Psalms 105:15

Psa 105:15 [Saying], Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Ver. 15. Touch not mine anointed, &c.] This God speaketh not of kings, but to kings, concerning his people who have an unction from the Father, being sanctified and set apart for his peculiar. To touch these is to touch the apple of God’s eye, Zec 2:8; they are sacred persons.

And do my prophets no harm] The patriarchs were such, Gen 20:7, so are still all godly ministers, whom they who harm by word or deed have not so much knowledge as Pilate’s wife had in a dream. See Psa 14:4.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_105:15

Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.

The inviolable Messiahs and prophets

I. Every Christian is a Messiah. Jesus was the Christ, the Messias, because that Divine Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. And if we are Christians in the real sense of the word, then, however imperfectly, yet really, and by Gods grace increasingly, there is such a union between us and our Saviour as that into us there does flow the anointing of His Spirit. And, there being a community of life derived from the Source of Life, it is no presumption to say that every Christian man is a Christ.

II. Every Christian is a prophet. The word is connected with a root which means to boil, or bubble, like a fountain. It expresses, not so much the theme of the utterance as its nature. The welling up, from a full heart, of Gods thoughts and Gods truth, that is prophecy. The patriarchs were prophets, in the sense of being bearers of a Divine Word, breathed into them by that anointing Spirit, that it may be uttered forth by them. That sort of prophetic inspiration belongs to all Christians. Every one who has been anointed will be thus gifted. A silent Christian is an anomaly, a contradiction in terms, as much as black light, or dark stars. If Christ is in you He will come out of you. If your hearts are full the crystal treasure will flow over the brim.

III. Every Christian, in his double capacity of anointed and prophet, is watched over by God. There is no real harm in so-called evil. That is the interpretation that Christianity gives to such words as this of my text, not because it is forced to weaken them by the obstinate facts of life, but because it has learnt to strengthen them by the understanding of what is harm and what is good; what is gain and what is loss. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. (Psa 105:15) Touch not mine anointed ones, and to my prophets do no harm. These are the words of God himself, and are designated as such in the English Bible, by supplying the word saying, which is expressed in the analogous case, ver. 11. Touch not, as in Gen 26:11; Gen 26:29. In the Old Testament, unction is the symbol of spiritual gifts, and especially of those imparted to the great theocratical offices. See above, on Psa 2:2. From the case of Elisha (1Ki 19:16) it would seem that prophets were anointed when inducted into office. The patriarchs are here called prophets in the proper sense of the term, as denoting men inspired of God, and admitted to confidential intercourse with him. The allusion here is to Gen 20:7, where God says to Abimelech of Abraham, "Restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for thee, and thou shalt live."

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

105:15 Abraham was one of the nation’s prophets (Gen 20:7).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Those whom I have sanctified to be my people.

Meaning, the old fathers, to whom God showed himself plainly, and who were setters forth of his word.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 15. Touch not mine anointed] It is supposed that the patriarchs are here intended; but the whole people of Israel may be meant. They were a kingdom of priests and kings unto God; and prophets, priests, and kings were always anointed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Saying, Touch not my anointed ones The Psalmist proceeds farther, affirming, that when God made war against kings for the sake of his servants, they were defended by him, not only as he is accustomed to succor the miserable and the unjustly oppressed, but because he had taken them under his special guardianship. God protects his people, not only upon a general ground, but because he has declared on account of his free adoption, that he will maintain them. This is the reason why these holy patriarchs are here honored with two designations, his prophets and his anointed ones In speaking of other men, God would have said, Touch not these men who have done wrong to nobody, hurt not these poor wretched creatures who have deserved no such treatment at your hands. But in the person of Abraham and his children, he shows that there was another reason for his defending them. He calls them anointed ones, because he had set them apart to be his peculiar people. In the same sense, he designates them prophets, (a title with which Abraham is also honored, Genesis 20:7) not only because God had manifested himself more intimately to them, but also because they faithfully spread around them divine truth, that the memory of it might survive them, and flourish after their death. Anointing, it is true, was not as yet in use, as it was afterwards under the law; but the prophet teaches, that what God at a subsequent period exhibited in the ceremonies of the law was really and in very deed in Abraham, even as God engraves the mark of sanctification on all his chosen ones. If God’s inward anointing was of such powerful efficacy, even at the time when he had not yet appointed, or delivered the figures of the law, with how much greater care will he defend his servants now, after having exhibited to us the plenitude of anointing in his only begotten Son!

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) Anointed.—In the plural, “my anointed ones.” As referring to the patriarchs, the expression is not technical, since they were never, like priests, prophets, and kings in later times, actually anointed. But the terms being sometimes applied to the covenant people as a whole (see Psa_89:38; Psa_89:51), its application to the founders of the race, especially those to whom the “promises came,” is very just.

