Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 89:51
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
51. Cp. Psa 79:12, of which Psa 89:50 is also a partial reminiscence.
the footsteps of thine anointed ] They are like a rabble hooting and insulting him wherever he goes. Cp. Psa 17:11; Jer 12:6 (R.V.). May not the phrase have been suggested by the recollection of actual insults offered to the discrowned Jehoiachin as he was led through the streets of Babylon in the conqueror’s triumph? Insults offered to the king are insults at once to Jehovah and to the people whose representative he was.
The Targum interprets the words of the delay of Messiah’s Advent. “For thine enemies reproach, O Lord, they reproach the slowness of the footsteps of Thine Anointed.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord – Have reproached thee and me. Wherewith they reproach thy character and cause, and reproach me for having trusted to promises which seem not to be fulfilled. As the representative of thy cause, I am compelled to bear all this, and it breaks my heart.
Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed – Of myself, as the anointed king. They have reproached my footsteps; that is, they have followed me with reproaches – treading along behind me. Wherever I go, wherever I put my foot down in my wanderings, I meet this reproach.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 51. They have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.] They search into the whole history of thy people; they trace it up to the earliest times; and they find we have been disobedient and rebellious; and on this account we suffer much, alas, deserved reproach. The Chaldee gives this clause a singular turn: “Thy enemies have reproached the slowness of the footsteps of the feet of thy Messiah, O Lord. We have trusted in him as our great Deliverer, and have been daily in expectation of his coming: but there is no deliverer, and our enemies mock our confidence.” This expectation seems now wholly abandoned by the Jews: they have rejected the true Messiah, and the ground of their expectation of another is now cut off. When will they turn unto the Lord? When shall the veil be taken away from their hearts?
“Bend by thy grace, O bend or break
The iron sinew in their neck!”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, of thy Messiah; by whom he seems to understand either, first, the kings of Judah, the singular number being put for the plural; and by their footsteps may be meant either their ways or actions, and the sad consequences thereof; or the traces or memorials of their ancient splendour and dominion, wherewith they now upbraid them: or rather, secondly, the Messiah, most properly and eminently so called; of whom not only many Christians, but the Chaldee paraphrast and the Hebrew doctors, understand this place. And this suits very well, both with the singular number here used, which points at one particular and eminent person anointed by God to be the king of his people, and with the matter and occasion of this Psalm. For it was universally believed by the Jews, that the Messiah should come of the seed of David, and that by him the ancient glory and power of Davids house should be revived and vastly increased. And this coming of the Messiah the Jews did continually expect for a long time together before he did come, and supported themselves therewith under all their calamities; all which being well known to many of the heathens, they reproached the Jews with the vanity of this belief and expectation. And by the footsteps of the Messiah he may understand his coming, as by the feet or footsteps of ministers, Isa 52:7, their coming and bringing the gospel with them is understood.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
49-51. The terms ofexpostulation are used in view of the actual appearance that God hadforsaken His people and forgotten His promise, and the plea for aidis urged in view of the reproaches of His and His people’s enemies(compare Isa 37:17-35).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord,…. Which carries in it another argument why the Lord should take notice of these reproaches; because they come not only from their enemies, but from his also, and the enemies of his Son, who would not have him, the King Messiah, to reign over them, and are said to reproach him in the next clause:
wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine Anointed; or thy Messiah; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it of the Messiah: Jarchi renders it “the ends of the Messiah”; and all of them understand it of the coming of the Messiah, as in the Talmud d; which, because delayed, or was not so soon as expected, was scoffed at and reproached by wicked men; see Mal 2:17, but it rather designs the ways and works, actions, and especially the miracles of Christ, which were reproached, either as done on the sabbath day, or by the help of Satan; and he was traduced in his kindest actions to the bodies and souls of men, as a friend of publicans and sinners, and himself as a sinner: and it may have a particular view to the latter end of the Messiah, the last part of his life, his sufferings and death, and when he hung on the cross; at which time he was, in the most insolent manner, reviled and reproached by his enemies: the words may be rendered “the heels of the Messiah” e, and are thought by some to have reference to the promise in Ge 3:15, and may regard either the human nature of Christ, which was both reproached and bruised; or his members suffering disgrace and persecution for his sake, and which he takes as done to himself. Suidas f interprets it of the ancestors of Christ, according to the flesh; and Theodoret of the kings of that time.
d Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1. e “calcibus”, Vatablus; “calcaneos”; Gussetius, Michaelis. f In voce .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
51. With which thy enemies, O Jehovah! have reproached thee. What the Psalmist now affirms is, not that the wicked torment the saints with their contumelious language, but that they revile even God himself. And he makes this statement, because it is a much more powerful plea for obtaining favor in the sight of God, to beseech him to maintain his own cause, because all the reproaches by which the simplicity of our faith is held up to scorn recoil upon himself, than to beseech him to do this, because he is wounded in the person of his Church; according as he declares in Isaiah,
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Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed; and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 37:23)
That wicked robber Rabshakeh thought that he scoffed only at the wretched Jews whom he besieged, and whose surrender of themselves into his hands he believed he would soon witness; but God took it as if he himself had been the object whom that wicked man directly assailed. On this account also, the prophet calls these enemies of his people the enemies of God; namely, because in persecuting the Church with deadly hostility, they made an assault upon the majesty of God, under whose protection the Church was placed.
In the second clause, by the footsteps of Messiah or Christ is meant the coming of Christ, even as it is said in Isa 52:7,
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How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!” (Isa 52:7)
The Hebrew word עקב, akeb, sometimes signifies the heel; but here, as in many other passages, it signifies the sole of the foot. Others translate it the pace or step, but this gives exactly the same sense. There can be no doubt, that footsteps, by the figure synecdoche, is employed to denote the feet; and again, that by the feet, according to the figure metonomy, is meant the coming of Christ. The wicked, observing that the Jews clung to the hope of redemption, and patiently endured all adversities because a deliverer had been promised them, disdainfully derided their patience, as if all that the prophets had testified concerning the coming of Christ had been only a fable. (560) And now also, although he has been once manifested to the world, yet as, in consequence of his having been received up into the glory of heaven, he seems to be far distant from us, and to have forsaken his Church, these filthy dogs scoff at our hope, as if it were a mere delusion.
(560) “ De la revelation faite a Samuel.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(51) Footsteps . . .Every step taken by Israel was the subject of reproach. Rabbinical writers connect the verse with the delay of the Messiah, since it brings reproach on those who wait for him in vain.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
51. Reproached the footsteps That is, reproaches “follow him everywhere, wheresoever he may go, and whatsoever he may do.” Delitzsch. There is no truce to the assaults of sin and Satan upon the Church. Thus dies away the voice of this sad complaint, but faith gives a happier omen, and a silver lining to the cloud, in the sweet doxology of the closing verse.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Ver. 51. The footsteps of thine anointed ] Heb. The heels or soles of the foot, that is, his doings and sufferings. The Chaldee and others render it, tarditares, moras Christi tui, the delays of thy Christ in coming, whom, therefore, they taunt us with, velut tardigradum vel loripedem et claudum, and say, Where is the promised Messiah?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they have: Mat 5:10-12, Act 5:41, 1Co 4:12, 1Co 4:13, Heb 10:33, Heb 11:36
footsteps: Psa 56:5, Psa 56:6, Psa 57:3, 2Sa 16:7, 2Sa 16:8, Mat 12:24, Mat 26:61, Joh 8:48, 1Pe 2:20, 1Pe 2:21, 1Pe 3:16, 1Pe 4:14-16
Reciprocal: Num 15:30 – reproacheth Neh 2:17 – a reproach Psa 31:11 – I was Psa 44:13 – makest Psa 69:9 – and the Psa 74:10 – General Psa 74:18 – Remember Psa 74:22 – remember Psa 89:38 – wroth Psa 102:8 – Mine Psa 123:3 – for we are Isa 25:8 – rebuke Isa 37:17 – hear Lam 5:1 – behold Joe 2:17 – and give Rom 15:3 – The Heb 11:26 – the reproach
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 89:51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed Or, of the Messiah. By whom he seems to understand, either, 1st, The kings of Judah, the singular number being put for the plural; and by their footsteps may be meant either their ways or actions, and the sad consequences thereof, or the memorials of their ancient splendour. Or, 2d, The Messiah himself, whose coming the Jews continually expected, for a long time together before he came, and supported themselves with the expectation of him under all their calamities. All which being well known to many of the heathen, they reproached the Jews with the vanity of this belief and expectation. And by the footsteps of the Messiah he may understand his coming.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
89:51 Wherewith {k} thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the {l} footsteps of thine anointed.
(k) So he calls them who persecute the Church.
(l) They laugh at us who patiently wait for the coming of your Christ.