Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
Ver 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth] They looked pitifully, as the fox caught in a gin doth, but it is only to get out; they spake God fair, as the devil in the Gospel did our Saviour, but it was only to be rid of him. They worshipped him, as the Indians do the devil, that he may do them no hurt. The Latin word Colo, to worship, is by some derived of the Greek word κολακευειν, to flatter, and the English word flatter, from the Greek λατρευειν, to worship. Sure it is that many men's devotion is mere dissimulation.
And they lied unto him] sc. While they called him Rock, Redeemer, and all was but from the teeth outward; which how much God abhorreth as a ludibrious devotion, see Jeremiah 3:4,5. And here it is said to be the middle of the psalter; for hitherto the Hebrews reckon one thousand two hundred sixty and three verses; and as many they note to be yet left in the second part.