Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_055.TXT

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and which is done very easily and swiftly, when fire is
set to it; even all the trees of it, great and small, to
which-an army is sometimes compared, Isa. x. 18, 19.
and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire ; either the
mountains themselves, as AEtna, Vesuvius, and others;
or rather the grass and trees that grow upon them,
smitten by lightning from heaven, which may be
meant by the flame: in like manner 'tis wished that
the fire and flame of divine wrath would consume the
confederate enemies of Israel, above mentioned; as
wicked men are but as trees of the forest, and the grass
of the mountains, or as thorns and briers, to the wrath
of God, which is poured out as fire, and is signified by
everlasting burnings.
Ver. 15. So persecute them with thy tempest, &c.3
Pursue them with thy fury, follow them with thy
vengeance; cause it to fall upon them like a mighty
tempest: and make them afraid with thy storm; God
has his storms and tempests of wrath and vengeance,
which he sometimes causes to fall upon wicked men
in. this life, to their inexpressible terror, and with
which he takes them out of this world; and he has still
more horrible ones to rain upon them hereafter: see
Job xxvii. 20, 21. Psal. xi. 6.
Ver. 16. Fill their faces with shame, &c.3 For their
sins, or rather through disappoi.ntment, not being able
to put their desperate and deepdaid schemes into exe-
cution: or with lightness°; instead of a weight of ho-
hour and glory upon them, let them be despised.
R. Joseph Kimchi rentlers it, fill their faces with fire;
let their faces be as if they were on fire, as meffs faces
are, who are put to an exceeding great blush, or are
most sadly confounded and ashamed: that they may
seek thy name, 0 Lord; not they themselves, who are
filled with shame; for it is imprecated, that they be
ashamed, and troubled for ever, and so as to perish,
ver. 17. but others; fox the words may be supplied, as

in yet. 18. that men may seek thy name, or that thy
name may be sought: the judgments of God up. on
wicked men are sometimes the means of arousing
others, and putting them upon seeking the Lord, his
face, and his layout; that God would be merciful to
them, pardon their iniquities, avert judgments from
them, and preserve them from threatened calamities;
and this is a good end, when answered; see Isa. xxvi.
9.16.
Ver. 17. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever,
&c.] As long' as they are in this world, and to all eter-
nity in another; a dreadful portion this: yea, let them
be put to shame, and perish; wholly and eternally, in
soul and body, for evermore.
Ver. 18. That men may know that thou, whose name
alone is Jehovah, &c.] Or, that thou, thy name alone
is Jehovah {p}, a self-existent Being, the Being of beings,
the everlasting I AM, the immutable God; for this
name is expressive of the being, eternity, and un-
changeableness of God, who is, and was, and is to
come, invariably the same, Rev. i. 4. which is to be
understood not to the exclusion of the Son or Spirit,
who are with the Father the one Jehovah, Deut. vi. 4.
and to whom this name is given; see Exod. xvii. 6.
compared with 1 for. x. 9. Isa. xl. 3. Jer. xxiii. 6. Isa.
vi. 8, 9. compared with Acts xxviii. 0_5, 0_6. but to the
exclusion of all nominal and fictitious deities, the gods
of the Heathens; and the being and perfections of God
are known by the judgments he executes, Psal. ix. 16.
art the most High over all the earth; or, and that thou
drt, &c. {q}, being the Maker and the Possessor of it, and
the sovereign Lord of its inhabitants, doing in it what
seems good in his sight; see Gen. xiv. 22. Dan. iv. 35..
for the accents require two propositions in the text:
the Heathens {r} give the title of most high to their su-
preme deity: the Targum is, "over all the inhabit-
" ants of the earth."

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

OF gittith, see the title of Psal. viii.. The Targum
renders it here, as there, "to praise upon the harp that
"was brought from Gath ;" and of the sons of Korah,
see the title of Psal. xlii. and the argument of this
psalm is thought to. be much the same with that and
the lxiiid. It was,. very probably, written by David;
to whom the Targum, on vcr. 8,.ascribes it; though it
does not bear his name,. the spirit it breathes, and the
language in which it is written, shew it to be his;
though not when he was an exile among the Philis-
tines, in the times of Saul, as some in Kimchi think;
for then the ark was not in Zion, as is suggested vet. 7.
but elsewhere; for it was brought thither by David,
after he was king of Israel, '2 Sam. vii. 2, 16. but rather
when he fled from his son Absalom; though there is
nothing in it that necessarily supposes him to be ba-
nished, or at a distance from the house of God; only
he expresses his great affection for it, and his earnest
desires for returning seasons and opportunities of wor-
shipping God in it; and the general view of it is to set
forth the blessedness of sud/who frequently attend
divine service : the inscription of it, in the Syriac ver-
sion, is, "for the sons of Korah, when David medi.
"tated to go out of Zion, to worship in the house of
"God: and it is called a prophecy concerning Christ,
"and concerning his church," as it undoubtedly is.
Bishop Patrick thinks it was composed by some pious
Levite in the country, when Sennacherib's army
had blocked up the way to Jerusalem, and hindered
them from waiting upon the service of God at the tem-
ple; and others refer it to the times' of the Babylonish
captivity; and both Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of
the captivity, when the temple and altars of God were
in ruins ; {} but this does not agree with the loveliness of


{o} \^Nwlq\^ Heb. levitate, Piscator; so Ainsworth.
{p} \^Kmv hta yk\^ quod nomen tuum, Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus.
{q} Quod tu, inquam, sis altissimus, Michaelis.
{r} Pansan. Boeotica sive, l. 9. p. 555.