COMMENTARY
ON
THE
PSALMS
BY
E. W. HENGSTENBERG,
DR. AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN
VOLUME
II.
TRANSLATED
BY
THE REV. P. FAIRBAIRN,
MINISTER AT
SALTON;
AND
THE REV. J. THOMSON, A. M.,
MINISTER AT
LEITH.
T. & T. CLARK, 38.
SEELEY & CO.; WARD &
CO.; JACKSON & WALFORD, &C.
DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON.
MDCCCXLVI: 1846
Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt,
ADVERTISEMENT.
OF this Second Volume of Hengstenberg
on the Psalms, the
first
part, reaching to the close of Ps. lix., has been translated by
Mr.
FAIRBA1RN, and the remainder by Mr. THOMSON. There is
little
more remaining of the original work, than will be required
for
the half of another volume, the author having as yet only
brought
it down to the end of Ps. cxix. But the Subscribers to
the
translation may rest assured, that when the continuation
appears,
no time will be lost in having another, and, it is hoped,
the
concluding volume, put into their hands. The Translators
again
repeat, as their former intimation appears, in some quar-
ters,
not to have been attended to, that the Hebrew points are
used
in the translation where they are used in the original, and
those,
who choose to complain of their not being constantly
employed,
should, in fairness, direct their complaint against
the
author. The Translators have only farther to add, that
they
are not to be understood as concurring in the peculiar
view
adopted by the author in regard to some of the Messianic
Psalms,
(in particular, Ps. xvi. xxii. and lxix.), by their not express-
ing
any formal dissent. The same remark may be made in re-
ference
to some incidental expressions, such as that at p. 439,
line
37, 38, of Vol. ii. The author has signified his intention
to
handle, in a few treatises, to be appended to the Commenta-
ry,
some of the more difficult points connected with the inter-
pretation
of the Psalms; and it is not improbable that the view
in
question will be there more fully opened up and explained.
They
deem it, therefore proper, in the meantime, to remain.
silent:
and possibly may do so to the last, even should they be
unable
to concur in the author's sentiments, unless these should
appear
to them to be inconsistent with correct views on the
inspiration
of Scripture.
ERRATA IN VOL. II.
In
page 275, 3d line from foot, for
support of the Psalmist, read
contents of the
Psalm.
279, line 16, delete from correspondence to
title, and read: agreement as to
the occasion on which
the Psalm was composed. Such, however,
has been the passion for
scepticism and arbitrary interpretation,
that even here a
monument in its favour must be erected.
279, last line, for in former times, read already.
282, 12,
for the, read this.
14, for they, read to.
287, 31,
for How the Spirit, &c., read The Psalmist virtually introduces
the verse thus: As the Spirit of God said by Balaam, In God
shall
we do valiantly.
288, 9,
for five, read four.
304, 9,
for readily, read really.
314, 22,
for thou, read who.
339, 32. The following note seems
needed to explain Hengstenberg's
brief allusion: Though Jehovah
was in itself the higher, the more
peculiar appellation,
yet when a spirit of idolatry spread among the
people, and they came to
look upon their God as only one of the
gods of the nations, so
that Jehovah, the peculiar God of Israel, came
to be = a God, then Jehovah really imported less
than Elohim.
337, last line, for augment, read
argument.
393, 39,
for connected with, read annexed to.
427, 28, for tyh, read tyH.
439, 26,
for people's, read peoples.
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM
XXXV.
THE
Psalmist vehemently complains of malicious and ungodly
enemies,
prays the Lord for deliverance, giving promise of
thanksgivings,
if his prayer was granted. The Psalm falls into
three
strophes, in each of which the three elements of complaint,
prayer,
and promise of thanksgiving, are contained, and which
are
especially remarkable on this account, that each of these
runs
out into the vow of thanksgiving, ver. 1-10; ver. 11-18;
ver.
19-28. The middle strophe, surrounded on each side by
two
decades, in which prayer predominates, is chiefly remark-
able
for an extended representation of the Psalmist's distress,
and
of the black ingratitude of his enemies, which calls aloud
for
the divine retribution.
The relations of David's time
manifestly form the ground of this
Psalm,
which was composed, according to the superscription, by
him.
A special ground may be found for it, in 1 Sam. xxiv. 15,
where
a declaration of David to Saul is recorded, "The Lord
therefore
be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see,
and
plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand,"—which
coincides
with the first verse of our Psalm in very characteristic
expressions.
Still, we are not to suppose, on this account, that
the
Psalm possesses an individual character: what at first sight
appears
to carry this aspect, is soon perceived, by an experiencd
judgment,
to be a mere individualizing. David speaks in the
person
of the righteous, with what view may the more easily be
understood,
since the truly Righteous One could appropriate this
Psalm
to himself, (John xv. 25, comp. with ver. 19 here,) an ap-
plication,
which led many of the older expositors to give the
1
2 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Psalm a too direct and exclusive
Messianic exposition, (comp.
on the other hand, Introd. to Psalm xxii.) An
accidental
synchronism between this Psalm and the immediately preceding
one, is indicated by the correspondence
presented by ver. 5 and
6 to the other, the more remarkable, as
these two Psalms are
the only ones, in which the Angel of the Lord, in a general way,
occurs. But in both he appears entirely in
the same character
and connection.
Ver.
1. Contend, 0 Lord, with my contenders, consume those
who consume me. In the first member, the relation of the right-
eous to his enemies, appears under the image
of a contest for
what is right, in the second, under the
image of a war. What
is expressed in the first member as a wish, is in Isa. xlix. 25, con-
verted into a promise, " I will contend
with him that contend-
eth with thee." But the wish here also
rises on the ground of
the promise. To beg any thing from God, which he had not
promised,
were a piece of folly. MHl, signifies, not to fight, but
to eat, and tx is
not prepos. but marks the accus. The mean-
ing of fighting first enters in
Niphil, prop. to be eaten, then to
be eaten by another. A destructive warfare
against the enemies
is not rarely represented as a consuming of these, comp. for ex-
ample, Numb. xxiv. 8, "He eats up
(consumes) the heathen,
and their bones will he break." Calvin: "The sum is, that,
overwhelmed with calumnies, and oppressed with cruelty, and
finding no help in the world, he commends his life, as well as his
good name, into the hand of God."
Ver. 2. Take
hold of shield and buckler, and stand up as my
help.
The Lord is represented under the image of a hero, who
equips himself for the deliverance of his oppressed friend. This
representation has its ground in human weakness. As dangers
palpable and manifest surround us, God's hidden and invisible
power is not of itself fitted to keep us from
all fear and anxiety.
It must in a manner take to itself flesh and
blood. It usually
borrows its dress from the danger, which at
the time is threat
ened. In opposition to the acts of lying and
calumny, God is set
up as patron or administrator, who takes
charge of the affairs
of his people. If danger is threatened from
rude violence, he
appears as a warrior, as in Deut. xxxii. 41, 42, who lays hold of
weapons for the defence of his own. In this
verse the Psalmist
calls upon the Lord to take weapons of
defence, in the next
weapons of offence. Ngm is the small shield, and hnc the great
PSALM XXXV. VER. 3-5. 3
one,
as appears from 1 Kings x. 16, 17. ytrzfb prop. in my
help,
b
is that which marks in what property any thing appears
or
consists, Ew. Small Gr. § 521. Help
is elsewhere also not
rarely
used by David for helper, comp. for
example, Psalm xxvii.
9.
Ver. 3. And take hold of the spear, and set a barrier against
my persecutors; say to my
soul: thy salvation am I. qvr in
Hiph.
to empty, then to take out, namely, from the armoury.
In
the expression: set a barrier, prop. close up against my per-
secutor,
the figure is borrowed from a host, Which comes to the
help
of its confederates, when threatened with a surprisal by the
enemy,
and, by throwing itself between them and the enemy,
cuts
off from the latter a retreat. It appears, that we have here
before
us a military term of art, such as was quite suitable in.
the
mouth of the warrior David, and as has already occurred in
ver.
1 and 2. We are not to supply some definite noun, such
as
way. Close up, rather imports as much
as, make a close.
txrql, against, in military connection, for
example, Deut. i.
44,
Jos. viii. 14, is carefully to be distinguished from ynpl.
Against
my persecutors, in that thou dost oppose a barrier to
them,
dost therewith meet them. Many take rgs as a noun=
sa<garij, a kind of battle-axe.
But this exposition forsakes the
Hebrew
usage, in which the verb rgs has the signification of
closing
up, the noun rvgs that of barricade; it has against it
the
authority of all the old translations, and is also deserving of
rejection
from the very form, as nouns of the kind almost with-
out
exception have the v. In the second member, the Psalmist
is
thought by many to wish for an audible communication. But,
according
to the connection, the speech is rather one embodied
in
fact. Comp. the first member and ver. 4. God has to speak
comfort
to the endangered and troubled soul of the Psalmist by
the
communication of help. The expression: to my soul, is used,
as
ver. 4 shows, because his soul found itself in danger, because
his
enemies consulted about taking his life.
Ver. 4. Let them be confounded and put to shame, who seek
after my soul, let them
be turned back and brought to confusion,
who devise my hurt. That the fut. are to be
taken optatively,
that
the Psalmist does not express hope and confidence, but as
in
verse 1-3, prays, appears from the yhy, in ver. 6. Ver. 5.
Let them be as chaff
before the wind, and let the angel of the
Lord thrust them. Comp. in regard to the
angel of the Lord,
4 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ps.
xxxiv. 7. hHd
signifies only to thrust, knock down, never to
drive,
or to drive away. On their eager flight the angel of the
Lord
lays hold of them and throws them to the ground so that
they
can never rise up again. Comp. on Ps. xxxvi. 12. We are
not
to supply to hHd the suffix, but the participle enters into
the
place of the noun; prop. let the angel of the Lord be their
pusher.
Ver. 6. Let their way be dark and
slippery, and let
the angel of the Lord
persecute them. The
putting of the sub-
stantives
darkness and slipperiness, for the
adj. gives more
strength.
Whosoever is pursued by a powerful enemy upon a
dark
and slippery path, which necessarily retards the speed of
his
flight, he is given up to sure destruction. Ver. 7. For
without cause they have
hid for me their pit-net, without cause
they have made a pit for
my soul.
The ground is here laid for
the
wish expressed in the preceding verse, guaranteeing the
certainty
of its fulfilment. The pit-net is a pit covered with a
net.
The image is derived from the hunting of wild beasts,
which
are caught in such pit-nets, covered over with twigs and
earth.
We are not exactly to supply tHw to vrpH, but to dig,
stands
for, to make a pit. Ver. 8. Let
destruction come upon
him unawares, and his
net, which he has concealed, let it catch
him, for destruction let
him fall therein.
The singular refers
here,
as in all similar cases, to the ideal person of the wicked.
The
expression: he knows not, stands often for, unexpectedly,
suddenly.
As they had surprised the righteous in the midst of
his
peace, so might perdition again overtake them in the midst
of
their security. hxvw is prop. part. of the verb hxw, to rush
together,
and denotes, not destruction in the active sense, but
the
ruin. This signification is here also demanded by the last
member,
where hxvwb
marks the circumstances, under which
the
fall takes place. His falling into the net is a thing connected
with
the entire ruin, as is said in Ps. xxxvi. 12, "They fall and
are
not able to rise up again," Ps. xxxiv. 21, "Evil slays the
wicked."
The hxvwb
distinguishes the evil impending over
the
enemies from what had already befallen the Psalmist. Ver.
9.
So will my soul be joyful in the Lord; it
shall rejoice in his
salvation.
Ver. 10. All my bones shall say: Lord who is like thee, who
deliverest the poor from
him that is too strong for him, and the
poor and needy from his
spoiler.
The futures are not to be taken
optat.
as Luther: "My soul might rejoice," etc. Neither do
PSALM XXXV. VER.
10-13. 5
they
contain the expression of the Psalmist's hope; but he seeks
to
make the Lord inclined to grant the desired help, by declar-
ing
that it would not be lavished on an ungrateful person, and
that,
like seed, the help afforded would yield a rich harvest of
praise
and thanksgivings. The bones mark the
innermost nature.
The second strophe follows with
preponderating lamentation.
The
design of the representation given of the malice of the
enemies
in ver. 11-16, discovers itself in the words in ver 17,
"Lord,
how long wilt thou look on, rescue my soul from their
destructions,
mine only one from the lions," for which a prepa-
ration
and a motive were provided by the representation. After
the
prayer there follows again, in ver. 18, the promise of a thanks-
giving,
implying that the granting of what he sought would tend
to
the glorification of the name of God.
Ver. 11. Malicious witnesses rise up, what I know not of, that
do they inquire of me, they wish me to
express an acknowledg-
ment
of misdeeds of which I have been quite innocent. The
verse
is neither to be explained historically, nor to be taken
figuratively,
but contains an individualizing trait, such as very
frequently
occurs in the Psalms, which were sung of the person
of
the righteous. Ver. 12. They rewarded me
evil for good,
bereavement of my soul. We are not to render:
Bereavement is
to
my soul; but the lvkw is the accus. governed by: they re-
warded.
For according to the connection, the bereavement of
the
Psalmist comes here into consideration, only in so far as it
was
caused by his enemies. In the following verse, which is
merely
an expansion of this, he brings out the fact, that he had
manifested
as tender a love to those who were now his enemies,
as
is wont to be shewn to none but the nearest relatives. In
testimony
of their gratitude and praise for this, they transplant
him
into a condition, as if he were entirely alone upon the wide
world.
They themselves attack him with wild hatred, comp.
ver.
15, 16, and deprive him also of the fellowship of all others.
Ver.
13. And I, when they were sick, put on
sackcloth, hurt my-
self with fasting, and
my prayer returned back to my own bosom.
The
sickness here is not figurative, but an individualizing mark
of
the suffering. One must, in severe sufferings, discerning
therein
the righteous punishment of sin, find matter for re-
pentance,
and practise fasting as an exercise of repentance.
(The
form of expression vwpn hnf, to chastise his soul, to cru-
cify
his flesh, comp. the profound explanation in. Isa. lviii, is
6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
taken
from the law, in which Mvc, indicating the form, is still
not
found.) Whoever acts thus at the sufferings of others, gives
thereby
a proof of the most tender fellowship and love, which
destroys
in a manner the distinction between I and thou, regards
the
suffering and the guilt of another as its own. Here also we
are
not to think of a figurative, but only an individualizing re-
presentation.
The most tender fellowship has also, in certain
circumstances,
been realized under this form. The last words
receive
explanation from what is said in 1 Kings xviii. 42, upon
the
posture of Elias in prayer. He, who prays with his head
bent
down, appears to bring the prayer back, as it were, to the
bosom
from which it proceeded. Clauss: "We must think espe-
cially
of the sitting or standing posture of mourners overwhelmed
with
great affliction; this is the natural bodily expression of a
depressed
state, afflictive both in itself and from its attendant
pain."
We reject the exposition of Luther and others: I prayed
from
the heart continually, prop. my prayer returned out of (?)
my
bosom; and also that of many Jews, revived by Sachs: My
prayer
might (?) turn into my bosom, receive its fulfilment in
myself,
so full of love was it. Ver. 14. As if he
were a friend,
as if he were a brother,
I went along; as one who mourns for
his mother, was I in
dirtiness bowed down.
The words: as a
friend,
as a brother to me, for: as I would have done to a friend,
nay
to a brother, is to be explained from the circumstance, that
the
comparison is often barely indicated. We are not to think
in
such cases of supplying something grammatically. The ex-
pression:
I went about, refers, as the context shews, to the
outward
appearance. lb,xE is stat. constr. of
adj. lbexA,
mourn-
ing.
rdq,
to be dirty, which is arbitrarily limited by many to
the
clothing, refers to the whole appearance, to the countenance
also
unwashed, and covered with ashes, and indicates, so far as
it
points to the dress, not black clothing, but dirty, (from the
sitting
in dust and ashes.) hHw, to bow down, is not to
be
understood
tropically, but according to the context, which
speaks
throughout of the external symptoms of pain, of the
bodily
stooping of mourners. In the whole verse we must keep
in
our eye the symbolical spirit of the East, especially of ancient
times;
when the feelings so readily draw after them their out-
ward
indication, the mourner sits in sackcloth and ashes, while
he,
who receives a joyful message, puts on fine clothing and
anoints
himself. On account of this common imitation of the
PSALM XXXV. VER. 15. 7
internal
by the external, the latter only is very often expressed
in
poetry, where, in point of fact, the internal is meant. This,
and
not the other, is the more to be regarded here, as it is not
a
historical, but an ideal person that speaks; as is implied
also
in
the matter of this and the preceding verse. If referred to a
historical
person, the representation has the character of some-
strained
and unnatural.
Ver. 15. And now at my trouble they rejoice, and gather
themselves, gather
themselves against me the abjects, whom I know
not, they tear and are
not silent.
The ver. forms the expansion
of
the "bereavement of my soul," in ver. 12. The Psalmist had
shown
to his enemies in their misfortune the most affectionate
sympathy;
their pain was his pain. But now, in his
misfortune,
his
pain is their joy; they hasten in dense crowds to insult him,
and
throw him still deeper into misery, and this is the more
sensibly
felt by him, as in the company that thus assembled
against
him, there were found some of the most despicable of
men.
yflcb,
prop. in my halting. The halting, as a state of
bodily
restraint and weakness, stands here for a mark of wretch-
edness,
as in Ps. xxxviii. 17. Mykn is the plural of hk,ne smit-
ten,
synonymous with hk;nA, both alike from hkn, to be smitten.
The
smitten are men of the lowest grade, the poorest. This
also
discovers itself in the very next note: and I knew not,
for
whom I knew not, who from their peculiarly low condition,
were
shut out from the circle of my acquaintance. No one
could
have deviated from the correct exposition, if he had only
attended
to the remarkably exact parallel passage in Job xxx.
1,
ss. Job there complains, that he had become the object of
attacks
and insults from those, whose fathers he would have
disdained
to set beside the dogs of his flock, who in their
want
and wretchedness sought such miserable support as
the
wilderness could afford them, who were the very quint-
essence
of what was low and common. To the Mykn here,
corresponds
there Crxh Nm vxkn, they are beaten out of the
land,
in ver. 8. The current exposition: beating with the
tongue,
i. e. calumniating, comp. Jer. xviii. 18, is untenable,
because
against the signification of the root, (hkn first ob-
tains
in Hiph. an active signification,) and against the signi-
fication
of the analogous formations, it takes the word in an
active
sense, and because it does not comport with the other
8 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
part
of the description: whom I knew not. The latter ground
also
holds against Hitzig's exposition: fools, derived from j`n
not
occurring in Hebrew; which besides destroys the manifestly
existing
connection with the forms hkenA, and xkenA. We pass
over
other still more arbitrary expositions, as that of Luther: the
halting
plot against me without my fault. It
may still be asked
whether
the beaten, those beaten with strokes, are the same
who
had been discoursed of in ver. 13 and 14; or more correct-
ly,
whether they belong to their number; or whether the Psal-
mist
here, as Calvin supposes, joins to his earlier acquaintances,
who
recompensed him evil for good, the multitude of those
who,
at an earlier period, were quite unknown to him, glad at
having
an opportunity to vent their malice on him. The first
supposition
is the correct one. For the latter would not come
within
the aim of the Psalmist, who gives here a farther exten-
sion
of the declaration: they recompensed me evil for good, on
which
he had grounded his prayer to the Lord for the punish-
ment
of his enemies. On the other hand, the words: whom I
knew
not, are not to be regarded as contradictory. For this
is
only a mark of the poorest condition, which would natu-
rally
have excluded these men from the Psalmist's circle, had
not
love and compassion impelled him to let himself down to
them,
and to act towards them a friendly and brotherly part.—
fvq, to tear, most expositors, without foundation,
take in the
sense
of reviling. The image is taken from a garment, from
which
any one seeks to tear away a fragment. By their not
being
silent, is meant their constantly raving against him with
words
and deeds.
Ver. 16. The vile, who mock for a cake, gnash against me
with the teeth. The expression, which
in both members con-
tains
a separate clause, is very concise, the affection, which here
is
indignation, loving brevity. In the first member the verb is
wanting,
they act, or they conduct themselves; in the second
member,
the infin. absol. stands for the 3d pl. In the first
member
the Psalmist, in order to bring out more pointedly the
worthlessness
of his enemies, describes them as persons who
only
aimed, through their bitter hostilities, to ingratiate them-
selves
with a great personage, the centre of the whole opposi-
tion,
in order to obtain from him the means of allaying their
hunger,
of prolonging their miserable existence. With such
creatures,
David may have had enough to do in the time
PSALM XXXV. VER. 16-28. 9
of
the Sauline persecution. ypnHb, prop. in the vile, for as
the
vile, comp. Ew. Small Gr. § 521. Vile persons of the
mockeries
of the cake, are vile persons, to whom the mock-
which
most expositors suppose here, has no existence, not even
in
Isa. xxviii. 11. Mockeries of the cake are mockeries, which
are
so far connected with it that they are thrown out for its
sake,
in order to obtain it. The enemies appear, in perfect ac-
cordance
with the description in the preceding verse, and that
in
Job xxx., as mean and base men, who sell their tongues to
railleries
for a piece of bread. Of "guests," and "parasites,"
and
"roast-smell-flatterers," there is no mention. gvfm is not
cake,
as a sort of dainty bit, but the common cake of the ashes,
which
in the East stands in the room of bread. Neither are we
to
think of witty speeches which were uttered at the table, but
of
bitter mocking, which men indulge toward the object of their
master's
hatred, like hounds set on by him. This is clear, partly
from
the word itself, and partly from the parallel: They gnash,
&c.
The gnashing of the teeth, for which expositors, who mis-
take
the sense, substitute "showing of the teeth," is always an
expression
of indignation, which the persons here referred to
employ
with all vehemence, in order to render themselves much
endeared
to their master. vmynw, as to their teeth, or with the
same.
Comp. on Psal. 4.—Ver. 17. Lord how long
wilt
thou look on? rescue my
soul from their desolations, from the
young lions my only one. bywh stands in its common
meaning.
The
soul is in a mournful, dangerous place, surrounded by their
devastations
and by lions. The Lord must bring it away from
thence.
The a[p. leg. xOw, desolations. For my
only one, see
on
Ps. xxii. 20.—Ver. 18. So will I praise
thee in the great
congregation, and among
much people will extoll thee. Comp.
on
ver. 9 and 10, and on Ps. xxii. 22, 25.
We come now to the third strophe,
ver. 19-28, chiefly made
up
of prayer, which has been solidly founded by the representa-
tion
given in the second strophe of the Psalmist's relations. Ver.
19.
Let not them that are my enemies falsely
rejoice over me, nor
wink with the eye, who
hate me without a cause. Enemies with
falsehood
or lies, are such as forge lying accusations against the
object
of their malice, with the view of giving a fair colour to it.
Nyf Crq prop. to press the eye together, here of
the winking to
10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
one
another with the eye, by which the enemies, who were sworn
for
the Psalmist's destruction, gave each other joy concerning it.
This
they do even now, because they reckoned themselves quite
sure
of their object, comp. ver. 21, but God might embitter their
joy
to them.—Ver. 20. For they speak not
peace, and against
the quiet in the land they
devise words of deceit. The expression:
they
speak not peace, for: they abolish it, is used by way of con-
trast
to what they ought to do, and points to the relations of
Saul's
time. Saul's distrust receives continually fresh nourish-
ment
from such tale-bearers. fgr quiet, peaceful.—Ver. 21. And
they open their mouth
wide against me, and say, there, there, our
eye sees, namely, the wish of
our soul, the misfortune of the
righteous.
Ver. 22. Yea, thou seest, Lord; keep not
silence, Lord
be not far from me. Ver. 20, 21, gave the
reason for ver. 19. Let
them
not rejoice, for they, the wicked, deserve not thy help; but
thy
might, and their triumphing over the success of their plans,
is
for thee a call to interfere. And here a new prayer arises out
of
the reason given for the preceding prayer. The Psalmist
places
the seeing of God over against the malicious seeing of the
enemy.
Ver. 23. Stir up thyself and awake to my
judgment, my
God and Lord, to my
cause.
Ver. 24. Judge me according to thy
righteousness, 0 Lord,
my God, and let them not rejoice over
me. Ver. 25. Let them not say in their hearts: there,
there, so
would we have it! Let
them not say: We have swallowed him
up. vnwpn
prop. our
soul, for, our wish, because their soul
went
entirely out into the wish. Ver. 26. Let
them be ashamed
and blush together, who
rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed
with shame and
dishonour, who magnify themselves against me.
Ver.
27. Let them make jubilee and rejoice who
wish my justi-
fication, and say
continually: Great is the Lord who wills the
peace of his servant. Make jubilee, the Lord
will give them oc-
casion
for it. qdc,
in opposition to hfr, misfortune, in ver.
26,
and parallel to the peace, marks not the righteous cause, but
righteousness
as the gift of God; q. d. they wish,
that I may
be
actually justified by God. Ver. 28. So
will my tongue speak
of thy righteousness,
proclaim continually thy praise. The ex-
pression:
thy righteousness, has respect to: my righteousness,
in
ver. 27. God's righteousness and the Psalmist's justification
stand
in the closest connection with each other.
PSALM XXXVI. 11
PSALM XXXVI.
IN the conflict, which is so apt to
arise against the people of
God
from the depth and magnitude of human corruption, the
Psalmist
addresses himself, "Be thou at peace, and rest in the
God
of thy life." After a superscription, which indicates, that
he
speaks not from himself and for himself, but in the name and
service
of God, and consequently for the church, he first de-
scribes
in ver. 1-4, the conflict, as one that seems to prepare
hopeless
destruction for the righteous, and fills him with painful
solicitude.
He paints in strong features the intensity of human
corruption.
The heart of the wicked is free from all fear of
God,
and every thought of the avenging righteousness of God
is
choked. Hence, the words of his mouth are wickedness and
deceit,
and in his actions he gives scope to himself in every
thing:
nothing is too bad for him. This representation of the
necessity
and the danger is followed in ver. 5-9, by a repre-
sentation
of the consolation. God with his inexhaustible fulness
of
love, faithfulness, and righteousness, appears in opposition to
man
and his wickedness. This line of reflection is followed in
ver.
10-12, by the prayer and the expression of confidence in
its
fulfilment: God's love and righteousness can and will unfold
themselves
in his dealings towards his own, in the support he
administers
to them, and the overthrow he brings upon the
wicked.
If we draw the superscription into
the compass of the Psalm,
which
we are here peculiarly warranted to do, the meditation
will
complete itself in the number ten, which again falls into
two
fives. The prayer and confidence rising on the ground of
the
Mosaic blessing, is ruled by the number three.
The Psalm is as to its subject
nearly allied to Ps. xi. and xiv.
with
whose introduction that of this holds a close resemblance
even
in expression. Of any particular occasion we are not to
think.
The Psalmist speaks for the fearers of God, and in their
name.
Already does Luther remark in his summaries: this is a
didactic
Psalm.
In the superscription: To the chief musician, of time servant
of the Lord, David, the designation of
"servant of the Lord"
is
the more deserving of notice, as it occurs only once in the
superscriptions
besides, in Ps. xviii. where it bears a manifest
12 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
reference
to the subject, and as it stands in unquestionable con-
nection
with the beginning of the Psalm. Like the correspond-
ing
words in 2 Sam. xxiii. "The man who was raised up on
high,
the anointed of the God of Jacob," it points to the dignity
of
the person in so far as in that was given a security for the im-
portance
of the word: the servant of the Lord speaks not his
own
word, but God's, not of his own will, but as moved by the
Holy
Spirit, 2 Pet. i. 21. “The spirit of the Lord spake through
him,
and his word was upon his tongue,” 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. The
suggestion
of impiety in the wicked, that God is nothing upon
earth,
is met by the suggestion of God in his servant, that God
is
every thing upon earth.
Ver. 1. "The oracle of transgression to me, the wicked within
my heart;" there is
no fear of God before his eyes. In the first
member
the Psalmist introduces the wicked as speaking. He
would
express the thought, that the wicked listens to the sug-
gestions
of sin as words of God. This thought he clothes in such
a
manner, that, by an ironical imitation of the introductory words
in
the writings of the prophets, in particular Balaam's in Numb.
xxiv.
3, to which he also referred in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, he makes
the
ungodly bring in a decree of his God, of wickedness. There
should
properly have followed the divine sentence, according to
Ps.
xiv. 1; "There is no God;" or Ps. x. 11. "God hath for-
gotten,
he hideth his face, he will never see." But here the
Psalmist
leaves the reader to supply the substance of the speech
from
the second member; he seeks only to have it first distinctly
impressed,
that the wicked regards as oracles the suggestions of
sin,
what it dictates in regard to religion. Mxn signifies, not a
word
in general, but a divine word, an oracle. fwp occupies
here
the place of Jehovah. The expression: to the wicked, cor-
responds
to: of the servant of God, as the Psalmist had just de-
signated
himself; or to: the hearer of the divine word, etc. in
Balaam.
Here, as the prophets in their introductions, as Balaam
and
as David both here and in 2 Sam. xviii. 1, the wicked speaks
of
himself in the third person; while presently the Psalmist
speaks
in the first: in the middle of my heart, as also Balaam,
and
David in 2 Sam. xviii. But there is no difficulty in this;
for:
to the wicked, is in substance the same as: to me, the
wicked.
By this remark the quite erroneous reference of the
expression:
within my heart, to the Psalmist, is set aside;
against
which also the parallel passage in Ps. xiv. 1.
"The fool
PSALM XXXV. VER. I 13
hath
said in his heart, there is no God," and the similar expres-
sions
in Ps. x. 6, 11, are decisive. We thus also cut off all temp-
tation
to read vbl
his heart, instead of ybl, by which, indeed,
nothing
is gained; for there should then be no indication of the
wicked
being introduced here as speaking, which is still plainly
needed.
After the example of Luther, who renders: it is spoken
from
the bottom of my heart of the ungodly, the meaning of
this
first member is entirely misapprehended by many exposi-
tors,
for ex. by De Wette: A speech of the wickedness of
transgression
is to me in the heart. This exposition discovers
itself
to be false, in whatever direction we look. Its condem-
nation
is already pronounced in De Wette's own remark: "The
first
half of the verse is a kind of announcement, though only
of
a part of the subject, and by a deficiency in the parallelism
the
second half passes on immediately to the subject." The
real
subject of the Psalm is not, "the wickedness of transgres-
sion,"
but, "If God is thy friend and thy cause, what can
thine
enemy, man, do of any consequence?" It is precisely in
the
first part, in which the Psalmist merely represents, what
passes
before his eyes, and what might easily be discerned with-
out
any divine revelation, that the Mxn is not suitable. The
parallelism
is by this exposition completely destroyed, and the
expression:
there is no fear of God before his eyes, has a bald
appearance,
considered as a commencement, and sounds feeble.
Further,
this exposition takes fwp as the object of the speech:
Speech
of transgression. But the genitive, which follows the
very
frequently occurring Mxn without exception marks always
the
speaker, and, indeed, for the most part, the heavenly author
of
the declaration, the human only in
Numb. xxiv. 3, Prov. xxx.
1,
and 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, which bears respect to this. This reason
of
itself is perfectly decisive. In Isa. v. 1, also, in the phrase
ydvd tryw, to which De Wette refers as analogous,
the geni-
tive
is that of the author; not concerning my beloved, but of
my
beloved; the song, which is consecrated to the beloved,
which
is sung to his honour, which has himself, speaking through
the
mouth of his prophet, for its author. Then, the exposition
ungrammatically
takes fwrl
as a circumlocution for the geni-
tive,
which can only be put in this way, when the scat. constr.
is
inadmissible, as it would be here, if the meaning were: a
transgression
of the wicked, but which would not be suitable,
comp.
Ew. Small Gr. § 517. The expression: in the midst of
14 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
my
heart, which is full of meaning in our exposition: in the in-
most
depth of the wicked, utters forth transgression its oracle,
becomes
by this exposition quite flat and insignificant, and is
never
found in such a connection. It is torn away from the
already
quoted parallel pass. Ps. xiv. 1, etc., which so ob-
viously
correspond, also torn from the eyes
here, in ver. 1 and 2,
and
from the mouth in ver. 3. Finally,
this exposition leaves en-
tirely
out of view the manifest reference to the superscription of
the
prophecies, and the parallel passage 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, as also
the
reference to the superscription here. The oracle of sin to the
wicked
stands opposed to the oracle of Jehovah to the servant
of
Jehovah, David, as it is communicated in this Psalm. It is
hoped
this lengthened statement of objections against the cur-
rent
exposition may serve the purpose of entirely setting it
aside,
the more so, as the faults hitherto cleaving to the others
are
removed by our construction. Whenever we perceive the
ground-thought
of the first member, and separate that from the
clothing
under which it is presented, there is seen to be a per-
fect
parallel between the first and the second; the heart of the
wicked
is full of the God-denying suggestions of sin, before his
eyes
is no fear of God, q. d. the fear of
God is not that, on
which
he directs his eye in his transactions, or by which he is
moved
in them, comp. Ps. xxvi. 3.
Ver. 2. For he flatters himself in his eyes in reference to the
finding of his sin, the
hating.
The ground is here given, on
account
of which the fear of God exercises no determinate in-
fluence
upon the actions of the wicked. He seeks through all
sorts
of illusions to stifle the conviction, that God's avenging
righteousness
will punish his impiety. qylHh, prop. to make
smooth,
elsewhere with the accus.: his tongue, or his words, to
flatter,
comp. on Ps. v. 9; here, as in Prov. xxix. 5, in the sense
of
acting smoothly, blanditlis uti , with lx of the person against
whom
the smooth acting is directed, who is flattered, as in the
passage
referred to in Prov., where the injurious, destructive
nature
of the action was to be marked, with lf. The self-
flatteries,
in which the wicked indulges, cannot have respect
properly
to his moral condition; for, as Sacks
justly remarks,
though
with a wrong application, "it is not the wicked as he false-
ly
represents himself, the would-be-holy, that is here designated,
but
the plainly unrighteous." They have respect rather to his
might
and prudence, to his skill in sinning, by virtue of which
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 2. 15
he
succeeds in every effort, and believes himself to be beyond
the
vengeance of an angry God. He says with the ungodly in
Isaiah,
chap. xxviii. 15, "We have made a covenant with death,
and
with hell are we at agreement, when the overflowing scourge
shall
pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made
lies
our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves."
The
expression: in his eyes, refers to the other: before his eyes.
Because
he flatters himself in his eyes, through the arts of flattery
and
self-delusion builds himself up in a feeling of security, there
is
no fear of God before his eyes. The last words point to the
territory,
upon which the self-delusion and flattery are practised,
to
that in regard to which they are employed. In reference to
the
finding of his sin, the hating, means as much as, that God
will
not find his sins hateful, will not punish them. The form
of
expression Nvf xcm is to be explained from Gen. xliv. 16,
when
the sons of Jacob, after the cup was found in the mouth
of
Benjamin's sack, say, "God hath found out the iniquity of
thy
servants." According to this God finds out iniquity, when
he
visits and punishes it. The hating is
here added to mark
more
definitely the quality of the finding, and so, to remove all
dubiety.
The correct view would not have been so often missed
in
expositions of this verse, if more regard had been paid to the
ground-passage,
Deut. xxix. 19, where it is said of the wicked,
"And
it cometh to pass, when he heareth the words of this
curse,
that he bless himself in his heart,
saying, I shall have peace,
though
I walk in the imagination of my heart;" and also the
parallel
passages in the Psalms themselves, such as Ps. x. 6.
Among
those who concur with us in the reference of vylx to the
evil-doer,
several expound: in order to accomplish his sin, in order
to
hate, "in order through his transgression to gratify his hatred
toward
God, or man." So Luther: "that they may further
their
evil cause, and slander others." But Nvf xcm never oc-
curs
so; with the hating we miss the object, and to hate cannot
stand
for, gratifying hatred. Others expound: in consideration
of
the finding of his guilt, and the hating, q.
d. he is so entangled
in
self-deceit, that he has not attained to the recognition of his
sinfulness,
and, therefore, he cannot hate and renounce it. But
it
is against this, that Nvf xcm never signifies: to come to the
knowledge
of sin; and still more, that through this exposition
the
whole character of the wicked, as he is represented in this
Psalm,
is violated: We have here to do with a bold sinner, who
16 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
is
not concerned about finding fig leaves for his sins. Most refer
the
suff. in vylx
to God: Koester: "for he flatters him with
his
eyes, hence he discovers his guilt, hates it;" Tholuck: "for
they
flatter God according to their opinion, in order to commit
the
more securely their evil deeds, and to give loose the reins
to
their hatred." But the character of the wicked is still by
this
construction grossly misconceived; with the words: in his
eyes,
we are by it manifestly embarrassed; Tholuck's mode of
viewing
the last word has already been disposed of, and that of
Koester
steps over into the second strophe from the first, and
slaps
the temptation upon the mouth before it has been put in
words.
In such a case we must cry out with Job, violence!
Ver. 3. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit, he
ceases to act wisely, to
do good.
The ceasing is to be explained
from
a silent contrast: instead of ceasing, as be ought, to sin,
comp.
frh vldH in Isa. i. 16. lykWh signifies to act pru-
dently,
reasonably, comp. on Ps. xiv. 2, and byFyhl is not sub-
ordinate
to it, but co-ordinate, just as in ver. 2, the second inf.
with
the first l.
Ver. 4. He thinks of mischief upon his bed, he sets himself in
a way not good, he does
not eschew evil.
The phrase: on his
bed,
points to the strength of the evil inclination. The passion
so
rages in him, that it deprives him of sleep. How may it
overreach
hapless innocence? The apparently weak expres-
sion:
a way not good, and: he does not eschew evil, derives its
strength
from its silent contrast to that, which the ungodly is
wont
to do according to the law of God.
The Psalmist now turns himself to
inquire in reference to
the
wicked, and what the righteous has to fear from him, upon
what
must I hope? And in direct contrast to the former,
brings
forward the Lord, and what the righteous has to expect
from
him. Calvin: "although a gloomy and frightful confusion
shelved
itself, which, like a vast abyss, was ready to swallow up
the
pious, David was still firmly convinced that the world is
full
of God's goodness and righteousness, and that heaven and
earth
are governed by him."
Ver. 5. Lord, in the heaven is thy goodness, thy faithfulness
even to the clouds. Mymwhb can only signify: in
the heaven;
and
the current exposition up to the heaven, is to be rejected as
arbitrary.
But the expression: in the heaven, which imports:
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 5,
6. 17
even
still in heaven, comprehends and pre-supposes what is in
the
other, compare Ps. lvii. 10, "For thy mercy is great unto
the
heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds." In the whole re-
presentation,
the pillar of fire and smoke, emblem of the divine
glory,
rises from earth to heaven, so that the expression: in
heaven,
is only suitable when it comprehends: to the heaven.
Quite
naturally. For the Psalmist places the image of consola-
tion
against the image of terror on its own territory. Upon the
earth
rages the malice of the ungodly, the righteous are vexed;
in
opposition to the loftiness which strives in vain to reach
to
heaven, (compare Gen. xi. 4, "whose top may be in hea-
ven,"
and Ps. lxxiii. 9, "They set their mouth in heaven,") the
Psalmist
puts the divine glory, which, giant-like, truly reaches
from
earth to heaven, so that man hopeless must yield to the
might
of God. The love and the faithfulness of God are spe-
cially
named, as the properties which secure help to his people.
Their
greatness is regarded by the Psalmist as an impenetrable
shield
against all attacks even from the most intense and power-
ful
malice. Jo. Arnd: "In all tribulations, let them be ever so
high,
so deep, so broad and long, God's truth and grace are
still
greater and higher."
Ver. 6. Thy righteousness is like mountains of God, thy judg-
ments are a great flood,
man and beast thou helpest, 0 Lord.
With
the love and faithfulness he here connects the righteous-
ness
of God. This comes here, as appears from the parallelism,
not
so far merely into consideration, as it involves the faithful-
ness
of the promise, so that hqdc would be substantially=
hnvmx, but as the property which disposes God
to recompense
to
every one according to his works, to give salvation to the
righteous,
to suspend misery over the wicked. If God is infi-
nitely
righteous, the upright may be of good courage, but the
wicked
should tremble, and the greater their wickedness, the
more
certain is their destruction. The most part regard the
divine
righteousness as compared to the mountains, on account
of
their firmness. So Luther: it stands as the mountains of God.
Jo.
Arnd: "It stands firm as the mountains of God, i.e. immove-
able,
strong, invincible, as the Lord God has made the world
fast
with mountains, so that no potentate has power to lift up
the
mighty mountains, and put others in their place. Even so,
it
is not possible to overthrow God's righteousness, it will as-
suredly
exercise itself upon all men, when God judges the earth
18 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
in
righteousness." But, looking at the parallel members, we
would
rather take the point of comparison to be their greatness
and
height. The mountains of God are certainly the highest
mountains,
not such, however, simply and exclusively, but in so
far
as they proclaim God's creative power. Although the whole of
nature
has been made by God yet that is pre-eminently attributed
to
him, which, elevated by its greatness and glory above all that
resembles
it, directs the thoughts especially to his glory. So
in
Ps. lxxx. 10, the cedars, as kings among the trees, are called
cedars
of God, (Gen. xiii. 10 does not belong to this; for the
discourse
there is not of a
Jehovah,
the paradise Which had been planted by the Lord, and
according
to chap. ii. 10, richly watered.) Here, “as the moun-
tains
of God," is plainly spoken with special emphasis: the object
compared
contains at the same time a pledge of the truth
of
what is likened to it. Of the righteousness of him who made
the
highest mountains, we must entertain no earthly and human
thoughts.
They would rise as witnesses against us, if we did so.
Judgments, the rectoral
transactions, by which God brings to
nought
the evil and assists the good, are the offspring of the divine
righteousness.
Jo. Arnd: "Such judgments of God are always.
being
exercised upon the earth, if the matter is thoughtfully
considered."
According to most expositors, it is the incompre-
hensible
and unfathomable nature of the divine judgments
which
is indicated. But the words cannot bear this sense. For
Mvht never signifies abyss, deep, but always flood,
and the con-
text
imperatively requires the idea of immeasureableness.
Against
the flood of human wickedness stands the great flood,
the
wide ocean, (of this Hbr Mvht is used in Gen. vii. 11, the
only
other place where it occurs,) of the divine judgments. In
the
last words: man and beast thou deliverest, 0 Lord, the
Psalmist
turns back to the divine love, with the representation
of
which he began, and the celebration of which he continues
till
ver. 9. On the "man" an unseasonable comparison is often
made
with Matth. v. 45, and the remark made, "righteous and
unrighteous."
The contrasthere is the general one of man and
beast;
but if the Psalmist had wished to give a closer description
of
the men who enjoy the divine help and deliverance, he would
have,
according to ver. 10, named them as the upright, and such
as
know God. God's goodness towards the bad, which should
move
them to repentance, is excluded by the connection. It is
such
goodness only as might afford consolation in consequence
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 6-8. 19
of
the troubles arising out of the ascendancy of the wicked upon
the
earth. With what design the beast is
here named may
be
understood from the saying of our Lord, "Are not two
sparrows
sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on
the
ground without your Father." Jo. Arnd: God seeks to
console
us by this, and to strengthen our faith, seeing he much
more
cares for us." The somewhat singular expression: Thou
deliverest,
makes it probable that the Psalmist alludes to the
great
proof of God's preserving love in the deluge, in which,
besides
Noah, the whole animal creation was delivered, an al-
lusion
which is the more probable, as in Ps. xxix. 10; xxxii. 6,
there
is also reference made to the deluge, as hbr Mvht points
to
that transaction, in which the judgments of God appeared as
literally
a great flood, and as another reference is found to
Genesis
in verse 8.
Ver. 7. How glorious is thy goodness, 0 God, and children
of men trust in the
shadow of thy wings.
rqy prop. precious.
John
Arnd: "David rejoices in the
goodness and grace of God,
and
compares them to a noble, precious, and costly treasure."
The
general name of God stands here, because it is the contrast
between
God and man that is expressed. God and man, what
a
distance! How great and glorious must
the divine love be;
which
fills up the infinite gulph between the two, and provides
that
the weak and wretched mortal be the object of God's protec-
tion
and tender care! comp. Ps. viii. The confiding trust comes
here
into consideration in so far as God affords ground and war-
rant
for it. That the children of men can confide in God, must
only
be brought out in a general way. The species in the genus,
who
are not more definitely pointed out here, are the righ-
teous.
hsH with b always signifies: to
trust in, to take refuge
under.
Because the shadow yields defence from the heat, it not
unfrequently
stands as a figurative description of protection.
The
image of wings, only indicated here,
is given at length in
Deut.
xxxii. 11, and Matt. xxiii. 37.
Ver. 8. They drink of the fatness of thy house, and with the
river of thy pleasures
thou givest them drink. It is here still
farther
brought out, what the divine goodness provides for the
servants
of God, notwithstanding all the machinations of the
wicked.
The riches of the divine grace and beneficence are re-
presented
in both members under the image of a copious drink,
with
which it supplies them. For that this grace is not repre-
20 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sented
in the first member, somewhat under the image of food,
with
which he satisfies them, is manifest from Hvr, prop. are
moistened,
comp. Ps. xxiii. 5. The fat must
accordingly be
taken
as a figurative designation of the glorious gifts of God;
Vulgate:
ab ubertate domus tuae, Luther, "of the rich goods
of
thy house," far more correctly than our recent expositors,
who
quite prosaically remark, that the fat is here spoken of as
fit
for drinking, rather than eating. The house of God is here
neither,
as several absurdly expound, the world, which is never
so
named, nor is it, as others suppose, a mere image of a divine
storehouse,
but it is here, as everywhere else, the national.
sanctuary,
the tabernacle of the congregation, in which the ser-
vants
of the Lord spiritually dwell with him, and where they
are
tenderly cared for by him as the good householder. Comp.
on
Ps. xv. 1; xxiii. 6; xxiv. 3; xxvii. 4, 5; lxv. 4. Michaelis,
correctly
as to the sense: ecclesiae tuae. For the house of God
was
the image of the church. In the second member there
seems
to be a reference to Gen. ii. 10, "And a river went out
from
to
in John iv. 18; Ez. xlvii.; Zech. xiv. 8--passages in which the
thought,
the whole earth shall partake of the blessings of the
which,
issuing from
region
around. Comp. Christol. P. II. p. 367. In the stream,
which
of old watered the garden of Eden for the good of man,
the
Psalmist saw the, type of that stream of bliss, with which
God's
love never ceases to refresh his people.
Ver. 9. For with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light we
see light. The verse confirms the
subject of the preceding one,
and
traces it up to its source. God is the fountain of life: in
him
has essential life, and whatever properly deserves this name,
(comp.
on the MyyH
on Ps. xvi. 11,) its origin, as already in
lieut.
xxx. 20, it was said of God to
whosoever
does not draw it from him, the one source of life, he
is
destitute of it, notwithstanding all the means which he may
possess
for his preservation and support; on the other hand,
whoever
has this fountain at command, the malice of the whole
world
cannot take life away from him; he will be kept in life,
and
will drink with satisfaction in the presence of his enemies,
Ps.
xxiii. 5. Light is here as commonly
(comp. on Ps. xxvii.
1,)
a figurative designation of salvation; the expression, "in
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 9-11. 21
thy
light we see light," simply means: through thy salvation we
see
salvation. Since salvation is only from God, the world can
never
bestow it by any means which it has at command; neither
can
it take this away, and in the face even of the greatest evils
the
righteous can say: If God is for me, it matters not who are
against
me. Although the words are verified also upon the
spiritual
territory, we must primarily, as in Job xxix. 3, think of
an
external salvation. This appears from the context, according
to
which, the discourse can only be of such things as were feared
in
consequence of human malice, also from the parallelism with
the
life, and the comp. with ver. 11.
Those, who by the light
understand
the light of knowledge, violently detach the words
from
the connection, and destroy the structure of the Psalm.
The Psalmist has hitherto considered
in a general way, human
malice,
and what the righteous have in their God. Now he
comes
more closely to the distress and assault, which this gene-
ral
consideration had occasioned. He brings the two sides of
the
contrast, which till now he had simply placed over against
one
another, into immediate contact and conflict with each
other,
entreats God that he would unfold his love and righteous-
ness
in his dealings with his own, and especially with him, and
would
deliver him from the wicked. At the close, he sees, in
spirit,
this prayer fulfilled, the wicked annihilated.
Ver. 10. Continue thy goodness to those who know thee, and
thy righteousness to the
upright.
j`wm, to draw, to draw into
length,
to prolong. The knowledge of God has
love to him, and
life
in him for its foundation. The true and essential know-
ledge
of God is to be found only in a sanctified state of mind,
the
gift of God. Comp. 1 Sam. ii. 12; Jer. xxii. 16; Tit. i. 16;
1
John ii. 3; iv. 8. The righteousness
of God here also stands
in
no special reference to covenant faithfulness, but is to be
understood
as exercised in so far as he gives to any one what is
his,
comp. on ver. 5. On the upright see
on Ps. xxxiii. 1.
Ver. 11. Let not the foot of pride touch me, and the hand of
the wicked pursue me not. The foot coming upon
any one, for:
he
will be trodden down, violently overborne and oppressed.
The
proud appear as personified pride.
That we must not to
the
words: the hand of the wicked makes me not flee, supply:
out
of my land—that it is rather to be regarded as meaning:
let
me not quit the field before him, be obliged to retire into
the
distance, as David had to do in the times of Saul and Ab-
22 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
salon),
(comp, Ps. xi, 1,) is manifest from the parallelism and the
contrast
in ver. 12. The Psalmist sees there the enemies lying
helpless,
and prostrate, on the very spot where they had thought
to
vanquish him, and put him to flight.
Ver. 12. There are the workers of iniquity fallen they are cast
down and are not able to
arise.
The Psalmist obtains from the
Lord
all answer, and in spirit sees his enemies already over-
thrown.
Mw always means there; never then, comp. on Ps. xiv.
5.
The right view was already perceived by Calvin: "While
the
ungodly are puffed up by their prosperity, the world applauds
them.
But David, looking as from the lofty watch-tower of faith,
descries
from afar their destruction, and speaks of it with as
much
confidence as if it were close at hand." For the last
words
see on Ps. xviii. 88, and Prov. xxiv, 10, "A just Man
falleth
seven times, and riseth up again, but the wicked are
destroyed
by adversity."
PSALM. XXXVII.
THE subject of the Psalm is
collected in the two first verses:
"Be
not angry against the miscreants, envy not the evil-doers,
for
as grass they shall quickly be cut down, and as the green
herb
they wither." He meets the temptation to help himself,
to
oppose power to power, to contend against wickedness with
wickedness,
which often presents itself to the righteous when he
sees
the ungodly prospering, while he himself is in a state of
depression;
and, indeed, in such a way, as to shew, under the
different
turns and images, how the issue becomes sorted to the
righteous
and the wicked, how God in his own time assuredly
recompenses
to every one according to his works, to the wicked
destruction,
to the righteous salvation: so that the only, and at
the
same time, the sure means for tile righteous to attain to sal-
vation
is, that he trust in the Lord and cease not to do good.
That we must not labour to hind out
a connected plan for the
Psalm,
that the judgment of Awyrald is substantially correct:
"There
is scarcely an order observed in it by David, no connec-
tion
of parts, excepting that one and the same subject is handled
in
it under the most diversified applications and manifold varia-
tions,
which all lead to nearly one point, although every one of
PSALM XXXVII. 23
them
possesses its own proper force, so that they are not other-
wise
connected together than as so many precious stones or
pearls
are strung together upon one thread to form a necklace,"
—this
may be concluded even from the alphabetical arrangement
—comp.
the remarks in the introduction to Ps. xxv. The unre-
strained
treatment of the subject leads also to the same result,
justifying
throughout the remark of the Berleb. Bible, "that
things
are therein once and again repeated and frequently in-
culcated,
so that the great subject might not be forgotten, and
the
pious might retain it always in their mouth and heart."
Finally,
this view is also confirmed by the fact, that the Proverbs
hardly
present to any Psalm so many verbal references and re-
semblances
in sound, as to this, which is to be explained only
from
an internal relationship with the sententious poetry of
Solomon,
the Davidic root and origin of which here stands be-
fore
our eyes.—The delineation is very clear, simple, and smooth,
and
in accordance with the alphabetic arrangement, leads us to
the
conclusion, that David speaks here to the "sons"—comp. on
Ps.
xxxiv.—to whom milk and not strong meat must be provid-
ed.
We see here also, how David did not please himself in his
poesy,
but adapted his voice to the necessities of the church,
which
he served with his poetical gift.
An introduction and a conclusion,
which are each made up
of
the number seven, are distinguished from the great mass,
ver.
8-33, by their prevailing hortatory character, while the rest
bears
the character of a calm consideration and simple represen-
tation
of the state of things, interrupted only by a solitary exhor-
tation
in ver. 27. The admonition of the introductory part, is
grounded
in the body of the Psalm, and that at the close grows
out
of this.
In regard to the alphabetical
arrangement, there are two verses
assigned
by the rule to each letter. But various irregularities
occur
here also, which the analogy of all the alphabetical Psalms
forbids
us to obliterate—comp. on Psalm xxv., and still more
the
circumstance, that a close examination of them always forces
on
us the conviction of plan and design. Three letters have only
one
verse appropriated to them, ver. 7, 20, 34, while one letter has
three
verses, ver. 27, and a letter, f, is altogether awanting
The
strophe,
which should have begun with t, has a v placed before
it.
This state of matters is to be explained in the following
manner.
It is not accidental, that we so often see the number
24 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ten
play an important part in the alphabetical Psalms. It is, just
as
the alphabet, the signature of the complete, what is comprized
in
itself. Now, for the number ten, the Psalmist would fain se-
cure
a place here. The whole, therefore, must be made to com-
plete
itself in four decades. For this purpose the forty-four
verses,
of which it had consisted, if two verses were distributed
to
each letter, must somehow be shortened. But the Psalmist
would
not proceed arbitrarily in doing this, he would only ab-
breviate
there, where an internal ground existed for the abbre-
viation.
At three points an opportunity of doing this offers it-
self.
For obtaining the number seven in the introduction and
the
close, a letter-strophe must each time be deprived of a verse;
the
lot for this was intentionally cast on the last verse of the in-
troduction,
and the first of the conclusion, so that the two im-
perfect
strophes might unite with each other, the second seven
join
itself to the first, whose subject it again resumes. A third
occasion
arose in ver. 20. The middle of the whole, the half
of
the forty, must not remain unmarked, and must not fall into
the
middle of a strophe. Now there was just needed, in order
to
obtain the number forty, the abbreviation of one strophe. But
no
other opening presented itself for doing this, in so far as the
matter
was concerned. Besides, for the letter f no suitable
commencement
was found by the author, so that he sought to
gain
his object by dropping this letter, while he gave to the one
immediately
preceding, s, three verses, in evident and intention-
al
contrast at the same time to the three letters with one verse,
and
in skilful arrangement, making two verses of common, en-
close
a third of uncommon length. Finally, that the v before
the
strophe with t, is not accidentally affixed to it, is improba-
ble
on this account alone, that this strophe is the very last; and
the
conjunction placed there, at once brings the strophe into
connection
with what precedes, and marks its subject as the re-
sult
of the latter, the sum and quintessence of the whole dis-
course.
The reasons which have been brought
against the Davidic
origin
of this Psalm, are of no weight, and are disposed of by
the
remarks already made on Psalm xxv. When an inclination
is
shown to regard Jeremiah as the originator of the alphabeti-
cal
arrangement, it is not considered, that both in form and sub-
stance
this prophet hangs upon an earlier period. The very cir-
cumstance,
that Jeremiah, in his Lamentations, has employed the
25 PSALM XXXVII.
alphabetical
order, shows that he had in this respect important
prototypes
in the past, and is quite fatal to the opinion of the
late
origin of the alphabetical arrangement.
For David's being its author, there
is, besides the super-
scription,
the unquestionable fact, that the Psalm forms the basis
of
a series of declarations in the Proverbs of Solomon. Then,
few
in
of
this Psalm, as David could do—few were so called by the
leadings
of providence, to oppose a barrier to the temptation,
which
arose from the prosperity of the wicked. David had found
many
occasions for giving way to this temptation; he had seen
the
ungodly Saul, the foolish Nabal, the corrupt faction of Ab-
salom,
sitting in the lap of fortune, while he languished in dis-
tress.
David knew the temptation itself from his own expe-
rienee,
although God proved to him, that he did not wholly aban-
don
him, and came to his help at the proper time. When he
cut
off the skirt of Saul, he for a moment forgot this: be not
angry
at the wicked; if his conscience had not smitten him, he
would
have proceeded from the skirt to the heart. Still more
deeply
did he underlie the temptation, when he swore he would
cut
off Nabal with his whole house. Had Abigail not gone to
meet
him, and by her voice awoke his slumbering better self, he
would
have experienced in himself the truth of his declaration
in
ver. 8, that anger toward the wicked leads to a participation in
their
wicked deeds. With deep emotion of heart he says to her
in
1 Sam. xxv. 33, "And blessed be thy understanding, and blessed
be
thou, that thou hast kept me this day from coming to shed
blood,
and from avenging myself with mine own
hand." David,
finally,
had from manifold experience learned the truth of the
sentiment,
upon which he here grounds the dissuasion from re-
venge,
that quietness is the sure path to victory, that he, who
simply
commits his cause to God, shall certainly obtain a happy
issue
to it, and see the punishment of the wicked. Saul, with
his
whole retinue, fell under the judgment of God, and David
succeeded
to his place. In regard to Nabal, whose history is
peculiarly
illustrative of this Psalm, he could speak in 1 Sam.
xxv.
39, "Blessed be the Lord, that bath pleaded the cause of
my
reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant
from
evil; for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal
upon
his own head." Already, Luther remarks: "Such ex-
amples
had David seen in Saul, Absalom, Ahitophel, and the like,
26 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
who
were mighty in their godless nature, and yet, ere one could
look
around him, were gone, so that one might ask and say, what
has
become of them?"
The divine recompense, to which
David directs the tempted,
is
here, in unison with the two other Psalms, which treat ex pro-
fesso
of the same theme, xlix. and lxxiii., only a temporal one,
and
in vain have Stier and others laboured to find references in
it
to a recompense after death. No ground exists for such en-
deavours;
we have besides the Old Testament the New, and
even
on this account one-sidedness in the Old Testament is no
defect;
it is rather an excellence, if only the side actually brought
out
is a side of truth, since even through the exclusive predo-
minance
of this one side, the truth may be more deeply impress
ed
upon the conscience. That there is here a side of truth, has
often
been boldly denied in recent times; the doctrine of retri-
bution
in temporal things has been affirmed to be a Jewish error:
But
we do not need to attempt the refutation of this view here,
as
it has already been done in our Behr. P. p. 577, ss., where
it
is especially shown, that the New Testament teaches the tem-
poral
recompense as well as the Old, (the oft-repeated principle
in
this Psalm, that the meek shall inherit the land, is taken up
and
confirmed by our Lord in his sermon on the mount), that
this
doctrine has obtained, in a remarkable manner, the consen-
sus
gentium, that the opposite view, however well it may-look,
is
nothing else than practical atheism, and that it leads to the
most
disastrous consequences, while the doctrine of the temporal
recompense
is not only based in sound views of God, but is also
supported
by the important testimony of experience.
The New Testament, while it so resumes
the matter of consola-
much
handled in the Old, in regard to the temptation
growing
out of the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings
of
the righteous,—comp., besides the statements and passages
referred
to above, 2 Cor. iv, 8, 9,—presents the subject in a three-
fold
point of view. I. It enlarges the field of recompense, mak-
ing
it run into the life to come. 2. It ascribes to the temporal
tribulation
and the temporal salvation a subordinate place, while
it
points to the coming glory as that, with which the sufferings
and
joys of this life are not worthy to be named. 3. It brings
with
it even during this life a great richness of internal goods,
the
possession of which renders the want of the external less
painful. The feeling of the New Testament expresses
itself
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 1, 2. 27
thus,
"I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be
content--I
can do all things through Christ strengthening me."
Phil.
iv. 11, 13, and "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as hav-
ing
nothing, and yet possessing all things," 2 Cor. vi. 10.
Ver. 1. Inflame not thyself against the miscreants, envy not
tile evil-doers. Ver. 2. For they shall soon be cut down as grass,
and as the green herb
they wither. The
passage first contains
an
admonition, then lays the ground of this. Luther: "How
immediately
does the prophet seize and hit upon the thoughts
of
the heart in this temptation, and take away all causes thereof,
saying,
at the first: 0 man, thou art choleric, and hast cause
for
it, as thou thinkest, for there are wicked men, who do un-
justly,
and commit much evil, while still they continue to pros-
per,
so that nature thinks it has just cause to be angry. But not
so,
dear child: permit grace, and not nature here to rule;
break
thine anger, and be at rest for a little; let them go on
doing
evil and prospering; believe me, it shall do thee no harm.
Then
if men ask: When shall things cease to be thus? Who
can
endure so long? He answers: For as the grass, &c. This
is
a beautiful similitude, terrible to hypocrites, and consoling to
the
afflicted. How entirely does it raise us out of our own sight,
and
place us in the sight of God! In our
sight, the multitude
of
hypocrites flourishes and grows, and covers the world so com-
pletely,
that they alone seem almost to exist; as the green
grass
covers and adorns the earth. But in God's sight what are
they?
Hay, that must presently be made: and the higher the
grass
grows, the nearer is it to the scythe and the hay-cock;
just
as the higher and farther the wicked spread and rise aloft,
the
nearer are they to destruction. Wherefore, then, shouldst
thou
be angry, when their wickedness and prosperity are of so
short-lived
a nature?"— hrH to burn, in Hithp. which it is only
here
and in Pro v. xxiv. 19, to set one's self on fire, to go into a
passion.
The b
after this verb, always marks the person toward
whom
the anger is directed. Hence we are not to translate
here
with most expositors: be not angry with thyself upon, but
only
against the miscreants, as such a
rendering is also the only
one
in accordance with the parallel, as in the second member
too
the objects towards whom the affection is directed, are indicat-
ed
by a b:
xnq
with a b
always to envy any one. Men would
not
have erred from the right exposition, if they had only used
the
story of Nabal in 1 Sam. xxv. as a commentary. That story
28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
skews
us very distinctly on what account it is, that such a
pointed
admonition is given against rage and envy toward the
wicked.
As it springs from an objectionable ground, from
doubt
in divine providence,—for so long as there is a firm faith
in
this, one will not greatly grudge to the ungodly his transitory
success,
will not be indignant at it, but rather wait, looking to
the
future, and bearing the sufferings which the Lord has sent
as
a trial,—so does it lead to the most unhappy consequences.
From
anger flows revenge, from envy the endeavour to attain
by
one's own arm the like prosperity. So will there come from
indignation
and envy toward miscreants, another miscreant, one
who
will bring force against force, and malice against malice.
That
it is in this respect the warning is here given against anger
and
envy, appears in the clearest manner from the express de-
claration
of the Psalmist's mind in ver. 8, and also what is said
of
the opposite: do good, in ver. 3, and "of the meek," in ver.
11.—References
to ver. 1 occur in Prov. xxiv. 1, 19,—literally
as
here, only that instead of evil-doers we have the wicked, iii.
31;
xxiii. 17. That the Proverbs should present so many coin-
cidences
with the commencement of the Psalm, fitted, as it is, to
make
so deep an impression upon the mind of the reader, shows
that
in the other allusions of the Proverbs to our Psalm the lat-
ter
must be the original, and refutes the view of those who
would
reverse the relation. In ver. 2, Ulm.Ayi, on account of the
pause,
instead of vlm.;yi, is fut. in Kal. from llm, to be cut down,
not
from the uncertain root lmn. John
Arnd: "When grass
has
stood its time, it will be cut down. So, when the ungodly
have
accomplished their end by their prosperity, God sends one
against
them, who cuts them off; as may be seen in Saul and
Ahab,
who, as soon as they were ripe, were swept away, by an
enemy
sent on purpose by God. And when flowers and green
herbs
have stood and bloomed their time, they fall of them-
selves
and wither away. So is it with all the ungodly amid
their
great temporal prosperity. And then they are such
flowers,
as when once fallen, revive no more, but for ever cor-
rupt
and waste, and blossom not again. Ah! why should we
then
be filled with anger at them, and begrudge them their
short-lived
good? We should rather pity their blindness."
Ver. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good, inhabit the land, and
feed in truth. Ver. 4. And delight thyself in the Lord, and he
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 3. 29
shall give thee the
desires of thy heart.
In opposition to the
improper
feeling and mode of acting respecting the prosperity
of
the wicked, the Psalmist first places here the correct one, and
then
points out this as the sure means to the desired end. On
the
first words Luther remarks: "Here he takes away all im-
patient
thoughts and composes the heart to rest. As if he
would
say: dear child, cease from thine impatience, and curse
them
not, neither wish them any evil; such thoughts are human
and
sinful. Put thy hope in God; see what he will make of it;
look
thou to thyself; on no account cease to do good, as thou
hast
begun, where and to whom thou canst, and render not evil
for
evil, but good for evil." The following imperatives: inha-
bit,
etc. are to be taken in the sense of promises, q. d. then wilt
thou
inhabit, feed, delight thyself. hfr with the accus. often
to
bepasture, in a sort of spiritual sense, to feed on somewhat,
Isa.
xliv. 20; Hosea xii. 2; Prov. xiii. 20. The truth
is the
truth
of God, which unfolds itself in his dealings toward the
righteous,
so that he can rejoice therein. Most, proverbially:
feed
securely. To delight one's self in the
Lord, is as much as
to
enjoy his grace and blessing, compare Isa. lviii. 14; Job xxii.
26,
xxvii. 10. The fut.: and he will give thee, etc., serves to
explain
the preceding imperative. Many expositors take all the
imperatives
in the sense of exhortation, and limit the promise
to
the words: "And he will give thee (so will he give thee) the
desires
of thy heart;" others would give the imperatives, at least
in
ver. 3, the force of admonitions. But very important con-
siderations
present themselves against this view. The words:
inhabit
the land, have something strange in them when viewed
thus.
The direction has too little of an active
character. We
should
rather have expected in that case: remain in the land, or
abide
therein. hnvmx hfr must not be translated with Luther:
support
thyself uprightly, for hnvmx is not used as an adverb,
and
to feed cannot stand for to support. Neither can we ren-
der
with others: feed thyself in uprightness, or even in faith;
for
hvvmx signifies
truth, faithfulness, and nothing else. Feed
thyself
in truth, for love, exercise it, were bearable perhaps.
Still
truth seems here somewhat out of place. The delighting
of
one's self in the Lord, is always used only as a felicity and a
gift,
never as an obligation and a proposal; an admonition to
delight
one's self in the Lord, were without all analogy. The
propriety
of viewing it in the light of a promise, is confirmed by
30 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver 11. But decidedly against the
opposite view is ver. 27
where
the expression: dwell for evermore, after a preceding
imperative
of admonition unquestionably bears the import of a
promise,
as also the parallel passage, ver. 9-11 22, 29, 34, in
which
the possession of the land, and the dwelling in it is mark-
ed
as a reward of righteousness. With a promissory meaning
stands
also the expression in Prov. ii. 21, "the upright shall
inherit
the land," and x. 30. On the last words: he will give
thee, etc. comp. Ps. xx. 5; xxi.
Ver. 5. Roll thy way upon the Lord, and trust in
him, he will
do it. Ver. 6. And will bring forth thy righteousness as
the
light, and thy judgment
as the noon-day.
Roll thy way, like
one,
who lays upon the shoulder of one stronger than himself a
burden
which he is not able to bear, comp. on Psalm, xxii. 8; I
Peter
v. 7. That way here does not denote
the walking, as well
as
the doing, is clear from the parallel passage, Prov. xvi. 3,
"Roll
upon the Lord thy works;" and also from the expression
he
will do, namely, what is to be done, and what thou canst not
do;
hWf
never stands absolutely; where it appears to do so, the
object
is always to be borrowed from the preceding. The light
is
day-light, noon-day, the time when it shines most brightly.
By
the righteousness many understand subjective righteousness;
the
darkness of misfortune has brought righteousness under the
cloud,
but God will thereby place it in the clearest light, as he
again
favours the innocent sufferer. But,
since the light com-
monly,
and often in the very same connection, an image, not of
revelation,
but of salvation, (comp. Job xi. 17, "And clearer
than
the noon-day shall be thy life; now thou art dark, then thou
shalt
be like the morning," Isa. lviii. 8: Micah vii. 9), the right-
eousness
is better taken as the gift of God, as actual justification,
following
on the communication of salvation. In the correspond-
ing
member, we are consequently to understand by right or
judgment,
that which is conferred by God. The promise here
delivered
will find its complete fulfilment in the day, when the
saints
of God shall shine as the sun, and as the stars of heaven
for
ever and ever. But vain would be the hope of this, if it
were
not realized also in the present state; what has no place
on
this side, can have none on that. There nothing will begin,
every
thing is only perfected. The denial of the temporal re-
compense
is a partial denial of God, and one that by a kind of
consequence
leads to a complete denial. Jo. Arnd: "See holy
PSALM XXXVII. VER.
7. 31
David,
Saul with all his kingly might could not destroy him:
God
brought David forth at last as a shining light, as the sun at
noon-day;
and what a bright light was David over the whole
land!
How thick a darkness fell upon our Lord Christ, the Sun
of
Righteousness, in his holy sufferings and death; but, in his glo-
rious
resurrection and ascension to heaven, and proclamation of
the
blessed gospel, the true light burst forth, and illuminated
the
whole earth, so that even the heathen walk in this light, and
in
the brightness which has proceeded from him."
Ver. 7. Be still to the Lord and wait on him, inflame not thy-
self against him, who is
prosperous in his way, against the man
that practises devices. in this: inflame
thyself not, the conclu-
sion
of the introduction reverts to the beginning, and thus rounds
itself
off. The amplification then begins again in ver. 8, with
the
same thoughts, which, in our introduction, were marked as
the
proper ground-tone of the whole. Mmd always means to
be
silent. Silence is primarily of the
speech, as opposed to pas-
sionate
self-defence, comp. Psalm xxxviii. 13, 14. But if one
must
help himself by speeches, so also and much more by deeds.
The
l
marks him, to whom this silence belongs, with respect to
whom
silence is kept, q. d. be silent with
an eye to the Lord,
who
will speak better and with more effect, than thou canst do,
comp.
Psalm xxxviii. 15, "Thou wilt answer, 0 Lord my God,"
and
the parallel here: wait upon him, which is to be considered
as
an exposition of the vl. Arnd:
"We have heard above, that
our
dear Lord would bring forth the righteousness of the pious
as
the light, and as the sun in clear noon-day. Now, because
this
dear God has such a great work in contemplation for all
fearers
of God, let them be still to the Lord, and not hinder him
in
his work, but wait on him in patience." The two members:
against
him who is prosperous in ins way, against the man, who
practises
devices, define one another, and Luther has properly
brought
them together, "inflame thyself not upon him, who
goes
on prosperously in his perverseness." Those, who do not
recognize
this, would take hWf in the sense of executing, bring-
ing
to pass, in which case an indication of wickedness should not
have
been awanting in the first member. Arnd: "David saw
his
enemy, Saul, enjoy prosperity, and that his perverseness
carried
him on successfully, but was still, committed it to God,
and
would not destroy him, though he often came into his
hands."
32 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 8. Stand off from anger, and cease from wrath, inflame.
thyself not, so that
thou also dost evil.
Ver. 9. For evil-doers
shall be cut off, and
they that wait upon the Lord, they shall
possess the land. j`x is to be taken in its
common signification,
only.
Only to evil-doing, points to this, that anger could have
no
other consequence than this, no good, but only this mournful
one.
Luther: "And what avails such rage?
It makes the
matter
no better, nay only sinks it deeper in the ditch. Thou
hast
prevented God, so that thou East lost his grace and favour,
and
art become like evil-doers, and wilt perish along with them,
as
follows." In the doing of evil,
we must not think of mur-
muring
against God, nor generally of an apostasy to the manner
of
thinking and acting characteristic of the ungodly; it is to be
viewed
as specially referring to the behaviour toward the
enemies.
Arnd: "To do many evil things to them from impa-
tience
and revenge, is what would be rued in eternity." The
chief
purport of ver. 9 is to chew, that no ground existed for
anger,
rather must thou carefully restrain thyself from it, for
evil-doers,
into the circle of whom thou wouldst enter, when
thou
abandonest thyself to rage, &c. The truth of this: they
shall
possess the land, comp. on Ps. xxv. 13, David had himself
experienced
in a wonderful manner.
Ver. 10. It is but a little, and the wicked is no more, and if
thou thinkest upon his
place, it will be gone. Ver. 11. But the
meek shall possess the
land, and delight themselves in great peace.
Upon
Myvnf,
the meek, not, as Luther, the miserable, comp. on
Ps.
ix. 12. Because they have maintained peace, peace shall be
given
them as a reward after the extirpation of the wicked. See
ver.
37.
Ver. 12. The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes
against him with his
teeth.
Ver. 13. The Lord laughs at him,
for he sees that his day
is coming.
The day is by the connec-
tion
determined to be that of his misfortune. The laughing of
God,
who has before his eyes the impending ruin of the wicked,
(Berleb.
Bible: "such poor worms, who make themselves so
great
upon the earth, and act so loftily in their impotence, see-
ing
it must so soon be over with them,") is put here in contrast
to
the human mode of reckoning, which remains wedded to the
visible.
Let this divine mode of reckoning be adopted by the
righteous,
and instead of weeping they shall then rejoice, even
before
the divine interference has appeared.
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 14-19. 33
Ver.
14. The ungodly draw the sword and bend
their bow,
that they may cast down;
the poor and needy, and slay the up-
right. Ver. 15. Their sword will go into their heart, and
their
bows shall be broken. Comp. Ps. vii. 15, 16;
ix. 15, 16; lvii.
6.
Prov. xxvi. 27. Ver. 16. The little that
a righteous man
has, is better than the
great possessions of many wicked. Ver.
17.
For the arms of the wicked shall be
broken, and the Lord
upholds the righteous. That we must render:
better is a little,
which
is to the righteous, appears from the parall. pass. Prov.
xv.
16, "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great
treasure
and trouble therewith," xvi. 8. NvmH never signifies
exactly
riches, always noise, turmoil, and that this meaning must
be
retained here, appears from Prov. xv. 16, where there is
hmvHm, and Ps. xxxix. 6. But the noise of the
wicked stands
for
his riches, which, in the scraping and holding together, in-
volve
him in noise, turmoil, and disquietude. Mybr, not
greatness,
but many. The Psalmist places the small possession
of
one righteous person in opposition to
the collected goods of
a
whole mass of the ungodly. The ground is laid in verse 17.
It
is, not because the wicked, even in the greatest external for-
tune,
feel themselves internally unhappy, as Calvin supposes,
(that
is only indicated by the turmoil,)
but because their external
fortune
soon goes to wreck, and only serves the purpose of
making
them feel more deeply their future misery. This ground
addresses
itself to faith, which sees what is not, as if it were.
He,
whose arm is broken, the instrument of working, can no
more
either hurt another, or help himself. Comp. Ps. x. 15,
xxxviii.
14, 1 Sam. ii. 31.
Ver. 18. The Lord knows the days of the pious, and their in-
heritance shall be for
ever.
Ver. 19. They shall not be ashamed
in the time of
adversity, and in the days of famine they shall be
full. With the knowing of
the Lord his case is necessarily
bound
up, comp. on Ps. i. 6. The days are not properly the
fates,
Arnd: "God knows what shall befal us every day and
hour,
and causes all things to work together for good to them
that
love him," comp. Ps. xxxi. 15, but the days of life them-
selves.
God fulfils in them his promise, "the number of thy
days
will I make full," Ex. xxiii. 26, and hears their prayer,
"My
God take me not away in the midst of my days," Ps. cii.
24.
With the preservation of their life, the holding of the in-
heritance
is placed in connection. The for evermore
does not
34 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
carry
a respect to a future life, to which the mention of the in-
heritance,
according to Old Testament phraseology, is unsuitable.
It
is to be explained in this way, that the Psalmist here pri-
marily
marks the inheritance of the righteous as a lasting one,
notwithstanding
the attacks of the ungodly; these shall not be
able
for ever to wrest it from them. Hence
the pious is not to
be
thought of as a mere individual. Arnd: "Many and great
goods
are often scattered like the chaff by the wind, and there
is
no blessing and prosperity with them. On the other hand,
small
possessions, which are held with God and uprightness, re-
main
and go with God's blessing to posterity." But the Chris-
tian,
when he hears of the eternal inheritance, must certainly
think
before all of "the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
unfading,
which is reserved in heaven," 1 Pet. i. 4, the assurance
of
which is contained in this passage in the spirit, if not in the
letter.—On
ver. 19 comp. Ps. xxxiii. 19.
Ver. 20. For the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the
Lord vanish away as the
joy of lambs, as smoke they vanish.
The
for is here quite in its place. The
prosperity of the wicked
as
a matter-of-fact testimony against the divine righteousness,
appears
to overthrow the truth of what has been said in the
preceding
context upon the prosperity of the righteous. The
Psalmist
here, while he removes that objection out of the way,
lays
the ground of his foregoing principle. But, in another point
of
view also, in so far as life and property are endangered to the
righteous
by the wicked, the destruction of the latter is neces-
sarily
implied in the salvation of the former, and the for in that
way
appears suitable. rqAy;, is stat. constr. of the adj. rqAyA. The
precious of lambs is not their fat, nor is it their wool, but their
fine
grass, the beautiful green of their pasture, agreeably to a
great
many other passages, in which the grass is employed as
an
image of evanescence, and in particular of the evanescent
prosperity
of the wicked, comp. here ver. 2. Many expositors
after
Luther take Myrk in the sense of pastures: the excellent
of
pastures, for, their excellent grass. But that meaning is not
rendered
certain by the two passages, in which confirmation is
sought
for it. In Isa. xxx. 23, we are to render: the lambs
spread
themselves forth, and in Ps. lxv. 13: the pastures clothe
themselves
with lambs. The expression: in smoke—a second
independent
image—is as to meaning the same with, as smoke,
comp.
Ps. cii. 3. But it must be viewed as a proverbial ex-
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 20-24. 35
pression, comp. Ew. Small Gr. § 521. The combination of the
two
images, carries, perhaps, a reference to the destruction of
ungodly.
Arnd: "The land was a pleasure-garden of the Lord
(comp.
Gen. xiii. 10, according to which the district was parti-
cularly
rich in excellent pasture,) but on account of its great
wickedness,
the Lord destroyed the whole region with fire and
brimstone
from heaven, so that a smoke rose up as from an
oven,"
comp. Gen. xix.
Ver. 21. The wicked borrows and repays not, and the righ-
teous is compassionate
and lends. Ver.
22. For his blessed ones
inherit the land, and
his cursed ones shall be cut off. The sense
of
ver. 21 is: the wicked, overtaken by the divine punishment,
cannot
even restore what he has borrowed; the righteous, on
the
other hand, preserved by God and blessed, has the means of
shewing
himself beneficent. Quite unsuitably most take the
not
paying of the wicked, and the lending of the righteous, in a
moral
point of view. This would not accord with the whole
theme
of the Psalm, nor even with the immediately succeeding
context
in ver. 22. This would not, then, as the for
demands,
present
the ground of what is said in ver. 21. Also in the
parall.
pass. ver. 26, is that exposition unsuitable. And, finally,
it
is disproved by the original declarations in the Pent. such as
Deut.
xv. 6, "For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he pro-
mised
thee, and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou
shalt
not borrow," xxviii. 12, 44.—The cuff. in ver. 22 refer to
the
Lord, of whom each was naturally thinking, so that there
was
no need of any further designation.
Ver. 23. By the Lord is a man's course ordered, and he has
pleasure in his way. Ver. 24. If he falls, he will not be laid
prostrate, for the Lord
supports his hand.
Many would define
more
closely the rbg: such a man as had hitherto been discours-
ed
of, the pious. But if it had referred to the pious, the article
could
not possibly have been awanting; and for taking the as-
sertion
in a general point of view, we have the parall. pass,
Prov.
xx. 24, "Man's goings are of the Lord, and man under-
stands
not his way," and xvi. 9, "A man's heart deviseth his
way,
but the Lord directeth his steps." We shall find no need
for
taking refuge in this violent exposition, if we only give up
the
supposition, that the two members of the verse stand in
synonymous
parallelism: "It is in no man's power to bring his
36 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
work
to a prosperous issue, from God comes salvation and bless-
ing,"
and God has pleasure in his, the righteous man's way, in
his
undertakings and concerns, so that he cannot but succeed
and
prosper.—The difference between falling and being pros-
trated,
is that of misfortune or loss, and ruin. The hand is
named,
because the fallen need it in order to get up again.
Luther:
"Thus the spirit comforts and answers the secret
thoughts,
which every one might have, saying with himself: I
have,
however, seen it happen, that the righteous is oppressed,
and
his cause is trodden in the dust by the wicked. Nay, he
replies,
dear child, let it be so, that he falls; he still cannot re-
main
lying thus and be cast away; he must be up again, al-
though
all the world doubts of it. For God catches him by the
hand,
and raises him again."
Ver. 25. I have been young and am become old, and still have
never seen the righteous
forsaken, or his seed going after bread.
Ver.
26. Always does he shew himself
compassionate, and lends,
and his seed will be
blessed.
That the Psalmist had composed
this
Psalm in advanced life, we are not to conclude from his
speaking
here of his having been young, and being now old.
In
unison with the whole character of the Psalm, throughout
which
the father speaks to his children, the person of the ex-
perienced
old man may have been assumed by a poetical figure;
and
that this was really the case, is rendered probable by the
circumstance,
that the Psalm nowhere else possesses an indivi-
dual
character. It is to be understood of itself, that the dis-
course
is here of continued desertion and
destitution. David
himself
had often to complain that the Lord had forgotten him,
he
had in his poverty to beseech the rich Nabal for bread, and
the
object of the Psalm is precisely to meet the temptation,
which
grows up to the righteous from temporary desertion. Then
it
is not to be overlooked, that the experience which the Psalm-
ist
here utters, is primarily an Old Testament one. (Complete
impoverishment
belonged to the punishments which were
threatened
to the impious transgressors of the law, comp. Deut.
xxviii.
38, ss.) It is not to be doubted, that God, while he
withheld
from the righteous of the Old Covenant, any clear in-
sight
into a future state of being, on that very account unfolded
his
righteousness the more distinctly in his dealings towards
them
during this life, so that they might not err concerning it.
Still
we must beware of carrying the distinction in this respect
PSALM XXXVII. Ver. 25-29. 37
between
the Old and New Covenant too far. He,
who seeks
first
the
Godliness
has promises not merely for the future, but also for
the
present life. But what is the main point, is: the Lord has
commanded
us to ask our daily bread. Every command issued
by
the Lord is at the same time a promise. He enjoins us to
pray
only for that, which he certainly and without exception
will
grant, (i. e. without any exception, which really deserves
the
name; the man, from whom he withholds the earthly bread,
and
feeds the more plentifully with heavenly food, so that
he
is not conscious of the deficiency as a want, has not
prayed
in vain: Give us this day our daily bread.) But, if
on
this side we are poorer than the members of the Old
Covenant,
we are so only because on the other side we are rich-
or.
What appeared to the members of the Old Covenant as a
continued desertion, presents
itself to us, who can see with quite
other
eyes, the end of this life, only as a passing
one, and, be-
sides,
the Spirit of Christ can so mightily console and quicken
us,
that the failure in temporal things presses little upon us.
But
still, the more that a believer of the New Covenant places
himself
upon the footing of the Old, so much the more securely
must
he confide, that God will not for a continuance abandon
him
in regard also to temporal things. The Berleb. Bible:
"God
gives not the spiritual only, but also the bodily, and the
unrighteousness
is not to be borne, which one perpetrates on God,
when
one thinks, that he sooner abandons those, who surrender
themselves
to him, and place all their hope and confidence in
him,
than others.—God has certainly no delight in this, that even
a
little worm should die of hunger, or a sparrow fall to the
ground.
How can he then allow his children to perish? This
is
not to be believed of him; it is too dishonourable to him.—
Let
us then take good heed how we stand in this respect and
live
before God: whether we have so much faith, that we can
trust
in him only for a piece of bread, and whether we can give
him
credit for so much wisdom, and power, and faithfulness,
that
he will assist and care for us in righteous concerns, and
maintain
his work itself."
Ver. 27. Depart from evil and do good, so shalt thou dwell for
evermore. Ver. 28. For the Lord loves judgment, and forsakes
not his saints, they are
preserved for ever, but the seed of the
wicked shall be cut off.
Ver. 29.
The righteous inherit the land,
38 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and dwell therein for
ever.
It is evident both from the Mlvfl,
and
also from the two following verses, that the imperative dwell
stands
in the promissory sense, as in ver. 3 and 4, q. d. so shalt
thou
dwell, namely, in the land of the Lord, with allusion to the
formula
in the Pent., "that thy days may be long in the land
which
the Lord thy God giveth thee," and that we are not to
explain
with several commentators: remain always at rest. The
unsuccessful
attempts to press into the Psalm an ain-strophe, we
pass
over, since the foundation of them has been taken away by
what
has been already remarked in the introduction. On the
expression;
the seed of the wicked shall be cut off, the Berleb
Bible
remarks: "This is deeply grounded in the divine right-
eousness,
imprinted thence upon the hearts of men, and as with
terrible
griphins guarded, that no wickedness can remain un-
punished,
and that the ungodly shall infallibly come to a miser-
able
end. If such perdition does not always meet the bodily
eye
or sense, still every thing is only contributing to their deep-
er
ruin. For the destruction of their poor souls is certainly
much
more dreadful before God."
Ver. 30. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his
tongue utters judgment. Ver. 31. The law of his God is in his
heart, his steps totter
not.
The Psalmist had given to the right-
eous
very rich consolation, very beautiful promises. But now,
that
these might not be torn from those, to whom they properly
belonged,
that every one might prove himself whether he had
any
thing more than the name of a righteous person, he here
encloses
the characteristic of the righteous. The expression:
his
steps totter not, is, q. d. he
advances steadily forward in the
good
path. The two verses contain again the three-fold division
of
the decalogue. Ver. 30 refers to the speech, the second half
of
ver. 31 to the actions, and in the midst of the two stands the
heart.
Ver. 32. The wicked lurks for the righteous and seeks to kill
him. Ver. 33. The Lord leaves him not in his hand, and
con-
demns him not when he is
judged.
vnfywry, which must not be
rendered:
he pronounces him guilty, shows that the discourse
here
is not of a human judgment, (it is rather a judgment stand-
ing
in contrast to this), that the matter between the pious and
the
ungodly is represented under the image of a controversy, in
which
God sits for judgment. Arnd: "The whole
all
Christians were, in the times of Maximin and Hadrian, put
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 34-38. 39
to
the ban and exiled, hence Tertullian wrote an apology for
the
Christians to the Emperor, and comforted the Christians by
saying
"Si condenummur a mundo, absolvimur a deo."
Ver. 34. Wait upon the Lord, and keep his way, so will he
exalt thee to possess
the land, the extirpation of the wicked thou,
shalt see. The way of God, the way
which God wills that men
should
go in, which he has prescribed to them in his law.
Ver. 35. I saw a wicked one, who was insolent, and spread
himself forth like a
tree green and deep-rooted. Ver. 36. And
he passed away, and lo
he was no more, and I sought him and
he was not found. Cyrf, fearful, powerful, has
commonly the
related
idea of violence. But this is not here the predominating
one.
We must translate: I saw a wicked one fearful, not a ty-
rannical
wicked one. For the word manifestly stands in a simi-
lar
relation to the: spreading himself. The indigenous is a
tree,
which has never been taken out of its native soil, and trans-
planted.
Such an one is peculiarly strong. Hrzx is elsewhere
also
used of persons, viewed as opposed to
enemies, who have
no
firm root of being in the land. Also we are not here to sup-
ply
tree in a proverbial way, but rather
the never transplanted
tree
appears under the image of one inborn. We must render:
as
an indigenous one, a green one.—There is no reason for trans-
lating:
one passed by, for he passed by, he vanished away.
The
lo! is also quite suitable to the
most natural construction.
Berleb.
Bible: "which points as with the finger of astonishment
to
that quick disappearance." On the expression: I sought
him,
it further remarks: "I could scarcely believe it, that the
man,
who so shortly before had made so great a figure, must al-
ready
come to nothing, so that I cast about for him in every
direction."
Though David in this Psalm speaks not so much
from
his person, as from his nature, yet undoubtedly in this
verse
he had the image of Saul swimming before his eyes.
Ver. 37. Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for a
futurity has the man of
peace.
Ver. 38. And the impious are
extirpated together, the
futurity of the wicked is cut off. The
Psalmist
confidently demands, that people would observe the
fate
of the righteous; for experience will only confirm his posi-
tion,
that it goes well with him at last. Several, after Luther:
continue
pious and hold thyself right; but Mt and rwy never
stand
as abstracts, hxr cannot signify: to be diligent in a mat-
ter,
and: mark and see, manifestly point here to the: I saw, in
40 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
preceding verse.—Then several expound: for posterity has
the
man of peace; others: for the end of such a man is peace;
but
the "many-meaning" tyrHx has only the one
signification
of
the end, and, in particular, never means posterity,
(see on
Balaam,
p. 158, ss.) and wyxl, cannot possibly signify: such a
man,
and must hence of necessity be joined in stat. constr. with
Mvlw (LXX. a]nqrw<p&
ei]rhnik&?,
Vulg. homini pacifico.) The man
of
peace, the meek, ver. 11, who is not inflamed against the
wicked,
ver. 1, has an end, a future, whilst the wicked, who are
carried
off in the midst of their days, (comp. on Ps. Iv. 23), are
violently
robbed of the end or future.
Ver. 39. And the salvation of the righteous comes from the
Lord, who is their
security in the time of distress. Ver. 40. And
the Lord helps them and
delivers them, delivers them from the
wicked, and saves them,
for they trust in him.
The v
placed be-
fore
the t
announces this strophe as the sum of the whole,
Mzvfm is appos. to Jehovah. On the words: he
delivers them
from
the wicked, Luther remarks: "And that it might displease
the
ungodly he mentions them by name, and says, he will deliver
them
from the ungodly, whatever pain it may occasion them;
and
their fury can be of no avail to them, although they think,
the
righteous cannot escape from them, he must be extirpated."
On
the words: they trust in him, John Arnd: "Ah! says he,
God
cannot, and will not leave them, without rewarding their
fidelity
and confidence, else were he not faithful, not righteous,
not
true to his word."
Luther closes his exposition of the
Psalm with the words
“Oh
shame on our faithlessness, mistrust, and vile unbelief, that
we
do not believe such rich, powerful, consolatory declarations
of
God, and take up so readily with little grounds of offence,
whenever
we but hear the wicked speeches of the ungodly,
Help,
0 God, that we may once attain to right faith. Amen.”
PSALM XXXVIII.
THIS Psalm discovers in its
commencement a near relation to
the
sixth, and in its close a near relation to the twenty-second.
The
coincidences with these Psalms are too literal to be acci-
dental,
and just as little could they originate in unintentional
reminiscence.
The contrary is evident from their
occurring
PSALM XXXVIII. 41
precisely
at the commencement and the close, and from the
entirely
original and independent character which the Psalm
possesses.
The Psalmist begins with a prayer to
the Lord, that he would
not
further punish him in anger, and rests this prayer on the
circumstance,
that it had already been carried to an extreme
with
him, that the time had now come, when, with the righteous,
love
must necessarily take the place of anger, deliverance of
punishment.
This delineation of the suffering of the Psalmist
is
given in two sections. In the first, ver. 2-8, he complains,
after
having spoken in the general of God's hand lying heavy
upon
him, in enlargement of the statement, that there is no sal-
vation
in his flesh, with which begins ver. 3, and with which he
concludes
ver. 7, upon his miserable bodily
condition, and then
upon
the deep distress of his soul. In the second, ver. 9-12,
he
points, after the introductory words in ver. 9, first again to
the
mournful situation in which he found himself, ver. 10, and
then
goes more deeply into the external distress, by which he
was
surrounded, as being completely abandoned by his friends,
and
left to enemies, who were eagerly bent on compassing his
destruction,
ver. 12. After this representation of the greatness
of
his sufferings, there follows in ver. 13-15 the protestation
that
he possessed the indispensable condition of the divine help,
—patience,
the still and devoted waiting upon God; and while
showing
how much he had cause to wait upon God, how much
he
stood. in need of God's help, he here takes a new glance in
ver.
16-20, at his sufferings, and gives a brief delineation of
them:
he has attained to the painful consciousness of his sins,
and
he is threatened with destruction by his numerous and power-
ful
enemies, who persecute him, because he strives after what is
good.
In the conclusion, ver. 21, 22, the prayer is raised on the
ground
thus laid, that God would not forsake him, but would
make
haste to help him.
The Psalm is alphabetical as to its
number, that is, the num-
ber
of its verses coincides with that of the letters of the alpha-
bet.
It is in allusion to this alphabetical character, that in the
two
concluding verses three members make the last letter of the
alphabet
follow the first, ynbzft lx, etc. Along with the al-
phabet,
the number ten, as very often happens, is of importance.
The
main subject occupies twenty verses, followed by a conclu-
42 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sion
of two. (Of course this supposes the superscription to be
a
part of the Psalm.)
Of any particular occasion there is
found no trace in the Psalm.
What
at first sight seems to point to this, is soon discerned by
the
experienced sense to be a mere individualizing, and rather
concludes
the other way. The alphabetical arrangement already
makes
it probable, that the Psalmist speaks from the person of
the
righteous.
According to many expositors, the
situation must be of a sick
person,
according to several, that specially of a leper, who at the
same
time is pressed by enemies, and indeed so, that the sick-
ness
is the Psalmist's chief cause of suffering. But there are
decisive
grounds for holding, that the proper, the alone suffer-
ings
of the Psalmist, stood in the assaults of the wicked, and
that
the bodily prostration of which he complains, was only oc-
casioned
by these. As soon as it is perceived, that the Psalm
did
not originate in any particular occasion, it must from the
first
appear improbable, that a double and quite separate cause
of
suffering should exist; and this being the case, we can have
no
difficulty in concluding, that the sickness may very well have
been
the consequence of the assaults, but not the reverse; first,
because
in all the afflictions of the Psalms generally, and in par-
ticular,
of the Psalms of David, those occasioned by the assaults
of
the wicked come out so prominently, then, from the analogy
of
so many Psalms, in which the wretched bodily state appears
as
the result of the assaults, but especially from Ps. vi. and xxii.
to
which the author has himself referred us,—which together
shut
us up to the conclusion, that the assaults were the proper
and
only sufferings. Further, in the resumed survey taken of
the
sufferings in ver. 18-20, the sickness is entirely omitted;
there
are first only on the one hand, the consciousness of sin,
and,
on the other, the malice of enemies. Finally, the prayer
at
the close does not plead for salvation, but only for help and
assistance,
according to the customary language of the Psalmist,
against
the enemies, clearly manifesting that neither sickness,
nor
the painful conviction of sin, was the original cause of his
sufferings,—that
these were to be considered merely as the ef-
fects
of hostile oppression, which should vanish along with their
cause.
The following view of the situation
hence presents itself as the
correct
one. The Psalmist, or he, in whose name he speaks, to
PSALM XXXVIII. 43
whom
he offers weapons, with which he can prevail in the contest,
is
hard pressed by ungodly enemies. The sting of his pain in this
temptation
is the consideration, perpetually true in itself, and,
in
the Old Testament especially, distinctly announced, that there
is
no suffering without sin, or that all suffering is punishment,
sees
in his enemies so many accusers sent against him by God,
and
in their superior power a testimony that God was visiting
for
his sins, which appear to him now in a very different light
from
what they had done during his prosperity. What he
could
easily have borne otherwise, prostrates him when so con-
sidered,
both in body and soul. In his distress he turns himself
to
the Lord, with a prayer for deliverance from his enemies,
which,
at the same time, implies the forgiveness of his sins, and
consequently
his suffering was removed.
A
Psalm of David for remembrance. The person who is to
be
put in remembrance by the Psalm, is not, as is generally sup-
posed,
the Psalmist himself, or the whole church, but God, who
seemed
to have forgotten the Psalmist. Several expound: to
praise
the Lord, with an allusion to 1 Chron. xvi. 4. But
rykzh always signifies only to mention, never
to praise, comp.
on
Ps. xx. 7, and for the same reason in the passage of Chroni-
cles
referred to, according to which the business of the Levitical
singers
stood in this, llhlv tvdvhlv rykzhlv, to remember,
and
to praise, and to extol, the rkyzh can only form the anti-
thesis
to the two other verbs, to which also the prefixed v points.
The
Levites had partly to sing the songs of lamentation and
prayer,
and partly also those of praise and thanksgiving. The
exposition:
for remembrance, is confirmed also by the subject
of
the two Psalms, which have this in the superscription, where-
in
it is to be noted, that in Ps. lxx. the superscription thus in-
dicated
is the more remarkable, since that Psalm contains pre-
cisely
the complaining and supplicating part of Ps. xl. with the
exclusion
of the praising and extolling part: and then by the
connection
with the hrkzx,
remembrance-offerings, offerings
through
which God was brought by his people into remembrance,
to
which rykzhl
probably alludes, comp. Ps. cxli. 2, Rev. viii. 4,
where
the prayers of the saints appear as a spiritual incense and
remembrance-offering.
The opposite is hdvtl, for praise, in
Ps.
c. 1. This superscription of itself contains a hortatory ele-
ment.
When God appears to have forgotten us, we must re-
44 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
member
him: the earnest prayer to God for help is the only
and
the sure means of attaining this.
Ver. I. Lord, punish me not in thy rage, and chasten me not in
thine indignation. It was already shown in
Ps. vi. 1, that the
contrast
is not that of chastisement in love against chastisement
in
anger, but that of the desired deliverance against chastisement,
which
always proceeds from the principle of anger.—In what
follows,
the Psalmist gives the ground, upon which his prayer
for
deliverance rests. The burden of his suffering is so great,
that
though he must bear it, yet God cannot permit his own to
be
destroyed.
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick in me, and over me came thy
hand. vtHn, the Niph, found only
here, of tHn,
to go down.
yb, not upon, but in me. The arrows denote the chastisements
of
sin, depending on God. Hitzig maintains arbitrarily, that by
the
arrows only a particular form of these is to be understood,
sickness;
the reverse of which is shown by the original passage,
Deut.
xxxii. 23, where "I will send all my arrows against them,"
stands
in parallel, with, "I will heap mischiefs upon them," and
where
presently hunger, burning, disease, are particularly
named.
Then also, in the very passage upon which Hitzig rests
his
view, Job vi. 4, "The arrows of the Almighty are in me,
their
poison drinketh up my spirit," the arrows denote the
whole
suffering which Job had already experienced, not merely
his
bodily sickness, but also the loss of his children and his sub-
stance,
the cooled love of his friends, and even of his wife.—For
the
second member compare Ps. xxxii. 4, xxxix. 10.—The gene-
ral
is followed by the particular; the Psalmist represents to
God,
in detail, the mournful condition in which lie was placed,
in
order to move him to compassion.
Ver. 3. There is no salvation in my flesh because of thine anger,
there is no peace in my
bones because of my sins. Ver. 4. For
my iniquities go over my
head, as a heavy burden they are too
heavy for me. The Psalmist begins
with the mournful state of
his
body. Mtm from Mmt, without injury,
soundness, does not
stand
as an abstr. for conc., but we must translate literally: not
is
soundness in my flesh. This is shown by the parallel, not is
peace:
to my flesh is unsoundness, (and therefore) from my
bones
peace is far, (the violent pain presses through marrow
and
bone.) The anger of God is in so far the
cause of the
mournful
bodily condition, as it hangs the infliction of enemies
PSALM XXXVIII. VER.
5-7. 45
over
the Psalmist, sins, in so far as they provoke that anger, q. d.
because
of the hostile assault, in which I recognize the expres-
sion
of thine anger, the punishment of my sins. What is simply
indicated
in the expressions: because of thy anger, because of
my
sins, is more fully carried out in ver, 4. The transgressions
of
the Psalmist bear upon him in their consequences with insup-
portable
weight, comp. Ps. xl. 12, "for innumerable evils have
compassed
me about, mine iniquities have taken hold on me."
In
the expression: they go over my head, the image is taken
from
billows: they flow over me like one who is nigh to drown-
ing,
Ps. cxxiv. 4.
Ver. 5. They are corrupt, my sores fester because of my folly.
qqm in Niph. to melt, here of the sores, which
dissolve into a
boil.
The verse is not to be taken figuratively indeed, but as
an
individualizing mark of the state of bodily dissolution, in
which
the Psalmist was placed, and which might also manifest
itself
in other forms under certain circumstances. Folly
here
indicates
a bedimming of the understanding, in an ethical point
of
view, comp. on Ps. xiv. 1. It is to be considered, not as the
immediate,
but as the primary cause of the miserable bodily
condition.
The folly has called forth the punishment of hostile
oppression,
and through grief on account of this did the Psalmist
become
so much the more corporeally wretched, as he could
only
recognize in it the chastisement of his folly. That the im-
mediate
cause is the hostile oppression, appears from the com-
parison
of Ps. xxxi. 9, 10. The extraordinary agreement of
Isa.
i. 6, with this verse must be the less accidental as Mtm also
occurs
there, which is nowhere besides found, excepting here
in
ver. 3 and 7. Isaiah has employed what is here an individu-
alizing
description, as an image of the mournful condition into
which
the people had fallen by their sins. In this allusion there
is
found a confirmation of the superscription, as referring the
Psalm
to David.
Ver. 6. I am beside myself, bowed down very much, continu-
ally do I go in sadness. Ver. 7. For my loins are quite dried
up, and there is no
soundness in my flesh.
The Niphil of hvf
occurs
in Isa. xxi. 3, in parallel. with being horrified, elsewhere
of
moral perverseness. It is here just
our: being crazy. The
Psalmist's
pains rob him of all recollection. The commonly re-
ceived
signification: to be crooked, bowed down, has no sure
foundation,
Upon ytvHw
and rdq
comp. on Ps. xxxv. 14.
46 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The
first member of ver. 7, literally: for my loins are full of the
dried,
assigns as a reason for the distress of the Psalmist, his
bodily
emaciation, comp. on Ps. xxii. 17. The loins are espe-
cially
named, from being a chief seat of fat in the healthy, comp.
on
Job xv. 27. The exposition which is now current: my bowels
are
full of fever-burning, deserves rejection on every account.
As
there are words on both sides of the expression; soundness
is
not in my flesh, which are designed for an expansion of its
meaning,
they can only refer to the external state of the body;
for
the loins the bowels are arbitrarily substituted; hlq signi-
fies
not to burn, but to roast, dry up; the burnt, or more pro-
perly,
the dried, cannot stand for the burning. In the expres-
sion:
there is not soundness, &c., the representation turns back
to
the commencement, and so rounds itself off.
Ver. 8. I am very feeble and sore broken, I howl from the
groanings of my heart. gvp to be cold, stiff,
dead. Mhn signi-
fies
not less than gxw, to roar, and instead of tmhn there
might
have been tgxw.
The emphasis lies upon the words:
of
my heart. The bodily cry of the Psalmist is only a witness
of
the spiritual. In his inmost heart pain was raging. The re-
presentation
of the Psalmist has here reached its acme; he in-
dulges
himself in a moment's rest, and then proceeds more softly.
The
first section is completed in the number seven, and the
seven
is so divided, that two strophes, each of two verses, have
before,
after, and in the middle of them, a strophe of one verse.
The
main burden, the representation of the bodily distress, ver.
3-7,
which rounds off through the resemblance of the beginning
and
the close, and by its having five as the number of its verses,
points
to a fourth addition, is hemmed in at the beginning
and
the close by a general subject. The second section, ver.
9-12,
is comprized, if we except ver. 9, which bears entirely
the
character of an introduction, in the number three, and in
such
a way, indeed, that each verse contains a separate deline-
ation
of the Psalmist's suffering. If we reckon together the
seven
verses of the first, and the three verses of the second
period,
the whole representation of his sufferings will be con-
tained
in the number ten.
Ver. 9. 0 Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my sighing
is not hid from thee. The Psalmist had, at
the close of the pre-
ceding
period, painted his affliction in such a manner, that if be
had
to do with a human friend, there would very naturally
PSALM XXXVIII. VER. 10, 11. 47
have
been the suspicion of colouring. Hence, before he pro-
ceeds
farther in his lamentations, he appeals to the omniscience
of
God, who would bear him witness, that the strongest language
he
could use to express his misery, and the earnest desire of his
heart
after help, far from exceeding the reality, still fell short
of
it--q. d. Thou knowest how great my
suffering is, and that I
am
not magnifying it to thee, in order to move thy compassion.
The
verse has for all sufferers the import of an impressive ad-
monition,
not to seek help from God for pretended or imaginary
sufferings,
and in their complaints not to go beyond the mea-
sure
which the occasion itself warrants. The help of God, the
omniscient,
directs itself, not according to the greatness of the
lamentation,
but according to the greatness of the suffering.
Ver. 10. My heart beats, my strength has left me, and the
light of my eyes, even
that is not with me.
Upon the light of
the
eyes, comp. on Psalm xiii. 3. The words are in nomin.
absol.
The expression: even they are not with me, instead of
what
we would have expected; even that is not with me, occa-
sion
no difficulty. If the glance of the eyes has gone, they
themselves
are at the same time gone too; for it is that, which
makes
the eye what it properly is. The lamentation upon the
inward
distress, that is, upon the sad condition in which he was
placed
as to soul and body, produced by the attacks of his ene-
mies,
the Psalmist now follows up by the complaint upon what
was
merely external, first, the faithlessness of his friends, then
at
the close, that, from which all the rest proceeded, the malice
of
his enemies.
Ver. 11. My lovers and my friends stand over against my
stroke, and my
neighbours stand afar off: Several: they
consider
me
as one smitten by God, and fear to join themselves in fellow-
ship
with me. But this is not in the words. These only bring
out
the deep pain, which is occasioned by those who, when the
sore
pressure of affliction upon us calls them to come nearer and
manifest
an active love, by endeavouring, through their compas-
sion
to alleviate our sufferings; on the contrary, remove farther
away,
and abandon us to our pain, after the manner of the world,
where
the prosperous are envied, and the unfortunate forgotten,
(comp.
on Psalm xxvii. ver. 10,) whenever there
is danger in
taking part with a
person and acknowledging him. The stroke
of
the Psalmist consists in the attacks of the enemies, and the
devastations
in body and soul, which were thereby produced
48 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
upon
him. rgnm
over against, so that they do not
come close
to
him. John Arnd.: "This was fully verified in the passion,
as
the disciples of our Lord were horrified at the stroke, which
he
had to bear upon the cross. When the same is repeated in
our
experience, as the holy Job says: my friends are my railers,
but
mine eye weeps to God, we must console ourselves with the
example
of the Lord Christ, for the servant cannot be above his
Lord;
and it will avail for this purpose, if we commit ourselves
to
no man, nay to no creature, but to our dear Father, Creator,
Redeemer,
Preserver, whose faithfulness never fails." While
the
friends are far, the enemies are near.
Ver. 12. And they lay snares for me, who pursue after my soul,
and they who seek my
hurt, speak mischief, and meditate upon
deceit perpetually. They speak mischief;
not precisely, they
concert
mischievous plans against me, but, as the two following
verses
shew, and even the last member of this, they belch out
mischievous
calumnies against me. In the last member, hgh is
better
taken in the signification of meditating, than of speaking.
For
then are deed, word, and thought bound with one another,
and
we have here a complete counterpart to the decalogue,
where
prohibition to injure our neighbour, proceeds from deeds
to
words, (thou must not speak false witness against thy neigh-
bour,
corresponding to this here: they speak mischief,) and
from
words to thoughts, (thou shalt not covet.) The greatness
of
the suffering, however, does not alone suffice as a ground for
the
servant of the Lord praying for help; the manner in which
he
has borne these comes also into consideration. Patience,
calm
surrender is an indispensable condition of deliverance.
Among
men at large, according as every one seeks to help him-
self
in passionate excitement by means of words or deeds, (the
latter
are here particularly pointed to, because the enemies of
the
Psalmist sought especially by words, by false accusations, to
destroy
him,) he drives away from him the divine help. Hence,
the
Psalmist delineates, in ver. 13-15, his patience under the
assaults
of the enemy, amid which, trusting in God as the judge
of
his cause, he abstains from every passionate justification, every
attempt
to maintain by violence his right from those, who can
have
no ear for a quiet representation of what they are unwill-
ing
to acknowledge.
Ver. 13. And as a deaf man, hear not, and I am as a dumb
man, who opens not his
mouth.
Ver. 14. And I am as a man
PSALM XXXVIII. VER. 15, 16. 49
that hears not, and who
has no replies in his mouth. Ver. 15.
For upon thee, 0 Lord,
do I hope; thou wilt answer, 0 Lord
my God. John Arnd: "This
was peculiarly, and in the high-
est
sense fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, since he answered.
nothing
to his calumniators and accusers during his holy pas-
sion,
but remained silent as a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and
as a sheep that is dumb before his shearers and openeth
not
his mouth, (comp. Matt. xxvi. 62, 63. John xix. 9.) This
we
must also learn to practise: in stillness and confidence is
your
strength, Isa. xxx." For the expression as a dumb man,
we
are to supply from the special: I hear, the general: I be-
have
myself. It may be explained from I Sam. x. 27, where it
is
said of Saul, when he was taunted by wicked men, "And he
was
as one silent." Luther, in rendering: "but I must be as a
owing deaf man and hear not," etc., missed the
right sense. Accord-
ing
to him, ver. 13 and 14 describe, not the patience of the
Psalmist,
but the shamelessness of his enemies, who would not
permit
him to speak. Ver. 14 is in substance not different
from
ver. 13. The apparent tautology is justified by the endea-
yours
of the Psalmist to bring clearly out his unimpassioned
stillness,
and his renunciation of all dependance on self. This
appears
the more in its place, as we have before us here an in-
direct
exhortation. Ver. 15 carries back the patience of the
Psalmist
to its ground; it is a daughter of faith. He answers
not,
because he is convinced that God will answer, whom he
must
not forestall. The divine answer is a matter-of-fact one.
After
the Psalmist has referred back his stillness and patience
to
his conviction, that God will help him, its proper ground, he
shews
on account of what he sets his hope in God, and betakes
to
him for refuge. He is afraid, that otherwise his enemies will
triumph
over him, ver. 16, and while he shews how much reason
he
has for this fear, as destruction is so near him, he throws out
in
ver. 17-20, a new representation of his sufferings.
Ver.16. For I speak, that they may not rejoice over me, who,
on the slipping of my
foot, lift themselves high against me.
ytrmx, not, I pray, but, I think. Before Np is to be supplied,
it
is matter of concern, or it is to be feared, or something similar.
The
second half of the verse is a relative clause, which, accord-
ing
to Hebrew custom, is but loosely appended. We can either
expound:
who, (now already) since my foot slips, (a mark of
misfortune
as distinguished from entire ruin) magnify themselves
50 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
against
me; or, who, when my foot slips, (when I come entirely
down),
would magnify themselves against me). The first expo-
sition
has on its side Ps. xxxv. 26, where the magnifying of the
enemies
belongs not to the feeling of terror, but to the sad ex-
perience,
and especially the next verse, where to the slipping of
the
foot the halting corresponds.
Ver. 17. For I am given over to suffering, and my pain is be-
fore me continually. The Psalmist shews how
his present posi-
tion
justified his fear of the triumph of his enemies: he finds
himself
in great misery. The first member is literally: for I am
ready
to halt. The being ready cannot just mean, being near;
but
is as much as: to the hand, given over, adjudged. For the
halting
cannot denote the full ruin, but only the misfortune,
comp.
Ps. xxxv. 15, where it is used of a state, in which the
Psalmist
already finds himself, not which he dreads; and the
misfortune
was not simply near to the Psalmist, but he was al-
ready
in it. Elsewhere, also, for ex. Job xii. 5, Nvkn with l, is
used
of what already exists. bxkm, pain, not subjectively, but
objectively,
therefore entirely corresponding to the biblical halt-
ing.
It is before me continually, q. d. it
is my inseparable com-
panion,
corresponding to this: I am ready. The assertion that
he
finds himself in great misery, the Psalmist grounds in ver.
18-20
by recounting his sufferings.
Ver. 18. For my guilt must I confess, I am sorry for my sin.
The
for denotes the relation, not merely
of this verse, but of
the
whole section ver. 18-20 to. ver. 17. The suffering of the
Psalmist
consists primarily in this, that he has come to the
knowledge
of his sins, and rues these with poignant regret.—
To
this sense of sin there come, besides, the assaults of numerous
and
mighty enemies, all the more sensibly, as the Psalmist had
formerly
done them good. Ver. 19. And mine enemies
live and
are mighty, and many
there are who hate me without cause.
Ver.
20. And they that render evil for good
are enemies to
me, because that I
follow after the good. The first member of
ver.
19 is literally: and mine enemies, living, are strong.
MyyH cannot be joined as an adj. to ybyx, for it must then have
the
article. It contains an entire declaration, as much as: who
are
living. While the Psalmist finds himself in a state like to
death,
is dead while living, they are living and powerful.
MyyH is quite suitable, whether we refer the vmcf to the qua-
lity, or to the quantity of the enemies; they are strong
in num-
PSALM XXXVIII. VER. 20, 21.—XXXIX. 51
her,
in agreement with the second member; and the conjecture
MnH, without cause, is to be rejected. Certainly no
one would
have
thought of putting in place of this, the more difficult MyyH.
To
follow after the good, is not quite the same with well-doing.
It
rather denotes a zealous moral striving in general. This
striving,
however, in the Psalmist, had specially directed itself
in
respect to his present enemies. Comp. Ps. xxxv. 12. The
rare
form of the infin. ypOdr; has been changed by the Masorites
into
the common one.
Ver. 21. Forsake me not, 0 Lord; my God be not far from
me. Ver. 22. Make haste to help me, Lord, my salvation.
Calvin:
"In this conclusion he brings shortly together the
whole
sum of his wishes and his prayer, viz.: that God would
take
up and help him, who had been abandoned by man, and in
every
way most wretchedly plagued." The conclusion stands
in
designed verbal reference to Ps. xxii. 19. On the expression:
Lord,
my salvation, compare this: "say to my soul, I am thy
salvation,"
in Ps. xxxv. 3.
PSALM XXXIX.
HARD pressed by the wicked, (comp.
ver. 1 and 8), the Psalm-
ist
has finally purposed to bear his sufferings in quietness and
patience,
and not to transgress by murmuring against God. But
the
conflict exceeds his powers, and breaks asunder the cord
with
which he had closed his mouth. His compressed heart
takes
wing to itself, and he disputes with God, desires impatient-
ly
to learn from him the end of his life, and of his afflictions,
and
casts up to him the shortness and the nothingness of human
life,
ver. 3-6. In reference to this part of the Psalm, there is
force
in the remark of Calvin: "It is to be observed, that David,
in
this Psalm, does not proclaim his own virtue, while he ex-
presses
before God wishes conformable to the life of piety; but
that
he rather confesses the fault of his infirmity which had led
him
to give way to immoderate grief, and violently dragged him
into
disputation with God. In his own person he places before
our
eyes a mirror of human weakness, so that we, warned of the
danger,
may learn to flee with all haste under
the wings of
God."—But
the Psalmist soon raises himself from his fall, ver.
52 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
7-13.
The faith which had withdrawn into the lowest depths
of
his heart, breaks forth when he sees his enemy, doubting
despondency,
thus triumphing, and throws it down with the
strong
hand of violence. He takes up in heart and mouth the
great
word: "And now, Lord, What wait I for? My hope is
in
thee," and now it is an easy matter for him to give up all
murmurings
and disputings. In the place of these comes now
the
affecting, but mild and submissive prayer to the Lord, that
he
would still deliver him, who had been deeply bowed under
the
sufferings, in which he could not but recognize the righteous
punishment
of his sins, and would grant some enlargement to
him
before the close of his brief sojourn.
The Psalm accordingly falls into two
parts. The first is
treated
by the Psalmist historically. He selects the situation
of
such an one as had just been overcome by the temptation,
represents,
first, ver. 1-6, what already had passed in him, and
then,
in ver. 7-13, what now is passing. The main portion
consists
of seven verses.
Amyrald already notices the
remarkable difference between
this
Psalm and such as Psalm xxxvii., and endeavours to trace it
up
to its source. The thirty-seventh Psalm, says he, David
wrote
when in a quiet spirit he reflected on the matter as it
really
stands. This Psalm, on the contrary, he wrote, when in
hot
persecution and violent conflict. Hence is it that the former
is
easy, simple, polished, but in this the reverse; and while it
sets
before our eyes the alternating and conflicting thoughts of
the
Psalmist, it drags the mind of the reader here and there,
and
the deep commotion of spirit, out of which it proceeded,
makes
it difficult to be understood.
It is not to be overlooked, that the
Psalm possesses in part an
Old
Testament character. While still there was no clear insight
into
a future state of being, a long continued state of suffering
must
have sunk very deep into the heart. "When a man dies,
will
he live again?"—says Job, of whose speech the Psalm con-
tains
the germ—"all the days of my war-service will I wait, till
my
discharge come." With every day of his short and miser-
able
existence was the space narrowing for the display of the
retributive
justice and grace of God; and when the powers of
body
and of soul began to fail, then the disconsolate thought would
press
upon him, that he never would come to partake of the bless-
ing
which God had promised to his people—it would scarcely be
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 1. 53
possible
to avoid sinking into perplexity and despair. But this
special
Old Testament character of the Psalm, far from depriv-
ing
the Psalm of its edifying signification for us, rather serves
the
purpose of strengthening it. The declaration: My hope
stands
in thee, which the Psalmist uttered in circumstances when
it
was against all reason to hope, may well put us to shame, who
are
easily brought into despair by light and temporal afflictions,
while
we have the prospect of an exceeding weight of glory;
and
the more that he hoped, while there was the less to hope
for,
so much the more readily should our hope be set on fire by
the
light of his.
