that the Psalms as a whole are Davidic (just as all the Proverbs are Salomonic), because David called the poetry of the Psalms used in religious worship into existence, the attempt is made in that festival song to represent the opening of the worship on Zion, at that time in strains belonging to the Davidic Psalms.

So far as the subject-matter is concerned, Psalms 105 attaches itself to the Asaph Ps 78, which recapitulates the history of Israel. The recapitulation here, however, is made not with any didactic purpose, but with the purpose of forming a hymn, and does not come down beyond the time of Moses and Joshua. Its source is likewise the Tôra as it now lies before us. The poet epitomizes what the Tôra narrates, and clothes it in a poetic garb.

Psa 105:1-6

Invitation to the praise - praise that resounds far and wide among the peoples - of the God who has become manifest wondrously in the deeds and words connected with the history of the founding of Israel. הודה לה, as in Psa 33:2; Psa 75:2, of a praising and thankful confession offered to God; קרא בשׁם ה, to call with the name of Jahve, i.e., to call upon it, of an audible, solemn attestation of God in prayer and in discourse (Symmachus, κηρύσσετε). The joy of heartThe Mugrash of ישׂמח with the following Legarme seems here to be of equal value with Zakeph, 1Ch 16:10. that is desired is the condition of a joyous opening of the mouth and Israel’s own stedfast turning towards Jahve, the condition of all salutary result; for it is only His “strength” that breaks through all dangers, and His “face” that lightens up all darkness. משׁפּטי־פּיו, as Psa 105:7 teaches, are God’s judicial utterances, which have been executed without any hindrance, more particularly in the case of the Egyptians, their Pharaoh, and their gods. The chronicler has פּיהוּ and זרע ישׂראל, which is so far unsuitable as one does not know whether עבדו is to be referred to “Israel” the patriarch, or to the “seed of Israel,” the nation; the latter reference would be deutero-Isaianic. In both texts the lxx reads עבדו (ye His servants).

Psa 105:7-11

The poet now begins himself to do that to which he encourages Israel. Jahve is Israel’s God: His righteous rule extends over the whole earth, whilst His people experience His inviolable faithfulness to His covenant. יהוה in Psa 105:7 is in apposition to הוּא, for the God who bears this name is as a matter of course the object of the song of praise. זכר is the perfect of practically pledges certainty (cf. Psa 111:5, where we find instead the future of confident prospect). The chronicler has זכרוּ instead (lxx again something different: μνημονεύωμεν); but the object is not the demanding but the promissory side of the covenant, so that consequently it is not Israel’s remembering but God’s that is spoken of. He remembers His covenant in all time to come, so that exile and want of independence as a state are only temporary, exceptional conditions. צוּה has its radical signification here, to establish, institute, Psa 111:9. לאלף דּור (in which expression דור is a specifying accusative) is taken from Deu 7:9. And since דּבר is the covenant word of promise, it can be continued אשׁר כּרת; and Hag 2:5 (vid., Köhler thereon) shows that אשׁר is not joined to בריתו over Psa 105:8. וּשׁבוּעתו, however, is a second object to זכר (since דּבר with what belongs to it as an apposition is out of the question). It is the oath on Moriah (Gen 22:16) that is meant, which applied to Abraham and his seed. לישׂחק (chronicler ליצחק), as in Amo 7:9; Jer 33:26. To זכר is appended ויּעמרדה; the suffix, intended as neuter, points to what follows, viz., this, that Canaan shall be Israel’s hereditary land. From Abraham and Isaac we come to Jacob-Israel, who as being the father of the twelve is the twelve-tribe nation itself that is coming into existence; hence the plural can alternate with the singular in Psa 105:11. את־ארץ כּנען (chronicler, without the את) is an accusative of the object, and חבל נחלתכם accusative of the predicate: the land of Canaan as the province of your own hereditary possession measured out with a measuring line (Psa 78:55).

Psa 105:12-15

The poet now celebrates the divine preservation which had sway over the small beginnings of Israel, when it made the patriarchs proof against harm on their wanderings. “Men of number” are such as can be easily counted, vid., the confessions in Gen 34:30; Deu 26:5; ויּתהלּכוּ places the claim upon the hospitality at one time of this people and at another time of that people in the connection with it of cause and effect. כּמעט, as a small number, only such a small number, signifies, as being virtually an adjective: inconsiderable, insignificant, worthless (Pro 10:20). בּהּ refers to Canaan. In Psa 105:13 the way in which the words גּוי and עם alternate is instructive: the former signifies the nation, bound together by a common origin, language, country, and descent; the latter the people, bound together by unity of government.For this reason a king says עמּי, not גּויי; and גּוי only occurs twice with a suffix, which refers to Jahve (Psa 106:5; Zep 2:9); for this reason גּוי, frequently side by side with עם, is the nobler word, e.g., in Deu 32:21; Jer 2:11; for this reason עם is frequently added to גּוי as a dignitative predicate, Exo 33:13; Deu 4:6; and for this reason גּוים and עם ה are used antithetically.

The apodosis does not begin until Psa 105:14. It is different in connection with בּהיותכם in the text of the chronicler, and in this passage in the Psalter of the Syriac version, according to which Psa 105:12 ought to be jointed to the preceding group. The variation ומממלכה instead of מממלכה is of no consequence; but לאישׁ (to any one whomsoever) instead of אדם, in connection with הניח, restores the current mode of expression (Ecc 5:11; 2Sa 16:11; Hos 4:17) instead of one which is without support elsewhere, but which follows the model of נתן, נטשׁ, Gen 31:28 (cf. supra p. 171); whilst on the other hand ובנביאי instead of ולנביאי substitutes an expression that cannot be supported for the current one (Gen 19:9; Rth 1:21). In Psa 105:14 the poet has the three histories of the preservation of the wives of the patriarchs in his mind, viz., of Sarah in Egypt (Gen. 12), and of Sarah and of Rebekah both in Philistia (Psa 20:1-9, Psa 26:1-12, cf. especially Psa 26:11). In the second instance God declares the patriarch to be a “prophet” (Psa 20:7). The one mention has reference to this and the other to Gen. 17, where Abram is set apart to be the father of peoples and kings, and Sarai to be a princess. They are called משׁיהים (a passive form) as eing God-chosen princes, and נביאים (an intensive active form, from נבא, root נב, to divulge), not as being inspired ones (Hupfeld), but as being God’s spokesmen (cf. Exo 7:1. with Exo 4:15.), therefore as being the recipients and mediators of a divine revelation.

Psa 105:16-24 “To call up a famine” is also a prose expression in 2Ki 8:1. To break the staff of bread (i.e., the staff which bread is to man) is a very old metaphor, Lev 26:26. That the selling of Joseph was, providentially regarded, a “sending before,” he himself says in Gen 45:5. Psa 102:24 throws light upon the meaning of ענּה ב. The Kerî רגלו is just as much without any occasion to justify it as עינו in Ecc 4:8 (for עיניו). The statement that iron came upon his soul is intended to say that he had to endure in iron fetters sufferings that threatened his life. Most expositors take בּרזל as equivalent to בּבּרזל, but Hitzig rightly takes נפשׁו as an object, following the Targum; for ברזל as a name of an iron fetterAlso in ancient Arabic firzil (after the Aramaic פרזלא) directly signifies an iron fetter (and the large smith’s shears for cutting the iron), whence the verb. denom. Arab. farzala , c. acc. pers., to put any one into iron chains. Iron is called בּרזל from בּרז, to pierce, like the Arabic ḥdı̂d, as being the material of which pointed tools are made. can change its gender, as do, e.g., צפון as a name of the north wind, and כבוד as a name of the soul. The imprisonment (so harsh at the commencement) lasted over ten years, until at last Joseph’s word cam to pass, viz., the word concerning this exaltation which had been revealed to him in dreams (Gen 42:9). According to Psa 107:20, דברו appears to be the word of Jahve, but then one would expect from Psa 105:19 a more parallel turn of expression. What is meant is Joseph’s open-hearted word concerning his visions, and אמרת ה is the revelation of God conveying His promises, which came to him in the same form, which had to try, to prove, and to purify him (צרף as in Psa 17:3, and frequently), inasmuch as he was not to be raised to honour without having in a state of deep abasement proved a faithfulness that wavered not, and a confidence that knew no despair. The divine “word” is conceived of as a living effectual power, as in Psa 119:50. The representation of the exaltation begins, according to Gen 41:14, with שׁלח־מלךHere שׁלח is united by Makkeph with the following word, to which it hurries on, whereas in Psa 105:28 it has its own accent, a circumstance to which the Masora has directed attention in the apophthegm: שׁלוחי דמלכא זריזין שׁלוחי דחשׁוכא מתינין (the emissaries of the king are in haste, those of darkness are tardy); vid., Baer, Thorath Emeth, p. 22. and follows Gen 41:39-41, Gen 41:44, very closely as to the rest, according to which בּנפשׁו is a collateral definition to לאסּר (with an orthophonic Dag.) in the sense of בּרצונו: by his soul, i.e., by virtue of his will (vid., Psychology, S. 202; tr. p. 239). In consequence of this exaltation of Joseph, Jacob-Israel came then into Egypt, and sojourned there as in a protecting house of shelter (concerning גּוּר, vid., supra, p. 414). Egypt is called (Psa 105:23, Psa 105:27) the land of Chaam, as in Psa 78:51; according to Plutarch, in the vernacular the black land, from the dark ashy grey colouring which the deposited mud of the Nile gives to the ground. There Israel became a powerful, numerous people (Exo 1:7; Deu 26:5), greater than their oppressors.

Psa 105:25-38

Narration of the Exodus out of Egypt after the plagues that went forth over that land. Psa 105:25 tells how the Egyptians became their “oppressors.” It was indirectly God’s work, inasmuch as He gave increasing might to His people, which excited their jealousy. The craft reached its highest pitch in the weakening of the Israelites that was aimed at by killing all the male children that were born. דּברי signifies facts, instances, as in Psa 65:4; Psa 145:5. Here, too, as in Ps 78, the miraculous judgments of the ten plagues to not stand in exactly historical order. The poet begins with the ninth, which was the most distinct self-representation of divine wrath, viz., the darkness (Exo 10:21-29): shā'lach chō'shech. The former word (שׁלח) has an orthophonic Gaja by the final syllable, which warns the reader audibly to utter the guttural of the toneless final syllable, which might here be easily slurred over. The Hiph. החשׁיך has its causative signification here, as also in Jer 13:16; the contracted mode of writing with i instead of ı̂ may be occasioned by the Waw convers. Psa 105:28 cannot be referred to the Egyptians; for the expression would be a mistaken one for the final compliance, which was wrung from them, and the interrogative way of taking it: nonne rebellarunt, is forced: the cancelling of the לא, however (lxx and Syriac), makes the thought halting. Hitzig proposes ולא שׁמרו: they observed not His words; but this, too, sounds flat and awkward when said of the Egyptians. The subject will therefore be the same as the subject of שׂמוּ; and of Moses and Aaron, in contrast to the behaviour at Mê - Merı̂bah (Num 20:24; Num 27:14; cf. 1Ki 13:21, 1Ki 13:26), it is said that this time they rebelled not against the words (Kerî, without any ground: the word) of God, but executed the terrible commands accurately and willingly. From the ninth plague the poet in Psa 105:29 passes over to the first (Exo 7:14-25), viz., the red blood is appended to the black darkness. The second plague follows, viz., the frogs (Exo 8:1-15); Psa 105:20 looks as though it were stunted, but neither has the lxx read any ויבאו (ויעלו), Ex. 7:28. In Psa 105:31 he next briefly touches upon the fourth plague, viz., the gad-fly, ערב, lxx κυνόμυια (Exo 8:20-32, vid., on Psa 78:45), and the third (Exo 8:16-19), viz., the gnats, which are passed over in Ps 78. From the third plague the poet in Psa 105:32, Psa 105:33 takes a leap over to the seventh, viz., the hail (Ex 9:13-35). In Psa 105:32 he has Exo 9:24 before his mind, according to which masses of fire descended with the hail; and in Psa 105:33 (as in Psa 78:47) he fills in the details of Exo 9:25. The seventh plague is followed by the eighth in Psa 105:34, Psa 105:35, viz., the locust (Ex 10:1-20), to which ילק (the grasshopper) is the parallel word here, just as חסיל (the cricket) is in Psa 78:46. The expression of innumerableness is the same as in Psa 104:25. The fifth plague, viz., the pestilence, murrain (Exo 9:1-7), and the sixth, viz., שׁחין, boils (Exo 9:8-12), are left unmentioned; and the tenth plague closes, viz., the smiting of the first-born (Exo 11:1.), which Psa 105:36 expresses in the Asaphic language of Psa 78:51. Without any mention of the institution of the Passover, the tenth plague is followed by the departure with the vessels of silver and gold asked for from the Egyptians (Exo 12:35; Exo 11:2; Exo 3:22). The Egyptians were glad to get rid of the people whose detention threatened them with total destruction (Exo 12:33). The poet here draws from Isa 5:27; Isa 14:31; Isa 63:13, and Exo 15:16. The suffix of שׁבטיו refers to the chief subject of the assertion, viz., to God, according to Psa 122:4, although manifestly enough the reference to Israel is also possible (Num 24:2).

Psa 105:39-45

Now follows the miraculous guidance through the desert to the taking possession of Canaan. The fact that the cloud (ענן, root ען, to meet, to present itself to view, whence the Arabic ‛ănăn, the visible outward side of the vault of heaven) by day, and becoming like fire by night, was their guide (Exo 13:21), is left out of consideration in Psa 105:39. With למסך we are not to associate the idea of a covering against foes, Exo 14:19., but of a covering from the smiting sun, for פּרשׁ (Exo 40:19), as in Isa 4:5., points to the idea of a canopy. In connection with the sending of the quails the tempting character of the desire is only momentarily dwelt upon, the greater emphasis is laid on the omnipotence of the divine goodness which responded to it. שׁאלוּ is to be read instead of שׁאל, the w before w having been overlooked; and the Kerî writes and points שׂליו (like סתיו, עניו) in order to secure the correct pronunciation, after the analogy of the plural termination יו-. The bread of heaven (Psa 78:24.) is the manna. In Psa 105:41 the giving of water out of the rock at Rephidim and at Kadesh are brought together; the expression corresponds better to the former instance (Exo 17:6, cf. Num 20:11). הלכוּ refers to the waters, and נהר for כּנּהרות, Psa 78:16, is, as in Psa 22:14, an equation instead of a comparison. In this miraculous escort the patriarchal promise moves on towards its fulfilment; the holy word of promise, and the stedfast, proved faith of Abraham - these were the two motives. The second את is, like the first, a sign of the object, not a preposition (lxx, Targum), in connection with which Psa 105:42 would be a continuation of Psa 105:42, dragging on without any parallelism. Joy and exulting are mentioned as the mood of the redeemed ones with reference to the festive joy displayed at the Red Sea and at Sinai. By Psa 105:43 one is reminded of the same descriptions of the antitype in Isaiah, Isa 35:10; Isa 51:11; Isa 55:12, just as Psa 105:41 recalls Isa 48:21. “The lands of the heathen” are the territories of the tribes of Canaan. עמל is equivalent to יגיע in Isa 45:14 : the cultivated ground, the habitable cities, and the accumulated treasures. Israel entered upon the inheritance of these peoples in every direction. As an independent people upon ground that is theirs by inheritance, keeping the revealed law of their God, was Israel to exhibit the pattern of a holy nation moulded after the divine will; and, as the beginning of the Psalm shows, to unite the peoples to themselves and their God, the God of redemption, by the proclamation of the redemption which has fallen to their own lot.

An Invitation to Praise.

1 O give thanks unto the Lord ; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. 2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. 3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord . 4 Seek the Lord , and his strength: seek his face evermore. 5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; 6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. 7 He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.

Our devotion is here warmly excited; and we are stirred up, that we may stir up ourselves to praise God. Observe,

I. The duties to which we are here called, and they are many, but the tendency of them all is to give unto God the glory due unto his name. 1. We must give thanks to him, as one who has always been our bountiful benefactor and requires only that we give him thanks for his favours—poor returns for rich receivings. 2. Call upon his name, as one whom you depend upon for further favours. Praying for further mercies is accepted as an acknowledgment of former mercies. Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him. 3. Make known his deeds (v. 1), that others may join with you in praising him. Talk of all his wondrous works (v. 2), as we talk of things that we are full of, and much affected with, and desire to fill others with. God's wondrous works ought to be the subject of our familiar discourses with our families and friends, and we should talk of them as we sit in the house and as we go by the way (Deut. vi. 7), not merely for entertainment, but for the exciting of devotion and the encouraging of our own and others' faith and hope in God. Even sacred things may be the matter of common talk, provided it be with due reverence. 4. Sing psalms to God's honour, as those that rejoice in him, and desire to testify that joy for the encouragement of others and to transmit it to posterity, as memorable things anciently were handed down by songs, when writing was scarce. 5. Glory in his holy name; let those that are disposed to glory not boast of their own accomplishments and achievements, but of their acquaintance with God and their relation to him, Jer. ix. 23, 24. Praise you his holy name, so some; but it comes all to one, for in glorying in him we give glory to him. 6. Seek him; place your happiness in him, and then pursue that happiness in all the ways that he has appointed. Seek the Lord and his strength, that is, the ark of his strength; seek him in the sanctuary, in the way wherein he has appointed us to seek him. Seek his strength, that is, his grace, the strength of his Spirit to work in you that which is good, which we cannot do but by strength derived from him, for which he will be enquired of. Seek the Lord and be strengthened; so divers ancient versions read it. Those that would be strengthened in the inward man must fetch in strength from God by faith and prayer. Seek his strength, and then seek his face; for by his strength, we hope to prevail with him for his favour, as Jacob did, Hos. xii. 3. "Seek his face evermore; seek to have his favour to eternity, and therefore continue seeking it to the end of the time of your probation. Seek it while you live in this world, and you shall have it while you live in the other world, and even there shall be for ever seeking it in an infinite progression, and yet be for ever satisfied in it." 7. Let the hearts of those rejoice that do seek him (v. 3); for they have chosen well, are well fixed, and well employed, and they may be sure that their labour will not be in vain, for he will not only be found, but he will be found the rewarder of those that diligently seek him. If those have reason to rejoice that seek the Lord, much more those that have found him.

II. Some arguments to quicken us to these duties. 1. "Consider both what he has said and what he has done to engage us for ever to him. You will see yourselves under all possible obligations to give thanks to him, and call upon his name, if you remember the wonders which should make deep and durable impressions upon you,—the wonders of his providence which he has wrought for you and those who are gone before you, the marvellous works that he has done, which will be had in everlasting remembrance with the thoughtful and with the grateful,—the wonders of his law, which he has written to you, and entrusted you with, the judgments of his mouth, as well as the judgments of his hand," v. 5. 2. "Consider the relation you stand in to him (v. 6): You are the seed of Abraham his servant; you are born in his house, and being thereby entitled to the privilege of his servants, protection and provision, you are also bound to do the duty of servants, to attend your Master, consult his honour, obey his commands, and do what you can to advance his interests. You are the children of Jacob his chosen, and are chosen and beloved for the fathers' sake, and therefore ought to tread in the steps of those whose honours you inherit. You are the children of godly parents; do no degenerate. You are God's church upon earth, and, if you do not praise him, who should?" 3. Consider your interest in him: He is the Lord our God, v. 7. We depend upon him, are devoted to him, and from him our expectation is. Should not a people seek unto their God (Isa. viii. 19) and praise their God? Dan. v. 4. He is Jehovah our God. He that is our God is self-existent and self-sufficient, has an irresistible power and incontestable sovereignty: His judgments are in all the earth; he governs the whole world in wisdom, and gives law to all nations, even to those that know him not. The earth is full of the proofs of his power.

