Psalms 78:47

“Save us, O Lord our God, etc.] Here the psalmist represents the people in captivity, and represents them as praying for deliverance; as well knowing that none but God could save them: and a prayer of this nature, with respect to spiritual salvation, supposes danger, and a sense of it; that they are not able to save themselves, nor any creature able to save them; only the Lord, who is both willing and able; and of this kind is the prayer of faith. And gather us from among the Heathen; in Babylon, and other countries; (see Gill on the title note “<19A601>Psalm 106:1”). To give thanks unto thy holy name; bring us out of captivity to our own land, to Jerusalem, to the temple there to give thanks…”

“He destroyed their vines with hail - Margin, killed. See Exodus 9:22-26. In the account in Exodus the hail is said to have smitten man and beast, the herb, and the tree of the field. In the psalm only one thing is mentioned, perhaps denoting the ruin by what would be particularly felt in Palestine, where the culture of the grape was so common and so important. And their sycamore trees with frost - The sycamore is mentioned particularly as giving poetic beauty to the passage. Of the sycamore tree, Dr. Thomson remarks (“land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 25), “It is a tender tree, flourishes immensely in sandy plains and warm vales, but cannot bear the hard, cold mountain. A sharp frost will kill…”

“Sycamore - trees - Under these and the vines, all other trees are comprehended. This hail and frost destroyed the fruit of the trees, and sometimes the trees themselves. Psalms 78:49”

“destroyed: or, killed with hail: Psa 105:32, Psa 105:33; Exod. 9:18-34 sycamore: From the value of the sycamore in furnishing wood for various uses, from the grateful shade which its wide spreading branches afforded, and on account of the fruit, which Mr. Maillet says the Egyptians hold in the highest estimation, we may conceive somewhat of the loss they sustained when "their vines were destroyed with hail; and their sycamore trees with frost." See note on Ch1 27:28. frost: or, great hailstones Psalms 78:48”