The superscription runs: To the Song-master, Jedithun, a
Psalm, of David. Jeduthun, from tvdy, laudatio, with the
ending
from proper names Nv, or Jedithun, as he is here called,
and
in Ps. lxxvii, 1 Chron. xvi. 38, Neh. xi. 7, in order to
avoid
the double dark sound, is mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi. 41,
42;
xxv. 1, 3, 2 Chron. v. 12, as one of the leaders of sacred
music
in David's time. That here after the general: to the
song-master,
with which the superscriptions for the most part
content
themselves, (comp. on Ps. iv.) there should be added the
particular:
Jeduthun, has certainly no practical aim; but is to
be
explained from the design of David to honour Jeduthun, and
to
hand down his name to posterity, as then the superscriptions
contain
nothing, which carried only a temporary signification.
Many
would, with an allusion to Nvtvdy lf at the commence-
ment
of Psalms lxii. and lxxvii., explain: to the chief musician
of
the Jeduthunite, Jeduthun marking, not the individual, but
the
musical chorus of Jeduthun. But Hace.ni is never construed with
l, always with lf; the l
in the superscriptions
is employed
only
to designate the author and the chief musician, and on this
very
account the lf must have been used for avoiding the
dubiety,
even though the connection of Hcn with l had else-
where
occurred; quite analogous to Nvtydyl Hcnml, according
to
our exposition, is dvdl hvhy dbfl, of the servant of the
Lord,
David, in Ps. xviii. xxxvi. Still more arbitrary is the ex-
position
of Gesenius: upon an instrument, or according to a
melody,
invented by Jeduthun.
Ver. 1. I spake, I will keep my ways, that I do not sin with
my tongue, I will keep
the bridle in my mouth, while still the
wicked is before me. Calvin: "He knew
how many snares
54 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Satan
is wont to lay; he therefore looked to the one side and
to
the other, and set a watch everywhere, lest some temptation,
stealing
in from the right or left, might reach his mind. To
that
the avenues were shut on all hands, unless through excess
of
grief his steadfastness were violently disturbed and broken
down."
On the expression, "I spake," Venema "that is, I
firmly
resolved, and prescribed to myself this law." The ways
are
the entire compass of the actions, within which are included
also
the words; the tongue was that
through which the offence
on
this special occasion might be committed. Wherein the sin-
ning
with the tongue consisted, appears from ver. 4, ss., where the
Psalmist,
carried away by the violence of his pain, actually falls
into
this sin against his purpose,—not, as some suppose, by an
unseasonable
comparison with Ps. xxxvii. 1, xxxviii. 13, 14, in
an
intemperate outburst against the enemies, but in an impa-
tient
and disrespectful murmuring against God, an expression
of
doubt in regard to his righteousness and grace. Exactly
parallel,
therefore, are the passages, Job i. 22, "in all this Job
sinned
not, and spake nothing foolishly against God," and ii. 10,
"In
all this sinned not Job with his lips." To keep the mouth
to
the bridle, is as much as to keep it carefully in check. In
the
words: while the wicked is still before me, the Psalmist
must,
according to several, declare his purpose to guard himself
against
unbecoming speech, especially in the presence of his
enemies,
in order not to afford them the double triumph of
finding
him in despair, which might also draw forth their rail-
ing
at his misfortune, and of seeing him sin against his God.
But
this exposition is to be rejected, even on this account, that
it
does not pay regard to the still,
which is hence also left out
for
the most part by those who follow this translation. And
then,
one does not see how respect to the enemies could be a
reason
to the Psalmist for entirely refraining from murmuring
against
God, and maintaining the right with him, as the discourse
still
indeed manifestly turns on that. For why should this be
done
in their presence? We have also the verses beginning at
ver.
3, in which the Psalmist suffers himself to be drawn into
this
murmuring, when certainly the enemy could not be
thought
of as present. The right view is, rather, that the words
point
to what had been able to seduce the Psalmist to sin with
his
tongue, what had pressed him hard with the temptation to
this.
The wicked, of whom it is said in Ps. xxxvii. 2. "They
PSALM XXX1X. VER. 1, 2. 55
shall
soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green
herb,"
were still continually before him, though, according to
its
import, the words, "He passed away, and lo: he was not, I
sought
him, and he was not found," ver. 36, might have been
long
in receiving its fulfilment. The wicked is to be thought of
according
to the nature of things, and according to ver. 8,
where,
in praying, "make me not the reproach of the foolish,"
the
Psalmist regards him as his enemy, so that with his con-
tinued
existence, the Psalmist's misery was connected. The
best
commentary on the expression, "while the wicked is still
before
me," is to be found in David's relations during the time
of
Saul, which here come the more into consideration, as in no
other
had David so much occasion for this still.
Certainly
David's
conflict at that period stood much as it is here repre-
sented.
Ver. 2. I grew dumb and was still, I was silent, not for good,
and my pain was stirred. The Psalmist says, he
had indeed
executed
his purpose, declared in the preceding verse, but that
ill
had thereby accrued. The obstinate and constrained silence,
so
far from producing good, had rather made his pain rise to a
frightful
magnitude. In sicknesses of the soul, not less than in
those
of the body, whatever hinders the necessary crisis, serves
only
to increase the evil. In the state of mind which now be-
longed
to the Psalmist, the sinning with the tongue was better
for
him, than the merely constrained and legal silence; he
could
only through the fall rise again, only through a sinful
speaking
could he attain to a proper evangelical silence. Upon
the
accus. hymvd prop.
I grew dumb in silence, q.d. I grew wholly
and
perfectly dumb—see Ew. Large Gr. p. 591, Small Gr. § 486.
In
ver. 9, corresponds to the hymvd added here: I opened
not
my
mouth. The unpleasant consequences of silence are first
expressed
negatively, bvFm, far from good, without its having
produced
any good effect; then positively: and my pain was
stirred,
quickened. bvFm
has been
subjected to many false
interpretations.
The most general is that which regards the
expression:
from good, as an abbreviation for: from good even
to
evil, in Gen. xxxi. 24, 29: 2 Sam. xiii. 22, q.d. I kept silence
from
all. But such an abbreviation can the less be thought of
since
the manner of speech was no vulgar one, as its occurring
in
these single places spews. The silence of the Psalmist can
refer
only to the evil, and the phrase, from good even to evil
56 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
would
be unsuitable. In the passages referred to, there is indeed
the
expression, not to speak, but not, as
here, to be silent, from
good
even to evil. Others: I was silent about prosperity, not
demanding
this loudly and imperiously, renouncing in a spirit
of
resignation my pretensions to it. But this unsuitable mean-
ing
is verbally quite inadmissible; the Nm after the verb of
silence
never marks the object regarding which it is kept. Others
again:
I was perfectly silent of good, although my sufferings
violently
drove me to a loud lamentation. But the bono orbus
is
tame, and not suitable to the connection.
Ver. 3. Warm was my heart in my bosom, in my musing the
fire burned, I spake
with my tongue.
On the two first members
comp.
Jer. xx. 9, where it is said of the scorn and enmity of the
world
(not, as several, of the impulse of inspiration): "And it
was
in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in, my bones, and
was
weary with forbearing, and could not do it." The object of
the
musing, is the sufferings which the Psalmist had to bear from
the
wicked. The expression: with my tongue, refers to ver. 1:
I
spake with my tongue, on which I imposed silence. So that the
remark
of Koester falls of itself, that we see from this passage,
in
which the speech with the tongue is a heartfelt speech, pro-
ceeding
from a deep emotion of mind, what is plainly to be un-
derstood
by the tongue speeches of the New Testament. Our
words
are related to ver. 1, precisely as those in Job iii. 1, "After
this
Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day," to chap. ii. 10,
and
i. 22.—The Psalmist now in ver. 4-7, which are to be re-
garded
as distinguished by inverted commas, communicates the
words
which he spake, when he sinned with his tongue.
Ver. 4. "Make me to know, 0 Lord, my end, and when the
limit of my days will
come, I wish to know when I may cease."
The
Psalmist impatiently demands of the Lord, to let him know
when
his sufferings, and what in his judgment coincides with
these,
his life, should come to an end, and complains, as in re-
gard
to a great hardship, and terrible iniquity, that it was still
not
brought to a close. To this lamentation upon the greatness
and
hardship of his extraordinary sufferings, which made death
appear
to him as a blessing, its delay as an evil, there very suit-
ably
follows in ver. 5 and 6 a lamentation upon the shortness
and
nothingness of human life generally. In connection with
this
the complaint of our verse first receives its proper strength.
It
is frightful, if to poor man his short and fleeting existence.
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 4. 57
which
of itself is punishment enough for sin, is besides so em-
bittered,
that he must sigh for his end. The same desire for
death,
upon the supposition, that the suffering shall only end
with
it, and in despair at the return of salvation, is often uttered
by
Job, for example, in chap. vi. 8, ss., "Oh that I might have
my
request, and that God would grant me the thing I long for;
even
that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let
loose
his hand and cut me off. What is my strength, that I
should
hope? etc." So also does Job
frequently complain of
the
disproportion between the greatness of sufferings and the
shortness
of human life, comp. for example, chap. vii. 7, "Oh
remember
that my life is a breath, mine eye shall no more see
good;"
chap. xiv. 1, ss., "Man that is born of woman is of few
days
and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is
cut
down; he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. And
lost
thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me
before
thy judgment? Seeing his days are determined, etc."
chap.
xvi. 22. From these parallel passages the relation of this
verse
to ver. 5 and 6 derives its proper light. By the end we
can
either understand the end of life, or the end of suffering.
That
the Psalmist combines both into one, that, despairing of
the
salvation of the Lord, he looks for the end of his sufferings
only
with the end of his life, appears from the second member;
which
is literally: and the extension of my day what it, for:
how
is it proportioned thereto, what compass has it. But that
we
are primarily to think of the end of the sufferings, we gather
from
the parallel passage, already cited from Job vi. 12. In the
last
number also, literally: Know will I what I ceasing, for what
it
has with my ceasing as to circumstance, when that shall at
last
take place, (hm never signifies precisely when, here also it
is
to be explained after the preceding xyh hm), the Psalmist
asks
not when he shall cease, cease to exist, but, as appears
especially
from a comparison of Job xiv. 6, when
he shall cease
to
suffer—which object of the ceasing is very naturally suggested
by
the connection. He asks, in the middle, after the end of his
day,
only on this account, that he might learn the end of his suf-
ferings;
the ah! will come in not earlier, and to this point his
question
is directed from the beginning to the close. ldH is
never
used of existence, but always in
reference to a particular
condition
within the limits of existence. The real meaning of
the
verse has been for the most part missed by expositors, the
58 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
occasion
of which, as connected with the matter, is this, that the
Psalmist,
restrained by a lingering feeling of reverence, is un-
willing
to speak fully out, and does not entirely let go the bit,
which,
according to ver. 1, he had put in his mouth, but only
holds
it less tightly. The canon for putting the exposition to
the
proof is this, that the discourse, according to its relation to
ver.
1, on the one hand, (the Psalmist does here what in ver. 1
he
had engaged not to do, he sins with
his tongue), and to ver.
9,
on the other, (the Psalmist there grows perfectly dumb, so that
his
discourse can only have arisen from murmuring impatience),
must
necessarily contain a sinful element. Now, by this canon,
we
must renounce the current exposition, according to which
the
Psalmist must entreat God for the right knowledge of his
frailty,
so that he might set his hope only upon him, or even
with
an entire abandonment of the Old Testament territory, that
he,
despising the temporal with its joys and sorrows, might seek
after
what is eternal; "Cause me, 0 Lord, to consider my end,
and
what the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I
am."
Besides, he, who is plunged in deep distress, has less need
of
nothing, than the knowledge of human frailty, and he requires
no
special divine instruction in order to obtain it. The Psalm-
ist
declares it in the next verse, of his own hand, in as strong lan-
guage
as it is almost possible to do. If we only read the book
of
Job, we shall everywhere find a superfluity of this knowledge.
In
no prayer, as uttered in the Psalms by the pious in affliction,
can
a similar petition be pointed out. Finally, this exposition
cannot
stand with the words. It arbitrarily substitutes: make
me
consider, for: teach me, and renders ldH, which means only
ceasing, by frail.—A mournful lamentation upon the
oppressive-
ness
of his extraordinary sufferings, follows now upon the short-
ness
and vanity of human existence generally, which, perfectly
grounded
in the position occupied by the Old Testament saints,
would,
with the pious, as soon as they moved out of the region
of
quiet resignation, into that of reckoning and contending with
God,
be repressed and held down by faith, from the dominion
of
which the Psalmist here for a moment emancipates himself,
in
order that he might afterwards return the more unreservedly
to
it. This faith was, under the Old Testament, a blind one in
the
good sense. Were the end of this poor life the end of the
way
of God with his own, to whom he had given so many as-
surances
of his tender love, then its very shortness could not be
PSALM XXX1X. VER. 5, 6. 59
justified,
and especially when viewed in connection with the se-
vere
afflictions by which this life is embittered. It is the strong-
est
testimony to the vitality and depth of faith under the Old
Testament,
that it did not go to wreck on this stumbling-stone.
Whoever
is at pains to disfigure or conceal the true position of
matters
in this respect, he does not thereby increase the edifying
power
of the Old Testament, but diminishes it.
Ver. 5. "Behold as an handbreadth thou makest my days, and my
life is as non-existence
before thee, only for utter vanity was every
man ordained,
Selah."
The first member literally: Behold spans
hast
thou given my days, thou hast made them for spans, my
life
only a span long. tvHpF is just as ymy, governed in the
accusative
by the verb, and is to be taken in an adverbial signi-
fication.
Nyx never signifies nothing, always rather not-being.
dlH prop. continuance, then life: my life, which
has its name
from
continuance, as, lucus a non lucendo, is like non-existence,
Comp.
on Psalm xvii. 14. The expression: before thee, is not
to
be explained by an unseasonable comparison of Psalm xc. 4:
a
thousand years are as one day before thee, as if the meaning
were:
in comparison of thee; but it brings out what was neces-
sary
in the connection, that the appointment proceeded from
God,
q. d. under thy direction and by thy
disposal. To the ex-
pression
in the first member: thou givest, and in the second:
before
thee, corresponds bcn, constitutes est, in
the third. This
is
necessary to the sense. For here the reference is not to the
mere
being, but to the being made (by God.) It is not suitable
to
render: every man, who there stands firm, as much as the
firm
grounded and prosperous; since here and also in ver. 9 the
discourse
is manifestly of the condition of man in general. The
Psalmist
would precisely say, that all men without exception
are
only an all of vanity. The Selah,
which here and also in
ver.
11 occurs after a representation of the nothingness of the
earthly
life, is intended to afford time for our brooding over this
deep
mournful thought, perhaps also in some sense for God,
that
he might lay to heart this doleful lamentation.
Ver. 6. "Only as an image walks man, only in vain are they
disquieted, he gathers
and knows not who will enjoy it." Mlcb
prop.
in an image, for, as an image, comp. E w. Small Gr. § 521.
The
image comes into view only in so far as it has no reality,
no
power, no life in itself, but possesses only a shadow of these.
Elsewhere
we find in a similar connection shadow,
for ex. Ps.
60 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
cxliv.
4, "Man is like to vanity, his days are as a shadow, that
passeth
away." hmh, to make a tumult, marks the restless
striving
and exertions of men. The suff. in Mpsx refers to the
collected
whole.
The tone of the Psalmist now
suddenly takes a different air;
all
at once a new David steps forth; and it becomes apparent,
that
the maxim, "A quarrel between lovers revives love," is true
also
in regard to the higher love.
Ver. 7. And now, whereupon wait I, Lord? I hope in thee.
The
now, as in Ps. ii. 10, draws the
consequence from what pre-
cedes.
It is commonly expounded: Since every thing earthly
is
fugitive and transitory. But we must rather expound: Since
thou
showest thyself so hard. For it was God's hardness upon
which
the Psalmist had complained in ver. 4-6, and the tran-
sitoriness
of life he had thought of only in so far as it furnished
an
evidence of this hardness. The words: whereupon wait I,
Lord?
refer to the supposition, that man cannot exist without
an
object of hope. The answer: My hope stands upon thee
comes
quite unexpectedly after what had preceded. That the
Psalmist
still throws himself into the arms of God, of whose
hardness
he had so complained, is a wonder that mocks every
natural
explanation.
Ver. 8. From all my sins deliver me, let me not be a mockery
to the fool. The Psalmist would be
delivered from his sins, if
God
removed the consequences and punishments, the assaults
of
the wicked. The object of the fool's scorn would the
Psalmist
be, if God should allow the former to bring him to the
ground.
These words, as also the following, "Since the wicked
is
still before me," in ver. 1, show clearly, that the external suf-
fering
of the Psalmist, his "stroke" in ver. 10, consisted not, as
some
imagine, in sickness, of which no trace is to be found in
the
Psalm, but rather in the hostile oppression of ungodly men.
Ver. 9. I am dumb, open not the mouth, for thou hast done it.
J.
H. Michaelis remarks excellently, that the discourse here may
be
of a composed and evangelical silence, as above of a legal
and
constrained one. As the Psalmist continues still to speak
in
what follows, the being dumb can only mean his being so in a
determinate
respect, that indicated more precisely in ver. 1 and
3,
according to which, it points not to speaking against the
enemies,
but to speaking against God. Instead of this: thou
past
done it, q. d. thou my God, who
tenderly lovest thine own,
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 10-12. 61
least
laid upon me this suffering, which therefore must be de--
signed,
not for destruction, but only for salvation. Luther and.
others
falsely: thou wilt order it well. Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 10.
Ver. 10. Remove from me thy stroke, through the blow of thy
hand I am consumed. Upon fgn, comp. on Psalm
xxxviii. 11.
Ver.
11. When thou chastisest one with rebukes
for iniquity,
thou dost consume, as by
a moth, what he loves; only vanity are
all men. Selah. What the Psalmist had
said in the second
half
of the preceding verse, of himself, gives rise here to a
mournful
consideration of the human fate in general, a sad ex-
emplification
of which was to be seen in him. Through the
woful
representation of this miserable state, he hopes to move
God
to compassion, under whose hand he humbles himself.
tvHkvt properly marks only correction with
words, and is used
of
punishments only in so for as they are a sermo realis, a mat-
ter-of-fact,
reproof, and correction. smtv, prop. thou makest
to
melt, hiph. from hsm. As the moth, in Scripture, is always
the
image of annihilation, never the image of evanescence, we
must
expound, "as the moth," not, as if it were a moth, but
only
as the moth causes to dissolve, or brings to nothing. rvmH
is
everywhere a proper part. pass. the desired, loved, q. d. all
wherein
he has his joy and satisfaction; and we are not to ren-
der
it, his beauty, or his glory. John Arnd " Just as moths
eat
a woollen cloth, nay consume the most beautiful garment,
so
that it is no more fit for use, though formerly it was ever so
fine;
in like manner is it now with man's beautiful form, (taking
the
dvmH
too narrowly.) When the hand of the Almighty
presses
one, and God abandons one for a little, he becomes in a
few
days so changed to the worse by anguish of soul and sad-
ness,
that no one can know him, as may be seen by the example
of
Job, since his friends, that came to visit him in his affliction,
knew
him not, and began to weep, and could not for seven days
speak
to him, for they saw that his distress was great."
Ver. 12. Hear my prayer, Lord, and give ear to my cry;
at my tears be not
silent, for I am a stranger with thee, a pil-
grim as all my fathers. First, the prayer, then
the grounding
of
it. On the expression: at my tears be not silent, John Arnd:
"This
is the effect of tears, when one sees or hears any one
weeping
sadly, one cannot well remain silent, as the Lord Jesus
said.
to the woman at Nain: weep not, and to Mary Magdalene:
woman,
why weepest thou? This nature teaches us. Now if
62 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
a
man can scarcely be silent at a person's tears, how much less
the
Lord God! Therefore it is said in the lvi. Psalm, that God
numbers
the tears of believers, and in the xxvth of Isaiah, that
he
will wipe away all tears from our eyes." The prayer is
grounded
by pointing to the impotence and helplessness of the
Psalmist,
who, not less than all his fathers, has nothing except
what
the Lord administers to him, is wholly dependant upon his
compassion,
and must perish if this is refused him. A stranger
and
pilgrim, (prop. a lodger, tenant, one that dwells upon the
property
of another,) has nothing of his own, he is quite de-
pendant
upon the goodness of those with whom he lives, is
everywhere
on the footing of a beggar. As the fathers of the
people
were strangers and pilgrims with the Canaanites, (comp.
Gen.
xxiii. 4, where Abraham says to the Hithites: "a stranger
and
pilgrim am I with you, give me a possession of a burying-
place,")
so after the reception of the land all Israelites were
strangers
and pilgrims with the Lord; comp. Lev. xxv. 23,
"For
the land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine, for
ye
are strangers and sojourners with me." They had nothing in
and
for themselves, but only in their lord of the manor and patron,
In
remarkable agreement with this passage, David says in 1 Chron.
xxix.
15, "for we are strangers before thee, and sojourners,
as
all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and
there
is no hope." This agreement supplies an important proof
of
David's being the author of the Psalms, and of the genuine-
ness
of the superscriptions generally. This proof cannot be
disposed
of by the supposition, that the declaration in Chroni-
cles
may have been derived from our Psalm. For it bears there
throughout
the character of independence. While here the al-
lusion
to the Israelitish nothingness serves as a groundwork to
the
prayer for divine help, there it is set against the imagina-
tion,
that one can give any thing to God, in order to deserve
anything
at his hands. The words: as all my fathers, represent
the
relation of the Psalmist, as not an individual, but a general,
national
one, (1 Kings xix. 4,) and hence unalterable.
Ver. 13. Leave off from me, that I may be refreshed, before
I go away, and be no
more.
The first member, literally; look
away
from me, that I may brighten up, q. d.
turn away from me
thy
angry look, so that my sorrowful one
may be made cheerful.
There
is no reason for taking the Hiphil of hfw (the form de-
rived
here from ffw
and of glb,
here intransitively. We
PSALM XL. 63
are
rather to supply to the former: thy countenance, and to the
latter:
my countenance. All the words of this closing verse
occur
in different places in the book of Job, clearly proving that
the
author of that book was acquainted with this Psalm. Comp.
vii.
19, "How long wilt thou not look away from me," xiv. 6,
"Look
away from him," x. 20, "That I may brighten up," ver.
21,
"Before I go away," vii. 8 and 21, "And am no more."
PSALM XL.
THE Psalmist announces, that the
Lord had granted to him a
glorious
deliverance, and thereby much confirmation to his faith,
ver.
1-3, and pronounces blessed, primarily on the ground of
this
experience, that man, who has placed his confidence upon
the
Lord, while for the farther grounding of this encomium of
bliss,
as connected with his personal
experience, he rises aloft
to
the entire circle of the glorious manifestations of God in the
history
of his people, ver. 4, 5. This is what God has done to
the
Psalmist. How must he show his gratitude for such kind-
ness?
This question is answered in ver. 6-10.
The first pre-
sentation
of thanks in ver. 6-8, is by deed.
Here God has in all
external
gifts, as such, no pleasure, he desires only one thing,
obedience,
and to this he has made the heart of the Psalmist
willing.
Hence he comes forth ready to do the will of his Lord,
which
has been made known to him out of the written law of
God,
which with desire he fulfils, because the law does not
merely
stand before him as an outward letter, but is written in
his
heart. The second presentation of thanks in ver. 9, 10, is
by
word: the Psalmist is unwearied in
proclaiming what
the
Lord has done for him.—But still, though the sufferer
has
been fortunately delivered from one great distress, he is al-
ways
encompassed by great sufferings and dangers. He there-
fore
turns himself in the second part, ver. 11-17, with importu-
nate
supplication to the Lord, that he, who, from the tenor
of
the first part, had evidently not lavished his gifts on an
ungrateful
person, would rescue him from the multiplied troubles
that
had come upon him in consequence of his sins, and would
put
his enemies to shame, expressing toward the close his con-
fident
hope of the fulfilment of his prayer.
An artificial, formal arrangement,
unquestionably presents it-
self
to us in this Psalm. The first part, occupying itself with
64 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
divine aid already received, is made good in the number
ten;
the second, taking the new aid into consideration, in seven.
The
two divisions of the first part, the former representing what
God
has done, the other what the Psalmist will do, have each five
verses,
thereby appearing as two connected halves. Each of
these
divisions again into a subdivision of three, and one of two
verses.
In the second part, which takes into account the new
divine
help, we find likewise in accordance with the four sub-
divisions
of the first part four such, three of two verses, and a
conclusion
of one. In the position of the name of God also,
there
is evidently design. It is found ten times in the Psalm,
(nine
times Jehovah, and once Adonai) five in each of the two
main
divisions, which are even by this discovered to be two con-
nected
halves, as the two subdivisions of the first part by the
number
five of the verses,
The situation is that of one who, on
one side, set free from
a
heavy affliction, is still oppressed on the other. The question,
whether
for this an individual occasion afforded the ground, is
to
be answered in the negative. Especially in the second part,
the
not individual character of the Psalm comes clearly out.
The
prayers have the standing characteristic which we perceive
in
the not-individual Psalms. That the first part has more of a
peculiar
caste is to be explained from the circumstance, that it
is
taken up with the main thought of the Psalmist, the necessity
of
an active expression of thankfulness, as a foundation for ac-
ceptable
prayer. After he has brought out this main thought
in
striking colours, he surrenders himself to the customary path,
treading
very close especially on Ps. xxxv. By so doing he
taught
the lesson, that thankfulness is always the groundwork
of
prayer, and also brought the first part of the same Psalm into
remembrance,
in which that thought was not expressly uttered.
But
even the first part bears, with all its peculiarities, undeniable
marks
in another respect of a not-individual character. In the
first
half, the distress of the Psalmist, from which he was de-
livered
by God, is obviously delineated in so general a manner,
that
the description suits every great distress. In the second
half,
the hortatory tendency is but thinly veiled, and behind the
words:
I come, etc., the meaning: thou must come, etc., may
be
descried.—This manifest not-individual character of the
Psalm
already suffices to disprove the exposition, otherwise ex-
tremely
constrained and arbitrary, which Hoffmann gives of ver.
PSALM XL. 65
6-8
in his prophecy and its fulfilment. According to it,
these
verses contain a meaning, which exclusively applies to
David.
The direct Messianic exposition,
which was very wide-spread
in
former times, has but a weak foundation in the quotation of
ver.
6-8 in Heb. x.: and affirmations such as that put forth by
the
author himself at the beginning of his career: "there can
be
no doubt, that he, who acknowledges the divine authority of
the
Epistle to the Hebrews, must decide for the Messianic ex-
position,"
lose all meaning when a deeper insight has been ob-
tained
into the way and manner in which the New Testament,
and
especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, handles the decla-
rations
of the Old Testament. In the sacrifices, particularly
the
sin-offerings, a double element was contained,—what the
man
performed in presenting them, and what God imparted
through
them. Now, in this Psalm, the subjective side alone is
brought
into view, but what is said in reference to them, that
they
were not substitutionary, but only representative, that under
their
image the man himself, his personal obedience was de-
sired
by God, this holds also of the objective. How could they
well
be efficacious here in and through themselves, and there only
indicative?
As through the sacrifices the personal guiltiness of
men
was only figured, not contained, so was also the substitu-
tion
through them only represented (the necessity of it indica-
ted,
conscience kept alive about it), not provided. So that the
author
of the Epistle to the Hebrews could not produce for his
assertion:
"it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats
could
take away sin," a more apposite passage from the Old
Testament
than ver, 6-8 of this Psalm, which he puts into the
mouth
of Christ at his entrance into the world, and thus makes
him
frighten those, who placed a foolish confidence upon the
shew-sacrifice.
The second part of the Psalm returns
again with many altera-
tions,
as Ps. lxx. Also here, as with Ps. liii. in relation to Ps. xiv.,
with
2 Sam. xxii. in relation to Ps. xviii., everything bears the
mark
of intention, nothing of accident. To the design of the un-
dertaking
the superscription rykzhl, points, for remembrance,
by
which Ps. lxx. is designated as a supplicatory prayer, (comp.
Ps.
xxxviii. super.) In Ps. xl. two elements were combined to-
gether,
thanks and prayer, which occur also thus combined in
Ps.
ix., comp. on the design of such connection, Vol. i. p. 138.
For
the good of those who had not already received any mani-
66 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
fest
tokens of divine grace, and for whom there was needed
only
a short form of prayer, the author gave independent exis-
tence
to the second part. But he would thereby have us to
understand;
that we have before us not an original whole, but
only
a selected part of a whole. This he accomplishes by
means
of the number five, the sign of
incompleteness—the half.
In
order to effect this, the two first of the seven verses, which
compose
the second part, are cut away, the more striking, as
these
stand in immediate connection with the first part. So
also
he makes the names of God complete themselves in the
number
five; and changes, for the sake of doing so, the yhlx,
my
God, in Ps. xl. 17, which could not be reckoned, because
everywhere
those names of God only, which are not burdened,
with
suffixes, are taken into account—into Jehovah. The same
purpose
also is aimed at in the omission of Hcr, let it please
thee,
which gives to the beginning an abrupt character, and to
the
whole the nature of a fragment. Besides, there are other
changes.
Various words, not absolutely indispensable to the
sense,
are dropt, the author being disposed thereby to shew that
he
would abbreviate in the little, as he had done also in the great.
The
change here could not have occurred by accident, were it only
because
the relation between two texts is never a reverse one.
While
in Ps. xi. only Jehovah occurs, Ps. lxx. exchanges Jehovah
with
Elohim, insomuch that in the first and last verses the rise
is
from Jehovah to Elohim; Elohim thus standing at the begin-
ning,
and Jehovah at the end, while in verse 4, Elohim is used,
because
Jehovah has just preceded. This connection of Jeho-
vak
and Elohim, intimating what was so consolatory for the
tempted,
that the God of Israel is at the same time the Godhead,
is
to be met with also in the speeches of David in the historical
books,
comp. my Beitr. Th. II. p. 312, and again in Ps. lxix. at
the
close of ver. 32, as., to which, as we shall see by and bye,
Ps.
lxx. stands in a very close relation. Instead of vmwy, they
are
benumbed, in Ps. xl., Ps. lxx. has vbvwy, they shall turn back,
give
way, an agreeable variation which the undoubtedly original
vmwy must not supplant. Instead of yl
bwHy ver. 5
has
yl hwvH, make haste to me, obviously that the
close might
point
back to the beginning, so that here also we cannot think
of
an accident.
Scarcely even the semblance of an
argument has been brought
against
David's being the author of both Psalms. The assertion
PSALM XL. VER. 1, 2. 67
of
Hitzig, that "whoever the author of Ps. xi. might be, he is
identical
with that of Ps. lxix." we admit, but deny that the
latter
Psalm contains any thing, which is at variance with its
Davidic
authorship, and find in this very internal agreement of
the
two Psalms, which the superscriptions attribute to the same
author,
an. instance corroborative of the authority of the super-
scriptions.
What Hitzig alleges against David, from ver. 7, that
the
author must have lived in a time, when people wrote with
reeds
and ink on parchment, which he thinks could not be be-
fore
Jeremiah's time, has been already set aside by the proof
brought
forward in my Beitr. Th. II. p. 489, etc., showing that
the
use of skins for writing was the original mode, and that the
Pentateuch
was from the first written on polished skins of beasts.
Ver. 1. I waited for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard
my cry. The inf. hvq being placed first,
brings the action
strongly
out: I waited, Ew. Gr. p. 561. This
strong emphasis
on
the waiting has the force of an admonition; it suggests to
the
sufferer, that every thing depends on waiting. Berleb.
Bible:
"if we only wait in patience upon God, he will present-
ly
manifest himself." As the hmn unquestionably occurs
often
in
the sense of inclining one's self, there is no reason for sup-
posing
an ellipsis: he inclined his ear. Ver. 2. And
drew me
out of the roaring deep
and out of the mud, and set my feet upon
a rock, established my
goings.
Nvxw has always the meaning
of
noise, roaring, even in Jer. xlvi. 17, as is shown by comp.
Amos
ii. 2, and Jer. xxv. 31, li. 55; and it is hence arbitrary to
translate
with many: pit of destruction, the more so as in Ps.
lxv.
7, Isa. xvii. 12, the word is used of the noise of great waters.
It
is urged against the application of this meaning here, that the
water
in a pit does not rage and make a noise. But that rvb
which
even occurs of Sheol, Ps. xxviii. 1, is here a figurative
designation
for a water-pit, and that we are not to think of a
cistern,
is clear even from Nvxw, also from the comparison of
Ps.
lxix. 3, "I came into deep waters, and the floods overflowed
me,"
and especially ver. 15, "Let not the water-flood overflow
me,
neither let the deep swallow me up;" further, from a com-
parison
of the parallel passages, such as Ps. xviii. 4, 16; xxxii.
6;
cxliv. 7; 2 Sam. xxii. 5; finally, from the circumstance, that,
the
rock forms no suitable opposition to a cistern, while it does
so
to a deep of raging waters. Hence, by the mud also we must
understand,
not a muddy cistern, but the mud of a deep of waters,
68 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
in
agreement with Ps. lxix. 2, "I sink in deep mire, and cannot
stand."
On NvyH FyF comp. the lutulentum coenum of Plautus.
NvyH, which occurs only here and in Ps. lxix.,
appears to be the
stronger;
out of slimy mud. The steps are made firm, when
they
receive a sure foundation; comp. the: I cannot stand, in
Ps.
lxix. 2.—Ver. 3. And hast given in my
mouth a new song,
praise for our God; many
will see it and be afraid, and trust
in the Lord. The new song, (comp. on
Ps. xxxiii. 3), is not pre-
cisely
this Psalm, which is rather to be regarded as only a par-
ticular
form of it. The rich new theme admits of many varia-
tions;
the new song may divide itself into a multitude of par-
ticular
songs. The expression: our God, not my God, prepares
the
way for the following: many shall see it, etc. The seeing
goes
not upon the new song, but upon the object of that, the
deliverance.
As to the substance, he has given me a new song,
is,
q. d. he has manifested toward me new
acts of kindness. The
fear is, as its connection
with the trusting already shows, reve-
rential
fear: God's glorious manifestation will fill them with a
holy
dread of his majesty, and at the same time with confidence
in
him, whose help also they must be looking for. The parono-
masia
between vxry
and vxryy points
to the internal connection
between
seeing and fearing, and consequently to the greatness
of
the salvation experienced by the Psalmist.
Ver. 4. Blessed is the man, who sets his hope on the Lord, and
turns not himself to the
proud, and such as bend aside to lies,
The
Psalmist himself speaks here, not the "many" of the pre-
ceding
verse. He draws from his experience, as exhibited in
the
preceding verse, the conclusion, that nothing is better and
safer,
than to place all his hope in the Lord. HFbm, object of
trust.
To turn one's self to any one, is as much as, to take up
with
his side, to go over to his party, to espouse his principles;
comp.
in Job xxxvi. 21, "turn not thyself to iniquity," and in
Ez.
xxix. 16, yrHx hnp. — The proud—the
adj. bhArA only
here,
—come
into consideration here, either as those who place their
confidence
upon their own strength, or as those who, in the
proud
imaginations of their hearts, put in the place of the
eternal
God the workmanship of their own thoughts and hands,
and
on that rest their confidence. Fvw, occurring only here,
is
equivalent to HFw, to bend aside, deviate. They fall away
from
the right object of confidence to the false. Lies marks
here,
either everything beside the living God upon which man
PSALM XL. VER. 4, 5. 69
places
his confidence, which belies him that
rests upon it, feeds
him
with false hopes, his own and other men's power, (comp.
Ps.
lxii. 9, "men of low degree are vanity, men of high degree a
lie,")
also idols, or it must be understood specially only of the
latter,
comp. Jer. xvi. 19. According to the exposition given,
there
are placed in opposition to those, who, in the time of
trouble
trust in the Lord, those who, misled by high-mindedness,
put
their trust upon their own strength, and upon idols, or only
upon
the latter. According to many, the expression: to turn
one's
self is the same as: to seek help; the proud those, from
whom
help is sought, and who must be named lying, because
they
cannot afford the aid which they promise. But the proud
manifestly
stand in opposition to those, who humbly trust in the
Lord;
bzk yFw cannot signify, faithless of a lie, but only the
turning
aside of the, = to the, lie: turning aside from God, the
legitimate
object of confidence, who alone does not disappoint
the
trust placed in him, to a lie.
Ver, 5. Many makest thou, 0 Lord my God, thy wonders,
and thy thoughts toward
us: nothing is to be compared to thee.
I will declare and speak
of them; they are not to be numbered.
The
ascription of blessedness to those, who place their confi-
dence
on the Lord, which the Psalmist derived, in the first in-
stance,
from his own experience, he here grounds farther by ris-
ing
from the particular to the general, to the larger manifesta-
tions
of God throughout the entire history of
cisely
similar transition from the particular to the general is to
be
found in the thanksgiving of David in 2 Sam. vii., which pre-
sents
so strong a resemblance generally to the first part of this
Psalm:
"For there is none like thee,
neither is there any God
besides
thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears,"
etc.
ver. 22-24. The words: and thy thoughts towards us,
are
in the nom. absol., and it is in reference to his thoughts
toward
j`rf is inf., literally: not is to be put on a
footing with thee.
Many
expositors, after Luther: Great are thy wonders, and thy
thoughts
toward us. But then we have a trailing period; the
parallelism
is destroyed; the thoughts must be characterised
more
minutely than as being salutary; the last words refer im-
mediately
to the wonders and thoughts, which can therefore not
be
separated from them by a parenthesis.
70 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The Psalmist declares, in the second
half of the first part,
how
he would show his gratitude for the goodness manifested
toward
him.
Ver. 6. Sacrifices and meat-offerings please thee not, ears hast
thou dug through for me,
burnt-offerings and sin-offerings thou
desirest not. At the beginning and
at the end, the Psalmist
rejects
a false way of presenting thanks, and in the middle he
places
the right one, acceptable to God. In what respect it is
said
here, that God did not wish sacrifices, since he had express-
ly
commanded them, appears from the contrast. The presenta-
tion
of offerings is set over against obedience, the willing per-
formance
of the divine command. Offerings, therefore, are
thrown
away in so far as they form a compensation for this, in
so
far as they would, in a manner satisfy, put off God. It is not
such
offerings that are demanded in the law. It is rather the
caricature,
which the natural man makes of them, always seek-
ing
to get rid of the most difficult of all sacrifices. Comp. on
Ps.
L. Those have quite erred from the right view, who have
supposed,
that offerings are here not absolutely rejected, but
only
placed in subordination to obedience. Offerings are either
of
no worth, or exactly the same as obedience. Not a mere de-
preciation,
but rather an unconditional rejection of offerings is
also
to be found in 1 Sam. xv. 22, to which the expositors in
question
refer: "behold to obey is better than sacrifices, (which
indeed
are nothing worth,) and to hearken than the fat of
lambs."
With perfect justice does the Berleb. Bible add
besides:
"And so also, in regard to words and prayers, and all
outward
services, without the obedience of faith." Offerings
come
into consideration only as a species in the genus, comp.
Isa.
where, along with this, many other kinds are expressly
named.
As to the particulars, the sacrifice Hbz, here as often
=Mymlw, peace-offerings,
united into a pair with the unbloody
offering,
hHnm,
the symbolical representation of good works,
(comp.
Beitr. P. p. 649, 650,) because both belong to those,
who
are already justified and pardoned; sin-offerings and burnt-
offerings
are placed together because they have this in common,
that
the offerer partook of no part of them.—We turn now to
the
middle member. Several commentators explain: ears hast
thou
dug to me, supporting themselves by this, that Mynzx has
not
the article, and that hrk signifies to dig, and not to dig
through.
But the want of the article in poetry is very common,
PSALM XL. VER.
6. 71
comp.
for ex, in Nzx itself, Isa. 1. 5, and so small a modification
of
The
meaning may very readily obtain, especially in the poetic
style.
We might, however, say: thou hast dug to me the ears, for
dug
through. But it is to be urged against this, that the supposi-
tion
that Mynzx
marks here precisely spiritual ears, in opposition
to
bodily ones, runs counter to all analogy, and that in the re-
lated
modes of expression Nzx Htp, Nzx hlg, the discourse is
always
of the ear. We can then understand the expression
thou
hast dug through the ears to me, in a twofold manner,
Many
take it thus thou makest me to understand, to discern,
thou
givest me an internal revelation on the point, that sacrifices
are
not well pleasing in thy sight. But, according to others,
the
Psalmist must in these words, place the obedience, to which
he
was internally drawn by God, in contrast to sacrifices, q. d.
thou
hast made me hearing, obedient. Against the first exposi-
tion,
and for the second, the following reasons are decisive: 1
The
subsequent context requires, that in this verse it should be
contained,
not merely what God does not desire, but also what
he
does desire. 2. The doctrine that sacrifices, as opus opera-
tum,
are of no value, cannot be indicated as the object of a
special
revelation. It is, as Stier justly remarks, "a truth,
from
the first openly declared to
received
by many." No Israelite of real piety was in doubt upon
this
subject. 3. Precisely the same contrast between obe-
dience
and sacrifices exists in the parallel, probably ground pas-
sage,
1 Sam. xv. 22: "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord delight
in
burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as that one should hearken to the
voice
of the Lord? Behold, to hearken is better than sacrifice,
and
to attend than the fat of lambs." The exposition of obe-
dience
is likewise confirmed by the parallel passage, Jer. vii. 22,
33:
"For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them;
in
the day that I brought them out of the
of
burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but this word did I command
them,
obey my voice, . . . and walk ye in all the ways which
I
have commanded you," compare ver. 24 "but they hearken-
ed
not, nor inclined their ear." See also a similar contrast in
Hosea 6, Ps, 16, 17.—The LXX. have rendered the words
by
sw?ma de> kathrti<sw moi, but a body hast thou prepared for me,
and
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has adopted them,
because
the thought is not altered by this translation. The
contrast
there also is the presentation of thanks through the
72 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
whole
life and conduct, in opposition to single and merely
external
offerings: thou hast given me a body, so that I will-
ingly
serve thee in the execution of thy will. Compare the
words:
Lo, I come, in ver. 7.
Ver. 7. Then I said: Lo, I come, in the volume of the book
it is prescribed to me. Then,
under these circumstances, since
thou
dost not desire offerings, but obedience, and hast made me
internally
willing to perform what is desired, I
come, in order
to
do what is well pleasing to thee. The second member points
to
this, that the Psalmist, in his readiness to do the will of God,
has
the means furnished him, through which he can recognise
this
will with security, and in its whole compass, through which
he
is taken out of the region of his own imaginings in this re-
spect;
in the written law of God, it is told him, what is good,
and
what his God desires of him, so that he has no need to
speculate
and make curious inquiries, but can proceed straight
to
action. As God has given him the inclination to obedience,
so
has he also given him a law for that. The volume,
or roll-
book, is the Pentateuch,
which from the first was written on
parchment.
The ground which some have found against the
reference
to the Pent., from the want of the article, is of no
force,
since the article is more rare in poetry, which is fond of
brief
and ornate expressions, than in prose, and might the more
readily
be dispensed with here, since, in the time of David, when
no
other sacred book existed, every one would at once under-
stand
what was meant by the roll-book. btk with lf prop.
to
write over any one, therefore to
write, that the thing written
lies
upon him, occurs in 2 Kings 13 in a quite similar con-
nection
in the sense of prescribing: "Because our fathers have
not
hearkened to the words of this book, to do according to all
that
is written upon us," vnylf bvtkh lkk. Parall. pass. are
Josh.
i. 7, "That thou mayest observe to do according to all
this
law, which Moses, my servant, commanded thee," and 1
Kings
ii. 3, where the dying David says to Solomon, "That
thou
walk in his ways, and keep his commandments . . . . as it
is
written in the law of Moses." These parallel passages, as also
the
connection, decide against the exposition of the Messianic
interpreters:
it is written of me. The exposition of De Wette:
I
come with the book-roll written to me in the heart, destroys
the
parallelism, leaves the parallel passage without considera-
tion,
and is contrary to all analogy, since it is often said of the
PSALM XL. VER. 8. 73
law
itself, that it is written in the heart or interior, but not of
the
law-book, that it is written upon men. The exposition of
Gesenius:
"Lo, I come with the book's roll, which has been
prescribed
to me," likewise destroys the parallelism, and leaves
the
parallel passages unnoticed; then it refers what is written to
the
book, instead of making it refer, as
it should, according to
this
view, to the roll; finally, it cannot
be said of the book, that
it
has been prescribed, at least no parallel passage is anywhere
to
be found.
Ver. 8. To do thy will, my God, I delight, and thy law is in
my inner part, prop. within my
bowels. But these denote the
innermost,
in opposition to the exterior. To be convinced how
groundless
the opinion of Hoffmann is, that l in tvWfl could
not
be dependent on ytcpH, which would have b with it,
we
have only to cast a glance at Ps. cxliii. 10, and the places
cited
by Gesenius, in his Thes. p. 507. The law in the in-
wards
of the Psalmist forms the contrast to that which had been
externally
prescribed to him. Where matters are as
they
should
be, there the law is not merely prescribed, but also in-
scribed.
The Messianic expositors have maintained, that the
substance
of the verse is not applicable to David, who presently
complains,
that his sins are more numerous than the hairs of his
head:
and Jeremiah, in chap. xxxi. 33, disclaims the writing of
the
law in the heart as belonging to the old covenant, and
speaks
of it as peculiar to the new. Tholuck still thinks, that
the
Spirit of God had, in a hallowed hour, put words into the
Psalmist's
mouth, which, in the full sense, could be used by
no
one but the Son of God. But to have the law of God in the
heart,
and to sin is no contrast, else would the promise respect-
ing
the new covenant in Jeremiah not have been fulfilled.
That
the distinction between the old and the new covenants in
this
respect was only a relative one, has been shown in my Chris-
tology,
P. p. 577, ss. But we cannot rob the old covenant
of
the writing of the law in the heart, without making its mem-
bers
destitute of all true and living piety; and consequently
being
put to the blush by such persons as David and many others.
Already
in Deut. vi. 6, it is said: "And these words, which I
command
thee this day, shall be upon thy heart,"
(not merely
upon
the stones, Deut. xxvii. 3, and upon the book-roll.) David
describes,
in Ps. xxxvii. 31, the righteous as one, in whose heart
the
law of his God is. Solomon directs in Prov. iii. 3, vii. 3:
74 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
"Write
them (the commandments) upon the table of thy
heart."
In Isa. li. 7, God addresses the people, in whose heart
is
his law.
With the giving of thanks by deeds
must also be coupled the
doing
of it by words. Ver. 9. I preach
righteousness in the
great congregation; lo,
I will not close my lips, 0 Lord, thou
knowest. Ver. 10. Thy righteousness I conceal not in my heart,
of thy faithfulness and
thy salvation I speak, I conceal not thy
loving-kindness and thy
truth from the great congregation. It
may
seem, on a superficial consideration, as if David used here
too
many words. But they will judge quite otherwise, who
understand
the natural coldness of the human heart, its luke-
warmness
in the praise of God, its forgetfulness and unthank-
fulness,
and the inclination of the lazy mouth to silence. For
such
every word here will be as a sharp arrow in the heart.
qdc, in ver. 9, is to be distinguished from hqdc in ver. 10,
thus,
that the first marks the merely being righteous, showing
one's
self righteous, as that was here brought in, while the lat-
ter
marks righteousness as a fixed property, compare Ew. Large
Gr.
p. 313. The: 0 Lord, thou knowest, points to the fact,
how
easily one can deceive himself and others, by the imagina-
tion
and the appearance as to his readiness for the praise of
God.
Let each consider, whether he can, with a good con-
science,
appeal in this respect to the testimony of God.
The second part begins now, in which
the building of the
prayer
raises itself upon the foundation laid in the first part.
Ver.
11. Do Thou, 0 Lord, withhold not from me
thy tender
mercies, let thy
loving-kindness and thy truth continually pre-
serve me. Ver. 12. For innumerable evils compass me about,
my transgressions have
taken hold upon me, so that I cannot see,
they are more than the
hairs of my head, and my heart has fail-
ed me. In the relation of the
"withhold not," to the "I will
not
withhold," in ver. 9, there is expressed the doctrine, that
the
measure of the further salvation proceeds according to the
measure
of thankfulness for the earlier. This internal reference
of
the second part to the first, serves also for a proof against
those
who think that the second part was appended by another
hand.
The second part is properly that, to which the other
points.
The didactic aim of the whole is to shew, how we may
pray
acceptably in the time of distress. This can only be done
by
the prayer having thankfulness for its foundation, first mani-
PSALM XL. VER. 11, 12. 75
festing
itself in the walk, and then in acknowledgment. As the
expression,
"withhold not," refers to "I will not withhold,"
so
the words: "let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continu-
ally
preserve me," point back to: “I will not conceal thy lov-
ing
kindness and thy truth,” with which the Psalmist had closed
his
promise of thanksgiving. That we will not conceal God's
loving-kindness
and truth, is the sure means, but also the indis-
pensable
condition of its further manifestation in our experience.
Jpx with lf is stronger than ynvppx in Ps. xviii. 4, as has
al-
ready
been remarked by Calvin: "he says,
that he is not only
surrounded
on all sides, but that a mass of evils lay upon his
head."
tvnvf signifies here, as
always, not punishments, but
transgressions,
which, however, overtake the sinner in their
consequences,
so that in substance: my transgressions, etc., is
as
much as: the punishments for my transgressions; comp. Dent.
xxviii.
15, "all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake
thee,"
1 Sam. xxviii. 10. That the Psalmist speaks here of his
numerous
offences, and treats of his suffering as the righteous
punishment
of these, forms an irrefragable proof against the di-
rect
Messianic exposition. This cannot derive support from Isa.
liii.
For here there is no word to indicate, that the offences,
which
the sufferer describes as his, were only those of others
laid
to his charge. And of such we can the less think, on ac-
count
of the many almost literally agreeing parallel passages in
the
Psalms, where personal sins alone can be thought of, and
especially
on account of the repetition in Ps. lxx. The expres-
sion:
I cannot see, many expound: I cannot survey them. But
against
this there is the want of the suffix, and the circumstance
that
to see cannot mean to look over, or survey. The argument,
which
is derived from the assumed parallel: they are more than
the
hairs of my head, is nothing; for this corresponds to the
expression:
without number; as: I cannot see; to: my heart
has
failed me. The right view was already given by Luther in
his
gloss: "that my sight gives way under great sorrow." The
expression
elsewhere always marks the failure of the eyesight,
comp.
1 Sam. iii. 2, "his eyes began to be dim, and he could
not
see," iv. 15; 1 Kings xiv. 4. Such a darkening of the visage
takes
place under deep pain, which exhausts all the powers,
comp.
Job xvi. 16, "lighten mine eyes," Ps. xxxviii. 10, "the
light
of mine eyes is gone from me." The heart is here not exact-
ly
the feeling, spirit, but is rather considered as the seat of the
76 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
powers
of life. "My strength faileth me," in Ps. xxxviii. 10, is
parallel.
Ver. 13. Be pleased, 0 Lord, to deliver me, Lord hasten to
me for help. Ver. 14. Let them be ashamed and abashed to-
gether, who seek after
my soul to destroy it; let them recoil back-
wards and be put to
shame, who have pleasure in my misfortune.
Ver.
15. Let them be confounded for their
shame, who say to me:
there, there. Ver. 16. Let all those rejoice and be glad in thee,
who seek thee: let them
say continually: great is the Lord, who
love thy salvation. As ver. 13 and 14, so
also these two form
a
pair. The petitions stand in the two pairs of verses in reverse
order;
the first: deliver me, then: put to shame my enemies;
here
first: put to shame my enemies, then: give to me and to
all
those, who in heart sigh after thee and thy favour, occasion
of
joy through thy salvation. These two pairs form the kernel
of
the second part. They are shut in by the introduction in
ver.
11 and 12, and the conclusion in ver. 17. Upon bqf lf,
on
account of, comp. the lex. and on the words: who say to
me,
there, there, Ps. xxii. 7; xxxv. 21, 25. On ver. 16, see Ps.
xxxv.
27.
Ver. 17. And I am poor and needy, the Lord will care for
me, my help and my
deliverer art thou: my God tarry not. John
Arnd:
"Thou art my help in heaven, because I have no helper
and
deliverer on earth. Therefore delay not. I know, thou
wilt
choose the right time, and not neglect me. For this our
faith
certainly concludes: God cares for thee, hence he
choose
the right time, and will not unduly delay."
PSALM XLI.
HE, who shows tender compassion to
the unfortunate, wins
for
himself thereby the divine blessing, deliverance, when mis-
fortune
overtakes him, preservation from the rage of his enemies,
restoration
when he has been brought by grief to the bed of
sickness,
ver. 1-3. The Psalmist, who always has a heart full
of
compassion, finds himself in a position, which occasions and
justifies
him in laying claim to the reward appointed to the love
of
compassion. He finds himself in misfortune, and malicious
enemies
surround him, who anxiously wish for his destruction,
and
seek with all their powers to accomplish it, ver. 4-9. So
PSALM XLI. 77
that
he turns himself to the Lord with a prayer for help, and,
consoled
by the assurance thereof, gives utterance at the close
to
his joyful expectations concerning it, ver. 10-12.
The formal arrangement is the same
as in Ps. ii. The whole
is
completed in the number twelve, and falls into four strophes,
each
of three verses.
According to the current
supposition, the sufferer in the Psalm
must
have been in violent sickness. But there is no reason for
supposing
sickness here to be an independent thing, or even the
chief
trouble of the Psalmist; it rather comes into consideration,
as
in the Psalms generally, as the attendant merely of the as-
saults
of the wicked, The expression in ver. 3, "the Lord will
strengthen
him on the bed of languishing," is preceded, in ver.
2,
by "give him not into the will of his enemies." The ene-
mies
appear in ver. 5-9, not simply as malicious spectators of
the
suffering, which, independently of them, the Psalmist was
enduring,
but they take pleasure in their own work, and seek
by
further machinations to accomplish it: they gather materials
for
mischievous slanders, ver. 6, meditate evil against the Psalm-
ist,
ver. 7, rejoice in the knavish trick, from which they confi-
dently
expected his entire destruction, ver. 8, and lifted up the
heel
against him, ver. 9. In the prayer, vet. 10, and the ex-
pression
of confidence, that it would be heard, ver. 11, mention
is
only made of victory over the enemies, which would at once
put
an end to the whole suffering of the Psalmist.
The kernel of our Psalm is contained
in Ps. xxxv. 13, 14,
which
is the more deserving of consideration, as the second part
of
the preceding Psalm bears throughout a reference to that
Psalm.
The ground-thought is this, that he who is compassion-
ate,
will receive compassion, that he who has the consciousness
of
having wept with the weeping, may console himself with the
assurance,
that his own weeping shall be turned by God into
laughing.
The Psalm has therefore a very individual aspect, it
opens
up to the suffering a remote and hidden source of con-
solation.
The penmanship of David is testified
by the superscription,
and
he certainly speaks here from his own experience. Assur-
edly
his tender and loving heart was often impelled to embrace
the
wretched; assuredly was his confidence, in the time of his
own
wretchedness, often awakened thereby in the divine com-
passion,
and often had this confidence verified itself in his
78 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
experience.
But the Psalm nowhere contains any individual
traits,
which might justify the supposition, that he had an eye
to
some particular period of his life: it rather bears, if we look
away
from the form, the character of a didactic Psalm, and the
"I"
of the Psalm is not the Psalmist, but the righteous sufferer.
The
more readily, therefore, might the Lord appropriate to
himself
in John xiii. 18, and elsewhere, the ninth verse of this
Psalm
so expressly and unconditionally—he, in whom the idea
of
the righteous one realized itself, who could first say, with
perfect
truth, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor," in
whom
the two factors of the divine deliverance, viz. divine com-
passion
guaranteeing divine help, and the rage of enemies jus-
tifying
the sufferer in laying claim to it, existed in a strength,
which
they did never before or since, and in whose case espe-
cially,
the trait contained in ver. 9 was most strikingly realised.
The
direct and exclusive Messianic exposition, to which many of
the
older expositors were drawn by these considerations, is al-
ready
refuted by ver. 4, where the righteous recognizes in his
sufferings
a just punishment for his sins.
Ver. 1. Blessed is the man, who acts wisely toward the poor;
in the day of distress
the Lord will deliver him. Ver. 2. The
Lord will keep him, and
keep him in life; he will be blessed in
the land, and thou wilt
not give him to the will of his enemies.
Ver.
3. The Lord will assist him on the bed of
sickness; all his
couch dost thou change
in his sickness.
According to the com-
mon
view, the Psalmist must be regarded as beginning with
eulogizing
the blessed state of the compassionate, "because he
had
experienced the precisely opposite treatment, malice and
scorn."
We, on the contrary, would rather supply to his first
who
here points out his right to the divine help in the time of
distress,
shews ver. 4-9, that such a time now existed, and.
words:
as I have done, and refer every thing to the Psalmist,
in
ver. 10-12, first lays claim to the help, and then expresses
his
confidence in obtaining it. In the current exposition, the
three
first verses appear as a pure hors d'oeuvre, which might
be
cut off without prejudice to the main thought, as a moral re-
flexion
standing irrespective of that, and as such, most unsuit-
ably
placed at the commencement; the individual character of
the
Psalm, which according to our view, presents itself to us in
this
very commencing verse, is thereby completely destroyed:
in
the ground-passage Ps. xxxv, 13, 14, the Psalmist is himself
PSALM XLI. VER. 1-3. 79
the
merciful and compassionate one; the affecting passage:
thou
wilt not give him to the will of his enemies, is then only in
its
proper place, when the seemingly general declaration refers
to
the Psalmist. John Arnd remarks on the sentiment in ver. 1:
“A
gracious, compassionate, and beneficent heart wishes and
wills,
that it may go well with all men, as God himself cordially
grants
such to us. On this account also, does the Lord so re-
compense
again all good people with such blessings, that
it
may also go well with them, for what a man sows, that
will
he reap, and what he seeks, that will he find. Strive
and
labour after compassion, and so wilt thou find it; if
thou
wilt sow the reverse, thou shalt certainly reap the
same.
Such also is the case with the inner man of the heart,
for
if in faith thou lost exercise goodness and compassion, the
heart
is united in peace and quietness with God and in God.”
lykWh expositors take for the most part in the
sense of attend-
ing to, but the more common
meaning, and that which lies near-
er
the radical one, of acting prudently, wisely, (comp. for ex-
ample, Ps. ii. 10; 1 Sam. xviii. 14; Jer. xx. 11; xxiii.
5), is here
more
suitable and also recommended by the lx. Wherein the
acting
prudently consists, in the manifestations of a tender fel-
low-feeling,
Ps. xxxv. 13, 14 shows us, and in an opposite line
of
conduct to that pursued by the enemies of the Psalmist, as
described
in ver. 5-9. ld signifies properly,
thin, lean, slender,
and
then designates him, who finds himself in a depressed situa-
tion,
with whom matters go ill and hard.—Instead of rwxy, the
marginal
form is rwaxuv;, the pref. with the cop. One feels of-
fended
at, the want of connection. That lx cannot stand for
xl, is self-evident. But on this account the
preceding and fol-
lowing
fut. are not to be regarded in the light of opta. The
Psalmist
turns himself suddenly to the Lord, and entreats him
to
grant that, which he does according to what precedes and
follows,
Upon wpnb Ntn see on Ps. xxvii. 12.-- bkwm is never
the
act of lying, the lying down, but always signifies a couch or
bed; the couch stands here
for the state of the sick; God changes
his
couch of pain and sickness into one of convalescence and joy,
and
that entirely; Berleb. Bible: "let it be as afflicted and
miserable
as it may." It is further remarked there, in suitable
reference
to ver. 5, ss.: "Thou wilt not permit it to go accord-
ing
to the wish of the spectators, who come to see, whether he
80 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
will
soon die, and what will happen after his death, but wilt help
him
up again, contrary to all expectation."
The Psalmist, who with perfect right
could appropriate to
himself
the words: "Blessed is he who acts wisely towards the
poor,"
goes on to mention, in two strophes, that now it was the
day
of distress for him, now the rage of his enemies was boiling
against
him, now he was prostrated in pain, so that it was time
for
him to receive the fulfilment of the promise: he will deliver
him,
etc.
Ver. 4. I spake: Lord be gracious to me, heal my soul; for I
have sinned against
thee. Ver.
5. My enemies speak evil of me;
when will he die, and
his name perish?
Ver. 6. And when he
comes to behold, he
speaks deceit, his heart—he gathers mischief
to himself he goes out
and speaks.
The Psalmist says: I spake,
not:
I spake, because he here appropriated that to himself,
which,
in the preceding context, had been ascribed in the gene-
ral
to the merciful, q. d. I find myself
now in a situation for lay-
ing
claim to the salvation appointed to the merciful. That
the
Psalmist desires salvation for his (much oppressed) soul,
shews,
that the state of bodily distress only proceeded from
sorrow
and grief. If the soul was healed through the appoint-
ment
of salvation, deliverance from the enemies, the body would
presently
again become sound. In the words: for I have sinned
against
thee, the Psalmist announces the cause, on account of
which
he needed healing. The connection between sin and
suffering
is so intimate, according to the scriptural mode of
contemplation,
that the expression: I have sinned, is sufficient
to
convey the thought: I have in consequence of my sins be-
come
miserable. This misery is next described
more particularly
in
what follows.—The yl, in reference to me, as concerns me.
fr not simply evil, as hfr in ver. 7, but evil in
the moral
sense:
in malice they speak so, as follows. The Psalmist, in
consequence
of their assaults upon his body and soul, is miserable
and
broken, so that they are in hopes of his speedy dissolution,
which
they could hardly have expected otherwise, and accord-
inc,
to what follows, seek to hasten forward through the con-
tinued
manifestation of their malice. In ver. 6 the subject is
the
ideal person of the wicked. To behold,
namely, how it goes
with
me. He speaks deceit, hypocritical
assurances of love and
sympathy.
We must not expound: his heart gathers, but:
his
heart, what concerns his heart, in opposition to the friendly
PSALM XLI. VER. 7-9. 81
mouth,
he gathers mischief to himself. For the gathering can-
not
be fitly attributed to the heart, and it is, even beforehand,
probable,
that the wicked is the subject of the expression: he
gathers,
as he is in the three remaining members of the verse.
Mischief, i. q. matter for malicious calumnies. He goes out,
speaks, scattering things
among the people, when he has left
me,
and using also his tongue against me.
Ver. 7. All who hate we, whisper with each other against
me, meditate evil
against me.
Ver.8. A knavish device over-
hangs him, and he who
lies down, will not rise up again. Ver.
9. Also my friend, whom
I trusted, who ate my bread, lifts
against me the heel. yl hfr, evil to me, q. d. evil, which is
destined
for me, which they would bring upon me. The eighth
verse
contains the words, with which the enemies betray their
joy
at the plan, which they hatched against the sufferer, and
through
which they confidently hope to give him, already pro-
strate
in distress,the last push. Compare Ps. lxiv. 6. The first
member,
literally: a matter of mischief is poured upon him.
lfylb always signifies unprofitableness, in
the moral sense,
worthlessness,
compare on Psalm xviii. 4, and consequently the
discourse
here can only be of a knavish device, not of any thing
directly
pernicious. That the enemies themselves call the mat-
ter
by the right name, is quite accordant with their moral posi-
tion.
The expression: poured on him, for, hanging close on
him,
so that he can by no possibility get free of it, receives
lustration
from Job xli. 15, 16. The lying down refers
to the
condition
in which the Psalmist was already placed. That he
should
not again rise up, they hoped to accomplish by the
knavish
trick--My friend, prop. my peace-man.
Ven.: "he
who,
on visiting me, continually saluted me with the kiss of love
and
veneration, and the usual address: peace be to thee." The
saying,
"Hail Rabbi, and kissing him," Matt. xxvi. 49, may fitly
be
compared here. The peculiar expression: the peace-man,
Jeremiah
has appropriated to himself, from his predilection for
expressions
of the kind, chap. xx. 10, xxxviii. 22, whence Hitzig,
by
inverting the relation, concludes that Jeremiah had composed
this
Psalm. The deduction added: in whom I trusted, (which
our
Lord omits, as not suitable in his case, thereby furnishing
an
evidence against the direct Messianic interpretation,) who
ate
my bread, denotes the friend as one, who lived on a footing
of
confidence with the Psalmist, to whom the latter had given
82 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
many
proofs of his love, who owed everything to him, and con-
sequently
serves to show the greatness of the heart distress, the
delineation
of which reaches the highest point immediately be-
fore
the prayer is entered on. The eating of the bread may be
illustrated
from 2 Sam. ix. 11, "As for Mephibosheth, he shall
eat
at my table as one of the king's sons," compare ver. 13, xix.
29,
1 Kings xviii. 19. It is falsely referred by most to the in-
terchange
of hospitality, so that it might have been: whose
bread
I ate. The participle besides points to something con-
tinued.
In Judas the expression: who ate my bread, receives
its
full, its frightful truth, while he participated in the feast of
the
Supper. He lifts up the heel against me,
as a horse that
kicks
at his master.—The personal relations of David, as toward
Ahitophel,
2 Sam. xv. 12, 31, clearly form the ground of the
representation
in the verse, though we are not therefore to
think
of an individual reference.
There follows now in the last
strophe, the prayer growing out
of
the position of matters as described in the preceding con-
text,
ver. 10, and the confidence of its fulfilment, ver. 11, 12.
Ver. 10. And thou, Lord, be gracious to me, and help
me up, so will I requite
them.
Ver. 11. By this I know,
that thou hast delight
in me, that my enemy shall not exult
over me. Ver. 12. And I—because of my blamelessness thou
dost uphold me, and dost
place me before thy countenance
ever. The expression:
"be gracious to me," is taken again
from
ver. 4, after a foundation has been laid for it in the pre-
ceding
verses. The "help me up," has respect to "he that
lies
down, will not rise up again," in ver. 8. In the words: so
will
I requite them, (falsely several: in order that I may requite
them,)
many expositors have failed to discover the meaning,
The
purpose of requiting his enemies, which the Psalmist here
declares,
appears to clash with Matth. v. 39, 40, with David's
own
fundamental principle, Ps. vii. 4, and practice,—he frankly
forgave
a Shimei, 2 Sam. xis. 24—with Prov. xx. 22, "Say not
thou,
I will recompense evil," and with many other declarations
in
the Old and New Testaments. Various expedients have been
resorted
to for the occasion: many of the older expositors, as
Calvin,
conclude from these words, that it is not David that
speaks
here, but Christ, to whom vengeance belongs: others call
to
mind David's kingly office, not considering that an exclusive
reference
to David is inconsistent with the entire character of
PSALM XLI. VER.
10-12. 83
the
Psalm: according to Stier the author speaks here in the
"friendly-ironical
style," and the recompense he meditates,
must
consist in shewing forgiveness and favour. But the pas-
sage
will at once be harmonized with those apparently opposed
to
it, if we distinguish between recompense from revenge, which
the
injured individual as such, seeks and exercises, and recom-
pense
in the service of God, in vindication of the goods and
rights
confided to us by him, Only the first is reprobated in
both
Testaments, while the last is every where recommended. It
not
merely belongs to one in whose person a high office conferred
by
God has been insulted, as with David respecting Shimei, to
whom,
for reasons extraneous to the matter, he granted a tempo-
rary
impunity, but delivers to his successor for punishment, 1
Kings
ii. 9, as also the Lord in the parable, Luke xix, 27, de-
clares
how he would execute vengeance on his enemies, and has
fearfully
done so;—but the private individual also often comes
into
relations, in which he is not merely warranted, but also
bound
to requite. No one would be so unreasonable as to adduce
against
the father, who chastises his froward son, when guilty
of
flagrant disobedience, Matth. v. 39, 40, when only he does not
abandon
his just right from personal fondness. Just as little
should
he be blamed who drags into judgment, or even casts
into
prison, the malicious defamer of his honour, which every
man
is bound sacredly to preserve, because without it he can-
not
fulfil the purposes of his life, the less so, as such conduct is
the
true manifestation of love also to the calumniator himself,
so
that the maxim: viri boni est prodesse quibus potest, nocere
nemini,
quanquam lacessiti injuria, sustains no damage thereby.
To
offer to the person who gives us a stroke upon the right
cheek
the other also, may, so soon as it is done, not merely with,
the
heart, but in outward act too, in certain circumstances, be
the
most unkind hardness. Between ver. 10 and 11 lies the
great
fact of the assurance of being heard. Through the cer-
tainty
of victory, which the Lord imparts to the Psalmist, when
every
thing appears to him to be lost, he is strengthened in the
conviction
of God's gracious satisfaction in him, "which the
enemies
would dispute with me," (Berkb. Bible.) That my
enemy shall not exult
over me,
namely, as thou hast given me in-
ternal
assurance thereof.—The expression: and I,
is used in
contrast
to the enemies devoted to destruction. Mt never
signifies
well-being, but always in a moral sense, blamelessness.
84 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
This
is here the cause, in which the divine administration of
help
rests, compare Psalm xviii. 20. The contrast between, "in
my
blamelessness," and "I have sinned against thee," in ver. 4,
is
only an apparent one. This very blamelessness is burdened
with
much weakness. On account of this he is visited with
manifold,
and often very severe sufferings, but the blamelessness
prevents
entire destruction. The person, whom God "places
before
himself," is an object of his protection and watchfulness;
compare
Ps. vii. 15, "I will behold thy face in righteousness."
Ver. 13. Blessed be the Lord, the God of
to eternity, Amen. Amen is no component
part of the Psalm,
but
the doxology, which forms the close of the first book. Com-
pare
1 Chron. xvi, 36.
PSALMS. XLII. XLIII.
SEPARATED from the sanctuary, in
circumstances which con-
strain
him to recognize therein the mark of God's desertion, the
Psalmist
expresses his lively desire, that access to the sanctuary,
and
through that to the grace of God, might be again thrown
open
to him, His pain is still further increased by the scorn of
his
enemies, who, from his misery, and especially from his exile
from
the sanctuary, infer the want of any true relation on his
part
to the Lord; and increased also by the remembrance of his
earlier
prosperity, his participation in the delightful service of
the
Lord, (ver. 3, 4.) But amidst the uproar of a disturbed soul,
faith
calls him to "wait on the Lord," and promises that the
Psalmist
will still have occasion to thank him for his salvation,
ver.
5.
The power of the temptation is
broken by this address, but
still
it is not quite vanquished. The pain revives again, but the
Psalmist,
recurring to the "wait on the Lord," bears it immediate-
ly
to him. The substance of the second strophe is briefly summed
up,
in ver. 6, in the words: "My God, my soul is troubled with-
in
me, therefore remember I thee," which is then expanded
farther
in what follows. First the words: "my soul is troubled
within
me," in ver. 7, which speaks of all the floods of distress
going
over him; then: "I remember thee," in ver. 8-11, which
skew,
that the Lord gives him grace, so that amid these un-
speakable
sufferings he can praise the Lord, cheerfully pray to
PSALMS XLII.
XLIII. 85
him,
and lay before him his distress. What still remained in
his
soul of trouble and disheartening, is removed at the close by
the
repeated call upon his spirit to wait upon the Lord, and the
Psalm
concludes with the full triumph of faith.
In Psalm the Psalmist prays the
Lord, that he, as his
God,
would support him against his malicious enemies, and
bring
him back again to his loved sanctuary. At the close the
Spirit
silences the soul with the same address which had already
proved
so effectual.
The formal arrangement is very
easily perceived. Psalm xlii.
falls
into two strophes, each of five verses; ver. 6 is not reckon-
ed
with the second, because it has merely the character of a
prelude.
Ps. xliii. has also five verses, and thereby discovers
itself,
precisely as Ps. lxx. in relation to Ps. xl., as a kind of
half,
incomplete, which has respect to a larger whole.
That the two Psalms stand in very
close relation to each other,
is
manifest from this very circumstance, the number five in xliii.
pointing
to the number ten in xlii; then, from the agreement
of
the closing verse in xliii. with xlii. 5, 11, as also, from the re-
petition
xlii. 9 in xliii. 2; farther, from the agreement of the
situation,
which is clear as day; and, finally, from the want of a
superscription
in Ps. xliii. But we must not therefore think,
according
to the idea now prevalent, of throwing both Psalms
into
one. The more their agreement lies upon the surface, the
less
can it be supposed that the division into two Psalms had
first
taken place at a later period. No one would have thought
of
this, if it had not been met with abroad. Besides, the
analogy
is against it. Where we find elsewhere a marked cor-
respondence
between two Psalms standing beside each other,
there
they always appear, not as parts of an original whole ar-
bitrarily
separated from each other, but as a pair of Psalms,
comp.
particularly P. i. and ii., ix. and x., xxxii. and xxxiii.,
which
have also this in common with those before us, that the
second
Psalm wants the superscription. Then, the supposition
of
an actual oneness destroys the organism. The second strophe
of
Ps. xlii. carries an internal reference to the first. The words:
my
God, my soul is troubled within me, with which it com-
mences,
have for their foundation the close of the first: why
troublest
thou thyself; and what is still more important than
this
formal connection, the second part starts from the consola-
tion
already described in the first, and an orderly advance may
86 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
be
clearly perceived. On the other hand, in Ps. xliii. a quite
new
commencement meets us: it bears the character, not of a
third
strophe and stage, but of a compend of the whole. To
which
we may add, the far lighter and simpler style of Ps. xliii.
to
be explained in this way, that here the lamentation and the
consolation
are given in their simplest ground-lines; the refe-
rence
of, "the salvation of my countenance," in Ps. xlii. 11, to
"the
salvation of my countenance," in Ps. 5, which is dark-
ened
the moment we attach the latter to the same Psalm with
the
former; and, finally, the formal arrangement, the supposi-
tion
of the two Psalms forming properly but one, leaving un-
noticed
the number ten in Ps. xlii. as an indication of what is
complete
in itself, and the number five in Ps. xliii, as the broken
ten,
and presenting to us, instead of the significant ten and five,
the
number fifteen, which signifies nothing.
The Psalm bears in the
superscription the name of lykWm,
instruction,
comp. on Ps. xxxii. The character of a Psalm of
this
description meets us in the very form. The spirit appears
in
xlii. 5, 11, and xliii. 5, as a teacher of the soul, and makes it,
the
foolish, wise. Since, according to the superscription, the
Psalm
was given up to the chief musician for being used in pub-
lic,
the maskil cannot be referred merely
to the immediate, in-
dividual
occasion of the Psalmist: it indicates an appointment
to
teach the pious in general, how they must keep themselves
under
the cross.
Then, in the superscription the
Psalm is described as belong-
ing
to the sons of Korah, as Psalm xliv.-xlix. lxxxiv. lxxxv.
lxxxvii.
lxxxviii. These were, according to 1 Chron. vi. 16, ss.,
ix.
19, xxvi. 1, 2; 2 Chron. xx. 19, a Levitical family of singers.
Their
musical gifts they probably owed to one of their members,
the
Heman who lived in David's time. According to the view
of
many, the Korahites must be named, not as the authors of the
Psalms
marked with their names, but as the persons who had
charge
of their performance in public. Against this, however,
there
are the following grounds. 1. When a song is marked in
the
superscription as belonging to any one, every one imme-
diately
conceives from this, that it belongs to him, as its author.
hence,
where the name of the author is not given besides in
the
superscription there the delivering of the Psalm for musical
performance
cannot be indicated by l without any thing fur-
ther,
and in all the superscriptions of the Psalms there is to be
PSALMS XLII. XLIII. 87
found
no case, where this might seem probable. 2. Among all
Korahite
Psalms there is not so much as one, in which David or
any
other not a Korahite, is named as author. 3. In one par-
ticular
Psalm, which bears at its head, besides the "Sons of
Korah,"
the name of the author, that author is himself a Kora-
hite,
Heman—in Ps. lxxxviii. 4. In by far the greater number
of
the Korahite Psalms there is a common predilection for the
name
Elohim, which has had the effect of the mass of such
Psalms
being assigned to the commencement of the second book,
which
contains the Psalms that make predominating use of Elo-
him.
Such a peculiarity is hardly explicable on the supposition,
that
the Korahites were only the singers.--With the certainty
besides,
that the Psalms marked with the name of the Korahites
proceeded
from the bosom of this family, still nothing is deter-
mined
as to the time of their composition. For as this family
continued
to exist for a long time as a singing family, and no
doubt
did so as long as Psalms were being made, (comp. 2 Chron.
xx.
19, where the Korahites are mentioned in the time of Je-
hoshaphat),
there is nothing against the supposition, that these
Psalms
belonged to very different times.
While the superscription attributes
this Psalm to the sons of
Korah,
internal grounds not less strong favour the conclusion,
that
the person speaking in it is no other than David. To this,
first
of all, point the special references to personal relations of
the
speaker, such as are very rarely found elsewhere; comp.
especially
the following: "Therefore will I remember thee
from
the
mountains."
Such references are to be found elsewhere only
in
the Psalms, which have respect to persons who occupied a
position
of importance for the whole community, above all to
David,
and from the nature of things can only be found in these,
as
the Psalms were certainly intended for the public worship of
God.
Then, the situation remarkably agrees with a similar one
in
the life of David, the period of his flight from Absalom.
David
was then deprived of access to the sanctuary under the
same
circumstances as the speaker here, so that he saw therein
a
mark of the divine displeasure, regarded his exclusion from
the
sanctuary as at the same time exclusion from God, and the
return
of the favour of God and return to the sanctuary as inse-
parably
united; comp. in the latter respect 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26:
"And
the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into
88 THE BOOK OF PSALM.
the
city; if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring
me
again, and shew me himself and his habitation. But if he thus
say,
I have no delight in thee, behold here am I, let him do to me
as
seemeth good unto him." Already this coincidence is a very
individual
one: similar relations certainly occur most rarely.
David,
further, betook himself at that time to Mahanaim on the
other
side of
speaker
here call God to remembrance. The coincidence re-
garding
the situation is strengthened as to its present bearing,
by
the circumstance, that this Psalm agrees in an extraordinary
manner
with Psalm which, according to the superscription,
was
composed by David when he was fleeing before Absalom in
the
wilderness of
lxiii.
were as improper as to do so in regard to Psalm xliv. and lx.
Finally,
we find a proof against the Korahite, and for David as
the
object, in ver. 4, where the speaker painfully reminds him-
self
of the blessed time when he went at the head of the wor-
shipping
multitude, as their leader, to the house of God. This
trait
points either to one of the leading priests, or to the king.
It
does not suit the Korahites; for these, as mere Levites, could
not
have been quire-leaders. But we find David exercising a
quite
similar function at the introduction of the ark of the cove-
nant,
2 Sam. vi. 14, "and David danced with all his might before
the
Lord, and David was clothed with a linen ephod," because
he
found himself as it were in the priest's function, comp. ver.
18,
whence David blessed the people in the name of the Lord.
The superscription, which names the
children of Korah as
author,
and the internal grounds, which point to David as the
object
of the Psalm, have equal justice done to them, if it is sup-
posed,
that one of the sons of Korah had sung this Psalm as
from
the soul of David. This supposition has certainly nothing
improbable
in itself. There is nothing more natural, than that
David,
who so often sinks himself in song, that he might dis-
pense
consolation to others, should now experience the same
good
office at the bands of one of the people; nothing more
natural,
than that, beside the love which was eager to impart
bodily
refreshment to David, there should also have been in
active
exercise, that love which breaks to the hungry the bread
of
life. It was a time, in which the love of the faithful proves
itself
just as lively as the hatred of the rebellious, and that
among
the first were all those who stood in nearest relation to
PSALMS XLII.
XLIII. 89
the
sanctuary, arises from the nature of things, and is shown to
have
been the case by 2 Sam. xv. 24. Besides, we have a per-
analogy
in Psalm lxxxiv. which, according to the super-
scription,
was in like manner composed by the sons of Korah,
but
who, according to ver. 9, speak from the soul of the king,
when
in a state of exile.—By the view now given, we can ex-
plain
the relation of this Psalm to Psalm lxiii. The latter, com-
posed
by David himself when on his flight in the wilderness of
longs
to the time of sojourn in the land beyond
The reasons which have been brought
against the reference
to
David, are of no force. The enemies are missed in Mahanaim
who
taunted the Psalmist on account of his faith, ver. 3 and 10.
But
the raillery does not proceed upon faith in Jehovah gene-
rally,
but on Jehovah as the God of the speaker, and is quite
analogous
to that in Psalm iii. 2; xxii. 8. The objection, that
Mahanaim
did not lie in Hermon itself, arises from a false view
of
ver. 6, where the Psalmist, by "the land of
Hermon,"
describes the whole of the region beyond
As for those who are inclined to
transpose the Psalm to a
very
late time, that of the Babylonish captivity, or who, as
Hitzig,
to that of the Maccabees, besides the grounds already
given
for the reference to David, there is against it the circum-
stance,
that already Joel, in chap. i. 20, had the first verse of
the
Psalm before his eyes, and that, in Jonah ii. 4, there is
an
undeniable reference to ver. 7. Koester's idea, that the
Psalm
is a lamentation of the children of
is
already exploded by the fifth characteristic exhibited by
Venema,
"that this man was merely deprived by his banish-
ment
of the worship of God, while the seat of religion and its
exercise
was not destroyed, but still remained." Opinions such
as
those, which would make Jehoiakin, when carried into exile,
the
author, may safely be left to their fate.
The following words of Luther
furnish the best preparation
for
a deep insight into the current of thought pervading the
Psalm:
"God is of a twofold manner. At times he is a con-
coaled
and hidden God; as, when the conscience in temptation
feels
sin, feels other injuries, whether bodily or spiritual, it clings
to
these with heart and thought, and cannot find consolation in
the
grace and goodness of God. Those who judge of God after
such
a concealed form, fall without remedy into despair and
90 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ruin.—That
there is still another and manifested form of God, or
a
disclosed and not concealed God, viz. the real form of the
good,
gracious, compassionate, reconciled God. As also the
sun
is of two sorts, though there is in reality but one sun, just
as
there is but one God; for it may be named another
sun,
when it appears dark and covered with clouds, compared
with
what it is when shining bright and clear from the heavens.
And
if one were to judge when the sun is dark and veiled in
clouds,
he would conclude that there would never more be clear
day,
but only eternal night. Now, however, is this an art, and
in
truth a golden art, to be able to hold, that though the sun,
when
covered with clouds and fog, cannot give a clear light, yet
it
will break forth through the clouds and fog, and again beam
upon
the world with a bright lustre. So does the prophet act
here,
when under temptation, comforting himself, and desiring
to
see the sun when it should break forth through the clouds.
He
thinks in his heart upon another image than he at present
sees
before his eyes. And though his conscience is affrighted,
though
all evil threatens, and he is ready to sink amid doubts,
he
yet elevates himself in faith, holds fast by hope, and consoles
himself
that God will help him, and again appoint him to see
the
service of God in the only place, which God had chosen for
it
on the surface of the earth."
To
the chief musician, an instruction of the sons of torah.
Ver.
1. As a hart which pants after the
water-brooks, so pants
my soul after thee, 0
God. lyx is a common noun, comp.
Ew.
§
367, although it generally denotes the male hart, the hind
being
designated by hlyx. That it must here be taken as a
designation
of the hind, appears from the verb being in the fem.
The
Psalmist chose the hind that grft might correspond to
grft, perhaps also, because with the hind, as the
weaker party,
the
desire for water is particularly strong. Since k always
mean
as = like, never = so as, the relat. is to be supplied
after
lyxk.
grf to pant, with lf, in so far as the
desire hangs
over
its object, rests upon it, with lx, in so far as it is
directed
upon
that. Upon Myqypx brooks, comp. on Ps. xviii. 15. That
in
the hind's panting after water, we are to think, not of ex-
haustion
caused by pursuit, but of the prevailing draught, is
clear
from a comp. of Ps. lxiii. 1, "My soul thirsteth for thee
in
a dry land," and Joel i. 20, "The beasts of the field long
after
thee, for the rivers of water are dried up, and fire hath
PSALM XLII. VER 1. 91
devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.” The latter passage
manifestly
depends on this; the peculiar expression: they long
after
thee, naturally suggests the thought, that there is here an
allusion
to an older passage; excepting in these two places
grf does not occur again, and the j~ylx
grft
literally agree.
The
prophet has there attributed to beasts what is here said of
the
soul, in a connection with beasts, which naturally suggested
such
an application. The words: after thee, 0 God, refer, as
appears
from the following context, not alone to the wish of the
Psalmist,
of his internally participating in
the grace of God.
But
as little, on the other hand, must we substitute: after thy
temple,
for: after thee. The longing of the Psalmist is de-
scribed
as going upon God himself, not upon the place of his
worship.
The temptation to turn aside into one of these by-
paths,
will be removed by the following remarks. Under the
Old
Testament, it was of great importance that one possessed
access
to the place where God had promised, as God of Israel,
to
be present. The outward nearness was the medium of se-
curing
the inward, (in this respect Calvin remarks, that as the
godly
of the Old Testament knew, that wings for flying failed
them,
they availed themselves of ladders wherewith to mount
up
to God; and we heed these helps to weakness no longer,
simply
because they have been furnished us in Christ in a
far
more real form,) and then the Israelitish church-life con-
centrated
itself there, and contemplation and love were in
the
individual mightily roused and called forth by the public
fellowship.
If, because God is to his people a God of salva-
tion,
there is contained in every withdrawment of salvation,
in
every severe affliction, a testimony against our sins, a
matter-of-fact
declaration of God, that he has driven us from
his
presence, it is impossible that so long as such an affliction
continues,
we can come to the full consciousness of fellowship
with
God and his grace. Hence, as certainly
as under the
Old
Testament, it was the greatest evil to be separated from
the
sanctuary of God, so certainly must such a separation,
effected
by God, have carried the import more than any other
evil
could of a matter-of-fact excommunication. And though in
such
a case the consolations of God might have internally re-
freshed
the soul, still the return to full peace and blessedness,
could
only take place with the return to the sanctuary. From
what
has been said, it is obvious that the tribulation, in which
92 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
Psalmist was involved, was peculiar to him only as con-
cerned
its form, and that we are brought into a similar situa-
tion
to his, as to what is properly essential, in every heavy
affliction,
Most closely analogous are the circumstances in
which
the Lord withdraws from us his felt nearness—the states
of
internal drought and darkness, amid which his form fades in
our
souls.
Ver. 2. My soul thirsts after God, after the living God.
When shall I come and
appear before God's face? The ad-
dition:
after the living God, draws attention
to what the
Psalmist
had lost in this God, and indicates the ground of his
lively
desire and his painful longing after him. His God is not
a
phantom, which, itself dead, is also incapable of imparting
life;
he is the living, and consequently the life giving; comp.
the
corresponding phrase, "The God of my life," in ver. 8,
rich
in salvation for his people. The question: When,
etc. q. d.
when
at length, 0 si rumpatur mora, etc., even the short period
of
separation from such a God,
extending, in his apprehension,
to
eternity. That in the appearing before God's face we must
think
primarily of a re-opened access to the sanctuary, not of a
purely
internal access, is evident from the words; when shall I
come,
also from the comparison of ver. 4 with Ps. xliii. 3, 4,
and,
finally, from the usage, according to which the expression:
to
appear before the face of the Lord, is regularly employed of
the
appearance before God in his sanctuary. But according to
what
has been remarked, the opening of the approach into the
sanctuary
is to be regarded as the actual manifestation of God's
restored
favour, and so the question: when shall I appear
before
the face of God, incloses in itself also this: when
shall
I behold the countenance of God? Ps. xvii. 15, when
wilt
thou place me before thy countenance ? Ps. xli. 12, q. d.
when
shall I enjoy again thy favour? To appear before God's
presence
is elsewhere hvhy ynp lx hxrn Ex. xxiii. 17, but
here
the proposition fails, as in Deut. xxxi. 11. Isa. i. 12. Ex.
xxiii.
15. Several have found such difficulty in this, that they
would
substitute the Kal for the Niphal, hx,r;x,, Luther: that I
may
behold God's face. But the construction is either to be
explained
by this, that the appearing here has
the nature of a
verb
of motion, or by this, that ynp here takes the
character of
a
particle, in presence of, for which latter exposition only Deut.
xxxi.
11 occasions difficulty.
PSALM XLII. VER. 3-4. 93
Ver. 3. My, tears are my food day and night, while they con-
tinually say to me,
where is thy God?
On the first words J.
Arnd.
"When one is in great sadness, he cannot eat, his tears
become
in a manner his food, he drinks and eats, as it were,
more
tears than bread or other food, as David says in Ps. lxxx:
thou
feedest them with bread of tears, and givest them tears to
drink
in great measure." That we must expound thus, not with
Calvin:
“he finds in nothing more consolation, than in tears,
they
are his refreshment, as others enjoy themselves with food;”
nor
yet with Stier: "they are my daily bread, and mingle them-
selves
with my daily bread;" that the sense simply is: instead
of
eating, I drink, appears from the parallel pass. Job iii. 24,
"for
my sighing cometh before I eat," 1 Sam. i. 7, where it is
said
of Hannah, "she wept and ate not," Ps. cii. 4, "I forget
to
eat my bread." While they say;
the speakers, David's
enemies,
are not more definitely marked, because the allusion
bears
not upon their person, but only upon their discourse, which
found
in the Psalmist's feeling so mournful an echo. On the
continually (MvyH
lk
signifies here, as always, the whole day,
not
every day,) Stier remarks: "For
although the millers may
not
incessantly cause such things to be heard, yet the oppressed
soul
continually hears their raillery clanging in itself." On the
words:
where is thy God, Calvin: "What wilt thou? Seest
thou
not, that thou art rejected by God? For assuredly will
prayer
be made to him in the holy tabernacle, from access to
which
thou art cut off." But the separation from the sanctuary
comes
here into consideration only as the pinnacle of the mis-
chief
impending over the Psalmist, which the enemies turned to
account
as a matter-of-fact proof, that he had been cast off by
God—comp.
Shimei's words in 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8, Ps. lxxi. 11,
cxv.
2.
Ver. 4. Thereon will I think, and pour out my soul in me,
that I drew with the
multitude, proceeded before them to the
house of God with the
voice of joy and praise, among the multi-
tude keeping holiday. Many, and last Stier,
refer the hlx
to
the
preceding, the scorn of the enemies, and take the fut.
rbfx and Mddx in the meaning of the
fut. Luther: When I
think
on this, I pour out my heart in myself, for I would indeed
go;
Stier: I consume myself, pour out my soul in longing after
this,
that I (once more again) might go away. But in thus re-
ferring
the this to the "mournful
question, which David cannot
94 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
answer,
but of which he must constantly think," we get en-
tangled
in the difficulty, that the question of the enemies: where
is
now thy God, or the position of the Psalmist, which gives oc-
casion
to this question, and the going with the multitude and
proceeding
to the house of God, form no proper and fitting con-
trast.
It were somewhat different, if the discourse here were
only
generally of the coming to the sanctuary, to its again open-
ed
way of approach. To this belongs the comp. of ver. 6, where
the
object of the thinking is, not the scorn of enemies, but God
and
his earlier salvation, and the comp. of the quite parall. Ps.
lv.
14. We would, therefore, with the overwhelming majority
of
expositors refer the this to what
follows, and must take the
fut.
as indicative of the frequently repeated action in the past,
precisely
as they occur in Ps. lv. 14. The pain of the Psalmist is
increased,
when he brings into view his earlier blessedness, and
places
it beside his present misery. There is no propriety in
taking,
with many expositors, the two fut. with the h of striving,
at
the commencement, in the meaning of the common future:
thereon
think I and pour out; nor with Ewald, of substituting
for,
I will, I shall, or must think and
pour out. The common
import
of this fut., according to which it denotes "the striving of
the
mind, the direction of the will upon a determinate aim," is quite
suitable
here. The Psalmist will purposely aggravate his pain. He
will
recall his earlier prosperity to mind, in order thereby the more
sensibly
to feel his present misery, his separation from the sanc-
tuary.
It is peculiar to deep sorrow, that it seeks out what
tends
to feed it, in particular, purposely loses itself in the mourn-
ful
remembrance of the happier past. That the common im-
port
of the fut. pang. is to be retained, is decisively proved also
by
the comp. of Ps. lxxvii. 3, which place further shows, that
the
object of the thinking is not the scorn of the enemies, but
the
vanished prosperity, as is also confirmed by ver. 6 and 11.
The
heart pours itself forth, or melts in
any one, who is in a
manner
dissolved by grief and pain,—comp. Job xxx. 16, "and
now
my soul is poured out upon me," Ps. xxii. 14, "My heart
has
become like water, melts in my inwards," and the passages
there
referred to. Most improperly supply: in sighing and
tears.
ylf
unquestionably signifies in a large number of places
with me, and Gesenius, in his
Thes. p. 1027, justly notices other
places,
which, though if considered by themselves, another ex-
position
might be possible, yet are so similar to these, that they
PSALMS XLII. VER.
4. 95
cannot
be dissevered from them. However, it is carefully to be
remarked,
that lf
occurs in the sense of with only in a
certain
connection,
"in speeches which refer to the heart, the soul, the
mind,
with their concerns and changes." This fact shews, that
we
must not drop from our view the radical meaning of the pre-
position.
The ylf
in such passages signifies with me,
alluding
to
this, that the soul is the honour, the better part. Quite cor-
rectly
Koester: "everywhere (besides here ver. 5, 6, 11; xliii.
5,)
our poet uses lf of the soul, whereby the soul is indicated
as
the ruling principle in man.—j`s multitude, here of the
companies
of worshippers, of their solemn processions to the
temple.
Mddx
is hithp. of hdd, to go slowly along, which
elsewhere
occurs only in Isa. xxxviii. 15, in the song of Heze-
kiah:
"I will go slowly all my days in the bitterness of my
soul,"
as one, who was at once freed from death, and appointed
to
death. Here it refers to the measured, solemn step of the
procession.
The suffix appended to it, referring to the collect.
j`s, requires a modification of the verbal idea,
since the supposi-
tion,
that the suffix accus. stands here for the dative, is unten-
able.
The Hithp. standing properly as reflexive without an
object,
often receives such an one, if the language in reflexive
gradually
insinuates a possibly active application of the idea, Ew.
§
243. So here the idea of the moving one's self slowly, goes
over
into that of the leading slowly, which the verb, however,
contains
only by its construction with the accus. The expres-
sion:
I proceeded them, could not be used.—The mention of
joy
and praise shows, that it was customary to go to the sane-
tuary
with songs of praise to the Lord, such as are found in the
“Pilgrim-songs,”
Ps. cxx.—cxxxiv. The use of music in the
processions
is clear from 2 Sam. vi. 5, 6. The b is placed at
every
secondary matter, which accompanies the transaction,
comp.
Ew. § 521. Before the last words it is better to supply
then,
from the immediately preceding, with
a multitude keep-
ing
holiday, or to suppose, that they stand formally as quite
independent:
a holiday-keeping multitude, then to consider
them
as appos. to the stiff. in Mddx, which would make a
trail-
period.
Nvmh
prop. tumult, is used also of the festival-hold-
ing
multitude in 2 Sam. vi. 19. The verse gives us a deep
insight
into the nature of the true service of God under the
Old
Testament, shows how the minds of the assembly were
96 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
seized
by a mighty impulse, and the fire of devotion and ado-
ration
was fanned into a bright flame.
Ver. 5. Why art thou troubled, my soul, and art so disquieted
within me? Hope in God,
for I shall still praise him, the salva-
tion of his countenance. Calvin: "David
represents himself
here
to us as divided into two parts. In so far as he rests
through
faith in God's promises, he raises himself, equipped
with
the spirit of an invincible valour, against the feelings of the
flesh,
and at the same time blames his weakness." It is the
mighty
Spirit in God, which here meets the trembling soul, that
in
the book of Job appears personified as Job's wife. The
weakness
of the Psalmist manifests itself in a twofold manner,
first,
through deep dejection, (HHw, in Hithp. to bow one's self,
to
be troubled,) then through noisy restlessness,— hmH, fre-
quently
of the roaring of the waves of the sea, comp. Ps. xlvi.
3,
Jer, iv. 19, v. 22. The means of help for his weakness, is
hope
in God, and the ground of hope his believing confidence,
that
the Lord, who is still always his God, will by his deliver-
ance
give him occasion for thanks. The expression: the salva-
tion
of his countenance, is appos. to the suffix of the verb. The
salvation
is attributed to the countenance of God, with reference
to
the Mosaic blessing, where the being gracious, and the peace
go
forth from the countenance of the Lord, which is turned to-
ward
the blessed, compare Ps. xxxi. 16, xliv. 3, xvi. 10, xvii. 15.
On
the plural tvfvwy compare on Ps. xviii. 50. Many exposi-
tors,
after the example of the LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, read:
yhlxv ynp tfvwy, the salvation of my
countenance and my
God,
while they draw the yhlx of the following verse to this.
They
rest on the circumstance, that it is required in order to
maintain
uniformity between this, and the two terminating verses,
11,
and xliii. 5. But that the Israelitish poets were accustomed,
for
the sake of shunning sameness of sound, such as might carry
the
appearance of want of feeling, to introduce into their reite-
rations
small changes, is shewn by Ps. xxiv. 7, 9; xlix. 12, 20;
lvi.
1, 11, lix. 9, 17. In our religious poetry, also, this is to be
met
with. In the song: "wer weirs wie nape mix mein ende,"
for
ex. the regular form of reiteration is: "mein Gott ich bitt'
durch
Christi Mut, mach's nur mit meinem Ende gut," while in
the
last ver. it runs: "durch deine Gnad and Christi Blut
machst du mein letztes Ende gut." The reading of the text,
PSALM XLII. VER. 6. 97
besides
having the external proof on its side, is supported by the
following
reasons:--1. In the other passages which agree with
each
other in these Psalms, the coincidence is never a literal
one,
but is always attended with some slight variation. If men
would
change here, they must also, to be consistent, change the
yH lx of ver. 2, into the yyH
lx of ver.
8, the rmxb
of ver. 3,
into
the Mrmxb of
ver. 10, as also conform to each other xlii.
9,
and xliii. 2. 2. The "my God" cannot be wanted in the fol-
lowing
verse. The address to God: I remember thee, comes in
too
abruptly, if it is cut off. 3. There manifestly exists between
"his
countenance" here, and "my countenance" in ver. 11, a
very
perceptible connection. The salvation goes forth from the
friendly
countenance of God, and upon the afflicted countenance
of
the Psalmist. The light of the countenance of God illumi-
nates
the darkness of his countenance.
Ver. 6. My God, my soul is troubled in me, therefore do I re-
member thee from the
the small mountain. The Psalmist,
following out the admoni-
tion
to wait on God, seeks, amid the deep pain, which his sepa-
ration
from the sanctuary had occasioned him, consolation in
this,
that he thinks of God, and vividly realizes his grace and
compassion,
of which at an earlier period he had received so
many
proofs. Calvin: "For how can it be possible, if God
withholds
his grace from us, that we should overmaster so
many
evil thoughts, as every moment press in upon us? For
man's
soul is as a workshop of Satan to produce in a thousand
ways
despair." Many expositors have not been able to lay hold
of
the thoughts of the verse. Thus, Stier remarks: "This
otherwise
just sense does not fit itself well into the internal or-
ganism
of the song, rising as it does, at this time, from lamenta-
tion
into consolation. It is not for consolation, but primarily
for
doleful longing, that the Psalmist here thinks of God, who
once
was his God, and appeared now to have forgotten him in
his
removal and banishment." Hence many of such expositors
seek
to extort the sense wished for by them, just at the expense
of
the ascertained meaning of the words: they explain Nk
lf,
which
never signifies anything else than therefore,
by because,
and
thus exchange what, in the text, appears as the symptom of
the
affliction into its ground. Others
who cannot consent to
this,
expound: because the Psalmist feels himself so unfortunate
he
thinks with painful longing of his country's God. But the
98 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
reason
derived from the organism of the Psalm against the right
exposition,
amounts to nothing. According to it, also, does the
Psalmist
ascend from lamentation to consolation; but that the
lamentation
here does not stretch so broadly as in the first
strophe,
that the consolation so immediately meets it, must
appear
highly natural, when the exhortation to "wait on God"
had
just preceded. It is impossible that this could be spoken
without
some effect. But that the thinking is of a consolatory,
not
of a painful sort, is clear from the following considerations
--1.
The verse evidently gives in rapid outline, what in verses
7-10
is more fully delineated. The formal arrangement already
speaks
in favour of this. According to it, there must necessarily
have
existed an intercalated verse in the second strophe, and
none
excepting this can be found. Now, ver. 7 is an expansion
of
the thought: my soul is troubled, ver. 8-10, an expansion
of
this: I remember thee. But in this ver. the Psalmist repre-
sents
his consolation and his help as being in God, who quickens
him
through the manifestations of his grace, who gives him joy-
fulness
for his praise—joyfulness to pour out his heart before
him
in childlike confidence, and unfold to him all his necessity
and
his pain. 2. The prayer of Jonah, which manifestly leans
throughout
on passages of the Psalms, presents in ver. 8
the
oldest commentary on this verse: "Then was my spirit
troubled
in me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
to
thee into thy holy temple"—where, it is clear as day, that
the
remembering is of a consolatory nature, the antidote to
the
affliction. The expression: "my soul is troubled in me,"
the
Lord has appropriated to himself in Matt. xxvi. 38, John
xii.
27, not without profound reason borrowing the words,
which
indicated his sorrow, from a Psalm rich in consolation,
so
that, whosoever should take these words from him, might
with
him also look into the back-ground. It is remarkable,
that
the two Greek forms of the declaration in the Gospels
are
found in the LXX; in ver. 5 they have peri<lupoj ei#
h[ fuxh< mou,
comp.
Matt., and in this ver. h[ yuxh< mou e]taraxqh, comp. John. The
phrase:
I remember, think of thee, has respect to that in ver.
4:
I think on this. The thought of the Lord forms the coun-
terpoise
to the thought of the lost salvation. The
dan of itself may mean the
Cisjordanic, as well as the Transjor-
danic
land. We must not regard this designation as separate,
but
must view it in connection with the following: and of the
PSALM XLII. VER. 6. 99
Hermons.
Hermon represents also in Ps. lxxxix. 12, the Trans-
jordanic
region, as Tabor the Cisjordanic: "Tabor and Her-
mon
rejoice in thy name." That the Psalmist was situated, not
precisely
on Hermon, but only generally in the Transjordanic
region—that
we are hence perfectly justified in thinking here of
David's
sojourn at Mahanaim, on the further side of
the
north of Jabbok, upon the boundaries of the tribes Gad and
Manasseh,
comp. 2 Sam. xvii. 24, 27, 1 Kings ii. 8, is clear, not
only
from the mention of the
the
Hermons. As this nowhere else occurs, we cannot go along
with
the current supposition, that it is not a single mountain,
but
an entire mountain-range, just as we say now: the
the
Appennines; for it is not probable, that a geographical de-
signation
should find a place only here. We would rather un-
derstand
the plural according to the analogy of Lev. xvii. 7,
where
"the bucks" denotes the buck-god and others of his
brotherhood—comp.
Beitr. P. IL p. 120,—and 1 Kings xviii. 18,
where
the Baalim stand for, Baal and his companions; the
Hermons
= Hermon and the other mountains of the Transjor-
danic
region. The plural points to this, that Hermon comes
into
consideration only as a representative of the species.
Finally,
the special mention of Hermon would be quite unsuit-
able
here, since the Psalmist manifestly did not wish to deter-
mine
exactly his place of sojourn in a geographical point of view,
but
only to indicate this in so far as to make it clear, how much
reason
on that account he had to think of the Lord. But this
reason
was not specially connected with Hermon; it belonged
generally
to his retreat beyond Jordan. The Cisjordanic land.
was
the land. of Canaan in the proper sense, comp. Josh. xxii.
11.
The transaction related in that chapter between the Cis-
jordanic
and Transjordanic tribes abundantly explain the pain-
ful
emotions, with which the Psalmist mentions here "the land
of
Jordan and the Hermons." The people on the further side of
Jordan
betray their fear, that their brethren might come to say,
the
Jordan separates between those who are, and those who are
not
the people of the covenant. The people on the other side
say
to them, ver. 19, "And if the land of your possession be
unclean, then pass ye over into
the land of the possession of the
Lord,
wherein the Lord's tabernacle is." To be driven out into
this
land, and thereby cut off from all access to the sanctuary of
the
Lord, the Psalmist must have felt to be a heavy affliction.
From
what has been said, it is at the same time clear, that
100 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
though
we should take Mizhar as nom. propr. of a mountain, on
which
the Psalmist stood, still a reference must even then lie
at
bottom to its appellative signification, the small mountain, as
it
cannot be designed to give a geographically exact description
of
the Psalmist's place of retreat. The name of the hill is to the
Psalmist
an omen of the condition of the whole land, in which
he
is located. Comp. Ps. lxviii. 16, Isa. ii. 2.
Ver. 7. Contains a farther expansion
of the thought: My soul
is
troubled. Flood calls to flood through
the noise of thy water-
torrents, all thy waves
and thy billows go over me. The floods
are
the roaring sea-billows of suffering and pain. Flood calls to
flood,
one invites, as it were, another to pour itself forth upon the
Psalmist.
In jyrvnc lvql, through the voice of thy channels,
the
Psalmist points to the origin of
these floods: a new opening
again
of the windows of heaven, Gen. vii. 11, has brought this
new
deluge upon him, by which he is already well nigh drowned,
For
the reference throughout here, as in xxix, 10, xxxii. 6, is to
the
deluge. The l in lvql is that of the cause and
the au-
thor,
comp. Mlvql
in Numb. xvi. 34, Gesen. Thos. 729, Ew. §
520.
The expression: through the voice, points to the patter-
ing
of the rain, perhaps also to the accompanying thunders.
The
expression: of thy channels, (Berieb. Bible: "through
which
thou purest forth great rain of tribulation,") for, thy
water
torrents, has an exact corresponding parallel in Job xxxviii.
25,
26: "who hath divided the water-flood channels, and a way
for
the lightning, to rain upon a land uninhabited, the wil-
derness
without man." We present the current exposition
in
the words of Stier: "Lebanon is full of springs, water-falls,
and
lakes, and this scenery, surrounding the Psalmist, (that is
according
to the false exposition of ver. 6,) supplies him with
an
image for the overwhelming waves of sorrow and distress,
which
pass over his soul" It is fatal to this view, that Mvht
is
throughout commonly used of sea-floods, Mylg and Myrbwm
always.
Peculiarly significant is the reference to the sea by a
comparison
of Jonah ii. 8, which unquestionably has reference
to
this: "all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me"—
compare
also: the floods compassed me about in ver. 5.
Finally,
by this exposition rvnc has, without any reason, the
sense
of water-fall pressed upon it: at the noise of thy water-
falls.
The signification of water-channel, canal, is ascertained
by
the only passage in which the word is found besides, 2 Sam.
v.
8, and by the related rtnc in Zech. iv. 12. In regard to
PSALM XLII. VER. 7,
8. 101
the
main subject, rightly, John Arnd: "This language is de-
scriptive
of a great temptation. For just as on the sea, when
there
is storm and tempest, when wind and sea roar, and the
waves
and billows mount now high aloft, now open a great
deep,
so that one sees on all sides nothing but one abyss call-
ing,
in a manner, to another, and one thinks the abyss will
swallow
all up, and the mighty waves will fall upon the ship
and
cover her; so happens it invariably with the heart in heavy
trials.
But God has the floods in his hand and power, can soon
alter
and assuage them, and by his word still them, as the Lord
Christ
commands the wind and sea and it becomes a great.
calm."
There follows now the further expansion
of the idea: “I
think
upon him.”
Ver. 8. By day the Lord appoints his goodness, and by night
his song is with me,
prayer to the God my life. For the
sense,
a but must be supplied at the beginning. As the words:
day
and night, stand for an indication of continuance, and as
an
evident reference is found in them to the day and night in
ver.
3,—to the day and night of the Psalmist's continued pain,
there
are here opposed the day and night of the abiding con-
solations
of God—we must not with Jarchi, Venema, and others,
understand
by the day, the time of prosperity, by the night the
time
of adversity. It is a mere merismos, when the favour is
attributed
to the day, the song to the night, q. d.
by day and by
night
the Lord sends his grace, and gives me to sing and pray
to
him, compare Ps. xcii. "to shew forth thy loving-kindness
in
the morning and thy faithfulness in the nights." The
"goodness"
or favour of God consists in the inward consola-
tions
which are granted to the Psalmist in the midst of his out-
ward
misery. In and along with the favour the song is also at
the
same time given. For the person, who is comforted through
God's
favour, is enabled to sing praise to him. An example of
a
song in the midst of distress we have in Ps. xl. 1-10. There
also
upon the song and out of it follows the prayer. Then
with
the words, "by night his song is with me," we are to
compare
Job xxxv. 10, (the miserable cry over
their mis-
fortunes,)
"and he does not say, where is God my maker, who
giveth
songs in the night." Of the grace of prayer, granted to
him,
the Psalmist makes use in ver. 9, 10. According to the
current
exposition, the Psalmist must speak in this verse of his
102 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
former
prosperity, and in the following one of his present dis-
tress:
"at one time did the Lord impart to me of his goodness
by
day, and by night his song was with me, and my prayer
flowed
out in thankfulness to the God of my life; but now
must
I say to this same God my rock, wherefore hast thou for-
gotten
me?" But this view is disproved by the following rea-
sons:
1. If the Psalmist might have left out
the formerly and
the
now, upon which in this connection
every thing turns, he
must,
at least, by the use of the pres. and fut. in some measure
have
distinguished the two spheres. Indeed not in itself, but
in
such a connection as this, the designation of the absolute
past
by the future is quite inadmissible. 2. The hlpt is by this
exposition
understood of thanksgiving. But the reading of two
MSS.
hlht
is not, as De Wette thinks, a good one, but a bad
gloss.
hlpt
always means prayer, supplication,
even in Hab.
iii.
1, and Ps. lxxii. 19, where the description, as one such, is to be
taken
a potiori. In this signification also it is always used in the
superscriptions
of the Psalms, Ps. xvii, lxxxvi, xc, cii. Never is
it
found before songs of praise and thanksgiving. Comp. besides,
Jonah
ii. 7. It forms here the opposite to ryw, which of itself,
indeed,
has the common signification of song, but is pre-
dominantly
used of songs of praise, Ps. xviii, xlvi, lxvi, lxvii,—
an
opposite quite naturally, as hymns of lamentation and prayer
with
their depressed tone do not rise to the full height of the
song.
3. Then manifestly follows in ver. 9 and 10, the hlpt
of
which the discourse is here, or rather a particular specimen
of
the same. How could the Psalmist have
well assigned the
hlpt to the fortunate past, and then presently made
a hlpt
to
follow out of the unfortunate present. How little the future
paragraph
is tolerable with the current exposition, is clear from
the
translation: I must speak, to which its advocates are driven.
The
ground for the current view, which is derived from the
connection,
has already by the remarks on ver. 6 been com-
pletely
set aside. The Psalmist calls the Lord the God of his
life, because to him his
life belonged, because he preserved and
supported
it, and must awaken him out of the death to which
he
seemed now appointed.
Ver. 9. I will say to God, my rock: why dost thou forget me?
Why go I mourning under
the oppression of the enemy? Ver.
10.
It is as a murder in my bones, that my
enemies reproach
me, when they
continually say to me: Where now is thy God?
PSALM XLII. VER. 9, 10. 103
Under
the consolations of God, the Psalmist had at last, in ver.
8,
brought out the fact, that the grace of supplication had been
granted
to him. The future paragraph stands at the beginning,
and
here in its usual signification: I will
say. The figurative
expression:
my rock, is in Ps. xviii. 2, explained by the proper
one:
my deliverer. The why is in this
connection, in a prayer,
which
the Psalmist has announced as the manifestation of a pre-
gift
imparted to him in the midst of his sufferings, directed
to
God, only in appearance expressive of murmuring impatience,
or
of hopeless despondency, but in reality opposes this, comp.
on
Ps. xxii. I. The why forgettest thou,
etc., is in substance,
q. d.: thou canst not
possibly forget me longer, or allow me to
go
on still mourning. The expression: thou forgettest me, the
Psalmist
uses from the feeling of the flesh, which contends that
God's
grace has quite gone, if that should still not visibly appear,
while
he was assured by the Spirit of the grace of God, and
could
magnify and praise him. In ver. 10, the sense requires
that
why should be supplied, comp. Ps.
xliii. 2. The Psalmist
continues
to represent the contrast between his relation to God,
and
God's procedure toward him, which contained the ground
of
a speedy change in the latter. His rock cannot longer give
him
up to the heavy affliction, which comes upon him from the
taunting
language of his enemies, saying: Where is thy God?
The
first member literally: in murder in my bones reproach me
my
enemies. The b serves not rarely to indicate, of what na-
ture
anything consists, comp. Ew. § 521, so that: in murder, is
as
much as: as murder; it is like a
murder, has that character.
The
verb Hcr
always means in Kal to murder, as
also in Piel
in
Ps. lxii. 3. The noun has the signification murder
in the only
other
place where it occurs, Ez. xxi. 27. It is only by looking
to
the connection, that many expositors have here ascribed to
it
the meaning of shattering, bruising. The temptation to this
rendering,
is set aside by the remark, that the murder
here is
used
figuratively for designating a deadly anguish of soul: the
reproaches
are to the soul of the Psalmist, what murder is to
the
body. Comp, Luke ii. 35, "A sword shall pierce through
thine
own soul also." That the murder is represented as having
its
seat in the bones of the Psalmist, is designed to mark the
pain
as going through the marrow and bones, wounding the
heart.
The bones are the inmost part, the soul, comp. the ex-
104 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
pression:
I have no consolation in my marrow and bones. What
rendered
the reproaches of the enemies so very sharp to the
Psalmist,
appears from the nearer indication of their subject in
the
second member. They mocked at his pretension to a close
relation
to God, as one that was sufficiently refuted by his pre-
sent
situation: and this taunt received its sting from the fact,
that
in the Psalmist himself it found an echo, since he was at
the
time doubtful of his interest in the grace and election of
God,
and through that doubt had sunk into the deepest abyss of
misery.
The enemies had been right in their mockery, if the
misery
of the Psalmist had been a lasting one. That it might
not
be such, that God might soon remove the ground of offence,
which
it occasioned to his faith, is the reason of his here praying
in
faith.
At the close, what still remained of
trembling in the "weaker
vessel"
of the soul is put away by the call on the spirit of joy.
Ver.
11. Why troublest thou thyself, my soul,
and why art thou
disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I will still praise him,
the salvation of my countenance
and my God. My countenance
never
stands as a mere circumlocution for the person. The pain
occasioned
by the distress, and the joy by the salvation discover
themselves
pre-eminently in the countenance. The Psalmist's
countenance,
formerly blanched by pain, and reddened by shame,
deprived
of its bright glance, should now become fresh and
clear.
The expression: my God, stands opposed to the ques-
tion;
where is now thy God, in ver. 3 and 10; and the Psalmist
therefore
closes with the most complete victory over the tribu-
lation,
into which the reproaches of the enemies had thrown
him.
Ver. 1. Judge me, 0 God, and plead my quarrel against a
people without love,
from the man of deceit and unrighteousness
deliver me. The constr. of byr with b
is to be
explained by the
circumstance,
that the idea of deliverance lies enclosed in the
words:
plead my cause. In the yvg is contained the idea, not
of
the profane, but of the multitude. That it can by no means
serve
as a proof, that the Psalmist was oppressed by the heathen,
is
shown, for example, by Isa. i. 4. The negative description of
the
enemies of the Psalmist: people not loving, is to be explain-
ed
from the contrast it presents to what they should have been,
and
what the Psalmist actually was. dysH denotes such an
PSALM XLIII. VER.
2-4. 105
one,
as has love toward God and his brother, comp. on Ps. iv. 3.
The
man of deceit is an ideal person. The mention of deceit
suits
better to domestic, than to foreign enemies.
Ver. 2. For thou art my guardian God, wherefore dost thou
cast me off ? why go I
mourning under the oppression of the
enemy? In laying the ground
for his prayer, the Psalmist draws
the
Lord's attention to an opposition between his relation to the
Psalmist
and the treatment the latter was experiencing, in case
this
did not soon come to an end. Instead of my guardian God,
prop.
my fortification-God, there was the corresponding: my
rock,
in Ps. xlii. 9, comp. Ps. xxvii. 1, xxxi. 4, xxxvii. 39.
Ver. 3. Send thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, bring
me to thy holy hill and
to thy dwelling.
The light of the Lord
is
a figurative description of his help-affording favour, dsH,
which
elsewhere is commonly formed into a pair, with his truth,
his
fidelity in fulfilling his promises, the preservation of his
covenant,
comp. Ps. lvii. 3, "God will send forth his mercy and
his
truth," and the primary passage in Ex. xv. 13, "thou in thy
favour
hast led the people, which thou hast redeemed, to thy
holy
habitation." This must be fulfilled anew in the experience
of
the Psalmist. The favour of God is described as light, be-
cause
it serves to enlighten for his people the darkness of their
misery,
comp. Ps. xxxvi. 9. That the Psalmist speaks of the
holy
hill of the Lord,
David
the seat of the sanctuary, shews that we are not with
some
expositors to refer this, and the preceding Psalm, to the
times
of Saul. The centre of all the Psalmist's wishes is his re-
turn
to the sanctuary, because the exclusion from that was, of
all
the marks of the divine displeasure under which he suffered,
the
most palpable. In his return to the sanctuary he would find
a
matter-of-fact justification, a pledge of the return of God's
grace.
Hence it appears, that this prayer is as to its form merely
peculiar
to the Psalmist, but in substance common to all those
who
are involved in distress.