The Divine Promise to the Patriarchs; Providences Concerning the Patriarchs.

8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; 10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: 12 When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. 13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; 14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. 16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. 17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: 19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. 20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom. 23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24 And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.

We are here taught, in praising God, to look a great way back, and to give him the glory of what he did for his church in former ages, especially when it was in the founding and forming, which those in its latter ages enjoy the benefit of and therefore should give thanks for. Doubtless we may fetch as proper matter for praise from the histories of the gospels, and the acts of the apostles, which relate the birth of the Christian church, as the psalmist here does from the histories of Genesis and Exodus, which relate the birth of the Jewish church; and our histories greatly outshine theirs. Two things are here made the subject of praise:—

I. God's promise to the patriarchs, that great promise that he would give to their seed the land of Canaan for an inheritance, which was a type of the promise of eternal life made in Christ to all believers. In all the marvellous works which God did for Israel he remembered his covenant (v. 8) and he will remember it for ever; it is the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. See here the power of the promise; it is the word which he commanded and which will take effect. See the perpetuity of the promise; it is commanded to a thousand generations, and the entail of it shall not be cut off. In the parallel place it is expressed as our duty (1 Chron. xvi. 15), Be you mindful always of his covenant. God will not forget it and therefore we must not. The promise is here called a covenant, because there was something required on man's part as the condition of the promise. Observe, 1. The persons with whom this covenant was made—with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, grandfather, father, and son, all eminent believers, Heb. xi. 8, 9. 2. The ratifications of the covenant; it was made sure by all that is sacred. Is that sure which is sworn to? It is his oath to Isaac and to Abraham. See to whom God swore by himself, Heb. vi. 13, 14. Is that sure which has passed into a law? He confirmed the same for a law, a law never to be repealed. Is that sure which is reduced to a mutual contract and stipulation? This is confirmed for an everlasting covenant, inviolable. 3. The covenant itself: Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, v. 11. The patriarchs had a right to it, not by providence, but by promise; and their seed should be put in possession of it, not by the common ways of settling nations, but by miracles; God will give it to them himself, as it were with his own hand; it shall be given to them as their lot which God assigns them and measures out to them, as the lot of their inheritance, a sure title, by virtue of their birth; it shall come to them by descent, not by purchase, by the favour of God, and not any merit of their own. Heaven is the inheritance we have obtained, Eph. i. 11. And this is the promise which God has promised us (as Canaan was the promise he promised them), even eternal life, 1 John ii. 25; Tit. i. 2.

II. His providences concerning the patriarchs while they were waiting for the accomplishment of this promise, which represent to us the care God takes of his people in this world, while they are yet on this side the heavenly Canaan; for these things happened unto them for examples and encouragements to all the heirs of promise, that live by faith as they did.

1. They were wonderfully protected and sheltered, and (as the Jewish masters express it) gathered under the wings of the divine Majesty. This is accounted for, v. 12-15. Here we may observe,

(1.) How they were exposed to injuries from men. To the three renowned patriarchs, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, God's promises were very rich; again and again he told them he would be their God; but his performances in this world were so little proportionable that, if he had not prepared for them a city in the other world, he would have been ashamed to be called their God (see Heb. xi. 16), because he was always generous; and yet even in this world he was not wanting to them, but that he might appear, to do uncommon things for them, he exercised them with uncommon trials. [1.] They were few, very few. Abraham was called alone (Isa. li. 2); he had but two sons, and one of them he cast out; Isaac had but two, and one of them was forced for many years to flee from his country; Jacob had more, but some of them, instead of being a defence to him, exposed him, when (as he himself pleads, Gen. xxxiv. 30) he was but few in number, and therefore might easily be destroyed by the natives, he and his house. God's chosen are but a little flock, few, very few, and yet upheld. [2.] They were strangers, and therefore were the most likely to be abused and to meet with strange usage, and the less able to help themselves. Their religion made them to be looked upon as strangers (1 Pet. iv. 4) and to be hooted at as speckled birds, Jer. xii. 9. Though the whole land was theirs by promise, yet they were so far from producing and pleading their grant that they confessed themselves strangers in it, Heb. xi. 13. [3.] They were unsettled (v. 13): They went from one nation to another, from one part of that land to another (for it was then in the holding and occupation of divers nations, Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 3, 18); nay, from one kingdom to another people, from Canaan to Egypt, from Egypt to the land of the Philistines, which could not but weaken and expose them; yet they were forced to it by famine. Note, Though frequent removals are neither desirable nor commendable, yet sometimes there is a just and necessary occasion for them, and they may be the lot of some of the best men.

(2.) How they were guarded by the special providence of God, the wisdom and power of which were the more magnified by their being so many ways exposed, v. 14, 15. They were not able to help themselves and yet, [1.] No men were suffered to wrong them, but even those that hated them, and would gladly have done them a mischief, had their hands tied, and could not do what they would. This may refer to Gen. xxxv. 5, where we find that the terror of God (an unaccountable restraint) was upon the cities that were round about them, so that, though provoked, they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. [2.] Even crowned heads, that did offer to wrong them, were not only checked and chidden for it, but controlled and baffled: He reproved kings for their sakes in dreams and visions, saying, "Touch not my anointed; it is at your peril if you do, nay, it shall not be in your power to do it; do my prophets no harm." Pharaoh king of Egypt was plagued (Gen. xii. 17) and Abimelech king of Gerar was sharply rebuked (Gen. xx. 6) for doing wrong to Abraham. Note, First, Even kings themselves are liable to God's rebukes if they do wrong. Secondly, God's prophets are his anointed, for they have the unction of the Spirit, that oil of gladness, 1 John ii. 27. Thirdly, Those that offer to touch God's prophets, with design to harm them, may expect to hear of it one way or other. God is jealous for his prophets; whoso touches them touches the apple of his eye. Fourthly, Even those that touch the prophets, nay that kill the prophets (as many did), cannot do them any harm, any real harm. Lastly, God's anointed prophets are dearer to him than anointed kings themselves. Jeroboam's hand was withered when it was stretched out against a prophet.

2. They were wonderfully provided for and supplied. And here also, (1.) They were reduced to great extremity. Even in Canaan, the land of promise, he called for a famine, v. 16. Note, All judgments are at God's call, and no place is exempt from their visitation and jurisdiction when God sends them forth with commission. To try the faith of the patriarchs, God broke the whole staff of bread, even in that good land, that they might plainly see God designed them a better country than that was. (2.) God graciously took care for their relief. It was in obedience to his precept, and in dependence upon his promise, that they were now sojourners in Canaan, and therefore he could not in honour suffer any evil to befal them or any good thing to be wanting to them. As he restrained one Pharaoh from doing them wrong, so he raised up another to do them a kindness, by preferring and entrusting Joseph, of whose story we have here an abstract. He was to be the shepherd and stone of Israel and to save that holy seed alive, Gen. xlix. 24; l. 20. In order to this, [1.] He was humbled, greatly humbled (v. 17, 18): God sent a man before them, even Joseph. Many years before the famine began, he was sent before them, to nourish them in the famine; so vast are the foresights and forecasts of Providence, and so long its reaches. But in what character did he go to Egypt who was to provide for the reception of the church there? He went not in quality of an ambassador, no, nor so much as a factor or commissary; but he was sold thither for a servant, a slave for term of life, without any prospect of being ever set at liberty. This was low enough, and, one would think, set him far enough from any probability of being great. And yet he was brought lower; he was made a prisoner (v. 18): His feet they hurt with fetters. Being unjustly charged with a crime no less heinous than a rape upon his mistress, the iron entered into his soul, that is, was very painful to him; and the false accusation which was the cause of his imprisonment did in a special manner grieve him, and went to his heart; yet all this was the way to his preferment. [2.] He was exalted, highly exalted. He continued a prisoner, neither tried nor bailed, until the time appointed of God for his release (v. 19), when his word came, that is, his interpretations of the dreams came to pass, and the report thereof came to Pharaoh's ears by the chief butler. And then the word of the Lord cleared him; that is, the power God gave him to foretel things to come rolled away the reproach his mistress had loaded him with; for it could not be thought that God would give such a power to so bad a man as he was represented to be. God's word tried him, tried his faith and patience, and then it came in power to give command for his release. There is a time set when God's word will come for the comfort of all that trust in it, Hab. ii. 3. At the end it shall speak, and not lie. God gave the word, and then the king sent and loosed him; for the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Pharaoh, finding him to be a favourite of Heaven, First, Discharged him from his imprisonment (v. 20): He let him go free. God has often, by wonderful turns of providence, pleaded the cause of oppressed innocency. Secondly, He advanced him to the highest posts of honour, v. 21, 22. He made him lord high chamberlain of his household (he made him lord of his house); nay, he put him into the office of lord-treasurer, the ruler of all his substance. He made him prime-minister of state, lord-president of his council, to command his princes at his pleasure and teach them wisdom, and general of his forces. According to thy word shall all my people be ruled, Gen. xli. 40, 43, 44. He made him lord chief justice, to judge even his senators and punish those that were disobedient. In all this Joseph was designed to be, 1. A father to the church that then was, to save the house of Israel from perishing by the famine. He was made great, that he might do good, especially in the household of faith. 2. A figure of Christ that was to come, who, because he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant, was highly exalted, and has all judgment committed to him. Joseph being thus sent before, and put into a capacity of maintaining all his father's house, Israel also came into Egypt (v. 23), where he and all his were very honourably and comfortably provided for many years. Thus the New-Testament church has a place provided for her even in the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, Rev. xii. 14. Verily she shall be fed.

3. They were wonderfully multiplied, according to the promise made to Abraham that his seed should be as the sand of the sea for multitude, v. 24. In Egypt he increased his people greatly; they multiplied like fishes, so that in a little time they became stronger than their enemies and formidable to them. Pharaoh took notice of it. Exod. i. 9, The children of Israel are more and mightier than we. When God pleases a little one shall become a thousand; and God's promises, though they work slowly, work surely.

Israel's Deliverance Out of Egypt.

25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants. 26 He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. 27 They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. 29 He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. 30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. 31 He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. 32 He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. 33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. 34 He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number, 35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. 36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. 37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. 38 Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them. 39 He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. 40 The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. 42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant. 43 And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: 44 And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; 45 That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord .

After the history of the patriarchs follows here the history of the people of Israel, when they grew into a nation.

I. Their affliction in Egypt (v. 25): He turned the heart of the Egyptians, who had protected them, to hate them and deal subtilely with them. God's goodness to his people exasperated the Egyptians against them; and, though their old antipathy to the Hebrews (which we read of Gen. xliii. 32; xlvi. 34) was laid asleep for a while, yet now it revived with more violence than ever: formerly they hated them because they despised them, now because they feared them. They dealt subtilely with them, set all their politics on work to find out ways and means to weaken them, and waste them, and prevent their growth; they made their burdens heavy and their lives bitter, and slew their male children as soon as they were born. Malice is crafty to destroy: Satan has the serpent's subtlety, with his venom. It was God that turned the hearts of the Egyptians against them; for every creature is that to us that he makes it to be, a friend or an enemy. Though God is not the author of the sins of men, yet he serves his own purposes by them.

II. Their deliverance out of Egypt, that work of wonder, which, that it might never be forgotten, is put into the preface to the ten commandments. Observe,

1. The instruments employed in that deliverance (v. 26): He sent Moses his servant on this errand and joined Aaron in commission with him. Moses was designed to be their lawgiver and chief magistrate, Aaron to be their chief priest; and therefore, that they might respect them the more and submit to them the more cheerfully, God made use of them as their deliverers.

2. The means of accomplishing that deliverance; these were the plagues of Egypt. Moses and Aaron observed their orders, in summoning them just as God appointed them, and they rebelled not against his word (v. 28) as Jonah did, who, when he was sent to denounce God's judgments against Nineveh, went to Tarshish. Moses and Aaron were not moved, either with a foolish fear of Pharaoh's wrath or a foolish pity of Egypt's misery, to relax or retard any of the plagues which God ordered them to inflict on the Egyptians, but stretched forth their hand to inflict them as God appointed. Those that are instructed to execute judgment will find their remissness construed as a rebellion against God's word. The plagues of Egypt are here called God's signs, and his wonders (v. 27); they were not only proofs of his power, but tokens of his wrath, and to be looked upon with admiration and holy awe. They showed the words of his signs (so it is in the original), for every plague had an exposition going along with it; they were not, as the common works of creation and providence, silent signs, but speaking ones, and they spoke aloud. They are all or most of them here specified, though not in the order in which they were inflicted. (1.) The plague of darkness, v. 28. This was one of the last, though here mentioned first. God sent darkness, and, coming with commission, it came with efficacy; his command made it dark. And then they (that is, the people of Israel) rebelled not against God's word, namely, a command which some think was given them to circumcise all among them that had not been circumcised, in doing which the three days' darkness would be a protection to them. The old translation follows the LXX., and reads it, They were not obedient to his word, which may be applied to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who, notwithstanding the terror of this plague, would not let the people go; but there is no ground for it in the Hebrew. (2.) The turning of the river Nilus (which they idolized) into blood, and all their other waters, which slew their fish (v. 29), and so they were deprived, not only of their drink, but of the daintiest of their meat, Num. xi. 5. (3.) The frogs, shoals of which their land brought forth, which poured in upon them, not only in such numbers, but with such fury, that they could not keep them out of the chambers of their kings and great men, whose hearts had been full of vermin, more nauseous and more noxious-contempt of, and enmity to, both God and his Israel. (4.) Flies of divers sorts swarmed in their air, and lice in their clothes, v. 31; Exod. viii. 17, 24. Note, God can make use of the meanest, and weakest, and most despicable animals, for the punishing and humbling of proud oppressors, to whom the impotency of the instrument cannot but be a great mortification, as well as an undeniable conviction of the divine omnipotence. (5.) Hail-stones shattered their trees, even the strongest timber-trees in their coasts, and killed their vines, and their other fruit-trees, v. 32, 33. Instead of rain to cherish their trees, he gave them hail to crush them, and with it thunder and lightning, to such a degree that the fire ran along upon the ground, as if it had been a stream of kindled brimstone, Exod. ix. 23. (6.) Locusts and caterpillars destroyed all the herbs which were made for the service of man and ate the bread out of their mouths, v. 34, 35. See what variety of judgments God has, wherewith to plague proud oppressors, that will not let his people go. God did not bring the same plague twice, but, when there was occasion for another, it was still a new one; for he has many arrows in his quiver. Locusts and caterpillars are God's armies; and, how weak soever they are singly, he can raise such numbers of them as to make them formidable, Joel i. 4, 6. (7.) Having mentioned all the plagues but those of the murrain and boils, he concludes with that which gave the conquering stroke, and that was the death of the first-born, v. 36. In the dead of the night the joys and hopes of their families, the chief of their strength and flower of their land, were all struck dead by the destroying angel. They would not release God's first-born, and therefore God seized theirs by way of reprisal, and thereby forced them to dismiss his too, when it was too late to retrieve their own; for when God judges he will overcome, and those will certainly sit down losers at last that contend with him.

3. The mercies that accompanied this deliverance. In their bondage, (1.) They had been impoverished, and yet they came out rich and wealthy. God not only brought them forth, but he brought them forth with silver and gold, v. 37. God empowered them to ask and collect the contributions of their neighbours (which were indeed but part of payment for the service they had done them) and inclined the Egyptians to furnish them with what they asked. Their wealth was his, and therefore he might, their hearts were in his hand, and therefore he could, give it to the Israelites. (2.) Their lives had been made bitter to them, and their bodies and spirits broken by their bondage; and yet, when God brought them forth, there was not one feeble person, none sick, none so much as sickly, among their tribes. They went out that very night that the plague swept away all the first-born of Egypt, and yet they went out all in good health, and brought not with them any of the diseases of Egypt. Surely never was the like, that among so many thousands there was not one sick! So false was the representation which the enemies of the Jews, in after-ages, gave of this matter, that they were all sick of a leprosy, or some loathsome disease, and that therefore the Egyptians thrust them out of their land. (3.) They had been trampled upon and insulted over; and yet they were brought out with honour (v. 38): Egypt was glad when they departed; for God had so wonderfully owned them, and pleaded their cause, that the fear of Israel fell upon them, and they owned themselves baffled and overcome. God can and will make his church a burdensome stone to all that heave at it and seek to displace it, so that those shall think themselves happy that get out of its way, Zech. xii. 3. When God judges, he will overcome. (4.) They had spent their days in sorrow and in sighing, by reason of their bondage; but now he brought them forth with joy and gladness, v. 43. When Egypt's cry for grief was loud, their first-born being all slain, Israel's shouts for joy were as loud, both when they looked back upon the land of slavery out of which they were rescued and when they looked forward to the pleasant land to which they were hastening. God now put a new song into their mouth.

4. The special care God took of them in the wilderness. (1.) For their shelter. Besides the canopy of heaven, he provided them another heavenly canopy: He spread a cloud for a covering (v. 39), which was to them not only a screen and umbrella, but a cloth of state. A cloud was often God's pavilion (Ps. xviii. 11) and now it was Israel's; for they also were his hidden ones. (2.) For their guidance and refreshment in the dark. He appointed a pillar of fire to give light in the night, that they might never be at a loss. Note, God graciously provides against all the grievances of his people, and furnishes them with convenient succours for every condition, for day and night, till they come to heaven, where it will be all day to eternity. (3.) He fed them both with necessaries and dainties. Sometimes he furnished their tables with wild fowl (v. 40): The people asked, and he brought quails; and, when they were not thus feasted, yet they were abundantly satisfied with the bread of heaven. Those are curious and covetous indeed who will not be so satisfied. Man did eat angels' food, and that constantly and on free-cost. And, as every bit they ate had miracle in it, so had every drop they drank: He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out, v. 41. Common providence fetches waters from heaven, and bread out of the earth; but for Israel the divine power brings bread from the clouds and water from the rocks: so far is the God of nature from being tied to the laws and courses of nature. The water did not only gush out once, but it ran like a river, plentifully and constantly, and attended their camp in all their removes; hence they are said to have the rock follow them (1 Cor. x. 4), and, which increased the miracle, this river of God (so it might be truly called) ran in dry places, and yet was not drunk in and lost, as one would have expected it to be, by the sands of the desert of Arabia. To this that promise alludes, I will give rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen, Isa. xliii. 19, 20.

