A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 43 — The Church Commemorates Former Favors, and Present Afflictions: Under Which She Prays for Succor
Psalm 43
The Church Commemorates Former Favors, and Present Afflictions: Under Which She Prays for Succor
Explanation Of The Psalm
1 God’s people under persecution, and groaning in affliction, brings to his recollection the wonderful things God was wont to do for the defense of his faithful, and wonders how he now seems to have deserted them, thereby hoping to move him to mercy. “O God,” says the prophet, speaking in the person of the Church, or the martyrs of both Testaments, “we have heard with our ears,” he might have said “we have heard,” simply, but he adds, “with our ears,” to express the greater certainty. St. John, in the beginning of his first epistle, uses the same language, “What we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled,” when he might have said, “we have seen and handled;” but such phrases, somehow, strengthen the assertions. They say, then, when they heard it, “Our fathers have declared to us.” It was not by vague rumor, or from people we did not know, that we heard it, but from our fathers; men worthy of belief, who never could have deceived us, “they declared to us.” What did they hear or learn from them? “The work thou hast wrought in their days, and in the days of old.” Our fathers told us not only of the wonderful works you did in their own times, but in the times of their fathers before them.
2 Descending to particulars, he instances one of the wonderful works God did for his faithful in the days of their fathers, “Thy hand destroyed the Gentiles;” you scattered, and destroyed, and expelled from the land of promise the Chananeans and Jebuseans that dwelt therein, “and thou planted them;” you established our fathers in their place; “Thou didst afflict the people and cast them out;” you harassed them in various grievous battles, until you finally rooted and “cast them out” of the land of promise. From this passage we can infer that what he said in the first verse, “Our fathers have declared to us the work thou hast wrought in their days,” does not refer to one particular date or epoch, but to a succession of events. Because the things recorded here happened in the time of Moses and Josue, who could not possibly have stated these matters to the Machabees, nor to the Apostles, nor even to David himself, but that those facts were handed down from one generation to another. “Thou planted them,” a highly figurative expression, implying that the Hebrews were as firmly fixed and rooted in the land of promise as if they had grown there, and that it would be as difficult to expel them as it would be to tear up a tree from its roots. Trees, also, once planted, not only grow and get firmly fixed in the earth, but they also increase and multiply, as David himself, in a beautiful metaphor, expresses it in Psalm 79, “Thou planted the roots thereof and it filled the land, the shadow of it covered the hills, and the branches thereof the cedars of God.”
3 He proves what he stated in the previous verse. “For they got not the possession of the land by their own sword;” that is to say, our fathers, it is true, in the days of Moses and Josue, fought with the Chananeans, but, had you not been their “helper and protector,” they would not only have failed in getting possession of the country, but they would not have been able to escape with their lives from the enemy, by reason of their being fewer in number, less skilled in war, and having fortified cities to oppose them. It was not, then, by their swords, or by their arms, that they got hold of the land of promise, “but thy right hand, and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance,” put them in possession, and preserved them in their battles with the Chananeans, from death or captivity; and all this, “because thou wast pleased with them;” all this was the consequence, not of their virtues or merits, but of your having freely chosen them to be your people. The truth of all this is evident from Josue 6, where we read that at the mere shout of the children of Israel, the walls of Jericho tumbled teetotally to the ground; and in chap. 10, where we read that while Josue was fighting, that God discharged a shower of hailstones on the enemy; and the Scripture says, “that many more were killed with the hailstones, than were slain by the swords of the children of Israel.”
4 God’s people now expresses its admiration, saying, “Thou art thyself my king and my God;” you that assisted and protected our fathers by reason of being their king and their God, you are our God and our king too; the very same “who commandest the saving of Jacob;” you who were wont to save your people, called after Jacob. “Who commandest;” who savest your people, not by fighting for them, or helping them, as one king would another; but by a simple word, by a simple command.
5 He now shows that not only is God the same that he was in the days of their fathers, but that the people too are the same; and that they have the hope in God that their fathers had; and is, therefore, astonished how the same God can deal so differently with the same people; how he could bring them off conquerors on every occasion, and now permit them to be subdued and conquered. “Through thee we will push down our enemies with the horn;” we, too, if you help and protect us, will equally subdue our enemies; “and through thy name we will despise them that rise up against us;” once we invoke your name we will have no fear of the enemy, and will make little of any attempt of theirs upon us. “We will push down our enemies with the horn,” is a metaphor, taken from the bull, who uses his horns to strike down everything in his way; so we, relying on thy power, will break down every obstacle, and demolish all our enemies with the same ease and facility that the bull beats down everything before him.
6 He goes on with the resemblance between the past and present people of God. As they got not possession of the land by the sword, so I and my people “will not trust in my bow;” will not rely on our arms or our strength; “neither shall my sword save me;” I know and feel, that if we conquer, it will not be by our swords, but through your help.
7 He now explains the expression, “my sword shall not save me,” by saying, “but thou hast saved us from those that afflict us;” that is, I acknowledge my safety is not owing to my own strength, because, as often as I have been rescued from any danger, you “have saved us from those that afflict us;” and “put to shame;” so protecting us as to frustrate their designs, and cause them to retire in confusion “that hate us;” our enemies who sought to destroy us.
8 He infers from the foregoing, that God’s people, whenever they shall be delivered from any tribulation, will thank God for it, and give him the whole glory thereof. “In God shall we glory in him all the day long.” We won’t glory in ourselves, but we will always glory in God who delivered us; “and in thy name,” and in the name of the Lord we will praise and glorify him forever.
9 The stricken people now begin to complain; they are astonished! “But now!” you, who so favored and cherished us, “hast cast us off, and put us to shame.” In the days of Antiochus, to be called a Jew was a disgrace; under the Roman emperors, the name of a Christian was stamped with infamy, and the faithful seemed to have been abandoned by God. “And thou, O God, wilt not go out with our armies.” If we want to repel the incursions of our enemies, you, who always led us to the fight, will not now accompany us, to fight for your people.
10 The persecution continued. “Thou hast made us turn our back to our enemies.” We that were in the van, have been thrown back into the rear; obliged to follow our enemies as so many captives. And our enemies “that hated us,” used their own discretion, and “plundered for themselves,” converted everything to their own use.
11 A beautiful description of the sufferings of the martyrs. You let us be slaughtered as if we were so many sheep, who are daily killed in great numbers, without being able to offer the slightest resistance. “Thou hast scattered us amongst the nations,” those who were not slaughtered, were dispersed all over the world; as has been the case with many of the saints.
12 He alludes to another description of punishment to which the martyrs were subjected, as if they were the vilest of slaves; they were employed in cutting marble, or attending cattle, or obliged to combat with wild beasts in the theatres, for the amusement of the people. “Thou hast sold thy people for no price;” you have handed them over to their enemies, and got nothing in return, “and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them.” What you got in return for them was so small that it was not worth counting.
13 In addition to the corporal punishments, they were scoffed at and derided. God having suffered them to be visited by so many temporal calamities, all the neighbors around them began to scoff at and deride them.
14 When the gentiles wished to express anything very odious or baleful, they would compare it to us; and the people not only spoke in such terms of us, but they shook their heads at us, in hatred and derision.