Ver. 4. And I will come to the altar of God, to the God, who
is my joy and delight,
and praise thee upon the harp, God, my
God. The words: And come will
I, q. d. I wish, that thou wilt
give
me the opportunity to come. Instead of: my joy and de-
light,
prop. my jubilee-joy, q. d. my God,
in whom I rejoice
making
jubilee, even now in my distress, comp. xlii. 8, and still
106 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
more,
when the clouds are dispersed, which now hide from me
thy
gracious countenance.
Ver. 5. Why art thou troubled, my soul, and why art thou
disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him,
the salvation of my
countenance and my God. The words: I
shall
praise him, here refer back to: I will praise him in ver. 4.
What
the soul hopingly wished for, that has his spirit in faith
already
apprehended, so that the poor and bowed down can
comfort
himself and stand upright.
PSALM XLIV.
THE Psalm contains the prayer of an
oppressed church for
help
against foreign enemies. It begins with the praise of the
earlier
benefactions of God; by his help were the heathen driven
out
of the land, and the possession of that brought to their hand,
ver.
1-3. Upon the foundation of these earlier glorious mani-
festations
of God, arises to the church a firm confidence in his
aid
during the present emergency, with which for the future she
can
triumph over all imaginable dangers, ver. 4—8. But while
she
comes forth with this believing confidence in the reality, she
finds
the actual state of things in fearful contrast with it: God
has
given up his people into the hands of mighty enemies, who
have
put his host to flight, laid waste the land, which the Lord
had
given to
habitants
into exile, ver. 9-16. This contrast between the
reality
on the one hand, and the matter-of-fact idea, on the other,
attested
as real, can so much the less be an abiding one, as the
people
had not occasioned the evil by their infidelity, had not
made
void God's covenant and promise through their rebellious-
ness,
but rather had suffered it for the sake of God, on account
of
their steadfastness toward him, ver. 17-22. Now the prayer
for
the restored salvation has been completely prepared for, and
with
it the Psalmist concludes in ver. 23-26. The train of
thought
comes very clearly out: Thou hast helped us, thou
must
help us, but thou hast not helped us, yet have we not by
any
guilt on our part cut ourselves off from thy help, do thou,
therefore,
help us.
PSALM XLIV. 107
We are furnished with a secure
starting point for the histori-
cal
exposition here in Ps. lx., which presents so many remark-
able
coincidences with this, both as to the general situation and
in
expression, comp. ver. 9 and 10 with Ps. lx. 1, 2, 3, 10, ver.
5,
ss. with Ps. lx. 11, ver. 20 with Ps. lx. 11, that the one cannot
be
separated from the other. Now, in Ps. lx. the historical oc-
casion
is announced in the superscription: "Of David, when he
beat
ed
and smote
relations,
to which allusion is made in this superscription, were
the
following. While David carried on war in
the
suffered
a heavy loss in battle from them, (comp. Michaelis Hist.
Belli
Nesibeni, in the comment. p. 82, ss.) the Edomites, always
intent
upon turning the calamitous situations of
for
the satisfaction of their hatred, made an irruption into the
land.
The small forces left behind in the land were not able to
resist
them. The greatness of the danger, in which
plunged,
and the injuries it had sustained, appears, though no-
thing
is said of it in the books of Samuel beside communicating
the
last result of the battle, from the incidental notice in 1 Kings
xi.
15, according to which Joab buried the Israelites, who had
been
slain by the Edomites, and who had lain till his arrival un-
buried;
it appears also from the frightfulness of the revenge,
which,
according to 2 Kings xi. 15, 16, David inflicted upon
males
in
mites
could plunder the capital, which they had threatened,
things
took a prosperous turn. The Syrians were completely
beaten
by David, and he could now send his general Joab against
the
Edomites. Joab overtook them in the
the
south of the
retreated
on hearing of the return of the Israelitish army, after
they
had penetrated much farther, slew them in a body, and
took
possession of their land, comp. 2 Sam. viii. 13, 14: "And
David
gat him a name, when he returned from smiting of the
Syrians,
(in that he slew) 18,000 men in the
he
put garrisons in
Through these circumstances was Ps.
lx. first called forth.
Then
the sons of Korah followed the example of the royal
bard,
just as they received the impulse from Ps. lxiii. for Ps.
108 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
xlii.
and xliii., whether it were now that they sang with a
special
reference to those circumstances, or that these only
served
as a sort of ground-work to them for a general song
suited
to times of hostile oppression. The Psalm contains no-
thing
which may not be explained of that historical occasion.
The
words: "thou hast scattered us among the heathen," in
ver.
11, by which so many have been misled, contains nothing
against
this. For the other parts of the Psalm do not permit
us
to think of a great carrying away; but carrying away of a
smaller
sort occurred even in the most flourishing times of the
state,
nay, to some extent in every hostile invasion, comp. 1
Kings
viii. 46, ss., where Solomon expressly notices the case of
nearer,
John iv. 4, Amos i. 6-9: and here, where express men-
tion
is made of the killed, we might
confidently reckon on others
carried away, the more so, as from
the passage of Amos the
burning
desire of the Edomites for Israelitish slaves comes out,
—the
possession of whom was of importance as a matter-of-fact
counter-proof
to the fatal declaration, "the elder shall serve the
younger,"
which was so often thrown up against them by
The
supposition of the Psalm's composition in the times of
David
derives very important support from ver. 17-22. The
consciousness
of fidelity toward the Lord thus uttered, was
scarcely
possible at any other period than that. Hence the joy-
ful
hope of victory in ver. 4-8 in particular, the expression:
"in
thee will we push down our adversaries, in thy name
tread
down our enemies," as also this: "thou goest not forth
with
our armies," in ver. 9, and the prayer in ver. 23-26, which
rests
upon the supposition, that the distress could be removed
by
a stroke—all point to the relations of David's time, in which,
behind
the foreground of misery and distress, there always lay
concealed
a rich background of salvation, strength, and joyful
hope.
If, notwithstanding all that has
been remarked, the lamenta-
tion
should appear too deep for the times of David, we would
bring
to remembrance the fact, that
the
heathen was estimated by a different measure from what is
common.
The people were so fully persuaded of their divine
election,
and of the necessity of salvation arising out of that,
that
very small losses in themselves went much to their heart,
and
occasioned painful questions and supplications. How small,
PSALM XLIV. 109
for
example, was the loss before Ai; and yet, warlike as the
people
then were, "their hearts melted and became as water.
And
Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face
before
the ark of the Lord, until the eventide, he and the
elders
of
A series of expositors from Calvin
to Hitzig, have referred
this
Psalm to the times of the Maccabees. The only thing that
gives
the least countenance to this hypothesis is derived from
the
words in ver. 22: "for thy sake are we killed continually,"
it
being "Antiochus Epiphanes, who first hated and persecuted
the
Israelites on account of their religion." It would certainly,
however,
be wonderful if this were the case. The fact is in-
comprehensible
in the same proportion that it must be re-
garded
as an isolated one. According to the right view, the
heathenish
enmity to
Antiochus,
which beginning at the time of their elevation to
that
dignity, continued to operate through their whole history.
The
election in question, that entire isolation of them, which
might
naturally be regarded by the heathen mind as an odium
generis
humani, was all along an incitement to the bitterest
hatred
among the people, with whom
Comp.
Christol. Part III. p. 198, ss. Where could we find such
rooted
enmity, continuing with such violence through centuries,
between
two neighbouring people? How entirely different, for
example,
was the position of
to
origin,
toward
so
early as the sojourn in the wilderness, attacked
ground
of its pretension to be the people of God, so that the
war,
then waged, was essentially a religious war, comp. Ex.
xvii.
16, "Amalek lays hold of the throne of the Lord, there-
fore
is there war to the Lord against Amalek through all gene-
rations."
According to Ps. lxviii. 16, the high hills, emblems
of
worldly kingdoms, envy the mountain which the Lord had
chosen
for his dwelling. The predictions of the prophets-
against
the heathen nations proceed throughout on the sup-
position,
that the ground of their hatred toward
religious
one. It is only on this supposition that we can explain
how
the guilt, which they drew upon themselves by their
enmity
to
The special grounds speak so
decidedly against the reference
110 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
to
the times of the Maccabees, that we do not need to apply
the
general grounds against the existence of any Maccabee
Psalms,
which are supplied by the history of the canon. This
alone
is of itself sufficient, that the people here appeal in the
presence
of God to their covenant-faithfulness, and on the ground.
of
this, lay claim to divine aid, ver. 17-22. In all the three
sources
of the history of Epiphanes's oppression, this is uniformly
designated
as a consequence of the abhorrence, which was caused
by
the covenant people themselves, as a righteous retribution,
see
the proof in Christol. P. II. p. 501, ss. The supposition
that
the Chasideans speak here, does not help the difficulty.
For
here it is the whole people who speak, Jacob in ver. 4, and
of
an internal contrast, no trace is to be found. Then, it deter-
mines
against this supposition, what we have made availing as
proof,
that the misery over which the Psalmist mourns, has as
yet
only assumed a superficial form, in particular, the words:
"thou
goest not forth with our enemies." Finally, it is contra-
dicted
by the style and mode of representation, which is through-
out
of a pure, noble, and classical character.
The hypothesis of Koester, who
refers the Psalm "to the
mournful
times of the return from the Babylonish captivity,"
and
of Ewald, who ascribes it to the fourth century, towards the
end
of the Persian supremacy, deserve no further notice, as they
are
alike disproved by the words: "thou goest not forth with
our
armies."
Several decide for the times shortly
before the exile, either
under
Jehoiakim or under Jehoiachin. But let men only read what
Michaelis
has written in his Praef. in Jerem. of those times, and
see
whether they can be brought to accord with ver. 17-22:
"impiety
and senseless idolatry had so taken possession of the
minds
of the people, that, notwithstanding what Josiah had
done,
they soon returned again with the greatest levity to their
old
behaviour, Jer. iii. 4, v. 10, and proceeded not in the course
of
righteousness, but with a hypocritical return to God, they
continued
alienated from him in fixed aversion, ch. viii. 5, 6,
satisfied
with the outward worship of God, and the ceremonies,
ch.
vi. 20, and foolishly confiding therein, ch. vii. 4, as if these
could
cover their manifold misdeeds, and especially their ido-
latry."
What Tholuck brings forward as
proof, that the Psalm may
with
propriety be referred to the times of Jehoiachin, is not
PSALM XLIV. 111
sufficient
proof. It is indeed related of him, he says, in 2 Chron.
xxxvi.
9, that he did what was displeasing to the Lord; but it is
clear
from Jer. xxii. 10, ss., that the youthful king, mourned
for
by many, only suffered on account of the unalterable destiny
of
God and the sins of the people. Already with Jehoiakim
did
idolatry cease to be practised. It is declared, in 2 Kings
xxiv.
3, 4, that, on account of the sins of the idolatrous Ma-
nasseh,
the people should be given up to their enemies. How
much
more could a godly man among the people, under the
"blameless
Jechoniah" say, that such oppression was come
upon
them not for their apostacy. But, on the other hand, it
is
to be remarked, that the "blameless Jechoniah" is not only
condemned
in the Chronicles, but not less decidedly also in the
book
of Kings, 2 Kings xxiv. 9: "and he did evil in the sight
of
the Lord, according to all that his father had done." In
Jer.
xiii. 18, misery is announced to him as a deserved punish-
ment;
in xxiii. 1 he is reproved under the shepherds, "who
destroy
and scatter the Lord's sheep;" in Ez. xix. 5, ss., he
appears
as a dreadful young lion, comp. J. D. Michaelis Bib:
Hebr.
in loco. In Jer. ch. xxii. there is nothing in praise of Jeho-
iachin.
The passage, 2 Kings xxiv., which speaks of the rejection
of
affirms
nothing either of
Manasseh
and Jehoiakim form no contrast: Jehoiakim the re-
volting
tyrant, the decided enemy of the truth, the persecutor
of
the servants of God, Jer. xxii. 18, 19, xxvi. 20, ss. xxxvi. 13-
17,
23, ss., walked in the ways of Manasseh, his existence was a
continuation
of that of Manasseh, and hence were Manasseh's
sins
punished in him. Besides, what would be gained, if there
were
obtained a blameless Jehoiachin? Here not the king merely,
but
the whole people protests its fidelity to the Lord, and that in-
deed,
of a kind reaching to the inclinations of the mind; comp. the
words:
our heart is not turned back. Could
Jehoiachin have
accomplished
during his three months reign a total regenera-
tion
of the people? Other reasons against the reference of the
Psalm
to the times shortly before the exile, naturally suggest
themselves
from what has been already remarked.
After the superscription, to the chief musician, of the sons of
Korah, an instruction, follows the first
strophe, ver. 1-3, in
which
the church reminds the Lord, of what he had done for
her
in former times.
112 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 1. God, with our ears we have heard, our fathers have
told us the deed, which
thou didst in their days, the days of old.
What
the Lord had done to his people in the past, that forms a
pledge
for the salvation to be imparted by him through all times,
causes
the want of salvation to appear as an anomaly, and lays
an
excellent foundation for the prayer for relief. Comp. the re-
markably
corresponding passage, Judg. vi. 13, “And Gideon
said
to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is
all
this befallen us? And where are all thy wonders, which our
fathers
told us of, saying: Did not the Lord bring us up from
the
hand of Midian,” 2 Chron. xx. 7, Hab. iii. 2, where the
church
of the Lord, which had done so gloriously in the past,
prays,
that he would revive his work in the
midst of the years.
The
expression, "we have heard with our ears," forms the con-
trast
to what they at present see with their eyes; comp.. Ps.
xlviii.
7, "as we have heard, so have we seen." On: our fa-
thers
have told us, comp. Ex. x. 2. The deed
(not deeds are
here
spoken of, but one great deed) is not the work Of deliver,
ante
from the
the
driving out of the Canaanites. It is precisely in regard to
this,
that the present condition of the Israelites forms the great-
est
contrast. The: in their days, the days of old, stands op-
posed
to: in our days, the days of the present time.
Ver. 2. Thou hast with thy hand driven out the heathen, and
planted them, hast
destroyed peoples, and spread them abroad.
The
emphatic thou, and the addition: with
thy hand, prop. as
to thy hand, comp. on Ps.
iii. 4, in opposition to their sword and
their
arm in ver. 3, both serve the same purpose, viz., to ascribe
that
great work to a divine cause. Only in so far as it was of
such
a nature was it a pledge of salvation for the future, and
constituted
a sure foundation for the prayer of the Church for
deliverance
from their distress. The image of the planting al-
ready
occurs in Ex. xv. 17, "Thou wilt bring them and plant
them
on the mountain of thine inheritance," and is enlarged
upon
in Ps. lxxx. 8, "Thou broughtest a vine out of
didst
cast out the heathen and plant it." The image is conti-
nued
in the expression: thou hast spread them abroad, prop.
hast
sent them forth, the twigs of that tree, or the shoots of
that
vine; comp. the paral. pass. alluding to this ver. Ps. lxxx.
11,
"it sent out its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the
PSALM XLIV. VER. 3-5. 113
river,"
Ez. xvii. 6, 7. In the general sig. of extending,
spread-
ing forth, Hlw cannot be taken. It is
always used only of
branches,
twigs, or roots, Jer. xvii. 8.
Ver. 3. For not by their sword got they the land, and their arm
helped them not, but thy
right hand, and thy arm, and the light
of thy countenance, for
thou wast favourable to them. The first
clause
with yk
grounds the declaration: thou alone hast planted
them,
sent them forth, of the preceding verse, while it excludes
the
other possible cause of the fortunate result. The second
clause
with yk
grounds this exclusion, by setting
forth the real
cause.
The third clause with yk carries back the operation of
this
cause to to its source, to God's free and undeserved love,—
comp.
the enlargement in Deut. ix. and x. On the first clause
comp.
Josh. xxiv. 12, "not by thy sword nor by thy bow."
The
light of God's countenance is the favour with which his
countenance
beams, like a clear sun, and which illuminated the
darkness
of his people, comp. Ps. xliii. 3.
Now follows the second strophe, ver.
4-8: what thou hast
done
in the past, that do also in the present; for this we, pray,
for
this we hope in faith.
Ver. 4. Thou art he that is my king, 0 God, command the
salvation of Jacob. Ai certainly as the
God of Israel is king—
this
his past deeds plainly testify—so certainly must these deeds
again
revive, he must again for the present dispense salvation
to
his people. Against the supposition of Gesenius and Ewald,
(§
548,) the xvh
represents the place of the copula, even with
a
difference of person, comp. the remarks of Straus on Zeph.
72,
ss. Here,
as in 2 Sam. vii. 28, the relative is to be Sup-
plied,
which, in a similar connection, is expressly written in
1
Chron. xxi. 17, thou he my king; for, thou art he that is my
king,
thou art so certainly, and thou alone. Command
is a con-
fident
expression for, thou wilt command. Michaelis: "Be-
cause
he had named God his king, he makes use of a word
which
points to kingly authority and irresistible power."
Ver. 5. In thee will we push down our enemies, in thy name
tread down our
adversaries.
Many expositors refer this and the
following
verse to the past, supposing the people in them to be
still
praising the earlier deeds of God. This view has been oc-
casioned
by their not knowing how to reconcile the joyful hope
here
expressed, with the lamentation contained in verse 9, not
perceiving
that here faith speaks, which leans upon the divine
114 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
election
historically evinced, while in ver. 9, the visible state of
things
standing in plain contrast to this faith, draws upon it the
attention
of the church, and causes her to pray to the Lord,
that
he would remove this contrast. Against our understanding
it
in the past, speaks the imperative in ver. 4, the constant use
of
the first person, while the forefathers are always spoken of in
the
third, the use of the fut., while the Psalmist had always.
spoken
of the past in the praet., the relation of ver. 6 and 7 to
ver.
3, etc.—That we must not take the fut. optatively, that
they
express not petitions, but confidence, appears from ver. 8.
—The
first member refers to Deut. xxxiii. 17, where it is said
by
Moses in the blessing on Joseph, "his horns are buffalo-
horns,
with them will he push peoples," comp. 1 Kings xxii. 11,
where
the false prophet Zedekiah embodies the image of this
passage
in a symbolical action. The name of God denotes God
in
so far as he shews himself to be such in a completeness of
deeds,
comp. Ps. xx. 1; xxiii. 3. On Mq comp. on Psalm xviii.
39.
Ver. 6. For I do not trust to my bow, and my sword will not
help me. Ver. 7. But thou helpest us from our enemies, and
dost put to shame those
who hate us.
Just as in reference to the
past,
the salvation was ascribed wholly to God, so here in refe-
rence
to the future.
Ver. 8. God we extol continually, and thy name we praise for
ever. Selah. By the b
God is
marked as the object, in whom
the
extolling terminates, comp. Ewald, § 521. On the second
clause,
Ps. lxxi. 6, "in thee is my praise perpetual." The ex-
position:
Of God we boast ourselves, is to be rejected. llh
never
signifies to boast one's self, comp. on Ps. x. 3.
The third strophe begins now, ver.
9-16, the representation
of
the contrast, which the reality carries to the confidence of
the
people, as stated in the preceding verses, or rather appears
to
carry.
Ver. 9. And now thou dost cast us
off, and puttest us to
shame,
and goest not forth with our armies. The Jx is here, as
in
Job xiv. 3, Ps. lviii. 2, in meaning as much as, however,
though
it preserves its original and common signification also,
(Ew.
§ 622.) It points to an addition of a very rare and incom-
prehensible
kind, which the experience of the present has
brought
to that of the past, the reality to the historically con-
ceived
idea. Those who take Jx as a part of ascension, must
PSALM XLIV. VER. 9-14. 115
resort
to arbitrary supplies.—How much the words: thou goest
not
forth with our armies, (comp. the contrast in 2 Sam. v. 24,
where
the Urim and Thummim say to David: "the Lord goes
out
before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines,") carry us
back
to the noon-day of Israelitish glory, discountenancing the
supposition
of our Psalm having had a later origin, is evident
from
the fact alone of Koester and others substituting: thou
wentest,
as also in the following verse. Ver. 10. Thou
turnest
us back before the
enemy, and our haters spoil for themselves.
The
vml,
indicates, as was already remarked by Calvin, that the
enemies
had plundered according to their heart's desire, and
without
any effective restraint. Comp. besides 1 Sam. xiv. 48;
xxiii.
1.—Ver. 11. Thou makest us like sheep for
slaughter, and
among the heathen thou
dost scatter us.
The giving is not rarely
q. d. to put into a
condition. But we can also expound thou
givest
us away, comp. Micah v. 2.—Ver. 12. Thou sellest
thy
people for nothing, and
receivest nothing for it. The sense is:
Thou
hast given thy people into the power of their enemies
Without
trouble, without causing the victory even to be dearly
bought,
as one who parts with a good for any price, which he
despises
and hates, desiring merely to get rid of it; so that
there
is an abbreviated comparison. Parallel is Jer. xv. 13,
"thy
substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil with-
out
price." Isa. lii. 3 does not belong to this class. The first
member
literally: thou sellest thy people for not riches, i. e.
for
a trifling sum. The phrase is to be explained by the silent
contrast
between the reality and the idea. The oft-repeated
affirmation,
that such collocations are properly of an ascending
character,
is groundless. The second member literally: and
thou
dost not increase (the riches) by their price. hbr, ac-
cording
to the common usage of the Pi., and according to the
only
passage where it occurs besides, Judges ix. 29, can only
mean
increase. Consequently, the supplying of Nvh from the
first
member must be justified as necessary.—Ver. 13. Thou
makest us a reproach to
our neighbours, a scorn and a derision
to those round about us.—Ver. 14. Thou makest us for a simili-
tude among, the heathen,
and that the peoples shake the head
over us. lwm stands here, as in the
original passage, Deut.
xxviii.
37, in the common signification similitude—comp.
my
Balaam,
p. 77, ss. The misery of
would
figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just as liars were
116 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
called
Cretans, wretched slaves, Sardians. So far are the people
from
being now "the blessed of the Lord," in whom, according
to
the promise, all the heathen are to be blessed. dvnm object
of
the shaking of the head, comp. Ps. xxii. 7.—Ver. 15. Continu-
ally is my confusion
before me, and the shame of my countenance
covers me. Ver. 16. On account of the voice of the slanderer
and blasphemer, on
account of the enemy and avenger. The re-
proach
is continually before the church, so
that she must inces-
santly
see it with pain, and can by no means get it out of the
way,
Ps. xxxviii. 17. The shaming is ascribed to the counte-
nance,
because it always betrays itself, especially there. Comp.
Ps.
lxix. 7; Jer. 25.—Ver. 16 points to the cause of the re-
proach
and shame.
The fourth strophe, ver. 17-22,
shows that on the part of
the
people no cause existed, why the contrast between the re-
ality
and the idea should be a lasting one.
Ver. 17. All this has come upon us, and yet have we not for
gotten thee, nor dealt
falsely with thy covenant. rqw not to
lie,
but to deceive, with b of the object, on which the deceit
has
been practised, or to which it refers, comp: Ps. lxxxix. 33.--
Ver.
18. Our heart has not turned back, nor
our steps declined
from thy way. Ver. 19. That thou hast bruised us in the place
of jackals, and covered
us with death-darkness. Upon the yk in
the
sig. of quod, that, q. d. that thou
wert thereby led to bruise
us,
comp. Ew. § 454. The jackals appear often as inhabitants
of
waste and desert places, comp. Jer. ix. 11, "I will make Je-
rusalem
heaps, a dwelling of jackals, and the cities of
wilderness
without inhabitant." Isa. xiii. 22; xxxiv. 13; xliii.
20.
Here, as the parallel, "with
death-darkness," shows, we
are
th think of a spiritual desert, a
miserable condition, and of
a
desolation produced by enemies, there is no mention. Who-
soever
finds himself in the place of jackals, is even thereby
bruised
by God, and we must not regard the bruising as a kind
of
second thing, a suffering additional to the other.—Ver. 20.
If we have forgotten the
name of our God, and stretched out our
hands to a strange God! According to the
common supposi-
tion,
this verse must contain the promise, the next the conclu-
sion;
if we, etc. would not God require it? But Mx is more
correctly
taken here as an oath-particle, with a failing of the
curse-formula,
comp. Ew. § 625: Josh. xxii. 22: "The Lord
God
of gods, he knoweth, and
PSALM XLIV. VER. 21,
22. 117
rieted
in rebellion, and if in unfaithfulness against the Lord,
let him not save us this
day."
So also throughout Job xxxi., to
which
this verse forms the key, Mx is used in the express
pro-
testation
of innocence. Ver. 21. Would not God
require this?
For he knows the secrets
of the heart.
The oath is only of im-
portance,
as recognising in a vivid manner the divine omnis-
cience,
and implies, that sin falsely abjured is nevertheless open
before
God, and the object of his vengeance. This conviction
the
church here expresses. The this
denotes the apostacy, from
which
we have protested our freedom.—Ver. 22. For
thy sake
we are killed continually,
we are counted as sheep for slaughter.
The
yk
announces a reason for the chief matter of ver. 17-21,
the
assertion that the church had not fallen away from God.
The
best proof of that is, that they are persecuted for the very
sake
of God. j`ylf
prop. upon thee, then, on thy account, the
effect
rests upon the cause, comp. Ps. lxix. 7,- 9.—The verse is
in
Rom. viii. 36 referred to the church of the New Testament as
a
continuation of that of the Old.
Many expositors have failed to
understand aright the subject
of
ver. 17-22. The church appears here at first sight to be
not
properly mindful of the admonition, that "no one should
think
more highly of himself than he ought to think." Most of
the
older expositors suffered themselves to be drawn by this
into
the idea, that the church does not speak of her conduct be-
fore the present sufferings,
but seeks to make the Lord inclined
to
help her by the protestation, that she had withstood the great
temptations
to fall away from him, which her sufferings them-
presented,
and had continued faithful to him,—against
which
ver. 19 is alone decisive. It is in itself improbable, that
the
church would come before the Lord with prayer for help,
without
distinguishing to some extent what the law taught re-
garding
the condition of such prayer, whether it consisted in a
protestation
of adherence to the covenant, or in imploring sup-
plication
for the pardon of sins, through which it deserved chas-
tisement.
Tholuck accuses the Psalmist of a superficial view of
sin,
(comp. on the other hand, the impressive reference to the
heart,
ver. 18-21), whereby he was led to charge God with
breach
of fidelity, instead of seeking the blame in the church.
The
following remarks, it is hoped, will remove the difficulty.
1.
When the church here maintains, that she had not broken
God's
covenant, this manifestly refers only to fidelity in the
118 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
main,
as to the chief matter, and manifold smaller infidelities
and
weaknesses are not thereby excluded. These smaller devi-
ations
justify the chastisements of God, faithfulness in the main
excludes
a total rejection. 2. When the church regards the suf-
fering,
that had come upon her, as an anomaly, she does so only
in
so far as this appears to carry the aspect of continuance,—
comp.
the words: cast us not off for ever, in ver. 23. The
whole
of the last strophe shews, that the temptation will be at
an
end, the moment God has in point of fact removed this ap-
pearance.
But this would not have been the case, if the suffer-
ing
had formed in itself a stone of stumbling for the church.
3.
It is not to be overlooked, that we have here before us a di-
dactic
Psalm. What is declared in the form of history, forms at
the
same time indirectly an impressive admonition. 4. We must
not
expect, that every Psalm shall fully exhibit all particular
points
of interest, and so, render all misapprehension impossible.
They
rather, on the contrary, require somewhat to be supplied.
There
follows now, in the fifth strophe, the prayer that God
would
turn again the misery of his people. Ver. 23. Awake,
why wilt thou sleep, 0
Lord? wake up, cast not of for ever.
Comp.
Ps. cxxi. 4. Matth. viii. 25. Ver. 24. Why
wilt thou
hide thy countenance?
forget our misery and oppression? Ver.
25.
For our soul is bowed down in the dust,
our body cleaves to
the earth. We are as to body and
soul smitten and thrown
down,
glued as it were to the ground, so that we cannot raise
ourselves
up. Ver. 26. Arise for our help, and
redeem us for
thy mercies' sake. htrzf is nomin. as help,
comp. Psalm lxiii.
7;
xciv. 17. On the h see on Psalm iii. 2.
PSALM
XLV.
IN the introduction, ver. 1, the
Psalmist announces the praise
of
a glorious king to be the object of his song. He praises this
person
on account of his beauty, and the grace poured especially
upon
his lips, ver. 2, on account of his heroic might and glory,
through
which he was to perform great deeds, and achieve
blessed
results in the conflict for truth and righteousness, and
would
annihilate his enemies, ver. 3-5, on account of the eter-
nity
of his dominion founded on his divine nature, and going
hand
in hand with absolute righteousness, ver. 6. Because of
PSALM XLV. 119
his
righteousness this divine king is endowed by God with
greater
joy than all other kings: he is clothed in wedding ap-
parel,
on the very point of celebrating his marriage with a band
of
noble virgins, daughters of kings in palaces of ivory, of whom
one
is peculiarly distinguished, shining in gold of Ophir on his
right
hand, intended for a consort of ,the first rank, ver. 7-9.
To
her the Psalmist now turns, while till now he had constantly
directed
his address to the king, which is also again resumed
toward
the close. He urgently admonishes her in
ver. 10-12,
to
forget her people and her father's house, and also, through
an
unconditional surrender to her husband and Lord, to make
herself
worthy of his love, promising her, as the reward of this
surrender,
the reverential homage of the most flourishing nations.
This
address is directed to the king's daughter in her father's
house,
to which the king has come to conduct her home. The
procession
from the paternal roof into the palace of the king is
described
in ver. 13-15; with the king's daughter are brought
forth
at the same time to the king other maidens, closely con-
nected
with her. The Psalmist promises to the king, in ver. 16,
a
brilliant posterity, which, under his auspices, should reign
over
the whole earth. He concludes, in ver.
17, with vowing
to
give perpetual praise to this glorious king, which should be
followed
by a loud response from the people.
The question has been started,
whether this Psalm is a nuptial
song,
or a song for the glorification of a king; and in the an-
swer
to this question, expositors are of different opinions. But
the
question is ill put, for the Psalm is both a nuptial song, and
a
song of praise. For the former decides already the expres-
sion:
"up on lilies," i. e. upon lovely brides, and: "a song of
the
beloved," in the superscription. In praise of the king the
Psalmist
begins at once with his beauty, which, in a general song
of
praise would certainly not have been done. From ver. 7 to
the
very close every thing refers to the relation of the king to his
brides.
If this relation came into consideration only as a parti-
cular
element in the praise of the king, it certainly occupies an
undue
place. That the song is to be regarded as sung on the
wedding-day,
with which the supposition of a general song of
praise
does not well accord, is clear from the mention of the
fragrant
garments of the king, and of the queen on his right
hand
in gold of Ophir, from the exhortation to the queen to for-
get
her people and the house of her father, from the descrip-
120 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
of the wedding procession from the father's house to the
palace
of the prince, and from the reference to the blessing of
children.
The allegation that the mention of the warlike quali-
ties
of the king is not suitable in a nuptial song, is, according to
the
literal interpretation, of the greatest weight. But in the
allegorical,
the heroic virtue of the king and his imposing ma-
jesty,
by which he subdues the world to himself, is quite to the
point.
How suitable the king's praise, as found in ver. 1-5, is
to
a nuptial song, appears from ver. 10-12, where, as its practi-
cal
design, an admonition comes out to the king's daughter, "to
forget
her father's house and her own people;" for which the
other
had laid the foundation. But, on the other hand, it is not
to
be denied, that the Psalm is also a song of praise upon a
king.
The purpose of praising the king is declared at the be-
ginning
and the close. To the king the whole is addressed.
What
is said in commendation of the brides, is manifestly not
for
them, but for the king, who has such brides: so that views,
such
as De Wette's: "I hold the Psalm to
be a poem in honour
of
the king beside his consort,"
entirely miss the right point of
view.
We must therefore conclude, that the Psalm is a eulo-
gistic
song upon a king on the occasion of his marriage.
We come now to investigate the subject of the Psalm. Nearly
all
the older Christian expositors understand it of the Messiah.
The
wedding is in their view a spiritual
one, the queen Israel,
"the
virgins behind her, her companions,"
the heathen nations.
On
the other hand, a great number of modern expositors have
defended
the non-Messianic exposition. But they have not
succeeded
in determining the application so as to agree upon
the
person of the king. The greater part think of Solomon and
his
union with an Egyptian princess; others, after the example
of
Hitzig, of Ahab of Israel, and his union with Jezebel; Bleek
(Br.
on the Hebr. P. II. p. 154,) of one of the later kings of
and
others again of a Persian king.
The Messianic exposition is
supported, first, by the fact of
this
Psalm's admission into the number of the Psalms, and the
canon
of Scripture, which can be explained only on the suppo-
sition,
that the allegorical interpretation at that time was uni-
versally
admitted. And this can the less justly be denied, as
the
Messianic exposition is also found in the Chaldee paraphrase,
and
in numerous passages of the old Jewish writings, (comp. the
PSALM
XLV. 121
Coll.
in Schoettgen, de Mess. p. 234,) and the currency of which
among
the Jews, is implied in the citation in Reb. i. 8, 9.
The
farther proof that the Psalm could have been admitted
into
the Psalter and Canon, only on the ground of its allegorical
meaning,
we might leave untouched, as the recent opponents
of
the allegorical exposition see themselves necessitated to allow
this.
Ewald admits, that the Psalm, interpretated literally, has
no
analogy in the whole Psalter: "there is elsewhere no exam-
ple
of art so expressly consecrated to a king. Not properly
God,
but rather the king, is here the object and the aim of the
praise.
And in this praise are not merely included things pro-
perly
divine. “The song is alone in the
Psalter, and resembles
more
the poetry of the world.” Koester says: "when we con-
sider
the Psalm as having a place in the Psalter of the Syna-
gogue,
the fact can only be explained from an allegorical view
of
the union of Messiah with the
shew
themselves to have been already well acquainted with this
view,
as they render in ver. 6 and 7: 0 God! as an address."
Hitzig:
"though a worldly song, contributing to sensual joys
and
pleasures, did not perish, yet its place was not in a collec-
tion
of this sort, and it is to be regarded as an exception, if one
of
that kind has received a higher honour."
The predilection in favour of the
Messianic exposition of this
Psalm,
which we have derived from the fact of its reception into
the
canon, fully approves itself to us if we more narrowly inves-
tigate
its contents. Even the superscription, which is distin-
guished
from all the other Psalms by its multiplied designations,
indicating
by the very circumstance, that there is something un-
common,
extraordinary, treated of in it, presents a fourfold
argument
for the view in question. 1. The expression: "to
the
chief musician," shews, that the Psalm was destined for
use
in the public service of God, that it was sung in the temple
at
the holy assemblies, that it was a church-song. 2. The sons
of
Korah are named as the authors of the Psalm. The histori-
cal
books mention these to us as servants of the sanctuary; all
the
other Psalms of theirs, which have been preserved, bear a
spiritual
character, and this Psalm stands amid a circle of spi-
ritual
songs of the Korahites. 3. The Psalm is described as a
lykWm, instruction,
as a song of an edifying character, comp.
on
xxxii. 4. Already does the superscription contain in the
phrases:
"upon lilies," and: "a song of the beloved ones,"
122 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
a
double allusion to a number of brides of the king, and this
afterwards
comes very distinctly out in the Psalm itself. Ac-
cording
to ver. 7, a greater joy is experienced by the Psalmist
in
this respect, than by his fellows; according to ver. 8, he is
made
glad out of ivory palaces; according to ver. 9, king's daugh-
ters
are among his honourable ones; according to ver. 14, 15,
there
are along with the king's daughter also other virgins, her
companions,
brought to the king, and introduced into his pa-
lace.
Hence arises to the defender of the non-Messianic expo-
sition
an invincible difficulty, as it has never
been moral to take
more than one wife at
the same time.
The attempts, which
have
been made to get rid of this difficulty, only show how great
it
is. The reference to the number of the brides, which lies in
the
words: "on the lilies," and: "a song of the beloved
ones,"
has been attempted to be set aside by arbitrary exposi-
tions,
as we shall see, when we come to the superscription. The
king's
daughters in ver. 9, according to
Bleek, must not be
brides,
but the discharged mistresses of the king—which is suf-
ficiently
refuted by the words: "out of the ivory palaces," and
"they
make thee glad," in ver. 8, and also: "he has anointed
thee
with the oil of joy above thy fellows," in ver. 7. The
maidens
in ver. 14, 15, are, according to Bleek, mere handmaids
of
the bride, who were given her on the part of her father's
house,
and who now, in the train of their mistress, were brought
along
with her to the king. But the separation of the young
women
from the king's daughters, is manifestly but an evidence
of
the difficulty; the designation, "their companions," implies
a
footing of equality, and does not suit "mere handmaids;" the
expressions:
"they are brought to thee," and: "they are con-
cluded,"
points to the circumstance, that these young women,
as
well as the bride, must unite themselves with the king in
love;
the handmaids remain with the queen, and have nothing
to
do with the king; the very fact, that the companions of the
bride
are named virgins, virgines illibatae,
indicates that they
must
enter into a closer connection with the king, and the great
number
of sons also in ver. 16 points to a marriage connection
with
the virgins.—If we follow the Messianic interpretation, the
whole
difficulty vanishes. The companions of the queen, who
are
inferior to her indeed in rank, but still are substantially like
her,
and, not less than she, must be united with the king in love,
are
then the heathen nations, the daughter of
PSALM XLV. 123
ter
of
ple,
has a certain outward precedence, but who, notwithstand-
according
to the uniform announcements in the prophets
and
Psalms regarding the Messiah's kingdom, are made partak-
ers
along with them. So already the Chaldee and Kimchi
filiae
regum sunt gentes, quae omnes ad obsequium regis Messiae
redigentur.
A quite similar figurative representation is found in
the
Song vi. 8, 9: "There are threescore queens, and fourscore
concubines,
and virgins without number; but one
is my wife, my
pious
one, etc." There is here therefore declared in a figurative
form
the very same thing, which in plain terms is stated in the
other
Messianic Psalms, such for example, as ii. 8, that the Mes-
siah
would receive for a possession all people from one end of
the
earth to the other; Ps. lxxii. 8, that he should reign from
sea
to sea, from
mann
thinks, that what is uncommon in the lower relations, which
form
the ground of the figurative representation, that appears
also
unsuitable in reference to the higher. But what poet could
have
satisfied himself with such a canon! It would certainly be
a
very tame poetry, which should bind itself so slavishly to the
common
reality. What is uncommon in earthly love, the num-
ber
of brides, this in the spiritual marriage is precisely accord-
ing
to the truth of things. The confidence, with which such
Palpably
false positions are set forth, may well fill us with as,
tonishment.
The strongest proofs for the
Messianic exposition present
themselves
in ver. 6 and 7, where the king is named God, and
his
dominion is described as eternal. The words: Thou lovest
righteousness
and hatest wickedness, therefore has
God anointed
thee
with the oil of joy above thy fellows, i.e. greater marriage
blessings
are conferred on thee, than on them, is not to be
comprehended,
if we regard the brides as real, and not ideal
persons.
An allegorical representation is also implied in the
circumstance,
that "the ivory palaces," out of which the king's
daughters
were brought to the king, stood so near to the palace
of
the king, that it required only a marriage procession to
bring
them from these to him. In a matter of real life it must
have
been quite otherwise. The non-Messianic interpreters are
embarrassed
by ver. 12, where the queen is assured of the ho-
mage
of the Tyrians, as these never stood in a relation to
which
could have led to such a thing being so much as thought
124 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
of.
Then, by this interpretation, it remains incomprehensible,
how
this homage should be promised to the queen as a reward
for
the entire surrender of her heart to the king, and is made
to
depend upon this. In ver. 16 it is said that the king will
set
his sons for princes over the whole earth.
Against the reference to Solomon,
there is still the special
objection,
that the king in ver. 3-5, is addressed as a hero,—
not
as a person, who, in fitting circumstances, might be this,
as
Hoffmann supposes, for the sake of that interpretation, but
one
who assuredly will be so,—compare especially ver. 5. So
also
ver. 16, which implies that the king should have an entire
series
of royal ancestors. Neither does it consist with any later
Jewish
king, that "kings' daughters should be among the hon-
ourable
women," or that there should be such kingly state and
glory
as meets us throughout the whole Psalm, and which gave
occasion
to Venema's just remark, that "no other can possibly
be
thought of here than Messiah or Solomon." The reference to
Ahab,
whose father first seized the throne for himself, has ver.
16
as an insuperable obstacle in the way; and at any rate we
cannot
think of a love song on an Israelitish king in the Jewish
canon,
composed by ministers of the temple in
for
employment in the divine service of that temple. The re-
ference
to a Persian king is now, at last, generally abandoned.
Beside
other grounds which at once present themselves, its close
relation
to Ps. lxxii. is decisive against the idea.
In such a state of matters, we can
only ascribe it to the power
which
a prejudice, having once obtained a firm footing for itself
at
the beginning of rationalism, even now exerts over the minds
of
men, when a more impartial view of things is wont to be
taken,
that the Messianic exposition still finds so little favour.
We
see, at least, that the dislike to it appears without founda-
tion.
That the doctrinal matter of the
Psalm stands entirely
upon
the ground of the old covenant, is clear as day. For every
single
figurative trait of the Messiah contained in it we can
bring
exactly corresponding parallel passages. Compare with
ver.
3-5, Ps. lxxii. and Isa. xi. with ver. 6 and 7, where the
king
is addressed as God, Isa. ix. 5, Ps. cx. Micah v. 1, Dan. vii.
13,
14, Zech. xii. 10, xiii. 7, and the Christology there. The ad-
mission
of the heathen into the
of
Messiah is the uniform doctrine of the Psalms and prophecies,
compare,
for example, Ps. ii. lxxii. Isa. xi. 10: "the root of
PSALM XLV. 125
Jesse,
which stands for an ensign of the peoples, which the Gen-
tiles
shall seek." In like manner also, there are analogies
that
may be brought for the mode of representation in all its
parts.
That the personification of people as women, and spe-
cially
as maidens, is a very common one in the Hebrew poetry, is
well
known, compare Isa. xlvii. liv. 1, ss., Jer. xlvi. 11, Gesell.
Thes.
p. 320. In this very Psalm the city of
the
daughter of
under
the image of the lower is of frequent occurrence in the
poetry
of the East. Kistemaker, Cantic. Cant. ex hierographia
orient.
illustr. p. 28, ss., gives examples from Persian literature.
From
the Arabic comp. the poem Bordah, pub. by Uri, and by
Von
Rosenzweig under the title: Sparkling planets in praise of
the
best of creatures, (Mohammed)
in
De, Sacy's Christom. and the Journ. As. The Turkish poem:
Gülgül
and Bülbül, that is, Rose and Nightingale, pub. and
trans.
by Von Hammer,
planation
of the secret sense, which is contained in this sad his-
tory
and lamentable narrative for the mystic," beginning with
the
words: "Thou who seest these leaves, take not as a fable that
which
then proceeded from the fable; the instruction (moral) at
length
follows the fable." In the
presentation
of the relation of God or Christ to the people of the
Old
and New Testament under this image, is very common.
The
germ of the representation is found already in the Penta-
teuch,
comp. my Beitr. P. II. p. 48, ss. It meets us in the most
extended
form in the Song, comp. the proof for the correctness
of
the general exposition of that book in the.Ev. K. Z. 1827, p.
177,
ss. General agreements are found in Isa. liv. 5; lxii. 4, 5.
Jer.
iii. 1. Hos. i.-iii. Ez. xvi. xxiii. Matth. ix. 15; xxii.
xxv.
John iii. 29. Rom. vii. 4. 2 Cor. xi. 2. Eph. v. 27, 32.
Rev.
xix. 7; xxi. 2; xxii. 17. Finally, for the representation
of
heathen
nations under the image of wives of an inferior stand-
ing,
the relations of Solomon's time, as appears especially from
1
Kings, chap. iii. and xi. presented the substratum. Besides
the
wife of the first rank, the daughter of the king of
Solomon
had also a great multitude of outlandish women, in
whom
the poetic vision could easily decern the types of the
nations
to be some time reigned over by Solomon's great sue-
126 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
cessor,
as in him also it discerned the type of this successor.
By
such wives were these nations first represented in Jerusa-
lem.
The arguments against the Messianic
exposition have already
been
refuted in Christol.
has
been advanced.
For the composition of the Psalm in
the time of Solomon
there
is the fact, that the relations of that time form the basis
of
the representation, and then, the near relationship it holds to
Psalm
lxxii. which appears to have been the forerunner and
occasion
of this, as Ps. lxiii. of Psalm xlii. and xliii.; Psalm
lx.
of Psalm xliv.: also its relation in another respect to the
Canticles.
To
the chief musician, upon lilies, of the sons of Korah, an
instruction, a song of
the beloved,
(Pl.) It being inscribed to
the
chief musician, indicates that the Psalm was designed for
employment
in God's service; and hence, that it possesses a
sacred
character— opposing at the very threshold, every profane
interpretation,
and demanding that we penetrate from the shell
into
the kernel of the Psalm. Then follow four designations
which
make two pairs, each pointing at once to the form and to
the
nature, the one rising from the form to the nature, the other
descending
from the nature to the form. The Psalm employs
itself
on lilies, beautiful virgins, lovely brides, but it is composed
by
the sons of Korah, ministers of the sanctuary, whose song
can
have, not an earthly, but a heavenly love for its object.
The
song is an instruction; it bears a
didactic character, pre-
scribes
for the spiritual life, so that the loved ones of whom it
sings,
could be those only of a heavenly bridegroom.--As NwUw
and
NwOw,
elsewhere occurs in the sense of lilies,
so we can only
translate
Mynww lf, upon lilies. The current exposition;
After
the manner of a song, or upon an instrument named lilies,
are
manifestly but indications of difficulty. That we must here,
and
in the analogous superscriptions of Psalms lx., lxix., lxxx.,
strike
out an entirely new way of explanation, is clear already
from
the remark of Ewald, Poet. B. I. p. 174; "evidently dark
words,
if people ask for anything like a tolerable sense." We
take
the lilies as a figurative
description of the lovely virgins,
whose
marriage with the king the Psalmist celebrates. 1. In a
large
number of Psalms the object of the Psalm is introduced in
the
superscription by lf or lx, and indeed for the
most part
PSALM XLV. 127
in
figurative enigmatical terms; and the reference to the object,
in
designations of the kind almost uniformly approves itself as
the
correct one, where a reference has been supposed to lie to
the
melody, or to some instrument. So Psalms xxii., liii., and
lxxxviii.,
(comp. introd. to Psalm xiv.) lvi., v.; comp. also Hab.
iii.
1, (see introd. to Psalm vii.) 2. This exposition is supported
by
the tvdydy,
the beloved, which corresponds to "the lilies,"
according
to this exposition, and is to be regarded as its expla-
nation,
precisely as in Ps. the figurative lilies
is explained
by
the literal statement that follows. In like manner in the
Psalm
itself, "the king's daughters," and "the honourable" in
ver.
9, "the virgins" in ver. 14. 3.
The lilies appear in the
Canticles,
the character of which is so nearly related to our
Psalm,
not only in general as an image of what is lovely, chap, v.
13:
"his lips are lilies," iv. 5; vi. 2, 3; vii. 3; comp. Hosea
xiv.
5, but the bride is specially designated by this name. She
calls
herself in chap. ii. 1, "a lily of the valley," and the lover
says
of her in chap. ii. 2, "as a lily among the thorns, so is my
love
among the daughters." 4. In the
other Psalms, the super-
scriptions
of which make mention of lilies, the reference to the
loveliness
of the object sung of, everywhere approves itself as the
right
one. Comp. on Psalm etc.—As lykWm, instruction,
comp.
on Psalm xxxii. our Psalm gives itself to be formally re-
cognized
in ver. 10-12. The exhortation: "forget thy peo-
ple
and thy father's house:"—"0 man, how dost thou not un-
derstand
and go to meet thy king, who humbles himself so
much
to come to thee, and so faithfully interests himself in thee!
Do
but receive him now with joy, provide for him an access to
thy
heart, that he may enter into thy mind, and that thou may-
est
enjoy his goodness,"—this discovers itself to be the proper
kernel
of the Psalm, and all besides serves merely a preparatory
part.
The words: tvdydy ryw can only be rendered: a
song
of
the beloved ones, a song, whose object are the loved,—comp..
ryw with the object following in Ps. xxx. The loved
are the lilies,
the
king's daughters, and honourable in ver. 9, the virgins, who
according
to ver. 14, were brought to the king. The designation
corresponds
to our Braut-lied (nuptial song),
only that it alludes
to
the number of the brides; a song for
a simple marriage would
be
hdydy ryw. This allusion at the very threshold to a number
of
brides, which presents an insuperable barrier in the way of a
literal
interpretation, is so fatal to the advocates of this, that
128 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
they
seek by sacrifices to get rid of it. The greater part, among
the
last Hoffmann, would explain tvdydy: lovely things. On
the
other hand, Clauss has already pressed the objection, that
no
analogy is to be found in the superscriptions of so ambitious
a
description of excellency, and Ewald, that such a combination
of
words, song of lovely things, for lovely song, may be sought
for
in prose. We remark, besides, that by this exposition the
already
produced parallel places in the Psalm itself are left with-
out
attention, that dydy is always, used in the sense of beloved,
never
in that of lovely, not even in the passage Ps. lxxxiv. 1,
(that
we must there keep the common signification of beloved, is
clear
from the very next verse.) Ewald (Poet. B. I. p. 29), and
others
expound: love song, a song of the love kind. But dydy
is
never, as its form also might lead us to expect, used as a sub-
stantive.
Even tUdydy
in Jer. xii. 7, signifies only love
in the
sense
of, the beloved.--It is still to be
remarked, that dydy and
hdydy, after the example, and on the ground of
Deut. xxxiii. 12,
is
put for a designation of those, who are loved of the Lord;
Solomon,
according to 2 Sam. xii. 25, bore the name of Jedi-
diah:
"and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord,"
comp.
in ver. 24, "the Lord loved him;" Jedidiah, the loved
(of
the Lord), was the name of the mother of Josiah, according
to
2 Kings xxii. 1, see Gesen. Thes. If the word, therefore, was
commonly
used of holy love, the right understanding was not
far
to seek.
Ver. 1. My heart boils with good words, I speak: my works
to the king, my tongue a
style of a quick writer. This is the in-
troduction.
The expression: my works to the king, forms the
centre.
A consequence of this is the goodness of the word,
which
is directed upon the glory of the object, and that the
tongue
must resemble the style of a quick writer. The exalted
subject
fills the Psalmist with animation, so that he has no need
to
seek for words, but they flow in upon him of themselves and
flow
out again. wHr, to boil, points to the
internal excitement
and
fulness. It belongs to verbs of fulness, and on this account
has
the accusative with it, Ew. § 484. John Arnd: "Now mark
and
learn here the new heart of the faithful, in which Christ
dwells
through faith, and which is so full of Christ the Lord
that
it runs over like a fountain, and cannot be silent, it must
break
forth." The expression: my works to the king, is to be
taken
as an exclamation, as also the third member, comp. Ew.
PSALM XLV. VER. 1, 2. 129
§
585. The jlm
in prose would have the article,—compare
upon
the want of the article in poetry, Ew. § 533. We must
not
explain: my works, by: my poem. For this signification
is
entirely without proof, the plural is then extraordinary, and
the
common signification is proved by this, that the works ac-
cording
to the common trilogy, stand here beside the heart
and
the tongue. Hence the meaning can
only be: to the ser-
vice
of the king must all my doing be consecrated. But this,
from
the connection, is certainly said with special respect to the
work,
which the Psalmist had now in hand. ryhm is always
hastening.
The sig. active, expert, is not
proved by any of the
passages
brought in support of it. Ezra derived his name: the
quick
writer, Ez. vii. 6, after the Jewish custom, from this pas-
sage.
The view of most of the older expositors, according to
which
the writer must be the Holy Spirit, the words an explan-
ation
upon the inspiration, has been fruitlessly revived by Stier.
Ezra
already understood by writer, a scribe, otherwise he would
never
have supposed himself at liberty to appropriate the name.
Ver. 2. The praise of the king
begins. Thou art the most
beautiful among the
children of men; grace was poured upon thy
lips, therefore God
blesses thee for ever.
Against the supposi-
tion,
that typypy
is a form with reduplication of the two first
radicals,
it is to be objected, that such forms elsewhere do not
occur.
The easiest method is, with Schultens, to take the form
as
standing for tAypiyA ypiyI, prop. thou art
beautifulness beautiful,
for,
thou art perfectly beautiful. For this explanation, which is
far
more natural, than that struck out by ENV. § 256, many ana-
logies
can be produced, comp. Ew. § 486. The beauty
here,
since
it is described, in what follows, as the ground of the divine
blessing,
must be no merely material thing, but only the expres-
sion
and image of spiritual perfection, which the poet, like the
painter,
sees so exactly in this mirror, comp. what is said in the
poem
Bordah, v. 39, of Mohammed, with Rosenzweig's remarks.
Here
the extolling of the beauty was favoured by the particular
design
of the Psalm. That the beauty is throughout beauty of
expression, is implied in the
second member. The grace, which
is
here specially ascribed to the lips, is manifestly but a reflec-
tion
of the loveliness of the speech, which streams from the lips,
and
parallel are I. Kings x. 8, where the Queen of Sheba says to
Solomon:
"Happy are thy men, happy these thy servants, who
130 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
stand
continually before thee and hear thy wisdom," and Luke
iv.
22: "And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gra-
cious
words (e]pi> toi?j lo<goij th?j xa<ritoj) which proceeded out of
his
mouth,"—in
which passage there is a very pointed reference to
this
verse. The Nk lf, various expositors, because they cannot
comprehend
how the beauty should be the reason of the bless-
ing,
take in the sig. of because; but it means
always, without
exception,
therefore, comp, Winer, S. V., and
unquestionably oc-
curs
in that signification in ver. 7 and 17. Then, with the ren-
dering
because, the for ever appears also unsuitable. By com-
paring
ver. 7 and 17, we shall have to refer the blessing,
which
God
imparts to the king, specially to the enlargement of his
dominion.
Thus also ver. 3-5 join fitly in.
Ver. 3. Gird thy sword on thy thigh, 0 hero, thy majesty and
thy glory. Ver. 4. And in this thy glory ride on victoriously,
because of truth and
meekness-righteousness, and thy right
hand will teach thee
terribleness.
Ver. 5. Thine arrows are
sharp, peoples fall
under thee, they pierce the heart of the ene-
mies of the king. It is here represented how the king appro-
priates
to himself the blessing, which God imparts to him on ac-
count
of his grace, by his heroic virtue, glory, and majesty.
The
imperatives have prophetic import. The Psalmist calls upon
the
king to do that, which he will surely perform. This is
clear
from the connection, as in what precedes and follows, it is
not
wishes that are contained, but declarations on the glory of
the
king, also from the circumstance, that the discourse, after
having
begun with imper. proceeds with fut.: will teach thee,
will
fall. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, as one does in the
prospect
of warlike undertakings, comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 13. Thy
majesty
and thy glory stand in opposition to:
thy sword. Many
expositors
render: thy ornament and thy comely dress. But
the
usage decides against this rendering. dvh (from hdvh to
praise,
prop. praise ; the signification turgor, vigor, which Gesen.
in
many places adopts, and on the ground of which he rejects
this
so natural derivation, and prefers another much more re-
mote,
is in no place well founded), and rdh, glory, so united,
are
put for a designation of the divine glory, Ps. xcvi. 6, civ,
1,
cxi. 3, Job 10, and of the reflection of the same in earthly
things,
comp. on Ps. viii. 6, and Ps. xxi. 5, where it is said of the
Davidic
stem, "his glory is great through thy salvation, honour
and
majesty hast thou laid upon him." dvh also alone, is com-
PSALM XLV. VER. 3-5. 131
moldy
used of the divine and kingly majesty, comp. 1 Chron.
xxix.
25: "And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the
sight
of all
tvklm, which had not been on any king before
him in
Dan.
xi. 21. On account of this very apposition, we might take
the
sword figuratively: the glory and
majesty, the spiritual
sword
of the hero, with which he subdues the peoples. But
the
analogy of the arrows in ver. 5 is
against this. It only re-
mains,
therefore, for us to suppose that the sword of the hero-
king
is, indeed, a proper sword, but that the Psalmist, viewing
it
with the eyes of the Spirit, sees in it a symbol of his glory
and
majesty, so that he is girded with these, just as with the
sword,
which they use, and by which they manifest themselves.
The
sword, spiritually considered, is everywhere as the man is,
who
bears it. The subject presently offers to the spiritual mind
a
quite different contemplation. The subject of the Psalm stands
forth
as a concentrated representation of the name El Gibbor,
God-hero,
which Isa. ix. 5, ascribes to the Messiah; the glory
and
the majesty corresponds to the El. Under the image of a
mighty
hero bringing the peoples under him, the Messiah also
appears
in Ps. cx. 5, ss. Of New Testament scripture we are to
compare,
not Rev. i. 16, where the sword is that of the teacher,
but
Rev. xix. 15, "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,
that
with it he might smite the nations, and he shall rule them
with
a rod of iron," comp. ver. 21, ii. 12. In ver. 4, the term:
thy
glory, is expressly repeated, in order to indicate, that this
is
what provides the sure pledge of a prosperous issue. We can
take
the word either as nomin. absol.: and thy glory—may it be
prosperous,
proceed onwards; or as accus.: and in respect to
thy
glory, comp. Ew. 483. Hlc, not to penetrates not
to
break
up, not to fall over, not to spring up, not to impose;
of
its ascertained meanings, there is only one: to have suc-
cess,
to be prosperous, comp. Isa. line 10, which is appli-
cable
here. Hlc is
to be closely connected with bkr: may
be
prosperous, go forward, for, proceed prosperously, victo-
riously
onward, comp. Ew. § 539. of the king, who goes
to
battle in a chariot, also 1 Kings xxii. 34, 35, is used as here
absolutely,
without naming the chariot, for ex. 2 Kings ix. 16.
The
rbd lf in this connection signifies constantly on account
of, and for this reason
alone we cannot suppose, that lf marks
the
seat, which the king ascends. tmx always means truth,
132 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
never
faithfulness. Upon hvnf, humility, then the meekness
and
gentleness springing from humility, comp. on Ps. xviii. 35.
qdc-hvnf cannot be regarded as asynd.: meekness
and right-
eousness.
Against this there is the Makkeph and the form
hvAn;fa, instead of the more common hvAnAfE, according to Stier's
just
remark, a middle formation between stat. constr. and absol.
The
two words form rather a kind of nom. compos. But meek-
ness-righteousness
is not righteousness coupled with meekness,
or
tempered by it—such a contrast between righteousness and
meekness
is quite foreign to the Old Testament usage—but
righteousness,
which primarily and chiefly manifests itself in
meekness.
Meekness is the kernel of righteousness. Comp.
Zeph.
ii. 3: "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the land, who
do
his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness," where the
meek
are those, who do the judgment of the Lord, and where
the
striving after righteousness manifests itself first of all in a
striving
after meekness. The expression: on account of truth,
etc.
cannot indicate the properties of the king, on account of
which
he deserves victory, for then Hlc must have stood after
bkr. It
rather means as much as, for the truth, which stands
opposed
to deceit and lies, comp. Hos. iv. 1, Isa. lix. 14, 15, for
the
good of him who possesses it, for the support and salvation
of
the truthful, the meek, the righteous; Luther right in the
main:
to maintain the truth aright, and the poor in their cause.
Exactly
parallel are Ps. lxii. 4, "He shall judge the poor of the
people,
save the sons of the needy, and break in pieces the op-
pressor,"
comp. v. 12, Isa. xi. 4, "And he judges with righteous-
ness
the poor, and performs equity and justice for the meek of
the
land, and smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with
the breath of his lips he slays the wicked. In ver. 5 we
must
supply to, under thee: thou who comest with thine arrows
upon
them. Since then: under thee, is as much as under thine
arrows,
we can have no difficulty in supplying arrows
in the last
member,
and there is no reason for so constrained an interpre-
tation
as that of De Wette (thy sharp arrows—peoples sink at
thy
feet—pierce the heart of the enemies of the king,) and of
Hitzig:
thy strong arrows, thou, under whom the peoples fall,
stick
in the heart of the enemies of the king—against which,
besides
the want of the article in Mynvnw, (comp. Ew. § 537,
who
here, however, grants more than ought to be granted,) there
is
the circumstance, that so trailing a period is intolerable in a
PSALM XLV. VER. 6. 133
song
of such raciness. "The enemies of the king," is a digni-
fied
expression for thy enemies. The idea
in the verse is: the
glory
of the king, who secures for himself glorious results in the
conflict
for truth and righteousness, provides for him an easy
conquest
over his enemies. Arnd: "In this we have the glo-
rious
consolation, that our king fights for us, pierces the hearts
of
his enemies with arrows, so that they must be frightened and
appalled,
but the heart of faith he governs softly, gently, and
affectionately."
Ver. 6. Thy throne, 0 God, remains for ever and ever, a
sceptre of justice is
the sceptre of thy kingdom. The perpetual
continuance
of the dominion in the first member, and its inter-
nal
character in the second, stand in the closest connection with
each
other. They are related to one another as cause to effect,
comp.
Isa. ix. 7: "that he (the Messiah may establish and set-
tle
it by judgment and righteousness, from henceforth even for
ever."
The Elohim Messianic expositors take as the vocative,
0
God, in unison with: 0 hero, in ver. 4. That this exposition
must
be one that lies nearest, the most natural, appears already
from
the fact, that all the old translators, with whom also con-
curs
the Ep. to the Hebrews, express the vocative. The non-
Messianic
expositors at first adopted this view likewise, and al-
leged,
that the name Elohim might be used of judges, kings,
etc.
But since this opinion has been found untenable, (comp.
against
it, for example, Gesen. on Isa. ix. 5, and in the Thes. I.
p.
98, Christol. p. 118,, ss.) they have felt it necessary to resort
to
another mode of exposition. But they have not been able to
bring
forward any thing grammatically tenable. The greater
part
render: thy God-throne, i.e. thy throne committed to thee
by
God, stands for ever, while they suppose a stat. constr. inter-
rupted
by a suff. The only passage in which such a stat. constr.
really
appears to have place, is Lev. xxvi. 42, where bqfy ytyrb,
my
Jacob's covenant, stands for, my covenant with Jacob. But
this
passage, even apart from the circumstance, that the exposi-
tion
is not quite certain, (Ewald, § 406, takes the y not as suff.,
but
as the ancient external mark of the stat. constr.) presents on
this
account no suitable analogy, because in it the violation of
the
general rule, according to which, the suff. in the stat. constr.
can
only be appended to the second noun, is justified by this,
that
there that is a proper name, and hence is capable of no
suff.,
while here the second noun bears an appellative character,
134 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and
therefore both can and must receive the suff. Hoffmann, in-
deed,
maintains, that the Elohim in this Psalm, as also elsewhere
in
those of the Korahites, has the nature of a proper name, and
stands
precisely for Jehovah, and therefore could receive no
suff.;
but, on the other hand, we have only to cast a glance at
the
jyhlx
in the immediately following verse. Elohim is
everywhere
used in the Korahite Psalms in no other way, than
it
is throughout the whole of the Old Testament. The alleged
analogies,
which Maurer still brings forward, vanish at once on
nearer
inspection. In Psalm lxxi. 7, zfo ysiHama. is not: my refuge
of
strength, but the zf is loosely appended to ysHm, my refuge,
strength,
which is strength, or strong. The same holds of 2
Sam.
xxii. 33, comp. vol. i. p. 313, Ez. 27, Lam. iv. 17—
Others
expound: thy throne is God's throne. So Ew. § 547,
and
Gesenius, who, however, vacillates in uncertainty between
this
and the first rendering, and prefers sometimes the one, and,
sometimes
the other, (comp. besides Thes. p. 1036,) which itself
is
no mark of a satisfied exegetical conscience. But there has
not
been produced a single well established example, where the
just
named subject in stat. constr. repeats itself in thought at
the
same time as part of the predicate. For the Cf vytvryq
(Ew.)
is not a case in point. It is not to be translated: his
walls
are walls of wood, but: his walls are wood. According to
this
analogy, we must, taking the Elohim as predicate, translate
here:
thy throne is (wholly) God, which gives no sense. Only
to
this also does the analogy of ver. 8 conduct. (Ew.) There it
does
not indeed mean: myrrh, etc. are of thy
garments, but are
thy garments, they consist,
as it were, entirely of these, are
simply myrrh. In the Song i.
15, (Gesen.) we are to translate:
thine
eyes are doves, what doves are as to their eyes, not (eyes)
of
doves. So that the construction of Elohim as vocat. is the
only
one which can be grammatically justified. For removing
the
objection raised against it by Ewald, that the "for ever and
ever"
is always a mere accompaniment, never itself a predicate,
Psalm
lxxxix. 36, 37, is alone sufficient.—With the expression:
"thy
throne remains for ever and ever, is to be compared the
original
passage, 2 Sam. vii. 13, "I establish the throne of his
kingdom
even to eternity," and ver. 16, "And thy house and
thy
kingdom shall be established for ever before thee, thy throne
shall
be established for ever," and the parallel passage of the
whole
house of David, of the ideal son of David, Psalm lxxxix.
PSALM XLV. VER. 6, 7. 135
4,
36, 37, "his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the
sun
before me; as the moon it shall be established for ever,"
Psalms
xxi. 4, xviii. 50, lxi. 6, 7, cxxxii. 12; and of the Messiah,
in
whom the stem of David was to culminate, Psalm lxxii. 5,
"They
shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure,
throughout
all generations," Psalm cx. 4, and Isa. ix. 6. By
comparing
these original and parallel passages, from which it is
impossible
to separate this, it follows: 1. That
the reference is
inadmissible
to a heathen, or to an Israelitish king, or any refe-
rence
to a particular human individual of the royal house of
in
a strong sense. 2. That the Myhlx is vocative. In both
the
original passage and the parallel passages, the subject of dis-
course
is the eternity of the throne, or of the dominion in itself,
not
of the precise constitution of this.—On the second member,
the
parallel passage, Isa. xi. 4, is to be compared. rvwym, prop.
ivory,
is found, besides there and here; only in Psalm lxvii. 4,
in
a moral sense.
From the praise of the glorious
king, the Psalmist now passes
on
to the theme of the royal marriage, for the celebration of
which
that praise was only to serve as introductory and prepa-
ratory.
Ver. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, there-
fore, 0 God, has thy God
anointed thee with the oil of joy above
thy companions. By means of the words:
Thou lovest right-
eousness,
etc., the beginning of the second part joins itself close-
ly
to the termination of the first, in which the righteousness of
the
kingly government was celebrated. This connection also,
particularly
the therefore, shows that the first
part does not
stand
independent of the first, but serves as its foundation.
Grammatically
the rendering: God, thy God, has anointed thee,
would
have nothing opposed to it, comp. Ps. xliii. 4, etc. But
if
we compare ver. 6, where the Elohim is in the vocat., we
must
so construe also here, the more so, as the Elohim at the
beginning
of the second part corresponds with visible intention
to
the Elohim at the close of the first. By this significant posi-
tion
of the Elohim, we are made to see, that it governs the
whole.
It was customary to anoint with oil on joyful occasions,
hence
to anoint any one with oil, is for, to impart to him joy.
The
further designation of the oil as oil of
joy, has respect to
this,
that the Psalmist, among the different kinds of anointing,
136 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
has
that specially in his eye, in which the oil of joy stands op-
posed
to mourning, comp. Isa. lxi. 1. That here the discourse
is
not of the joy in general, which God gave to the king, but, in
particular,
of the joy which accrued to him from the great num-
ber
of the glorious brides that God brought to him,—of his joy
in
the day of his espousals, in the day of the gladness of his
heart,"
Song iii. 11, appears from the next verse, in the first
member
of which it is represented, how the joy of the king ma-
nifests
itself, and, in the second, whence it springs: it comes
from
the palaces of ivory, in which are the king's daughters.
The
expression: above thy companions, i. e. all other kings, is to
be
explained from 1 Kings iii. 11-13, where God says to Solo-
mon:
"I give thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that
there
was none like thee, before thee, neither after thee shall
any
arise like unto thee.—And also I give thee riches and hon-
our,
so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto
thee
all thy days," comp. 2 Chron. 12.—If it is certain, that the
joy
of the king is no other, than what arises from his possession
of
the brides, the non-Messianic interpretation necessarily comes
into
a great strait. The possession of a numerous harem is a
rare
recompense for the love of righteousness and the hatred of
wickedness.
On the other hand, the therefore
appears deeply
grounded,
according to the Messianic exposition, in which the
brides represent peoples, comp. Ps. lxxii. 12, ss.,
"for he delivers
the
poor that cries," etc., with ver. 8-11, where the extension
of
Messiah's dominion over all nations is set forth.
Ver. 8. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia, are all thy garments, out of
palaces of ivory, from
which they rejoice thee. The garments of
the
king are simple myrrh, etc., they smell as sweetly of the
precious
spices, as if they were wholly made of these. It is
self-evident,
that the discourse here is of the king's garments in
the
day of the joy of his heart. The
connection shews this in-
contestably,
and the possession of fine smelling-clothes was in
itself
too unimportant to be here particularly mentioned; every
kingdom
could provide that for itself. Palaces of ivory, i. e. such
as
had their chambers ornamented with ivory, appear to have
been
the common dwellings of kings and great men, comp. be-
sides
1 Kings xxii. 39, according to which Ahab is said to dwell
in
such a palace, Amos iii. 15, "houses of ivory shall perish,"
vi.
4, Song vii. 4, "Thy neck is as a tower of ivory." We may
see
from these passages, with what right Hitzig would find in
PSALM XLV. VER, 8. 137
the
mention of the palaces of ivory, an undoubted proof of the
reference
of the Psalm to Ahab. This appears so much the
more
arbitrary, as here it is not one palace of ivory, but palaces,
that
are spoken of. The passage, Amos iii. 15, Hitzig endea-
vours
to get rid of by the remark, that Amos spoke at
and
knew
ces
are here the dwelling-places of the king's daughters, ver. 9.
—As
ynm
so often occurs in the Psalms as the prep. Nm with the
so-called
y parag.
comp. xliv. 10, 18; lxviii. 31, etc., Ewald §
406,
we must take it so here also, if it should be found suitable.
We
obtain a very natural and fitting sense, if we consider it as
an
expressive repetition of Nm before ylkyh, which is properly
to
be supplied again after the ynm: out of the ivory
palaces,
therefrom they rejoice thee,
etc.: the joy, of which I speak,
comp.
ver. 7, comes to thee from other places, etc. Exactly
analogous
is Isa. lix. 18: Mlwy
lfk tlmg lfk
according to
their
gifts, accordingly he will recompense. Hoffmann, taking
the
same grammatical view of ynm translates: more than the
ivory
palaces, yea more than these do they (the garments) re-
joice
thee. But thereby the reference of the expression: they
rejoice
thee, to the oil of joy in ver. 7, is left without notice, an
undue
importance is attached to the clothing, the whole verse
is
torn from its connection, etc. The now current exposition is:
out
of ivory palaces rejoice thee stringed instruments. Mynm
in
this sense, Ps. el. 4. But this is liable to the following ob-
jections.
1. The Hebrew language does not know a plural end-
ing
in y.
The examples, which, according still to Ew. § 359,
must
"certainly belong to such," all vanish on a nearer inspec-
tion.The
ymf
in 2 Sam. xxii. 44, signifies, not peoples, but my
people,
comp. vol. i. p. 320. So also in Lain. iii. 14. In 1 Sam.
xx.
38, the Ketib is not to be pointed with Ewald yc.iHi, but yciHe
comp.
ver. 36 and 37. ywylw in 2 Sam. xxiii. 8, is sing., as
ylgr, foot-goer, for, foot-people. Ewald himself at
an earlier
period
denied this ending, Small Gr. § 296. 2. The reference,
which:
they rejoice thee, has to the oil of joy in ver. 8, is also
against
this rendering. It destroys the intermediate member
between
the oil of joy, and the king's daughters. Then, by
this
construction we must, instead of: from
palaces, rather have
expected:
in palaces. Finally, if we understand
the words
generally
of the musical joy, which the king partook of, then
the
sense is a truly childish one.— j~Uhm;.Wi is best taken inde-
138 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
terminately:
one rejoices thee, thou art rejoiced. The nearer
description
of those, from whom the joy comes, follows in the
next
verse: they are the daughters of kings, whom the king
takes
home from the ivory palaces.
Ver. 9. Daughters of kings are among thy honourables, the
consort stands at thy
right hand in gold of Ophir. What is
said
here figuratively is repeated in plain terms in Ps. lxxii. 8-11,
the
sum of which is declared at the close in the words: "all
kings
shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him."
Comp.
also Ps. xlvii. 8, 9, according to which the nobles of all
the
heathen gather themselves to the people of the God of
Jacob.
j~yt,Orq;.ybi, an Aramaic form for j~yt,Orq;.yib;
compare
Ewald,
§ 464, with Dag. Euphon., is not: among thy dear ones,
in
the sense of beloved, but in the sense of: among thy glori-
ous
ones. For rqy,
signifies only dear = precious, glorious,
compare
Prov. iii. 15, vi. 26. This signification also is, accord-
ing
to the whole context, to be adhered to in the only passage
beside
this, which Gesenius brings forward for the meaning,
beloved, Lam. iv. 2. To the
idea of pomp and glory points also
the
second member: splendid are all the consorts, the most
splendid
is the consort of first rank. Against the meaning we
adopt,
Stier objects: "who then were the others, that belonged
to
the wedding party, since all have been named?" But the
b denotes the class to which the brides belonged:
if there were
no
more of them, more at least might be thought of. Quite
analogous,
for example, is this: "the Lord is among my help-
ers,"
in Ps. cxviii. 7, comp. liv. 4, Judg. xi. 35. Many, after
Luther,
expound: daughters of kings are in thy ornaments, in
thy
jewels clothed therein, tvrqy being probably taken in this
signification
in Zech. xiv. 6, comp. Christol. in loc. But it is
not
to be supposed, that the king's daughters, whom the king
for
the first time, leads away from the palaces of ivory, would be
clothed
by him even before the marriage, as that would be
against
the custom of all nations, and especially of the orientals.
lgw, used in Dan. v, 2, 3, and Neh. ii. 6, of the
Chaldee and
Persian
queens, is the rare and unusual designation of a consort
of
the first rank, which, as being such, poetry peculiarly appro-
priates
to itself. The familiar appellation, hrybg, was still in
common
use in the age of Jeremiah, compare Jer. xxix. 2, xiii.
18.
She is here named consort, who ought to be so. The
place
on the right hand is the place of honour. The royal
PSALM XLV. VER. 10. 139
bride
is admitted to this place in the house of her father, com-
pare
ver. 10, his ivory palace, ver. 8, whence the king, according
to
the oriental custom, (1 Macc. ix. 37, ss.), has come to conduct
her
away, and where even the festive procession is arranged.
The
Psalmist then delivers to her in ver. 10-12, a kind of
mournful
address, admonishing her, while she is going to leave
outwardly
her father's house, to do so also inwardly, with her
inclination,
and then begins the procession to the palace of the
king.
Gold of Ophir was already in David's time known in
Solomon
it came thence in great abundance.
Ver. 10, Hear daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and
forget thy people, and
thy father's house.
The Psalmist now
addresses
the bride, of whom he had hitherto spoken. What is
said
immediately to the bride, is substantially spoken also to the
other
brides. According to the current exposition, the Psalmist
must
address the bride as his daughter. So
understood, this
address
serves for confirmation of the figurative interpretation
of
the Psalm. Hoffmann indeed thinks, that this address is un-
suitable
in the figurative, not less than in the literal interpreta-
tion.
But he overlooks, that in an ideal relation a description
corresponding
to the nature of things may be perfectly appro-
priate,
which is shut out as improper by the laws established
for
the relations of common reality. But we can also convenient-
ly
suppose, that the daughter stands here for king's daughter,
or
that the Psalmist so addresses the royal daughter, because
she
must now pass from the relation of a daughter into that of
a
consort. For this speaks the "king's daughters," in ver. 9,
the
"king's-daughter," in ver. 13, and especially "the house of
thy
father," here. What the daughter must hear, see, (hxr also
of
spiritual seeing,) and to which she must incline her ear, is
the
exhortation of the Psalmist: however, as the v before yHkw
shews,
primarily this only in the general: hear what I shall say,
and
forget. The repeated calls for attention imply that the Psalm-
ist
has something important and difficult to ask of the queen. Solo-
mon's
wives plainly violated the demand pressed also upon them,
to
forget their people and their father's house; of them it is
said
in 1 Kings xi. 4, "it came to pass, when Solomon was old,
that
his wives turned away his heart after other gods."—The
word:
forget, etc. carries a very significant reference to Gen.
xii.
1, where God said to Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country
140 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that
I will show thee." This call, which was then addressed to
the
father of the race, is given anew to the people. Berleb.
Bible:
"If we could only sail away over these projections, we
would
soon come in sight of the city of
haps
a reference besides to Gen. ii. 24.
Ver. 11. And cause that the king shall have desire toward thy
beauty, he is thy Lord,
and thou must worship him. Various
expound:
and so will the king desire; others: he desires not-
withstanding.
But by this exposition justice is done neither to
the
fut. apoc., nor to the for. We must
rather expound: let
the
king sigh after thy beauty, give him occasion to do this by
forgetting
thy people and thy father's house,—throw no hin-
drance
in his way regarding it, by not fulfilling this indispen-
sable
condition of his love to thee. The for, etc., points to the
ground
of obligation for the required conduct. She must entire-
ly
live for the satisfaction of her Lord, who desires of her the
forgetting
of her people and her father's house. On the words:
for
he is thy Lord, comp. Gen. iii. 16, xviii. 12; 1 Pet. iii. 5, 6;
and
on: worship thou him, 1 Sam. xxv. 41; 1 Kings i. 16, 31.
Ver. 12. So will the daughter of
the rich among the
people.
Luther: "Hold thy bridegroom in
honour,
and thou shalt be in honour among all people, for he is
so
very powerful." The "daughter
with
a reference not to be mistaken to the daughter in verse
10,
contains a clear indication, that under the latter, an ideal
person,
a personification, is to be understood. That we must
not
explain: the daughter of
evident
from what was formerly remarked on Psalm ix. 14. We
are
especially to compare: the virgin daughter
12.
The construction tb with the plural presents no difficulty
as
to the sense. The verb hlH always signifies to be weak,
sick,
in Pi., to make weak, sick, in Pu., to be made feeble,
sick.
Therefore Mynp hlH can only mean, to make weak, to
soften
the countenance, to entreat so beseechingly, that the
other
cannot reject the suppliant, and cannot shew himself
hard.
The exposition of Gesenius, verbally incorrect: to stroke
the
countenance, has this also against it, that it commonly occurs
of
Jehovah. The object of the earnest entreaty is reception
into
the community of the people of God, comp. Isa. xliv. 5,
Psalm
xlvii. 9. That
PSALM XLV. VER. 12. 141
the
queen with fervent supplication and presents, and to make
her
inclined to fulfil her desire, is inexplicable on the literal in-
terpretation.
The proud island-city never stood in a relation of
dependance
to
to
make a humble suit for their favour,
had
nothing which it could have sought to obtain from them
with
imploring earnestness. In this view also, one does not see
how
the humble solicitations could be made dependant on the
place
the queen had in the heart of the king. On the other
hand,
every difficulty vanishes with the figurative interpretation.
Only
when the
her
society. The church exercises a drawing power toward
those
that are without, in exact proportion to her own internal
connection
with the Lord. Her surrender to the Lord forms
the
ground of the heathen's surrender to her. According to
other
places also, the
object
of earnest desire, as generally of the whole heathen
world,
which brings its riches to her, comp. Ps. lxxii. 10, Isa. lx.
6,
ss., Hag. ii. 7, 8, so in particular of proud
wise
Korahite Psalm lxxxvii.
among
other powerful nations for reception into the kingdom of
God,
and according to Isa. xxiii. 18, the gain of
day
become holy to the Lord.— Mf yrywf, as opposition to
rc tb, not the rich of the peoples, but of the
people, or among
the
people, q. d. the richest persons,
indicates why it is, that
precisely
queen,
viz. that this is singled out of the mass of the other hea-
then
nations, whose homage is promised to the queen in and
with
hers, only as being the richest city of the old world, comp.
in
regard to the riches of
position
of Hitzig is quite different from the one now given:
And,
0 daughter of
flatter
thee. It has already been objected by others, that there
is
great harshness in taking rc tb with the prefixed
copula as
vocative,
that the queen's (Jezabel) much richer marriage is
thus
brought to remembrance with special emphasis in the most
unsuitable
place, and that rc tb is too prevailing a designation
of
the city itself, for our understanding by it a Tyrian princess.
We
add further, that the reference presupposed in this exposi-
tion,
to the marriage of Ahab and Jezabel, has against it the
142 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
name
of the Korahites in the superscription, since these had no
connection
with the kingdom of the ten tribes; that in one verse,
in
which the discourse is of rich gifts and rich people, that ex-
position
has the presumption in its favour, by which the bringers
of
the rich gifts, and the rich people, are the Tyrians, whose
riches
were proverbial; and finally, that the produced parallel
passages
are in favour of the exposition we have given. Hence,
that
view of Hitzig may be regarded as entirely exploded.
After the Psalmist has finished his
address, which found a full
response
in the heart of the bride, the procession advances
from
the house of the bride's father, into the palace of the
king.
Ver. 13. All splendour is the king's daughter within, her cloth-
ing of gold fabric. hmynp
always
means inwards, in respect to
the
within, in the interior, comp. Lev. x. 18, 1 Kings vi. 18, 2
Kings
vii. 11, never into, (Ew.), nor also
in any other than a
local sense, (against
Kohlbrugge and Stier, who think, that the
glory
of the queen is thereby indicated as a hidden, spiritual
one.)
It can only mean: in the interior of the palace, where
the
king stands on her right hand, ver. 9, parallel to: out of the
ivory
palaces, in ver. 8, and forming the contrast to: she is
brought
to the king, in ver. 14, they come into the palace of the
king,
in ver. 15.
Ver. 14. In variously wrought garments she is brought to the
king, virgins behind
her, her companions are brought to thee.
The
l in
tvmqrl
marks the kind, to which the garments of
the
queen belong, to variegated, hence that they belong to the
variegated.
Somewhat differently Ew. § 520. As the clothing
was
already described in the preceding verse, many expositors
would
render: upon variegated coverings, or carpets, with re-
ference
to Matt. xxi. 8, and what interpreters, for ex. Kuinoel,
have
there collected. However, the beginning of our verse can
very
fitly be taken as the resumption of the close of the preced-
ing
one, serving the purpose of making it manifest, that the
splendour
of the queen is that of a wedding. The march of the
king
was described in ver. 8, on the occasion of his coming to
the
bride, the march of the queen is described here, on the oc-
casion
of her coming to the king. As the king conducts away
the
bride, comp. verse 9, the expression: she is brought to the
king,
can only signify as much as: she is brought into the pa-
lace
of the king, comp. verse 15. The exposition: behind her
PSALM XLV. VER. 15-16. 143
points
to the precedence held by the bride over the brides; the
designation:
her companions, to the essential
similarity, so that
she
still appears, as also in the N. T., as the first among equals.
Ver. 15. They are brought in joy and gladness, they come in-
to the palace of the
king.
Then follows now, in verses 16 and
17,
the closing address to the king.
Ver. 16. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons, thou wilt set
them as princes over the
whole earth.
This verse rests upon the
custom
of wishing to the married pair a numerous and mighty
offspring,
comp. Gen. xxiv. 60, Ruth iv. 11, 12. What in com-
mon
relations can appear merely as a wish, that assumes here
the
character of a prophecy. The sense of the first clause: thy
glorious
forefathers, David, Solomon, and their successors, shall
be
cast into the shade by thy still more glorious sons, and re-
tire
into the back-ground before them, comp. Isa. lx. 17. Of
what
sort these sons are to be, is determined by the nature of
the
connection, from which they are produced: they are spiri-
tual sons. In the second
clause, the relations of the Psalmist's
time
appear to form the ground of the representation. Solo-
mon
had divided his land, according to 1 Kings iv. 7, into twelve
departments,
and, according to 2 Sam. viii. 18, David appointed
his
sons as sub-regents. A similar plan was adopted by Reho-
boam,
2 Chron. xi. 23. As the fathers of the king did with their
limited
territory, so will this king do with the whole earth. The
naked
idea is expressed in Ps. lxxii. 11: all kings will do ho-
mage
to thee.—In order to meet the Messianic exposition, Hoff-
mann
would again revive the rendering of Crxh lkb by: in
the
whole land. "The poet had nothing farther in his mind,
than
that the king will have sons enough, so as merely to dis-
pose
them everywhere in the land, in which he holds the high-
est
office." Already has De Wette described this exposition as
prosaic,
and, indeed, the conclusion would form a rare contrast
to
the whole elevated subject of the Psalm, so rare, that we
might
more truly call such an exposition ridiculous. The refe-
rence
to the king's glorious march of victory, ver. 3-5, is
thereby
left entirely out of view, so also verse 12, according to
which
verse
17, according to which the peoples praise him. There is
no
choice, therefore, but between the Messianic exposition, and
that
of De Wette, "hyperbolical flattery."
Ver. 7. I will proclaim thy name among all generations,
144 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
therefore will peoples
praise thee for ever and ever. The expres-
sion:
I will proclaim, is spoken by the Psalmist, not as an indi-
vidual,
but as a representative of the evangelists. He carries
the
praise no farther, than simply announcing the name of the
Lord,
his glorious attributes. By these remarks, and only by
these,
is the therefore capable of
explanation.
PSALM XLVI.
THIS is "a fine consolatory
Psalm, wherein God's marvellous
working
is praised, as he protects his little flock of believers,
and
preserves them through such great necessities of war and
persecutions,
that it might seem as if the world was going to
wreck,"
Arnd. The theme, the security of the
in
the midst of those storms, which shake the world, is distri-
buted
into three strophes, which are also externally separated
by
the thrice repeated Selah, ver. 1-3, 4-7, 8-11. The
ground-thought
uttered at the commencement: God is our re-
fuge
and strength, returns, with only a slight change of form,
at
the end of the second and the third strophe, and consequent-
ly
of the whole Psalm, so that the close refers back to the be-
ginning.
From the last strophe: "Come, behold the works of
the
Lord, who effects desolation on the earth," it is clear, that
the
fundamental idea of the Psalm had been made living to the
Psalmist
by some particular historical occasion, which he ex-
pressly
refers to in the third strophe, after he had in the two
first
confined himself alone to the everlasting idea, rising up
thereto
from its particular developement.
The historical occasion of the
Psalms cannot with certainty be
determined.
It was called forth by a catastrophe, which befel
the
works
of the Lord;) and has for its immediate object
deliverance.
Otherwise, the particular in the last
strophe
would
not serve as a foundation for the general
in the two first
strophes;
especially this: "God helps her at the break of
morning,"
would not be comprehensible, as it pre-supposes a
strong
oppression on
“Leave
off and know, that I am God,” has only then a motive
laid
for it, when the desolation effected upon the earth, verse 8,
PSALM XLVI. 145
and
the cessation of war in ver. 9, could be recognised by all
as
done in behalf of
fact
a dissuasive for the heathen against fighting with
demonstrative
proof of the godhead of his God. In like man-
ner,
it is then only that verse 11 appears as grounded. But, at
the
same time, if this catastrophe was of world-historical import,
the
annihilation of the power of a world-conqueror: then with
as
it could be surveyed from
has
thereby glorified himself through all the earth, verse 10.
By
observing these distinctive marks, hypotheses, such as those
of
De Wette, who thinks the Psalm refers to foreign kings,
whom
God had brought to quiescence, and of Hitzig, who refers
it
to a sudden scaring of the Syrians and Ephraimites from the
Jewish
territory, are completely set aside. In the whole Israel-
itish
history, there is only one event, of which we can here think,
the
destruction of Sennacherib's army before the gates of Jeru-
Isa.
xxxvii. 36. That whole chapter and the xxxvi. must
be
read, if we would come to the full understanding and enjoy-
ment
of the Psalm. After the exodus from
occasion
more appropriate than this for bringing vividly out the
leading
idea in this Psalm. The entire might of the present
world,
which, as formerly in
less
in its march of conquest, came against
words:
"Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, the Lord will
deliver
us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his
land
out of the hand of the king of
equally
impressive answer given then, as formerly
to the
question
of Pharaoh: Who is Jehovah? When all seemed al-
ready
to be lost, the holy city was by an immediate exercise of
divine
omnipotence delivered, without any co-operation on the
part
of its feeble inhabitants, without even any interruption to,
the
undertaking of the Assyrians from their chief enemies, the
Egyptians.
Then, when real greatness was great also in ap-
pearance,
when the power of the world had assumed a dazzling
splendour,
at such a time it was, that it was said to the posses-
sors
thereof, as is done here in verse 10, "cease and know, that I
am
God." In expression also there occur allusions to what was
spoken
and written at that time. The Immanuel,
which Isaiah,
in.
ch. viii. 10, calls out to a blustering heathen world, while,
146 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lifting
itself up against the people of God, forms here the essen-
tial
element, comp. ver. 7 and 10. As Hezekiah, in Isa. xxxvii.
20,
entreats God: "And now, 0 Lord, our
God, deliver us out
of
his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know,
that
thou alone art the Lord," so here the Psalmist calls aloud
to
the heathen, after the prayer had been granted, "Know that
I
am God, exalted among the heathen, exalted upon earth,"
It
is perhaps also not unworthy of notice, that the discourse here
is
only of the city of
was
then at stake. All the other strong places had Sennacherib
already
taken away, Isa. xxxvi. 1, and
ed,
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Besides, it is self-
evident
that the subject of the Psalm, upon which Luther's
"Eine
feste Burg ist unser Gott," rests, is no Old Testament
idea.
There is only one
this
it belongs. When Christ supports his Church, the gates of
hell
may rage; this is only the New Testament form for the
general
fundamental truth.
After Venema, Hitzig maintains
Isaiah to be the author of
the
Psalm, on the ground, that it contains much in common with
the
prophecies of Isaiah in respect to the Assyrian times. But
there
might be still more of this, than there really is, (only the
Immanuel is of any moment,)
without perhaps invalidating the
authority
of the superscription, which expressly testifies against
this
hypothesis. A certain dependance of the sacred bards
upon
the prophets, whether direct, or indirect, is from the first
probable.
If we include the superscription,
the Psalm completes itself
in
the number twelve, which, as in the disposition of the camp
in
the wilderness, is distributed into three and four: three
strophes
of four verses.
In the superscription: To the
chief musician of the sons of
Korah, after the virgin-manner,
a song,
the tvmlf lf is accord-
ing to 1 Chron. xv. 20, unquestionably to be taken
as marking
the
kind of tone; Gousset: vox clara et
acuta, quasi virginum.
Such
musical designations occur very rarely in the superscrip-
tions, comp. Ps. vi. iv. viii.
Ver. 1. God is our refuge and strength, a help in
necessities is
he found most truly. Ver. 2. Therefore we are not afraid;
though the earth is
changed, and the mountains shake in the
heart of the sea, Ver. 3. roar, foam its waters, mountains tremble
PSALM XLVI. VER. 1-3. 147
through its loftiness. The church of the Lord
is secure with
his
protection, in the midst of the stormy commotions, by which
what
is most glorious in the world is brought down. In sub-
stance,
it is parallel with what Hezekiah, according to 2 Chron.
xxxii.
7, said to the captains of war, "Be strong and courageous,
be
not afraid nor dismayed for the king of
the
multitude that is with him, for with us is a greater than
with
him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord
our
God, to help us, and to fight our battles." xcmn not: he
was, but he is found to us, he shows or proves
himself to us,
comp.
on the use of the pret. Ew. § 262. Calvin remarks, that
ver.
1 refers not to all persons, but to all times; the Psalmist
teaches
how God must conduct himself toward his own, places
God's
chosen people in opposition to the profane world, which
is
left destitute of any such support. In ver. 2, rymh, not to
be
changed, still less to shake, but it is used in its common sig-
nification,
to change. The infinitive stands
impers., as in Ps.
xlii.
3, Ez. xxiii. 44, Job xx. 4, Ex. ix. 16; though one changes,
for,
though is changed. This use of the infin. lay so much the
nearer,
as rvm
can be used only in this conjugation. The
change
of the earth, which comes into consideration here, ac-
cording
to ver. 6, as the seat of the earthly kingdom, marks
great
revolutions, through which its form is altered, what is
uppermost
is turned into the lowermost. The immediate cause
of
the change are the nations in search of conquest, according
to
ver. 3, "through its loftiness," and ver. 6, "the peoples
rage;"
but, according to the words, "he utters his voice, the
earth
melts," the last and highest cause is the Lord, comp. Hag.
ii.
21, 22, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of
the
heavens and the earth, and overthrow the throne of king-
doms,
and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen."
Such
a change of the earth had found place in the recent past,
when
tion,
"removed the bounds of the people, and robbed their
treasures,
and put down the inhabitants like a valiant man,"
Isa.
x. 13. That the sea and the mountains are to be taken
figuratively,
shows already the form of expression, (the natural
mountains
are not in the heart, i. e. in the innermost of the sea;
the
exposition and the mountains sink into the middle of the
sea,
is verbally inadmissible; for Fvb signifies only to
shake,
and
must be taken in its common signification, were it only for
148 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ver.
5 and 6); shows further, ver. 3, the suffixes in which refer-
ring
to the sea cannot otherwise be explained, the contrast be-
tween
the still flood and the roaring sea in ver. 4, and the
words
the peoples rage, the kingdoms shake, in ver. 6, by
which
an explanation is given of "the mountains shaking in the
heart
of the sea." Now what is to be understood by the moun-
tains,
admits of no doubt., They are a figurative description of
empires, comp. on Ps. xxx. 7, Rev. viii. 8, and Isa. xxxvii. 24,
where
the king of
tains,
the sides of
conquered
kingdoms = the ascended mountains, in ver. 11-13,
x.
9. Seas
and overflowing floods are not rarely an image of
hostile
masses of people, which take delight in making con-
quest
over the face of the earth, comp. Isa. xvii. 12, viii. 7, 8,
Jer.
xlvii. 2, xlvi. 7. But the image cannot have this import
here.
For here the mountains, the conquered kingdoms, are in
the
heart of the sea. Here the sea is rather the symbol of the
world,
the masses of people generally, which are kept in con-
stant
motion by their principle—pride, ambition, comp. Isa. lvii.
20:
"the wicked are like a troubled sea." The proper paral-
lels
here are Isa. xxvii. 1, according to which
ster
in the sea, Dan. vii. 2, 3, "the four winds strove with each
other
on the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the
sea,"
Rev. viii. 8, and xvii. 15, where in explanation of the sym-
bol
of the whore, who sits upon many waters, i. e. rules over
many
nations, it is said: "The waters, which thou sawest, where
the
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues."
The mountains in the heart of the sea denote the
mightiest
kingdoms of the world. The suffixes in ver. 3, are to
be
referred to the sea, which only as to form is plural, comp.
Ew.
§ 569. In regard to the transition of the inf. with b into
the
verb fin. comp. Ew. § 621. The sea is apprehended as in
constant
motion. Even mountains are not able to withstand its
raging.
But the city of God must not be afraid. hxg stands
here
in its usual signification, pride, haughtiness, comp. tUxge
Myh Ps. lxxxix. 9. The raging of the sea is here
described the
more
fitly as high-mindedness, since the discourse is of the spi-
ritual
sea, the world, which is kept in perpetual agitation by
the
prevalence of that spirit; comp. the delineation of the
haughtiness
of the king of Assyria in Isa. x. 12, ss.
PSALM XLVI. VER. 4-7. 149
Ver. 4. The River—its streams rejoice the city of God, holy
through the dwellings of
the Most High.
Ver. 5. God is in the
midst of her, therefore
will she not move, God helps her at the
break of morning. Ver. 6. The peoples roar, kingdoms shake,
he makes his voice to
resound, the earth melts. Ver. 7. The
Lord, the Lord of hosts
is with us, our strong fortress the God
of Jacob. Selah. In opposition to the raging and destroying
sea
stands the quiet and soft-flowing, refreshing and quickening
flood.
The contrast between the figurative
sea, and the fact, that
Jerusalem
possesses no river, (in vain would the literally histori-
cal
expositors perpetually think here anew of the brook Siloah,
which
at the most could only have suggested the image, comp.
Isa.
viii. 6), shows, that the discourse here is of a spiritual flood.
The
blessings of the kingdom of God, its gifts of grace, appear
under
the image of a river, resting upon Gen. ii. 10, comp. on
Ps.
xxxvi. 8, in a whole series of passages, Ps. xxxvi. 8, John iv.
18,
Ez. xlvii., Zech. xiv. 8, Rev. xxii. 1, "And he shewed me a
pure
river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God
and
of the Lamb." rhn, the nom. absol. The Psalmist first
sets
forth the whole, because this forms a suitable contrast to
the
sea. He then mentions the particular streams, in order to
draw
attention to the manifold ways, in which God makes his
grace
flow out to the church. In Zech. iv. the number of pipes
to
the candlestick, seven for each of the seven lamps, points in
like
manner to the variety of ways, in which the grace of God
flows
out to his church, as also to its richness, comp. Christol. II.
p.
57. Here the kingdom's grace is primarily thought of in re-
ference
to the dangers, to which the city of God was exposed on
the
part of an ambitious world, although we must not confine its
application
entirely to that. The dwellings of God are, accord-
ing
to the standing usage, the temple. But the holy of the
dwellings
of the Most High, from being in apposition to the city
of
God, and from the following verse, can only be the holy city.
We
must either expound: the place, which is holy through the
dwellings
of the Most High, or the holy place, where the dwel-
lings
of the Most High are, comp. Ew. § 503. wvdq, the holy
=
the holy place, (comp. Ex. xxix. 31, Lev. vi. 9, 19, also Ps.
lxv.
4, and perhaps Isa. lvii. 15.) Calvin: “The sentiment of
Horace
on the just man: si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum
ferient
ruinae, appears excellent at first sight. But as such a
person
as he draws has never been found, he merely trifles,
150 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
This
greatness of soul, therefore, is based solely in the protec-
tion
of God, so that they who rest upon God can truly affirm,
that
they are not only without fear, but also safe and secure,
though
the whole world should be involved in ruin." Happy
those,
who have passed out of the territory of the sea into that
of
the river!—The expression: God is in the midst of her, in ver.
5,
holds true of the church of the New Testament, unspeakably
more
than of the Old, as God is present with her in the fullest
sense
in Christ. dqb tvnpl, lit.: about the turning of the
morning,
comp. upon the l in denoting periods of time, Ew. §
520;
the hnp
here, to turn one's self, for the purpose of com-
ing.
That we are not to expound with Hitzig: as often as the
morning
breaks, but rather: as soon as the morning breaks, ap-
pears
from the original passage in Ex. xiv. 27: "And Moses
stretched
forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to
his
strength when the morning appeared,"
comp. Judges xix. 26,
and
the exact paral. Ps. xxx. 5, "weeping may endure for a night,
but
joy cometh in the morning," Ps. xlix. 14, cxliii. 8. Distress with
the
Lord's people can have only, as it were, a night's quarters.
Whenever
the morning breaks, the Lord drives it from its
resting-place,
and sends another, an abiding guest, salvation.
There
is unquestionably an allusion to the overthrow of the
Assyrians.
Then, in reality, did there stand but
one night
between
the highest pitch of distress and the most complete
deliverance,
comp. Isl. xvii. 14: "And behold at evening-tide
trouble,
before the morning comes, it is no more," xxxvii. 36:
"And
they arose in the morning, and lo! they were all dead
corpses."—Ver.
6 and 7 form a contrast. Ver. 6 represents the
dissolving
of the world, ver. 7, the security of the kingdom of
God,
The whole earth is in uproar and confusion, peoples
rage,
kingdoms reel; but that God, who suspends over them a
spiritual
earthquake, is the protection and help of his people,
so
that they stand firm and secure amid the general desolation.
That
the pret. vmh
and vFm
are to be taken in the pres. sense,
appears
from the fut. gnmt, and the whole context, in which
the
discourse is not of a single event, but of what is constantly
taking
place. On: the peoples roar, comp. Isa. xvii. 12, "Hear,
a
roaring of many peoples, as the roaring of the sea they roar,"
Jer.
v. 22. In the second half of ver. 6, according to the cur-
rent
exposition, the stilling of the peoples' uproar must be ex-
pressed:
De Wette: "Jehovah commands quiet, and man
PSALMS XLVI. VER. 4-11. 151
obeys;"
Tholuck "Let the God of Jacob utter his voice, and
however
fiercely the peoples roar, they must be dumb." But
this
exposition is quite inadmissible. gvm does not signify to be
afraid, (De Wette,) nor to be dumb, but to melt, and the melt-
ing
of the earth everywhere else denotes the dissolving effect
of
the divine judgments, comp. Ps. lxxv. 3, "The earth and all
its
inhabitants are dissolved," Amos ix. 5. Immediately be-
fore
goes the expression: they shake, not: they roar; the voice,
therefore,
cannot be a silencing, but a frightening, dissolving,
destroying
one, The whole verse is rather parallel to verse 2
and
3, and the contrast is not contained in it, but first appears
in
verse 7. In its second part the idea suggested is, that the
Lord
is the ultimate cause of the roaring of the peoples, as of
the
shaking of the kingdoms, and the ground is, consequently,
prepared
for the reception of the seed of promise in verse 7.
Though
the Lord should let the people roar, his people must
not
tremble before them, as it stands unalterably fast, that he
can
help them. Comp., besides, Hag. ii. 21, 22. vlvqb Ntn,
prop.:
he gives with his voice, is to be explained in this way,
that
the giving, according to the
connection, is as much as,
giving
a sound, edere sonum. So also in Ps. lxiii. 33.—The
names
of God, in verse 7, indicate, at once, his almightiness, and
his
relation to his covenant people. Calvin: "That our faith
may
stand fast in God, these two things must be considered,
namely,
the infinite power with which he is provided for sub-
jecting
the whole world, then his fatherly love, which he has
disclosed
in his word." On the Selah the
Berleb. Bible: "Lay
this
once more deeply to heart in quiet, that it may be firmly
rooted."
Arnd: "Because of the sins of the people earthly
kingdoms
are changed, as experience teaches, therefore the
mighty
kingdoms of the world, the four empires, are passed
away,
while Christ has, at the same time, preserved his word and
kingdom."
The Psalm turns now, in the last
strophe, from unlimited con-
fidence
in God's protection and help, to the event of the recent
past,
which laid so glorious a foundation for this confidence.
Ver.
8. Come, behold the works of the Lord,
who makes desola-
tion on the. earth. Ver. 9. Who makes wars to cease to the ends
of the earth, bow
breaks, and spear cuts asunder, chariot with
fire burns. Ver. 10. Cease and know, that I am God, exalted
among the heathen,
exalted in the earth.
Ver. 11. The Lord,
152 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the Lord of hosts is
with us, our fortress the God of Jacob,
Selah. In the, come, behold, in verse 8, the Psalmist
calls to all
without
distinction. Crxb, not in the land, but, as the follow-
ing
context shows, on the earth. On the earth, because the de-
solation
concerns the powers of the world, which bold under
their
sway the orbis terrarum, comp. "to the end of the earth,"
in
ver. 9, and "the whole earth is at rest and quiet," in Isaiah
xiv.
7. We might also conceive by the expression a reference
to
the fact, that the God of Israel does not conceal himself, shut
himself
up in the heavens, but makes known his almightiness on
the
earth, by the overthrow of mighty peoples, so that all can
behold
in his works the proofs of his alone godhead. For hmw
the
sense of desolation is established by
Isa. v. 9, xiii. 9, xxiv,
12,
comp. Jer. xxv. 12. The sig. adopted by Ewald, stupenda,
rests
on no ground. That the desolation must have for its ob-
ject
those, who had raised themselves against the people of God,
and
threatened to swallow them up, has been already remarked.
For
hvhy
in many critical helps is found Myhlx. But the
former
has by far the preponderance on its side of critical au-
thorities,
and the Elohim, not justified also by Ps. lxvi. 5, in the
smaller
number of these, is capable of explanation on the same
grounds,
which makes our modern critics so much inclined to
that
reading, the fact of the Elohim being so common in the
Korahite
Psalms. Jehovah is here far more suitable, as every
thing
has respect precisely to the point, that the works here
mentioned
belong to the God of Israel, and as here the experi-
mental
proof is brought in support of the immediately preceding
declaration:
Jehovah, the God of Jacob, is with us. From what
Jehovah
has done, the proof is brought in ver. 10, that he is God,
Elohim.—The
means, by which God makes war to cease to
the
end of the earth, ver. 9, is the
overthrow of the wild conquerors
and
tyrannical lords, comp. the triumphal song, raised on the
same
grounds as existed here in reference to
pride
of the king of
things,
it is said: "How does the oppressor
rest, cease from his
oppression!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the
sceptre
of the rulers. The whole earth rests and is quiet, breaks
forth
into singing." The bows, arrows,
chariots, are those of
the
plunderers. These are rendered as incapable of prosecuting
their
devastations, or even of preserving what they had won, as
if
their implements of war were destroyed. The active opera-
PSALM XLVII. 153
tion,
which the Lord here unfolds, is an earnest of that which
he
will manifest at the end of time, comp. Isa. ii. 4, Mic. iv. 3.
That
the destruction of the conqueror, who is here spoken of,
must
necessarily have taken place under such circumstances as
those
of
looked,
we shewed before, comp. 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, "And
many
brought gifts to the Lord to
Hezekiah,
king of
heathen
henceforth."—In ver. 10 the Lord directs his speech
to
the peoples of the earth. Cease, not
in regard to war at
large--for
then the ground does not suit—but from war against
my
people, which, as the foregoing fact shews, is a contest of
feebleness
against omnipotence, ruinous to those who undertake
it.
On the last words John Arnd "How, then, could we have
a
stronger support? If only our support does not depart from
us,
we may say, as Joshua and Caleb did of the heathen, fear ye
not,
they are as bread to us, for their support has departed from
them.
If God remains our support, what then can men do with
all
their might!"
PSALM
XLVII.
ALL the nations of the earth are
called upon to unite in joyful
praise
to the Lord, ver. 1, because he is terrible, and the al-
mighty
ruler of the whole earth, ver. 2, according to the clear
testimony
of the events that had just taken place, the victory
which
he had accomplished for his people over many enemies,
the
protection which he afforded to his endangered land, ver. 3,
4.
The Lord returns, after he had successfully managed the
affairs
of his people, to his heavenly habitation: the Psalmist
exhorts
to the singing of praises to him on his ascent, as to the
king
of the whole earth, who had manifested himself as such,
ver.
5-7. God reigns over the heathen, God sits upon his holy
throne,
this the occurrent transactions teach, and thereby impart
a
prophetic sense to the Psalmist: he sees how the princes of
the
peoples gather themselves, in order to acknowledge God,
as
their God, and to have themselves received into his church,
ver.
8 and 9.
The Psalm falls into two equal
strophes (including the super-
154 THE BOOK OF PSALMS
scription),
which are separated by a Selah, ver. 1-4, and 5-9.
Both
contain a call to praise the Lord, with its grounding. In
the
first, this call is addressed to the heathen, in the second, to
conclusion.
The whole is completed in the number ten. The
name
Elohim occurs seven times.
The occasion of the Psalm was,
according to verse 3, an over-
throw
of many heathen peoples, accomplished by the visible in-
terposition
of God, who had leagued themselves against
and
who, according to verse 4, had set out with the purpose of
expelling
tive
mark, we shall easily be convinced of the untenableness of
the
hypothesis of Ewald, according to which the Psalm belongs
to
the time after the return from the exile, and must represent
Jehovah's
sovereignty going out of
heathen,
(verse 3 manifestly speaks of a constrained
subjection,
to
which also the terrible points in
verse 2), as also that of Hitzig,
who
refers it to the victory of Hezekiah over the Philistines, 2
Kings
xviii. 8,—to say nothing of older hypotheses, which refer-
red
the Psalm to the occasion of removing the ark of the cove-
nant,
in the time of David or Solomon, or even to the ascension
of
Christ. The only thing that suggests itself as a fit reference
is
the victory of Jehosaphat over the combined Moabites, Am-
monites,
Edomites, and Arabians, in 2 Chron. xx. Many na-
tions
were thus united against
thing
less than driving
Chron.
xx. 11; the overthrow of the enemies followed under
circumstances,
which caused the hand of God to be clearly dis-
cerned.
Surprised by an attack in the rear from a host of free-
booting
sons of the wilderness, the enemies fled in a panic, and
as
the spirit of mistrust fell upon them, and each people thought
itself
betrayed by the other, they turned their arms one against
another.
So
reference
to that event is favoured by the circumstance that
then,
according to 2 Chron. xx. 19, the Korahites are expressly
mentioned
as having been present in the army, that the imme-
diately
following Psalm refers to the same event, as also Psalm
lxxxiii.
(these three Psalms perfectly suffice for a defence of 2
Chron,
xx. against the attacks of modern criticism), finally, that
on
this supposition we obtain a suitable situation for verse 5,
from
2 Chron. xx. 26, "On the fourth day they assembled them
PSALM XLVII. VER. 1-4. 155
selves
together, in the valley of praise, for there they praised
the
Lord." Before the people left the field of slaughter, to re-
turn
back to
ley
of praise: from there God made as it were, his ascent to
heaven,
after having achieved redemption for his people. As
the
army into the holy city, so the leader of the host returned
to
heaven. In the valley of praise was this Psalm sung, as the
following
one in the service of the temple.—The objection a-
gainst
the reference to the victory of Jehoshaphat, that then the
ark
of the covenant was not in the field, as here according to
verse
5, would have some force, if verse 5 really presupposed
the
presence of the ark. For notwithstanding all that Movers
says
upon the Chron. p. 289, there is not a single passage that
certainly
bespeaks the presence of the ark with the host, after
the
time of David. But verse 5, rightly
understood, says no-
thing
of the ark of the covenant.
To
the chief musician, of the sons of Korah, a Psalm. Ver.
1.
Exult with hands all peoples, shout to
God with jubilee-voice.
Ver.
2. For the Lord, the Most High, is
terrible, a great King
over all the earth. Ver. 3. He constrains peoples under us, and
nations under our feet. Ver. 4. He chooses our inheritance for
us, the pride of Jacob,
whom he loves. Selah.
The clapping of
the
hands in verse 1 is a gesture of joy, Nah. iii. 19, comp. Ps.
xcviii.
8, Isa. lv. 12. They must exult to the Lord with heart,
mouth,
and hands. Of homage there is no
trace; this is only
dragged
in by Stier. The ground of joy to the heathen is an-
nounced
in ver. 2-4. In the victory which
gained,
the glory of the Lord manifested itself, and since he is
the
God of the whole earth, this glory belongs also to the hea-
then.
What was done primarily for
sion
of living joy for the whole world. For even those, to
whom
immediately it brings no salvation, have still therein a
matter-of-fact
promise of this, a pledge of their obtaining it in
the
time to come. While it shews the greatness of God, it
shews
also what they may expect from this God in the future.
The
call of the Psalmist could certainly not be responded to by
the
heathen at that time, just because they were still heathen.
But
while he declares what they properly ought to do, he stirs
up
all the more powerfully the heart of
lar
calls to the heathen, to praise the Lord on account of his
wonderful
doings for
156 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ps.
cxvii. The original passage is Deut. xxxii. 43: "Rejoice
ye
nations, rejoice his people, for he avenges the blood of his
servants,"
comp. on Ps. xviii. 49. In ver. 2, the Psalmist points
to
the attributes of the Lord, which justify the call to the hea-
then
to praise him. Then in ver. 3 and 4 he brings forward the
proof
of these attributes from his doings. Terrible—so
has
God
shewn himself in the destruction of the enemies of his peo-
ple,
comp. Ps. lxviii. 35. He has proved himself to be a great
king
over the whole earth, as opposed merely to being king of
ed
to devour Israel.—Ver. 3 and 4 might of themselves be re-
ferred
to the active operation of God, as appearing in the whole
history,
in conquering the enemies of his people, and preserv-
ing
his inheritance. But ver. 5 shews, that the question is
about
a particular act of God, and indeed one that had recently
occurred,
in which the truth declared in ver. 2, furnishing an oc-
casion
for triumphant joy to the heathen, had just brilliantly
shone
forth. "The mild, friendly sense," maintained by Stier
in
3, is excluded by rybdh, to
drive, to force one's self, which
imports
a violent subjugation; by a comp. of the parall. pass.
Ps.
xviii. 47: "The God, that avengeth me, and subdueth, the
peoples
under me," (comp. on, "under our feet" of the second
member,
"they fall under my feet," in Ps. xviii. 38,) and by the
terrible in ver. 2, the proving
of which is furnished by this verse.
Calvin's
objection, repeated by Stier, against the exposition we
have
given, that we cannot suppose persons, who had been con-
strained
to serve by fear and violence, would exult with joy, is
removed
by the remark, that the peoples here are different from
those
in ver. 1,—there the whole heathen world, here the par-
ticular
peoples, whom
can
very easily conceal a sweet kernel. How
far the victory
over
ly
declared in ver. 2. It is not the particular in itself—this was
either
a matter of indifference to the peoples, or the occasion of
ruin—but
the general unfolded in the particular, the proof for
the
being of God in the large sense, which that furnished for
joy
to every human heart longing for help, consolation, and sal-
vation.
If in ver. 4 the discourse is simply of the inheritance of
Jacob,
we can only understand by that the holy
land, which is
frequently
so described, comp. Isa. lviii. 14, Deut. iv. 38, xv. 4,
etc.;
and it is arbitrary, with Stier and others, upon the ground
PSALM XLVII. VER. 4-9. 157
of
a false meaning of ver. 3, to think of the promised fulness
of
the gentiles," which can just as little, without any thing fur-
ther,
be designated as the pride of Jacob.
This can only mark a
preference,
which
tion
also is the rHb, which, according to it, must mean, he will
give us. The sense of the
first member is simply this: God has
by
his conduct distinctly shown, that the holy land, the inheri-
tance
of his people, lies near to his heart, just because it is the
inheritance
of his people. The expression: he chooses, is to be
explained
by considering the inheritance to be chosen, as it
were,
anew, when a signal proof is given of the choice. vnl
denotes
those, out of love to whom the choice of the inheritance
is
made. In the second member, the inheritance of the Lord is
epexegetically
described as the pride of Jacob, that
for which
Jacob
might be proud, comp. Nah. ii. 3, Am. vi. 8, because it
had
been rendered glorious by so many proofs of the might and
grace
of his God, which Amos himself, in ch. viii. 7, designates
the
pride of
whom
he loves, indicates, what was merely implied in the us of
the
first member, that the preference the Lord gives to the land,
has
its ground in love to the people. If this were not parall.,
we
could still refer the rwx to the pride, by comp. Am. vi. 8,
and
Ps. lxxviii. 68. But so, Mal. i. 2 is rather to be comp. The
verse
stands in close connection with the preceding one. The
vanquishing
of the peoples, which
inheritance,
comp. 2 Chron. xx. 11, is that which forms the con-
dition
of the choosing = the delivering of the inheritance.
Ver. 5. God goes up with rejoicing, the Lord with the sound
of a trumpet. Ver. 6. Sing praise to God, sing praise, sing
praise to our king, sing
praise.
Ver. 7. For king of the whole
earth is God, sing a
song with edification.
Ver. 8. God reigns
over the heathen, God
sits upon his holy throne. Ver. 9. The
princes of the peoples
are gathered together to the people of the
God of Abraham, for the
shields of the earth are God's, he is
greatly exalted. That in ver. 5, the
going up of God to heaven,
is
his return to his heavenly throne, his invisible procession to
heaven,
which takes place after he had displayed on earth by
outward
deeds his almightiness and love, and carried there the
interests
of his people, as a prelude to the ascension of Christ,
appears
from ver. 8, and the comparison of all other passages,
in
which the going up of God is mentioned, Gen. xvii. 22, Judg.
158 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
xiii.
20, Ps. vii. 7, and especially Ps. lxviii. 18, which, having a
typical
reference to the ascension of Christ in the New Testa-
ment,
has at the same time an important bearing on our verse.
The
call to praise the Lord on his ascension to heaven is based
in
ver. 7 on the circumstance, that he, the king of
the
very deeds of his almightiness, shown himself to be king over
all
the earth. On lykWm comp. on Ps. xxxii. super. Every
song
in praise of God, on account of his glorious deeds, con-
tains
a rich treasure of instruction and improvement. Here the
instruction,
which shall be drawn out of the foregoing deeds,
has
been expressly declared. It is this, that God is king over
the
whole earth, that he reigns over the heathen, that these
shall
also sometime own his sovereignty. This great truth is
particularly
set forth in the two closing verses, as the special
lesson
of the particular transactions. The holy throne of God is
as
much as, "the throne high and lifted up," in Isa. vi. 1, comp.
on
the idea of holiness in Ps. xxii. 3. The consequence of God's
sitting
on the throne of his holiness, is his universal sovereignty,
comp.
Ps. ciii. 19, "The Lord has prepared his throne in the
heavens,
and his kingdom ruleth over all," Isa. lxvi. 1. In ver.
9
the Mf,
is to be taken as accus., as it is commonly with verbs
of
gesture and motion, comp. Ew. § 477. This idea is con-
tained
in the expression: they gather themselves. To gather
themselves
= to come gathered. With a poet, we certainly can-
not
regard this accusative as "somewhat hard." We are not,
with
others, to explain: the princes of the people are gathered
as a people of God. For Mhrbx
yhlx Mf,
cannot mean one,
but
only the people of the God of
Abraham, comp. Ew. § 510,
neither
can the princes be called a people, and after the con-
version
of the heathen there is not properly many peoples of
God,
but there is everywhere only one people, into which the
converted
heathen are received. The Psalmist beholds the
future
as the present, which many expositors failing to perceive,
have
erred. lie prepares for himself from the manifestation of
the
true godhead of
der
by which he first rises up to this true godhead, and then
proceeds
to its recognition over the whole earth. He sees, how
the
heathen princes hasten, that they may be received among
the
people of the Lord, comp. in the Korahite Psalm lxxxvii.
