Source: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf108.ii.LXXIX.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 02:39:14+00:00

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Psalm LXXIX.36673667 Lat. LXXVIII. Preached after the Exposition of Psalm lxxviii., as appears elsewhere.
1. Over the title of this Psalm, being so short and so simple, I think we need not tarry. But the prophecy which here we read sent before, we know to be evidently fulfilled. For when these things were being sung in the times of King David, nothing of such sort, by the hostility of the Gentiles, as yet had befallen the city Jerusalem, nor the Temple of God, which as yet was not even builded. For that after the death of David his son Salomon made a temple to God, who is ignorant? That is spoken of therefore as though past, which in the Spirit was seen to be future.
“O God, the Gentiles have come into Thine inheritance” (ver. 1). Under which form of expression other things which were to come to pass, are spoken of as having been done. Nor must this be wondered at, that these words are being spoken to God. For they are not being represented to Him not knowing, by whose revelation they are foreknown; but the soul is speaking with God with that affection of godliness, of which God knoweth.36683668 One Oxf. ms. “love thou to speak with God with affection of godliness, things of which God knoweth;” al. “For what things doth not God see?” For even the things which Angels proclaim to men, they proclaim to them that know them not; but the things which they proclaim to God, they proclaim to Him knowing, when they offer our prayers, and in ineffable manner consult the eternal Truth respecting their actions, as an immutable law. And therefore this man of God is saying to God that which he is to learn of God, like a scholar to a master, not ignorant but judging; and so either approving what he hath taught, or censuring what he hath not taught: especially because under the appearance of one praying, the Prophet is transforming into himself those who should be at the time when these things were to come to pass.36693669 [Compare 1 Pet. i. 12, a text which floods with light the subject of inspiration.—C.] But in praying it is customary to declare those things to God which He hath done in taking vengeance, and for a petition to be added, that henceforth He should pity and spare. In this way here also by him the judgments are spoken of by whom they are foretold, as if they were being spoken of by those whom they befell, and the very lamentation and prayer is a prophecy.
2. “They have defiled Thy holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples.” “They have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth” (ver. 2). “They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them” (ver. 3). If in this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection and 381Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it doth not occur to me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him, and even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even the Lord Himself saith, “I am not sent but to the sheep which have been lost of the house of Israel,”36703670 Matt. xv. 24. the same are they that out of them are the sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed;36713671 Rom. ix. 8. the same do belong to the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin Mary who bore Christ:36723672 Matt. i. 16. hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom, and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth:36733673 Luke i. 5. hence Symeon the old,36743674 Luke ii. 25. and Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not:36753675 John i. 47. hence the other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God:36763676 John xix. 38; Luke xxiii. 51. hence that so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord:”36773677 Matt. xxi. 9. among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.”36783678 Ps. viii. 2. Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized,36793679 Acts ii. 41, iv. 4. welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common.36803680 Acts iv. 32. Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles.36813681 Acts vii. 59. Hence so many Churches of Judæa, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face,36823682 Gal. i. 22. but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ’s most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, “a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the evening dividing morsels;”36833683 Gen. xlix. 27. that is, first as persecutor carrying off unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that are out of that people the inheritance of God.…So then even at this time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out of that nation doth belong to the inheritance36843684 One ms. “are the inheritance.” of God: not those concerning whom a little below he saith, “But the rest have been blinded.” For thus he saith. “What then? That which Israel sought, this he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it: but the rest have been blinded.”36853685 Rom. xi. 7. This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which God hath not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which hath not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the time of Titus the Emperor, “O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Thine inheritance,” and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been foretold concerning the destruction of both the temple and city belonging to that people.
4. But now in that which followeth, “they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples;” even the Church herself is rightly understood under this name, even the free Jerusalem our mother,36923692 Gal. iv. 26. concerning whom hath been written, “many more are the sons of the forsaken, than 382of her that hath the husband.”36933693 Isa. liv. 1. The expression, “for a keeping of apples,” I think must be understood of the desertion which the wasting of persecution hath effected: that is, like a keeping of apples; for the keeping of apples is abandoned, when the apples have passed away. And certes when through the persecuting Gentiles the Church seemed to be forsaken, unto the celestial table, like as it were many and exceeding sweet apples from the garden of the Lord, the spirits of the martyrs did pass away.
5. “They have made,” he saith, “the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth” (ver. 2). The expression, “dead bodies,” hath been repeated in “fleshes:” and the expression, “of Thy servants,” hath been repeated in, “of Thy saints.” This only hath been varied, “to the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.” Better have they interpreted who have written “dead,” than as some have it, “mortal.” For “dead” is only said of those that have died; but mortal is a term applied even to living bodies. When then, as I have said, to their Husbandman the spirits of martyrs like apples had passed away, their dead bodies and their fleshes they set before the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth: as if any part of them could be lost to the resurrection, whereas out of the hidden recesses of the natural world He will renew the whole, by whom even our hairs have been numbered.36943694 Matt. x. 30.