5. Their entrance, at length, into Canaan (v. 44): He gave them the lands of the heathen, put them in possession of that which they had long been put in hopes of; and what the Canaanites had taken pains for God's Israel had the enjoyment of: They inherited the labour of the people; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. The Egyptians had long inherited their labours, and now they inherited the labours of the Canaanites. Thus sometimes one enemy of the church is made to pay another's scores.

6. The reasons why God did all this for them. (1.) Because he would himself perform the promises of the word, v. 42. They were unworthy and unthankful, yet he did those great things in their favour because he remembered the word of his holiness (that is, his covenant) with Abraham his servant, and he would not suffer one iota or tittle of that to fall to the ground. See Deut. vii. 8. (2.) Because he would have them to perform the precepts of the word, to bind them to which was the greatest kindness he could put upon them. He put them in possession of Canaan, not that they might live in plenty and pleasure, in ease and honour, and might make a figure among the nations, but that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws,—that, being formed into a people, they might be under God's immediate government, and revealed religion might be the basis of their national constitution,—that, having a good land given them, they might out of the profits of it bring sacrifices to God's altar,—and that, God having thus done them good, they might the more cheerfully receive his law, concluding that also designed for their good, and might be sensible of their obligations in gratitude to live in obedience to him. We are therefore made, maintained, and redeemed, that we may live in obedience to the will of God; and the hallelujah with which the psalm concludes may be taken both as a thankful acknowledgment of God's favours and as a cheerful concurrence with this great intention of them. Has God done so much for us, and yet does he expect so little from us? Praise you the Lord.

PSAL. CV.

COnfesse yee to Iehovah, call on his Name, make knowne his actions among the peoples. Sing ye to him, sing Psalme to him, discourse of all his marvellous workes. Glory yee in the Name of his holinesse, let the heart of them that seeke Iehovah rejoyce. Seeke Iehovah and his strength, seeke ye his face continually. Remember ye his marvellous workes that hee hath done, his wonders, and the judgements of his mouth. Seed of Abraham his servant, sonnes of Iakob his chosen ones. He is Iehovah our God, his judgements are in all the earth. He remembreth his covenant for ever, the word that he commanded to the thousand generation. Which hee stroke with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaak. And stablished it to Iakob for a decree, to Israel for a covenant of eternitie. Saying, To thee will I give the land of Canaan, the line of your inheritance. When they were men (few) of number, very few, and strangers in it. And walked about from nation to nation, from one kingdome to another people. He suffered not any man to doe them wrong, but reproved kings for them. Touch not mine anointed, and to my Prophets doe no evill. And hee called a famine upon the land, hee brake all the staffe of bread. He sent before them a man, Ioseph was sold for a servant. They afflicted his feet with fetters, his soule entred the iron. Vntill the time his word came, the saying of Iehovah tried him. The King sent and loosed him, the ruler of the people, and released him. He put him Lord of his house, and ruler of all his possession. To bind his Princes to his soule, and make wise his Elders. And Israel came into Egypt, and Iakob sojourned in the land of Cham. And he increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their distressers. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deale craftily with his servants. Hee sent Moses his servant, Aaron whom he had chosen. They put among them the words of his signes, and wonders in the land of Cham. He sent darknesse and made it darke, and they turned not rebellious against his word. Hee turned their waters to bloud, and slew their fish. Their land abundantly brought forth frogs, in the privie Chambers of their kings.

Hee said, and there came a mixed swarme, lice in all their border. He gave their showers to be haile, fire of flames in their land. And smote their Vine and their Fig-tree, and brake the trees of their border. He said, and the Grashopper came, and the Caterpiller, even without number. And did eat up all the herbes in their land, and did eat up the fruit of their ground. And he smote all the first-borne in their land, the beginning of all their strength. And hee brought forth them with silver and gold, and none among their Tribes was feeble. Egypt rejoyced when they went out, for the dread of them had fallen upon them. He spred a cloud for a covering, and a fire to enlighten the night. They asked, and he brought the Quaile, and with the Bread of Heavens he satisfied them. He opened the Rock, and the waters flowed out, they went in dry places like a river. For he remembred the Word of his Holinesse to Abraham his servant. And brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with shouting joy. And gave to them the lands of the Heathens, and they possessed the labour of the peoples. That they might observe his statutes and keepe his lawes, Halelu-jah.

Annotations. CAll on his name] or proclaime, that is, preach his name. The first part of this Psalme is part of that which David appointed to laud the Lord with, when his Arke was seated in Ierusalem, 1 Chron. 16. 7, 8,—22. Vers. 2. discourse] or talke, meditate. Vers. 3. Glory] or Praise your selves: see Psal. 34. 3. Vers. 4. his strength] that is, his Arke, from whence God gave his Oracles, Numb. 7. 89 See Psal. 78. 61. The Chaldee paraphraseth thus, Seek ye the doctrine of the Lord and his Law. his face] his counsell and Oracle: see the notes on Psal. 27. 8. Vers. 6. of Abraham] in 1 Chron. 16. 13. it is of Israel. his servant] this is meant of the seed as well as of Abraham, as the next words shew: therefore the Greeke turneth it servants. Vers. 8. He remembreth] therefore also Remember ye, as it is written, 1 Chro. 16. 15. the word] or the matter, the conditions of the Covenant, and so the promises which for the more certainty are said to be commanded, as in Psal. 133. 3. Vers. 11. land of Canaan] the sonne of Cham, the sonne of Noah, who was cursed by his Grand-father, and made a servant to his brethren, Gen. 9. 18, 22, 25. This Canaan had eleven sonnes, heads of their families, Gen. 10. 15, 20. they seated in the lesser Asia in a goodly Country, having the great sea Westward, the river Iarden, Syria, and Arabia Eastward, the Wildernesse on the South, and the mounts of Lebanon on the North. It was the pleasantest of all lands, and flowed with milke and honey, Ezek. 20. 6. it had store of rivers and fountaines, of Corne, and Wine, and Oile, and Mines; of mountaines and vallies, watered with the raine of heaven, and cared for of God continually, Deu. 8. 7, 8, 9. and 11. 10, 11, 12. This land God promised Abraham to give unto his seed, Gen. 12. 6, 7. and 13. 15, 17. See also the Notes on Psal. 25. 13. the line] that is, the portion of your patrimony measured as by line. See Psal. 16. 6. Vers. 12. When they were] in 1 Chron. 16. 19. it is, when ye were. men of number] that is, a few men, soone numbred: so Gen. 34. 30. Deut. 4. 27. The contrary is, without number, or innumerable, Psal. 147. 5. Vers. 13. from nation to nation] up and downe in the land of Canaan, where were seven mighty nations, Deut. 7. 1. How there the Patriarkes walked as strangers, see Gen. 12. 8, 9, 10. and 13. 18. and 20. 1. and 23. 4. and 26. 1. 23. and 33. 19. and 35. 1, &c. Heb. 11. 9, 13. Vers. 14. wrong] or to oppresse them. reproved Kings] plaguing Pharaoh, Gen. 12. 17. threatning Abimelech, Gen. 20. 3. Vers. 15. anointed] men consecrated to me by the oile of the spirit: see 1 Ioh. 2. 20, 27. Prophets] so Abraham is called, Gen. 20. 7. See Psal. 74. 9. Vers. 16. called famine] that is, effectually brought it; so 2 King. 8. 1. The contrary hereof is, to call for corne, Ezek. 36. 29. the land] of Canaan, Egypt, and other countries, Gen. 41. 54, &c. staffe] or stay, stabiliment: so bread is called, Lev. 26. 26. Ezek. 4. 16. for it upholdeth mans heart, Psal. 104. 15. Vers. 17. a man] Heb. Ish, a noble man: see Psal. 49. 3. The Chaldee saith, a wise man. for a servant] for a slave, by his brethren to the Ismaelites, & by them to the Egyptians, Gen. 37. 28, 36. Vers. 18. his soule entred] or, as the Greek saith, passed thorow the iron, that is, he (his body) was laid in irons when he was cast into prison most unjustly, Gen. 39. 20. and there he was in perill of his life. Of soule, see Psal. 16. 10. Vers. 19. his word came] that is, the word spoken of him was fulfilled, which God had shewed Ioseph in a dreame touching his advancement, Gen. 36. 5,—8, 9, 10. and 42. 9. So comming is for fulfilling, Ier. 17. 15. 1 Sam. 9. 6. Iob 6. 8. tried] or fined him, by trying as in fire, his faith and patience in afflictions, as 1 Pet. 1. 7. see Psal. 12. 7. Vers. 20. The King] Pharaoh (for that Ioseph interpreted his dreame) set him out of prison, a ruler over the land. See Gen. 41. 14, &c. and 45. 8. Vers. 22. To bind] that is, informe, and governe as subjects: see Psal. 2. 3. to his soule] to his will or pleasure, (as Psal. 27. 12.) so as without him no man should lift up his hand or his foot (that is, attempt to doe any thing) in all the land of Egypt, Gen. 41. 44, 40. Or, with his soule, that is, with him-selfe, as the Greeke expoundeth it, to nurture his Princes as himselfe, which may meane to informe them in vertue, wisdome, &c. wherein himselfe excelled, Gen. 41. 38, 39. With is sometime used for as, Psal. 102. 4. and the soule for ones selfe; see Psal. 16. 10. The words following seeme to favour this exposition. his elders] or Senators, the Kings Nobles and Counsellers, Gen. 50. 7. Vers. 23. came into Egypt] being sent for by Pharaoh, and incouraged thereto by God him-selfe, Gen. 45. 17,—20. and 46. 3, 4. of Cham] the father of Mizraim, or Egypt: see Psal. 78. 51. Vers. 24. increased] made them fructifie, that the land was soone full of them, Exod. 1. 7, 9. Vers. 25. to deale craftily] or, conspire guile fully for their destruction, as Gen. 37. 18. Pharaoh and his people fretting at Israels prosperity, thought to worke wisely with them when they plotted their ruine, Exod. 1. 9, 10, 12, &c. Vers. 26. had chosen] to be Moses his mouth to the people, and Prophet to Pharaoh, Exod. 4. 12, 14, 16. and 7. 1, 2, &c. Vers. 27. words of his signes] the signes which he spake and commanded, together with the doctrine and use of them for letting of Israel goe: See Exod. 7. 1, 2, 3, &c. Or words of signes, as words of song, Psal. 137. 3. are signes and songs. So Psal. 145. 5. Vers. 28. darknesse] the ninth plague of Egypt, where was black darknesse in all the land for three dayes, that no man saw another, nor rose from the place where he was, Exod. 10. 22, 23. turned not rebellious] or, they disobeyed not: (see Psal. 5. 11.) that is, his words (or word) were not disobeyed or changed, but effected as God had spoken: see a like phrase noted on Psal. 49. 15. Or, they may be referred to Moses and Aaron, who performed the things commanded them, though with danger to them. Vers. 29. to bloud] the first of the ten plagues, Exod. 7. See Psal. 78. 44. Vers. 30. frogs] the second plague, Exod. 8. 3, 6. Psal. 78. 45. Kings] Pharaoh and his Princes: so Esa. 19. 2. Vers. 31. swarme] of flyes or beasts: see Psal. 78. 45. This was the fourth plague, Exod. 8. 24. lice] the third plague. All the dust of the land was lice, and went upon man and beast, Exod. 8. 17. Vers. 32. showers] of raine, in stead whereof they had haile, the seventh plague, Exod. 9. See Psal. 78. 47. of flames] that is, sorely flaming and blasting; never was the like there seene, Exod. 9. 24. Vers. 33. tree] for trees; so after, verse 34. 40. and often. See Psal. 34. 8. Vers. 34. grashopper] or locust, the eight plague, Exod. 10. see Psal. 78. 46. Vers. 36. the first-borne] the tenth plague, whereof see Psal. 78. 51. Vers. 37. feeble] ready to fall through weaknes, there being an armie of six hundred thousand men, Exod. 12. 37. and 13. 18. A like promise is made to the Church, Esa. 33. 24. Vers. 38. dread of them] that is, of death for their sakes, so that they forced them out, and gave them treasures, Exod. 12. 33, 35. See the like speech, Esth. 8. 17. and. 9. 2. Vers. 39. a fire] that they might travell night and day towards the promised land, Exod. 13. 21. Psa. 78. 14. Vers. 40. quaile] that is, quailes which for their lust he gave them, Numb. 11. Compare Psal. 78. 27, 28. bread] Manna, whereof see Psal. 78. 24, 25. and Exod. 16. Vers. 41. the Rocke] at Rephidim, Exod. 17. and at Kadesh, Numb. 20. a river] so that the people and their beasts dranke, Numb. 20. 11. and for this the wilde beasts, Dragons, Ostriches, honoured God, Esa. 43. 20. this mercy is applied to other times, Isa. 48. 21. Vers. 44. heathens] the seven nations: whereof see Psal. 78. 55. Vers. 45. keepe his lawes] The end of all Gods mercies was, that he might be glorified in his peoples obedience: see Exod. 19. 4, 5, 6. Deut. 4. 1, 40. and 6. 21,—24, 25.

PSAL. CV.

VErſ. 1. O give thanks unto Lord] Some tell us, that this, and the two following Pſalms, were the great Hallelujah ſung as ſolemn times in their aſſemblies. But others ſay better, that the great Hallelujah (as the Hebrews called it) began at Pſal. 113. and held on till Pſal. 119. which they at the Paſsover began to ſing, after that cup of wine they called, Poculum bymni ſen laudationis.

Call upon his Name] Call upon the Lord, whe is worthy to be prayſed, Pſal. 18.3. See the Note there. Our life muſt be divided betwixt praiſes and prayers.

Verſ. 2. Sing unto him, ſing] Both with mouth, and with muſical inſtruments.

Talk ye] Or meditate ye, Let your heart indite a good matter, and your tongue be as the pen of a ready writer, Pſal. 45.1.

Verſ. 3. Glory ye in his holy Name] Of his power and goodneſs. See 1 Cor. 1.31.Alſted. with Jer. 9.23. Non eſt glorioſier populus ſub caelo quam Judaicus, ſaith One; there i[illegible: 1 letter] not a more vain-glorious people under heaven than the Jews; But we are the circumciſion which worſhip in ſpirit, and glory in Chriſt Jeſus, and have no confidence in the fleſh, Philip. 3.3.

Let the heart of them rejoyce, &c. All others are forbidden to rejoyce, Hoſ. 9.1. and bidden to weep and howl, Jam. 5.1.

Verſ. 4. Seek the Lord and his ſtrength] That is, his Ark at the remove where of to Jeruſalem this Pſalm was ſung, 1 Chron. 16.7, 8. &c. Called it is Gods ſtrength, and Gods face here; yea even God himſelf, Pſal. 132.5. Its as if he ſhould ſay, Frequent holy Aſſemblies, as ever you deſire to draw nigh to God, and to have your faith in him confirmed.

Verſ. 5. Remember the marvellous works, &c.] Deeply, and diligently ponder both the works and words of God, comparing the one with the other, that ye may the better conceive of both.

Verſ. 6. O yee ſeed of Abraham &c.] Do thus, or elſe your pedigree will profit you no more, than it did Dives in the flames, that Abraham called him Son. An empty title, yeeldeth but an empty comfort.

Verſ. 7. For he is the Lord] Jehovah, the Eſſentiator, the promiſe-keeper, therefore praiſe him! He is alſo in Covenant with us, and will we not do him this right?

His judgement are in all the earth] His executions upon the Egyptians and Philiſtims, are far and near notified and diſcourſed.

Verſ. 8. He hath remembred his Covenant] I Chron. 16.15. it is, Bee ye mindful alwayes of his Covenant. God ever remembreth, though we many times forget it, and out ſelves.

The word which be commanded] The conditions of the Covenant.

Verſ. 9. which Covenant be made with Abraham, &c.] Whom hee found an Idolater, Joſh, 24.2. he juſtified the ungodly, Rom. 4.5.

And his Oath] That by two immutable things, &c. Heb. 6.

Verſ. 10. And confirmed the ſame, &c.] So God ſealeth, and ſweareth to us again and again, in every Sacrament, that all doubts of his love may be taken away, and out hearts lifted up (as Jeboſaphats, 2 Chron. 17.6.) in the way of the Lord.

Verſ. 11. Ʋnto thee will I give the land of Canaan] That pleaſanteſt of all lands, E[illegible: 2 letters]k. 20.6. a type and pledge of heaven to the faithful.

Verſ 12. When they were but a few men in member] Seventy ſouls at their going down into Egypt, which yet (ſay the Hebrews truly) were more worth than the Seventy Nations of the whole world beſides. Howb[illegible: 2 letters]t God choſe them not for their worth, or number, but loved them meerly becauſe he loved them, Deut. 7.7,8.

Verſ. 13. When they went from one Nation to another] There were ſeven ſeveral Nations in that Land, wherein they ſojourned, flitting from place to place, and having no ſetled habitation, [non-Latin text not transcribed], 1 Cor. 4.11.

From one Kingdome] Forced by Famine, or other neceſſity. See Gen 10.12. and 20.1, 2, &c. and 26.1, &c.

Verſ. 14. He ſuffered no man, &c.] So as utterly to oppreſs them; for otherwiſe, they had their ill uſages, ſuch as was the taking away of Sarah, caſting out of Iſaac, the rape of Dinah, &c. Strangers meet many times with hard meaſure.

Yea be reproved Kings] Gen. 12.17. and 20.3. Kings and Queens muſt not think themſelves to good to nurſe Gods little ones, yea to do them homage, licking up the duſt under their feet, Iſa. 49.23.

Verſ. 15. Touch not mine anointed, &c.] This, God ſpeaketh not of Kings, but to Kings, concerning his people who have an unction from the Father, being ſanctified, and ſet apart for his peculiar. To touch theſe, is to touch the apple of Gods eye, Zach. 2.8. they are ſacred perſons.

And do my Prophets no harm] The Patriarchs were ſuch, Gen. 20.7. ſo are ſtill all godly Miniſters, whom they who harm by word or deed, have not ſo much knowledge as Pilats wiſe had in a dream. See Pſal. 14.4.

Verſ. 16. Moreover he called for a Famine] How eaſie is it with God ſoon to ſtawe us all by denying us an harveſt or two? If he do but call for a Famine it is done.

He brake the while ſtaff of bread] Either by withdrawing bread, that ſtaff of mans life, or his bleſſing from it; for man liveth not by bread alone (or at all) but by every word, &c. Mat. 4. without which, bread can no more nouriſh us than a clod of clay. In pane concluſus eſt quaſi baculus, qui nos ſuſtineat. See Hag. 1.6. with the Notes.

Verſ. 17. He ſent a man before them] An eminent and eximious man, Cujus vita fuit coelum queddam lucidiſſim is virtutum ſtellis exornatum, to be their friend in the Court, and to provide for their livelihood. No danger befalleth the Church, but God beforehand provideth and procureth the means of preſervation and deliverance, 2 Pet. 2.9.

Even Joſeph whom they had ſold] God ordereth the diſorders of the world to his own glory, and his peoples good.

