Psalms 132:15

Psa 132:15 I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.

Ver. 15. I will abundantly bless her provision] Her stock and her store; so that she shall not want necessaries, which yet she shall hunt for (that is, labour for), as the Hebrew word importeth; and know how she comes by; Viatico eius affatim benedicam (Trem.): therefore it is added,

I will satisfy her poor with bread] Dainties I will not promise them; a sufficiency, but not a superfluity; poor they may be, but not destitute; bread they shall have, and of that, God’s plenty, as they say; enough to bring them to their Father’s house, where is bread enough. Let not, therefore, the poor Israelite fear to bring his offerings, or to disfurnish himself for God’s worship, &c.

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_132:15

I will abundantly bless her provision.

An abundant blessing promised to the Church upon her spiritual provision

I. The glorious speaker--God Himself.

1. The God for whom a habitation has been prepared in the Church. If you enjoy the blessing of God upon your provision, you will cheerfully contribute your mite for preparing Him a habitation.

2. The God who hath chosen Zion, and taken up His habitation in her. By this means He knows every circumstance relative to her and to every one of her members; lie is ready to hear all the requests of His people, and to grant them without loss of time.

3. The God from whom all her provision comes. As He knows what provision is suitable to every ones taste, and to every ones need, He knows what blessing is proper to make every ones provision effectual for affording him the promised satisfaction.

II. The party spoken of--Zion. The Church is spoken of in the feminine gender, chiefly to put us in mind of two things.

1. Of her weakness and helplessness, considered in herself.

2. Of that happy relation that subsists between Christ and her. So close and intimate is that mysterious relation, that it can be compared to no other earthly relation--so fitly as to that between husband and wife. He has betrothed her to Himself for ever. He nourishes and cherishes her as a loving husband the wife of his youth.

III. The benefit promised--a blessing. As soon as any person is brought into a state of union with Christ, and is blessed in Him,--being justified freely by the grace of God; not only is that person adjudged to happiness, but that sentence has an effect upon all that he meets with in the course of Providence. All the common benefits of life have a commission from God to be means, not merely of rendering his present life happy, as far as happiness is attainable here,--but likewise of preparing him for eternal happiness, and of conducting him to it. Yea, the trials, afflictions, and miseries of this life, are all under an appointment of God, to be conducive to the same end (2Co_4:17).

IV. The more immediate subject of this blessing--her provision. The-spiritual Israel have nothing of their own to support the life of their souls: and the wilderness, through which they pass, affords nothing fit for that purpose. They behoved, therefore, to perish, if their Heavenly Father did not give them the true bread from heaven, which is no other than the flesh and blood of His own eternal Son, which He gave for the life of the world.