6. “They have poured forth their blood like water,” that is, abundantly and wantonly, “in the circuit of Jerusalem” (ver. 3). If we herein understand the earthly city Jerusalem, we perceive the shedding of their blood in the circuit thereof, whom the enemy could find outside the walls. But if we understand it of that Jerusalem, concerning whom hath been said, “many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that hath the husband,”36953695 Isa. liv. 1. the circuit thereof is throughout the universal earth. For in that lesson of the Prophet, wherein is written, “many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that hath the husband:” a little after unto the same is said, “and He that hath delivered thee, shall be called the God of Israel of the universal earth.”36963696 Isa. liv. 5. The circuit then of this Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as followeth: so far as at that time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the great gain of the celestial treasuries. But as to that which hath been added, “and there was no one to bury:” it either ought not to seem to be an incredible thing that there should have been so great a panic in some places, that not any buriers at all of holy bodies came forward: or certes that unburied corpses in many places might lie long time, until being by the religious in a manner stolen36973697 [“With a pious sacrilege a grave I stole,” Dr. Young.—C.] they were buried.
7. “We have become,” he saith, “a reproach to our neighbours” (ver. 4). Therefore precious not in the sight of men, from whom this reproach was, but “precious36983698 Oxf. mss. rep. “precious.” in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”36993699 Ps. cxvi. 15. “A scoffing and derision:” or, as some have interpreted it, “a mockery to them that are in our circuit.” It is a repetition of the former sentence. For that which above hath been called, “a reproach,” the same hath been repeated in, “a scoffing and derision:” and that which above hath been said in, “to our neighbours,” the same hath been repeated in, “to them that are in our circuit.” Moreover, in reference to the earthly Jerusalem, the neighbours, and those in the circuit of that nation, are certainly understood to be other nations. But in reference to the free Jerusalem our mother,37003700 Gal. iv. 26. there are neighbours even in the circuit of her, among whom, being her enemies, the Church dwelleth in the circuit of the round world.
9. But that which he addeth, “Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations which have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name” (ver. 6); this too is a prophecy, not a wish. Not in the imprecation of malevolence are these words spoken, but foreseen by the Spirit they are predicted: just as in the case of Judas the traitor, the evil things which were to befall him have been so prophesied as if they were wished. For in like manner as the prophet doth not command Christ, though in the imperative mood he giveth utterance to what he saith, “Gird Thou Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty: in Thy beauty and in Thy goodliness, both go on, and prosperously proceed, and reign:”37093709 Ps. xlv. 3, 4. so he doth not wish, but doth prophesy, who saith, “Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations which have not known Thee.” Which in his usual way he repeateth, saying, “And upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name.” For nations have been repeated in kingdoms: and that they have not known Him, hath been repeated in this, that they have not called upon His name. How then must be understood, what the Lord saith in the Gospel 37103710 Luke xii. 47, 48. concerning stripes, “the many and the few”? if greater the anger of God is against the nations, which have not known the Lord? For in this which he saith, “Pour forth Thine anger,” with this word he hath clearly enough pointed out, how great anger he hath willed that there should be understood. Whence afterwards he saith, “Render to our neighbours seven times as much.”37113711 Ps. lxxix. 13. Is it not that there is a great difference between servants, who, though they know not the will of their Lord, do yet call upon His name, and those that are aliens from the family of so great a Master, who are so ignorant of God, as that they do not even call upon God? For in place of Him they call upon either idols or demons, or any creature they choose; not the Creator, who is blessed for ever. For those persons, concerning whom he is prophesying this, he doth not even intimate to be so ignorant of the will of their God, as that still they fear the Lord Himself; but so ignorant of the Lord Himself, that they do not even call upon Him, and that they stand forth as enemies of His name. There is a great difference then between servants not knowing the will of their God, and yet living in His family and in His house, and enemies not only setting the will against knowing the Lord Himself, but also not calling upon His name, and even in His servants fighting against it.
