10 Have no faith in the rewards of evil-doing, or in profits wrongly made: if your wealth is increased, do not put your hopes on it.
For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:
See, this is the man who did not make God his strength, but had faith in his goods and his property, and made himself strong in his wealth.
Give orders to those who have money and goods in this life, not to be lifted up in their minds, or to put their hope in the uncertain chances of wealth, but in God who gives us in full measure all things for our use;
For the love of money is a root of all evil: and some whose hearts were fixed on it have been turned away from the faith, and been wounded with unnumbered sorrows.
And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has. And he said to them, in a story, The land of a certain man of great wealth was very fertile: And he said to himself, What is to be done? for I have no place in which to put all my fruit. And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy. But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together? So that is what comes to the man who gets wealth for himself, and has not wealth in the eyes of God.
And Jesus, looking round about, said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have wealth to come into the kingdom of God!
Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish.
For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I will not put up with the violent taking away of right; and I will certainly give them their reward, and I will make an eternal agreement with them.
No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil.
Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
Because he has given me his love, I will take him out of danger: I will put him in a place of honour, because he has kept my name in his heart.
Truly, every man goes on his way like an image; he is troubled for no purpose: he makes a great store of wealth, and has no knowledge of who will get it.
If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold, I have put my faith in you; If I was glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had got together a great store;
Though he may get silver together like dust, and make ready great stores of clothing; He may get them ready, but the upright will put them on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a heritage. His house has no more strength than a spider's thread, or a watchman's tent. He goes to rest full of wealth, but does so for the last time: on opening his eyes, he sees it there no longer. Fears overtake him like rushing waters; in the night the storm-wind takes him away. The east wind takes him up and he is gone; he is forced violently out of his place. God sends his arrows against him without mercy; he goes in flight before his hand. Men make signs of joy because of him, driving him from his place with sounds of hissing.
This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God.
Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;
And when you have taken food and are full, and have made fair houses for yourselves and are living in them; And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every sort; Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride, giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house;
And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and fair towns which were not of your building; And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full; Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 62
Commentary on Psalms 62 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 62
Ps 62:1-12. To Jeduthun—(See on Ps 39:1, title). The general tone of this Psalm is expressive of confidence in God. Occasion is taken to remind the wicked of their sin, their ruin, and their meanness.
1. waiteth—literally, "is silent," trusts submissively and confidently as a servant.
2. The titles applied to God often occur (Ps 9:9; 18:2).
be greatly moved—(Ps 10:6). No injury shall be permanent, though devised by enemies.
3. Their destruction will come; as a tottering wall they already are feeble and failing.
bowing wall shall ye be—better supply "are." Some propose to apply these phrases to describe the condition of "a man"—that is, the pious suffer: thus, "Will ye slay him," &c.; but the other is a good sense.
4. his excellency—or, elevation to which God had raised him (Ps 4:2). This they try to do by lies and duplicity (Ps 5:9).
5, 6. (Compare Ps 62:1, 2).
6. not be moved—not at all; his confidence has increased.
7. rock of my strength—or strongest support (Ps 7:10; 61:3).
8. pour out your heart—give full expression to feeling (1Sa 1:15; Job 30:16; Ps 42:4).
ye people—God's people.
9. No kind of men are reliable, compared with God (Isa 2:22; Jer 17:5).
altogether—alike, one as the other (Ps 34:3).
10. Not only are oppression and robbery, which are wicked means of wealth, no grounds of boasting; but even wealth, increasing lawfully, ought not to engross the heart.
11. once; twice—(as in Job 33:14; 40:5), are used to give emphasis to the sentiment. God's power is tempered by His mercy, which it also sustains.
12. for thou renderest—literally, "that Thou renderest," &c., connected with "I heard this," as the phrase—"that power," &c. [Ps 62:11]—teaching that by His power He can show both mercy and justice.