4,
Zech. ix. 7, and the Christol. there. The designation of
God
as the God of Abraham, points, as appears, to the promise
PSALM XLVIII. 159
of
blessing on all peoples.—The words: for the shields, etc.,
resume
the subject of ver. 8. God is the rightful Lord of all the
mighty
ones, and this his right, which has been impaired by their
rebellion,
must be again re-established. Nature must force for
itself
a way through what is against nature, comp. on Psalm xxii.
28.
The Princes are called the shields of the earth, as protec-
tors
of their peoples, comp. Hos. iv. 18.
PSALM XLVIII.
WE have here also a song of praise
to the Lord after the de-
liverance
of the people of God from great danger. Before the
Psalmist
condescends on the particular proof of the divine fa-
vour,
he points to the general relation to
the
favour sprung. He celebrates in ver. 1-3, the dignity and
elevation
of
self
in ver. 4-8 to the transaction, in which this dignity and ele-
vation
had presently discovered itself. Hostile kings had assem-
bled
against
when
they hastened away from it in anxious flight. This fact,
in
which the history of the olden time again revived, connects
the
present state of God's people with the past. The second
part
of the Psalm, separated from the first by a Selah, begins, in
ver.
9-11, with joyful thanks for this deliverance. Then in
ver.
12-14 is addressed the call to proclaim the matter to pos-
terity.
For this purpose the city must be exactly surveyed in
all
its parts, so that it may be understood how the enemies were
so
utterly powerless against it, how not a hair of it, in a manner,
was
turned.
Expositors take as the historical occasion
of the Psalm, either
the
victory of Jehoshaphat, (so in particular Movers on the
Chron.
p. 111, ss.) or the deliverance from the Assyrians under
Hezekiah.
To the latter hypothesis, it is to be objected, 1. That
the
discourse here is of many independent kings, who had
leagued
themselves in a common undertaking against
It
is nothing to allege, on the other hand, the saying of the
king
of
For
that here the discourse is not of such, as possibly once were
called
kings, appears from vdfvn ver. 4, as also from the fact,
160 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
that
here it is always kings that are spoken of, never a king of
kings.
We never find it thus in the numerous passages which
refer
to the Assyrians. 2. That here the discourse is of troubled
flight,
not of utter destruction. On the other hand, every thing
is
in perfect accordance with the victory of Jehoshaphat. Then
in
reality, many kings were gathered together against Jerusa-
lem.
They came into the immediate neighbourhood of the city,
into
the wilderness of Tekoa, which is certainly not further than
a
journey of three hours from
extensive
prospect, and in particular of the environs of Jerusa-
lem,—comp.
Robinson, P. II. p. 407; (upon the march of the
Moabites
and Ammonites, comp. ib. p. 426.)
Their anxious and
troubled
flight is described quite similarly in the Chronicles.
With:
"We think, 0 Lord, on thy loving-kindness in the midst
of
thy temple," in ver. 9 here, which bespeaks the Psalm to have
been
sung as a song of praise in the temple, as the preceding
one
on the field of slaughter, comp. 2 Chron. xx. 27, "All
and
them,
back to
with
harps, and cytharas, and trumpets to the house of the Lord."
A
special reference to Jehoshaphat's time is also found in ver.
7.
The omnipotence with which the Lord destroys the enemies,
is
there placed beside that, with which he breaks the ships of
Tarshish.
The occasion that gave rise to this comparison is re-
corded
in 1 Kings xxii. 49, 2 Chron. xx. 36, 37. Jehoshaphat
had
united with Ahaziah in getting ships of merchandize, but
the
ships were wrecked, vrbwn. The internal connection be-
tween
the two events was the greater, as in that annihilation of
the
ships of Tarshish, there was discerned, according to 2 Chron-
icles,
a judgment of God.
In the superscription: A Psalm-song of the children of Korah,
(comp.
2 Chron. xx. 19,) the ryw, which is predominantly used
of
songs of praise, comp. on Psalm xlii. 8, is the particular, and
rvmzm the general.
Ver. 1. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly glorious in the city
of our God, upon his
holy mountain.
Ver. 2. Beautiful by its
elevation, the joy of
the whole earth is
treme north, the city of
the great king.
Ver. 3. God is in her
palaces known as a
refuge.
On ver. 1, Calvin remarks: "As-
suredly
there is no corner so concealed but that God's wisdom,
righteousness,
and goodness, and his other attributes, penetrate
PSALM XLVIII. VER. 3. 161
into
it. But because he desires that they should be especially
visible
to his church, so the Psalmist does not in vain hold this
mirror
before our eyes, in which God more vividly presents his
image."
Upon llhm,
prop. praised, then glorious, comp. on
Psalm
xviii. 3. The words: his holy mountain, stand in appos.
to:
in the city of our God. The holy mountain was the centre
of
the city of
upon
son,
is appos. to the mountain.—The key for the exposition of
ver.
2, is found in the remark, that the Psalmist describes not
the
external but the internal glory of
with
fleshly eyes, but with the eye of faith, speaks not as a
geographer,
but as a divine. That the ap. leg. Jvg signifies
height,
elevation, is generally admitted now, (Against Luther's:
j`yg is taken for a twig, decides already the scat.
constr.)
Beautiful
of the height, is q.d. beautiful in
respect to height,
or
through its height. In the external height, the Psalmist
discerns
the image of the spiritual, and only in so far is it of
any
importance to him, comp. Ps. lxviii. 16, where the outward-
ly
high earthly mountains envy the spiritually high
count
of its elevation, Isa. ii. 2, Ez. xl. 2, Rev. xxi. 10, Matt. v.
14.
The joy of the whole earth is
ii.
15, probably with reference to this Psalm.
dear,
especially when considered with the eye of the Spirit, that
it
may justly be reckoned the object of joy to the whole earth,
comp.
Ez. xvi. 14.—Nvpc ytkry, prop. the extreme of
the
north,
is to be taken as appos. to Nvyc rh. The only legitimate
exposition
is that which proceeds from a comp. of Isa. xiv. 13, 14.
There
the mountain of the gods is described as situated in the fur-
thest
north, which, according to a representation far spread in the
East,
must rise out of the earth up to heaven, forming a sort of
intermediate
link between heaven and earth: comp. in: "I
will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars
of
God,” and this: "I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds,
I will be like the Most High," which will by no means
permit
us to regard the mountain of the gods as belonging
merely
to the earth, but rather proceeds on the supposition, that
it
rises from earth up to the highest heavens. What the hea-
then
dreamed of such a mountain, that
reality.
Its foundation was on earth, its top in heaven. That
162 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
we
cannot here think of a geographical delineation, is clear
from
Ez. xxxviii. 6, 15, xxxix. 2, where the furthest north pre-
sents
the contrast to the mountains of
tively
that
v.
5, "This is
her,
and round about her are the lands,"—according to the
connection
we can only think of a spiritual centre of the earth.
That
the heathenish representation of the mountain of the gods,
in
the extreme north, could not yet have been known in
under
Jehoshaphat, is maintained without any solid reason. The
exposition
of Luther: On the side toward midnight lies the
city
of the great king, is, along with a number like it, disposed
of
by the remark, that Mytkry always denotes the inmost and
furthest
of a thing, and specially Nvpc ytkry is everywhere: the
extremity
of the north. Against the exposition of De Wette
and
Gesenius: (the joy) of the whole earth,a we oppose the
fact,
that such a resumption of the stat. constr. is without ex-
ample,
not occurring even in Job xxvi. 10, which Ew. § 509,
quotes
for it. The special naming of the extreme north after
the
whole earth would be unsuitable.—The words appended in
apposition:
the city of the great king, points to that on account
of
which all the glorious predicates rest, which had been ascribed
to
king in opposition to the
kings in ver. 4. In ver. 3, fdvn is to be
taken
in its common signification, known,
comp. Psalm lxxvi. 1.
God
is known in the palaces of
he
has proved himself in them to be as a fortress, comp. ver. 13.
Ver. 4. For, lo, the kings were assembled, they vanished alto-
gether. Ver. 5. They saw, so they were astonished, were
fright-
ened, fled away. Ver. 6. Trembling took hold on them there,
anguish as a woman with
child.
Ver. 7. With the east wind
thou breakest the ships
of Tarshish.
Ver. 8. As we heard, so we
saw in the city of the
Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God: God
establishes it for ever.
Selah.
The commentary on fdvn, prop.
are
appointed, then are come together, especially on the ground
of
an agreement, is given in Ps. Lxxxiii. 4-6. rbf most would
a There seems to be some
mistake in the original here, and I presume it
should
be, not: (the joy) of the whole earth, but: (the joy) of the extreme
north.
At the same time, this is not the rendering adopted by De Wette in
that
edition of his work on the Psalms (the iii.) which is in my possession.—
Trans.
PSALM XLVIII. VER. 6-11. 163
expound
by approaching, but the impressive
brevity is in favour
of
the sig. of vanishing away.—Upon the Nk without the pre-
ceding
rwxk
in ver. 5, see Ew. § 628. The object of the see-
ing
is without doubt the holy city. For, its dignity and eleva-
tion
must certainly be pointed out. The veni, vidi, vici of Caesar
is
to be compared, and scarcely any expositor overlooks it. Upon
zph, to hasten for fear, in Niph. to be hastened,
hastily and an-
xiously
to flee, comp. on Ps. xxxi. 22. In ver. 7, from the live-
liness
of the affection the address is directed to God, as after-
wards
in ver. 9-11 throughout. The breaking of
the ships of
Tarshish is introduced here only
as an individualizing descrip-
tion
of the almighty working of God, q. d.
thine omnipotence,
which
the present event has proved to us, nothing can with-
stand,
not even what is most lofty and glorious,—the ships of
Tarshish
are used as an individualizing example of this also in
Isa.
ii. 16. Against Koester, who, with a wrong historical in-
terpretation,
would refer the verse to the destruction of a fleet,
which
the operations of the hostile sovereign had supported,
decides
the fut. alone, the pret. being always used of the his-
torical
events in the preceding and subsequent context,—
as
also against Hitzig, according to whom the ships of Tar-
shish
must be regarded as a proper description of the warlike
force
of the enemy. That by ships of Tarshish are always meant
great
ships of burden, has been maintained without foundation.—
In
ver. 7 there is opposed to the hearing,
the knowledge of
God's
grace and power from the tradition of past times, the
seeing, the personal
experience. Comp. Job xlii. 5, "I have
heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
thee,"
and the complaint regarding the contrast between the
hearing
and the seeing in Ps. xliv. That we must not expound:
at, but only: in the city, appears from ver. 1 and 3.
The last
member—not:
he will establish it, but, he establishes it—points
to
that which was borne witness to both by the past and by the
present.
The expression: unto eternity, for ever, is only ap-
parently
contradicted by experience. The
been
laid in ruins, is not that which the Psalmist means. It is
only
its lifeless corpse. Matt. v. 18 furnishes the canon, accord-
ing
to which all such declarations are to be judged.
Ver. 9. We remember, 0 God, thy grace in the midst of thy
temple. Ver. 10. As thy name, God, so is thy praise even to
the
ends of the earth, of
righteousness thy right hand is full. Ver. 11.
164 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thy judgments. From ver. 9 it is
evident that the Psalm was
sung
as a song of praise in the temple. In ver. 10 it is usually
expounded:
Wherever thy name is but known upon the whole
earth,
there also thy praise is known, thou art not like the idol-
gods,
which are mere names without deeds; but since, in Scrip-
ture
phraseology, the name of God never stands for the mere
name,
but rather for the name only as the product of the deeds,
comp.
on Ps. xxiii. 3, so we must understand by the praise of
God,
the praise which he has now won for
himself, q. d. as in
former
times thou hast by thy deeds obtained for thyself, and
spread
abroad far and wide, a glorious name, so hast thou now
again
filled the whole earth with thy praise. Exactly corre-
sponding
are the words: “As we heard, so we
saw," in ver. 8.
Comp.
2 Chron. xx, 29, "And the terror of God was on all the
kingdoms
of the countries, when they heard that the Lord
fought
against the enemies of
as
experience has just shewn, the right hand of God is full, is
the
matter-of-fact justification, which he imparts to his own,
comp.
Ps. xxxv. 28. The daughters of
cording
to the connection, the other cities of
logy
which had become so common, that it occurs even in the
plainest
prose, comp. Josh. xv. 45.
Ver. 12. Walk about
her towers. Ver. 13. Attend to her bulwarks, consider her pa-
laces, that you may tell
it to the generation following. Ver. 14.
For this God is our God
for ever and ever, he guides us in-the
dying. On the design of the
call in ver. 12 and 13, comp. the
introd.
Such stability and glory after such means, as had been
levelled
at their prostration! How must this survey tend to the
glorifying
of the God of Israel, and to the strengthening of
faith!
bbs
and Jyqh
occur in connection as in ver. 12, so also
in
Josh. vi. 3, 11, lyHe, the outermost circumference of the
city,
forms the contrast to the palaces in the interior. In the
h, which is beyond doubt the suff., the Mappik is
awanting.
The
a[p. leg. gsp
Chal. to divide, divides, according to the
con-
nection:
in the consideration, attention. Against the parall.
several:
range through. In ver. 14 the call,
given in ver. 12 and
13,
is referred back to its ground. The deeds of such a God as
the
God of Israel, one must attentively consider and carefully
hand
down to posterity, which has in them pledges of similar
PSALM XLIX. 165
deliverances.
This God, who has now done so great things for
us,
comp. upon the hz Ew. § 537.
The lf is not to be taken
in
the somewhat uncertain signification above,
but in the sig.
with, comp. Gesen. Thes. p.
1027: with dying, i. q. if it comes
to
dying. Parallel are Ps. lxviii. 20, "God is to us a God of
deliverances,
and the Lord frees us from death," Hab. i. 12,
My
God and my Holy one, leave us not to die," Ps. xlix. 15,
lxxxv.
7. The discourse here is not of a blessed immortality,
but
only of deliverance from the dangers of death, circumstances
threatening
the people of God with destruction. For changes
in
the text there is also no occasion. Luther's trans.: he guides
us
as the youth, rests upon the reading already indicated by the
Chal.
tUmlf,
with the arbitrarily supplied k.
PSALM XLIX
The Psalm meets the temptation,
which comes upon the
righteous
from the prosperity of the wicked, whose persecutions
it
sets forth, and indeed with the consolation, which is presented
for
it throughout the Old Testament, (comp. the introd. on Ps.
xxxvii.
nearly related to it, as also to Ps. lxxxiii.), that the issue
divides
between the righteous and the wicked, that the glory
and
the ascendancy of the latter is only a temporary one, that
it
ends in terrors, while the righteous is delivered by God.
The Psalm consists of an
introduction in ver. 1-4, the chief
portion
in ver. 5-15, and a conclusion in ver. 16-20. In the
chief
portion the thesis is first set forth, ver. 5, 6, then follows
the
grounding of it in ver. 7-15, which falls into three strophes,
each
of three verses. The whole has twenty verses.
The introduction: let all the world
hear, for the Psalmist
speaks
wisdom. Ver. 1. Hear this, all peoples,
give ear, all ye
inhabitants of the world. Ver. 2. Both common men and lords,
both rich and poor
together.
Ver. 3. My mouth shall speak;
wisdom, and the
meditation of my heart is understanding.
Ver.
4. I will incline my ear to a similitude,
open to the
cythara my riddle. The call upon all men to
attention with-
out
distinction of land, situation, or means, must, as the fol-
lowing
context shews, be designed to indicate the high import-
ance
of the instructions, which the Psalmist has to convey. If the
problem
here handled was falsely solved, all fear of God must
166 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
be
overthrown. On the ground of Deut. xxxii. 1, it has been
very
common, at important announcements to call the whole
world
to listen, comp. Ps. L. 1, Mic. i. 1, 1 Kings xxii. 28. Upon
dlH prop. continuance, then world, comp. on Ps.
xvii. 14. On
wyx ynb, prop. sons of man, on Ps. iv. 2. Mdx
ynb,
children of
men,
is limited by the contrast to the great mass. Against De
Wette,
who denies the distinction between the designations,
comp.
Gesell. in Thes. on Mdx. Here this is favoured, not only
by
the Mg-Mg as
well, as also, comp. Ew. § 628, but also by the
following:
rich and poor. What the Psalmist has delivered,
serves
to the rich for warning, comp. v. 5, 6, 16, to the poor for
consolation.
Ver. 3 and 4 lay the ground for the call that is
contained
in ver. 1 and 2. The Psalmist must utter wisdom
without
reserve, for he gives only what he has received. The
plur.
in tvmkH
and tvnvbt
is used for the purpose of giving
force
to the idea. In the Proverbs the use of tvmkH is quite
similar,
as indicating wisdom, kat ] e]coxhn, sapientia hypostatica,
in
which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie conceal-
ed.
Of a plural in the common sense hmkH in particular is not
capable.
Comp. my Beitr. P. II. p. 258. In the words: I will
incline
my ear to a similitude, it is plainly implied, that the
dom,
which the Psalmist could communicate, is no self-sprung
possession,
but one that has been acquired by him; comp. Isa.
v.
1, where the song, which the prophet sings to his beloved, is
at
the same time a song of his beloved, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. Calvin:
"It
certainly becomes all the prophets of God to be so affected,
as
to take God willingly for their master in common with the
rest
of the people, and first of all to receive his word, which they
are
to declare to others from their own mouth. But the prophet's
design
was, to gain authority and reverence for his instruction,
since
he did not prate about his own notions, but only brought
forth
what he had learned in the
similitude,
see Balaam, p. 78. hdyH, riddle, a discourse of
dif-
ficult
comprehension, deep sense. Both, as here, connected in
Ps.
lxxviii. 2. Open, as in Amos viii. 5,
for openly to bring forth
the
treasure-chambers of the heart or the mouth.
There follows now the thesis; ver.
5. Wherefore should I fear
in the days of
adversity, when the iniquity of my treaders-down
compasses me about. Ver. 6. Those there confide in their wealth
and boast themselves in
the multitude of their riches. Calvin:
"The
prophet now enters upon the instruction itself, namely,
PSALM XLIX. VER. 7-9. 167
that
the sons of God should not be above measure disturbed by
adversity,
although the wicked may wantonly oppress them, and
according
to their pleasure, hold them enclosed on every side,
because
the Lord, though he may dissemble and be at rest, still
does
not sleep in heaven." Before the second member of ver.
5,
we are not to supply some word like ymyb, but it contains the
closer
description of the days of misfortune; the iniquity of my
persecutor
surrounds me, abrupt, for: in which surrounds me.
Ver. 7-9. The righteous has no
reason to be troubled on ac-
count
of the might and riches of the wicked, or the wicked to
boast
himself over him. This would only then be the case, if
the
wicked could assure himself of an eternal life through his
riches,
an eternal possession of his riches. But since he can by
his
riches deliver neither himself nor another from death, the
king
of which is quite inaccessible to him, he must therefore
hang
in constant dread of the destruction which inevitably a-
waits
him, and it is for him, not for the righteous, to be afraid.
Ver. 7. His brother can no one redeem, nor give to God his
atonement. Ver. 8. And precious is the ransom of their souls,
and he must put it off for
ever.
Ver. 9. That he may continual-
ly live and not see the
grave.
In ver. 7, the wyx, any one,
namely
among the ungodly rich, is the subject, the Hx is accus.,
the
object placed before, in order to bring out distinctly the
contrast
in regard to the rich. The suff. vrpk refers to the rich
ungodly
ones: He cannot, with all his riches, once redeem ano-
ther,
to say nothing of himself. Many expositors render: a
brother
can redeem no one, no other the ungodly rich. But as
the
nothingness of the riches of the wicked must be indicated,
the
brother is not the person who redeems, but the person to
be
redeemed. The brother is also to be thought of as such in
ungodliness,
who in consequence of that has to fear destruction,
comp.
Gen. xlix. 5. The prefixed inf. hdp brings strongly out
the
idea of redemption, marks it as that, to which ultimately
every
thing belongs. Whatsoever is unable to redeem, to free
others
or one's self from death, that is of no value, such as that
one
should boast himself of it, or that others should be afraid
of
him on account of it. The discourse here is not of death
generally,
but of untimely, violent death, from which God de-
fends
his own, comp. ver. 15. The words: he cannot give God
his
atonement, is said in reference to Ex. xxi. 30, according to
which
one might transact with men in certain circumstances re-
168 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
garding
ransom-money: There, just as here, rpk and Nvyrp are
united.
The plural suffix in ver. 8: their
soul, refers to the
brother
of the ungodly rich man, and this man himself. This
pl.
suffix also shews, that the rich person, who redeems, and
that
the suf. in vrpk, must be referred not to the brother, but
to
him. In ver. 9 the Psalmist lets the brother drop, and con-
fines
himself only to him, whom it here especially concerns, the
rich
man himself. It is arbitrary to maintain, that this verse.
stands
connected with verse 7 and not with verse 8. The ex-
pression
it ceases for ever, at the close of verse 8, substantially
means,
he never brings it thither, he never comes therewith to
a
conclusion; and with this fitly joins on the following: that he
may
live. Comp. on the vau of the fol. before the abbrev. fut.,
corresponding
to the Latin ut with the conj. Ew. § 618.
Ver. 10-12. The ungodly lives in
presence of the universal
sovereignty
of death, which shews him that God may call him
away
every moment, immediately, as if he had no longer to so-
journ
on the earth. The dream of immortality possesses his whole
being.
But the Lord arouses him in a very rough manner from
his
dreams. Like the irrational beast, which formerly had no
suspicion
of its death, so he now is compelled suddenly to think
of
it. Ver. 10. When he sees, that wise men
die, altogether fools
and senseless ones
perish, and must leave their substance to others:
Ver.
11. This is their heart, that their
houses last for ever, their
dwellings remain for
ever and ever, and they call their names
upon their lands. Ver. 12. But man remains not in honour, is
like the beast, shall be
extirpated.
When even wise men die,
what
dominion must death then have over the human race; how
carefully
should we reflect, that we cannot lay hold of his do-
minion;
how foolish is it then to think, that one shall escape an
untimely
death, in case one has deserved it ! When the wise and
good
die old and full of days, this is for the foolish and wicked
a
matter-of-fact announcement, that he shall be taken away in
the
midst of his days. But if he will shut his ears on this indi-
rect
announcement, the direct one must still force itself on him,
which
reaches him through the untimely and violent destruction
of
his companions in folly, (of this dbx, while of the tvm,
The
expression in ver. 11: their inward is their house for ever,
q. d. so is the whole heart
full of thoughts, wishes, and endea-
vours,
that their houses continue for ever, etc, comp. brq
v.
9. The LXX., whom the Vulgate follows, have in their ne-
PSALM XLIX. VER. 12-15. 169
gligence
interchanged Mbrq with Mrbq. The Mwb xrq, to
call,
since one rests somewhat in the name, partly to call upon
with
feeling, partly to call out with feeling, with reverence and
admiration,
here the latter, comp. Isa. xliv. 5. In ver. 12 there
is
the contrast to this their foolish, counter-experience course.
A man, q. d. the ungodly, because
with all his glory he still is
only
a man, and as such is liable to death, the avenging judg-
ment
of God. The Nyl, several take in the general sense of re-
maining, but it is better to
regard it as possessing the special
sig.
of passing the night, in reference to
the quick and sudden
destruction,
comp. in ver. 14: and the righteous lord it over
them
in the morning, and Ps. xlvi. 5, where in like manner the
speedy
deliverance of the righteous is described. They are like
the
beast, which without any apprehension is overtaken by death,
"which
sports in pleasure and joy, and feels not approaching
death."
For vmdn,
we conceive, more emphatically than the
beast,
the ungodly to be the subject.
pleasure, in their
mouths after them. Selah. Ver. 14. Like sheep
are they laid in hell,
death feeds on them, and the righteous have
dominion over them in
the morning, and their form must pass
away, hell is a
habitation to them.
Ver. 15. But God will redeem
my soul from the power
of hell, for he takes me. Selah. Since
in
what immediately precedes the discourse is of what befals the
ungodly,
the expression: this is their way, is q.
d. this is their
fate. Because it happens
thus to them, so is there to those,
who
were quite full of the thought of their immortality, folly-
lsk in this sig. Eccl. vii. 25, comp. Ps. lxxxv. 8.
Against the
sig.:
hope, there is the lysk in verse 10, the
chastisement of
their
folly in ver. 11, and the
suitableness of the contrast: they
are
fools, and yet. The Psalmist, then, declares his astonish-
ment,
that although the fate of the wicked so manifestly beto-
kens
their folly, there are still always found persons, who adopt
their
principles, and thereby procure for themselves like de-
struction.
Hcr
with b
is always to have pleasure in something.
One
has pleasure is = there are always found such, who etc.
Their mouth, q. d. their discourse, principles.
The Selah admon-
ishes,
that we should not belong to the number of fools, who
will
not be frightened by the result of their principles.--vtw
ver.
14, from ttw
= tvw,
comp. Ps. lxxiii. 9, they lay, for, one
lays
them, they are laid. Like sheep, Calvin: "For proud
170 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
man
the whole world is hardly sufficient. From that towering
elevation
in which they stretch themselves far and wide, the
Psalmist
crowds them together and gives them up to death for
food."
hfr various expositors take
falsely in the sense of feed-
ing on; Luther: death gnaws
them. Instead of: the righteous
have
dominion over them, most modern expositors: they tread
in
upon them. But the sig. of treading
for hdr,
is quite uncer-
tain
in the only other passage which is brought in support of it,
Jo.
iv. 13, and with b it is currently used in the sig. of reigning
over, comp. particularly,
Isa. xiv. 2. This sense is here also
quite
suitable. Saul, for example, after his death, was reigned
over
by David in his family and dependents, in the overthrow
of
the arrangements fixed by him, etc. It is said to be in the
morning, because the
destruction of the ungodly takes place in
the
night, by which its suddenness and unexpectedness is ex-
pressed,—comp.
"the tempest steals him away in the night,"
Job
xxvii. 20; or perhaps, just in the next morning, for, in a
brief
moment, comp. ver. 12, Ps. xlvi. 5. The words Mryc
tvlbl, prop. their figure is for annihilation,
their beauty is
consumed.
The last member literally: Sheol is to him of a
dwelling
away, q. d. a dwelling which is no
dwelling. Nm
simi-
larly
as in 1 Sam. xv. 23, Jer. xlviii. 2, Isa. 14.—In ver. 15,
the
fate of the righteous, at present oppressed, is placed in con-
trast
to that of the triumphing wicked. j`x, only, in opposition
to
ver. 7, q. d. God, who alone can do
it, will do it. According
to
the connection and the contrast, the redemption of the soul
of
the righteous from hell, can primarily mean nothing but de-
liverance
from immediate danger. But what accomplishes this,
at
the same time pledges redemption from actually approaching
death.
As Hql neither means to
receive nor to demean one's
self,
we must, in the second member, supply from the first: out
of
the hand of sheol. While the wicked are laid down in sheol,
the
righteous are withdrawn from it.
The conclusion follows in ver.
16-20. Ver. 16. Be not thou
afraid, when one is made
rich, when the honour of his house is
great. Ver. 17. For he will not in his death take with him
all,
his honour will not go
after him.
Ver. 18. For he blessed his
soul in his life, and
one praises thee, because thou dost treat thy-
self well. Ver. 19. He will come to the generation of his
fathers,
never more do they see
the light.
Ver. 20. A man in honour
without understanding,
is like the beast, to be rooted out. The
PSALM XLIX. VER. 16-20. 171
expression:
be not afraid, resumes, after the proof has been
given,
the question: wherefore should I fear? in ver. 5. dvbk
denotes
riches, not in itself, but only in so far as these surround
their
possessor with honour and glory. Death, which accord-
ing
to ver. 17, deprives the ungodly of all his glorious privileges,
is
to be thought of according to the preceding context, as near
at
hand. In ver. 18, the reason is given why God does not per-
mit
the glory of the wicked to follow him, why it comes to so
sudden
and complete an end. His whole life was set on enjoy-
ment,
he has already enjoyed enough, already has he treated
himself
luxuriously enough, and he cannot trouble himself if he
should
now come to want. We may compare Luke xvi. 25, a
passage
resting upon ours, and serving as a commentary to it,
"But
Abraham said, Son, remember, that thou in thy life-time,
receivedst
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but
now
he is comforted, and thou art tormented." On this: for
he
blesses his soul in his life, is to be compared the address of
the
rich man to his soul, Luke xii. 19. In the second member,
the
ungodly rich man is addressed, and the irony thereby made
more
cutting: thou dost indeed treat thyself so kindly, that
men
generally praise thee as a virtuoso, as a hero in wine-bibbing,
etc.,
comp. Isa. v. 22. At the beginning of ver. 19, the address
is
still continued: thou wilt come, but then it just as suddenly
ceases
again, as it had commenced, of his
fathers; in which
many
cannot find their way, and hence take xbt as 3 fem.,
and
refer it to the soul of the rich man. Under the generation
of the fathers are here to be
understood, not so much the corpo-
real
ancestors of the ungodly, as his predecessors in wickedness,
(although
both often coincide,) with reference to the common
expression:
is gathered to his fathers.—In ver. 20 there is a re-
petition,
with a slight variation, as is quite customary in such
cases,
(comp. on Ps. xlii. 5,) so that there is no need of attempt-
ing,
like Ewald, to correct the one passage by the other, of ver.
12,
in order to close the whole with the emphatic and pregnant
declaration:
the ungodly dies as an irrational beast. Luther
excellently:
in short, when a man, etc. The object
of Nyby,
which
is never placed absolutely, is to be supplied from the con-
nection:
the nothingness of riches, which are obtained and held
without
God.
172 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM
L.
THE Psalm contains a rebuke to the
hypocrites, who thought
to
satisfy God by going through the round of outward services,
and
keeping the law on their lips. As formerly, at the giving
of
the law on Sinai, so now God appears on
nation of it, and for judgment
against its transgressors, ver.
1-6.
He discovers first, after an
introduction in ver. 7, in ver.
8-15,
the reigning errors in reference to the first
table of the
law,
and shews wherein the true service of God consists. We
have
not to do with him about the external sacrifices as such.
For
were he to be served with these, since he is the Lord of all
that
lives, they are at his command in infinite fulness, so that he
does
not need to apply to men for them, ver. 8-12; and how,
indeed,
could he be served therewith, since he is a spirit? ver.
13.
Just because he is this, it is only spiritual sacrifices that
could
be acceptable to him, a heart full of gratitude and love,
ver.
14, 15. From the first table of the law, the discourse turns
in
ver. 16-21, to the second. It reproves those who have the
law
of God constantly in their mouth, and, at the same time,
wickedly
transgresses it in their behaviour towards their neigh-
bour.
In an impressive conclusion, ver. 22 and 23, the subject
of
God's discourse is briefly resumed.
Asaph is named in the superscription
as author. The most
natural
supposition, that this Asaph is identical with him, who
in
1 Chron. xv. 17, 19, is named as one of the first master-musi-
cians
of David, and in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, (comp. xxv. 1,) along
with
David as a composer of Psalms, has nothing against it in the
contents.
The fundamental thought, that the sacrifice of the
heart
is alone well pleasing to God, is also declared in the fol-
lowing
Psalm composed by David, which, on account of this
very
agreement, has been placed immediately after it. The
times
of David presented very peculiar occasion for giving em-
phatic
announcement to this thought—comp. the introd. to Ps.
xv.
and to Ps. xxiv. It is remarkable, that the voice against the
false
estimate of the external worship of God, proceeded from
the
quarter which was expressly charged with its obligation.
Asaph,
according to 1 Chron. vi. 24, was of the tribe of Levi.
We have still some remarks to make
on the doctrinal matter
PSALM L. 173
of
the Psalm. The less that sinful man is able to conceal from
himself,
that God has demands to make upon him, the more im-
portant
does he feel it to have God for a friend, and also the
more
difficult to present what alone is truly well-pleasing to
him.
Hence, in order to silence the voice of conscience, he
makes
all sorts of efforts to be quit of him on easier terms through
somewhat
external. Now, under the Old Covenant, this feeling
ran
out upon the sacrifices and the other holy services. The
opposition
between the moral and the ceremonial law is not
properly
that of the internal and the external; it is rather of
the
naked, and of the veiled internal. Every ceremonial law is
moral;
the external action is always commanded simply for the
sake
of the internal, which it expresses, represents. There is
never
body without spirit. But the fleshly sense savours not the
spirit,
and cleaves simply to the body, which thus isolated be-
comes
a corpse. Now, if the revelation under the Old Cove-
nant
had been confined to the law of Moses, there had been
room
for the complaint, that in it this error had not been more
decidedly
testified against. There are found in it in this respect
only
some scattered indications, comp. for example, Gen. iv. 3
—5,
where with an external similarity the sacrifices of Cain and
Abel
are different in their results with God, and this difference
is
carried back to the diversities belonging to their personal
state,
which amounts to an explicit declaration, that the sacri-
fice
derived its significance only as an expression of the inter-
nal
condition, Lev. xxvi. 31. But Moses himself points to the
continuation
of the revelation, when he announces the sending
of
the prophets as divinely called expositors of the law. And
these
executed their commission in this respect, in so powerful
a
manner, that only the most settled waywardness could con-
tinue
in error, comp. for example Isa. lxvi.; Jer. vii. 22; Mic. vi.
7.
With them the Psalmists also unite, especially the author of
this
Psalm, who, with the view of again disclosing the misappre-
hended
import of the law, makes God appear in the same ma-
jesty
on
of
the law on
The Psalm has been in many ways
misunderstood. The
entire
rejection of the Mosaic sacrificial worship has been sup-
posed
to lie here. Hence the older expositors refer it to the
times
of the New Testament, and to the abolition of the
Mosaic
worship through Christ; while the later would find
174 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
traces
of an opposition between the Mosaic law and an en-
lightened,
that is, naturalistic manner of thinking, comp. the re-
futation
of the latter view in the Ev. K. Z. A. D. 1835, p. 641,
ss.
As well might one conclude from the words of H. Müller, in
his
Epistolical Schlusskette, p. 858: "Also has existing Chris-
tianity
four dumb church-idols, after which it follows, the bap-
tismal
font, the pulpit, the confessional, the altar," that he
wished
to abolish baptism, preaching, confession, and the com-
munion.
Ver. 1. God, the almighty, the Lord speaks, and calls the
earth, from the rising
of the sun even unto its going down.
Ver.
2. From
Ver.
3. Come will our God, and he does not
keep silence, fire
devours before him, and
round about him it is very tempestuous.
Ver.
4. He calls to the heavens above, and the
earth, that he
judges his people. Ver. 5. "Gather to me my saints, who close
with my covenant on
sacrifice."
Ver. 6. And then declare the
heavens his
righteousness, for God judgeth. Selah. First,
in
ver.
1, the whole manifestation is brought out in a brief
outline,
and then it is delineated more in detail. The ex-
pression:
he speaks, so early as in the outline, points to
this,
that the discourse of the Lord, as afterwards recorded
in
ver. 7-23, is that to which all the rest is subservient. The
three
names of God stand in apposition according to the accents,
comp.
against the exposition: of the God of gods, my Beitr. P.
II.
p. 261. The heaping up of names must fill the hypocrites
with
terror, as these bring before their eyes the majesty of him,
whose
judgment they underlie. In the relation of these de-
signations
there is a gradation. Elohim is more than El., to
which
its singular Eloah is equivalent. The plural marks the
fulness
and the richness of the divine nature. Jehovah is the
highest
name according to its derivation—it marks God as the
only
real being—and, according to the usage also, which as-
cribes
to Jehovah the most glorious manifestations of God to
and
in behalf of his people, comp. Beitr, as above. That the
earth
is called upon not properly to be itself judged, but only
to
be present at the judgment upon his covenant-people, is ex-
pressly
declared in ver. 4, and is abundantly apparent from the
whole
contents of the Psalm. That the earth and the heavens
(ver.
4,) come into view not properly as productions and ser-
vants
of God in judgment, (Stier) but only as witnesses—that
PSALM L. VER. 1-6. 175
they
are merely called upon to be present in order to make
the
scene more solemn, in order to shew, that the transac-
tion
which is here taking place, and the discourse that sets
it
forth, is of the greatest moment, justly handled by the
highest
of all authorities, and belonging to him, appears from
the
comp. of all the parallel passages of the Old Testament.
Particularly
decisive is here Deut. iv. 26, "I take to witness
against
you this day heaven and earth, that ye shall soon utterly
perish,"
where the calling upon heaven and earth cannot pos-
sibly
have any other signification, than that of giving solemnity
to
the scene. Comp. besides, Deut. xxxii. 1, which is properly
to
be regarded as the original passage, Isa. 2.— fypvh in ver.
2,
prop. to make, to glitter, or shine, then to appear shining, to
shine,
is here, as in Ps. lxxx. 1, borrowed from Deut. xxxiii. 2.
That
the Lord appears not from heaven, but from
that
the judgment to be held is a theocratic one. From this al-
ready
it is evident, that the Psalmist, throughout, proceeds on
theocratic
ground, and that its design cannot be to abolish the
sacrificial
worship, which stood in closest connection with the
theocracy,
and especially with the presence of the Lord on
Mount
beauty, (which Luther, after
the LXX. falsely refers to God,) is
clear
from what has been remarked on Ps. xlviii. 2.—The ex-
pression:
our God, in ver. 3, points to the ground of the appear-
ance
of the Lord. As
also
requires much, he could no longer overlook the great mis-
apprehension
of his law. Instead of: he does not keep silence,
several
have: he is not silent. But there is no ground for this
ungrammatical
rendering, (the lx always
denies subjectively.)
That
he does not keep silence, has for its foundation: he is not
silent,
and, besides, implies, that what God is going to do, is in
accordance
with the wishes of the Psalmist. This indication of
being
well pleased with the doing of the Lord is very common
with
the prophets and the Psalmists. The discourse in the pro-
per
sense, as it follows in ver. 7-23, forms primarily the con-
trast
to the keeping silence. But on that
immediately follows, if
this
first step in the way of chastisement has no effect, the mat-
ter-of-fact
discourse, comp. ver. 21. On the words: fire eats
out
of his mouth, for, out of his mouth goes devouring fire,
comp.
Ps. xviii. 8. hrfwn, it storms, comp. Ew. § 552. Fire
and
storm, as symbols of the anger of God, his punitive right-
176 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
eousness,
as here combined in the often misunderstood passage
1
Kings xix. 11, 12. The fire alone
already meets us in this
quality
in the pillar of fire and cloud,
comp. especially Ex. xxiv.
17.
In Deut. xxxii. 22, the divine indignation, by which
is
consumed, appears under the image of a great fire, comp. 2
Thess.
i. 8. In Deut. iv. 24, ix. 3, pleb. xii.
29, God himself is
described
as consuming fire, on account of his punitive right-
eousness,
his indignation against sin. The Psalmist manifestly
alludes
here to the frightful manifestations at the giving of the
law,
Ex. xix. 16, xx. 15. The appearances mentioned here have,
in
common with those there, the object spoken of in Ex. xx. 17,
"that
his fear may be upon you, that you sin not." They must
fill
the heart with holy fear before the heavenly judge, while
they
place behind the foreground of
chastising words, a back-
ground
of avenging deeds. The judging
mentioned in verse 4,
is,
according to the remarks made on ver. 1, not to be explain-
ed
of others: that they may judge, but that he may judge, for
behoof
of the judgment to be held by him upon his people.
After
the Lord has appeared in the place of judgment, and all
the
witnesses are already assembled there, he gives in ver. 5 the
command
to bring the accused before him. The call is address-
ed
to the (ideal) servants of the divine judgment. If the Psalm-
ist
had spoken more definitely, he would have named the
angels,
comp. Matt. xxiv. 31. It is at first sight strange, that
those,
whom the Lord will judge as transgressors of his cove-
nant,
should be described as his saints.
But the allusion to the
height
of their standing and destiny is particularly fitted to
cause
shame, on account of their present actual condition.
Quite
analogous is Deut. xxxii. 15, where
midst
of the representation of his shameful revolt, is called Je-
shurun—comp. the Jesharim of
the whole people, in Num. xxiii.
10;
analogous is Isa. xlii. 19, "Who is blind, if not my servant,
and
deaf as the messenger, whom I send? who is blind as the
devotee
of God, and blind as the servant of the Lord?" Hbz
ylf
is
commonly expounded: under sacrifices, q.
d. under sanction
of
sacrifices, comp. Ex. xxiv. 4-8. But as the words, when so
understood,
are almost unnecessary, and as justice is scarcely
done
thereby to the preposition, it is better to explain: who
think
of making a covenant upon sacrifice, upon the foundation,
or
under the condition of the sacrifice presented by them.
Comp. lf of the foundation, upon
which any thing rests, Gen.
PSALM L. VER. 6-15.
177
xxvii. 40, Deut. 3. The misunderstanding of the stipulated
sacrifice,
in the presentation of which, when spiritually
consi-
dered,
the whole obligation of the people of God consisted, is
set
forth and censured in what follows, so that the words,
thus
understood, very fitly designate the theme of the succeed-
ing
context. Now, when beside the witnesses the accused are
also
gathered, the judgment begins: and then the heavens de-
clare,
etc., ver. 6. The heavens declare the righteousness of God
in
so far as the judicial voice of God, manifesting his righteous-
ness,
sounds forth from thence, comp. Ex. xx. 19, to which the
expression:
for God judges, of course with words, makes express
allusion.
Through the partic. Fpw "the action is treated as a
firm,
abiding image before the eyes," q.
d. he is in the judging,
comp.
Ew. § 350. xvh is the copula, Ew. § 548.
Ver. 7. Hear, my people, and let me speak,
jure thee: God, thy God
am I.
Ver. 8. Not on account of thy
sacrifices will I
chastise thee, and thy burnt-offerings are contin-
ually before me. Ver. 9. I will not take out of thy house bullocks,
nor he-goats out of thy
flocks.
Ver. 10. For mine are all the
beasts of the forest,
the cattle upon the hills, where they go by
thousands. Ver. 11. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and
what moves upon the
field is known to me.
Ver. 12. Were I hungry,
I would not tell thee,
for mine is the world and what fills it. Ver.
13.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink
the blood of goats. Ver.
14.
Offer to God praise, and so pay to the
highest thy vows. Ver.
15.
Then call on me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee,
and thou wilt praise me. With ver. 7 begins the
speech of God,
as
judge introduced in the preceding verse. Upon the impera-
tive
with the vau of consequence, comp. Ew. § 618. dyfh with
2
signifies here, as not rarely, to protest, imploringly and with
the
solemnity of an oath to warn. The commencement: God,
thy
God am I, serves the same purpose, as the preface at the
giving
of the law in Ex. xx. 2. It is intended to prepare the
way
for the following discourse. The same design serve also
the
descriptions of the persons addressed. On the one side, my
people
and
the
other side God, the God of heaven and
of earth, thy God,
the
God, who had bound
had
purchased his obedience so dearly. The sense of ver. 8,
not
the outward sacrifices, which ye regularly bring, but some-
178 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thing
much greater is the object of my accusation. In this verse
it
is clear, that if the outward sacrifices had not been offered,
this
would also have been a ground of complaint. There follow
in
ver. 9, ss. the grounds on account of which, God concerned
himself
so little about the outward sacrifices as such—first in
ver.
9-12, if he needed the sacrifices, still he would not require
to
seek them from men, as his whole creation stood at his com-
mand;
then in ver. 13 his spirituality, from which the outward
sacrifices,
as such, could yield him no satisfaction. On the v in
vtyH, ver. 10, borrowed from Gen. i. 24, see Ew. §
507. The
hills of the thousand, the hills where
thousands of beasts are
found.
As the expression: I know, so also the with
me in ver.
11
is to be referred to the knowledge. Knowledge and posses-
sion
are here inseparable from one another, just as omniscience
cannot
exist without omnipotence, and universal dominion. In
ver.
14 and 15, the true sacrifices are set forth in the place of the
false,
and a rich blessing promised to their presentation, the ob-
ligation
in verse 14, the reward in verse 15. Praise
(hdvt
has
only
this meaning) is here mentioned merely for the sake of in-
dividualizing,
as one species of the inward worship, performed
by
the heart, in opposition to the purely external. But much
account
is made of thanksgiving. John Arnd: "The
giving of
thanks
comprehends many virtues in itself—acknowledgment of
God
as the fountain of all good; fear of God, namely the child-
like
fear, which receives all benefits from God as a child from
the
father; humility, confessing that we have nothing of our-
selves,
but obtain all from God," etc. The expression: And pay,
is q. d. so wilt thou pay, comp. on the
imperative fut. Ew. § 618.
Vows
consisted in great part of thank-offerings, comp. Lev. vii.
11,
16, Ps. cxvi. 17, 18. He only who has rendered the substance
of
this thank-offering, thanks, has
truly paid his vow. The com-
mon
import put upon: and pay, as conveying an admonition, is
inadmissible,
because it takes the expression, of paying the vows
without
farther explanation, in a spiritual sense. The whole
15th
verse is of a promissory nature. It announces the reward
which
is appointed for the spiritual worship of God. Whoever
thanks
God in the right manner for deliverance obtained, he
may
console himself in the time of distress with the assured
hope
of a new deliverance. Then call upon me,
is q. d. if thou
dost
then call upon me, comp, Ew. § 618. Thou wilt
praise me,
thou
wilt have occasion to do this. The: call upon me, cannot
PSALM L. VER. 16-21. 179
be
taken as a command to trust in God in
the time of trouble.
Hypocrites
also call on God in their way.
Ver. 16. And to the wicked God says: what hast thou to do
to declare my laws, and
to take my covenant into thy mouth?
Ver.
17. Since thou still hatest correction,
and castest my words
behind thee. Ver. 18. When, thou seest a thief, then thou dost
consent to him, and with
adulterers is thy part. Ver. 19. Thou
givest thy mouth to the
wicked, and thy tongue frames deceit.
Ver.
20. Thou sittest, speakest against thy
brother, against the
son of thy mother thou
speakest calumny.
Ver. 21. That didst
thou, and I kept
silence, then thoughtest thou, I was as thyself.
But I will chastise
thee, and will set in order before thine eyes.
From
the first table the Psalmist here turns to the second. fwr
in
ver. 16 is, as very commonly, the wicked in the narrower
sense,
the evil-doer against his neighbour. The commonly un-
derstood
contrast of the properly wicked against the erring
members
of God's people, is an untenable one, and the Psalmist
has
here to do with the same individuals as in ver. 7, ss. To
offer
to God outward, in place of spiritual sacrifices, is an error
springing
from heavy moral guilt, and they, who do it, always
appear
in scripture as evil-doers. In Isa. i. 15, for example, the
hands
of the merely external worshippers are at the same time
full
of blood, comp. lxvi. 3, 4. According to the parall. and the
connection,
by the covenant must be meant the law of God espe-
cially
in so far as it requires love toward our neighbour. This
usage
is found already in the law itself, comp. for example, Ex.
xxiv.
7, xxxiv. 28. The wicked takes the law into the mouth,
prop.
upon the mouth. for upon the lips, Ex. xxiii. 13, 2 Sam.
xiii.
32, in order to display his knowledge of the will of God, to
teach
others, and to judge others, Rom. ii. 18-24. That such
have
no right to take the law of God into their mouth the
Psalmist
shews in ver. 17, from the fact of their not endeavouring
to
reprove themselves by it, and not correcting their deficiences,
for
which the law was given to them, being there not for being
spoken
about, but for being done, comp. Rom. ii. 13. John
Arnd:
"Such a person was Ahab, who could appear so pious,
but
when Elias rebukes him, he curses, and persecutes the pro-
phets
to death, which shews he was a hypocrite, and would be
taken
for a pious man. But those are truly pious people, who
are
without hypocrisy, and to whom God's word is a reality,
who
could suffer themselves to be reproved, and confess their
180 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sins,
as David, when reproved by Nathan, was not indignant,
but
said: I have sinned against the Lord; they who act so are
no
hypocrites." The Psalmist refers in ver. 18-20, to the three
commands
of the decalogue: thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not speak false witness against
thy
neighbour. He shews the sinner how little right he had to
take
the commands of God into his mouth, since he violated
them
in succession. Hcr with Mf in ver. 18, not: to
have
pleasure
in any one, but to be satisfied with any one, to be of
one
mind with him, comp. Job xxxiv. 9, Rom. i. 32, and what is
related
of the inhabitants of
after
the LXX. and Chald., derived the form falsely from Cvr.
The
Hlw
with b
in ver. 19, immittere. Without foundation in
the
words themselves, most: thou lettest loose in thy mouth the
reins
to the wicked. The expression in ver. 20: thou sittest, is
a
delineation to the life of babbling companies, comp. on Ps. i. 1.
The
expression ypd Ntn (ypd only here) from the
general con-
nection,—in
ver, 19 and 20 the discourse is only of sins of the
tongue—from
the parallelism, and from the obvious reference
to
the command, thou shalt not speak false witness against thy
neighbour,
can be understood only of evil backbitings and ca-
lumnies.
Ntn
is best taken in the common sig. of giving, ypd in
that
of blow = words, through which he, or
his honour, is struck
down.
Against the son of thy mother, is an
ascending clause,
since
Hx,
not rarely marks brother in a larger
sense, q. d. even
against
thy dear brother. The keeping silence, in ver. 21, forms
the
contrast to a matter-of-fact discourse. I
kept silence, in my
long-suffering,
which should have led thee to repentance,
ii.
4, but thou, falsely interpreting my silence, thoughtest, that I
was
(the inf. constr.) wholly as thyself, equally well inclined to-
wards
sin. Since to this silence, the expression: I will chastise
thee,
and thereby give convincing proof of the opposite, forms
the
contrast, it must refer, not to the preceding rebuke of God
in
words, but only to his matter-of-fact speech, the actual chas-
tisement,
comp. ver. 22. The words: I will set in order before
thine
eyes, (comp. on the j`rf on Ps. v. 4,) is excellently ex-
pounded
by Calvin: "He declares, that they
will soon be drawn
into
open light, that they shall be compelled to see with their
eyes
the shameful deeds, which they had imagined they could
conceal
from the eyes of God. For so I understand
the setting
in order, that God will lay
before them in exact order a full
PSALM L. VER. 22-23. 181
catalogue
of their misdeeds, which they must read and own,
whether
they will or not.
Ver. 22, 23, contain the impressive
conclusion of the speech
of
God. First, in ver. 22, the threatening against stiff-necked
sinners,
then in verse 23, the promise to those, who suffer them-
selves
to be led into the right way. Ver. 22. Mark
now this,
ye forgetters of God,
lest I tear you in pieces without deliverer.
Ver.
23. Whosoever offers praise will glorify
me, and whosoever
prepares a way, to him
will I shew the salvation of God. This,
every
thing that has been said in the preceding context for the
unmasking
and terrifying of imaginary saints, but, in particular,
the
threatening at the close of the preceding verse. Under the
name
of the forgetters of God are thrown together the friends
of
the merely outward service, and the wicked. On the words:
lest
I tear thee, etc., Arnd: "Just as a
ravenous beast permits
no
one to take his prey from him, so can no one deliver from
the
anger of God, when it burns; it is a frightful thing to fall
into
the hands of the living God, and to be dragged away to
punishment."
The expression: he will glorify me, in ver. 23,
can,
according to ver. 15 and the parallel: I will show him my
salvation,
only mean, he will have occasion to glorify me.
j`rd Mvw, occurs in Ex. xxi. 25, Isa. xliii. 19, comp. xlix. 11,
in
the sig. of making or preparing a way. Hence expositions
such
as: who considers upon the way, or: orders his way, etc.,
are
to be set aside. The greater part now of those, who cor-
rectly
apprehend the nature of the expression, expound, after
the
example of the LXX. and Vulgate: he treads the way, which
I
will cause him to see, agreeing as to the sense with Luther,
who
followed the false reading Mw there. But then would
the
speech
of God in the conclusion of the second part, in ver 16-
21,
have been allowed entirely to drop. We can arrive at a sa-
tisfactory
sense only when we render: whosoever prepares a
way,
q. d. whosoever regulates his life by
sure principles—the
opposite
in Ps. cxxv. 5; "who turn aside upon their crooked
way."
Thus have we in each of the two members a condition
and
a consequence. The first is a compend of ver. 14 and 15,
To
the promise of salvation for those, who truly fulfil the obliga-
tion
toward God, there is added the promise of salvation for
those,
who occupy a position toward their neighbour, the reverse
of
that condemned in ver. 16, ss. The salvation of God, for my
salvation,
in order to indicate what it imports, to be partakers
of
the salvation of God.
182 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LI.
DAVID, after his adultery with
Bathsheba, aroused from his
sleep
in sin by the admonition of the prophet Nathan, humbled
himself
before God, and gave utterance in this Psalm to his in-
ward
desire for forgiveness and renewal. It falls into two main
divisions,
of which the first completes itself in the number twelve,
the
second in the number seven. In the first, ver. 1-12, the
Psalmist
asks for that, which the Lord must grant him, in ver.
13-19,
he represents how he will spew his gratitude to the
Lord
for the love conferred on him. The first division falls
again
into two halves. In the first, ver. 1-6, the Psalmist
gives,
after a short and rapidly uttered prayer, ver. 1 and 2,
the
grounding of it, he acknowledges his sin, ver. 3 and 4; and:
to
man conceived and born in sin can divine truth and wisdom
come
only from God, ver. 5 and 6. In the second, ver. 7-12,
there
is raised out of the thus laid foundation the enlarged pray-
er,
first, for forgiveness of sin, ver. 7-9, then for the restoration
of
the gift of the Spirit, ver. 10-12. In
the thanksgiving por-
tion,
the Psalmist first declares, how he will personally
show
himself
grateful, when the Lord hears his prayer, by inviting all
sinners
on the ground of his own experience to repent, he praises.
God's
righteousness and celebrates his glory, as that has been
manifested
in his reception to favour, ver. 13-15; then pro-
claims
this, and the broken heart, which is the source of such a
celebration
of God's praise, to be the true thank-offering, while
the
external sacrifices, as such, are not acceptable to God, ver.
16
and 17. Then he promises the thanksgivings of the whole
church,
to be displayed in a fulness of hearty
sacrifices, when
God
had shewed himself gracious to them in their head, and
further
took them as the object of his supporting and sustaining
agency,
ver. 18 and 19.
That the Psalm was composed by David
on the occasion in
question,
shews, besides the superscription, the authenticity of
which
is evidenced both by its own internal character, and also,
perhaps,
by the circumstance, that, by including it, the Psalm
falls
into three decades, also the wonderful agreement of the
subject
with 2 Sam. xi. and xii. That we have to do here as
there
with a sinner of high rank, is already probable from ver.
13-15,
according to which, the compassion to be shown to the
Psalmist
should operate beneficially through an extensive circle,
PSALM LI. 183
but
certainly from the conclusion, ver. 18 and 19. That the
Psalmist
there passes on to pray for the salvation of the whole
people,
pre-supposes, that this salvation was personally connect-
ed
with himself, that the people stood and fell with him, as was
rendered
palpable by the history of the numbering of the peo-
ple.
That the Psalmist was a king, Ewald also concludes from
these
verses, although he denies the composition of it by David.
In
ver. 14, the Psalmist prays for deliverance from blood-guilti-
ness.
Such guilt David had incurred through the death of
Urias,
occasioned by him, and of those who fell with him,
and
Nathan had threatened him in the name of God with
the
divine vengeance for it; comp. 2 Sam. xii. 9, 10. This
is
the more remarkable, the more singular the case is in
its
kind. Of a true worshipper of God, the whole history
of
the Old Testament contains nothing similar. It is a poor
shift
to maintain, that blood might also be
taken generally
for
guilt and punishment. That in the passage Isa. iv. 4, upon
which
alone stress is laid, the discourse is of blood in the pro-
per
sense, appears from the comp. of chap. i. 15, 21.—Ver. 4 is
quite
replete with references to 2 Sam. xii. As David there
says:
I have sinned against the Lord, so here: against thee
only
have I sinned. The words: "This evil have I done in thy
sight,"
is seen at once to be an echo of the address of Nathan
in
2 Sam. xii. 9, "Wherefore hast thou despised the word of the
Lord,
to do this evil in his sight?" Finally, in the words:
"that
thou mightest be justified in thy speech, pure in thy
judgment,"
respect is had to a sentence which the Lord had
passed
in the case of the Psalmist, of a judgment which he had
exercised
upon him. We swim in mid-air so long as we do not
perceive
the reference to the discourse of Nathan.
Besides, the correctness of the
superscription is still farther
evidenced
by the relation of our Psalm to Psalm xxxii. which
refers
to the same matter, and which is only distinguished from
this
by the circumstance, that while here the Psalmist prays for
the
pardon of sin and strives for it, there he has respect to the
already
finished conflict, and invites all his companions of faith
to
enter into the participation of the like salvation through an
unfeigned
confession of their sins. What the Psalmist there
does
after the received forgiveness, that he here promises to do
in
case he received it, ver. 13-15, comp. especially ver. 13
with
Psalm xxxii. 8.
184 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
With the other Psalms of David also
the Psalm presents close
resemblances.
Thus the relation of the first part to the second
here
is quite similar to that in Psalm xxii.; and Psalm xl. 6-10,
presents
an extraordinary agreement with ver. 13-17.
The grounds which many have brought
forward against the
correctness
of the superscription, and for the assumption, that
the
Psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, (De
Wette,
Hitzig,) or shortly before it, (Ewald,) may be very easily
disposed
of. It is said, 1. That the Psalm is not worthy of Da-
vid;
its "melting language" indicates a later age. But the
Psalm
must still carry in it somewhat of concealed glory, which
they
only can recognize who read it with the heart, out of which
it
issued, comp. 17. How, otherwise, were the fact explicable,
to
which already Luther alludes? "This
Psalm has been
named
by every one a Psalm of penitence, and there is no other
in
the Psalter which is oftener sung and prayed in the church."
The
"melting language" is perfectly natural to a broken and
bruised
heart. 2. "The Psalm does not quite suit the situation
indicated
in the superscription. According to the narrative in
2
Sam. xii. David had announced to him immediately the par-
don
of his sin; here he first implores this most earnestly." But
that
David was enabled instantly to appropriate to himself the
pardon,
of which Nathan assured him, is not so much as hinted
in
2 Sam. xii. This must have been so much the more difficult
to
him, the deeper his fall had been in proportion to the grace
already
conferred on him. It was certainly a great deal, if,
through
the external announcement, he was kept from utter
despair,
and only received as much confidence as was needed
for
striving after the internal assurance of pardon. With justice
does
Calvin already remark: "Although God, through the pro-
mise
of forgiveness, freely invites us to peace, we are still to lay
to
heart our guilt, that deeper pain may penetrate our hearts.
Hence
it comes to pass, that with the small measure of our faith,
we
cannot at once take in the entire fulness of the divine grace,
which
has been brought to us." 3.
"Here the discourse is not
of
one, but of many sins, (ver. 1 to 3,) and prayer is made for
improvement
generally," (ver. 6 to 10, ss.) But David had then
actually
committed more than one sin. Besides his adultery
with
Bathsheba, which again comprehended many particular
acts
of sin, upon him rested the death of Urias, and the death of
those
who perished with him. And then, in how many respects
PSALM LI. 185
did
these acts represent themselves as sinful, so that each might
appear
as a sort of assemblage of sins, for ex. it is urged. on Da-
vid
in the books of Samuel, that he had given occasion to the
enemies
of God to blaspheme. The impenitence and hypocrisy
of
David also, continued through a whole year, is to be taken
into
consideration. But that he "sought for improvement in
general,"
is a necessary consequence of this, that David, like
every
one who seriously grapples with sin, did not stand at the
mere
outward appearance of sin, but pressed into its secret
workshop,
to its troubled fountain. Whenever the knowledge
of
sin extends so far, the prayer for forgiveness and sanctifica-
tion
must necessarily be more comprehensive. Luther: "In
this
sin, as in a mirror, David sees his whole impure and corrupt
nature,
so that he arrives at this thought: Lo!
I, who have go-
verned
so well after God's command, I, who have so finely or-
dered
the church and service of God, how have I fallen into
such
an abomination, into so many great and horrid sins!
Therefore
was David led, from knowledge of one sin, to the
knowledge
of his whole, sinful nature. As if he would say: Be-
cause
I, so great a man, endowed with so much grace, have
fallen
at once as from heaven into hell, must not so grievous a
fall
be to me and to all others a palpable sign, that there is no
good
thing in my flesh." 4. "In ver. 4, the Psalmist says,
Against
thee alone, 0 Lord, have I sinned! These words are
difficult,
if we hold to the correctness of the superscription.
David's
adultery and murder were crimes against men." But
that
we must not conclude from these words, that the Psalmist
had
committed sins only against the first table of the law, ap-
pears
from ver. 14, where the Psalmist prays for deliverance
from
blood-guiltiness. The difficulty vanishes as soon as it is
perceived,
that what makes an offence against a neighbour a sin,
is
his relation to God, that is, his bearing God's image, and
having
God for his redeemer, so that in him God is offended.
The
more lively and faithful the conviction of sin is, the more
readily
will the soul penetrate through the shell in these trans-
gressions
against the neighbour into this kernel. Besides, Da-
vid
speaks substantially the same in the books of Samuel. For
there
also he continues to stand only at the transgression
against
God, and the "alone" is merely awanting in form.
5.
It is alleged, that ver. 18 and 19 could only be written when
186 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
walls of
and,
"then wilt thou have pleasure in sacrifices of righteous-
ness,"
implies that then, without a temple, and far from the
holy
land, sacrifices to God could not be acceptable. But the
Psalmist
does not pray that God would build up
again the
walls
of
would
only then have to think of a rebuilding, if, in the preced-
ing
context, mention had been made of a prostration, from which
hnb might derive the restricted sense of
rebuilding. But that
we
are to take the expression figuratively, in the sense of pro-
tecting,
is clear from the entire context, from the parallel "do
good,"
and the analogy of that, which the Psalmist sought for
himself.
On the words: "then wilt thou have pleasure in
sacrifices
of righteousness," to gloss: "Now with a prostrat-
ed
temple are sacrifices to God unacceptable," is quite ar-
bitrary.
The sense is simply this: then, when thou grantest
our
prayer, will we shew our gratitude to thee by sacrifices.
That
in the time of the Psalmist, no external hindrance existed
to
the presentation of sacrifices, appears from ver. 16, "else
would
I give it thee,"—which has no meaning, if at that time
the
offering of sacrifice was rendered impossible by the over-
throw
of the temple. To offer elsewhere than in the temple,
was
a thought that could have occurred to no Israelite.—Several,
latterly
Maurer and Tholuck, have unjustly surrendered ver. 18
and
19 for the removal of this objection, and declared them to
he
a later addition. It is a groundless assumption, that these
verses
stand in opposition to verses 16 and 17. It rests upon this,
that
one overlooks the word qdc in ver. 19. In ver. 16 it is not
sacrifices
generally, but heartless sacrifices
that are rejected, and
in
ver. 19, hearty ones are promised.
The reason suggested by
Tholuck
for the addition of the two verses, that as sacrifices ap-
peared
to be too much depreciated in ver. 16 and 17, it was at-
tempted
to re-establish, as it were, their importance by this ad-
dition,
is untenable, because it is not supported by a single ana-
logy
from the whole of the Old Testament. Besides, what
could
any one think of making by any such rectification, so long
as
Psalm L. existed, and so many other strong declarations against
sacrifices!
Positive grounds for the genuineness of
both verses
are
also to be found in the consideration, that ver. 17 forms a
quite
unsatisfactory conclusion, and that the retrospect taken in
these
verses of the general weal, is precisely characteristic of Da-
PSALM LI. 187
vid,
and has already had preparation made for it by ver. 13-15.
--6.
"The idea of an original corruption
in man" is later than
David.
But allusions to the doctrine of a hereditary corruption
are
to be found even in the oldest portions of revelation. The
account
of Adam's fall can be understood in its full compass
only
if in it the whole human race fell, which can no otherwise
be
conceived than on the supposition of the propagation of sin
by
generation. That Adam's fall is the fall of the human family,
is
implied in the punishment, which
affects not the individual,
but
the entire race. Everything which stands immediately con-
nected
with the account of the fall, the narrative of Cain's fra-
tricide,
etc., is inexplicable, if we limit the fall merely to the in-
dividual
Adam, and there is a breaking down of the bridge
formed
in the generation between him and his posterity, to
which
express allusion is made in Gen. v. 3, "And Adam begot
like
him and after his image," (in every respect, and hence also
in
reference to sin, which had now become a property of his
nature.)
The whole subsequent relation is designed to shew,
how
fruitfully the principle of sin, implanted in nature through
Adam,
developed itself. According to Gen. viii. 21, the thoughts
and
imaginations of the human heart are only evil from his
youth.
This Psalm owes its position beside
Psalm L. to the circum-
stance
of their both alike expressly declaring the worthlessness
of
merely external sacrifices,—a fact from which Hitzig has
rashly
concluded, that they were composed by one hand.
Some passages from Luther's very
extended exposition will
best
prepare for its deeper understanding. "But that we may
lay
hold of the Psalm, we must know, that we have here set be-
fore
us the doctrine of a true repentance. Now, to true repen-
tance
there belong two parts: first, that we acknowledge sin,
then
grace. That is, we must, on the one hand, have a real
fear
of God, and terror on account of our sin, and on the other,
must
also know and believe, that God will be gracious and com-
passionate
to all who believe in Christ. These two parts of re-
pentance
has David here most strikingly delineated to us in this
prayer.
For he first, in a masterly manner, presents sin before
our
eyes, and thereafter the grace and compassion of God,
without
the knowledge of which men must sink into despair.
But
this knowledge of sin is no speculation or fine imagination,
but
an earnest feeling, true experience, and a great conflict of
188 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
heart with sin. As his conviction then is, so he speaks:
for
I confess my transgression, that is, I feel it so, that my con-
science
trembles for God's indignation, and faints at the thought
of
death. For this is what the Hebrew word properly signifies:
not
that one thinks and considers with himself alone, what he
has
done or not done, but feels the great load and burden of
the
wrath of God upon his heart, and the knowledge of sin is
nothing
else than to feel and experience sin. And he is a sin-
ner,
who is so pressed and disquieted by his conscience, that he
knows
not where to turn himself. So that when one feels and
experiences
thus, he must obtain the further knowledge, and
that
also not as a poetical fancy, but as a matter of true and solid
experience,
whereby he learns, hears, and sees what is the grace,
what
the righteousness, what the will of God toward him is, who
has
not given him the knowledge of his sin to sink him to hell,
there
for ever to remain, but to raise him up again through
Christ,
his own dear Son. These are the two kinds of know-
ledge
with which theology and Scripture has to do, and which
David
teaches us in this Psalm, so that the sum and substance
of
the Psalm is, that man must learn to know himself accordig
to
theology and holy Scripture. Likewise, that he must learn
to
know and regard God according to Scripture: not in his
majesty,
that he is eternal and almighty, for to a poor sinner
such
knowledge is terrifying and not comforting; but that he is
willing
to make the sinner holy, righteous, and blessed. This
is
the sum of all Scripture, and whosoever thinks or teaches in
another
manner of God and man, he errs. . . But now that
such
an excellent exalted man, full of the Holy Spirit, replenish-
ed
and adorned with all high and great works of divine wisdom,
and
endowed above all others with the gift of prophecy, should
make
so grievous a fall, this happens to us for an example, that
when
at times we have been overtaken in a fault or in sin, or
when
our consciences frighten us with God's wrath and judg-
ment,
we may have consolation. For in his great example ap-
pears
manifestly the goodness and compassion of God, which is
ready
and prepared to forgive sin, and to make us holy and
righteous.
And in order to prevent us from resorting to the
pretext,
that we have not sinned, we behold this man, though
he
has sinned against the command of God, yet finding pardon
for
such sins as he did not seek himself to justify."
First for the superscription: To the chief musician, a Psalm
PSALM LI. 189
of David, when Nathan
the prophet came to him, as he came to
Bathsheba. On the: chief musician, the Berleb. Bible
remarks:
"See
there a public penance by a king of
wrote
this Psalm not for himself alone to be used as a prayer,
but
for those also who had charge of the temple music, that he
might
again edify, by his repentance, the people of God, whom
he
had offended by his sin: and till then he had no rest in his
bosom,
as he confesses in Psalm xxxii. 2." This publicity in the
confession
of sin was just as great a work of God's grace in Da-
vid,
as the depth of his knowledge in regard to it. Nature
must
have struggled hard against it. But the design of the
publicity
he gives us in ver. 13. He would, through his repent-
ance,
lead others to the same. With justice does Luther always
come
back to this, that every thing in our Psalm is an indirect
instruction,
that David when confessing teaches, and when
teaching
confesses, that he only reads the Psalm in the right
spirit,
who in the words: be gracious to me, etc., thinks pre-
eminently
of himself, and of David merely as his prototype. The
rwxk cannot fitly be taken as a particle of time.
When so
used
it stands like our "as" only in actions, which were quite
or
nearly contemporaneous to those previously mentioned, comp.
for
example, Gen. xx. 13; 2 Sam. xii. 21, But Nathan's coming
to
David was certainly a, year distant from his adultery with
Bathsheba.
The use of lx xvb also in both members shews,
that
the author was desirous of indicating the internal reference,
which
had place between the coming of Nathan and the coming
of
David. Nathan came to David, just as David came to
lows,
especially with the faithful, who, more than all others, are
the
object of God's avenging and delivering righteousness, comp.
Lev.
x. 3; Amos iii. 2; 1 Peter iv. 17, the divine punishment
first,
that of the word, and then, when that has failed, by deed.
Precisely
so stands rwxk
in Micah iii. 4, "Then shall they cry
to
the Lord, but he will not hear them, he will even hide his
face
from them at that time, as they have made their actions
bad,"
where Michaelis: causalis significatio includitur,
magis
tames
justitia talionis in relations poenae ad culpam consimilem
innuitur.—In
reference to the relation between David's sin and
the
coining of Nathan to him, Calvin makes the following pro-
found
psychological remark: "We are not
to suppose, that he
was
so devoid of all feeling, as not in general to acknowledge
190 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
God
as the judge of the world, to pray daily to him, and not
only
to exercise himself in his worship, but also to endeavour
to
have his life and behaviour conformed to the prescriptions of
the
Law. Let us therefore understand that he was not wholly
destitute
of all fear of God, but only blinded in one respect, so
that
he lulled to sleep his sense of God's anger by perverse flat-
teries.
Thus his piety, which had sent forth many bright ema-
nations,
was in this department quenched." It is only in this
point
of view, that David's conduct, after the reproof of Nathan,
admits
of explanation. It pre-supposes, that in him along with
the
evil, the good principle had also been in existence, which,
though
long overborne, now at length immediately started into
vigorous
operation, as also appears from the prayer in ver. 11:
take
not thy Holy Spirit from me. For this implies, that the
Holy
Spirit had not wholly left him, as it had previously done
Saul.
It was with David, therefore, precisely as with Peter, in
whom,
notwithstanding his previous fall, still faith did not ut-
terly
fail, as it did in Judas, (Luke xxii. 32.)
The two first verses contain the
preliminary prayer: Be gra-
cious to me, 0 God,
according to thy goodness, according to the
greatness of thy
compassion blot out my transgressions.
me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
David
still does not venture again to call God his
God, but in
the
simple word "God" there yet is for him a rich fulness of
consolation
and confidence. "The heathen (says Luther) speak
with
God after the thoughts of their heart, without and away
from
his word and promises; but the prophets speak with God,
as
clothed with his word and promises, and revealed through
these,
This God, if he is attired in the corporeal and beautiful
form
of his promises, can be known and apprehended by us, and
can
be seen by us with the joy of faith. But the mere God,
without
the word, is like an iron wall, which the more we strike
at
and storm it, we shall but hurt ourselves the more. There-
fore
Satan never dares to, ply us, that we would run against the
mere
God, and so do ourselves hurt. Hence David does not
speak
with God merely as such, but with his fathers' God, that
is,
with the God, whose promise he knows and regards, and
whose
compassion and grace he has tasted. Now, if on this ac-
count
a Turk, a false worshipper, or a Monk should say: God
be
gracious to me according to thy goodness, it were just as
good
as if he remained silent and said nothing. For he misses
PSALM LI. VER. 1, 2. 191
God,
not apprehending him in such a form as that, in which he
can
be apprehended by us, and properly understood, but he re-
gards
God in his high majesty; from which nothing can happen
but
despair and the fall of Lucifer from heaven into the abyss
of
hell." On the words: be gracious to me, according to thy
goodness,
comp. on Ps. vi. 4. In regard to the plural: my
transgressions,
Stier thinks, that it is quite wrong to take into
account,
how often David may have sinned in the matter of
Uriah.
We have here to think of the entire impurity and apo-
stacy
of heart in general, now become evident to him. But
against
this speaks fwp, which always denotes a particular sin-
ful
act, and indeed a sin of such a heinous stamp, that excepting
in
this case David did nothing like it, in which he acted wicked-
ly
toward his neighbour's wife and life, comp. on Ps. xix. 14.
Then
it is also opposed by the "blood-guiltiness," in ver. 14, and
the
great stress laid on the particular transgression in the re-
buke
of Nathan. It is also by no means a sound state, it would
rather
be an irregularity, if the particular here at once fell back
behind
the general. This then acquires too
readily an attenuat-
ed
character. Then, according to Stier, in the "blot out," prop.
"wash
off or out," must not merely forgiveness be prayed for,
which
makes the done become as undone, but "at the same
time
the removal of the reproach, 2 Kings xxi. 13, or the purifi-
cation,
which only comes prominently out in 2." But, that the
prayer:
blot out my transgressions, which raises itself on the
ground
of Nathan's: the Lord hath made to pass away, rybfh,
thy
sin, refers simply and alone to forgiveness is evident from
the
nature of the thing, as the transgressions or misdeeds, (im-
purity
and apostacy of heart in general is not the subject dis-
coursed
of here, as was shewn already), can only be the object
of
pardoning mercy; and from ver. 9, where we have, parallel
to
the "blot out my transgressions," "hide thy face from my
sins,"
as also from the parallel passage, Isa. xliii. 25; xliv. 22.
Ver.
2 also refers only to the forgiving grace. This ver. 7 shews,
which
resumes the subject, so that in the preliminary prayer the
discourse
is only of the chief, and fundamental blessing, forgive-
ness.
The extended prayer also employs itself first of all exclu-
sively
with this, ver. 7-9. Then in ver. 10-12 it turns to the
second,
which necessarily follows from the reception of the first,
the
experience of the sanctifying grace of God. By the words:
according
to the greatness of thy compassion, David shews, that
192 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
he
recognizes the entire compass of his guilt. For it presents a
silent
contrast to the greatness of his sins. If he had felt him-
self
to be a sinner only in a small degree, he would have satisfied
himself
with: according to thy compassion. But he feels, that
he
has need of the entire riches of the divine compassion, if he
is
not to be hopelessly lost. Jo. Arnd: "This is the property
of
true repentance, that one rightly apprehends God's grace and
God's
word, and indeed does not make God's compassion smaller
than
our sin, or our sin greater than God's compassion. For
that
is no right knowledge of God, and gives rise to despair, as
Cain
said: my sin is greater, than that it can be forgiven me.
Thou
liest Cain, says
than
all man's misery. The holy Sirach says in the 2d chap.
that
God's grace is as great as he himself is, but God himself is
infinite,
immeasureable, therefore is his grace also infinite; Isa.
iv.
there is much compassion with him; Ps. cxxx. there is much
redemption
with him; therefore will he redeem
his
sins. Now, because David fully apprehends the richness of
God's
grace, therefore he says, blot out my sins according to thy
great
compassion. As if he would say: great sins require great
compassion,
I have great sins, and so thou must shew toward me
great
compassion." In ver. 2, the reading of the text hbrh is
to
be taken as inf. absol. in Hiph. from hbr. In the rule the
verb,
which stands impersonally, indicating only a subordinate
circumstance,
is placed after the chief verb, comp. Ew. § 539.
But
here the Psalmist has placed it before, because it is upon
the
much, that the emphasis must rest.
This occurs the earlier,
that
the inf. hbrh
might come the more freely and entirely to
occupy
the position of an adverb. The Masorites, who could
not
find themselves at home here, would read br,h, as imper.
apoc.
in Hiph., a conjecture, which is to be unscrupulously re-
jected.—As
sbk,
in accordance with its primary meaning, comp.
Gesen.
in Thes., is always used only of clothes, and never of per-
sons,
comp. especially Numb. xix. 8, where the sbk of clothes,
and
Chr
of persons, are united, so we must suppose, that here
and
in ver. 7, an abbreviated comp. is found: cleanse me, as one
washes
a stained garment, comp. Isa. lxiv. 5. In both members
sin
is considered, in explanation of the Mosaic washings, as stain-
ing
and impurity, and the sin-extirpating grace of God as puri-
fying
water.
Upon the prayer follows the
grounding of it, first in ver. 3, 4:
PSALM LI. VER. 3, 4. 193
the
Psalmist acknowledges his sin, and is therefore in the con-
dition
in which the compassion of God can unfold itself. Ver.
3.
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and
my sin is always
before me. Ver. 4. Against thee only have I sinned, and done
what is evil in thine
eyes, so that thou mayest be righteous in thy
speech, pure in thy
judgment.
According to many, the Psalmist
must
here mention what impelled him to seek for pardon: he
can
no longer endure without this. So Jo. Arnd: "This is a
conclusion
of the following sort: whosoever is properly alive to
the
vileness of his sins, and has the horribleness of these always
before
his eyes, he is most anxious and concerned to be set free
from
the evil. I acknowledge my iniquity. Therefore purify
my
conscience from this abomination." According to others
again,
the Psalmist must point to a reason for the granting of
his
petition: forgive me my sin, for the
indispensable condition
of
forgiveness is now found in me. If we take into account the
high
importance which is attached to the confession of sin, in
reference
to the same event in Psalm xxxii, the inseparable con-
nection
in which forgiveness is there placed with it, (comp. es-
pecially
ver. 5,) as also in the history, 2 Sam. xii. 13, and in
other
declarations of holy writ, for ex. Prov. xxviii. 13,"
who
covers his sin shall not prosper, and he who confesses and
forsakes
it, finds mercy,"—we shall be inclined to give the pre-
ference
to the latter exposition. But those, who follow it, with
one
voice draw attention to the point, that the acknowledg-
ment
of sin is not to be considered as the efficient cause of for-
giveness–as
such David had already mentioned the divine
grace
and compassion—but only as its indispensable condition.
So
Luther: "That little word for
must be understood so, as
not
to imply that his sins must be forgiven him because he had
confessed
them; for sin, is always sin, and deserving of punish-
ment,
whether it is confessed or not; still confession of sin is of
importance
on this account, that God will be gracious to no one
but
to those who confess their sin; while to those who do not
confess
their sin, he will shew no favour."—On the words: my
sin
is always before me, Luther remarks: "That
is, my sin
plagues
me, gives me no rest, no peace; whether I eat, or drink,
sleep,
or wake, I am always in terror of God's wrath and judg-
ment."
Jo. Arnd: "Sin and iniquity, where
the conscience is
evil,
stand always before the eyes; one cannot lose sight of it
and
forget it—as the historians of the Gothic king, Theodoric
194 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of
men,
Symmachus and Boethius, to be killed, and a large fish-
head
being soon afterwards set before him at a banquet, he
could
not get rid of the conviction, that it was the head of Sym-
machus,
and was so shocked at the thought, that he soon died.
So
did the images of the people, whom Nero had murdered,
come
before him."—How well grounded and deep his know-
ledge
of sin is, the Psalmist shews in ver. 4, while he elevates
himself
from his fellow-creatures, whom he had primarily of-
fended,
to God, who had been offended in them, and indeed so,
that
he only views him in them, that his whole sin changes it-
self,
in his view, into a sin against God. This manner of con-
sidering
sin, which everywhere discovers itself, where there is
true
knowledge of sin, must immediately heighten the pain con-
nected
with it. How must David have trembled, how must he
have
been seized with shame and grief, when he referred every
thing
up to God, in Urias saw only the image of God, the Holy
One,
who deeply resented that injury, the gracious and com-
passionate
One, to whom he owed such infinitely rich benefits,
who
had lifted him up from the dust of humiliation, had so of-
ten
delivered him, and had also given him the promise of so
glorious
a future! The same manner of considering obligation
and
sin already appears in the books of Moses, so that it is in-
comprehensible
how expositors should have so often stumbled
here.
The arrangement of the Decalogue proceeds on it: thou
must
honour and love God in himself, in those who represent
him
on earth, ver. 12, in all who bear his image, ver. 13 and 14,
comp.
my Beitr. P. III. p. 604. The love of God appears con-
stantly
in Deuteronomy as the e!n kai> pa?n, as the one thing,
which
of
necessity carries along with it the fulfilment of the whole
law,
for ex. x, xii. In Gen. ix. 6, the punishment of murder is
grounded
on this, that man bears God's image. When in other
passages
of Scripture, the command of brotherly love is made
co-ordinate
with that of the love of God, this is done only for
the
sake of hypocrites. What, besides, immediately serves to
deepen
the pain connected with sin, has also, at the same time,
a
consolatory aspect. If David had sinned against God alone,
it
is with him also alone that he has to do in regard to forgive-
ness,
and therefore he must not consume himself in inconsolable
grief,
that he can make no restitution to Urias, who has been
long
sleeping in his grave, and cannot seek forgiveness from
PSALM LI. VER.
3, 4. 195
him.—Those,
who have missed the right sense, have taken up
with
many erroneous modes of explanation. Thus many ex-
pound:
before thee have I sinned, though xFH
with l always
means:
to sin towards, or against any one, comp. 1 Sam. xix. 4,
ii.
25. After the example of Arnobius, Cassiodorus, Nic. of
Lyra,
and others, Koester remarks: "So
could only a king pro-
perly
speak, who was raised above all responsibility toward
man,
and could easily make compensation for any injustice done
to
his subjects." But before the judgment-seat of God the
king
is not less responsible for offences done to a neighbour, than
the
meanest of his subjects, and of this responsibility alone is
the
discourse here. De Wette endeavours to help himself in
the
matter, by alleging that the "thee only" expresses the in-
wardness
of the feeling, not a contrast to the understanding.—
In
the words also: that thou mightest be righteous in thy
speech,
pure in thy judgment, the greater number of expositors
have
lost themselves. It appears to them incredible, that Da-
vid's
sin here must be applied to the purpose of bringing to light
God's
righteousness. Many, latterly Stier, have sought to get
rid
of this oppressive feeling by supposing that the Nfml stands
ekbatically:
so that thou mayest be righteous, for: so that I
must
thus perceive thy judgment, as it has been pronounced
upon
me by Nathan, to be a perfectly righteous one. But
Nfml, never signifies so that, always as a particle of aim, in
order that, comp. Winer, and
Gesen. in Thes. In the pass. Isa.
xliv.
9, Deut. xxix. 18, the sig. that, in
order that, is quite in
place,
as soon as we do not overlook the allusion to the secret
efficacy
of God. Others refer the declaration here, not to the
sin,
but to the confession of it, through which David gave God
the
honour of it, and vindicated his judgment from all unright-
eousness:
I make declaration, that I have sinned against thee
alone,
only that, etc. But it is hard and arbitrary to supply: I
confess,
especially as in ver. 3, the discourse was not of the con-
fession
but only of the knowledge of sin. But, if we will only
grant
to the declarations of Scripture, and the facts of expe-
rience,
their due weight, we shall be obliged to lay aside the
aversion
of imputing to God some kind of participation in sin,
which
had also in many other passages given rise to manifestly
false
expositions—comp. the investigation regarding the harden-
ing
of Pharaoh's heart, in P. III. of my Beitr. p. 462, ss. The
sin,
indeed, belongs to man. In this point of view he can only
196 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
escape
from it by repentance. But if he does not repent, the
forms
in which it is to appear are no longer in his power, they
are
subject to God's disposal, and God determines them as it,
pleases
him, as it suits the plan of his government of the world,
for
his own glory, and at the same time also, so long as the sin-
ner
is not absolutely hopeless, with a view to his salvation. He
transfers
the sinner to situations, in which he shall be assaulted
by
this or that particular temptation; he binds the thoughts to
some
determinate object of sinful desire, and secures, that they
continue
wedded to this, and do not start off to some other. It
is
from the consideration of sin in this point of view, that David
proceeds,
when, in 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, he derives the hatred of
Saul
from the Lord's having stirred him up, and when, in 2 Sam.
xvi.
10, ss. he says of Shimei, "the Lord has said to him, Curse
David,
and who will say, Wherefore hast thou done so? Let
him
curse, for the Lord has bidden him." So also elsewhere
was
such a concealed influence maintained upon David, as link-
ed
the sinful inclination already existing in him to a determi-
nate
object, comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, "And the anger of the
Lord
was kindled against
them
to say, Go, number
here
referred to such a co-operation of God is quite unde-
niable.
That David, through his own guilt, filled with sinful
lust,
must see precisely Bathsheba, that she became preg-
nant,
that Urias did not comply with the wishes of David, who,
that
believes in a providence generally, can overlook such a co-
operation
in the circumstances? Pointing now to this co-opera-
tion
of God, David says here, that he must have committed so
heinous
a sin, that in the judgment, which God primarily held
upon
him through Nathan (it is only of this, not of an internal
word
of judgment, that we must think; for the result, which
alone
is spoken of here, could only be called forth by means of
a
public and generally known act), his righteousness, purity, and
holiness
were disclosed, and hence his name glorified land his
honour
increased; Gesell. in Thes. p. 1052: eum in finem pee-
cari, ut illustretur justitia tua. It might be objected,
that this
allusion
to the co-operation of God in the matter does not suit
with
this connection, because it softens the guilt of David, which
must
here be represented in the strongest light. But this cir-
cumstance
could only appear of a mitigating character when
superficially
considered. There can be no stronger accusation
PSALM LI. VER. 5, 6. 197
against
the sinner, no stronger testimony against the depth of
his
sinfulness, than his being used by God as an unconscious in-
strument
for the glorification of his righteousness. For this is
only
done with those, of whom nothing can be made by kind-
ness.
Besides, the Apostle in Rom. iii. 4, has already followed
the
exposition now given, whose commonly misunderstood words
are
first made clear by it. He must have taken the passage in
a
sense, which appeared to yield the result, that human unright-
eousness
was not punishable, because it brought to light God's
righteousness,
so that one must sin for the honour of God—alle-
gations,
which he partly refutes in the following context, (ver.
6),
and partly rejects with abhorrence.
There follows in ver. 5 and 6 the
second grounding of the
prayer:
sin is deeply implanted in human nature, "man is even
in
his first existence poisoned: but God desires true and inter-
nal
righteousness, true and internal wisdom. What remains,
therefore,
but that he impart these imperishable goods to man,
and
that he first of all communicate to the Psalmist their foun-
dation,
the forgiveness of sin? Ver. 5. Behold in
iniquity was
I born, and in sin did
my mother conceive me.
Ver. 6. Behold,
thou desirest truth in
the inwards, and in the hidden do thou
teach me wisdom. The double behold manifestly points to the
circumstance
of there being an internal connection between the
two
verses, and such an one has place only according to the ex-
position
we have given. In reference to ver, 5 Luther remarks:
"If
one would speak and teach rightly of sin, it is necessary to
consider
sin more deeply, and to discover out of what root it and
every
thing ungodly proceeds, and not simply to stand at sin
already
committed. For from the error of not knowing, or un-
derstanding
what sin is, there necessarily arises another error,
that
people cannot know or understand, what grace is.—There-
fore
is it a great part of wisdom, for one to know, that there is
nothing
good in us, but vain sin, that we do not think and speak
so
triflingly of sin as those, who say, that it is nothing else than
the
thoughts, words, and deeds, which are contrary to the law
of
God. But if thou wilt rightly point out according to this
Psalm,
what sin is, thou must say, that all is sin, which is born
of
father and mother, even before the time that man is of age
to
know what to do, speak, or think." Calvin: "Now he does
not
confess himself guilty merely of some one or more sins, as
formerly,
but he rises higher, that from his mother's womb he
198 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
has
brought forth nothing but sin, and by nature is wholly cor-
rupt,
and, as it were, immersed in sin. And certainly we have
no
solid convictions of sin unless we are led to accuse our whole
nature
of corruption. Nay each single transgression ought to
lead
us to this general knowledge, that nothing but corruption
reigns
in all parts of our soul." The expression: in sin, refers,
as
the parallel: in iniquity was I born, shews, not in such a
manner
to the mother, as that the sinfulness of the Psalmist was
derived
from sinful lust in the parent at his conception—it is
impossible
to assign a place to sin in the birth.
If we refer the,
"in
iniquity," "in sin," generally to the mother, we must ex-
plain:
of a mother, who was a sinner, have I been conceived
and
born. Parallel is then Job xiv. 4, "who can bring a clean
thing
out of an unclean? not one." But in this exposition it is
strange,
that the mother only is named, and not the father.
Then,
according to this view, no account can be given, why the
rise
is made from the birth to the conception. Finally, it is hard
to
explain: in iniquity was I born, of a mother laden with sin,
as
the mother in this first member is not, as in the second, ex-
pressly
named. We must rather refer the expressions: "in
iniquity,"
"in sin," to the Psalmist himself, q. d. I was even in
my
birth, nay in my very conception, laden with sin; in which
case
we are then to comp. Ps. lviii. 3, "the wicked are estranged
from
the womb, the liars go astray from their mother's belly,"
and
Gen. viii. 21, "the heart of man is evil from his youth."
According
to this view, the doctrine of original sin, for which
the
church has always considered this verse as a peculiarly locus
classicus,
is not directly contained in it, as in Job xiv. 4, but
still
it is so indirectly, and that so plainly, that nothing but the
most
confused mind can deny it. For when David confesses,
that
even before the developement of his consciousness, before
the
time of his distinguishing between good and evil, that even
at
his birth, nay at his very conception, sin dwelt in him, and
had
so poisoned his nature, that he was quite incapable of at-
taining
to true righteousness and wisdom; he places himself in
direct
collision with those who consider sin merely as a product
of
the abused freedom of each individual, and leaves room for
no
other derivation of sinfulness, than this, that it goes down
from
parents to their children, according to the word, "what is
born
of the flesh, is flesh." But that David considers the sin,
which
we bring with us into the world, not as a sort of blame-
PSALM LI. VER. 5, 6. 199
less,
overwhelming evil, that he considers it as guilt,
in agree-
ment
with the testimony of our conscience, is evident from the
Nvvf, which is never used otherwise, than of a
delictum imputa-
bile.
In ver. 6, in the expression: thou hast desire, there lies
indirectly
enclosed the prayer, which is expressly uttered in the
second
member, since, according to ver. 5, man with a heart cor-
rupt
from its first origin cannot impart to himself the truth, q. d.
so
give thou me, therefore, the truth, in which thou delightest,
and
make known to me wisdom. In the exposition: thou hast
delight
in truth, and hence teach me wisdom,
an improper dis-
tinction
is made between truth and wisdom, and, at the same
time,
the synonymous parallelism is destroyed, which from the
analogy
of the whole context we would have expected. The
truth in contrast to lies,
show, hypocrisy, is the true, upright, in-
ternal
and sincere righteousness. So the truth is often found in
the
current language of Scripture, for example in Jos. xxiv. 14,
"And
now, fear the Lord and serve him in righteousness and
truth," 1 Kings ii. 4,
"If thy children take heed to their way,
to
walk before me in truth with all
their heart, and with all their
soul;"
1 Kings iii. 6; "Thou hast shewed unto thy servant
David
my father great kindness, according as he walked before
thee
in truth and righteousness,"
comp. 2 Kings xx. 3; Psalm
cxlv.
18; John iii. 21; 3 John 3. tVHF, prop. the covered,
drawn
over, denotes according to the parallel with Mts, the
concealed,
and according to the passage in Job xxxviii. 36, "who
hath
put wisdom in the inwards? or who gave to the under-
standing
judgment?" the inward in
opposition to the outward.
The
sig. adopted by many, reins, is
without any foundation. The
truth,
which has its seat in the inwards, stands opposed to the
appearance,
which strikes out for itself a seat in the exterior.
--Mtsb, in the concealed, in
the secret depth of the heart,
which
in the natural man is always pre-occupied by folly, how-
ever
much he may outwardly glitter with wisdom, (comp. Rom.
ii.
29, where to> krupto>n stands connected with h[
kardi<a),
must, from
the
accents and its position, be connected, not with Stier, with
hmkH, the concealed heart-wisdom, but rather with
the verb. In
this
way the parallelism with tvHFb is not destroyed, which
belongs
to wisdom. For the region, where the instruction must
take
place,—that the b is to be taken locally, is evident even from
the
parall. with tvHFb—is at the same time that in which wis-
dom
has its proper seat. Wisdom in connection with truth cannot
200 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
be
the theoretical, as many here very unseasonably think, of a
spiritual
understanding of the types of the Old Testament, but
only
practical wisdom for the life. The making known or
teaching
cannot refer to an external method of instruction,
which
might not reach to the heart, but it is internally wrought
by
the Spirit of God.—The Psalmist points here immediately
to
the last end, to which God might help him, as it was unat-
tainable
by him with his own powers, the possession of wisdom
and
truth. In what follows, the way is more closely determined,
by
which he is to arrive at that, the method by which God is to
conduct
him thereto, viz. through pardon of sin and the commu-
nication
of his Spirit.—Many expositors, recently Tholuck, ex-
plain:
Behold, Thou lovest truth in the concealed, in the inner-
most
Thou teachest Me wisdom. By truth and wisdom they un-
derstand
the thorough knowledge of sin, as the Psalmist had re-
presented
it in the preceding context. "So manifestly does the
Psalmist
feel the resistance of his sinful nature, to yield itself un-
reservedly
up under such a confession, that he owns himself in-
debted
for his discernment to divine illumination." But it appears
doubtful
the propriety of taking truth and wisdom in so straiten-
ed
a sense, without any special intimation of this in the text,
still
more doubtful the taking of the fut. in the sense of the pre-
sent,
since all the following fut. are to be taken optatively.
The
latter doubt is removed if we expound: truth (q. d. a tho-
rough
apprehension of sin,) desirest thou, and as this exists, so
dost
thou also teach me wisdom. But still the first doubt re-
mains,
so far as it respects the truth, the synonymous parallelism
is
destroyed, the wisdom appears strangely isolated, the: in the
inward,
and in the concealed, does not properly correspond,
etc.
After the grounding of the prayer,
it breaks forth more at large,
and,
indeed, in ver. 7 to ver. 9, which carry an immediate re-
spect
to ver. 1 and 2, the Psalmist again primarily prays for that,
on
which all the rest depends,for the forgiveness of his sins. Ver.
7.
Purify me with, hyssop; that I shall be
clean, wash me, that
I shall be whiter than
the snow.
Ver. 8. Cause me to hear joy
and gladness, the bones
to rejoice, which thou hast broken. Ver.
9.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out
all my iniquities.
That
the fut. are to be taken optatively, shews the imper. in ver.
9.
Ver. 7. has respect to the symbolical nature of the Mosaic
law.
He, who had rendered himself Levitically unclean by
PSALM LI. VER. 7-9. 201
touching
a corpse, was, according to Num. xix. 18, purified by
a
branch of hyssop, dipt into the water, which had the ashes of
the
red heifer. According to ver. 4, the hyssop was significant
of
the divine condescension, hvnf, comp. on Ps. xviii.
35, which
manifests
itself in the pardon of sin, an ingredient of that puri-
fication
water itself, and so also according to Lev. xiv. 4, ss. of
the
blood with which the lepers were cleansed. The hyssop
and
the cedar, inseparably connected with it, stand opposite to
each
other in these laws, as in 1 Kings iv. 33. The most ex-
treme
contrasts in the kingdom of the created image forth
those
in that of the Creator, which meet in the work of re-
conciliation,
the highest exaltation and the deepest humi-
liation,
Isa. lxvi. 1, 2, compare the illustration in "
and
the Books of Moses," p. 183, which has not been over-
thrown
by the objections of Kurtz, in his Mos. Opfer. p. 317.
This
author has not properly considered the inseparable con-
nection,
in which hyssop and the cedar stand with each other,
and
has treated too lightly the passage, 1 Kings iv. 33, which
points
to the ground of this connection, nor has he reflected
how
invariably in Scripture the cedar is spoken of with reference.
to
its greatness and loftiness. The allusion of the Psalmist to
the
Levitical purifications appears so much the more suitable,
when
it is considered, that the law regards external impurity as
the
image of sin, and that everything, which was done in it, was
a
symbolical action, representing what must be done in refe-
rence
to sin. This the Psalmist understood. When he speaks
of
purification through hyssop, he only changes, as the prophets
often
do, comp. for example, Isa. i. 18, the symbol into figure.
The
declaration in Numb. xix. 20, "and the man that is unclean
and
does not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the
congregation,"
rung with fearful emphasis in his soul. He per-
ceived,
that it applied far more truly to him, than to the person
of
whom it was primarily spoken. It is false to speak in such
cases
of allegorizing the law. The Psalmist does not allegorize,
but
he discloses the great real allegory of the law.—The joy and
gladness, for which the Psalmist
prays in ver. 8, are to come to
him
from that very purification, for the internal sealing of which,
through
the testimony of God's Spirit, he only sought the more
fervently,
after he had received the external assurance of par-
don
through Nathan. Luther: "As if he
would say: sprinkle
and
cleanse me so, that I may be joyful; that is, that through
the
word of grace I may have a peaceful, joyful heart, which
202 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shall
not tremble for sin and thy wrath. I have hitherto heard
long
enough the law and Moses, who has a hard speech and an
unpliant
tongue, ill to be understood, of a very ungracious ad-
dress.
Deliver me now from hearing him; for
nothing can be
heard
of him but only the anger of God. Therefore beg I of
thee,
dear Lord, to make me henceforth hear joy and gladness,
which
comes through the word of grace and forgiveness of sin,
so
that my bones, which thou hast broken, shall be gladdened,—
the
bones which were broken through the sense and terror of
sin,
that the law had produced in the heart." Berleb. Bible:
"When
God deals with us regarding a word of life, the poor
soul
is brought up from the prostrate condition into which it
had
been plunged. That word consoles it, lifts it out of the
grave,
and redeems it from all its sufferings and distresses, as to
it,
then, this deliverance is an unspeakable word of joy. It
would
be very difficult to describe the joy of such a soul, which,
like
another Lazarus, sees itself at once drawn by means of
the
living word from the grave." In regard to the words: that
the
bones might rejoice, which thou hast broken, see on Ps. vi.
2.
Luther: "The bones, however, are not alone spiritually, but
also
corporeally broken under such terror of the law, and anger
of
God, that is, all power and strength are thereby taken from
the
body, so that it becomes very much enfeebled." Jo. Arnd:
"What
these broken bones are, no one can tell, but he who feels,
in
great temptations, the wrath of God, the curse of the law,
the
sting of death which is sin, and the power of sin which is
the
law. Then one experiences what the office and strength of
the
law is."
In reference to ver. 10-12, Luther
excellently remarks:
"Hitherto
we have handled and set forth that admirable portion
of
this Psalm, in which we have heard the highest articles of
the
Christian faith, namely, what repentance, what sin, what
grace,
what Christian righteousness, is, and how one may become
blessed.
What now remains to be considered in this Psalm,
methinks,
has respect to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which fol-
low
upon forgiveness of sin. Of such gifts the three next verses
speak,
as in the whole three the name of the Spirit is repeated,
being
called in the first a sure Spirit, then the Holy Spirit, and
in
the third the joyful Spirit."
Ver. 10. A clean heart make me, 0 God, and a fixed Spirit do
thou renew in my inwards. Ver. 11. Cast me not away from thy
PSALM LI. VER.
10-12. 203
presence, and take not
from me thy Holy Spirit. Ver. 12. Re-
store to me the joy of
thy salvation, and with a joyful Spirit do
thou support me. In reference to the make in ver. 10, Jo. Arnd:
"He
confesses in this, that such purification and renewal of
heart
is the work of God, and that no one could do it but God,
being
beyond the ability of any man. For just as forgiveness
of
sin, and justification, is God's work alone, therefore also re-
newal
and sanctification, and because it is God's work and gift,
we
must therefore pray to God, for we cannot have it by any
power
of our own." Calvin: "By the word making he ac-
knowledges,
that if we are born again to God at first, or after
having
fallen are restored, what is good in us is the gift of God.
For
he does not pray that his weak heart might be supported
by
some measure of help, but he confesses, that there is nothing
good
and right in his heart, until it has come to him from with-
out."
Parallel are Jer. xxiv. 7, "I give to them a heart, that
they
may know me," Ez. xxxvi. 26, "And I give to you a new
heart,"
etc. 1 Sam. x. 9. The clean heart, besides here, in Ps.
xxiv.
4, lxxiii. 1, Matth. v. 8, Acts xv. 9. Nvkn, when it is used
in
connection with the spirit or heart, always means fixed, so
that
the exposition: a prepared, willing spirit, is to be rejected.
A
fixed spirit may either be such an one as is fearless from con-
fidence
in the Lord, comp. Ps. cxii. 7, "he is not afraid of evil
tidings,
his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," lvii. 7, or a
true,
constant one, ready for every assault, as contrasted with
the
spirit of the natural man, to which every temptation is a
plaything,
compare Ps. lxxviii. 37, "and their heart was not
steadfast
with him, neither were they faithful to his covenant."
According
to the connection and parallelism, we must here pre-
fer
the latter. Because the Psalmist had formerly possessed this
fixed
spirit, he prays that the Lord would renew him to the
same.
In the expression: cast me not away from thy sight,
David
seriously considers the mournful example of Saul, comp.
1
Sam. xvi. 1-7. John Arnd: "Here he
first of all confesses,
what
he had deserved for his sins, namely, that God might have
cast
him off, and perpetually rejected him according to his
righteousness,
as it is written in Ez. xxxiii. where it is declared,
that
if the righteous turn from his righteousness, and do evil,
he
cannot live; when he sins, his righteousness shall not be ac-
counted
of, but he shall die in his wickedness, which he has
done."
How the Holy Spirit came upon David, is recorded in
204 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
1
Sam, xvi. 13, "And Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed
him
in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord
came
upon David from that day forward,"—a passage, which
has
often been erroneously understood of peculiar and exclu-
sively
kingly gifts, and hence it has been inferred even here, that
David's
prayer has respect only to such gifts, in opposition to
ver.
10, where he prays for a fixed, and
ver. 12, where he prays
for
a willing spirit: gifts which are
common to him with all the
faithful.
The contrary, indeed, is shown in the very next verse
of
Samuel, "And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,
and
an evil spirit from the Lord terrified him,"—we can as little
think
of the loss of kingly gifts in the one place, as of their be-
stowal
in the other,—and the same also appears from the parall.
pass.
1 Sam. x. 6, 10, according to which Saul prophesies,
when
the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and Isa. xi. 2, according
to
which, the Spirit of the Lord, which rests upon the branch of
David,
is not merely a spirit of counsel and strength, but also a
spirit
of discernment and of the fear of the Lord. This Spirit
of
the Lord David had indeed grieved, comp. Eph. iv. 30, and
in
consequence thereof, he had been deprived of the greatest
part
of his gifts, as his prayer in the following verse shows, that
God
would make in him a new heart, would begin anew the
work,
that had been as good as completely destroyed in him.
But
that he was conscious of having not wholly, and to the last
residue,
lost him, is evident from his prayer here, "take not thy
Holy
Spirit from me," into which it has been vainly attempted
to
shove in a for ever, (Kimchi: ne
auferas in perpetuam, sed
reddas,)
or again, ("he speaks as now converted, after having
received
the Spirit through true repentance and faith," against
the
whole context, in which David prays for the pardon of sin
and
the gifts of the Spirit, as for gifts which he had still not re-
ceived.)
If David had entirely lost the Spirit, he could not
have
received him again. For the person who has altogether
fallen
from grace, cannot according to the doctrine of Scripture
regarding
the sin against the Holy Ghost, comp. Heb. vi. 4, ss.
again
come to the possession of the Spirit. However deplorable
David's
sin was, it was still predominantly a sin of weakness,
(comp.
upon the difference between malicious, intentional, and
presumptuous
sinning, and sinning from weakness,a Vol. p. 341.
a David's sin, however,
was not an occasion for the presentation of sin-of-
ferings.
These belonged only to such sins as had not the punishment of cut-
PSALM LI. VER.
10-12. 205
ss.)
which did not comprehend in itself an entire apostacy, but
could
only lead to this by degrees through a process of harden-
ing,
nay, must have done so, if mercy had
not been again ex-
tended
to him.— The joy of God's salvation
in ver. 12, is the
joy
upon his salvation, which had been
experienced, of the par-
don
of his sins and of the Holy Spirit, which he had received.
j`ms here, as in Gen. xxvii.
37, with double accus., because to
support,
is q. d. benevolently to present
with, comp. Ew. § 479.
With
Luther and others, to raise the Spirit into the subject:
and
let the joyful Spirit uphold me, is not suitable, as the like
forms
in the preceding context are given as an address to God.
bydn prop. a driven one, such
a person as has in himself a living
impulse
to good, an internal constraint thereto, therefore Hvr
hbydn, a free, noble,
inspirited sense. Liberal the word
never
signifies,
and the gradation of meanings adopted by Gesenius
must
be abandoned. Arnd: "Because we are
naturally disin-
clined
and averse to all good, we must pray for a joyful and
willing
spirit. Accordingly, the works are here thrown away,
which
are done under constraint of law, for these proceed not
from
faith. Faith does nothing by constraint, but willingly
from
pure love and thankfulness. Such works are well-pleasing
to
God, though it were only the giving of a drink of cold water."
It
is on purpose that the Psalmist brings in at the end the joy-
ful
spirit. For the spiritual thank-offerings must proceed from
that
which he promises to yield to God, comp. Ps. liv. 7.
In reference to the second chief
division of the Psalm, begin-
ning
with ver. 13, Luther very justly remarks: "Here the pro-
phet
first begins to speak of his good works, after he has al-
ready
been justified by faith, and through the Holy Spirit has-
again
been born anew. For the tree must be made good before
the
fruit, as Christ says in Matt. xii. 33. Therefore has David
hitherto
kept silence about his good works, and prayed only for
the
treasure which God was to put in him by his word and Spi-
rit.
But the works of which David speaks here, are, that thanks
be
given to the good and compassionate God for his gifts, that
these
should be much esteemed, and that through means of
them
also, other people might be taught, and induced to come
for
such grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit. As pious persons in
ting
off appointed to them. But in the actual application of this principle, the
law
could maintain only an objective duration, on account of the short-sight-
edness
of those who were called to administer it.
206 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
gospels did when they were made whole by Christ. For
although
Christ charged them to be silent, yet they could not
but
declare and celebrate the goodness of Christ, so that others
might
be drawn also to him. Those are the most
excellent
works,
which shew that the unfruitful tree has been turned into
a
fruitful one." The division falls into three parts; first, the
Psalmist
says positively how he will display his gratitude, ver.
13-15,
then he abjures false thanksgivings,
and sets over
against
them the true, ver. 16, 17, finally, he passes from per-
sonal expressions of thanks
to those of
Ver. 13-15. I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners
shall be converted unto
thee.
Ver. 14. Deliver me from blood-
guiltiness, thou God my
Saviour, so will my tongue joyfully extol
thy righteousness. Ver. 15. Lord open my lips, so will my
mouth show forth thy
praise.
To the words: I will teach, in
ver.
13, a then is to be supplied. The
Psalmist declares what
he
will do, when his prayer, uttered in the preceding verses,
has
been fulfilled. But that this is already to some extent un-
consciously
done, appears even from the purpose, which he here
announces.
For the wish to bring others to salvation, and
thereby
to promote the honour of God, cannot arise in a
heart,
which itself is quite alienated from the experience of sal-
vation
and from the glory of God. The expansion of the pur-
pose,
which the Psalmist here declares, of the vow which he
here
takes upon himself, is given in Psalm xxxii. comp. espe-
cially
ver. 8, "I will teach thee the way, which thou shalt go:
be
not as the horse and mule," etc. The ways of God may be
the
ways which he himself goes, his course, his actions, here his
conduct
toward repentant sinners, which David from his own
experience
would teach, and thereby lead others to repent,
comp.
Psalm xviii. 30, and the pass. in Gesell. Thes. Then
would
this: thy righteousness in ver 14, and: thy praise, in
ver.
15, correspond; also at the close of Psalm xxxii. would
God's
way be celebrated in this sense. Or, the ways of God
may
mean those which God wills that men should go in, the
course
of life which is well-pleasing to him, Psalm xviii. 21, here
specially,
that the sinner repents. The latter view is supported
by
Psalm xxxii. in which, what the sinner has to do, is through-
out
the predominant sentiment, comp. especially ver. 8, then
also
here the second member: and sinners shall, (through my
endeavours,)
return to thee, where the way of God for the sin-
PSALM LI. VER. 13-15. 207
ner
appears to be more closely defined as the way of return to
God.—The
first member of ver. 14, since the Psalmist, through
the
whole section, occupies himself exclusively with the ques-
tion,
how he will express his gratitude, is consequently to be
viewed
as in close connection with the second. The prayer for
deliverance
from blood-guiltiness has to do here only in so far
as
it is the condition of that influence which the Psalmist was
to
exercise upon others; therefore, q. d.
if thou deliverest me,
my
tongue shall show forth thy righteousness. The blood
comes
here into consideration, according to the "deliver me,"
comp.
on Psalm xxxix. 8, only in so far as it cries for revenge,
as
it pursues, like a ferocious enemy, him who shed it, Ps. vii.
1,
therefore, q. d. deliver me from the
punishment of death,
comp.
with Gen. iv. 10, "The voice of the blood of thy brother
cries
to me from the earth," ix. 5, "Your blood, wherein is your
soul,
will I avenge," ver. 6, "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood,
by
man shall his blood be shed,"—which passages fell heavily
upon
the soul of the Psalmist, and incessantly plagued him, 2 Sam.
ix.
10, "Urias the Hittite hast thou slain with the sword . . . .
And
now shall the sword not depart from thine house for ever."
Nnr, to exult, stands here,
as in Psalm lix. 16, poetically with a
double
accus., to praise with rejoicing. The righteousness of
God
is here also the property, according to which he gives to
every
one his own—to those who penitently return to him, the
forgiveness
of their sins, which he must grant to them accord-
ing
to his compassion, and which he promises to them in his
word,
comp. 1 John i. 9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un-
righteousness."
Falsely many: the righteousness which thou
extendest
to sinners. This is already refuted by the corre-
sponding:
thy praise, in ver. 15.—The two members of ver. 15
are
related to each other just as those of ver. 14, q. d. if thou
openest
my lips to me, I shall, etc. God opens the lips of the
sinner
by imparting forgiveness of sin, in consequence of which
he
breaks forth into rejoicing. The proclamation of the praise
of
God, of his glory, which he has unfolded in the bestowal of
pardon,
appears here as the best thank-offering which man can
present
to God. Luther: "Therefore, if we
have through faith
in
Christ received the righteousness and grace of God, we can
do
no greater work than speak and declare the truth of Christ.
For
what concerns external works, not only could any other
208 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
persons,
but even irrational beasts do, such as fasting, working,
watching.
It is also said, that in one respect Turks bear a very
hard
and laborious life. But when one is brought to confess
Christ
and his word, he is conscious of the joyful spirit of which
David
has spoken above."
The relation of ver. 16 and 17, to
the preceding, has Luther
already
quite correctly indicated: "In the following context he
shews
the cause, wherefore he, after having now received God's
righteousness,
could not refrain from praising God through the
proclamation
of his righteousness, and giving thanks to him."
Ver.
16. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else
would I give it thee,
and burnt-offerings please
thee not.
Ver. 17. The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit, a
broken and a contrite heart wilt thou, God,
not despise. The for indicates the reason, why the
Psalmist, in
what
precedes, offers to God spiritual
thank-offerings, not be-
cause
the corporeal are too good for him to give to God, but be-
cause
they are too bad. In what respect it is said, that God did
not
wish sacrifices, is evident here, just as in the remarkably
corresponding
passage, Ps. 6. from the contrast with an
actual
rendering of thanks, in which the Psalmist was to take
part
with his mind and spirit. In this connection, the external
sacrifices
must have been regarded only as by themselves, and
without
respect to the mind of the offerer. Arnd: "Wherefore
then?
God himself has ordered it so. Do his own works, then,
please
him not? Nothing, we reply, pleases God, but what is
done
in faith, and from sincere love and thankfulness. Now,
what
God has appointed, that has he appointed for this end,
that
it be done in faith, in love and thankfulness. For God
regards
the heart, not the works." Those who have failed to
take
this, the only correct view, divide themselves into various
classes.
Against the position, that sacrifices are not here abso-
lutely
rejected, but that a subordinate place merely is assigned
to
them, see what has been already said in Ps. xl. 6. Against
those
who, following Abenezra, in an arbitrary limitation of
what
is said generally, make David say,
that his sin was so great
as
to place him beyond the reach of the sin-offerings appointed
in
the law, it is a sufficient objection, that here, according to the
connection,
the discourse cannot be of sin-offerings,--the whole
section
is taken up with the kind of thanks the Psalmist is to
offer—and
in point of fact is not. The Psalmist does not speak
particularly
of sin-offerings, nor even of offerings in general, so
PSALM. VER. 16,
17. 209
that
the former might have been comprehended in these, but
only
of the offerings, which the already justified presented,
sacrifices
and burnt-offerings. For that we must not render
MyHbz, as is too commonly
done, by offerings, but rather by
sacrifices,
through the presentation of which the Lord was
thanked
for his goodness, connecting with them the burnt-offer-
ing,
in which the offerer devoted himself anew to the Lord and
his
service, is clear as day. Gousset, who has the merit of hav-
ing
gone deeper into this investigation than the recent lexico-
graphers,
must admit, that the sin-offering and the burnt-offer-
ing,
are never expressly named Hbz,
and his position, that they
are
sometimes comprehended under the word, proves itself to
be
quite groundless in the passages brought forward in support
of
it, among which this here is included. Finally, the
meaning
of De Wette, who expounds: thou hast now, while
the
temple lies prostrate, no pleasure, has against it the com-
plete
arbitrariness of this insertion, the violence of tearing
asunder
the parallel passage, and the expression: I would give
them,
which presupposes the possibility of presenting them.
On
the hntxv, and I would give them,
if they were acceptable
to
thee, comp. Ps. lv. 12. In ver. 17 are the sacrifices of God,
which
are well pleasing to him, as appears from the contrast
presented
by this to ver. 16, compare the ways of God in ver.
13.
The plural is used to indicate more distinctly, that the
sacrifice
of repentance alone suffices instead of every other. The
broken spirit, the contrite heart, denotes deep, but soft
and mild
distress,
compare on Psalm xxxiv, 19, cxlvii. 3, the occasion of
which
here is the offence done to God by previous sinning. It
may
be perceived, at the first glance, that the Psalmist de-
lineates
such a heart as forms the God-pleasing sacrifice and
thank-offering.
It might have appeared, according to ver. 8
and
12, that the disquietude reaches its end with the ex-
perience
of the forgiveness of sin. But the joy on account
of
received grace, which is there spoken of, does not ex-
clude
pain on account of sin. This must, especially after so
grievous
a fall, continue permanent. Its measure is at the same
time
the measure of thankfulness for the pardon of sin, of praise
for
the divine grace and righteousness, to which the Psalmist
pledges
himself in ver. 13-15, so that substantially he promises
here
the same thing he does there. He, to whom much is given,
210 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
loves
much, and the consciousness, that much has been forgiven
him,
can only be preserved by him, who constantly mourns over
his
sins.
From the promise of personal thanksgiving the Psalmist turns
himself,
at the close, to that of thanksgiving on the part of the
whole
church, so that God might the more readily grant to him,
what
would be gratefully acknowledged by so many. Ver. 18.
Do good according to thy
good pleasure to
walls of
sacrifices of
righteousness, in burnt-offerings and whole offerings,
then will bullocks
ascend thine altar.
To the prayer, that God
would
build the walls of
by
the conviction, that his sin, in case it should not be forgiven,
in
case the sword should really be drawn, which, according to
2
Sam. xii. 10, was not to depart from his house, must bring de-
struction
upon the whole. The certainty of his prayer being
heard
for the whole, he received, when the word was addressed
to
him personally: "be of good cheer,
my son, thy sins be for-
given
thee," and it is properly but this, for which he prays
here.
Then,
in ver. 19, when thou hearest this prayer, when
thou,
in shewing favour to me, at the same time givest the assur-
ance
that thou wilt not throw down the walls of
of
speech figuratively in Ps. lxxxix. 40—but farther build thou
up.
"Thou wilt have pleasure," is, according to the connection,
which
shews that the verse must have a promissory character,
and
according to the parallelism, q. d.
thou shalt delight thyself
in
them. Sacrifices of righteousness are
such, as are presented
by
a righteous man, or upon the foundation of his righteousness,
comp.
on Ps. iv. 5. Such sacrifices the soul could never be
without,
and only formally are they different from those that are
purely
spiritual. Only with them is God delighted, in the law
itself
declaring to the ungodly, that he "would not smell the
savour
of their sweet odours," Lev. xxvi. 31. lylk, a perfect
offering,
is such an one as was entirely burnt. As this was done
even
in the burnt-offerings, of which the offerers had no part,
as
in the Schelamim and Sebachim, so lylk denotes the same
class
of offerings, as hlvf does. But it is not
therefore em-
ployed
in vain; for it indicates on account of what in particular
burnt-offerings
were promised, namely, just because they were
whole offerings, in which alone the
grateful mind found the
PSALM
LII. 211
corresponding
expression of its feelings, the resolution of its
complete
and undivided surrender to God, its Saviour, of
whom
it was full. Berleb. Bible: "In the
New Testament,
such
are brought, when the soul, as it were, burns with love to
God,
and spends itself wholly in his service." Against the se-
paration
of hvlf and lylk from each other,
speaks, beside the
last
words and verse, which still manifestly refer to the Olot,
--vlfy—also 1 Sam. vii. 9: and
he offered it as olah wholly,
lylk, to the Lord.
