Thy bow was made quite naked, [according] to the oaths of the tribes, [even thy] word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
Ver. 9. Thy bow was made quite naked] sc. Out of the case. He meaneth, thy power was clearly manifested and powerfully exerted against the nations above mentioned; so that all men might see plainly that thou wert that man of war, Exodus 15:3, which shootest thine arrows at a certainty, and never missest thine enemies, thy buttmark, see Job 16:12 .
According to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word] i.e. According to thy promises to thy people, confirmed with oaths, even those sure mercies of David, or assured to David. Some render it, according to the oaths, those props of thy word. His word is sure and sufficient of itself; but, for our better settlement, and as a prop to our faith, he hath bound it with oaths; "that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation," Hebrews 6:18. For now we may say with Solomon, "For thy word's sake," nay, more, for thine oath's sake, "and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this," 2Sa 7:18; 2 Samuel 7:21. Thy love moved thee to make promise, yea, to give oath; and now thy truth bindeth thee to perform. All thy paths to thy people are mercy and truth, Psalms 25:10; not mercy only, but mercy and truth; not by a providence only, but by virtue of a promise ratified with an oath: this is sweet indeed; this deserves a Selah to be set to it.
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers] Exodus 17:6 Psa 78:15-16 Deu 8:15 Nehemiah 9:15. This cleaving the hard rock, and setting it abroach, this turning of the flint into a fountain, Psalms 114:8, was a work of omnipotence, and is therefore so much celebrated. It maketh much to the miracle that the earth was cleft with rivers; this importeth both the plenty and the perennity thereof; for the rock, that is, the river out of the rock, followed them, 1 Corinthians 10:4, lest in that dry and barren wilderness they should perish for want of water. The same God also who had given his people petram aquatilem, gave them pluviam escatilem (as Tertullian phraseth it), manna from heaven, quails in great abundance, and never was prince better served in his greatest pomp. He also defended them from the fiery serpents, and delivered them from a thousand other deaths and dangers; all which mercies are here implied, though one only be instanced; and all to ascertain the saints how much God setteth by them, and what he will yet do for them, as occasion requireth. As he made the world at first, that he might communicate and impart himself to his elect; so for their sakes doth he still preserve and govern it, ordering the world's disorders by an over ruling power, for his own glory and their eternal good.