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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 101 (IN THE HEBREW) hy, o lord, do you stand far off? Why do you look down on us in good times and bad? When the godless acts disdainfully , the poor person is inflamed; they are caught up in the schemes they have devised (vv. 1–2). You, O Lord, seem to stand at a distance and not to notice human affairs, not assisting the wronged, whereas from discouragement, as if from some fire, the wronged are consumed on seeing the arrogance of the wrongdoers. Now, most appropriately did he apply inflamed to the discouraged: they are like people set on fire, and they utter a groan from their mouth like a sort of smoke. And harm will come to them from their discouragement, he is saying, since instead of putting their minds to seemly thinking they are in two minds about your providence—this is what is meant by they are caught up in the schemes they have devised.2 He instructs us in the reason for this by adding, Because the wicked is confirmed in the desires of his heart, and the wrongdoer is praised (v. 3): despite committing countless crimes, they win praise from their cronies. (2) The sinner provoked the Lord in the intensity of his wrath (v. 4). This part is to be kept separate, and then the added phrase, He will not seek it out, as if to say, He provoked the Lord by saying, “He will not seek it out.” That is, motivated by frenzy and rage, as if no one was watching, he proceeds to every kind of lawlessness, not believing the judge will seek out their crimes. Then he says it 94 1. Our Hebrew text at this point interrupts the long psalm which the LXX (more correctly) treats as one to begin a new psalm; and it is probably more helpful to conform our numbering to the Hebrew and modern versions . Theodoret, of course, gives no indication of the break. 2. This clause in the Hebrew and modern versions seems to refer rather to the godless. Other references also seem to be applied differently by the commentator on his text. more clearly: God is not before his eyes. The unbeliever and the sinner never keeps God before his eyes; instead, each day and at every moment he soils and sullies his paths, not believing there is any judgment. Well, what is the reason for this? His ways are profaned at every moment. Your judgments are kept from his view (v. 5): he completely despises your laws; he spends all his time in lawlessness . The unbeliever, in fact, belittles and vilifies the commands of God. He will gain dominion over all his foes. Yet even in doing such things he will prosper. (3) Then he depicts the extraordinary degree of his conceit: [933] He said in his heart, in fact, “I shall not be moved from one generation to the next, suffering no harm” (v. 6). Symmachus rendered this more clearly, “I shall not be overturned from one generation to the next, nor shall I come to any harm.” He takes advantage of this boldness, and believes he will suffer no trouble as though free from all forms of evil. His mouth is full of cursing, bitterness , and deceit; under his tongue lies trouble and hardship (v. 7): he hatches plots and concocts crimes, and passes his life in schemes against the needy. The trouble is fruitless and the hardship without gain: apart from this he does not move his tongue at all.3 He lies in hiding with the rich under cover, intending to slay the innocent (v. 8). Seated in meetings and councils, he devises ambushes and wiles for the guiltless. Those abounding in godlessness live ever in pretense: they lie in wait for the innocent, and the rich in particular waylay the needy. The devil acted in stealth in seeking to kill Christ, remember, God alone having clean hands and being pure in heart. (4) His eyes are on the needy; he lies in wait under cover, like a lion in its den. He lies in wait to snatch the poor by luring him; he will humiliate him in his trap (vv. 8–9). As the lion moves its eye hither and yon in search of its prey, so he gives thought night and day to plans of rapine and greed, and yet he will stoop and fall (v. 10). COMMENTARY ON PSALM 10 95...

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