{"id":14487,"date":"2022-09-24T05:32:15","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-psalms-3725\/"},"modified":"2022-09-24T05:32:15","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T10:32:15","slug":"exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-psalms-3725","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-psalms-3725\/","title":{"rendered":"Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:25"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 align='center'><b><i> I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p> <strong> 25, 26<\/strong>. Stanza of <em> Nn<\/em>. An appeal to the experience of a long life in confirmation of the preceding stanzas. He has never seen the righteous permanently deserted by God, or his children reduced to homeless beggary (<span class='bible'>Psa 109:10<\/span>). Cp. <span class='bible'><em> Psa 37:28<\/em><\/span> <em> ; <span class='bible'><em> Psa 37:33<\/em><\/span><\/em>; <span class='bible'>Psa 9:10<\/span>; <span class='bible'>Gen 28:15<\/span>. Temporary impoverishment and apparent abandonment for a time need not be supposed to be excluded.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\"><B>I have been young &#8211; <\/B>The idea in this whole passage is, I myself have passed through a long life. I have had an opportunity of observation, wide and extended. When I was a young man, I looked upon the world around me with the views and feelings which belong to that period of existence; when in middle life, I contemplated the state of things with the more calm and sober reflections pertaining to that period, and to the opportunities of wider observation; and now, in old age, I contemplate the condition of the world with all the advantages which a still wider observation and a longer experience give me, and with the impartial judgment which one has who is about to leave the world. And the result of all is a conviction that religion is an advantage to man; that God protects His people; that He provides for them; that they are more uniformly and constantly blessed, even in their worldly affairs, than other people, and that they do not often come to poverty and want. There is a sad kind of feeling which a man has when he is constrained to say, Ihave been young; for it suggests the memory of joys, and hopes, and friends, that are now gone forever. But a man may have some claim to respect for his opinions when he is constrained to say it, for he can bring to the coming generation such results of his own experience and observation as may be of great value to those who are young.<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\"><B>And now am old &#8211; <\/B>This demonstrates that this psalm was one of the later productions of its author; and the psalm has an additional value from this circumstance, as stating the results of a long observation of the course of affairs on the earth. Yet there is much that is solemn when a man is constrained to say, I am old. Life is nearly ended. The joys, the hopes, the vigor of youth, are all gone. The mature strength of manhood is now no more. The confines of life are nearly reached. The next remove is to another world, and that now must be near; and it is a solemn thing to stand on the shores of eternity; to look out on that boundless ocean, to feel that earth, and all that is dear on earth, is soon to be left forever.<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\"><B>Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken &#8211; <\/B>Forsaken by God; so forsaken that he has not a friend; so forsaken that he has nothing with which to supply his wants.<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\"><B>Nor his seed begging bread &#8211; <\/B>Nor his children beggars. This was a remarkable testheony; and though it cannot be affirmed that the psalmist meant to say literally that he had never, in any instance, met with such a case &#8211; for the language may have been intended as a general statement, yet it may have been true to the letter. In the course of a long life it may have occurred that he had never met with such a case &#8211; and if so, it was a remarkable proof of the correctness of the general remarks which he was making about the advantage of piety. It is not now universally true that the righteous are not forsaken, in the sense that they do not want, or in the sense that their children are not constrained to beg their bread, but the following things, are true:<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\">(a) that religion tends to make men industrious, economical, and prudent, and hence, tends to promote prosperity, and to secure temporal comforts;<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\">(b) that religion of itself impoverishes no one, or makes no one the poorer;<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\">(c) that religion saves from many of the expenses in life which are produced by vicious indulgence; and<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\">(d) that, as a general rule, it saves men and their children from the necessity of public begging, and from the charity-house.