Psalms 75:2

Psa 75:2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

Ver. 2. When I shall receive the congregation] i.e. The government of all the twelve tribes, as I believe I shall do shortly, according to God’s promise to me by Samuel.

I will judge uprightly] That a man is in truth, that he is in his own particular place and station, that he is really, that he is relatively.

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 75:2. When I shall receive the congregation — The first verse was spoken by many persons, We give thanks, &c.; here the speaker is one, and that one is plainly a ruler, who promises that when he shall have received the congregation, or, as מועדmay be properly rendered, an appointed, or fit time, or season; that is, when he shall be established in power and authority, at a fit time and place, he will judge uprightly, and introduce a thorough reformation into a kingdom which, as the following verse makes manifest, stood greatly in need of it. From these circumstances Dr. Horne, with several other commentators, thinks it probable “David is speaking here of his advancement to the throne of Israel, and the intended rectitude of his administration when he should be settled thereon.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. When I shall receive the congregation—We must certainly recognise the historic ground of Psa_75:2-3, before any spiritual or prophetic sense is admissible. The king is speaking to God. He states what he will do when he shall take his seat in the assembly, namely, perform the highest function of his office faithfully. “When I shall receive,” or take the place of authority in the stated assembly for the administration of justice, I will judge uprightly. He first thanks God for deliverance, then his heart turns to his distracted people, and, as God’s minister to them, he pledges uprightness of decision. This is part of his gratitude offering. All nations have had their times of restoring order and prosperity after the shattering effects of war, and this example of the pious king of Judah is worthy of universal adoption as the soundest state policy.

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

3. (Psa 75:2). For I will take a set time; I will equitably judge. The best interpreters are now in favour of explaining these as the words of God himself, containing the promise upon which was built the hope expressed in the preceding verse. Take then includes the two ideas of choosing and using for the end proposed. The word translated set time is the same that means assembly in Psa 74:4; Psa 74:8. The idea of constituted time, which is included even there, is here predominant. The same use of the word occurs in Psa 102:13, Hab 2:3, Dan 8:19; Dan 11:27; Dan 11:35. There is here an obvious allusion to the stated times at which justice is publicly administered. Compare Act 19:38. As if he had said, I will appoint a time, and when it comes, I will ascend the judgment-seat. The parties to be tried are the foes and oppressors of God's people. The pronoun is emphatic; I, and no other, will be judge. See above, on Psa 1:6. Equitably, literally equities or rectitudes. See above, on Psa 17:2; Psa 58:1. The use of the plural, as an abstract, and that of the noun in an adverbial sense, are both familiar Hebrew idioms. The judging of the wicked at God's bar implies their condemnation, and, as a necessary consequence, the deliverance of those whom they oppress or injure.

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

75:2-8 The Lord will bring justice in his own time.

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

When I see my time (saith God) to help your miseries, I will come and set all things in good order.

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

Verse 2. When I shall receive the congregation] When the proper time is come that the congregation, my people of Israel, should be brought out of captivity, and received back into favour, I shall not only enlarge them, but punish their enemies. They shall be cut off and cast out, and become a more miserable people than those whom they now insult. I will destroy them as a nation, so that they shall never more be numbered among the empires of the earth.

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

2. When I shall have taken the congregation. The Hebrew verb יעד, yaäd, signifies to appoint a place or day, and the noun מועד, moed, derived from it, which is here used, signifies both holy assemblies, or a congregation of the faithful assembled together in the name of the Lord, and festival, or appointed solemn days. As it is certain that God is here introduced as speaking, either of these senses will agree with the scope of the passage. It may be viewed as denoting either that having gathered his people to himself, he will restore to due order matters which were in a state of distraction and confusion, or else that he will make choice of a fit time for exercising his judgment. In abandoning his people for a season to the will of their enemies, he seems to forsake them and to exercise no care about them; so that they are like a flock of sheep which is scattered, and wanders hither and thither without a shepherd. It being his object, then, to convey in these words a promise that he would remedy such a confused state of things, he very properly commences with the gathering together of his Church. If any choose rather to understand the word מועד, moed, as referring to time God is to be understood as admonishing his people, that it is their bounden duty to exercise patience until he actually show that the proper time is come for correcting vices, since he only has the years and days in his own power, and knows best the fit juncture and moment for performing this work. The interpretation to which I most incline is, That, to determine the end and measure of calamities, and the best season of rising up for the deliverance of his people, — matters, the determination of which men would willingly claim for themselves, — is reserved by God in his own hands, and is entirely subject to his own will. At the same time, I am very well satisfied with the former interpretation, which refers the passage to the gathering together of the Church. Nor ought it to seem absurd or harsh that God is here introduced as returning an answer to the prayers of his people. This graphic representation, by which they are made to speak in the first verse, while he is introduced as speaking in the second, is much more forcible than if the prophet had simply said, that God would at length, and at the determined time, show himself to be the protector of his Church, and gather her together again when she should be scattered and rent in pieces. The amount, in short, is, that although God may not succor his own people immediately, yet he never forgets them, but only delays until the fit time arrive, the redress which he has in readiness for them. To judge righteously, is just to restore to a better state matters which are embroiled and disordered. Thus Paul says,

“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6, 7)

God, therefore, declares that it is his office to set in order and adjust those things which are in confusion, that, entertaining this expectation, we may be sustained and comforted by means of it in all our afflictions.

