Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 24:6
This [is] the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
6. generation ] i.e. class, as in Psa 12:7; Psa 14:5; Psa 73:15.
that seek him ] R.V., that seek after him. Two words for seek are used in this verse. Both may be used of the outward act of visiting the sanctuary; but both come to express the inward purpose of the heart as well. So far as the two words can be distinguished the first denotes the attitude of loving devotion, the second that of inquiry or supplication.
O Jacob ] The A.V. marg. and R.V. rightly follow the LXX, Vulg., and Syr. in reading O God of Jacob. If the Massoretic text is retained, it must be rendered with R.V. marg., That seek thy face, even Jacob. These are the ideal Jacob, the true people of God. But the construction is harsh; a vocative is needed after thy face; and Jacob does not by itself convey this sense.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is the generation of them that seek him – This describes the race of those who seek Him; or, this is their character. The word generation here is used evidently in the sense of race, people, or persons. This is the character or description of the persons who seek His favor; or, this is the character of His true friends. The phrase to seek God is often used as descriptive of true piety: Psa 9:10; Psa 14:2; Psa 63:1; Pro 8:17; Mat 6:33; Mat 7:7. It indicates an earnest desire to know Him and to obtain His favor. It denotes also humility of mind, and a sense of dependence on God.
That seek thy face, O Jacob – Margin, O God of Jacob. DeWette understands this as meaning that they would seek the face of God among His people; or that they who belonged to the race of Jacob, and who were sincere, thus sought the face of God. There is supposed to be, according to this interpretation, a distinction between the true and the false Israel; between those who professed to be the people of God and those who really were His people (compare Rom 9:6-8). It seems to me that the word is not used here as it is in the margin to denote the God of Jacob, which would be a harsh and an unusual construction, but that it is in apposition with the preceding words, as denoting what constituted the true Jacob, or the true people of God. This is the generation of them that seek him; this is the true Jacob, that seek thy face, O Lord. That is, this is the characteristic of all who properly belong to the race of Jacob, or who properly belong to God as his true people. The sense, however, is not materially affected if we adopt the reading in the margin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. This is the generation] This is the description of people who are such as God can approve of, and delight in.
That seek thy face, O Jacob.] It is most certain that Elohey, O God, has been lost out of the Hebrew text in most MSS., but it is preserved in two of Kennicott’s MSS., and also in the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. “Who seek thy face, O God of Jacob.”
Selah.] That is, It is confirmed; it is true. The persons who abstain from every appearance of evil, and seek the approbation of God, are those in whom God will delight.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The generation; the true progeny which God regards; whereby he reflects upon them, who boasted and trusted to their carnal generation or descent from Jacob.
That seek him, to wit, God, mentioned in the end of Psa 24:5, or his face, as it is more fully expressed in the next clause; i.e. that make it their care and study to know him, and his mind and will, and to please and serve him, as this phrase is usually understood.
