Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 95:10
Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
10. was I grieved ] The Heb. is stronger; did I loathe (Eze 6:9).
this generation ] “ This ” is not in the Heb., which seems to mean, with a ( whole) generation. But it is better to read with LXX and Jer., with that generation.
And I said, They are a people whose heart goeth astray,
And they know not my ways.
Wandering from the right way (Psa 58:3; Isa 29:24; Isa 53:6); incapable of understanding the leadings of God’s Providence (Psa 81:13).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Forty years long – All the time that they were in the wilderness. During this long period their conduct was such as to try my patience and forbearance.
Was I grieved – The word used here – qut – means properly to loathe, to nauseate, to be disgusted with. It is translated loathe in Eze 6:9; Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; and grieved in Psa 119:158; Psa 139:21. It is here expressive of the strong abhorrence which God had of their conduct. Compare Rev 3:16.
With this generation – With the entire generation that came out of Egypt. They were all cut off in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua.
And said, It is a people – It is a characteristic of the entire people, that they are disposed to wander from God.
That do err in their heart – In the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb 3:10 where this is quoted, it is, They do always err in their heart. The sense is substantially the same. See the notes at that place.
And they have not known my ways – See the notes at Heb 3:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 95:10-11
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.
Israels provocation against God, and the punishment inflicted on them
I. The conduct of israel. Their conduct was marked by ignorance and error. They have not known My ways, and they do err in their hearts.
1. Ignorance is not always criminal. Some things we cannot know, through the limited nature of out faculties; other things God does not choose for us to know (Deu 29:29); and others it is not our interest to know. God will never impute blame for unavoidable ignorance.
2. When the most important subjects are presented to us, and the most favourable means offered for knowing them, then ignorance is highly criminal. This was Israels case. Does not our conduct too nearly resemble theirs?
3. Error was another of their crimes. Ignorance produces error (Mat 22:29). Errors are of two sorts,–of judgment, and of heart. Errors of judgment may consist with rectitude of heart; the heart may be right with God, where erroneous opinions warp the judgment. But errors of heart are the most deadly and destructive that exist upon earth; when the affections are perverted and the heart wanders from God. This was Israels error (Isa 5:20; Isa 29:13). And this error in heart gave birth to error in the life (Isa 28:7).
II. The effect produced by this conduct. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, etc.
1. God takes cognizance of human conduct. He sees all our actions, whether in the broad daylight, or amidst impenetrable darkness, for the darkness and the light are both alike to Him: and He sees them as they are.
2. The ignorant and erroneous conduct of men is highly offensive to God. His is the grief of a Father whose bowels yearn over the miseries of a child (Jer 31:20; Hos 11:8).
3. God exercises long patience with His creatures (Act 13:18).
III. The punishment which this conduct merited. Unto whom I sware in My wrath, etc.
1. Whatever forbearance God may exercise towards His creatures, yet a continuance of crime must ultimately produce the infliction of punishment.
2. Israels punishment was a deprivation of rest; They should not enter into My rest. This threatening primarily referred to the exclusion of Israel from the land of Canaan (Num 14:22-23). This was a land of rest, compared with the toils and perils of the wilderness (Exo 33:14). But Canaan was typically representative of heaven (Heb 4:11). They shall not enter into it–they have no preparation for it, and no promise of possession.
3. The awfully affecting language in which the threatening is expressed leads us to reflect on the terrible doom of its subject; I sware in My wrath. Illustrated by Num 14:28-29; Num 14:35.
IV. Inferences.
1. Learn what ideas we ought to entertain of sin.
2. That ignorance and error which some deem perfectly innocent expose men to the wrath of God.
3. That sin in the professing people of God is attended with peculiar aggravations.
4. That the doom of impenitent sinners is certain and irreparable. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Forty years long] They did nothing but murmur, disbelieve, and rebel, from the time they began their journey at the Red Sea till they passed over Jordan, a period of forty years. During all this time God was grieved by that generation; yet he seldom showed forth that judgment which they most righteously had deserved.
It is a people that do err in their heart] Or, according to the Chaldee, These are a people whose idols are in their hearts. At any rate they had not GOD there.
They have not known my ways] The verb yada, to know, is used here, as in many other parts of Scripture, to express approbation. They knew God’s ways well enough; but they did not like them; and would not walk in them. “These wretched men,” says the old Psalter, “were gifnen to the lufe of this lyfe: knewe noght my ways of mekenes, and charite: for thi in my wreth I sware to thaim; that es, I sett stabely that if that sall entre in till my rest;” that is, they shall not enter into my rest.
This ungrateful people did not approve of God’s ways – they did not enter into his designs – they did not conform to his commands – they paid no attention to his miracles – and did not acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands; therefore God determined that they should not enter into the rest which he had promised to them on condition that, if they were obedient, they should inherit the promised land. So none of those who came out of Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, entered into Canaan; all the rest died in the wilderness, wherein, because of their disobedience, God caused them to wander forty years.
