*H Alleluia. GIVE glory to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Ver. 1. Alleluia. The word is repeated in some copies. S. Jer. — But Heb. has only one at the end of the preceding psalm: of which this appears to be a sequel. As in the former, God's favours were specified, so here the ingratitude of his people is acknowledged. C. — It may refer to the Jews during, (Euseb. Vatab.) or after the captivity, (C.) and to all in the state of sin. S. Jer. Bert. — The 47th and 48th verses agree with the three last, which were sung at the translation of the ark. 1 Par. xvi. 34. H. — Hence that canticle now makes a part of our Ps. civ. xcv. and cv. with various alterations made by the prophet. Bert. — Give glory. Lit. "confess" (H.) your sins, to obtain mercy, (S. Chrys.) or rather praise God, (Theod.) who is the source of all good. W. — This was the usual prayer of the Israelites, in ceremonies of thanksgiving. 2 Par. v. 13. C.
*H Who shall declare the powers of the Lord? who shall set forth all his praises?
Ver. 2. Powers. See Eccli. xliii. 29. No one can sufficiently praise God's power or mercy. Bert.
*H Blessed are they that keep judgment, and do justice at all times.
Ver. 3. Times. He only who perseveres to the end shall be crowned. Matt. xxiv. 13. Ezec. xxxiii. H. — Such as these can alone worthily sound forth God's praises, (Bert.) being so happy as to preserve their innocence, or at least to repent. W.
*H Remember us, O Lord, in the favour of thy people: visit us with thy salvation.
Ver. 4. Us. Heb. "me." But Aquila, Syr. &c. agree with the Sept. Some of the Jews were already returned, and pray for the liberation of their brethren. C. — The Fathers explain it of Christian converts. S. Chrys. — People. According to thy gracious promises, that we may enjoy the blessings of thy elect. W.
*H We have sinned with our fathers: we have acted unjustly, we have wrought iniquity.
Ver. 6. Sinned. Here commences the confession of sins. The just man first accuses himself. Prov. xviii. 17. C. — The same prayer is repeated, Judith vii. 19. and Dan. ix. 5. as it might be applicable to the captives. Bert. — We have injured ourselves, our neighbours, and our God. W.
*H Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt: they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies: And they provoked to wrath going up to the sea, even the Red Sea.
Ver. 7. Going up. Or proceeding. The banks of the sea were more elevated than the country from which the Israelites came, (C.) and the land of Chanaan was still higher. See Ps. cvi. 23. Gen. xii. 9. H. — Sea even. Is not in the Sept. C.
*H And he saved them for his own name's sake: that he might make his power known.
Ver. 8. Known. Is. lxiii. 12. He might justly (W.) have abandoned them to the Egyptians. Ex. xiv. 11.
*H And he rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up: and he led them through the depths, as in a wilderness.
Ver. 9. Rebuked. Commanding with power. — Nah. i. 4. C. — Wilderness. Or plain country. H.
* Footnote * Exodus 14 : 22
And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up; for the water was as a wall on their right hand and on their left.*H And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them: and he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
Ver. 10. Redeemed. What price was given? This is a figure of baptism, in which the fruits of Christ's blood are applied to our souls. All sins are there destroyed, as the Egyptians were in the Sea. S. Aug. Ser. xlii. de Temp. W.
*H And the water covered them that afflicted them: there was not one of them left.
Ver. 11. Left. Manetho and Lorin assert, that Pharao reigned afterwards. But this is contrary to the Scripture. All who came to attack Israel perished. C. — They supposed that the waters were enchanted. S. Iræn. iv. 48.
* Footnote * Exodus 14 : 27
And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves.*H And they believed his words: and they sang his praises.
Ver. 12. Words. And Moses his servant. Ex. xiv. 31. and xv. 1.
*H They had quickly done, they forgot his works: and they waited not for his counsel.
Ver. 13. Counsel. Three days after the passage of the sea, God laid injunctions upon them at Mara, which they would not observe. Ex. xv. 22. C. — They coveted unnecessary things. W.
*H And they coveted their desire in the desert: and they tempted God in the place without water.
