Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 105:15
[Saying], Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
15. Jehovah’s words. Saying is rightly supplied.
Touch not ] The phrase is suggested by Gen 20:6; cp. Psa 26:11.
mine anointed ones my prophets ] The patriarchs were not actually anointed, but the term is applied to them as bearing the seal of a Divine consecration in virtue of which their persons were sacred and inviolable. Abraham is called a prophet in Gen 20:7 as an intercessor, and the term is applied to the patriarchs generally as the recipients of Divine revelation.
16 ff. The events which led to the migration of Jacob into Egypt.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Saying, Touch not mine anointed – That is, This was the language of his providence. It was as though God had said this. It is not meant that this was said in so many words, but this is the poetic form of representing the dealings of Providence. Compare Gen 26:11. The word anointed here means that God had, as it were, set them apart to his service, or that they were to him as kings, and priests, and prophets, sacred people, belonging to God. The language is not found in the Old Testament as applied to the patriarchs, but the idea is fairly implied there, that they belonged to God as sacred and holy men.
And do my prophets no harm – As if God had thus spoken to them, and called them prophets. That is, they belonged to God as a sacred order: they were separate from other men, and God regarded them as his own.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 105:15
Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.
The inviolable Messiahs and prophets
I. Every Christian is a Messiah. Jesus was the Christ, the Messias, because that Divine Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. And if we are Christians in the real sense of the word, then, however imperfectly, yet really, and by Gods grace increasingly, there is such a union between us and our Saviour as that into us there does flow the anointing of His Spirit. And, there being a community of life derived from the Source of Life, it is no presumption to say that every Christian man is a Christ.
II. Every Christian is a prophet. The word is connected with a root which means to boil, or bubble, like a fountain. It expresses, not so much the theme of the utterance as its nature. The welling up, from a full heart, of Gods thoughts and Gods truth, that is prophecy. The patriarchs were prophets, in the sense of being bearers of a Divine Word, breathed into them by that anointing Spirit, that it may be uttered forth by them. That sort of prophetic inspiration belongs to all Christians. Every one who has been anointed will be thus gifted. A silent Christian is an anomaly, a contradiction in terms, as much as black light, or dark stars. If Christ is in you He will come out of you. If your hearts are full the crystal treasure will flow over the brim.
III. Every Christian, in his double capacity of anointed and prophet, is watched over by God. There is no real harm in so-called evil. That is the interpretation that Christianity gives to such words as this of my text, not because it is forced to weaken them by the obstinate facts of life, but because it has learnt to strengthen them by the understanding of what is harm and what is good; what is gain and what is loss. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. Touch not mine anointed] It is supposed that the patriarchs are here intended; but the whole people of Israel may be meant. They were a kingdom of priests and kings unto God; and prophets, priests, and kings were always anointed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Touch not; hurt not, as this word is used of these very persons, Gen 26:11,29, and elsewhere.
Mine anointed; my prophets, as the next words explain it, to wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as is evident; who are called Gods anointed, because they were eminently blessed of God, and consecrated to be his peculiar people, and to be kings and priests in their families, and replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, in respect whereof many persons are said to be anointed in Scripture who never had any material oil applied to them, as Psa 45:7; Isa 61:1; 2Co 1:21. And they are called
prophets, because God did familiarly converse with them, and revealed his mind and will to them, and by them to others; and because they were instructors or teachers of others in the true religion. See Gen 18:19; 20:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Touch notreferring to Ge26:11, where Abimelech says of Isaac, “He that toucheththis man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
mine anointedasspecially consecrated to Me (Ps2:2). The patriarch was the prophet, priest, and king of hisfamily.
my prophetsin asimilar sense, compare Ge 20:7.The “anointed” are those vessels of God, consecrated to Hisservice, “in whom (as Pharaoh said of Joseph, Ge41:38) the Spirit of God is” [HENGSTENBERG].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Saying, Touch not mine anointed,…. Or, “mine anointed ones”; my Christs, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were, who, though not anointed with material oil, yet were all that, that such were, who in later times were anointed with it. They were prophets, priests, and kings; and which all met in one person, particularly in Abraham,
Ge 20:7, besides, they were anointed with the oil of grace, with an unction from the Holy One, with the Holy Ghost, and his gifts and graces, as all true believers are: they are the Lord’s Christs, or his anointed ones; which stand before him, and have the name of Christians from hence. These the Lord will not have touched, so as to be hurt; they are sacred persons: they are near unto God, in union with him;
and he that toucheth him toucheth the apple of his eye; so dear are they to him.
