This psalm was penned by David, and sung at the time when the ark was brought from the house of Obededom to the place which David had prepared for it; at least the first fifteen verses of it, the other part being probably added afterwards by the same inspired penman, as appears from 1 Chron.

O give thanks unto the Lord These are the words of David, either to the singers, or rather to the whole congregation of Israel, the seed of Abraham, and children of Jacob, stirring them up to praise and thankfulness for their mercies, temporal and spiritual; for the Messiah they had hope and…

Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him Both vocally and instrumentally, with the voice and upon instruments of music, as were used in David’s time. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, are to be sung now, even the song of Moses, and of the Lamb.

Glory ye in his holy name In the knowledge of it, as proclaimed in Christ; in being called by his name, and in having the honour to call upon his name; in the holiness of it; and in Christ being made sanctification as well as righteousness, in whom all the seed of Israel are justified and glory; as…

Seek the Lord and his strength The ark, which is called his strength, and the ark of his strength, , because he had shown his great strength by it, in dividing the waters at Jordan, throwing down the walls of Jericho, and plaguing the Philistines because of it, when among them.

Remember his marvellous works which he hath done Which Aben Ezra interprets of the works of creation; rather they seem to design the works of Providence in favour of the children of Israel: best of all, works of grace done for his saints, none of which are to be forgotten; especially the great work…

O ye seed of Abraham his servant These are the persons all along before addressed; the Israelites, who descended from Abraham, were his natural seed and offspring, and who had reason to give thanks unto the Lord and praise his name, since so many and such wonderful things had been done for them;…

He is the lord our God Here begin the arguments to excite to praise and thankfulness; and the first is taken from what God is, and is to us; he is Jehovah, the Being of beings, a self-existent Being, the author of all beings, but receives his own from none; being undivided, independent, and…

He hath remembered his covenant for ever Another argument of praise taken from the covenant of grace, in which he is our God, and of which he is ever mindful; he remembers his covenant ones, whom he perfectly knows, and never forgets them; he remembers his covenant promises to them, and allows them…

Which covenant he made with Abraham Or made it known unto him, and showed him his particular interest in it; promised that he would be his God, that he would bless him; and that in his seed, the Messiah, that should spring from him, all nations of the earth should be blessed, (Gen. 12:2, Gen.

And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law The son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham, to whom it was renewed and confirmed, (Gen. 28:13, Gen. 28:14) .

Saying, unto thee will I give the land of Canaan To each of the above persons, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their posterity, the children of Israel.

When they were but a few men in number Or “men of number” [[3]], that might easily be numbered; see , when this covenant, promise, and oath, were first made to Abraham, he was alone, and had no child; and when his posterity were increased in Jacob’s time, and sojourned in Egypt, they were but few,…

When they went from one nation to another From Chaldea to Mesopotamia; from thence to Canaan, and then into Egypt; and after that to Canaan again: which was the tour that Abraham took; and when in Canaan, and travelling from place to place there, might be said to go from nation to nation, since…

He suffered no man to do them wrong Though strangers and unsettled, and moving from place to place; and few in number, and weak and defenceless. Thus the herdsmen of Gerar were not suffered to do any harm to Isaac and his herdsmen; but, on the contrary, the king of the place, with some of his chief…

Saying, Touch not mine anointed Or, “mine anointed ones”; my Christs, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were, who, though not anointed with material oil, yet were all that, that such were, who in later times were anointed with it.

Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land On the land of Egypt; or rather on the land of Canaan, where Jacob and his sons sojourned; and which reached to all lands, (Gen. 41:56, Gen. 41:57) and calling for it, it came, being a servant at the command of the Lord; see .

He sent a man before them, even Joseph Who, though but a lad of seventeen years of age when he was sold into Egypt, yet was a grown man when he stood before Pharaoh, and interpreted his dreams of plenty and famine to come; and advised him to lay up store in the years of plenty, against the years of…

Whose feet they hurt with fetters For it seems Joseph was not only cast into prison, upon the calumny of his mistress; but had fetters put upon him, and his feet were made fast with them; and these were so close and heavy, as to pinch and gall and hurt him; which, though not mentioned in his…

Until the time that his word came Either the word of Joseph, interpreting the dreams of the butler and baker, till that came to be fulfilled; so the Syriac version, “till his word was proved by the event”: or rather till the fame and report of that came to Pharaoh’s ears, (Gen. 41:13, Gen.

The king sent and loosed him That is, Pharaoh king of Egypt sent messengers to the prison, and ordered Joseph to be loosed, as soon as ever he heard the account which the chief butler gave of him, and of his skill in interpreting dreams.

He made him lord of his house That is, Pharaoh made Joseph lord chamberlain of his household; after he had him to court, and he had interpreted his dreams to him to his great satisfaction, and had given him such prudent advice to provide against the years of famine; see .