<\/P> <P STYLE=\"text-indent: 0.75em\">Who are the inmates of the poor-houses in the land? Who are the beggars in our great cities? Here and there, it may be, is one who is the child of pious parents, reduced by sickness or misfortune, or a lack of practical good sense &#8211; for religion does not alter the constitution of the mind, and does not impart the skill or talent upon which so much of the success in life depends; but the great mass of persons in our charity-houses, and of beggars in the streets, are themselves intemperate, or are the wives and children of the intemperate. They consist of those whom religion, as it would have made them virtuous and industrious, would have saved from rags and beggary. It may not now be literally true that anyone who has been young, and who is become old, could say that he had not once seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread; but the writer of these lines, who has this day &#8211; the day on which he pens them (Dec. 1, 1859) &#8211; reached the sixty-first year of his life, and who is constrained to say I have been young, though he may feel a reluctance to add, but now am old, can say, as the result of his own observation in the world, that, as a great law, the children of the pious are not vagrants and beggars. As a great law, they are sober, industrious, and prosperous. The vagrants and the beggars of the world are from other classes; and whatever may be the bearing of religion on the destinies of men in the future world, in this world the effect is to make them virtuous, industrious, prudent, and successful in their worldly affairs, so that their children are not left to beggary and want, but to respectability and to competence.<\/P><\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Albert Barnes&#8217; Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><span class='bible'>Psa 37:25<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The voice of age to youth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Between<em> <\/em>youth and age, in one sense, there is a great gulf fixed. It is impossible that there should be an entire intelligence on the one side; it is rare to find an entire sympathy on the other. And yet surely the old ought to have something to say to the young. Curiosity alone would bid them to find out what they can about that undiscovered country from which a voice comes to them, saying, When you reach it, you will find this and this&#8211;its feeling, its experience, its memory, its regrets, and its aspirations. If, in addition to this, anything could be said as to the best way of making the journey&#8211;anything as to the secret of a good old age, what has to be done, and what has to be avoided in the start; what companions would be congenial, and what insufferable, as the long future unfolds itself and the terminus is at last discernible in the distance&#8211;there would be no lack of listeners to such discourse. If in one sense there is a wide and deep chasm between youth and age, in another there is no break and no disruption at all between the two. We are all very ready to suppose that we shall have some notice, that we shall not pass quite unconsciously from young men into old. The very putting of the thought into words shows its futility. It is not so; one age of life shades off into another. Each particular day is of the same piece and colour with its yesterday and its to-morrow. The only notice given comes too late. The continuity is never snapped in twain; the tenor of the life is one and but one. The child is father of the man, and the man of the old man, and the old man of the everlasting being who lifts up the eyes for bliss or woe in Hades. No sin dies a natural death; it cannot be conquered without a battle. It can be a battle in which, in some sense, Satan casts out Satan, that is when pride, or ambition, or fear of the world, or dread of consequences, prevails against some particular evil tendency, and so to say, the body of sin cuts off from itself one member. Such is the history of many reforms and many amendments. Heaven keeps no register of them. They are neither here nor there as to the everlasting life of the man. This is one battle. Many men never fight even this battle. Many go on in their sins weakly, helplessly, till they are found out far on, or till they die in them, late or early, and go hence to be no more seen. But there is another battle with sin quite different in history and character, in course and end from this. This is when a man knowing that there is no gulf fixed by age or the lapse of time between him and sinning, knowing that no man sleeps off, or sleeping loses or outlives his sin, and knowing that he must not risk eternity in the chance of truth, whether taught by experience or taught by revelation, turning out after all a lie, tries upon himself the Gospel remedy, watches and prays, prays and watches, on the faith of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and with many failures and many defeats, yet withstands and is found standing, conquering, one by one, the sins of youth and the sins of age, till he may cast his crown before the Throne, and ascribe his salvation to God and the Lamb. To recommend this course, to press its reasonableness, its necessity, its urgency upon such as have ears to hear, this is why age speaks to youth, and this is what it is saying: Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, etc. (<em>Dean Vaughan.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Testimony from an aged saint<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The<em> <\/em>aged Christian is able, from his own experience, to testify to the protecting care of a Divine Fathers love. The difference between the testimony of an old man and a very young man is the difference between knowledge and supposition, between fact and surmise; it is the difference between the words of a veteran who carries the scars, the sword-cuts, and the bullet-wounds of many battlefields, and the words of the ruddy-faced youth who has not yet won his shoulder-straps.