The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
The second strophe contains the reason for praise--namely, the
greatness and depth of the Divine works and purposes. The works
meant are, as is obvious from the whole strain of the psalm, those
of God's government of the world. The theme which exercised earlier
psalmists reappears here, but the struggles of faith with unbelief,
which are so profoundly and pathetically recorded in Psalm lxxiii.,
are ended for this singer. He bows in trustful adoration before the
greatness of the works and the unsearchable depth of the purpose of
God which directs the works. The sequence of vv. 4-6 is noteworthy.
The central place is occupied by ver. 5--a wondering and reverent
exclamation, evoked by the very mysteries of Providence. On either
side of it stand verses describing the contrasted impression made
by these on devout and on gross minds. The psalmist and his fellows
are "gladdened," though he cannot see to the utmost verge or deepest
abyss of Works or Plans. What he does see is good; and if sight does
not go down to the depths, it is because eyes are weak, not because
these are less pellucid than the sunlit shallows. What gladdens the
trustful soul, which is in sympathy with God, only bewilders the
"brutish man"--_i.e._, the man who, by immersing his faculties in
sense, has descended to the animal level; and it is too grave and
weighty for the "fool," the man of incurable levity and self-conceit,
to trouble himself to ponder. The eye sees what it is capable of
seeing. A man's judgment of God's dealings depends on his relation to
God and on the dispositions of his soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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