V. The degree in which this blessing is bestowed--abundantly. (John Young, D. D.)

I will satisfy her poor with bread.--

The poor-laws of the Bible

Those who are not familiar with the Bible, especially with the Old Testament, might be disposed to smile at the statement, that if we could get the poor-laws of the Bible fairly administered, there would be an end to the miseries and complaints of the poor. God has from the beginning made the poor mans cause His own. His aim has been to stir men up to consideration and sympathy, by identifying the poor with Himself in His account with mankind. He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord. That is the principle; the claim of the poor on men is the claim of God. And throughout the Old Testament God announces and enforces His provision for the poor (Deu_15:7-11; Isa_58:6-8; Neh_8:10). The principle runs through the whole Book. Whatever men felt that they owed to God they were to pay to the poor. Would it be possible to place their claim on a surer and firmer foundation? And there is a tenderness in the tone of the Bible about the poor and helpless, which is unmatched, as far as I know, in any ancient literature; and it is one of the most sacred traditions which the elder dispensation handed down to the Christian Church. But there is nothing in the way in which the Bible deals with the question which gives countenance even for a moment to the notion that bread is the great necessity of man. Gods cure of disease is always radical; therefore the method is slow, deep, and, on the surface, long invisible. And herein Gods method differs essentially from the various panaceas for social wrong and misery which have been promulgated in various ages by the philosophers. Bread is precious to those who use life nobly. But he who should assure bread on a sufficient scale to all men, and make no provision for their spiritual culture, for their concord, brotherly love, energy, industry, and perseverance, would miss the deepest elements of human misery, would, in the end, nourish it fearfully, and would hasten, instead of retarding, the overthrow of society. God, in His method of dealing with the problem, considers the what then? He takes things in their true order, the heavenly order, the order of their necessity. He does not flood the world with plenty, and leave man to wrangle and wrestle over the partition of it. He would first cure the radical selfishness and wickedness out of which in the long run all absolute poverty springs. It is a mistake to use the term Christian Socialism, under the idea of commending the Gospel to those who favour Communistic views. The Gospel aims at an ideal which, as a dream, has haunted the imagination of every great world reformer who has ever pored over the dark problems of society, but it aims at it by a path which is all its own. It begins from within, and works outwards; it puts love in the heart, and then sends plenty. All true abundance springs out of love. There was a movement in the early Church which had, no doubt, a communistic aspect, and which some may connect with the essential spirit of Christianity, and regard as the only true form of life in the Christian society (Act_2:42-47). It seems to have been confined to the Church at Jerusalem, and there it was carried too far and lasted too long. We find from apostolic records that the Church at Jerusalem became rapidly the poorest and the most helpless of all the primitive Churches, and was compelled to throw herself on the charities of the Gentile Christian world (Rom_15:25-27), and this history is very important and instructive. It reveals the inevitable issue of a communistic administration of the temporal affairs of men. The rights of property were most carefully guarded in the early Churches, as we gather from all the apostolic epistles; while brotherly love and the most large and constant charity were enjoined on the most sacred grounds. There is nothing that God reiterates more earnestly than the poor mans claim. There is nothing that God sustains more mightily than the poor mans cause. There is nothing that God avenges more awfully than the poor mans wrong. Would God that I could see it, many a poor man cries; but, as far as I see, the masters that profess most are often the hardest; and those who say that they have most to do with God, and from whom we might hope to find what God can do to help us, are too frequently known as grinding the faces of the poor. Well, there is truth in this, alas l no doubt; but be very chary of attaching value to the criticism of employers by the employed; their judgment will be constantly narrow, selfish, and unjust. But ye masters, remember the higher judgment. Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord; ye, who say that ye know My name. Beware how you drag it through the mire of selfish and sensual lives, and put it before all men, and especially before the poor, to an open shame. We may all take the warning home. But ye poor, be just. Do not charge on God the wrongs and evils which He is doing His best by His own patient but radical method to cure. He hates the grinding of the face of the poor more entirely, I believe, than He hates any evil thing that is done under the sun. Be just. See how God is fighting your battle in all ages, and maintaining your cause against the oppressor. There is one method by which God is always maintaining the cause of the poor, which they are very slow to recognize and to honour, and that is against themselves, against their own idleness, improvidence, and lust. Mans folly and sin do not withhold, do not restrain, Gods mercy, or we had none of us been here. But while He pities, He educates and purifies. Side by side with the pity there is the hard, stern rule, that if a man will not work, neither shall he eat. Giving is the cheapest and easiest form of charity. To take poverty by the hand and lift it is harder work, and demands a resolution, the ultimate spring of which is on high. Self-help must be the message of our visitors and almoners. We must have done with the pampering method of the constant dole. Help the industrious and necessitous over a crisis that they may help themselves again. Stir up the energies of the indolent and dependent. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)

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

Ver. 15.

1. Blessed provision.

2. Satisfied people"satisfy her poor."

3. Glorified God"I will."

4. Happy placeZion.

Psalms 132:15*

Ver. 15. I will abundantly bless her provision. It must be so. How can we be without a blessing when the Lord is among us? We live upon his word, we are clothed by his charity, we are armed by his power: all sorts of provision are in him, and how can they be otherwise than blessed? The provision is to be abundantly blessed;then it will be abundant and blessed. Daily provision, royal pie vision, satisfying provision, overflowingly joyful provision the church shall receive; and the divine benediction shall cause us to receive it with faith, to feed upon it by experience, to grow upon it by sanctification, to be strengthened by it to labour, cheered by it to patience, and built up by it to perfection. I will satisfy her poor with bread. The citizens of Zion are poor in themselves, poor in spirit, and often poor in pocket, but their hearts and souls shall dwell in such abundance that they shall neither need more nor desire more. Satisfaction is the crown of experience. Where God rests his people shall be satisfied. They are to be satisfied with what the Lord himself calls "bread", and we may be sure that he knows what is really bread for souls. He will not give us a stone. The Lord's poor shall "have food convenient for them": that which will suit their palate, remove their hunger, fill their desire, build up their frame, and perfect their growth. The breadth of earth is "the bread that perisheth", but the bread of God endureth to life eternal. In the church where God rests his people shall not starve; the Lord would never rest if they did. He did not take rest for six days till he had prepared the world for the first man to live in; he would not stay his hand till all things were ready; therefore, we may be sure if the Lord rests it is because "it is finished", and the Lord hath prepared of his goodness for the poor. Where God finds his desire his people shall find theirs; if he is satisfied, they shall be.

