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10. Surely the wrath of men shall praise thee. Some understand these words as denoting, that after these enemies shall have submitted to God, they will yield to him the praise of the victory; being constrained to acknowledge that they have been subdued by his mighty hand. Others elicit a more refined sense, That when God stirs up the wicked, and impels their fury, he in this way affords a most illustrious display of his own glory; even as he is said to have stirred up the heart of Pharaoh for this very purpose, (Exodus 14:4; Romans 9:17.) Understood in this sense, the text no doubt contains a profitable doctrine, but this being, I am afraid, too refined an explanation, I prefer considering the meaning simply to be, that although at first the rage of the enemies of God and his Church may throw all things into confusion, and, as it were, envelop them in darkness, yet all will at length redound to his praise; for the issue will make it manifest, that, whatever they may contrive and attempt, they cannot in any degree prevail against him. The concluding part of the verse, The remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain, may also be interpreted in two ways. As the word חגר, chagar, signifies to gird, some supply the pronoun thee, and give this sense, All the enemies of the Church are not yet overthrown; but thou, O God! wilt gird thyself to destroy those of them who remain. The other interpretation is, however, the more simple., which is, that although these enemies might not cease to breathe forth their cruelty, yet God would effectually restrain them, and prevent them from succeeding in the accomplishment of their enterprises. ²⁸¹²⁸¹     Hammond’s statement of these two interpretations is clear and full. It is as follows: — “What תחגור [which Calvin renders, thou wilt restrain] signifies here, is not agreed among the interpreters, the word signifying 1. to gird, and, 2. to restrain In the notion of restraining, it will have a very commodious sense, applied to Sennacherib, to whom this psalm belongs. For, as by the slaughter of the one hundred and eighty-five thousand in his army he was forced to depart, and dwell at Nineveh, 2 Kings 19:36; so, after his return thither, there are some remainders of his wrath on the Jews that dwelt there. We may see it, Tobit 1:18, ‘If the king Sennacherib had slain any, when he was come and fled from Judea, I buried them privily, (for in his wrath he killed many,’) etc. This was the gleanings of his wrath, and this was ‘restrained’ by God; for he soon falls by the hands of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, ‘as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god,’ 2 Kings 19:37. And to this sense Kimchi interprets it, ‘Thou shalt so repress the malice of our enemies, that the other nations shall not dare to fight against us;’ so likewise Aben Ezra. And thus it must be, if ‘the remainder of wrath’ be ‘man’s wrath,’ as the former part of the verse inclines it, ‘Surely the wrath of man,’ etc. But חגר, in the primary notion, signifies girding or putting on, arraying oneself Girding, we know, signifies putting on, and is applied to garments, ornaments, arms: חגור, ‘Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,’ Psalm 45:3, and frequently elsewhere; and so ‘girding with gladness,’ is putting on festival ornaments. And in like manner here, in a poetical phrase, ‘Thou shalt gird on the remainder of wrath,’ parallel to ‘putting on the garments of vengeance for clothing,’ Isaiah 59:17, will signify God’s adorning and setting out himself by the exercise of his vengeance, vulgarly expressed by his wrath, and the word חמת, wrath, most fitly used with reference on חמת, the wrath of man, in the beginning of the verse. Man’s wrath is the violence, and rage, and blasphemy of the oppressor, upon the meek or poor man foregoing. This begins, goes foremost, in provoking God; and then שארית, the remnant, or second part of wrath, is still behind for God; and with that he girds himself, i e., sets himself out illustriously and dreadfully, as with an ornament, and as with an hostile preparation in the eyes of men. And so in this sense also it is agreeable to the context... In either sense, the parts of this verse are perfectly answerable the one to the other. To this latter rendering of תחגור, the Chaldee inclines us, paraphrasing it by, ‘Thou hast girded on, or prepared, or made ready, the remainder of fury, (meaning by God’s fury,) for the destroying of the nations.’” Perhaps, also, it would not be unsuitable to explain the verb thus, Thou wilt gather into a bundle, as we say in French, “Tu trousseras,” i.e., Thou wilt truss or pack up. Let us therefore learn, while the wicked would involve in obscurity and doubt the providence of God, to wait patiently until he glorify himself by bringing about a happier state of things, and trample under foot their infatuated presumption, to their shame and confusion. But if new troubles arise from time to time, let us remember that it is his proper office to restrain the remainder of the wrath of the wicked, that they may not proceed to greater lengths. Meanwhile, let us not be surprised if we observe fresh outrages every now and then springing forth; for, even to the end of the world, Satan will always have partisans or agents, whom he will urge forward to molest the children of God.

11. Vow and pay to Jehovah your God. The faithful are now exhorted to the exercise of gratitude. As under the law the custom prevailed among the Jews of vowing sacrifices for singular blessings which God had conferred upon them, by which they solemnly acknowledged that their safety depended solely upon him, and that to him they were entirely indebted for it, they are called anew to engage in this exercise of religion; and by the word pay it is intended to inculcate steadfastness, — to teach them that they should not make merely a sudden and inconsiderate acknowledgement, but that they should also testify at all times that the remembrance of their deliverance was deeply fixed in their hearts. Their most important business, no doubt, was seriously to reflect with themselves that God was the author of their salvation; but still it is to be observed, that the solemn profession of religion, by which every man stimulates not only himself but also others to the performance of their duty, is far from being superfluous. In the second clause, those addressed seem to be the neighboring nations; as if it had been said, that such a special manifestation of the goodness of God was worthy of being celebrated even by foreign and uncircumcised nations. ²⁸²²⁸²     This is Kimchi’s interpretation: He understands by “those round about God,” the nations near the land of Israel, and so near God. But it appears to me, that the sense most agreeable to the context is, that these words are addressed either to the Levites or to all the posterity of Abraham, both of whom are not improperly said to be round about God, both because the tabernacle was pitched in the midst of the camp so long as the Israelites traveled in the wilderness, and also because the resting-place assigned for the ark was mount Zion, whither the people were accustomed to resort from all the surrounding parts of the country. And the Levites had intrusted to them the charge of the temple, and were appointed to keep watch and ward round about it. The word למורא, lammora, is referred to God by the majority of interpreters, and they translate it terrible. The term fear is, however, sometimes taken in a passive sense for God himself. ²⁸³²⁸³     In this sense it is employed in Genesis 31:53, “And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac.” If it is applied to the Gentiles and to irreligious men, ²⁸⁴²⁸⁴     If it is thus applied, the reading will be, “Let all those who are round about him bring presents on account of fear.” the sense will be, that they shall be tributaries to God; because, being stricken with fear, they shall no longer dare to offer him any resistance. But it is more probable that this word has a reference to God, whom the prophet justly declares to be worthy of being feared, after having given such a remarkable proof of his power.