PSALM LII.
THE words in ver. 1: "Why boastest thou thyself of mischief,
thou
hero? the favour of God endureth for ever," contain the
theme,
which is then more fully handled in four strophes, each
of
three verses, the first and second of which is also externally
bounded
by a Selah. First the wickedness of the hero is deli-
neated
in ver. 1 and 2, then it is shewn how little reason he had
for
boasting himself, in that God, in his loving kindness toward
his
people, has appointed him to merited destruction, ver. 4 and
5,
to the lively joy and edification of the righteous, ver. 6 and 7,
while,
on the other hand, the Psalmist attains to salvation, of
which
inwardly he is as confident as if he already had it, ver.
8
and 9.
According to the superscription,
David composed this Psalm
after
he had heard the report, how Saul, on the information of
Doeg
regarding what had passed between David and the high-
priest
Ahimelech, caused eighty-five priests to be killed. With
this
the situation entirely agrees. It must have filled David
with
grief and terror, when he received the tidings of this
cious
freak. In the conflict with an enemy capable of using
such
weapons, he must certainly fall. He must have despaired
of
his own life, when, in spirit, he looked upon the corpses of
eighty-five
priests, who, solely for his sake, had been killed, to
inspire
all with dread of sharing the same fate, and upon Saul,
as
it were, beside them, asking him in triumph, how he was
furnished
for such a conflict. Then, if ever, had he occasion for
uttering
the words: Why boastest thou thyself of mischief, thou
hero?
the favour of God endureth for ever. The superscrip-
212 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
has often been misunderstood to intimate that the Psalm-
was
directed against Doeg. It does not say that, but only that
the
Psalm was composed on the occasion of Saul's receiving in-
formation
from Doeg, and of what thereupon followed. It men-
tions
Saul along with Doeg, and that the former name appears
to
be written large, not the latter, is already probable from the
circumstance,
that David commonly has to do with Saul himself
in
the Psalms composed during the Sauline period of his history,
and
not with his subordinate instruments, whose agency was
considered
as embodied in that of the ideal person of the wicked
one,
who, in Saul, had become concrete. The subject fully jus-
tifies
this view of it. The enemy appears throughout the
Psalm
as one who threatens destruction to the Psalmist, and
what
he has already done to others comes only so far into con-
sideration,
as it shows what the Psalmist had to expect from him.
So
at the outset: why boastest thou thyself of mischief, q. d.
why
boastest thou, that with the mischief, the frightful effects
of
which lie before the eyes, thou wilt soon get away with
me?
But history knows nothing of Doeg's having undertaken
to
remove David out of the way. It knows nothing of the en-
mity
of Doeg to David, who had kept silence regarding what
had
taken place between David and the high-priest, till the so-
lemn
charge of Saul to his servants appeared to render further
silence
inconsistent with his duty of service. Quite otherwise
must
he have acted if he had been the sworn enemy of David,
which
the hypothesis in question would make him.—The ad-
dress:
thou hero, suits much better to Saul, whom David, in
his
lamentation, 2 Sam. i. 19, still repeatedly calls a hero, who
had
even in his crimes displayed the energy of the hero, than to
Doeg,
the chief herdsman of the royal flocks, of whom history
records
no heroic deed, but the massacring of the hapless
priests,
which none of Saul's warriors would
undertake to do.
In
order to make the reproach of lying, in ver. 1-3, of calum-
nious
and deceitful words suit Doeg, it is necessary to enrich
the
history with imaginary circumstances. In the whole history
of
the transaction with the priests, there is no indication of
Doeg's
having been guilty of lying and deceit. He simply re-
ports
the fact; the hateful interpretation
is added by Saul,
comp.
1 Sam. xxii. 9; 10, 22. On the other hand, this reproach
is
perfectly suited to Saul. He accused David without any
foundation,
of high-treason, in order to have him taken out of
PSALM LII. VER. 1. 213
the
way with some show of right, and brought the same accusa-
tion
against the innocent priests, comp. 1 Sam. xxii. 17, without
paying
the least regard to the simple eloquence of a good con-
science,
with which the high-priest defended himself because he
had
resolved to make an example for the destruction of David.
The
words: "he trusted in the abundance of his riches," in ver.
7,
suit Saul better, who understood how to employ his riches
for
the establishment of his throne, comp. his own declaration in
1
Sam. xxii. 7, than Doeg, who, though as the chief of the herds-
men,
and as such, the foremost among the servants of Saul,
comp.
1 Sam. xxii. 9, certainly possessed considerable means,
yet
made no use of these to procure for himself servants and
abettors
to persecute David and the righteous in general. Final-
ly,
it is scarcely conceivable that David, in the presence of
Saul,
should have been fired with such zeal against a merely
common
instrument of his, which Doeg manifestly was, and
should
have laid claim to help from above against him.—With
this
rejection of the reference of the Psalm to Doeg, the attacks.
of
De Wette and others are at the same time set aside against
the
superscription, which proceed altogether and alone upon
the
misunderstanding, that it was directed against him.
To
the chief musician, an instruction of David. When Doeg
the Edomite came, and
informed Saul, and spake to him: David
is come to the house of
Ahimelech.
It is not without reason,
that
the expression: an instruction, comp. on Psalm xxxii. is
immediately
connected with that of, to the chief musician. The
Psalm
was only then appropriated to be, sung in the sanctuary,
when
it had something more than merely historical import,
when
it contained a kernel of eternal and general instruction.
To
the designation in the superscription of an instruction, cor-
responds,
in the Psalm itself, the regard to the righteous in ver.
6
and 7, and in ver. 9. At the end of the superscription is an
etc.
to be supplied. The history is supposed to be generally
known,
and hence it is simply pointed to. The Psalm could
not
be composed before David had heard the report of the
murder
of the priests.
Ver. 1. Why boastest thou thyself of mischief, thou hero?
the favour of God
endures for ever.
There is here represented,
beforehand,
the essential matter of the whole Psalm, in brief,
striking
features. In presence of the malice of his enemy, the
frightful
operations of which David had inst seen, he must have
214 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
been
the more alarmed, as the bearer of this malice was a man
of
rare energy, of manly and heroic vigour. But a glance to-
ward
the favour of God, which he enjoyed, gave him unlimited
confidence
in regard to this powerful malice, and enabled him
to
laugh at its proud assurance. This favour must provide for
his
enemy, in spite of all his malice and strength, destruction,
but
for himself salvation. To the words here, "thou boastest
thyself
of mischief," corresponds, in ver. 7, "he is strong
through
his wickedness." rvbg hero. The sig. tyrant,
mad-
man,
which many expositors adopt, is entirely unsupported-
Gesenius
adduces only this verse for it—and has this against it,
that
God, in the second member, with especial reference to the
strength
of the enemy, assumes the name of lx,
of strength,
whereby
also is rejected the irony supposed by many; then,
too,
that in ver. 7, as here, the heroic virtue, so there the abun-
dance
of riches, is coupled with malice. Not the malice alone,
but
that in connection with the power, was what could fill Da-
vid
with trouble. Mvyh-lk, not all days, but the
whole day,
for,
continually.—In the enlargement the malice of the enemy
comes
first, in ver. 2, 3.
Ver. 2. Upon mischief thinks thy tongue as a sharp razor,
thou working deceit. Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good,
lying more than to speak
righteousness.
That we must take
hvH, not, with Luther, in
the sig. of misfortune, loss, hurt,
but
in that of mischief, shews ver. 7. The tongue here com-
prehends
also the spiritual part, whose organ it is. The compa-
rison
with the sharp razor is here the more suitable, as the
calumnious
accusation of high-treason, which Saul brought
against
David and the high-priest, his charge, "Ye have con-
spired
against me thou and the son of Jesse," was indeed the
cutting-point
of his malice. For the measures he adopted
against
them, were only the consequences of this. The last
words
of ver. 2, Luther has falsely referred to the tongue, in-
stead
of taking them as an address to the enemy. Ver. 3 de-
rives
its strength from its contrast to that which the wicked
should
do according to the prescription of the Divine law, comp.
for
the second half, Deut. xvi. 20, "Righteousness, righteousness,
thou
must follow after it, that thou mayest live and possess the
land
which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee." Righteousness
here
is not = truth, but it has respect to this, that the enemy,
while
he speaks lies, violates righteousness.
PSALM LII. VER.
4-7. 215
In the second strophe, we have now
the grounding of the
position,
that the enemy unjustly boasts himself of his wicked-
ness,
while God's favour toward the Psalmist will shew itself
in
destroying him. Ver. 4. Thou lovest all
words of destruction,
tongue of deceit. Ver. 5. Therefore will God destroy thee for
ever, take thee away as
a coal, and pluck thee out of the tent, and
root thee out of the
land of the living.
That ver. 4 is a mere re-
sumption
of ver. 2, 3—q. d. because thou so
lovest, etc.
God
will, in righteous recompense to thee, etc.—shews, be-
sides
the Selah and the fact, that the other strophes of the
Psalm
are divided into two verses, the subject, which only re-
peats
in other words what has been already said. The design
of
the resumption is to point to the internal and inseparable
connection
of guilt and punishment. The same design is served
by
the Mg, also, in ver. 4, which
marks the punishment as the
necessary
complement of the guilt, comp. Ps. xcv. 9, Ez. xvi.
43, Mal. iii. 9. Our two verses, therefore, represent the
revenge,
as
the two preceding ones the wickedness. flabA, pausalf. of
flab,, prop. devouring. The
verb htH in ver. 5 everywhere
else
signifies: to take away the coals,
and this sig. is here the
less
to be abandoned, as also in the words: he will destroy thee
for
ever—make thee a monument of perpetual ruin, there is an
abbreviated
comparison at bottom, as also in the words: he will
root thee out, nay also in
these: he will pluck thee out of the
tent, q. d. he will snatch thee forth, as one
who is dragged with
strong
gripe out of a tent. How this prophecy found its fulfil-
ment
in Saul, is recorded in 1 Sam. xxxi.
The third strophe, ver. 6 and 7,
describes the joy of the righ-
teous
at the manifestation of the glory of God in his judgment
upon
the wicked. Ver. 6. The righteous shall
see it and be
afraid, and laugh over
him.
Ver. 7. "See there the man, who
does not make God his
portion, and trusts in the abundance of
his riches, is strong
through his wickedness." The fear
is not a
slavish,
but a childish one, such as always arises in the minds of
believers,
when God manifests himself in his glory. The ex-
pression:
they will laugh over him, forms no contradiction to
that
in Prov. xxiv. 17, "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth,
and
let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth," Job xxxi.
29,
where it is characterised as a heinous sin to rejoice at the
misfortune
of an enemy, or 2 Sam. i. 19, ss., where David ex-
216 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
presses
the acutest pain on account of Saul's overthrow. John
Arnd:
"There is a twofold laughter. One,
when a man, out
of
an evil spirit of revenge, laughs at his enemy. This no
Christian
virtuous mind does, but it exercises compassion to-
ward
an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from
a
consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteous-
ness
of God, as when a man sins so presumptuously, that he
cares
neither for God nor man, and will contend with God, as
Pharaoh
says: “I ask nothing after the Lord, nor
will I let Is-
rael
go, and soon thereafter was made to sink in the
Is
it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God, and
God
gives him a fillip in the ear, so as to make him fall, or God
commands
the vermin to plague such great kings as Pharaoh?
Herod
would himself be God, and was eaten up of worms—is
not
this a great God? Should one not laugh at this, and adore
God's
judgment? Is it not laughable, that the king of
threatens
Hezekiah, that he would send so many horses and
footmen
into his land, as would be sufficient with the soles of
their
feet to drink up
of
dust in the land for every one to fill his hands withal, while
yet
in one night they were all slain in
the camp by the angel of
the
Lord?" On ver. 7, which contains
the words with which
the
righteous mock the wicked, John Arnd remarks: "A rich
man
full of wickedness is like a bear, while he still walks at
large
in the forest; every one must take care of meeting him;
but
when he is caught, then a ring is put into his nose, a chain
is
thrown over him, his teeth broken out, and his claws cut off;
and
then one laughs at him and says: Thou poor rogue, it
is
done with thee at last." For the being
strong through his
wickedness,
we must not substitute: holds himself for strong.
The thought: God's favour endures
for ever, has hitherto
been
but imperfectly brought out. It must be shown not merely
in
the destruction of the enemies of the Psalmist, but also in the
salvation
which is imparted to him; it must not simply bring
down
and destroy, but also raise up and edify. And this is what
the
last strophe unfolds. Ver. 8. And I am as
a green olive-
tree in the house of
God, I trust in the favour of God for ever
and ever. Ver. 9. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast
done it, and hope in thy
name, because it is good, before thy
saints. The house of God, in ver. 8, is the temple "where God
dwells
with his grace, blessing, protection, help, and consola-
PSALM LII. VER.
8.
tion,"
(Arnd,) and where the righteous spiritually dwell along
with
him, comp. on Ps. xv. 1, xxiii. ,6, xxvii. 4, 5, xxxvi. 8. The
Psalmist
not merely expresses here, as elsewhere, the hope that
he
would dwell or abide in this corporeal place, but that he
would
there joyfully prosper. The green olive-tree as an image
of
joyful prosperity, also in Jer. xi. 16, as in Ps. xcii. 12, the
cedar
and the palm. The position of De Wette, that the house
of
God is here to be taken spiritually, is to be rejected, (comp.
on
the other hand what has been said on the passages referred
to,)
equally with the exposition, which here, where a much
higher
thing is spoken of, finds the expression of David's hope
of
an external return to the sanctuary, though this could cer-
tainly
not be left out. The trusting in the
favour of the Lord,
has,
according to the words: sees confisa deo nunquam con-
fusa
recedit, the manifestation of that favour for its inseparable
accompaniment;
so that we may supply: and hence shall never
be
put to shame. According to ver. 9, the Psalmist will con-
tinually
praise the Lord for the deliverance already internally
obtained,
(comp. the tyWf,) and for the future
continually dur-
ing
his troubles wait in believing hope upon his trustworthy helper.
The
object is awanting for tyWf. That in cases like
this hWf
never
stands absolutely, the object being always to be supplied
from
the preceding context, was already shewn in Ps. xxii. 31,
xxxvii.
5. On the name of God, q. d. his glory, as that has been
actually
displayed, comp. on Ps. xx. 1, xxiii. 3. The expression;
before
thy saints, points to this, that the faith of the Psalmist,
acquired
through his present deliverance, will prove advan-
tageous
to the whole church, he will thereby build up this.
That
we must connect "before thy saints," with "I will hope,"
and
must not translate with Luther: and will hope on thy name,
for
thy saints have joy, therein, is clear from a comp. of the
parall.
pass. Ps. liv. 6. That Psalm agrees so remarkably with
this,
that the supposition of their being composed by the same
author
is rendered certain, and the superscriptions are conse-
quently
confirmed, which ascribe them to the same,
PSALM LIII.
Compare on Psalm xiv.
218 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LIV.
THIS Psalm is distinguished both in
its form and its subject
by
great simplicity. The whole is completed in the number
seven,
which, as so often happens, is divided into the numbers
three
and four. First, in ver. 1-3, the prayer for deliverance
from
malignant and God-forgetting enemies, then in ver. 4-7,
the
confidence united with a promise of thanksgiving, for the
deliverance,
which the Psalmist sees with the eye of faith as al-
ready
present.
According to the superscription, David
composed the Psalm
When
the Ziphites informed Saul, that David concealed himself
in
their country. Such information was conveyed twice, 1 Sam.
xxiii.
and xxvi. But that we are here to think of the first, is
probable
from the literal agreement of the words of the Ziphites
here
with those in 1 Sam. xxiii. 19. Against the correctness of
the
superscription, it has been objected, 1. That the enemies are
named
strangers in ver. 3, whereas David
was then menaced by
his
countrymen, Saul and his associates, comp. our remarks
there;
and, 2. That the superscription is partly borrowed from
1
Sam. xxiii. 19—which, however, can prove nothing, since the
agreement
solely refers to the words of the Ziphites.
To
the chief musician, for music on a stringed instrument, an
instruction of David,
when the Ziphites came and spake to Saul:
Does not David hide
himself with, us?
On the expression: for
music
on a stringed instrument, comp. on Ps. iv. Delitzsch on
Hab.
p. 203, has proved, that hnygn denotes not any particular
stringed
instrument, but the music on such instruments, the plu-
ral
indicating music formed by numerous notes running into one
another,
not various instruments. On the "instruction," (comp.
on
Ps. xxxii.) the Berleb. Bible: "We
should learn from the ex-
ample
of David, that even in the greatest danger we should re-
sort
to no forbidden means, nor grow faint, but should call upon
the
name of God, and commit to him all our concerns as to the
Supreme
Judge." The participle rttsm
marks the action
continuing
in the same state, and we must neither translate:
has
not then David concealed himself, nor with Hitzig: conceals
himself
not then David commonly with us? The form in which
the
Ziphites gave the information, had something striking in it,
and
for this reason it was, that their words had sunk so deep
PSALM LIV. VER. 1-3. 219
into
the memory. It pre-supposed Saul's earnest seeking after
David.
The Ziphites, surprizing Saul, express their wonder at
this,
that having such an object in view, he should still be igno-
rant
of the notorious secret, that David lay concealed among
them.
Ver. 1. God, through thy name deliver me, and through thy
power judge me. Ver. 2. God, hear my prayer, attend to the words
of my mouth. Ver. 3. For strangers are risen up against me,
and oppressors seek
after my soul, they have not God before their
eyes. From the earth which
presents to him nothing but de-
spair,
the Psalmist turns himself to the heavens,—from men who
are
against him, to God who is his helper; hence the general
name
of God is used quite appropriately. The name and the
power
of God he sets against the usual human means of help, of
which
he is wholly abandoned. The connection of the name of
God,
(comp. on Ps. lii. 10), with his strength, shows quite clear-
ly
how false the position is, that the name of God is, q. d. God
himself.
The judge me is not quite synonymous
with the deliver
me.
It points to the righteousness of David's cause, which
leads
him to call in the divine help against his enemies as a work
of
divine righteousness, comp. Ps. vii. 8; xxvi. 1. John Arnd:
"From
these words we learn, if we would pray rightly, and in-
deed
would make a strong powerful prayer, we must have a
good
cause, so that our conscience may not condemn us, and
render
our prayer impotent." Besides, the delivering is not
properly
contained in the judging, it only is so, because the
person
praying for the judgment is righteous.—In ver. 3, the
Chaldee,
instead of Myrz, strangers, reads Mydz, proud, which
Luther
also follows. This reading has partly proceeded from
an
unseasonable comparison of the parallel passage, Ps. lxxxvi.
14,
in which Myrz is intentionally
changed into Mydz, and part-
ly
from the difficulty, which strangers
presents, when compared
with
the superscription, according to which the enemies are do-
mestic
ones. This difficulty is legitimately removed by the re-
mark,
that David here figuratively designates his countrymen as
strangers,
because they, who were united with him by so many
ties,
his "friends," and his "brethren," according to the law of
God,
in their behaviour toward him were not different from
strangers.
Precisely the same figurative representation occurs
also
in Ps. cxx. 5, where the Psalmist, heavily oppressed by his
countrymen,
complains, that he dwelt in Mesech and Kedar,
220 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
heathenish
tribes, q. d. among heathens and
Turks. Analogous
also
are the numerous passages, in which Israelites either in
general
are described as aliens or heathens, or are coupled
with
the name of a particular outlandish people, in order to mark
their
degeneracy and ungodliness. The transition to the figu-
rative
use of Myrz, was the more easy, as
it almost invariably
carries
the related idea of hostile, comp.
Gesen. Thes., who is so
candid
as to admit here this figurative use. Upon Cyrx, power-
ful,
with the subordinate idea of violence, comp. on Ps. xxxvii. 35.
On:
"they have not God before their
eyes," corresponding to
the:
"they fear not God," in Ps. lv. 19, Arnd remarks: "Not
to
have God before the eyes, means to speak and act without
dread,
whatever one pleases, nay what is contrary to God and
his
holy word, as if God did not see and hear it; nor to be afraid
of
God's anger, or of his judgment, and to have no remembrance
of
God in the heart. This is a great and horrible blinding of
wicked
Satan, growing out of pride and the abuse of power."
Ver. 4. Lo, God helps me, the Lord is among those, who up-
hold my soul. Ver. 5. He will return the evil upon my adver-
saries, according to his
truth annihilate them. Ver. 6. With
free-will gift will I
sacrifice to thee, praise thy name, 0 Lord,
for it is good. Ver. 7. For he has delivered me from all trouble,
and my eye sees its
desire upon my enemies. The lo is a note
of
great
power of faith. The Psalmist sees with his eyes, how God
helps
him, although the visible presents
nothing to him but cer-
tain
destruction. John Arnd: "This is a fruit of prayer and of
the
holy Spirit; that the heart is comforted and rejoiced after
prayer,
and it is a sure indication of being heard, for so does the
Lord
answer us, when we pray from the heart. When prayer
goes
from the heart, the heart assuredly receives the consolation
of
God." Soul is according to ver. 3,--the upholders of the
soul
here, stand opposed to those there,
who seek the soul—as
much
as, life. The b in ykmsb is not the so called Beth es-
sentiae,
for then the singular must have been used, but it means
simply
among. The Psalmist makes two
parties, the opponents
and
the helpers, and is full of triumphing confidence, as he sees
the
Lord upon the side of the latter. That the Psalmist must
have
had other helpers besides the Lord, we must not conclude
from
the plural. The plurality is an ideal circumstance; the
plural
denotes the class, the party, which in reality might have
been
embodied in an individual. Quite analogous is Ps. cxviii.
PSALM LIV. VER. 4-7. 221
7;
Judges xi. 35. In ver. 5 the reading of the text is the fut.
in
Kal. bUwyA, comp. vii. 16. The
marginal reading bywy
he,
God,
will recompense, which in many MSS. is pressed into the
text,
and is also expressed by many of the old translators, owes
its
origin merely to the endeavour to bring the two members
into
conformity. The evil is that, which the adversaries wished
to
inflict on the Psalmist. In the second member the confident
expectation
of what the Lord will do, takes the character of a
demand
upon the Lord from the liveliness of the affection. This
imperative,
which arises out of confidence, is carefully to be dis-
tinguished
from those of the first part, which contain prayer
simply.
tmx always signifies truth, never faithfulness, comp.
Ps.
xxx. 9. The truth of God must work the annihilation of the
ungodly
enemies, because in his word he has given to his people
the
promise of his protection, and still more, because his whole
being
contains a matter-of-fact declaration of the same promise.
John
Arnd: “There are two strong grounds from which, it may
be
concluded, that punishment shall certainly overtake the per-
secutors
of the church. For the righteous God, who can only
for
a little exercise long-suffering and patience, will at length
repay
wickedness. Besides, God's faithfulness and truth are
also
certain, and must at last manifest and disclose themselves.”
In
ver. 6, hbAdAn;bi is expounded by many;
with free will, volun-
tarily.
But that the signification generally recognized as the
common
one, free-will gift, such an one, namely, as the heart
impels
one to bring, Ex. xxv. 2; xxxv. 29, is the only one, ap-
pears
from a closer examination of the passages brought in sup-
port
of the sig. willingness, or animus
promptus ad aliquid.a Ac-
cordingly
we must also translate here: in free-will offering, so
that
the gift has the character of one freely bestowed. Now,
in
the law the free will gift stands in regular contrast to the vow,
by
which a person was bound, whenever he had uttered it in a
time
of trouble. This contrast the Psalmist would here also in-
dicate;
of his ready mind he would be impelled to present his
a That in Numb. xv. 3,
where sacrifices stand opposed to each other, those
which
were offered after a vow, and those hbAdAn;bi, we must expound: as a
free-will
offering, shows the comp. of the parallel passages, Lev. vii. 16, and
xxii.
23. In Deut. xxiii. 24, the rendering: "What thou hast vowed to the
Lord
as a free-will gift," presents no contradiction, nor Hos. xiv. 5: I will
love
them with a freewill gift, comp. Ew. § 483.
222 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thank-offering,
to pay his vow, which in many cases was nothing
more
than a preservative against one's own lukewarmness, dis-
inclination,
and unthankfulness. Still we might, referring to
Deut.
xxiii. 24, where also the vow is marked as a free-will of-
fering—though
certainly but an isolated passage—suppose, that
the
free-will offering stands opposed to such as was legally com-
manded.
That significance is ascribed to sacrifices here, only
in
so far as the mind takes an active part in their presenta-
tion,
appears from the parallel second member, from which
many
of the older expositors have erroneously concluded
that
by the sacrifices purely spiritual ones are to be under-
stood—comp.
on this second member, Psalm lii. 9. — The
expression
in ver. 7: he has delivered me, is to
be ex-
plained
from the circumstance, that David, in the exercise of
that
faith, which builds upon the internally received assurance,
sees
what is not as if it were, what, indeed, he was already, in
ver.
6, prepared to do, when speaking of praising and giving
thanks
to God, which pre-supposes the deliverance as already
obtained.
On the words: and my eye sees its desire on my
enemies,
Calvin remarks: "If any one asks,
whether it is per-
mitted
to the children of God, when God takes vengeance on
crimes,
to feast himself on such a spectacle, the answer is easy
—only
let his eyes be pure, and he can piously and holily re-
fresh
himself with the manifestations of God's justice; but when
they
are infected with any evil desire, all is then drawn to a
wrong
and perverse end." John Arnd: "This
is not a fleshly
lust,
a private revenge, an exultation over another's misfortune,
all
which is unchristian, but it is an admiration of the righteous-
ness
of God, an acknowledgment of God's judgment, a satisfac-
tion,
that God's honour and God's name are vindicated, where-
by
all may fear, praise, honour, and glorify him in all his works."
PSALM
THE Psalm contains three parts. The
first, ver. 1-8, de-
lineates
the desperate condition of the Psalmist, and prays for
deliverance.
The second, ver. 9-15, describes the prevailing
wickedness
and ungodliness, as a symptom of which it is men-
tioned
that the Psalmist has one of his nearest friends for his
PSALM
bitterest
opponent, and calls upon God to execute judgment
upon
the wicked. The third, ver. 16-23, contains the expres-
sion
of confidence, which raises itself
from the same foundation,
on
which also was raised in the preceding context the prayer:
God
is called upon at once by his love and his righteousness to
interpose.—If
we regard, as we are perfectly justified by the mat-
ter,
ver. 1 as an introduction indicating the prayer as by the way,
and
ver. 23 as the conclusion, recapitulating the confidence in
short
and striking lines, we have three strophes, each of seven
verses.—The
internal character of the Psalm is indicated by the
"making
a noise," in ver. 2, and the "crying aloud," in ver. 17.
It
is that of a great excitement. Berleb. Bible: "David is here
very
depressed, and thinks of no leaps over the walls as else-
where."
The Psalmist wishes to shew (the Psalm is designated
in
the superscription an instruction)
how in such a situation of
excitement,
a person should conduct himself, how he should
carry
up what has occasioned it to God, and compose himself
to
rest again through the consideration of God's love and right-
eousness.
The superscription ascribes the
composition to David. For a
particular
occasion, and against the view already propounded by
Luther,
that we have here a general prayer prescribed for the
godly
when assaulted by the wicked, decides even at the first
glance,
ver. 12-14, and ver. 20 and 21, where the person of a
faithless
friend meets us. But this faithless friend is a standing
figure
in poetry, as in love. Precisely in the same form in which
it
occurs here, has it already appeared in the earlier non-indi-
vidual
Psalms, in Ps. xxxv. 11, ss., and especially in the passage
which
remarkably agrees with this, of Ps. 9. David was
desirous
of employing for the good of the Church the painful
experiences,
which he had found on this territory, particularly
in
connection with Ahitophel, 2 Sam. xv. 12; was anxious to
comfort
others with the consolation with which he had himself
been
comforted in the trial he met with from "false brethren,"
(the
predominating reference to this, forms, in regard to the
matter
of the Psalm, its individual physiognomy.) Against the
supposition
of a particular occasion, it is enough to awaken in
us
misgivings, that those who maintain that, cannot agree among
themselves
regarding it. A presumptive counter-ground, on the
other
hand, is the general character of the references, the inten-
tional
nature of which comes especially out in ver. 9, where, by
224 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
"the
city," every one must obviously think of that particular
city,
to which he himself belongs. (It is against the Sauline
persecutions
in particular, that in them we can point to no ori-
ginal
of the faithless friend, and against the revolt of Absalom,
that
not the smallest reference is to be found here to the royal
dignity
of the Psalmist, which is, however, a characteristic trait
of
the individual Psalms of that time, nay, in ver. 13, where the
Psalmist
describes the faithless friend as his associate and com-
panion,
a datum is given which excludes that idea. Then the
defenders
of the reference to Absalom's time are involved in
difficulty
on this account, that they are unable to point out in
the
history the combination of circumstances which appear here:
on
the one hand the Psalmist is still in the city,—he expresses
his
wish, in ver. 6-8, to be able to flee into the wilderness: as
also
in ver. 9, he sees violence and strife in the city. On the
other
hand, the wickedness has already come to a full outbreak,
the
Psalmist is already hard pressed by his enemies, faithless-
ness
has already become openly manifest. Tholuck, who sup-
poses
the Psalm to have been composed when David was flying
before
Absalom in the wilderness of
half
of the circumstances, and Stier, who places its composition
in
the period that preceded the revolt of Absalom, overlooks the
other.)
The allegation of Ewald and others, that the Psalm be-
longs
to the last century before the destruction of
can
bring no probable argument for its rejection of the super-
scription.
For such delineations as it contains of prevailing de-
moralization,
in ver. 9-11, David had abundant occasion in his
own
experience during the times of Saul (compare especially 1
Sam.
xxii. 2) and Absalom. It is absurd to take such descrip-
tions
as the starting point for the historical exposition, and then
perhaps
to complain with Ewald: "the
circumstances of the
position
of this poet can scarcely be more exactly determined."
To
the chief musician, upon stringed instrument music, an in-
struction of David; Ver. 1. Attend to my prayer, 0 God, and
hide thyself not from my
supplication.
Mlfth, prop. to hide
one's
self from any thing, purposely not to notice, to be igno-
rant
of it, compare Deut. xxii. 1-4, Isa. lviii. 7, and on Ps. x. 1.
John
Arnd: "In great straits, it seems
as if God hides himself
from
us, as the prophet Jeremiah speaks in chap. iii. of his La-
mentations:
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our
prayer
should not pass through. But our gracious God cannot
PSALM LV. VER. 2-8. 225
hide
himself from our prayer, the prayer does still press through-
the
clouds and find him. God's fatherly heart does not permit
him
to hear us cry and beg, without turning to us, as a father,
when
he hears his children cry."
There follows now the development of
the prayer uttered in
a
general way in the introduction, in two strophes. First, the
Psalmist
prays for deliverance from the very great distress, in
which
he was plunged, ver. 2-8. In ver. 3, he describes this
distress,
in ver. 4 and 5 he unfolds the sad internal condition,
in
which he was situated, having troubles without and fears
within,
and heaves, in ver 6-8, the wish that he might rather
dwell
in the wilderness, than, in such circumstances, continue
longer
in human society—such vexation had they caused him.
Ver.
2. Attend to me and hear me, I give free
course to my sor-
row, and will cry aloud. Ver. 3. Because of the voice of the
enemy, because of the
oppression of the wicked, for they bend mis-
chief over me, and in
wrath hate me.
Ver. 4. My heart moves
about in my inwards, and
the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
Ver.
5. Fear and trembling have come upon me,
and horror covers
me. Ver. 6. And I said:
Oh! had I wings as a dove, then
would I fly away and
abide.
Ver. 7. Lo! I would fly far off,
I would lodge in the
wilderness. Selah.
Ver. 8. I would
make haste to a refuge,
from the strong wind, from the tempest.
yHywb
dyrx in
ver. 2, signifies literally: I let (my thoughts)
swim,
or move themselves about in my reflections, for, I give
my
sad thoughts free course, that God may be the more moved
to
compassion since pain in its full strength presents itself be-
fore
him. dvr occurs in Kal. in the
sense of moving, one's self,
Jer.
ii. 31, Hos. xii. 1, and in Hiphil in the sense of moving,
shaking,
Gen. xxvii. 40, compare my Beitr. III. p. 296. As the
supposition,
that the Hiphil here stands in the signification of
Kal,
is an arbitrary one, the object: my troubled thoughts, must
be
supplied from yHywb. The Hyw
thought, reflection, is often
used
especially of the reflection one has over misfortune, of
sorrow,
because nothing more powerfully draws the thoughts
around
it, than pain, nothing invites one more to sink down into
it,
to brood over it. But the word in such cases maintains still
its
common signification. Mvh to throw into confusion,
to bring
into
disquiet, in Hiphil to make disquiet, noise, comp. Mic. ii.
12,
and the corresponding "to make a noise," in ver. 17. There
is
just as little reason here as in Ps. xlii. 4, to take the h of
226 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
striving
in any other than its common sig., against which also
decides
the, "I will think and cry aloud," in ver. 17. The
Psalmist,
or the righteous, in whose name he speaks, will
com-
plain very loudly, because this is the
surest means of making
God
to hear, comp. in ver. 17: so does he hear my voice.
By
the voice of the enemy in ver. 3, we have to think of re-
proaches,
(ver. 12,) threatenings, and curses. Fvm to shake, in
Hiphil
to make to shake, to throw down, Ps. cxl. 11. Nvx never
signifies
misfortune, always wickedness, comp. on Ps. x. 1.
Delitzsch
on Hab. p. 158, who maintains the opposite, has too
little
considered, that, for the sig. misfortune,
at least one passage
was
indispensably necessary, in which that sense alone could be,
admitted.
But no such passage exists. Luther: they would
shew
toward me a malicious disposition, is hence to be preferred
to
De Wette: they pour upon me hurt. The wickedness in
the
form of a mischievous device, Ps. xli. 8, in which it embodies
itself,
is thrown upon the Psalmist.—On ver. 4 Calvin: "When
it
goes well with us, every one appears as an invincible warrior,
but
as soon as we come into the real conflict, then does our
weakness
discover itself." lyH a cognate form of the
Kal lvH,
sig.
to circle, which is there
figuratively used for the feeling of
deep
pain, sore anguish. The sig. to tremble,
is not sufficiently
proved.
The terrors of death seize the Psalmist, because the
enemies
threaten his life.—Ver. 6 has been imitated by Jerem.
in
ch. ix. 2: "0 that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of
wayfaring
men, that I might leave my people and go from them!
for
they, are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."
That
the Psalmist names the dove, not
merely on account of its
speed
of flight, but also on account of its defenceless innocence,
is
clear from Psalm lvi. supers. In the imitation in Rev. xii. 14,
the
eagle has been substituted for the dove, with reference to
Ex.
xix. 4. To the words: and would abide, we must supply:
in
the place, whither I fled, rather than continue longer among
my
tormentors. The wilderness, in ver.
7, stands opposed to
human
society. As every one naturally has the wish to continue
in
it, it must have become sadly degenerate, if one desires to
flee
from it into the desert. After the word of heavy import:
in
the wilderness—what must be for "friends" and "brethren,"
from
whom it is sought to be away into the wilderness!—the
Selah
stands quite suitably.—The Psalmist had, in ver. 6, uttered
in
a general way the wish, that he might escape from the evil
PSALM LV. VER.
9-15. 227
which
pressed hard upon him, thereby indicating the heaviness
of
his temptation, and seeking to move God to compassion and
help.
In ver. 7 he has defined this wish more exact; in that
he
desired to go far away into the wilderness, and in ver. 8 he
still
further adds, that he would hasten
his escape. Precisely
as
the relation of ver. 7 and 8 to ver. 6, is that of ver. 10 and
11
to ver. 9. hwyHx is fut. in Kal of wyH=wvH,
comp. lxxi.
12.
The Hiphil also occurs in the sig. of hastening, Judg. xx. 37.
Flpm, place of refuge, is
accus., as it stands with verbs of mo-
tion.
The yl is used as in ver. 18.
Against the sig. of the
forms
with m various expositors: I
would hasten to me the flight.
The
Nm in Hvrm and rfsm most take as that in lvqm in ver.
3,
from strong wind, from tempest = as the dove flies from the
storm
and tempest to her place of refuge, so the Psalmist from
the
storm of his enemies. But that we must rather take the Nm
as
not. comp. after the example of Drusius, shews the: from
hastening, strong (hfs according to the Arab. to run, hasten)
wind,
the more so, as hfs connects itself with wyH in the first
member.
It is also very common elsewhere, to have respect to
haste
in mentioning wind and storm, comp. Hab. i. 11, iii. 14.
Jer.
iv. 13, Job xxx. 15.
There follows in ver. 9-15 the
second part of the prayer:
Let
God judge, for the reigning wickedness cries aloud to heaven.
The
prayer for the destruction of the wicked is announced brief-
ly
at the beginning, at the end it comes out more at length in
ver.
15. In the middle part the grounding is given, while first, in
a
general way, the reigning wickedness is described, ver. 9-11,
then
allusion is made to the faithlessness of the friend, as to a
frightful
symptom of prevailing corruption. The numbers three
and
seven, which govern the arrangement of the whole, return
again
also in the arrangement of the particular strophes. As the
first
strophe falls into three parts 2. 2. 3, so also the second, 3.
3.
1.—Ver. 9. Devour, Lord, divide their
tongue for I see violence
and strife in the city. Ver. 10. They compass it day and night
upon its walls, and
mischief and sorrow are in the midst of it.
Ver.
11. Iniquity is in the midst of it, and
there depart not from
its market oppression
and deceit. Ver.
12. For it is not an enemy
that reproaches me, else
would I bear it, not my hater that magnifies
himself against me, else
would I conceal myself him. Ver.13.
But thou art my
companion, my friend, and the man of my
confidence. Ver. 14. We who took sweet counsel together,
228 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
walked into the house of
God in the tumult.
Ver. 15. Desola-
tion upon them, let them
go down alive to hell, for evil is in
their dwelling, in their
midst.
According to the current ex-
position
flb devour, must, as well
as the divide, refer to the
tongues;
but that we must rather supply the enemies as the
object,
is clear from: let them go down alive into hell, in ver. 15,
the
more so, as there the first part of this verse is manifestly re-
sumed
again and expanded. If the reference there to the de-
struction
of the company of Korah is generally recognised, it is
here
also not to be overlooked, the less so as in Numb. xvi. 32,
our
very flb is used. Devour, is q. d. annihilate them, as for-
merly
at thy command, the earth swallowed up the impious rebels
of
another time, comp. ver. 19, where the Psalmist, upon what
God
had done since the days of old, grounds his confidence of a
present
interference. John Arnd: "It was a
frightful thing for
the
earth to open and swallow up those wicked men, but it is a
great
consolation to the persecuted church, when she reflects upon
the
preceding examples of vengeance and of righteous judgment,
as
God by his word and appointments has always ordered it,
and
will certainly carry on matters to the end, if we betake to
him
for refuge." The relation of the expression: divide their
tongues,
to the devouring, has Luther already
discerned quite
correctly,
who by transposition of the sentence renders: make
their
tongue divided, Lord, and cause them to go down. The
division
of their tongue was one of the chief means, which the
destroying
agency of God should employ, q. d.
precipitate them
into
destruction, especially in this way, by making them dis-
united
among themselves, and so driving into collision with one
another
those, who were leagued together for the destruction of
the
righteous. A tongue is here attributed in figurative lan-
guage
to the ungodly, as in Gen. xi. a lip to the whole earth,
This
tongue is divided by the Lord, q. d.
he effects, that their
discourse
becomes full of discord. The allusion here to Gen. xi,
cannot
be mistaken, comp. especially ver. 7: "let us confound
their
lip, that they may not understand one another's lip;" ver.
9:
"then did the Lord confound there the lip of the whole
earth;"
then also ch. x. 25, where the verb blp,
occurs. This
allusion
to what God had already done in the days of old, gives
a
peculiar emphasis to the prayer. John Arnd: "This history is
an
image and figure of great pride and presumption, which im-
pels
man to undertake projects, which they cannot execute, and
PSALM LV. VER. 9-15. 229
which
are contrary to God, only for the sake of making to
themselves
a great name in the earth. Hence comes our blessed
God
and confounds such peoples thoughts and counsels, so that
they
devise plans only for their own destruction." The for is to
be
explained thus, that the grounding of the prayer for judg-
ment
carries a reference to guilt: where the carcase is, there
the
eagles will be gathered together. The article in ryfb
manifestly
stands generically, precisely as in rbdmb in the
wilderness,
in ver. 7. Every righteous man suffering assaults
from
the wicked, must think of his city.
In ver. 10 and 11,
"the
city" is further expanded. In order to express, that the
city
was wholly and utterly filled with wickedness, we have first
in
ver. 10, the walls and the interior contrasted, then in ver. 11,
in
the reverse order, proceeding from the interior to the ex-
terior,
the middle part and the market place lying before the
gates,
comp. Gesen. S. V. As the wickedness engrossed all the
space,
so did it also all time, comp. "day and night" in ver. 10,
and
"there depart not," in ver. 11. bbvs in ver. 10, sig. not pro-
perly
to go about, but to compass, comp. on Ps. xxvi. 6: the
compassing
about and the interior form a very suitable contrast.
That
violence and strife--these are the subject to hbbvsy—ap-
pear
under the image of warriors, who environ the city round
about
its walls, appears from ver. 19. But the point of compari-
son
is altogether and alone the compassing about, the forming
of
a circle, and the supposition of an ironical representation, as to
how
matters now went in the city of
such
watchmen are placed," is to be rejected as far-fetched, and
not
supported by the connection. By Nvx
we are not here to
understand,
with many expositors, suffering, (De
Wette: and evil
and
distress are in the midst of it,) not even though this meaning
were
generally established, which is not the case. For violence
and
strife upon the walls require for the
interior a correspond-
ing
mark of wickedness. This is also demanded by ver. 9, the
expansion
of which we have here before us, and by ver. 11,
where
in like manner wickedness is described in both members.
In
reference to the tvvh, wickedness, in ver.
11, comp on Ps. v.
9.
The mention of the market place is the more suitable,
as
there, in the place of justice, iniquity was concentrated.—
The
for in ver. 12 is for the most part
misunderstood by
expositors;
according to De Wette, "it is scarcely to be ex-
pressed:"
the supposition of others, that it is co-ordinate
230 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
with
the distant for in ver. 9, is also
nothing more than a shift
for
the occasion. The Psalmist grounds the
representation of the
reigning
wickedness given in the preceding context by means
of
his own experience, which in him, a Psalmist, and not a
prophet,
whose part it is to lay to heart the general state of
things
as such, had given rise to it. Where
poisonous herbs exist,
such
as are described by him in what follows, there also must
be
found a poisonous soil; where such things occur to the in-
dividual,
the inference is not far to seek regarding the rampant
moral
dissipation. To the words: for not my enemy reproaches
me,
we are not to supply: in the case, which I have at present be-
fore
my eyes. The Psalmist has enemies also at a distance. Such
the
byvx marks here according to
the connection—but here he
looks
away from that, which he has to suffer from them,
because
it
was not so great as the suffering, which faithless friends
caused
him, and which bespoke the magnitude and depth of the
reigning
corruption. On the words: else would I bear it, the
Berleb.
Bible remarks: "for from such one would expect nothing
better,
and might still find consolation respecting it from one's
friends."
j`rf in ver. 13 signifies
valuation, not precisely worth; for
the
former sig. also holds in the passages, Lev. xxvii. 3, Job xxviii.
13.
The valuing of any one, is partly the
valuing, which has
been
taken of any one, Lev. v. 15, etc., and partly that, which con-
cerns
any one. By the first we shall have: thou art a man,
whom
I value, but the k appears strange, and
elsewhere valuing
does
not stand, without something farther, for valuing highly.
If
we follow the latter, we must not render, with many exposi-
tors:
whom I straightway value for me. For then the Psalmist
must
have been described more particularly than as the valuator.
We
must rather expound: according to my valuing, that is: of
like
value with myself, as already the Chaldee, Syriac, and
Luther:
my fellow. Friendship, according to the rule, "binds
only
equals," and these, wherever it actually obtains, with pe-
culiarly
intimate bonds.—In ver. 14, we are also in the second
member
to supply the together. First, as the
internal friendship
manifested
itself in the parlour, then as it came forth into public
life,
in the fellowship of devotion, which entwines the hearts of
men
with the most tender cords, such as only the rough hand of
wickedness
can rend asunder. In reference to dvs,
confidence,
comp.
on Ps. xxvi. 14; to make confidence sweet, for, to
hold
sweet confidence. The opposite to dvs forms wgr
PSALM LV. VER. 9-15. 231
prop.
shouting, then of the tumult of the multitude moving up
and
down in the outer courts of the temple, comp. Nvmh, noise,
then
the holy-day keeping multitude in Ps. xlii. 4. In Ps. lxiv.
2,
dvs and hwgr are in like manner
united together.--In ver.15
the
Psalmist resumes the prayer for the judgment of God against
the
wicked, after having assigned his motives for doing so. The
reading
of the text is tOmywiy;, desolations, (let them
come) upon
them,
as formerly upon the hardened sinners in
editions
has pressed itself into the text, and which also the
older
translators for the most part express, is tv,mA ywi.ya, let
death
deceive upon them, ywy for xyWy, Hiphil from xWn to
deceive.
This reading is merely a bad conjecture, produced
through
a false endeavour to make the first member entirely con-
formed
to the second: to scheol must correspond death, to the
living
ywy. It is the case also in
ver. 9, that the two members
are
not a synon. parallelism, but in each is allusion made to a
particular
judgment of bygone days, and its repetition desired;
the
construction of xWn with lf is intolerably hard, and with-
out
example. The second member refers to the destruction of
Korah
and his company, comp. on ver. 9, which easily explains
the
living, alive. An abbreviated
comparison has place, q. d. let
them
be hurried away by death in the fulness of life and
strength,
comp ver. 23, as once the transgressors of a bygone
age
went alive into hell. On the words: for evil is in their
dwelling,
Muis: "Because they are so wicked, that wherever
they
set down their feet, they leave traces of their wickedness,
and
defile all places with their impurities." The dwelling and
the
heart do not stand in an ascending
relation (Stier: in their
dwelling,
nay still more in their heart,) but rather of simple juxta-
position,
comp. ver. 10 and 11, and ver. 14. It is a part of the
individual
physiognomy of this Psalm that it loves such heapings
together—a
peculiarity, which is an expression of its, funda-
mental
character, of the excitement which pervades it.
The third strophe, ver. 16-21, is
that of hope and confidence,
which
grows upon the Psalmist from the consideration of the im-
portant
grounds, upon which he had built his prayer. As the
two
first strophes, so this also falls into three divisions, and indeed,
into
such as exactly correspond with those of the second, 3. 3. 1.
In
the first, ver, 16-18, the Psalmist expresses his confidence in the
232 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
general,
and then grounds this upon the greatness of his distress
(comp.
ver. 2-8, where the prayer is built upon the same
foundation:)
in the second, ver. 19-21, the confidence
supports
itself by the corruption of the enemies, (comp. ver. 9-
15;)
in the third, ver. 22, out of the confidence grows the admoni-
tion
of the Psalmist to himself, to commit his cause to the Lord.
—Ver.
16. I will call upon God, and the Lord
will deliver me.
Ver.
17. Evening, morning, and mid-day, will I
meditate and
cry aloud, so he shall
hear my voice.
Ver. 18. He redeems with
peace my soul out of the
war against me; for there were many
with me. Ver. 19. God will hear and answer them, he who is
throned of old, Selah;
them, to whom there is no redemption,
and who fear not God. Ver. 20. He lays his hand upon them,
who live with him in
peace, profanes his covenant. Ver. 21.
Smooth as milch-diet is
he in regard to his mouth, and war is
his heart, its words are
softer than oil, and yet are mere swords.
Ver.
22. Cast upon the Lord thy salvation, and
he will take care
of thee, he will never
suffer the righteous to be moved. In ver. 17
many
have found the three times of prayer among the Jews already
indicated,
comp. Dan. vi. 11, Acts x. 9, Beitr. P. I. p. 143. Others
again
think, that the beginning, middle, and close of the day,
serve
only for a designation of it in its entire compass. Even in
this
latter view, however, we have here at least the foundation
upon
which the custom of the several seasons of prayer arose, and
most
probably in the time of the Psalmist had already arisen—even-
ing
and morning prayers, we have already often met with in the
Psalms,
and they must at any rate have been as old as the even-
ing
and morning sacrifice. For when the whole day is here
described
by evening (this stands first, because the Hebrews
with
it began the day,) morning, and mid-day, these are thereby
recognised
as the chief turning-points of the day, the natural con-
sequence
of which is, that on these periods prayer to the Lord of
life
concentrated itself. If we follow the first view, then evening,
morning,
and mid-day, are simply to be regarded as the most pro-
minent
points on the territory of prayer. For the Psalmist mani-
festly
wished to say, that he would pray without ceasing, Luke
xviii.
1, 1 Thess. v. 17. In fmwyv the v is used in its full sig.,
as
v of consequence: so
hears he. Prayer and hearing are re-
lated
to each other as cause and effect. In ver. 18, the pre-
terite
hdp is to be explained from
the confidence of faith.
Mvlwb, in peace, with peace,
bringing or giving peace. The
PSALM LV. VER.
16-22. 233
expression:
my soul, q. d. my life, comp. the terrors of death in
ver.
4, and the retributive punishment longed for on the ene-
mies
in ver. 15. Out of the war to me, q. d.
in which I am en-
gaged.
That brq is a noun and not the
inf., as many regard
it:
that they do not near me, Luther: of those, who would up-
on
me, appears from ver. 21, and the contrast of peace. The
for rests upon the general
principle, that God is necessitated to
administer
help by the distress of his people, that upon which
also
the prayer in the first strophe was raised. In reference to
the
Mybrb, in many, comp. Ew. §
521. ydmf sig. here, as al-
ways,
with me. The hostile lies not in the preposition, but is
only
grounded in the subjects.—In ver. 19 Mnfy is to be taken
as
fut. in Kal.: he will answer them, namely, for their threat-
enings
and curses, which they pour forth upon the Psalmist,
comp.
ver. 3, 12. Just as the Lord hears the voice of the Psalm-
ist,
comp. ver. 17, and answers him, comp. ver. 2, so he hears
also
the rough voice of the wicked, and gives to them thereupon
a
sharp answer. If people would compare parallel passages,
such
as Ps. xxxviii. 15: thou wilt answer, 0 Lord my God, they
would
not think of expounding with Luther and most modern
expositors:
and he will humble or plague them, the less so, as
the
sig. plague, which the Piel of hnf
has, is quite uncertain
for
the Hiphil. 1 Kings viii. 35 is manifestly to be rendered:
for
thou wilt hear them. Now, the following context contains
the
grounding of the confidence here expressed in the introduc-
tion.
This is primarily derived from the consideration of God:
and
he that is throned of old (will answer.) The sitting is pecu-
liar
to judges and kings, comp. Ps. xxix. 10. The sitting of the
olden
time = he who from of old is enthroned, comp. Deut.
xxxiii.
27: "and dwelling is the God of the old time," Hab. i.
12,
"art thou not he from of old, Jehovah, my God, my Holy
One,
so shall we not (even now) die," Ps. lxxiv. 12, "and God
is
my king from of old." The deeds, by which God had already
shewed
himself from of old as the righteous king and judge, the
judgments,
for example, upon the wicked in the
ver.
9, the company of Korah, ver. 9 and 15, the cities of the
plain,
ver. 15, pledge his still ready interposition. He who had
already
so long held the throne, must now also shew himself as
king
and judge, he cannot now at so late a period be another.
John
Arnd: "The Holy Spirit here looks upon the examples,
in
which the Almighty God has through all ages delivered the
234 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
faithful
and punished the persecutors; and concludes thereup-
on,
that as the same righteous God still lives, he will assuredly
also
still reign and govern, as from the beginning. Therefore
is
it a great consolation when one is in trouble and persecution
to
think, how God still lives and has always proved himself to
be
a gracious God against those, who fear him, as is declared in
Ps.
cxix.: "when I consider, how thou from the first has judged,
so
shall I be comforted." The Selah does not at all stand
"quite
unsuitably,'' but points to the deep subject of the few
words,
the rich fulness of consolation, which they present, and
invites
the mind to stand still by them.—The grounding of the
confidence
is then further derived from the character of the
enemies,
and indeed so, that what is contained in ver. 19 forms
a
compendium of ver. 9-11, ver. 20 and 21 of that, which had
been
said in ver. 12-14 of the faithless friend. By rwx etc.
those
are described, who must participate in the answer of him
who
has been throned from of old: he will answer them, to
whom;
prop. they, to whom. If the relation
of these words to
ver.
9-11 is first rightly perceived, then light of itself falls upon
the
manifoldly significant tvpylH. The word is used in
Job
x.
17, xiv. 14, in a military sense, in the sig. of discharges, re-
lief-troops, and this sig. appears
quite suitable, as in ver. 10
violence
and contention are mentioned under the image of war-
riors,
who day and night go about the city on its walls, comp.
also
in ver. 11: "depart not from its market-place;" they, to
whom
there are no discharges, and who fear not God, q. d.
who
incessantly and constantly serve sin and fear not God. The
most
general exposition is: to them, for whom there is no im-
provement,
q. d. delay would here be out of
place, because no
repentance
is to be expected for those, who are hardened in
their
wickedness. But it is matter for serious consideration on
the
other hand, that neither the noun nor the verb, ever occur
in
a moral sense, and also that the plural is not easily explained on
this
view. Ewald's arbitrary exposition by mutual fidelity, friend-
fidelity,
oath-fidelity, has already been disposed of by Maurer,
through
the remark, that hpylH (prop. the changed),
denotes
not
alternate reciprocation, but alternate changing. In ver. 20
and
21, the Psalmist turns from the ground of hope for divine
interference,
which he derived from the moral condition of the
ungodly
in general, to that, which was furnished by the special
conduct
of the unfaithful friend. The constancy, with which
PSALM LV. VER.
16-22. 235
the
author here and in ver. 12-14 uses the singular, when
speaking
of this person, does not admit of our substituting with
Luther
and many others the plural for it. The situation must
be
that of a person, who has been violently hated by one false
friend,
as indeed in real life one does not commonly meet with
many
such experiences at the same time. The sub. Mvlw, sup-
plies
here, as in Ps. lxix. 22, poetically the place of the adj., the
peace,
for, who lives with one in perfect peace. That we must
not
with many invert the relation, and take Mvlw, for an origi-
nal
adjective, shews its extremely rare and only poetical use in
the
adj. sense. That the suff. must not, with Luther and others,
be
referred to God: they lay their hands on his peaceful ones,
is
clear from a comparison of ver. 12-14, also from what is said
in
continuation in ver. 21, comp. especially there: war is in his
heart,
and finally from the parallels: my peace-man, in Ps. xli.
9,
my peaceable one, in Ps. vii. 4. The suff. also in vtyrb refers
not
to God, but to the friend. The expression of profaning
the
covenant, which constantly occurs in a religious sense, ap-
pears
quite suitable to this construction, if we only think of a
covenant
like that, which was made between David and
Jonathan,
which proceeded from the Lord, and hence was
a
holy one, 1 Sam. xviii. 3, xx. 16, 42, xxiii. 18.—The first mem-
ber
of ver. 21 means literally: smooth is cream-food as to his
mouth,
for, what concerns his mouth, so are hypocritical flatteries
often
named, comp. on Ps. v. 9, xxxvi. 2, Hos. x. 2. The ex-
pression:
smooth are, renders prominent at the outset the point
of
comparison between the cream-food and the words, the reason
why
his words are named spiritual cream-food. hxmHm signi-
fies
something made out of cream. As tOxmAHEme is the stat
absol.,
we are not to expound: the cream-food of his mouth,
but
only: his mouth, for, as to his mouth, in opposition to his
heart,
by which we obtain also a more suitable meaning: not his
cream-food
is smooth, but he has perfectly smooth cream-food.
The
conjecture tOxmAHEme is indeed very old (it
is adopted by
the
Chald. and Symm., and Luther: their mouth is smoother
than
butter,") but still utterly to be rejected. It is against such
a
translation as Luther's, that a plural from hxmH, cream, is
not
elsewhere to be found, nor indeed could it properly exist,
and
that the connection of the sing. vyp with the vqlH is insuf-
ferably
hard. If we translate with De Wette and others: they
236 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
are
smoother than butter as to their mouth, we still avoid only
the
latter difficulty, and receive in addition the new one, that
here
the discourse would be of false friends in the multitude,
while
the Psalmist throughout knows but of one
false friend.—
ver.
22 the strong part of the soul speaks to the weak, comp.
Ps.
xxvii. 14, Ps. xlii. and xliii. The supposition, that the Psalm-
ist
addresses all oppressed saints, rests on a misunderstanding.
The
relation is thereby quite destroyed of this ver. to ver. 16-
21,
from which here the result is derived—so therefore
throw.
The
Psalmist has to do throughout only with himself, or rather
with
the suffering righteous, in whose name he speaks. bhAy; as
brAq;) or bhAyA, from bhayA to give, a[p. leg. the gift, the portion.
That
we must here think specially of the portion of nourish-
ment,
through which is figuratively marked the communication
of
every good gift, comp. on Ps, xxiii. 5, appears from: he will
cherish
or care for thee, comp. Gen. xlv. 11, xlvii. 12, L. 21.
Gesenius
would, indeed, expound: he will protect thee, but
lklk never has this meaning.
One throws his part on the
Lord,
when, according to the word "The Lord is my portion
and
my cup," one expects from him provision, as the child from
the
father, when one lays it on him to furnish what is needed,
when
one says in faith: Give us this day our daily bread. The ex-
positions
thy solicitude, thy complaint, thy burden, are all not only
without
grammatical support, but also unsuitable, on account of the
clause:
he will care for thee. Parallel passages, such as Ps. xxxvii. 5,
1
Pet, v. 7, are not to be too closely pressed. That we must not
expound:
he will not let the righteous be moved for ever, but
only:
he will for ever not let, etc., is shewn by the parall. pas-
sages,
Ps. lxix. 2, cxxi. 3.
There follows now the conclusion, in
ver. 23. And thou, 0
God, wilt precipitate
them into the well-pit. The men of blood
and of deceit shall not
bring their days to the half, but I confide in,
thee. The well-pit is scheol, comp. on ver. 15; hcH to halve,
poet.
to bring to the half, comp. Ps. cii. 23. In the expression:
I
confide in thee, there is enclosed the idea: and shall be de-
livered,
comp. on Ps. lii. 8.
PSALM
LVI. 237
PSALM LVI.
THE Psalmist, hard pressed by men, raises
himself in faith to
God,
and implores his help, ver. 1 and. 2. He expresses the
firmest
confidence in God, whose word and promise he has
for
himself, ver. 3 and 4. He paints the malice of his
enemies,
who continually annoy him, and pursue after him,
with
the design of taking away his life, ver. 5 and 6. He begs
of
God the overthrow of these malicious ones, and for himself
deliverance,
which he cannot but confidently expect, because
God
watches with tender love over his people, ver. 7 and 8.
He
receives the assurance of being heard, loudly celebrates this
precious
word of God, in which he had found an interest, de-
dares
anew his confidence in God as mightily strengthened
thereby,
and already in spirit sees his enemies giving way, ver.
9-11.
He concludes with the promise of joyful thanks for the
glorious
deliverance, which faith contemplates as already pro-
vided.—The
whole Psalm runs its regular course in strophes of
two
members. Only in the representation of the certainty of
being
heard the strophe extends itself into three verses. The
triumphant
joy bursts the vessel, which was too narrow for it.
That
ver. 10 and. 11 only on this account run into each other,
appears
from their relation to ver. 4.
In the superscription, To the chief musician of the dumb dove
among strangers, a
secret of David, when the Philistines seized
him in Gath," the occasion of
the Psalm is first given figu-
ratively
and then in plain terms. The lf
denotes, as so often
in
the superscriptions of the Psalms of David, comp. on Ps. xxii.
the
object of the Psalm. The dove is an image of defenceless
innocence.
That by it we must think only of the Psalmist, is clear
from
a comparison of the immediately preceding Psalm, ver. 6
and
7: "Oh that I had wings like a
dove, then would I fly away and
dwell,
far away would I fly," qyHdx,
etc. comp. also Ps. lxxiv.
19,
where
Mlx occurs also in Ps.
lviii. 11, in the sense of becoming dumb.
In
what sense the Psalmist calls himself a dove of dumbness, a
dumb
dove, is evident from Ps. xxxviii. 13, where he marks his
passive
and resistless innocence under suffering by the words:
"And
I as a deaf man hear not, I am as a dumb man, who opens
238 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
not
his mouth." MypHr is a second gen.
governed by tnvy. The
dumb
dove is described as one that dwells afar—so, and not of
the
distant place, is MypHr to be explained, comp.
Ps. lxv. 5,—
because
the Psalmist finds himself far from home among enemies.
The
designation Mtkm, secret, for, song of
secret, mystical
subject,
comp. on Ps. xvi, is especially justified by ver. 9-11,
where
the Psalmist boasts of a divine revelation, which had come
to
him in the secret depths of his inner man.
This emblemati-
cal
part of the superscription, any other signification of which
(several:
after the "dove of the far terebinth," with the arbitrary
change
of Mlx into Mlixe) is disproved by the
paral. passages
already
referred to, contains the proof of its composition by
David,
since only from the poet himself could such a poetical
superscription
be expected, since it was precisely David whom it
became
to prefix such emblematical superscriptions to his Psalms,
and
since every one of the very peculiar words is found again in
the
Davidic Psalms—the dove in Ps, lv. which certainly not by
accident,
our Psalm immediately follows—the superscription was
to
derive its explanation from it—the being dumb in Ps. lviii.
the
far dwelling in Ps. lxv. the secret in Ps. xvi.—The second
part
of the superscription is to be regarded as an explanation of
the
first part. The Philistines are the far dwelling, David seized
by
them the dumb dove. The history is given in I Sam. xxi.
David
fled, as he no longer found security in his fatherland, to
the
Philistines. Alone there he waited for his new danger. He,
the
conqueror of Goliath, was conducted as a formidable enemy
before
the king, and only by an artifice delivered his life. In
vain
does de Wette attempt to bring the superscription into con-
flict
with the narrative in 1 Samuel. There, he alleges, it is not
stated
that the Philistines laid hold of David. But he has
in
this overlooked the certainly but small Mdyb in 1 Sam. xx.
14,
in their hand, q. d. where they held
him.—The subject of
the
Psalm is in perfect accordance with the superscription. In
the
highest degree characteristic is ver. 8: "thou numberest
my
flight." The Psalmist accordingly found himself on the
flight,
and indeed in a wearisome, highly peculiar, very rarely
occurring
situation. The trait is the more significant, as the re-
ference
to the people and its sojourn in exile, which has been
defended
by many, is refuted by ver. 12, which implies the ex-
istence
of the worship and temple. The exile must therefore
PSALM
LVI. 239
have
been a mere personal one. That the Psalm was composed
when
death was threatening, appears from ver. 6 and 13. The
expression
in ver. 5: they wrest my words, receives an ad-
mirable
comment from the history of David, who, in the face of
his
protestations of innocence, was declared by Saul and his re-
tainers
to be a traitor. So also the expression in ver. 7: in
wickedness
they seek deliverance, applies well to the circum-
stances
of David, since the wickedness, which Saul and his com-
pany
exercised toward David, was nothing more than an attempt
to
avert the judgment suspended over him and his house.--
The
ascription of the Psalm to David, and the correctness of the
superscription,
is confirmed by the agreement it presents with
the
following Psalm, likewise composed by David, according to
the
superscription, during the Sauline persecutions, which is so
great,
that even Hitzig and Ewald conclude from it, that they
had
one and the same author. Both Psalms begin with the
entreaty:
be gracious to me, and the peculiar word Jxw
is
common
to them, lvi. 1, 2, lvii. 3; common also is the lively
motion,
the brisk and fresh style which we meet with in so
many
songs of David, especially of the Sauline period.—The
reasons
are very unimportant, which have been alleged against
the
correctness of the superscription. De Wette thinks, that it
is
of itself suspicious, that this Psalm and Psalm xxxiv. had, ac-
cording
to the superscription, the same occasion. But the situ-
ation
in the two Psalms is throughout different; here David
prays
for help in the midst of danger, there he gives thanks for
it
as already obtained. Then, it is maintained, that in the re-
presentation
which the Psalmist gives of his enemies, one could
not
recognize the inhabitants of
that
the representation has respect to these alone? The
Psalmist
has rather, as this lay in the nature of the thing, Saul
and
his company pre-eminently before his eyes, to whom also
belonged
what he had to suffer from the people of
would
conclude from ver. 4, 5, 10, 11, that the author was
a
prophet; but only the latter passage belongs to that head, as
it
alone treats of an internal revelation of God; and also from
this
the supposition of Ewald would by no means follow; else
all
the Psalms must have been composed by prophets, for it is a
rule,
that their authors glory in internal revelations from God,
through
which they obtain the assurance of being heard. Nay,
the
passage is conclusive against the
prophetic origin of the
240 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Psalm.
For where the prophets receive such
revelations, there
these
have in the rule a general reference;
but here the word
of
the Lord comes to the Psalmist in regard to his private af-
fairs;
it belongs entirely to the category of the words of which
P.
Gerhard speaks: His spirit utters to my spirit many a sweet
word
of consolation, how God administers help, etc.—Besides,
the
superscription is not to be understood so, as if David had
composed
the Psalm at the time indicated precisely as it exists
here.
We are to refer to that only the substance, comp. on Ps.
xxxiv.
etc.
Ver. 1. Be gracious to me, God, for there snuffs after me man,
always oppresses me the
eater.
Ver. 2. My adversaries snuff
after me continually,
for many eaters have I proud. Jxw,
to
snuff
up, in the manner of a wild beast, which greedily hunts
after
its prey to devour it, with the accus. of that upon which
the
greed goes, discovering itself in the snuffing. wvnx man
with
the subordinate idea of weakness,
comp. on Ps. viii. 5, points
to
the circumstance, how perverse it is, that the impotent should
proudly
and impiously lift himself up against those, who are
under
the protection of the Almighty, and
how necessary it is
for
God to put down this perverseness. The sing. is used for
the
sake of giving prominence to this contrast between man and
God,
the impotent and the almighty, the opposition between
the
being and the doing of man, which God can by no means
tolerate.
MHl, sig. not to contend,
but to eat, comp. on Psalm
xxxv.
1, (the very peculiar expression occurs both times in
Psalms
which bear the signature of David,) and this the only
certain
meaning is here also specially recommended by the par-
allel
snuffing. Calvin: "David, when
he was brought to the
king
of
of
wolves, since he was mortally hated by the Philistines, and
his
own countrymen raged against him." The two expressions
of
snuffing and eating appear to the Psalmist as so singularly
fitted
to move God to compassion regarding his desperate con-
dition,
that he repeats them in ver. 2. MHl stands, as in ver.
1,
in the sig. of the noun, not: many eat me, but: many eaters
are
to me. Mvrm, prop. height, then
here adverbially, loftily
(Luther),
comp. in Psalm lxxiii. 8: "out of the height, Mvrmm,
they
speak," and Micah ii. 3, where hmvr likewise occurs ad-
verbially;
it forms the contrast to hmvr man. When the man
of
the earth, Ps. x. 18, comp. ix. 19, who has his name from
PSALM LVI. VER. 1-4. 241
weakness,
haughtily attacks God in his people, this is a predic-
tion
of his overthrow, and a strong call upon God to bring him
down.
John Arnd: "This is the way of all enemies, who, con-
fiding
in human strength, in external force and earthly might,
are
full of pride and insolence; but they, who commit them-
selves
to God's grace, are humble, confide in God, boast them-
selves
not, for they know, that every thing belongs to God's
grace,
in which all believers are included, are secure against the
rage
and swelling of the enemies, overcome at last by patience,
and
see their high-minded adversaries overthrown."
Ver. 3. When I am afraid, then trust I in thee. Ver. 4. God
boast I, his word, upon
God I trust, I am not afraid, what should
flesh do to me? Mvy is not the accus. but nom.: day, then am
I
afraid. When the relation of itself is clear, it is often not dis-
tinctly
expressed in the words. With xryx
the Mvy stands in
stat.
constr. Ew. § 507. Hitzig's artificial translation: at the
time,
that I should be afraid, is already refuted by verse 4.
The
xryx must still be used here
not otherwise than there.
How
little reason there is for it, is shewn by the remark of
vin:
"Fear and hope, indeed, appear to be opposite affections,
which
cannot dwell in the same bosom, but experience shews,
that
hope first truly gains the ascendant there, where fear holds
possession
of one part of the heart. For hope is not exercised
when
the mind is in a quiescent state, but is, as it were asleep;
then,
however, does it begin to put forth its strength, when it
elevates
the mind dejected by cares, soothes it when disquieted
with
trouble, sustains and fortifies it when seized with terror."
That
the Psalmist was actually afraid, is clear especially from
ver.
1 and 2, where he vehemently cries to God for help. The
fear
which discovers itself there, is here supplanted by confi-
dence.
To boast in God, in ver. 4, is q. d.
to extol God, comp.
Ps.
xliv. 8, which parall. passage refutes the exposition of
Ewald:
through God praise I his word. The exposition: of
God
I boast myself, takes llh in an uncertain
signification.
For
vrbd we must not supply b from Myhlxb; we are rather
to
consider it as the common construction of llh
with the ac-
cusative.
The word of God is by the context more exactly de-
termined
as the word of promise, comp. on Ps.
xxxiii. 4. We
are
not here to think of an internal communication, assuring the
Psalmist
of divine help. For this, the holy Psalmist would not
have
received at the beginning; it everywhere forms rather the
242 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
close,
and with it the internal emotion reaches its end. Then
ver.
9-11 are especially conclusive against this supposition. It
is
there that the Psalmist first receives the divine communica-
tion.
Just as little must we think particularly and exclusively of
the
promise of royal dignity, which had been conveyed to David
by
Samuel. So special a reference must not without urgent
reason,
be admitted into a song, which was destined for use in
public
worship, and the expression is also by much too general
for
such an allusion. We must hence understand by the word
of
God, all his promises, which had hitherto been given to the
Psalmist,
through the law, (comp. Ps. cxix. 25), through Samuel,
through
internal communications during his earlier history.
This
word of God, and God himself, who had therein promised
to
be his God, the Psalmist glories in as his firm shield, who is
sufficient
to protect him against the whole world. John Arnd:
"As
Saul and the potentates of this world boast of their hosts
of
war, their thousands of men, and their munition, I will glory
in
God's word and promise, which are my warlike force, Thy for-
tress,
and support; let them trust in their chariots and wag-
gons,
we shall think of the name of the Lord." The Psalmist
calls
man flesh by way of contempt, because where there is cor-
poreity
there is no real strength, comp. Isa. xxxi. 3. "The
Egyptians
are men and not God, their horses are flesh and not
spirit,"
xl. 6. John Arnd: "He sets against each other the
mighty
God, and impotent flesh, which is as grass and as the
flower
of the field."
Ver. 5. Always do they wrest my words, all their thoughts are,
that they do me evil. Ver. 6. They gather themselves together,
they lie in wait, they
mark my heels, as they hope for my soul.
bc..efi, vex, wrest, here and
in Isa. lxiii. 10. When the Psalmist
solemnly
protests his innocence, as in Ps. vii. 3, 4, his enemies
accuse
him of hypocritical insincerity; Saul with his company,
still
constantly cry out against him, notwithstanding his protes-
tations,
as a traitor, and endeavour to make away with his life.
Falsely
many: they vex my affairs. The vexing can be poeti-
cally
referred to the words, because they are in a sense inspirit-
ed,
but not to the circumstances. vrvgy
in ver. 6, many ex-
pound:
they are afraid; but that we must take it in the sense of
gathering together, as it is unquestionably
used in Isa liv.
15,
and Ps. lix. 3, "for they lie in wait for my soul, they
gather
themselves together against me the strong," appears
PSALM LVI. VER.
6-8. 243
from
this last perfectly correspondent passage, comp. also Psalm
xxxi.
13. Npc elsewhere sig. to hide, Ex. ii. 3, Job xiv. 13. We
can
either from the context supply the object: the snares, as
indeed
also in the Kal, in which it appears to have the meaning
of
waylaying, such an object must
properly be supplied, comp.
on
Ps. x. 8,—or, we may also give to the Hiphil here the sig. of
acting
in covert, concealed, secretly to ensnare. The Masorites
have,
according to their custom, substituted for the Hiphil, the
more
common Kal. To watch the heels of any
one, is q. d. to
wait
on him in all his steps and movements. In the last mem-
ber
literally: so as they hope my soul,—the soul the object of
their
hopes, q. d. as they hope to take my
life from me, comp.
Ps.
cxix. 95, "the wicked have waited for me to destroy me,"—
the
Psalmist points to the ground of the waylayings of the ene-
my,
to what gave life and zeal to their persecuting disposition;
the
watching runs exactly parallel to their hope of my entire
ruin.
rwxk as in Ps. li. supers., Numb. xxxii. 14. Many ex-
pound:
because they waylay my life. But Hvq
never signifies
with
the accus.: to waylay, always: to expect, hope for something.
Besides
the expression as they hope, etc., refers only to the
immediately
preceding member. This appears from the other-
wise
inexplicable hmh. They gather themselves
together,
lurk,
and indeed these perverse men have no other object in
their
zealous machinations, than to deprive the Psalmist of his
life.
On the representation of the malice
of the enemies, who have
nothing
less in view than the extinction of the Psalmist's life,
follows
the prayer to the Lord, that he would judge them, and
help
the Psalmist in his great distress, combined with the un-
doubting
hope, that he will do this. Ver. 7. From
their wick-
edness they hope for
deliverance, in anger throw the peoples down,
God. Ver. 8. My fight thou numberest, put my tears in thy
bot-
tle, stand they not in
thy book?
The lf
in ver. 7, indicates that, on
which
to them the hope of deliverance rests, its foundation. Flp
is
here as in Ps. xxxii. 6, infin. nominasc. The objection, that if
the
discourse were of this hope, this would not have been so
modestly
represented, rests upon the false supposition, that the
object
of the hope was deliverance from the power of the Psalm-
ist,
instead of the impending divine judgments, comp. Isa. xxviii.
15,
where the wicked say, "We have made a covenant with
death,
and with hell are we at agreement, for we have made
244 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lies
our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves."
Saul's
entire conduct against David proceeded on the endeavour
to
avert through his wickedness, trampling under foot all divine
and
human rights, the divine judgment, which threatened him
with
destruction. The exposition: in their wickedness shall
they
find deliverance? is to be rejected, as a question without
any
word of interrogation can only be introduced, when there is
no
doubt respecting it. In the second member, the Psalmist
prays
the Lord to disappoint the wicked of this conceit regard-
ing
their deliverance. His prayer properly directs itself only
for
judgment upon his enemies. But since the special agency
of
God in judging, is only an exercise of his general and all-
comprehending
agency, and faith in the former must have its
root
in the latter, therefore the Psalmist prays God to come
forth
as the Governor of the world, and to bring down all peo-
ples
opposed to him, and his enemies beneath his feet.—Comp.
Ps.
vii. 7, from which parallel passage it is abundantly clear how
unjustly
it has been concluded from these words, that the
Psalmist
had here to do with the heathen, Ps, lix, 5. The
prayer
of the Psalmist over his enemies is followed in ver. 8,
by
one for his own deliverance, This takes the forth of confi-
dence
in the first and last member, which many have in vain
sought
to dispose of in regard to the first by an ungrammatical
construction
of the preterite in the sense of the optative; in
the
middle member it presents itself also after the form as a
prayer,
so that it is recognized even there, where it conceals it-
self
behind the confidence. dvn sig. not to move about,
but to
fly,
Ps. xi. 1. Ewald, against the usage and the sig. of dps, to
number, would understand dvn of internal disquietude. There
is
no ground for this in the parallel tears.
The flight and the
tears stand related to each
other as cause and effect, so that
there
is the closest connection between them. Such an
one
is certainly demanded by the play on the words ydn and
jdxn. Nothing similar is
ever found without deep meaning.
Quite
correctly was this connection perceived by John Arnd:
"It
cannot but happen, that such persecutions should make
weeping
eyes, for it is a sad thing to be counted as a sheep for
the
slaughter, as a curse and offscouring of the whole world,
and
a prey to the enemies, as matters go in the Turkish dominions,
and
to wander up and down in misery with women and children.
But
here lies a powerful consolation, that God gathers up such
PSALM LVI.
VER. 9-13. 245
tears,
and puts them into his bottle, just as one would pour
precious
wine into a flaggon, so precious and dear are such tears
before
God, and God lays them up as a treasure in the heavens;
and
if we think that all such tears are lost, lo! God hath pre-
served
them for us as a treasure in the heavens, with which we
shall
be richly consoled in that day, Ps. cxxvi. 5." On the last
words:
are they not, for, certainly they are in thy book, comp.
Mal.
iii. 16.
The great turning-point now appears;
the Psalmist, well pre-
pared
for it as the form of his prayer in ver. 8 shews, receives
the
assurance of being heard. Ver. 9. Then
must my enemies
turn back, when I call;
this I know, that God is to me. Ver.
10.
God I praise, a word, the Lord I praise,
a word. Ver. 11.
On God I trust, I am not
afraid, what man can do. The then in
verse
9 refers to the expression: in the day when I call, q. d.
then,
when as now I call on the Lord, my enemies must give
way,
as I now see to be the case with joyful astonishment before
my
eyes, (those of the spirit.) That God to me, q. d. that I have
him,
comp. Ps. cxxiv. 1, 2, lxxiii. 25, and consequently a helper
and
redeemer, shield and reward, Gen. xv. I. Falsely many:
for
me. In ver. 10 the repetition marks the triumphing joy of
the
Psalmist, in regard to the assurance of being heard. There
lies,
however, in the "Jehovah" an ascent. The expression: a
word,
in distinction from: his word, in ver. 4, is carefully to be
observed.
There the discourse is of the promises of the Lord
in
general, here of the word of promise, which sounded as it
were,
in the interior of the Psalmist.
The conclusion in verse 12 and 13,
contains the promise of
thanks.
The Psalmist is so certain of his deliverance, that he
considers
every thing, which God has to do, as already done,
and
himself alone, as the one who is in arrear. Ver 12. My
vows, 0 God, I owe to
thee, I will pay thee thank-offerings. Ver.
13.
For thou deliverest my soul from death,
my feet from sliding,
that I may walk before
God in the light of the living. The lf
in
ver. 12, marks, as very commonly, obligation. The vows con-
sist
of offerings. To the kind, the vows, the Psalmist, however,
adds
the species, thankofferings. Before God, q.
d. under his
gracious
observation, comp. Gen. xvii. 18. The light of the
living
is the clear day-light, which illuminates the earth, comp.
Job
xxxiii. 30. Elsewhere: in the land of the living, Ps. xxvii,
13.
246 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LVII.
THE Psalmist puts forth the prayer,
that God would be gracious
to
him, and is thence in good expectation, that he would hear
him,
and would complete the begun good work in him, in spite
of
the greatness of the necessity and the danger, which sur-
round
him, ver. 1-4. Thus prepared, the Psalmist receives the
internal
assurance of being heard, views himself as already free
from
the danger, and his enemies as overtaken thereby, and
declares
his purpose of giving thanks to the Lord for his great
grace,
ver. 5-11.
We have two strophes, the one of
four and the other of seven
verses.
The seven verses of the second are again divided into
4,
the praise of God for the assurance of being heard, ver. 5 and
6,
the promise of thanks, ver. 7 and 8, and 9, 10, the return to
the
praise of the Lord, ver. 11,—thus 2. 2 . 2. 1.
The expression of hope and
confidence meets us here at the
very
commencement, and it does not here, as elsewhere, cost
the
Psalmist a severe conflict, before he attains to it. There is
only
needed a, "be gracious to me, God be gracious to me,"
and
the cloud, which prevents him from seeing God, vanishes.
The superscription runs: To the chief musician, destroy not,
of David a secret, when
he fled from Saul in the cave, q. d. when
he
stayed himself in his flight from Saul in the cave. The ex-
pression:
destroy not, which is found besides here in the super-
scriptions
of Ps. lviii. and lxxv. has been differently explain-
ed.
According to many, it must denote either the melody, after
the
manner of the song: destroy not, or the key. According to
others
it must be a maxim, which David at that time continually
revolved
in his heart, and must indicate the quintessence of the
Psalm.
So already the Chaldee, which paraphrases de angus-
tia,
quando dixit David: ne destruas; Cocceius: "These words
David,
no doubt, in his great distress, constantly repeated, and
afterwards,
when he composed this Psalm, committed them to
the
church and to believers of all ages, that they might make
use
of them in times of opposition and persecution." A prepos-
session
in favour of the latter view, is already awakened by the
circumstance,
that similar dark words in the superscriptions are
PSALM LVII. 247
found
to refer, on nearer investigation, not to the musical exe-
cution,
but to the subject, and especially that no single undoubt-
ed
case of the commencing words of another song being quoted
is
to be found. But there are also the following particular rea-
sons
for it. 1. If the words had indicated the melody or the
key,
we would have expected the preposition lf
to have preced-
ed
them. Ewald, Poet. B. p. 173, attempts to account for the
want
of it, because it could not so readily stand before a verbal,
as
before a nominal term. But it must still be matter of wonder,
that
the lf regularly, and without
exception, fails, and nothing
short
of the extremest necessity would warrant an exposition,
which
everywhere finds itself obliged to supply the omission. 2.
The
expression: destroy not, viewed as a watchword of David,
has
its foundation in Dent. ix. 26, where Moses says: "and I
prayed
the Lord and said, 0 Lord destroy not, tHwt lx thy
people
and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through
thy
greatness, which thou hast brought forth from
strong
hand." The pre-existence of such an old foundation
explains
at the same time the fact, that the expression: de-
stroy
not, occurs not only in three of the Psalms of David, but
also
in one of Asaph, which otherwise might have been pressed
as
an objection against the view, which refers it to the matter.
3.
All the Psalms, in which the expression occurs, rise up to
God,
amid the vexation which the oppression of the world pre-
pares
for the children of the kingdom, Ps. lxxv. indeed, in the
form
of praise, behind which, however, the prayer is concealed.
4.
The fact also, that the three successive Psalms, in which the:
destroy
not, occurs, refers to the times of Saul. What can be
more
natural than the supposition, that it was the maxim,
which
David revolved in his heart during precisely that period?
If
viewed as a musical term, one does not see, why it should not
have
been prefixed to those Psalms of David, which originated
on
other occasions. We might, perhaps, consider as an echo of
this,
"destroy not," which was spoken to God, what David, ac-
cording
to 1 Sam. xxvi. 9, (comp. v. 15, 2 Sam. i. 14,) said to
Abishai,
when he was going to kill Saul: destroy him not, lx
yhtyHwt. David understood, that
he could with success say
to
God: destroy not, only so long as he restrained himself from
taking
the matter of relief into his own hand, and destroying
the
anointed of the Lord.
The designation of the Psalm as a
secret (comp. on Ps. xvi.)
248 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
is
especially justified by the wonderful fact, which impelled the
Psalmist
to break forth at once into the praise of God, a fact in
reference
to which it might be said, that "flesh and blood had
not
revealed it to him, but his father in heaven."
The Psalm was composed when David
found himself in the
cave,
while he fled from Saul. As David during that period not
once
merely betook himself to a cave, as the history expressly
makes
mention of his sojourn in two different caves, 1 Sam. xxii.
1,
and xxiv. 1, the article here and in Ps. cxlii. 1, cannot point
to
a definite cave, which the reader might well know how to
supply;
it must rather be taken generically,
the cave, as oppos-
ed
to any other place; so that: in the cave, is substantially
much
the same as: in a cave. It has reference to this, that the
Psalm
contains thoughts appropriate to a cave. In the cave all
is
darkness, no sun nor moon shines in it; to abide in such a
place
is for a poor, persecuted man the symbol of his whole con-
dition,
comp. Heb. xi. 38, where among the sufferings of the
prophets,
it is brought out with special reference to David,
that
they were compelled to dwell in caves; but amidst the
cave-darkness
there appears for the righteous a light from the
Lord,
which conducts them to the hope of salvation.
In unison with the description of
the occasion, which is of a
general
kind, is the circumstance, that the Psalm does not any-
where
refer to some particular danger, by which David was en-
compassed
in the cave, but the relations are rather to be regard-
ed
as common to the whole Sauline period. If we would more
closely
determine what the superscription has left indetermi-
nate,
there is at least one important reason for the cave Adullam
in
1 Sam. xxii. Into this cave David withdrew immediately on
his
escaping the danger with Achish, the king of the Philistines.
To
that danger the Psalm immediately preceding refers, and
this
one must the rather be contemporaneous with it, as it
stands
in close relation to it. The circumstances of both Psalms
are
in the general the same, the prayer, the confidence, the ex-
ultation
at the assurance of being heard, the promise of thanks.
Both
Psalms begin with the words, "Be gracious to me," and
in
both is the enemy marked out by the peculiar designation of
one
snuffing after.
There are, besides the
superscription, other positive grounds
for
ascribing the Psalm to David, and in the situation indicated.
The
close contact into which it comes with Psalm lvi. suits ad-
PSALM LVII. VER. 1. 249
mirably
to the twofold superscription. Then there is an entire
series
of remarkably agreeing parallel passages in other Psalms
of
David, especially those belonging to the times of Saul, such
as
Psalm vii., comp. the exposition. So also the fact, that the
conclusion
of this Psalm recurs as the commencement of Psalm
cviii.
which bears on it the name of David. The stress laid on
reproaches
in ver. 3 and 4 accords with the history, as David
had
to suffer much in that way during the time of Saul, and is
generally
to be met with in the Psalms of that period. The
lively
and spirited nature of the matter Koester regards as
also
accrediting the superscription.—The reasons which have
been
alleged against this are of no weight. The assertion, that
in
such situations one does not write poetry, is easily disposed
of,
as David continued a long time in the
even
if he had not, still the objection would be of no moment,
comp.
on Psalm lvi. The argument derived from ver. 4 against
the
superscription rests upon the coarse literal interpretation of
the
verse. Hitzig's allegation, that the intermingling of the
root rmg and lmg, points, to an author later than
Jeremiah, as
also
the use of the fut. parag. in ver. 4, without the optative
sense,
is a conclusion from facts arbitrarily made.—That the
Psalm
is a song for the night, has been improperly inferred from
ver.
8.
Ver. 1. Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to
me, for on
thee my soul trusts, and
under the shadow of thy wings I confide,
until the mischief is
past.
The repetition of ynnH shews the
fervour
of the prayer, and consequently the greatness of the
danger.
The prayer is grounded upon this, that the Psalmist,
partly
assailed and partly abandoned by all the world, places
his
confidence on God as his only Saviour. God, "who has
compassion
upon all that fear him, that hope in his name," can-
not
possibly leave such an one without help. Psalm 1 is
to
be compared, where that, which impelled the Psalmist to
throw
himself into the arms of God as his only remaining hope,
is
expressly named the hatred and persecution of the world.
The
contrast there implied between Myhlx
and wvnx at the
same
time shews why the Psalmist here makes use of the name
Elohim:
from the earth he turns to the heaven, against man he
seeks
protection in God. Wherever such a contrast occurs, the
general
name of God is in its right place. The soul is mention-
ed,
because it is endangered by the enemies, comp. 1 Sam. xxiv.
250 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
12,
"Thou huntest my soul to take it," Ps. liv. 4, lvi. 6, and
here,
ver. 4. On the expression: to trust under the shadow of
the
wings of God, see on Psalm xxxvi. 7. The shadow which
provides
shelter against the heat of a burning sun, comp. Psalm
cxxi.
5, 6, is generally taken in the Bible in the sense of protec-
tion or shelter. tvvh is better taken,
according to Psalm lii. 2
and
7, in the sense of mischief, than that of misfortune. The
plural
points to the fulness of malicious action. The verb in
the
masc. sing. is to be explained in this way, that the mischief
presents
itself to the Psalmist as a ravenous wild beast, before
which
he flees for shelter under the protecting wings of God.
Ver. 2. I call to God, to the Most High, to the God, who ac-
complishes for me. The calling corresponds
to the trusting in
the
preceding verse. Calvin: "He makes the calling
upon to
follow
the confiding, for it cannot fail,
but that those, who trust
in
God, should direct their prayer to him." The calling upon
God
rests on a double foundation, or it is a double considera-
tion,
which invites the Psalmist to it. First, that God is the
Most
High, = because he is the Most High, against whom even
the
greatest multitude of enemies upon earth, however vast
their
might, and high their position, can prevail nothing. Now
that
he takes in view the Most High, the giants of the earth
become
changed into pitiful dwarfs, comp. in Psalm lvi. 4, 11,
"In
God I trust, I am not afraid for what flesh can do to me,"
and
the address of David to Saul, after he had gone out of the
cave,
in 1 Sam. xxiv. 13, 16. Then, when he
turns from the
power
to the will, he sees that God, the true and faithful,
who
had already given him so many proofs of his grace, had
imparted
to him such glorious promises, could not fail to com-
plete
his begun work in him. With God the beginning always
delivers
a pledge for the finishing, the word for the deed.
rmg, in the sense of
completing, (elsewhere: of being complet-
ed,)
also in Psalm cxxxviii. 8, and in the proper name hyrmg.
The
lf marks the substratum of
the divine action. The ex-
pression
in ver. 4: God sends his truth, is to be compared, and
in
Psalm lvi. 4: God I praise, his word. On the principle, that
the
beginning is a pledge for the completion, the word for the
deed,
proceeds what Saul said to David in 1 Sam. xxiv. 21,
"And
now, behold, I know that thou shalt reign, and the house
of
Israel comes into thy hand," comp. 1 Sam. xxiii. 17, xxvi.
21.
That God did not finish the work begun in him, is the per-
PSALM LVII. VER. 2-3. 251
petual
complaint of Job, see for ex. x. 8. In Psalm xxii. 11,
arises
out of what the Lord had already done for the Psalmist,
(ver.
9 and 10,) the prayer: Be not far from me. But the most
exact
parallel is the already quoted passage, Psalm cxxxviii. 8:
"The
Lord will accomplish for me, 0 Lord, thy grace is ever-
lasting,
the work of thy hands do not forsake," comp. besides,
Phil.
i. 6. Through these parallel pass. we reject Luther's ex-
position:
who makes an end of my complaint. The sig. of lmg
to
do good, must be the less assigned with many to rmg, which
never
elsewhere interchanges with it, as lmg properly has not
that
meaning, but only that of giving, and
the other is entirely
a
derived one, comp. on Psalm vii. 4.
Ver. 3. He sends from heaven and delivers me, reproaches he
that snuffs after me;
Selah. Send will God his mercy and his
truth. In the expression: he
sends from heaven, the object is
awanting.
We are not to supply it from the second half of the
verse,
so that the second: he sends, would be a mere repe-
tition;
the word: he delivers me, standing between, is against
that.
There is no necessity, perhaps, for supplying another de-
finite
word, his hand, as in Ps. cxliv. 7, or his help, as in Ps. xx.
2.
The that is sufficient for a
beginning to the Psalmist. If
this
first stands firm, it will soon make good way with the what.
From
heaven, which here is opposed to the earth, that on all
hands
presents only despair, the Psalmist can expect nothing
but
good. The expression: my snuffer reproaches, for,
since
or when my snuffer reproaches, comp. in Ez. iii. 6: I
send
thee, for, when I send thee, Ew. § 626, points to the neces-
sity
and the danger, against which the Psalmist expects
help
from heaven. Reproach and calumnies were the most
frightful
weapons, which Saul and his party plied against David.
Many
expound: he (God) reproaches. But that the reproach-
ing
belongs to the enemy, to whom points already the change
in
the mode, appears from the parallel passages, Ps. lv. 12, 21;
lvi.
5; lix. 7; xlii. 10; xliv. 16. Of the reproaches of the ene-
my
more is said in ver. 4. JrH is never used of God,
always
only
of men, who revile God or their brethren. The exposition
of
De Wette and others: he, whom my persecutor reproaches,
gives
an unnatural sense, and is against the passages referred
to.
Finally, to connect the words with the following: he who
snuffs
after me mocks, so, etc., does not suit on account of the
accus.
The Selah shows how much the reproaches of the ene-
252 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
my
went to the heart of the Psalmist. On the last member,
comp.
on Ps. xliii. 2, "Send thy light and thy truth," where
the
light corresponds to the mercy.
Ver. 4. My soul is among lions, I will lie upon those that are
on fire, children of
men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and
whose tongue a drawn
sword.
The verse is an expansion of
what
had just been said of the reproaching. On this account
already
we must not take it as a mere complaint and represen-
tation
of danger, which would also suit ill in this connection,
after
the Psalmist had raised himself to confidence, and the con-
fidence
and assurance, which must immediately bound one an-
other,
would be improperly separated from each other. These
observations
accord well with the fut. and the h of striving,
hbkwx, which we are not warranted to take in
the sense of
the
common one. The Psalmist, full of faith, makes offer to lie
upon
those in flames, and hence the words: my soul is among
lions,
must be taken as substantially meaning; although my
soul
is among lions. In reference to the figurative designation
of
the enemies as lions, (not lionesses), which Ewald in vain at-
tempts
to set aside, comp. Ps. xvii. 12; Ps. xxii. etc. bkw
with
the accus. of the couch, on which the Psalmist was to lie.
An
abbreviated comparison is made, q. d.
my intercourse with
my
raged-inflamed enemies is as deeply felt by me, as if I were
laid
down upon fire-brands. The image of the flaming,
of the
spiritual
fire-brands, suits excellently to that of lions; for the
point
of comparison in both is the dreadful fury. On the ex-
pression:
whose teeth spears and arrows, comp. Prov. xxx. 14,
"There
is a generation whose teeth are swords, and their jaw-
teeth
knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the
needy
from among men." On: and whose
tongues a drawn
sword,
comp. Ps. lv. 21; lix. 7; lxiv. 3; it points to this, that
the
enemies by their horrible deeds and by their malicious words,
seek
to destroy the innocent, as indeed with Saul and his com-
pany
both constantly go hand in hand.
In ver. 5 and 6, the Psalmist
receives the assurance of being
heard.
Ver. 5. Praise to thee in heaven, 0 God,
upon the whole
earth let there be
honour to thee!
Ver. 6. A net prepared they
for my steps, bowed down
my soul, dug before me a pit—they
themselves fell in. Ver. 5. The
deliverance, of which the Psalm-
ist
has just been internally assured, is so glorious, that God
must
be praised on account of it in heaven and on earth. Upon
PSALM LVII. VER. 5. 6. 253
hmvr, be exalted, comp. on Ps. xxi. 13. The lf
in both mem-
bers
marks the place, where the Lord is to be praised in conse-
quence
of the manifestation of his glory. On the expression:
in
the heaven, comp. the exclamation of the Seraphim in Isaiah:
"Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, all lands are full of his
glory;"
also in Ps. ciii. 20, 21: "Praise
the Lord, ye his angels,
ye
mighty heroes, ye who fulfil his word; praise the Lord, all
his
hosts, ye his ministers, who do his will;" and especially Ps.
xxix.
1, "Give to the Lord, ye sons of God, give to the Lord.
glory
and power," where David, by calling upon the angels to
praise
God's glory and power, indicates how illustrious the mani-
festations
of these are as represented in what follows; also ver.
9,
"and in his temple every one says: Glory!" where the an-
gels,
after the manifestations of the divine glory have been given,
do
that to which the Psalmist had previously called them, and
in
consideration of what he had pointed to. According to the
customary
view, the verse must not be a call to the praise of
God
on account of the hearing obtained, but must contain a
prayer:
high above all heavens must God display his majesty,
and
far above the whole earth his glory. But in this way the
hmvr is taken, against the usage in the sense of:
shew thyself
exalted;
the lf
must be understood alike in both members,
and
hence cannot signify in the first: above;
that God should
shew
himself exalted above the heavens, sounds strange, and
has
no parallel for itself; in ver. 11, where the same words re-
turn,
the call upon God is quite unsuitable: the Psalmist has
already
received the help in spirit, and no more thinks on any
thing
else, than praising and extolling God; the exposition for
the
first half is given by the Psalm itself in ver. 9: I will praise
thee
among the peoples, 0 Lord, that for the first half in ver.
10:
for great to the heavens is thy goodness, and to the clouds
thy
truth: because in its glorious manifestation it rises far above
the
earth into heaven; it must be praised in the heavens.—In
ver.
6, we have the great fact, upon the ground of which the
Psalmist
calls for the recognition of the glory of God in the
whole
world, the holy, holy, holy of angels and men. The real
blow
is in this: they are fallen in, the rest is only preparation.
Parallel
is Psalm vii. 15. We must not expound: my soul is bowed
down;
for Jpk
is always transitive, and throughout the whole
verse
the enemies are the subject. The interchange of the singular
254 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and
the plural is very common, especially in respect to the ene-
mies;
the wicked are the subject. The image is derived from
wild
beasts, who, entangled in the net, sink down helpless. The
expression:
my soul, is not all one with me, but the endangered
life appears under the image
of an overwhelmed wild beast.
There follows in the two strophes,
ver. 7, 8, and 9, 10, the
promise
of thanks. Ver. 7. Fixed is my heart, 0
God, fixed is
my heart, I will sing
and give praise.
Ver. 8. Wake up my
honour, wake up harp and
psaltery, I will stir up the morning-
dawn. A fixed heart is such
an one as in confidence on the
Lord
is fearless, comp. on Ps. lvi. 11. On the expression: my
honour,
as an emphatical designation of the soul, comp. on Ps.
vii.
5; xvi. 8, and especially Ps. xxx. 13. lbn and rvnk give
together
the idea of music, and are hence to be regarded as a
kind
of compound noun; the article belongs to both in common.
Psaltery
and harp have in a manner slept, keeping silence till the
Psalmist
received the promise of divine aid. On the words:
will
stir up the morning dawn, the Berleb. Bible: "that is, an-
ticipate
it with praise; it shall not awake me to this, but shall
find
me already occupied with it." In like manner with Ovid
does
the cock wake up at the break of day: non vigil ales ibi
cristati
cantibus oris evocat auroram. Metam. xi. 597. Many
expositors,
who could not enter into the bold, poetical expres-
sion,
have expounded: I will be up at the time of the morning-
dawn.
But the Hiphil cannot fitly be taken intransitively im-
mediately
beside the Kal; the word: awake, and: I will stir
up,
stand in manifest connection; rHw is never found with the
omission
of the preposition or adverb in the sig. of early
morn-
ing. Without foundation
Ewald concludes from this verse, that
the
Psalm was an evening song. It is not on some one occasion
merely,
but always, that the Psalmist will awaken himself up
with
his thanksgiving and praise. The thought is that of great
zeal
in the praise of God. Arnd: "The little word early is
not
to be understood merely of the morning season, but of great
diligence,
activity, desire and love in the praising of God."
Ver. 9. I will praise thee among the peoples, 0 Lord, sing
praise to thee among the
nations.
Ver. 10. For great to the
heavens is thy goodness,
and to the clouds thy truth. The proof
here
exhibited of the glory of the Lord is so great, that only the
peoples
of the whole earth are a sufficient auditory for its praise.
PSALM LVIII. 255
Michaelis:
"But that has even been done by this Psalm, pre-
served
for all nations and the latest posterity." On ver. 9 comp.
Psalm
xviii. 49. On ver. 10 Psalm xxxv. 5.
The sum of the whole is given in
ver. 11: Praise to thee, 0
God, in heaven, upon the
whole earth, glory to thee! to be given,
because
for his acting God was to be praised throughout the
whole
world. The conclusion of the joy for deliverance reverts
to
its commencement, ver. 5.
PSALM LVIII.
THE Psalmist describes his enemies in
the first strophe, ver. 1-
5
as unrighteous, mischievous, utterly corrupt, hardened and
seared,
and in the second strophe first builds upon this their
condition
his prayer to the Lord, that he would overthrow them,
ver.
6, then elevates himself, ver. 7-11, to the joyful hope, that
this
shall be done, to the joy of all the righteous, and to the
glory
of God. The Psalm is of similar character and contents
to
those of the preceding and following, which have respect to
David's
relations in the Sauline period; already the tHwt lx
of
the superscription shews, that we must not separate it from
them;
the manner, in which the Psalmist here expresses him-
self,
entirely agrees with the expressions of David during the pe-
riod
in question, recorded in history; comp. for ex. 1 Sam. xxvi.
10,
xxiv. 13; characteristic in this point of view is the promi-
nence
giving to the speaking of lies, by the enemies, in ver. 3.
Against
the authorship of David, and in the time specified, and
in
favour of the hypothesis, that the Psalm contains "the com-
plaint
of a Jew over unrighteous judges," whether foreign or
domestic,
at the time of the exile, stress has been laid on the
circumstance
of "unrighteous judges" being spoken of in ver. 1.
As
if David had not, during the Sauline period, been made to
underlie
an unrighteous judgment—as if even then his judges
had
not been his persecutors, and every thing had not been or-
dered
so, as to conceal the persecution behind the appearance
of
a righteous judgment. But that the unrighteous judges
meant
are not of the common stamp, appears from this, that
they
are spoken of as at the same time the personal enemies of
the
Psalmist, who persecute him for the purposes of their own
256 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
hatred,
whereas it is a standing trait in regard to common un-
righteous
judges, that through bribery they pervert judgment,
comp.
for ex. Isa. v. 23, and therefore are not impelled by hat-
red,
but by self-interest.
To
the Chief musician, destroy not, of David, a secret. Ver.
1.
Are ye then indeed dumb, that ye will not
speak, what is
righteous, and judge
what is upright, ye children of men? Ver.
2.
Even in the heart ye commit iniquities,
in the land your hands
weigh out
unrighteousness.
Ver. 3. The wicked go astray from
the mother's lap, err
from the mother's womb the speakers of lies.
Ver.
4. Poison have they like serpent's
poison, like a deaf adder
he stops his ear. Ver. 5. Which hears not the voice of the char-
mer, of the conjurer,
who can conjure well.
The Psalm begins
with
an address to the wicked, ver. 1 and 2, but he presently
perceives,
that he can make nothing of them, that they are per-
fectly
hardened, and deaf to all admonition, and so, in what
follows,
he speaks of them, and brings out
this distinctive mark
of
their condition. The expression: Are ye then indeed, in ver.
1,
points to the unheard of and incredible nature of the fact,
that
judges should be dumb in regard to
righteous judgment—
which
is a contradiction, especially in respect to Deut. i. 16, 17—
and
admonishes, that they might still bethink themselves. Mlx
occurs
only once besides, in Ps. lvi. supers., and indeed in the
sense
of being dumb. That this is here also to be retained, ap-
pears
from the mention of deafness, in ver.
4, 5: they are dumb
when
they should speak, deaf when they should hear, comp. Ps.
xxxviii.
14, where Mlx
and wrH
likewise occur united. The
abstract
stands emphatically in place of the adj. dumbness,
for
quite dumb. In the following
words the sphere is indicated, in
which
the dumbness operates: that ye speak, etc., in reference
to
the speaking. Myrwym, uprightness, which is never used ad-
verbially,
comp. on Ps. xvii. 2, is q. d. and upright judgment,
comp.
Ew. § 486. The first member is expounded by many:
speak
you actually dumb judgment. But the paraphrase of Stier:
"Would
ye (not at length, as always in duty bound) bring to
utterance
the (alas! long enough) dumb judgment," shows what
the
Psalmist must have said, if he had wished to express this mean-
ing.
The not must then have been here, the
indeed must have
been
awanting, as Gesen. would, for the sake of this interpreta-
tion,
thrust it out of the text. The doubting question: speak
ye
then in reality dumb judgment, would imply that there was at
PSALM LVIII. VER.
1-5. 257
least
the appearance of a return to the righteousness, that had
been
renounced, which, however, we cannot imagine. The ex-
position
of Maurer, who presses upon Mlx the sig. of pactum,
faedus,
and the conjecture of Ewald, who would read Mylx,
your
gods, are to be rejected on the ground alone of the corre-
spondence
here between dumbness and deafness in ver. 4 and 5.
The
expression: Ye children of men, reminds the high ones of
the
earth of the higher, to whom they must give an account, and
has
therefore the import of a grounding to the call to righteous
judgment:
if the children of men are dumb when they should
speak,
God will then speak with them, comp. the Elohim in
ver.
6 and and the contrast between Jehovah and the child-
ren
of men in 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, as also the children of men, who
oppose
the Psalmist, and Elohim, who helps him, in Ps, lvii. 4.
Arnd:
"From this we see and learn that
the persecuted Christ-
ians
have no audience and no help with worldly and spiritual
jurisdictions
when false doctrine is in vogue; though men should
there
declare and speak, still they are dumb; though the cause
also
be ever so good, yet no one will open his mouth, and lend.
a
good word in its behalf. Hence the Holy Spirit asks them,
through
the mouth of David, whether there is right, namely, in
speaking
against righteousness and truth." In ver. 2 the posi-
tive
is added to the negative. Jx is not a particle of
grada-
tion,
but is used in its common sig. of also,
comp. on Ps. xviii.
48,
xliv. 9: Ye omit what ye ought to do, also ye do what ye
ought
to omit. The opposite of the: in heart,
consists, not of:
in
the land, but of: your hands. The expression: ye do wick-
edness
in the heart, instead of meditating
evil in the heart, points
here,
as in Mic. ii. 1, to there being also actions of the heart,
which
God will bring into judgment. The words: ye weigh
out
the unrighteousness of your hands, contains an abbreviated
comparison:
instead of the righteousness, which, as the judges
appointed
by God, ye ought to weigh out, (comp. the mention
of
the balance of righteousness, in Job
xxxi. 6,) ye practise in-
justice
vrz
in ver. 3 is pret. Kal. To "the
wicked" we must
supply:
in the number of whom are my enemies. What makes
the
human corruption so dreadful is the fact of its growing out
of
original sin, comp. on Ps. li. 6, and consequently it has its
root
in the inmost depths of the heart. Those, with whom na-
ture
is allowed free scope to develope itself, as it will, and. who
shut
out grace from access to their heart, must attain to a ripe-
258 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ness
in sinning, which would be incredible if nature were origi-
nally,
and still predominantly good. The opposite are not such
as
have been corrupt from their mother's womb, such indeed as
do
not exist, but those in whom the corruption common to all
has
uninterruptedly developed itself, and those in whom the de-
velopement
has been hemmed in and broken through. That
the
inborn depravity is quite a general one, extending over the
whole
family of man, appears from Gen. viii. 21, the confession
of
David himself in Ps. li. 6, and Job xiv. 4. Arnd: "The god-
less
are wayward from their mother's womb, from their childhood
upwards
there is nothing good in them; the godly, although
they
also are conceived and born in sin, yet live in the new
birth,
in daily repentance." In ver. 4 tmH stands in stat. cons.
before
the preposition, on account of the close connection. The
second
half of verse 4 and verse 5 describes, by way of grada-
tion,
their poisonousness: the serpents, on whom the charmers
can
make no impression, (comp. on the charming of serpents my
instead
of wHn
there is here Ntp. What the ineffectual charms
are
in reference to the excessively poisonous serpent, that are
with
the venomous and wicked man the prayers and entreaties
of
those, who suffer injury from him and his friends, as an exam-
ple
of which we have only to think of David's representations
to
Saul, and Jonathan's intercessions, both so persuasive, that
their
fruitlessness presents to our view the wickedness of Saul,
which
is a reflection of man's generally, as a deep abyss. Not
only,
however, does the resemblance hold in regard to such
prayers
and entreaties, but also to the admonitions of the ser-
vants
of God, and last of all, to the reproofs and warnings,
which
God himself brings to bear on men through their con-
science.
How powerfully these resounded in the dark soul of
Saul,
may be seen in the conviction often uttered by him, that
David,
upheld by God, would escape his persecutions and gain
the
day. But although his conscience called to him aloud, that
his
striving was wrong and to no purpose, the strength of wick-
edness
in him was so great, that he could not desist from it.
The
subject MFxy
is not the adder, (commonly: which stops
its
ear,) but the wicked. The stopping
requires hands, and
what
is already deaf by nature has no need to stop. It is just
by
means of stopping, that the wicked make themselves like the
deaf
adder. Arnd: "As we see in the history of the holy
PSALM LVIII. VER. 6-11. 259
martyr
Stephen. When he made his confession before the ec-
clesiastical
council at
vens
opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of
God,’
to the Jewish prelates that was so insufferable a testimony,
that
in order to retain their poison, they stopt their ears, and
cried
aloud."
There follows in ver. 6-11 the
prayer and the confidence.
Ver.
6. God, break their teeth in their mouth,
the tusks of the
young lions break in
pieces, 0 Lord.
Ver. 7. They shall dis-
solve as waters, flow
away: he takes aim with his arrows, as if
they were cut in pieces. Ver. 8. As a snail which melts away,
he vanishes, as an
abortion they behold not the sun. Ver. 9.
Before your pots feel
the thorn, will he, raw or sodden, over-
throw him. Ver. 10. The righteous will rejoice, because he sees
vengeance, his steps
bathe in the blood of the wicked. Ver. 11.
And men will say: truly
fruit hath the righteous, truly God judges
in the earth. At the beginning of
ver. 6 Elohim is used, because
the
Psalmist raises himself up from the children of men to God.
On
the expression: break their teeth, Arnd: "There is here de-
scribed
the great hatred and wrath of the enemies toward the
vehement
is their feeling toward us, that if God had permitted
them,
they would have swallowed us up bodily." tvftlm is ety-
mologically
the correct, but unusual form for tvfltm.—That
the
fut. in ver. 7, ss. are to be taken as expressive of hope and
confidence,
appears from the praetor. proph. vzH in ver. 8.—
vsxmy from sxm, for ssm. The subject in vklhty is not the
waters,
but the wicked. This appears from vml an ironical dat.
comm.;
they shall have this thereby, that they flow away. j`rd, to
bend,
for, to fit in a bent form. The arrows are, as to the effect to
be
shot off, as if they were cut, deprived of their heads and blunt-
ed.
Such hope could spring up in David only from a living
faith.
If he viewed the matter without this, the thought which
pressed
upon him must have been: "his arrows are sharp, they
pierce
the heart of the enemies of the king."-- bt ver. 8 is
the
3d fem. of the abbreviated fut. of hsm=ssm. The sub-
ject
in j`lhy,
is the wicked. Instead of: as the snail,
which
melts
away, dissolves, he vanishes, many: as the snail which
meltingly
vanishes, properly, which walks dissolution. But
lvlbw can hardly be masc., there is no such
noun as sbt,
to
walk
dissolution is very hard, and so also is that which must be
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 260
supplied
by this rendering: they shall be. Before lpn we are
not
precisely to supply as, but it is to
be explained: as (spirit-
ual)
abortion. The subject in vzH is not the singular lpn
(many:
beholds not the sun), but those, who are the subject
both
before and after, the wicked. The preterite is to be ex-
plained
from the confidence of faith. The wicked are so far
like
an abortion, as they, like it, are hurried away by an untime-
ly
and violent death, do not see the sun. Job iii. 16 rests upon
this
passage. Job, the righteous there wishes for himself the
fate
of an abortion, which is here predicted of the wicked as a
punishment;
so God appears to exchange with each other the
fates
of the righteous and the wicked.—In ver. 9 the discourse
at
first addresses the ungodly, as in ver. 1 and 2, but soon it be-
comes
more placid again, and speaks of them: he will overthrow
him, whereas from the
commencement we would have expect-
ed:
you. On the words: before your pots
feel the thorn,
the
Berleb Bible: "that is, before the fire thereof, which quick-
ly
burn and heat, has got fairly within, before the flesh in your
pots
has become warm or ready, that is, your plans shall at an
early
period be destroyed or executed." vmk-vmk as well—as
yh and NvrH, prop. glow, then
glowing heat, refers to the con-
tents
of the pots, the flesh, which is boiled in them. As here
in
poetry, yH
and NvrH,
so in 1 Sam. ii 15 are yH, living or raw,
and
lwbm,
boiled. To the raw flesh correspond the unripe
plans,
to the sodden the ripe. The expression: be it raw, be
it
sodden or ready, is, q. d. without taking any account of this,
whether
ye have finished your cooking, and not good-humour-
edly
granting the necessary time for your executing your pro-
jects
against the righteous. It means without any thing farther
at
once: away with you,—and however painful it will also be
to
you, to find all your preparations in vain, however hard to
eat
what you have boiled, God makes no account of it, as Saul
must
do before he carries his designs against David into execu-
tion.
The subject in Unrfwy is the Lord, and the suffix refers
to
the wicked; this is evident from Job xxvii. 21, referring to
our
passage: "The east wind carrieth him away, and he de-
parteth,
and as a storm hurleth him out of his place." It is not
the
flesh-pot that is torn away from the wicked, but the wicked
from
his flesh-pot, his projects, on which the history of Saul de-
livers
the best commentary. The other expositions are to be
rejected.
Against Luther's: Before your thorns are ripe in the
PSALM
LIX. 261
thorn-bush,
besides many other grounds, it is decisive that thorns
are
always Myrys,
never tvrys;
excepting Amos iv. 2, where
it
is used of an instrument like a thorn, it always signifies pots.
Against
the exposition: "before your pots perceive the thorn,
as
green as burning, they are pluct away," it is to be objected,
amongst
other grounds, that yH is never used of green thorns,
nor
in any similar import.—On the expression: because he sees
vengeance,
in ver. 10, comp. 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, where David says
to
Saul, "The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord
avenge
me of thee; but my hand shall not be upon thee: How
the
vengeance should be an object of joy to the righteous, viz.
because
of the manifestation given in it of the judgment and
righteousness
of God, of the nourishment which his knowledge
and
fear of God draws from it, appears from ver. 11. On the
second
member, Arnd: "That he shall bathe
his feet in the
blood
of the wicked, is not to be understood literally, as if the
fearers
of God must avenge themselves by the shedding of blood,
or
have pleasure therein; but so, that if they entreat vengeance
of
God, God wonderfully vindicates their cause. When Saul
fell
upon his sword, sore pressed by the Philistines, that was
God's
vengeance, and David bathed his feet in the blood of the
wicked,
and incurred no guilt by Saul's destruction. When
Ahab
was shot in the battle, so that his blood ran through the
chariot,
and the dogs licked it, that also was God's vengeance,
and
the prophet Elias bathed his feet in the blood of the
wicked."—
j`x in ver.
11, stands as a particle of assurance: only,
it
is not otherwise, than so. The plural in MyFpw, springs with
that
in Myhlx
from one root, comp. on Ps. xi. 6. The general
name
of God stands in opposition to Mdx: men recognize God
as
judge, but at the same time also in contrast to the sons of
men
at the beginning, to which the close refers back: God
exercises
on earth the righteous judgment; which they with-
hold.
PSALM LIX.
THE Psalm falls, like so many
others, into two chief divisions,
the
one of 10 verses, and the other of 7. The ten, as usual, are
divided
into two fives, the seven fall into three and four. The
262 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
first
strophe in both parts contains a prayer for the overthrow
of
the ungodly enemies, and the deliverance of the Psalmist,
ver.
1-5, and ver. 11-13; the second, the hope of this over-
throw
and this deliverance; and the confident expectation of
the
same, ver. 6-10, and 14-17. At the conclusion of the
prayer-strophes,
which are already distinguished from the two
others
by the use of the imperatives, the Selah is both times
used,
externally also bounding them off. Hence the main divi-
sions
do not lie loosely beside each other; in the second hope-
strophe
the first is again resumed. The first verses of both take
up
the beginning of the first and expand it, their last ones the
conclusion.
It is not accidental that in the second main divi-
sion
the confidence externally predominates over the prayer,
(4
to 3), while in the first the hope occupies the same space
with
the prayer, (5 and 5). It is in perfect accordance with
this,
that in the second hope-strophe, the hope has received a
firm
foundation in the internal assurance of being heard, and
has
thereby risen to confidence, which discovers itself especially
in
the two concluding verses.
The occasion of the Psalm is given
in the superscription:
to the chief musician,
destroy not,
(Ps. lvii.) of David, a secret,
(Ps.
xvi, lvi, lvii,) when Saul sent, and
caused his house to be
watched, that he might
kill him.
The history is contained in 1
Sam.
xix. 11, ss. Saul caused the house of David to be sur-
rounded,
with orders to kill him, whenever he might come out.
David
was delivered through the artifice of his wife Michal,
which
was blessed by God, but this transaction formed the com-
mencement
of his long-continued flight, during which he had to
encounter
unheard-of dangers, and to endure nameless suffer-
ings.
The fact being of such importance, we are prepared to
expect,
that David would perpetuate its remembrance by a
Psalm,
the superscription of which would expressly make men-
tion
of it, (comp. on Ps. xxxiv.) Such a superscription was the
more
necessary, since, according to David's manner, the refe-
rences
to the event in the Psalm itself, which was naturally com-
posed
immediately after the danger had been surmounted, are
very
general—the special references to it,
which have been
sought
in ver. 6 and in ver. 14 and 15, are not found in these.
So
much only is clear from the Psalm, that it was called forth
by
some plot upon the life of the Psalmist; for the rest, the
relations
are the general ones belonging to the Sauline period.