Taking the two clauses together, we see that nothing but an abundant blessing in the church will satisfy the Lord's poor people: they are naked and miserable till that comes. All the provision that Solomon himself could make would not have satisfied the saints of his day: they looked higher, and longed for the Lord's own boundless blessing, and hungered for the bread which came down from heaven. Blessed be the Lord, they had in this verse two of the "I wills" of God to rest upon, and nothing could be a better support to their faith.

Ver. 15. I will abundantly bless her provision, etc. The provision of Zion, the church of God, the word and ordinances, of which Christ is the sum and substance; the gospel is milk for babes, and meat for strong men; the ordinances are a feast of fat things; Christ's flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed; the whole provision is spiritual, savoury, salutary, strengthening, satisfying, and nourishing, when the Lord blesses it; as he does to those who hunger and thirst after it, and feed upon it by faith; so that their souls grow thereby, and they become fat and flourishing; grace increases in them, and they are fruitful in every good work; and this the Lord promises to do abundantly, in a very large way and manner; or certainly, for it is, in the original text, "in blessing I will bless", that is, will surely bless, as this phrase is sometimes rendered.

I will satisfy her poor with bread. Zion has her poor; persons may be poor and yet belong to Zion, belong to Zion and yet be poor; there are poor in all the churches of Christ: our Lord told his disciples that they had the poor, and might expect to have them, always with them; and particular directions are given to take care of Zion's poor under the gospel dispensation, that they may not want bread in a literal sense: though by the poor are chiefly designed the Lord's afflicted and distressed ones; or those who in a spiritual sense are poor, sensible of their spiritual poverty, and seeking after the true riches; or are poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs; these the Lord promises to satisfy, to fill them to the full with the bread of the gospel, made of the finest of the wheat, of which there is enough and to spare in his house; and with Christ the bread of life, of which those that eat shall never die, but live for ever. John Gill.

Ver. 15. Her provision; I will bless, I will bless. The repetition of the verb may express either certainty or fulness. I will surely bless, or I will bless abundantly. Joseph Addison Alexander.

Ver. 15. I will abundantly bless her provision. Believe it, a saint hath rare fare, gallant cheer, and rich diet, and all at free cost. He is feasted all the day long; he is brought oft into the banqueting house, and hath the rarest, the costliest, the most wholesome diet, that which is most hearty and strengthening, which is most dainty and pleasant, and the greatest variety, and nothing is wanting that may make his state happy, except a full enjoyment of glory itself. The Lord gives him all the experiences of his power and goodness to his Church in former ages to feed his hopes upon; nay, many choice providences, many of prayer, many foretastes of glory, many ordinances, especially that great one the Lord's Supper, at which Christ and all his benefits are served up in a royal dish to refresh and feast the faith, hope, and love of the saints. And that which sweetens all thishe knows that all this is but a little to what he shall shortly live upon when he comes to the marriage supper; then he shall always be feasted and never surfeited. And beside all this, he hath the sweet and refreshing incomes of the Spirit, filling him with such true pleasure, that he can easily spare the most sumptuous banquet, the noblest feast, and highest worldly delights, as infinitely short of one hour's treatment in his Friend's chamber. And, if this be his entertainment in the inn, what shall he have at the court? If this heavenly manna be his food in the wilderness, at what rate is he like to live when he comes into Canaan? If this be the provision of the way, what is that of the country? John Janeway, about 1670.

