Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 62:10
Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart [upon them].
10. The first two lines (cp. Psa 62:9 a, 11 a, b) are a rhythmical division of what is logically one sentence: put not vain trust in oppression and robbery.’ Do not rely, for you will only be deceived, upon wealth and material resources amassed by violence and wrong, instead of trusting in God ( Psa 62:8). It is a warning against the old temptation to follow might rather than right. ‘Oppression and robbery’ are often coupled. See Lev 6:2; Lev 6:4; Eze 22:29; and cp. Isa 30:12.
if riches increase &c.] Lit. if riches grow, pay no regard. The Psalmist addresses those who were in danger of being tempted to covet the power which wealth brings, no matter what might be the means used for obtaining it. There are indications that social discontent was a factor in the momentary success of Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 4:6).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Trust not in oppression – The general meaning here is, that we are not to trust in anything but God. In the previous verse the psalmist had stated reasons why we should not trust in men of any rank. In this verse he enumerates several things on which people are accustomed to rely, or in which they place confidence, and he says that we should put no confidence in them in respect to the help which we need, or the great objects which are to be accomplished by us. The first thing mentioned is oppression; and the idea is, that we must not hope to accomplish our object by oppressing others; extorting their property or their service; making them by force subject to us, and subservient to our wishes. Many do this. Conquerors do it. Tyrants do it. The owners of slaves do it.
And become not vain in robbery – That is, Do not resort to theft or robbery, and depend on that for what is needed in life. Many do. The great robbers of the world – conquerors – have done it. Thieves and burglars do it. People who seek to defraud others of their earnings do it. They who withhold wages from laborers, and they who cheat in trade, do it.
If riches increase, set not your heart upon them – If you become rich without oppression, or without robbery. If your riches seem to grow of themselves – for that is the meaning of the original word (compare Mar 4:2) – do not rely on them as being all that you require. People are prone to do this. The rich man confides in his wealth, and supposes that he has all he needs. The psalmist says that none of these things constitute the true reliance of man. None of them can supply his real needs; none can defend him in the great perils of his existence; hone can save his soul. He needs, over and above all these, a God and Saviour; and it is such a God and Saviour only that can meet the real needs of his nature.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 62:10
If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
The increase of wealth
I. Here is a circumstance which most desire. Who does not desire the increase of his secular possessions? This desire is virtuous, or otherwise, according to the grand reason that originates and governs it.
1. There is a wrong reason. When wealth is desired either for its own sake, or for purposes of display, ease, voluptuousness, and self-indulgence, the desire for acquisition is vitiated and corrupt. These are the ends of mere worldly men in the aspiration.
2. There is a right reason. He who desires wealth in order properly to discipline his spiritual nature, alleviate the woes of humanity, and help forward the cause of truth, right and benevolence, is righteous in this acquisitive propensity.
II. Here is a possibility which some may possess. The possibility is the increase of riches. This increase in the ease of many, perhaps, is all but impossible; still, in the case of others, it is not so. Poor men often get rich in one of two ways; either with, or without, their own efforts.
1. With their own efforts. By inventive skill, well-directed industry, mercantile forecast, and systematic economy, very often we find poor men rising from great poverty to immense wealth. When such a result is reached apart from fallacious representations, fraudulent transactions and unrighteous speculations, it is at once gratifying and commend: able.
2. Without their own efforts, Not a few indolent and worthless men become rich. By birth they come into an inheritance, or by a kind of luck they are endowed with handsome legacies. Seldom in such cases is wealth of any real worth to its possessors: and it often proves their moral ruin.
III. Here is a duty which all should obey. What is that? Set not your heart upon them. However in manner, or amount, they may increase, they should not occupy the heart. But why?
1. Because to love them is unworthy of your nature. The soul was made to set its affections upon moral, not material, worth, upon the Divine attributes of imperishable mind, not upon the qualities of corruptible matter, The money-lover prostitutes his affections and degrades his nature.
2. Because to love them is to injure your nature. The man who loves wealth offers violence to the dictates of his conscience, fills his heart with harassing cares and anxieties, and materializes the Divine affections of his nature. We become like the objects we love; the man who loves his gold becomes like a miserable grub or a lump of clay.