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><P> Verse <span class='bible'>25<\/span>. <I><B>I have been young, and<\/B><\/I><B> now <\/B><I><B>am old<\/B><\/I>] I believe this to be literally true in all cases. I am now grey-headed myself; I have travelled in different countries, and have had many opportunities of seeing and conversing with religious people in all situations in life; and I have not, to my knowledge, seen one instance to the contrary. I have seen no <I>righteous man forsaken<\/I>, nor any <I>children<\/I> of the righteous <I>begging their bread<\/I>. God puts this honour upon all that fear him; and thus careful is he of <I>them<\/I>, and of their <I>posterity<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Adam Clarke&#8217;s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><P> This assertion seems to be contradicted by many experiences; nor can it be denied, that both good men and their children have sometimes been reduced to great want. <\/P> <P><B>Quest.<\/B> How then is this true? <\/P> <P><B>Answ.<\/B> <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 1. Some render the last clause thus, <I>nor<\/I> (did I ever see) <\/P> <P><B>his seed, <\/B>( to wit, forsaken, as was now said,) though <\/P> <P><B>begging bread.<\/B> So the sense is, I have seen him brought to beggary, yet even then God did not forsake him. But this sense agrees not with the context nor scope, which is to show the plenty and prosperity where with God blesseth him. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 2. This is to be understood of the seed of the righteous treading in their fathers steps, from which if they degenerate, they lose all their privileges, as many places of Scripture witness. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 3. Some few exceptions do not destroy the truth of a general proposition. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 4. These temporal promises were more express and particular to the Jews in the times of the Old Testament, than to Christians in the New, and therefore were more literally fulfilled. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 5. He speaks not of any kind of wanting, or desiring, or receiving relief from others, for so David himself did, <span class='bible'>1Sa 21:3<\/span>; <span class='bible'>25:8<\/span>; but of the customary practice and trade of begging, which was threatened as a curse to the disobedient, <span class='bible'>Deu 28<\/span>; <span class='bible'>Psa 109:10<\/span>. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 6. <I>Not begging<\/I>, to wit, in vain; or so as to be <I>forsaken<\/I>, as was now expressed, and may very well be here understood; or so as to be sustained or relieved by others. <\/P> <P STYLE=\"margin-left: 0.85em;text-indent: -0.85em\"> 7. David speaks only of his own experience, which if since that time it be contradicted by other mens experiences, it is no more than what happens in all the concernments of human life. <\/P> <\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><strong>I have been young, and [now] am old<\/strong>,&#8230;. The psalmist makes mention of his age, which takes in the whole compass of his life, to command attention to what he was about to say; which was founded upon a long experience and observation of things, and was as follows;<\/p>\n<p><strong>yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken<\/strong>; though afflicted of God, and persecuted by men, yet not forsaken; though poor and needy, and often in necessitous circumstances, yet God in his providence appeared for them in one way or another; and so as Apollinarius paraphrases it,<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;I never knew a just man entirely needy;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> for such might be forsaken by men, and even by their dearest friends and relations, yet not by the Lord: they might indeed, at times, think themselves forsaken of him, and their enemies might conclude and say they were, and yet this was not their case, <span class='bible'>Isa 49:14<\/span>; and though they may be forsaken by him for a while, yet not utterly; he will not leave them and forsake them for ever, <span class='bible'>Isa 54:7<\/span>;<\/p>\n<p><strong>nor his seed begging bread<\/strong>; they being righteous also, which must be supposed; otherwise, as good men have wicked children, these, through their wickedness, may come to poverty, to beggary, as they sometimes do; though a distinction may be made between being poor and beggars; the seed of the righteous may be the one, and not the other: besides, there is a difference between asking bread of others, in some few instances, and constantly begging bread from door to door, in which last sense the psalmist must be understood here; for otherwise he himself in some cases, had asked bread, as of Ahimelech at Nob, and of Nabal, c. as did also Elijah of the widow of Sarepta: and though there might have been instances of some of the posterity of the righteous who got their bread by begging at the door, as in the case of Lazarus yet David had never observed any such instance during the time of his life, which shows that such instances are very rare; whereas among wicked men and their offspring the case is frequent and common. Again, it may be observed, that the psalmist is speaking in the context of righteous men that are liberal, and give to the poor freely and largely; and it is seldom if ever known that they or their children come to want and poverty. Once more, the word &#8220;forsaken&#8221; may be repeated in this clause, thus; &#8220;nor his seed begging bread forsaken&#8221; x; or seeking it in vain, and finally destitute of it; though they have been so reduced as to beg their bread, they have not been forsaken; they have find it, bread sufficient to support life, as Apollinarius paraphrases it; their bread has been given and their water sure; see <span class='bible'>Isa 41:17<\/span>. In an ancient Midrash y, or exposition of the Jews, the sense is thus given:<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;although his seed and his sons are begging bread, yet I have not seen the righteous man, their father, forsaken, because of his fear of the blessed God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>x &#8220;Justum non vidi derelictum, et semen justi quaerens panem non vidi derelictum&#8221;; so Hopfnerus, Titelmannus, Lorinus, Franzius apud Gejerum; &#8220;frustra quaerens panem, et finalitur destitutum&#8221;, Michaelis. y Vajikra Rabba, s. 35. fol. 175. 