Psalms 89:50

Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; [how] I do bear in my bosom [the reproach of] all the mighty people;

Ver. 50. Remember, Lord] Thou seemest to have forgotten us and our sufferings, and we would fain remind thee.

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.

51. (Psa 89:50) Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants, my bearing in my bosom all the many nations. The form of address is the same as in Psa 89:47. The reproach of thy servants, the contempt and disgrace to which they are subjected. Thy servants, of whom I am one. Or the sudden transition to the first person singular may shew that the petitioner, in this whole context, is not an individual believer, but the Church at large. In my bosom may denote good measure or abundance. See above, on Psa 79:12. Or bearing in my bosom may mean feeling in my heart, i.e. intensely, exquisitely, in which case nations must be put for the contempt of nations. More probable than either is the figure of gestation, according to which Zion, although now despised or hated by the nations, is one day to be their spiritual mother or their spiritual birth-place. See above, on Psa 87:4; Psa 87:6. The Hebrew adjective may mean either great or many; but the latter sense is more agreeable to usage and the collocation of the words in this case. The idiomatic phrase, all many nations, is equivalent to saying, all the nations who are many in number. The word all might be used, however small the number of the nations. To express the whole idea, therefore, both words were required.

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

89:50 The phrase your servants refers to the community loyal to the Lord.

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

He meaneth that God’s enemies did not only slander him behind his back: but also mocked him to his face, and as it were cast their injuries in his bosom.

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

Verse 50. I do bear in my bosom] Our enemies, knowing our confidence, having often heard our boast in thee, and now seeing our low and hopeless estate, mock us for our confidence, and blaspheme thee. This wounds my soul; I cannot bear to hear thy name blasphemed among the heathen. All these mighty people blaspheme the God of Jacob.

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

50. O Lord! remember the reproach of thy servants. They again allege, that they are held in derision by the ungodly, — a consideration which had no small influence in moving God to compassion: for the more grievous and troublesome a temptation it is, to have the wicked deriding our patience, that, after having made us believe that God is not true in what he has promised, they may precipitate us into despair; the more ready is he to aid us, that our feeble minds may not yield to the temptation. The prophet does not simply mean that the reproaches of his enemies are to him intolerable, but that God must repress their insolence in deriding the faith and patience of the godly, in order that those who trust in him may not be put to shame. He enhances still more the same sentiment in the second clause, telling us, that he was assailed with all kind of reproaches by many peoples, or by the great peoples, for the Hebrew word רבים, rabbim, signifies both great and many

Moreover, it is not without cause, that, after having spoken in general of the servants of God, he changes the plural into the singular number. He does this, that each of the faithful in particular may be the more earnestly stirred up to the duty of prayer. The expression, in my bosom, is very emphatic. It is as if he had said, The wicked do not throw from a distance their insulting words, but they vomit them, so to speak, upon the children of God, who are thus constrained to receive them into their bosom, and to bear patiently this base treatment. Such is the perversity of the time in which we live, that we have need to apply the same doctrine to ourselves; for the earth is full of profane and proud despisers of God, who cease not to make themselves merry at our expense. And as Satan is a master well qualified to teach them this kind of rhetoric, the calamities of the Church always furnish them with matter for exercising it. Some take bosom for the secret affection of the heart; but this exposition seems to be too refined.

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.

(50) The phrase, “bear in my bosom,” is explained by Psa_79:12.

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

50. the reproach of thy servants] The taunts which they have to bear as the servants of a God Who, say their enemies, cannot or will not help them. Cp. Psa_74:10; Psa_74:18; Psa_74:22; Psa_79:4; Psa_79:10.

how I do bear &c.] The Massoretic text must be rendered, How I do bear in my bosom all the many peoples. It is grammatically anomalous and gives no satisfactory sense. A simple emendation, which has some support from Ancient Versions, reads thus:

How I bear in my bosom the dishonouring of the peoples.

Cp. the similar phrase with the same word for ‘dishonouring’ (A.V. shame) in Eze_34:29; Eze_36:6; Eze_36:15. As a faithful Israelite he must perforce bear the burden of his people’s shame.

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.

Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord,.... Which carries in it another argument why the Lord should take notice of these reproaches; because they come not only from their enemies, but from his also, and the enemies of his Son, who would not have him, the King Messiah, to reign over them, and are said to reproach him in the next clause:

wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine Anointed; or thy Messiah; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it of the Messiah: Jarchi renders it "the ends of the Messiah"; and all of them understand it of the coming of the Messiah, as in the Talmud (d); which, because delayed, or was not so soon as expected, was scoffed at and reproached by wicked men; see Mal 2:17, but it rather designs the ways and works, actions, and especially the miracles of Christ, which were reproached, either as done on the sabbath day, or by the help of Satan; and he was traduced in his kindest actions to the bodies and souls of men, as a friend of publicans and sinners, and himself as a sinner: and it may have a particular view to the latter end of the Messiah, the last part of his life, his sufferings and death, and when he hung on the cross; at which time he was, in the most insolent manner, reviled and reproached by his enemies: the words may be rendered "the heels of the Messiah" (e), and are thought by some to have reference to the promise in Gen 3:15, and may regard either the human nature of Christ, which was both reproached and bruised; or his members suffering disgrace and persecution for his sake, and which he takes as done to himself. Suidas (f) interprets it of the ancestors of Christ, according to the flesh; and Theodoret of the kings of that time.