It is well known that the land of Canaan was a type of heaven, where, after all his toils, the good and faithful servant is to enter into the joy of his Lord. And as those Israelites in the wilderness were not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan because of their unbelief, their distrust of God’s providence, and consequent disobedience, St. Paul hence takes occasion to exhort the Jews, Heb 4:2-11, to accept readily the terms offered to them by the Gospel. He shows that the words of the present Psalm are applicable to the state of Christianity; and intimates to them that, if they persisted in obstinate refusal of those gracious offers, they likewise would fall according to the same example of unbelief. – Dodd.
ANALYSIS OF THE NINETY-FIFTH PSALM
This Psalm contains two parts: –
I. An exhortation to praise God, to adore, worship, kneel, Ps 95:1-2; Ps 95:6.
II. Reasons to persuade to it.
1. God’s mercies, Ps 95:3-5; Ps 95:7.
2. His judgments in punishing his own people Israel for neglect of this duty.
I. The psalmist begins this Psalm with an earnest invitation, including himself; saying, –
1. “O come, let us;” come along with me. Though a king, he thought not himself exempted.
2. And the assembly being come together, he acquaints them what they came for: –
1. “To sing to the Lord.” 1. Heartily, joyfully: “Let us make a joyful noise;” make a jubilee of it. 2. Openly, and with a loud voice: “Let us make a joyful noise with Psalms.” 3. Reverently, as being in his eye, “his presence.” 4. Gratefully: “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving.”
2. “To worship, to bow down, to kneel,” Ps 95:6. Adoration, humble adoration; outward worship – that of the body, as well as inward – that of the soul, is his due; and that for these reasons: –
II. 1. Because he is “the Rock of our salvation;” whether temporal or spiritual. So long as we rely on him as a Rock, we are safe from the tyranny of men, from the wrath of God, from the power of the devil, death, and hell.
2. Because he is “a great God, and a great King above all gods,” JEHOVAH, a God whose name is I am, an incommunicable name to any other; for his essence is from himself, and immutable; all others derivative and mutable; and the great JEHOVAH, great in power, majesty, and glory; for he “is above all gods.”
3. The whole orb of the earth is under his power and dominion: “In his hands are all the corners of the earth; the strength of the hills is his also.” The globe in all its extensions is subject to him.
4. And no wonder, for he is the Creator of both, which is another argument: “The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.”
5. “He is our Maker,” the Creator and Lord of men also.
6. Our Lord God in particular, for he hath called us to be his inheritance: “For we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
In which duty, if we fail, he proposeth what is to be expected by the example of the Israelites.
I. God gave them a day, and he gives it to you; it is the hodie, to-day, of your life.
2. In this day he speaks, he utters his voice: outwardly he speaks by his word; inwardly, by his Spirit.
3. This you are bound to hear, to obey.
4. And it is your own fault if you hear it not, for you may hear it if you will; to that purpose he hath given you a day: “To-day if you will hear his voice.”
5. Suppose you hear it not; the cause is, the hardness of your hearts: and take heed of it; “harden not your hearts.”
For then it will be with you as it was with the Israelites.
I. “As in the day of temptation in the wilderness,” at Meribah and Massah.
2. “When your fathers,” the Israelites that then lived, “tempted me and proved me.” They asked whether God was among them or not? They questioned my power, whether I was able to give them bread and water, and flesh?
3. And they found that I was able to do it: “They saw my works;” for I brought them water out of the rock, and gave them bread from heaven, and flesh also.
Their stubbornness was of long continuance, and often repeated, for it lasted forty years: “Forty years was I grieved with this generation;” which drew God to pass this censure and verdict upon them: –
1. His censure was, that they were an obstinate perverse people, “a people that do always err in their hearts;” that were led by their own desires, which caused them to err; the way of God they would not go in; they knew it not, that is, they liked it not.
2. This verdict upon them: “Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest;” i.e., literally, into the land of Canaan that I promised them. The oath is extant, Nu 14:28-29. “As I live, saith the Lord, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness;” and in the wilderness they did fall, every one except Caleb and Joshua, a fearful example against stubbornness and disobedience. Let him that readeth understand.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
With this generation; or rather, with that generation which then lived, who were your ancestors.
Do err in their heart; they do not only sin through infirmity, and the violence and surprisal of temptations, but their hearts are insincere and inconstant, and given to backsliding, and therefore there is no hopes of their amendment. Compare Psa 78:8.
They have not known; or, they do not know, to wit, with a practical and useful knowledge, as that word commonly notes in Scripture. They did not rightly understand, nor duly consider, nor seriously lay to heart; they remain ignorant after all my teachings and discoveries of myself to them.
