Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God ] Acknowledge in every possible way, both in public and private, that Jehovah, the uncreated self-existent, and eternal Being, is Elohim, the God who is in covenant with man, to instruct, redeem, love, and make him finally happy.
It is he that hath made us ] He is our Creator and has consequently the only right in and over us.
And not we ourselves ] wnjna alw velo anachnu. I can never think that this is the true reading, though found in the present Hebrew text, in the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Syriac. Was there ever a people on earth, however grossly heathenish, that did believe, or could believe, that they had made themselves? In twenty-six of Kennicott's and Deuteronomy Rossi's MSS. we have wnjna wlw velo anachnu, "and HIS we are;" wl lo, the pronoun, being put for al lo, the negative particle.
This is the readlng of the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase anjna hylydw vedileyh anachna, "and his we are," and is the reading of the text in the Complutensian Polyglot, of both the Psalters which were printed in 1477, and is the keri, or marginal reading in most Masoretic Bibles. Every person must see, from the nature of the subject that it is the genuine reading. The position is founded on the maxim that what a man invents, constructs out of his own matterials, without assistance in genius, materials or execution from any other person, is HIS OWN and to it, its use, and produce, he has the only right. God made us, therefore we are HIS: we are his people, and should acknowledge him for our God; we are the sheep of his pasture, and should devote the lives to him constantly which he continually supports.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- An exhortation to praise God, and rejoice in him.
--This song of praise should be considered as a prophecy, and even use as a prayer, for the coming of that time when all people shall know that the Lord he is God, and shall become his worshippers, and the sheep of his pasture. Great encouragement is given us, in worshippin God, to do it cheerfully. If, when we strayed like wandering sheep, he has brought us again to his fold, we have indeed abundant cause to bless his name. The matter of praise, and the motives to it, are very important. Know ye what God is in himself, and what he is to you. Know it; consider and apply it, then you will be more close and constant more inward and serious, in his worship. The covenant of grace set dow in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, with so many ric promises, to strengthen the faith of every weak believer, makes the matter of God's praise and of his people's joys so sure, that how sad soever our spirits may be when we look to ourselves, yet we shall have reason to praise the Lord when we look to his goodness and mercy, an to what he has said in his word for our comfort _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew דעו3045 כי3588 יהוה3068 הוא1931 אלהים430 הוא1931 עשׂנו6213 ולא3808 אנחנו587 עמו5971 וצאן6629 מרעיתו׃4830