3. Because to love them is to exclude God from your nature. The soul is so constituted that it cannot love two opposite things supremely at the same time.
4. Because to love them is to bring ruin on your nature. The greatest agony of the soul is bereavement–the separation from the object we love. Such a separation is inevitable where wealth is loved; here the lover and the loved must eternally part. (Homilist.)
The heart in the wrong place
In one of the art galleries of Italy there is a curious picture, by an early painter, which represents a sick man stretched on his bed, and his physicians come to visit him. They have examined their patient, and ascertained his malady to be that his heart is gone–it has altogether disappeared. From a pulpit near by, St. Anthony of Padua is preaching on the text, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He announces where the sick mans heart will be found; and the clue he furnishes is followed up in another compartment by a group of the sick mans friends, who open his strong box, and stand amazed at discovering the missing member reposing among the abundant gold pieces. It is as true as though it was a literal fact, that the heart may be enticed from its rightful place to lie among earthly treasures.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Trust not in oppression] Do not suppose that my unnatural son and his partisans can succeed.
Become not vain in robbery] If ye have laid your hands on the spoils of my house, do not imagine that these ill-gotten riches will prosper. God will soon scatter them to all the winds of heaven. All oppressors come to an untimely end; and all property acquired by injustice has God’s curse on it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Trust not in oppression; as you may not trust any other men, so neither must you trust to yourselves, nor to your own wit, or industry, or courage, by which you may oppress others, and so think to secure and enrich yourselves.
Become not vain; lifting up and feeding yourselves with vain hopes, and expectations of safety and felicity, from those riches which you take from others by robbery or violence.
Set not your heart upon them; so as to please yourselves immoderately in them, to place your hope, and trust, and chief joy in them, or to grow proud and insolent because of them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Not only are oppression androbbery, which are wicked means of wealth, no grounds of boasting;but even wealth, increasing lawfully, ought not to engross the heart.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Trust not in oppression,…. Either in the power of oppressing others; see Isa 30:12; or in riches gotten by oppression, which being put into a man’s hand by his friend, he keeps, and will not return them; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it of mammon unlawfully obtained; mammon of unrighteousness, or unrighteous mammon; see
Jer 17:11;
and become not vain in robbery; in riches gotten by open rapine and theft; and men become vain herein when they boast of such riches, place their confidence in them, and think to make atonement for their sins by burnt sacrifices purchased with them, Isa 61:8;
if riches increase; in a lawful way, in such manner as the fruits of the earth do, as the word m used signifies: if they increase in great abundance from a little, as from one grain of corn many proceed; and insensibly, as the seed sown grows up, a man knows not how, through diligence and the blessing of God from heaven;
set not your heart [upon them]; your affections on them; they are ensnaring, they are apt to take the heart from God, to draw off the affections from Christ and things above, to choke the word, and lead into many temptations and harmful lusts; let not your hearts be elated, or lifted up with them; be not highminded, or filled with pride and vanity on account of them; nor put any trust in them, for they are uncertain things. Jarchi interprets it of the increase of the riches of others; see Ps 49:16.
