There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
Ver. 3. There brake he the arrows of the bolt,] There? Where? Surely in Zion, in the holy assemblies where the saints were praying, there the arrow, shield, spear, &c., were broken. This made the queen-mother of Scotland say, that she more feared the prayers of John Knox than an army of thirty thousand fighting soldiers. The king of Sweden, as soon as he set foot in Germany, fell down to prayer, and what great things did he in a little time! Now for the fruit of prayer, cried those great gallants at Edgehill fight, and did great exploits. The word here rended arrows signifieth fiery darts, see Ephesians 6:16; a burning coal, Job 5:7; a lightening bolt, Psalms 78:48; the plague, or carbuncle, Deu 32:24 Habakkuk 3:5. Strabo saith that Orites, Gynmetes, and Ethiopians shot fiery arrows: so might the Assyrians. Confer Psalms 120:4 .
The shield, and the sword, and the battle] Both the men and the munition. This Herodotus had heard of, but misrelates the history, lib. 2.