Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_592.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-28 | 6KB | 124 lines

\*Ver. 4. \\The sorrows of death compassed me\\, &c.]
These words and the following, in this verse and \\#Ps 18:5\\,
as they respect David, show the snares that
were laid for his life, the danger of death he was in,
and the anxiety of mind he was possessed of on account
of it; and as they refer to Christ, include all
the sorrows of his life to the time of his death, who
was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief personally,
and bore and carried the sorrows and griefs of
all his people; and may chiefly intend his sorrows in
the garden, arising from a view of the sins of his people,
which he was about to bear upon the cross; and
from an apprehension of the wrath of God, and curse
of the law, which he was going to sustain for them,
when his soul was \~perilupov\~, encompassed about with
sorrow, even unto death, \\#Mt 26:38\\; when his
sorrow was so great, and lay so heavy upon him, that
it almost pressed him down to death, he could scarce
live under it; and may also take in the very pains and
agonies of death; he dying the death of the cross,
which was a very painful and excruciating one; see
\\#Ps 22:14-17\\; The Hebrew word for %sorrows%
signifies the pains and birth throes of a woman in
travail; and is here fitly used of the sufferings and
death of Christ; through which he brought forth much
fruit, or many sons to glory. The Targum is,
\*"distress has encompassed me, as a woman that sits
"upon the stool, and has no strength to bring forth,
"and is in danger of dying."\*
\*In \\#2Sa 22:5\\; it is
%the waves% or %breakers of death compassed me%; and the
word there used is rendered in \\#Ho 13:13\\; %the breaking
forth of children%; moreover the same word signifies
%cords% {r}, as well as pains and sorrows; and the allusion
may be to malefactors being bound with cords when
led to execution, and put to death; and may here signify
the power of death, under which the Messiah was
held for a while, but was loosed from it at his resurrection;
to which sense of the word, and to the words
here, the Apostle Peter manifestly refers, \\#Ac 2:24\\;
\*\\and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid\\; meaning
either the multitude of them, as Herod, Pontius
Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and people of the Jews,
who all gathered together against him; so the Targum
renders it, %a company of wicked men%; or the variety
of sufferings he endured by them; as spitting upon,
buffering, scourging, &c. The word rendered %ungodly
men [is] Belial%; and signifies vain, worthless, and unprofitable
men; men of no figure or account; or lawless
ones, such as have cast off the yoke of the law, are
not subject to it; persons very wicked and profligate.
The word in the New Testament seems to be used for
Satan, \\#2Co 6:15\\; where it is so rendered in the
Syriac version, and he may be designed here; and by
the floods of Belial may be meant, not so much the
temptations of Satan in the wilderness, as his violent
and impetuous attacks upon Christ in the garden, when
being in an agony or conflict with him, his sweat
was, as it were, great drops of blood, \\#Lu 22:44\\.
The Septuagint render the word, %the torrents of iniquity
troubled me%; which was true of Christ, when all the
sins of his people came flowing in upon him, like
mighty torrents, from all quarters; when God laid on
him the iniquity of them all, and he was made sin for
them; and in a view of all this %he began to be sore
amazed%, \\#Mr 14:33\\; compare with this \\#Ps 69:1,2\\.
Arama interprets Belial of the evil imagination
in David, who had a war in himself.

\*Ver. 5. \\The sorrows of hell compassed me about\\, &c.]
Or %the cords of the grave% {s}, under the power of which
he was detained awhile; the allusion may be to the
manner of burying among the Jews, who wound up
their dead bodies in linen clothes; so that they were
as persons bound hand and foot; and thus were they
laid in the grave; see \\#Joh 11:44\\; and so was Christ,
till he was raised from the dead, when he showed himself
to have the keys of hell and death, and to be no
more under their power, or be held by them;
\*\\the snares of death prevented me\\; or %met% or %got before me% {t}
the sense is, he was taken in them: this phrase designs
the insidious ways and methods which the enemies
of Christ took to ensnare him, and take away his
life, and in which they succeeded; see \\#Mt 26:4\\.

\*Ver. 6. \\In my distress I called upon the Lord\\, &c.]
The great Jehovah, the everlasting I AM, who is the
most High in all the earth, and who is able to save,
\\#Heb 5:7\\;
\*\\and cried unto my God\\; as Jesus did,
\\#Mt 27:46\\; so the members of Christ, when in
distress, as they often are, through sin and Satan,
through the hidings of God's face, a variety of afflictions,
and the persecutions of men, betake themselves
to the Lord, and call upon their God: a time of distress
is a time for prayer; and sometimes the end God
has in suffering them to be in distress is to bring them
to the throne of his grace; and a great privilege it is
they have that they have such a throne to come to
for grace and mercy to help them in time of need, and
such a God to sympathize with them, and help them;
and their encouragement to call upon him, and cry
unto him, is, that he is Jehovah, omniscient, omnipotent,
and omnipresent; who knows their wants,
is able to help them, and is a God at hand to do it;
\*\\He heard my voice out of his temple\\; that is, out of
heaven his dwelling place; for the temple at Jerusalem
was not built in David's time; and it may be
observed, that the prayer of the psalmist, or whom he
represents, was a vocal one, and not merely mental;
and hearing it intends a gracious regard unto it, an
acceptance of it, and an agreeable answer: for it follows,
\*\\and my cry came before him, [even] into his ears\\;
God did not cover himself with a cloud, that his
prayer could not pass through; but it was admitted
and received; it came up before him with acceptance;
it reached his ears, and even entered into them, and
was delightful music to them: see \\#Joh 11:41,42 Heb 5,7\\.

{r} \^twm ylbx\^ %funes mortis%, Musculus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus,
Michaelis; so Ainsworth, Hammond.
{s} \^lwav ylbx\^ %funes sepulchri%, Musculus, Gejerus.
{t} \^ynwmdq\^ %praeoccupaverunt me%, V. L. %anteverterunt me%, Vatablus;
%occurrerunt%, Cocceius.