Ver. 15. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Christ is a satisfying good. A wooden loaf, a silver loaf, a golden loaf will not satisfy a hungry man; the man must have bread. The dainties and dignities of the world, the grandeur and glory of the world, the plenty and prosperity of the world, the puff and popularity of the world, will not satisfy a soul sailing by the gates of hell, and crying out of the depths; it must be a Christ. "Children, or I die", was the cry of the woman; a Christ, or I diea Christ, or I am damned, is the doleful ditty and doleful dialect of a despairing or desponding soul. "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied therewith; nor he that loveth abundance with increase:" Ec 5:10. It is a good observation, that the world is round, but the heart of man is triangular. Now, all the globe of the world will not fill the triangular heart of man. What of the world and in the world can give quietness, when Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, goes down upon the soul? The heart is a three square, and nothing but a trinity in unity and a unity in trinity will satisfy this. Not riches, nor relations, nor barns, nor bags, will satisfy a convinced and deserted soul. This person can say concerning his bags as a great person upon a sick, if not a dying, bed, did concerning his bags, Away, and away for ever. Though there be bag upon bag, yet they are altogether insignificant in a dying hour; these bags, they are but as so many ciphers before a figure. This is the cry of despairing and desponding souls: "O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days:" Ps 90:14. Richard Mayhew, 1679.

Ver. 15. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Dainties I will not promise them; a sufficiency, but not, a superfluity:poor they may be, but not destitute; bread they shall have, and of that God's plenty, as they say; enough to bring them to their Father's house, "where there is bread enough." Let not, therefore, the poor Israelite fear to bring his offerings, or to disfurnish himself for God's worship, etc. John Trapp.

Psalms 132:16*

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

15. (Psa 132:15) Her provision I will bless, I will bless; her poor I will satisfy (with) bread. The repetition of the verb may express either certainty or fulness. I will surely bless, or I will bless abundantly. See above, on Psa 126:6. The word translated provision is a cognate form to that in Psa 78:25. Satisfy, amply or abundantly supply.

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

Verse 15. I will abundantly bless her provision] There shall be an abundant provision of salvation made for mankind in the Christian Church. Our Lord's multiplication of the loaves was a type and proof of it.

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

15. Blessing I will bless, etc. God’s dwelling in the midst of the people was what constituted the great source of their blessedness; and now some of the proofs are mentioned which he would give of his fatherly regard, such as preparing and administering their ordinary food, relieving their wants, clothing their priests with salvation, and filling all his people with joy and gladness. This it was necessary should be added, for unless we have ocular demonstration of the divine goodness, we are not spiritual enough to rise upwards to the apprehension of it. We have a twofold demonstration of it in the matter of our daily food; first in the earth’s being enriched so as to furnish us with corn, and wine, and oil; and again in the earth’s produce being multiplied, through a secret power, so as to provide us with sufficient nourishment. There is here a promise that God would exert a special care over his own people to supply them with food, and that though they might not have a great abundance, yet the poor would be satisfied. We must not omit mentioning the remarkable and ludicrous mistake which the Papists have made upon this passage, and which shows the judicial stupidity they lie under to be such, that there is nothing so absurd they will not swallow. By confounding two letters into one, for victus they read vidus, and then conjectured that this must be a mutilation for viduas — blessing I will bless her widows! Thus they made “widows” out of “food” — an extraordinary blunder, which we would scarcely credit, were it not a fact that they sing the word out in their temples to this present day. “צידה, her provision. The word ציד signifies food which is taken in hunting, and then it is used to express food of any kind — provision generally. The Septuagint has θήραν, which denotes provision that has been hunted, and so obtained; but another reading of the Greek version τὴν χήραν αὐτὢς, which has been followed by the Vulgate, Arabic, and Ethiopic; the rendering of the Vulgate being viduam ejus This corrupt reading is noticed by Jerome.” — Phillips.

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. I will abundantly bless &c.] Or, I will surely bless. The Divine blessing will rest upon people, priests (16), and rulers (17f.). Even the poor shall not want. Cp. Deu_15:4. Palestine was liable to famines, and in the early days of the Restoration the community had suffered severely from scarcity (Hag_1:6 ff.), but this was not God’s Will[83].

