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Selected Verse: Psalms 107:40 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 107:40 |
King James |
He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| wander . . . wilderness--reduced to misery (Job 12:24). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
He poureth contempt upon princes - He treats them as if they were common people; he pays no regard in his providence to their station and rank. They are subjected to the same needs as others; they meet with reverses like others; they become captives like others; they sicken and die like others; they are laid in the grave like others; and, with the same offensiveness, they turn back to dust. Between monarchs and their subjects, masters and their slaves, mistresses and their handmaidens, rich men and poor men, beauty and deformity, there is no distinction in the pains of sickness, in the pangs of dying, in the loathsomeness of the grave. The process of corruption goes on in the most splendid coffin, and beneath the most costly monument which art and wealth can rear, as well as in the plainest coffin, and in the grave marked by no stone or memorial. What can more strikingly show "contempt" for the trappings of royalty, for the adornings of wealth, for the stars and garters of nobility, for coronets and crowns, for the diamonds, the pearls, and the gold that decorate beauty, than that which occurs "in a grave!" The very language used here, alike in the Hebrew and in our translation, is found in Job 12:21. The word rendered "princes" properly means "willing, voluntary, prompt;" and is then applied to the generous, to the noble-minded, to those who give liberally. It then denotes one of noble rank, as the idea of rank in the mind of the Orientals was closely connected with the notion of liberality in giving. Thus it comes to demote one of noble birth, and might be applied to any of exalted rank.
And causeth them to wander in the wilderness - Margin, "void place." The Hebrew word - תהו tôhû - means properly wasteness, desolateness; emptiness, vanity. See Gen 1:2; Job 26:7; Isa 41:29; Isa 44:9; Isa 49:4. Here it means an empty, uninhabited place; a place where there is no path to guide; a land of desolation. The reference seems to be to the world beyond the grave; the land of shadows and night. Compare the notes at Job 10:21-22.
Where there is no way - literally, "no way." That is, no well-trodden path. All must soon go to that pathless world. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Contempt - Renders them despicable. Wander - Banishes them from their own courts and kingdoms, and forces them to flee into desolate wildernesses for shelter. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
He poureth contempt upon princes - How many have lately been raised from nothing, and set upon thrones! And how many have been cast down from thrones, and reduced to nothing! And where are now those mighty troublers of the earth? On both sides they are in general gone to give an account of themselves to God. And what an account!
Where there is no way - Who can consider the fate of the late emperor of the French, Napoleon, without seeing the hand of God in his downfall! All the powers of Europe were leagued against him in vain, they were as stubble to his bow. "He came, He saw, and He conquered" almost every where, till God, by a Russian Frost, destroyed his tens of thousands of veteran troops. And afterwards his armies of raw conscripts would have over-matched the world had not a particular providence intervened at Waterloo, when all the skill and valor of his opponents had been nearly reduced to nothing. How terrible art thou, O Lord, in thy judgments! Thou art fearful in praises, doing wonders.
The dreary rock of St. Helena, where there was no way, saw a period to the mighty conqueror, who had strode over all the countries of Europe! |
24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.