Psalm 99:7

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 99:7. He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar — That is, to some of them: to Moses frequently, and to Aaron sometimes, as Numbers 12:5. And although it is not anywhere expressly said that God spake unto Samuel out of the cloudy pillar, yet, as Dr. Hammond observes, it is probable enough from his history that he did so; for when Samuel was so signally heard by God at Mizpeh, 1 Samuel 7., it is said, 1 Samuel 7:9, The Lord answered him; and 1 Samuel 7:10, The Lord thundered with a great thunder, which supposes a cloud, if not a cloudy pillar; and so this answering of Samuel with thunder, must be God’s speaking to him at this time out of the cloud. They kept his testimonies — This is added, not only for their commendation, but for the instruction of the Israelites, to teach them that God would not hear the prayers of them who did not keep his commandments.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

99:6-9 The happiness of Israel is made out by referring to the most useful governors of that people. They in every thing made God's word and law their rule, knowing that they could not else expect that their prayers should be answered. They all wonderfully prevailed with God in prayer; miracles were wrought at their request. They pleaded for the people, and obtained answers of peace. Our Prophet and High Priest, of infinitely greater dignity than Moses, Aaron, or Samuel, has received and declared to us the will of the Father. Let us not only exalt the Lord with our lips, but give him the throne in our heart; and while we worship him upon his mercy-seat, let us never forget that he is holy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar - He spake to the men of other times; to those who called upon his name. It cannot be meant literally that he spake to "Samuel" from the "cloudy pillar" - the pillar which guided the Israelites in the wilderness, unless that term be understood in the general sense as denoting the "Shechinah" - the visible symbol of the divine presence - the cloud that rested on the ark. The idea is, that God his people in ancient times from the cloud - the symbol of his presence; that he communed with them; that he heard their prayers; that he gave them his commandments; that he interposed in their behalf, and that it was not a vain thing that they worshipped him. All this was as true of Samuel - it is as true now of those who call upon God - as it was of Moses and Aaron.

They kept his testimonies ... - They obeyed his laws, and he thus heard and answered them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. cloudy pillar—the medium of divine intercourse (Ex 33:9; Nu 12:5). Obedience was united with worship. God answered them as intercessors for the people, who, though forgiven, were yet chastened (Ex 32:10, 34).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unto them, i.e. to some of them; for the expression is only indefinite, and therefore doth not necessarily reach to all of them: to Moses frequently; to Aaron, Exodus 19:24 33:9-11 Numbers 12:5; and for Samuel, he answered him, if not by words, yet really and by his actions, thundering against the Philistines, 1 Samuel 7:9, &c, which supposeth a cloud, if not a cloudy pillar.

They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them: this is added, not only for their commendation, but for the instruction of the Israelites, to teach them that God will not hear the prayers of them who do not keep his commandments.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar,.... In the pillar of the clouds of glory, as the Targum; in which the Lord went before the children of Israel in the wilderness, to lead them, and protect them from heat in the day, Exodus 13:21, that is, he spake in this to Moses and Aaron; for it ceased when they came to the land of Canaan; instances of which see in Exodus 19:9, some have thought that the Lord might speak to Samuel also out of a cloud, when he called upon him, and it thundered, since clouds and thunder go together, 1 Samuel 12:18, the cloudy pillar was a type of Christ; and it is by him the Lord has spoken all his mind and will, when he was clothed with a cloud, or became obscure in the form of a servant; and it is through him, the Mediator, that men have access to God, and answers of prayer from him:

they kept his testimonies; the law, and the precepts of it, which were testifications of the mind and will of God; these Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, kept, though not perfectly, yet sincerely, from a principle of love, and with a view to the glory of God:

and the ordinance that he gave them; the ordinance of the passover, with the several rituals of the ceremonial law, which was an ordinance of God until the Messiah came; and we, under the Gospel dispensation, ought to keep the ordinances of Christ in faith and love, as they have been delivered to us; and such only can expect to be heard and answered by the Lord; and this is the reason of the mention of these things; see Psalm 66:18.

Geneva Study Bible

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. In the pillar of cloud he speaketh unto them,

When they keep his testimonies, and the statute which he hath given them.

