Verse 5
I heard a language I understood not - This passage is difficult. Who heard? And what was heard? All the Versions, except the Chaldee, read the pronoun in the third person, instead of the first. "He heard a language that he understood not." And to the Versions Kennicott reforms the text, שפת לא ידעה ישמע sephath lo yadah yisma; "a language which he did not understand he heard." But what was that language? Some say the Egyptian; others, who take Joseph to signify the children of Israel in general, say it was the declaration of God by Moses, that Jehovah was the true God, that he would deliver their shoulder from their burdens, and their hands from the pots - the moulds and furnaces in which they formed and baked their brick.
Verse 7
Thou calledst in trouble - They had cried by reason of their burdens, and the cruelty of their task-masters; and God heard that cry, and delivered them. See [Exo 3:7], etc.
In the secret place of thunder - On Mount Sinai; where God was heard, but not seen. They heard a voice, but they saw no shape.
At the waters of Meribah - See this transaction, [Exo 17:1] (note), etc.
Verse 8
Hear, O my people - These are nearly the same words with those spoken at the giving of the law, [Exo 20:2].
Verse 10
Open thy mouth wide - Let thy desires be ever so extensive, I will gratify them if thou wilt be faithful to me. Thou shalt lack no manner of thing that is good.
Verse 11
Israel would none of me - לא אבה לי lo abah li, They willed me not, they would not have me for their God.
Verse 12
Unto their own hearts' lust - To the obstinate wickedness of their heart.
In their own counsels - God withdrew his restraining grace, which they had abused; and then they fulfilled the inventions of their wicked hearts.
Verse 13
O that my people had hearkened unto me, - Israel had walked in my ways - Nothing can be more plaintive than the original; sense and sound are surprisingly united. I scruple not to say to him who understands the Hebrew, however learned, he has never found in any poet, Greek or Latin, a finer example of deep-seated grief, unable to express itself in appropriate words without frequent interruptions of sighs and sobs, terminated with a mournful cry. yl (m# ym( wl ישראי בדרכי יהלכו Lo ammi shomea li Yishrael bidrachi yehallechu! He who can give the proper guttural pronunciation to the letter ע ain; and gives the ו vau, and the י yod, their full Asiatic sound, not pinching them to death by a compressed and worthless European enunciation; will at once be convinced of the propriety of this remark.
Verse 14
I should soon have subdued - If God's promise appeared to fail in behalf of his people, it was because they rejected his counsel, and walked in their own. While they were faithful, they prospered; and not one jot or tittle of God's word failed to them.
Verse 15
Their time should have endured for ever - That is, Their prosperity should have known no end.
Verse 16
With the finest of the wheat - מחלב חטה mecheleb chittah; literally, with the fat of wheat, as in the margin.
Honey out of the rock - And he fed thaim of the grese of whete: And of the hony stane he thaim filled. Old Psalter. Thus paraphrased: "He fed thaim with the body of Criste and gastely understandyng; and of hony that ran of the stane, that is, of the wisedome that is swete to the hert." Several of the fathers understand this place of Christ.
Introduction
A warning to corrupt judges, [Psa 82:1], [Psa 82:2]; an exhortation to them to dispense justice without respect of person, [Psa 82:3-5]; they are threatened with the judgments of the Lord, [Psa 82:6-8].
This Psalm, which, in the title, is attributed to Asaph, was probably composed in the time when Jehoshaphat reformed the courts of justice throughout his states; see [2Chr 19:6], [2Chr 19:7], where he uses nearly the same words as in the beginning of this Psalm.
Verse 1
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty - The Hebrew should be translated, "God standeth in the assembly of God." God is among his people; and he presides especially in those courts of justice which himself has established. The Court of King's Bench is properly the place where the king presides, and where he is supposed to be always present. But the kings of England seldom make their appearance there. King James I sometimes attended: at such times it might be said, "The king is in the king's court." I believe the case above to be similar. Judges! beware what you do! God is in his court, and in the midst (of the assembly) God will judge. See Parkhurst under אלה.
Verse 2
Accept the persons of the wicked? - "Lift up their faces," encourage them in their oppressions.
Selah - "Mark this:" ye do it, and sorely sLall ye suffer for it.
Verse 3
Defend the poor - You are their natural protectors under God. They are oppressed: punish their oppressors, however rich or powerful: and deliver them.
Verse 5
They know not - The judges are not acquainted with the law of God, on which all their decisions should be founded.
Neither will they understand - They are ignorant and do not wish to be instructed. They will not learn; they cannot teach. Happy England! How different from Judea, even in the days of Jehoshaphat! All thy judges are learned, righteous, and impartial. Never did greater men in their profession dignify any land or country - (1822).
All the foundations of the earth - "All the civil institutions of the land totter." Justice is at the head of all the institutions in a well regulated state: when that gets poisoned or perverted, every evil, political and domestic, must prevail; even religion itself ceases to have any influence.
Verse 6
Ye are gods - Or, with the prefix of כ ke, the particle of similitude, כאלהים keelohim, "like God." Ye are my representatives, and are clothed with my power and authority to dispense judgment and justice, therefore all of them are said to be children of the Most High.
Verse 7
But ye shall die like men - כאדם keadam, "ye shall die like Adam," who fell from his high perfection and dignity as ye have done. Your high office cannot secure you an immortality.
And fall like one of the princes - Justice shall pursue you, and judgment shall overtake you; and you shall be executed like public state criminals. You shall not, in the course of nature, fall into the grave; but your life shall be brought to an end by a legal sentence, or a particular judgment of God.
Verse 8
Arise, O God, judge the earth - Justice is perverted in the land: take the scepter, and rule thyself.