Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 9:20
Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.
20. Put them in fear ] Lit. set terror for them: some awe-inspiring exhibition of power, such as were the wonders of the Exodus. (Deu 4:34; Deu 26:8; Deu 34:12; Jer 32:21.) The rendering of LXX, Vulg., Syr., appoint a lawgiver over them, (reading mreh for mrah) is certainly wrong, though it is adopted by Luther and by some modern critics.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Put them in fear, O Lord – From this it is evident that the enemies of the psalmist were bold, daring, confident in their own strength, and in the belief that they would succeed. He prays, therefore, that these bold and daring invaders of the rights of others might be made to stand in awe, and to tremble before the great and terrible majesty of God; that they might thus have just views of themselves, and see how weak and feeble they were as compared with Him.
That the nations may know – The nations particularly referred to in this psalm as arrayed against the writer.
Themselves to be but men – That they may see themselves as they are – poor, feeble creatures; as nothing when compared with God; that instead of their pride and self-confidence, their belief that they can accomplish any purpose that they choose, they may see that they are not like God, but that they are frail and feeble mortals. The psalmist seems to have supposed that if they understood this, they would be humbled and would desist from their purposes; and he therefore prays that God would interpose and show them precisely what they were. If men understood this, they would not dare to arrayy themselves against their Maker.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Put them in fear] shithah Yehovah morah lahem, “O Lord, place a teacher among them,” that they may know they also are accountable creatures, grow wise unto salvation, and be prepared for a state of blessedness. Several MSS. read morre, fear; but teacher or legislator is the reading of all the versions except the Chaldee. Coverdale has hit the sense, translating thus: O Lorde, set a Scholemaster over them: and the old Psalter, Sett Lord a brynger of Law abouen tham.
That the nations may know themselves to be but men] enosh; Let the Gentiles be taught by the preaching of thy Gospel that they are weak and helpless, and stand in need of the salvation which Christ has provided for them. This may be the spirit of the petition. And this is marked by the extraordinary note Selah; Mark well, take notice. So the term may be understood.
“This whole Psalm,” says Dr. Horsley, “seems naturally to divide into three parts. The first ten verses make the FIRST part; the six following, the SECOND; and the remaining four the THIRD.
“The FIRST part is prophetic of the utter extermination of the irreligious persecuting faction. The prophecy is delivered in the form of an , or song of victory, occasioned by the promise given in the fifteenth verse of the tenth Psalm; and through the whole of this song the psalmist, in the height of a prophetic enthusiasm, speaks of the threatened vengeance as accomplished.
“The SECOND part opens with an exhortation to the people of God to praise him as the Avenger of their wrongs, and the watchful Guardian of the helpless, and, as if the flame of the prophetic joy which the oracular voice had lighted in the psalmist’s mind was beginning to die away, the strain is gradually lowered, and the notes of triumph are mixed with supplication and complaint, as if the mind of the psalmist were fluttering between things present and to come, and made itself alternately present to his actual condition and his future hope.
“In the THIRD part the psalmist seems quite returned from the prophetic enthusiasm to his natural state, and closes the whole song with explicit but cool assertions of the future destruction of the wicked, and the deliverance of the persecuted saints, praying for the event.”
ANALYSIS OF THE NINTH PSALM
This Psalm consists of five chief parts: –
I. David’s thanksgiving, Ps 9:1-2, amplified and continued till the tenth verse.
II. An exhortation to others to do the like, Ps 9:11, and the reason of it, Ps 9:12.
III. A petition for himself, Ps 9:13, and the reason of it, Ps 9:14.
IV. A remembrance of God’s mercy in the overthrow of his enemies, for which he sings a song of triumph, from Ps 9:15-19.
V. A prayer in the conclusion against the prevalence of the heathen, Ps 9:19-20.
I. His profession of praise is set down in the two first verses, in which we may perceive, –
1. The matter of it, with the extent: All the marvellous works of God.
2. That he varies the synonyms. I will praise thee; I will show forth; I will be glad and rejoice in thee; I win sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High! in which there is a climax.
3. The principle whence this praise flowed: 1. Not from the lips, but from the heart. 2. From the whole heart: “I will praise thee with my whole heart.”