Verſ. 18. Whoſe feet they hurt with fetters] God hereby fitting him for that great ſervice; as he did afterwards Moſes by forty years baniſhment in Mi[illegible: 1 letter]ian, and David by Sauls perſecution, till his ſoul was even as a weaned child, Pſal. 131.2.

He was laid in iron] Heb. His ſoul came into iron, or the iron entred into his ſoul; but ſin entred not into his conſcience. See a like phraſe, Luke 2.35.

Verſ. 19 Until the time that his word came] The time that Gods purpoſe and promiſe of deliverance was fulfilled. This word of God, prophane perſons call Fate, Fortune, &c.

The word of the Lord tried him] That he was Affliction-proof, and ſtill retained his integrity, 1 Pet. 1.7.

Verſ. 20. The King ſent and looſed him] By his own Maſter Potiphar, who had laid him there at his wives in ſtance; ſuch as are bound ignominiouſly for righteouſneſs ſake, ſhall be one way or other looſed honourably.

Verſ. 21. He made him Lord of his houſe] Thus, for his ſhort braid of impriſonment, where of he never dreamt, Joſeph hath eighty years preferment, more than ever he dreamt of; God retributions are very bountiful.

Verſ. 22. To bind his Princes at his pleaſure] To over-aw and to over-rule them, to bind them in priſon, if need ſo required, as himſelf had been bound, and that at his pleaſure, or according to his own ſoul, ſine conſenſu Pharaoh, ſaith Rabbi Solomon, without Pharaohs conſent, as he dealt by Potiphar, ſay other Rabbins.

And to teach his Senators wiſdome] Policy and piety, which yet the Egyptians long retained not.

Verſ. 23. Iſrael alſo came into Egypt] Whither he feared to go, till God promiſed him his preſence and protection, Gen, 46.3, 4. God ſaith the ſame in effect to us, when to deſcend into the grave, Fear not to go down, I will go down with thee, and be better to thee than thy fears, Jacobs beſt and happieſt dayes, were thoſe the ſpent in Egypt.

Verſ. 24. And be increaſed his people greatly] Againſt all the power of Egypt ſet againſt them.

And made them ſtronger than their enemies] They were not ſo for preſent, but the Egyptians conceited and feared they would be ſo.

Verſ 25. He turned their hear[illegible: 1 letter] to hate] Mens hearts are in Gods hands, and he formeth and faſhioneth their opinions of, and affections to others, at his pleaſure, yet without ſin.

To deal ſubtilly with his ſervants] Seeking to imbaſe and enervate their ſpirits by baſe drudgeries impoſed upon them. So afterwards dealt the Perſian Tyrant with Hormiſaus, and the great Turk with the Chriſtians.

Verſ. 26. He ſent Moſes his ſervant] Quande duplicantur lateres, venit Moſes, ſay the Jews as this day.

And Aaron, &c.] God uſually ſendeth his by two and two for mutual helps and comfort.

Verſ. 27. They ſhewed his ſigns] Heb. The words of his ſigns; for Gods wondrous works are vocal, they are real ſermons of Gods power and juſtice. See Exod. 4.8.

Verſ. 28. He ſent darkneſs] Palpable darkneſs by reaſon of moſt black and thick vapours of the earth, mingling themſelves with the air; ſuch as Aben-Ezra ſaid that hee once felt ſayling upon the Ocean, the groſs vapours there putting out the light of fire and candle, and not ſuffering them to be re-inkindled.

And they rebelled not againſt his word] They, that is, the plagues called for, came immediately, with an Ecce me. Or, They, that is Moſes and Aaron refuſed not to denounce, and inflict thoſe plagues, though Pharaoh threatned so kill them; where a man would wonder at Pharaohs hardneſs and hardineſs, that being in the midſt of that deep and dreadful darkneſs he could rage againſt God, and threaten with death his ſervant Moſes. The Arabick (reading. [non-Latin text not transcribed] for [non-Latin text not transcribed]) rendreth it, Et irritarunt ſermonem ejus; And they (the Egyptians) provoked his word, or rebelled againſt it.

Verſ. 39. He turned their waters into blood] A juſt hand of God upon them for their cruelty in drowning the Hebrew Infants, and a real forewarning, if they could have ſeen it, of the death of their firſt-born, and their final overthrow at the red Sea.

And ſlew their fiſh] Which was a great part of their food; Piſcis à paſcendo dictus.

Verſ. 30. The land brought forth frogs in abundance] Like graſs that grows upon the ground, or as fiſhes ſpawned in the Sea, as the word ſignifieth; Gen. 1.20 Some think they were not common frogs, ſed venenat as & h[illegible: 1 letter]rrendas, quales ſunt rubetae & bufones, Ab. Ezra. but Toads and Lizards; Crocodiles, ſome think, came out of the River, and deſtroyed people.

In the chambers of their Kings] Regis & regulorum inter medias enſe[illegible: 1 letter], medias cuſtodias: This was the finger of God; as it was likewiſe when a Town in Spain was overturned by Conies, and another in Theſſaly by Moles, a City in France undone by Frogs,Plin. l. 8. c. 29 and another in Africa by Locuſts, &c.

Verſ. 31. He ſpake, and there came divers ſorts of Flyes] Heb. a mixture, ſo. of Waſpes Hornets, Dog-flyes (the moſt troubleſome of all other [non-Latin text not transcribed]) all ſorts of Inſects.

And Lice in all their coaſts] This, the Magicians could not do. Quid ciniphe vilius, &c? ſaith Philo, What's baſer than a Louſe? yet hereby God can tame the ſturdieſt of his rebels. Some Kings, and other Grandees have dyed of the louſie diſeaſe; as Herod, Philip of Spain, &c.

Verſ. 32. He gave them Hail for Rain] Rain was geaſon in Egypt; but now they had hail for rain, a giftleſs gift, Heb. He gave their rain hail, Exod. 9.23.

And flaming fire in their land] That they might ſee that he was Lord of all the four Elements.

Verſ. 33. He ſmote their Vines elſe, and their Figtrees] Of the fruitfulneſs of theſe trees in Egypt, ſtrange things are reported by Solinus and others; but this extraordinary hail mingled with fire, marred them in the Spring, when they promiſed great ſtore of fruit, truſis botris & baccis.

And brake the trees] Yea brained men and beaſts that were abroad, as Moſes addeth.

Verſ. 34. He ſpake, and the Locuſts came] Theſe are called Gods great army, and their terrible invaſion is graphically deſcribed; Joel 3, 4, 5, &c.

Verſ. 35. And did eat up all the herbs] All that the fiery hail had not blaſted, and beaten down.

And devoured the fruit of their ground] But not yet the fruit of their bodies, that plague was reſerved to the laſt, to ſhew Gods long-ſuffering, and loathneſs to deſtroy men.

Verſ. 36. He ſmote alſo all the firſt-born] This he did laſt of all; the next ſpring after the firſt plague inflicted, & non niſi c[illegible: 1 letter]actus, as that Emperor once ſaid when he ſubſcribed a writ for execution of a certain Malefactor.

The chief of all their ſtrength] Et ubi non erat primogenitus, moritur epitropus, ſay the Hebrews, where was not a firſt-born, there the ſteward died; ſo that there was no houſe in Egypt without a dead corps, as there are few amongſt us, without many dead ſouls.

Verſ. 37. He brought them forth alſo with ſilver and gold] Which they had dearly earned in Egypt, but could not get, till God the right owner of all, ſet them in a courſe, Exod. 12.35, 36. diſpencing with his own Law.

There was not one feeble perſen, but all able and fit for their journey, Viatico & firma valetudine inſtructi.

Verſ. 38. Egypt was glad when they departed] For they ſaid, we are all dead men, Exod. 12.33. The Devil for like cauſe ſpake Chriſt fair to be rid of him, Mar. 1.

For the fear of them fell upon them] God can make the very name and countenance of his ſervants fearful to their oppreſſors.

Verſ. 39. He ſpread a cloud] It muſt needs be a very large one, that could cover ſuch an army from the extraordinary heats there; For the Deſerts of Arabia are extreme hot, both by reaſon of the climate, and alſo of the ſands reflecting the Sun-beams. So ſtill upon all the glory (the Church) ſhall be a covering, Iſa. 4.5.

And fire to give light, &c.] A fiery pillar againſt the error, terror, and danger of the darkneſs. See Neb. 9.19.

Verſ. 40. The people asked] Not as ſuppliants, but as male-contents, and therefore had what they asked, with a vengeance.

And ſatisfied them with the bread of heaven] Never was any P[illegible: 1 letter]ince in his greateſt ſtate ſo ſerved as theſe miſcreants were: and yet we fare better than they in Gods holy Ordinances.

Verſ. 41. He opened the rock] Set it abroach, giving them pluviam [illegible: 1 letter]ſcatilem; & petram aquatilem, as Tertul. hath it.De patient.

They ran in the dry places] Per deſerta Sinis & Tzinis, ſaith Junius. See 1 Cor. 10.4.

Verſ. 42. For be remembred his holy promiſe] Holy, that is, firm, and inviolable, Heb. The word of his holineſs, that is, his ſacred and gracious ingagement, whereby he had made himſelf a voluntary debtor to Abrahams poſterity.

And Abraham his ſervant] To whom he had paſſed his promiſe four hundred and thirty years before. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi.

Verſ. 43. And be brought forth his people with joy] According to his promiſe made to Abraham; and according to the time they were afflicted, ſo were they comforted, Pſal. [illegible: 1 letter]0.15.

Verſ. 44. And gave them the lands of the heathen] God doth not his work to the halves, he will perfect that which concerneth us, Pſal. 138.8. and preſerve all his unto his heavenly Kingdome, 2 Tim. 4.18.

And inherited the labour of the people] Their Cities, Towns, Villages, Fields, Vineyards, all done to the hand of the Iſraelites, We ſhall alſo enter into our Maſters joy, Manſions made ready for us, &c.

Verſ. 45. That they might obſerve his Statutes] Here the Pſalmiſt ſheweth the final cauſe of all the ſervice of God; what ſhould be the reſult, his praiſe.

Praiſe yee the Lord] Loquitur ad prudentes, ſaith Aben-Ezra, This he ſpeaketh to thoſe that are wiſe; For high words become not a fool, ſaith Solomon.

O give thanks unto the Lord. Jehovah is the author of all our benefits, therefore let him have all our gratitude. Call upon his name, or call him by his name; proclaim his titles and fill the world with his renown. Make known his deeds among the people, or among the nations. Let the heathen hear of our God, that they may forsake their idols and learn to worship him. The removal of the ark was a fit occasion for proclaiming aloud the glories of the Great King, and for publishing to all mankind the greatness of his doings, for it had a history in connection with the nations which it was well for them to remember with reverence. The rest of the psalm is a sermon, of which these first verses constitute the text.

Sing unto him. Bring your best thoughts and express them in the best language to the sweetest sounds. Take care that your singing is "unto him, "and not merely for the sake of the music or to delight the ears of others. Singing is so delightful an exercise that it is a pity so much or it should be wasted upon trifles or worse than trifles. O ye who can emulate the nightingale, and almost rival the angels, we do most earnestly pray that your hearts may be renewed that so your floods of melody may be poured out at your Maker's and Redeemer's feet. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. Men love to speak of marvels, and others are generally glad to hear of surprising things; surely the believer in the living God has before him the most amazing series of wonders ever heard of or imagined, his themes are inexhaustible and they are such as should hold men spellbound. We ought to have more of this "talk": no one would be blamed as a Mr. Talkative if this were his constant theme. Talk ye, all of you: you all know something by experience of the marvellous loving kindness of the Lord —"talk ye." In this way, by all dwelling on this blessed subject, "all" his wondrous works will be published. One cannot do it, nor ten thousand times ten thousand, but if all speak to the Lord's honour, they will at least come nearer to accomplishing the deed. We ought to have a wide range when conversing upon the Lord's doings, and should not shut our eyes to any part of them. Talk ye of his wondrous works in creation and in grace, in judgment and in mercy, in providential interpositions and in spiritual comforting; leave out none, or it will be to your damage. Obedience to this verse will give every sanctified tongue some work to do: the trained musicians can sing, and the commoner voices can talk, and in both ways the Lord will receive a measure of the thanks due to him, and his deeds will be made known among the people.

Glory ye in his holy name. Make it a matter of joy that you have such a God. His character and attributes are such as will never make you blush to call him your God. Idolaters may well be ashamed of the actions attributed to their fancied deities, their names are foul with lust and red with blood, but Jehovah is wholly glorious; every deed of his will bear the strictest scrutiny; his name is holy, his character is holy, his law is holy, his government is holy, his influence is holy. In all this we may make our boast, nor can any deny our right to do so. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. If they have not yet found him so fully as they desire, yet even to be allowed and enabled to seek after such a God is cause for gladness, To worship the Lord and seek his kingdom and righteousness is the sure way to happiness, mad indeed there is no other. True seekers throw their hearts into the engagement, hence their hearts receive joy; according to the text they have a permit to rejoice and they have the promise that they shall do so. How happy all these sentences are! Where can men's ears be when they talk of the gloom of psalm singing? What worldly songs are fuller of real mirth? One hears the sound of the timbrel and the harp in every verse. Even seekers find bliss in the name of the Lord Jesus, but as for the finders, we may say with the poet,

"And those who find thee find a bliss,

Nor tongue nor pen Call show:

The love of Jesus what it is,

None but his loved ones know."

Seek the Loan and his strength. Put yourselves under his protection. Regard him not as a puny God, but look unto his omnipotence, and seek to know the power of his grace. We all need strength; let us look to the strong One for it. We need infinite power to bear us safely to our eternal resting place, let us look to the Almighty Jehovah for it. Seek his face evermore. Seek, seek, seek, we have the word three times, and though the words differ in the Hebrew, the sense is the same. It must be a blessed thing to seek, or we should not be thus stirred up to do so. To seek his face is to desire his presence, his smile, his favour consciously enjoyed. First we seek him, then his strength and then his face; from the personal reverence, we pass on to the imparted power, and then to the conscious favour. This seeking must never cease —the more we know the more we must seek to know. Finding him, we must "our minds inflame to seek him more and more." He seeks spiritual worshippers, and spiritual worshippers seek him; they are therefore sure to meet face to face ere long.

Remember his marvellous works that he hath done. Memory is never better employed than upon such topics. Alas, we are far more ready to recollect foolish and evil things than to retain in our minds the glorious deeds of Jehovah. If we would keep these in remembrance our faith would be stronger, our gratitude warmer, our devotion more fervent, and our love more intense. Shame upon us that we should let slip what it would seem impossible to forget. We ought to need no exhortation to remember such wonders, especially as he has wrought them all on the behalf of his people. His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth —these also should be had in memory. The judgments of his mouth are as memorable as the marvels of his band. God had but to speak and the enemies of his people were sorely afflicted; his threats were not mere words, but smote his adversaries terribly. As the Word of God is the salvation of his saints, so is it the destruction of the ungodly: out of his mouth goeth a two edged sword with which he will slay the wicked.

O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. Should all the world forget, ye are bound to remember. Your father Abraham saw his wonders and judgments upon Sodom, and upon the kings who came from far, and Jacob also saw the Lord's marvellous works in visiting the nations with famine, yet providing for his chosen a choice inheritance in a goodly land; therefore let the children praise their father's God. The Israelites were the Lord's elect nation, and they were bound to imitate their progenitor, who was the Lord's faithful servant and walked before him in holy faith: the seed of Abraham should not be unbelieving, nor should the children of so true a servant become rebels. As we read this pointed appeal to the chosen seed we should recognise the special claims which the Lord has upon ourselves, since we too have been favoured above all others. Election is not a couch for case, but an argument for sevenfold diligence. If God has set his choice upon us, let us aim to be choice men.

He is the Lord our God. Blessed be his name. Jehovah condescends to be our God. This sentence contains a greater wealth of meaning than all the eloquence of orators can compass, and there is more joy in it than in all the sonnets of them that make merry. His judgments are in all the earth, or in all the land, for the whole of the country was instructed by his law, ruled by his statutes, and protected by his authority. What a joy it is that our God is never absent from us, he is never nonresident, never an absentee ruler, his judgments are in all the places in which we dwell. If the second clause of this verse refers to the whole world, it is very beautiful to see the speciality of Israel's election united with the universality of Jehovah's reign. Not alone to the one nation did the Lord reveal himself, but his glory flashed around the globe. It is wonderful that the Jewish people should have become so exclusive, and have so utterly lost the missionary spirit, for their sacred literature is full of the broad and generous sympathies which are so consistent with the worship of "the God of the whole earth." Nor is it less painful to observe that among a certain class of believers in God's election of grace there lingers a hard exclusive spirit, fatal to compassion and zeal. It would be well for these also to remember that their Redeemer is "the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe."

He hath remembered his covenant for ever. Here is the basis of all his dealings with his people: he had entered into covenant with them in their father Abraham, and to this covenant he remained faithful. The exhortation to remember (Ps 105:5) receives great force from the fact that God has remembered. If the Lord has his promise in memory surely we ought not to forget the wonderful manner in which he keeps it. To us it should be matter for deepest joy that never in any instance has the Lord been unmindful of his covenant engagements, nor will he be so world without end. O that we were as mindful of them as he is. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. This is only an amplification of the former statement, and serves to set before us the immutable fidelity of the Lord during the changing generations of men. His judgments are threatened upon the third and fourth generations of them that hate him, but his love runs on for ever, even to "a thousand generations." His promise is here said to be commanded, or vested with all the authority of a law. It is a proclamation from a sovereign, the firman of an Emperor whose laws shall stand fast in every jot and tittle though heaven and earth shall pass away. Therefore let us give thanks unto the Lord and talk of all his wondrous works, so wonderful for their faithfulness and truth.

Which covenant he made with Abraham. When the victims were divided and the burning lamp passed between the pieces (Gen. 15.) then the Lord made, or ratified, the covenant with the patriarch. This was a solemn deed, performed not without blood, and the cutting in pieces of the sacrifice; it points us to the greater covenant which in Christ Jesus is signed, sealed, and ratified, that it may stand fast for ever and ever. And his oath unto Isaac. Isaac did not in vision see the solemn making of the covenant, but the Lord renewed unto him his oath (Ge 26:2-5). This was enough for him, and must have established his faith in the Most High. We have the privilege of seeing in our Lord Jesus both the sacrificial seal, and the eternal oath of God, by which every promise of the covenant is made yea and amen to all the chosen seed.

And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law. Jacob in his wondrous dream (Ge 28:10-15) received a pledge that the Lord's mode of procedure with him would be in accordance with covenant relations: for said Jehovah, "I will not leave thee till I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Thus, if we may so speak with all reverence, the covenant became a law unto the Lord himself by which he bound himself to act. O matchless condescension, that the most free and sovereign Lord should put himself under covenant bonds to Iris chosen, and make a law for himself, though he is above all law. And to Israel for an everlasting covenant. When he changed Jacob's name he did not change his covenant, but it is written, "he blessed him there" (Ge 32:29), and it was with the old blessing, according to the unchangeable word of abiding grace.

Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. This repetition of the great covenant promise is recorded in Ge 35:9-12 in connection with the change of Jacob's name, and very soon after that slaughter of the Shechemites, which had put the patriarch into such great alarm and caused him to use language almost identical with that of the next verse. When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, and my house." Thus the fears of the man of God declared themselves, and they were reasonable if we look only at the circumstances in which he was placed, but they are soon seen to be groundless when we remember that the covenant promise, which guaranteed the possession of the land, necessarily implied the preservation of the race to whom the promise was made. We often fear where no fear is. The blessings promised to the seed of Abraham were not dependent upon the number of his descendants, or their position in this world. The covenant was made with one man, and consequently the number could never be less, and that one man was not the owner of a foot of soil in all the land, save only a cave in which to bury his dead, and therefore his seed could not have less inheritance than he. The smallness of a church, and the poverty of its members, are no barriers to the divine blessing, if it be sought earnestly by pleading the promise. Were not the apostles few, and the disciples feeble, when the good work began? Neither because we are strangers and foreigners here below, as our fathers were, are we in any the more danger: we are like sheep in the midst of wolves, but the wolves cannot hurt us, for our shepherd is near.

When they were but a few men in number. bpom ytm. Literally, "homines numeri", men of number; so few as easily to be numbered: in opposition to what their posterity afterwards were, as the sand of the sea, without number. Samuel Chandler.

When they went from one nation, to another, from one Kingdom to another people. Migrating as the patriarchs did from the region of one tribe to the country of another they were singularly preserved. The little wandering family might have been cut off root and branch had not a special mandate been issued from the throne for their protection. It was not the gentleness of their neighbours which screened them; they were hedged about by the mysterious guardianship of heaven. Whether in Egypt, or in Philistia, or in Canaan, the heirs of the promises, dwelling in their tents, were always secure.

He suffered no man to do them wrong. Men cannot wrong us unless he suffers them to do so; the greatest of them must wait his permission before they can place a finger upon us. The wicked would devour us if they could, but they cannot even cheat us of a farthing without divine sufferance. Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes. Pharaoh and Abimelech must both be made to respect the singular strangers who had come to sojourn in their land; the greatest kings are very second rate persons with God in comparison with his chosen servants.

Saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Abraham and his seed were in the midst of the world a generation of priests anointed to present sacrifice unto the most High God; since to them the oracles were committed, they were also the prophets of mankind; and they were kings too —a royal priesthood; hence they had received a threefold anointing. Their holy office surrounded them with a sacredness which rendered it sacrilege to molest them. The Lord was pleased to impress the wild tribes of Canaan with a respectful awe of the pious strangers who had come to abide with them, so that they came not near them to do them ill. The words here mentioned may not have been actually spoken, but the impression of awe which fell upon the nations is thus poetically described. God will not have those touched who have been set apart unto himself He calls them his own, saying, "Mine anointed" he declares that he has "anointed" them to be prophets, priests, and kings unto himself, and yet again he claims them as his prophets —"Do my prophets no harm." All through the many years in which the three great fathers dwelt in Canaan no man was able to injure them; they were not able to defend themselves by force of arms; but the eternal God was their refuge. Even so at this present time the remnant according to the election of grace cannot be destroyed, nay, nor so much as touched, without the divine consent. Against the church of Christ the gates of hell cannot prevail. In all this we see reasons for giving thanks unto the Lord, and proclaiming his name according to the exhortation of the first verse of the Psalm. Here ends the portion which was sung at the moving of the ark: its fitness to be used for such a purpose is very manifest, for the ark was the symbol both of the covenant and of that mystic dwelling of God with Israel which was at once her glory and her defence. None could touch the Lord's peculiar ones, for the Lord was among them, flaming forth in majesty between the cherubims. The presence of God having remained with his chosen ones while they sojourned in Canaan, it did not desert them when they were called to go down into Egypt. They did not go there of their own choice, but under divine direction, and hence the Lord prepared their way and prospered them until he saw fit to conduct them again to the land of promise.

Moreover he called for a famine upon the land. He had only to call for it as a man calls for his servant, and it came at once. How grateful ought we to be that he does not often call in that terrible servant of his, so meagre and gaunt, and grim, so pitiless to the women and the children, so bitter to the strong men, who utterly fail before it. He brake the whole staff of bread. Man's feeble life cannot stand without its staff —if bread fail him he fails. As a cripple with a broken staff falls to the ground, so does man when broad no longer sustains him. To God it is as easy to make a famine as to break a stall He could make that famine universal, too, so that all countries should be in like case: then would the race of man fall indeed, and its staff would be broken for ever. There is this sweet comfort in the matter, that the Lord has wise ends to serve even by famine: he meant his people to go down into Egypt, and the scarcity of food was his method of leading them there, for "they heard that there was corn in Egypt."

He sent a man before them, even Joseph. He was the advance guard and pioneer for the whole clan. His brethren sold him, but God sent him. Where the hand of the wicked is visible God's hand may be invisibly at work, overruling their malice. No one was more of a man, or more fit to lead the van than Joseph: an interpreter of dreams was wanted, and his brethren had said of him, "Behold, this dreamer cometh." Who was sold for a servant, or rather for a slave. Joseph's journey into Egypt was not so costly as Jonah's voyage when he paid his own fare: his free passage was provided by the Midianites, who also secured his introduction to a great officer of state by handing him over as a Slave. His way to a position in which he could feed his family lay through the pit, the slaver's caravan, the slave market and the prison, and who shall deny but what it was the right way, the surest way, the wisest way, and perhaps the shortest way. Yet assuredly it seemed not so. Were we to send a man on such an errand we should furnish him with money —Joseph goes as a pauper; we should clothe him with authority —Joseph goes as a slave; we should leave him at full liberty —Joseph is a bondman: yet money would have been of little use when corn was so dear, authority would have been irritating rather than influential with Pharaoh, and freedom might not have thrown Joseph into connection with Pharaoh's captain and his other servants, and so the knowledge of his skill in interpretation might not have reached the monarch's ear. God way is the way. Our Lord's path to his mediatorial throne ran by the cross of Calvary; our road to glory runs by the rivers of grief.

Whose feet they hurt with fetters. From this we learn a little more of Joseph's sufferings than we find in the book of Genesis: inspiration had not ceased, and David was as accurate an historian as Moses, for the same Spirit guided his pen. He was laid in iron, or "into iron came his soul." The prayer book version, "the iron entered into his soul, "is ungrammatical, but probably expresses much the same truth. His fetters hurt his mind as well as his body, and well did Jacob say, "The archers shot at him, and sorely grieved him." Under the cruelly false accusation, which he could not disprove, his mind was, as it were, belted and bolted around with iron, and had not the Lord been with him he might have sunk under his sufferings. In all this, and a thousand things besides, he was an admirable type of him who in the highest sense is "the Shepherd, the stone of Israel." The iron fetters were preparing him to wear chains of gold, and making his feet ready to stand on high places. It is even so with all the Lord's afflicted ones, they too shall one day step from their prisons to their thrones.

Until the time that his word came. God has his times, and his children must wait till his "until" is fulfilled. Joseph was tried as in a furnace, until the Lord's assaying work was fully accomplished. The word of the chief butler was nothing, he had to wait until God's word came, and meanwhile the word of the Lord tried him. He believed the promise, but his faith was sorely exercised. A delayed blessing tests men, and proves their metal, whether their faith is of that precious kind which can endure the fire. Of many a choice promise we may say with Daniel "the thing was true, but the time appointed was long." If the vision tarry it is good to wait for it with patience. There is a trying word and a delivering word, and we must bear the one till the other comes to us. How meekly Joseph endured his afflictions, and with what fortitude he looked forward to the clearing of his slandered character we may readily imagine: it will be better still if under similar trials we are able to imitate him, and come forth from the furnace as thoroughly purified as he was, and as well prepared to bear the yet harder ordeal of honour and power.

The king sent and loosed him. He was thrust into the roundhouse by an officer, but he was released by the monarch himself. Even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. The tide had turned, so that Egypt's haughty potentate gave him a call from the prison to the palace. He had interpreted the dreams of captives, himself a captive; he must now interpret for a ruler and become a ruler himself. When God means to enlarge his prisoners, kings become his turnkeys.

He made him lord of his house. Reserving no power, but saying "only in the throne will I be greater than thou." The servitor of slaves becomes lord over nobles. How soon the Lord lifteth his chosen from the dunghill to set them among princes. And ruler of all his substance. He empowered him to manage the storing of the seven plenteous harvests, and to dispense the provisions in the coming days of scarcity. All the treasures of Egypt were under his lock and key, yea, the granaries of the world were sealed or opened at his bidding. Thus was he in the best conceivable position for preserving alive the house of Israel with whom the covenant was made. As our Lord was himself secured in Egypt from Herod's enmity, so, ages before, the redeemed race found an equally available shelter, in the hour of need. God has always a refuge for his saints, and if the whole earth could not afford them sanctuary, the Lord himself would be their dwelling place, and take them up to lie in his own bosom. We are always sure to be fed if all the world should starve. It is delightful to think of our greater Joseph ruling the nations for the good of his own household, and it becomes us to abide in quiet confidence in every political disaster, since Jesus is on the throne of providence, King of kings and Lord of lords, and will be so till this dispensation ends.

To bind his princes at his pleasure. He who was bound obtains authority to bind. He is no longer kept in prison, but keeps all the prisons, and casts into them the greatest nobles when justice demands it. And teach his senators wisdom. The heads of the various peoples, the elders of the nations, learned from him the science of government, the art of providing for the people. Joseph was a great instructor in political economy, and we doubt not that he mingled with it the purest morals, the most upright jurisprudence, and something of that divine wisdom without which the most able senators remain in darkness. The king's authority made him absolute both in the executive and in the legislative courts, and the Lord instructed him to use his power with discretion. What responsibilities and honours loaded the man who had been rejected by his brothers, and sold for twenty pieces of silver! What glories crown the head of that greater one who was "separated from his brethren."

Israel also came into Egypt. The aged patriarch came, and with him that increasing company which bore his name. He was hard to bring there. Perhaps nothing short of the hope of seeing Joseph could have drawn him to take so long a journey from the tombs of his forefathers; but the divine will was accomplished and the church of God was removed into an enemy's country, where for a while it was nourished. And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. Shem the blessed came to lodge awhile with Ham the accursed: the dove was in the vulture's nest. God so willed it for a time, and therefore it was safe and right: still it was only a sojourn, not a settlement. The fairest Goshen in Egypt was not the covenant blessing, neither did the Lord mean his people to think it so; even so to us "earth is our lodge" but only our lodge, for heaven is our home. When we are best housed we ought still to remember that here we have no continuing city. It were ill news for us if we were doomed to reside in Egypt for ever, for all its riches are not worthy to be compared with the reproach of Christ. Thus the song rehearsed the removals of the Lord's people, and was a most fit accompaniment to the bearing up of the ark, as the priest carried it into the city of David, where the Lord had appointed it a resting place.

And he increased his people greatly. In Goshen they seem to have increased rapidly from the first, and this excited the fears of the Egypt, inns, so that they tried to retard their increase by oppression, but the Lord continued to bless them, And made them stronger than their enemies. Both in physical strength and in numbers they threatened to become the more powerful race. Nor was this growth of the nation impeded by tyrannical measures, but the very reverse took place, thus giving an early instance of what has since become a proverb in the church —"the more they oppressed them the more they multiplied." It is idle to contend either with God or his people.

He turned their hearts to hate his people. It was his goodness to Israel which called forth the ill will of the Egyptian court, and so far the Lord caused it, and moreover he made use of this feeling to lead on to the discomfort of his people, and so to their readiness to leave the land to which they had evidently become greatly attached. Thus far but no further did the Lord turn the hearts of the Egyptians. God cannot in any sense be the author of sin so far as to be morally responsible for its existence, but it often happens through the evil which is inherent in human nature that the acts of the Lord arouse the ill feelings of ungodly men. Is the sun to be blamed because while it softens wax it hardens clay? Is the orb of day to be accused of creating the foul exhalations which are drawn by its warmth from the pestilential marsh? The sun causes the reek of the dunghill only in a certain sense had it been a bed of flowers his beams would have called forth fragrance. The evil is in men, and the honour of turning it to good and useful purposes is with the Lord. Hatred is often allied with cunning, and so in the case of the Egyptians, they began to deal subtilly with his servants. They treated them in a fraudulent manner, they reduced them to bondage by their exactions, they secretly concerted the destruction of their male children, and at length openly ordained that cruel measure, and all with the view of checking their increase, lest in time of war they should side with invaders in order to obtain their liberty. Surely the depths of Satanic policy were here reached, but vain was the cunning of man against the chosen seed.

He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. When the oppression was at the worst, Moses came. For the second time we have here the expression, "he sent"; he who sent Joseph sent also Moses and his eloquent brother. The Lord had the men in readiness and all he had to do was to commission them and thrust them forward. They were two, for mutual comfort and strength, even as the apostles and the seventy in our Lord's day were sent forth two and two. The men differed, and so the one became the supplement of the other, and together they were able to accomplish far more than if they had been exactly alike: the main point was that they were both sent, and hence both clothed with divine might.

They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. The miracles which were wrought by Moses were the Lord's, not his own: signs, as being the marks of Jehovah's presence hence they are here called "his" and power. The plagues were "words of his signs" (see margin), that is to say, they were speaking marvels, which testified more plainly than words to the omnipotence of Jehovah, to his determination to be obeyed, to his anger at the obstinacy of Pharaoh. Never were discourses more plain, pointed, personal, or powerful, and yet it took ten of them to accomplish the end designed. In the preaching of the gospel there are words, and signs, and wonders and these leave men without excuse for their impenitence; to have the kingdom of God come nigh unto them, and yet to remain rebellious is the unhappy sin of obstinate spirits. Those are wonders of sin who see wonders of grace, and yet are unaffected by them: bad as he was, Pharaoh had not this guilt, for the prodigies which lie beheld were marvels of judgment and not of mercy.

He sent darkness, and made it dark. It was no natural or common darkness to be accounted for by the blinding dust of the simoon, it was beyond all precedent and out of the range of ordinary events. It was a horrible palpable obscurity which men felt clinging about them as though it were a robe of death. It was a thick darkness, a total darkness, a darkness which lasted three days, a darkness in which no one dared to stir. What a condition to be in! This plague is first mentioned, thought it is not first in order, because it fitly describes all the period of the plagues: the land was in the darkness of sorrow, and in the darkness of sin all the time. If we shudder as we think of that long and terrible gloom, let us reflect upon the gross darkness which still covers heathen lands as the result of sin, for it is one of the chief plagues which iniquity creates for itself. May the day soon come when the people which sit in darkness shall see a great light. And they rebelled not against his word. Moses and Aaron did as they were bidden, and during the darkness the Egyptians were so cowed that even when it cleared away they were anxious for Israel to be gone, and had it not been for the pride of Pharaoh they would have rejoiced to speed them on their journey there and then. God can force men to obey, and even make the stoutest hearts eager to pay respect to his will, for fear his plagues should be multiplied. Possibly, however, the sentence before us neither refers to Moses nor the Egyptians, but to the plagues which came at the Lord's bidding. The darkness, the hail, the frogs, the murrain, were all so many obedient servants of the great Lord of all.

He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. So that the plague was not a mere colouring of the water with red earth, as some suppose, but the river was offensive and fatal to the fish. The beloved Nile and other streams were all equally tainted and ensanguined. Their commonest mercy became their greatest curse. Water is one of the greatest blessings, and the more plentiful it is the better, but blood is a hideous sight to look upon, and to see rivers and pools of it is frightful indeed. Fish in Egypt furnished a large part of the food supply, and it was no small affliction to see them floating dead and white upon a stream of crimson. The hand of the Lord thus smote them where all classes of the people would become aware of it and suffer from it.

Their land brought forth frogs in abundance. If fish could not live frogs might, yea, they multiplied both on land and in the water till they swarmed beyond all count. In the chambers of their kings. They penetrated the choicest rooms of the palace, and were found upon the couches of state. The Lord called for them and they marched forth. Obnoxious and even loathsome their multitudes became, but there was no resisting them; they seemed to spring out of the ground, the very land brought them forth. Their universal presence must have inspired horror and disgust which would cause sickness and make life a burden; their swarming even in the king's own chambers was a rebuke to his face, which his pride must have felt. Kings are no more than other men with God, nay less than others when they are first in rebellion; if the frogs had abounded elsewhere, but had been kept out of his select apartments, the monarch would have cared little, for he was a heartless being, but God took care that there should be a special horde of the invaders for the palace; they were more than ordinarily abundant in the chambers of their kings.

He spake. See the power of the divine word. He had only to say it and it was done: and there came divers sorts of flies. Insects of various annoying kinds came up in infinite hordes, a mixture of biting, stinging, buzzing gnats, mosquitos, files, beetles, and other vermin such as make men's flesh their prey, the place of deposit for their eggs, and the seat of peculiar torments. And lice in all their coasts. These unutterably loathsome forms of life were as the dust of the ground, and covered their persons, their garments, and all they ate. Nothing is too small to master man when God commands it to assail him. The sons of Ham had despised the Israelites and now they were made to loathe themselves. The meanest beggars were more approachable than the proud Egyptians; they were reduced to the meanest condition of filthiness, and the most painful state of irritation. What armies the Lord can send forth when once his right arm is bared for war! And what scorn he pours on proud nations when he fights them, not with angels, but with lice! Pharaoh had little left to be proud of when his own person was invaded by filthy parasites. It was a slap in the face which ought to have humbled his heart, but, alas, man, when he is altogether polluted, still maintains his self conceit, and when he is the most disgusting object in the universe he still vaunts himself. Surely pride is moral madness.

He gave them hail for rain. They seldom had rain, but now the showers assumed the form of heavy, destructive hail storms, and being accompanied with a hurricane and thunderstorm, they were overwhelming, terrible, and destructive. And flaming fire in their land. The lightning was peculiarly vivid, and seemed to run along upon the ground, or fall in fiery flakes. Thus all the fruit of the trees and the harvests of the fields were either broken to pieces or burned on the spot, and universal fear bowed the hearts of men to the dust. No phenomena are more appalling to the most of mankind than those which attend a thunderstorm; even the most audacious blasphemers quail when the dread artillery of heaven opens fire upon the earth.

He smote their vines also and their fig trees. So that all hope of gathering their best fruits was gone, and the trees were injured for future bearing. All the crops were destroyed, and these are mentioned as being the more prominent forms of their produce, used by them both at festivals and in common meals. And brake the trees of their coasts. From end to end of Egypt the trees were battered and broken by the terrible hailstorm. God is in earnest when he deals with proud spirits, he will either end them or mend them.

He spoke, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number. One word from the Captain and the armies leap forward. The expression is very striking, and sets forth the immediate result of the divine word. The caterpillar is called the licker, because it seems to lick up every green thing as in a moment. Perhaps the caterpillar here meant is still the locust in another form. That locusts swarm in countless armies is a fact of ordinary observation, and the case would be worse on this occasion. We have ourselves ridden for miles through armies of locusts, and we have seen with our own eyes how completely they devour every green thing. The description is not strained when we read, "And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground." Nothing escapes these ravenous creatures, they even climb the trees to reach any remnant of foliage which may survive. Commissioned as these were by God, we may be sure they would do their work thoroughly, and leave behind them nothing but a desolate wilderness.