Thy face, i.e. his face, by a familiar change of the person; of which many instances have been already noted; and his face, i. e. his grace and favour, which is oft called Gods face, as Gen 4:14; Exo 33:14,15; Psa 16:11; 27:2; 44:3. And so this phrase is used 2Ch 7:14; Psa 27:8; Hos 5:15. O Jacob; so the sense is, that seek the true church, here called Jacob; that desire the knowledge of it, and conversation with it; in which sense many are said to seek Solomons face, as the phrase is in the Hebrew, 1Ki 10:24; 2Ch 9:23, and the harlot to seek her lovers face, Pro 7:15. And so this is by some expounded of the Gentiles, who inquired after the true church, and finding it in Jacob, were desirous to become proselytes, and to join themselves to the church of Jacob or Israel. But it must be remembered that the psalmist is not here speaking of the calling of the Gentiles, but only of the character or qualification of the true Jacobites or Israelites, who cannot conveniently be said to seek the face of Jacob, i.e. their own. And the phrase of seeking the face of Jacob, or of the church, is no where used in Scripture. Or, as it is in the margin, O God of Jacob. But that seems to be too large a supplement. Or, this is Jacob, the pronoun this being easily understood out of the beginning of the verse. Or, the generation (which may in the same manner be supplied) of Jacob, Jacob being here put not for the person, but for the posterity of Jacob, as it is Gen 49:7; Num 23:7,10,23; Deu 32:9; Psa 14:7; or for the church or people of God, which is oft called Jacob or Israel as Isa 14:1; 41:8; 44:1,5,21, &c. So the sense is, This and this only is the true Jacob or Israel, or church of God, and all others are so only in name and title, although they be descended lineally from him. Or, in Jacob, the particle in being here understood, as it is in Psa 2:12; 17:12, and in many other places. So the sense of the place is, This is the true generation of them that seek Gods face in Jacob, i.e. either in Jacobs land or sanctuary, the only place where God was to be sought; or among the Jacobites or Israelites; by which he insinuates what is expressed Rom 9:6, that all are not Israel that are of Israel, and that all were not Israelites indeed that were sprung from Jacob, but only those of them who were such as he described, Psa 24:4. Compare Joh 1:47; Rom 2:28,29.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. JacobBy “Jacob,”we may understand God’s people (compare Isa 43:22;Isa 44:2, &c.), correspondingto “the generation,” as if he had said, “those whoseek Thy face are Thy chosen people.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This [is] the generation of them that seek him,…. The persons above described are such, who in every age are the generation of the children of God, and are accounted by him for a generation; they are such that seek him, in the first place, with their whole hearts, and in Christ, where they find him;
that seek thy face, O Jacob. By the “face” of God is meant the favour of God, the discoveries of his love, the light of his countenance, than which nothing is more desirable to gracious souls, or more sought after by them; and by Jacob is meant the God of Jacob; and so Apollinarius has it in his metaphrase; see Ps 10:1; unless Christ should be intended, one of whose names is Israel, Isa 49:3; or the words may be supplied, as they are by some Jewish writers m, “this is Jacob”; or the persons before described are the seed of Jacob, and who are called by his name: and it may be observed, that the church of God often bears the same name, Isa 43:1; and then the sense is, the persons whose characters are given above are fit to ascend, and stand in the holy hill of God, are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile.
Selah; on this word, [See comments on Ps 3:2].
m Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6. This is the generation. I have just now observed, that by the demonstrative pronoun this, the Psalmist erases from the catalogue of the servants of God all counterfeit Israelites, who, trusting only to their circumcision and the sacrifices of beasts, have no concern about offering themselves to God; and yet, at the same time, they rashly thrust themselves into the church. Such persons may pretend to have delight in the service of God, by often coming to his temple, but they have no other design than to withdraw themselves from him as far as they can. Now, as nothing was more common in the mouths of each of them than to say, that they all belonged to the holy seed, the Psalmist has limited the name of holy generation to the true observers of the law; as if he had said, All who have sprung from Abraham, according to the flesh, are not, on that account, his legitimate children. It is, no doubt, truly said in many other places, as we shall see in Psa 27:0, that those sought the face of God who, to testify their godliness, exercised themselves in the ceremonies before the ark of the covenant; that is to say, if they were brought thither by a pure and holy affection. But as hypocrites seek God externally in a certain way, as well as true saints, while yet they shun him by their windings and false pretences, (548) David here declares that God is not sought in truth unless there go before a zealous cultivation of holiness and righteousness. To give the sentence greater emphasis, he repeats it, using the second person, and addressing his discourse to God. (549) It is as if he summoned before the judgment-seat of God hypocrites, who account it nothing falsely to use the name of God before the world; and he thus teaches us, that whatever they may say in their empty talk among men, the judgment of God will be a very different matter. He adds the word Jacob, for the confirmation of the same doctrine putting it for those who were descended from Jacob; as if he had said, Although circumcision distinguishes all the seed of Jacob according to the flesh from the Gentiles, yet we can only distinguish the chosen people by the fear and reverence of God, as Christ said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (Joh 1:47.)
(548) “ Lequel toutesfois ils fuyent par leurs destours et faux semblans.” — Fr.