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.

(2) When I.—Rather, When I have chosen my time, I will judge uprightly. This sense: “my time” being shown by the emphatic “I” of the Hebrew. (Comp. Act_17:31.) The word rendered in the Authorised Version “congregation” (moed), has plainly here its first derivative sense of a set time, or “occasion.” (Comp. Psa_102:13; Hab_2:3.) So LXX. and Vulg. here; but Symmachus gives “synagogue.”

It is quite clear that the speaker of these words is God Himself, who suddenly, as in Psa_46:10, breaks in with the announcement of judgment. But how far the Divine utterance extends in the psalm is not quite clear. Some end it with Psa_75:3; others with Psa_75:5.

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

2. When I reach the appointed time,

I Judge uprightly.

The ‘appointed time’ (Psa_102:13; Hab_2:3; Act_17:31) is the proper moment foreordained in the Divine counsels and known to God. The intervention of Jehovah at the moment when the Assyrians are ripe for judgement is a favourite thought with Isaiah (Isa_10:32-33; Isa_18:4-5).

The second I is emphatic: I, whatever men may do; I, whatever men may think.

2, 3. God speaks, as in Psa_46:10, and His words are virtually an answer to men’s thoughts. Men may have thought that He had abdicated His function as Judge of all the earth: not so: He was only waiting for the fitting moment for action.

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.

When I shall receive the congregation,.... Some render it, from the Arabic signification of the word, "the promise" (o); the Spirit promised, the gifts of the Spirit, which Christ received for men, and gave to men, whereby he executes the judgment or government of the church committed to him: others the time, so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic versions, to which agrees the Targum, the word signifying a set appointed time, Psa 102:14, and so may respect the time appointed for the judgment of the world, which when come, Christ will execute in a most righteous manner, as follows; see Act 17:31, but whereas the people of Israel met at the door of the tabernacle, which from thence was called "Ohel Moed", the tabernacle of the congregation; hence the word is used for a congregation, and here designs the general assembly and church of the firstborn written in heaven, even all the elect of God; these were received by Christ of his Father in eternity, when he espoused them to himself, and undertook the care of them; and they are received by him, one by one, in effectual calling; and in like manner are they received by him into glory at death; but when they are all gathered in, and are prepared for him as a bride for her husband, then will he receive them all in a body, and present them to himself a glorious church during the thousand years' reign; upon which will proceed the judgment of the wicked; see Rev 20:5,

I will judge uprightly; in equity, in strict justice, in the most righteous manner, rendering to every man according to his works; hence the future judgment is called a righteous one, and so is the Judge; no injustice will be done to men, but the strictest integrity, uprightness, and impartiality, will be observed in pronouncing the several sentences on the righteous and on the wicked, and in adjudging them to their several places and states.

(o) "promissa", Schultens animadv. p. 174. "festi dona", Gusset. p. 334.

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

When I shall receive the congregation - The marginal rendering is, “Take a set time.” The phrase is thus rendered in most of the versions. So the Septuagint, “When I take the time” - ὅταν λάβω καιρὸν hotan labō kairon. So the Vulgate, “When I accept the time.” So Luther, “When in its own time.” So De Wette, “When I take the time.” According to this interpretation, this is the language of God, as if implying that, although “the earth” was then “dissolved,” or although disorders were allowed to exist, yet he would take a set time, or take the appointed time for judgment, and would pronounce a sentence on the conduct of people, and deal with them in a righteous manner, punishing the rebellious, and vindicating his own cause. The proper interpretation of the passage turns on the meaning of the Hebrew word rendered in the text “congregation” - מועד mô‛êd. See the word explained in the notes at Psa 74:8. It may mean a set time, an appointed season, 1Sa 13:8, 1Sa 13:11; or a coming together, an assembly, Job 30:23; or a place of assemblage, as the tabernacle, etc.; Exo 27:21; Exo 40:22; Psa 74:8. It may, therefore, be applied to the congregation of the Jewish people - the nation considered as an assemblage for the worship of God; and the idea of taking this, or receiving this, may be applied to the act of assuming authority or sovereignty over the people, and hence, the language may be used to denote the entrance on the discharge of the duties of such sovereignty. The language would be ap plicable to one who had the right of such an elevation to power - a prince - an heir apparent - in a time when his right was disputed; when there was an organized opposition to him; or when the nation was in a state of anarchy and confusion. It seems to me that this supposition best accords with the proper meaning of the language, and with the scope of the psalm.

