Verse 4

Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;

Me — He speaks here in the name, and on the behalf of the whole nation. With-With those favours which thou dost usually and peculiarly give to thy people.

Verse 5

That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

See — Enjoy.

Chosen — Of thy chosen people; such as are Israelites indeed.

Gladness — Such joy as thou hast formerly afforded unto thy beloved nation.

Glory — That we may have occasion to glory in God's goodness towards us.

Inheritance — In the congregation of thy people.

Verse 6

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

Glory — As our fathers did.

Verse 7

Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

At the sea — When those wonders were but newly done, and fresh in memory.

Verse 8

Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.

Saved them — That he may vindicate his name from the blasphemous reproaches, which would have been cast upon it, if they had been destroyed.

Verse 9

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

Led them — As securely as if they had walked upon the dry land.

Verse 13

They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

Soon — Even within three days, Exodus 15:22,23.

Waited not — They did not wait patiently upon God for supplies, in such manner and time as he thought fit.

Verse 14

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Lusted — For flesh.

Verse 15

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

Souls — Into their bodies. So their inordinate desire of pampering their bodies, was the occasion of destroying them.

Verse 16

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.

The saint — So called, because he was consecrated by God for that sacred office of the priesthood, in which respect all the priests are said to be holy, Leviticus 21:6-8. Hereby he intimates, that their envy and rebellion was not only against Aaron, but against God himself.

Verse 19

They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

A calf — When they were but just brought out of Egypt by such wonders, and had seen the plagues of God upon the Egyptian idolaters, and when the law of God was but newly delivered to them in such a tremendous manner.

Verse 20

Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

Their glory — God, who was indeed their glory.

Into — Into the golden image of an ox or calf, which is so far from feeding his people, as the true God did the Israelites, that he must be fed by them.

Verse 23

Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

Breach — God had made a wall about them; but they had made a breach in it by their sins, at which the Lord, who was now justly become their enemy, might enter to destroy them; which he had certainly done, if Moses by his prevailing intercession had not hindered him.

Verse 24

Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:

Despised — Preferring Egypt, and their former bondage, before it, Numbers 14:3,4.

Verse 25

But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.

The voice — To God's command, that they should boldly enter into it.

Verse 26

Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

Lifted up — He sware. Of this dreadful and irrevocable oath of God, see Numbers 14:11,12.

Verse 27

To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

Overthrow — He sware also (tho' not at the same time) that he would punish their sins, not only in their persons, but in their posterity.

Verse 28

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

Joined — They had communion with him, as God's people have with God in acts of his worship.

Verse 31

And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

And — It was accepted and rewarded of God as an act of justice and piety.

Verse 37

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,

Devils — They did not worship God as they pretended, but devils in their idols; for those spirits, which were supposed by the Heathen idolaters to inhabit in their images, were not good spirits, but evil spirits, or devils.

Verse 43

Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.

Counsel — By forsaking God's way, and following their own inventions.

Verse 45

And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

Repented — Changed his course and dealing with them.