Matthew Poole Commentary - Psalms 47:4 - 47:4

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Matthew Poole Commentary - Psalms 47:4 - 47:4


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He shall choose, i.e. he will appoint and bestow upon us. This verb of the future tense may seem to agree well with the Gentiles, because this blessing was not now present, but future, and so the sense designed by the Holy Ghost may be this: Though at present we are wicked and wretched creatures, and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, yet there is a time coming wherein God will choose or take us into the number of his children by gracious adoption. But futures are variously rendered; and accordingly the vulgar Latin, Syriac, and Arabic render this word. He hath chosen. The Chaldee renders this and the following words, He will take pleasure in us, so as to give us our inheritance. Our inheritance; either the land of Canaan; or heaven, which was typified by that land; or rather, God himself, who is called his people’s portion or inheritance, as Psa_16:5 73:26, and elsewhere, or the presence, and worship, and blessing of God. This God had chosen for the Israelites, and resolved to choose or set apart for the Gentiles. The excellency, or glory; wherein Jacob gloried and excelled all other people. See Eze_24:21 Amo_6:8 8:7.



Of Jacob; either,



1. Of the person of Jacob; who, though he never had the possession of the land of Canaan, yet had the Lord, and his presence and blessing, for his inheritance. Or rather,



2. Of the people of Jacob or Israel, who are frequently called Jacob, as Num_23:7,10,23 Psa 14:7 44:4, &c., for these did actually enjoy the promised inheritance of Canaan, and the presence of God in his sanctuary.



Whom he loved: this he adds, partly as the reason why he chose such a noble inheritance for them, not for any peculiar worth in them more than in other people, but only for his free love to them, as he declareth, Deu_7:7,8 9:5; and partly as an evidence of the excellency of this inheritance, because it was chosen for his beloved people.