To bind his princes at his pleasure Not to lay them in prison, and bind them with fetters, as he had been bound; but to give laws unto them as he pleased, and bind and oblige them to observe them: for, according to his word, all the people of Egypt, high and low, rich and poor, were to be ruled;…

Israel also came into Egypt That is, Jacob, as afterwards expressed, who had the name of Israel, from his wrestling with God and prevailing. He came into Egypt, being invited by Pharaoh, and having heard of his son Joseph being alive, and of his exaltation.

And he increased his people greatly God increased the people of Israel greatly in the land of Egypt; they went down few, and became a populous nation; only sixty six persons, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives; and when they came out from thence were six hundred thousand footmen; yea, they increased the…

He turned their heart to hate his people Whom before they loved and esteemed: when Pharaoh and his servants heard of Joseph’s father and brethren, they were greatly pleased, and invited them into Egypt; and, when come, placed them in the land of Goshen; but when a new king arose, and a new…

He sent Moses his servant Into Egypt, to deliver his people Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians; in which, as in other things, he approved himself to be a faithful servant to the Lord; of this mission of his, see .

They showed his signs among them The Egyptians to whom they were sent; that is, Moses and Aaron did. In the original it is, “the words of his signs” [[22]].

He sent darkness, and made it dark The land of Egypt; either he, God, or it, darkness, made it dark, or it was made dark; the Targum is, “made them dark;” that is, the Egyptians; darkness was a messenger of the Lord’s, who forms the light and creates darkness; it came at his word and covered all…

He turned their waters into blood With which Egypt abounded; their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools, so that they had no water to drink; a just judgment upon them for shedding the innocent blood of infants, by drowning them in their rivers; this was the first of the ten plagues, , with this…

Their land brought forth frogs in abundance The land of Egypt, the moist, marshy, and watery places of it, the banks of the river Nile, out of the slime and mud of which these sprung; or, as Kimchi observes, wherever there were waters in the land there were frogs, for these came out of the streams,…

He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies Or a “mixture” [[24]] of various insects, and, as some interpret it, of wild beasts; and so Kimchi says evil beasts are meant, which were raised up to go into all their borders; the Arabic version renders it “dogflies”, after the Septuagint; (See Gill…

He gave them hail for rain Egypt, at least part of it, was not used to rain, but was watered by the overflowings of the Nile; but now it had hail for rain, and a grievous hail storm it was, such as was never seen in the land of Egypt before; hail being rare, if ever there, and so frost and snow…

He smote their vines also, and their fig trees So that they died; for in , it is said, he “killed” them; and it is not only used in common speech with us, but with classical writers [[1]] to speak of killing inanimate things, as trees, herbs That is, the hail smote them, or God by the hail; these…

He spake, and the locusts came A great army of them, and covered the land, that it was even darkened by them; and were such as had never been seen before, or ever were since; this is the eighth plague, , with these compare the locusts in (Rev. 9:3, Rev. 9:4) .

And did eat up all the herbs in their land As these creatures usually do, unless restrained, . And devoured the fruit of their ground; which the hail left, .

He smote also all the firstborn in their land Both of men and beasts; the firstborn of the king on the throne, and of the maidservant behind the mill, and of the captive in the dungeon; this was the last plague, and which prevailed upon the Egyptians to let Israel go, .

He brought them forth also with silver and gold That is, God brought forth the Israelites out of Egypt by means of the above plagues, laden with great riches, with jewels of gold and of silver, which they borrowed of the Egyptians at the command of the Lord; and so to be justified in what they did;…

Egypt was glad when they departed The Egyptians, as the Targum; they were glad when the Israelites were gone, for whose sake they had been so much and so long plagued.

He spread a cloud for a covering That is, the Lord spread one over their heads as an “umbrella”, to protect them from the heat of the sun; this refers to the pillar of cloud, (Ex. 13:20, Ex.

The people asked, and he brought quails The Targum is, “they asked flesh, and he brought quails,” or pheasants; some render it partridges, others locusts: that is, the people of Israel asked flesh of the Lord, and he gave them quails; which he did twice, first at the same time the manna was first…

He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out That is, God opened the rock, who before is said to spread the cloud, and bring the quails, for it was a miraculous affair; or Moses, by divine orders, which was done by smiting it, when waters flowed out in great abundance, sufficient to give drink to…

For he remembered his holy promise It was not owing to the goodness of this people, to their obedience to the divine will, to any worthiness or merit of theirs, that such signs and wonders were wrought for them in Egypt; and that they were brought out from thence in such a manner as they were; and…

And he brought forth his people with joy Or “therefore” [[5]], in consequence of his promise, and the remembrance of it, he brought Israel out of Egypt with great joy to them, they coming out with so much health and wealth; having their liberty, and in hope of shortly being settled in a land…

And gave them the lands of the Heathen The countries of the seven nations that dwelt in Canaan; the Lord did it, who had a right to do it, being the possessor of heaven and earth; and who was provoked unto it by the sins of these Heathens, as well as promised it to his people the Israelites.

That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws All this the Lord did for them, to engage them by his goodness to them to observe the statutes he appointed them, and the laws he gave them; the contrary to which the Canaanites had done, which caused him to cast them out of the land; but on…