My ways; either,
1. My laws or statutes, which are frequently called Gods ways. Or rather,
2. My works, as it is expressed, Psa 95:9, which also are commonly so called. They did not know nor consider and remember those great things which I had wrought for them and among them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. err in their heartTheirwanderings in the desert were but types of their innate ignorance andperverseness.
that they shouldnotliterally, “if they,” c., part of the form ofswearing (compare Num 14:30Psa 89:35).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,…. The generation of the wilderness, as the Jews commonly call them; and which was a stubborn and a rebellious one, whose heart and spirit were not right with God, Ps 78:8, wherefore, speaking after the manner of men, God was grieved with them, as he was with the old world, Ge 6:6, or he was “weary” of them, and “loathed” them as the word l sometimes signifies; wherefore, after the affair of the spies, to which Aben Ezra thinks this had reference, they did not hear from the mouth of the Lord, there was no prophecy sent them by the hand of Moses, as the same writer observes; nor any history or account of them, from that time till they came to the border of Canaan; so greatly was their conduct and behaviour resented: and it was much such a term of time that was between the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist and of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem; during which time the Jews tempted Christ, tried his patience, saw his works, and grieved his Spirit, which brought at last ruin upon them:
and said, it is a people that do err in their heart; he was not only inwardly grieved with them, but, speaking after the same human manner, he gave his grief vent, he spoke and gave this just character of them. The apostle adds “alway”, Heb 3:10 and so does the Arabic version here, and which is implied in the words “do err”; they not only had erred, but they continued to do so; and their errors were not merely through weakness, ignorance, and mistake, but were voluntary, and with their whole hearts; they sprung from their hearts, which were desperately wicked; they erred willingly and wilfully; and this the Lord, the searcher of hearts, knew and took notice of:
and they have not known my ways; they had his law, his statutes, and his judgments, and so must know the ways he prescribed them to walk in; but they did not practically observe them: or his ways of providence; which they did not take that notice of as they ought to have done; they did not consider them as they should, nor improve them in the manner as became them; they were not thankful for their mercies as they ought; nor did the goodness of God lead them to repentance.
l “fastidio habui”, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, so Cocceius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. Forty years I strove with this generation (67) The Psalmist brings it forward as an aggravation of their perverse obstinacy, that God strove with them for so long a time without effect. Occasionally it will happen that there is a violent manifestation of perversity which soon subsides; but God complains that he had constant grounds of contention with his people, throughout the whole forty years. And this proves to us the incurable waywardness of that people. The word generation is used with the same view. The word דור, dor, signifies an age, or the allotted term of human life; and it is here applied to the men of an age, as if the Psalmist had said, that the Israelites whom God had delivered were incorrigible, during the whole period of their lives. The verb אקוט, akut, which I have rendered I strove, is, by some, translated contemned, and in the Septuagint it reads, προσωχθισα, (68) I was incensed, or enraged; but Hebrew interpreters retain the genuine meaning, That God strove with them in a continual course of contention. This was a remarkable proof of their extreme obstinacy; and God is introduced in the verse as formally pronouncing judgment upon them, to intimate, that after having shown their ungodliness in so many different ways, there could be no doubt regarding their infatuation. Erring in heart, is an expression intended not to extenuate their conduct, but to stamp it with folly and madness, as if he had said, that he had to do with beasts, rather than men endued with sense and intelligence. The reason is subjoined, that they would not attend to the many works of God brought under their eyes, and more than all, to his word; for the Hebrew term דרך, derech, which I have rendered ways, comprehends his law and repeated admonitions, as well as his miracles done before them. It argued amazing infatuation that when God had condescended to dwell in such a familiar manner amongst them, and had made such illustrious displays of himself, both in word and works, they should have shut their eyes and overlooked all that had been done. This is the reason why the Psalmist, considering that they wandered in error under so much light as they enjoyed, speaks of their stupidity as amounting to madness.
(67) “ The men of that age, or, as we say in English, the generation then upon the stage.” — Stuart on Heb 3:10.
(68) “ προσωχθιζα I was indignant, was offended at The word is Helenistic. The Greeks use ὀχθέω and ὀχθίζω According to etymology, it consists of πρός, to, against, upon, and ὀχθη, bank, shore It is applied primarily to a ship infringing upon the shore, or, as we say, running aground. It answers to the Hebrew מאס קוט קו, etc.” — Stuart on Heb 3:10
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) See Notes, Heb. 3:17, New Testament Commentary.
I grieved.Better, I loathed.
A people that do err.Literally, a people of wanderers in heart. They are morally astray through ignorance of Gods paths.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Forty years long was I grieved That is, disgusted, made to loathe, as the word imports. This not only illustrates the long suffering of God, but the incurable malignity of their sin. After all their bitter experience and rejection at Kadesh, the remaining thirty-eight years of wandering in the desert offered nothing pleasing to God, and effected no radical change in their manners. Nothing is recorded of those years of wandering except the names of their principal encampments. See on Psa 90:9.
