Read Psalms commentary using Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete). Study the bible online using commentary on Psalms
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Some that have not his name in their titles yet are expressly ascribed to him elsewhere, as Ps.
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Some of the psalms seem to have been penned long after, as Ps. Herein David was a type of Christ, who descended from him, not from Moses, because he came to take away sacrifice the family of Moses was soon lost and extinct , but to establish and perpetuate joy and praise; for of the family of David in Christ there shall be no end. The scope of it. It is manifestly intended, 1. To assist the exercises of natural religion, and to kindle in the souls of men those devout affections which we owe to God as our Creator, owner, ruler, and benefactor.
The book of Job helps to prove our first principles of the divine perfections and providence; but this helps to improve them in prayers and praises, and professions of desire towards him, dependence on him, and an entire devotedness and resignation to him.
Psalms 1-75
Other parts of scripture show that God is infinitely above man, and his sovereign Lord; but this shows us that he may, notwithstanding, be conversed with by us sinful worms of the earth; and there are ways in which, if it be not our own fault, we may keep up communion with him in all the various conditions of human life.
To advance the excellencies of revealed religion, and in the most pleasing powerful manner to recommend it to the world. There is indeed little or nothing of the ceremonial law in all the book of Psalms. Though sacrifice and offering were yet to continue many ages, yet they are here represented as things which God did not desire Ps. But the word and law of God, those parts of it which are moral and of perpetual obligation are here all along magnified and made honourable, nowhere more.
Psalms - Matthew Henry's Commentary - Bible Gateway
What a high value does this book put upon the word of God, his statutes and judgments, his covenant and the great and precious promises of it; and how does it recommend them to us as our guide and stay, and our heritage for ever! The use of it. All scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is profitable to convey divine light into our understandings; but this book is of singular use with that to convey divine life and power, and a holy warmth, into our affections.
There is no one book of scripture that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it has been so in all ages of the church, ever since it was written and the several parts of it were delivered to the chief musician for the service of the church. It is of use to be sung. What the rules of the Hebrew metre were even the learned are not certain.
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But these psalms ought to be rendered according to the metre of every language, at least so as that they may be sung for the edification of the church. So rich, so well made, are these divine poems, that they can never be exhausted, can never be worn thread-bare. It is of use to be read and opened by the ministers of Christ, as containing great and excellent truths, and rules concerning good and evil.
Our Lord Jesus expounded the psalms to his disciples, the gospel psalms, and opened their understandings for he had the key of David to understand them, Luke It is of use to be read and meditated upon by all good people. It is a full fountain, out of which we may all be drawing water with joy. In telling us, as he often does, what passed between God and his soul, he lets us know what we may expect from God, and what he will expect, and require, and graciously accept, from us.
In all our approaches to God, as well as in our first returns to God, we are directed to take with us words Hos. It will be good to collect the most proper and lively expressions of devotion which we find here, and to methodize them, and reduce them to the several heads of prayer, that they may be the more ready to us. Or we may take sometimes one choice psalm and sometimes another, and pray it over, that is, enlarge upon each verse in our own thoughts, and offer up our meditations to God as they arise from the expressions we find there.
Hammond, in his preface to his paraphrase on the Psalms sect.
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Austin advises, we form our spirit by the affection of the psalm, we may then be sure of acceptance with God in using the language of it. Nor is it only our devotion, and the affections of our mind, that the book of Psalms assists, teaching us how to offer praise so as to glorify God, but, it is also a directory to the actions of our lives, and teaches us how to order our conversation aright, so as that , in the end, we may see the salvation of God , Ps. The vulgar Latin joins the 9 th and 10 th together; all popish authors quote by that, so that, thenceforward, throughout the book, their number is one short of ours; our xi.
But they divide the th into two, and so make up the number of Some have endeavoured to reduce the psalms to proper heads, according to the matter of them, but there is often such a variety of matter in one and the same psalm that this cannot be done with any certainty. But the seven penitential Psalms have been in a particular manner singled out by the devotions of many.
The sinfulness and misery of a wicked man v. The ground and reason of both v. Whoever collected the psalms of David probably it was Ezra with good reason put this psalm first, as a preface to the rest, because it is absolutely necessary to the acceptance of our devotions that we be righteous before God for it is only the prayer of the upright that is his delight , and therefore that we be right in our notions of blessedness and in our choice of the way that leads to it.
