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Selected Verse: Psalms 40:5 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 40:5 |
King James |
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. |
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] |
be reckoned up in order--(compare Psa 5:3; Psa 33:14; Isa 44:7), too many to be set forth regularly. This is but one instance of many. The use of the plural accords with the union of Christ and His people. In suffering and triumph, they are one with Him. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done - literally, "Many (things), O Lord my God, hast thou done; thy wonderful things and thy thoughts toward us, it is not (possible) to state unto thee." The recollection of the particular kindness shown to the speaker, as referred to in the previous verses, suggests the recollection of the great number of wonders that God had done for his people - the acts of his kindness which it would be hopeless to attempt to recount before him. And who "could" enumerate and record all the acts of God's benevolence toward men in the works of creation, providence, and redemption; all that he has done in the history of the Church, and for the individual members of the Church in past times; all that he has done to save his people in the days of persecution; all that has been accomplished in our own individual lives? Obviously these things are beyond all power of enumeration by man. They can be admired now only in the gross; eternity alone will be sufficient for us to look at them and to recount them in detail. The phrase "wonderful works" means here remarkable interventions; things fitted to excite astonishment; things that surpass what man could have anticipated; things that could have been done only by God.
And thy thoughts which are to us-ward - Toward us; or which pertain to us. The word "thoughts" here refers to the plans, purposes, arrangements of God designed for our welfare; the things that are the result of his thinking of our wants - of what we need - of what would do us good. See Psa 40:17.
They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee - Margin, "None can order them unto thee." Literally, "There is no putting them in order before thee;" that is, there is no such arranging of them, or disposing of them in order, that they can all be brought into their proper place, so as to be perceived or numbered. The Hebrew word - ערך ‛ârak - means properly, to place in a row; to put in order; to arrange; as, to put an army in battle array, or to draw it up for battle, Jdg 20:20, Jdg 20:22; to put words in order for an argument, or to arrange thoughts so as to present an argument, Job 32:14; to set a cause in order before a judge, or to lay it before him, Job 13:18. The word also means to place together with anything, or by the side of anything - that is, to make a comparison. Gesenius (Lexicon) supposes that this is the idea here, and that the proper interpretation is, "Nothing can be compared unto thee." But the other interpretation seems best to accord with the connection, as referring to the wonderful works of God, and to his thoughts of mercy and goodness as being beyond the power of computation, or as too numerous to be brought into order and arrangement before the mind.
If I would declare and speak of them - If I should attempt to speak of them; or to recount them.
They are more than can be numbered - More than man can enumerate. They go beyond the power of language to express them. This is literally true. No language of man can describe what God has done and has purposed in fitting up this world as an abode for people, and in his mercy toward them. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
He esteems him happy who puts his trust (מבטחו, with a latent Dagesh, as, according to Kimchi, also in Psa 71:5; Job 31:24; Jer 17:7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer 17:7 is an echo of this אשׁרי. Psa 52:9 (cf. Psa 91:9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not האישׁ, but הגּבר, which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself. רהבים from רהב (not from רהב) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything. שׂטי כזב, "turners aside of falsehood" (שׁוּט = שׂטה, cf. Psa 101:3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instead of to the truth: to take כּזב as accusative of the aim is forbidden by the status construct.; to take it as the genitive in the sense of the accusative of the object (like תם הלכי, Pro 2:7) is impracticable, because שׂוט (שׂטה) does not admit of a transitive sense; כזב is, therefore, genit. qualit. like און in Psa 59:6. This second strophe contains two practical applications of that which the writer himself has experienced. From this point of view, he who trusts in God appears to the poet to be supremely happy, and a distant view of God's gracious rule over His own people opens up before him. נפלאות are the thoughts of God realized, and מחשׁבות those that are being realized, as in Jer 51:29; Isa 55:8. רבּות is an accusative of the predicate: in great number, in rich abundance; אלינוּ, "for us," as e.g., in Jer 15:1 (Ew. 217, c). His doings towards Israel were from of old a fulness of wondrous deeds and plans of deliverance, which was ever realizing and revealing itself. There is not ערך אליך, a possibility of comparison with Thee, οὐκ ἔστι (Ew. 321, c) ἰσουν τί σοι - ערך as in Psa 89:7; Isa 40:18 - they are too powerful (עצם of a powerful sum, as in Psa 69:5; Psa 139:17, cf. Jer 5:6) for one to enumerate. According to Rosenmller, Stier, and Hupfeld, אין ערך אליך even affirms the same thing in other words: it is not possible to lay them forth to Thee (before Thee); but that man should "lay forth" (Symmachus ἐκθέστηαι) before God His marvellous works and His thoughts of salvation, is an unbecoming conception. The cohortative forms, which follow, אגּידה ואדבּרה ,wollof h, admit of being taken as a protasis to what follows, after the analogy of Job 19:18; Job 16:6; Job 30:26; Psa 139:8 : if I wish to declare them and speak them forth, they are too powerful (numerous) to be enumerated (Ges. 128, 1, d). The accentuation, however, renders it as a parenthetical clause: I would (as in Psa 51:18; Psa 55:13; Psa 6:10) declare them and speak them forth. He would do this, but because God, in the fulness of His wondrous works and thoughts of salvation, is absolutely without an equal, he is obliged to leave it undone - they are so powerful (numerous) that the enumeration of them falls far short of their powerful fulness. The words alioqui pronunciarem et eloquerer have the character of a parenthesis, and, as Psa 40:7 shows, this accords with the style of this Psalm. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Many - This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Many - are thy wonderful works - The psalmist seems here astonished and confounded at the counsels, loving-kindnesses, and marvellous works of the Lord, not in nature, but in grace; for it was the mercy of God towards himself that he had now particularly in view. |
7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
14 Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches.
22 And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
5 For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.