This he amplifies from the cause, which is double:
1. That which outwardly moved him, and gave him a just occasion to do so; the overthrow of his enemies: “When my enemies are turned back;” who were not overcome by strength or valour, but by the presence and power of God.
2. They shall fall and perish at thy presence. Thou wast the chief cause of this victory; and, therefore, deservest the thanks. Of this the prophet makes a full narrative in the two next verses, setting God as it were upon the bench, and doing the office of Judge. 1. “Thou maintainest my right, and my cause.” 2. “Thou sattest on the throne judging right.” 3. “Thou hast rebuked the heathen.” 4. “Thou hast destroyed the wicked; thou hast put out their name for ever.” In a word, Thou art a just Judge, and defendest the innocent, and punishest their oppressors; and therefore I will praise thee.
3. And then, upon the confidence of God’s justice and power, he exults over his enemies. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Thy power of hurting and destroying is taken away; the fortified cities in which thou dwellest are overthrown; and their memory and thine are perished.
4. Next, to make his assertion clearer; to the enemies’ power he opposes that of God; his kingdom to their kingdom. But the Lord, in the administration of his kingdom, is, 1. Eternal: “The Lord shall endure for ever.” 2. His office to be Judge: “He hath prepared his throne for judgment.” 3. He is a universal Judge: “He shall judge the whole world.” 4. He is a just Judge: “He shall judge in righteousness; he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.” 5. He is a merciful Judge: “For the Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed; a refuge in times of trouble.”
5. The effect of this execution of justice. His people are encouraged: who are here described, 1. By their knowing him: “They that know thy name.” 2. By trusting in him: “Will put their trust in thee.” 3. By their seeking him: “For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”
II. An exhortation to others to praise God: “Sing praises to the Lord.” The reason of this, 1. He dwells in Zion. 2. He works graciously there: “Sing praises to the Lord that DWELLS in Zion: declare among the people his DOINGS.” 3. That will destroy their oppressors, and avenge their blood: “When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them; he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.”
III. A petition for himself: “Have mercy on me, O Lord; consider my trouble,” c. for which he gives these reasons:-
1. That “I may show forth thy praise.”
2. “ALL thy praise.”
3. “In the gates of the daughter of Zion.”
4. That I may do it with joyful lips.
5. Which I will do: “I WILL rejoice in thy salvation.”
IV. Then he sings forth his song of triumph ever his enemies:-
1. The “heathen are sunk down in the pit they have made.”
2. “In the net which they hid are their own feet taken.”
3. This is the Lord’s work. Though wicked men did doubt before of his providence and justice; yet now “the Lord was known by the judgment which he executed.”
4. For “the wicked was snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion, Selah.” Which is a thing exceedingly to be meditated upon, and not forgotten.
5. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God.” 1. Their breath is in their nostrils, and die they must. 2. If they repent not, they shall suffer eternal punishment. 3. However this may be, God’s goodness shall be manifested to the innocent: “The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
V. A prayer in the conclusion against the prevalence of the heathen, in which he shows great earnestness and faith:-
1. “Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail.”
2. “Let the heathen be judged in thy sight.”
3. “Put them in fear, O Lord!” Now they fear nothing, being in their height of prosperity. They are insolent and proud; manifest thy Divine presence to their terror.
4. For then they will know themselves to be but men-infirm and mortal creatures; and not insult over thy people, nor glory in their own strength and prosperity.