Ver. 14. Desire. Or they greedily sought for flesh meat, (H.) at Sin, or Pharan. Ex. xvi. 13. Num. xi. 31. Chronological order is not observed. C.
* Footnote * Exodus 17 : 2
And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?*H And he gave them their request: and sent fulness into their souls.
Ver. 15. Fulness. Or disgust: πλεσμονη. Sept. probably read zore, (as Num. xi. 20.) instead of razon. Heb. "leanness," (C.) which is a natural consequence of immoderate repletion. H.
* Footnote * Numbers 11 : 31
And a wind going out from the Lord, taking quails up beyond the sea brought them, and cast them into the camp for the space of one day's journey, on every side of the camp round about, and they flew in the air two cubits high above the ground.*H And they provoked Moses in the camp, Aaron the holy one of the Lord.
Ver. 16. Holy one. By his function (W.) of priest. Core wished to take his place, as the rest did to supplant Moses in the civil government. Num. xvi. C.
*H The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan: and covered the congregation of Abiron.
Ver. 17. Abiron. With Core, though his children were preserved. C. — God presently resented the injury done to his ministers. Euseb.
* Footnote * Numbers 16 : 32
And opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance.*H And a fire was kindled in their congregation: the flame burned the wicked.
Ver. 18. Wicked. Two hundred and fifty accomplices, (Num. xv. 35. C.) and fourteen thousand seven hundred murmurers. M.
*H They made also a calf in Horeb: and they adored the graven thing.
Ver. 19. Graven. Heb. "molten." The image must first be graven. Bert. Ex. xxxii. 3.
* Footnote * Exodus 32 : 4
And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders' work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.*H And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.
Ver. 20. Grass. This enhances their folly. God is often styled the glory of his people. C. — Osee (x. 5.) contemptuously calls the golden calf, the glory of Samaria. H. — This idolatry was truly blameable, (Rom. i. 23.) and not the veneration paid by Catholics to the images of Christ, &c. W. — Those who pretend that the Hebrews meant to adore the true God, and not the idol Apis, are here clearly refuted; they forgot God, &c. Acts vii. 40. Bert.
*H And he said that he would destroy them: had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach: To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
Ver. 23. Breach. Like a valiant captain, (C.) or pastor. H. — God complains of those who neglected this duty. Ezec. xiii. 5. and xxii. 30. The psalmist alluded to the conduct of Moses, after the people had adored the calf, (Ex. xxxii. 10.) or when they had joined with Core. Num. xvi. 44. C. — The intercession of the saints is useful, (S. Aug.) still more after their victories. S. Jer. ad Vig. ii. 2 Mac. xv. 14. Bert. — God spared the people for the sake of Moses. W.
* Footnote * Exodus 32 : 10
Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation.*H And they set at nought the desirable land. They believed not his word,
Ver. 24. Word. Which Moses, Josue, &c. announced. Num. xiii. and xii. 29. C.
*H And he lifted up his hand over them: to overthrow them in the desert;
Ver. 26. Over them. Swearing (C.) to destroy them, (H. Ezec. xx. 23.) and scatter them, as they now experienced. Lev. xxvi. 31. and Deut. xxviii. 36. 64.
* Footnote * Numbers 14 : 32
Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness.*H They also were initiated to Beelphegor: and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Ver. 28. Dead idols, without life, (Ch.) particularly Adonis (C.) whose death is bewailed by the poets, &c. H. — Idols kill their votaries. W.
*H And they provoked him with their inventions: and destruction was multiplied among them.
Ver. 29. Multiplied. All who had murmured perished, or this may relate to the 24,000. Num. xxv. 9. C. — Ezec. xx. 23. S. Paul (1 Cor. x. 8.) speaks of those 23,000 slain by the Levites. The Heb. which has only 3,000 must be inaccurate. Temporal chastisements were intended to prefigure those which are eternal, as the Jews knew that such rewards and punishments were to be considered (Matt. xix. 16. Bert.) as the spiritual sense of the law. Grot. Jur. ii. 20, 39.
* Footnote * Numbers 25 : 7
And when Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from the midst of the multitude, and taking a dagger,*H And it was reputed to him unto justice, to generation and generation for evermore.