As to the term “prophet,” the poet found it expressly conferred on Abraham in Gen_20:7.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. Jehovah’s words. Saying is rightly supplied.

Touch not] The phrase is suggested by Gen_20:6; cp. Psa_26:11.

mine anointed ones … my prophets] The patriarchs were not actually anointed, but the term is applied to them as bearing the seal of a Divine consecration in virtue of which their persons were sacred and inviolable. Abraham is called a prophet in Gen_20:7 as an intercessor, and the term is applied to the patriarchs generally as the recipients of Divine revelation.

16 ff. The events which led to the migration of Jacob into Egypt.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Saying, Touch not mine anointed,.... Or, "mine anointed ones"; my Christs, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were, who, though not anointed with material oil, yet were all that, that such were, who in later times were anointed with it. They were prophets, priests, and kings; and which all met in one person, particularly in Abraham, Gen 20:7, besides, they were anointed with the oil of grace, with an unction from the Holy One, with the Holy Ghost, and his gifts and graces, as all true believers are: they are the Lord's Christs, or his anointed ones; which stand before him, and have the name of Christians from hence. These the Lord will not have touched, so as to be hurt; they are sacred persons: they are near unto God, in union with him;

and he that toucheth him toucheth the apple of his eye; so dear are they to him.

And do my prophets no harm; so Abraham is expressly called a prophet, Gen 20:7, and so were Isaac and Jacob; men to whom the Lord spoke familiarly in dreams and visions, as he used to do with prophets; and who taught and made known the mind and will of God to others, as well as foretold things to come; they being the Lord's servants, his prophets, they were revealed unto them, Num 12:7. These the Lord will have no harm done to them; he guards them by his power; he holds them in his right hand; and covers them under the shadow of his wing.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Saying, Touch not mine anointed - That is, This was the language of his “providence.” It was as though God had said this. It is not meant that this was said in so many words, but this is the “poetic” form of representing the dealings of Providence. Compare Gen 26:11. The word “anointed” here means that God had, as it were, set them apart to his service, or that they were to him as kings, and priests, and prophets, sacred people, belonging to God. The “language” is not found in the Old Testament as applied to the patriarchs, but the “idea” is fairly implied there, that they belonged to God as sacred and holy men.

And do my prophets no harm - As if God had thus spoken to them, and called them prophets. That is, they belonged to God as a sacred order: they were separate from other men, and God regarded them as his own.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Touch not; hurt not, as this word is used of these very persons, Gen 26:11,29, and elsewhere.

Mine anointed; my prophets, as the next words explain it, to wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as is evident; who are called God’s anointed, because they were eminently blessed of God, and consecrated to be his peculiar people, and to be kings and priests in their families, and replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, in respect whereof many persons are said to be anointed in Scripture who never had any material oil applied to them, as Psa 45:7; Isa 61:1; 2Co 1:21. And they are called

prophets, because God did familiarly converse with them, and revealed his mind and will to them, and by them to others; and because they were instructors or teachers of others in the true religion. See Gen 18:19; 20:7.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 15. Saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Abraham and his seed were in the midst of the world a generation of priests anointed to present sacrifice unto the most High God; since to them the oracles were committed, they were also the prophets of mankind; and they were kings tooa royal priesthood; hence they had received a threefold anointing. Their holy office surrounded them with a sacredness which rendered it sacrilege to molest them. The Lord was pleased to impress the wild tribes of Canaan with a respectful awe of the pious strangers who had come to abide with them, so that they came not near them to do them ill. The words here mentioned may not have been actually spoken, but the impression of awe which fell upon the nations is thus poetically described. God will not have those touched who have been set apart unto himself He calls them his own, saying, "Mine anointed" he declares that he has "anointed" them to be prophets, priests, and kings unto himself, and yet again he claims them as his prophets"Do my prophets no harm." All through the many years in which the three great fathers dwelt in Canaan no man was able to injure them; they were not able to defend themselves by force of arms; but the eternal God was their refuge. Even so at this present time the remnant according to the election of grace cannot be destroyed, nay, nor so much as touched, without the divine consent. Against the church of Christ the gates of hell cannot prevail. In all this we see reasons for giving thanks unto the Lord, and proclaiming his name according to the exhortation of the first verse of the Psalm. Here ends the portion which was sung at the moving of the ark: its fitness to be used for such a purpose is very manifest, for the ark was the symbol both of the covenant and of that mystic dwelling of God with Israel which was at once her glory and her defence. None could touch the Lord's peculiar ones, for the Lord was among them, flaming forth in majesty between the cherubims.

