Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:36
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
36. But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied unto him with their tongue (R.V.).
As though God were a man who could be deceived by hypocrisy. Cp. Isa 29:13.
According to the Massoratic reckoning, this is the middle of the 2527 verses of the Psalter, but it must be remembered that the titles of the Psalms are frequently reckoned as verses in the Hebrew text ( Introd. p. xvi).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth – The word rendered flatter means properly to open; and hence, to be open; to be ingenious or frank; and then, to be easily persuaded, to be deluded, to be beguiled; and hence, also, in an active form, to persuade, to entice, to seduce, to beguile, to delude. The meaning here is, that they attempted to deceive by their professions, or that their professions were false and hollow. Those professions were the mere result of affliction. They were based on no principle; there was no true love or confidence at the foundation. Such professions or promises are often made in affliction. Under the pressure of heavy judgments, the loss of property, the loss of friends, or the failure of health, people become serious, and resolve to give attention to religion. It is rarely that such purposes are founded in sincerity, and that the conversions apparently resulting from them are true conversions. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render the phrase here, They loved with their mouth.
And they lied unto him with their tongues – They made promises which they did not keep.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 78:36
Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth.
Flattering God
I. Here is a world-wide enormity.
1. It is rampant in heathendom. Men flatter their gods.
2. It is prevalent in Christendom. Looking at the moral character of England, for example, who can doubt that the vast majorities of all Churches flatter God by the use of the hymns they sing and the prayers they repeat?
II. Here is a monstrous absurdity. Poor man is so vain that he likes flattery, and is deceived by it. But to use it to Omniscience is the height of pre-posity. He knows what is in man. He abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found.
III. Here is a moral abomination. What an insult to Omniscience! (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth] What idea could such people have of God, whom they supposed they could thus deceive? They promised well, they called him their God, and their fathers’ God; and told him how good, and kind, and merciful he had been to them. Thus, their mouth flattered him. And they said that, whatever the Lord their God commanded them to do, they would perform.
And they lied unto him.] I think the Vulgate gives the true sense of the Hebrew: Dilexerunt eum in ore suo; et lingua sua mentiti sunt ei, – “They loved him with their mouth; and they lied unto him with their tongue.” “That is,” says the old Psalter, “thai sayde thai lufed God, bot thai lighed, als thair dedes schewes; for thai do noght als thai hight; for when God ceses to make men rad; than cese thai to do wele.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They made glorious but false professions and protestations of their sincere resolutions of future obedience, if God would spare them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
36. lied . . . tonguesafeigned obedience (Ps 18:44).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth,…. In prayer to him, they only drew nigh to him with their mouths, and honoured him with their lips; they showed much love to him and his ways and ordinances hereby; but their hearts were not with him, but after their lusts; they made fine speeches and fair promises, but their hearts and mouths did not agree; they spoke with a double heart, thinking and endeavouring to “deceive” the Lord, as the word b here used signifies; but he is not to be deceived, nor will he be mocked; the Targum is,
“they allured (or persuaded) him, with their mouth;”
they attempted to do so; the Syriac and Arabic versions are, “they loved him with their mouth”; professed great love and sincere affection to him, when they had none:
and they lied unto him with their tongues; to lie unto men is bad, but to God is worse; and it is a most vain and foolish thing, since there is not a word in the tongue of any but is known to him.
b “quamvis conarentur eum decipere”, Junius Tremellius “attamen decipiebant eum”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
36. And they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. Here they are charged with perfidiousness, because they neither confessed their guilt with sincerity of heart, nor truly ascribed to God the glory of their deliverance. We are not to suppose that they made no acknowledgement at all; but it is intimated that the confession of the mouth, as it did not proceed from the heart, was constrained and not voluntary. This is well worthy of being noticed; for from it we learn, not only the duty incumbent upon us of guarding against that gross hypocrisy which consists in uttering with the tongue, before men, one thing, while we think a different thing in our hearts, but also that we ought to beware of a species of hypocrisy which is more hidden, and which consists in this, that the sinner, being constrained by fear, flatters God in a slavish manner, while yet, if he could, he would shun the judgment of God. The greater part of men are mortally smitten with this disease; for although the divine majesty extorts from them some kind of awe, yet it would be gratifying to them were the light of divine truth completely extinguished. It is, therefore, not enough to yield an assent to the divine word, unless that assent is accompanied with true and pure affection, so that our hearts may not be double or divided. The Psalmist points out the cause and source of this dissimulation to be, that they were not steadfast and faithful By this he intimates, that whatever does not proceed from unfeigned purity of heart is accounted lying and deceit in the sight of God. Since this uprightness is every where required in the law, he accuses the people with being covenant-breakers, because they had not kept the covenant of God with that fidelity which became them. As I have observed elsewhere, there is always to be presupposed a mutual relation and correspondence between the covenant of God and our faith, in order that the unfeigned consent of the latter may answer to the faithfulness of the former.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 78:36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
Ver 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth ] They looked pitifully, as the fox caught in a gin doth, but it is only to get out; they spake God fair, as the devil in the Gospel did our Saviour, but it was only to be rid of him. They worshipped him, as the Indians do the devil, that he may do them no hurt. The Latin word Colo, to worship, is by some derived of the Greek word , to flatter, and the English word flatter, from the Greek , to worship. Sure it is that many men’s devotion is mere dissimulation.
And they lied unto him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tongues. Hebrew = tongue (singular)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Nevertheless: Psa 106:12, Psa 106:13, Deu 5:28, Deu 5:29, Isa 29:13, Eze 33:31, Hos 11:12
lied: Psa 18:44, *marg.
Reciprocal: 2Ch 24:2 – Joash Psa 33:1 – praise Psa 50:16 – thou shouldest Psa 66:3 – submit themselves Psa 119:118 – their deceit Isa 59:13 – lying Isa 63:8 – children Jer 3:10 – Judah Act 8:21 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:36-37. Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth As if they thought, by mere fair speeches, to prevail on Him who searches the heart, and requires truth in the inward parts, to revoke the sentence gone out against them, or remove the judgment under which they suffered. And they lied unto him with their tongue They made glorious but false professions and protestations of their sincere resolutions of future obedience. For their heart was not right with him All their confessions and petitions were but hypocritical and forced, and did not proceed from hearts truly upright and grieved for their former offences, and firmly resolved to turn unto the Lord. Neither were they steadfast in his covenant They discovered their hypocrisy, by their apostacy from God, as soon as their danger was past.