Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_601.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-28 | 8KB | 158 lines

\*Ver. 37. \\I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken
them\\, &c.] Which may refer to David's pursuing
the Amalekites, who overtook them and recovered
all they had carried away, \\#1Sa 30:8,10,18,19\\;
so Kimchi explains it;
\*\\neither did I turn
again till they were consumed\\; for not a man escaped,
save four hundred young men that rode on camels and
fled, \\#Ps 18:17\\.

\*Ver. 38. \\I have wounded them, that they were not able
to rise\\, &c.] Which was not only true of the Amalekites,
but of all with whom David engaged in war;
\*\\they are fallen under my feet\\; either dead, or become
subject and tributaries to him; as the Philistines,
Moabites, Syrians, and Edomites; see \\#2Sa 8:1,2,5,14\\.
This, with \\#Ps 18:37\\, may very well be
accommodated to David's antitype, and be expressive
of the entire victory he has obtained over all his and
his people's enemies; he wounded the heads over many
countries, \\#Ps 110:6\\. Satan and his principalities
and powers, whose head is broke, whose works are destroyed;
yea, he himself, which had the power of
death, so as not to be able to rise more against Christ,
who has led captivity captive: he has also finished and
made an end of sin, and overcome the world; nor did
he turn back from this work he engaged in until he
had made a complete conquest; and moreover he has
likewise made his people more than conquerors,
through him, over these same enemies; so that the
words are also applicable to them.

\*Ver. 39. \\For thou hast girded me with strength unto
battle\\, &c.] See \\#Ps 18:32\\; that natural strength, courage
and valour, which David had, were from the
Lord; and so is the spirit of power, love, and of a
sound mind, which believers have; and likewise that
strength which Christ, as man, had and used in his combat
with the powers of darkness; see \\#Ps 80:17\\;
\*\\thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against
me\\; as the psalmist ascribes his strength, so he attributes
his success to the Lord; who likewise subdues
the sins of his people, and all other enemies of theirs,
and who also makes the enemies of his son his footstool,
\\#Ps 110:1\\.

\*Ver. 40. \\Thou hast also given me the necks of mine
enemies\\, &c.] Either to slay them, or to trample
or put a yoke upon them; or rather the sense is, thou
hast made them to fly before me, to turn their necks
or backs unto me, as the word is used in \\#Jos 7:8\\;
and it is expressive of an utter rout and vanquishing
of them;
\*\\that I might destroy them that hate me\\;
they not being able to face him and stand against him.

\*Ver. 41. \\They cried, but [there was] none to save [them]\\,
&c.] It is in \\#2Sa 22:42\\; %they looked%; that is,
they looked round about, here and there, to see if
there were any near at hand to help and deliver them;
they cried in their distress, and because of the anguish
of their spirits, and for help and assistance, but in
vain; they cried, as Jarchi thinks, to their idols, as
Jonah's mariners cried every one to their god; and, if
so, it is no wonder there was none to save; for such
are gods that cannot save: but it follows,
\*\\[even] unto
the Lord, but he answered them not\\; as Saul, for instance,
\\#1Sa 28:6\\; so God deals with wicked
men, often by way of righteous retaliation; see \\#Pr 1:28 Zec 7:13\\.

\*Ver. 42. \\Then did I beat them small, as the dust before
the wind\\, &c.] They being given up by God,
and he not answering to their cries; the phrase denotes
the utter ruin and destruction of them, and represents
their case as desperate and irrecoverable;
being, as it were, pounded to dust, and that driven
away with the wind: just as the destruction of the
four monarchies is signified by the iron, clay, brass,
silver, and gold, being broken to pieces, and made
like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and carried
away with the wind, so that no place is found
for them any more, \\#Da 2:35\\;
\*\\I did cast them out as
the dirt of the streets\\; expressing indignation and contempt:
in \\#2Sa 22:43\\; it is, %I did stamp them as
the mire of the street, [and] did,spread them abroad%;
which also denotes the low and miserable condition
to which they were reduced, and the entire conquest
made of them, and triumph over them; see
\\#Isa 10:6 Mic 7:10\\; compare with this \\#2Sa 12:31\\.

\*Ver. 43. \\Thou hast delivered me from the strivings
of the people\\, &c.] In \\#2Sa 22:44\\, it is read %my
people%, meaning the people of Israel; either Saul and
his men, who contended with David, and sought his
life; or rather the tribes of Israel, who, after Saul's
death, refused to acknowledge David as their king,
but afterwards came and anointed him in Hebron.
The words may very well be interpreted of the
contentions of the Scribes and Pharisees with Christ,
and of the contradiction of sinners, which he for a
while endured, but is now delivered from them all;
\*\\[and] thou hast made me the head of the Heathen\\; which,
if understood of David, refers to the Philistines, Syrians,
Moabites, and Edomites, being subdued by him,
and becoming tributaries to him, \\#2Sa 8:1,2,5,14\\. But it
best agrees with Christ, who is the head of his chosen
ones among the Gentiles; the political head, King, and
Governor of them, the Heathen being given him for
his inheritance and possession; and which appeared
in the first ages of Christianity, when the Gospel was
first preached to the Gentiles by the apostles; and still
continues, and will be more clearly seen in the latter
day, when the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
Christ was made the head of the Heathen, by the appointment
and designation of his father; and, in fact,
was so when multitudes from among the Gentiles
were converted and brought to the obedience of him.
In \\#2Sa 22:44\\ it is, %thou hast kept me to be head of
the Heathen%; which does not seem so much to intend
the designation and constitution of him as such, but
the continuation of him; and denotes the stability of
his government in the Gentile world, of which there
will be no end;
\*\\a people [whom] I have not known shall
serve me\\; by whom are meant the Gentiles, who were
not the people of God, were without Christ and without
God, and without hope in the world: not that
there are any people that can be unknown to Christ,
as he is the omniscient God; nor were these unknown
to him, in such sense as reprobates, nominal professors,
and foolish virgins, are said not to be known by him,
\\#Mt 7:23 25:12\\. For these people among
the Heathen, who are or shall be brought to serve the
Lord, are such who were the objects of his love and
delight from everlasting; were in his father's choice
and in his own, and in the gift of his father to him,
and in the covenant of his grace; and therefore must
be known by him; moreover, they are the purchase of
his blood; and the sheep he knows, for whom he has
laid down his life, and of whom he has such an exact
and particular knowledge, that he can and does call
them by name. But the sense is, these seemed not to
be taken notice of and cared for by Christ; they were
not owned and acknowledged by him as his people;
the Jews were distinguished from all others; they only
had the law, the word of God, and his ordinances; the
Gentiles were suffered to walk in their own ways;
they were neglected, and the times of their ignorance
were overlooked and disregarded; so that they were
treated as a people that were not known for many hundreds
of years: but here it is predicted, that when
the Gospel should come among them, and they be
called by it, they should %serve% the Lord in righteousness
and true holiness, with reverence and godly fear, from
a principle of love, in his name and strength, and to
his glory; see \\#Isa 55:4,5\\.