The original word has been translated teacher, lawgiver, governor. Then send them, 1. A teacher, who may make them wise unto salvation. 2. A lawgiver, who shall rule them in thy fear. 3. A governor, that shall tame and reduce to order their fierce and savage nature. Let the nations be converted unto thee. This will be the noblest triumph. Let their hearts be conquered by thy mercy. And thus the Psalm will conclude as it began, To the Conqueror, on whose vesture and thigh is the name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Subdue their proud and insolent spirits, and strike them with terror, or with some terrible judgment. But men, Heb. weak, and miserable, and mortal men, and therefore altogether unable to oppose the omnipotent and eternal God. This he saith, because wicked men, when they are advanced to great power and majesty, are very prone to forget their own frailty, and to carry themselves as if they were gods. See Isa 31:3; Eze 30:7,8; Da 5:21.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. By their effectualsubjection, make them to realize their frail nature (Ps8:4), and deter them from all conceit and future rebellion.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Put them in fear, O Lord,…. Who are, a bold, impudent, fearless generation of men; who, like the unjust judge, neither fear God nor regard men, therefore the psalmist prays that God would inject fear into them, who only can do it; and this will be done at Babylon’s destruction, when the antichristian kings, merchants, and seafaring men, will stand afar off for fear of her torment, Re 18:10;
[that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men; and not God, and have no power against him; see Isa 31:3; the sense is, that the antichristian nations, who oppose themselves to Christ and his people, may know that they are but frail, mortal, miserable men, as the word q signifies; and that he who is at the head of them, the man of sin, is no other, though he exalts himself above all that is called God, 2Th 2:4; or these words are a prayer for the conversion of many among the nations, and may be rendered, “put, O Lord, fear in them” r; that is, the true grace of fear, “that the nations may know” themselves, their sin and guilt and danger, and know God in Christ, and Christ, and the way of salvation by him; for at the word “know” should be a stop, concluding a proposition, since the accent “athnach” is there; and then follows another, “they [are] men. Selah”: destitute of the fear and grace of God, are capable of it, but cannot give it to themselves.
Selah; on this word, [See comments on Ps 3:2].
q “mortales esse”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus “homines miseri”, Cocceius, Michaelis; “sorry men”, Ainsworth. r “pone timorem eis”, so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
20. Put them in fear, O Jehovah. The Septuagint translates מורה, morah, [ νομοθέτης,] a lawgiver, deriving it from ירה, yarah, which sometimes signifies to teach. (185) But the scope of the passage requires that we should understand it of fear or dread; and this is the opinion of all sound expositors. Now, it is to be considered of what kind of fear David speaks. God commonly subdues even his chosen ones to obedience by means of fear. But as he moderates his rigour towards them, and, at the same time, softens their stony hearts, so that they willingly and quietly submit themselves to him, he cannot be properly said to compel them by fear. With respect to the reprobate, he takes a different way of dealing. As their obduracy is inflexible, so that it is easier to break than to bend them, he subdues their desperate obstinacy by force; not, indeed, that they are reformed, but, whether they will or no, an acknowledgement of their own weakness is extorted from them. They may gnash their teeth and boil with rage, and even exceed in cruelty wild beasts, but when the dread of God seizes upon them, they are thrown down with their own violence, and fall with their own weight. Some explain these words as a prayer that God would bring the nations under the yoke of David, and make them tributaries to his government; but this is a cold and forced explanation. The word fear comprehends in general all the plagues of God, by which is repulsed, as by the heavy blows of a hammer, (186) the rebellion of those who would never obey him except by compulsion.
There follows next the point to which the nations must be brought, namely, to acknowledge themselves to be mortal men. This, at first sight, seems to be a matter of small importance; but the doctrine which it contains is far from being trifling. What is man, that he dares of himself to move a finger? And yet all the ungodly run to excess as boldly and presumptuously as if there were nothing to hinder them from doing whatever they please. It is certainly through a distempered imagination that they claim to themselves what is peculiar to God; and, in short, they would never run to so great excess if they were not ignorant of their own condition. David, when he beseeches God to strike the nations with terror, that they may know that they are men, (187) does not mean that the ungodly will profit so much under the rods and chastisements of God as to humble themselves truly and from the heart; but the knowledge of which he speaks just means an experience of their own weakness. His language is as if he had said, Lord, since it is their ignorance of themselves which hurries them into their rage against me, make them actually to experience that their strength is not equal to their infatuated presumption, and after they are disappointed of their vain hopes, let them lie confounded and abased with shame. It may often happen that those who are convinced of their own weakness do not yet reform; but much is gained when their ungodly presumption is exposed to mockery and scorn before the world, that it may appear how ridiculous was the confidence which they presumed to place in their own strength. With respect to the chosen of God, they ought to profit under his chastisements after another manner. It becomes them to be humbled under a sense of their own weakness, and willingly to divest themselves of all vain confidence and presumption. And this will be the case if they remember that they are but men. Augustine has well and wisely said, that the whole humility of man consists in the knowledge of himself. Moreover, since pride is natural to all, God requires to strike terror into all men indiscriminately, that, on the one hand, his own people may learn to be humble, and that, on the other hand, the wicked, although they cease not to elevate themselves above the condition of man, may be put back with shame and confusion.