PSALM LIX. 263
Many modern expositors have rejected
the announcements of
the
superscription, and denied the composition by David. But
their
reasons are any thing but convincing. The description of
the
enemies as mighty or powerful in ver. 3, it is maintained,
suits
better heathenish oppressors, tyrants, than the messengers
of
Saul. As if David had not, in all the Psalms of this period,
primarily
and chiefly before his eyes Saul himself, and his in-
struments
merely as such, merely as members of that body of
wickedness
of which he was the head! The idea that the hea-
then
being once and again mentioned, ver. 5 and 8, indicates
that
the Psalm refers to foreign enemies, rests upon a false ex-
position,
as we shall see. As to the multiplication of titles of
God
in ver. 5 proving, as is alleged, that the Psalm belongs to
a
later age, this is disproved by a single glance at the prayer of
David
in 2 Sam. vii, which is distinguished by a heaping toge-
ther
of the names of God, and where, particularly in ver. 27,
"for
thou Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, God of Israel," the ad-
dress
here is literally repeated, with the omission merely of
Elohim.
The positive grounds for referring
this Psalm to David, and at
the
period in question, are, besides the superscription, to which
the
Psalm itself appears to contain a reference in ver. 9, and the
enigmatical
character of which (indicated by: destroy not, and:
the
secret,) bespeaks David for its author—the use, characte-
ristic
of David, of military expressions, ver. 4, 9, 16, the strong
asseveration
of innocence, ver. 3 and 4, and the lively conviction,
also
so characteristic of David, of the reality of a divine recom-
pense,
of the connection between a venomous slandering, and
violent
deeds, which meets us in all the Psalms of the Sauline
period;
to which may be added the circumstance, that all the
strikingly
agreeing parallel passages belong to the Psalms of
David,
and especially to such as were composed in the times of
Saul.
Those, who reject the superscription,
wander hither and
thither,
and each one excogitates his own hypothesis and satis-
fies
himself. According to De Wette it is a plaint of the peo-
ple,
and has reference to the relations which arose in the time
of
the exile. According to Ewald, the poet is one of the last
kings
of Judah, who was besieged in
of
heathenish enemies, the surrounding tribes in league with
the
Chaldeans—of such a combination history says nothing.
264 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Koester
refers the Psalm to "the nocturnal assaults of the
Samaritans
in the time of Nehemiah," but himself also discreetly
adds,
that "there is no absolute certainty on the subject."
Hitzig
pleads for the times of the Maccabees.
It is to be objected to these
hypotheses, that the assaulted is
throughout
only one, in the presence of a great
number of
mighty
adversaries, no hint being ever given that a multitude
lay
concealed in this oneness, the Psalmist rather expressly
distinguishing
himself, in ver. 14, from "his people;" that the
reproach
particularly discovering itself in the Psalm of veno-
mous
slandering, and malicious lying, comp. ver. 7 and 12,
does
not at all suit heathenish enemies, nor also the epithet of
"men
of blood," in ver. 2, which is never used of heathenish
national
enemies; that the heathen are excluded by ver. 14, 15,
according
to which
of
the wicked constantly before his eyes, sees them wandering
about
in misery and want; that the threatening of a hungry and
wretched
existence in ver. 6 and 15 is suitable only to indivi-
duals,
not to nations; finally, that the overthrow of the wicked
could
afford a proof that "God rules in Jacob," ver. 18, only if
the
Psalm refers to domestic enemies, to conflicts among the
people
of God, upon whom he exercises judment.
The Psalmist prays for deliverance
from his enemies, ver. 1
and
2, grounds this prayer by alluding to the powerful malice
of
the enemies, and his own innocence, ver. 3 and 4, and reminds
God,
that he, as the Almighty and the Covenant-God of
cannot
let wickedness rage with impunity among his own peo-
ple.
Ver. 1. Deliver me from my enemies, my
God, and defend
me from those who raise
themselves against me.
Ver. 2. Deliver
me from the evil-doers,
and from the men of blood redeem me.
Ver.
3. For lo! they lay wait for my-soul,
gather themselves
against me the strong,
without my crime and my sin, 0 Lord.
Ver.
4. Without my fault they run and
establish themselves;
awake and meet me, and
see here.
Ver. 5. And thou, Lord, God
of Hosts, God of
gracious to all wicked
men of perfidy.
On ver. 1 and 2, Arnd:
"Although
these words are in themselves simple and mean,
yet
we must look mainly upon the heart and the spirit of David,
how
firmly he held by his faith and confidence in God." Upon
bgw, to lift up, in the sense of
"deliver," comp. on Psalm xx.
1.—On
the expression: they lay wait for my soul,
in ver. 8,
PSALM LIX. VER. 1-5. 265
he
comp. 1 Sam. xix. 11, "And Michal his wife said to David, If
thou
deliver not thy soul this night,
to-morrow thou shalt be
slain,"
Psalm vii. 2, 5. That zf, strong, (not, rash, Ew.) is used
in
its common signification, appears from vzf in ver, 9, j~zf in
ver.
16, yzf
in ver. 17, and Psalm xviii. 17. Arnd: "The
strong
gather
themselves against me, as if he would say: But I am
weak,
be thou, however, my strength, and vindicate my inno-
cence."
rvg,
as in Psalm lvi. 6, in the sense of gathering them-
selves;
the exact agreement with that passage implies, since
both
bear the mark of originality, the identity of the writers of
both
Psalms. The words: not my crime, and not my sin, is a
concise
form for, not on account of my sins.
Where the relation
in
itself is clear, there not rarely the word expressive of the re-
lation
is omitted. Most render: not is my crime. But the
supplying
of the is is not enough, and then
instead of xl there
would
rather have been Nyx. The crime,
comp. on Psalm xix.,
is
the particular, the sin the general. It were, for example, a
crime
to project a plan for murdering the king; while under
sin, all disobedience and
unfaithfulness is comprehended. When
David
here denies, that sin is the cause of his suffering, he
thinks
of the human cause. He was deeply
penetrated by the
conviction,
that before the divine judgment-seat, an entirely
different
standard is to be taken; he recognized there in those
sufferings
a painful indication of deserved punishment. We are
to
compare the similar protestations of the innocence of David
in
1 Sam. xxiv. 10, and in Psalm vii. 3-5. On the "0 Lord,"
Kimchi:
"Thou Lord knowest it." David can appeal to the
knowledge
of the Omniscient for his innocence in respect to
Saul.—How
necessary this freedom from guilt is to the assault, if
this
is to be an occasion for God to step in, is indicated by the
Psalmist,
while in ver. 4, he rises from the innocence to the as-
sault,
as in ver. 3 he had risen from the assault to the innocence.
Only
the assault of the innocent comes under the idea of perfi-
diousness,
which the Psalmist in ver. 5 describes as the object of
divine
judgment. Upon ylb, without, comp. Ewald,
§ 506.
To
this: without fault, naturally suggests itself to be supplied:
on
my part. The: run, is used, as in
Psalm xviii. 29, in a war-
like
sense. vnnvky, fut. Hithp. from Nvk, with compensation of
the
t
charact. by Dag., which is common with this verb, is for
the
most part expounded: they prepare themselves. But we
have
the less reason for renouncing here the elsewhere common
266 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sig.
of the Hithp.: to be settled, established, as the preparing
of
themselves for the tempestuous onset, does not follow, but
goes
before. It is beyond doubt a military expression: to fix
one's
self, to get firm footing, from the attacking host, which,
planting
its firm foot in the walls of the beleaguered city, is
ready
to rush in over them, or rather through them, as being al-
ready
broken through, into the city, comp. Job xxx. 14. On
hrvf, not with Ewald, stir thyself, but: awake,
comp. Ps. vii.
6,
xliv. 23. Meet me, as a true member of the covenant for my
relief.
At the: see, the object is awanting: their wickedness
and
my danger. Calvin: "When he says: see, he mingles the
feeling
of the flesh with the teaching of faith. For as if God,
with
shut eyes, had overlooked till then all unrighteousness, he
prays,
that he would now begin to see; this after the weakness
of
the human mind. Meanwhile he confesses, while he attri-
butes
seeing to God, that nothing is concealed from his inspec-
tion.
Yet it is to be noticed, that David, while he so stammers
after
the manner of a man, at the same time is satisfied, that his
sufferings,
as well as his own innocence, and the wickedness of
his
enemies, are known to God. But he gives over in these
words
the whole cause to the judgment of God for trial."—On
ver.
5, Geier: "He here resumes more
fully the address al-
ready
begun in the preceding verse, while he describes Him
more
narrowly, whose awaking he wishes. But the names con-
tain
at the same time, the reasons for the divine help being im-
mediately
extended to him." The "Jehovah" is the deepest
and
most comprehensive name of God. The following names
divide
its import into the particular parts. Jehovah is first
Elohim,
God in the full sense, (God) of Hosts, (comp. on Sabaoth
at
Psalm xxiv. 10,) the Almighty; he therefore cannot want
power
to restrain the mighty ones of the earth, whose strength
is
sheer impotence against him; he cannot find, should the
right
not prevail, the justification that is so often sought for
human
judges. Then, Jehovah is the God of Israel; Arnd:
"that
is, who has taken the church, with all the believing mem-
bers,
under his powerful support." Has he, as God and as Sa-
baoth,
the power, he must as the God of
Israel have the will
to
punish and deliver. The God of Israel (comp. ver. 13) must
establish
right and righteousness without which
to
nothing. We may compared Jer. xxxv. 17, where the God of
PSALM LIX. VER. 1-5. 267
chap. xxxviii. 17, the Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the God of
Is-
rael,
are taken from this verse, only with the putting of yhlx
instead
of Myhlx
here. The proper wish and the proper
prayer
of the Psalmist here is contained in the words: be not
gracious
to all wicked perfidious persons,
prop. all perfidious
persons
of wickedness; perfidiousness in
who
are all friends and brethren, is every violation of neigh-
bourly
love not called forth by the commission of any miscon-
duct,
comp. on Psalm xxv. 2; wickedness
(comp. the Nvx ylfp
in
ver. 2, through which the opinion of Koester, in itself of no
weight,
that Nvx here denotes idolatry,
is disproved,) is that,
through
which the perfidiousness has been committed: toward
brothers
and friends to be wicked is perfidiousness. That these
words
alone could contain the proper prayer of the Psalmist, is
clear
simply from this, that they alone admit a reference to
enemies
from amongst the covenant people: only in Israel was
wickedness
at the same time perfidiousness. Now, since the
enemies
could not be of a twofold kind, at once heathens and
Jews,
the preceding supplication: "awake and visit all hea-
then,"
can only have the force of a preliminary step to the pro-
per
prayer, and that so much the more, as the wicked perfidious
persons
are manifestly those of whose unprovoked attacks the
Psalmist
had complained in ver. 3 and 4—comp. in Psalm xxv.
3:
those who without cause are
perfidious. In substance: a-
waken
to visit all heathen, is q. d. thou,
who judgest all heathen.
Because
every special judgment of God is a consequence of this,
that
he is judge of the whole world, as already Abraham calls
him,
so the holy Psalmists very often place him as such before
their
eyes, ere they call upon him to judge in their own cause,
comp.
on Psalm vii. 7, 8, lvi. 7. The right view is given already
by
Calvin: "He reasons from the
greater to the less, since not
even
the profane and aliens can escape the hand and vengeance
of
God, a more sure and severe judgment must impend the do-
mestic
enemies, who, under the name of brethren, are inimical
to
the pious, and disturb the order divinely settled in the church.
At
the same time also, he wrestles with a temptation, with which
it
is probable he was much disquieted. For he was not pressed
by
four or five wicked persons, but by a great multitude. On
the
other hand, however, he elevates his mind, considering it to
be
the proper office of God not only to bring a few into order,
but
to inflict punishment on the crimes of the whole world. For
268 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
as
God's judgment extends to the farthest bounds of the earth,
he
ought not to be frightened by that multitude, which was still
but
a small portion of the human race." That the point brought
out
last by Calvin is to be kept most prominently in view; that
the
Psalmist on this account especially places God here before
his
eyes as the judge of all the heathen, so that he might be
no
more disturbed by the great number and might of his ene-
mies,
is manifest from ver 8.
In the second strophe of the first
main division, the prayer is
followed
by the hope. Ver. 6. They return back at
even, howl
like a dog, and run
through the city.
Ver. 7. Behold they belch
with their mouth, swords
are on their lips; for who hears? Ver.
8.
And thou, 0 Lord, laughest at them, thou
mockest all the hea-
then. Ver. 9. His strength will I preserve to thee, for
God is my
fortress. Ver. 10. My God will with his favour surprise me, God
makes me see my desire
upon my adversaries.
The Psalmist in
ver.
6 sees his enemies, the strong, ver. 3, brought down, wan-
dering
about in hunger and sorrow. Because in their conduct
they
resembled hounds, with hound-like fury had attacked him,
comp.
on Ps. xxii. 16, 20, they must now also experience a
hound-like
fate; in regard to which we must consider, that the
dogs
in the east run about without any master, and seek their
food
wherever they can find it. Ver. 11 gives the commentary
on
this passage: "Make them wander
about through thy power,
and
overthrow them," the more so as in ver. 15 there is a re-
sumption
and farther expansion of what is said here. Whence
it
is clear, that our passage must not be referred, with many, to
the
want of success of the plan against David, that it rather con-
tains
the hope of the overthrow of the wicked themselves.
They return back at even, namely, after they
have in vain sought
the
whole day for food. The dog cries or howls for hunger.
They
also run through the city at even, in
order, perhaps, to ob-
tain
somewhat of nourishment. Various expositors find here, not
the
hope, but the wish of the overthrow of the wicked: might
they
return. But this is refuted by all the other contents of
the
strophe, which throughout expresses, not a wish,
but a hope,
and
the resumption in ver. 14 and 15, comp. especially the se-
cond
half of the latter verse. Then, according to some, the
verse
must refer, not to the fate of the wicked, but, as ver. 7, to
their
procedure, (Ewald, Maur.) But ver. 14 is opposed to this
view.
When there is such a similarity in the words, a differ-
PSALM LIX. VER. 6-10. 269
ence
in the sense is not to be supposed; this would certainly
have
been indicated by some change in the expression. Then,
by
this exposition, we cannot explain why precisely the evening
is
thought of, unless one should take refuge in Some far-fetched
supposition.
The Psalmist, in ver. 7, casts a glance back on
the
malice of his enemies, only in order to give opportunity for
exercising
hope in God, that it may break forth the more
rously.
The consideration of the need is only a preliminary
step
to him, on which he can raise himself to the contemplation
of
the helper for the time of need. Behold,
they belch, &c. is in
meaning,
q. d. let them belch, &c., thou, 0 Lord, mockest
them.
On fybh,
to make, to belch forth, comp. on Ps. xis. 12.
What
they belch or bubble forth, is not expressly mentioned
here,
as it is in Prov. xv. 2, 28, comp. Ps. xciv. 4. It may be
easily
understood from the character of the persons; according
to
that, we can only think of a torrent of lies and calumnies,
which
instrumentally serve the purpose of their actual persecu-
tion.
Arnd: "Just as smoke proceeds from
the fire, so do lies
and
slanders from open persecutions." The verb retains its
common
meaning. The Psalmist says only, that there was an
entire
flood of what they bring forth. On the expression:
swords
are on their lips, Calvin: "they vomit forth as many
swords
for the murder of the poor as they utter words." Arnd:
"Just
as a naked sword inflicts wounds, so do such lies and ca-
lumnies
cut in pieces upright hearts," comp. Ps. lv. 21, "his
words
are smoother than oil, and they are drawn swords," Ps.
lii.
2, "upon evil thinks thy tongue, as a sharp razor, thou
worker
of deceit," Ps. lvii. 4, "whose tongue a sharp sword."
These
parallel passages especially preclude us from thinking of
insults,
and oblige us to understand only false charges and ca-
lumnies.
This trait is only applicable to internal enemies;
heathenish
ones wield not the sword of the word. Who hears?
is
commonly regarded as a speech of the wicked: for, say they,
who
hears and judges. "God certainly hears it not, he will
neither
hear, nor punish," (Arnd,) comp. a similar speech of the
wicked
in Ps. x. 11, 13. But we can also conveniently take the
words
as a sad lamentation of the Psalmist, that God through
his
past inaction, had strengthened the wicked in their wicked-
ness,
comp. a similar lamentation in Ps. x. 5. Hitherto God had
actually
not heard, comp. the see in verse 4. The malice of the
enemies
does not distress the Psalmist, it only leads him to
270 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
raise
his mind with the loftier elevation to God, and since he
sees
God laugh at it, he will also treat it as a mockery, verse 8.
On
the expression: thou laughest, comp. Ps. ii. 4, "he who is
throned
in heaven laughs, the Lord holds them in derision,"
Ps.
xxxvii. 13. Thou mockest all the heathen,
q. d. how should-
est
thou not mock them, how should it not be a light thing for
thee,
to annihilate all their malicious projects, since all the hea-
then, with their far greater
might, can do nothing against thee,
comp.
verse 5. In verse 9 the suffix in vzf refers to the strong,
Myzf, in verse 3. The singular goes, as so often
happens, upon
the
ideal person of the wicked. Since in the other Psalms of
the
Sauline period, the singular constantly interchanges with
the
plural, it can only be regarded as purely accidental, that in
this
Psalm the enemy is nowhere else mentioned in the singu-
lar.
The j~ylx,
to thee, so that thou keepest it, and in refe-
rence
to it doest what is necessary. rmw, to keep, to secure,
as
in Ex. xxii. 6, and here in the supers. The Psalmist, con-
scious
of his own impotence, will have nothing to do himself
with
the strength of his enemies; he rolls it wholly upon God,
who
will already know what he has to make of it. The
expression:
his strength, is here used in a thoughtful refe-
rence
to "thy power" in verse 16, my strength in verse 17,
similar
to that between: his countenance, in Ps. xlii. 5, and my
countenance,
in ver. 11: the enemies' strength he delivers over
to
the Lord, he celebrates God's strength, and for his own
strength
he gives thanks to him. This thoughtful reference is
destroyed,
if we read with many here yzf: my defence, upon
whom
I wait, (Ew.) Ver. 17 speaks against, not for this change;
for
deviations do occur in the reiterations, comp. on Ps. xlii. 5,
and
yzf
would, if it had been original, have been preserved by
ver.
17; nowhere does it call for more consideration to change
the
reading, than precisely where the reiterating verses deviate
from
each other. Those, who abide by the common text, usually
expound:
what concerns their strength, I have thee in my eye.
But
yzf
would then probably have stood by itself; that it is the
accusative,
which is governed by the verb, appears from the
analogy
between ver. 16 and 17. In the first member of ver.
10,
the reading of the text should be Ods;Ha yhalox<. Where the
distinction
stood merely in the vowels, as here in the yhlx,
there
the Masorites wrote no Kri on the margin, but where, as
here,
the context of itself led to the conclusion, that the vowels
PSALM LIX. VER.
11-13. 271
could
not belong to the reading of the text, they gave to the
Chetib
exactly the vowels of the Kri, or, where that was not
the
case, they gave to the word a double punctuation, comp. on
Ps.
vii. 6. We can either expound: my God,
his favour will
surprise
me comp. Ps. lxxix, 8; or: my God will with his fa-
vour
surprise me, comp. Ps. xxi. 3, where the Mdq occurs with
a
double accus. The latter mode is recommended by the par-
allel.
That of the Masorites: my favour-God, is a bad con-
jecture
from ver. 17. On the second member, comp. Ps. liv. 8,
6,
where all the words have already occurred. Calvin: "The
sum
is, whensoever God may withhold, or delay his aid, at that
very
time he will be present."
There follows now the second main
division, first the prayer,
in
ver. 11-13. Ver. 11. Slay them not, lest
my people forget,
make them wander up and
down through thy power, and over-
throw them, thou our
shield, 0 God.
Ver. 12. Sin of their mouth
is the word of their
lips, and let them be taken through their
pride, and on account of
the cursing and lies, which they speak.
Ver.
13. Consume in anger, consume, that they
may be no more,
and that it may be known
that God is ruler in Jacob, even to
the ends of the earth. That the: slay them
not, in ver. 11, re-
fers
not to the individuals hostile to the Psalmist, as such, but
to
their race, appears from ver. 13, where he seeks for the same
persons
their destruction, as constantly, indeed, in the Psalms
belonging
to the Sauline period. The enemies must serve for
monuments
of the divine righteousness, not less in the abiding
wretchedness
of their race, than by their own sudden destruc-
tion.
Parallel to this verse, and to ver. 6, 14, is the curse which
David
utters upon Joab, in 2 Sam. iii. 29, "let there never fail
from
the house of Joab one that hath an issue, and a leper, and
that
leaneth on a staff, and that lacketh
bread;" then, the threat-
ening
of the man of God to Eli, in 1 Sam. ii. 36, where, after
announcing
the violent death of the evil-doers themselves, cor-
responding
to ver. 13 here, it is said, "and it shall come to pass,
that
whosoever is left of thy house will come, and crouch to him,
(the
new high-priest), for a piece of silver and a bit of bread,
and
will say: Put me, I pray thee, in something of the priest-
hood,
that I may eat a piece of bread." The Christian exposi-
tion
of this verse has all along drawn attention to the fact, that
the
substance of our verse, as that also of ver. 6, 14, has gone
into
fulfilment on the Jews. "They have been scattered into
272 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
all
lands, and must go and stand before the eyes of all Chris-
tians,
as a living witness, that they have crucified the true Mes-
siah
and Saviour of the world. So that if you see a Jew, think
on
this word," (Arnd.) The Psalmist calls all
so
the expression: my people, often occurs, for ex. Judg. xiv. 3,
Ps.
xiv. 4. Many think without reason exclusively of the right-
eous
seed; the ungodly needed the warning example of the
divine
punitive righteousness still more than they. On the ex-
pression:
let them wander about, comp. the divine judgment on
Cain
in Gen. iv. 12, Numb. xxxii. 13, "Then the anger of the
Lord
was kindled against
in
the wilderness forty years," and Ps. cix. 10, "Let his chil-
dren
be continually vagabonds and beg." On the: through
thy
power, (falsely Hitzig: through thy host,) "David
invokes
God's power for the destruction of the wicked, because
they,
trusting in their earthly power, thought themselves invin-
cible;"
comp.: they gather themselves together against me
strong,
in ver. 3. On the: overthrow them, prop. make them
come
down, Calvin: "He wills that they should be thrown
down
from their honourable position, be cast, as it were, before
one's
feet, so that they may afford in their misery and dis-
grace
a standing spectacle of the divine indignation." The
designation
of God as the shield of the
righteous, is of fre-
quent
use in the mouth of David, comp. Ps. iii. 3, xviii.
2,
xxviii. 7. By saying "our
shield," he indicates that his
cause
is that of the whole church, comp. in ver. 5: thou God of
principle,
and this was endangered in him. Saul's victory would
have
opened a deep wound in the
Sin
of their mouths is the word of their lips, in ver. 12, are q.d.
they
sin, as often as they but speak. That the wish of their
destruction
is to be supplied here, which the simple representa-
tion
of the matter-of-fact includes in itself, is evident from the
second
member. The b in Mvxgb is explained by the
follow-
ing
Nm. The pride must be viewed as the cause of their
de-
struction
in so far as it served to draw down upon them the divine
vengeance.
Pride was manifestly the root of Saul's hatred to
David;
the more he was devoid of true greatness, the more in-
supportable
to him was the thought of true greatness beside
him,
it filled him with rage, and he would, at whatever expense,
have
it driven out of the world; comp. the account of the first
PSALM LIX. VER. 14-17. 273
origin
of Saul's enmity to David, in 1 Sam. xviii. 8, and xix. 8,
ss.
The curse is connected in Psalm x. 7, as here, with lying
and
deceit. There are curses which the
wicked pronounces
upon
himself, so that his deceit prospers with him, his lie finds
currency.
Saul protested loudly and vehemently, that David
sought
occasion against his life. Before vrpsy the rela-
tive
is to be supplied. The word is used in its common sig.:
they
tell under solemn protestations lies for truth. That the
entire
verse is unsuitable to heathen armies, is clear as day,
comp.
Psalm v. 9.—In ver. 13, the first words of which are seen
reflected
in the fate of the Jews, when they were "mercilessly
extirpated
at the destruction of
6
and 13, but the immediate fulfilment of which is exhibited in
the
signal overthrow of Saul, we must connect: that it may be
known
to the ends of the earth, that God is ruler in Jacob, not
that
God is ruler in Jacob to the ends of the earth, against
which
already the accents speak, and in which case also an and
should
have been prefixed before unto.
Calvin: "David indi-
cates
an extraordinary kind of punishment, the report of which
would
reach to the most distant people, and force even on blind
and
profane men the fear of God." It is characteristic of David
that
he everywhere thinks also of the heathen as interested in
that
which God did among the Israelites, for ex. Ps. xviii. 49,
Ivii.
5, 9, 11. In remarkable agreement with our passage David
says
to Goliath in 1 Sam. xvii. 46, "And all the earth shall
know,
that the God of Israel is God." On the expression: that
God
is ruler in Jacob, it is justly remarked by expositors: not
Saul
or any other person whatever. From this contrast we are
to
explain the position of the general name of God.
The Psalm closes in ver. 14-17 with
the second hope-strophe,
in
which, as the result of the whole, the destruction of the ene-
mies,
and the Psalmist's rejoicing at his own deliverance, are
represented.
Ver. 14. Yea, they shall return back at
even,
make a noise like a dog,
and run through the city. Ver. 15.
They shall wander about
for food, although they shall not be
satisfied, so shall they
stay over night.
Ver. 16. But I will sing
of thy strength, and
praise thy favour in the morning, for thou
wert my fortress and my
refuge in the time of my necessity.
Ver.
17. My strength will I sing to thee; for
God is my for-
tress, my gracious God.—Ver. 14 is a
resumption of ver. 6,
Ver.
15 serves only for expansion and colouring. Instead of
274 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
fut. in Kal Nvfvny, the Masorites would read the fut. in
Hiph.,
merely
because in ver. 11 the Hiph. is used, and without any
tolerable
sense. The Mx is found not rarely where we put "al-
though,"
Ges. Thes. Ew. § 625. So they stay over
night, so
must
it still happen to them, that the night overtakes them in
this
condition. Hence it is the image of a wretched existence
in
hunger and pain.—The: in the morning, ver. 16, stands in
obvious
reference to the expression in ver. 6 and 14 in the
morning,
and on that account alone we must not think of the
besides
ungrammatical exposition: every morning. The morn-
ing
is not uncommonly mentioned in connection with salvation,
comp.
for example, Ps. xc. 14, xcii. 2, cxliv. 8, because it pre-
sents
an image of that, comp. 2 Sam. xxiii. 4, where David thus
describes
the salvation of the future, "and as the light of the
morning,
when the sun riseth; a morning without clouds." Job
xi.
17, "Now art thou dark, then shalt thou be as the morning."
The
fancy, occupied with images of future prosperity, will dwell
with
special delight on the morning, and conceive of this as the
time
of an uninterrupted prosperity. To the enemies the
Psalmist
assigns the evening and the night, because their lot is a
matter
of darkness, but he himself sings praise to God in the
morning,
because his lot is a morning. Nnr with the accus. as
in
Ps. li. 14. On bgwm here, and in ver. 9, comp. Ps. xvii. 2.
In
reference to rc, distress, necessity, see on Ps. xviii. 6. In
ver.
17,
the words: my strength will I sing to thee, q. d. I will praise
thee
in a song as the author of my strength, which thou hast
imparted
to me, after thou hast thrown down the strength of
my
enemy. The Psalmist alludes to what is said in ver. 9:
his
strength will I preserve for thee. Just as he had laid aside
the
strength of his enemy for the Lord, so will he now also not
keep
for himself, but righteously attribute to its real author his
own
strength (which he already possesses in faith after having
received
the assurance of being heard—comp. the: thou wert
in
ver. 16.) At the same time, the words refer to that in ver.
16:
I will sing of thy strength. The common construction is
inadmissible,
which takes: my strength, as an address to God.
For
rmz
is never connected with lx, always with l. That the
unusual
construction has been called for by ver. 9, we are not
warranted
in saying; for there the construction is just as un-
usual
according to the common view.
PSALM LX. 275
PSALM LX.
THE Psalmist, or rather the people
in whose name he speaks,
first
expresses his acknowledgment of a deliverance already im-
parted:
the Lord has visited his people with severe sufferings,
but
he who has sent has again removed them, and that because
he
is faithful and true, (ver. 1-4). May God continue to
impart
deliverance: the Psalmist grounds this prayer on the
sure
foundation of the word and promise of God, by which
victory over the
neighbouring nations
(ver. 5-8). In looking
back
upon this promise, the Psalmist expresses his confidence,
that
the expedition against
setting
out, would be crowned with success, (ver. 9-12).
The Psalm consists of twelve verses,
and is divided into three
strophes,
each containing four verses, and the first ending with
Selah. If the title be added,
the number of verses is fourteen.
That
this number was designed by the author is evident from
the
circumstance that in Ps. cviii., where the title is wanting,
the
text contains two verses more. This circumstance is worth
being
attended to. It shows that in other passages also we
are
warranted in bringing the titles, with all their contents, into
the
domain of the formal arrangement of the Psalms. In this
case
it furnishes a proof of the originality of the titles gene-
rally.
It is evident from the title,
"On the Lily of Testimony,"
that
the second strophe forms the heart of
the Psalm, pointing
as
it does to the word and the promise of God as the sure
pledge
of deliverance. This is evident also from a considera-
tion
of the Psalm itself. That the first strophe is intended to
awaken
the believer to the reality of this promise, inasmuch as
it
points to those events in which it has been already fulfilled,
is
evident from the expressive clause, "because of thy truth,"
with
which it closes. The third strophe is
in reality connected
with
the second by a therefore.
The eternal contents of the Psalm
are: that the church of
God
may be always patient in trouble, and joyful in hope, inas-
much
as she contains securely within herself those noble pro-
276 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
mises
by which her God secures, in presence of a hostile world,
the
maintenance of her position and her final victory over every
enemy.
Under the New Testament this ground of support has
not
lost, it has gained in point of significance. For the promises
of
the Old Testament have passed on, in all their completeness,
to
the New, and in addition to these there are others peculiar
to
itself, which are nobler still.
The title runs: To the Chief Musician, on the lily of testi-
mony, a Secret of David,
to teach.
Ver. 2. When he had con-
quered Aram of the two
floods, and Aram Zobah, and Joab had
returned and had slain
sand men of them. The term tvdf, properly testimony,
has
only
one sense, that of the law, which gets this name, because
it
bears testimony against evil-doers.
Compare at Ps. xix. 7.
The
sense, assumed by many, as next to this, namely, that
of
revelation, is to be rejected,
because it is only founded on
the
passage before us, and on the title of Ps. lxxx. The titles,
from
their dark and enigmatical character, are not proper pas-
sages
for ascertaining new senses of words: at least, whatever
may
be done elsewhere, the sense which is most certainly esta-
blished,
must be adopted in them. Generally tvdf refers to
the
law of God as existing in the books of
Moses, which are
simpliciter termed tvdf: comp. 2 Kings xi. 12.
The lily ge-
nerally
denotes something lovely; compare at
Ps. xlv. 1, "The
Lily
of the Testimony" is therefore
" something lovely contain-
ed
in the law." Hence a lovely promise
is introduced in the se-
cond
strophe, which, as we have already said, is to be consider-
ed
as the kernel or middle point of the whole Psalm. On
Mtkm, a secret, compare at the title of Ps. xvi.
The expres-
sion,
"to be taught," intimating that it was intended to be
taught
to the people, points to the public and national character
of
the Psalm, and stands in singular accordance with the fact,
that
it is not the Psalmist, but the people,
who speak through
out.
It refers also to Deut. xxxi. 19, "and now therefore write
ye
this song, and teach it to the children of
their
mouths."—The sketch of the historical circumstances, by
which
the Psalm was called forth, shews that it moves within
the
same domain as Ps. xliv.; and we would simply refer to the
introduction
to that Psalm. We would only remark, that from
an
oversight we did not then exactly state the relation in which
the
two Psalms stand to each other. Ps. xliv. is the earlier of the
PSALM LX. 277
two:
the sons of Korah sang in the midst of misery, probably
whilst
David was absent at the
after
succour had been in some measure obtained. The cha-
racter of the two Psalms is in
remarkable accordance with the
titles,
which ascribe them, though composed at the same time,
to
different authors. "The liveliness of our Psalm, its rapid
transitions,
(ver. 6-8,) its short yet comprehensive language, pre-
vent
us," observes Hitzig, "from entertaining, for one moment,
the
idea that its authorship is the same as that of Ps. xliv."—
Expositors
generally translate, when he made war;
but it ought
rather
to be translated, when he had overthrown
or conquered;
—literally,
when he had beat down or pulled down:
(hcn
is
used
in Kal in the sense of beat down or
pulled down, in Jer. iv.
7,
and also in Niphal.) For Joab, the commander in chief of
the
main army, which took the field against the Syrians, could
not
return till after the full victory had been gained over the
Syrians.
According to 2 Sam. viii. 13, the expedition against
with
the Syrians, and it was not a detached division of the
army
that went against them, but the main body, which had en-
gaged
in the campaign against the Syrians; finally, it is not with
the
Idumeans, but with the much more
terrible Syrians, that
the
Psalmist has to do,—it is to the victory over them that he
refers
when he speaks, in the first strophe, of a salvation which
the
Lord had already wrought out for him.—
rivers
is not spoken of in the narrative of this war in 2 Sam. viii.
but
only
of
David's second Syrian expedition, (2
Sam. x.) that David,
when
he had to do with Aram of Zobah, had also necessarily
to
do with the Mesopotamians, inasmuch as the king of Zobah,
whose
situation cannot be very exactly fixed, but is generally
supposed
to lie between the Euphrates and the
wards
the north-east of
tamia
in a state of vassalage. We read, verse 16: "And Had-
adeser
(the king of Zobah) sent and brought out
is
beyond the river, and their Lord came, and Shoback, the cap-
tain
of the host of Hadadeser was at their head: ver. 19, and
all
the kings who were servants to Hadadeser saw that they were
smitten
before
from
the term, "the servants of Hadadeser,'' from the circumstance
278 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
that
his commander in chief commanded their army, and from the
expression,
"he drew out." This name of
curring
in the title, furnishes a strong presumption in favour of
its
originality. For it is exceedingly improbable that any com-
poser
of later date would have obtained from the incidental
and
obscure notices of 2 Sam. x. knowledge of a state of
matters,
which, as appears from ver. 19, ceased to
exist even
under
David.—In reference to the
remarks,
(P. III. p. 25): "This valley can be nothing else than
the
district adjoining the Salt-Mountain, to the south of the
ancient
territories of
himself
is mentioned as the conqueror over
1
Chron. xviii. 12, it is said to have been Abishai, the brother
of
Joab. We might suppose a contradiction to be here, were
it
not that the historical books give us nothing else than a short
notice
of the whole transaction. The most exact account is
that
of Chronicles. 2 Sam. x. 10, where Abishai holds an im-
portant
office under his brother Joab, confirms this. It was
Abishai
who smote the Edomites; but it was also Joab, for he
was
commander in chief of the whole forces. In like manner it
was
also David: we read in Chronicles, no less than in the
books
of Samuel, "and the Lord helped David in all his under-
takings."a
Instead of 12000, we have 18000 in
Samuel and in
Chronicles:—a
difference which may be explained either from
the
different methods of reckoning, or by the supposition that
all
such estimates of numbers are given at random. Both de-
viations
furnish a strong presumption in favour of the origi-
nality
of the title: one of later date would have contained the
facts
exactly as given in the historical records.
The title contains within itself
very important proof of its ori-
ginality;
and this proof is confirmed by the contents of the Psalm.
This
confirmation has in it all the greater weight, that the con-
tents
are not of such a kind as naturally to have suggested the
circumstances
noticed in the title. The contents, however, it may
be
remarked, are well fitted to shew the folly of those who deprive
themselves
of the aid which the titles supply. The warlike con-
a Michaelis is short and
good: "David, as king, Joab as commander in
chief,
and Abishai, as sent by his brother on this particular expedition, defeated
the
enemy."
PSALM LX. 279
fident
tone, the triumphant contempt of the enemy expressed at
ver.
8, point to a time of highest prosperity in the state. And,
in
particular, the reign of David is indicated by the circumstances,
that
the three hostile neighbouring nations, spoken of in this
verse,
were all signally defeated by David, and that in ver. 6 and
7,
the countries on both sides of
immediately
after Solomon, and to whose time it is impossible
to
refer the Psalm, on account of the prevailing warlike cha-
racter
by which it is distinguished. Finally, it is evident from
ver.
9-13, that the Psalm was composed in view of an expedition
against
Psalm
may be determined from comparing this verse with the
title,—viz.
after the victory over
and
before the actual occupation of the
country.
From this induction of particulars
we might have expected a
perfect
agreement as to the occasion on which the Psalm was
composed.
Such, however, has been the passion for scepticism
and
arbitrary interpretation, that even here a monument in its
favour
must be erected. It is on utterly untenable grounds that
the
title has been explained as unsuitable. The assertion that
the
kingdom under David never was in such a shattered state as
is
described in ver. 1-3, is refuted by the xliv. Psalm. The other
objection,
viz, that there is a hope expressed in ver. 6 and 7, of
conquering
the whole of
fore
that time been in entire possession, depends upon a false
translation,
as is abundantly evident from the triumphant and
confident
character of the Psalm, and also from the fact that it is
the
safe possession of his own land that forms the basis of the
immediately
designed expedition against Edom.—The complete
worthlessness
of those attempts which have been recently made
to
define positively the occasion on which the Psalm was com-
posed,
as different from that pointed out in the title, may be
easily
seen. Thus the idea of Koester and Maurer, that the
Psalm
was composed in exile, or immediately after the return
from
exile, is put to shame even in ver. 10; and Hitzig's
assertion,
that it was composed in the time of the Macca-
bees,
which is founded on a false translation of ver. 4, is re-
butted
by ver. 7: Ephraim is the strength of
mine head.
Really
it is not worth our trouble to go farther into such
arbitrary
notions.
280 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The first strophe is ver. 1-4: The
Lord has sorely tried his
people,
but he has now gloriously vindicated his truth and his
faithfulness
to his promises, by repairing their loss.—Ver. 1.
0 God, thou, who didst
cast us of, and break us, wast angry;
now thou comfortest
again.
Ver. 2. Thou didst make the
earth to tremble and to
rend, heal its breaches for it shakes.
Ver.
3. Thou didst shew thy people hard things,
thou didst
make us drink
intoxicating wine.
Ver. 4. Thou hast given those
who fear thee a banner
to lift up because of the truth. It appears
probable,
from ver. 10, that yntHc and yntcrp belong to a re-
lative
clause: and this is rendered more evident by the term of the
last
clause, evidently in opposition, bbvwt, which has to do only
with,
"thou hast been angry." The clause, which precedes this
one,
points out in what way God has shewn
his anger. On vntHnz
comp. Ps. xliii. 2, xliv. 9. The Crp is like Crp
Crp, with b:
comp.
2 Sam. v. 20, which passage is the more remarkable in
as
much as it shews, when compared with vi. 8, that Crp, in the
sense
in which it is used here, is really a Davidic expression:
to break a wall or a
besieged city, (under
which image
spoken
of here as in Judges xxi. 15: compare Job xvi. 14, xxx.
14),
that is, to make a breach. It is
obvious, on comparing Ps.
xliv.
that these words, and also ver. 2 and 3, refer to the severe
losses
which
Syrians,
and especially through the irruption of the Edomites.
The
reference is entirely directed to the miserable condition of
the
people in the last days of Saul. The context, which fol-
lows,
slims that bbvwt is not to be taken in the sense of a
wish or a prayer, but is the present tense. Verses
2d and
3d
are an expansion of thou hast been angry,
and in verse
4,
bbvwt
is expanded and shewn to indicate that God now, by
a
return of prosperity, had gladdened the hearts of his people.
The
use of the present tense shews, in unison with the title, that
the
season of prosperity had just commenced. "Thou causest
to
return to us" is obviously to be supplemented by "that of
which
in anger thou didst deprive us, our former safety."—The
figure
of ver. 2 is, that of violent earthquakes which rend the
earth.
The Psalmist compares the former miserable condition
of
the kingdom to the earth when thus rent and divided.
"Thou
hast made the earth to tremble and to rend," i. e. "in
our
case." As the salvation had
already succeeded, (compare
the
title, "thou causest to return to us" in ver. 1, and ver. 4,)
we
are to understand "heal its breaches" as spoken under a
PSALM LX. VER. 1-4. 281
realizing
sense of the past misery, and, as it was, from that con-
dition,—"heal,"
we said, "its breaches."
Comp Ps. xxx. 9,
10.—Intoxicating wine in ver. 3, is wine
which is followed by
intoxication,
wine mixed with roots which increase its strength:
comp.
Ps. lxxv. 8. The two nouns stand next each other in the
status abs. This construction,
which occurs frequently in other
passages,
(comp. Ewald's Large Grammar, p. 627, Small Gr. p.
515,)
is similar to one in the German language, in which the
case-termination,
indicating the relation in which the one noun
stands
to the other, is frequently omitted, as, for example,
taumelwein not taumelswein. The threatened approach of
di-
vine
judgment is frequently represented by the figure of pre-
senting
such wine. The passage before us is the fundamental
one;
Ps. lxxv. and Isa. li. 17, 22, (to which last Jer. xxv. 15, xlix.
12,
allude,) refer to it. Compare Kueper, Jeremiah, p. 139. It is
not
the effect of suffering in the mind that is depicted by this
figure,
the despair, or the terror: the point of comparison is
the
helplessness and misery of the condition; drunkenness 18 a
state
of entire prostration of bodily strength. Compare Isa. li.
18,
20.—We have already observed that ver. 4 is related to ver.
2,
and to ver. 3, exactly in the same way as in ver. 1 bbvwt
is
related to what precedes. The Psalmist had thought upon the
depth
of the misery, only because this brought the delivering
grace
of God more prominently into view. This becomes ex-
ceedingly
evident on comparing Ps. cviii. The first part of that
Psalm
contains an ascription of praise to God for a favour which
had
been already granted, and in this respect it differs from the
first
part of this one. On this there follows, in close connection
with
the second part here, and with only a few alterations, the
prayer
for further grace. The Psalmist compares the salvation
which
the Lord bestows upon his people to a highly exalted
banner,
which serves as a signal, to a man lying low in misery,
to
rise up, with perhaps an allusion to Numb. xxi. 8, "And the
Lord
said to Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a
standard-pole,
and it happened that every one who was bitten
and
looked at it lived;" at any rate, that passage in which the
serpent
is a symbol of the healing power of God may serve to
illustrate
the passage before us: compare "heal its breaches."
That
ssvnth
is nothing else than the Hiph. from. ssn in the
sense
of "to be elevated," is evident from the passage Zech. ix.
16,
from the connection with sn,
properly "something lifted
up,"
and from the reference, which it it is impossible to mistake
282 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
to
the miserably low condition of those who are drunk with the
wine
of intoxication, ver. 3. Hence we are to reject not only
the
derivation from svn, "to fly," but also the translation
"to
stand
up." The Psalmist in the expression, "because of thy
truth,"
points out the cause of the salvation
imparted to the
people.
It proceeds from the divine truth or faithfulness; see
Rom.
xv. 8. The sense "truth" is confirmed by Fwq in Prov.
xxii.
21, and by the Syriac. The idea of "bow," Fwq=twq
may
be left to the wandering fancies of the old translators.
That
"the truth," is the divine steadfastness to truth, is evident
from
what follows, where everything refers to the truth of God:
compare
especially "because of thy truth" in this verse with
the
corresponding clause in ver. 6, "in his holiness." Hitzig
and
others give a false rendering: "to rise for the sake of
the
truth," or, "in defence of the true religion." The
"truth"
is
obviously placed, from design, at the end of the sentence.
The
following paragraph, where the hope of future aid is made
to
rest on the truth of God, could not have been better intro-
duced,
than by closing the sentence with a reference of the
deliverance
already obtained as resulting from the truth of God.
In the second strophe, ver. 5-8, the church prefers a prayer
for
farther deliverance, and makes it to rest on the glorious
promises
which God, who is not a man that he should lie, nor
the
son of man that he should repent, has put on record. Ver.
5.
In order that thy beloved may be
relieved, help with thy right
hand and hear us. Ver. 6. God has spoken in his holiness, there-
fore will I rejoice, I
will divide Shechem, and measure the valley
Succoth. Ver. 7. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and
Ephraim, the strength of
my head, Judah, my lawgiver, Ver. 8.
to me. Calvin on ver 5:
"In adding prayer, he reminds us that
God,
when he lifts us up on high by his gracious deeds, ought to
be
modestly and humbly entreated to promote his own work."
The
fundamental passage, for "thy beloved," is Deut. xxxiii. 12,
where
Benjamin is referred to as the beloved of the Lord, not in
opposition
to the rest of the race, but on account of his sym-
pathy
with the whole of the community. David also, in refe-
rence
undoubtedly to this passage, designated Solomon, (2 Sam.
xii.
25,) by the name Jedidiah. In
reference to the accusative
jnymy, compare at Ps. iii. 4. The Keri
"hear me," instead of
"us,"
has been adopted, only because the singular is used in the
PSALM LX. VER. 5-8. 283
following
clauses. It was not observed, that the singular num-
ber
denotes plurality.—The Psalmist in ver. 6-8, founds his
hope
of having his prayer answered on the divine promise.
The
question may be asked to what divine promise does the
Psalmist
here refer. Most expositors refer to one not other-
wise
known to us, and given in the time of the Psalmist. The
real
reference is to the general aspect of the assurances given
in
the Pentateuch in regard to the possession of the land of
As
far as regards the first of these,
the Psalmist has particularly
in
his eye the blessing of Jacob in Gen. xlix., the very language
of
which he employs in ver. 7, and the blessing of Moses in Deut
xxxiii.;
and as regards the latter, the
prophecies of Balaam. In
favour
of this view we may urge, besides the manifest reference
to
the Pentateuch, "the lily of the testimony," in the title; the
circumstance,
that here the enemies in the north, with whom Da-
vid
had so much to do, are not even mentioned; the expressions,
"I
will divide," and "I will measure," which can only be explain-
ed,
if considered as spoken at the era of Moses; and finally, that
the
historical record gives no notice of any such promises having
been
ever made to David in regard to the extension of his king-
dom.—The
expression "in his holiness," (comp. Ps. lxxxix. 36,
Amos
iv. 2,)—not "by his holiness," and still less "in his sanc-
tuary,"—is
equivalent to, "as the Holy One," "as he who
is
separated from all created and finite beings, (see Ps. xxii.
3,)
and therefore above all deceit and change:" comp. Num.
xxiii.
19.—The substance of the speech of God is given, though
in
an indirect form, in what follows. We may gather what it
was,
from the reply as grounded on it, which is made by the
people:
"God has given to me glorious promises, which as the
Holy
One, he must fulfil, and on the ground of them I will re-
joice," &c. For it
is clear as day that we cannot, with Ewald,
consider
what follows as being spoken by God: the clauses,
"Ephraim
is the strength of my head," "
giver,"
are sufficient to shew this, as is indeed verse 6 itself; for
though
God be supposed to speak there, yet it cannot be said
that
he has divided to Israel Succoth and Shechem: and yet it
must
come to this. Hence we cannot read the words—I will
rejoice, &c. with marks of
quotation.—That in the expression,
“I
will rejoice,” &c. we are not to suppose that David is the
speaker,
(as many have done, and thereby have wrought confu-
284 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sion,)
but
5;
also the use of the plural in the whole of the first
strophe,
and in the passage from ver. 10 to ver. 12, and
finally
from the clause, "
the
other supposition, would be wholly destitute of meaning.—"I
will
rejoice," refers to the whole of
the divine promises. These
are
divided into two parts, as referring to the possession of
divide my lawgiver," refers to the first. The
sense is:—
"the
whole of
and
act in it without control; no man shall succeed in removing
portions
or tribes of it from the whole." The invasion of the
mites
has opened the eyes of the Israelites to the high value of
those
divine promises, which guarantee their occupancy of their
own
land, and to the importance of these promises at the present
juncture.
This thought is individualized by naming in succes-
sion
several particular places, objects and tribes, which, to-
gether,
make up a description of the whole land, in all its ex-
tent.
First, with this view, we have Shechem named on the one
side
Jordan, and Succoth on the other. The representation in the
passage
before us, of the two great divisions of the land by
these
two places, is made in manifest reference to Gen. xxxiii.
17,
18, where Jacob, on returning from
at
Succoth, where he builds an house, and afterwards goes on
to
Shechem, where he builds an altar. The Psalmist sees in
that
action of Jacob—it is really very remarkable that Jacob
makes
a formal settlement in both places, and all the more so,
that
it is expressly intimated in ver 18, that Shechem was the
first
station, properly speaking, to which he came within the limit
of
by
his posterity, an assurance that they would possess it on both
sides
of the
indicates,
in general, the free grant: yet the choice of this par-
ticular
phrase for expressing the free grant, manifestly shews,
that
the writer had in his eye the point of time when the pro-
mise
was originally made, comp. Josh. xiii. 7, xviii. 8.—Next,
in
ver. 7, several places are named, for the purpose of shewing,
that
in virtue of the divine word, both divisions belong to
in
all their extent. First, there are selected, in immediate con-
nection
with Succoth the place last named,
the
two great divisions of the whole. The half tribe of Manas-
PSALM LX. VER. 5-8. 285
seh
did indeed, on the one side, occupy a portion of
this,
in the present case, is kept out of view, and attention is
directed
to
sessions
of that tribe. Comp. Deut. iii. 12, 13, Raumer, p. 229.
Jordan,
Ephraim and Judah are mentioned, the two leading
tribes
of the nation, which could not be separated from it with-
out
endangering its whole existence, and with which, therefore,
the
whole must stand or fall. It is expressly said, that these
are
noticed as the main divisions of the
country. There is no
necessity
for explaining "Ephraim is mine, the strength of my
head,
and
mine,"
is implied in "is, (i.e. "is and continues to") the strength
of
my head." "The strength of my head" is to be explained
from
Ps. xxvii. 1. "The fortress of life," in that Psalm, is the
fortress
which protects life; and the fortress of the head can
only
be the fortress which protects the head. The "head"
is
named
as the part most exposed to a fatal wound; compare Ps.
lxviii.
21, cx. 4, "The helmet of my
head" is altogether pre-
posterous.
Ephraim is mentioned in Gen. xlviii. 19, as a par-
ticularly
rich and powerful tribe; he is signalized in the blessing
of
Jacob; in Deut. xxxiii. 17, it is said of him: "his horns are
the
horns of a buffalo, with them he shall push nations." "Ju-
dab
is my lawgiver," = "
"The rod of authority," is an
arbitrary invention. Reference
is
made to Gen. xlix. 10: "The sceptre
shall not depart from
Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet," that is, "he shall
always
take the rule over
his
people, not only the undivided possession of their own land,
but
also victory over the surrounding nations, ver. 8. This verse
points
to that portion of the divine promises, to which we have
here
arrived, according to the title and the last strophe. In
ver.
6 and 7, the enemies could not succeed in, their attempts
to
injure Israel; here the enemies shall submit to
ference
to his expedition for the subjugation of
enemies
are brought forward in geographical order, beginning
at
the east, and thence along the south to the west. This suf-
ficiently
explains the fact, that
dition
is directed, is placed in the middle instead of being found
at
the end: Ewald draws an entirely false conclusion from this
circumstance.
286 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
prophecy
of Balaam; see on Balaam, p. 184. "
washing
tub," is expressive of the state of ignominious bondage
to
which David reduced the Moabites: compare 2 Sam. viii. 2,
"And
so the Moabites became David's servants." The vessel
used
for washing the feet was a dishonourable vessel: comp.
Herod.
2, 172. When, keeping in view the idea of washing the
feet,
a person throws his shoes, which he has taken off, to any
one
to be taken away or to be cleaned,— jylwh with lf and
also
with lx,
1 Kings xix. 19, is "to throw to any one,"—the
individual
to whom it belongs to perform such an office, must
be
a slave of the lowest kind: comp. Matt. iii. 11; Acts xiii.
25.
The expression is not used in Scripture in the sense of "to
take
possession of property:" in Ruth iv. 7, the putting off the
shoe
is symbolical of giving up one's right.
"Rejoice over me
ii..
11; it is the shout of a king that is
meant, the outward ex-
pression
of subjection for the purpose of averting the threatened
punishment;
compare also, "The sons of strangers feign to
me,"
in Ps. xviii. 44. In Ps. cviii. 9, it is suitably varied by, "I
will
rejoice over
has
the sense of "rejoice," in the few passages in which it else-
where
occurs: Ps. lxv. 13. The Philistines who, during the
period
of the judges, had severely oppressed
down
to the very dust by David: comp. 2 Sam. viii. 1, 14; 1.
Chron.
xviii. 13.—In the third strophe, (ver. 9-12), the people
ground
upon the glorious promises of God, referred to in the
second,
the hope of success in the expedition against
a
prayer for the same.—Ver. 9. Who will
bring me to the strong
city, who conducts me to
"who puttest us
away, and marchest not forth, 0 God, among our
enemies." Ver. 11. Give us help against the enemy; and decep-
tive is the help of man. Ver. 12. In God we will do valiantly,
and he will tread down
our enemies.—The
9th verse is in reality
connected
with the second strophe by a then:
inasmuch as
have
in my favour such a sure word of God. The strong
city is the wonderful
rock-built city
ant
city of
128.
It is evident, especially from 2 Kings xiv. 17, that
is
exclusively referred to: "Amaziah
slew
of
Salt, (comp. title of the Ps.) and took Sela in war, and called
PSALM LX. VER. 9-12. 287
it
Joktel to this day." The rvcm ryf, "city of
strength," is
used
also in Ps. xxxi. 21, which is a Davidic Psalm, and in
Micah
vii. 12. The pret. ynHn is the pret. of faith, which anti-
cipates
the future, and so represents the matter to itself, as if
God
had already led forth.—"Who puttest us away," &c. is not
to
be considered as equivalent to "even while thou," &c. but
to
"although thou hast put us
away." The man who has the
word
and promise of God in his favour, cannot be shaken from
his
hope of deliverance by any contrary experiences:—these only
serve
to put his faith to the test. He regards every thing of a
contrary
character as a thin cloud, through which the sun of
salvation
will burst forth in his own good time. The words,
"who
marchest not out," &c., are to be read with marks of
quotation.
They are quoted from Ps. xliv. 9, and are to he re-
garded
as equivalent to, "thou of whom it used to be said," &c.
That
Psalm was evidently composed when the author was in a
state
of misery, as is clear from the use of the future tense.—
The
trzf
in ver. 11, and in Ps. cviii. 12, is used instead of the
usual
form hrzf.
"And deceptive," = "because
deceptive."
Calvin:
"If in our contests with man we are not permitted to
share
the glory between ourselves and God, must it not be a
much
more intolerable offence in the work of salvation, to place
the
power of free will along side of the grace of the Holy Ghost,
as
if the two wrought in equal proportions together? Those
men
also perish through their pride, who, without God, attempt
even
one particle of virtuous conduct."—In the words, "in
God
we will do valiantly," there is a manifest allusion to the
clause
in the prophecy of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 18, "And
shall
do valiantly," in which there is foretold the subjugation
of
The
Psalmist virtually introduces the verse thus: As the Spirit
of God said by Balaam,
In, God shall we do valiantly. lyH hWf.
always
signifies to act powerfully, mightily, valiantly: Compare
on
Balaam, p. 185. On "he will tread down," see Ps. xliv. 5.
2
Sam. viii. 14, shows how David's hope was fulfilled, as far as
the
Edomites were concerned: "And he
put garrisons in
throughout
all
became
David's servants: and the Lord preserved David
whithersoever
he went."
288 THE BOOK OF PSALMS
PSALM LXI.
THE Psalmist prays in great distress
to the Lord for deliver-
ance
(ver. 1, 2), grounds thin prayer on the fact that the Lord
is
his Saviour (ver. 3), and expresses his confident expectation
of
help from God (ver. 4). The basis of this confidence lies in
this,
that the God who hears his prayer has promised him an
eternal
dominion; may God, in fulfilment of this promise, vouch-
safe
to him deliverance; and he will continually thank him, (ver.
5-8).
The Psalm consequently is divided into two strophes,
separated
by Selah, and consisting each of five verses, ver.
4,)
and ver. (5-8). In the first we have prayer
and confidence,
and
in the second, the grounds of the
confidence.
That David was the author of the
Psalm is evident not less
from
its title than from its contents. The mention of the taber-
nacle-temple
(ver. 4.) leads us to the time of David. And inas-
much
as the Psalm was undoubtedly composed by a king—for
it
is as such that the Psalmist claims salvation as grounded on a
divine
promise—this king can be none other than David. This,
moreover,
is evident even from ver. 5. For there the author
refers
to the promises contained in 2 Sam. vii. as having been
imparted
to him in answer to his prayer.
The question may be asked, whether
David composed the
Psalm
for any particular occasion, or merely for his own com-
fort,
and that of his successors on the throne, in disastrous times,
and
for the purpose of confirming the courage of his subjects.
In
favour of the first view, we have the clause, "from the ends
of
the earth," which would seem to intimate that the Psalmist
was
at the time in exile, and that
therefore the Psalm must have
been
composed during the rebellion of Absalom, when David
was
beyond
however,
must not lead us to lose sight of the general
reference.
It
could only be by keeping this reference in view that David
issued
the Psalm for public use. The Psalm, even in our days,
has
its complete use, inasmuch as the promises in 2 Sam. vii.
have
undoubtedly their complete fulfilment in Christ. Gener-
ally,
whenever the
addition
to other considerations, plead with God as the Psalm-
ist
does, on the ground also of this particular promise which he
there
made.
PSALM LXI. VER. 1-4. 289
Title: To the Chief
Musician, on David's instrumental
music, by David. "On David's
instrumental music" (comp. on
hnygn in Ps. liv.) is to be explained by Hab.
iii. 19, where the
church
calls the musical instruments of the temple its musical
instruments.
It is obvious that dvdl must be connected with
the
preceding noun, because that noun is in the stat. constr.
But
this cannot be its only connection.
For, in that case, there
would
be no reason for the existence of the l, and, besides, in
the
titles, dvdl,
is the usual mark which points out that the
Psalm
was composed by David, and finally, this mark cannot be
wanting
herein the midst of Psalms, all of which are inscribed with
the
name of David. We must, therefore, assume that dvdl
both
supplies the place of a genitive to tnygn and also serves
to
point out the authorship of the Psalm,—an idea which har-
monizes
well with the enigmatical character of the titles com-
posed
by David. The idea that the stat. constr. is used instead
of
the stat. abs. and that tnygn is to be pointed as if it were
a
plural, are mere attempts to cut the knot, and have, more-
over,
the analogy of the title of the following Psalm against
them,
a title which corresponds exactly to the one before us.
The first strophe, ver. 1-4.—Ver. 1.
Hear, 0 God, my cry,
and attend to my prayer. Ver. 2. From the end of the earth I
cry to thee in the
trouble of my heart, wilt thou lead me to a
rock which is too high
for me.
Ver. 3. For thou art my confi-
dence, a strong tower
before my enemies.
Ver. 4. I will dwell in
thy tabernacle for ever,
I will trust in the shelter of thy wings.—
Crxh Hcq in ver. 2, stands in the sense of
"the end of the
earth,"
"its extreme part;" comp. for example, Deut. xxviii.
64;
and it will not do to translate it either "from the end of
the
land;" or "low down on the
earth," with Luther, (cam-
pensis:
e terra, quae longissimo tractu a coelo distat,) nor
"from
the extreme depth of the earth," with Clauss. The end
of
the earth is at the same time the end of the heaven, (comp.
Deut.
iv. 32, Is. xiii. 5), and therefore that portion of it which
is
most remote from the throne of God, which was supposed to
stand
in the middle: comp. Ps. cxxxv. 7, Jer. x. 13, li. 16.
David,
when he was driven out of the Lord's land, properly so
called,
felt as much distressed as if he had been banished to the
utmost
extremity of the earth, far from the face of God. And as
there
is, after all, in the expression an element of feeling, we
may
perhaps consider it as equivalent to "I feel as far from
290 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thee
as if I were banished to the utmost extremity of the earth."
Still,
that the idea conveyed by the expression contains as its
principal
element a matter of fact, is evident from the parallel
passage
in Ps. xlii. 7, from the circumstance that immediately
after
verse 5 David speaks in his own name, and from the refe-
rence
in the following Psalm to the time of Absalom. The rock
is
noticed as a place of security; compare Ps, xl. 2. "Which is
too
high for me," is, "which is so high that I cannot in my own
strength
ascend it."—The tvyH in ver. 3 is to be taken as a pre-
sent:
the Psalmist grounds his prayer not only on what God has
been,
but on what he always is towards him.
Prov. xviii. 10 refers
to
the second clause: "the name of the Lord is a strong tower,
the
righteous runneth into it and is safe:" this is all the more
evident
from the fact, that the second part is strictly connected
with
the conclusion of ver. 2 The "I will
dwell" in verse 4,
is
an energetic expression for, "I shall
dwell." The Psalmist
is
so sure of his privilege, that he proceeds as it were to take
possession
of it, without any regard to the misery of his pre-
sent
condition, by which he is effectually excluded from its
enjoyment.
On "dwelling in the house of the Lord," in the
sense
of "enjoying his grace;" see Ps. xxvii. 4, and the pas-
sages
quoted there. The Mymlvf, properly "eternities," but
also
"eternal," shews that David, with his eye on the pro-
mises
in 2 Sam. vii. looked upon himself as identified with his
posterity:
comp. Ps. xxi. 4. So far from his enemies having it
in
their power to rob him personally of what the grace of God
had
given him, he is safe through this grace even to the most
distant
posterity. For the second clause compare Ps. xxxvi. 7.
The second strophe (ver. 5-8)
contains the ground of David's
confidence,
viz. that sure word of prophecy, which guaranteed
to
him eternal dominion: against this rock all the waves of re-
bellion
must dash in vain.—Ver. 5. For thou, 0
Lord, heardest my
vows, thou gavest the
inheritance to them who feared thy name:
Ver.
6. Thou wilt add days to the days of the
king, his years
last for many
generations.
Ver. 7. He will sit on a throne
for ever before God,
appoint mercy and truth to preserve him.
Ver.
8. Therefore will I sing praise to thy
name continually,
paying my vows every
day.—The
"vows" in ver. 5 are prayers
mingled
with vows, like Jacob's vow. We gather the object of
this
prayer from verse 6: it is the continuance of his dominion.
That
the promise of Nathan was given in answer to ardent
PSALM LXL VER. 5-8. 291
prayer on the part of David,
we gather also from Ps. xxi. 2, 4,
which
throughout is to be considered as parallel to the lxi.
"thou
hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden
the
request of his lips,—he desired life of thee, and thou
gavest
it him, even length of days for ever and ever." The in-
heritance
of those who feared the name of the Lord is salvation:
—even
though we were to translate as erroneously as many have
done,
"thou gavest their inheritance to
the leavers of thy name,"
as
if the constr. case could be used instead of the absolute.—In
what
this, inheritance of the Lord consists, (for the expression,
being
altogether general in its form, requires some limitation),
is
seen in ver. 6, which stands in the same relation to ver.
5,
as in Ps. xxi. verses 3 and 4, stand to verse 2. David's fear
of
God had received as its reward the promise of eternal do-
minion.
Those who perceive the connection (at the end of ver.
5,
there should be a colon), will not think anything of the usual
future
Jysvt
being used in an optative sense. David speaks
designedly
of the days of the king instead of his own
days, as
might
have been expected from what had been said, for the
purpose
of showing that he considered the promise of eternal
dominion
as relating not to himself personally but to his family
—the
royal family of David. In the second clause we supply
from
the first, "thou wilt increase." "As generation and ge-
neration,"—so
that they resemble the continuance of a whole
succession
of generations.—"Before God," in ver. 7, is "under
the
protecting guardianship of his grace:" compare 2 Sam. vii.
29,
" And now let it please thee to bless the house of thy ser-
vant,
that it may continue for ever before thee."
The Nm,
imper.
from Hnm
in Pih., is to instruct, to appoint—the rsH
and
tmx,
which are accusatives. Mercy and Truth are God's
servants,
which are instructed to protect his devoted people, the
royal
family of David: compare "God will send his mercy and
his
truth," Ps. lvii. 3, and Ps. xliii. 3. The "appoint" rises
from
the ground of "he will appoint:"—the imperative, there-
fore,
has a close affinity to the future: see similar imperatives in
2
Sam. vii. 29.—The "therefore" in ver 8, "is if thou fulfillest
this
prayer and thine own promise." David undertakes for his
posterity
in regard to the vow of thanks. At all times the call
of
grace will be accompanied by the corresponding call of
thanks.
In reference to the ymlwl, "paying therefore my
vows,"
(for thanks formed the soul of a vow), or "so that I pay,"
compare
Ewald, § 544.
292 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LXII.
THE Psalmist begins with an
expression of his unlimited con-
fidence
in God: it is in God only that his soul finds rest, be-
cause
God only is his Saviour, (ver. 1, 2). Then he turns his
eye
towards the occasion which had led him to seek refuge
under
the wings of God;—the diversified wickedness of his nu-
merous
enemies, who had aimed at robbing him of his dignity,
and
at the same time of his life, (ver. 3
and 4). The conside-
ration
of this leads him to exhort his soul to seek rest only in
God
as his only helper, (ver. 5-7), and to invite all men to
trust
in him, (ver. 8). The exhortation to trust in God is fol-
lowed
by a warning against trusting in any thing else except
God,—the
help of man, the power of oppression, unrighteous
wealth
and uncertain riches, (ver. 9 and 10),—and, as the basis
of
this exhortation, he points (ver. 11, 12), to the infinite power
and
love of God.
The Psalm consists exactly of twelve
verses. It is divided
into
three strophes, which contain each four verses. In favour
of
this we have the Selah at the end of
ver. 4 and ver. 8, and
each
strophe beginning with "only,"
which is unquestionably
the
characteristic mark of the Psalm. We might at first sight
feel
inclined to suppose, that one strophe must necessarily end
with
verse 7, where the Psalmist finishes having to do with the
state
of his own heart, and that verse 8, where he turns his at-
tention
outward, and begins to exhort and to teach others, must
necessarily
begin a new one. But a closer inspection is suffi-
cient
to satisfy us that this is not the case. The difference is
one
of form merely between the direct and the indirect exhor-
tation.
Even in ver. 1-7. the Psalmist addresses the church
he
lays before them, for their imitation, what is passing in
his
own soul: My soul rests in God,"
contains in its back
ground,
"let your soul rest in
God." This is evident even from
"To
the Chief Musician" of the title. No Psalm could have
been
set apart for public use if it were not of general applica-
tion.
In favour of the Davidic authorship
of the Psalm asserted in
the
title, we have one of the characteristic peculiarities of Da-
vid's
compositions occurring throughout, viz. the inseparable
blending
together of what is individual with
what is general:
comp.
for example, Ps. xxxii. li. The assertion of Ewald, that
PSALM
LXII. 293
the
writer, according to verse 11, must have been a prophet, is
founded
on a mistake. The divine revelation, of which the
Psalmist
there speaks, belongs to the same class as that men-
tioned
in Job xxxiii. 13, and as those which are common to all
believers.
In favour of the supposition that
the Psalm was composed
during
the time of Absalom's rebellion, or at least that the
circumstances
of that period are primarily referred to, we have
the
4th verse, where it is said, that the whole object of the ene-
mies
is to deprive him of his dignity, the
5th verse, where
the
Psalmist calls God his honour, and
the resemblance to
Ps.
iii. and iv. Ewald, in his remarks on these Psalms, brings
out
the close resemblance between them and the circumstances
in
which the Author of our Psalm was placed—circumstances
in
which David was placed at that time: "The
enemies by
whom
he is distressed appear, according to verse 3d, to be a
set
of thoughtless, slanderous citizens, elated with their newly
acquired
importance, and endeavouring to bring the Psalmist
to
the dust, and to annihilate him, because they cannot bear
his
spiritual eminence and superiority."
The remarks of Amyraldus relative to
the peculiar nature and
characteristic
features of the Psalm, are worthy of notice:
"There
is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare
occurrence),
in which the prophet expresses fear
or dejection,
and
there is also no prayer in it,
although, on other occasions;
when
in danger, he never omits to pray. The Prophet found
himself
remarkably well furnished in reference to that part of
piety
which consists in plhrofwreia, the full assurance and
per-
fection
of faith, and therefore he designed to rear a monument
of
this his state of mind, for the purpose of stimulating the
reader
to the same attainment."
The particle j`x is of great importance
in reference to the
determination
of the peculiar nature of the Psalm: it occurs no
less
than six times; and this frequent repetition is of itself suffi-
cient
to point it out as the soul of the Psalm. The "yea," by
which
most translators render it, is far too insignificant to bear
this
frequent repetition. If we adhere to the usual rendering,
"only,"
we find, what indeed was requisite, that all the posi-
tions
which are introduced by the "only," are arranged in a
continuous
series: only in God does my soul find
rest, because
it
is only God who is my helper, at a
time when my enemies
294 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
are
only considering how they may destroy
me. The lesson
taught
is this, that when we are exposed to relentless hatred
on
the part of powerful enemies, and when generally in extreme
necessity
and danger, it is only by going decidedly and directly
to
cast ourselves without reserve on God, that we obtain quiet
and
peace to our soul. If we apply to the contest against sin,
what
in the Psalm before us is said, in the first instance, and
directly,
of our relation to outward enemies,
we obtain this by
faith alone.
The title. To the Chief Musician over Jeduthun, a Psalm of
David. The president of the
choir of Jeduthun was, according
to
1 Chron. xxv. 1, 3, under David, Jeduthun himself:—the choir
consisted
of his Sons. It is therefore manifest, that the difference
is
not great between the title and that of Ps. xxxix.—"To the
chief
musician, Jeduthun " As the Hcn stands connected with
lf, the existence of a Jeduthunic choir in the
time of David, and
indeed
in later times, is sufficiently ascertained, (see Ps. lxxxvii,
1),
and as the title thus interpreted is in entire accordance with
that
of Ps. xxxix., there is no reason whatever for adopting, in
preference
to this translation, one less satisfactory, viz. "accor-
ding
to Jeduthun," that is, "in the way invented by him."
The first strophe is ver. 1-4. The
Psalmist finds rest only
in
God, because it is only from him that there can be salvation,
in
the face of powerful and determined wickedness.—Ver. 1,
Only to God is my soul
silent, from him comes my salvation.
Ver.
2. Only he is my rock and my salvation,
my strong hold,
I shall not be much
shaken.
Ver. 3. How long do you rage
all of you like a storm
let loose against a man, (do you) murder
(him) all of you, like a
bending partition, a wall which is violent-
ly struck at. Ver. 4. Only from his dignity do they think to
thrust him down, they
have pleasure in lies, they bless with the
mouths and in the heart
they curse.—The
first clause of ver. 2
is
literally, "Only to God is silence my soul," that is, "Only
the
direct turning of my soul to God gives it quiet and peace."
The
"silence" hmvd (is always a substantive, it occurs no-
where
else except in the Psalms of David, and was probably a
word
of his own formation), is not patient trust, quiet resigna-
tion,
so as to be considered as parallel to Is. xxx. 15: it denotes
the
opposite of that state of tumultuous agitation which pre-
vails
in the soul as long as it looks anywhere else, when in great
trouble,
than to God for help: comp. Ps. xlii. 5, especially
PSALM LXII. VER.
1-5. 295
"thou
art disquieted in me," and Ps. xxii. 2. Jo. Arnd: "When
we
put God out of view, and have not recourse to prayer, the
sea
is not more agitated in a storm than is the heart and soul
of
man. For there come in succession, pain, fear, terror, con-
cern,
impatience, and so forth, until devair follows, which sinks
the
poor ship of the soul to the bottom." In reference to the
"only,"
the same author thus writes, "When in affliction, turn
whithersoever
you like, if you turn not to God you will find no
rest."
The "to God" is "ad Deum
directa." Several transla-
tors
give the first clause as an exhortation with reference to
verse
5. But in such repetitions, there is generally a slight
change,
and that the "is" ought to be supplied here, is evident
from
the analogy of the second clause. The "for," in verse
5,
shows that this second clause contains the basis of the first:
for from him is my
salvation: only in God my soul finds rest,
for he only can help
2.
There is a progression of thought
here: the "only" is
emphatic:--
he and he only is my Saviour. The
accumulation
of
names of God is as characteristic of David, (comp. for ex-
ample,
Ps. kviii.) among the writers of the Psalms, as it is of
Paul
Gerhardt among Christian poets. Calvin: "The
reason
why
he heaps together so many names of God is, that he may
meet
and throw back the assaults of Satan, by, as it were, so
many
shields." It is only raw inexperience that can find in
such
passages "clattering talkativeness." In reference to "my
rock,"
and "my stronghold," see Ps. xviii. 2. The hbr
is used
adverbially:
"much," "greatly." A small
misfortune, a tran-
sitory sorrow may assail me,
(for David sang the Psalm in afflic-
tion),
but not entire ruin: comp. Ps.
xxxvii. 24. In ver. 6, "I
shall
not be moved," stands alone: the mere stumble
not being
considered
worth speaking of, is left out of sight. The reason
why
"Elohim" is used throughout the Psalm, becomes evident
from
the verse before us, and from the preceding one. It is,
because
the Psalmist is speaking of God, in opposition to every
thing
of an earthly and human nature: comp. ver. 9 and 10.
When
such a contrast is drawn, the most general name of God
is
the most suitable.—In verse 3 and 4, the Psalmist, first in the
form
of an address to his enemies, and then in the form of re-
marks
made of them, points at what it was that compelled him
to
complain to God his only Saviour, We come to learn what we
have
in God, and to know that he is our only Saviour when we
296 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
are
brought to a state of distress, which, humanly speaking, is
irremediable,
in contending against determined wickedness. It
is
only in this school that we learn effectually the "only" of
both
verses, so that it never again disappears from the mind.
The
ttvh
is the
"to
break," here with lf, manifestly "to break in upon."
"All
of you" stands in contrast to " a man." All appeared to
have
conspired against the one man David: comp. Ps. iii. 2, 3.
In
vHcrt
there is combined a double reading: viz. Uhc;rAt;,
the
rare Pihel form, in which the Dagesh is wanting and com-
pensated
by the long vowel; and the usual form UHc.rat;: comp.
Ewald's
Small Grammar, p. 277. The first is evidently the
original.
Hcr has always the sense of "to murder,"
(comp. at
Ps.
xlii. 10), and this sense is very suitable here, and not to be
given
up for the sense of "to shatter in pieces." The whole
attempt
of David's enemies was a murderous one; his death
was
the end of all their efforts. In "a bending partition," there
is,
according to a frequent practice of poets, an implied com-
parison:—so
that it is with me as with a partition which is be-
ginning
to fall, a wall, which cannot any longer stand against
the
continually repeated thrusts which are made against it. It
is
evident from the clause in the 4th verse, "they think to thrust
him down," that it is not
the enemies but David who is refer-
red
to in this figure. There is a similar figure in Isa. xxx. 13.—
The
"only" in ver. 4, indicates that the design of the enemies
of
David was utterly to destroy him. When this is the case
with
any one, it is only in God that rest and deliverance can be
found.
The txw
is "dignity," high station, as in Gen. xlix.
3,
and all other passages. Corresponding to this is Hydh, "to
push
down," a phrase which was in David's mouth at the time
referred
to, 2 Sam. xv. 14. In the following clause, the Psalm-
ist
points out the shameful means which the enemies employed
in
prosecution of their shameful object, and by which they made
his
condition so desperate. One prominent weapon which the
world
has always employed in its bitter contest with the church,
has
been that of lies: compare with,
"they have pleasure in
lies,"
(in opposition to the abhorrence
which they should have
exhibited
rather than pleasure), Ps. iv. 2, "ye sons of men
(here
ver. 9), how long will ye turn my glory to shame, how
long
will ye love vanity and seek lies. On, "with the mouth,"
&c.
comp. Ps. v. 9. The rebels had employed hypocritical deceit,
PSALM LXII. VER.
5-8. 297
as
one of the means of accomplishing their end. The singular
suffix
in vyp
refers to the ungodly; and, as its position here is in
accordance
with a practice, which is common in the Psalms, of
passing
from actual plurality to ideal unity, and conversely, it
would
be incorrect, with Ewald, to maintain, that the singular
affix
is admissable only because the language is indefinite:
com-
pare
a similar expression at Ps. lxiii. 10.
In the second strophe, which
comprehends ver. 5-8, the
Psalmist
has no longer to do with enemies. He turns with re-
newed
zeal from them to God, exhorts his soul to seek rest only
in
him, because he only can and will help, and exhorts all to
give
themselves into his hands unreservedly as their only Sa-
viour.—Vera
5. Only to God, 0 my soul, be thou
silent, for from
him comes my hope. Ver. 6. Only he is my rock and my sal-
vation, my place of
defence, I shall not be moved. Ver. 7.
In
God is my glory, my
strong rock and confidence is God. Ver. 8.
Trust in him at all
times, ye people, pour out your heart before
him, God is our
confidence.—The
almost verbal repetition of ver.
1
and 2, in ver. 5 and 11, shews us, that the Psalmist, after having
gone
forth among his enemies, returns back to the point from
which
he had set out, for the purpose of teaching us, that the
consideration
of our sufferings and dangers should only serve
to
bring us anew to God. "Be silent to God," (comp. at Ps.
xxxvii.
7), because to be silent refers to him: only in him, in whom
alone
it is to be found, and not in the world, (ver. 9 and 10),
seek
rest, the allaying of thy agitation. "Be thou silent, 0 my
soul,"
in contradistinction to "my soul is
silent," of ver. 1, an-
nounces
human weakness. Calvin: "Our souls are never so
completely
quieted that they do not experience some secret agi-
tation,
as in the sea when a gentle breeze blows, there are no
great
waves, but there is always some agitation. Then we see
how
Satan often raises, into new agitation, those who seemed to
have
been brought to complete rest." "My hope," = "the
thing
for which I hope," "my salvation:" comp, ver. 1.--I shall
not be moved, ver. 6, however much
my enemies strive to thrust
me
down, ver. 4.—On ver. 7, Calvin: "The epithets which David
applies
to God, in reference to his power to uphold, are like so
many
pillars, by which he supports his steadfastness, like so
many
bridles, by which be restrains the levity of his flesh, so
that
he seeks no part of his salvation any where except in God."
"My
help is over," (lf) God is, "it
depends on him," "it has
298 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
him
for its foundation." Myhlxb, in or on God, so that
he is
it:
comp. ver. 8.—The expression, "at all times," implies not
only
in prosperity, or in troubles of a comparatively easy cha-
racter,
but even in the severest affliction, when every other sup-
port
threatens to give way. Mf, ye people, is used as
at Psalm
xlv.
12. In reference to "pour out," (
is
completely emptied, that nothing whatever remains in it,")
"your
hearts before him," Calvin: "David exhorts us to lay
aside
the fault which is so natural to us, which leads us to con-
ceal
our pain, and rather to give way to murmuring and despair,
than
to ease ourselves, by pouring out pious complaints and
prayers
before God." The heart comes into view in connection
with
the care and sorrow with which it is filled; so that 1 Pet.
v.
17 is parallel as to sense, "Cast all your care upon him, for he
careth
for you;" comp. Ps. cxlii. 2, "I will pour out my com-
plaint before him," 1 Sam.
i. 15, and Lam. ii. 19. "God is our
confidence,"
here, in relation to "my
confidence is God," at ver. 7,
shows
how easy and natural is the transition from the I to the you.
In the third strophe, ver. 9-12, the
Psalmist first rejects all
other
objects of confidence, and then turns, in the conclusion,
towards
God, as the only steadfast ground of hope.—Ver. 9.
The children of men are
only vanity, the sons of man are lies,
they mount up in the
scale of a balance, they are altogether vain.
Ver.
10. Trust not in oppression, and be not
proud on the spoils
of robbery: if wealth
springs up around you, set not your heart
upon it. Ver. 11. God
has spoken one word, yea there are two
which I heard, that
"might is God's."
Ver. 12. And thine, 0
Lord, is
loving-kindness, for thou rewardest every one accord-
ing to his work.—It is evident from
verse 10th, that "the
children
of men are only vanity" in ver. 9 implies "trust
not
in men, for they are only vanity." Arnd: "If there
were
any one among men, immortal, not liable to sin, or to
change,
whom it were impossible for any one to overcome,
but
who was strong as an angel, such a one might be some-
thing,
but inasmuch as every one is a man, a sinner, mortal,
weak,
liable to sickness and death, exposed to pain and terror,
like
Pharaoh, even from the most insignificant animals, and
liable
to so many miseries, that it is impossible to count them,
the
conclusion must be a valid one: "man is nothing." Com-
pare
Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. "The sons of man,"
in relation to "the
sons
of men," forms a climax: comp.
P. I. p. 78. Lies;—because
PSALM LXII. VER.
9-12. 299
they
cannot fulfil the promises which they make, but entertan
with
false hopes: comp. at Ps. xl. 4. tvlfl;—"they are for
going
up,"—they must go up, they are so light: compare
Ewald,
544. They are of nothing;—they belong
to it: comp.
Is.
xl. 17. xli. 24.—After the human help of ver. 10, there is
named,
as the second object of false
confidence, oppression, by
which
the ungodly world so often endeavours to prop up its
might
and dominion. The third object is property,
of which
others
have been robbed, property acquired by unrighteous
means.
Both of these objects, by a relation common to each,
stand
opposed to the fourth, inasmuch as in
their case, the
insecurity
which attaches to all earthly things, is aggravated by
their
lying under the curse of God. The second clause is lite-
rally,
"be not nothing on what has been stolen;"—whoever puts
his
trust on what is, nothing will become nothing, himself, com-
pare
2 Kings xvii. 15. The bvn "to sprout," "to grow up of
its
own accord," depicts the opposite of what has been ac-
quired
by violent means. lyH, is not might, but substance:
comp.
Deut. viii. 11, ss. The heart should not be set even
on
riches which have been obtained by lawful means, because
they
are insecure, (1 Tim. vi. 17), and not permanent. Arnd:
"Riches
are like a stream, which soon flows to a person, and
may
also soon flow away, so that where one had first to pass,
with
a boat, he may in a short while be able to cross by a step
and
by and by to walk over with dry feet."—Pointing to the
warning
contained in ver. 9 and 10, and at the same time,
laying
the basis of the exhortation of ver. 8, the Psalmist
says
that God is mighty, in opposition to every thing of an
earthly
character, and intimates that this is a truth which God
had
again and again impressed deeply upon his heart. The
parallel
passages, Job xxxiii. 14, and xl. 5, render it evident
that
the "one," "two" mean more than once, and set aside all
other
expositions: "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man
perceiveth
it not." Calvin: "He wishes to
say, let this lesson be
thoroughly
learned," as what is frequently announced to us re-
mains
more firmly with us."—In the 12th verse, the Psalmist adds
to
this word of God, a second, which serves to supplement it.
For
that the words, "and thine, 0 Lord, is loving-kindness,"
do
not form part of what God uttered, is evident from the
succeeding
clause, in which a reason is assigned for the affir-
mation
there made, and in which the Psalmist addresses God,
300 PSALM LXIII.
Next
to power, according to which God, and
God alone, can help,
he
has loving-kindness or love, according to which he will help
his
own people, who alone are the objects of his love; and,
moreover,
he must have loving-kindness, inasmuch as it is in-
volved
in the very idea of God, that he recompense every one
according
to his work, and therefore manifest himself as com-
passionate
to the righteous, while he destroys the wicked.
Rom.
ii. 6; and Rev. xxii. 12, refer to the second half. These
two
positions, that God is mighty, and that God is gracious,
form
the strong pillars on which the confidence of the righteous
in
God depends,—their cry, "my soul is silent only at God."
PSALM LXIII.
THE whole of the Psalm contains the
full number of 12 verses,
on
the assumption that the title is to be considered as an intro-
duction,
to which the last verse corresponds. The main body
contains
ten verses: and is divided into two fives. In both halves
there
is depicted in the midst of trouble, the cordial union of the
soul
with God for the present, both times in three verses, (ver.
1-3,)
and (6-8,) and on the ground of this he raises his hope
in
reference to the future, ver. 4, 5, and ver. 9, 10, in the first
half
a hope of his own deliverance, and in the second, a hope of
the
destruction of his enemies. The conclusion
in ver. 11 sums
up
the whole, and expresses both in a few words.
The Psalm is aptly described by
Clauss as "a delightful view
of
the experience of a soul thirsting after God and his grace,
and
finding itself quickened through inward communion with
him,
and which knows how to commit its outward lot into his
hand."
Its great lesson is, that the consciousness of commu-
nion
with God in trouble, is the sure pledge of deliverance.
This
is the peculiar fountain of consolation, which is opened up
to
the sufferer of the Psalm. The Berleb. Bible describes it as
a
Psalm "which proceeds from a spirit really in earnest. It
was
the favourite Psalm of M. Schade, the famous preacher in
priation
to himself that it was impossible to hear it without
emotion."
The title runs: "A Psalm of David when he was in the wil-
derness
of
PSALM LXIII. 301
derness
towards the east of the tribe of
north
by the tribe of Benjamin, stretching southward to the
south-west
end of the Dead Sea, westward to the
the
in
Josephus, Robinson, II. p. 494, and Matt. iii. 1, as compared
with
ver. 6, shew that the country in the neighbourhood of the
was
a complete wilderness. Without any proof, and against the
natural
import of the name, against the passage before us, and
against
Matt. iii., it has been repeatedly maintained, that it is
only
a part of this wilderness, in which
oasis,
that goes by the name of the wilderness of
cording
to Raumer, the region next the
ing
to Robinson, "the wilderness along the west side of the
simply
The Wilderness. In this wilderness
David was often
found
when flying from Saul. In the same wilderness also he
took
refuge during the rebellion of Absalsom. That he did so is
self-evident,
inasmuch as the road from
dan
leads through it: it is, moreover, expressly asserted in
more
than one passage in the books of Samuel: 2 Sam. xv. 23,
28,
xvi. 2, 14, xvii. 16. We cannot refer our Psalm to the
time
of Saul, because mention is expressly made of a king in
ver.
11. On the other hand, in favour of the time of Absalom,
besides
this reason we have a very marked reference, in ver. 1,
"In
a dry and parched (Jyf) land, without water," to 2 Sam.
xvi.
14," And the king and all the people that were with him
came
weary, (Mypyf)
and he rested there;"—comp. chap. xvi.
2,
where Zibah brought out in the way, wine,
"that such as were
faint in the wilderness might
drink," and the fgy in chap. xvii. 2.
This
reference affords very strong proof in favour of the cor-
rectness
of the title proof which is strengthened by the cir-
cumstance,
that, according to verse 11, the speaker must ne-
cessarily
be the king of
serving
the relation in which this concluding verse stands to
what
goes before, summing up, as it does, the contents of the
whole,
that any expositors could have been led to consider the
king
as a different person from the Psalmist, who speaks through-
out.
From what has been said, it is obvious that the Psalm
stands
in close connection with the Davidic Psalms generally,
and
in the closest connection with such of them as belong to the
302 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
time
of Absalom, especially with Ps. (Ewald remarks both
Psalms
have a striking similarity, and were undoubtedly compos-
ed
by the same poet,) and Ps. ii. and iv. which are immediately
related
to the Psalm before us, inasmuch as they were compos-
ed
during the first night of David's flight, and with Ps. xlii.,
which
belongs to the period when David got beyond
Modern
criticism ought to be somewhat distrustful of itself, as
the
fact is evident, that, in general, only those Psalms are re-
lated
to each other, which are announced by the titles to belong
to
the same era.
The first Strophe is ver. (1-5.) The
Psalmist has a heart-
longing
after God, ver. 1, in consequence of this he enjoys the
most
vital communion with him, ver. 2 and 3, and this insures
to
him the return of his former prosperity, ver. 4 and 5.—Ver.
1.
0 God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my
soul thirsteth after
thee, my flesh fainteth
after thee in a dry land, and is weary
without water. Ver. 2. Therefore I behold thee in the sanctuary,
seeing thy power and thy
glory.
Ver. 3. For thy loving-kind-
ness is better than
life, my lips praise thee. Ver. 4. Therefore
I shall praise thee in
my life, in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Ver.
5. As with marrow and with fatness my
soul shall be sa-
tisfied, and with joyful
lips my mouth shall praise thee.—It is a
proof
of the sincerity of David's faith, that he loves so well the
expression
"my God," with which he begins, (comp. Ps. iii. 7,
xviii.
2, 28, xxii. 1, 10), and that he can utter it even when in
the
deepest misery. Arnd: "Just as a magnet has lost all its
power
when it does not quickly turn to the north, so faith has
lost
all its power and is dead, when it does not without delay,
turn
to God and say, 0 my beloved God.'" On "my soul
thirsteth,"
(comp. xlii. 2,) he says: "Just as bodily hunger and
thirst
are appeased by meat and drink, so the spiritual hunger
and
thirst of the soul are satisfied only with God." The
earnestness
of the desire affects the body, as well as the soul,
as
every strong emotion is accompanied with bodily effects
comp.
Ps. lxxxiv. 2. The Jyf is generally connected with Crx,
but
the reference to "my flesh," or even to the person is much
more
natural, as the Crx is generally feminine, and is used
with
hyc
in the feminine in the preceding clause, and as the
parallel
passages in the books of Samuel put the matter beyond
a
doubt. The more recent expositors consider the residence in
PSALM LXIII. VER. 1-5. 303
the
wilderness, and the being weary, as a mere figure descrip-
tive
of a miserable condition. This may be so; but the par-
allel
passages in Samuel show that we must abide by the literal
rendering.
This particular feature, however, must be regarded
as
introduced as symptomatic and descriptive of the whole
condition
in which the Psalmist was placed. This is particularly
true
of the idea of a king who could not get even a drink of
water
to quench his thirst. All human fountains of consolation
and
happiness were dried up to the Psalmist. But he thirsts all
the
more earnestly after the divine fountain which still re-
mained
open to him. It is by this that a child of God may be
known.
When the children of the world are in a dry land, and
are
wearied and without water, the last remains of any desire
after
God disappear from their souls. But real piety, in propor-
tion
to the severity of personal suffering, becomes all the more
intense
in its longings after God. By the extent to which a
man,
in severe sufferings, can say "I seek thee," &c. may he
decide
on the state of his soul.
The Psalmist in ver. 2 says that he
comes, by these his ear-
nest
desires, into the most intimate connexion with God, and
that
he will participate in his grace. The Nk has its usual
sense
"therefore," "in consequence of this," comp. Ps. lxi.:
—"because
the whole desire of my heart goes after thee."
"To
behold God," signifies "always to be assured of his love,"
"to
enjoy his grace," comp. at Ps. xvii. Such a beholding of
God
can only take place in the sanctuary;
for this is the taber-
nacle of meeting, the type of the church;
there God permits his
people
to approach him, there they are beside him, even though
they
are far off in body, yea, even though in a desert-wilderness.
Instead
of, "I behold thee in the sanctuary," we may ren-
der,
without any alteration in the sense, "Therefore I dwell
with
thee in the sanctuary:" comp. at Ps. xxvii. 4, and the pas-
sage
quoted there, Ps. lxi. 4. The infinitive with Lamed is to
be
explained as at Ps. xxi. 3, lxi. 8, to
see = so that I see. Where
God
is beheld, there will his power and glory also be seen: who
ever
is partaker of his grace, has these developed to him: comp.
Ps.
xxvii. 13, where to see the goodness of the Lord is to per-
ceive
his excellence, The power and glory of the Lord are im-
mediately developed (and this is
what is here spoken of, comp.
ver.
3, and its opposite in ver. 4,) in inward
comfort, whereby
the
soul is quickened in the midst of sufferings: compare Ps. xlii.-
304 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
8,
"The Lord commands his loving-kindness in the day time, and
in
the night his song is with me," i. e. by day and by night the
Lord
makes me partaker of his loving-kindness, and bestows it
for
this reason, that I may sing songs of praise in the midst of
sufferings.
This verse has had the misfortune to have been fre-
quently
and in various ways misunderstood. The interpretation
comes
nearest the truth: through this desire after thee, or in
consequence
of it, I walk, though in the wildnerness, in commu-
nion
with thee, as really as if I were in
the sanctuary:—an
implied
comparison. Against this, however, we have the wide-
ly
spread parallel passages in the Davidic Psalms, according to
which,
whosoever enjoys the grace of God, wherever he may be,
is
really, in a spiritual sense, in the sanctuary, and beholds God
there.
The following interpretations are altogether at fault:
"there
I long after thee in thy sanctuary, might I only behold thy
might
and glory:"—this is contrary to the sense of Nk
and hzh;
"therefore
might I behold thee"—contrary to the sense of the
perfect,
and it is absurd to translate "therefore," as in ver. 1,
mention
is made only of desire; "then I
behold thee in the
sanctuary,"
i. e. "then, when I have found thee whom I de-
sire,
I will rejoice in view of the sanctuary:"—without any
foundation,
as in ver. 1, the subject spoken of is not finding
but
seeking,
and ver. 3 and 4 would become unintelligible; "there-
fore
I beheld thee once in the sanctuary is impossible to
translate
"therefore,"—as I long after thee, therefore I beheld
thee!
in like manner, ver. 3, and against ver. 4, where Nk de-
notes
in consequence. The true translation
contains a most com-
forting
truth, viz. that in the deepest misery an approach to
God
and to his grace stands open to us, that he always, and
without
exception, comes down to us in the exercise of love if
we
only stretch out to him the arms of desire. "Therefore,"
says
Calvin, "we should learn from his example, that when
God
deprives us of all outward tokens of his grace, we should
behold
God in the midst of the abyss with the eye of faith, in
order
that we may not turn the back upon him, as often as what
is
visible is withdrawn from us. Yea, even when tyrannical
power
deprives us of the holy ordinance of the supper and other
means
of grace, we ought to be upon our guard that we do not
turn
away the eyes of our mind from God."—The Psalmist in
ver.
3, gives his ground for saying that he beholds God in the
sanctuary,
and that he experiences his power and glory:—His
PSALM LXIII. VER.
4, 5. 305
loving
kindness appears in those consolations which quicken
his
soul, and if so, so strong are those consolations, he can
still
love and praise him. In view of such proof of fellowship of
love
with the Lord, any proof to the contrary, which outward
suffering
seems to afford, is not worth being regarded:—"for
thy
loving kindness, which I do possess,
is better than the life,
of
which I am deprived." David's life at that time, consider-
ed
outwardly, might more properly be called a death than a
life:—comp.
on life as equivalent to salvation or prosperity, Ps.
xvi.
11, xxx. 5, xxxvi: 10, and xlii. 8. "My lips praise thee,"
stands
related to the first clause, in the same way as in Psalm
xlii.
8, "in the night, his song is with me," does to "the Lord
commands
his loving kindness in the day time." The man who
can
praise God must be richly blessed by him, must see his
power
and glory.—The "therefore," in ver. 2, draws an infe-
rence
from ver. 1, and the "therefore," in ver. 4, draws an infe-
rence
from verses 2 and 3. As, from the inward longing of the
Psalmist
after God, there flows inward union with him, in the
midst
of the trouble of the present, so
from this there flows again
assurance
of the deliverance of the future; for
God cannot
leave
his own people, even outwardly, in death. The man
who
can praise God in death, has a pledge that he will yet
praise
him in life, that the Lord will again
make him partici-
pate
even outwardly in his favour. The whole, therefore, de-
pends
upon this one thing, that the soul has a longing after God.
Wherever
this is, there is salvation in trouble,
and salvation
after trouble. The clause, "I
shall bless thee," (i. e. I shall
thank
thee:—compare Ps. xvi. 7, xxxiv. 1), in reference to
"my
lips praise thee," shews that the Nk, which refers in
reality
to
the whole contents of verses 2 and 3, is more immediately
connected
with the conclusion of verse 3. The yyHb, "in
my
life," i. e. "when brought back to life or to salvation," is
translated
by many, "during my whole life": but in this way
the
connection, so full of meaning with MyyHm in ver. 3, is not
brought
out, and, besides, the translation is not correct,—
compare
at Ps. xxx. 5. On the lifting up of the
hands as the
gesture
of prayer, see Ps. xxviii. 2. The
connection and the
parallelism
shew that the language refers to prayers of thanks.
On
the "name of God," "his glory as it has been manifested in
his
deeds":—in this the Psalmist,
when rendering thanks, is
sunk down:—compare at Ps. xx. 1,
5, lii. 9, liv. 1.—Ver. 5 con-
tains
the continual expression of hope of future deliverance,
306 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
which
appears under the emblem of a banquet:
compare at Ps.
xxiii.
5. In reference to "according to lips of joy," i. e. "with
them,"
see at Ps. iii. 4.
The second strophe, is ver. 6-10.
The Psalmist enjoys most
intimate
communion with God, and from this he has the confident
assurance
of the defeat of his enemies.—Ver. 6. When
I think
of thee on my bed, I
meditate in thee in the night watches: Ver.
7.
For thou art a help to me, and under the
shadow of thy wings
I can rejoice. Ver. 8. My soul depends on thee, thy right hand
holds me fast. Ver. 9. And those go down who seek after my
life, they come into the
depths of the earth.
Ver. 10. They are
given over to the power
of the sword, they become the prey of the
foxes.—The sense of the sixth
verse is: when the Psalmist
awakens
during the night, his every thought on God is like a
meditation
in him,—he sinks so deep in his reflections on the
grace
and compassion of God of which he has been a partaker,
(ver.
7), that be cannot again fall asleep. On hgH with b,
compare
at Ps. i. 2. "In the night-watches," is "throughout
the
whole night:" compare on the
night-watches, Ps. xc. 4.—In
the
7th verse we have the reason why the Psalmist cannot get
quit
of his meditation on God. On the first clause Arnd says:
"But
God often conceals his help under the beloved cross."
On
"under the shadow of thy wings, a favourite expression of
David:"
compare xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, lvii. 1, lxi. 4.—In verse 8,
there
are the mutual relations between a believing soul and
the
Lord: it depends on him, and cleaves to him, like a bur
to
a coat, and he takes hold of it, and holds it up with his
powerful
right hand, so that it does not sink into the abyss
of
destruction and despair. On jmt with b, to take hold
of,
to hold up, to hold fast, see Ps. xvii. 5. The right hand
is
the seat of strength, Ps. xviii. 35, xliv. 3, lx. 5. Arnd:
"God
holds heaven and earth with his hand, he will there-
fore
be able both to hold up and to bear such a little atom
of
earth as thou art."—On hxvw "ruin,"
in ver. 9, compare at
Ps.
xxxv. 8. The common translation is, "And they who seek
my
soul to destruction": but wpn wqb needs no such addition,
it
stands without any such, as for example in 2 Sam. xv. 1.1,
and
according to the analogy of verse 10, we must expect an
independent
declaration of the destruction of the enemies in
each
of the two halves of the verse. They
shall come into the
deep places of the
earth, as did once the fierce rebels in the days
of old: compare Num. xvi. 31-34,
to which David also alludes
PSALM LXIV. 307
in
Ps. lvi. 16.—The Hiph. of rgn means always "to
pour out."
The
third plural stands indefinitely, and instead of the passive
—"Over
the hands," after the verb of "giving over," is equiva-
lent
to "into the power." The jackals
go after a dead body;--
"they
become their prey," is "they remain unburied." Com-
pare,
in reference to the fulfilment of the expectation expressed
in
verses 9 and 10, 2 Sam. xviii. 7, 8.
The conclusion is in ver. 11. And the king shall rejoice in God,
every one that sweareth
by him, shall glory, because the mouths
of liars shall be
stopped.
Instead of "I," the Psalmist says the
"king,"
in order to point to the ground of his hope and con-
fidence.
That the suffix in vb refers not to God but to the king,
is
evident, because it is not Jehovah but Elohim that goes before,
and
swearing by God being common to both parties, it was only
swearing
by the king that is a sign of fidelity: comp. Gen. xlii.
15,
16. These, by the salvation which the Lord imparts to the
king,
shall have occasion to glory, that
is, to triumph. On the
rebels
as liars see Ps. lxii. 4. Verses 9 and 10 shew how their
mouths
are stopped.
PSALM LXIV.
AFTER a prayer for protection
against the wicked, the Psalm-
ist
takes occasion to paint their machinations for the destruction
of
the righteous, and then describes how, when they were just
upon
the very point. of accomplishing their purpose, through
means
of all the power which cunning and wickedness could
command,
God himself interposed, and turned the destruction
upon
their own head, to the terror of their friends and admirers,
to
the edification of the whole world, and to the joy of all the
righteous.
The Psalm consists of ten verses,
which are divided into two
fives.
At first sight, the first strophe appears to consist of six,
and
the second of four verses. But the fut. with a vau conv. in
ver.
7, can scarcely begin a strophe; and it appears to be suitable
(and
we are saved from tearing asunder what is intimately and
inseparably
connected together,) that at the beginning of the
second
strophe at ver. 6, it is intimated that the completion of
the
wickedness and cunning of the enemies is on the eve of deal-
ing
the deadly blow.
The fundamental thought of the Psalm
is, that the comple-
308 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
of the wickedness and cunning of the enemies is no ground
for
despair, but rather for joyous hope:—the nearer they are to
gaining
their end, the nearer are they to destruction. To those
who
have to contend with such wickedness, the Psalmist calls,
"lift
up your hearts."
Although the events of Saul's time
form, in the first instance,
the
basis of the Psalm, as is shewn by the great prominence
given
throughout to slander, as a weapon of
assault, employed
by
the wicked against the righteous, and although the Psalm is
nearly
allied to those other Psalms of an individual character
which
were composed by David at that time, especially to the
vii.
and the lii. Psalm, yet we cannot assign to it any individual
occasion.
We are prevented from so doing, first, because all
the
allusions are of a general character, and second, because the
"I"
is exchanged in verse 4 for the innocent
man.
The authorship, which is asserted in
the title to be David's,
is
confirmed by the resemblance, as may be seen by the exposi-
tion,
which the Psalm bears to others which were composed by
him.
The great prominence given to slandering
shews that the
Psalm
does not refer to heathen enemies.
The first strophe is ver. 1-5: May
God help the righteous
against
the wickedness and cunning of man.—Ver. 1. Hear,
0
God, my voice in my
grief, protect my life against the terror of
the enemy. Ver. 2. Conceal me from the intimacy of the wick-
ed, from the tumult of
evil-doers.
Ver. 3. Who sharpen their
tongues like the sword,
and stretch as their arrow a bitter word.
Ver.
4. To shoot in a lurking place at the
innocent, suddenly
they shoot at him
without fear.
Ver. 5. They strengthen for
themselves an evil plan,
they tell how they will lay snares, they
say, who shall look at
them.—The
expression, "in my sorrow,"
properly,
"in my thought," (compare at Ps. lv. 2), shews that
the
prayer for help was not a superficial one, but proceeded
from
the deep ground of a sorely grieved heart. The "terror
of
the enemy," is the terror which goes forth from him, the ter-
rible
danger which he threatens. "Protect my life," shews
that
the Psalmist (contrary to Tholuck's view) was exposed to
personal
danger, to danger of life.—The rvs is to be taken in
the
sense of "intimacy," not "secret assemblies," and wgr, in
that
of "tumult," and not "tumultuous crowds," is evident
from
the parallel passage Ps. lv. 3. The "intimacy" is found
in
the secret counsels for the destruction of the righteous, (see
Ps.
lxxxiii. 3), and the tumult in the execution of these counsels,
PSALM LXIV.
VER. 1-10. 309
frm is a standing word in Davidic Psalms. Calvin: "He re-
commends
his case on the ground of the wickedness of the
enemy;
for the more unreasonably and cruelly they act towards
us
the more sure may we be that God will be gracious to
us."—The
comparison of a slandering tongue to a sword,
and
of
slander to an arrow, in verse 3,
(comp. Ps. Ivii. 4, and lix. 7,
and
the passages quoted there), shews that it is not ordinary
slanders
that are referred to, but such as, in direct violation of
the
6th commandment, aim at the destruction of a neighbour,
—such
slanders as David had to do with in the days, of Saul.
"They
stretch," is "they lay stretched": compare Ps. lviii. 7.
"A
bitter word," i. e. a painful, destructive word, (compare
Deut.
xxxii. 24, 1 Sam. xv. 32), is not in apposition: McH is to
be
explained, "as their bow," and corresponds to "like the
sword."—In
verse 4, the slanderers, on account of their hidden
cunning
and dark efforts, are compared to thieving-murderers,
who
waylay the defenceless traveller, in a secret place, in order
to
destroy him: compare Ps. x. 8, 9. "Suddenly," is, "while he
is
thinking there is no harm." It is evident from, "who fear not
God,"
in Ps. lv. 19, and "all men are afraid," in verse 9, that
"without
fear" refers to the fear of God and of his punishment.—
"They
strengthen for themselves an evil word, or an evil plan,"
in
verse 5, by acute consideration and increased improvement,
to
which every one contributes his share. rps stands, as in Ps.
lix.
12, in its usual sense, to "recount"; every one in their secret
councils
makes his speech, proposes his plan. As the hxr is
never
used with l, of the object, we
cannot translate, "them,"
meaning
thereby, either the snares, or the wicked: vml, signifies,
as
at the beginning of the verse, "to them," i. e. to hurt them.
Who?—will
God?—he does not trouble himself about human
affairs,
and therefore no man need trouble himself about him:
compare
Ps. lix. 7, x. 11-13.
The second strophe is from verse
6-10. Every thing is
fully
prepared, when God brings vengeance upon the wicked.
Ver.
6. They examine thoroughly into
wickednesses "we are
ready, a well matured
plan," and the inside of a man and his
heart is deep. Ver. 7. There God shoots at them with a sudden
arrow; there are THEIR
wounds!
Ver. 8. And they are confound-
ed, their tongue comes
upon themselves, all their admirers flee
away. Ver. 9. And all men are afraid and make known the
deed of God, and
understand his work.
Ver. 10. The righteous
310 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shall rejoice in the
Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the up-
right shall glory.—"They examine
thoroughly into iniquities,"
in
verse 6, (the plural tvlf) is used only here, and in Ps. lviii.
2),
they allow no corner of these to be unexamined, that is,
they
make it their study to bring their wicked plans to as great
perfection
as possible. In the words, "we are ready, a tho-
roughly matured plan," (properly a
thoroughly searched search),
the
Psalmist introduces the wicked telling that, as the result of
their
zealous studies in wickedness, they had brought their vil-
lanous
plans to perfection, and expressing joy on that account.
As
the Mmt
is always intransitive, and in particular vnmt, in-
stead
of vnvmt,
is so, in all the three passages in which it else-
where
occurs, we cannot translate, "we have
completed a tho-
roughly
matured plan." In the last words, "the inside," &c.
reference
is made to the greatness of the danger to which the
righteous
man is exposed. Human wickedness is unfathomable,
it
is impossible to know it, and all its wicked plans, much less
then
to be on our guard against them. How then will it go
with
the poor righteous man. "Deep" is often used in the
sense
of what is difficult to be searched out or known. Thus, Ez.
iii,
5, 7 “deep of speech,” is, "difficult to be understood," Job
xi.
8, Prov. xxv, 3. Jer. xvii. 9, is exactly parallel, "The heart
is
steep before all and, diseased, who can know it," where
"steep"
occupies the place of "deep." Both are equally inac-
cessible.
The "inside," compare at Ps. v. 9, denotes the op-
posite
of what may easily be seen on the
outside, and therefore
there
is no room for the tautology at which Clauss stumbles.—
The
"There" in verse 7, is when they are in the midst of their
joy
over their completed plan, and when they are just on the
eve
of carrying it into execution. Stich picturesque represen-
tations
of vengeance suddenly breaking out are characteristic of
David's
Psalms; compare for example, Ps. vii. 11. liii. 5, lvii. 6.
The
arrow of God here corresponds to the arrow of the wicked
at
verses 3 and 4; compare at Ps. vii. 13. It is evident from
verse
4 that Mxtp,
agreeably to the accusative, belongs to the
first
clause. The second clause gives in an abbreviated form
the
substance of what we have at length in Ps. vii. 14-16.
The
emphasis is on the suffix: there are
THEIR wounds! They
were
thinking of wounding the upright, but behold they are
wounded
themselves.—The beginning of the 8th ver. is literal-
ly,
"and there they bring them to fall," the plural being used
PSALM LXV. 311
as
at Ps. lxiii. 10. "Their tongue comes upon them," inasmuch
as
it brings upon them the punishment and the judgment of
God.
From the second half of the verse to the end the Psalm-
ist
describes the salutary effects of this judgment, first upon the
companions
of the wicked; second, upon all men; and, finally,
upon
the righteous. The first, (hxr with b, as in Ps. lix. 10)
flee, that they may not be
involved in the punishment; compare
Num.
xvi. 34, "And all
of
Korah) fled, for they said, lest the
earth swallow us up also."
—In
the 9th verse, men in general, occupy the middle position,
between
the two opposite extremes. On "they are afraid,"
comp.
Ps. lii. 6. On the second and third clause, comp. Ps. lviii.
11,
"and men shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous,
verily
God judgeth on the earth." lykWh is not "to give
con-
sideration,"
but "to understand:" the great mass of people ob-
tain
insight into the works and government of God, when they
see
the destruction of the wicked with their own eyes. On ver.
10,
compare Ps. lxiii. 11.
PSALM LXV.
GOD gives his church abundant
opportunity to praise and to
thank
him, he hears prayer, he forgives sin, and he bestows
upon
his people the good things of his house, (1-4). As God
of
the whole world and of nature, he manifests himself as such
in
the wonderful deliverances of his people, in establishing moun-
tains
(and kingdoms), in stilling the tumultuous sea and the agi-
tated
nations, so that the manifestations of his power and glory
fill
the whole world with reverence, (ver. 6-8). As such he
manifests
himself particularly, in the fertility which he, whose
fountain
is always full of water, imparts to the earth, by his
fertilizing
rain, and in the blessings of harvest, which spread
abroad
a universal joy (ver. 9-13).
The formal arrangement is, upon the
whole, the same as in
Ps.
lx.: the whole consists of 14 verses, and the main body of 12,
divided
into three strophes, each of four verses. The only dif-
ference
is, that the concluding verse here corresponds to the
two
verses of the title there, containing, as it does, a description
of
the occasion on which the Psalm was
written, and manifesting
its
connection with the title by the vryw "they sing,"
with
which
it concludes, coresponding to the ryw, a song, with which
the
title ends.
312 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The object of the Psalm is announced in the concluding
verse.
It should be sung when "the flocks are covered with
lambs,
and the valleys are clothed with corn." Hence the
whole,
from ver. 1-8, is to be considered as an introduction.
We
are led to the same result, by the circumstance that it is only
the
goodness of God, as seen in the blessings of harvest, that is
dwelt
upon at any length; while every thing else is touched
upon
shortly and slightly, this is carried on to the end of the
Psalm;
the Psalmist never returns to those general views with
which
the Psalm opened, and the ninth verse, with which the
description
of harvest begins, is of such disproportionate length
as
to shew that the Psalmist enters then for the first time upon
his
proper subject.
On the relation between the first
and second portions of the
Psalm,
(ver. 1-8, and ver. 9-13,) Luther remarks: "Al-
though
the special intention may be to thank God for good
weather
and propitious seasons, yet it is the custom of the pro-
phets,
when they speak of the mercies and gifts of God of one
kind,
to speak also of others, especially of his highest grace:
so,
in the present instance, having designed to thank God for
domestic
government or for agriculture, the Psalmist takes a
wider
range, and introduces other two kinds of government."
This
is just as it should be: every individual gift of God should
lead
us to a lively consideration of all the blessings which we
receive
from him; and it is only when this is the case, when
all
the rest harmonize with the one string, that we render thanks
in
a suitable manner even for the one more immediately in view.
It
is for this reason that natural and providential blessings were
so
blended together at the Jewish festivals.
Although the Psalm refers to the
harvest, yet it would be in-
correct
to maintain that it was peculiarly a song of thanksgiving
for
harvest, and especially to suppose that it was composed for the
passover,
on the second day of which the first fruits were pre-
sented
in the temple, upon which harvest began. Luther says
more
correctly, he thanks God for "good weather and a gra-
cious
season." It may be considered as having been composed
when
favourable appearances presented
themselves in reference
to
the harvest, when God was giving the former and the latter
rain
in their seasons, (Jer. v. 24), and when, in consequence of
this,
every thing was flourishing and growing luxuriantly. This
is
manifest from the concluding verse,
according to which, the
PSALM LXV. 313
Psalm
may be considered as sung at a time, when the valleys
are clothing themselves with corn,
(not have been clothed,) and
from
ver. 9 and 10, where the Palmist speaks of rain as if he
saw
it just descending. Hitzig has taken altogether a wrong
view,
according to whom, the Psalm was composed for the Feast
of
Tabernacles, "when the fruits of the earth had been ga-
thered
in, and the seed, recently committed to the ground,
was
waiting for the early rain."
There are no traces whatever of any
particular historical oc-
casion.
It is altogether without the least shadow of reason that
the
vile passion for historical exposition has referred the ex-
pressions
in verse 9 to a peculiarly fertilizing rain, or a peculiar-
ly
fruitful year.
consider
the fruitfulness of their land, and in an especial man-
ner,
the regular periodical appearance of rain, on which it de-
pended,
as a blessing bestowed upon their nation in connection
with
its moral state; and it is the design of our Psalm through-
out
to awaken these feelings in the minds of the people—a de-
sign
which does not admit of special application at any parti-
cular
time.
The title bears testimony on behalf of the Davidic authorship
of
the Psalm:—"To the chief musician, a Psalm of David, a
song.
Compare on ryw "a song," = "a song of
praise,"
the
title of Ps. xlviii, 8:—a sense which is especially de-
manded
here by the clause in the concluding verse, "they
sing,"
standing in immediate connection with "they rejoice."
The
originality of the title is confirmed, by its having a place
within
the formal structure of the Psalm, and by the corre-
spondence
which it obviously bears to the concluding verse. In-
ternal
reasons for the Davidic authorship of the Psalm, are, the
hymd, an expression altogether peculiar to David,
which occurs
at
the very beginning in the same way as it does in Ps. lxii. the
individual
Davidic character of ver. 4. the allusion in ver. 5 to 2
Sam.
vii. 23, and, finally, the exact agreement in regard to for-
mal
arrangement between our Psalm and other Davidic Psalms,
especially
the lx. The language in no part refers to great and
lasting
national prosperity. The people are rather, as they
were
in the time of David, happy, and in the full enjoyment of
the
divine favour.
The objections against the Davidic
authorship are altogether
nugatory.
Ewald supposes that the poem is not nearly so light
and
sprightly as David's Psalms generally are, and that it is
314 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
only
towards the end that the style rises. But it is not in the
nature
of things that the tone of a poem which returns thanks
for
seasonable rain, or for a similar blessing, should rise above
a
certain height. Even in our common hymn books, there is
a
decided difference in this respect, according to the different
seasons
of the year, and special occasions, for example, Easter,
for
which the hymns are designed. Much more may we ex-
pect
such a difference between such Psalms as the one before
us,
and those which were composed by David as war or vic-
tory-songs.
The bounties of God, the guide of nature, as they
regularly
came round with the return of the seasons, are fitted
to
call forth rather quiet joy than loud triumph. De Wette
supposes
that verse 3 indicates on the part of the people a
consciousness
of some (?) crime, and therefore refers the Psalm
to
a later period than that of David. A single glance at Levi-
ticus
xvi. is sufficient to spew what use we are to make of such
an
assertion. In reference to the idea, that the mention of the
temple
in verse 4th, is unfavourable to the Davidic authorship,
compare
Ps. v.
The first strophe is ver. 1-4:
"Compassionate, gracious,
merciful,
forgiving iniquity to every one daily."
Ver. 1. Thou art praised in the silence, 0 God, in
thee vows are paid. Ver. 2. Thou who hearest prayer, to thee
all flesh comes. Ver. 3. Our iniquities prevail against us, our
transgressions—thou
forgivest them.
Ver. 4. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and
causest to approach to thee, that he may
dwell in thy courts. Ver. 5. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house,
of thy holy temple.—The
jl
in ver. 1,
stands
exactly as in Ps. lxii. 10, 11, “thine is praise,” i. e.
"thou
art praised." The praise comes
into notice in so
far
as it testifies of God's glory, who furnishes for it rich,
and
continually new materials: comp. at Ps. xxii. 3. hymd
hlht must be considered as a kind of compound noun,
like
qdc-hvnf in xlv. 4: compare also Ps. lx. 3. Silence-praise is
praise
which is bound up with silence, has silence for its con-
sequence,
or has the effect of allaying that tumultuous agita-
tion,
that distressing excitement, which prevails in the soul till
it
has attained to a living knowledge of the glory of God:
against
this, his praise, which quiets all the tumult of the soul,
is
the only effectual remedy; the more a man praises God, the
PSALM LXV. VER. 1-5. 315
more
quiet does his soul become: compare at Ps. lxii. 1, 5,
xlii.
5, and cxxxi. 1. Against the exposition, "on thee is con-
fidence,
praise," there may be urged, besides the harshness of
the
asyndeton, the fact that hymd
never
signifies any thing else
than
"silence," and in particular never signifies "trust."
The
Berleb. Bible has: "It is not loud
praise that corre-
sponds
to the infinite majesty of God, but a reverential
silence before his presence,
which holy souls employ in
giving
expression to their intensest love." To this exposition
we
reply, the Psalmist does speak.
Against Ewald's "reveren-
tial
and quiet song of praise, of those who contrast the infinite
greatness
and goodness of God, with their own unworthiness,"
we
urge the fact that hymd is entire silence, and also the ryw of
the
title and the vrywy of the concluding verse. A careful
comparison
of the other passages in which hymd occurs,
will be
sufficient
to remove all doubt as to the correctness of the above
interpretation.
God is praised in
the
treasures of his salvation in the most perfect manner, (compare
ver.
