Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinsuccor us. The prophet, as an additional and still more grievous element in his distressed condition,tells us that his friends abhorred him. 512 Finally, he concludes by observing, that he could perceiveno way of escape from his calamities: I am shut up that I cannot go forth. 5139. My eye mourneth because of my affliction. To prevent it from being supposed that he wasiron-hearted, he again repeats that his afflictions were so severe and painful as to produce manifesttraces of his sorrow, even in his countenance and eyes — a plain indication of the low conditionto which he was reduced. But he, notwithstanding, testifies that he was not drawn away from God,like many who, secretly murmuring in their hearts, and, to use a proverbial expression, chafingupon the bit, have nothing farther from their thoughts than to disburden their cares into the bosomof God, in order to derive comfort from Him. In speaking of the stretching out of his hands, he putsthe sign for the thing signified. I have elsewhere had an opportunity of explaining the import ofthis ceremony, which has been in common use in all ages.Psalm 88:10-1310. Wilt thou perform a miracle for the dead? shall the dead 514 arise to praise thee? Selah. 11.Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? thy truth in destruction? 515 12. Shall thy wondersbe known in darkness? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13. But to thee have Icried, O Jehovah! and in the morning my prayer shall come before thee. 516512 This verse has been supposed to contain a reference to the condition of the leper under the law, which much resembled thepicture here drawn. , chophshi, from , chophash, “is free,” says Hammond, (“in opposition to servitude,) manumitted, setat liberty The use of this word may more generally be taken from 2 Chronicles 26:21, where of Uzziah, being a leper, it is said,that he dwelt, , ‘in an house of freedom, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord.’ The meaning is, that after themanner of the lepers, he was excluded from the temple, and dwelt, , saith the Chaldee, there, in some place withoutJerusalem, which is therefore called the ‘house of freedom,’ because such as were there were exempt from the common affairs,and shut up from the conversation of men. And in comparison with these, they that are, as it were, dead and laid in their graves,are here said to be free, i e., removed from all the affairs and conversation of the world.”513 “This verse,” observes Dr Adam Clarke, “has been supposed to express the state of a leper, who, because of the infectiousnature of his disease, is separated from his family, — is abominable to all, and at last shut up in a separate house, whence hedoes not come out to mingle with society.” “Heman means,” says Walford, “either that the character of his disease was suchthat men could not endure to be near him, or that the state of his mind was so disordered that he became wearisome and intolerable;perhaps he includes both.”514 According to Cresswell, the meaning of this clause is, “That the Psalmist confined himself to his house from the fear ofencountering, if he were abroad, the revilings of his former friends.” Walford explains it as follows — “Either his state of feelingwas such as induced him to withdraw himself altogether from society, or he was so environed by hopeless misery, that he regardedhimself as a wretch confined in a dungeon, whence he could not escape.” Horsley reads, “I am shut up apart, and am not permittedto come out.” He observes, that shut up apart is the proper sense of , and adds, that “when it denotes confinement, it alwaysimplies solitary confinement.”515 The Hebrew word for the dead, in the first clause of the verse, is , methim; here it is , rephaim This last “Hebrewword,” says Parkhurst, “means ‘dead bodies reduced,’ or ‘resolved into their original dust.’ I know not (he adds) of any oneEnglish word that will express it: remains, or relics, come as near to it as any that I can recollect. It is several times put after ,‘the dead,’ as of more intense signification.” (See Parkhurst’s Lexicon, , 2.) “Mortui, qui vivere desierunt, manes, proprieflaccidi.” — Simonis According to Dr Adam Clarke, , rephaim, means “the manes or departed spirits.” The Chaldee paraphrasesthis word “the carcases that are putrefied in the dust.”516 “C’est, la mort.” — Fr. marg. “That is, death.”249