Psalms Chapter 104
Confitemini Domino.
A thanksgiving to God for his benefits to his people Israel.
Alleluia.
104:1. Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name: declare his deeds among the Gentiles.
104:2. Sing to him, yea sing praises to him: relate all his wondrous works.
104:3. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
104:4. Seek ye the lord, and be strengthened: seek his face evermore.
104:5. Remember his marvellous works which he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.
104:6. O ye seed of Abraham his servant; ye sons of Jacob his chosen.
104:7. He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.
104:8. He hath remembered his covenant for ever: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
104:9. Which he made to Abraham; and his oath to Isaac:
104:10. And he appointed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting testament:
104:11. Saying: To thee will I give the land of Chanaan, the lot of your inheritance.
104:12. When they were but a small number: yea very few, and sojourners therein:
104:13. And they passed from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people.
104:14. He suffered no man to hurt them: and he reproved kings for their sakes.
104:15. Touch ye not my anointed: and do no evil to my prophets.
104:16. And he called a famine upon the land: and he broke in pieces all the support of bread.
104:17. He sent a man before them: Joseph, who was sold for a slave.
104:18. They humbled his feet in fetters: the iron pierced his soul,
104:19. Until his word came. The word of the Lord inflamed him.
104:20. The king sent, and he released him: the ruler of the people, and he set him at liberty.
104:21. He made him master of his house, and ruler of all his possession.
104:22. That he might instruct his princes as himself, and teach his ancients wisdom.
104:23. And Israel went into Egypt: and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Cham.
104:24. And he increased his people exceedingly: and strengthened them over their enemies.
104:25. He turned their heart to hate his people: and to deal deceitfully with his servants.
He turned their heart, etc. . .Not that God (who is never the author of sin) moved the Egyptians to hate and persecute his people; but that the Egyptians took occasion of hating and envying them, from the sight of the benefits which God bestowed upon them.
104:26. He sent Moses his servant: Aaron the man whom he had chosen.
104:27. He gave them power to shew them signs, and his wonders in the land of Cham.
104:28. He sent darkness, and made it obscure: and grieved not his words.
Grieved not his words. . .That is, he was not wanting to fulfil his words: or he did not grieve Moses and Aaron, the carriers of his words: or he did not grieve his words, that is, his sons, the children of Israel, who enjoyed light whilst the Egyptians were oppressed with darkness.
104:29. He turned their waters into blood, and destroyed their fish.
104:30. Their land brought forth frogs, in the inner chambers of their kings.
104:31. He spoke, and there came divers sorts of flies and sciniphs in all their coasts.
Sciniphs. . .See the annotation, Ex.8.16.
104:32. He gave them hail for rain, a burning fire in the land.
104:33. And he destroyed their vineyards and their fig trees: and he broke in pieces the trees of their coasts.
104:34. He spoke, and the locust came, and the bruchus, of which there was no number.
Bruchus. . .An insect of the locust kind.
104:35. And they devoured all the grass in their land, and consumed all the fruit of their ground.
104:36. And he slew all the firstborn in their land: the firstfruits of all their labour.
104:37. And he brought them out with silver and gold: and there was not among their tribes one that was feeble.
104:38. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them lay upon them.
104:39. He spread a cloud for their protection, and fire to give them light in the night.
104:40. They asked, and the quail came: and he filled them with the bread of heaven.
104:41. He opened the rock, and waters flowed: rivers ran down in the dry land.
104:42. Because he remembered his holy word, which he had spoken to his servant Abraham.
104:43. And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness.
104:44. And he gave them the lands of the Gentiles: and they possessed the labours of the people:
104:45. That they might observe his justifications, and seek after his law.
His justifications. . .That is, his commandments; which here, and in many other places of the scripture, are called justifications, because the keeping of them makes man just. The Protestants render it by the word statutes, in favour of their doctrine, which does not allow good works to justify.