Ver. 31. Evermore. Phinees thus by his pious zeal, merited (W.) God's favour, and the high priesthood (Num. xxv. 13. C.) for his posterity, for 900 years, though the latter promise seems to have been conditional. Bert.
* Footnote * Numbers 20 : 10
And having gathered together the multitude before the rock, he said to them: Hear, ye rebellious and incredulous: Can we bring you forth water out of this rock?*H Because they exasperated his spirit. And he distinguished with his lips.
Ver. 33. He distinguished with his lips. Moses, by occasion of the people's rebellion and incredulity, was guilty of distinguishing with his lips; when, instead of speaking to the rock, as God had commanded, he said to the people, with a certain hesitation in his faith, Hear ye rebellious and incredulous: Can we from this rock bring out water for you? Num. xx. 10. Ch. — For thus doubting of God's will, he was temporarily punished. Deut. i. 37. W. — The death of his sister, and the ingratitude and rebellion of the people disturbed him. Theod. See Is. lxiii. 10. Houbigant follows the Arab. "he delayed or hesitated." Yebatte means, "he spoke rashly." Some refer this, (Bert.) to God. "He reproached...that they," &c. (M.) which is not necessary, (Bert.) or he sentenced Moses to die. Kimchi.
*H They did not destroy the nations of which the Lord spoke unto them.
Ver. 34. Them. Commanding no idolatrous government to be left in the land, nor any Chanaanite to be permitted to live, who should make opposition. The law of extermination must probably be thus restricted. The Jews neglected these ordinances, and hence became so often infected with idolatry, (Bert.) even to the end of the republic, when many still adored the sun. Joseph. Bel. ii. 8. Ex. xxiii. 32. Jos. xiii. 13.
*H And they shed innocent blood: the blood of their sons and of their daughters which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan. And the land was polluted with blood,
Ver. 38. Chanaan. These unnatural sacrifices were perhaps practised under the judges, or at least under the kings. W. — Some pretend that the children were only made to pass over or between fires. But this is refuted by facts. Lev. xviii. 21. and 4 K. xvi. 3. Jer. vii. 30 — Polluted. Infecta: εφονοκτανηθη is used by Sept. in this sense, though it signifies also, "was slain;" interfecta, as most Latin Bibles and Fathers read, before the correction of Clem. VIII. The former expression is more natural and conformable to the Heb. C.
*H And was defiled with their works: and they went aside after their own inventions.
Ver. 39. And was. Heb. "and they were defiled." S. Jer. — Inventions. Idols of their imaginations, (H.) and lusts. C.
*H And he was mindful of his covenant: and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
Ver. 45. Repented. Ceased to punish, (Euseb.) when the people repented. S. Jer. — God then regarded them in mercy, having given them grace to repent. W.
* Footnote * Deuteronomy 30 : 1
Now when all these things shall be come upon thee, the blessing or the curse, which I have set forth before thee, and thou shalt be touched with repentance of thy heart among all the nations, into which the Lord thy God shall have scattered thee,*H And he gave them unto mercies, in the sight of all those that had made them captives.
Ver. 46. Mercies. He inspired their enemies with pity for them. Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes shewed them favour. Ps. lxxxiii. 12. C.
*H Save us, O Lord, our God: and gather us from among the nations: That we may give thanks to thy holy name, and may glory in thy praise.
Ver. 47. Save. These verses, which may be well recited in times of schism, (W.) occur, 1 Par. xvi. being probably inserted by Esdras, or some other prophet. But here they are in their proper place, as many of the Israelites are still in captivity. C. — Yet as this is only a system, we may rather suppose, that David wrote this conclusion. He had to encounter various nations, who might have made captives; and he may beg that all may be united in the same faith, and avoid the society of the wicked. Bert.
*H Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say: So be it, so be it.
Ver. 48. So be it. The second Amen occurs not in Heb. But Alleluia is placed instead, which the Vulg. makes the title of the next psalm. H. — This conclusion of the fourth book seems to be added by the collector. Ps. xl. C. — Yet this is uncertain. H.