Psalms 75:3

Psa 75:3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

Ver. 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved] Both Church and commonwealth here are utterly out of order; I shall endeavour mine utmost to set all to rights, and so to preserve the world from ruin, which subsisteth by and for the sake of God’s Israel, Absque stationibus non staret mundus.

I bear up the pillars of it] Semen sanctum statumen terrae, Isa 6:13, The holy seed upholdeth the state. David did (as Lucan saith of Cato), toti genitum se credere mundo; Jesus Christ much more; he is the true Atlas, upholding all things by the word of his power, Heb 1:3.

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_75:3

I bear up the pillars of it.

God behind nature

It is literally true in the realm of nature. I bear up the pillars of it. God is being gradually eliminated from His own world. In olden time God was brought in at every nook and corner and turn. If it rained, the Lord had opened the bottles of heaven. If there was a drought, the Lord had locked up the heavens. If a hurricane occurred, the Lord had raised up a mighty wind. In ancient times men saw God in all the phenomena of nature. We are more educated now--indeed, so educated that we have nearly excluded God from the realm of His own universe. There is a scientific explanation for everything. No matter what may happen, we are told, There are the pillars that support, and there is nothing supernatural. But the Lord comes in and asks this question, Who supports the pillars? If a semi-infidel world says, Everything can be explained by science, and that which at present seems almost insoluble has only to be waited for a little while, and the pillars will appear, God says, True, but then 1 bear up the pillars. (A. G. Brown.)

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

Psa 75:3. The earth — Or land; and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved — Or melted, as נמגים, nemogim, may be rendered. It seems to mean, either that the Israelitish affairs were thrown into confusion, and the frame of the government dissolved by their civil distractions, or that the people were consumed and destroyed by the continual irruptions of foreign enemies. I bear up the pillars of it — How much soever I am traduced by mine enemies, as the great disturber of the land, I must do myself this right to affirm that, under God, I do support and establish it, by maintaining religion and justice, by appointing, countenancing, and supporting good magistrates, and by encouraging the Lord’s prophets and servants, and all good men, who are indeed the pillars of a nation.

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

4. (Psa 75:3). Melted (are) the earth and all dwelling on it; I have weighed the pillars of it. Selah. Dissolved with fear, enfeebled, or reduced to nothing. See above, on Psa 46:6. The figure in the last clause is obscure. The act of weighing may be intended to suggest that of raising, bearing up. Compare Isa 40:12-13; Isa 40:15. Some suppose, however, that it means to measure, estimate, or value, and implies not only perfect knowledge but creative power. As a part of the promise or encouraging assurance begun in the preceding verse, the one before us must mean that God himself will prevent or rectify the evils caused or threatened by his enemies.

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

Though all things be brought to ruin, yet I can restore and preserve them.

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

Verse 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved] They all depend on me; and whenever I withdraw the power by which they exist and live, they are immediately dissolved.

I bear up the pillars of it.] By the word of my power all things are upheld, and without me nothing can subsist. Those who consider this Psalm to have been written by David before he was anointed king over ALL Israel, understand the words thus: "All is at present in a state of confusion; violence and injustice reign: but when 'I shall receive the whole congregation,' when all the tribes shall acknowledge me as king, I will reorganize the whole constitution. It is true that the land and all its inhabitants are dissolved-unsettled and unconnected by the bands of civil interest. The whole system is disorganized: 'I bear up the pillars of it;' the expectation of the chief people is placed upon me; and it is the hope they have of my coming speedily to the throne of all Israel that prevents them from breaking out into actual rebellion."

