Bible Commentaries

Psalms 106:2 — i.e. To the just worth of them; none can: they are fitter to be admired than possible to be uttered. It is enough that we do what we can toward the work. God accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Corinthians 8:12 ; he taketh it for no small praise when we thus acknowledge him to be above all praise. Who can show forth all his praise? — Quis fando exprimat? Surely none can. David saith he will, Psalms 9:1 , but soon found his utter inability; for according

Psalms 106:33 — Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. Because they provoked his spirit — So that he was in a pelt to the grieving of God’s good Spirit within him, Ephesians 4:30-31 . O tantaene animis coelestibus irae? So that he spake unadvisedly — Some render it only, he spake, or he pronounced; he should not have spoken at all to the people, as having no order from God so to do in that transaction, but only to the rock.

Psalms 118:11 — They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They compassed me about; yea, … — They thought to make sure work of me indeed; as Saul and his men, when they hemmed him in at Maon, 1 Samuel 23:26 ; as the Church’s enemies, when they had gotten her as a bird into the snare of the fowler, Psalms 124:7 ; as when the adversaries said, "They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them,"

Psalms 137:1 — sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him," saith Jeremiah of the mourner, Lamentations 3:28 , who is much in meditation; so were these, bewailing bitterly their sin and misery, with their heart sounding as a harp, Isaiah 16:1 , where, if one string be touched, all the rest sound. When we remembered Zion — The former solemnities, the present desolations.

Psalms 147:1 — Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] pleasant; [and] praise is comely. It is good to sing praises — For, 1. Hereby we glorify God, Psalms 50:23 , and so do him right; for he is the proper object of praises, worthy only to be praised, Psalms 18:32 . Hereby we do good to ourselves, secure former favours, which else we forfeit, and procure further blessings,

Psalms 65:7 — μονου θεου θερας . It is he alone Qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat Ventosum, et urbes regnaque tristia, Divosque mortalesque turbas Imperio regit unus aequo. (Horat. Obadiah 1:4 , lib. 3.)

Psalms 66:10 — proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. For thou, O God, hast proved us — Non ut ipse sciat sed ut scire nos faciat, saith Austin. God proveth his people, not thereby to better his own knowledge of them, John 2:25 ; John 6:6 ; John 21:17; Acts 1:24 , but to bring them to a better knowledge of their own both vices and graces. It is not known what corn will yield till it come to the flail; nor what grapes, till they come to the press. Grace is hid in nature, as sweet water in rose

Psalms 69:20 — knew that a good man should be as much as might be not only without fault, but without suspicion of a fault, as Augustus Caesar was wont to say of his house. Howsoever, it is happy that a true Christian hath always his cordial by him, 2 Corinthians 1:12 . Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience. And I looked for some to take pity — Heb. to lament with me, or to shake the head over me as mourners use to do, to run to my comfort, and to condole with me. David’s friends failed

Psalms 78:8 — might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation [that] set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. And might not be as their fathers — Fathers are not always to be followed, Ezekiel 20:18-19 . He zealously affected his fathers, but not well, who said, I will follow them sicut bos armentum, etiamsi ruant, though I fall with them (Cicero Epist.). A stubborn and rebellious generation — Aver satrix et irritatrix. A generation that

Psalms 93:5 — aims are divine and supernatural; such as walk worthy of God in all well pleasing, and inasmuch as they have these rich promises, do cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Corinthians 7:1 . Holiness becometh thine house — God looks to be served llke himself; he will be sanctified of all those that draw near unto him in holy duties, Leviticus 10:3 . This the heathens were not altogether ignorant of, and therefore at their sacrifices

Proverbs 1:25 — or so little to do, that they could not make use of so fair an offer, so sweet advice and advantage. And would none of my reproof. — Ruinam praecedunt stillicidia. It is a sure presage and desert of ruin, when men will not be ruled. Proverbs 29:1 The cypress, the more it is watered, the more it is withered. The tree that is not for fruit, is for the fire. The earth that beareth thorns and briars only is rejected. Hebrews 6:8

Proverbs 10:8 — shewed they were not wise in heart, though reckoned chief among the world’s wizards. But a prating fool shall fall. — Or, Be beaten. Such a fool was Diotrephes, who prated or trifled φλυαρει , 3 John 1:10 against St John with malicious words, and might have been therefore surnamed Nugax, as Rodulphus, that succeeded Anselm in the see of Canterbury, was. Godwin’s Catal.

Proverbs 11:11 — because they are of public spirits, and will by their good deeds, good doctrines, good counsels, and good prayers, promote the public good to their utmost. Catonis mores eraut - toti genitum se credere mundo. Lucan. Saints are "clouds" Hebrews 12:1 that water the earth, as a common blessing. But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. — Whether he be a seedsman of sedition or a seducer of the people, a Sheba or a Shebna, a carnal gospeller or a godless politician, whose drift is

Proverbs 11:19 — As righteousness [tendeth] to life: so he that pursueth evil [pursueth it] to his own death. As righteousness tendeth to life. — Heb., Lives; for "godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 And this is that sure reward spoken of in the former verse; for "he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting," Galatians 6:8 which indeed is the only life that deserveth so to be called and counted. So

Proverbs 14:11 — overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown. — As Phoca’s high walls were, because sin was at the bottom: "Brimstone also shall be scattered on his habitation"; Job 18:15 as it befell Dioclesian, whose house was wholly consumed with fire from heaven; wherewith himself also was so terrified, that he died within a while after. Euseb. de vit. Const., lib. v. But the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. —

Proverbs 15:21 — Folly [is] joy to [him that is] destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of understanding. — See Trapp on " Proverbs 10:23 " But a man of understanding walketh uprightly. — And he doth it with delight, as the opposition implies. Christ’s "burden" is no more "grievous" to him than the wing is to the bird. Matthew 11:30 1 John 5:3

Proverbs 18:12 — heart of man is haughty, and before honour [is] humility. Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty. — Creature confidence and high mindedness are the Dives’s richman’s diseases, and go therefore yoked together, as here; so in 1 Timothy 6:17 - "Charge the rich that they be not high minded, nor trust to uncertain riches." Magna cognatio ut rei sic nominis divitiis, et vitiis; Wealth and wickedness are of near alliance, and are not far from destruction, or ‘breaking

Proverbs 4:14 — and go not in the way of evil [men]. Enter not into the path of the wicked. — Qui male vivunt, et peius credunt, saith one, which live ill, and believe worse. Qui aequo animo malis immiscetur, malus est, saith another. Fuller’s Holy State, 162. He that is well content to keep company with those that are naught, is himself naught. The river Dee, in Merionethshire, running through Pimblemeer, remains entire, and mingles not her streams with the waters of the lake. See 1 Corinthians 5:9-11

Proverbs 5:17 — that is, in re venerea, in the matter of the marriage bed, as some Jerome, Chrysost., Heinsius. expound it, but that "every one possess his vessel," - that is, say they, his wife, that "weaker vessel" - in sanctification and honour. 1 Thessalonians 4:4-6

Proverbs 7:17 — grave; for the bodies of the dead were so perfumed. Such a meditation would have much rebated his edge, cooled his courage. Jerusalem’s filthiness was "in her skirts"; and why? "She remembered not her latter end" Lamentations 1:9 As the strokings of a dead hand, they say, cureth a tympany; and as the ashes of a viper applied to the part that is stung draws the venom out of it, so the serious thought of death will prove death to fleshly lusts. I meet with a story Mr Ward’s