(d) Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1. (e) "calcibus", Vatablus; "calcaneos"; Gussetius, Michaelis. (f) In voce

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

Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants - Remember this, so as to cause it to pass away; he not forgetful or unmindful of this. Compare Psa 89:47. The psalmist desired that all this might be before the mind of God as a reason why he should help him. These promises had been made to David and his people. They had relied on them, and they were now reproached as having trusted to promises which had never been made. This reproach was consequent on what seemed to be the failure to fulfill those promises; and as this reproach came upon God, and was a reflection on his fidelity, the psalmist prays that he would allow it to come before him.

How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people - literally, “I bear in my bosom all the many people.” That is, everything that pertained to them came upon him. All their troubles; all their reverses; all their complaints; all their murmurings, seemed to come upon him. He was held responsible for everything pertaining to them; all this pressed upon his heart. Compare the bitter complaint of Moses in Num 11:11-15. The phrase “to bear in the bosom” here, is equivalent to bearing it on the heart. Trouble, anxiety, care, sorrow, seem to press on the heart, or fill the bosom with distressing emotions, and lay on it a heavy burden. The allusion here is not merely to reproach, but the meaning is that everything pertaining to the people came on him, and it crushed him down. The burdens of his own people, as well as the reproaches of all around him, came upon him; and he felt that he was not able to bear it.

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

I, i.e. we thy servants, as he now said; our king and his people; of whom he speaks as of one person, as is very usual in Holy Scripture. Or the psalmist showeth how particularly and passionately he resented those reproaches which were cast upon their king and kingdom, as if they were east upon himself.

Bear in my bosom: this phrase may denote either, first, the multitude of these reproaches, things being said to be given or received into a man’s bosom, which are given or received in great plenty, as Isa 65:6; Luk 6:38; or, secondly, their grievousness, that they pierced him to the very heart, which is sometimes called the bosom, as Ecc 7:9. Of all the mighty people; of the great potentates and princes of the world, who now reproached the house of David with their vain and confident boasting of the everlastingness of their kingdom, which was now in a desperate and lost condition. Or, all the reproaches of many people.

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

Ver. 50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants. By reason of their great troubles they were made a mock of by ungodly men, and hence the Lord's pity is entreated. Will a father stand by and see his children insulted? The Psalmist entreats the Lord to compassionate the wretchedness brought upon his servants by the taunts of their adversaries, who jested at them on account of their sufferings.

How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people. The Psalmist himself laid the scorn of the great and the proud to heart. He felt as if all the reproaches which vexed his nation were centred in himself, and therefore in sacred sympathy with the people he poured out his heart. We ought to weep with those that weep; reproach brought upon the saints and their cause ought to burden us: if we can hear Christ blasphemed, and see his servants insulted, and remain unmoved, we have not the true Israelite's spirit. Our grief at the griefs of the Lord's people may be pleaded in prayer, and it will be acceptable argument.

There is one interpretation of this verse which must not be passed over; the original is,

Remember my bearing in my bosom all the many nations; and this may be understood as a pleading of the church that the Lord would remember her because she was yet to be the mother of many nations, according to the prophecy of Ps 77:1-20. She was as it were ready to give birth to nations, but how could they be born if she herself died in the meanwhile? The church is the hope of the world; should she expire, the nations would never come to the birth of regeneration, but must abide in death.

Ver. 50. How I do bear in my bosom the reproach, etc. I take the reproaches of thy servants and thine anointed, (1) as if they reproached me in mine own particular; or, (2) in that they lie so heavy upon my heart; or, (3) in that I am resolved quietly to endure them, and to swallow them down in silence, as not being indeed able to shake them off; because in the eye of reason our condition is at present so contrary to what we waited for; or, (4) in that their reproaches came not to his ears by hear say only, but were openly to his face cast as it were into his bosom. Arthur Jackson.

Ver 50. I do bear in, my bosom the reproach, etc. The reproach of religion and of the godly doth lie near, and should lie near, the heart of every lively member of the church. David Dickson.

Psalms 89:51*

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

50. Reproach—One of the keenest points of the existing chastisement.

I do bear in my bosom—So perfectly identified is the psalmist with God’s people that the thrust which was aimed at them is received in his own bosom. So Jer_15:15. But the language is applied, in a higher sense, to Christ. See Psa_69:9; Rom_15:3.

All the mighty people—Either all the powerful nations who now reproached the Hebrews, or, taking the words prophetically, all the mighty powers of the world who persecute the true Church.

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

Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; i.e. the reproach under which all thy people lie so long as their enemies are allowed to plunder and oppress them at their pleasure (see vers. 40-44). Remember also how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people. The reproach under which his countrymen lie a reproach laid on them by "all the mighty people among whom they dwell falls on the psalmist"s heart with especial weight through his deep sympathy with all of them.

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

How I - We thy servants; our king and his people; of whom he speaks as of one person.

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