Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_258.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-08 | 6KB | 112 lines

sinners converted and gathered in. This may be ap-
plied to Christ, Isa. ISIS. 11.
Vet. 6. Yea, thou shall see thy children's children,
&c.] A numerous race of descendants from him,
which are the crown and gloi'y of old men, Prov. xvii.
6. this is also true of' Christ's spiritual children by his
church in successive ages, Isa. lix. 21. And peace upon
Israel: all kind of prosperity, tetuporal and spiritual;
peace, and abtmdance of it; as witi be in the latter day,
in the spiritual reign of Christ, Psal. lxxii. 8. It may
be considered as a wish or prayer, with which the
psalm is concluded; let peace be upon Israel{a}, as in
Psal. cxxv. 5. see Gal. vi.
THIS psalm was written in later times, after many of
the distresses of Israel; very probably upon the Jews'
return from the Babylonish captivity, by Ezra, or some
other godly person. Aben Ezra says the psalmist
speaks in the language of Israel in captivity; and the
same is the sense of Kimchi and Arama. The Syriac
inscription is, "a psalm without a name, concerning
"the distress of the people; but as to us, it intimates
"to us the victory and triumph of the worshippers."
Ver. 1. Many a time have they afflicted me.from my
youth, &c.'] That is, the enemies of Israel, afterwards
called ploughers. This may be understood of literal
Israel, the posterity of Jacob; whose youth was the
beginning of their constitution as a nation and church,
or the first times of it; when they were greatly dis-
tressed by their enemies, and from thenceforward; as
in Egypt, where, and in places near it, they were af-
flicted four hundred years, according to.a prophecy
given to Abraham their ancestor, and where their lives
were made bitter with hard bondage; and in the times
of the Judges, by several neighbouring nations, which
was the time of their youth, or their settlement in Ca-
naan; and afterwards in the times of their kings, par-
ticularly in the times of Ahaz king of Judah, by the
Edomites and Philistines, and by Tiglath Pileset, king
of Assyria; and in the times of Hoshea, king of Israel,
by Salmaneser, who carried away captive, ten tribes;
and in the times of Jeconiah and Zedekiah, kings of
Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar, who carried captive to
Babylon the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And the
psalmist, by a spirit of prophecy, might have a further
respect to the distresses of Israel in the times of An-
tiochus and the Maccabees, when the temple was pro-
faned, the altar demolished, and the daily sacrifice
made to cease, and many good men lost their lives; to
which times the apostle may be thought to have regard,
Heb. xi. 35--38. and also to their last affliction by the
Romans, the greatest of all; and their present cap-
tivity, and deliverance fi'om it. May Israel now say;
this now refers to the time of redemption, as Arama ob-
serves, whether at their return from Babylon, or at
their future conversion; then reviewing their former
troubles ever since they were a people, may say as be-
fore. This may be applied to mystical Israel, or to the
church of God in Gospel times, which, in its infancy,
and from its youth upwards, has been afflicted, many
a time, and by many enemies; first, by the unbelieving
Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus, and persecuted his
apostles and memb.ers; then by Rome Pagan, under
the ten persecutions of so many emperors; and after-
wards by Rome Papal, the whore of Babylon, who
many a time been drunk with the blood of the saints
and martyrs of Jesus. Yea, this may be applied to the
Messiah, one of whose names is Israel, .Isa. xlix.
who was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs
all his days, even from his youth; he was the Aijeleth
Shahar, the hind of the morning, Psal. xxii. title;
hunted by Herod in his infancy, Matt. ii. 13. and
obliged to be carried .into Egypt for safety when a
child, fi'om whence he was called, Hos. xi. 1. and ever
after was more or less afflicted by his enemies, men or
devils, in mind or body; and at last endured great
sufferings, and death itself. It may moreover be ap-
plied to every Israelite indeed, to every true believer
and member of Christ; conversion is their time of
youth; they are first new-born babes, and then young
men; as soon as regenerated, they are afflicted with
the temptations of Satan,. the reproaches and persecu-
tions of men; which are many, though no more than
necessary, and it is the will of God should be, and all
for their good.
Vet. 2. Many a time have they afflicted me from my
youth, &c.] This is repeated for the confirmation of
it, to excite attention to it, and to express the vehement
affection of the speaker. Yet -they have not prevailed
against me; the Egyptians could not prevail against
literal Israel; the more they were afflicted, the more
they grew and multiplied; in the times of the Judges,
one after another were raisea up as deliverers of them;
neither the Assyrians, Chaldeans, nor Romans, nor any
other, have been able to cut them off from being a na-
tion; they continue to this day: the enemies of the
church of Christ, even the gates of hell, have not been
able to prevail against it, being built upon a rock, so
as to extirpate and destroy it, neither by open and cruel
persecutors, nor by secret and fraudulent heretics; nor
could the enemies of the Messiah prevail against him,
for though they brought him to the dust of death,
they could not hold him in it; and they themselves,
through his death, were conquered by him, as sin,
Satan, the world, and death itself; nor can the ene-
mies of  the saints prevail against them, God being on
their side, Christ making them more than conquerors,
the Spirit in them being greater than he that is in the
world.
Ver. 3. The ploughers ploughed upon my back, &c.]

{a} \^larvy le Mwlv\^ pax sit super Israele, Cocceius; so Gejerus.