Psalm 95:1-5 |
1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. 1 2. Let us come before his face with praise, In psalms let us shout for joy unto him. 3. For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King, above all gods. 4. For in his hand are the deep places of the earth, 2 And the heights of the mountains are his. 5. For his is the sea, and he made it; And the dry land his hands formed. |
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"There are many on the earth who are called gods,"
(1 Corinthians 8:5.)
We are to notice the opposition stated between the God of Israel and all others which man has formed in the exercise of an unlicensed imagination. Should any object, that "an idol is nothing in the world," (1 Corinthians 8:4,) it is enough to reply, that the Psalmist aims at denouncing the vain delusions of men who have framed gods after their own foolish device. I admit, however, that under this term he may have comprehended the angels, asserting God to be possessed of such excellence as exalted him far above all heavenly glory, and whatever might be considered Divine, as well as above the feigned deities of earth. 3 Angels are not indeed gods, but the name admits of an improper application to them on account of their being next to God, and still more, on account of their being accounted no less than gods by men who inordinately and superstitiously extol them. If the heavenly angels themselves must yield before the majesty of the one God, it were the height of indignity to compare him with gods who are the mere fictions of the brain. In proof of his greatness, he bids us look to his formation of the world, which he declares to be
1 Horsley reads the second clause, "Let us raise the loud peal of melody to the Rock of our salvation;" on which he has the following note: "The verb
"Come, let us sing Jehovah's praise!
To him the pealing chorus raise,
With trump, and harp, and cymbals ring;
The rock on which our hopes are placed!"
2 "The deep places of the earth," which are opposed to the "heights of the mountains," plainly mean the deepest and most retired parts of the terraqueous globe, which are explored by the eye of God, and by his only. Horsely reads the verse thus, --
"The God in whose hand are the nethermost recesses of the earth,
Whose also are the inaccessible summits of the mountains."
"This, and the following verse," says he, "are expositive of the greatness of the Godship of Jehovah, generally mentioned in the lst verse. 'The God, in whose hand.' Thus, I have endeavoured to preserve the full force of the Hebrew phrase
3 "Deum ita excellere, ut longe emineat supra omnem coelestem gloriam et quicquid divinum est, non minus quam supra omne terrenum figmentum." -- Lat.