(185) The Chaldee version reads fear, but the Syriac, Ethiopic, and Vulgate versions follow the Septuagint. The Arabic employs a word of nearly the same import, signifying a doctor or teacher of the law. In it is, “O Lord set a schoolmaster over them.” Augustine and Jerome, who adopted the reading of the Septuagint, render the words, “Set, O Lord, a lawgiver over them;” and it was their opinion that lawgiver means antichrist, to whom God in his wrath gave dominion over the nations. According to others, lawgiver means Christ. Dr Horsley reads, “O Jehovah, appoint thou a teacher over them.” Ainsworth and Dr Adam Clarke adopt the same rendering, and view the words as a prayer that the nations may learn humility and piety, that they may know their accountability to God, and become wise unto salvation.
(186) “ Tous fleax de Dieu par lesquels est rembarre comme a grans coups de marteau.” — Fr.
(187) The original word is אנוש, enosh; and therefore it is a prayer that they may know themselves to be but miserable, frail, and dying men. The word is in the singular number, but it is used collectively.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) Put them in fear.There is a difficulty about the reading. The LXX., Vulg., and Syriac read place a lawgiver or master over them. So Syriac, law. Hitzig conjectures, set a guard upon them. With the present reading apparently the rendering should be, put a terror upon them: i.e., give such a proof of power as to trouble and subdue them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 9:20. To be but men Fenwick renders this verse:
Let them a guide and teacher have, O Lord! Their helpless state make thou the nations know: alluding to the future conversion of the Gentiles.
REFLECTIONS.1st, David begins this Psalms 1. With praise and joy. His whole heart was engaged; if not in perfection, yet in sincerity, to shew forth God’s marvellous works; and all of them, so far as his memory could reach; especially the many and signal assistances which the Most High had given him against his numerous foes. Note; (1.) In all our success, let God have the praise. (2.) While prosperity makes us thankful, our chief joy must still be in the God of our mercies. (3.) Since God has ever proved himself the Most High, no danger should distress, no enemies dismay us.
2. He ascribes the power to God. It was not his own arm, but the presence and power of the Lord which turned back with confusion his foes, and smote them to the ground. Thus the presence of Jesus, Joh 18:6 confounded the band who approached to seize him; and when he shall sit on the throne of judgment, before his presence the ungodly must fall and perish for ever.
3. God’s righteousness was herein manifested. A righteous cause God then owned and vindicated; and on this throne of judgment still he sits, to rescue those who are oppressed with wrong. And here, under every unjust sentence of man, we may still appeal; and though now suffering innocence may find no advocate, and unbelief would suggest that the Lord has forsaken the earth, the day is at hand when every wrong shall be righted, and God appear just in his judgments. What a comfort to the sufferers in the cause of God and truth?
4. The triumphs of God over his enemies are recorded; over Goliath and the Philistines, whose ravages were stopped, their army routed, and their cities destroyed: and over his spiritual foes, Thou hast rebuked the heathen, by that Gospel which confounded the idolatry of the heathen; thou hast destroyed the wicked, the persecuting powers of pagan Rome; and, as what is purposed in the divine will may be regarded as already completed, the enemy, antichrist, and all his adherents, shall perish together; their ruin shall be complete and final, and their name be blotted out from under heaven.
5. He takes comfort from the views of the enduring kingdom and righteous government of God. When all his foes are fallen, the Lord shall endure for ever; he hath prepared his throne for judgment, the great white throne, on which he is ready to appear, and pronounce the eternal state of angels and men. He shall judge the world in righteousness, for all judgment is committed unto him. The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble, and many are the troubles of the righteous; within, from affliction and temptation; and without, from the ceaseless enmity of the world which lieth in wickedness. But, blessed be God, we have a refuge to fly to in the arms of Jesus, who is now our present help in every time of trouble; and, though he may for a time permit our enemy to oppress us, soon will he appear as our eternal refuge, to lodge us there where the wicked must cease from troubling. And they that know thy name, are acquainted experimentally with the gracious promises made in the word of truth by Jesus Christ, will put their trust in thee; though long or severely exercised with trials and troubles, will patiently wait to see the salvation of God; and such will never be disappointed of their hope, for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. Happy, therefore, is the man who putteth his trust in thee.