And do my prophets no harm; so Abraham is expressly called a prophet,
Ge 20:7, and so were Isaac and Jacob; men to whom the Lord spoke familiarly in dreams and visions, as he used to do with prophets; and who taught and made known the mind and will of God to others, as well as foretold things to come; they being the Lord’s servants, his prophets, they were revealed unto them, Nu 12:7. These the Lord will have no harm done to them; he guards them by his power; he holds them in his right hand; and covers them under the shadow of his wing.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. Saying, Touch not my anointed ones The Psalmist proceeds farther, affirming, that when God made war against kings for the sake of his servants, they were defended by him, not only as he is accustomed to succor the miserable and the unjustly oppressed, but because he had taken them under his special guardianship. God protects his people, not only upon a general ground, but because he has declared on account of his free adoption, that he will maintain them. This is the reason why these holy patriarchs are here honored with two designations, his prophets and his anointed ones In speaking of other men, God would have said, Touch not these men who have done wrong to nobody, hurt not these poor wretched creatures who have deserved no such treatment at your hands. But in the person of Abraham and his children, he shows that there was another reason for his defending them. He calls them anointed ones, because he had set them apart to be his peculiar people. In the same sense, he designates them prophets, (a title with which Abraham is also honored, Gen 20:7) not only because God had manifested himself more intimately to them, but also because they faithfully spread around them divine truth, that the memory of it might survive them, and flourish after their death. Anointing, it is true, was not as yet in use, as it was afterwards under the law; but the prophet teaches, that what God at a subsequent period exhibited in the ceremonies of the law was really and in very deed in Abraham, even as God engraves the mark of sanctification on all his chosen ones. If God’s inward anointing was of such powerful efficacy, even at the time when he had not yet appointed, or delivered the figures of the law, with how much greater care will he defend his servants now, after having exhibited to us the plenitude of anointing in his only begotten Son!
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Anointed.In the plural, my anointed ones. As referring to the patriarchs, the expression is not technical, since they were never, like priests, prophets, and kings in later times, actually anointed. But the terms being sometimes applied to the covenant people as a whole (see Psa. 89:38; Psa. 89:51), its application to the founders of the race, especially those to whom the promises came, is very just.
As to the term prophet, the poet found it expressly conferred on Abraham in Gen. 20:7.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Anointed The “anointed” was the one set apart to a special purpose or office, whether as king, priest, or prophet, by pouring oil upon the head. In the Old Testament this anointing was a standing symbol of what we denominate, in New Testament times, the grace, gifts, and callings of the Holy Spirit. In the text it applies to the three Hebrew patriarchs.
Prophets Same as anointed. So called Gen 20:7. The word here takes its radical sense one who speaks under a divine influence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 105:15 [Saying], Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
Ver. 15. Touch not mine anointed, &c. ] This God speaketh not of kings, but to kings, concerning his people who have an unction from the Father, being sanctified and set apart for his peculiar. To touch these is to touch the apple of God’s eye, Zec 2:8 ; they are sacred persons.
And do my prophets no harm
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
prophets: i.e. those who were men of God, and His spokesmen. Abraham so called (Gen 20:7). See App-49.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Touch: Gen 26:11, Zec 2:8
mine: 1Ki 19:16, 1Jo 2:27
and do: Gen 20:7, Gen 27:39, Gen 27:40, Gen 48:19, Gen 48:20, Gen 49:8-33
Reciprocal: Gen 12:17 – General Gen 12:20 – General Gen 31:7 – God Gen 31:24 – Take heed Gen 49:1 – Gather Num 12:6 – a prophet Rth 2:9 – touch thee 1Sa 24:10 – the Lord’s 1Sa 26:9 – who can stretch 2Sa 1:14 – stretch forth 1Ki 13:4 – Lay hold 2Ki 1:10 – If I be a man 1Ch 16:22 – Touch Job 1:11 – touch Isa 10:27 – because Jer 2:3 – all that Jer 12:14 – that Jer 39:12 – do him Hab 3:13 – with Mat 18:6 – offend Mat 25:45 – Inasmuch
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
105:15 [Saying], Touch not mine {h} anointed, and do my {i} prophets no harm.
(h) Those whom I have sanctified to be my people.
(i) Meaning, the old fathers, to whom God showed himself plainly, and who set forth his word.