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

3. The earth is dissolved, and all its inhabitants. Many commentators are of opinion that these words are properly applicable to Christ, at whose coming it behoved the earth and its inhabitants to be shaken. He reigns, as we know, that he may destroy the old man, and he commences his spiritual kingdom with the destruction of the flesh; but he conducts his administration in such a manner as that afterwards there follows the restoration of the new man. Of the second part of the verse, I will establish the pillars of it, they make the same application, explaining it as if Christ had said, As soon as I come into the world, the earth with its inhabitants shall melt and be dissolved; but immediately after I will establish it upon firm and solid foundations; for my elect ones, renewed by my Spirit, shall no longer be like grass or withered flowers, but shall have conferred upon them new and unwonted stability. I do not, however, think that such a refined interpretation ever entered into the mind of the prophet, whose words I consider as simply meaning, that although the earth may be dissolved, God has the props or supports of it in his own hand. This verse is connected with the preceding; for it confirms the truth that God in due time will manifest himself to be an impartial and righteous judge; it being an easy matter for him, although the whole fabric of the world were fallen into ruins, to rebuild it from its decayed materials. At the same time, I have no doubt that there is a reference to the actual state of things in the natural world. The earth occupies the lowest place in the celestial sphere, and yet instead of having foundations on which it is supported, is it not rather suspended in the midst of the air? Besides, since so many waters penetrate and pass through its veins, would it not be dissolved were it not established by the secret power of God? While, however, the prophet alludes to the natural state of the earth, he, nevertheless, rises higher, teaching us, that were the world even in ruins, it is in the power of God to re-establish it.

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.

(3) The earth . . .—Better—

“Are earth and all its inhabitants dissolved?

It was I adjusted its pillars.”

(See Hannah’s song, 1Sa_2:8.) Though the crisis be such that all is confusion and anarchy (comp. Isa_24:19-20 for the figure), there is no cause for fear; there is still a Ruler in heaven, He who built up the edifice which now seems to totter to its fall. The verb rendered in the Authorised Version “bear up,” is used in Job_28:15, Isa_40:12 in the sense of “weighing” or “measuring;” but with the same allusion to the creative work of God. Here it plainly means, so to adjust the pillars as to make them equal to the weight they have to bear.

The “pillars” are the “mountains,” as in Job_26:11. (See Note, Psa_24:2.) Comp. Shelley—

“Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof,

The mountains its columns are.”

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

3. The first line virtually forms the protasis of the sentence: Though the earth &c.; I have set up the pillars of it. Though all the world is in terror and confusion, I (emphatic) have established a moral order in it. The material world is often compared to a building with its foundations and pillars (1Sa_2:8; Job_9:6; Job_38:4 ff.); and the moral world is described by the same figure. Cp. Psa_11:3; Psa_82:5.

I bear up] Lit. I have proportioned, or, adjusted by line and measure. The rendering of R.V. marg., When the earth … I set up, will mean that when confusion reigns, God re-establishes order: but it is better to understand the perfect tense (I have set up) of the fundamental laws which God has from the first ordained.

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.

The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved,.... Or "melted" (p); the inhabitants, through fear and dread of the righteous Judge, appearing in the clouds of heaven, and of the wrath that is coming on they are deserving of; and the earth, through fire, when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein shall be burnt up, Pe2 3:10.

I bear up the pillars of it.: so that it shall not utterly perish; for though by the fire, at the general conflagration, the heavens and the earth will be so melted and dissolved as to lose their present form, and shall be purged and purified from all noxious qualities, the effects of sin; yet the substance will remain, out of which will be formed new heavens and a new earth, and this through the power of Christ sustaining it, and preserving it from entire destruction or annihilation. R. Obadiah by "pillars" understands in a figurative sense the righteous, for whose sake the world is continued in its being; these at the general conflagration will be bore up and preserved by Christ, whom they shall meet in the air, even the church, who is the pillar and ground of truth; and not only the ministers of the Gospel, who are pillars in Christ's house, but also every believer, which is a pillar there, that shall never go out, Ti1 3:15. Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret the pillars of the mountains.

Selah. See Gill on Psa 3:2.

(p) "liquefacti", Montanus; "liquefiet", Musculus.

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

The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved - The word rendered “dissolved” means properly to melt, to flow down; then, to melt away, to pine away, to perish. Isa 64:7; Job 30:22; Nah 1:5; Psa 107:26. Here it means that there was, as it were, a general breaking up of things; or that none of the institutions of the land seemed to have any stability. There seemed to be no government, but universal anarchy and confusion.

