_The Psalmist, out of the experience of former mercies, prayeth for
the continuance thereof.—He promiseth to wait thereon, out of
confidence of God’s goodness._
To the chief Musician, A Psalm to the sons of Korah.
LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back
the captivity of Jacob.
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all
their sin. Selah.
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned _thyself_ from
the fierceness of thine anger.
Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger towards us to
cease.
Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to
all generations?
Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto
his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
Surely his salvation _is_ nigh them that fear him; that glory may
dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed
_each other_.
Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven.
Yea, the LORD shall give _that which is_ good: and our land shall
yield her increase.
Righteousness shall go before him, and shall set _us_ in the way of
his steps.
This Psalm is a prayer containing the feelings of a heart that fears
God; and it persuades, in the most impressive words, such an one, not
to dread God’s anger. For those who fear God, are not like the
despisers and Epicureans, who are secure and care for nothing that
happens; but when calamities fall upon godly men, their first and main
concern is to turn to God that smites them, and to make anew their
peace with him.
The anger wherewith God chastised his people, at this time, was this:
he had taken away from them, for a time, the word; he had diminished
the number of those that preached it in truth, and had made few the
true prophets, priests and Levites. In addition to which, the peace of
the nation was broken by seditions; and many evils prevailed in the
state and among the rulers thereof. And this was not all: there came
on also the dread and expectation of war, and the want of the
necessary provisions of life: for these calamities generally follow,
one after the other, when God, according to the first commandment,
visits the iniquities of a people.
The Psalmist, therefore, prays that God would be pleased again to
preserve the church, and also the nation; again to restore the real
ministers of the word, who preached it in truth, and by whom alone God
truly speaks unto men.
The Psalmist, therefore, breaks forth with a wonderful burden of
heart, as if he had said, ‘O that I might again hear the Lord truly
speaking! O that the word of God were again truly preached, lest even
the godly should be “turned to folly”’ (or ignorance; that is, lest
they should be so broken down and utterly worn out, by the greatness
of their afflictions, as not to know what to do.) ‘O that both the
worship of God, and the prosperity of our nation, may be restored, and
that peace, and concord, and truth, and justice, may flourish among
us! that the fruits of the earth, and the produce of the fields and of
the vineyards may be blessed; that we may lead a godly life in this
our day, and, as St. Paul saith, may “look for the glorious appearing
of the great God!”’