--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 622 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/622/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 622. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/622/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 622. Psalms · 76 of 159 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/622/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/622/#p-N ### Verse 29 [¶1] I am poor and sorrowful - Literally, I an laid low, and full of pain or grief. Hence the prayer, "Let thy salvation, O God set me on high!" My oppression has laid me low; thy salvation shall make me high! ### Verse 31 [¶3] An ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs - Oxen offered in sacrifice had their horns and hoofs gilded; and the psalmist might mention these parts of the victim more particularly, because they were more conspicuous. Others think that full-grown animals are intended, those that had perfect horns, in opposition to calves or steers. I think the first the preferable sense; for the horns, etc., of consecrated animals are thus ornamented in the east to the present day. ### Verse 32 [¶5] The humble shall see this, and be glad - Those who are low, pressed down by misfortune or cruelty, shall see this and take courage; expecting that thou wilt lift them up also; and thus the heart of those who seek the Lord shall be revived. ### Verse 33 [¶7] For the Lord heareth the poor - אביונים ebyonim, of the beggars. He perhaps refers here to the case of the captives, many of whom were reduced to the most abject state, so as to be obliged to beg bread from their heathen oppressors. [¶8] His prisoners - The captives, shut up by his judgments in Chaldea, without any civil liberty, like culprits in a prison. ### Verse 34 [¶10] Let the heaven and earth praise him - The psalmist has the fullest confidence that God will turn their captivity, and therefore calls upon all creatures to magnify him for his mercy. ### Verse 35 [¶12] God will save Zion - This fixes the Psalm to the time of the captivity. There was no Zion belonging to the Jews in the time of Saul, when those suppose the Psalm to be written who make David the author; for David after he came to the throne, won the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites. [2Sam 5:7]; [1Chr 11:5]. [¶13] Will build the cities of Judah - This refers to the return from the captivity, when all the destroyed cities should be rebuilt, and the Jews repossess their forfeited heritages. Some apply this to the redemption of the human race; and suppose that Zion is the type of the Christian Church into which the Gentiles were to be called. What evangelists and apostles apply to our Lord, we safely may. What others see so clearly in this Psalm relative to Gospel matters, I cannot discern. ### Introduction [¶15] The psalmist prays for speedy deliverance, [Psa 70:1]; prays against those who sought his life, [Psa 70:2], [Psa 70:3]; and for the blessedness of those who sought God, [Psa 70:4]; urges his speedy deliverance, [Psa 70:5]. [¶16] The title in the Hebrew is, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembranee. There seems little sense in this title. It seems to intimate that the Psalm was written as a memorial that David had been in sore affliction, and that God had delivered him. So the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic. It is almost word for word the same with the five last verses of Psalm 40, to the notes on which the reader is referred. ### Verse 1 [¶18] Make haste to help me - I am in extreme distress, and the most imminent danger. Haste to help me, or I am lost. ### Verse 2 [¶20] Let them be turned backward - They are coming in a body against me. Lord, stop their progress! ### Verse 3 [¶22] That say, Aha, aha - האה האה Heach! heach! a note of supreme contempt. See on [Psa 40:15] (note). ### Verse 4 [¶24] Let God be magnified - Let his glory, mercy, and kindness, continually appear in the increase of his own work in the souls of his followers! ### Verse 5 [¶26] But I am poor and needy - עני ואביון ani veebyon, I am a poor man, and a beggar - an afflicted beggar; a sense of my poverty causes me to beg. [¶27] Thou art my help - I know thou hast enough, and to spare; and therefore I come to thee. [¶28] Make no tarrying - My wants are many, my danger great, my time short. O God, delay not! ### Introduction [¶30] The prophet, in confidence, prays for God's favor, [Psa 71:1-5]; recounts God's kindness to him from youth to old age, [Psa 71:6-9]; shows what his adversaries plot against him, and prays for their confusion, [Psa 71:10-13]; promises fidelity, and determines to be a diligent preacher of righteousness even in old age, [Psa 71:14-19]; takes encouragement in God's mercy, and foresees the confusion of all his adversaries, [Psa 71:20-24]. [¶31] There is no title to this Psalm either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; and the reason is, it was written as a part of the preceding Psalm, as appears by about twenty-seven of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, have, "A Psalm of David for the sons of Jonadab, and the first of those who were led captives." For the first, second, and third verses, see the notes on their parallels, [Psa 31:1-3] (note). ### Verse 3 [¶33] Be thou my strong habitation - Instead of מען maon, habitation, many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read מעז maoz, munition or defense. Be thou my rock of defense. [¶34] Thou hast given commandment to save me - Thou hast determined my escape, and hast ordered thy angels to guard me. See [Psa 91:11], [Psa 91:12]. ### Verse 4 [¶36] Out of the hand of the wicked - Probably his unnatural son Absalom, called here רשע rasha, the Wicked, because he had violated all laws, human and Divine. [¶37] The unrighteous and cruel man - Probably Ahithophel who was the iniquitous counsellor of a wicked and rebellious son. ### Verse 5 [¶39] My trust from my youth - When I was born into the world, thou didst receive me, and thou tookest me under thy especial care. "My praise shall be continually of thee." Rather, I have always made thee my boast. ### Verse 7 [¶41] I am as a wonder unto many - I am כמופת kemopheth "as a portent," or "type:" I am a typical person; and many of the things that happen to me are to be considered in reference to him of whom I am a type. But he may mean I am a continual prodigy. My low estate, my slaying the lion and the bear, conquering the Philistine, escaping the fury of Saul, and being raised to the throne of Israel, are all so many wonders of thy providence, and effects of thy power and grace. ### Verse 9 [¶43] Cast me not off in the time of old age - The original might be translated and paraphrased thus: "Thou wilt not cast me off till the time of old age; and according to the failure of my flesh, thou wilt not forsake me." My expectation of rest and happiness will not be deferred till the time that I shall be an aged man, Thou wilt not withdraw thy presence from me as my flesh decays, and as my natural strength abates; but, on the contrary, as my outward man decays, my inward man shall be renewed day by day. It was in David's old age that the rebellion of Absalom took place.