[83] The word for provision (צידה) means also prey, and was rendered literally by the LXX, θήραν (אaT); but in some MSS (e.g. אAR) this was changed to χήραν widow(s) either through a scribe’s mistake, or because prey seemed unintelligible and widows might naturally be classed with the poor. Cp. Deu_14:29. Hence the Vulg. viduam, Douay, her widow.

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.

There will I make the horn of David to bud,.... Which the Targum interprets "a glorious" King; and both Kimchi and Ben Melech, and also Arama, understand it of the Messiah, and very rightly; called the horn of the Lord's Anointed, and the horn of salvation, Sa1 2:10, Luk 1:69; expressive of his power and strength, in allusion to the horns of cattle, with which they push their enemies and defend themselves; so horns are interpreted kings, Dan 7:24; and is fitly applied to Christ, raised up of the seed of David, the man of God's right hand, made strong for himself, who is a mighty King and an able Saviour; as appears by what he has done and suffered, by the deliverance and salvation of his people, and by the destruction of all their enemies: and it is here promised that God would make this horn to "bud" or branch out, in allusion to another name of the Messiah, the "branch"; and it is the same as raising up to David a righteous branch, or causing the Messiah to spring forth as a branch out of his roots, for which reason he is called the Lord's servant, the branch, and the man the branch; see Jer 23:5; and it should be further observed that the Lord says, "there" will I do it; that is, either at Ephratah, which is Bethlehem, the place where the Messiah was to be born, and was born; or else at Zion or Jerusalem, where he appeared and showed himself, where he taught his doctrines and wrought many of his miracles, and near to which he suffered and died; and this shows that the Messiah must be come, that this horn of David must have budded, or the man the branch brought forth, since Bethlehem and Jerusalem are long ago demolished;

I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed; which Jerom understands of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who was a burning and shining light, but was not "that light", that famous light, that was to come, but was sent to bear witness of it; he being but as a candle, as the word here used signifies, in comparison of the sun of righteousness; but rather it means a son and successor of David, the Lord's anointed; in which sense the phrase is often used, Kg1 11:36; and here the famous and illustrious Son and successor of his, the Messiah, the light which lightens every man with the light of reason; and who is the light of the world of his people, enlightening them with the light of grace, and will be the light of the New Jerusalem state, and of the ultimate glory; him God has "ordained" as such, even foreordained him before the foundation of the world; this lamp, or light, he prepared in eternity, and it dwelt with him, and therefore was desired to be sent out from him, Dan 2:22; which places are to be understood of the Messiah; See Gill on Dan 2:22 and See Gill on Psa 43:3.

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

I will abundantly bless her provision - Margin, surely. Hebrew, “Blessing I will bless,” a strong affirmation, meaning that he would certainly do it; that he would do it in every way; that every needed blessing would be imparted. The word rendered provision is a cognate form of the word in Psa 78:25, translated meat: “He sent them meat to the full.” It properly refers to food for a journey, but it is applicable to any kind of food. The original idea is that of food obtained by hunting - as game, venison: Gen 25:28; Job 38:41. The meaning here is, that God would provide abundantly for their support.

I will satisfy her poor with bread - I will give them what they need. See the notes at Psa 37:25.

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

I will plentifully provide for Jerusalem, and all that live in her or resort to her for worship; nor shall they seek my face in vain.

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

15. Provision—Primarily, what is taken in hunting, as venison, but generally nourishment. The parallel clause has it bread. Temporal blessings are always included in all God’s covenants with man.

Abundantly bless— Literally, Blessing I will bless; that is, I will surely bless.

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

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. Literally, this seems to point to the blessing of abundance of food. Spiritually, it may be a promise of ample spiritual sustenance.

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

Connecting Statement:

God continues to speak about the city of Zion as if Zion was a woman. (See: Personification)

will abundantly bless her

"will abundantly bless Zion"

will satisfy her poor with bread

Here "poor" refers to the poor people in Zion and "bread" probably represents food in general. AT: "will satisfy the poor people in Zion with food" (See: Nominal Adjectives and Synecdoche)

I will clothe her priests with salvation

Salvation is spoken of as if it is clothing. Possible meanings are 1) "I will cause the priests to behave in a manner worthy of ones whom I have saved" or 2) "I will save her priests" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

bless

bread

priest

save

faithful

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

its provision its food.

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.