5, Ps.xlviii.1, cxxxii.13,)and because the only legitimate place
of
worship was there. Luther: "God had bound to that place
all
men who desired to meet with, and to worship the true God,
so
that although they might not be bodily present, they should
be
compelled with their hearts to turn and look thither. This
was
the case before Christ appeared. But now God has built
for
this purpose in Christ a greater and more glorious
Wherever
he is with his word and sacraments, there also is the
old
knowledges
him, gives thanks to the true God, in the true
Those
who belong to this
first
time with perfect truth: "Thine
is praise, 0 God, in
The
paying of vows followed after
salvation had been obtained,
(compare
at Ps. lxvi. 13), and is introduced here in this connec-
tion:
by sending salvation, thou givest men reason to praise thee,
and
to pay their vows.—God is a living God, who hears prayers,
ver.
2, he is the fulness of strength and of love: he is rich not only
for
a few, but for all: all to whom the name of man belongs come
to
him, (flesh is with the idea of weakness and need: compare
at
Ps. lvi. 4,) in order to draw from his inexhaustible fountain.
Luther:
"Whither, to thee? In former
ages to
in
Math.
xi. 28. We cannot with Ewald understand by "all flesh,"
all
"who at that time lived in
316 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
art
the confidence of all the ends of the
earth," and the 8th
verse,
are decisive against this. The difficulty which has called
forth
this false interpretation, may be fairly set aside by the
remark,
that every necessity, and every want, is, though an un-
conscious,
yet a real coming to God, a real prayer to him, who
is
the only helper: compare Ps. civ. 27, where all the beasts wait
upon
God, that he may give them their meat in due season, Job
xxxviii.
41, where the ravens cry to God, and
Gen. xxi. 17, where
God
hears Ishmael, not when he is praying,
but when he is crying.
We
dare not, however, on this account, take up the position of
Tholuck,
that all prayers, even those which men address to idols,
meet
with acceptance from the true God.—In ver. 3, we have God
praised
on account of the forgiveness of sin
which he imparts to
his
people. The optative exposition (Luther: "0 that thou
wouldest forgive our
sins,")
is as assuredly wrong as the Psalm
before
us is a song of praise: the future
indicates, as in the pre-
ceding
and following context, a custom. The tvnvf yrbd is
properly matters of
iniquities,—they
are a something which
is
too strong for me: compare at Ps. cv, 27, 1 Sam. x. 2, 2 Sam.
xi.
18, 19. The iniquities are too strong
for the people, (who
here
speak as one man, for me), as regards their consequences,
which
they are not able either to avert or to endure: compare Ps.
xxxviii.
4, "Mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy
burden,
they are too heavy for me:" Ps. xl. 12, "innumerable
evils have compassed me
about, mine iniquities have taken hold
upon
me:" and Ps. cxxx. 3. After "our iniquities"—trans-
gressions
have applied to them this stronger
expression, in order
that
the grace of forgiveness may shine forth more gloriously,
—we
are to suppose a hyphen added. One would have expected,
"they
lay me on the ground." But God comes forward at once,
and
forgives the iniquities, which
threaten destruction. Luther:
"Whereas
he has so gloriously celebrated that which was not
so
abundant at that time, as it was afterwards in Christ, how
much
more joyfully ought we to sing this verse, and to exult with-
the
eyes and ears to see and hear!"—Happy are the people, to
cut
any intermission, if we have the heart to understand, and
ver.
4, (compare the yrwx in Ps. xxxiii. 12,) whom this God
has
taken into his immediate confidence! Happy we to whom
this
happiness has been imparted! A rich salvation, the
full
possession of the good things, and the gifts which God im-
parts
to his people, is the consequence of this. The house of God,
his
temple appears here as the place where his people, without
PSALM LXV. VER. 5-8. 317
any
regard to bodily presence or absence, dwell continually
beside
him, and where they are cared for by him with tender
love:
compare at Ps. xxvii. 4, xxxvi. 8, lxxxiv. 4. The ex-
pression,
"that he may inhabit thy courts," (De Wette "in the
exercise
of the worship of God") shews that we are not
to
rest satisfied with the external idea. The, "we will be sa-
tisfied,"
etc. contains in reality the basis of
the declaration of
blessedness.
This is expressed in the form of a mutual exhor-
tation
to partake of the rich feast, which the Lord has prepared.
The
good things of the house of the Lord are not only "the
spiritual
joys of God's house," but they comprehend also the
whole
of the blessings which the Lord bestows upon the mem-
bers
of his family (Eph. 19,) from the forgiveness of sins to
outward
mercies: compare Ps. xxxvi. 8, lxiii. 5. "The holy
(place)
of thy temple" (compare Ps. xlvi. 4), stands in apposi-
tion
to “thy house.” The wvdq is independent and emphatic,
because
it is in the holiness of the temple,
that the Psalmist
sees
the ground on which there had been given to it such a
fulness
of blessings.
The second strophe, ver. 5-8, forms
a transition to the
third,
inasmuch as, in it, prominence is given only to those mani-
festations
of the glory of God, in which he makes himself known,
as
the Lord of the world and of nature.—Ver. 5. Thou impart-
est to us what is
terrible, in righteousness, 0 God, our salva-
tion, thou, the
confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the
sea of those afar of. Ver. 6. Who sets fast by his power the
hills, is girt about
with might.
Ver. 7. Who stills the tumults
of the sea, the tumults
of their waves, the noise of the nations.
Ver.
8. And the inhabitants of the ends (of
the earth) are afraid
at thy tokens, the
outgoings of the morning and evening thou
makest to rejoice.—Thou returnest for
answer to us what is ter-
rible,
ver. 5, is, "Thou impartest to us, when we are in trouble,
astonishing
deliverances." The answer comes in the shape of
some
event—a practical word. In "terrible," reference is
made
to such events as happened before and after the depar-
ture
from
us
always, so that thy power now appears in wonderful deli-
verances,
as it did formerly when our fathers went out of
the
general sense of the expression, "not only by the common and
ordinary
means, but also by terrible power." The reference to
such
occurrences as happened in
318 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
parallelism and the connection, from which it is evident that
only
such circumstances can be meant as those by which God
manifests
himself as the God of the whole earth. The word
xdvn is used of such circumstances in Deut. x. 21,
"He is thy
praise,
and he is thy God that hath done for thee these great
and
terrible things which thine eyes have
seen," and in a re-
markably
similar expression of David's in 2 Sam. vii. 23:—
which
last passage at the same time shows that the tvxrvn is
not
an adverb but is the second accusative after hnft: comp.
on
hnf
with two accusatives, Ewald, p. 479. The qdcb denotes
the
righteousness of God, the property, according to which,
he
gives to every one his own, as the root of those answers
which
on account of it are peculiar to
Deut.
xxxii. 4. Many expositors, without any reason, translate
"in
grace" or "for salvation." In the second clause the Psalm-
says,
that the God, so superabundantly rich for
poor
even for all the rest of the earth. God is called the con-
fidence
of all the ends of the earth, in reference to what he is
actually in himself, not in reference to his
being acknowledged
as such. Even the rudest
heathen has in God the foundation of
his
existence, receives from him all that is requisite for his
life,
and without him must perish. The knowledge of God
cannot
be always wanting in places, where he
is really present.
What
the living God was for the whole earth even at the time when
the
knowledge of him was confined within the narrow limits of
would
be spread abroad over the whole earth. The
sea of
those afar off, of those who dwell afar
off, (compare Psalm
lvi.
1,) denotes those who dwell on the most distant sea, just as
"the
ends of the earth" denote those who dwell on its ut-
most
extremity. The mercies of God are co-extensive with human
need.
Luther: "One may run over the wide
world, even to
its
utmost extremity, yet thou art the only foundation on which
the
trust of man's heart can stand and remain." Psalms xviii. 49,
xxiv.
1, 2, xxii. lxviii., lvii. 9, and the prominence given to Elohim
in
the prayer of David, 2 Sam. vii. shew that it has been without
any
good reason that an inference in favour of a later date has
been
drawn from "the wide extent of the inhabitants of the
earth,
conscious of Jehovah's power."—In ver. 6, the mountains
are
named as being the most secure objects in nature, in the es-
tablishing
and keeping fast of which, (compare in reference to the
participle
at Ps. xxxiii. 7), the omnipotence of God, which is prais-
PSALM LXV. VER. 5-8. 319
ed
in general, in the second clause, is exhibited in the strongest
manner.
The conclusion of verse 7 makes it probable that the
Psalmist
thought at the same time upon mountains in a figura-
tive
sense, viz kingdoms: compare Ps.
xlvi. 3; Jer. li. 25; 1
Kings
ii. 12. Luther: "Who is he that has such a kingdom, as
that
there be under one single individual so many subjects, who
must
obey him, and so many lands and nations who are held in
subjection?
This can be none but God. Therefore he ought to
be
praised and thanked wherever this government remains.
For
the devil does not behold this with joy, but opposes it in
all
places, outwardly, through means of wicked neighbours, and
inwardly,
by disobedient subjects."—The connection of the
quieting
of the tumultuous sea, (this also is connected in Jer.
v.
22-24, with the giving of rain in its season, comp. also Ps.
lxxxix.
9,) with the tumultuous nations in ver. 7, appears all the
more
suitable, inasmuch as the sea is the usual emblem of the
power
of the world; compare Ps. xlvi. 3. In reference to this
last
expression, Luther: "Like as he
stilled Pharaoh with all his
people,
when he stormed and raged against
would
have devoured them. In like manner as he stilled the
king
of Assyria when he roared and raged against
Calvin
thus gives the sense of ver. 8 "From the rising to the
setting
of the sun, God is not only dreadful
but also the author
of joy." But that the
fear and the joy do not stand in opposi-
tion,
as might be supposed from this remark, but that the fear
implies
reverence, or holy awe, is evident from what follows,
where
"the tokens of God" manifestly mean only such tokens
as
are fitted to fill the mind with reverence
and not with terror.
The
tokens of God are the manifestations of his glory, every thing
by
which he makes himself known as God, such as those that
are
named by way of example in the preceding context, and such
as
those by which he is described in the following verses: our
verse
is the point of transition from the second to the third
strophe.
The more lively the sense of deity is, the more sus-
ceptible
is it of impressions from these signs. And even the
man
who, with hardened mind, suppresses those feelings of gra-
titude,
which are due to God, cannot altogether withdraw him-
self
from all sense of these, or from all secret misgivings
in
regard to them. Who, for example, is so deaf, as that the
thunder,
after striking upon his outward, does not penetrate
his
inward ear! And even though there were more exceptions
320 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
to
the "they are afraid," than there appear to be, still these
are
so completely irregular and unnatural, that the Psalmist
might
well disregard them. "The outgoings of the morning and
evening,"
(comp. on xcvm,
the place of outgoing, Christol: P. III.
p.
300; rqb,
and brf
are not places on the earth's surface, but
periods
of the day), are the places, the points in the heavens, from
which
the morning and the evening go out, the east and the
west.
And the east and the west stand, according to the parallel-
ism,
(the inhabitants of the ends,) for
those who dwell in the east
and
west.
The third strophe is from ver. 9 to
ver. 12: the glory of God,
which
manifests itself in the whole world, is revealed especially
in
his spreading blessing and prosperity over the whole earth,
even
to its most remote boundaries.—Ver. 9. Thou
visitest the
earth, and sendest it a
flood, thou makest it very rich, the foun-
tain of God has plenty
of water. Thou providest their corn, for
thus thou providest for
it.
Ver. 10. Thou waterest its furrows,
thou layest down its
ploughed fields, thou makest it soft with
rain, thou blessest its
increase.
Ver. 11. Thou crownest the year
of thy goodness, and thy
paths drop with fatness. Ver. 12. The
pastures of the wilderness
drop, and the little hills are girt round
with joy.—The verbs in ver. 9
refer, as is manifest from the in-
terchange
of preterites and futures, to something going out at
the
time. It is evident from the connection between the third
and
the second strophe, and especially between this verse and
the
8th one, that Crxh is not "the land," but "the
earth."
On,
"thou visitest the earth," Arnd: "The holy Spirit makes
use
of a homely word, when, in describing the fertilizing genial
rain,
he terms it a visiting of the earth. When a visit is made
by
rich and affectionate friends, they do not come empty, but
bring
with them a blessing, a good gift, to testify their fa-
vour
and love. Thus, although God is Lord over all, and fills
heaven
and earth, he does not at all times leave traces or marks
of
his presence. But when in time of drought he gives a gra-
cious
fertilizing shower, it is as if he paid us a visit, and brought
along
with him a great blessing, that we might mark his love and
his
goodness." The qqw is Pih, from qvw, to overflow: comp.
the
Hiph. in Joel 24; iv. 13. The tbr is the stat. constr.
pro-
perly, there is much of the "thou makest it
rich;" comp. Ewald, p.
507.
The hnrWft
is the form of the Hiph. with--Arnd:
"A
rich lord can by many gifts make a poor man very rich. So
PSALM LXV. VER.
9-12. 321
the
earth, were it not watered by God from above, would be
very
poor, and could not nourish us. But when God gives rain,
he
makes the land very rich." The channel, or the brook of
God, is in opposition to
the channels and brooks of earth.
Arnd:
"If this upper fountain does not
give water from above,
no
fountain or stream on earth will be of any avail; yea, they
are
all dried up, when there is no rain." Especially in
would
men seek and long for this upper fountain: see Deut. xi.
11.
What is said here directly of water, is applicable to salva-
tion
generally, both in a temporal and spiritual sense, compare
Ps.
xxxvi. 8. Arnd: "God's fountain of grace, the waters of
consolation
have plenty for all troubled and sad souls, so that
none
may go away comfortless." The suffix in Mngd refers to
men, Ps. iv. 7; the suffix
in hnykt
to the earth. God, like a
good
house-holder, provides for men their corn, in providing
rain
for the earth to make it fruitful. Luther: "Thou art the
right
master-cultivator, who cultivates the land much more and
much
better than the farmer does. He does nothing more to it
than
break up the ground, and plough, and sow, and then let it
lie.
But God must be always attending to it with rain and heat,
and
must do every thing to make it grow and prosper, while the
farmer
lies at home and sleeps, and has done nothing except
prepared
the ground."—The Hvr and tHn, in ver. 10 are in
finitives,
and not imperatives, which are not suitable either in this
connection,
or in a Psalm of praise. The reference to
the mere
action is enough, as the
particulars are given in what precedes
and
follows: Ewald, 355. The pressing down
of the furrows
Mydvdg is properly
"cuts," in all probability a purely poetical
term
of the Psalmist's own formation, as the proper term is
Mlt—indicates the richness
of the rain. The ggvm is properly
to
make to flow. Every thing helps to praise the paternal
goodness
of God. What he does in the material world, is, at
the
same time, a pledge and a symbol of the care with which he
watches
over his own people in spiritual matters,
to which every
thing
admits of being applied.—As the status constr. is never
used
instead of the status absol. we cannot translate ver. 11, in
any
other way than: the year of thy goodness,
i. e. to which all
thy
goodness belongs: comp. Deut. xi. 12, "A land for which
the
Lord thy God careth, to which the eyes of the Lord thy
God
are always directed, from the beginning of the year even
unto
the end of the year." The crown
which God puts upon
the
year of his goodness, (comp. Ps. ciii. is
composed of the
322 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
instances
of that goodness. The "fatness," is a figurative ex-
pression
for good things, comp. Ps. lxiii. 5: this follows him in
all
his foot-steps; his rain (comp. "thou visitest," in ver. 9),
creates
every where blessing and plenty."—"They drop," ver.
12,
with fatness, in consequence of thy visit. The "wilderness"
is
named as the most parched place on the earth, where the
blessing
is visible in the most striking manner: comp. Job xxxviii.
26,
27. The "joy" with which the little hills are girt, is that of
men
rendered happy at the sight of an abundant year.
The conclusion is ver. 13. The flocks are clad with lambs
and the valleys are
clothed with corn; they shout for joy and
sing. The flocks are clad with
lambs, i. e. are rich in them.
The
blessing of God manifests itself in the encrease of the
flocks,
which find rich nourishment in the pasture fertilized by
the
rain. On Myrk,
only lambs, not pasture, comp. Ps. xxxvii.
20.
Against the sense of pasture, we have
particularly the
article
in Nxch.
If this were in the accusative, and thus like
rb, it would, like the latter word, want the
article, or rb would
have
it:—and this all the more certainly, as the article in that
case
would mark out the flocks in
opposition to the corn. The
second
clause of the 12th verse shews, that the subject of both
the
two last verbs is the "valleys"—(not men sing). The refe-
rence,
however, to the title and to ver 8, shews that the song of
the
valleys does not come from themselves, but from the joyful
men
who inhabit them. The Jx; stands, as in Ps. xviii. 48, only
as
a particle of connection. Ps. lx. 8, and cviii. 9, shew that the
Hithpa.
fvr
means simply to "shout for joy."
PSALM LXVI.
THE Psalm is a song of thanksgiving
by the
after
protracted and severe trial. It is divided into three great
parts.
In the first, God is praised, (1-7), on
account of what
he
does to
of
what he had just now done, and in the third, (13-20), the
church
vows that she will give thanks.
The relation in which the second
division stands to the first,
which
is not that of something old to
something new, but that
of
the general to the special, bears a striking resemblance to the
PSALM LXVI. 323
plan
adopted in Ps. xlvi., in which the general idea is first brought
out,
and then, in the third strophe, the matter-of-fact is alluded
to,
which contained the special application. In the same way
also,
Ps. xlviii. and lxxvi. first describe the general relation of
God
to
grace.
All the three parts contain a
significant number; the first,
seven, which again breaks up,
according to a common custom,
into
a three and four, the first and second together, twelve, and
the
whole three, twenty. The first main
division is closed with
a
Selah: at the close of the second,
this mark is wanting, be-
cause
the division is sufficiently well indicated by the context:
and
for a similar reason it occurs at the end of the first sub-di-
vision
of the first and also of the third part, ver. 4 and 16, in
both
places, as also in ver. 7, before an imperative which intro-
duces
a new address.
The Title is, To the Chief Musician, a song of praise. Its
originality
is supported by the first verse, which, if taken with-
out
the title, seems too short and abrupt, and in which the
vfyrh forms a sort of parallelism with ryw. The title announces
neither
the author, nor the occasion, nor the date of the Psalm;
and
modern criticism therefore is left at full liberty to indulge
its
diseased propensity to bring down the Psalms to as late a
date
as possible. It has been pretty generally affirmed, that
the
deliverance, celebrated in our Psalm, is the deliverance from
the
Babylonish captivity. The contents,
however, are alto-
gether
against this idea. The expressions, "he suffered not
our
feet to slide," in ver. 9, and, "I called to him with my
mouth,
and a song of Praise was on my tongue," i. e. "I had
scarcely
called upon him, when, by delivering me, he gave me
occasion
to praise him," exclude every reference to a calamity
so
grievous, and so protracted, as the Babylonish captivity. The
detailed
representation of suffering in ver. 9-12, does not con-
tain
one word about the leading away of the
people into capti-
vity. The temple appears in
ver. 13 as standing, and there is
no
expression to indicate that it had been re-built: nay, it is im-
possible
to entertain the idea of a re-built temple, inasmuch as
the
people express their determination to give thanks to God in
the
temple for their deliverance, immediately after having ob-
tained
it, and a succession of years intervened between the
completing
of the second temple and the return of the exiles.
Finally,
the idea of the captivity is excluded by verse 18th,
324 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
where
the people give great prominence to their innocence,
and
affirm
that God, for this reason, had heard their prayer for
deliverance.
The captivity in
guished
as being an affliction for sin; compare the introduction
to
Ps. xliv.
If we are thus compelled to take our
stand on this side of the
captivity,
we have another reason to prevent us from assigning
to
the authorship a higher date than the time of Hezekiah.
The,
"come, behold the deeds of the Lord," in ver. 5, is literal-
ly
copied from Ps. xlvi. 8; we cannot consider as accidental,
the
occurrence of tvlfpm in both of these passages and nowhere
else;
in like manner, the throughout original character of Ps.
xlvi.
leads us to something else than a return of similar circum-
stances.
It would therefore seem natural to take up the position
which
many have done, that the deliverance celebrated in our
Psalm,
is, as there, the deliverance from the Assyrians.
But a
closer
inspection leads to a different result. The trouble and
the
deliverance are, with manifest design, depicted in such
general terms,—amid a multitude
of images, there is only one
specific
feature, namely, that it is a deliverance from the hands
of
enemies that is celebrated,—that it is impossible to avoid
considering
our Psalm as of a general character, and applying
"we
shall praise thee, 0 Lord God," to every deliverance from
hostile
power. And yet the Psalm manifestly stands in a certain
relation
to the deliverance under Hezekiah. Such Psalms, for
the
use of the church of all ages, were composed only at times
when
passing events made a deep impression on the mind.
While
Psalm xlvi. celebrates one great transaction, as also does
Psalm
lxxvi. and even Psalm lxxv. specially refers to it, the
author
of our Psalm was led, from the same event, to compose
a
song which might be suitable at all times, when something
similar
occurred.
The first strophe is ver. 1-7. After
an exhortation to the
whole
earth to praise God, ver. 1-4, (compare at Psalm xlvii.
1,)
there follows, in ver. 4-7, the basis
of the same: the Lord
manifests
his glory in a multitude of mighty deeds, deliver-
ances
on behalf of his people, and judgments on the insolent
heathen
world. The Psalmist, before passing on to what is par-
ticular,
selects the proper place in which it ought to be intro-
duced,
by taking a rapid glance at the mighty whole.—Ver. 1.
Shout for joy to God,
all lands.
Ver. 2. Sing the glory of his
name, give glory to his
praise.
Ver. 3. Say to God, How ter-
PSALM LXVI. VER.
1-7. 325
rible art thou in thy
works, on account of the multitude of thy
strength thine enemies
must feign (submission) to thee. Ver. 4.
All lands worship thee,
they sing to thee, they sing thy name.
Ver.
5. Come and see the works of God, who is
terrible in his
deeds on the children of
men.
Ver. 6. He turns the sea into dry
land, they go through
the flood on foot, there we will rejoice in
him. Ver. 7. He rules eternally by his power, his eyes
spy out
among the nations, the
rebellious may not exalt themselves.—
On
"the glory of his name" = "the glory which belongs to
him
according to his glorious deeds and manifestations," comp.
Ps.
xxix. 1, 2. The parallel passages, Jos. vii. 19, Ps. xxix. 1,
Isa.
xlii. 12, Jer. xiii. 16, John ix. 24, show that we cannot
translate
the second clause, "make his praise glorious," but
only,
"give glory as his praise," or, "to his praise:" dvbk, is
the
thing to be given, and the second object, is vtlht, comp.
Ewald,
p. 480. The angels give formally
glory to God, in Ps.
xxix.
9: compare "Holy, holy, holy, all lands are full of his
glory,"
in Isa. vi.-- In verses 3 and 4, we have the words in
which
the nations of the earth should give glory to God. The
translation,
"how terrible are thy works," is not grammatically
incorrect,
but, on comparing verse 5, it becomes manifest that
we
must translate, "how terrible art thou in thy works,"—the
jyWfm, as well as the hlylf
being an
accusative; comp. Ew.
§
483. The "thou" is wanting, as in Ps. lxviii. 36, "dreadful,
God,
(art thou,) from out of thy sanctuary." In reference to
"they
feign," compare Ps. xviii. 44. The greatness of God's
might,
and the terrible nature of his deeds, are evident from the
fact
that all who oppose must be subject, must tamely submit,
must
conceal their aversion. Pharaoh's is an example of such
forced
submission, comp. ver. 6.--In ver. 4, "they feign," ren-
ders
it necessary for us to consider "they worship" as, equiva-
lent
to "may they worship."—The
"come, see the deeds of
God,"
in ver. 5, to which allusion is so strikingly made in John
i.
46, 47, indicates the prominent place which the manifestation
of
the glory of God occupies before the eyes of the whole hea-
then
world: it is not with idle phantoms but with realities that
they
have to do; and this is the reason why the confident hope
is
entertained, by the people of the revelation, that the heathen
world
shall be won over to God through the influence of what
has
happened. The church still addresses the same language,
"come
and see," to all, whether within or without, who are
afar
off. The deeds of God are dreadful
even to those to whom
326 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
deliverance
is brought. For his tremendous majesty is mani-
fested
in them, comp. Ps. lxv. 5, 8. The lf points out the
children
of men as the object on which the deeds of God are
performed:—the
patient in opposition to the agent. The pre-
terite
jpH in
ver. 6, stands, as the following future shews, in the
sense
of a present. The Psalmist refers to the passage through
the
Red Sea and the
took
place and were concluded at a given period of time, but as
to
events which are really happening in every age. God's guid-
ance
of his people is a constant drying up of the sea and of the
new
materials. The idea, that the sole reference is to those parti-
cular
transactions, which took place at the origin of the nation,
is
inconsistent with what goes before, "Come and see the deeds
of
the Lord," which implies that it is something actually pre-
sent
that is referred to, with the entirely general contents of
verse
7, with the future vrbfy following immediately the pre-
terite,
and lastly, even although this in every case could be ac-
counted
for by a realization of past events, with the hHmwn
which
can be translated in no other way than by "we will re-
joice,"
(comp. Ps. xlii. 4. iv. 2), a resolution to do that for which
God
is continually giving rich opportunity, and which does not
admit,
except in a case of absolute necessity, of being taken as
a
resolution adopted by the nation in an absolutely general sense.
Moreover,
there is all the less reason to maintain, in spite of all
these
arguments, the reference to past events, inasmuch as the
deliverances
which took place in the days of old, are in several
passages
considered as pledges of deliverances to come, and the
succeeding
events of God's gracious providence are described
in
figurative language borrowed from former events: comp. for
example,
Is. xi. 15, 16, where the drying up of the
and
of the
pected
to take place, Zech. x. 11, "And the Lord passes through
the
sea, affliction, and smites the waves in the sea, and all the
floods
of the
these
passages, especially on the last. If the sense of the verse
in
general be correctly determined, there remains no reason for
departing
from the usual sense in regard to "the flood," by
which
is thus meant the
the
Euphrates is substituted in room of the little
in
Zech. x. 11, the
that
the wonder at the
PSALM LXVI. VER. 8-12. 327
scale.
"There,"—"on the theatre of these glorious transac-
tions."
"We will rejoice," is an
energetic expression for "we
may rejoice."—The
expression, "his eyes spy among the hea-
then,"
ver. 7 indicates that the self-sufficiency of earthly power
is
only apparent. God from his high
watch tower beholds every
thing,
guides every thing, brings down every haughty effort,
which
may be made against himself, or against his church. In
the
last clause, the expression assumes a hortatory character:
"they
may not exalt themselves," i. e. "I would advise them
not
to do so." For the contest against Omnipotence must bring
evil
upon them, and pride comes before a fall, as surely as there
is
a God in heaven. Compare the lx in Ps. xxxiv. 5, xli.
2, 1.
3.
The vml shews that what they had
undertaken, with a view
to
their own advantage, had turned out to their own loss: Ps.
lviii.
7, lxiv. 5. Instead of the Hiph. of the
verb Mvr
to which
we
must supply the head, or some similar
word, (Ps. cx. 7, lxvii.
4),
the Masorites read the Kal:—this, however, is unsuitable, as
it
does not express the idea of action.
The second strophe is ver. 8-12. The
constant use of the
preterites,
throughout this passage, makes it evident that we
have
here a description of some special trouble and deliverance,
in
which had been manifested the glory which had been de-
scribed
in general terms in the preceding verses. Ver. 8. Praise
ye nations our God, and
cause the voice of his praise to be heard.
Ver.
9. Who putteth our soul into life, and
does not suffer
our foot to slide. Ver. 10. For thou didst prove us, 0 God,
thou didst purify us as
silver is purified.
Ver. 11. Thou
broughtest us into the
net, thou laidest affliction upon our loins:
Ver.
12. Thou didst let men ride upon our
heads, we came into
fire and into water, and
thou didst lead as out to affluence.—
In
ver. 9 the calamity is represented as a death,
and the deliver-
ance
as a putting of the soul into life—a
revivification: comp.
Ps.
xxx. 3, "thou hast brought up my soul from hell," and at
Ps.
lxiii. 3. In reference to the "sliding," see Ps. xv. 5, lv. 22.
—On
"thou didst prove us," ver. 10, the Berleb Bible: "Thou
bast
by many heats of trouble tried the worth and the steadfast-
ness
of our faith, hope and patience, as men examine metals by
the
fire": compare Zech. xiii. 9, 1 Pet. i. 7. The "thou didst
purify
us," shews that the protestation of innocence in ver. 18th,
has
reference only to the fundamental aim,
and does not exclude
manifold
sins of infirmity, the existence of which justified the ap-
328 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
pointment
of the divine chastisement. The purification separates
the
dross: comp. Isa. i. 25, "I will purify, as with prepared water,
all
thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin," Zech. xiii. 9. Silver
requires
a particularly continuous and repeated purification: comp.
Ps.
xii. 6; Isa. xlviii. 10, "I have refined thee, but not as silver,
I
have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."—The hqvfm,
in
ver. 11, is straitness, oppression,
sorrow: compare hqf in Ps.
1v.
3. The loins are named as the seat of
strength: comp.
Deut.
xxxiii. 11; Ps. lxix. 23, and Gesen. Thes. When they are
weakened,
the strength generally is gone, and the man is weak
and
miserable. Some translate erroneously: straitening,
op-
pressing fetters; others: an oppressing burden. But fetters are
not
put on the loins, and loins do not carry burdens.—In verse
12th,
the head is named as the noblest
part, without strict re-
gard
to whether, in the case of beasts, the rider sits on the head
or
not. In reference to wvnx, comp. at Ps. viii. 4. The more
miserable
the master is, the more oppressive is
the servitude.
On
"we came into fire and water," comp. Isa. xliii. 2. The
hyvr occurs only here and in Ps. xxiii. 5. Calvin: "The sum
is,
although God may chastise severely his own people by tem-
poral
punishments, yet he always gives them a happy and joy-
ful
issue." Arnd: "Many thousands
of pious Israelites, under
the
Old Testament, and many thousands of Christians, under the
New,
have been literally delivered out of such troubles, but many
thousands
have had to lay down their lives, whom God has de-
livered
and brought to life as regards their soul, as the pious mar-
tyr
Babylas said when he was led to death: Be now joyous, 0
my
soul, the Lord is doing good to thee.'"
The third strophe is from ver. 13 to
20. Calvin: "The sense
is,
the glory of God would be unworthily suppressed, if, as often
as
he stands by us in trouble, our thanksgivings
did not follow
upon
our obtaining deliverance." Instead of the "we," which
occurs
in the preceding paragraph, we have here "I." The
speaker
cannot be the Psalmist, or "every particular heart."
Against
this we have the magnificent character of the sacrifices,
and
the circumstance that the trouble and the deliverance which
are
here appropriated to one individual, are manifestly the same,
as
what are spoken of in the preceding part of the Psalm, as be-
longing
to the whole. In like manner, it
cannot be king
Hezekiah,
because the general character of the whole Psalm is
against
such a historical interpretation. The speaker is rather
PSALM LXVI. VER. 13-20. 329
an
ideal person, the personification of the people, the "angel of
the
congregation." For it is evident from the address to the
fearers
of God, in ver. 16th, that we cannot exactly say that
it
is the people who speak. Similar
personifications of the people
are
frequent: comp. for example, Ps. lx., lxv. 3.—Ver. 13. I
will come into thy house
with burnt offerings, I will pay to thee
my vows. Ver. 14. Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth
hath spoken in my
trouble.
Ver. 15. I will bring to thee burnt
offerings of fat lambs
with the smoke of rams, I will offer bullocks
with goats.—Ver. 16. Come, hear, and let me tell, all ye that
fear God, what he hath
done to my soul.
Ver. 17. I cried to
him with my mouth, and a
song of praise was under my tongue.
Ver.
18. Had I regarded iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would
not have heard me. Ver. 19. But the Lord has heard me and
marked my supplication. Ver. 20. Blessed be God, who has
not removed my prayer
nor his grace from
like
the first, is complete in seven
verses: the twentieth is to be
considered
as a conclusion: and the strophe like
the first one is
divided
into two parts, consisting, the one of four, and the other
of
three verses.—The outward offerings, in ver. 13-15, are to
be
considered only as embodiment of the gifts of the heart.
The
soul is the thanksgiving of the heart. Vows
have burnt
offerings for their subject
matter. The full enumeration of the
animals,
to be offered in sacrifice, spews the zeal, with which the
thanks
and the offerings are given.—The vcp in ver. 14, is "to
open
the mouth wide," and, secondarily, "to talk," Job xxxv.
16.
The expression indicates the distress
which called forth the
vow,
so that the vcp contains in it the expression of the second
clause,—in my trouble.—
MyHym, fat, in ver. 15, is fat sheep.
The
smoke of rams, (used only here in
this sense: in other pas-
sages
always of incense), is the kindled fat of the rams. The
hWf, to make,
then to prepare, to set in order, is
frequently
used
of the bringing of offerings—In ver, 16-19, the reference
to
the occasion of rendering thanks to
God, namely, the answer
which
had been vouchsafed to the speaker, prepared the way
for
passing on to the leading idea of this paragraph, viz. the
emphatic
declaration that this answer had been
vouchsafed to
him only on the ground
of his innocence,
the didactic and horta-
tory
tendency of which is only slightly veiled, viz. that there
is
no way to salvation except that of well doing. The soul is
named
in ver. 16th, because it had been exposed to danger:
330 'THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
comp.
ver. 9.—The Mmvr in ver. 17, is a noun,—exaltation,
praise: see its plural, Ps.
cxlix. 6. "Under my tongue," as at
Ps.
x. 7, indicates the fulness of the
song of praise. As soon as
the
Psalmist cried, he got occasion, through the deliverance
vouchsafed,
to praise God: comp. Ps. xviii. 3, "I cried unto the
Lord,
and I was delivered from my enemies," Ps. xxxiv. 4-6.
We
cannot translate, "I cried, etc. and now there is"; for the
reference
to the present would have been
clearly intimated.
According
to the analogy of the first clause, the preterite only
must
be supplied also in the second. Even the deliverance
itself
belongs
now to the past. Much less however can we translate:
"I
praised God in confident expectation
of his help." For in
this
case, no account would have been given of the result; the
result,
however, throughout the following verses is spoken of as
having
been obtained.—The following are parallel passages to
verse
18th: Job xv. 29, "The Lord is far from the wicked, and
he
hears the prayer of the righteous;" John ix. 13; Isaiah i. 15,
"Though
ye pray ever so much, I will not hear you, your hands
are
full of blood;" lsa. lix. 2, 3, "But your iniquities have se-
parated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face
from you, that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled
with
blood, and your fingers with iniquity;" 1 John iii. 21 "If
our
heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards
God,
and whatsoever we ask we receive of him:" compare on
the
connection between righteousness and salvation, Ps. xvii,
xviii,
xxxiv. 11. The hxr is, as at Gen. xx. 10, "to have
before
the eyes." The Nvx is always unrighteousness,
wickedness,
never
vanity, in the sense of false gods. The exposition, "if
the
design of my prayer had been directed to any thing evil,"
has
originated in theological views. The language does not re-
fer
at all to the object of the prayer,
but it intimates that the
fundamental
condition of the answer consisted in this, that not-
withstanding
all weakness, the inward fundamental aim of the
soul
is still pure and blameless, that the heart is entirely free
from
all secret wickedness—recondita
malitia.—But God has
heard, etc. ver. 19, and
therefore has shewn that this hindrance
to
salvation does not exist in my case.—Ver. 20th, if given
in
full, would have been, "Who has not removed my prayer
from him, and his grace from
me."
PSALM LXVII. 331
PSALM
LXVII.
THE church expresses a wish to God
that he would impart to
her
blessing and salvation, in order that the manifestation of
his
grace, in his guidance of his people, may bring all the
heathen
to him: verses 2 and 3. This wish depends on the
firm
basis of the word and the deeds of God; and the confident
assurance, (verses 4 and 5)
therefore stands in its proper place,
that
the nations in future shall praise the Lord, on account of
his
righteous and good government, with which they become
acquainted
in the first instance, from his conduct towards his
own
people. In verses 6-8 the church
grounds this confidence,
specially
on a blessing enjoyed at the present time, namely, the
rich
harvest which God grants to his people.
The only reference to a matter of
fact contained in the Psalm,
viz:
"the land gave its increase," is sufficient to determine the
occasion
on which it was composed: the title, To
the Chief
Musician, for
instrumental music, a song of praise, is alto-
gether
general; compare on ryw, at Psalm lxv. The Psalm was
composed
on the completion of harvest; and
that it was design-
ed
for the temple service, is obvious from the title, "to the
chief
musician," and from the reference to the priestly blessing
in
ver. 1st.
The Psalm contains the complete
number of seven verses,
which
is divided, as generally, into a four and a three. The se-
cond
part is separated from the first, by this, that the special
blessing
of God, presently enjoyed, is first made mention of in
it—a
blessing which had rendered vivid in the minds of men
the
thought of the Psalm, "that the blessing of God upon
shall
at a future time allure to him all the nations of the earth."
By
this thought the Psalm is connected with the
preceding one:
and
it is assuredly for this reason that the two have been as-
sociated
together. The same thought which had been called
forth
by a deliverance of the people, is here suggested by the
usual
operations of nature. Every manifestation of the power
and
grace of God awakens in
relation,
in which the heathen stand towards him shall, in fu-
ture,
cease to exist.
The constant use of the general name
of God, Elohim, has
been
occasioned by the contents of the Psalm, which announce
the
conversion of all the nations of the earth. The name Jehovah
332 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
stands
in reality every where along side of
it, and the Elohim
only
gives prominence to the idea of the universality which is
admissible
along side of the greatest limitation, but on the
ground
of this was frequently misunderstood.
The word Elohim
must
have been designed to recall this idea always afresh to
the
minds of the people: comp. the Beitr. P. II. p. 299, 312.
The first part of the first strophe
is ver. 1 and 2.—Ver. 1
May God be gracious to
us, and bless us, may he cause his face
to shine with us. Ver. 2. That thy way may be known upon
the earth, thy salvation
among all nations.
The Psalmist at
first
speaks of God, because he confines himself strictly to the
blessing
of Moses, Num. vi. 24, 25; but as soon as he leaves it,
he
addresses God. The wish in ver. 1, is
for grace and blessing,
in
every respect. The sixth verse renders it manifest that tem-
poral blessings are not
excluded, but that these are in the first
instance referred to; compare
also the expansion in Deut.
1-14.
In the fullest sense, however, (and we may say this both
of
the prayer and of the design of it), the fulfilment is only in
Christ. It is only after God
has imparted all the blessings of
grace
and salvation in him to his own people, that there
follow
really and comprehensively those effects upon the
heathen
world which are the object of the Psalmist's wishes
and
hopes. In reference to the light and the shining of the
face
of God, comp. at Ps. iv. 6, xxxi. 16. Instead of the "upon"
of
the priestly blessing, we have here "with,"— the tx being
used
exactly as it is in Gen. iv. 1,—so that his shining counte-
nance
may guide us along our way.—On ver. 2, Calvin says:
"The
prophet wishes, that the favour of God towards the chosen
people
may become visible, in order that, by its splendour, it
may
lead the heathen to the hope of sharing in it." The way
of
God is his procedure: from his guiding of
then
shall know how God acts, what are
those treasures of sal-
vation
which are laid up with him for his people; as, even at
the
present time, there are not more powerful means of bring-
ing
the world to God, than the perception of the gifts which he
imparts
to the living members of his church: comp. Ps. xxv.
10,
"all the ways of God are grace
and truth": ciii. 7, "He
has
made known his ways to Moses, his
deeds to the children of
the
translation, "his religion": comp. Ps. xcvi. 2, xcviii. 2. The
PSALM LXVI. VER.
3-7. 333
thought,
that the blessings of
fluence
on heathen nations, occurs also in the promises made to
the
patriarchs, Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, "And all the nations of the
earth
shall be blessed in thy seed," i. e. they wish for, and they
earnestly
desire for themselves the lot of
good,
and this wish shall be the means of their obtaining the
blessing,
(to be blessed, Niph. Gen. xii. 3,
xviii. 18), inasmuch as
it
will lead them to the author of the blessing. Isa. lx. 3 also
is
parallel: "and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to
the brightness of thy rising."
The second part of the first strophe
is ver. 3 and 5.—Ver. 3.
The nations shall praise
thee, 0 God, all the nations shall praise
thee. Ver. 4. The nations shall be glad and shout for joy,
be-
cause thou judgest the
people righteously, and guidest the nations
upon earth. There is first an
announcement of the future con-
version
of the nations, and then a reference to the basis of this.
This
last is to be supplemented from ver. 1 and 2:—because, as
the example of Israel
shews,
or as they see from the experience
of
nection,
the language refers only to these nations who have sub-
mitted
to the dominion of the Lord, and who have spoken as at
Isa.
ii. 3. God acts judicially every time he imparts satiation.
As
an expansion of "he judges," we may refer to what is said
in
Ps. lxvii. 12-14, of the judicial conduct of Messiah. On
rvwym, properly, "even," then
"evenness," in a moral sense,
in
the accusative here, as Mvrwym in Ps. lviii. 1, comp. at Ps.
xlv.
6. On "thou guidest;" comp. Isa. lviii. 11, "And the Lord
guides
thee continually and satisfies thy soul in drought."
The
second strophe is ver. 5-7.—Ver. 5. Nations
shall
praise thee, 0 God, all
the nations shall praise thee. Ver. 6.
The land hath given its
increase, God, our God, blesses us.
Ver.
7. God blesses us, and all the ends of
the earth shall fear
him.—For ought in reality to be
supplied before ver. 6. The
Psalmist
tells us here what it was that had given him occasion
and
ground for his hope that the heathen, at a future time,
should
praise the Lord. First, a special event, which had just
occurred,
and which is expressed in the preter. tense; and, se-
cond,
a general truth which had received
from that event a re-
cent
confirmation, and, in the annunciation of which, the future
tense
is employed. The words in which the first is represented
are
borrowed from Lev. xxvi. 4 so designedly literal, as to ren-
334 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
der
it manifest that attention was designed to be directed to the
faithfulness
of God in fulfilling his promises: "And
I give you
rain
in due season, and the land gives its
increase, and the trees
of
the fields give their fruit,"—a reference which refutes the idea
that
the Crxh
here denotes the whole earth, (the "our
God"
serves
the same purpose), and that the fruit of the land is a figurative
expression
for blessings generally. In reference to this thought,
Calvin:
"We must maintain, that as often as
God adorned that
ancient
people with his benefits, he, at the same time, shone
upon
the whole world with a burning torch, so as to allure the
heathen
to seek him." In ver. 7, "God blesses us," is repeat-
ed
for the purpose of connecting immediately together cause
and
effect:—"And because God blesses
us," etc.
PSALM LXVIII.
THE
Psalmist, in ver. 1-6, praises the Lord as the Saviour of
the
righteous, and the destroyer of the wicked. Then he casts
his
eye upon the grand manifestations of his almighty grace on
behalf
of his people, as seen in their history. First, in verses
7-10,
what he did for them when he led them through the
wilderness,
until he brought them to the promised land. Next,
in
ver. 11-14, the victory and the happy peace which he grant-
ed
to his people in the time of the judges, until the erection of
the
sanctuary on
chosen
will
never forsake, and where he sits enthroned in the sanctuary,
with
all the fulness of his might: he has just
made himself known
as the God of
his people. Having arrived at this
point, the Psalmist in ver. 20-
23,
turns (the point of transition is really the 19th verse) back
from
what is special to what is general, so that the former is en-
closed
within the latter; "God annihilates his own and his peo-
ple's
enemies." Next there follows, in ver. 24-27, the descrip-
tion
of the triumphal procession in celebration of the victory. In
ver.
28-34, there follows, as based on what God has done at
the
present time, the prophetic hope of
the conversion of all the
heathen to this glorious God of
Israel; and in ver. 32-35, all
the
kingdoms of the world are exhorted to praise this God.—
PSALM LXVIII. 335
It
is manifest that in these two last strophes, there is to be
found
the reason why the Psalm has been annexed to the two
preceding
ones, in which the hope is expressed, that what God
had
done for
nations.
The originality of the title is
supported by the vryw and the
vrmz, in verse 4, the Myrw and the Myngn in ver. 25, and
the
vryw
and vrmz,
in verse 32, in relation obviously to
ryw rmzm. As regards the formal arrangement,
there are
seven
strophes, each of four verses, corresponding to an intro-
duction
of seven verses. The seven is, as
usual, divided into
three
and four. At the end of the third strophe, there occurs
an
intercalary verse, ver. 19th, (as is often the case, for example
in
Ps. xxii. xlii.), in order that the chief division may be indi-
cated
by the number 20: the whole 36a verses contain three
twelves.
This intercalary verse is marked out as a concluding
verse,
by its striking resemblance to the conclusion of the whole,
verse
35.
The title bears simply the
announcement that the Psalm was
composed
by David, and set apart by him for the public service:
but
is silent as to the occasion for
which it was more imme-
diately
designed. For determining this last point, we have thus
nothing
to look to except internal reasons. Many expositors, and
latterly
Stier, have come to the conclusion, that the Psalm
was
written on the occasion when the ark of the covenant was
placed
on
adopted
the idea, that the occasion must have been the termi-
nation
of some war, when the ark was brought back again to
the
holy mountain. This last view is the correct one. A strong
argument
in its favour is drawn from the circumstance, that God
is
throughout celebrated too decidedly as the Lord
of battle and
of
victory. The introductory clause,
"God arises, his enemies
scattered,
and they who hate him flee before him," gives forth
the
fundamental tone, and the subject of
the whole Psalm;
while,
at the same time, in a Psalm sung at the restoration of
the
ark of the covenant, and of such a length, other
subjects also
would
be introduced. Farther, we are led to a victory
as the
occasion,
by the 18th verse, which, like the 6th verse of Psalm
a These remarks are
founded on the Hebrew mode of numbering the verses.
The
title being marked ver. 1st, the 19th verse in the English translation is
the
20th verse in the Hebrew Bible, and the 35th, the 36th.
336 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lxvii.
"the earth gave its increase," announces the matter of
fact
which called forth the Psalm, and which ought to be con-
sidered
as supplementary to the title, and should properly be
printed
in large characters. Then we have the epithets which
are
applied in ver. 27 to Benjamin and Judah, and, finally, the
close
adaptation to the victory-song of
Deborah:—inasmuch as
the
author, in ver. 7 and 8, at the very beginning of his chief
division,
refers literally to the beginning of the chief division of
this
song, he declares, as distinctly as possible, that he walks
in
the footsteps of Deborah, and that
his song is to be consid-
ered
as a continuation or echo of hers, exactly, as in the ob-
viously
designed reference, in the opening verse of the Psalm,
to
the language of Moses, it is intimated, that the text and the
subject
of the whole are taken from him.
We have two data to guide us in our
enquiry, as to what par-
ticular
battle and victory the triumphal procession belongs,
which,
according to ver. 24-27, advanced to the holy place,
as
celebrated in this Psalm. First, the Psalm must have been
composed
at a time when the holy place was actually in exist-
ence
on
very
much narrowed. There remain only two great victories,
the
Syrian-Edomite, and the Ammonitic-Syrian. Second, in
the
war referred to in this Psalm, the ark of
the covenant must
have
been in the field, according to ver. 1 and 24. It is evident
from
2 Sam. xi. 11, that this was the case in the Ammonitic war.
We
may therefore with great probability conclude, that the
Psalm
was composed after the capture of Rabbah, (2 Sam. xii.
26-31),
which terminated that war, the most dangerous with
which
David had to do. It was quite in accordance with Da-
vid's
usual manner to celebrate a great religious festival at the
close
of such a war. The character of conclusiveness which our
Psalm
so manifestly bears, is in favour of this view. That war
was
the last important external war in which David engaged,
and,
from existing circumstances, he might pretty confidently
conclude
that it would be so. The name of Solomon, which
soon
after this he gave to his son, shews that he considered peace
as
now secured for a long time.
Modern criticism has unwarrantably
attacked this Psalm.
Many,
with Ewald at their head, would bring it down to
a
period after the captivity: a mistake well fitted to fill the
mind
with astonishment! The character of the language
PSALM LXVIII. 337
and
of the description, which Amyraldusa first characterized in
very
striking language, is sufficient to prove this. Boettcher
(Probes.
p. 64,) says: "From its antique language, its impres-
sive
descriptions, the fresh and powerful tone of its poetry, it is
assuredly
one of the most ancient monuments of Hebrew poet-
ry."
Hitzig "Before every thing else, the Psalm, to an atten-
tive
reader, conveys the impression of the highest originality....
The
poem is thus assuredly as remarkable for its antiquity as for
its
originality; for the later writers could avail themselves of
the
use of models, and they have actually used them and imi-
tated
them." The idea of Ewald, which he makes use of to
counteract
these considerations, viz. that the Psalm is made up
of
a series of splendid passages from poems now lost, must be
characterized
as merely an arbitrary one, at least so long as not
one
single passage can be pointed out, as borrowed by the au-
thor
from any of those pieces at present in our possession, which
were
composed after the time of David. The distance between
those
pretendedly borrowed passages, and
others where the
sense
is plain and easy, occurs in the same way, for example, in
Ps.
xviii., which even Ewald allows to he genuine.—There is a
close
connection between that Psalm and the one now before
us,
so much so, that the description given by Amyraldus applies
with
equal truth to both; there are also characteristic refer-
ences
in particular expressions to other Davidic Psalms, and to
these
alone; compare the exposition.
But the reasons, drawn from the matters of fact referred to in
the
Psalm are much more decisive. It is of great importance
here,
that, according to ver. 27, Zabulon and Naphtali take part
in
the procession, next after Judah and Benjamin. After the
captivity,
some of the descendants of the ten tribes might be
found
united with
thing
as the distinct tribes of Zabulon and Naphtali with their
princes.
During the whole period when the two divided king-
doms
existed in a state of juxtaposition to each other, there
could
be no union between Benjamin and Judah and Zabulon
and
Naphtali; and even though they were sometimes united, (a
supposition
on which Hitzig would interpret the 27th verse,) yet,
a "There are in it
poetic descriptions, and bold metaphors, frequent apos-
trophes,
magnificent prosopopoeias, and words which are of rare occurrence,
and
well selected, and therefore not easily understood.—It has also others
which
are quite easy; it has doctrines sufficiently well explained to be under-
stood
and expressed in, ordinary language."
338 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
apart
from the consideration, that next to
tribe
that would have been named, and that the naming of the
northern
and southern tribes is equivalent to naming a part in-
stead
of the whole, especially when Ps. lx. 7 is compared, it is ut-
terly
impossible that these tribes could ever have marched in com-
pany
as part of a triumphal procession into
moreover,
go back from the division of the kingdom to the time
of
David. For under Solomon there were no such war and vic-
tory
as the Psalm before us refers to. Farther, the epithets ap-
plied
to Judah and Benjamin, in verse 27, can be explained on-
ly
from the relations which existed in the time of David: the
mention
of
world,
shows that the Psalm was composed before the rise of
the
great Asiatic monarchies, especially the Assyrian:
pears
everywhere as a warlike and victorious nation, (compare
especially
ver. 21-23), and an event such as that which, ac-
cording
to verse 18, formed the subject matter of the Psalm,
could
not take place subsequent to the captivity.
The reasons which have been urged against the Davidic au-
thorship
of the Psalm are very trifling. In reference to the
mention
of the temple in verse 29, compare at
Ps. v. 7. That in
ver.
30 and 31 there are no traces whatever of such hostile re-
lations
towards
as
in rebellion against God, which it did in David's time, and
continued
to do until the rise of the great Assyrian monarchy,
is
evident from the circumstance that
a
state of hostility to
The Introduction contains first the title, after that the praise
of
God, as the Almighty destroyer of the wicked, and the de-
liverer
of the just, (ver. 1-3), and finally, the exhortation to
praise
him as the helper of all the miserable, (ver. 4-6).—Title.
To the Chief Musician,
by David, a song of praise. Ver. 1.
God arises, his enemies
are scattered, and those that hate him
flee before him. Ver. 2. As smoke vanishes, thou makest them to
vanish, as wax melts
before the fire, the wicked perish before
God. Ver. 3. And the righteous are glad, they shout for
joy
before God, and exult
for gladness.—Ver.
4. Sing to God, sing
praise to his name, make
a way for him, who rideth forward in
the deserts, he is
called Lord, and rejoice before him. Ver. 5.
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
1-6. 339
Father of the orphans,
and judge of the widows is God, in his
holy habitation. Ver. 6. God makes the solitary to dwell in
houses, he brings out
the prisoners to prosperity, yet the rebels
inhabit a dry land. On verse 1, Calvin:
"This verse forms
as
it were the preface, in which David
announces the subject
on
which he is to speak throughout the Psalm. The substance
is:
though God rest for a time while the
ungodly cruelly and
boldly
oppress the church, yet at last he rises up as the avenger;
and
the faithful have sufficient protection in his help, as soon as
he
only stretches out his hand against the ungodly." As the
preceding
Psalm rises on the basis of the Mosaic blessing, the
present
one is closely related to the words which according to
Num.
x. 35, Moses uttered on the setting forward of the ark of
the
covenant, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scat-
tered,
and let them that hate thee flee before thee." There is
all
the greater propriety in this reference, inasmuch as these
words
were spoken for all times, and were designed to inspire
with
courage in every age the little flock in presence of a whole
hostile
world: one single look at the ark of the
covenant, whose
place,
under the New Testament, Christ occupies (compare
Christology,
Part III. on Jer. iii. 16), and all enemies sink
down
into nothing. There are only two variations from the
fundamental
passage. 1. What Moses expressed in the form
of
a prayer—arise,—David expresses in
the form of an invaria-
ble
sequence: he rises = he needs only to
rise. Several inter-
preters
translate erroneously: "May he arise": David in this
case
would assuredly have written hmvq: the language, more-
over,
in the following verses, is not that of prayer, but of affir-
mation.
2. Instead of Jehovah, David uses Elohim; and this
name
is the one which is generally used throughout the Psalm;
Jehovah
occurs only twice, in ver. 16 and 20, and Jah twice,
in
ver. 4 and 18. The reason of this has been given in the
Beitrage, 3, p. 299. It lies in
the misuse of the name Jehovah,
which
changed the name stronger in and for itself, into the
weaker.
It was also remarked in the same place, that in such
passages
Jehovah is in the back ground, and that the simple
Elohim is equivalent to Jehovah Elohim,: comp. the Jah Elo-
him in ver. 18th.—Tholuck
has given a correct view of the con-
tents
of this verse, "as the great theme, which is continually
being
repeated, always under new forms, in the history of the
prehend
and complete all earlier judgments of God." Luther,
340 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
after
Augustine, has given great prominence to the verification
which
the verse received at the resurrection of Christ: "When
Christ
died, God acted as if he were asleep and did not see the
raging
Jews, he permitted them to gather strength and to as-
semble,
and the poor disciples to flee and be scattered. But
when
the Jews thought that they had gained the victory,
now
that Christ was laid in the grave, God awakes and calls
Christ
from the dead. Then the tables are turned: the dis-
ciples
assemble, the Jews divide, some to grace who believe,
others
to wrath who are destroyed by the Romans." What,
happened
to the keepers at the sepulchre, (Matt. xxviii. 4),
was
a remarkable illustration of the contents of this verse. The
Berleb.
Bible: "St. Antonius, as Athanasius
relates, is report-
ed
to have found great benefit from these two verses when he
was
assailed by the Devil. And there is no doubt that one
may
make very important use of them, in each and every as-
sault
and temptation of the evil one, when we let ourselves he
brought
under his power . . . . Ah! that we would only permit
him
(God) to rise up! But we often suppress his work within
us.
Hence it is no wonder that the work of our salvation goes
forward
so slowly."—Luther on verse 2: "Two
beautiful em-
blems,
smoke and wax; the smoke disappears before the wind,
the
wax before the fire. It is most
contemptuous to compare, to
smoke,
and wax, such mighty enemies, who think that they can
combat
heaven and earth." For the sake of the similarity in
the
termination, we have the rare instead of the usual form
(Jd,nA.hi) of the infinitive in
Niphal of Jdn
(the word is used in
a
similar relation in Ps. i. 4); in like manner the Nun is retain-
ed
in Jdnt,
and for the same reason the suffix is dropped, which
could
be easily spared, referring to the haters of God: compare
on
the omission of the suffix, for similar reasons, Ps. xl. 3, lii. 6.
The
image of wax is employed also in Ps.
xxii. 14. It appears
that,
in this and in the following verse, there is a reference to
the
conclusion of the song of Deborah,
verse 31: "So let all
thine
enemies perish, 0 Lord, but let them that love him be as
the
sun when he goeth forth in his might:" just as at the be-
ginning
of the main division there is a reference to the begin-
ning
of the same song.—By the "righteous" in verse 3, in op-
position
to the "wicked," in verse 2, the Psalmist means, un-
doubtedly,
according to the occasion of the Psalm, in the first
instance,
not,
however, on this account, to imagine that he considered
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
1-6. 341
every
Israelite after the flesh to be a righteous man: compare
the
introduction to Ps. ix. The wicked
among the Israelites
are,
on the contrary, by this very description of those to whom
the
salvation of God is appointed, excluded from the promise,
and
thrown into the region of the threatening.
The ynpl
stands
in opposition to ynpm in verse 1 and 2. Destruction
goes
forth from the angry face of God against the wicked, the
righteous
rejoice before his gracious face.—The
exhortation to
praise
God, in ver. 4, first rises out of the representation of his
glory
in ver. 1-3, and has afterwards a wider basis assigned to
it
in ver. 5 and 6. On "his name," comp. Ps. lxvi. 1. In the
phrase,
make a way (lls is "to throw up a
military road," "to
make
a way,") for him who rides forward
in the deserts, (bkr
is
used as at ver. 33, where b marks the ground rode
over),
there
lies at bottom a spiritual application of the march through
the
wilderness, to which reference is made in the first verse, and
which
the Psalmist describes at length in ver. 7-9. God always
goes
at the head of his people through the desertsa of suffering
and
need; in every wilderness of trouble
they find in him a true
leader.
Verses 5 and 6 are to be considered as the expansion
of
"riding through the deserts," and leave no room for doubt
as
to the meaning of that expression. Comp. on similar spiritual
applications
of the march through the wilderness, the Christology,
P.
III. on Hos. ii. 16, and also the observations made on Ps. lxvi.
6.
The preparing of the way before the
heavenly king, by which
we
open up the way, so that he comes in to us, in the wilderness
of
life, and guides us in it, can be nothing else, in this passage,
than
songs of praise, the joyful
recognition of his mighty deeds
and
of his glory; for it is of this only that the Psalmist speaks
in
the preceding and following verses. Comp. Psalm L. 15, 23.
Isaiah
xl. 3, 4, alludes to our passage, where, however, the pre-
paration
of the way is that of repentance, and
Mal. iii. 1 refers
again
to Isaiah. "His name is in Jah" = “he is called Jah”:
comp,
on the b,
Ewald, § 521. The name Jab, a contraction of
Jehovah,
is first used in the song of Moses, Ex. xv. 2; and there
can
be no doubt that this passage is to be considered as the
proper
fundamental passage to all the rest. The name did not
come
into common use, but was generally taken only from that
a Compare in reference to
hbrf
the author's treatise on Balaam, p. 230.
hbrf, in a geographical sense, is the heart of the
country through the
Israelites
moved during the forty years' journey.
342 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
passage.
For otherwise we would not find it occurring only in
expressions
of a highly poetic character. Stier has correctly re-
marked
that Jah, as the concentration of
Jehovah, is the more
emphatic
term. At all events, there is less regard paid here to
the
derivation and original sense of the name, than there is to
the
fulness of associations connected with it throughout the
whole
course of time.—In verses 5 and 6, we have the basis of
the
exhortation in ver. 4, to praise God, in the reference made
to
the glory of God; and, at the same time, an explanation and
developement
of the clause, "he rides forward in the deserts."
"The
import is," says Calvin, "by whatever kind of troubles we
are
assailed, let it be our consolation that we are in the hands of
God,
who is able to ease our pains and to unburden us of our
cares.
And even though the ungodly prosper for a while, yet,
in
the end, those very events, which seem to be prosperous, will
work
out their ruin." Arnd: "And the meaning of the Holy
Ghost
is, that God the Lord is a gracious, a friendly God and
King,
whose first, highest, and principal work it is, to give most
attention
to the miserabiles personae, that is,
to those persons who
ought
to be most pitied because they are helpless and comfort-
less.
Great potentates in the world do not act thus: they re-
spect
the noblest and the richest in the land, the men who may
adorn
their court and strengthen their power and authority.
But
the highest glory of God is to compassionate the miserable."
That
by the widows, etc., we are not
exactly to understand Is-
rael, is evident from the
plural, from those passages in the law,
in
which widows and orphans, in the proper sense, are repre-
sented
as objects of peculiar regard to God, and are entrusted as
such
to the care of the righteous, (compare for example Deut.
x.
18, Ex. xxii. 21), and finally, from the parallel passages, such
as
Ps. cxlvi. 7-9. On the other hand, the reference to the suf-
fering
church, is demanded by the whole tendency of the
Psalm,
and especially by the 7th and following verses, where
manifestly,
what is here said in general, is brought forward
historically
in detail: compare particularly "thine heritage when
it
was weary thou hast strengthened," in ver. 9, and "for the
poor"
in verse 10. We must therefore hold that "the orphans,"
"the
widows," etc., are expressions designed to individualize
the
miserable, and that God's care over
them in general is
praised,
in special reference to what he does for his afflicted
people.
Hos. xiv. 4, for example, is altogether similar,
"With thee the fatherless find mercy,"
and therefore also thy
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 1-6. 343
destitute people. Even there the
"fatherless" is not exactly
equivalent
to
helpless.—In
verse 5th, Elohim is the subject of the affirmation,
as
it is at ver. 6. The Nyd occurs elsewhere only in 1 Sam.
xxiv.
16; and there also, as coming from the lips of David, com-
pare
Ps. liv. 1. The holy—that is the
sacred and glorious,—
(compare
at Ps. xxii. 3), habitation of God is
heaven, (compare
Ps.
xi. 4), in opposition to earth, the seat of unrighteousness
and
of coldness of heart. Sursum corda is
for the widows and
fatherless.—The
solitary in ver. 6, are those who are
destitute
of
human help: compare Ps. xxv. 16, where solitary
stands
connected
with miserable. The immediate
blessing of which
these
stand in need, is, to obtain a place where to lay their head,
to
be brought under roof and shelter: compare Isa. lviii. 7,
"And
that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house."
The
Lord manifested himself to his people
as one who caused
them
to dwell in houses, inasmuch as he granted to them pos-
session
of
in
against their enemies, ver. 12. In like manner he has proved
himself
to be such to the continuation of the
community of the
Old
Testament, the Christian church, when "that which had
previously
been everywhere trodden under foot, obtained a
firm
and permanent settlement in the
pened
under
Berleb.
Bible. The same annotator, in the style of true theo-
logical
exposition, rises above the literal interpretation in his
remarks
on "those that are bound:"
"partly under the heathen
emperors,
during the early persecutions; partly, and still more,
the
men who are bound under the tyranny of the devil, of sin, and
of
death; particularly also those whose spirit within is bound, so
that
it cannot rise to the joy of faith; and also those who are bound
outwardly
to vain pursuits." And on, he leads
out: "particularly
brings
them out from the slavery of wild lusts and heresies into
the
liberty of the church and of the children of God," Ruckert
renders
tvrwvk
by "prosperity." The "rebels," or the "re-
fractory,"
are the stiff-necked enemies of the Lord and his
church.
These were, as it were, banished by God, into the
wilderness,
and shut out from the experience of his fatherly
good
will. Rebellious
xix.
15,) has had to experience the truth of these words no less
than
the rebellious heathen, Amalek, (Ex. xvii. 14, 16), and
344 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Pharaoh
at their head. The "only" is "it is not otherwise than
thus,"
"it always happens so:" compare Ps. lviii. 11.
To the general praise of the glory
of God there is now annexed
a
representation of several instances of this, as they took place
in
the history of his chosen people, first, in ver. 7-10, what God
did
to them at the time of their journey
through the wilderness:—
he
revealed himself to them, in the giving of the law from Sinai,
ver.
8, he fed them and revived them wonderfully, ver. 10, he
finally
led them into
didst march before thy
people, thou, didst walk forward in the
derness. Selah. Ver. 8. The earth moved, the heavens also dropped
before God, it was at
Sinai, before God, the God of
Ver.
9. Thou didst send a rain of gifts, thine
heritage, the weary
one, thou didst
strengthen it.
Ver, 10. Thy host dwelt in the land,
thou dost prepare,
through thy goodness, a home for the miser -
able, 0 God.—Verses 7 and 8 are
borrowed, almost word for
word,
from the song of Deborah, (Jud. v. 4, 5), whose genuine-
ness
has now again become generally acknowledged: comp. the
Beitr.
3, p. 116, Keminck, de Cann. Deb. p. 24. Judges v. 4
refers
again to Deut. xxxiii. 2; Ex. six. 15, ss.; comp. Beitr. p.
117.
The "thou didst march," does not refer to the march out
of
"to
march before," is applied, as it often is, for example, Num.
xxvii.
17, Ps. xliv. 9, lx. 10, to the leader of the host going for-
ward
at its head upon an expedition. Even in the Pentateuch,
God
is represented as the commander in chief, and
army
led on by him against the Canaanites: comp. Ex. xii. 41,
"All
the hosts of the Lord went forth out of
and
chap. xiii. 18. There is apparently in the song of Deborah,
and
here a special reference to Ex. xiii. 21, according to which
the
Lord marched at the head of his host in a pillar of cloud
and
fire. Arnd: "Now, although it was a great glory of the Old
Testament,
that God was present to his people, in a pillar of
fire
and cloud, yet the glory of the New Testament is greater
still,
because the Son of God has become man: that was merely
a
shadow and a type, this is the highest consolation, and reality
itself."
The Nvmywy
is apparently from Deut. xxxii. 10. The
Selah stands exactly as in
Hab. iii. 3, between the general an-
nouncement,
and the development, and serves to direct atten-
tion
to the latter. The separation effected by it between verses
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
7-10. 345
7
and 8, is intended at the same time to indicate that the 7th
verse
is introductory, not only to the 8th but also to the whole
strophe
which has to do with the march through the wilderness,
onward
till its successful termination.—For the first time, in
ver.
8, we have the appearances at the giving of the law. The
question
may be asked, why the Psalmist begins with Sinai,
and
passes
over altogether the miracles wrought by God on behalf
of
his people on their departure from
it
was at Sinai that the covenant for
the first time was formally
and
solemnly ratified: comp. Deut. xxxiii. 5, "And he was king
in
Jeshurun, when the tribes of the people were gathered to-
gether."
According to several expositors, the verse before us
refers,
not only to the appearances at the giving of the law, but
also
to the whole march through the wilderness. But against
this
we have the emphatic explanation given by the Psalmist,
ynys hz, the reference, which it is impossible
to mistake, to the
passages
quoted above in the Pentateuch, and finally, the con-
nection
and the train of thought in the song of Deborah: see
the
Beitrage. The appearances at the giving of the law, how-
ever,
are introduced in this passage (where every thing that is
mentioned,
is brought in, as a developement of "the righteous
rejoice,
&c." and, "a father of the fatherless, &c.") not as con-
sidered
in their special import, as an
illustration of "our God is
a
consuming fire," but as illustrating, in their general aspect,
the
supreme love of God seen in his thus making himself known
to
mortals: comp. Deut. iv. 33. In
reference to the Jx, comp.
at
Ps. xviii. 48. There is no express mention made in the his-
torical
narrative of the rain. (the heavens dropped), but a dense
cloud is spoken of. The ynpm is from Ex. xix. 18.
The hz,
masc.,
stands instead of the neut., as at Eccl. vi. 9. "This the
Sinai,"
"it happened there." The usual translation, "this
Sinai
(moved)" will not do: "moved" is not the word, which the
sentence
supplies, but "dropped," and this will not suit. After
this
finger mark, the "before God" is repeated, for the purpose
of
connecting it with the "God of Israel." It is he that does
this,—all
this is done for the sake of Israel.—Ver. 9 refers to
the
provision made by God for his people, in temporal matters,
during
their marchings through the wilderness,—the manna,
the
quails, the water out of the rock, etc., according to verse
4th,
a type and a pledge of what God does for his poor ones at
all
times. The hbdn means always
"free-will gifts:" comp.
at
Ps. liv. 6. This fact is sufficient to set aside the idea that,
346 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
according
to the translation, "a freely given,"
or "a plentiful
rain," a rain in the
proper sense is meant, of which the history
of
the journey through the wilderness knows nothing, and which,
in
the connection, would be very unsuitable, as it would have to
be
adopted at the expense of the giving of manna, etc., facts
which,
in such a connection, are the very first to occur to the
mind.
The figure of rain, which was obviously suggested by
the
mention of rain in the proper sense in ver. 8, points, on the
one
hand, to the abundance of the divine
gifts—and this all the
more,
that it is not an ordinary rain that
is spoken of, but a
sudden and violent
shower,
(comp. Ex. xvi. 4; Ps. lxxviii. 24,
"And
he rained down manna upon them, and gave them
of
the corn of heaven." Gen. xix. 24, "And he rained on
ing, reviving, and refreshing nature of these gifts. The
re-
viving
rain, so often an individualizing reference for blessing,
is
also well adapted for being used as an emblem
of the same:
comp.
Isa. xliv. 3, "For I will pour water upon him that
is
thirsty, and rain upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit
upon
thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." The
Jvn, which in Hiph. signifies always to move backwards and for-
wards, and never to sprinkle,—so that it is even
inadmissible in
point
of language, besides being in violation of the accus. to
connect
jtlHn
with the first clause,—indicates that the rain
of
gifts did not fall in some spots only, but that, like all the
other
arrangements, these blessings were granted to the whole
people:
comp. Ps. lxxviii. 27, 28, "he rained quails upon them
as
dust, and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea, and he let
it
fall in the midst of their camp round
about their habitations."
The
inheritance of God indicates, as
usual, not the land, but the
people of the Lord. The "And (indeed or even) the weary (one),"
points
to the greatness of the divine beneficence, which was im-
parted
to a people, in such a condition, to whom no restoration
appeared
to be possible: God, who alone, in such circumstances,
was
able still to help, (the emphatic, thou),
stretched out his
hand
to them, when they were lying on the ground wholly
worn
out through fatigue from travelling through the wilder-
ness,
through hunger and vexation. The Nnvk is not "to re-
vive,"
but "to establish," "to fortify:" comp. 2 Sam. vii. 13,
Ps.
xl. 2, xc. 17.—The crowning act of the glorious work of
guiding
through the wilderness, is, (ver. 10), the introduction
of
his people to the land of promise. The hyH occurs in the
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 7-14. 347
sense
of "an host," besides this passage, only in 2 Sam.
11,
13. It appears that this term was one peculiar to the
time
of David. In 1 Chron. xi. 15, instead of "host of the
Philistines,"
we have "camp of the
Philistines." The suffix in
hb relates to the land, of which no mention had
been expressly
made,
in the preceding verses, but which the Psalmist had
steadily
before his eyes:—it was indeed the very object of the
march
through the wilderness. The suffix is used, exactly in
this
way, in ver. 14, and in Isa. viii. 21. The second member
occupies
an independent position. The object is to be supplied
from
what goes before: a habitation: comp.
"God makes the
solitary
to dwell in houses," in ver. 6. We cannot translate,
"which
thou hast provided": in that case the future would
not
be used, and to prepare will not apply to land.
is
called miserable, in reference to
their degraded condition,
(comp.
the hxln
in ver. 9), and their utter helplessness and
feebleness
in presence of the powerful nations who possessed
the
land.
The second strophe ver. 11-14,
contains what God did for
his
people from the time of their entrance into the land of pro-
mise,
till the setting up of the sanctuary in Zion:—he gave them
glorious
victory and happy peace, which are celebrated each in
two
verses.—Ver. 11. The Lord gives the word;
of the female-
messengers of victory
there are great hosts.
Ver. 12. The kings
of the hosts flee, they
flee, and the dweller at home divides the
spoil. Ver. 13. When ye rest within the confines, ye are
like the
Wings of cloves covered
with silver, and their feathers with the
gleam of gold. Ver, 14. When the Almighty scatters kings in it,
it snows on Salmon.—The word which,
according to ver. 11,
the
Lord gives, is one of joyful
contents, the announcement of
a
victory, recently obtained; and it
cannot mean a song of
victory.
The victory, when gained, was celebrated by women
in
songs, plays, and dances: comp. Ex. xv. 20, Judges v. 12,
1
Sam. xviii. 6, 7. These are the
messengers of joy: comp. the
damsels in ver. 25: the rwb is used in Ps. xl. 9,
of the procla-
mation,
accompanied with praise, of a salvation already made
known.
The great army of the female-messengers
of joy, is con-
ceived
of by the Psalmist as made up of the union of all the
separate
quoirs which existed during the whole century of the
judges,
till the erection of the tabernacle on
Against
the exposition, "messengers of victory to the great
host,"
there is, first, the article, second, the adjective would in
348 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
this
case be useless, and last, the salvation is not announced to
the
army who gained it, but to the people
who remained at
home.—According
to a common idea, in ver. 12 and 13, the
female
messengers of victory are introduced
speaking. But for
this
there is no foundation, and the regular progression of
thought
is altogether against it, the victory, in ver. 11, the flight
and
the dividing of the spoil, in ver. 12, and the happy rest, in
ver.
13, after the battle, imparted by the Lord to his people.
"She
that is dwelling at home," (the tvn is the stat. constr.
fem.
of hv,nA),
according to the common idea, should denote the
women
of the house, who distribute among themselves, or each
among
the inmates of her own house, the booty brought home
by
the men. But we never read of the women performing any
such
duty in reference to the booty: this task is one which be-
longs
to the men. "She that is dwelling at home," denotes
kings:
comp. "then shall the people of the Lord go down to
the
gates," Judges v. 11, "the shout of those who divide the
spoil
between the watering troughs." In this way the 13th verse
has
an important connection with the verse by which it is pre-
ceded.
For in it the Psalmist depicts the happy condition of
"her
that is dwelling at home," that is, of the people dwelling
in
peace in their own houses after the victory:—a state of matters
which,
in the book of Judges, is described by the usual phrase,
"the
land had rest": comp. the conclusion of ch. v. and viii. 28.
The
victory and the spoil, which the Lord imparted to his people,
in
their contests against the Gentile nations, in the season of their
childhood,
was a type of a more glorious victory, and a more pre-
cious
spoil. Arnd: "Is it not a valuable spoil, that so many thou-
sands
of men have been converted from heathenism, among whom
have
been so many glorious teachers and lights of the church, such
as
Justin, Augustine, Ambrose, not to speak of the innumerable
martyrs,
who were all brought out of heathenism, and were put
to
death because of their attachment to the Christian faith."—
The
"when you rest," in ver. 13, not, "when you rested," in-
dicates
that the Psalmist does not refer here to one past event.
The
bkw
implies peaceful rest, as at Numb. xxiv. 9, and
is
equivalent to Cbr, Gen, xlix. 14. The Mytpw, which is
used
only here and in Ez. xl. 43, and the Mytpwm, in the
fundamental
passage, Gen. xlix. 14, and in Judges v. 16, where,
as
in the verse before us, reference is made to it, signify either
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 11-14. 349
"sheep-folds,"
or "boundaries." Against the former
of these
two
senses, there is the consideration, that in that case the pas-
sage
in Ezekiel would be too much disjoined from the others:
the
sense of "sheep-folds" is, strictly speaking, not suitable even
in
Judges. v. 16, for he who lies between the sheepfolds, is not
he
who hears the shepherd's flute, but is the shepherd himself.
At
all events, however, the phrase denotes a state of peaceful
rest.
In this condition the Israelites, to whom the address is
directed,
are taken figuratively, wings of the doves, etc., or
they
are like doves, whose wings glitter
with silver and
gold.
The allusion is to the play of colours on the wings of the
dove
in sunshine. The real import is not at all, as some, with
very
little taste, would have it, "rich dresses of silver and gold,
for
the women, derived from the spoil," nor, even generally,
riches
of silver and gold, but the peaceful, and, at the same time,
splendid condition enjoyed by
pare
the corresponding second figure, snow,
applied to the
same
condition, in ver. 14. There is no necessity for connecting
hpHn with ypnk, (Ewald, § 568): it may
be as well connected
with
hnvy;—"the
wings of the dove, which is covered with
silver,
and as to its feathers" (acc.), or "whose feathers (are
covered)
with yellow gold."—Ver. 14 points to the bright gleam
of
prosperity, which covered the land on the prosperous termina-
tion
of the war, in room of the darkness in which it had been envel-
oped
during the season of hostile oppression:—when the Lord
scatters
kings, the light of prosperity illuminates the darkness
of
the land, just as dark Salmon becomes white when covered
with
snow. The wrp in
Pih. is originally "to stretch out," after-
wards,
"to scatter," as in Zech. ii. 10, (compare on that passage
Maurer
against Hitzig), and the Niph. is "to be scattered."
The
God of Israel is called Almighty,
because he alone by his
omnipotence
could bring about the result which is here spoken
of.
The kings are the kings of armies of ver. 12, such as
an,
Jabin, Agag, etc. The suffix in hb refers to "the land,"
which
is not indeed expressly named, but which is in reality de-
scribed
in, "when you rest within the boundaries." The glwt
is
used, as many similar verbs are, (Ew. Sm. Gr. 552, and Lar.
Gr.
645), impersonally; "it
snows." The snow is mentioned
here,
because it has the colour of purest light: compare Ps. li.
7,
Isa. i. 18, "they shall be white as snow," Mark ix. 3, "And
his
clothes glittered, very white like snow, such as no fuller on
350 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
earth
can whiten," Matt. xvii. 2, where, instead of "white as
snow,"
we have "white as light,"
xxviii. 3, Rev. i. 14. Zalmon
is
"a hill mentioned in Judges ix. 48, which was covered over
with
great thick wood, (even according to that passage), so that
it
might be called in German a schwartzwald,
a dark forest, the
black
or dark mountain." Luther. There is no need for sup-
plying
any mark of comparison before Zalmon: it is rather to
be
considered as used in a figurative sense for the land, just as
snow
is a figurative expression for the clear brightness of pro-
sperity.
In favour of this simple exposition, we have the agree-
ment
between this and the preceding verse; and second, it is
in
this way that we can see any reason for naming Zalmon: the
mountain,
destitute of any signification itself, would (except in
this
view) be held as introduced only for the sake of its name.
The
most obvious interpretation as to sense, "it becomes clear
in
darkness," is negatived by the consideration, that Nvmlc is
never
used as an appellative, and that gylwh neither means
nor
can mean, "to be white" or "clear." And against the ex-
position,
"it (the land) was snow-white with the bones of the
slain
like Zahnon," we have to urge, that Zalmon was not a snow
mountain,
that Nvmlcb
never can mean "like Zalmon,"
that bylwH
cannot
be translated "snow-white," and, finally, that the ex-
position
brings us back from the region of peaceful victory to
that
of prosperous war.
The third strophe, ver. 15-19,
describes the glory of God in
Sion,
after he had taken up there his abode. God maintains
his
position there in spite of all the machinations of the
world
in hostility against
throned
there in the complete fulness of his omnipotence,
ver.
17: he has exhibited this in victories gained over the
enemies
of his people, ver. 18: praise to him the Saviour of his
people,
ver. 19.—Ver. 15. A mountain of God is
Mount Basan,
a summit-mountain is
ye lay snares, ye
summit-mountains, against the mountain
which the Lord chooses
for his seat? the Lord will even
dwell on it for ever. Ver. 17. The chariots of God are
two myriads, many
thousands, the Lord is among them,
Sinai is in the
sanctuary.
Ver. 18. Thou goest up on high,
thou didst lead the
prisoners away, thou receivedst gifts among
men, yea among the
rebellions, to dwell, 0 Lord, God. Ver. 19.
Praised be the Lord
every day, they lay burdens on us, the Lord
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
15-19. 351
is our salvation, Selah. In verse 15 the Psalmist tells what
tensions
which it raises on the basis of its real worth: it is great,
—yet
to
change this relation. Many expositors read the 15th verse
with
vocatives, but Boettcher, with good reason, prefers the ex-
position
with subject and predicate: "A hill of God is the hill
of
Basan," remarking "that accumulated vocatives are very flat,
and
that individual appellations become very drawling." A hill
of
God is such a hill as, by its
magnitude, reminds us of the
creative
power of God, and has the appearance of being favoured
by
him, comp. at Ps. xxxvi. 6. It will not do to take the hill of
God
as equivalent simply to a superior
hill, because there is an
opposition
between the hill of God (Elohim, the most general
name
of God) and the hill which the Lord
chooses for his habi-
tation—an
opposition which would be altogether destroyed by
this
exposition. The hill of God is here used as an emblem of the
kingdoms
of the world, powerful through the grace of God;
comp.
on the hills as an emblem of kingdoms, Ps. lxv. 6, and in
addition
to the passages quoted there, Ps. lxxvi. 4, Hab. iii. 6.
The
hill of Basan is the high snow-summit
of Anti-Lebanon, or
Hermon,
the extreme limit of Basan, yet really belonging to it:
compare
Beitr. III. p. 242. In Ps. xlii. 6, the land on the other
side
Jordan is named the land of Hermon; and Hermon also in
Ps.
lxxxix. 12 represents the country beyond
maining
hills of Basan are proportionally lower; the name hill
of
God is not suitable for them; they do not admit of being em-
ployed
to represent the might of the world, and they possess no
superiority,
even on inferior grounds, over
moreover,
a peculiar propriety, arising from its position on the
very
boundary between
ing
it as a symbol of the world's might: even in ver. 22, Basan
is
named as the boundary of
world.
Comp. Ps. xxix. (vol. i. p. 478), where the wilderness of
Kadesh
is named as forming one pair with
the
symbols of the world's might, on the north and the south of
the
land of the Lord, are seized with terror at the sound of his
voice.
Perhaps also the Psalmist noticed that the original name
of
Hermon, Sion the lofty, (compare Beitr. III. p.. 241), and the
Sidonian
name, Sirion, (Deut. iii. 9), are both allied in sound to
352 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
an
individual hill, but a gigantic rugged mountain range.—In
verse
16, the wherefore," (comp. Ps. ii. 1), points to the folly
of
the hostile conduct of the kingdoms; Boettcher: "why so
fruitlessly."
The word dcr,
which occurs nowhere else ex-
cept
in this passage, "to lay snares," "to plot against," not
"to
envy,"
or "to look askance," (compare Ges. Thes.—even the
17th
verse leads to hostilities expressed in outward
actions),
makes
it manifest that the hills are symbolical of kingdoms. The
summit-mountains,—a sort of compound
noun, (comp. at Ps. lx.
3),--are
the individual summits of Hermon; or the symbol of
the
preceding verse is extended. The Jx "even,"
points to the
inseparable
connection between the choice and the perpetual
habitation:
compare Gen. xxvii. 33, "I have blessed him; he
shall
even be blessed." The thought of both verses—that grace
is
superior to nature, that natural
gifts must yield to spiritual
ones,
that the world, in spite of all the
power which God has
given
it, must yield to the church, in
which God is present him-
self
with his omnipotence,—is expressed in a similar form in Is.
ii.
and Micah iv. 1-3, where the temple-mountain will, it is
predicted,
be exalted above all the mountains of the earth:
compare
also Isa. viii. 6, where the brook Siloa symbolizes the
In
verse 17 the Psalmist, in the words, "the Lord will dwell
there
for ever," announces the infinite safety of
the
plots of the power of the world. The main strength of the
hostile
armies, particularly the Syrian, in the war which had just
been
brought to a termination, (compare 2 Sam. xviii. 4, x. 18),
lay
in war-chariots. As expressing
emphatically the thought
that
the God, who dwells on
hosts,
the Psalmist represents him as surrounded by such a
number,
as no human king ever possessed, of invisible chariots,
led
on by his hosts of angels. That the
mention of chariots of
war
has been occasioned by this contrast, is evident from the pa-
rallel
passage, 2 Kings vi. 17, where the servant of Elisha, when
his
heart failed him, at the sight of "the horses and chariots of
the
mighty hosts" of the Syrians, is comforted when he beholds
"the
mountain full of fiery horses and chariots round about
Elisha."
Two
myriads; the number usually employed to de-
note
an infinite multitude, is doubled.
"Perhaps allusion may be
made
to the two wings, on each of which there are ten thou-
sand:
Gen. xxxii. 1, 2." Berleb. Bib. Thousands
of repetition
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 15-19. 353
or
duplication: such to whom new ones
always succeed, and
these
every time thousands. Daniel vii. 10 is similar: "thou-
sand
times thousand serve him, and ten thousand times thou-
sands
stand before him." The Psalmist next directs attention
to
the point, that this magnificent army of God derives its chief
importance
from this, that he, "who alone is in a condition to
avert
a thousand deaths," is in the midst
of it. The last words
are
to be translated: "Sinai is in the sanctuary:" wdqb, just
as
at verse 24. The preceding context must determine, unless
we
wish to guess at random, in what respect Sinai is in the sanc-
tuary.
According to it Sinai and
the
presence of the Lord in the midst of the innumerable hosts
of
his angels. This, as far as Sinai is concerned, is expressly
asserted
in Deut. xxxii. 2, "he comes out of myriads of holi-
ness,"
and verse 3, "all his holy ones are in thy hand," "they
serve
thee, 0
Compare
also Gal. iii. 19, and Heb. ii. 2. The sense given by
Stier
is altogether wrong: "by the
presence of the ark of the
covenant
and the tables of the law,
In
verse 8, Sinai had been thought of in reference to the majes-
tic
appearance of God. Even the exposition of Boettcher and
others
must be rejected, as not in keeping with the context:
"Sinai,
with all its splendour of thunder and lightning, is now
in
the sanctuary."—Ver. 18 gives the matter-of-fact proof for
the
assertion made in ver. 17. That the Lord sits enthroned in
even
now, by a great victory obtained over the enemies of his
people.
The constant use of the preterites makes it evident
that
the verse refers to one particular event, and cannot be ap-
plied
to what God is continually doing: and
the connection with
what
goes before, according to which the expressions here can
refer
only to a favour which God grants out of
his sanctuary,
renders
it evident that it is not those enemies that are meant,
"who
were completely subdued, when the ark got its position
on
sis
that the Psalm was composed, on the introduction of the ark
of
the covenant. The ascending of God,
which corresponds to
"return
thou on high" in the remarkably similar parallel pas-
sage,
Ps. vii. 7, presupposes his descending:
compare Eph. iv. 9.
It
denotes his ascent to heaven, after he had made himself
known
on earth, in deeds of omnipotence and love, that he
might
there manage the affairs of his people: comp. Ps, xlvii. 5.
354 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Mvrmh, the
height, denotes always heaven,
never
compare
at Ps. vii. 7, xviii. 16, xciii. 4, cii. 19. Even in verse 33,
God
is described as "he whose seat is in heaven:" comp. 34th,
"his
power is in the clouds." The prisoners,
whom God leads
away,
the gifts which he receives, cannot
be taken by him into
heaven:
he takes them, only that he may give them to his peo-
ple,
"his hosts," at whose head he had gone forth to battle,
and
leave them behind him when he ascends to heaven, just as
the
gifts of
the
priests. Hence it is evident that by the "he gave," which
occurs
in Eph. iv. 8, instead of, "thou takest," the sense is not
altered, but only made clear:
the "giving" presupposes the
"taking,"
the "taking" is succeeded by the "giving," as its
consequence.
The apostle gives prominence to this conse-
quence,
because it serves his object, as
common to the type with
the
antitype. The passage in his view has this complete sense:
"he
received gifts among men, and he gave gifts to men."
That
by gifts is meant, "gifts given
reluctantly," is obvious,
from
"thou didst take;" the same
remark exactly may be made
of
hntm,
which Gesenius has made of hHnm:—"the tribute
was
thus designated, which was exacted from a conquered peo-
ple
under the milder name of a gift,"
compare 2 Sam. viii. 2,
"and
the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts,"
so
of the Syrians, in verse 6. The b in Mdxb, as in Mb, verse
17,
has the sense of among. The men on the earth stand in op-
position
to God on high: compare Ps. lviii.
lxiv. 9. Men,
far
from heaven the seat of God, fancy that they are secure,
but
they must learn wisdom by their own painful experience.
The
translation is altogether to be rejected: thou takest gifts
to
men. The gift presupposes a giver, and this must be indi-
cated
by Mdxb;
the history of David knows nothing of "pri-
soners
who were sent as gifts to the sanctuary," nor of "prose-
lytes
who gifted as it were themselves to God," but a great deal
of
gifts in the sense adopted by us: the connection between
prisoners won by victory and riches is a constant one, especially
in
the transactions of David's times. By the "refractory" are
meant
those who, even after the appearance of the Lord and
the
manifestation of his conquering power, still dared to persist
in
their rash opposition, such as the Ammonites, in opposition
to
those who yielded at once, like the
servants of Hadadeser, 2
Sam.
x. 19. That even the former, should
at length give presents,
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
15-19. 355
spews
with what might God has assailed them on behalf of his
people.
And even the refractory must give presents to thee,—are
such
from whom thou takest presents. To dwell,
0 Lord God:
and
thus thou, after thou hast completed
all this, dwellest there
in
heaven, glorious, and as the Almighty inaccessible to the re-
venge
of the conquered: compare Isaiah lvii. 15. Several in-
terpreters
connect these words with what goes before: "and
even
the rebellious shall dwell with God." A singular exposi-
tion!
Nkw, with the accusative,
cannot mean "to dwell with
any
one." It can be only by a false exposition, that any thing can
be
supposed in the preceding context to be said of grace towards
the
enemies, or of their conversion; the refractory,
according
to
verse 6, and Ps. lxvi. 7, can be considered as referred to, only
as
objects of punishment. Others: "And the rebellious must
rest:"—but
Nkw
signifies always to dwell, and is so used in
verse
16, compare verse 6. We observe, farther, that the quo-
tation
of our passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians is not a
mere
accommodation, as the character and
manner of that quo-
tation
evidently shew. The descent of God on behalf of his
church,
and the rich load of gifts bestowed upon it, here spoken
of,
formed a prelude and a pledge of the appearance of God in
Christ,
and of the whole riches of his goodness and grace im-
parted
in him to his church. That which was imperfect, affords
on
the domain of revelation, the security for that which is per-
fect,
inasmuch as the former points out the reality of the rela-
tion
by which the latter is demanded.—The Psalmist in verse 19
rising
from the particular to the general, praises the Lord, as
him
who is always the saviour of the church. The smf signi-
fies
to lay upon, not to carry, (as Ew. supposes). The subject is
not
formally pointed out: they lay burdens
upon us: compare
Ewald,
§ 551. But in reality it is sufficiently obvious that we
are
to think of men, from the opposition to God, (compare Ps.
xxvii.
1, cxxiv. 2, and other passages), and from verse 18. Even
in
verses 16 and 17 the subject spoken of is the almighty help
of
the Lord against the enmity of the world.
The 20th verse
makes
it evident that lxh is not "even this God," but that
the
article limits the word to the God of Israel, as is frequently
the
case with Myhlxh:
compare, for example, 2 Sam, xii. 16.
The
same consideration sets aside the idea that God is the sub-
ject to Myhlxh: "he loads us, he, God, is our help."
Rückert.
The
"Selah" here indicates the end of a section.
356 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
In verses 20 and 23, the general
thought is expanded, that God
is
the helper of his people against the wickedness of the world,--
a
thought to which the Psalmist had already risen in the connect-
ing
words of the 19th verse. Ver. 20. God is
to us a God of sal-
ations, and Jehovah, the
Lord, has the issues of death. Ver.
21.
Yea, God dashes to pieces the head of his
enemies, the hair-
skull of him that walks
in his iniquities.
Ver. 22. The Lord
speaks, out of Basan, I
will bring back, bring back out of the
depths of the sea. Ver. 23. So that thou dashest, with thy foot
in blood, the tongue of
thy dogs (gets) from it. The lxh in verse
20,
parallel to Jehovah, is equivalent to "our
God." On tvfwvm,
salutes, Calvin: "Not without reason does he make use of
the
plural
number, in order that we may know that although even
innumerable
deaths assail us, God has also in readiness innume-
rable
ways of deliverance." "Of
death:" threatening and al-
ready
approaching. The Psalmist refers, in the first instance,
to
deliverance from great dangers and troubles, (comp. Ps. xlviii.
14);
but in reality the expression applies to death, properly so
called,
and even to spiritual death. Only he who has the keys of
death
and of hell, (Rev. i. 18), can render help in every danger
and
trouble.—On ver. 21, Calvin: "Because the church, attack-
ed
on all sides, by strong and raging enemies, can obtain no-
thing
except by a strong and powerful defence, the Psalmist
brings
in God armed with terrible power, for the destruction of
all
the ungodly. It is to be observed that
all who annoy the
pious,
are called enemies of God, so that we need not doubt that
he
will interpose for our defence." The "only" stands as in verse
6.
On "he dashes to pieces the head," compare Ps. cx.
6.
"The hair-skull" is just the skull covered with hair. The
epithet,
as appears, serves the simple purpose of poetic effect
and
description. As rfw is in the stat. abs. we can literally
translate
only the hair-skull walking, not of
him that walks:
compare
Ewald, § 513. Boettcher on the passage —That in verse
22,
the object to be supplied to "I will bring back," is not
(compare
Is. xlix. 12), but the enemies who
had just been named,
is
evident from the following verse, where the dashing to pieces
of
the enemies is mentioned as the consequence
of bringing them
back.
According to this view, verses 22 and 23 merely expand
and
individualize the clause, "he will dash to pieces the head of
his
enemies." The remarkably similar parallel passage, Amos
ix.
2, 3, may also be appealed to in favour of this view. In re-
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
20-23. 357
ference
to the enemies of God among
says:
"No one shall escape, no one shall
flee away, though
they
dig into hell, yet shall mine hand take them thence, though
they
mount up to heaven, yet will I thrust them down, and
though
they hide themselves on the top of
and
take them out from thence, yea, though they be hid from
my
sight in the bottom of the sea, &c." I will bring them back,
when
they are returning into their own land, laden with booty,
after
a prosperous invasion. Thus David slew the Edomites,
when
they had successfully arrived at the
boundary
of their own land. Basan is named, as
it is in ver.
15,
as the boundary of
appeared
to be safe, from the vengeance of
God.
Vengeance, however, shall reach them even there,
as Abra-
ham
formerly reached and slew the kings from central
extreme
boundary of
generally
translated: "so that thou dippest thy feet in blood;"
Ewald:
"that thy foot glitter." But CHm always signifies to
"strike,"
to "dash to pieces," (compare Ps. cx. 6, Num. xxiv.
8,
17), and it must be used in this sense here, especially as it is
used
in the same sense in the 21st verse, which stands in the
closest
connection with the verse which we are now considering
—a
connection which manifests the folly of the conjectural read-
ing
CHrt:—God
dashes to pieces his enemies, he dashes them
to
pieces even when they seem to be perfectly safe. Hence we
must
hold that at jlgr the object is wanting, as it is in verse
22
and 2: so that thou, 0
thy
foot in blood. The second clause is generally translated:
"that
the tongue of thy dogs may have its part in thy enemies."
But
Nm
is never used as a substantive in the sense of part, and
Nvwl is never masculine. We must therefore
translate: that
the tongue of thy dogs
(may get) from thine enemies, from it
(the
blood). Arnd: "As we see in the Old
Testament, in the
csse
of Ahab and Jezebel, the malicious enemies of the church,
and
the murderers of the prophets, and in the New Testament,
in
the case of Julian, Licinius, and Maxentius, in whose blood
the
conquerors did freely die their feet; and this happens still,
as
often as the
the
victory, are upheld, and protected against the bloody
practices
of their foes. And so will it remain till the end, accord-
ing
to Rom. viii: ‘for thy sake we are killed, all the day long,
358 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and
are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter, but in this we are
more
than conquerors, for the sake of him who hath loved us.' "
In Ver. 24-27, the procession in
celebration of the victory is
described.
It becomes here particularly apparent, that the
Psalm
was designed also for posterity, to
whose necessities this
description
is pre-eminently adapted.—Ver. 24. There
is seen
thy procession, 0 God,
the procession of my God and King in
the sanctuary. Ver. 25. The
singers go before, after that the
players on instruments,
in the midst of the young women striking
timbrels. Ver. 26. In the assemblies praise God, the Lord, ye
from
one, their Ruler, the
princes of
of Zebulon, the princes
of Naphtali.—The
vxr
in ver. 24, is
either
used impersonally, they see, or the
subject to be supplied
is
those who do not take part in the procession, the great multi-
tude
of spectators, in opposition to those named in ver, 25, 27.
The
tvkylh,
is properly goings, (used only in the
plural), and
next
a solemn procession. On "my God
and King," compare
Ps.
v. 2. On wdqb.,
which can only mean, as at ver. 17, in
the
sanctuary, and which can be
connected only with the proces-
sion, much ingenuity has
been expended. Even verse 26th
leads
us to a procession in the temple; for it was only in
the
temple that the assemblies were held: and so do the ex-
pressions,
"because of thy temple," in verse 29, and "out of
thy
sanctuary," in verse 35. It is not possible to see what ob-
jection
there could be to a procession in the temple, at the bring-
ing
back of the ark of the covenant, as the temple had courts con-
nected
with it. Delitzch has wholly misunderstood our verse, on
Hab.
iii. 6.—The singers, according to ver. 25, go before the
music,
the players on instruments follow
them, because, in in-
tellectual,
true, religion, the Word takes everywhere the first
place.
Our Psalm itself was manifestly sung. The rHx, pro-
perly
in the stat, constr. and a preposition, is frequently used as
an
adverb, behind, with the noun or
pronoun omitted when it
may
be easily supplied from the connection, as it can be in
the
present instance, them or these. The hand-kettle-drum, a
piece
of skin stretched across a hoop, with metal plates on the
rim,
is at this day in common use in the East. The "in the
midst"
refers only to the players on instruments. The 26th
verse
contains no more than the rest of the Psalm does, "the
words
of the singers." In Judges v. 9 also, the poetess herself
addresses
the nobles of
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
24-27. 359
also
Ps. xxii. 23. On tvlhqm, used only here and in Ps. xxvi.
12,
compare at that passage. The assumption that the plural
signifies
one but a full assembly, has no foundation whatever:
in
the assemblies, and particularly in this one. Is. xlviii. 1,
and
li. 1, furnish a commentary on "Ye from Israel's
fountain."—In
the enumeration, in ver. 27, of the tribes
which
took part in the procession, the Psalmist must be con-
sidered
as naming a few as representatives of the whole. In
the
choice of these he may have been
guided, in the first instance,
by
geographical considerations: Benjamin and Judah are on
the
south, Zebulon and Naphtali on the north. But this
assuredly
was not the only, it was not even the chief considera-
tion
that guided him. The epithets, which are applied to the
two
first tribes, and the circumstance, that those only are named,
which
were particularly distinguished in conflict, spew that
it
was a consideration of this kind, that chiefly influenced the
Psalmist.
The first Judges belonged to the tribes mentioned,
Othneil
to Judah, Ehud to Benjamin; Zebulon and Naphtali
distinguished
themselves particularly in the conflicts under
Deborah
and Barak,--compare Judges v. 18, "Zebulon and
Naphtali
were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the
death
in the high places of the field;"—and Saul was from
Benjamin,
and David from
of
Deborah leads to the same result: every thing that is there
said
of the tribes bears upon their relation to the enemies.
There is Benjamin, the
little, their ruler.
There, in the pro-
cession.
The naming of Benjamin before
by
the circumstance that Saul, as conqueror of the heathen,
preceded
David: compare 1 Sam. xviii. 7. Benjamin is called
little, in reference to his
place among the sons of Jacob, Gen.
xliii.
33; which typified the position of the tribe in
That
even the little Benjamin should be
ruler over the heathen,
illustrates
the greatness of the grace of God: compare 1 Sam.
ix.
21, where Saul, on his being appointed king, says with as-
tonishment:
"am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the
tribes
of
not
the Kametz but the Tseri, denotes the accusative. Ewald,
§
433. The suffix is to be referred to the enemies,
whom the
Psalmist
throughout has in his eye: the omission of the suffix
in
verses 2, 22, 23, is analogous. A commentary on this epithet
of
Benjamin is furnished in 1 Sam, xiv. 47 and 48: "And Saul
360 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
took
the kingdom over
on
every side, against
Ammon,
and against
and
against the Philistines, and whithersoever he turned
himself,
he vexed them. And he gathered an host, and smote
the
Amalekites, and delivered
that
spoiled him." Several expositors give: there was Benja-
min,
the little, as their leader. But the
view cannot be adopt-
ed
that Benjamin was leader of the whole procession,—at no
time,
except during the reign of Saul, did the tribe occupy such
a
position as to entitle it to this honour;— hdr never means to
lead, not once to reign, but always to have the dominion, or the
mastery over, and the object of
dominion is always the heathen:
compare
the treatise on Balaam, p. 187. This last remark also
sets
aside the forced interpretation: there is
Benjamin, his
leader. hdr cannot possibly be used
of the patriarchal power
of
the head of a tribe. Mgr is a word of frequent occurence,
and
never has any signification except to
stone. Hence
hmgr, the word here used, cannot be translated
correctly in
any
other way than by stoning.
the
enemies, in allusion to David, who
put to death by a stone
Goliath,
the representative of the might of the world. The
translation,
"the princes of
(Gesenius
and others), takes hmgr in an unascertained sense,
requires
"and" to be added, without any authority, and is be-
sides
connected with a sense of Mdr which has been already
shewn
to be a false one. It is deserving of being noticed, that
the
same tribes which appear in this procession as distinguished
among
the people of God in battle against the world, occupy a
very
prominent place also in the New Testament. Paul, "the
least of the apostles,"
(1 Cor. xv. 8-100 was from Benjamin,
Phil.
iii. 5: "the lion of the tribe of
James,
Thaddeus, and Simon, were from Judah, and the rest of
the
apostles were from Naphtali and Zebulon, or
iv.
13).
In the 6th strophe, ver. 28-31, the
Psalmist, out of the glo-
rious
consequences which the Lord now,
after such a short abode
on
by
which he may ascend to the hope of the future subjuga-
tion
of the whole world under his sceptre.--Ver. 28. Thy God
hath appointed thy
strength; be strong, 0 God, who workest for
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 28-31. 361
us.
Ver. 29. Because of thy temple over
bring presents to thee. Ver. 30. Rebuke the beast of the reeds,
the herd of the strong
ones with the calves of the people, who sub-
mit themselves to thee
with bars of silver; he scatters the nations
who love war. Ver. 31. Nobles shall come out of
stretches forth its
hands to God.—In
verse 28,
dressed,
then the Lord. God has appointed thy
strength, in
his
eternal determination which was made known to thee by
his
servant Moses. Be thou then strong, 0 God,
on behalf of thy
people,
and realize therefore thine appointment of thy
strength,
thou
who workest for us, who are helpless without thee, and
hence
are looking to thee alone in reference to the strength
ordained
for us by thee: compare Is. xxvi. 12, " 0 Lord, give
thou
us peace, for thou workest all our works for us." The hz
stands
instead of rwx: it cannot mean "as."—The exhortation
which
had arisen from the basis of hope, returns again to hope
in
verse 29. By lkyh is here meant, in the first instance, the
holy
tabernacle on
considered
as its continuation. Compare Ps. v. 7, xlviii, 9, lxv.
4.
The sanctuary, both in a literal and spiritual sense, lies over
bol
of his protecting power, of his help-sending grace, which
hovers
over
equivalent
to, "because of thy glorious appearances as
God":
compare "whose height is over
"dreadful
is God out of thy sanctuaries," in verse 35. The
translation,
"for thy temple," is quite
an arbitrary one: the
connection
is strong between the first half of this verse and the
preceding
one. As a prelude to the hope here expressed, it is
recorded
in 2 Chron. xxxii. 23 "And many (in consequence of
the
manifestation of the glory of God in the subjugation of the
Assyrians)
brought gifts to the Lord at
however,
the hope is a Messianic one, inasmuch
as it was only
in
the days of the Redeemer that the reality of the sanctuary
over
brought
fully to light. Compare Is. lx. 3, "And nations shall
come
to thy light," and verse 6, "the multitude of camels shall
cover
thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from
shall
shew forth the praises of the Lord." There also the salva-
tion
which the Lord imparts to his people, the same as the
362 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
temple
over
power,
attracts towards him the heathen world:
compare on
Ps.
lxvi. and lxvii. The yw occurs elsewhere only in Is. xviii.
7,
and Ps. lxxvi. 11, and in both places in the same connection
as
here:—a circumstance which admits of explanation from the
fact
that the passage before us is the fundamental one.—The
30th
verse begins with an exhortation,
"rebuke": but that this,
as
rising on the basis of confidence, has
in reality the import of
a
prophecy, corresponding to "they
shall bring," in verse 29, is
manifest,
from the words in the concluding clause, "he scatters,"
(which
it has been proposed inconsiderately to change into an
imperative),
and also from "they submit themselves," equiva-
lent
to, "they shall yield, restrained by thee":—all which
stands
just as it would have stood, had the opening words of
the
verse been "thou shalt
rebuke." The beast of the reeds
can
only be such a beast as has its usual place of abode among
the
reeds, and to which this belongs as its characteristic mark.
It
cannot therefore be the lion nor even
the crocodile, which
spoken
of in Ez. xxix. 3, as the symbol of
of
Egypt is addressed as "the great dragon who rests in the
midst
of his
natural
representative of
popotamus
or behemoth, of whom it is said in Job xl. 21,
"he
lieth under the shady tree in the covert of the reeds and
fens,"
(the hnq
is used of the reeds of
xxxv.
7), while nothing of a similar kind is said of his colleague,
the
leviathan or crocodile. The hyH, which is never used of
any
particular animal, leads to the same result: compare the
Beitrage
p. 258. The express naming of
furnishes
a commentary on "rebuke thou the beast of the
reeds."
The following expressions, "the strong ones," and
"the
nobles from
tamus
does not exactly symbolize
just
as in Ez. xxix. 3, the crocodile is the emblem of Pharaoh.
The
preceding naming of the kings, and
the clause which im-
mediately
follows, and is at the same time a general one, "the
crowd
of the strong ones," shews that
here
only as the representative of the power
of the world, and is
mentioned
as being the most powerful of the existing heathen
kingdoms,
on whose submission all the rest would yield as a
matter
of course. "The strong ones" is a poetic expression
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 28-35. 363
for
"bullocks," as it is at Ps. xxii. 12. Powerful kings are
termed
bullocks, and their subjects calves, according to the ex-
press
explanation of the Psalmist. In "the calves" we may
say
either among or with: compare Ewald, § 521, 3: b occurs
in
the same way again in ycrb. The singular masculine
sprtm refers to the whole of what had been
spoken of in the
preceding
context. The spr is "to tread with the feet," and
in
the Hithp. "to allow one's self to be trodden upon," or to
submit."
"With pieces of silver,"
which they bring as gifts of
allegiance:
compare "thou receivedst gifts among men," ver.
18,
and " their silver and their gold with them," Is. lx. 9. He
scatters," &c.: all
nations, even those who are most remarkable
for
their strength and love of war, must yield to his omnipo-
tence,
when once the time has come "to assemble all the hea-
then."—In
verse 31
senting
the power of the world,—a kingdom supposed to pos-
sess
great strength, and invested with that peculiar splendour
which
attaches to whatever is distant: compare Isaiah xlv. 14,
xviii.
7, Zeph. iii. 10. The name Hasmonean, adopted by the
Maccabees,
was, without doubt, according to the practice of
later
times, (Ps. xlv. 1), taken from this passage. The Hiph. of
Cvr signifies always "to cause to run,"
or "to hasten." The
hands, according to verses 29
and 30, (compare Ps. lxxii. 10),
are
to be regarded not as lifted up in the
attitude of prayer,
but as filled with gifts
of allegiance:
compare Gen. xxxi.
10.
bringing gifts to the Lord. Arnd:
"There was a glorious
church
in
bishop.
The treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia was converted
at
try,
by the Apostles themselves."
In the seventh strophe, verses
32-35, all the kingdoms of
the
earth are exhorted to praise the God of Israel: compare at
Ps.
lxvi. 1.--Ver. 32. Ye kingdoms of the
earth, sing to God,
sing praise to God.
Selah.
Ver. 33. He rides forward in the
highest heavens of old
time, behold he causes his voice to be
heard, the mighty
(voice).
Ver. 34. Give glory to God, whose
height is over
Dreadful art thou, 0
Lord, out of thy sanctuaries, the God of
God,—The 33d verse contains
the basis on which the exhorta-
364 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
of the 32d verse rests. The heaven of heavens = the high-
est
heavens; compare 1 Kings viii. 27. The "of old time,"
serves
to exalt the excellence of God's seat, and at the same
time
to point to his supremacy. Allusion is made to Deut.
xxxiii.
26: "There is none like God, Jeshurun, who rideth in
the
heavens, as thy helper, and in his excellency in the clouds":
compare
x. 14, "behold the heavens, and the heavens of hea-
vens
are the Lord's thy God, the earth and all that is therein."
The
second clause forms a compend of the xxix. Psalm. On
lvqb Ntn; compare at Ps. xlvi. 6.—On "give
might," in verse
34,
compare at Ps. xxix. 1. The rest of the verse contains the
basis. His height is
over
guide
and protect
reflected
from
out
of which he causes his mighty voice to sound, ver. 34. His-
tory
and nature alike manifest his glory.—Out
of thy sanctua-
ries, ver. 35, 0
of
God is manifold, as bearing upon the maintenance, the de-
fence,
and the government of his church: compare at ver. 29.
The
conclusion is exactly the same as Ps. xxix. 11, " the Lord
gives
strength to his people": compare Is. xl. 29, 31. Calvin:
"In
fine, he lays down the ark of the covenant as if it were a
banner
of confidence to the faithful, in order that, in reliance
on
the promise, 'I dwell in the midst of you,' (Ex. xxv. 8, xxix.
45),
they may rest with safety under the wings of God, and may
without
terror call upon him."
PSALM LXIX.
THE Psalm is "a prayer of one
suffering severely from men,
for
the sake of God." The sufferer gives a representation of
his
misery, ver. 1-4, next intimates that he suffers for the sake
of
God, that he has drawn upon himself the hatred of his aban-
doned
foes, on account of his zeal for the glory and the pure
worship
of God, ver. 5-12, prays on this solid foundation that
God
would deliver him, ver. 13-18, turns back and describes
his
necessity, and the wickedness of his enemies, ver. 19-21,
and
thus prepares for the expression of his desire that they may
be
destroyed, ver. 22-28, intimates, after a short expression of
his
hope, ver. 29, his resolution to glorify the Lord by render
PSALM LXIX. 365
ing
thanks, and his hope that the faith of all the pious will be
confirmed
by his deliverance, ver. 30-33, and concludes with
the
joyful expectation, arising from the revelation of God in his
own
experience, that God shall deliver
cities
of
The prayer for the vengeance of God
upon the enemies, and
likewise
the conclusion, are contained in the complete number
of
seven, which in the last case is divided into a four and a
three.
The preceding part contains 21 verses, 3 times 7, but
there
are no farther traces in detail of a formal arrangement.
The remarks made on Ps. xxii., and
also on Ps. vi. xxxv.
xxxviii.
xl. and xli., as to the subject, are
equally applicable
here.
The Psalm does not refer to any individual sufferer: the
speaker
is the suffering righteous man; there
are no individual
references
whatever. In ver. 26, as in Ps. xvi. 10, a plurality
which
had hitherto been concealed under a unity, comes for-
ward.
Calvin ascertained the correct view: "David wrote this
Psalm
not so much in his own name, as in the person of the
whole
church, and it is like a glass, in which the common lot
of
all the pious is placed before our eyes." The remarks made
on
Ps. xxii. vol. i. p. 361, are conclusive against the idea adopt-
ed
by many, that the subject of the Psalm is the people.
In common with all the Psalms
referred to above, there is in
this
one the appearance of exaggeration in
the description of
the
sufferings. This, however, is to be accounted for by the
circumstance,
that the various features which lie scattered in
connection
with individual sufferers, are brought together in these
Psalms
into one great martyr-image. The peculiarities which are
based
here on grounds common to all these Psalms, are: 1st,
The
copiousness in the description of just judgments upon the
enemies,
evidently designed to serve as a strong bulwark to the
righteous
man against despair, in view of their wickedness, by
which,
in the end, they do nothing more than draw down upon
their
own guilty heads the terrible vengeance of God: and, 2d,
The
strong prominence given to the circumstance, that the suf-
ferer
suffers for the sake of God,
extending to all placed in simi-
lar
circumstances a strong support, on which they may rise to
the
hope of deliverance.
In the New Testament there is no one
Psalm, with the except-
tion
of the 22d, which is so frequently quoted and applied to
Christ,
as the one before us, (compare the passages referred to
366 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
in
the exposition), not only by the Apostles, but also by Christ
himself;—a
fact, the consideration of which ought to be enough
to
make De Wette ashamed of his opinion: "a
Psalm composed
in
a plaintive style, in an exaggerated tone, and with depraved
taste."
Many old expositors have hence been induced to adopt
a
direct Messianic exposition. But these quotations do by no
means
justify such an exposition, inasmuch as the Psalm, even
though
it refer to the suffering-righteous
man, is still a prophecy
of
Christ, in whom the idea of righteousness was personified,
and
in whose case, the intimate connection spoken of in the
Psalm
between righteousness and the opposition of sinners, was
exemplified
in living reality,—as seen in the sufferings which he
endured
from an ungodly world: compare on Ps. xxii. No ar-
gument
against the Messianic view can be drawn from "the exe-
crations
directed against the enemies, as inconsistent with the
magnanimous
and forgiving character of Jesus;" but a very de-
cided
one is furnished by the confessions of sin, which by this
exposition
are either lost sight of, or are made to refer to im-
puted
sin; compare at Ps. xl. Then, it is impossible to disjoin
the
Psalm from those above quoted.
The title intimates that the Psalm
was composed by David.
A
very weighty argument in favour of this
assertion, may be
drawn
from the fact, that the name of David is inscribed on the
titles
of all the Psalms which are nearly related in thought and
language
to this one—related in such a manner as to demand
the
assumption of the identity a of the author, as they all bear
the
character of originality. It would be
a singular fact, if
the
author of the titles had ascribed all these Psalms to their
real author, and assigned
them to David. Modern criticism has
here
a problem which it may attempt to solve.
The arguments against David are not of such weight as to coun-
terbalance
such a weighty testimony. Much stress has been
laid
on "the reference to the captivity," in ver. 33-36. Even
a Ewald remarks, and Köster
agrees with him, that "our Psalm manifests
such
a strong similarity, not in the least proceeding from imitation to Ps.
xxxv.
xxxviii. and xl. that it must have been composed by the same author."
Hitzig
says, "The author of the xl. Psalm, whoever he was, must be identi-
cally
the same with the author of the lxix." In reference to Ps. vi. xxii. xxxi.
the
same remarks are manifestly applicable: compare the exposition,—Hitzig:
"The
similarity between lxix. 32 and xxii. 26, can only be explained by the
assumption,
that they have been the product of the same mind."
PSALM LXIX. 367
though
there were really such a reference in these verses, it
would
be necessary to set it aside by ascribing this portion
of
the Psalm to a later author. For the temple is spoken of in
verse
9, as still standing.a But, according to a correct exposi-
tion,
it is manifest, that these verses contain nothing more than
a
general expression of hope of salvation for
the
removal of all troubles, such as those of which David saw
so
much with his own eyes, in the days of Saul and Absalom.
We
must certainly consider it as singular, when it is further as-
serted
that relations such as the one which is here so prominent,
existed
for the first time in later days, when the state came to
be
in a declining condition, and ungodliness was fearfully pre-
dominant.
These relations were certainly in those days very
distinctly
marked; and the history of Jeremiah, for example,
is
altogether one peculiarly well fitted to represent to us the
situation
of the subject of our Psalm. But, in point of fact, the
condition
of the world, as far as the troubles of the godly are
concerned,
has been substantially the same in all ages, ever
since
the days of Cain and Abel, (compare Matth. xxiii. 35); and
in
these matters it is preposterous to attempt to define year and
day.
David had sufficient opportunity, from personal experience,
to
know as much of this condition as to enable him to generalize
what
had come under his own immediate notice. It was his fear
of
God, his zeal for the glory of God and for the purity of the
worship
of God, that was the real cause of his sufferings, in the
days
of Saul and Absalom. We may compare the mention of
the
enemies of the Lord, who at the same time were the bitter
enemies
of David, in 2 Sam. xii. 14, and of " the enemies" and
"the
revengeful," in Ps. viii. 2. Should it be maintained, that
the
execrations upon the enemies, are what one would not have
expected
from David, it will be sufficient to read 1 Sam. xxvi.
19,
2 Sam. iii. 29, and other passages.
Title. To the chief Musician, on the lilies, by David. "On
the
lilies" indicates the beauty of the subject treated of: com-
pare
at Ps. xlv. We may understand that by this is meant,
either,
on comparing with Ps. xlv. the righteous,
at ver. 28, or
the servants of the
Lord,
at verse 36, or even the lovely consola-
tions and aids of the
Lord,
his tvfvwy,
at verse 1 and 29, on
a Ewald's attempt to set
aside this troublesome fact, serves only to shew
that
it is completely impossible to do so.
368 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
comparing
with Ps. lx. The similarity in point of sound be-
tween
Mynwvw
and ynfywvh, with which the Psalm begins, is
perhaps
not accidental, but was designed by the Psalmist to
serve
as an index, pointing to the true interpretation of a title
which
proceeded from himself.
First, in ver. 1-4, the complaint. Ver. 1. Help, 0 God, for
the water goes into my
soul.