m “cum pullulaverit”, Montanus; “efflorescunt”, Cocceius; “germinant, fructificant”, Amama.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 Trust not in oppression and robbery We are here taught that there can be no real trusting in God until we put away all those vain confidences which prove so many means of turning us away from him. The Psalmist bids us remove whatsoever would have this tendency, and purge ourselves of every vicious desire that would usurp the place of God in our hearts. One or two kinds of sin only are mentioned, but these are to be understood as representing a part for the whole, all those vain and rival confidences of which we must be divested before we can cleave to God with true purpose and sincerity of heart. By oppression and robbery may be understood the act itself of abstracting by violence, and the thing which has been abstracted. It is obviously the design of the passage to warn us against the presumption and hardihood of sin, which is so apt to blind the hearts of men, and deceive them into the belief that their evil courses are sanctioned by the impunity which is extended to them. Interpreters have differed in their construction of the words of this verse. Some join to each of the nouns its own verb, reading, Trust not in oppression, and be not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. (421) Others connect the words oppression and robbery with the first verb, and make the second to stand apart by itself in an indefinite sense. It is of very little consequence which of the constructions we adopt, since both express the main sentiment; and it is evident that the Psalmist, in condemning the infatuated confidence of those who boast in robbery, appropriately terms it a mere illusion of the mind, with which they deceive or amuse themselves. Having denounced, in the first place, those desires which are plainly evil and positively wicked, he proceeds immediately afterwards to guard against an inordinate attachment even to such riches as may have been honestly acquired. To set the heart upon riches, means more than simply to covet the possession of them. It implies being carried away by them into a false confidence, or, to use an expression of Paul, “Being high-minded.” The admonition here given is one which daily observation teaches us to be necessary. It is uniformly seen that prosperity and abundance engender a haughty spirit, leading men at once to be presumptuous in their carriage before God, and reckless in inflicting injury upon their fellow-creatures. But, indeed, the worst effect to be feared from a blind and ungoverned spirit of this kind is, that, in the intoxication of outward greatness, we be left to forget how frail we are, and proudly and contumeliously to exalt ourselves against God.
(421) The words are thus connected in our English version.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) If riches increase.Even if by honest means you grow rich, distrust your wealth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Oppression robbery The two words differ more in the manner of acquiring than in the thing acquired. The former denotes that which is acquired by deceit and guile, the latter that which is gotten by force or violence. In either case the psalmist admonishes his enemies not to be elated by sudden success, nor put confidence in wealth or power thus gained, for both they and their works are subject to the judgment of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 62:10-12. Trust not in oppression, &c. Trust not in oppression and rapine; become not vain: If riches, &c. Psa 62:11. One thing God hath pronounced; there are two which I have heard; Psa 62:12 that power belongeth unto God, and that to thee, Lord, belongeth favour; for thou wilt render to every man according to his work. These three verses are directed to oppressors, probably those from whom he had been in danger; not to be too eager after ill-gotten power or riches, nor to trust too much upon them; since there are two things confessedly against them, the power and the goodness of God, by which he was able and willing to do justice to all mankind, to protect his friends, and defeat their enemies. The phrase, God hath spoken, &c. is only used to shew the certainty of the thing. Archbishop Tillotson compares it to those of the Latins, Semel atque iterumfelices ter et amplius, &c. And, indeed, it is common with writers of all languages, to use a certain number for an uncertain one. See his Sermon on this text.
REFLECTIONS.1st, David here,
1. Professes his confidence in God for protection and safety: as he made him alone his rock and defence, he waited, or was silent; without impatience or distrust expected to see the salvation of God. Numerous and mischievous as his foes were, he knew that he should not be greatly moved; tempted he might be in difficulties and dangers, but still safe under the defence of the Almighty. Note; Patient and submissive resignation of our souls to God, is the certain way to a happy issue out of all our afflictions.
2. He foresees the ruin of his enemies, whose character he describes. They were mischievous; plotted how to deprive him of his crown and dignity, delighted to propagate lies to injure him; and with perfidious treachery, while they professed outward kindness, their hearts within rankled with malice. But vain were their designs to thrust him down whom God had promised to exalt. Note; (1.) A lying tongue will be the curse of its owner. (2.) Traitors will find an avenging God. (3.) They who trust in God, may defy all their enemies to hurt them.
3. He encourages his soul to wait only upon God, and strengthens his faith in him by a variety of epithets. My rock; who can move me? my salvation, who can destroy me? my defence, who can hurt me? my glory, in whom I will make my boast; my strength, to make me more than conqueror; my refuge, under whose wings I shall be safe. Note; (1.) They are truly blessed and happy who can say, This God is my God. (2.) The expectation of the faithful cometh only from God, he is to them all and in all. (3.) The believer’s rejoicing is never in himself, but in his exalted Head; he will ever say, My God is my glory.