I bear up the pillars of it - Of the earth; of society. The earth here is compared with an edifice supported by pillars. Compare Jdg 16:26; 1Sa 2:8; 1Ti 3:15. As applied to a prince or ruler, this means that the permanent structure of the state, the welfare of society, depended on his administration. If, according to the view of others, it is applied to God, the meaning is, that as he upholds the world, there cannot be permanent misrule; that amidst all the commotions of earth, and all that seemed to threaten ruin, his hand sustained all, and he would not allow things to proceed to permanent disorder. In the former case, the assertion would be true if a prince felt that he had power to support the government, and to restore order; in the latter case, it must be true, for God sustains the earth, and as he can check disorder when he shall judge it best to interpose, so he will not permit it ultimately to prevail.

Selah - A musical pause. See the notes at Psa 3:2.

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

Dissolved; or, melted, consumed or destroyed; partly by the ill government of Saul and Ish-bosheth, and the great officers of state and war under them; and partly by intestine divisions and wars.

I bear up the pillars of it: howsoever I am traduced by mine enemies as the great disturber of the land, I must do myself this right, to affirm that, under God, I do support and establish it, by maintaining religion and justice, and by setting us good magistrates, and encouraging good ministers, and good men, which are indeed the pillars of a nation.

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

Ver. 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. When anarchy is abroad, and tyrants are in power, everything is unloosed, dissolution threatens all things, the solid mountains of government melt as wax; but even then the Lord upholds and sustains the right.

I bear up the pillars of it. Hence, there is no real cause for fear. While the pillars stand, and stand they must for God upholds them, the house will brave out the storm. In the day of the Lord's appearing a general melting will take place, but in that day our covenant God will be the sure support of our confidence.

"How can I sink with such a prop

As my eternal God,

Who bears the earth's huge pillars up,

And spreads the heavens abroad."

Selah. Here may the music pause while the sublime vision passes before our view; a world dissolved and an immutable God uplifting all his people above the terrible commotion.

Ver. 3. I bear up the pillars of it. I prevent it from falling to pieces, as a house, supported by columns too weak to bear its weight, would do. Daniel Cresswell.

Ver. 3. I bear up the pillars of it. Learn to whom the glory of bearing up the world is due. God's providence is the true Atlas which supports the world, and doth shoulder up the world, whilst it treads on sin and sinners. Upon a serious view taken of providence on this wise displayed, we may say as they said of old, "The Lord, he is the God; the Lord he is the God, "1Ki 18:39. Thomas Crane.

Ver. 3. We can imagine a monarch, and especially an eastern monarch, in the plenitude of his power, and the arrogance of his pride, as he casts his haughty glance over the ensign of his might, saying to himself, "I bear up the pillars of the earth." But one could never imagine such a thought arising in the heart, or proceeding from the lips of David or Hezekiah. I know not who of the sons of Adam, frail and feeble at their best estate, could have ever said, The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. I know of none but him who said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, "and who, as he said these words, ascended up into heaven to exercise that sovereignty, and repair that mighty ruin which had been wrought on earth when Satan triumphed in Paradise. Barton Bouchier.

Ver. 3. The Lord the stay of his people under the worst circumstances.

Ver. 3. Teacheth us that no disorder or confusion should hinder us from doing that which God requireth of us; nay, rather, the more things are out of order the more readily should we labour to redress them. Thomas Wilcocks.

Psalms 75:4*

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

3. The earth and all the inhabitants… are dissolved—A figurative description of a wasted country and a dispirited people.

Dissolved— Melted, become faint with fear and discouragement. Psa_107:26; Eze_21:15. Isa_14:31, “Thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved:” this latter is spoken of this same or a subsequent Assyrian invasion.

Earth—The land—the “earth” so far as relates to Hebrew territory. To the eye the desolation seemed world wide.