Generation To be understood qualitatively and not quantitatively; of the nature or kind of people, rather than the simple, aggregate body of those who perished in the wilderness. See note on Psa 22:30.
Err in their heart The evil lay deep in the moral nature, as at enmity with God.
“Err,” here, means confused, wandering; descriptive of one who has lost his way, and who fails in all his efforts to regain it. This was because of the state of their heart, which made them inapt to learn God’s ways.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Ver. 10. Was I grieved ] Litigavi, vel cum taedio pertuli.
That do err in their hearts
They have not known
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
this. Supply the Ellipsis by substituting “that”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 95:10
Psa 95:10
“Forty years long was I grieved with that nation,
And said, It is a people that do err in their heart,
And they have not known my ways.”
Alas, the tragic story of the wilderness sojourn of Israel is prophetic of the church of Christ itself. The current dispensation of God’s grace corresponds in many ways to the probationary journey of Israel from the Red Sea to the Jordan, typical, as they are, of the Christian’s journey from the waters of his baptism to the Jordan of death.
Only two exceptions survived the death of that generation, namely, Caleb and Joshua, and these two symbolize the “few” that shall be saved among the legions of alleged believers in Christ. Christians, in ordering their walk before God, should ever remember that, “Narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it” (Mat 7:14).
Those scholars who like to dwell on the liturgical use of this psalm, generally assign it to the great Jewish Festival of Tabernacles. At Psa 95:7, above, a priest is supposed to have interrupted the singing with the blunt warning of Psa 95:7-11, recounting the disaster that came to Israel in the wilderness, resulting in the loss of an entire generation of them.
Kidner pointed out the appropriateness of this warning to such an occasion as the Feast of Tabernacles. That great Jewish feast commemorated the stirring events of the Wilderness Wanderings; and the people, recalling those days of the homelessness of the people, re-lived those eventful times by constructing brash arbors (as we would call them) and living in those make-shift residences during the week of the festival.
Kidner noted that, “If Israel, in holiday mood, remembering the history of the Wilderness, and perhaps romanticizing it (as all of us are tempted to do for `the good old days’), actually received this warning at the Feast of Tabernacles, it would have been a cold douche of realism. It would have starkly reminded the whole nation of how utterly displeased was the Heavenly Father with that first generation that he led out of Egyptian slavery. Let it be noted that this psalm’s being identified with the feast of Tabernacles cannot exclude its Davidic authorship.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 95:8-10. These verses are grouped in one paragraph because they pertain to the same thought, and because they are quoted in the New Testament as a single passage. (Heb 3:7-11.) It has reference to the time of 40 years when the children of Israel were going through the wilderness. Through all that period the Lord was provoked by the stubborn behaviour of the nation. It was especially the leaders of the congregation who incited the others to rebel. Not known my ways means they had not recognized the right ways of life as directed by the Lord. They preferred to have their own way and were continually raising the banner of revolt.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Forty: Num 14:33, Num 14:34, Num 32:13, Deu 1:3, Deu 2:14-16, Heb 3:9, Heb 3:10, Heb 3:17
grieved: Gen 6:6, Eph 4:30
err: Isa 63:17, Heb 3:10, Heb 3:17
and they: Pro 1:7, Pro 1:22-29, Jer 9:6, Joh 3:19-21, Rom 1:28
Reciprocal: Jos 5:6 – walked Jos 24:7 – ye dwelt Psa 119:118 – err Isa 43:24 – filled me Jer 5:23 – a revolting Jer 44:22 – could Eze 16:43 – but hast Amo 2:10 – and led Mal 2:17 – wearied Mat 17:17 – how long shall I be Mar 3:5 – grieved Act 7:42 – of forty Heb 9:7 – errors
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 95:10. Forty years long, &c. Nor did they cease their discontented murmurings and distrust of me; but persisted in their stubborn infidelity and disobedience for the space of forty years; was I grieved with this generation Or rather, with that generation, which then lived, who were your ancestors; and said, It is a people that do err in their heart They not only sin through infirmity, and the violence and surprise of temptation, but their hearts are insincere and inconstant, and given to backsliding, and therefore there is no hope of their amendment. And they have not known Or, they do not know, namely, with a practical and useful knowledge; they do not rightly understand, nor duly consider, nor seriously lay to heart, my ways That is, either, 1st, My laws, or statutes, which are frequently called Gods ways; or, rather, 2d, My works, as it is explained Psa 95:9, which also are often so called. They do not know nor consider those great things which I wrought for them and among them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do {g} err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
(g) They were without judgment and reason.