2nd, His own experience of the blessedness of dependance upon God, urges him to invite all to come and taste the same felicity. Trust in him at all times; ye people, ye people of Israel, and all the Israel of God, wherever dispersed, or however distressed, at all times make God your trust, to guide, protect, preserve, and strengthen you; pour out your heart before him, in earnest and importunate prayer, and tell him of all your troubles with freedom: for God is a refuge for us; for me, and for you, and all who fly to him as their rock and hope alone, renouncing every other ground of confidence, which would be utterly insufficient to support their souls. He cautions them therefore,
1. Not to trust in men, neither of high nor low degree, whose multitude, or greatness, or wisdom, can afford us no safety; they are deceitful helps, and in the day of trial will prove lighter than vanity. Note; The more we cease from man, and entirely cleave to God, the more secure shall we be from disappointment.
2. Not to trust in riches, however obtained, whether by oppression or extortion, by open violence or robbery; or by the most lawful means, honest labour or inheritance. Note; Gain is often a great foe to godliness, and gold too often made the rival of God in the heart: a state of prosperity is exceedingly dangerous, and they who are in it, have as much need to pray in all time of their wealth as of their tribulation, Good Lord, deliver us!
3. He exhorts them to trust in God as their never-failing refuge; and this because of his faithfulness, power, mercy, and justice. He hath spoken once, yea, twice, confirming the souls of his faithful people. His omnipotence none dare encounter; his mercy is infinite, and we may therefore always hope in it; and his justice impartial, therefore shall the enemies of his name and people be destroyed, and those who were oppressed with wrong be vindicated. Good reason then there is, that at all times he should be alone exalted as our only hope and help. Note; The more we consider God’s perfections and promises, as manifested to us in a covenant of grace, the more cause we shall see to depend on him as our Almighty strength, to trust him as infinite in goodness, and abundant in mercy, and to expect from him present protection and eternal glory.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 62:10 Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart [upon them].
Ver. 10. Trust not in oppression, &c. ] In the fail of persons. Some may think that things may be trusted to, as wealth, wit, power, &c., but especially wealth, 1Ti 6:17 . Trust not to that, saith the Psalmist, whether it will be ill or well gotten, unless you covet to be deceived; for, first, he who getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days, and in his end be a fool, a poor fool God will make of him, Jer 17:11 , Male parta male dilabentur.
If riches increase
Set not your heart upon them
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heart. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), for the affections connected with it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Trust: Job 20:19, Job 20:29, Isa 28:15, Isa 30:12, Isa 47:10, Isa 59:4, Jer 13:25, Jer 17:11
riches: Psa 39:6, Psa 52:7, Deu 6:10-12, Deu 8:12-14, Job 27:16-23, Job 31:24, Job 31:25, Mar 8:36, Mar 8:37, Mar 10:23, Luk 12:15-21, 1Ti 6:17
set: Psa 91:14, Pro 23:5
Reciprocal: Exo 7:23 – neither Deu 17:17 – neither shall he 1Sa 9:20 – set not 2Ch 11:16 – set Job 11:12 – For vain Job 15:31 – trust Psa 49:6 – trust Psa 73:12 – they Pro 11:28 – that Pro 18:11 – General Pro 30:8 – Remove Ecc 1:2 – General Ecc 5:10 – He that Jer 9:23 – rich Jer 31:21 – set thine Jer 49:4 – trusted Eze 28:5 – and by Dan 6:9 – signed Hos 10:13 – didst Hos 12:8 – Yet Mat 6:19 – General Mat 13:22 – the deceitfulness Mar 10:24 – trust Luk 12:19 – Soul Col 3:2 – Set 1Pe 1:18 – vain
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 62:10. Trust not in oppression That is, in riches gotten by fraud and violence; or in the arts of acquiring them. As you must not trust in any other men, so neither must you trust to yourselves, nor to your own wit, or industry, or courage, by which you may oppress others, and so think to secure and enrich yourselves. And become not vain in robbery Lifting up and feeding yourselves with vain hopes of safety and felicity from those riches which you take from others by robbery and violence. If riches increase, set not your heart on them So as to esteem and inordinately love them, to place your hope, and trust, and chief joy in them, or so as to grow proud and insolent because of them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
62:10 Trust not in oppression, and {h} become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart [upon them].
(h) Give yourselves wholly to God by putting away all things that are contrary to his law.