Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 55:14
We took sweet counsel together, [and] walked unto the house of God in company.
14. We were wont to take sweet counsel together,
To walk in the house of God with the throng.
Ours was an habitual intimacy of the closest and most sacred kind, in confidential intercourse in private, in companionship in the worship of God in public. The throng is the festal procession or assembly of worshippers; the “multitude keeping holyday” of Psa 42:4 (where however the word for throng is different). The P.B.V. as friends follows the LXX , ‘in concord,’ Vulg. cum consensu.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We took sweet counsel together – Margin, who sweetened counsel. Literally, We sweetened counsel together; that is, We consulted together; we opened our minds and plans to each other; in other words, We found that happiness in each other which those do who freely and confidentially communicate their plans and wishes – who have that mutual satisfaction which results from the approval of each others plans.
And walked unto the house of God in company – We went up to worship God together. The word rendered company means properly a noisy crowd, a multitude. The idea here is not that which would seem to be conveyed by our translation – that they went up to the house of God in company with each other, but that both went with the great company – the crowd – the multitude – that assembled to worship God. They were engaged in the same service, they united in the worship of the same God; associated with those that loved their Maker; belonged to the companionship of those who sought his favor. There is nothing that constitutes a stronger bond of friendship and affection than being united in the worship of God, or belonging to his people. Connexion with a church in acts of worship, ought always to constitute a strong bond of love, confidence, esteem, and affection; the consciousness of having been redeemed by the same blood of the atonement should be a stronger tie than any tie of natural friendship; and the expectation and hope of spending an eternity together in heaven should unite heart to heart in a bond which nothing – not even death – can sever.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 55:14
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
The union of religion with friendship recommended
I. Religion will, in a very high degree, multiply and exalt the present pleasures of friendship. The pleasure of sympathy, we know, always hears a direct proportion to the magnitude and intrinsic interest of the subject by which it is excited. It will be readily granted, that when the subjects of our contemplation possess intrinsic dignity, when our thoughts themselves are high and employed upon high things, we feel greater pleasure in their interchange, and mark with warmer satisfaction the sympathy of those whom we esteem. But for grandeur of extent and depth of interest united, where is the subject that will bear a moments comparison with religion?
II. The pleasure which we take in the sympathy of our friends on any subject will be affected, not only by its inherent dignity and importance, but also by the relation which it bears to ourselves personally, by the individual interest, greater or less, which we have in it. Those circumstances and events in which we feel ourselves most immediately and deeply concerned; our prospects in life, for instance, our plans of usefulness or enjoyment, the fortunes and interests of our connections, the characters and conduct of our friends–these are the subjects which are reserved most carefully for the private ear of friendship, on which we look for corresponding emotions of sympathy with the greatest anxiety, and hail them with the most lively pleasure. To have the same desires and the same aversions, has been said to constitute true friendship; to the perfection of which, therefore, it must be necessary, that these desires and aversions exist in corresponding strength, where the exciting causes are the same. The deeper the interest felt, and the more complete the sympathy, the greater will be the pleasure derived from it. But what is there of more essential importance to our happiness than religion?
III. As the pleasures of religious sympathy are likely to be greater in proportion to the superior dignity and deeper interest of the exciting cause; so also will they be heightened by reflection on the purity and excellence of the source from which they spring. Combined pleasures heighten and improve each other. Do we receive gratification from a worthy object, from one which we know ought to excite it? The consideration of the worth of that object, and the moral approbation consequent thereon, increase the gratification. Sympathetic feelings of satisfaction and pleasure may be called forth very strongly by a trifling and unworthy cause; but when this is the case, such pleasure will unavoidably be diminished by reflection; it will not bear examination; it cannot stand the test of time. Not so the pleasures of religious sympathy; the sources of these are always high and exalted; the subjects of them ever worthy the contemplation of the immortal soul. (A. R. Beard.)
Religion the assuager of the pains, and consoler of the sorrow, of friendship
I. In the tedious hours of absence, how powerful is the influence of religion to calm the anxieties, and keep alive the sympathies, of friendship.
Friends who have a lively faith, a firm confidence in an omnipresent God, need never consider themselves as separate or far distant from each other. Mountains may intervene, oceans may roll between them; one may dwell on the bosom of the boundless deep, the other far inland, in the valley amongst the hills; yet are they not apart; they have a bond of union of which the world thinks not; they are, and feel themselves, united in Him who is never far from any one of us, but in whom, at every instant of time, we live, and move, and have our being. God is with them as their common father, benefactor, and friend,
II. Religion will have power to console us when obliged to witness the temporal sufferings of those whom we love. Who is there that does not grieve to trace the expression of pain or sorrow in the countenance of a friend, especially when he feels himself unable to remove the source from which it springs? A friend is cast down in the world, and we possess not the means of raising him; he is tortured by disease, to which we can bring no relief; these, indeed, are severe trials, yet religion will teach us how to bear and to improve them. It is from her we learn that the Father of our race doth never willingly afflict or grieve His children –that He chastens them not for His own pleasure, but for their profit, that they may be made partakers of His holiness. These, surely, are consolatory words to him who is called to witness the sufferings of a friend; words that may serve at once to console his own mind, and to suggest to him the best topics of consolation.