I bear up the pillars of it—I adjust its pillars. The king still speaks in the name of God. Every thing in the kingdom is shaken and thrown out of order except the throne. From this solid centre and basis the reconstruction of government and the restoration of order and prosperity must proceed. “The pillars and foundations of the earth signify those fundamental laws which are essential to the existence and well being of society.”—French and Skinner. The lofty image here employed is often used to denote the shaking or overthrow of governments. Psa_46:2; Psa_82:5; Jer_4:23-27. It is quite common for interpreters to apply this to God, or to Christ as king, as speaking of himself and of mankind; but it is a safer method of interpretation to follow the historic and literal sense where it adequately meets the import of the language. To spiritualize historic facts does not interpret them; but the underlying moral of history is of universal application, and both fact and moral are given in holy Scripture to illustrate the divine government.

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

The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. They "melt" with fear, (Psa_44:6) either at God"s coming in judgment, or at the dissolution which a hostile invasion is bringing on their land. I bear up the pillars of it. Meanwhile God upholds, and will uphold, both the moral and physical order of things. He will neither suffer the earth to be moved, nor the supports on which society depends to fail and crumble away.

Help laid on One that is mighty.

Our text and this whole psalm show clearly enough that

I SUCH HELP WAS NEEDED.

1. Society, order, law, seemed all on the point of dissolution. A condition of affairs is contemplated in which everything seemed rushing ruinwards, and would rapidly have reached such sad ending, had they not been held back by One mightier than they. We cannot say for certain, though we may conjecture, what special age, persons, or events are alluded to. The psalm suits several such, and is capable of many applications. For our own use of its teachings it is well that we are left in ignorance of its actual allusions, and cannot point to the special events which were before the psalmist"s mind.

2. And such conditions are all too common. We see them in nations, Churches, families, individual souls. Everything seems slipping away, all order and strength and well being dissolving. It is as if "the earth and all the inhabitants thereof were dissolved." It is so in things temporal, and so, too, in things spiritual.

3. The causes that produce such conditions are manifold. Sometimes, in nations, it is war, or political strife, or, and this more commonly, moral corruption. So it seems to have been in the condition contemplated by this psalm (see vers. 2, 4). And none can read the records of history, whether in the Bible or in other books, but may trace this cause, sin, ever at its deadly work. If a nation, a Church, a city has fallen, we have not far to seek for what has brought it about, The philosophy of history is the tracing out the contrasted effects of righteousness and wrong. And in the dissolution told of here, the solvent that brought it about was certainly sin. And so is it also in the like conditions that are found elsewhere.

4. But wherever found, they are very sad. The groaning and travail of the whole creation, which were so audible and distressing to St. Paul, are the result of such conditions, and the sorrow would have been greater than he could have borne had he not been "saved by hope the hope suggested by the latter half of our text, of help being laid on One that is mighty. For

II SUCH HELP IS FORTHCOMING. "I bear up the pillars of it." The earth is pictured as some vast temple supported on pillars, but which are on the point of giving way, and would were they not upheld by a mighty support. The meaning is plain that there is One who holds back the ruin which is everywhere threatening, who will interpose and prevent it. Who is this Mighty One? It may be some monarch, statesman, prophet. God has raised up such like Moses, David, our own Alfred the Great; like Nehemiah, like William the Silent, and many more. The saying, "I bear up," etc., is not arrogance, but the simple statement of the duty God has assigned him. The faith in God, and the courage which characterize such men, are evident in this psalm. But in the last resort it is God who is the real Up-bearer. It is he who inspires and qualifies his servants.

III SUCH HELP, UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, IS WAITING FOR US. Seek it. S.C.

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

Dissolved - Or, destroyed; by intestine divisions and wars. I hear - I support it, by maintaining religion and justice, by setting up good magistrates, and encouraging good ministers, and good men, who are indeed the pillars of a nation.

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

When I take a festive day When we have a festival, we do not engage in obscenity and levity, as [do] all the nations.

I shall judge with fairness We take it to our heart to praise You and laud You according to the incident of that day.

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.