2.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: John Gill&#8217;s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p> There is an old theological rule: <em> promissiones corporales intelligendae sunt cum exceptione crucis et castigationis <\/em>. Temporary forsakenness and destitution the Psalm does not deny: it is indeed even intended to meet the conflict of doubt which springs up in the minds of the God-fearing out of certain conditions and circumstances that are seemingly contradictory to the justice of God; and this it does, by contrasting that which in the end abides with that which is transitory, and in fact without the knowledge of any final decisive adjustment in a future world; and it only solves its problem, in so far as it is placed in the light of the New Testament, which already dawns in the Book of Ecclesiastes.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Keil &amp; Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p> 25  I have been young, I am also become old.  The meaning of these words is not in the least doubtful, namely, that David, even when he was become an old man, had not seen any of the righteous, or any of their children, begging their bread. But here there arises a question of some difficulty with respect to the fact stated; for it is certain that many righteous men have been reduced to beggary. And what David here declares as the result of his own experience pertains to all ages. Besides, he refers in this verse to the writings of Moses, for in <span class='bible'>Deu 15:4<\/span>, begging is reckoned among the curses of God; and the law, in that place, expressly exempts from it those who fear and serve God. How then does the consistency of this appear, that none of the righteous ever begged his bread, since Christ placed Lazarus among the most abject of them? (<span class='bible'>Luk 16:20<\/span>.) I answer, that we must bear in mind what I have before said upon this subject, that with respect to the temporal blessings which God confers upon his people, no certain or uniform rule can be established. There are various reasons why God does not manifest his favor equally to all the godly in this world. He chastises some, while he spares others: he heals the secret maladies of some, and passes by others, because they have no need of a like remedy: he exercises the patience of some, according as he has given them the spirit of fortitude; and, finally, he sets forth others by way of example. But in general, he humbles all of them by the tokens of his anger, that by secret warnings they may be brought to repentance. Besides, he leads them, by a variety of afflictions, to fix their thoughts in meditation upon the heavenly life; and yet it is not a vain or imaginary thing, that, as is set forth in the Law, God vouchsafes earthly blessings to his servants as proofs of his favor toward them. I confess, I say, that it is not in vain, or for nought, that an abundance of earthly blessings, sufficient for the supply of all their wants, is promised to the godly. This, however, is always to be understood with this limitation, that God will bestow these blessings only in so far as he shall consider it expedient: and, accordingly, it may happen that the blessing of God may be manifested in the life of men in general, and yet some of the godly be pinched with poverty, because it is for their good. But if it happen that any of the faithful are brought to beggary, they should lift up their minds on high, to that blessed state in which God will largely recompense them for all that is now wanting in the blessings of this transitory life. We must also bear this in mind, that if God sometimes involve the faithful in the same punishments by which he takes vengeance upon the ungodly &#8212; seeing them, for example, affected with the same diseases, &#8212; in doing so there is no inconsistency; for although they do not come the length of contemning God, nor are devoted to wickedness, nor even act according to their own inclination, nor yield themselves wholly to the influence of sin like the wicked, yet are they not free of all blame; and, therefore, it need not surprise us though they are sometimes subjected to temporal punishments. We are, however, certain of this, that God makes such provision for his own people, that, being contented with their lot, they are never in want; because, by living sparingly, they always have enough, as Paul says, <span class='bible'>Phi 6:12<\/span>, <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>I am instructed both to abound and to suffer need.