Did eat up all the herbs. The locusts had devoured every green herb and every blade of grass; and had it not been for the reeds, on which our cattle entirely subsisted while we skirted the banks of the river, the journey must have been discontinued, at least in the line that had been proposed. The larvae, as generally is the case in this class of nature, are much more voracious than the perfect insect; nothing that is green seems to come amiss to them. The traces of their route over the country are very obvious for many weeks after they have passed it, the surface appearing as if swept by a broom, or as if a harrow had been drawn over it. John Barrow, 1764-1849.

Are smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. Now came the master blow. The Lord spoke before, but now he smites; before he only smote vines, but now he strikes men themselves. The glory of the household dies in a single night, the prime and pick of the nation are cut off, the flower of the troops, the heirs of the rich, and the hopes of the poor all die at midnight. Now the target was struck in the centre, there was no confronting this plague. Pharaoh feels it as much as the woman slave at the mill: he had smitten Israel, the Lord's firstborn, and the Lord repaid him to his face. What a cry went up throughout the land of Egypt when every house wailed its firstborn at the dead of night! O Jehovah, thou didst triumph in that hour, and with an outstretched arm didst thou deliver thy people.

He brought them forth also with silver and gold. This they asked of the Egyptians, perhaps even demanded, and well they might, for they had been robbed and spoiled for many a day, and it was not meet that they should go forth empty handed. Glad were the Egyptians to hand over their jewels to propitiate a people who had such a terrible friend above; they needed no undue pressure, they feared them too much to deny them their requests. The Israelites were compelled to leave their houses and lands behind them, and it was but justice that they should be able to turn these into portable property. And there was not one feeble person among their tribes —a great marvel indeed. The number of their army was very great and yet there was not one in hospital, not one carried in an ambulance, or limping in the rear. Poverty and oppression had not enfeebled them. JEHOVAH ROPHI had healed them; they carried none of the diseases of Egypt with them, and felt none of the exhaustion which sore bondage produces. When God calls his people to a long journey he fits them for it; in the pilgrimage of life our strength shall be equal to our day. See the contrast between Egypt and Israel —in Egypt one dead in every house, and among the Israelites not one so much as limping.

Egypt was glad when they departed, which would not have been the case had the gold and silver been borrowed by the Israelites, for men do not carry their goods into a far country. The awe of God like to see borrowers lad to nay them to be was on Egypt, and they feared his people and were glad to pay them to be gone. What a change from the time when the sons of Jacob were the drudges of the land, the offscouring of all things, the brick makers whose toil was only requited by the lash or the stick. Now they were reverenced as prophets and priests; for the fear of them fell upon them, the people proceeded even to a superstitious terror them. Thus with cheers and good wishes their former taskmasters sent them on their way: Pharaoh was foiled and the chosen people were once more on the move, journeying to the place which the Lord had given to them by a covenant of salt. "O give thanks unto Jehovah; call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people."

He spread a cloud for a covering. Never people were so favoured. What would not travellers in the desert now give for such a canopy? The sun could not scorch them with its burning ray; their whole camp was screened like a king in his pavilion. Nothing seemed to be too good for God to give his chosen nation, their comfort was studied in every way. And fire to give light in the night. While cities were swathed in darkness, their town of tents enjoyed a light which modern art with all its appliances cannot equal. God himself was their sun and shield, their glory and their defence. Could they be unbelieving while so graciously shaded, or rebellious while they walked at midnight in such a light? Alas, the tale of their sin is as extraordinary as this story of His love; but this Psalm selects the happier theme and dwells only upon covenant love and faithfulness. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good. We, too, have found the Lord all this to us, for he has been our sun and shield, and has preserved us alike from the perils of joys and the evils of grief;

"He hath been my joy in woe,

Cheered my heart when it was low;

And with warnings softly sad

Calmed my heart when it was glad."

So has the promise been fulfilled to us, "the sun shall not hurt thee by day, nor the moon by night."

The people asked. But how badly, how wickedly! And yet his grace forgave the sin of their murmuring and heard its meaning: or perhaps we may consider that while the multitude murmured there were a few, who were really gracious people, who prayed, and therefore the blessing came. He brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He gave them what they asked amiss as well as what was good for them, mingling judgment with goodness, for their discipline. The quails were more a curse than a blessing in the end, because of their greed and lust, but in themselves they were a peculiar indulgence, and favour: it was their own fault, that the dainty meat brought death with it. As for the manna it was unmingled good to them, and really satisfied them, which the quails never did. It was bread from heaven, and the bread of heaven, sent by heaven; it was a pity that they were not led to look up to heaven whence it came, and fear and love the God who out of heaven rained it upon them. Thus they were housed beneath the Lord's canopy and fed with food from his own table; never people were so lodged and boarded. O house of Israel, praise ye the Lord.

He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out. With Moses' rod and his own word he cleft the rock in the desert, and forth leaped abundant floods for their drinking where they had feared to die of thirst. From most unlikely sources the all sufficient God can supply his people's needs; hard rocks become springing fountains at the Lord's command. They ran in the dry places like a river: so that those at a distance from the rock could stoop down and refresh themselves, and the stream flowed on, so that in future journeyings they were supplied. The desert sand would naturally swallow up the streams, and yet it did not so, the refreshing river ran "in the dry places." We know that the rock set forth our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom there flows a fountain of living waters which shall never be exhausted till the last pilgrim has crossed the Jordan and entered Canaan.

For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant. Here is the secret reason for all this grace. The covenant and he for whose sake it was made are ever on the heart of the Most High. He remembered his people because he remembered his covenant. He could not violate that gracious compact for it was sacred to him, —"his holy promise." A holy God must keep his promise holy. In our case the Lord's eye is upon his beloved Son, and his engagements with him. On our behalf, and this is the source and well ahead of those innumerable favours which enrich us in all our wanderings through this life's wilderness.

And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness. Up from the wilderness he led them, rejoicing over them himself and making them rejoice too. They were his people, his chosen, and hence in them he rejoiced, and upon them he showered his favours, that they might rejoice in him as their God, and their portion.

And gave them the lands of the heathen. He drove out the Canaanites and allotted the lands to the tribes. They were called on to fight, but the Lord wrought so wonderfully that the conquest was not effected by their bow or spear —the Lord gave them the land. And they inherited the labour of the people, they dwelt in houses which they had not built, and gathered fruit front vines and olives which they had not planted. They were not settled in a desert which needed to be reclaimed, but in a land fertile to a proverb, and cultivated carefully by its inhabitants. Like Adam, they were placed in a garden. This entrance into the goodly land was fitly celebrated when the ark was being moved to Zion.

That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. This was the practical design of it all. The chosen nation was to be the conservator of truth, the exemplar of morality, the pattern of devotion: everything was so ordered as to place them in advantageous circumstances for fulfilling this trust. Theirs was a high calling and a glorious election. It involved great responsibilities, but it was in itself a distinguished blessing, and one for which the nation was bound to give thanks. Most justly then did the music close with the jubilant but solemn shout of HALLELUJAH. Praise ye the Lord. If this history did trot make Israel praise God, what would?

Whole Psalm. This is the first of a series of "Confitemini Domino" Psalms, "O give thanks unto the Lord" (Ps 105:1 106:1 107:1 108:1 136:1) —Christopher Wordsworth.

Whole Psalm. The 105th Psalm is a meditation on the covenant as performed on the part of God, the 106th on the covenant as kept by Israel. They both dwell on the predestinating will of God, electing men to holiness and obedience, and the mode in which human sin opposes itself to that will, and yet cannot make it void. Plain Commentary.

The first fifteen verses were written at the bringing up of the Ark, 1 Chron. 6. They tell that it is sovereign grace that ruleth over all —it is a sovereign God. Out of a fallen world he takes whom he pleases —individuals, families, nations. He chose Israel long ago, that they might be the objects of grace, and their land the theatre of its display. He will yet again return to Israel, when the days of his Kingdom of Glory draw near; and Israel shall have a full share —the very fullest and richest —in his blessings, temporal and spiritual. Andrew A. Bonar.

Call upon his name. The original meaning of this phrase is call (him) by his name, i.e., give him the descriptive title most expressive of his divine perfections; or more specifically, call him by his name Jehovah, i.e., ascribe to him the attributes which it denotes, to wit, eternity and self existence, together with that covenant relation to his people, which though not denoted by the name was constantly associated with it, and therefore necessarily suggested by it. The meaning of the next phrase is obscured, if not entirely concealed in the common version, "among the people." The plural form and sense of the original expression are essential to the writer's purpose, which is to glorify the God of Israel among the nations. Joseph Addison Alexander.

Make known his deeds among the people. The people of God were not shut up in that narrow corner of the earth for the purpose of confining within their straitened territories the true knowledge and worship of God; but God wished that to be the fixed seat of the church, from which the sound of heavenly doctrine should go forth into all nations. Therefore he chose Canaan, which is interjected among the most powerful nations of the world, that from it as from a fountain might more easily issue the doctrine of God to the rest, of the nations: as Isaiah says, "Out of Zion shall go forth the law." —Mollerus.

Talk ye of all his wondrous works, yytalpn niphleothaiv, "of his miracles." Who have so many of these to boast of as Christians! Christianity is a tissue of miracles; and every part of the work of grace on the soul is a miracle. Genuine Christian converts may talk of miracles from morning to night; and they should talk of them, and recommend to others their miracle working God and Saviour. Adam Clarke.

Sing...talk, etc. Music and conversation are two things by which the mind of man receiveth much good, or a great deal of harm. They who make "Jehovah" and his "wondrous works" the subject of both, enjoy a heaven upon earth. And they who do in reality love the Saviour, will always find themselves inclined to "sing to him, "and to "talk of him." —George Horne.

Sing psalms. It is not sufficient to offer the empty vessel of our joy unto God, or our singing voice in musical tune only; but also it is required that we fill our joyful voice with holy matter and good purpose, whereby God only may be reasonably praised: "Sing psalms unto him." —David Dickson.

Sing psalms. Psalmody is the calm of the soul, the repose of the spirit, the arbiter of peace. It silences the wave, and conciliates the whirlwind of our passions, soothing the impetuous, tempering the unchaste. It is an engenderer of friendship, a healer of dissension, a reconciler of enemies. For who can longer count him his enemy, with whom to the throne of God he hath raised the strain? Psalmody repels the demons, and lures the ministry of angels. It is a weapon of defence in nightly terrors and a respite from daily toil. To the infant it is a presiding genius; to manhood a crown of glory; a balm of comfort to the aged; a congenial ornament to women. Basil.

Seek the Lord, and be strengthened; so divers ancient versions read it. They that would be "strengthened in the inward man, " must fetch in strength from God by faith and prayer. "Seek his strength, "and then seek his face; for by his strength we hope to prevail with him for his favour, as Jacob did, Ho 7:3. "Seek his face evermore, "i.e., seek to have his favour to eternity, and therefore continue seeking it to the end of the time of your probation. Seek it while you live in this world, and you shall have it while you live in the other world, and even there shall be for ever seeking it, in an infinite progression, and yet be for ever satisfied in it. Matthew Henry.

His strength. In classical language, his aegis, or protection, his ark, the symbol of the divine presence. John Mason Good.

Seek his face evermore. It is added "evermore, "lest they should imagine that they had performed their duty, if they assembled twice or three times in the year at the tabernacle, and observed the external rites according to the law. Mollerus.

Seek...seek. None do seek the Lord so earnestly, but they have need of stirring up to seek him more earnestly; neither have any attained to such a measure of communion with God, but they have need to seek for a further measure: therefore it is said, "Seek the Lord, seek his strength, seek his face evermore." —David Dickson.

Remember. How others may be affected I do not ask. For myself, I confess, that there is no care or sorrow, by which I am so severely harassed, as when I feel myself guilty of ingratitude to my most kind Lord. It not seldom appears to be a fault so inexplicable, that I am alarmed when I read these words, inasmuch as I consider them addressed to myself, and others like me. Remember, O ye forgetful, thoughtless, and ungrateful, the works of God, which he hath done to us, with so many signs and proofs of his goodness. What more could he have done, which he hath not done? —Folengius.

O ye seed of Abraham his servant. Consider the relation ye stand in to him. Ye are "the seed of Abraham his servant"; you are born in his house, and being thereby entitled to the privilege of his servants, protection and provision, you are also bound to do the duty of servants, to attend your master, consult his honour, obey his commands, and do what you can to advance his interests. Matthew Henry.

He hath remembered his covenant. As a long series of years had elapsed between the promise and the performance, the prophet uses the word "remember, "intimating that the Divine promise does not become obsolete by length of time, but that even when the world imagines that they are extinguished and wholly forgotten, God retains as distinct a remembrance of them as ever, that he may accomplish them in due season. John Calvin.

The word which he commanded. All that God says must of necessity be said with authority, so that even his promises partake of the nature of commands. Joseph Addison Alexander.

The lot of your inheritance: literally lbh, the cord of your inheritance, an expression taken from the ancient method of measuring land by the cord or line; whence the measuring cord is metonymically put for the part measured, and divided by the cord. Thus, "the lines, Mylbx, the cords, are fallen unto me in pleasant places, "i.e., as the psalmist explains it: "I have a goodly heritage." Ps 16:6 —Samuel Chandler.

Your inheritance. The change of the number (from "thee" to "your") points out that God made a covenant with all the people in general, though lie spake the words only to a few individuals; even as we have seen a little before, that it was a decree or an everlasting law. The holy patriarchs were the first and principal persons into whose hands the promise was committed; but they did not embrace the grace which was offered to them as belonging only to themselves, but as a blessing which their posterity in common with them were to become sharers of. John Calvin.

One would think that all the world would have been upon them; but here was the protection, God has a negative voice, "He suffered no man to do them wrong." Many had (as we say) an aching tooth at the people of God, their finger itched to be dealing with them, and the text shows four advantages the world had against them. First, "They were few." Secondly, "very few." Thirdly, "strangers." Fourthly, unsettled. What hindered their enemies? It was the Lord's negative voice. "He reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." We see an instance of this (Ge 35:5). When Jacob and his family journeyed, "the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob." They had a mind to pursue after them, to revenge the slaughter of the Shechemites; but God said, Pursue not, and then they could not pursue, they must stay at home. And when his people the Jews were safe in Canaan he encourages them to come up freely to worship at Jerusalem, by this assurance, "No man shall desire the land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the year" (Ex 34:24). God can stop not only hands from spoiling, but hearts from desiring. Joseph Caryl.

From one kingdom to another people. Where we might have expected from kingdom to kingdom, the car is somewhat disappointed by the phrase, "from one kingdom to another people, " which may have been intended to distinguish the Egyptian and other monarchies from the more democratical or patriarchal institutions of the Arabians and other nations. Joseph Addison Alexander.

Though frequent flitting is neither desirable nor commendable, yet sometimes there is a just and necessary occasion for it, and it may be the lot of some of the best of men. Matthew Henry.

He suffered no man to do them, wrong. As many rose up, one after another, in troops against them, the Psalmist says indefinitely, that men were withheld from hurting them; for mda, Adam, is the word here used, which is the one most generally employed to signify man. John Calvin.

I resolve the words into these three parts.

1. Here is the nearness and the dearness of the saints unto God. They are dearer to him than kings and states, simply considered; that is, otherwise than as they in their persons are also saints; for you see that for their sakes he reproved kings, and so sheweth that he prefers them to kings.

2. Here is the great danger to kings and states, to deal with his saints otherwise than well. Which appeareth many ways; for he doth not only in words give a charge not to touch them, but he carries it in a high way (for so God will do when he pleads their cause). Touch them not; as if he had said, Let me see if you dare so much as touch them; and it is with an intimation of the highest threatening if they should; upon your peril if you do so; for that is the scope of such a speech. And accordingly in deeds he made this good; for the text saith he suffered no man to do them wrong; not that he did altogether prevent all wrong and injuries, for they received many as they went through those lands; but at no time did lie let it go unpunished. In that sense he suffered them not. You know how he plagued Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with great plagues, and all his household, for Abraham's wife's sake, Gen. 7. And so Abimelech, king of Gerar, the Lord cometh upon him with a greatness, and his first word is in Ge 2:3, "Behold, thou art but a dead man, "afore he had first told him why or wherefore, though then he adds the reason; he brings him upon his knees, verse 4, bids him look to it, that he give satisfaction to Abraham, and restore his wife to him again, verse 7; and well he escaped so; and tells him also that he must be beholden to Abraham's prayers for his life. "He is a prophet, "saith he, "and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live."

3. The third is the care and protection which God had over them, set and amplified, 1, by the number and condition of the persons whom he defended; though "few men in number, "that is, soon reckoned, for their power and strength a few, or very small, eivs mikron, so the Septuagint in the parallel place, 1Ch 16:19; as also, 2, by what he did for them: He suffered no man, how great soever, to do them any wrong, how small soever; not without recompense and satisfaction; not to do it, though they had a mind to it. Though the people had an ill eye at them, Ge 26:11, God causeth Abimelech to make a law on purpose; Abimelech charged all his people in Isaac's behalf, and spake in the very words of the text, "He that toucheth this man or his wife shall be put to death." —Thomas Goodwin.

Mine anointed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had no external anointing. They were, however, called "anointed, "because they were separated by God from the multitude of wicked men, and endowed with the Spirit and his gifts, of which the oil was an emblem. Mollerus.

Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. We see here a vivid description of the people of God. They are "his anointed ones, ""having the residue of his Spirit"; they are his prophets, to whom is intrusted the word of life, that they may be witnesses in the world. To these he gives as it were a safe passport through the world. Though they have ever been but men of number, accounted as a vile thing, they are precious in his sight. They are not distinguished by external dignity, numbers and power, as Rome sets forth the marks of her communion. They are in the midst of kingdoms, but not of them. They form usually the humblest portions of most communities, and yet they receive honour from God. Despised by the world, but unto God kings and priests, ordained and anointed to reign with Christ for ever. W. Wilson.

Prophets. The aybk is the prophet, or forth speaker; the term laying stress on the utterance, and not upon the vision. The Hebrew word comes from a root which means to bubble up and overflow as from a full fountain. But the fulness of the true prophets of Jehovah was not that of their own thoughts and emotions. It was of the Divine Spirit within them. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, "2Pe 1:21. The first application of the word is to Abraham (Ge 2:7); although, long before Abraham, "Enoch the seventh from Adam, prophesied, "Jude 1:14. Donald Fraser, in "Synoptical Lectures on the Books of Holy Scripture." 1873.

He called for a famine. As a master calls for a servant ready to do his bidding. On the contrary, God says (Eze 36:29), "I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you." Compare the centurion's words as to sickness being Christ's servant, ready to come or go at his call, Mt 8:8,9. A.R. Fausset.