I will judge uprightly - I will put down all this opposition to law. I will deal with exact justice between man and man. I will restore order, and the supremacy of law, to the state. The language, therefore, according to this interpretation, is not the language of God, but that of a prince having a right to the throne, and about to ascend it in a time of great misrule and disorder.

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

When I shall receive the congregation, to wit, the whole congregation, or body of thy people, to wit, all the tribes; which are now distracted and disordered by a civil war, which is a great hinderance to the administration of justice. Or, when I shall receive or obtain the appointment, i.e. what God hath appointed and promised to me, to wit, the full and firm possession of the kingdom; or, the time or place appointed by God for that work. Some make these and the following passages the words of God concerning his church or people; which seems not probable; partly because he speaks of God in the third person, as one distinct from him that speaks these words, Psa 75:7,8; and partly because it is evident that one and the same person speaks from hence to the end of the Psalm, and the ninth verse cannot be spoken by God.

I will judge uprightly; I will not use my power tyrannically and wickedly, as Saul did, and as most other princes do; but holily and righteously, for the good of my people.

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

Ver. 2. When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. This is generally believed to be the voice of God, who will, when he accepts his people, mount his judgment seat and avenge their cause in righteousness. It is rendered by some, "I will take a set time; "and by others, "I will seize the moment."

"God never is before his time,

He is never too late."

He determines the period of interposition, and when that arrives swift are his blows and sure are his deliverances. God sends no delegated judge, but sits himself upon the throne. O Lord, let thy set time come for grace. Tarry no longer, but for the truth and the throne of Jesus be thou speedily at work. Let the appointed assize come, O Jesus, and sit thou on thy throne to judge the world in equity.

None.

Good resolutions commendable, how they should be made, strengthened, and performed.

Psalms 75:3*

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

When I shall receive the congregation; rather, when I shall have appointed a set time. It is agreed that the speaker, in this verse and the next, is God, who announces that he is about to descend in judgment. This, however, he will do "at his own set time," for which men must wait patiently. (comp. Hab_2:3) I will judge uprightly; or, "with uprightness". (comp. Psa_58:1)

God"s set time for judgment.

It is not certain whether vers. 2 and 3 are to be taken as an utterance of the psalmist for himself, or whether God is here introduced as speaking. Dean Perowne thinks, "God is abruptly introduced as the speaker. The oracle is thus given as from the month of God himself, to those who may be in doubt or perplexity because their lot is cast in troublous times" But other writers think that Hezekiah is appealing to God, and assuring him that, even amidst the civil commotions and party struggles creating strong feelings, he will hold fast his integrity as chief magistrate, and judge fairly, uprightly, between man and man. "Receiving the congregation" is thus a poetical figure for the king"s daily magistracy. The Revised Version renders, "When I shall find the set time, I will judge uprightly," and this favours the view that God is the speaker. "Judgment" here probably stands for "active intervention." God often seems to delay his help; and such delay is a strain on faith and feeling. He never does really delay, because his time is set in infinite wisdom. Illustrate by the waiting at the shores of the Red Sea, for God"s set time to make the pathway through. See also Hezekiah"s waiting for God"s set time before his deliverance from the Assyrians. A "set time" implies

I THOUGHT BEFOREHAND. God knew all Hezekiah"s anxieties long before he seemed to intervene. He was interested. He watched. God was caring when he did not seem to care. How much better it is that God should observe all circumstances, and decide for the wisest moment in which to act for us! We may wish him to act at once; but in that case he could only alter our circumstances. By thoughtfully deciding on a "set time," the "best time," God is able to bless us, to carry on his sanctifying work in us. A set time implies

II THE SELECTION OF THE BEST TIME. But what is a best time can never be judged from any one point of view. God"s best is the best all round; the best for everybody; and the best in every sense. In connection with the psalm, God"s set time had to be best for Assyria, best for Sennacherib, best for Israel, best for Hezekiah, best for Shebna and his party, and best for us who have to learn from the old world story. We can so seldom make a fair judgment concerning God"s "set times" for us, because we cannot view them all round, and therefore we easily misunderstand them as seen from some point of self-interest. A "set time" implies

III EFFECTIVE ACTION WHEN THE TIME HAS COME. Illustrate by the attack of Wolseley on Tel-el-Kebir. A set time was fixed, so everything was prepared and adjusted, and the stroke was vigorously delivered. It is well for us to wait God"s time, because his time is a "set time. 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.

Receive - The whole congregation, all the tribes.

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

We have thanked You, O God for the good; we have thanked also for the evil. and...is near Your name is always near in our mouth.

they have told Our generations [have] constantly [told] Your wonders.

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.