Psalms 73:15

15 If I had said, "I will talk on in this way," I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.

Psalms 73:15 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 73:15

If I say, I will speak thus
Either as the wicked do, ( Psalms 73:8 Psalms 73:9 Psalms 73:11 ) or rather as he had thought in his own mind, ( Psalms 73:13 Psalms 73:14 ) , wherefore he kept it all to himself, and did not make known to others the reasonings of his mind, and the temptations he laboured under:

behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children;
of whom care should be taken, above all things, that they be not offended, ( Matthew 18:6 ) , or "should condemn"; as the Targum; or as Jarchi,

``I should make them transgressors, and wicked persons;''

should represent them as if they were men hated and rejected of God, because of their afflictions: the words may be rendered, "behold the generation of thy children, I have transgressed" F17; by giving way to the above temptation, which might have been prevented by considering the church, children, and people of God, and the care he has taken of them, the regard he has shown to them, and the preservation of them in all ages. The words are an apostrophe to God, who has children by adopting grace, and which appear so by their regeneration; and there is a generation of them in all ages; when one goes, another comes; there is always a seed, a spiritual offspring, to serve him, which is counted for a generation.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (ytdgb Kynb rwd hnh) "ecce generatio filiorum tuorum, praevaricatus sum", Pagninus, Montanus.

Psalms 73:15 In-Context

13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.
15 If I had said, "I will talk on in this way," I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.