Joseph may be a fit type to us of our spiritual deliverance. Consider him sold into Egypt, not without the determinate counsel of God, who preordained this to good; "God did send me before you to preserve life, "Ge 45:5. Here is the difference, the brethren sold Joseph, we sold ourselves. Consider us thus sold unto sin and death; God had a purpose to redeem us; there is election. Joseph was delivered out of prison, and we ransomed out of the house of bondage; there was redemption. Joseph's cause was made known, and himself acquitted; we could not be found innocent ourselves, but were acquitted in Christ; wherein consists our justification. Lastly, Joseph was clothed in glorious apparel, and adorned with golden chains, and made to ride in the second chariot of Egypt: so our last step is to be advanced to high honour, even the glory of the celestial court; "This honour have all the saints, " Ps 149:9. Thomas Adams.

In many circumstances concerning Joseph —in his being beloved of his father —in his being hated of his brethren —in his sufferings and deep abasement —in his being brought out of prison —in his advancement and exaltation —in his wisdom and prudence —in his providing for his father's family —in his free forgiveness of the injuries he had sustained from his brethren —it maybe truly said, we have Christ delineated therein, and set forth thereby, in type, figure, and representatively. But I have nothing to do with this here; I only give this hint to the reader. Samuel Eyles Pierce, 1817.

His soul came into iron (margin). The whole person is denoted by the soul, because the soul of the captive suffers still more than the body. Imprisonment is one of the most severe trials to the soul. Even to spiritual heroes, such as a Savonarola and St. Cyran, the waters often go over the soul. E.W. Hengstenberg.

His soul came into iron. Till we have felt it, we cannot conceive that sickness of heart, which at times will steal upon the patient sufferer; that sense of loneliness, that faintness of soul, which comes from hopes deferred and wishes unshared, from the selfishness of brethren and the heartlessness of the world. We ask ourselves, If the Lord were with me, should I suffer thus, not only the scorn of the learned and the contempt of the great, but even the indifference and neglect of those whom I have served, who yet forget me? So Joseph might have asked; and so till now may the elect ask, as they stand alone without man's encouragement or sympathy, not turned aside by falsehood or scorn, with their face set as a flint, yet deeply feeling what it costs them. Andrew dukes, in" The Types of Genesis, "1858.

Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. This verse forms the key to the whole meaning of Joseph's mysterious trial, and at the same time illustrates a deep mystery in the spiritual life of man. By "the word of the Lord" that "tried him, "the psalmist evidently refers to the dreams of his future destiny which were sent to Joseph from God; and in saying that they tried him "until his word came, "he evidently means that his faith in those promises was tested by his long imprisonment, until the day of his deliverance dawned. Consider for a moment his position, and you will see the purpose of that trial. A youth educated amidst all the quiet simplicity of the early patriarchal life, he was haunted by dream visions of a mighty destiny. Those visions were mysteriously foretelling his government in Egypt, and the blessings which his wise and just rule would confer on the land; but while unable to comprehend them, he yet believed that they were voices of the future, and promises of God. But the quietude of that shepherd life was not the preparation for the fulfilment of his promised destiny. The education that would form the man who could withstand, firmly, the temptations of Egyptian life with its cities and civilization; the education that would form the ruler whose clear eye should judge between the good and the evil, and discern the course of safety in the hour of a nation's peril —all this was not to be gained under the shadow of his father's tent; it must come through trial, and through trial arising from the very promise of God in which he believed. Hence, a great and startling change crossed his life, that seemed to forbid the fulfilment of that dream promise, and tempted him to doubt its truth. Sold into Egypt as a slave, cast into prison through his fidelity to God, the word of the Lord most powerfully tried his soul. In the gloom of that imprisonment it was most hard to believe in God's faithfulness, when his affliction had risen from his obedience; and most hard to keep the promise clearly before him, when his mighty trouble would perpetually tempt him to regard it as an idle dream. But through the temptation, he gained the strong trust which the pomp and glory of the Egyptian court would have no power to destroy; and when the word of deliverance came, the man came forth, strong through trial, to fulfil his glorious destiny of ruling Egypt in the name of God, and securing for it the blessings of heaven. Thus his trial by the word of the Lord —his temptation to doubt its truth —was a divine discipline preparing him for the fulfilment of the promise. And looking at it in this aspect, this verse presents to us a deep spiritual truth: The promises of God try man, that through the trial he may be prepared for their fulfilment. Our subject then is this: The trial of man by the promises of God. This verse suggests three great facts which exhibit the three aspects of that trial.

1. God's promises must try man. Every promise of the Lord is of necessity a trial. Now, this necessity arises from two sources; from man's secret unbelief, and from God's purposes of discipline.

(a) God's word must try man by revealing his secret unbelief. We never know our want of faith till some glorious promise rouses the soul into the attitude of belief; then the coldness and unfaithfulness of the heart are lighted up by that flash of belief, and the promise is a trial. Thus Paul with his profound insight into the facts of spiritual experience, says, "The word of the Lord is sharper than a two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." In illustration of this we may observe that many promises of the Lord come to us, as they came to Joseph, like dream visions of the future. Visions come to the Christian soul, as grand and wonderful as those which came to the Hebrew youth of old; and they, too, are prophecies of what we are destined to be. There comes a time when the voice of God is more clearly heard, and the great inheritance revealed. No dream of the night —no spirit of the dead —has visited us; but like a spirit some truth of God has entered the soul's presence chamber and summoned it to noble aspiration and Christ like endeavour. Then the earnest of the future gleams on life's horizon. The Sabbath of eternity, with all its balm and music, seems near, and rapt with its glory, we are roused to all surrendering zeal. But I appeal to your experience whether it is not true that such revelations of the promise rapidly become limes of trial. Then the mocking voice of unbelief tells us that aspiration is vain. The cold cross currents of indifference chill the fiery impulses of the heart. We are in prison like Joseph, by no material bars indeed, but by the invisible bonds of unbelief; and we find it most hard to keep the promise clear and bright, while tempted to believe that our aspirations were merely idle dreams. And there is that arousing, by the promise, of the soul's hidden unbelief, which makes every promise an inevitable trial.

(b) Again: God causes his promises to try nature that he may accomplish his own purposes of discipline. It is a law of our nature that no belief in any unseen thing can ever pass into the active form of strong endeavour to attain it, until we are tempted to disbelieve it. Thus the great idea of an undiscovered land across the wastes of the Atlantic smote the soul of Columbus; but it remained a dreamy faith until by opposition and ridicule he was tempted to regard it as a dream, and then it became heroic endeavour, and the land was found. Thus with all men of genius. They stand in the front of their age, with thoughts which the world cannot understand; but those thoughts are dreams until suffering and scorn try the men, and then they are awakened into effort to realise them. Hence God leads us into circumstances in which we are tempted to doubt his promises, that by temptation he may discipline faith into power. There is a wilderness of temptation in every life, and like Christ, we are often led into it, from the solemn hour when we heard the voice, "Thou art my son; " but like Christ, we come forth strong, through the long, silent wrestling with temptation, to do our Father's will.

2. God sends the Hour of Deliverance: "until the time that his word came." When the discipline was perfected, Joseph came forth ready for his mission. But our deliverance does not always come in this way. Take from the Bible histories the four great methods by which God sends deliverance. Sometimes by death. Thus with Elijah Weariness, loneliness, failure, had wrung from by death the strong man the cry, "Take away my life for I and not better than my fathers." The temptation was becoming too strong, and God sent deliverance in the chariot of fire. Sometimes by transforming the height of trial into the height of blessing. The three youths in Babylon had clenched their nerves for the climax of agony, when the fire became a Paradise. So, now, God makes the climax of trial the herald of spiritual blessedness. By suffering we are loosened from the bonds of time and sense; there is one near to us like the Son of God; and deliverance has come. Sometimes by the glance of love on the falling soul. Thus with Peter. The temptation was mastering him; one glance of that eye, and he went out weeping and delivered. Sometimes by continuing the trial, but increasing the power to endure it. Thus with Paul. After the vision of the third heaven came "the thorn in the flesh, "The temptation made him cry thrice to, God; the trial remained, but here was the deliverance" my grace is sufficient for thee." The suffering lost none of its pressure, but he learned to glory in infirmity; and then came his delivering hour.

3. God makes the Trial by Promise fulfil the Promise itself. In Joseph the temptation to doubt the word of God silently meetened him for its fulfilment. So with us all. We hope not for an Egyptian kingdom, our dream vision is of a heavenly inheritance, and the palace of a heavenly King. But every temptation resisted, every mocking voice of doubt overcome, is an aid upwards and onwards. Trials, sufferings, struggles, are angels arraying the souls in the white robes of the heavenly world, and crowning it with the crown that fadeth not away. And when the end comes, then it will be seen that the long dreary endeavour to hold fast the dream promise —the firm resolute "no" to the temptation to disbelieve, are all more than recompensed with "the exceeding and eternal weight of glory." —Edward Zuscombe, in "Sermons preached at Kings Lynn." 1867.

The word of the Lord tried him. As we try God's word, so God's word tries us; and happy if, when we are tried, we come forth as gold; and the trial of our faith proves more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire. William Jay.

Tried him. I doubt not that Joseph's brethren were humbled, yet Joseph may be more, he must be cast into the ditch, and into the prison, and the iron must enter not only into his legs, but into his soul. He must be more affected in spirit, because he was to do greater work for God, and was to be raised up higher than the rest, and therefore did need the more ballast. Thomas Shepard, in "The Sound Believer," 1649.

Tried. Kdu, "assayed; "Ps 7:6 17:3 18:30. He came out of the ordeal, as gold from the fining pot, more pure and lustrous. William Kay.

Tried him. "Made him lord of his house." Joseph's feet were hurt in irons, to fit him to tread more delicately in the King's Palace at Zoan; and when the Lord's time was come, by the same stairs which winded him into the dungeon he climbs up into the next chariot to Pharaoh's. Few can bear great and sudden mercies without pride and wantonness, till they are hampered and humbled to carry it moderately. Samuel Lee, in "The Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of Praise," 1677.

The king sent and loosed him. And that by his own master, Potiphar, who had clapt him up there by his wanton wife's wicked instigation. He had been bound ignominiously, but now comes he to be loosed honourably. Christopher Ness.

Ruler of all his substance, or "possession." Herein also he was a type of Jesus Christ, who, as God, is possessor of heaven and earth, being the creator of them. John Gill.

He was received into the Royal Society of the right honourable the king's privy councillors, and was constituted as Chairman of the council table, which, though Moses doth not express, yet David intimates in Ps 105:21,22. All the privy councillors, as well as the private people were bound (possibly by oath) to obey him in all things, and, as out of the chair, he magisterially taught these senators wisdom. Thus the Hebrew reading runs: He bound the princes to his soul (or according to his will) and made wise his elders; teaching them not only civil and moral, but also divine wisdom, for which cause God sent Joseph (saith he) into Egypt, that some sound of the redemption of fallen mankind might be heard in that kingdom, at that time the most flourishing in the world: neither is Moses altogether silent herein, for he calls him a master of wisdom, or father to Pharaoh (Ge 45:8). Much more to his councillors, and he says that no hand or foot shall move (to wit, in affairs of state, at home, or, in foreign embassies, abroad) without Joseph's order; he was the king's plenipotentiary, Ge 41:44. Christopher Ness.

To bind his Princes. The meaning of wydv doal signifies to exercise control over the greatest men in the kingdom, which power was conferred on Joseph by Pharaoh: see Ge 41:40,43,44. The capability of binding is to be regarded as an evidence of authority; a power of compelling obedience; or, in default thereof, of inflicting punishment. George Phillips. 1846.

At his pleasure. Literally, with his soul which some explain as a bold metaphor, describing Joseph's mind or soul as the cord or chain with which he bound the Egyptians, i.e., forced them to perform his will. But see Ps 17:9 27:12 41:2. Joseph Addison Alexander.

And teach his senators wisdom. That in that wisdom wherein he had been instructed of God he might also instruct the princes, and teach prudence to those who were much his seniors. Herein some sparks of divine wisdom shine, that he should order even the princes and old men to learn wisdom from one who was a slave and a foreigner, although the Egyptians are always want to boast that Egypt is the native place of wisdom. Yansenius.

Egypt...the land of Ham. The Egyptians were a branch of the race of Ham. They came from Asia through the desert of Syria to settle in the valley of the Nile. This is a fact clearly established by science, and entirely confirms the statements of the book of Genesis. F. Lenormant and E. Chevalier, in "A Manual of Ancient History," 1869.

He increased his people greatly. Behold here the concealed blessing in the secret of the cross. Under it the people of God are in the most fruitful state. Berleb. Bible.

Church prosperity desirable. Increase of numbers, increase of rigour. Attainable under great persecution and opposition. Divine in its origin, —"he increased." Satisfactory as a text it is only true of "his people."

He turned their heart to hate his people. Not by putting this wicked hatred into them, which is not consistent either with the holiness of God's nature, or with the truth of his word, and which was altogether unnecessary, because they had that and all other wickedness in them by nature; but partly by withdrawing the common gifts and operations of his Spirit, and all the restraints and hindrances to it, and wholly leaving them to their own mistakes, and passions, and corrupt affections, which of their own accord were ready to take that course; and partly, by directing and governing that hatred, which was wholly in and from themselves, so as it should fall upon the Israelites rather than upon other people. Matthew Pool.

When by the malice of enemies God's people are brought to greatest straits there is deliverance near to be sent from God unto them. "They dealt subtilly with, his servants. He sent Moses his servant." —David Dickson.

Moses and Aaron. God usually sendeth his servants by two and two for mutual helps and comfort. John Trapp.

He sent darkness. The darkness here stands at the beginning, (not in the historical order that the particular plague of darkness stood), to mark how God's wrath hung over Egypt as a dark cloud during all the plagues. A.R. Fausset.

Darkness. There is an awful significance in this plague of darkness. The sun was a leading object of devotion among the Egyptians under the name of Osiris. The very name Pharaoh means not only the king but also the sun, and characterises the king himself as the representative of the sun and entitled in some sort to divine honours. But now the very light of the sun has disappeared and primeval chaos seems to have returned. Thus all the forms of Egyptian will worship were covered with shame and confusion by the plagues. James G. Murphy, in "A Commentary on Exodus," 1866.

Made it dark. God is often described as manifesting his displeasure in a cloud. Joel speaks of the day of God's vengeance as "a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness" (Joe 2:2); and Zephaniah employs nearly the same language (Ps 1:15). The pillar that went before the Israelites, and gave them light, was to the Egyptians "a cloud and darkness" (Ex 14:20). The darkness which was upon the face of the earth "in the beginning, "is described by Jehovah in the book of Job as a cloud: "When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it" (Job 38:9). So now the land of Egypt may have been wrapped about by a thick palpable cloud, cold, damp, impenetrable: the people would feel it upon their limbs, as swaddling bands; the sun would be blotted out by it, and all things reduced almost to a state of death —of which this ninth plague was in a certain sense the shadow cast before. Such a cloud would be even more terrible in Egypt, sunny Egypt, than in other countries; for there the sky is almost always clear, and heavy rains unknown. But in any place, and under any conditions, it must have been full of horror and misery. Nothing could represent this more forcibly than the short sentence, "Neither rose any from his place for three days." It was an horror of great darkness; it rested on them like a pall; they knew not what dangers might be around them, what judgment was next to happen: they had not been forewarned of this plague, and they could not tell but it might be only a prelude to some more awful visitation: their soul melted in them, for fear of those things that might come upon them: they dared not move from chamber to chamber, nor even from seat to seat: wherever they chanced to be at the moment when the darkness fell upon them, there they must remain. Pharaoh might call in vain for his guards; they could not come to him. Moses and Aaron were no longer within reach, for none could go to seek them. Masters could not command their slaves, nor slaves hasten to obey their master's call; the wife could not flee to her husband nor the child cling to its parents: the same fear was upon all, both high and low; the same paralysing terror and dismay possessed them every one. As says the patriarch Job, they "laid hold on horror" (Job 18:20). And this continued for three days and nights: they had no lamps nor torches; either they could not kindle them, or they dared not move to procure them: they were silent in darkness, like men already dead. Hope and expectation of returning light might at first support them; but hope delayed through seventy-two weary hours would presently die out, and leave them to despair. The darkness would become more oppressive and intolerable the longer it continued; "felt" upon their bodies as a physical infliction, and "felt" even more in their souls in agonies of fear and apprehension; such a darkness as that which, in the book of Revelation, the fifth angel pours out upon the seat of the beast —"Whose kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds" (Re 16:10,11). If there be any truth in the traditions of the Jews on this subject, there were yet greater alarms under this canopy of darkness, this palpable obscurity, than any which would arise out of the physical infliction. Darkness is a type of Satan's kingdom; and Satan had some liberty in Egypt to walk up and down upon the land, and to go to and fro in it. The Jewish Rabbis tell us that the devil and his angels were let loose during these three dreadful days; that they had a wider range and greater liberty than usual for working mischief. They describe these evil spirits going among the wretched people, glued to their scats as they were, with terror; frightening them with fearful apparitions; piercing their ears with hideous shrieks and groans; driving them almost to madness with the intensity of their fears; making their flesh creep, and the hair of their head to stand on end. Such a climax seems to be referred to by the Psalmist, "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them" (Ps 78:40). Thomas S. Millington, in "Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham," 1873.

And they rebelled not against his word. The plague of darkness and the rest of the plagues which God commanded; these as they were his servants, were not disobedient to him, they came at his word. Ps 105:31,34. John Gill.

They rebelled not against his word; as Jonah did, who, when he was sent to denounce God's judgments against Nineveh, went to Tarshish. Moses and Aaron were not moved, either with a foolish fear of Pharaoh's wrath, or a foolish pity of Egypt's misery, to relax or retard any of the plagues which God ordered them to inflict on the Egyptians; but stretched forth their hand to inflict them as God appointed. They that are instructed to execute judgment, will find their remissness construed a rebellion against God's word. Matthew Henry.

He turned their waters into blood, etc. The Nile begins to rise about the end of June, and attains its highest point at the end of September. About the commencement of the rise it assumes a greenish hue, is disagreeable to the taste, unwholesome, and often totally unfit for drinking. It soon, however, becomes red and turbid, and continues in this state for three or more weeks. In this condition it is again healthy and fit for use. The miracle now performed was totally different from this annual change. For,

1. It occurred after the winter, not the summer, solstice;

2. The water was turned into blood, and not merely reddened by an admixture of red clay or animalcule;

3. The fish died, a result which did not follow from the periodical change of colour;

4. The river stank, and became offensive, which it ceased to be when the ordinary redness made its appearance;

5. The stroke was arrested at the end of seven days, whereas the natural redness continued for at least three weeks; and

6. The change was brought on instantly at the word of command before the eyes of Pharaoh. The calamity was appalling. The sweet waters of the Nile were the common beverage of Egypt. It abounded in all kinds of fish, which formed a principal article of diet for the inhabitants. It was revered as a god by Egypt. But now it was a putrid flood, from which they turned away with loathing. James G. Murphy.