III. Religion will bring consolation to us, when suffering under a painful sense of the moral imperfections of our friends. She will carry our view forward to that blessed country where sin and sorrow shall be no more, where the great enemy shall cease from troubling, and the good man, freed from the assaults of temptation, shall be at rest. Then shall the good qualities of the virtuous friend shine forth with unclouded lustre, and the attachment formed on earth be continued in heaven, unalloyed by sorrow and undisturbed by sin.
IV. Even to him who mourns the utter moral degradation and consequent estrangement of a friend, religion will bring some comfort. She will soothe him with the consciousness of having done everything to prevent a catastrophe so mournful. She will provide him with a sure refuge in that Friend who cannot become unworthy of him, and will not desert him. (A. R. Beard.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Walked unto the house of God in company.] Or with haste; for the rabbins teach that we should walk hastily TO the temple, but slowly FROM it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We took sweet counsel together; I imparted my secret thoughts and designs to him with great delight and satisfaction.
We walked unto the house of God; we agreed no less in exercises of piety, than in acts of state and policy. In company; or, in comfort, or with consent; as all the ancients render it. He seemed as forward in religion as I.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. in companyliterally,”with a crowd,” in a festal procession.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We took sweet counsel together,…. Not in religious matters; for in these the testimonies of the Lord were David’s counsellors,
Ps 119:24; but in civil things: hearty counsel is one branch of friendship, and which greatly sweetens it, Pr 27:9; as this may be applied to Christ and Judas, it may denote the mutual delight and pleasure they had, the one in communicating, the other in receiving a notional knowledge of the Gospel, and the mysteries of it, which are the counsel of God, Ac 20:27; for if hearers may hear the word gladly, as Herod did, and receive it with joy, as did the stony ground hearers, and yet be destitute of the grace of God; why may not Judas, and other preachers devoid of true grace, be thought to receive and preach the doctrines of the Gospel in a speculative way, with some kind of delight and pleasure? so professors of religion take sweet counsel together, when they communicate to each other what light and knowledge they have in the mysteries of the Gospel, and converse about experience, and the mysteries and secrets of internal godliness, and give and take advice in spiritual things; and sad it is when anyone of these drop their profession, and reproachers, scoffers, or persecutors;
[and] walked unto the house of God in company: David with his royal family and courtiers, and Ahithophel among the rest; where he delighted to go, and that with a multitude. So Christ and Judas often went to the temple together, with the rest of the disciples, who heard many an excellent sermon from his mouth: all which are further aggravations of sin and guilt. And so such persons, who have walked together to the house of God and in it, have attended together on public worship, and walked together in holy fellowship; when any of these forsake the assembling of themselves together, scoff at religion, speak evil of ordinances, reproach the saints, or persecute them, it is very shocking, cutting, and grieving indeed.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) And walked . . .i.e., joined the great public processions to the temple. (Comp. Psa. 44:4.) The word rendered company occurs again (Psa. 64:2. Authorised Version, insurrection. Comp. the same root, Psa. 2:1.) The intimacy of these former friends was public as well as private.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. We took sweet counsel together Their mutual counsel on public affairs had been made sweet by friendship and confidence. The word “counsel” is rendered secret, secret counsel, Psa 25:14; Psa 64:2; Pro 3:32. Thus far their personal and political life had been blended. The secrets of government and state policy were well known to Ahithophel. But more than this was their religions life. “We walked unto the house of God in company.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 55:14 We took sweet counsel together, [and] walked unto the house of God in company.
Ver. 14. We took sweet counsel together ] It was my great delight to confer and consult with him, especially about the things of God and the exercises of religion; which is or should be sacratissimum inter homines vinculum, the straitest tie of all. Religioa religando.
And walked unto the house of God in company
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in company = with the multitude. Hebrew. regesh. Occurs only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
We took sweet counsel together: Heb. Who sweetened counsel, walked. Psa 42:4, Psa 122:1, Isa 2:3, Eze 33:31
Reciprocal: 2Sa 15:31 – Ahithophel Psa 62:9 – of high Psa 84:5 – in whose Jer 20:10 – All my familiars Mat 26:50 – Friend Mar 14:18 – One Joh 6:71 – being