7. He reveals Himself once more as He spoke to His people of old by the mediation of Moses. See Exodus 33:7 ff. The second line virtually expresses the condition of prevailing prayer—obedience to the revealed will of God.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar (see Exodus 33:9, "And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door.., and the Lord talked with Moses"). They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. Moses was known as "the servant of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:1, 2, etc.). He was "faithful in all his house, as a servant" (Hebrews 3:5). Aaron was "the saint of the Lord" (Psalm 106:16). This general obedience was, however, departed from in some few instances (see the comment on ver. 8). Psalm 99:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The vision of the third Sanctus looks into the history of the olden time prior to the kings. In support of the statement that Jahve is a living God, and a God who proves Himself in mercy and in judgment, the poet appeals to three heroes of the olden time, and the events recorded of them. The expression certainly sounds as though it had reference to something belonging to the present time; and Hitzig therefore believes that it must be explained of the three as heavenly intercessors, after the manner of Onias and Jeremiah in the vision 2 Macc. 15:12-14. But apart from this presupposing an active manifestation of life on the part of those who have fallen happily asleep, which is at variance with the ideas of the latest as well as of the earliest Psalms concerning the other world, this interpretation founders upon Psalm 99:7, according to which a celestial discourse of God with the three "in the pillar of cloud" ought also to be supposed. The substantival clauses Psalm 99:6 bear sufficient evident in themselves of being a retrospect, by which the futures that follow are stamped as being the expression of the contemporaneous past. The distribution of the predicates to the three is well conceived. Moses was also a mighty man in prayer, for with his hands uplifted for prayer he obtained the victory for his people over Amalek (Exodus 17:11.), and on another occasion placed himself in the breach, and rescued them from the wrath of God and from destruction (Psalm 106:23; Exodus 32:30-32; cf. also Numbers 12:13); and Samuel, it is true, is only a Levite by descent, but by office in a time of urgent need a priest (cohen), for he sacrifices independently in places where, by reason of the absence of the holy tabernacle with the ark of the covenant, it was not lawful, according to the letter of the law, to offer sacrifices, he builds an altar in Ramah, his residence as judge, and has, in connection with the divine services on the high place (Bama) there, a more than high-priestly position, inasmuch as the people do not begin the sacrificial repasts before he has blessed the sacrifice (1 Samuel 9:13). But the character of a mighty man in prayer is outweighed in the case of Moses by the character of the priest; for he is, so to speak, the proto-priest of Israel, inasmuch as he twice performed priestly acts which laid as it were a foundation for all times to come, viz., the sprinkling of the blood at the ratification of the covenant under Sinai (Exodus 24), and the whole ritual which was a model for the consecrated priesthood, at the consecration of the priests (Leviticus 8). It was he, too, who performed the service in the sanctuary prior to the consecration of the priests: he set the shew-bread in order, prepared the candlestick, and burnt incense upon the golden altar (Exodus 40:22-27). In the case of Samuel, on the other hand, the character of the mediator in the religious services is outweighed by that of the man mighty in prayer: by prayer he obtained Israel the victory of Ebenezer over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:8.), and confirmed his words of warning with the miraculous sign, that at his calling upon God it would thunder and rain in the midst of a cloudless season (1 Samuel 12:16, cf. Sir. 46:16f.).

The poet designedly says: Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel among His praying ones. This third twelve-line strophe holds good, not only of the three in particular, but of the twelve-tribe nation of priests and praying ones to which they belong. For Psalm 99:7 cannot be meant of the three, since, with the exception of a single instance (Numbers 12:5), it is always Moses only, not Aaron, much less Samuel, with whom God negotiates in such a manner. אליהם refers to the whole people, which is proved by their interest in the divine revelation given by the hand of Moses out of the cloudy pillar (Exodus 33:7.). Nor can Psalm 99:6 therefore be understood of the three exclusively, since there is nothing to indicate the transition from them to the people: crying (קראים, syncopated like חטאים, 1 Samuel 24:11) to Jahve, i.e., as often as they (these priests and praying ones, to whom a Moses, Aaron, and Samuel belong) cried unto Jahve, He answered them-He revealed Himself to this people who had such leaders (choragi), in the cloudy pillar, to those who kept His testimonies and the law which He gave them. A glance at Psalm 99:8 shows that in Israel itself the good and the bad, good and evil, are distinguished. God answered those who could pray to Him with a claim to be answered. Psalm 99:7, is, virtually at least, a relative clause, declaring the prerequisite of a prayer that may be granted. In Psalm 99:8 is added the thought that the history of Israel, in the time of its redemption out of Egypt, is not less a mirror of the righteousness of God than of the pardoning grace of God. If Psalm 99:7-8 are referred entirely to the three, then עלילות and נקם, referred to their sins of infirmity, appear to be too strong expressions. But to take the suffix of עלילותם objectively (ea quae in eos sunt moliti Core et socii ejus), with Symmachus (καὶ ἔκδικος ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐπηρείναις αὐτῶν) and Kimchi, as the ulciscens in omnes adinventiones eorum of the Vulgate is interpreted,

(Note: Vid., Raemdonck in his David propheta cet. 1800: in omnes injurias ipsis illatas, uti patuit in Core cet.)

is to do violence to it. The reference to the people explains it all without any constraint, and even the flight of prayer that comes in here (cf. Micah 7:18). The calling to mind of the generation of the desert, which fell short of the promise, is an earnest admonition for the generation of the present time. The God of Israel is holy in love and in wrath, as He Himself unfolds His Name in Exodus 34:6-7. Hence the poet calls upon his fellow-countrymen to exalt this God, whom they may with pride call their own, i.e., to acknowledge and confess His majesty, and to fall down and worship at (ל cf. אל, Psalm 5:8) the mountain of His holiness, the place of His choice and of His presence.