Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinmade havoc with their axes upon this splendid edifice, as if it had been their object to tread underfoot the glory of God by destroying so magnificent a structure. 2237. They have set fire to thy sanctuaries. The Psalmist now complains that the temple was burned,and thus completely razed and destroyed, whereas it was only half demolished by the instrumentsof war. Many have supposed that the order of the words has been here inverted, 224 not being ableto perceive how a suitable meaning could be elicited from them, and therefore would resolve themthus, They have put fire into thy sanctuaries. I have, however, no doubt that the sense which I havegiven, although the accent is against it, is the true and natural one, That the temple was levelledwith the ground by being burned. This verse corroborates more fully the statement which I havemade, that the temple is called sanctuaries in the plural number, because it consisted of three parts,— the innermost sanctuary, the middle sanctuary, and the outer court; for there immediately followsthe expression, The dwelling-place of thy name. The name of God is here employed to teach us thathis essence was not confined to or shut up in the temple, but that he dwelt in it by his power andoperation, that the people might there call upon him with the greater confidence.8. They have said in their heart, Let us destroy them all together. To express the more forciblythe atrocious cruelty of the enemies of the Church, the prophet introduces them speaking together,and exciting one another to commit devastation without limit or measure. His language implies,that each of them, as if they had not possessed enough of courage to do mischief, stirred up andstimulated his fellow to waste and destroy the whole of God’s people, without leaving so much asone of them. In the close of the verse he asserts that all the synagogues were burned. I readily takethe Hebrew word , moadim, in the sense of synagogues, 225 because he says ALL the sanctuaries,and speaks expressly of the whole land. It is a frigid explanation which is given by some, that theseenemies, upon finding that they could not hurt or do violence to the sanctuary of God in heaven,223 In the English Common Prayer-Book the 5th and 6th verses are translated thus: — “He that hewed timber afore out of thethick trees was known to bring it to an excellent work. But now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes andhammers.” Dr Nicholls’ paraphrase of this is as follows: “It is well known from the sacred records of our nation to what admirablebeauty the skillful hand of the artificers brought the rough cedar trees, which were cut down by the hatchets of Hiram’s woodmenin the thick Tyrian forests. But now they tear down all the curious carvings, that cost so much time and exquisite labor, withaxes and hammers, and other rude instruments of iron.” “This is a clear and consistent sense of the passages” says Mant, “andaffords a striking and well imagined contrast.”224 The order of the words is this, shilchu baesh mikdashecha, literally, “They have sent into fire thy sanctuary.”225 It has been objected, that if this psalm was composed at the time of the captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar, and thedesolation of the Holy Land by the Chaldeans, , moadey, cannot signify synagogues, because the Jews had no synagoguesfor public worship or public instruction till after the Babylonish captivity. Accordingly, Dr Prideaux thinks that the Proseuchaeare meant. These were courts resembling those in which the people prayed at the tabernacle, and afterwards at the temple, builtby those who lived at a distance from Jerusalem, and who were unable at all times to resort thither. They were erected as placesin which the Jews might offer up their daily prayers. “They differed,” says Prideaux, “from synagogues in several particulars.For, first, In synagogues the prayers were offered up in public forms in common for the whole congregation; but in the Proseuchaethey prayed as in the temple, every one apart for himself. Secondly, The synagogues were covered houses; but the Proseuchaewere open courts, built in the manner of forums, which were open enclosures. Thirdly, Synagogues were all built within thecities to which they did belong; but the Proseuchae without.” — Connection of the History, etc., Part 1, Book 6, pages 139-141.Synagogues were afterwards used for the same purpose as the Proseuchae, and hence both come to be designated by the samename. The same author supposes that those places in the cities of the Levites, and the schools of the prophets, whither the peopleresorted for instruction, having been called, as well as the Proseuchae, - , moadey-el, are also here intended. “The word ,moadey,” says Dr Adam Clarke, “which we translate synagogues, may be taken in a more general sense, and mean any placeswhere religious assemblies were held; and that such places and assemblies did exist long before the Babylonish captivity ispretty evident from different parts of Scripture.” See 2 Kings 4:23; Ezekiel 33:31; Acts 15:21. All such places were consumedto ashes by the hostile invaders whose ravages are bewailed, it having been their purpose to extinguish for ever the Jewishreligion, and, as the most likely means of effecting their object, to destroy every memorial of it.101