10. Lastly, there followeth, “For they have eaten up Jacob, and his place they have made desolate” (ver. 7).…How we should view “the place” of Jacob, must be understood. For rather the place of Jacob may be supposed to be that city, wherein was also the Temple, whither-unto the whole of that nation for the purpose of sacrifice and worship, and to celebrate the Passover, the Lord had commanded to assemble. For if the assemblies of Christians, letted and suppressed by persecutors, has been what the Prophet would have to be understood, it would seem that he should have said, places made desolate, not place. Still we may take the singular number as put for the plural number; as dress for clothes, soldiery for soldiers, cattle for beasts: for many words are usually spoken in this manner, and not only in the mouths of vulgar speakers, but even in the eloquence of the most approved authorities. Nor to divine Scripture herself is this form of speech foreign. For even she hath put frog for frogs, locust for locusts,37123712 Ps. lxxviii. 46. and countless expressions of the like kind. But that which hath been said, “They have eaten up Jacob,” the same is well understood, in that many men into their own evil-minded body, that is, into their own society, they have constrained to pass.
11. …He subjoineth, “Remember not our iniquities of old” (ver. 8). He saith not by384gone, which might have even been recent; but “of old,” that is, coming from parents. For to such iniquities judgment, not correction, is37133713 Al. “would be.” owing. “Speedily let Thy mercies anticipate us.” Anticipate, that is, at Thy judgment. For “mercy exalteth above in judgment.”37143714 Jas. ii. 13. Now there is “judgment without mercy,” but to him that hath not showed mercy. But whereas he addeth, “for we have become exceeding poor:” unto this end he willeth that the mercies of God should be understood to anticipate us; that our own poverty, that is, weakness, by Him having mercy, should be aided to do His commandments, that we may not come to His judgment to be condemned.
12. Therefore there followeth, “Help us, O God, our healing37153715 Salutaris. One” (ver. 9). By this word which he saith, “our healing One,” he doth sufficiently explain what sort of poverty he hath willed to be understood, in that which he had said, “for we have become exceeding poor.” For it is that very sickness, to which a healer is necessary. But while he would have us to be aided, he is neither ungrateful to grace, nor doth he take away free-will. For he that is aided, doth also of himself something. He hath added also, “for the glory of Thy Name, O Lord, deliver us:” in order that he who glorieth, not in himself, but in the Lord may glory.37163716 1 Cor. i. 31. “And merciful be Thou,” he saith, “to our sins for Thy Name’s sake:” not for our sake. For what else do our sins deserve, but due and condign punishments? But “merciful be Thou to our sins, for Thy Name’s sake.” Thus then Thou dost deliver us, that is, dost rescue us from evil things, while Thou dost both aid us to do justice, and art merciful to our sins, without which in this life we are not. For “in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” 37173717 Ps. cxliii. 2. But sin is iniquity.37183718 i.e., injustice. 1 John iii. 4 and v. 17. And “if Thou shalt have marked iniquities, who shall stand?”37193719 Ps. cxxx. 3.
14. And this indeed, as we have said, is a prophecy, not a wish.…And the Lord in the Gospel37223722 Luke xviii. 3. hath set before us the widow for an example, who longing to be avenged, did intercede with the unjust judge, who at length heard her, not as being guided by justice, but overcome with weariness: but this the Lord hath set before us, to show that much more the just God will speedily make the judgment of His elect, who cry unto Him day and night. Thence is also that cry of the Martyrs under the altar of God,37233723 Rev. vi. 9. that they may be avenged in the judgment of God. Where then is the, “Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you”?37243724 Matt. v. 44. Where is also the, “Not rendering evil for evil, nor cursing for cursing:”37253725 1 Pet. iii. 9. and, “unto no man rendering evil for evil”?37263726 Rom. xii. 17. …For when the Lord was exhorting us to love enemies, He set before us the example of our Father, who is in Heaven, “who maketh His sun to rise upon good men and evil men, and raineth upon just men and unjust men:”37273727 Matt. v. 45. doth He yet therefore not chasten even by temporal correction, or not condemn at the last the obstinately hardened? Let therefore an enemy be so loved as that the Lord’s justice whereby he is punished displease us not, and let the justice whereby he is punished so please us, as that the joy is not at his evil but at the good Judge. But a malevolent soul is sorrowful, if his enemy by being corrected shall have escaped punishment: and 385when he seeth him punished, he is so glad that he is avenged, that he is not delighted with the justice of God, whom he loveth not, but with the misery of that man whom he hateth: and when he leaveth judgment to God, he hopeth that God will hurt more than he could hurt: and when he giveth food to his hungering enemy, and drink to him thirsty, he hath an evil-minded sense of that which is written, “For thus doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.”37283728 Rom. xii. 20. …In such sort then under the appearance of one asking in this Psalm, future vengeance on the ungodly is prophesied of, as that we are to understand that holy men of God have loved their enemies, and have wished no one anything but good, which is godliness in this world, everlasting life in that to come; but in the punishments of evil men, they have taken pleasure not in the ills of them, but in God’s good judgments; and wheresoever in the holy Scriptures we read of their hatreds against men, they were the hatreds of vices, which every man must needs hate in himself, if he loveth himself.