2nd, David proceeds,
1. To engage others with him in the delightful work of praise. Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion, the place where the symbols of his constant presence rested: declare among the people his doings, his displays of grace, power, and love towards his church. When he maketh inquisition for blood, the blood of saints, spilt by the ungodly, and all the evils inflicted on them, he remembereth them; either his saints, who, notwithstanding all their sufferings, are not forgotten by him, nor a drop of their blood unnoticed: or the wicked; he remembereth their deeds, and will recompense them as they deserve. He forgetteth not the cry of the humble, who, under the chastising rod, bow down, and, renouncing every hope in themselves, look up to him; though he seem not sometimes to hear their cry, they are not forgotten of him, he will avenge them speedily. Having thus encouraged others to praise and trust him, David,
2. Offers his prayer for the continuance of the mercies that he had experienced. His troubles were many; sometimes he seemed brought to the very gates of death, while his enemies pursued him with implacable hatred. And thus sorely beset is sometimes the faithful soul. But he cries with David, have mercy upon me, and then experiences God’s supporting hand; thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, hast done so from spiritual, and wilt from temporal and eternal death. And this is gloriously applicable to the great Redeemer, for whom God opened the gates of the grave, and lifted him triumphant from the bed of death, as he will also do for every faithful believer in the great resurrection-day.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
BLESSED Redeemer! let me, as often as I peruse this Psalm, learn to celebrate thy triumphs, and to keep my eye and heart stedfastly fixed on thee, that I may hear with the ear of faith, and catch an holy flame from the devout song, while thou art praising Jehovah, for all the blessings of the salvation wrought by thee for his Church and people.
Yes! thou holy Lord, I would desire to shout in the sacred joy, from a conviction, that in thy victories all thy people partake. And while, by faith in thee and thy salvation, I behold all the enemies which now impede our progress in the wilderness state of thy Church, put to a perpetual end, I shall even now sing, though so often feeling the effects of their malice, sure and certain deliverance, through thee, from all my sins, sorrows, and trials, being more than conqueror through thy grace helping me.
And oh! come Lord, by the influence of thy sweet Spirit, come and dwell in the midst of Zion, and show forth all the praises of Jehovah; that thy redeemed may echo to thy praises, and their hearts rejoice in thy salvation. Yes, precious Jesus! thou wilt be, thou hast been, thou now art, a refuge for the oppressed. Thou art my hiding place, and my strong tower, against all my foes. And in the consciousness of my interest in thee, my union with thee, and my unceasing dependence upon thee, I will go forth, making mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. And until thou shalt call me home to see thy face, and dwell with thee forever, the sense of thy love shall keep my soul in tune, to praise thee here below, in the every-day song of faith, and by and by faith shall be swallowed up in sight, and grace consummated in everlasting glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 9:20 Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.
Ver. 20. Put them in fear, O Lord ] Strike them with a panic terror, as once the Canaanites, Philistines, 1Sa 5:1-12 ; Syrians, 2Ki 7:6-7 ; Germans, in the war against the Hussites, &c. Some read it, Put a law upon them, bridle them, bound them, as thou hast done the sea, Job 38:11 . The Greek and Syriac favour this reading.
That the nations may know themselves to be but men
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Put them in fear = Appoint them some terror.
nations. As in Psa 9:59
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Put: Psa 76:12, Exo 15:16, Exo 23:27, Deu 2:25, Jer 32:40, Eze 30:13
may: Psa 82:6, Psa 82:7, Isa 31:3, Eze 28:2, Eze 28:9, Act 12:22, Act 12:23
Reciprocal: Num 22:31 – bowed down Psa 74:22 – Arise Psa 83:16 – General Isa 64:2 – that the nations Dan 7:4 – and a Mic 7:17 – they shall be Hab 3:3 – Selah
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:20 Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] {k} men. Selah.
(k) Which they cannot learn without the fear of your judgment.