Those are not fit to put up good prayers who do not walk in good ways. Verses The psalmist begins with the character and condition of a godly man, that those may first take the comfort of that to whom it belongs. The Lord knows those that are his by name, but we must know them by their character; for that is agreeable to a state of probation, that we may study to answer to the character, which is indeed both the command of the law which we are bound in duty to obey and the condition of the promise which we are bound in interest to fulfil.
The character of a good man is here given by the rules he chooses to walk by and to take his measures from. What we take at our setting out, and at every turn, for the guide of our conversation, whether the course of this world or the word of God, is of material consequence. An error in the choice of our standard and leader is original and fatal; but, if we be right here, we are in a fair way to do well.
A godly man, that he may avoid the evil, utterly renounces the companionship of evil-doers, and will not be led by them v. He walks not in the council of the ungodly, etc. This part of his character is put first, because those that will keep the commandments of their God must say to evil-doers, Depart from us Ps. He sees evil-doers round about him; the world is full of them; they walk on every side.
They are here described by three characters, ungodly, sinners, and scornful. See by what steps men arrive at the height of impiety. They are ungodly first, casting off the fear of God and living in the neglect of their duty to him: When the services of religion are laid aside, they come to be sinners, that is, they break out into open rebellion against God and engage in the service of sin and Satan. Omissions make way for commissions, and by these the heart is so hardened that at length they come to be scorners, that is, they openly defy all that is sacred, scoff at religion, and make a jest of sin.
Thus is the way of iniquity down-hill; the bad grow worse, sinners themselves become tempters to others and advocates for Baal. The word which we translate ungodly signifies such as are unsettled, aim at no certain end and walk by no certain rule, but are at the command of every lust and at the beck of every temptation. The word for sinners signifies such as are determined for the practice of sin and set it up as their trade.
The scornful are those that set their mouths against the heavens. These the good man sees with a sad heart; they are a constant vexation to his righteous soul. He shuns them wherever he sees them. He does not do as they do; and, that he may not, he does not converse familiarly with them. He is not present at their councils, nor does he advise with them; though they are ever so witty, and subtle, and learned, if they are ungodly, they shall not be the men of his counsel.
He does not consent to them, nor say as they say, Lu. He does not take his measures from their principles, nor act according to the advice which they give and take. The ungodly are forward to give their advice against religion, and it is managed so artfully that we have reason to think ourselves happy if we escape being tainted and ensnared by it.
He avoids as much as may be being where they are. That he may not imitate them, he will not associate with them, nor choose them for his companions. He does not stand in their way, to be picked up by them Prov. The seat of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful, Ps. Happy is the man that never sits in it, Hos. A godly man, that he may do that which is good and cleave to it, submits to the guidance of the word of God and makes that familiar to him, v.
This is that which keeps him out of the way of the ungodly and fortifies him against their temptations. By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the path of the deceiver, Ps. We need not court the fellowship of sinners, either for pleasure or for improvement, while we have fellowship with the word of God and with God himself in and by his word. When thou awakest it shall talk with thee, Prov. We may judge of our spiritual state by asking, "What is the law of God to us? What account do we make of it? What place has it in us?
The entire affection which a good man has for the law of God: His delight is in it. He delights in it, though it be a law, a yoke, because it is the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, which he freely consents to, and so delights in, after the inner man, Rom. All who are well pleased that there is a God must be well pleased that there is a Bible, a revelation of God, of his will, and of the only way to happiness in him.
The intimate acquaintance which a good man keeps up with the word of God: In that law doth he meditate day and night; and by this it appears that his delight is in it, for what we love we love to think of, Ps. This we must do day and night; we must have a constant habitual regard to the word of God as the rule of our actions and the spring of our comforts, and we must have it in our thoughts, accordingly, upon every occasion that occurs, whether night or day. No time is amiss for meditating on the word of God, nor is any time unseasonable for those visits.
When I awake I am still with thee. In general, he is blessed, Ps. God blesses him, and that blessing will make him happy. Blessednesses are to him, blessings of all kinds, of the upper and nether springs, enough to make him completely happy; none of the ingredients of happiness shall be wanting to him. When the psalmist undertakes to describe a blessed man, he describes a good man; for, after all, those only are happy, truly happy, that are holy, truly holy; and we are more concerned to know the way to blessedness than to know wherein that blessedness will consist. Nay, goodness and holiness are not only the way to happiness Rev.
His blessedness is here illustrated by a similitude v. He shall be like a tree, fruitful and flourishing.