He turned their waters into blood. By the miraculous change of the waters into blood, a practical rebuke was given to their superstitious. This sacred and beautiful river, the benefactor and preserver of the country, this birthplace of their chief gods, this abode of their lesser deities, this source of all their prosperity, this centre of all their devotion, is turned to blood: the waters stink; the canals and pools, the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, which were replenished from the river, all are alike polluted. The Nile, according to Pliny, was the "only source from whence the Egyptians obtained water for drinking" (Hist. Nat. 76, c. 33). This water was considered particularly sweet and refreshing; so much so that the people were in the habit of provoking thirst in order that they might partake more freely of its soft and pleasant draughts. Now it was become abominable to them, and they loathed to drink of it. Thomas S. Millington.

And slew their fish. Besides the fish cured, or sent to market for the table, a very great quantity was set apart expressly for feeding the sacred animals and birds, —as the cats, crocodiles, ibises, and others; and some of the large reservoirs, attached to the temples, were used as well for keeping fish as for the necessary ablutions of the devout and for various purposes connected with religion. The quantity of fish in Egypt was a very great boon to the poor classes, and when the Nile overflowed the country inhabitants of the inland villages benefited by this annual gift of the river, as the land did by the fertilizing mud deposited upon it. The canals, ponds, and pools, on the low lands, continued to abound in fish, even after the inundation had ceased; and it was then that their return to the Nile was intercepted by closing the mouths of the canals. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in "A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians," 1854.

Their land brought forth frogs in abundance. This is the natural appearance next in the order of occurrence to the Red Nile, and of it also the God of nature availed himself to vindicate his power before Pharaoh, and before Egypt. The Nile, its branches, and the great canals of irrigation are all bank full, and the exuberant moisture has aroused from their summer torpor, into life and activity, the frogs of the Nile, in numbers inconceivable to those who have not been in hot countries. Even in ordinary years the annoyance of these loathsome creatures night and day, gives some idea of what this plague must have been, and renders abundantly reasonable the creation of a goddess, Ranipula, {1} at the very commencement of the mythology of ancient Egypt. In the whole of this fearful succession of judgments there is not one more personally revolting than the plague of frogs. William Osborne. {1} "Driver away of frogs." Her name was Heki; Birch ap. Bunsen. She was the Buto of the Greek authors.

Their land brought forth frogs in abundance. It is not difficult for an Englishman, in an Eastern wet monsoon, to form a tolerable idea of that plague of Egypt, in which the frogs were in the "houses, bed chambers, beds and kneading troughs, "of the Egyptians. In the rainy season, myriads of them send forth their constant croak in every direction; and a man not possessed of over much patience, becomes as petulant as was the licentious god, and is ready to exclaim,

"Croak, croak! Indeed I shall choke,

If you pester and bore my ears any more

With your croak, croak, croak!"

A newcomer, on seeing them leap about the rooms, becomes disgusted, and forthwith begins an attack upon them; but the next evening will bring a return of his active visitors. It may appear almost incredible, but in one evening we killed upwards of forty of these guests in the Jaffna Mission house. They had principally concealed themselves m a small tunnel connected with the bathing room, where their noise had become almost insupportable. Joseph Roberts, in "Oriental Illustrations," 1844.

Chambers of their Icings. God plagued Pharaoh in his bedchamber: it may be because he would show that his judgments can penetrate the greatest privacy; for the field, and the hall, and the bed chamber, and the closet are all one to God. It is like enough that it would not move Pharaoh much that his borders were filled with frogs; but they must come into his house, and into his bed chamber. My observation is —the greatest princes in the world if they offend God are not exempted from judgments. Princes and great persons, are usually exempted from the reproof of men. As for the laws, ofttimes they are as cob webs, the great flies break through them. Who dare say to a prince, "Thou art wicked?" Nay, one saith concerning the Pope, it is not lawful to say, "What doth he so?" Now when they are not within the compass of human reproof, God strikes them. Josias Shute, in "Judgment and Mercy: or, the Plague of Frogs," 1645.

Flies. This term serves to denote a kind of insect that alights on the skin or leaves of plants, by its bite inflicting pain in t}fe one case, and causing destruction in the other. The swarms of flies in Egypt are usually numerous, and excessively annoying. They alight on the moist part of the eyelids and nostrils, and inflict wounds that produce great pain, swelling and inflammation. They are also ruinous to the plants in which they lay their eggs. Philo (vit. Mos. 2 pg 110) describes the dog fly or gad fly as a grievous pest of Egypt. Gnats and mosquitoes are also abundant and virulent. A plague of such creatures would cause immense suffering and desolation. James G. Murphy.

As an illustration of the power of flies we give an extract from Charles Marshall's "Canadian Dominion." "I have been told by men of unquestioned veracity, that at midday the clouds of mosquitoes on the plains would sometimes hide the leaders in a team of four horses from the sight of the driver. Cattle could only be recognised by their shape; all alike becoming black with an impenetrable crust of mosquitoes. The line of the route over the Red River plains would be marked by the carcases of oxen stung to death by this insignificant foe."

Lice in all their coasts. The priests, being polluted by this horrible infection, could not stand to minister before their deities. The people could not, in their uncleanness, be admitted within the precincts of their temples. If they would offer sacrifice, there were no victims fit for the purpose. Even the gods, the oxen, and goats, and cats, were defiled with the vermin. The Egyptians not only writhed under the loathsome scourge, but felt themselves humbled and disgraced by it. Josephus notices this: —"Pharaoh, "he says, "was so confounded at this new plague, that, what with the danger, the scandal, and the nastiness of it, he was half sorry for what he had done" (b. it. c. 14). The plague assumed the form of a disease, being "in the people." Ex 8:17. As Josephus says again, "The bodies of the people bred them, and they were all covered over with them, gnawing and tearing intolerably, and no remedy, for baths and ointments did no good." But, however distressing to their bodies, the foul and disgraceful character of the plague, and the offence brought upon their religion by the defilement of their deities and the interruption of all their religious ceremonies, was its most offensive feature. Thomas S. Millington.

Lice. Vermin of the kind is one of the common annoyances of Egypt. Herodotus tells us (Ps 2:37) that the priests shave their whole body every other day, that no lice or other impure thing may adhere to them when they are engaged in the service of the gods. It is manifest that this species of vermin was particularly disgusting to the Egyptians. James G. Murphy.

He gave them hail for rain. I had ridden out to the excavations at Gizeh, when seeing a large black cloud approaching, I sent a servant to the tents to take care of them, but as it began to rain slightly I soon rode after him myself. Shortly after my arrival a storm of wind began; I therefore ordered the cords of the tents to be secured, but soon a violent shower of rain came in addition, which alarmed all our Arabs, and drove them into the rock tomb, in which is our kitchen... Suddenly the storm became a regular hurricane, such as, I had never witnessed in Europe, and a hailstorm came down on us, which almost turned the day into night... It was not long before first our common tent fell down, and when I had hastened from that into my own, in order to hold it from the inside, this also broke down above me. Carl Richard Lepsius, in "Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai." 1853.

Hail. Extraordinary reports of the magnitude of hailstones, which have fallen during storms so memorable as to find a place in general history, have come down from periods of antiquity more or less remote. According to the "Chronicles, "a hailstorm occurred in the reign of Charlemagne, in which hailstones fell which measured fifteen feet in length by six feet in breadth, and eleven feet in thickness; and under the reign of Tippoo Saib, hailstones equal in magnitude to elephants are said to have fallen. Setting aside these and like recitals as partaking rather of the character of fable than of history, we shall find sufficient to create astonishment in well authenticated observations on this subject.

In a hailstorm which took place in Flintshire on the 9th of April, 1672, Halley saw hailstones which weighed five ounces.

On the 4th of May, 1697, Robert Taylor saw fall hailstones measuring fourteen inches in circumference.

In the storm which ravaged Como on 20th August, 1787, Volta saw hailstones which weighed nine ounces.

On 22nd May, 1822, Dr. Noggerath saw fall at Bonn hailstones which weighed from twelve to thirteen ounces.

It appears, therefore, certain that in different countries hailstorms have occurred in which stones weighing from half to three quarters of a pound have fallen. Dionysius Lardner, in "The Museum of Science and Art," 1854.

Locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number. In this country, and in all the dominions of Prete Janni, is a very great and horrible plague, which is an innumerable company of locusts, which eat and consume all the corn and trees; and the number of them is so great, as it is incredible; and with their multitude they cover the earth and fill the air in such wise, that it is a hard matter to be able to see the sun...We travelled five days journey through places wholly waste and destroyed, wherein millet had been sown, which had stalks as great as those we set in our vineyards, and we saw them all broken and beaten down as if a tempest had been there; and this the locusts did. The trees were without leaves, and the bark of them was all devoured; and no grass was there to be seen, for they had eaten up all things; and if we had not been warned and advised to carry victual with us, we and our cattle had perished. This country was all covered with locusts without wings; and they told us these were the seed of them which had eaten up all, and that as soon as their wings were grown they would seek after the old ones. The number of them was so great, that I shall not speak of it, because I shall not be believed: but this! will say, that I saw men, women, and children sit as forlorn and dead among the locusts. Samuel Purchas, 1577-1628.

Locusts and caterpillars. God did not bring the same plague twice; but when there was occasion for another, it was still a new one; for he has many arrows in his quiver. Matthew Henry.

Without number. A swarm of locusts, which was observed in India in 1825, occupied a space of forty English square miles, contained at least forty millions of locusts in one line, and cast a long shadow on the earth. And Major Moore thus describes an immense army of these animals which ravaged the Mahratta country: "The column they composed extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it when on the wing, that like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object." Brown, in his travels in Africa, states that an area of nearly two thousand square miles was literally covered by them; and Kirby and Spence mention that a column of them was so immense, that they took four hours to fly over the spot where the observer stood. M. Kalisch.

Came...and that without number.

Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud

Of congregated myriads number less;

The rushing of whose wings was as the sound

Of some broad river, headlong in its course,

Plunged from a mountain summit; or the roar

Of a wild ocean in the autumnal storm,

Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks,

Onward they came, the winds impelled them on. —Robert Southey, 1774-1843.

He smote also all the firstborn. Did you hear that cry? It is the moment of midnight, and some tragedy is enacted in that Egyptian dwelling, for such an unearthly shriek! and it is repeated and reechoed, as doors burst open and frantic women rush into the street, and, as the houses of priests and physicians are beset, they only shake their heads in speechless agony, and point to the death sealed features of their own firstborn. Lights are flashing at the palace gates, and flitting through the royal chambers; and as king's messengers hasten through the town enquiring where the two venerable Hebrew brothers dwell, the whisper flies, "The royal prince is dead!" Be off, ye sons of Jacob! speed from your house of bondage, ye oppressed and injured Israelites! And in their eagerness to "thrust forth" the terrible because Heaven protected race, they press upon them gold and jewels, and bribe them to be gone. James Hamilton.

There was not one feeble person among their tribes, when Israel came out of Egypt; there was while dwelling there: so there shall be no feeble saint go to heaven, but they shall be perfect when carried hence by the angels of God, though they complain of feebleness here. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; "Isa 65:20. As there is in all dying or departed persons a great shooting in their stature observed; so is there in the soul much more. The least infant shoots in the instant of dissolution to such a perfect knowledge of God, and such a measure of grace is not attainable here, that he is "as David; "and the tallest Christian comes to such a height, that he is "as an angel of God, "Zec 7:8. John Sheffield, in "The Rising Sun," 1654.

There was not one feeble person among their tribes. They came out all in good health, and brought not with them any of the diseases of Egypt. Surely never was the like; that among so many thousands there was not one sick! so false was the representation which the Jews' enemies in after ages gave of the matter, that they were all sick of a leprosy, or some loathsome disease, and therefore the Egyptians thrust them out of their land. Matthew Henry.

Feeble person. A totterer or stumbler. The word denotes a person unfit for military service. Joseph Addison Alexander.

In the army of Alexander the Great, the march was begun by a great beacon being set upon a pole as a signal from head quarters, so that "the fire was seen at night, the smoke in the daytime; "and the plan is still found in use amongst the caravans of Arabia. It is probable enough, in that unchanging land, that such may have been the custom at the time of the Exodus, and that God taught the people by parable in this wise, as well as by fact, that he was their true leader, and heaven the general pavilion, whence the order of march was enjoined. Neale and Littledale.

Verse 39.

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her father's God before her moved,

An awful guide in smoke and flame.

By day, along the astonished lands,

The cloudy pillar glided slow;

By night, Arabia's crimson sands

Returned the fiery column's glow.

There rose the choral hymn of praise,

And trump and timbrel answered keen,

And Zion's daughters poured their lays,

With priest's and warrior's voice between.

But present still, though now unseen,

When brightly shines the prosperous day,

Be thoughts of Thee a cloudy screen,

To temper the deceitful ray!

And oh, when stoops on Judah's path,

In shade and storm, the frequent night,

Be Thou —long suffering, slow to wrath —

A burning and a shining light. —Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832.

Quails. The quail is met with abundantly in Syria and Judaea, and there seems to be little doubt of its identity with the quails so frequently mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. "We have, "says Tristram, "a clear proof of the identity of the common quail with the Hebrew selac, in its Arabic name, salwa, from a root signifying `to be fat' —very descriptive of the round, plump form and fat flesh of the quail... It migrates in vast flocks, and regularly crosses the Arabian desert, flying for the most part at night, and when the birds settle they are so utterly exhausted that they may be captured in any numbers by the hand. Notwithstanding their migratory habits, they instinctively select the shortest sea passages, and avail themselves of any island as a halting place. Thus in Spring and Autumn they are slaughtered in numbers on Malta and many of the Greek islands, very few being seen till the period of migration comes round. They also fly with the wind, never facing it like many other birds." "The Israelites `spread them out' when they had taken them before they were sufficiently refreshed to escape; exactly as Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians were in the habit of doing with quails —drying them in the sun." Brehm mentions having been a witness to the arrival of a huge flock of quails upon the coast of North Africa, and tells us that the weary birds fell at once to the ground completely exhausted by their toilsome journey, and remained therefore some minutes as though stupefied. Cassell's "Book of Birds."

Verse 40.

Brought from his store, at sute of Israel,

Quails, in whole beavies each remove pursue;

Himself from skies their hunger to repel

Candies the grass with sweet congealed dew.

He wounds the rock, the rock doth wounded, swell;

Swelling affords new streams to channels new,

All for God's mindful will can not be dryven,

From sacred word once to his Abraham given. —Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586.

They inherited the labour of the people. In like manner the heavenly Canaan is enjoyed by the saints without any labour of theirs; this inheritance is not of the law, nor of the works of it; it is the gift of God. Ro 4:14 6:23. John Gill.

Verse 1.

1. Praise God for former mercies.

2. Pray for further mercies.

3. Publish his famous mercies.

A series of holy exercises.

"Give thanks" —

"call upon his name" —

"make known" —

"sing" —

"talk" —

"glory" —

"rejoice" —

"seek" —

"remember".

Verse 2.

1. The pleasure of talking to God. "Sing, "etc.; making melody in the heart.

2. The duty of talking of God. "Talk ye, "etc. G.R.

The Christian's table talk.

Verse 3.

1. Those who find: or —"glory ye, "etc.

2. Those who seek: or —"rejoice."

Verse 3 (second clause). Let the seeker rejoice that there is such a God to seek, that he invites us to seek, that he moves us to seek, enables us to seek, and promises to be found of us. The tendency of the seeker is to despond, but there are many grounds of comfort.

How can we seek the Lord's strength?

1. By desiring to be subject to it.

2. By being supported by it.

3. By being equipped with it for service.

4. By seeing its results upon others.

Threefold seeking.

1. The Lord for mercy.

2. His strength for service.

3. His face for happiness. A.G. Brown.

Verse 4 (last clause). Seeking the Lord the perpetual occupation of a believer.

Themes for memory.

1. What God has done.

2. What he has said.

Our memory and God's memory. "Remember." "He hath remembered."

God's relation to his elect and to all mankind.

The making, swearing, and confirming of the covenant. See our comment on these verses with the passages referred to.

Comfort to the few. The typical and spiritual Israel few at first. A few in the ark peopled the world. Small companies have done wonders. Christ's presence is promised to two or three. God saith not by many or by few, etc.

Verse 13.

1. God's people may be often removed.

2. They can never be injured.

3. God's property in them will not be renounced.

Dr. T. Goodwin has an excellent sermon on these verses, entitled "The Interest of England, "in which he condenses the history of the world, to show, that those nations which have persecuted and afflicted the people of God have invariably been broken in pieces. (Goodwin's Works, volume 12 pg 34-60, Nichol's edition).

In what respect Abraham was a prophet, and how far believers are the same.

Verse 16.

1. All things come at the call of God. He called for plenty, and it came, for famine, and it came; for captivity, and it came; for deliverance, and it came.

2. The most unlikely means of accomplishing an end with man is often the direct way with God. He fulfilled the promise of Canaan to Abraham by banishing him from it; of plenty, by sending a famine; of freedom, by bringing into captivity. G.R.

The duration of our troubles, the testing power of the promise, the comfortable issue which is secured to us.

Verse 24 (second clause). In what respects grace can make believers stronger than their enemies.

Verse 25.

1. The natural hatred of the world to the church.

2. God's permitting it to be shown. When? Why?

3. The subtle manner in which this enmity seeks its object.

He gave them hail for rain. Judgment substituted for mercy.

Verse 37 (first clause). Wealth found upon us after affliction.

Verse 37 (second clause). A consummation to be desired. This was the direct result of the divine presence. The circumstances out of which it grew were hard labour, and persecution. It enabled them to leave Egypt, to journey far, to carry burdens, to fight enemies, etc.

Verse 39.

1. A dark cloud of providence is the guide of the people of God by day.

2. A bright cloud of promises is their guide by night. G.R.

The Lord's goodness exemplified in our varying conditions.

1. For prosperity —a cloud.

2. For adversity —a light. A good text would be found in "light in the night."

Verse 40.

1. God often gives in love what is not asked. So the bread from heaven which was beyond all they could ask or think.

2. He sometimes gives in anger what is asked. They asked for flesh to eat —"and he brought quails." —G.R.

We have,

1. A type of the person of Christ, in the rock.

(a) Unsightly as Horeb —"When we shall see him, there is no beauty, "etc. (Isa 43:2).

(b) Firm and immovable "Who is a rock, save our God?" (2Sa 22:32).

2. A type of the sufferings of Christ, in the smitten rock.

(a) Smitten by the rod of the Law.

(b) Smitten to the heart.

3. A type of the benefits of Christ, in the water flowing from the rock —pure, refreshing, perpetual, abundant. James Bennett, 1828.

Verse 41.

1. The miraculous energy of God's grace in the conversion of a sinner: "He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out."

2. The effect in relation to others, which demonstrates at once the excellence and the reality of the miracle in ourselves: "They ran in the dry places like a river." —Thomas Dale, 1836.

Verse 41.

1. The grand source —the rock opened.

2. The liberal stream —"gushed out".

3. The continued flow —"in dry places".

Verse 42.

1. The grand source —the rock opened.

2. The liberal stream —"gushed out".

3. The continued law —"in dry places".

Obedience to God the design of his mercies to us.