Verse 3
3. The earth and all the inhabitants… are dissolved A figurative description of a wasted country and a dispirited people.
Dissolved Melted, become faint with fear and discouragement. Psalms 107:26; Ezekiel 21:15. Isaiah 14:31, “Thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved:” this latter is spoken of this same or a subsequent Assyrian invasion.
Earth The land the “earth” so far as relates to Hebrew territory. To the eye the desolation seemed world wide.
I bear up the pillars of it I adjust its pillars. The king still speaks in the name of God. Every thing in the kingdom is shaken and thrown out of order except the throne. From this solid centre and basis the reconstruction of government and the restoration of order and prosperity must proceed. “The pillars and foundations of the earth signify those fundamental laws which are essential to the existence and well being of society.” French and Skinner. The lofty image here employed is often used to denote the shaking or overthrow of governments. Psalms 46:2; Psalms 82:5; Jeremiah 4:23-27. It is quite common for interpreters to apply this to God, or to Christ as king, as speaking of himself and of mankind; but it is a safer method of interpretation to follow the historic and literal sense where it adequately meets the import of the language. To spiritualize historic facts does not interpret them; but the underlying moral of history is of universal application, and both fact and moral are given in holy Scripture to illustrate the divine government.
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