&#8221; <\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Calvin&#8217;s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p> <strong> 25<\/strong>. <strong> <\/strong> <strong> I have been young<\/strong>, etc. <strong> <\/strong> Undoubtedly the psalmist here gives the result of personal observation as an old man. <\/p>\n<p><strong> Have I not seen the righteous forsaken <\/strong> He gives the general law of providence, where the whole life is given to God. Not finally &ldquo;forsaken,&rdquo; though for a time he may be in temptation and want.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Whedon&#8217;s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><strong><em><span class='bible'>Psa 37:25<\/span><\/em><\/strong><strong>. <\/strong><strong><em>I have been young, <\/em><\/strong><strong>&amp;c.<\/strong> From the whole scope of this Psalm nothing can be plainer, than that it was intended by the author for a hymn on the equal providence of God; which at that time he did not fail to exercise towards the Jews; and an exhortation to those for whose use it was written, to depend and rely upon that; and this verse is a particular proof of it. The only difficulty is, how to reconcile this general assertion of David&#8217;s, with some complaints of his in other parts of his writings, where he seems to be much affected by the prosperity of the wicked. To obviate this difficulty, many learned men have thought, that though this verse runs in general terms, yet it is to be understood with some restriction, as many of the Proverbs are; and that David did not mean to say, that the righteous <em>never <\/em>were forsaken, without exception; but only that <em>in general <\/em>they were not; and that the instances of the contrary were so very rare that they did not deserve consideration. Possibly it might be so; but from the whole drift of this Psalm, I am rather inclined to think that the royal Psalmist intended we should understand him according to the letter. And his doctrine throughout his writings seems to have been this, &#8220;That though God might suffer the streams which conveyed his blessings to the righteous Jews, sometimes to be interrupted in their usual course, or to flow in different channels; yet after those purposes were answered, which occasioned the alteration, all things would come right again:&#8221; and, as he himself has summed it up, <span class='bible'>Psa 34:19<\/span>. <em>Great are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all. <\/em>Therefore he frequently exhorts them, not to fret and repine at the prosperity of the wicked, but to put their trust in God, to wait patiently, to abide and quietly expect the happy reverse of their present evil fortune: and the argument that he uses to enforce this all along is, because both the prosperity of the sinner, and the distress of the good man, should only be temporary and not last long. As to sinners, as Asaph observes, <span class=''>Psa 73:18<\/span> their exaltation seemed only to be to make their fall more conspicuous, and God&#8217;s dealing with them more remarkable. For though he lifteth them up, he setteth them in slippery places, then casteth them down, and destroyeth them. As to the good man, David seems to compare God&#8217;s constant care of him to that of a fond parent over his child, holding him by the hand, and carefully leading him to prevent his fall. <em>Though he fall, he shall not be cast away, for the Lord upholdeth his hand, <\/em>or <em>leadeth him by the hand. <\/em>In this verse he assures them, that his experience had always confirmed the doctrine he had been teaching. And he afterwards speaks to the same purpose concerning the prosperous sinner&#8217;s downfall; <span class='bible'>Psa 37:36-37<\/span>, where it is very probable that he had an eye to Saul. When David came first to Saul&#8217;s camp, he found that wicked prince in great power, in which he continued flourishing for several years. Nothing was more unlikely than that such a raw shepherd&#8217;s boy as David then was, should be exalted to the regal dignity in his room: and, considering his history in all its circumstances, this was as strong an instance of the divine providence as almost any which could be given. <\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p> This is a charming observation, founded on long experience, from youth to age: never was it known that the Lord forsook his redeemed. But, Reader! without my observing it, surely it will strike you, as it doth me, that the begging of bread means somewhat of more importance than the bread that perisheth; for many of God&#8217;s people have been driven to great straits and difficulties, by reason of outward circumstances of poverty. But if read with an eye to that bread which Jesus handeth in secret, and which none knoweth save he that receiveth; even in the deepest want the soul can say, in the language of his master, I have bread to eat that the world knows not of. <span class='bible'>Rev 2:17<\/span> ; <span class='bible'>Joh 4:32<\/span> . I detain the Reader just to remark on this last verse, concerning the mouth of the righteous, that it is the righteous One, even God&#8217;s holy One, that is here spoken of, and of whom, as the following verse saith, the law of his God is in his heart, or in his bowels, wrought up and forming part of his very nature. <span class='bible'>Psa 40:8<\/span> .<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Hawker&#8217;s Poor Man&#8217;s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p> Psa 37:25 I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.<\/p>\n<p> Ver. 25. <strong> I have been young, &amp;c.<\/strong> ] Here he recordeth an experiment of his (such as whereof Psa 119:1-176 is mostly made up), and if other men&rsquo;s experiences agree not altogether with his, it is no wonder; kings use not to mind beggars. Or he might only mean vagrants; according to that, &#8220;Let their children be vagabonds, and beg their bread.