The presence of God having remained with his chosen ones while they sojourned in Canaan, it did not desert them when they were called to go down into Egypt. They did not go there of their own choice, but under divine direction, and hence the Lord prepared their way and prospered them until he saw fit to conduct them again to the land of promise.

Ver. 15. Mine anointed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had no external anointing. They were, however, called "anointed, "because they were separated by God from the multitude of wicked men, and endowed with the Spirit and his gifts, of which the oil was an emblem. Mollerus.

Ver. 15. Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. We see here a vivid description of the people of God. They are "his anointed ones, ""having the residue of his Spirit"; they are his prophets, to whom is intrusted the word of life, that they may be witnesses in the world. To these he gives as it were a safe passport through the world. Though they have ever been but men of number, accounted as a vile thing, they are precious in his sight. They are not distinguished by external dignity, numbers and power, as Rome sets forth the marks of her communion. They are in the midst of kingdoms, but not of them. They form usually the humblest portions of most communities, and yet they receive honour from God. Despised by the world, but unto God kings and priests, ordained and anointed to reign with Christ for ever. W. Wilson.

Ver. 15. Prophets. The aybk is the prophet, or forth speaker; the term laying stress on the utterance, and not upon the vision. The Hebrew word comes from a root which means to bubble up and overflow as from a full fountain. But the fulness of the true prophets of Jehovah was not that of their own thoughts and emotions. It was of the Divine Spirit within them. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, "2Pe 1:21. The first application of the word is to Abraham (Ge 2:7); although, long before Abraham, "Enoch the seventh from Adam, prophesied, "Jude 14. Donald Fraser, in "Synoptical Lectures on the Books of Holy Scripture." 1873.

Ver. 15. In what respect Abraham was a prophet, and how far believers are the same.

Psalms 105:16*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Anointed—The “anointed” was the one set apart to a special purpose or office, whether as king, priest, or prophet, by pouring oil upon the head. In the Old Testament this anointing was a standing symbol of what we denominate, in New Testament times, the grace, gifts, and callings of the Holy Spirit. In the text it applies to the three Hebrew patriarchs.

Prophets—Same as anointed. So called Gen_20:7. The word here takes its radical sense—one who speaks under a divine influence.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Saying, Touch not mine anointed; literally, mine anointed ones; i.e. those consecrated to my service, as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And do my prophets no harm. (comp. Gen_20:7 Gen_27:27-29 and 39, 40; Gen_49:3-27) The actual words of this verse do not occur in Genesis, but they express the lesson which God"s dealings with Pharaoh and Abimelech taught the kings and peoples.

Divine defence.

"Touch not mine anointed ones" (Revised Version). The reference is evidently to the patriarchs; and they are spoken of in the light of later associations, classified with those who received special Divine communications. "They were as kings and priests before God; therefore they are called "his anointed;" they had the word, they knew the spirit of the Lord, therefore they are his "prophets. (Illustrate the term "prophet" from Gen_20:7) The psalmist had some special instances in his mind, which he regarded as representative of the Divine defence that is always overshadowing God"s faithful people. They are cases in which the three great patriarchs moved into the territory of alien or alienated people, and were preserved from all harm.

I DIVINE DEFENCE OF ABRAHAM IN CANAAN, EGYPT, AND GERAR. Journeying into Canaan, which was then occupied by several nations, we might have expected his coming to have excited jealousy, it not fear. His tribe was large, his flocks and herds were abundant; he must have eaten up the land as he passed through it. But the Divine defence was over him, and his course was practically unhindered. He never had to fight for any position. God made his way. In Egypt, and again in Gerar, he was placed in much anxiety, and in some peril, by the licentious customs of the age. But the Divine defence was over him and his no evil befell him; and even the seeming evil proved to be for his own moral good, and for other people"s.

II DIVINE DEFENCE OF ISAAC IN PHILISTIA. From a similar anxiety to that which Abraham had experienced, and from the strife which arose about the wells that Isaac digged. It is well to notice that, in the matter of the wells, the Divine defence worked along with Isaac"s wise self-restraint, and refusal to make quarrels.

III DIVINE DEFENCE OF JACOB IN SYRIA, AND IN ESAU"S COUNTRY. Laban of Syria was far more of an enemy than a friend to Jacob. How much the patriarch had to endure! But God ever watched over him. The supreme peril of Jacob"s life was that return to Canaan which involved his meeting the justly offended Esau. Even then we find him within the Divine defence. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Anointed - My prophets, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who are called God's anointed, because they were consecrated to be his peculiar people, and to be kings and princes in their families. And they are called prophets, because God familiarly conversed with them and revealed his will to them, and by them to others.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

My anointed ones My great ones. Every [expression of] anointing is an expression of rulership and greatness.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.