(549) He first says, “That seek him,” and next, “That seek thy face.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) O Jacob.The address to Jacob is certainly wrong, and therefore many critics, following the LXX. and Syriac, rightly insert, as in our margin, the words O God of.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. This is the generation Such persons as have just been described; these constitute a peculiar race, generation, or kind, separated from the world.
That seek thy face, O Jacob “To seek the face” of any one is to seek his favour, to endeavour to secure those benefits which arise from an intimate relation to him, as 1Ki 10:24: “And all the earth sought the face [margin] of Solomon, to hear his wisdom.” See Hos 5:15. To “seek the face of Jacob” is to seek fellowship with the people called by his name the Israelites and, by implication, to seek God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Reader, do remark, in confirmation of what went before, that here is now a change of persons. The two preceding verses treated of one person, and one only. Here we have a plurality of persons, even a generation. And what doth all this mean, but that the generation of Christ seekers, even that seed of Christ which God the Father promised him ( Isa_44:4-5; Isa_53:10 ), and concerning whom Christ himself speaks (Psa 22:30 .) shall, by virtue of his righteousness, and their right and title in that righteousness, from their union with him, be admitted also upon his holy hill, and enjoy all the privileges of his redeemed? Reader, it is beautiful, it is glorious to see our interests thus clear and incontrovertible, from our oneness with Christ. Here is all safe, all is secure. But if our admission into God’s holy hill here below in church communion, or our everlasting admission into the heaven above, depended upon our clean hands and a pure heart; or even taking into our view Christ’s righteousness, as a partly-procuring cause to make our hands clean and our hearts pure; when will any man, that knows what passes every day within, find confidence of ever ascending there? Surely nothing short of the righteousness of Christ himself, as the very righteousness in which his seed and the generation of them that seek his face, are accepted and justified, can give comfort now, or confidence in the day of judgment.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 24:6 This [is] the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
Ver. 6. This is the generation of them that seek him ] These are the true seekers, far different from those that so style themselves today; being no better indeed than the Jesuits’ by-blows bastards , as one wittily calleth them, though they are not yet so wise as to know their own father (Mr Baxter). These are a generation too, but an evil and adulterous one, in these last and loosest times of abounding and abetted errors.
That seek thy face
O Jacob
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This = Such: i.e. not a “new cart” (2Sa 6:3), but the Kohathites. See Num 7:9; Num 4:2, Num 4:15. Deu 10:8; Deu 31:9, &c; and compare 2Sa 6:13. 1Ch 15:2.
generation = class or circle. Here, the Kohathites. Compare Psa 22:30.
O Jacob. Septuagint and Syriac read “O God of Jacob”.
Jacob. See notes on Gen 32:28; Gen 43:6; Gen 45:26, Gen 45:28.
Selah. Connecting the first triad with the Ark of Jehovah: transferring our thoughts from the general claim to the particular making of the claim by this event. See note on Psa 24:10, and App-66.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
This is: Psa 22:30, Psa 73:15, Isa 53:10, Rom 4:16, 1Pe 2:9
that seek: Psa 27:8, Psa 105:4, Joh 1:47
O Jacob: or, O God of Jacob
Reciprocal: Psa 14:5 – the generation Isa 45:19 – Seek Isa 51:1 – ye that seek
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 24:6. This is the generation of them that seek him The true progeny, which God regards, that make it their care and study to know him, and his mind and will, and to please and serve him. Whereby he reflects upon them who boasted of, and trusted in, their carnal descent from Abraham and the other patriarchs. That seek thy face, O Jacob That is, O God of Jacob, that seek thy grace and favour, often called Gods face. Such ought the people to be who seek the presence of God, and approach to worship him in the sanctuary. And such ought they to be who celebrate the ascension of the Redeemer, and hope, one day, to follow him into those happy mansions which he is gone before to prepare for them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:6 This [is] the {b} generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
(b) Though circumcision separates the carnal seed of Jacob, from the Gentiles, yet he who seeks God, is the true Jacob and an Israelite.