&#8221; Good men may be compelled to crave their bread, as David himself did of Ahimelech, the high priest; as Elijah did of the widow of Sarepta; as those <em> pauperes de Lugduno,<\/em> and many others have lived upon alms. But seldom or never have good people needed to crave relief of the ungodly. <\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/p>\n<p> Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken<\/strong> ] Left he may be for a time, as the lion leaveth his whelps till they are almost famished, and have well-nigh killed themselves with roaring, to make them more hardy and valiant, but never forsaken, no, though he beg his bread; because God hath said, &#8220;I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.&#8221; The righteous is never forsaken, nor his seed too, said Mr Perkins. God may cast godly parents into want, but their godly children shall surely he blessed. Others understand by righteous here, merciful men, who give alms for the love of God, and therefore come not to poverty, <span class='bible'>Psa 112:5<\/span> ; <span class='bible'>Psa 112:9<\/span> Pro 11:24-25 <span class='bible'>Psa 41:1<\/span> . See Mr Bradford&rsquo;s sweet letter to Mr John Hall and his wife, prisoners for the gospel (Acts and Mon. 1495).<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: John Trapp&#8217;s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p>I have: Psa 71:9, Psa 71:18, Job 32:6, Job 32:7, Act 21:16, Phm 1:8, Phm 1:9 <\/p>\n<p>yet: Psa 37:28, Psa 94:14, Jos 1:5, 1Sa 12:22, Isa 13:16, 2Co 4:9, Heb 12:5, Heb 12:6, Heb 13:5 <\/p>\n<p>nor his seed: Psa 25:13, Psa 59:15, Psa 109:10, Psa 112:2, Gen 17:7, Job 15:23, Pro 13:22, Luk 1:53-55 <\/p>\n<p>Reciprocal: Job 4:7 &#8211; who ever Psa 71:11 &#8211; God Psa 112:5 &#8211; showeth Pro 10:3 &#8211; will Pro 24:30 &#8211; went Pro 28:10 &#8211; but Mat 5:42 &#8211; General Mat 6:33 &#8211; and all Luk 12:31 &#8211; General<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p>Psa 37:25-26. I have been young, and now am old, &amp;c.  As if he had said, I say nothing but what I can confirm by my own long observation: when I was young I began to take notice of it; and I have continued so to do, till now that I am grown old: and I cannot remember that in all my life I ever saw a truly pious; just, and charitable man, left destitute of necessary things, or his children after him, (treading in his steps,) reduced to such poverty that they were constrained to beg from door to door.  Bishop Patrick. He is ever merciful and lendeth  He is so far from begging from others, that he hath ability, as well as inclination, to give, or lend to others, as need requires. And his seed is blessed  Not only with spiritual, but with temporal blessings, wherewith God rewards his benevolence and liberality to the poor and destitute. So far shall he be from wasting his property, and undoing himself and family by his charity and bounty, as covetous and worldly people supposed he would do, that he and his posterity will rather be enriched thereby. It must be observed that these temporal promises were more express and particular to the Jews in the times of the Old Testament, than to Christians in the New, and therefore were more generally fulfilled. Under the Christian dispensation, however, godliness hath so far the promise of the life that now is, that they who seek first and principally the kingdom of God, shall have the necessaries of life provided for them in some way or other, Mat 6:33, and he that watereth others shall be watered himself. To fear and serve God is the readiest way to secure ourselves and families from want; and so far is charity from empoverishing, that what is given away, like vapours emitted by the earth, returns in showers of blessings, into the bosom of the person who gave it; and his offspring is not the worse, but infinitely the better for it. The bread which endureth, as well as that which perisheth, is his; and the blessings of time are crowned with those of eternity.  Horne.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p>37:25 I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his {r} seed begging bread.<\/p>\n<p>(r) Though the just man die, yet God&#8217;s blessings are extended to his posterity and though God suffer some just man to lack temporal benefits, yet he recompenses him with spiritual treasures.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n<p>God is faithful to His promises to provide for His faithful followers. David could testify that he had never seen the Lord forsake the righteous nor had he observed any of their descendants unable to get food. God promised the Israelites that He would bless the descendants of those who obeyed Him (Deu 7:9).<\/p>\n<p>It is possible to account for the fact that some believers have starved to death. They may not have followed the Lord faithfully, or they may have been part of a larger group, even all humanity, that did not follow Him faithfully and was under His judgment (cf. Psa 37:4). David did not say the righteous never starve to death, only that he had never seen any that did. His point was that God takes care of the righteous.<\/p>\n<h4 align='right'><i><b>Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. 25, 26. Stanza of Nn. An appeal to the experience of a long life in confirmation of the preceding stanzas. He has never seen the righteous permanently deserted by God, or his children reduced &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-psalms-3725\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:25&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}