15. But now in that which followeth, “Let there come in before Thy sight,” or, as some copies have it, “In Thy sight, the groans of the fettered:” not easily doth any one discover that the Saints were thrown into fetters by persecutors; and if this doth happen amid so great and manifold a variety of punishments, so rarely it doth happen, that it must not be believed that the prophet had chosen to allude to this especially in this verse. But, in fact, the fetters are the infirmity and the corruptibleness of the body, which do weigh down the soul. For by means of the frailty thereof, as a kind of material for certain pains and troubles, the persecutor might constrain her unto ungodliness. From these fetters the Apostle was longing to be unbound, and to be with Christ;37293729 Phil. i. 23. but to abide in the flesh was necessary for their sakes unto whom he was ministering the Gospel. Until then this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality,37303730 1 Cor. xv. 54. like as it were with fetters, the weak flesh doth let the willing spirit.37313731 Matt. xxvi. 41. These fetters then not any do feel, but they that in themselves do groan being burthened, desiring to be clothed upon with the tabernacle which is from Heaven;37323732 2 Cor. v. 4. because both death is a terror, and mortal life is sorrow. In behalf of these men groaning the Prophet doth redouble his groaning, that their groaning may “come in in the sight of the Lord.” They also may be understood to be fettered, who are enchained with the precepts of wisdom, the which being patiently supported are turned into ornaments: whence it hath been written, “Put thy feet into her fetters.”37333733 Ecclus. vi. 24. “According to the greatness,” he saith, “of Thy arm, receive Thou unto adoption the sons of them that are put to death:”37343734 Mortificatorum. or, as is read in some copies, “Possess Thou sons by the death of the punished.”37353735 Punitorum, but mss. ap. Ben. and Oxf. mortificatorum. Wherein the Scripture seemeth to me to have sufficiently shown, what hath been the groan of the fettered, who for the name of Christ endured most grievous persecutions, which in this Psalm are most clearly prophesied. For being beset with divers sufferings, they used to pray for the Church, that their blood might not be without fruit to posterity; in order that the Lord’s harvest might more abundantly flourish by the very means whereby enemies thought that she would perish. For “sons of them that were put to death” he hath called them who were not only not terrified by the sufferings of those that went before, but in Him for whose name they knew them to have suffered, being inflamed with their glory which did inspire them to the like, in most ample hosts they believed. Therefore he hath said, “According to the greatness of Thine arm.” For so great a wonder followed in the case of Christian peoples, as they, who thought they would prevail aught by persecuting her, no wise believed would follow.
16. “Render,” he saith, “to our neighbours seven times so much into their bosoms” (ver. 13). Not any evil things he is wishing, but things just he is foretelling and prophesying as to come. But in the number seven, that is, in sevenfold retribution, he would have the completeness of the punishment to be perceived, for with this number fulness is wont to be signified. Whence also there is this saying for the good, “He shall receive in this world seven times as much:”37363736 Mark x. 30. On Matt xix. 29 there is a var. reading “manifold,” but not “sevenfold.” E.V. “hundred-fold.” which hath been put for all. “As if having nothing, and possessing all things.”37373737 2 Cor. vi. 10. Of neighbours he is speaking, because amongst them dwelleth the Church even unto the day of severing: for not now is made the corporal separation. “Into their bosoms,” he saith, as being now in secret, so that the vengeance which is now being executed in secret in this life, hereafter may be known among the nations before our eyes. For when a man is given over to a reprobate mind, in his inward bosom he is receiving what he deserveth of future punishments. “Their reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord.” This do Thou render to them sevenfold into their bosoms, that is, in return for this reproach, most fully do Thou rebuke them in their secret places. For in this they have reproached Thy Name, thinking to efface Thee from the earth in Thy servants.
3667 Lat. LXXVIII. Preached after the Exposition of Psalm lxxviii., as appears elsewhere.
3676 John xix. 38; Luke xxiii. 51.
3679 Acts ii. 41, iv. 4.
3686 2 Kings xxiv. 14.
3690 Eph. ii. 14, etc.
3703 The anger and jealousy of God.
3706 2 Macc. vii. 1, 2, etc.
3708 Ps. cxviii. 18; Heb. xii. 6.
3709 Ps. xlv. 3, 4.
3710 Luke xii. 47, 48.
3716 1 Cor. i. 31.
3718 i.e., injustice. 1 John iii. 4 and v. 17.
3725 1 Pet. iii. 9.
3730 1 Cor. xv. 54.
3732 2 Cor. v. 4.
3735 Punitorum, but mss. ap. Ben. and Oxf. mortificatorum.
3737 2 Cor. vi. 10.
3738 1 Cor. i. 31.

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