Ver. 2. I sink in the slime of the
deep, where there is no
bottom, I have come into deep waters and
the flood covers me over. Ver. 3. I have wearied myself with
crying, my throat is
hoarse, my eyes fail while I wait for my
God. Ver. 4. Those who hate me without cause are more in
number than the hairs
upon my head, my destroyers, my lying
enemies are mighty, I
shall restore that which I did not take
away.—In reference to the
figure of water in the first and
following
verses, compare at Ps. xl. 2. When one is covered
over
with water, the water comes into his soul = his life: com-
pare
Jer. iv. 10. Jon. ii. 6.—In the first clause of ver. 2, the
Nvy, which occurs only here and in Ps. xl. 2, is
not "a slimy
cistern,"
but "the slime of deep water."
This is evident from
hlvcm, the
deep, the abyss, which is always used of "the deep
sea,"
and from the parallelism in the second clause. The Berleb.
Bible:
"If the abyss be only full of water, a good swimmer has
still
the hope of rising to the surface." dmfm is not the partic.
Hoph.
(in that case ynyx would have accompanied it), but a
noun
formed from it.—On "I am wearied in my crying," (that
is,
"with it,"—the effect existing in the cause), in the 3d verse,
compare
Ps. vi. 6, "I am weary with my groaning." The crying
also
is referred to, "in my throat is burnt," "has inflamed it-
self,"—the
Niph. fr. rrH,
as the exciting cause. The eyes
fail: lose their power of
vision, when a person keeps them long
on
the stretch, fixed upon a distant object, in hope of it coming
nearer,
till the outlines become better defined. The Berleb.
Bible:
"Just as it happens to those who look for a long time
steadily
at "any thing, so is such a soul sensible of its own
weakness,
the eye of its faith becomes weaker and weaker."
Compare Ps. cxix. 82, Lam. iv. 17. The cause of the crying
is
given
in; "the waiting upon my God." lHym is the nomin.
and
not the genitive. The Psalmist goes on as if he had
written
ynyf ytylk.—On "they are more numerous than the
hairs
of my head," in ver. 4, compare Ps. xl. 12. "Who hate
me
without cause," and "my lying enemies," occur connected
together
exactly in the same way, in Ps. xxxv. 19: the quota-
PSALM LXIX. VER. 1-12. 369
tion
in Jo. x v. 25, refers to both
passages: compare also Ps.
xxxviii.
19. These verbal references to one another, as they
are
peculiar to those Davidic Psalms which describe the Right-
eous One, are manifestly designed
to exhibit these Psalms as so
many
links of one common chain, or parts
of one great picture.
The
expression, "I shall replace what I did not take away,"
is,
like the similar expression, "they ask me what I do not
know,"
in Ps. xxxv. 11, to be understood neither historically
nor
figuratively, nor proverbially, but as an individualizing trait,
descriptive
of what, in the circumstances, might really occur.
David
experienced something similar when Shimei said to him,
2
Sam. xvi. 8, "The Lord. recompenses on thee all the blood of
the
house of Saul, in whose room thou hast been made king, and
the
Lord gives the kingdom into the hand of thy son Absalom."
The sufferer must indeed see in his
misery the punishment
which
his sins have deserved, but yet, notwithstanding this, he
can
claim the assistance of God; because not to deliver him
would
be as much as to put to shame all the faithful, as he is
suffering
for the sake of God, ver. 5-7-12.—Ver. 5. 0
God, thou
knowest my foolishness,
and mine iniquities are not hid from
thee. Ver. 6. Let me not be put to shame who wait on thee,
0
Lord God, God of hosts;
those who seek thee shall not be put to
shame in me, 0 God of
bear reproach, shame covers my face. Ver. 8. I was strange to
my brethren, and
estranged from the sons of my mother. Ver.
9.
For the zeal of thy house has consumed
me, and the reproaches
of those who reproach
thee have fallen upon me. Ver. 10. And
I weep, my soul fasts,
and it is turned to my reproach. Ver.
11.
I have put on sackcloth, and I serve them
for a proverb.
Ver.
12. They think upon me who sit in the
gate, and on songs
the drunkards.--Ver. 5. is generally
understood. as a protesta-
tion
of innocence on the part of the sufferer: "thou knowest
whether
I am chargeable or not," that is, "that I am not."
But
a reference to Ps. xxxviii. 3-5, especially to the words
which
occur there, "because of my foolishness"—the tlvx
only
in that Psalm and this passage—and to Ps. vi. 1, xl. 12,
xli.
4, makes it manifest that the words are to be taken in their
most
obvious sense, (my foolishness, my iniquities, comp. ver.
19),
as an acknowledgment of guilt on the part of the Psalmist,
which,
according to the just judgment of God, had brought
upon
him the unjust persecution of his enemies. The connec-
370 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
between the 5th and 6th verses is not outwardly apparent.
In
reality, in verse 5 there is an "indeed," and in verse 6 a
"but:"
"My suffering is indeed deserved,
but thou canst not
let
me perish, because in me all thy faithful people would be
put
to shame." The fdy with l, is to know in
reference to
something,
or about something.—On verse 6. compare on Ps.
xxv.
3, "those who wait on thee shall not be ashamed, those
shall
be put to shame who act perfidiously without a cause."
This
position would be annihilated were the sufferer to be de-
stroyed.
For in him as their representative, or in his case,
through
his fate, all who wait on God would at the same time
be
put to shame. The names of God point to his omnipotence,
which
guarantees the power, and to his relation
to Israel, which
guarantees
the will to prevent such a consummation. Calvin:
"He
represents this danger before God, not because he stands in
need
of being reminded, but because he encourages us to deal
in
confidence with him."—In verse 7, the sufferer lays the foun-
dation for his assertion that
all who fear God would be put to
shame
by his destruction: he suffers for the
sake of God; and
this
is a sure proof, that he belongs to their number, and that
in
his case that of all the fearers of God is at the same time
decided.
In reference to the jylf, for thy
sake, compare at
Ps.
xliv. 22, and Jer. xv. 15. The 9th verse here serves as a
commentary.
On "it covers my face," compare at Ps. xliv.
16.
In reference to the prominence given to reproach,
Calvin:
"which
is more bitter to an honourable man than to suffer a
hundred
deaths. For many will be found ready to suffer death,
who
cannot bear reproach."—The more full expansion of ver.
7
follows in verses 8 and 9; the expansion of "I bear re-
proach,"
in verse 8, where the magnitude of the reproach is
indicated
by the individualizing feature, that even the nearest
relatives
draw back from aversion, (compare at Ps. xxxviii. 11,
this
David himself had probably, in the time of Saul, expe-
rienced
in a painful manner, Ps. xxvii. 10, if even his parents
forsook
him what had he to expect from his brethren, who
were
less likely to understand him, and 1 Sam. xvii. 28;) next
the
expansion of "for thy sake," in verse 9. The two clauses
of
the verse do not stand in synonymous parallelism, but are to
be
thus explained: zeal for thy house hath consumed me, and
for this reason, the reproaches of
those who reproach thee,
have
fallen upon me, i. e. even my nearest relatives are estrang-
PSALM LXIX. VER. 5-12. 371
ed
from me, because, in consequence of my burning zeal for the
house
of God, the reproaches of his enemies have assailed me,
and
covered me with shame. "It consumes me," does not refer
at
all to the outward consequences of zeal,—according to Stier,
"it
brings upon me loss, inasmuch as it
has drawn upon me per-
secution
and death from the adversaries;" but to its inward in-
tensity,—it
wears me away, as Luther says, "I am zealous almost
to
death," and in accordance with John ii. 17: This is manifest
from
the parallel passage, Ps. cxix. 139, "My zeal consumes me,
that
my enemies forget thy words." It is clear from Is. i. 11, and
following
verses, what we are to understand by zeal for the house
of
the Lord,—the temple, as the centre of the whole Israelitish
religion.
Samuel was zealous for the house of the Lord, when
he
said to Saul, "behold, obedience is better than sacrifice."
David
himself displayed this zeal, when he inculcated the utter
uselessness
of merely outward offerings, and of the whole of mere
outward
worship, and when he cried out procul
profani to all hy-
pocrites:
compare, for example, Ps. iv. 5, xv. xxiv. 6, li. 16, 17.
Every
one who is animated with this burning zeal for the house
of
God, will naturally draw upon himself the reproaches of all the
enemies
of God. The first half of the verse is quoted in John ii. 17,
and
the second half in Rona. xv, 3.—In ver. 10-12, the sufferer
individualizes
and enlarges still farther upon the thought, that
his
zeal for the house of the Lord had drawn upon him the re-
proaches
of the open ungodly and of the hypocritical world.
The
repetition in verse 10 out of verse 9, points to this relation.
The
fasting and weeping are united here as they are in 2 Sam.
xii.
16, 21, 22, where also they come from the lips of David.
The
fasting there is expressive of repentance, as it is at Ps. xxxv.
13.
The sufferer represents himself here as mourning, repent-
ing
for his people, in order to prevail upon God to pity him, and
to
mitigate the threatened judgment. But this, his holy mourn-
ing,
which should lead all to repentance, is made the subject of
profane
ridicule by the enemies of God. The connection with
ver.
9 is decisive against the assumption that the Psalmist is
speaking
of mourning over his own sufferings. The soul
appears
also
in the law as having particularly to do with fasting: compare
at
Ps. xxxv. 13.—On verse 11 compare Ps. xxxv. 13, and in re-
ference
to lwm
at Ps. xliv. 1.—The Hyw with b, means here, as
always,
to think upon. That it is a thinking with a view to sal-
lies
of wit at the expense of the rueful enthusiasts, the holy, or
372 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
would-be-holy,
who hang the head, is manifest from the connec-
tion
with what goes before, and still more clearly from the
second clause, where vHywy requires to be added.
The gate
was
the place for the transaction of serious business: compare
Lam.
v. 14. Ruth iv. 1, 2, Jos. xx. 4. Stier is therefore correct:
tam in concessibus
seriis quam ludicris.
The gate is never
spoken
of as "the place of social rest."
The preceding prayer was followed by
the basis on which it
rests,
viz.: the greatness of the trouble, and the circumstance
that
the sufferer had been brought into it for the sake of God.
Now
is the time for the prayer to come in again in an ex-
panded form, ver. 13-18, and in
close dependance on the de-
scription
of the distress in ver. 1-3: inasmuch as I have been
brought
into such distress for thy sake, do thou deliver me out
of
the slime, &c. Ver. 13. But I pray to
thee, 0 Lord! a time
of grace, 0 Lord,
through the fulness of thy compassion! hear me
through thy delivering
truth.
Ver. 14. Deliver me out of the
slime, and let me not
sink, let me be delivered from them that hate
me, and out of the deep
waters.
Ver. 15. Let not the water
flood overflow me, and
let not the deep swallow me up, and let
not the well shut its
mouth upon me.
Ver. 16. Hear me, 0
Lord, for good is thy
compassion, according to the multitude of
thy tender mercies, turn
thou to me.
Ver. 17. And conceal not
thy face from thy
servant, for I am in trouble, make haste and
hear me. Ver. 18. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it, set
me free because of mine
enemies.—In
ver. 13. the ynx is empha-
tically
placed first, as in Ps. xxxv. 13 and xli. 12. The tf is
not
the accus. at the time, (tf is never thus used),
but the nom.:
("may
it be, or may there come) a time of grace." A time of
grace
is a time when God makes his grace known: compare Is.
xlix.
8, where the parallel expression is a "day of salvation," and
lxi.
2, where, in opposition to "a year of grace," there is "a day
of
vengeance." Verse 16 furnishes a commentary, (comp. Ps.
lxxi.
2) on b,
through, in virtue of. "Through
thy salvation-
sending
truth," (according to which thou fulfillest the prophecies
given
to thy people), of the third clause,
is parallel to "through
the
fulness of thy compassion," of the second.—In
verse 14, the
"out
of deep waters," taken from the 2d verse, is explained by
the
preceding "from those that hate me:" compare at Ps. xviii.
4.—In
verse 15, the "well" is a figurative expression, as "the
pit,"
rvb
at Ps. xl. 2, for "deep water:" the well shuts its
PSALM LXIX. VER. 13-21. 373
mouth
over him whom the billows overwhelm. The connection
will
not permit us to entertain the idea of a cistern and its lid.
The
word, moreover, has not this sense.—The Compassion of
God,
verse 16, is good, because it is
great: compare the parallel
expression,
"according to the fulness of thy tender mercy," and
"the
fulness of thy compassion," in ver. 13. bvF never has the
sense
of "great." Calvin: "It is certainly a very difficult thing
to
represent God as gracious to us, at a time when he is angry,
and
as near at hand, when he is far away."—On "draw nigh,"
in
verse 18, compare "be not far from me," in Ps. xxii. 11. My
soul, exposed to danger:
compare verse 1. Ps. xiii. 4, "lest
mine
enemy say, I have prevailed against me, mine adversaries
rejoice
not, when I fail," furnishes a commentary on "because
of
mine enemies."
In verses 19-21, the Psalmist turns
back to the description
of
his trouble, and of the wickedness of his enemies, for the
purpose
of laying a foundation for the second
group of petitions,
which
are directed to righteous judgment upon his enemies.
The
three verses of this paragraph are connected with the seven
of
the following, and form together one decade.—Ver. 19.
Thou knowest my reproach
and my shame, and my dishonour;
mine adversaries are all
before thee.
Ver. 20. Reproach hath
broken my heart, and I
am sick, and I wait for sympathy, and
there is none, and for
comforters, and I find none. Ver. 21. And
they give me gall to
eat, and in my thirst they give me vinegar to
drink.—As God knows the
sufferings of the righteous man, he
cannot
but avert them, and as he knows the wickedness of his
enemies,
he cannot but judge them, ver. 19 and 22, It is a great
consolation
in unmerited sufferings, when reflections on the om-
niscience
of God take full possession of the soul.—The wvn in
verse
20 = wnx,
to be sick: compare Ps. vi. 2.—After
the ene-
mies
had succeeded so far with the sufferer as to have wounded
him
in body and mind, they might have been supposed to have
become
terrified at the work of their own
hands, and to have
changed
their hatred into sympathy. But their unfeeling heart
aggravates his misery: instead of
giving him cordials in his
sickness,
which they should have done, they gave him gall
and
vinegar.—The ytvrbb, (compare the cognate
noun and verb
in
2 Sam. xii. 17, xiii. 6, 19), is not "in my food," but "for my
food,"
according to the second clause, where the vinegar is the
drink itself, and not some bad
substance mixed with it. The
wxr occurs undoubtedly, and is generally allowed to
do so, in
374 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
general sense of "something very bitter," in Deut. xxxii. 32,
33,
Job xx. 6: the assumed special sense of
"some particular
bitter
and poisonous root," is not necessarily demanded by any
of
the remaining passages: the general sense is everywhere suit-
able;
"bitterness and melancholy" suit very well together.a
In
all probability, the word, according to Ps. cxli. 4, Ez. xxx.
23,
and Song of Sol. iv. 13, is to be explained by "the head
of
bitternesses," or "something bitter as gall." Several times
wxr has the kindred sense of poisonous, which in the Old Tes-
tament
is frequently connected with bitterness. But the con-
nection
with vinegar makes it manifest that it is only the sense
of
"something bitter" which it bears here. The yxmcl is pro-
perly
"for my thirst." Vinegar
quenches thirst, but in an un-
pleasant
way. Two circumstances at the crucifixion of our
Lord
stand in reference to this verse. First, "they gave him
vinegar
to drink mixed with gall, and when he had tasted he
would
not drink it," Matt. xxxii. 34. Matthew, in his usual
way,
refers to theological views in his
narrative of the drink:
always
keeping his eye on the prophecies of the Old Testament,
he
speaks of vinegar and gall for the purpose of rendering the
fulfilment
of the passage in the Psalms more manifest. Mark
again,
xv. 23, according to his usual way,
looks rather at the
outward
quality of the drink: it was, according to him (sour)
wine
mixed with myrrh, the usual drink of malefactors. This
drink,
as given to malefactors, was a kindness, but as given to
the
personification of suffering righteousness, it was a severe
and
bitter mortification. Second, Jesus cried, according to John
xis.
28, (compare Matt. xxviii. 48), when he knew that every
thing
was accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled, "I
thirst,"
and after this there was vinegar given him to drink.
The
dying Saviour, in fulfilment of this passage, cried "I
thirst:"
the action was a symbolical one, embodying the figure of
the
Psalm.
In Ver. 22-28 we have the wish for
righteous judgment on
the
enemies, and the prayers for the same.—Ver. 22. May their
table before them become
a snare, and to those who feel secure,
let there be a fall. Ver. 23. May their eyes become dark,
that they do not see,
and may their loins continually shake.
a Goussett remarks:
"as wxr
is applied to so many kinds of subjects, it
seems
properly to denote no one kind in particular, but any one in which the
quality
resides."
PSALM LXIX. VER.
22-28. 375
Ver.
24. Scatter upon them thy wrath, and may
the hot fire of
thy indignation reach
them.
Ver. 25. May their habitation be
desolate, and may no one
dwell in their tents.
Ver. 26. For they
persecute him whom thou
hast smitten, and they talk of the pain
of those who are pierced
through by thee.
Ver. 27. Give iniquity
upon their iniquity, and
let them not come to thy righteousness.
Ver.
28. May they be blotted out of the book
of the living, and
may they not be written
with the righteous.--That
in reference
to
this paragraph, we cannot entertain the idea of "a zeal
which
belongs to the Old but not to the New Testament," and
that
the Psalmist does not stand in need of the generosity of
those
who would frame an excuse for his "too sensitive heart,"
is
obvious, apart from general considerations, from the fact,
that
the Saviour in his last moments, emphatically referred to
the
Psalm, the peculiar character of which is unquestionably
taken
from this paragraph, that, in Mat. xxiii. 38, he quoted the
25th
verse as descriptive of the desolation which was to come
upon
Peter
as fulfilled in
xi.
9, 10, finds in verses 22 and 23, a prophecy of the fate of
the
Jews. The wish for divine judgment on
ungodly wicked-
ness,
can be considered as objectionable, only if we are prepar-
ed
to deny this judgment itself, in manifest contradiction to the
New,
no less than to the Old Testament: compare, for example,
Matth.
xxi. 41, xxii. 7, xxiv. 51. Assuredly, it becomes us to
approach
passages of scripture such as the one now before us with
fear
and trembling: and assuredly, in ungodly lips, they may
be
used in a very ungodly Manner. Luther: "After the ex-
ample
of a Peter, Paul, James, David and Elisha, assuredly thou
mayest
curse in the name of God, and thereby perform an ac-
ceptable
service to God." Calvin: "There is need of wisdom
to
make a distinction between the reprobate, and those who are
still
within the reach of salvation; of purity,
that every one be
not
partial to his own self; and of moderation,
which inclines
the
spirit to quiet patience."--In ver. 22, the sense is: because
they
have aggravated my misery by terrible wickedness,
therefore
may their happiness, (their table, their richly furnish-
ed
table, compare Ps. xxiii. 5, with reference to the figure of the
preceding
verse), become the cause of their destruction.
Calvin:
"This vengeance of God, should fill
us with no small
degree
of alarm, as the Holy Ghost says that all the blessings
of
life become fraught with death to the reprobate." The
376 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Mvlw, properly a noun, is used here as an adjective,
as it is
in
Ps. lv. 20, "who are altogether at peace:" compare 1 Thess.
v.
3.—In ver. 26, those pierced of the Lord,
according to the
parallelism,
and according to Is. lxvi. 16, and Jerem. xxv. 33,
"those
pierced through by him," or, "those wounded even to
death,"
are those who are severely distressed, namely, those who
are
so by the wicked, (comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 11, where David says,
"let
him curse, for the Lord has bid him"); for in the whole
Psalm
there is no mention made of any other suffering, except
that
inflicted by the enemies: comp. "by those who hate me,"
in
ver. 14. Regardless of "res sacra
miser," (comp. Job xix.
21,
22, "have pity upon me, ye, my friends, for the hand of the
Lord
has afflicted me: wherefore will ye persecute me, as God?")
they
persecute when they should help, and rejoice, when they
should
mourn:—as the Jews, when Pilate brought forth Jesus to
them,
instead of being affected by the sight of his sufferings, and
led
to the thought of Luke xxiii. 31, cried out, "crucify him, cru-
cify
him." On rps with l, compare at Ps. ii. 7.
The connection
and
the parallel passage, Ps. xli. 8, shew that, they talk of the pain,
in
the sense of triumphing, exulting, exhorting one another, to com-
plete
their work by giving the sufferer the last blow.—The first
clause
of ver. 27 is to be explained: give transgression,
in its
consequences,
(compare at Ps. xl. 12) upon their
transgressions,
as
the punishment: compare Jer. xviii. 23, "Yet, Lord, thou
knowest
all their counsel against me to slay me, forgive not
their
iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight." It is
manifest,
for example, from Rom. ii. 6, ss., that the Psalmist is
not
praying, merely as his sufferings may prompt him, but is utter-
ing
at the same time the language of prophecy.
Many expositors
understand
the words of an increase of iniquity and punishment.
Luther:
"Let them fall into one sin after
another." But there
is
no parallel passage in favour of this sense; and the second
clause
here, and the following verse, are altogether against it,
where
the language refers to the judgment,
and the visitation of
the
guilt of the wicked by God, and not to an
an increase of this.
xvb with b signifies always,
"to come in to any thing," and here,
as
in Ex. xvi. 7, in the sense of "to be partaker of." Righteous-
ness is here, as it
frequently is, not an inherent quality, but the
gift
of God: compare Ps. xxiv. 5, cxxxii. 9. The man whose
sins
God visits, is shut out from his righteousness.—"To be
blotted
out of the book of life," verse 28, of which mention
is
first made in Ex. xxxii. 32, is to be devoted to death, with
PSALM LXIX. VER. 22-36. 377
reference
to the early and sudden death threatened to the wick-
ed
in the law: compare Ps. xxxvii. 29. The book of life refers
here
to temporal, but in the New Testament
to eternal life:
Phil.
iv. 3, Rev. xx. 15. "To be written with the righteous" is
the
parallel clause. For the righteous
are written in the book
of
life, are ordained to life.
In the 29th verse, by an easy
transition, as the prayer rests
on
such a solid basis, hope takes the
place of prayer:—And I
am miserable and a
sufferer, thy salvation, 0 God, will exalt
me. "And I" marks
the opposition to the enemies devoted
to
destruction
in spite of their prosperity. The chief thought is
in
the second clause, which should in reality be preceded by a
"but,"
just as the first clause should have an "indeed." On
bgw, compare at Ps. xx. 1, lix. 1.
The confidence of deliverance gives
rise, in the last strophe,
to
the resolution to give thanks, ver. 30 and 31, to the hope
that
this deliverance will strengthen the faith of all the righteous,
ver.
32 and 33, and finally, in ver. 34-36, to the lively hope of
which,
in the exercise of faith, he has come to anticipate as certain.
The
threefold consequences of the anticipated deliverance of
the
Psalmist, are peculiarly well-fitted to prevail upon God,
to
whom the praise of his own people, the confirming of the
righteous,
and the enlivening of the hope of
cannot
but be well pleasing, to grant this deliverance.—Ver. 30.
I will praise the name
of God in a song, and exalt him with
songs of praise. Ver. 31. This will please the Lord better than
bulls, bullocks with
horns and hoofs.
Ver. 32. The meek shall
see it and rejoice, ye
who seek God, may your heart live. Ver.
33.
For the Lord hears the needy, and does
not despise his fet-
tered ones. Ver. 34. May the heaven and earth praise him, the
sea, and every thing
which moveth therein.
Ver. 35. For God
shall deliver
dwell there, and they
occupy it.
Ver. 36. And the seed of his
servants shall inherit
it, and those who love his name shall dwell
therein.—In the 31st verse, the
inward offering of the heart-
believer
is opposed to the merely outward offering of the hypo-
crite: compare at Ps. L. LI.
Where such spiritual thank-offer-
ings
are to be expected, God cannot be otherwise than inclined
to
help. The predicates of the bullocks—the syrpm, accord-
ing
to the analogy of Nyrqm, not cleaving
the hoofs, as Lev. xi.
378 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
4,
but having hoofs, as Lev. xi. 3, and
other passages—set before
our
eyes the whole brute creation, and intimate that such a mere
material
offering cannot be an object well-pleasing to God, who
is
a spirit. All bodily service belongs to the same class with
bullocks
that have horns and hoofs.—On the second half of ver.
32
compare the exactly parallel passage Ps. xxii. 26.—On verse
33,
"for, as my example shews,
&c.", compare Ps. xxii. 24.
The
fettered ones of the Lord" are
either those whom he has
fettered,
that is, visited with severe suffering, according to verse
26,
or those who are fettered for his sake, according to verse 7.
—In
the 34th and following verses, the Psalmist beholds in the
special deliverance vouchsafed
to him, a pledge of a deliver-
ance
of a general character, and in the
distinction made by God
between
him and his enemies, security for the victory of the
whole
church of God, and for the salvation to be imparted to
her.
God helps
wicked, by whom he is
assailed, and rebuilds the cities of
which
they had laid waste: compare on Ps. li. 18. The mention.
made
of the temple in verse 9, shews that we are not to think
of
a destruction such as happened during the Babylonish
capti-
vity, but only of such
destructions as happened, for example, in
the
time of Saul. The subject to "dwell there", is the needy
of
verse 33, "the suffering righteous men": compare verse 36.
What
is here said of the dwelling of the righteous" is the op-
posite
of what is said in verse 25.—On verse 36 compare Is. lxv.
9.
Calvin: "Although that land, until the appearance of Christ,
was
given to the chosen people, yet must we still remember that
it
was the type of our heavenly native land, and that therefore
what
is here written of the protection of the church is more
truly
fulfilled at the present day".
PSALMS LXX. AND LXXI.
THERE are strong reasons for
believing that these Psalms,
like
the first and second, are connected together, so as to
form
one pair, the 70th being like an introduction to the 71st.
In
the 71st there is no title;—a want which exists nowhere
throughout
the first and second books of Psalms, except where
a
pair of Psalms occurs. The fact, that the 70th Psalm is mere-
PSALMS LXX. AND LXXI. 379
ly
a repetition of a part of the 40th, is very unfavourable to its
being
considered as occupying an entirely independent position,
but
admits of explanation, if the two Psalms be viewed as con-
nected
together. To this may be added, the analogy of the
opening
verses of the 71st, which are borrowed from Ps. xxxi.
Then
both Psalms are as it were wrought together by an alpha-
betical
arrangement; the beginning, the middle, and the end
of
the whole are indicated by the three first letters of the alpha-
bet.
The 70th Psalm begins with x, the 71st with b, which is
doubled,
for the purpose of rendering it less doubtful that this
beginning
is accidental, and concludes with g, which alternates
with
t,
the appropriate letter for a conclusion,— tg and gt.
Finally,
if we add the verses of the 70th to those of the 71st,
we
obtain the remarkable number 30, three decades.
The ground on which the relation of
the 70th to the 71st
Psalm
depends, cannot be doubtful. It is the same which in
Ps.
lxxi. itself has been the cause of the passage at the begin-
ning
being borrowed from the 31st Psalm, and of the verbal
references
which occur, near the close of this passage, to the 22,
40,
35, and 38 Psalms, viz, the purpose to connect our Psalm
with
the other Davidic Psalms which refer to the suffering
righteous man, and to point it out as
a link of that chain: com-
pare
at Ps. lxix. And in particular, Ps. lxx. forms a transition
between
the lxix. and lxxi.; the three together forming a kind
of
Trilogy. The 70th is a compend of the
40th Psalm, to
which
the 60th is very closely allied, and therefore is particu-
larly
well fitted to serve as the link of connection between the
69th
and the 71st.
As the variations between the 70th
and the 40th Psalms have
already
been considered, in our remarks on the latter Psalm, we
shall
proceed at once to the 71st.
The Psalm begins, ver. 1-3, with the
prayer for deliverance,
in
which there is a short reference to the ground which affords
security
for its being heard. Immediately after the Introduction,
which
is borrowed from Ps. xxxi., there follows, in ver. 4-13, a
more
extended developement of its contents: God has mani-
fested
great grace to the Psalmist from his early youth, ver.
4-8,
therefore may he not reject him in his helpless old age,
when
mighty enemies threaten him with destruction, ver. 9-13.
On
the same basis on which the prayer rested, there rises the
hope, in ver. 14-21. The
conclusion consists of a promise, ver.
380 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
22-24,
to render thanks for the assistance which is confidently
anticipated.
The whole Psalm contains 24 verses,
twice 12. The first
division,
which contains the prayer and its basis, is complete in
10
verses, and is divided into two fives; the second half, which
contains
the hope and the thanks, consists, in like manner, of 10
verses,
and is divided into a seven and a three. Between the
two
main divisions there is an intercalary verse, the 14th, con-
taining
the substance of the second part. This intercalary
verse,
together with the three verses of the introduction, and
the
six verses of Ps. lix. (including the title, the originality of
which
is very strongly supported by its having a place within
the
formal arrangement), make up the third decade.
The same remarks are applicable to
the subject of the Psalm,
which
have already been made on Ps. lxix.: it is the suffering
righteous man. In verse 20 we have,
as in Ps. lxix. 26, a plurali-
ty,
which had hitherto been concealed under a unity. The ap-
plication
of the Psalm to the whole of the community (Luther,
Cocceius,
and others, consider the Psalm as a
prayer of the
church in its old age) is to be considered as
false only if it be
exclusively
adopted. Besides the analogy of those other Psalms
which
are intimately connected with this one, there is the con-
stant
use, except in ver. 20, of the singular, which is sufficient
to
shew that the Psalm was also, and in the first instance, de-
signed
to apply to individual suffering righteous men. We
would
not however be justified in rejecting altogether the ap-
plication
to the whole community, (compare Isa. xlvi. 3, 4, Ps.
cxxix.
1), or even in considering it as a mere adaptation:
com-
pare
at Ps. xxii.
The particular aspect of the general
subject embraced by the
Psalm,
is the opening of the fountains of consolation for the
suffering
righteous man in his old age. The
Psalmist teaches
him
how to be patient in tribulation, and joyful in hope, by con-
templating
that grace of God which he has already enjoyed,
and
how to drive away the bitterness of his pain, by the love of
God,
as he dwells with his whole soul upon the recollection of
those
deeds, which are like so many pledges of fresh deliver-
ance.
It is obvious that we cannot, with many of the old expo-
sitors,
consider the mention of the aged man speaking, and of
his
feebleness, as a particular individual
feature, restricting the
Psalm
to the relation in which David stood to Absalom. The
PSALM LXXI. 381
colouring,
which in every thing else is entirely general, and the
analogy
of the kindred Psalms, are decisive against this. There
may
be truth, however, in the assumption that David here com-
forts
the suffering righteous man in his old age with that same
comfort
wherewith he himself had been comforted in his old age.
That
this, however, cannot be maintained with perfect confi-
dence,
and that it is even possible that David may have only
supposed himself to be in such a
situation, is evident from par-
allel
instances. The Countess Amelia Juliana, of Rudolstadt,
for
example, in the poem, "I leave God to rule in all," says,
"I
am not in high esteem, and not like others great and rich,"
etc.,
and, "I strive not after high estate, the best by far is
middle
rank."
The authorship, asserted in the
title to be David's, is confirm-
ed
by the near relation in which the Psalm stands to those Da-
vidic
Psalms which have been already referred to, (compare at
the
lxix.), a relation which is of such a character that it must
have
proceeded from identity of authorship, and not from copy-
ing.
The 20th verse, on the other hand, has been appealed to,
as
affording evidence that the Psalm was composed during the
captivity.
But there is nothing more in that verse than the ex-
pression,
in general terms, of the hope of deliverance out of
great
trouble. And the entire absence, both here, and through-
out
all the rest of the Psalm, of every individual description
of
the trouble, is sufficient to spew that it is utterly impossible
to
find out any historical occasion.
Our Psalm, in common with all the
Psalms of the same kind,
is
characterized by an easy style of language,—which is to be
accounted
for from the fact that David is reciting a prayer for
the
use of sufferers, to whose
necessities he kindly accommo-
dates
himself. The fact, which many have perverted to throw
doubt
on the Davidic authorship of this Psalm, is to be judged
of
by what Schmolk says of his own poems: "Simplicity
has
ruled
the lips and the pen. It was therefore necessary to pray
with
simplicity. High words do not always come from the
bottom
of the heart." (B. Ringwald and B. Schmolk
von
Hoffman v. Fallersleben, p. 55.)
The introduction is ver. 1-3. The
third verse closes the
portion
borrowed from Psalm xxxi., and in the fourth verse the
author
begins his own composition; the introduction, therefore,
cannot
be extended into the fourth verse. Ver. 1.
On thee, 0
382 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Lord, do I trust, may I
never be put to shame.
Ver. 2. Through
thy righteousness
deliver me, and redeem me, incline thine ear to
me, and help me. Ver. 3. Be to me a rock of habitation, to
which I may come
continually, who hast ordained to help me:
for thou art my rock and
my fortress.—The
quotation here, as in
similar
cases, is made in a free manner, and
with variations which
are
particularly significant in ver. 3, when the author is just about
to
pass on to the original portion of his Psalm. That the quotation
did
not arise from recollection, but was introduced designedly,
and
that it serves an important object, is manifest from the fact,
that
it opens a Psalm, which, from
beginning to end, with the
exception
of a few references of a similar description, bears an
independent
and peculiar character. Instead of a "rock of se-
curity," zvfm, there stands here,
"a rock of habitation," Nvfm:
compare
on the word at Ps. xc. 1, and on variations of this sort,
Vol.
i. p. 282. It is scarcely worth mentioning that the Chaldee
and
the several MSS. propose to change the reading into that of
the
fundamental passage; this pernicious practice is indeed every-
where
adopted. The additional clause "to which I may come
continually,"
that is, "as often as necessity compels me," is
very
suitable after "habitation." The clause, "who hast or-
dained,"
(hvc
is used as at Ps. xliv. 4, lxviii. 28,) contains the
basis of the petition,
exactly as at Ps. vii. 6, "who hast ordain-
ed
judgment":—the imperative there, as here, is inconsistent
with
grammar. "For my rock," etc.
gives the basis both of the
wish,
and of the fact by which it in the first instance is support-
ed.
The first main division, ver. 4-13,
contains the expanded
prayer
and its basis. Ver. 4. 0 my God deliver
me out of the
hand of the wicked, and
out of the fist of the evil-doer, and of the
abandoned man. Ver. 5. For thou art my hope, 0 Lord God,
my confidence from my
youth.
Ver. 6. On thee have I leant
from the womb, from my
mother's lap thou hast been my con-
ductor, of thee is my
praise continually.
Ver. 7. I was as a
wonder to many, but thou
art my strong confidence. Ver. 8.
My mouth is full of thy
praise, and continually of thy glory.
Ver.
9. Therefore cast me not off in the time
of old age, in the
failure of my strength
forsake me not.
Ver. 10. For my enemies
speak of me, and those
who lay wait for my soul take coun-
sel together. Ver. 11. And say: God has forsaken him, per-
secute, and seize him,
for there is no deliverer. Ver. 12. 0 God,
PSALM LXXI. VER. 4-13. 383
be not far from me, make
haste to help me.
Ver. 13. Let them be
confounded and consumed
who are enemies to my soul, let them
get reproach and
dishonour who seek my hurt.— dym and Jkm,
as
in ver. 4. are parallel as they are also in the title of Ps. xviii.
CmH occurs only here, it is from CmH, to be sour, and is the
same
as CvmH,
Isa. i. 17, the abandoned. The
Berleb. Bible, in
the
style of true theological exposition: "Do
thou deliver the
soul
from unbelief, which, like an old
tyrant, seeks to strangle
faith.
If the spirit is not always on the watch, this enemy gets
together
nations of vain thoughts to besiege the soul."--The
prayer,
which is shortly expressed, is succeeded, in ver. 5-8, by
the
basis on which it rests, and after
that the prayer is expand-
ed in ver. 9-13. The
parallel expression, HFbm, "the object
of
my trust," makes it evident, that "my hope," in verse 5, is
equivalent
to "thou art the object on which
I hope": comp. Ps.
xl.
4. The Psalmist does not in the least praise his own faith,
but
the grace of God, which had been
imparted to him from
his
childhood. The 16th verse spews that we cannot, contrary
to
the accusative, tear hvhy yndx from each other: Ps. lxviii.
20,
lxix. 6. These names point to the fulness of might in God,
which
peculiarly fits him to be an object of hope to his people.
—The
Niph. j`msn
in ver. 6 retains its passive signification: on
thee have I leant, =
thou hast been my support, my prop: compare
"on
thee was I cast from my mother's womb," in Ps. xxii. 10. In
the
whole verse there is nothing whatever said about the senti-
ments
of the sufferer, but merely about good
deeds done to him.
yzvg is difficult. It is evidently the infinitive of
zvg:
Hzg
in the
sense
of "to do good to," which many adopt here, is a forced
one
in Hebrew, and yzvg, according to this rendering, is too far
removed
from the fundamental passage, Ps. xxii. 9, "for thou
wast
my breaking out, yHvg from my mother's womb." The
question
may be asked, is the verb here transitive,
my guiding,
or
bringing out,—in favour of this, it
may be urged, that in other
passages
the verb is used only transitively,—or
intransitive, my
being brought, or my coming
forth,—an
exposition which is favour-
ed
by the form, (for it is only intransitive verbs that have their
infinitives
and participles in 0), and also by the fundamental pas-
sage.
"In thee is my praise" is, "thou art the object of my
praise,"
or
"thou hast given me occasion to praise thee": compare at Ps.
xliv.
8, and "of thee is my praise" in Ps. xxii. 25. On "I was
as
a wonder to many", in verse 7th, equivalent to "I, by the
384 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
greatness
of my sufferings, drew upon myself their astonish-
ment
and wonder," compare Deut. xxviii. 46, where the woes
of
Cor.
iv. 9. On tpvm, the object of astonished wonderment,
not
a
sign, compare the Christol. II. p.
45.a Among the Arabians
also,
the term wonder is applied to any
exceedingly great, or as
it
were wonderful, misfortune.
Schultens, in the passage quoted
in the Christology: est omne portentum, et praesertinz
portentosa
calamitas, et homo cui ea incumbit. But it is said
in
the second clause, that in all his wonderfully great misery,
the
Psalmist has experienced God to be his almighty confidence
and
help: compare on zf ysHm Ps. xlv. 6, page 134 of this
volume.--In
the 8th verse Luther has given by mistake, "let
my
mouth be full," instead "of my mouth is full." The
Psalmist
is not praying, but recounting what had happened to
him,
and thereby laying a basis on which his prayer may rest:
compare
the conclusion of verse 6th. The trxpt never sig-
nifies
praise, but always honour, glory:
compare Ps. xcvi. 6, and
the
Christol. on Zech. xii. 7. Inasmuch as the mouth is full
of
the praise of the Lord, it is also
full of his glory; for this is
the
object of praise.—The second half of
the strophe begins
with
the 9th verse: God who has proved himself to be the
Saviour
of the Psalmist from his early youth, cannot forsake
him
now in his old age. The more weak and helpless he is now,
the
more certainly must God be his strength and help. What
is
said here and in ver. 18, is applied by Is. xlvi. 3, 4, to the
God
was yet in its youth and blooming, there was true zeal,
faith,
knowledge, love, stedfastness, so that many thousands of
holy
men laid down their lives for the sake of the gospel, or
gave
up all their substance to aid in extending it. But now that
the
Church has reached its old age, and has become weak, there
is
scarcely any faith, no strong prayer, no steadfastness, no
knowledge,
no love, no fidelity, but all has sunk so low, that
nothing
is left for us to do except to sigh and mourn." A
a Gesenius makes a very
strange remark, in reference to the exposition
given
there: inania sent; sumsit enim, non probavit radicem admira-
tionis protestatem
habere.
In support of this sense, reference was there made to
the
testimony of Schultens drawn from the Arabic Lexicographers. All the
Lexicons
give it; Freytag for example: res
mira, prodigium, calamitas.
PSALM LXXI. VER. 10-21. 385
"therefore"
must be supplied before "cast me not off."—On
ver.
10, Calvin: "It happens generally to the children of God,
that
the ungodly go their utmost lengths against them, when
they
suppose that they have been given over by God to them
for
a prey. For as they judge of the favour of God by outward
appearances
only, they suppose that those on whom he sends
sufferings,
are rejected, forsaken, and given up by God." As
rmx must always be followed by what is said, verse
10 is in-
timately
connected with verse 11. On yl, either in reference to
me, or to me, compare Ps. iii. 2. Who watch for my
soul, i. e.
my
life, that I may not get away with
it.—On verse 11th, com-
pare
the similar speeches of the enemies in Ps. iii. 2, xli. 6, and
2
Sam. xvii. 1, 2, where Ahitophel says: "I will arise and pur-
sue
after David, and I will come upon him while he is weary
and
weak,—and I will smite the king only." On the last words
see
Ps. vii. 2.—On verse 12, compare Ps. xxii. 19, xxxv. 22,
xxxviii.
21, 22, xl. 13, and lxx. 1.—On ver. 13, Ps. xxxv. 4, 26,
xl.
14, and lxx. 2. According to the parallel passages, the
futures
are to be considered as optatives.
The prayer, in the first part of the
second strophe, is followed
by
hope. Ver. 14. And I will continually hope and will multiply
all thy praise. Ver. 15. My mouth shall make known thy right-
eousness, and thy
salvation continually; for I know no numbers.
Ver.
16. I will go forward with the deeds of the Lord,
I will
make mention of thy
righteousness only.
Ver. 17. 0 God,
thou hast taught me it
from my youth, and hitherto I have made
known thy wonders. Ver. 18. And even to old age and grey-
hairs forsake me not,
until I make known thine arm to the gene-
ration to come, and thy
power to all those who shall come after.
Ver.
19. And thy righteousness, 0 God,
stretches to heaven,
who hast done great
things, 0 God; who is like thee? Ver. 20.
Who hast caused us to
see manifold troubles and evils, thou shalt
return and quicken us,
and, returning, shalt deliver us out of the
floods of the earth. Ver. 21. Thou shalt multiply my great
deeds and shalt turn
thyself, and comfort
vin:
"0 Lord, because I have been long accustomed to thy good
deeds,
I do not doubt that a new accession will give me new
opportunity
to praise thy grace." All thy praise,
which I have
already
celebrated. The preterite ytpsvh is expressive of
confidence.—"I
know no number", in ver. 15th, lays
the basis
for
the resolution, expressed by the Psalmist in full expectation
386 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of
his deliverance, to praise the righteousness of God, (compare
at
Ps. xxxvi. 6), and his salvation. Calvin: "There is nothing
which
inflames our spirits more to sing the praises of God,
than
when he has laid us under obligations by many acts of
kindness."
The expression in Ps. xl. 5, "they cannot be
reckoned
up," ought to be compared:—it sets aside also the
translation
of Ewald: no limits.—tvrbg
means only
"great
deeds,"
and never "praise"; xvb with b, can only mean, in ge-
neral,
"to go forward with something," and not "to come with
something
into the temple." The exact idea
becomes manifest
from
the parallel clause, and from the connection. From these,
it
is evident that, "to come with the great deeds of the Lord,"
must
signify "to go forward praising them,
or making them
known." rykzh signifies always "to
mention", never " to
praise":
comp. at Ps. xx. 7. Nothing else deserves to be made
mention
of, to come into notice. "Thy righteousness only,"
i.
e. not my sword, my bow, or my arm, Ps. xliv. 3, 6, my
chariots,
or horses, Ps. xx. 7.—The teaching of
ver. 17 is carried
on
by a matter-of-fact discourse. The object
of the instruction,
the
praise of God, is marked out by the connection, and by the
parallelism.—The
generation, in verse 18, is the succeeding
generation: compare at the
parallel passage, Ps. xxii. 30. On
"thine
arm," compare Ps. xliv. 3.—On " to heaven," (lit. even
to on high), in ver. 19, compare
Ps. xxxvi. 5, lvii. 10. On the
following
clause, compare Ex. xy. 11, Deut. iii. 24, but especially
the
expression of David, in 2 Sam. vii. 22, "where is a God, in
heaven
or on earth, who does according to thy works and thy
mighty
deeds."—On ver. 20 the Massorites, not understanding
the
subject, make a useless effort to get quit of the plurals:
"thou
hast caused us to see,"
"thou wilt quicken us." The
tvfr may be either an adj. as in Gen. xli. 19, 20,
or a subst. as
in
Ps. xxxiv. 19. That bvwt, in both places, is not an adverb,
but
is used in the same way in which it is in Ps. xc., and in the
parallel
passages quoted there, is evident from the correspond-
ing
word, in ver. 21, bst, which is never used as an adverb.
On,
"thou shalt quicken us," compare Deut. xxxii. 39, "I kill
and
I make alive, I wound and I heal." Calvin: "We must
descend
even to death, that God may appear as a deliverer. For
as
we are born without feeling and observation, the first origin
of
our life does not point out to us its author in a manner
sufficiently
emphatic. But when God comes to our help, at a
387 PSALM LXXI. VER. 20-23.
time
when we are in a state of despair, our rising out of this
state
becomes a glorious mirror for reflecting his grace."
"Floods
of the earth" are the floods which overflow the earth,
as
at the deluge: compare great trouble and oppression set
forth
under the emblem of the overflowing of water, in Is. viii.
7,
8, and the allusions to the deluge in Ps. xxix. 10, xxxii. 6, and
xxxvi.
6. The Psalmist saw, in the deliverance of righteous
Noah,
at the great waters of old, a pledge of his own deliver-
ance
out of the great waters of adversity.—As the whole passage
is
descriptive of hope and confidence, the conver. fut. brt, as
it
frequently does throughout the Psalms, conveys the idea of
what
is usual. The hlvdg and hldg signify always,
"some-
thing
great," never "greatness," see Ps. clxv. 3, and ver. 4.
"My
great deeds", are "the great deeds which have happened
for
my sake": compare 2 Sam vii. 23, where David says, "to do
for
you great things, and terrible for thy land," (in like manner
also
hlvdg
in ver. 21), Ps. xi. 5, "Many, 0 Lord, are thy won-
derful
works which thou hast done," and here, ver. 19, "who
hast
done great things."
In the second half of the second
strophe, we have the promise
to
give thanks for the assistance which faith
regards as already
imparted.
Ver. 22. Also I will praise thee with the
psaltery,
thy truth, my God; I
will sing praise to thee upon the harp, thou
holy One of
will sing praise to
thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed.
Ver.
23. Also my tongue shall meditate upon
thy righteousness
continually, because they
are put to shame, because they are
made to blush, who seek
my hurt.—The
"also”, in ver. 22,
points
to the inward connection between the praise
and the
salvation.
The "Holy One of Israel" is the God of Israel who
is
holy: comp. on wvdq at Ps. xxii. 3. The passage before us is
the
fundamental one, for that name of God
of which Isaiah is well
known
to be particularly fond.—On ver. 23, compare Ps.
xxxiv.
22, "the Lord redeems the souls of his servants."—The
Mg in ver. 24, does not belong specially to the
tongue, but
applies
to the whole sentence. On hgH compare at Ps. xc. 9.
388 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LXXII.
THE Psalm, like many others, as for
example the xcth, falls
into
two strophes, one of ten, and another of seven verses.
The
ten of the first strophe is divided into two fives. In the first
half,
ver. 1-5, God grants righteousness to his king, in conse-
quence
of which, righteousness and the fear of God become
prevalent
among the people, and these again bring peace
in
their
train. The second half, ver. 6-10, depicts the extension
of
the dominion of the righteous, the righteously acting, and
therefore
the salvation-sending king: its extent is as wide as
that
of the earth itself. The seven of the second strophe is
divided,
as in Ps. xcth, into a five and a two. In ver. 11-15,
the
Psalmist directs attention to that which will induce all na-
tions
and kings to do homage to this king: it is that, which
appears
throughout the Psalm, as the root of the rest, viz. the
absolute
righteousness of the king. Ver. 16
and 17, which
describe,
in short and graphic terms, the fulness of blessings
which
await this king, and his glory and greatness, form the
conclusion.--The
verses, as far as the 14th, consist of two clauses,
with
the exception of the fourth, which has three. Towards
the
end the verses become larger: the 15th and the 16th
have,
each three clauses, and the last verse has four.
The fundamental thought of the Psalm
is this: That the re-
alization
of the idea of the king in a moral respect, to be looked
for
in future times, the developement of the ideal image of
righteousness,
below which even David remained at such a dis-
tance,
will bring along with it the perfect realization of the
tion,
and its extension over the whole earth.
Solomon is named in the Title as the
author of the Psalm.
Attempts
have been made, to no purpose, to interpret hmlwl
here,
as in Ps. cxxvii., in another sense. The l, when it occurs
in
the Titles, without anything to limit its application, always
indicates,
as here, the author: comp. page 86 of this volume.
The
remarks of Stier, ("it may by all means be understood:
of
Solomon, for Solomon, dedicated to, delivered to Solomon"),
shew
what deplorable mistakes would arise, were it used
in
other senses than in this well ascertained one. What is
meant
by the expression, "by all means", it is not pos-
PSALM LXXII. 389
Bible
to conceive:—such an expression, no cautious writer
could
have used. In favour of this announcement in the Title,
we
have first the remarkably objective
character of the Psalm;
common
to it with the other writings of Solomon, and in striking
contrast
to that flow of feeling, which forms
such a marked
feature
in the Psalms of David. And, in the second
place, there
is
also the fact, that it is the relations of Solomon's time, that
form
the ground work of the Psalm. The references to these
relations,
partake too much of an individual character, as will
be
seen in the progress of our exposition, to admit of our sup-
posing
that they are prophetical. There are
no reasons of any
importance
against considering Solomon as the author. It is
maintained
by Stier, that the typical reference to Solomon,
compels
us to assign the authorship to David. But, in reply to
this,
it is sufficient to advert to Ps. ii. and cx., where David him-
self,
out of the grace imparted to him in his contests against the
enemies
of the
he
may rise to the contemplation of the infinitely more glorious
victories
to be won in battle by his Descendant. And why should
not
Solomon, in like manner, see in his righteous reign of peace,
a
type of the kingdom of the Prince of
Peace? Even the cir-
cumstance,
that at the end of the Psalm, there is appended the
subscription,
that "the prayers of David are ended", is by no
means
decisive against the authorship being Solomon's. For
it
is evident that this subscription announces nothing more,
than
that David is to be considered as the chief author: several
Psalms
occur within this section, Pc; i.—Ps. lxxii., which were
composed
by others, and of which the authors are expressly
named;
the prayers of David also is an
appellation, a potiori:
compare
at Ps. xc. Title. Ewald maintains that the kingdom
of
David appears in the Psalm, as sunk into a diminished, poor
and
low condition, "the dominion over the world was lost, and
had
to be recovered in some other way," and that, therefore,
the
author cannot be Solomon. In opposition to this, we have
to
observe, that there is not one single trace throughout the
whole
Psalm, of anything like a diminution of the kingdom of
David.
It is, on the contrary, upon the basis of a
glorious present,
as
in Ps. ii. and cx. that there rises the hope of a still more
glorious future. This is particularly
manifest in the 8th verse.
In
the passages of the Pentateuch which give the boundaries of
390 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
extreme
points. The points of termination in the Pentateuch
are
the points of beginning here, and the
end of the dominion
is
the same as the end of the earth. It
is hence evident, that
the
boundary spoken of in the Pentateuch had already been
reached,
and that the land between the sea and the
had
already been, and was still occupied. Had it been other-
wise,
this original land would not possibly have been passed over
in
silence; its occupation would have first of all been brought in-
to
notice. Finally, the idea of Hitzig, "that the diffuseness, the
want
of colouring, the absence of all arrangement in the Psalm,
shew
that we have before us a worthless poem,
belonging to a
vitiated age," disappears of
itself, as soon as we become more
intimately
acquainted with the strophe-arrangement, and the
train
of thought in the Psalm; and the objection recoils upon
the
head of him who brought it forward.
It has been acknowledged by the
Jews, that Messiah is the
subject of the Psalm: compare
Christ.
but
a dependence upon tradition in "the progression party",
can
account for the fact, that this exposition, which had been
thoughtlessly
abandoned in the heat of their destructive zeal,
should
still find so little favour, especially as a return has long
since
been made to the ecclesiastical interpretation, in these re-
markably
similar passages, Is. ix. xi. and Zach. ix. The begin-
ning, however, of a return,
even in this case, may be already
perceived.
The Messianic interpretation is defended by Köster,
with
the remark: "It would be inexplicable if an idea of such
importance
in the Hebrew religion, as that of the Messiah,
should
not have found a place in the Psalms."
In the first place, the announcement
as to the eternal dura-
tion
of the dominion of the king, in ver. 5, 7, and 17, is in fa-
vour
of the Messianic interpretation. This announcement could
be
made either of the family of David, considered as one whole,
as
in 1 Sam. vii. and Ps. lxxxix. 36 and 37, or of the Messiah:--
between
these two, we must make our choice. Now, to maintain,
with
Hoffmann, (prophecy and its fulfilment,
to
whom Solomon prays generally for himself and the king of
inconsistent
with the fact, that throughout the whole Psalm,
which
in this respect, differs essentially from 2 Sam. vii., there
does
not occur one single trace of a personification, or of an
ideal
person:—the parallel passages also, such as Is. ix, 5, 6,
PSALM LXXII. 391
may
be added, which do not admit of this interpretation.—Far-
ther,
it is asserted, in as express terms as possible, that the
kingdom
of this great sovereign, as distinguished from that of
his
predecessors, shall extend over the whole earth, that all kings
shall
submit to him, and that all nations shall serve him; while,
at
the same time, care is taken in such a way, as does not admit
of
being misunderstood, to guard this thought from every sus-
picion
of being a poetical exaggeration. The Psalmist would
have
rendered himself ridiculous, if he had promised such a
dominion
to any of the ordinary posterity of David, and no
such
thing ever took place. On the other hand, the an-
nouncement
of the extension of the dominion over the whole
earth,
is what never fails to occur in Messianic prophecies;
comp.
Ps. ii. Is. ix. and xi. Zech. ix. 10,
the
king gains his power over the world, according to ver. 11-
15,
not by weapons of war, but by the righteousness and the
love
which he manifests in protecting and delivering the miser-
able.
There is no example of any Israelitish king, of the ordin-
ary
stamp, having brought, in this way, even one single nation
into
a state of subjection. No such king was ever in circum-
stances
to practice the virtues of righteousness and love in the
midst
of distant nations, powerful states
not in subjection to his
dominion.
Such a king must have been one of a higher than
human
nature,—one who, in the language of the parallel passage,
Is.
xi. "smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and slays
the
wicked with the breath of his lips."
The violent assumptions which must
be made, by those who do
not
adopt the Messianic interpretation, shew how imperatively
that
interpretation is demanded by the contents of the Psalm.
The
most common subterfuge is, that the futures in ver. 2-11,
and
in ver. 16, 17, are to be taken in an optative sense. But,
such
a long succession of wishes, without hope and confidence,
produces
a mournful impression, and has no parallel in the
whole
Book of Psalms. Besides, this interpretation becomes
embarrassed
with difficulties, in the 12th and following verses.
To
be consistent, you must adopt the optative sense there too:
—Maurer
really does so. But it is clear as day that this will
not
do. And if you take the futures there as promises,
you find
yourself
doing what is inadmissible, speaking of the effects as
wishes, and of the causes as promises. The frequent use of
the
fut.
conv. has been appealed to, in favour of the optative inter-
392 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
pretation.
But there are two cases of this form,
sHy
and yHy,
in
the sense of the future denoting a custom, as is frequent
throughout
the Psalms, and the two remaining cases, dry, in ver.
8th,
and yhy,
in ver. 16th, must, according to the analogy of these,
be
interpreted in the same way: the first occurs, moreover, in the
fundamental
passage, Num. xxiv. 19, in the sense of the future
denoting
a custom. Besides, were the author expressing mere
wishes,
he would alternate imperatives with futures. But this
does
not occur after ver. 1st.—Moreover, it is clear as day, that
this
arbitrary change of promises into mere wishes, will not even
gain
the object. Wishes, if they are not to
be utterly ridicu-
lous,
must keep within the range of possibility and probability.
Several
expositors, sensible of this, have added to the first, a
second subterfuge. They
suppose that, in verse 8th, the domi-
nion
of the king, is not at all extended over the whole earth, but
only
over
the
Red Sea, to the north-west, or the
from
the north-east, or the
ary."
We cannot but express our astonishment, that even Ewald
should
have adopted this exposition,—an exposition better fitted
for
the past century, than for the present time: hdr, which is
always
applied to dominion over the heathen, (compare for ex-
ample,
Ps. lxviii. 27, 1 Kings. v. 4; and the fundamental passage,
Num.
xxiv. 19, from which even the form is taken), the ex-
pression,
"from sea to sea," which is always applied to the ut-
most
circumference of the earth, (compare Amos viii. 12,
vii.
12), and finally, "even to the ends of the earth," are all de-
cisive
against it. Compare the refutation of the reference to the
boundaries
of
passage
borrowed. from this Psalm in Zech. ix. 10, in the
Christology,
II. p. 139. But if there were any doubt whatever
remaining,
it would be removed by what follows. In ver. 9
and
10, when the thought is individualized, only such nations are
named,
as were beyond the boundaries of
at
a great distance from it. The 11th verse, which recapitu-
lates
what had gone before, mentions all
nations, all kings.—
Hoffmann,
p. 176, endeavours to set aside the proof for the
Messianic
interpretation furnished by ver. 11-15, by affirming
that
the sense there is, "that the goodness and the righteous-
ness
of the king, with which God has adorned him, will incline
PSALM LXXII. VER. 1-5. 393
God
to grant him an unlimited extent of dominion." But the
extension
of the dominion, appears as the result of the free-will
inclinations
of the people themselves; and the 15th verse would
be
martyred, were it forced to favour this exposition. This
verse,
(compare "the gold of Seba," with the 10th verse), is
decisive
against those who, with the view of bringing out the
influence
of an ordinary Israelitish king, in favour of the poor
and
miserable, of which the Psalmist there speaks, take the
sense
to be, that the conduct of the righteous king among his
own people, will induce foreigners
to do him homage. The idea
of
De Wette, adopted to meet this exigency, that by the poor
and
miserable, we are to understand oppressed foreign nations,
seeking
protection from the Israelites, requires only to be
looked
at, in connection with the 4th verse, (where manifestly
it
is oppressed individuals that are
spoken of), to be abandoned.
—We
may well give up a view, which does so much violence
to
our sense of what is right in exegetical matters.
The first half of the first strophe
is ver. 1-5: God grants to
his
king righteousness, ver. 1, and his
righteous government
produces
righteousness among the people, in consequence of
which
peace advances; in like manner, his
righteous government
produces
among the people in all time coming, the ascendancy
of
piety, ver. 4, 5.—Ver. 1. 0, God, give
thy judgments to the
king, and thy
righteousness to the king's son. Ver. 2. He
shall
judge the people in
righteousness, and thy miserable ones with
judgment. Ver. 3. The mountains shall bring forth peace to the
people, and the hills
through righteousness.
Ver. 4. He shall
judge the miserable of
the people, he shall help the sons of the
needy, and crush the
oppressor.
Ver. 5. They shall fear thee
with the sun, and before
the moon through all generations.—
That
the petitions of ver. 1, like those of the Lord's prayer, and
like
all real prayer, are based on confidence,
and do not partake of
the
wavering character, referred to in
James i. 6, is obvious from
the
circumstance that, in the following verses, futures are made
use
of, on the supposition of the prayer being granted. Where
prayer
is based on the word of God, and is made in the strength of
his
Spirit, the transition from imperatives to futures, becomes ex-
ceedingly
natural and easy. The "he will judge, &c." in ver. 2,
is
connected with the "thou wilt give," which lies concealed in
the
"give" of ver. 1 MyFpwm is very often
"decisions," "legal.
sentences";
and ver. 4th, shews that this is the sense, and not
394 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
that
of "laws," "commandments," which must be adopted here.
The
decisions of God are opposed to the
decisions, which the
king
gives at his own hand. The judgment is God's, Deut. i. 17:
compare Ex, xxi. 6, xxii. 7, Prov. viii. 15, 2 Chron. xix. 6. It
comes
to this, that the essence of all justice lies in the con-
formity
of the decisions of the earthly judge, to the decisions
of
the heavenly Lord of Justice; and this takes place, when
there
rests upon the former, "the spirit of the Lord, the spirit
of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of the knowledge and
of
the fear of the Lord." The great king here spoken of, shall,
according
to Isaiah xi. 2, obtain this without measure; and thus
the
prayer, "give thy judgments to the king", is fulfilled to an un-
limited extent. Solomon, in type,
prayed, in 1 Kings iii. 9, that
the
Lord would give him an understanding heart, (Vatabl. men-
tem
docilem, deo et spiritui S. audientem), that he might judge
his
people; and it is recorded of him, 1 Kings iii. 28: "and all
they
feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was
in
him to do judgment." jlm stands poetically
without the
article,
as in Ps. xlv. 1; compare at the passage.—On ver. 2nd,
compare
Is. xi. 3, 4. The "miserable ones of God," are the mis-
erable
among his people: comp. ver. 4.—The mountains
and
hills are not at all named,
because they were the most unfruitful
places
of the land,--which they really were not, in
compare Deut. xxxiii. 15, Ps. cxlvii. 8, "who maketh
grass to
grow
upon the mountains," Ps. lxv. 12,—nor even because what
is
on them can be seen every where, and from all sides,
(Tholuck),--compare
against this, Joel iii. 18, "the mountains
shall
drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk,"
—but,
as being the most prominent points, and ornaments of
the
country, and therefore, as representing it, well fitted to ex-
press
the thought, that the country shall be every where filled
with
peace.a Peace appears every where as a
characteristic
mark
of the time of the Messiah: compare, for example, Is. ii.
4,
ix. 5, 6, xi. 9, lxv. 25, Mic. iv. 3, Zech. ix. 10. In the second
clause,
"shall bring forth peace to the people," is to be supplied
from
the first. And, in like manner, the "through righteous-
ness"
of the second, is to be added to the first clause. For
a It is obvious from Is.
ix. 6, compared with ver. 4. ii. 4, Zech. ix. 10,
among
other passages, that mvlw, has here its usual sense, and not that of
salvation and prosperity.
PSALM LXXII. VER. 1-5. 395
peace
is brought forward, here and throughout, only in so far
as
it is the product and consequence of that righteousness,
which
is
inherent in the king, and which has been introduced by him
among
his people. Peace appears, even in the law, as the pro-
duct
of righteousness: compare Lev. xxvi. 3-6, "if ye walk in
my
statutes, and keep my commandments and do them
I
will give peace in the land . . . . and
the sword shall not
come
into your land." Peace was represented in type as a re-
ward
of righteousness, in the time of Solomon, to whose name
there
is manifestly allusion made here: 1 Kings v. 4. Right-
eousness
and peace are connected together, also in Is. ix. 6, as
cause
and effect, in the time of the Messiah. Ewald, with his
ungrammatical
interpretation, "and the hills, blessings of grace,"
(xWn
never
occurs with b of the object, hqdc never signifies
blessings
of grace, and most assuredly cannot have this signifi-
cation
here, as is obvious from verses 1, 2, and 4, which serve
as
a commentary), gains nothing except that he dissevers the
consequence
from its cause, and thus destroys the whole
train
of thought. The righteousness of the
king, is the centre
of
the Psalm, that, on which every thing else unconditionally
depends.—Ver.
4th is in intimate connection with verse 5th,
otherwise,
it would be a mere idle repetition of verse 2nd, the
righteousness
of the king, and, in consequence of this, the fear
of God among the people.
Isaiah xi. 4, remarkably agrees with
this
verse, and is probably dependent on it. To judge
of the
miserable,
is not at all to pronounce a just sentence upon them,
but
stands in opposition to neglecting to take up their case:
compare
Is. i. 17, 23, "they judge not the fatherless, neither does
the
cause of the widow come before them." The "needy" is
here
an ideal person, the personification of the species, and thus
the
particular needy individuals appear as his sons.—In
ver. 5th,
the
address is directed, as it is throughout the whole Psalm,
not
to the king, but to God. The train of thought is lost, if
this
be not kept in view. The passage, however, does contain
a
proof in favour of the Messianic interpretation of the Psalm.
For
the fear of God, is an eternal consequence of the righteous
dominion
of the king: and, therefore, this dominion itself also
must
be eternal: the continued existence of the effect,
pre-
supposes
the continued existence of the cause.
That there is
here
at least an indirect assertion, as to the eternity of the do-
minion
of the king, is obvious from the parallel passages, ver. 7,
396 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
17,
and Ps. lxxxix. 36, 38. "With the sun," is "as long as it
is
by them": "before the moon", "as long as they are shone
upon
by it": compare Job viii. 16. According to the doctrine
of
the Old Testament, the heavens and earth, in their present
form,
shall pass away, Ps. cii. 26, but not for a very long time,
and
the boundary line of this era is so distant, that it frequently
disappears.
The second half of the first
strophe, is ver. 6-10. Verses 6
and
7, resume the contents of the first strophe, the right-
eousness-creating,
and therefore peace-producing, conduct of
the
righteous king, for the purpose of adding to this another sub-
ject,
strictly connected with them, viz. the
infinite extension of his
dominion.—Ver. 6. He shall come down like rain upon the
mown grass, and like showers
that water the ground.
Ver. 7.
The righteous man shall
flourish in his days, and abundance of
peace until the moon is
no more.
Ver. 8. And he rules from
sea to sea, and from the
river to the ends of the earth. Ver. 9.
Before him the
inhabitants of the wilderness shall bow down,
and his enemies shall
lick the dust.
Ver. 10. The kings of
Tarsus and of the
islands shall pay gifts, the kings of
Seba shall bring
presents.—The
figure of rain, which produces
fresh
verdure, occurs in reference to the blessings of Messiah's
time,
also in the last words of David, in 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Ewald's
translation
is flat: it will fall down. The following verse also
is
against it, where the righteous man is spoken of as flourishing
in
consequence of the rain. zg is used of mown grass also, in
Amos
vii. 1. Luther, falsely: "the skin."—In ver. 8th,
if
we suppose that by the first sea is meant the Mediter-
ranean,
the second will denote any imaginary one. But
the
passages in Micah vii. 12, and Amos viii. 12, seem
to
favour the idea that there is only a general reference to the
Pentateuch,
such as Ex. xxiii. 31, where the boundaries of Ca-
naan
are marked out by naming the
ed
merely from the Mediterranean Sea to the river
but,
on the contrary, the dominion of this king extends from any
one
sea to any other sea, and from any river even to the ends of
the
earth,—it is a kingdom of boundless extent. Our verse is
quoted
word for word in Zech. ix. 10. It is more than can be
established
to invert the relation, as Ewald and Hitzig do.
The
fact that Zechariah, in the first half of the verse, has bor-
PSALM LXXII. VER. 6-10. 397
rowed
from Mic. v. 9, is against this idea. In individualizing
the
thought expressed in verse 8, the Psalmist, in verse 9, men-
tions
first the inhabitants of the wilderness, (Myyc denotes here,
as
usually, the beasts of the wilderness,
Ps. lxxiv. 14, Is. xxiii.
13),
on account of their wildness and love of liberty. They lick
the dust, i. e. they indicate in
the most humiliating way their reve-
rence
and submission: compare Is. xlix. 23. Next, in the 10th
verse,
there are the inhabitants of the distant wealthy West,
and
of the distant wealthy South. The historical basis of the
announcement
made in this verse, with which Ps. lxviii. 29, xlv.
12,
Is. lx. 6-9, ought to be compared, is to be found in 1 Kings
iv.
21, "and Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river
unto
the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of
they
brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his
life,"
and in 1 Kings x. 24, "and all the world sought a sight of
Solomon,
to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart:
and
they brought every one his present, vessels of silver and
vessels
of gold," but more particularly in this
last passage, and
also
in the history of the visit of the Queen of Sheba and her
presents,
(compare 1 Kings x. 10), which assuredly gave occa-
sion
to the naming of the Sabeans in this Psalm, inasmuch as
the
free-will recognition made of Solomon from the heathen
world
was a real, though a very limited, prelude to the entire
subjection
of the world to the sceptre of his Son. Gousset has
given
the correct interpretation of the clause hHnm bywh,
which
also occurs in 2 Kings iii. 4, xvii. 3. It signifies "to give
gifts in the way of return or recompence";
and refers to gifts
or
tribute, when given as thank-offerings in return for acts of
favour
shewn, as when the conqueror became reconciled to the
conquered.
The expression here is illustrated by vers. 11-15;
where
the good deeds are detailed by which the king lays the
heathen
world under obligations, and induces it to do him ho-
mage.
The vbywy contains
within itself the germ of this para-
graph.
It alone is sufficient to set aside the exposition of Hoff-
mann
already adverted to.
The first part of the second
strophe, ver. 11-15, gives first,
in
ver. 11, the substance, out of the second part of the first, for
the
purpose of adding, in ver. 12-15, the
explanation of the
great
fact which it announces. "True love conquers, men feel
it
at last, weep bitterly; and fall down at its knees like children."
Ver.
11. And all kings worship him, all the
heathen serve him,
398 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver.
12. For he delivers the needy man who
cries, and the miser-
able, and him who hath
no helper.
Ver. 13. He pities the poor
and the needy, and he delivers
the souls of the needy. Ver. 14.
He delivers their souls
from oppression and violence, and their
blood is precious in his
eyes.
Ver. 15. And he lives and gives
him of the gold of Seba,
and prays for him continually, ever-
more he shall bless him.—The agreement of ver.
12th with Job
xxix.
12, "For I delivered the poor that cried, and the father-
less,
and him that had no helper," is too striking to admit of
its
being considered, with any appearance of probability, as
accidental.
As the words stand here in a very important con-
nection,
and on this account were the more easily impressed on
the
mind, and better adapted for being introduced with grace
as
an appropriate allusion, ("for I,"
as a type of the mighty
king
of the future, etc.), and as, in other passages which esta-
blish
a connection between Job and the Psalms, the originality
of
the latter is manifest, (compare at Ps. xxxix. 13, Ps. lxxviii.),
and
finally, as the Book of Job belongs most assuredly to a period
later
than that of Solomon, the passage before us must be con-
sidered
as the original one.—In reference to jvt, oppression,
in
ver. 14, compare at Ps. x. 7, lv. 11. On "their blood is pre-
cious
in his sight," i. e. "he values their lives highly, and hence
uses
every effort to protect them," compare Ps. cxvi. 15, 1 Sam.
xxvi.
21, 2 Kings. i. 14.—In ver. 15, every exposition must be
abandoned
which implies a change of subject. It is only in a
passage
where there can be no ambiguity that such an interpre-
tation,
where the nominatives are not mentioned, can be adopted.
The
question may be asked, is it the king
or the needy man that
is
the subject of the whole verse? Without hesitation we de-
cide
in favour of the latter. "He
lives," can be applied only to
him
who had been assailed or threatened with death;
and the
king,
according to verse 10th, must be the receiver,
and not the
giver of the gold of Seba.
The verse before us returns back to
the
conclusion of the first strophe, after the basis of the fact
announced
there, had been detailed in the second. The reasons
which
have been adduced against the idea, that it is the poor
man throughout that is the
subject, are not of any consequence.
The
transition from the plural to the singular is not of any mo-
ment,
as the singular is made use of also in verses 12 and 13.
The
subject is the ideal person of the needy
man. The objec-
tion
that the needy man has no gold, disappears with the re-
PSALM LXXII. VER. 11-17. 399
mark,
that by the righteousness of the king, he is restored to
the
possession of his goods:—there is therefore no reason for
taking
the gold of Seba, contrary to ver. 10th, in a figurative
sense,
as denoting the inward thanks of the delivered man.
The
assertion of Hitzig, "that intercessions are employed be-
fore
God, who is near at hand, on behalf of those who are far
off,"
is met by the xxth Psalm, (a prayer of the people on be-
half
of their king), by 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, and by the beginning of
our
Psalm itself. The anxiety of the old ecclesiastical expo-
sitors,
lest the prayer for the king should be considered as de-
rogatory
to the divine nature of Christ, is quite uncalled for, be-
cause
we do pray for the coming of Christ's kingdom, and there-
fore
for himself. The analogy of the conv. futures throughout
the
Psalm, is sufficient to shew that yHyv must be translated,
"he
lives," not "that he may live."
Verses 16 and 17 form the conclusion, in the first instance, to
the
second strophe, and next to the whole Psalm.
Ver. 16.
There shall be abundance
of corn in the land, upon the top of
the mountains, its fruit
shall shake like
the city shall flourish
like the grass of the earth. Ver. 17. His
name shall be for ever,
his name shall endure before the sun, and
men shall bless
themselves by him, all the heathen shall praise
him. The historical basis
of ver. 16 is furnished by 1 Kings iv.
20,
where it is said of Solomon's reign: "
were
many as the sand which is by the sea, eating and drinking
and
making merry." The blessings spread abroad under this
righteous
reign, are referred to by the individualizing descrip-
tion,
"the abundance of corn": compare Dent. xi. 14, Jer. xxxi.
12,
Zech. x. 17, (see the Christol. on the passage):—in the last
passage,
the same idea occurs in connection with the abundance
of
the population. In like manner also, in Isa. xxvii. 6, "In
future,
Jacob shall strike his roots,
and
fill the face of the world with fruit." The translation of
hsp by "abundance," is not quite
ascertained. But the tran-
slation,
"there maybe want, still there will be," etc. (ssp=spx,
compare
Ps. xii. 1), is opposed by the consideration, that yHy
can
scarcely be taken otherwise than the rest of the conv. fu-
tures,
particularly yHy in ver. 15. The mountains are named,
not
as being unfruitful, but as being the most prominent
points
of
the country, and, therefore, when covered with corn, present-
ing
a picturesque appearance. Lebanon comes into notice as
400 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
covered
with its waving cedars, which occur to the mind as soon
as
Lebanon is named: it is never spoken of as fertile in corn.
In
the second clause, the subject is to be supplied from ryfm,
the
inhabitants of the city. The abundance
of the population,
as
a sign of the joyful prosperity of the people, occurs also in
Zech.
ii. 8, Isa. xlix. 20. "As the grass of the earth," is to be
found
in Job v. 25. On "out of the city," compare Num.
xxiv.
19).—In ver. 17, the eternity of the
name is based upon the
eternity
of the kingdom, and of the deeds out of which the name
continually
grows up afresh: compare Isa. ix. 5, 6, Ps. xlv. 2,
6,
and Ps. cii. 12, where it is said of Jehovah, "thy remem-
brance
is to all generations." The reading in the text Nyny is the
Hiph.
of a denomin. verb from Nyn, offspring,
which does not else-
where
occur, and was probably formed by the Psalmist himself:
the name shall produce
posterity,
i. e. shall renovate itself, inas-
much as by the new deeds
of the king, it always acquires fresh
life. The Kri in the Hiph.
has originated from the Massorites
not
understanding the boldness of poetical expression. The
Hithp.
of jrb,
signifies always "to bless one's self," with the
b of him from
whom the blessing is desired, Isa. lxv. 16, and
Jer.
iv. 2, or whose blessing is desired,
Gen. xlviii. 20. That it
is
the latter of these senses that must
be here adopted, that
"they
bless themselves by him," is equivalent to, "they wish
themselves
to be as blessed as he is," is obvious from the pa-
rallel
clause, "they shall praise him," and from the reference,
which
it is impossible to mistake, to the fundamental passage
in
Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4. What is there said of the posterity of
the
patriarchs, is fulfilled, in the first instance, in the glorious
king,
and through him, in his people. "To bless by," is in that
passage,
as it is in this, followed by "to be blessed through,"
as
its consequence: the acknowledgment of the blessing calls
forth
the wish to partake of it, as in Isa. xliv. 5, where, in conse-
quence
of the rich blessing which is poured out upon Israel, the
nations
become anxious to adopt Israel's name. In Genesis, the
Niphal,
"the blessing themselves by,"
goes before and alongside
of
the Hithp., "the being blessed
through:" compare xii. 3,
xviii.
18, xxviii. 14. That we are not to explain the passages
in
which the Niph. occurs, from those in which the Hithp. occurs,
but
rather, on the contrary, that these latter are to be supple-
mented
out of the former, is manifest from the fact, that the
Niph.
of j`rb
has never been proved to occur in the sense of
PSALM LXXIII. 401
the
Hithp., from the constant joyful repetition of this announce-
ment
which every where appears as forming the very summit of
the
promises made to the patriarchs, from the reference of the
blessing
upon all the tribes of the earth to the curse pronounced
on
the earth after the fall, from the connection with the pro-
phecy
of Japhet dwelling in the tents of Shem, Gen. ix. 27, and
the
ruler proceeding from
obedient,
Gen. xlix. 10. The union which binds these announce-
ments
to each other, would be destroyed, were we to force the
sense
of the Hiph. upon the Niph. in the promises made to the
patriarchs.
Verses 18 and 19 do not belong to
the Psalm, but contain the
doxology
which forms the conclusion of the second book. This
doxology,
which is the most copious that occurs, agrees very
well
with the contents, and was undoubtedly composed in refe-
rence
to these. “May the whole earth be full
of his glory,” (as
it
shall be when all nations shall do homage to this his anoint-
ed),
is taken, word for word, from Num. xiv. 21. In reference
to
ver. 20th, see the treatises at the close.
PSALM LXXIII.
AFTER the Psalmist, in verse 1, has
shortly expressed the
truth
which had been awakened, in an especial manner, in his
own
heart, and which he desires to awaken in the hearts of the
members
of the church, "that God is always
good to his own
people," he represents,
in verse 2-11, the facts which had caus-
ed
him to waver in this belief, in a picturesque description of
the
prosperity of the ungodly, depicts, in verses 12-16, the
conflicts
and struggles into which he was thereby brought,
and,
in verses 17-20, the victory which he
gained, when brought
by
the grace of God to know that the prosperity of the wicked,
and
the sufferings of the righteous, are alike transitory,
com-
plains
of his own foolishness, as the source of his doubts, and
praises
the grace of God, which had removed these from him,
verses
21-24, and expresses his unqualified assurance of the
divine
assistance, and of salvation, verses 25-28.
The main division has twenty verses,
two decades. These
are
followed by two concluding strophes, each of four verses.
402 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The
whole contains four sevens. The main turning point lies
in
the middle.
The Psalm is very nearly related to
the xxxvii. and xlix., as
far
as its contents are concerned. Amyraldus took quite a cor-
rect
view as to its distinctive and
individual character. "In
Ps.
xxxvii. the prophet merely shews how believers ought to
conduct
themselves when they perceive the prosperity of the
ungodly:
he himself did not stumble at it. But here Asaph,
though
a great and pious man, acknowledges that the provi-
dence
of God, in this respect, did sometimes appear to him
mysterious,
and that he felt great difficulty in explaining it.
From
the very beginning of the Psalm we see how he merged
out
of the deep thoughts into which his spirit, agitated and vex-
ed
by doubts, had sunk, until, in the end, better views obtained
the
ascendancy . . . . He has adopted this method in order
that
believers might contemplate, as in a picture, the conflict to
which,
at times, they are exposed, and might see what weapons
they
have to seize against the assaults of the flesh."
Several recent expositors have
endeavoured to force upon'the
Psalm
a national interpretation. But there
is no mention what-
ever
made of the heathen throughout the whole of it: it is the
wicked only in general that
are spoken of. How little good
ground
there is for interpreting such descriptions as these ex-
clusively
of the relation in which
(the
relation here, at all events, is only that of the election, ver.
1),
is manifest from Jer. xii. 1, 2, where there occur complaints
altogether
similar to those of our Psalm, and which were occa-
sioned
by the unjustifiable conduct of the people of Anathoth.
There is nothing in this Psalm, more
than there is in Ps. L.,
against
supposing that the Asaph named in the title as the au-
thor,
was David's chief musician. For the assertion that
tvxvwm, in verse 18th, a word of very rare
occurrence, but
common
to our Psalm with the lxxiv., which was composed after
the
destruction of the temple, shews that both Psalms were
composed
at the same era, is met by the 17th verse, where the
sanctuary
of the Lord is represented as still standing, and also
by
the fact that the 13th verse of our Psalm is alluded to in
Prov.
xx. 9. Besides, it may be maintained that the author of
the
lxxivth Psalm may have borrowed the word from this one.
In
favour of the authorship of the Psalm belonging to the time
PSALM LXXIII. VER.
1. 403
of
David, we may urge the originality, freshness and life by
which
the poem is distinguished.
Ver. 1. God is only good to Israel, to such as are of a pure
heart. The j`x, according to many
expositors, is "yet", that
is,
"in spite of every thing which would lead the Psalmist away
from
this truth, and deprive him of its consolatory power."
But
j`x
has never this, sense; and the usual and fully ascertain-
ed
sense, (comp. ver. 18), is quite suitable:—"Only good,"—not
as
foolishness, looking on the outward appearance, supposes, in
certain
circumstances also evil. It is
exceedingly difficult to say
this
"only" from the heart. He only can do so, who has come
into
the sanctuary of God. bvF is not a subs., (Stier: the true
good
and prosperity), but an adj.; it is employed as such in verse
26,
and it is used of God, for example, in Ps. xxv. 8, xxxiv. 8,
cxviii.
1, Nah. i. 7, Lam. iii. 25. Good:—not
evil, as the righteous
man
may well suppose, when he is plagued continually, tor-
mented
every morning, while the wicked swim in prosperity.
That
God is good, is manifest from his goodness towards his
own
people:— assuredly bvF has the sense of kind neither here
nor
any where else. Towards
and
individual capacity. The opposition classes those who are
Israelites
only in appearance with the heathen. The limiting
clause,
"such as are of a pure heart," (compare verse 13, and at
Ps.
xxiv. 6), shews that by
the
Election, the true Israelites in whom
there is no guile, to the
exclusion
of the false seed, the souls who, according to the ex-
pression
of the law, are cut off from their people, even although
they
are found to be outwardly living in the midst of them,
compare
on Ps. xxiv. 6. It is only to these true Israelites that
the
promises of God are given: it is they only therefore who, in
the
event of these promises remaining unfulfilled, would have
any
reason to doubt of his goodness. The distinction which the
Psalmist
makes among the Israelites themselves, at the very be-
ginning
of the Psalm, goes directly against those who consider
the
Psalm as having a national reference. The wicked among
the
Israelites are by that distinction put exactly on a level with
the
heathen.
Ver. 2. And my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well
nigh slipped. Ver. 3. For I envied the haughty, the peace of the
wicked I beheld. Ver. 4. For they are not fettered to death,
and their strength is
firm. Ver.
5. They are not in the sufferings
404 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of mortals, and they are
not plagued with men.
Ver. 6. There-
fore pride encompasses
their neck, the garment of haughtiness co-
vers them. Ver. 7. Their eyes stand out from fat, the thoughts
of their hearts flow
over.
Ver. 8. They see, and speak in
wickedness, they speak
oppression from on high. Ver. 9. They
set their mouth in the
heavens, and their tongue speaks upon
the earth. Ver. 10. Therefore he turns his people hither, and
ters in abundance are
sipped by them.
Ver. 11. And they say:
how should God know, and
knowledge be in the Most High.--
The
"I" in the 2d verse is emphatic:—I say this not at all su-
perficially,
but from my own experience of the contest and of
the
victory. The reading in the text yUFnA is the stat. absol. of
the
particip.
one inclined in my feet. The Keri vyFAnA, the
be
rejected, as having been adopted as explanatory of the mean-
ing.
The hFn
is used of feet inclined to fall, as it is at Ps. lxii.
3,
of a wall. Instead of hkAP;wu, the third sing. fem. of Pu. (com-
pare,
on the frequent use of the plural with the fem. sing. of the
predicate,
Ewald, § 568) the Masorites substitute UkP;wu. A si-
milar
Keri reading, and one equally useless, occurs on the same
word
in Deut. xxi. 7. The footsteps, when one cannot stand firm,
are
as it were spilt, like water which
flows down on all sides:
comp.
Ps. xxii. 14. The subsequent part of the Psalm defines the
danger
to which the Psalmist was exposed, and shows in what the
struggle
consisted which had almost brought
him to the ground.
The
prosperity of the wicked filled him with doubts as to the
divine
righteousness, and these shook the whole edifice of his
religion
to its very foundation. On "I envied," in verse 3,
compare
at Ps. xxxvii. 1; and on Myllvh, "haughty," at Ps. v.
5.
Pain and vexation are such natural attendants of the sight
of the peace of the
wicked,
that there is no need for expressly
mentioning
them. The tvbcrH,
in verse 4, must, according
to
Is. lviii. 6, and the Arabic, be translated "fetters"; the sense
of
"pain" has nothing whatever to support it. The "fetters"
denote
figuratively the death-bringing circumstances which God
suspends
over the guilty: compare Job xi. 17, "how oft is the
candle
of the wicked put out, and their destruction cometh up-
on
them, God sends them cords in his anger,"
and at Ps. xi.
PSALM LXXIII. VER.
2-11. 405
The
Psalmist is, through the grace of God, assured in ver. 17-
20,
that this, which he here finds to be wanting, will make its
appearance
at last; and thus the conflict is brought to a termi-
nation;
for its peculiar difficulty is not that the wicked are in
prosperity,
but that this prosperity is, to all appearance, to last
for
ever, The lvx,
strength, (compare 2 Kings xxiv. 15), oc-
curs
in Job xxi. 7, "wherefore do the wicked live, continue, and
are
powerful in strength," not as
several arbitrarily, "in body."
The
"misery of men," in verse 5, is the misery to which poor
mortals
are so abundantly exposed: compare on wvnx, at Ps.
viii.
4. The Mdx,
without the article, and in the singular num-
ber,
denotes the whole human race in its widest extent. The
wicked
alone appear to form an exception to the mournful rule,
"there
can and may be nothing else, all men must suffer, no-
thing
that moves and lives on the earth can escape suffering."
Reason
is bewildered; she finds here a singular anomaly; she
supposes
that the rule ought rather to be applied with increas-
ed
severity to those who appear to form the exception
from it.
On this account, verse 6: on account of
this their freedom from
punishment.
qnf is "to surround
like a neck-ornament." The
reason
which led the Psalmist to speak of pride as a neck-orna-
ment
of the wicked, for the purpose of expressing the thought
that
they are wholly beset with it, was in all probability the
fact
that it was their manner of dressing their neck that chiefly
exhibited
their pride: compare Is. iii. 16, Job xv. 26. The vml,
properly
"to them," is explained by the modification of the
sense
of JFf:
compare the hsk with l in Is. xi. 9. In the
first
clause of verse 7, the Psalmist describes in a graphic man-
ner
a well-fed wicked man, whose eyes stand out with fat from
his
body. The external appearance comes into
view only as a
reflection
and expression of their carnal mind, which so often
displays
itself by such appearances: compare on Ps. xvii. 10,
where
also, the arbitrary senses of blH, which have been
brought
forward on this passage, are set aside. As the eyes of
the
wicked stand out of their bodies, so their thoughts
rush out
from
their hearts: this is a sign of their
might and power:—they
will
not practice the least forbearance, but give instant and full
expression
to their thoughts in words and in deeds, according
to
the expression, "that of which their heart is full, &c." The
naked
rbf
does, not signify "to transgress," but "to overflow,"
like
a river, for example, which cannot be confined within its
406 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
banks,
Is. viii. 8. In the 8th verse Mvrmm cannot be taken ad-
verbially,
in the sense of "proudly": it must be translated " out
of
the height," "from above." This is manifest from what fol-
lows:
and, moreover, its usual sense is, "from heaven's height."
The
thought appears to be resumed in the following verse,
chiefly
from the parallelism of heaven and earth. "They speak
oppression": that is, words
which tend to oppression: see Is. lix.
13.
The Mymwb and
jrxb
signifies, as it always does, when
the
two words come together, "in heaven and on the earth:"
and,
therefore, "against heaven," and "to the heaven," are to
be
rejected. The sense of the first clause is very well express-
ed
by Luther: What they say must be said from heaven."
j`lH signifies only "to go," "to go
up and down," and the
stronger
senses are to be considered as arbitrarily adopted.
The
going simply denotes their activity. Their wicked and do-
mineering
tongue is always employed. In verse 10, the text-
reading
is the fut. of Hiph, bywy: the reading in the margin,
bvwy, owes its origin entirely to want of sagacity.
The sub-
ject
is the wicked: and it is to this that the suffix in "his
people"
refers. The idea that it refers to God is inadmissible,
as
God had not been spoken of. " The wicked turns his people
thither"
thus signifies, "by his freedom from punishment, and
his
prosperity, he prevails upon others to leave the right path,
and
to adopt his sentiments." The people of the wicked stands
in
opposition to the generation of the children of God in verse
15.
Among this people there are many who appeared at one time
to
belong to the Lord's people, but whose conduct has made it
manifest,
that their external piety was, at bottom, nothing else
than
hypocrisy. The true members of the
stumble,
but they do not fall. God stretches out his hand to
them
when they are ready to sink, and they lay hold of it by
faith.
In the second clause vcmy is the Niph. of Hcm, "to sip."
The
xlm,
“full," occupies the place of a noun: water
in abun-
dance. The rich prosperity
which the apostates enjoy, as the
reward
of their apostacy, appears under the figure of a rich
draught
presented to the thirsty; they sip prosperity in full
measure.
Others refer the words to the eagerness with which
they
have adopted their new principles, which they drink in, as
it
were, in full streams, (compare Job xv. 16); but the figura-
tive
use of water for prosperity is the common
one, and, on the
other
hand, the expression does not clearly bring out the other
PSALM LXXIII. VER.
12-16. 407
sense.
These apostates, through the prosperity of those who
went
before them, and their own, are soon brought to deny the
providence
of God altogether: compare Ps. x. 11, Job xxii. 13,
14.
In verses 12-16, the Psalmist
depicts the struggles and con-
flicts
into which he had been brought, from observing, that to all
appearance
righteousness had been wholly deprived of its re-
ward,
and wickedness of its punishment. Ver. 12. Behold
these
are the wicked, and the
eternally secure increase their wealth.
Ver.
13. Only in vain I have purified my
heart, and washed my
hands in innocence. Ver. 14. For I have been plagued conti-
nually, and my
chastisement is every morning. Ver. 15. If
I
say, "I will
announce this," behold I would act treacherously
towards the generation
of thy sons.
Ver. 16. And I meditated,
that I might know this:
it was a pain in my eyes.—According
to
the common rendering, verses 12-14 are to be considered
as
a continuation of the speech of the apostates. But the
Psalmist
had spoken of these in the plural, and he must conti-
nue
to do so, otherwise it would not be possible to distinguish
his
own observations from theirs. The description, moreover,
of
the ungodly as the children of the wicked, and their openly
ungodly
speech in verse 11, do not suit with verses 13 and 14,
where
it is manifestly a sincerely pious man that speaks. The
expression,
"these are the wicked", in verse 12, is also against
this
interpretation. The apostates have already become wick-
ed
themselves, and are not likely to apply this name to their
leaders
in wickedness. Finally, the person who speaks here,
is,
according to verse 14, still in a state of suffering; but the
apostates
are, according to verse 10, in prosperity. We must,
therefore,
conclude that the Psalmist, in vers. 12-14, describes
the
impression made upon him, the representative of real and
living
piety, by the contradiction between sight and faith, be-
tween
the reality and the idea. These (the
men to whom such
descriptions
apply) are the wicked:—the same men
whom I be-
hold
swimming in affluence, are the very wicked men, who, ac-
cording
to the word of God, must be brought to shame and
misery.
And those secure of eternity, e.
those who now alrea-
dy
are secure for a whole eternity,--Mlvf is the language of
sense: the prosperity of the
wicked, which is objectively bound-
ed
by a definite period of time, appears to impatience as if it
were
a whole eternity of impunity—increase
their wealth, or
408 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
reach
forward to still greater riches: compare on lyH in Deut.
viii.
17, Ps. lx. 12, xlix. 6, 10. On verse 13, Calvin: "Assured-
ly,
I have striven in vain to have a pure hand and a pure heart,
whereas
continual conflicts, await me, and are ready like watch-
men
to lay hold upon me, as soon as morning dawns." The
necessary
limitation to "I have purified and washed," is given
in
Prov. xx. 9, "who can say, I have purified my heart, I am
free
from my sin," namely, otherwise than in the sense in which
the
Psalmist says it, whose words denote a sincere struggle
after
righteousness. The first clause points to "such as are
of
a pure heart" in verse 1. On the second clause compare Ps.
xxvi.
6. On verse 14, compare Job vii. 18, "And thou visitest
him
every morning, and triest him every moment." "I have
been
plagued" stands in opposition to "they are not plagued,"
which
is said of the wicked in verse 5. The tHkvt, censure,
is
used, as it is in Ps. xxxix. 11, of such censure as is convey-
ed
in the shape of a sermo realis: the
connection and the par-
allelism
will not allow us to think of any thing else. It is,
therefore,
very weighty reasons that have perplexed the
Psalmist.
But another voice rises from within, warning him
with
great earnestness not to come forth as a preacher of un-
godliness,
ver. 15. "If I say: I will announce thus, &c." is
equivalent
to, "should I make these doubts public." rps is
"to
recount," "to make known," "to preach." What had
gone
before was merely a soliloquy. Those
who fear God, never
let
their inward doubts become known abroad. They do not
repair
with them to the streets, where the ignorant people
would
make them the occasion of open ungodliness; but they
take
them to the sanctuary of God; and give expression to their
doubts,
like the Psalmist, when they can, at the same time, make
known
their victory. The arbitrary translation of rps by
"think,"
is also rejected by the second clause: Mere
thinking
would
not produce such consequences. The vmk, which is
merely
the separate form of k, is nothing else than the mark
of
comparison; and the expositions in which it is taken in any
other
way are to be summarily rejected. There is an ellipsis:
thus,
namely, what had just been spoken of, my doubts as to the
divine
justice, my opinion, that it is to no purpose to lead a
blameless
life. The omission of what is said after rmx, when it
can
be obviously supplied from the context, is quite analogous
to
this: compare on Ps. iv. 4, Vol. i. page 65. On dgb, to act
PSALM LXXIII. VER.
12-16. 409
faithlessly,
used of every violation of duty towards our neighbour,
generally
with b,
here poetically with the accus. in the sense of,
"to
treat faithlessly," compare at Ps. xxv. 3. The faithless-
ness
consists not in abandoning—this could
scarcely be denoted
in
this way—but in misleading: compare
what Eliphaz objected
to
Job, of whose words, verse 12-14, contain the essence, ch.
xv.
4, "thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God."
"The
generation of the children of God" = "the righteous ge-
neration,"
of Ps. xiv. 5, and —"
God
always implies, in the Old Testament, the most endearing
love,
such as that of a father to his son: compare on Ps, ii. 7;
Vol.
i. page 31:—whoever misleads the beloved of God, or robs
them
of their most valuable possessions, commits a serious
offence.
Stier is wrong, when he asserts that this allusion is a
singular
one for the Old Testament. Deut. xiv. 1, 2, corresponds
exactly.
What is there said of
thing
else of a similar nature, only to the kernel of the people:
and
it is manifest from ver. 1, that the generation of the sons of
God
here, are
are
not Israel.—The Psalmist, according to verse 16th, seeks to
understand
this,—the contradiction between idea and reality,
in
the experience of the wicked and the righteous; but it is
necessary
for him to know, that human speculation, and research,
can
in this matter accomplish nothing: the thing remains after
all
a sorrow in his eyes, which torments and pains him, more
than
even the sorrow itself which had called forth the ques-
tion;
for its greatest grievance lies in this, that it has perplexed
him
in reference to his God. Several expositors have: "it was
troublesome,
difficult to conceive of," and refer to Song of Sol.
viii.
17. But lmf
signifies always in the Psalms, where it
occurs
very frequently, sorrow, trouble. The
Keri xvh
is in-
tended
probably to apply to the wicked.
In ver. 17-20, the victory in this
severe conflict is obtained
through
the grace of God.—Ver. 17. Till I come to
the sanctuary
of God, now will I mark
their end.
Ver. 18. Only on slippery
places settest thou
them, thou lettest them fall to ruins. Ver.
19.
How are they so suddenly annihilated,
they perish and come
to an end with terror. Ver. 20. Like a dream through awak-
ing, thus despisest
thou, 0 Lord, in the city, their image.—In
ver.
17, several explain, "till I pressed into the divine secrets."
But
this explanation is altogether an arbitrary one. The word
410 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
wdqm signifies always the sanctuary, and is the
constant one for
the
tabernacle and the temple: compare, in reference to the plural,
Ps.
lxviii. 35. There is no occasion whatever for departing
from
the fully ascertained and literal sense, if we only look
upon
the sanctuary with the eyes of the pious Israelites of the
Old
Testament dispensation. The substance of the temple to
them
was the presence of God, and just on this account, accord-
ing
to their view, any man could externally repair to the temple
without
being truly in it, and, in like manner, a man could be
truly
in it, even when outwardly at a distance from it: compare
at
Ps. lxiii. 2, and the passages quoted there. The Psalmist thus
goes
here with the feet of his heart into
the sanctuary, draws
near
to God, and gets from this clear fountain, that insight
which
natural reason could not give him. lx xvb which is
used
of coming to God, as for example, Ex. xliv. 27, makes it
manifest
that wdqm
is used here, as it always is, in a local
sense.
In Ezekiel's vision, that spiritual aspect of the sanctuary,
which
runs through the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets,
assumes,
as it were, flesh and blood. The expression, "I
will
think upon their end," (several falsely, “I thought”), is con-
nected
with the first clause, as cause with effect. The end is
here,
in the first instance, temporal:
compare Ps. lv. 23, accord-
ing
to which, the wicked are carried off in the midst of their
days.
This appears clearly from the mention of "ruins" in ver.
18,
from the clause "in the city" ver. 20, and also from the
numerous
parallel passages in the Psalms: compare at Ps.
xxxvii.
xlix. It is maintained, in opposition to this, that it is
against
all experience that the wicked do not prosper till their
end.
But experience only shews that the rule has exceptions:
—exceptions
confirm the rule. Lactantius, on the death of
Persecutors,
Leo's History of the French Revolution, the Life
of
the poet Burger, no less than that of the Emperor Napoleon,
furnish
remarkable proofs in its favour. The exceptions are de-
signed
to perplex those who do not go into the sanctuary of God.
The
recompense also, on this side, should, according to the de-
sign
of God, remain always an object of faith. Here also God
conceals
himself, in order that he may be found by those who
seek
him. That this is so seldom done even by the well dis-
posed,
that even they are so much inclined to look upon the
righteousness
of God as inoperative in this life, is a melancholy
proof
of the degeneracy of the church, and of the lamentable
PSALMS LXXIII. VER. 17-20. 411
prevalence
of infidelity. In the time of the church's vigour, the
eyes
are open for the tremendous judgments of
God, and the
sight
of these forms the roots of the living hope of a future
judgment.
The necessary consequence of modern ideas is, that
those
sacred narratives, in which the avenging hand of God
is
introduced, as every where manifest, have had given to them
a
mythic interpretation. Finally, there is in all probability a
reference
to Deut. xxxii. 29, "if they were wise they would un-
derstand
this, they would consider their end," MtvrHxl vnyby:
—the
language there also refers to a temporal recompense, a
judgment
realized in the actual history.—In the first clause of
the
18th verse, the object is to be taken
from the verb:—"thou
settest
to them", i. e. "thou pointest out to them their posi-
tion,
their place." Slippery places,
are places where one may
easily
slide and fall: compare Ps. xxxv. 6. The j`x is "only
there." The sense of
"ruins" is ascertained for tvxvwm, in the
only
other passage where it occurs, Ps. lxxiv. 3. —In ver. 19th,
vps is not to be derived from hps, but from Jvs, "to cease"
"to
end." The Nm is the particle of cause: compare Job xviii.
11,
"Terrors alarm him on every
side, and pursue him wher-
ever
he goes."
of
the Assyrians, who, in the midst of their prosperity, were over-
whelmed
in sudden destruction, furnish examples illustrative of
the
Psalmist's position.—In verse 20th, the verb in the first
clause
is to be supplied out of the second: as a dream is de-
spised
upon awaking, or through awaking, the Nm, as in ver 19.
The
waking puts the dream in its true light, as a mere fancy:
—thus
through the judgment of God, the prosperity of the
wicked
is seen to be but as a shadow, a fleeting spectre, a hol-
low
mask. The Mlc,
"the image," is opposed here, as at Ps.
xxxix.
6, to the reality. The contempt is
manifested in con-
temptuous
conduct. In the city;—where they were
annihilated
and
exposed to the derision of men: compare Job xxxiv. 26,
"on
account of their wickedness, he smites them in the open
sight
of others." The other translations of ryfb, are to be re-
jected.
Several give, "in wrath";—but ryf has never this
sense:
in Hos. xi. 9, ryfb is "in the
city":—"I enter not into
the
city," compare Gen. xxiii. 10, says God, corresponding to
what
goes before, "I am not a man." Others suppose it to
stand
instead of yryihAb;, when
thou awakest, or awakenest them.
But
the h
of the Infin. Hiph; is very seldom omitted, (compare
412 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ewald,
§ 463), and was most unlikely to have been omitted here,
as
the most obvious sense of ryfb, is undoubtedly
"in the city."
The
suffix would not have been wanting. De Wette himself is
obliged
to admit that the figure gets from the "awakening" a
somewhat
obscure turn. Finally, Job xx. 8, is parallel: "he
flies
away as a dream and is not found, and is driven away as a
vision
of the night."
In ver. 21-24, we have the great
foolishness of the Psalmist,
and
the grace of God, which did not reject him on account of it,
but
delivered him from it.—Ver. 21. For my
heart was embitter-
ed, and I was pierced in
my reins.
Ver. 22. And I was dumb and
knew not, I was a beast
before thee.
Ver. 23. Yet I remained
continually by thee,
thou didst lay hold of my right hand. Ver.
24.
Thou guidest me by thy counsel and
bringest me to honour.
—The
yk
in verse 21, does not connect verse with verse, but
paragraph
with paragraph. The force of the "because", lies in
the
more detailed contrast drawn between the Psalmist's fool-
ishness,
and the grace of God. "Although," will not suit, and
yk cannot be translated "when." CmH is to sour, to be sharp,
Hiph.
to sour oneself, to exasperate oneself,
to fret. The second
clause,
"and I was pierced in my reins," is: I was preparing for
myself
a piercing pain. The rfb, in ver. 22, signifies brutish
dumbness:
compare xlix. 11, Prov. xxx. 2. The object of the
knowledge,
is the forementioned matters. The
plural tvmhb,
is
explained by what was said in the Beitr. p. 257, &c. of the
use
of the plural, even for an individual being, or an individual
thing,
when the idea appears as perfectly complete, so that there
is
a plurality really as well as apparently present. tvmkH, as
used
in the Proverbs, is analogous,—wisdom,
kat. ec.; but
Behemoth,
in Job xl. 15, as an appellation of the hippopotamus, is
exactly
the same. We have, therefore, the Psalmist using the
strongest
possible language in condemnation of his own foolish-
ness:—he
acknowledges himself as chargeable with whatever
there
is of brutish dumbness, or of irrational conduct. That
j`mf is to be interpreted, "beside
thee", or "in thy fellowship",
is
manifest from the j`mf of the following verse, which refers
to
it. The Psalmist had poured out his complaints before God,
had
given free course to his murmuring doubts, had conducted
himself
irrationally in his presence.—The expression, "and I
was
continually by thee," is, according to the connection, and
the
parallelism, not to be considered as an expression of self
PSALM LXXIII. VER.
21-24. 413
praise
on the part of the Psalmist,—I was
faithful to thee,—but
as
spoken in praise of the divine compassion and faithfulness.
The
"by thee," refers back to the "by thee" of the preceding
verse:—he
who conducted himself like a beast, was away from
his
proper companions. But God had condescended to keep
the
Psalmist by him, and to deliver him from his painful per-
plexities,
instead of punishing him on account
of them. The
right
hands lay hold upon any thing—Nymy, here the right side,
hence
the st. constr,—keep up one who is sinking, and prevent
him
from altogether falling down.—In ver. 24th, we have the
confidence
which the Psalmist obtained, after being delivered
by
the gracious assistance of God, from his irrational doubts
and
despair. He knows now that God, like a faithful shepherd,
leads
and guides him by his counsel and loving care, and that
he
will bring him from reproach to honour, and from suffering
to
joy, so that "the wise inherit glory, and shame is the pro-
motion
of fools," shall be fulfilled in his experience. The second
clause,
literally, "after honour thou takest me", implies, "thou
takest
me and bringest me in its train, or to honour." The
translation,
"and afterwards thou takest me
with honour, or in
honour,"
is to be rejected, because dbk is never used
adverbial-
ly,
and Hkl
signifies neither to take to, or to take on, (compare
at
Ps. xlix. 15), and stands too bare without the whence, and the
whither, and in dvbk
rHx, Zech.
ii. 12, rHx,
is a preposition,
and
finally, because "after that", is not suitable. It is not after
the
guidance, but through the guidance of
God, that the Psal-
mist
is brought to honour. Against the exposition which
adopts
the idea of eternal glory—"thou takest me finally to
glory"—it
may be urged, that rHx, has not the sense of
"finally,"
and that rvbk,
cannot simply denote the heavenly
glory,
of which there is not one single word throughout the
whole
Psalm. Finally, as to the translation, "after honour",
that
is, "after thou hast brought me to honour," (compare Zech.
ii.
12, where "after honour", stands for, "after ye have been
brought
to honour"), "thou wilt take me away," either merely
"from
the earth," to "thyself," we would observe that accord-
ing
to it, ynHqt
is too bare.
The Psalmist concludes, in ver.
25-28, with an expression of
triumphant
confidence in God, and in his salvation. Ver. 25.
Who is there to me in
heaven, and besides thee I desire none upon
the earth. Ver. 26. My flesh and my heart waste away, God is
414 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the rock of my heart and
my portion for ever.
Ver. 27. For, be-
hold, those who are far
from thee perish, thou destroyest all those
who whore against thee. Ver. 28. But I,—nearness to God is
good for me, I place my
confidence upon the Lord Jehovah, that
I may proclaim all thy
works.—In
verse 25 the second clause is
to
be supplemented out of the first: who is there to me whom I
desire,
namely, as a helper and saviour. The soul which has
wandered
from its God searches all heaven and earth for help-
ers
and saviours. But when it has again found him, and been
delivered
from its doubts, he is sufficient for it, and it renounces
all
other saviours: comp. Ps. xvi. 2. The opposition is not be-
tween
God and other good things, (the Berleb. Bible considers
our
passage as a locus class., for the pure love of the mystics), but
between
God and all other saviours. In verse
26 the hlk
is to
be
taken hypothetically:—though it were come to the last ex-
tremity
with me, to death; but, by the grace of God, it will
not
come to this: compare Ewald, § 626. The heart
is named
as
the seat of vitality; and God the rock of
the heart, as its true
supporter:
compare Ps. xviii. 2. In reference to "my portion,"
that
is, "my helper and saviour," compare Ps. xvi. 5. The verse
is
to be considered as a compend of Job xix. 25-27: compare
especially
the 26th verse, "and after my skin, this body is de-
stroyed,
and without my flesh I shall see God." Even Job
does
not think that it will come to this with him, as indeed it
cannot;
but though it were to come to this, yet even in this
case,
confiding in the power and love of God, he is sure of his
deliverance.
It is clear as day that this passage contains the
germ
of the doctrine of the resurrection. The "for" in verse
27th
refers to the whole contents of verses 27 and 28. The
righteous
recompense of God is the ground of the confidence
previously
expressed. "Thy far ones" = those who keep
themselves
far from thee. "To whore" is used in the Penta-
teuch
of other kinds of declension besides the worship of idols,
Lev.
xx. 6, Num. xiv. 33; and that it is not to be confined to this
here,
is manifest from the preceding description of the wicked,
in
which great prominence is given to their moral depravity.—
That
the "nearness of God," in verse 28, is equivalent to "that
I
keep myself to God," (compare Zeph. iii. 2, James iv. 8), is
manifest
from the parallelism—to "the nearness of God" there
corresponds
"trust placed in him,"—and from the opposition:
"thy
far ones." The bvF good = salvation-bringing, in op-
PSALM LXXIV. 415
position
to "they perish," in the preceding verse, stands as
neutr.
The clause corresponding, in the second part of the
Verse,
is, "to make known (because I have got occasion to make
known)
all thy works"; whoever keeps near God, receives sal-
vation,
and whoever places his trust in him, gets occasion to
praise
him.
PSALM LXXIV.
THE prayer to help the people sunk
in the deepest misery,
ver.
1 and 2, is followed by its basis, which consists of a picture
of
this misery, in ver. 3-9: the sanctuary is destroyed, and all
traces
of the presence of God among his people have disap-
peared.
The short prayer renewed in ver. 10 and 11 seeks,
ver.
12-17, its support and stay in the consideration of the
omnipotence
of the God of Israel. At the conclusion, ver. 18
—23,
the prayer breaks out in an expanded form.
Expositors refer the Psalm partly to
the Chaldean destruc-
tion,
and partly to the time of the Maccabees. But the reasons
against
the latter view which has been defended with much
zeal
by Hitzig, are perfectly decisive. The temple appears in
the
Psalm as entirely destroyed, and that by fire, in all its parts.
From
1 Mac. iv. 38, where the condition in which Judas found
the
sanctuary is described, it is evident that at that time the
chief
buildings of the temple were untouched, and that it was
only
the gates that had been burnt. 2 Mac.
i. 8, viii. 33, are in
entire
accordance with this. The reason why the Jews, accord-
ing
to 1 Mac. iv. 28, build the holy and the most holy place, is
not
because these had been destroyed, but
because, as is almost
in
so many words affirmed in verse 43, the stones which had been
removed,
as being polluted, had to be replaced with others.
This
ground is perfectly sufficient for any unprejudiced person.
To
this we may add, that we find nothing here of what charac-
terized
the time of the Maccabees, no trace of an apostate party
among
the Jews themselves, which Venema in vain endeavours
to
discover in the Psalm, no trace of any attempt to bring the
Israelites
to idolatry, no trace of a religious war. We stand
here
entirely upon Assyrian-Chaldean ground, as will be obvious
on
comparing 2 Kings xviii. and xix. (compare particularly xix.
416 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
4
with the 10th verse of our Psalm):—the contest is not, God
against
God, but Man against God. Finally, in 1 Mac. vii. 16,
17,
the closely allied Psalm, the lxxixth, is quoted in such a
way
as is done only with sacred scripture. The reasons against,
the
Chaldean destruction will be answered in the course of our
exposition.
In favour of it, we may yet further urge the agree-
ment
between our Psalm and the Lamentations, and Jer. lii. 12.
Several expositors, from the vivid
representation of what was
at
the time going on in ver. 5 and 6, have been led to adopt
the
idea that the Psalm was composed at the time when
the
work of destruction had just begun. But verses 3, 7, and
8,
are decisive against this; for there the destruction is repre-
sented
as already completely finished. The author of the Psalm
must
have been one of the few Israelites who were left by the
conquerors
in the land.
Asaph is named as the author of the
Psalm. In those Psalms
which
bear his name, we must, when there are no strong rea-
sons
against it, conclude that the person meant is the Asaph
who
lived in the time of David. That he occupied a prominent
place
among the sacred poets, and that therefore there must be
some
of the Psalms of his composition, is evident from 2 Chron.
xxix.
30, according to which Hezekiah brought into use, in the
worship
of God, not only the songs of David, but also the songs
of
Asaph, and where Asaph is named the Seer,
or the divinely
illuminated, and from Neh. xii. 46,
where the days of the
flower
of Israelitish sacred poetry are called the days of David
and
of Asaph. For these reasons, we are perfectly justified in
considering
this Asaph as the author of Ps. L. LXXIII. LXXVIII.:
and
these are perfectly sufficient of themselves to have procur-
ed
for him his poetic fame. But here we cannot have the least
idea
of the authorship belonging to David's time. We must
not,
however, on this account, convict the title of a mistake: for
just
in proportion as the contents are decidedly and manifestly
inconsistent
with David's age, was it unlikely that the title
would
announce that the Psalm was composed at that time.
Asaph
was the founder of a family of
singers, who went
by
the name of the sons of Asaph, even
in the time of
Isaiah,
compare 2 Chron. xxxv. 15, yea even in the time of
Ezra
and Nehemiah, Ez, ii. 41, iii. 10, Neh. vii. 44, xi. 22.
That
the Holy Ghost, who inspired the founder, continued to
exert
his influence upon the members of this family from age
417 PSALM LXXIV. VER. 1-2.
to
age, is manifest from the example of Jehaziel, one of the sons
of
Asaph in Jehosaphat's time, on whom the Spirit, of the Lord
came
down in the midst of the assembly, 2 Chron, xx. 14. All
the
sacred compositions of the different members of this family,
from
time to time, were classed among the songs
of Asaph, just
as
in the title of the lxii. Psalm, Jeduthun stands for the Jedu-
thunic
choir. If the family had not possessed a founder so very
famous
in this department, these Psalms, like those which bear
the
name of the sons of Korah, would have had inscribed on their
titles
"the sons of Asaph."
The peculiarity of this Psalm is
marked by the very fre-
quent
use of the Hcn, for ever:
ver. 1, 3, 10. It shews how
the
conduct
themselves in times when every thing appears to be
lost,
and to lie in ruins. More particularly, we are instructed,
that
in such desperate circumstances, we have to overlook our-
selves,
and concentrate our regard upon the concerns and the
glory
of God: compare 2 Kings xix., where, at the Assyrian in-
vasion,
it is the conduct of the enemy directed against the Lord,
that
is most prominent, and that kindles zeal for his glory into a
flame.
Ver. 1 and 2.—Ver. 1. An Instruction of Asaph— Why, 0
God, hast thou cast us
of for ever, does thine anger smoke
against the sheep of thy
pasture?
Ver. 2. Remember thy congre-
gation, which thou hast
acquired of old, thine inheritance which
thou redeemest,
"thou
hast cast off" compare at Ps. xliii. 2, xliv. 23; and on
"for
ever," at Ps. xiii. 1, and Lam. v. 20, "why wilt thou forget
me
for ever". A feeble faith
supposes in the severe visitations
of
God, that all is over for ever. The object of the Psalm is to
deliver
the congregation of God from these thoughts; and hence
its
title, a Psalm of Instruction. The smoke comes into notice
as
the attendant of fire: compare Ps.
xviii. 8. That Nxcb is not
to
be connected with the "anger"
but with the "smoke", is
evident
from the fundamental passage, Deut. xxix. 20, "the
anger
of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that
man,"
and from the parallel passage, similar to our verse, and
referring
to it, Ps. lxxx. 5, "Lord God, how long wilt thou
smoke
against the prayer of thy people." That the tyfrm is
not
the "feeding", but the "food", is evident,--besides the
form,
from Hos. xiii. 6, (compare Michaelis), and Jer. xxv, 36,
418 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
also
x. 21, where the "pasture" stands for the "flock who feed
on
it."
cause
he gave them possession of the fertile
Compare
Hos. xiii. 6, Jer. xxv. 36, 38. The reference is pecu-
liarly
appropriate for the times of the captivity, when
driven
away from his rich pasture: compare Ps. lxxix. 13, c. 3.
Calvin:
"It is to be observed that the faithful, when oppress-
ed
by the profane, lift their eyes to God, as if struck by his
hand.
For they knew that it was only in consequence of the
anger
of the Lord that the profane had been permitted to
injure
them. And hence, under the conviction that they have
not
to fight with flesh and blood, but that they are afflicted
through
the just judgment of God, they consider that the pro-
per
cause and fountain of all their troubles, is, that God, whose
favour
had formerly imparted to them salvation, had now cast
them
off, and considered them as no longer worthy of being his
flock."—The
Psalmist grounds, in verse 2nd, his prayer for the
deliverance
of
manifestations
of this given from the earliest antiquity, which
would
not permit him to dissolve the connection of love which,
through
his grace, had so long existed. Moses, in Deut. ix. 26,
29,
based his prayer that the Lord would not cast off his people,
upon
their deliverance from
gation,
by delivering it from the bondage of
second
clause, txlg
occupies the place of a noun:—think of
“thou hast
redeemed,"—think of the redemption, compare verse
18.
hlHn Fbw, the inheritance-rod,
is the staff with which
the
inheritance is measured; Fbw = hdmh hnq, the land-
surveyor's rod, Ez. xl. 3: and this is
used as lrvg,
the lot, is for
the portion, for the inheritance itself. Others explain
"thy in-
heritance-tribe,"
and refer to Is. lxiii. 17. But the fundamental
passage
is in favour of the measuring-rod, Deut. xxxii. 9, "but
the
Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his inheritance-line,"
(compare
Ps. cv. 11); and Fbw, tribe,
is never used to denote
the
whole of
Jer.
x. 16, li. 19,—a reference, which can scarcely be acci-
dental.
Ver. 3.-9.—Ver. 3. Lift up thy footsteps to the eternal ruins,
the enemy has destroyed
every thing in the sanctuary. Ver. 4.
Thine adversaries roar
in the midst of thy places of revelation,
they make their signs
for signs.
Ver. 5. He makes himself look
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 3-9. 419
like one lifting up the axe in a forest thicket. Ver. 6. And now
they break down its
carved work all at once with hatchet and
hammer. Ver. 7. They set thy sanctuaries on fire, they dese-
crate to the ground the
habitation of thy name. Ver. 8. They
say in their hearts, We
will recompense it all at once, we will
burn all the places of
the revelation of God in the land. Ver. 9.
We see not our signs,
and there is no longer any prophet, and
there is no one by us
who knows how long.—In
reference to the
tvxwm, ruins,
in verse 3, compare at Ps. lxxiii. 18. The
Psalmist
speaks of eternal ruins, because the
complete destruc-
tion
had cut off all human hope of a restoration. The prayer
for
deliverance from misery runs on, in the second clause, into a
description
of that misery, which is carried forward as far as
verse
9th. This description begins with the general expression:
"the
enemy in the sanctuary has laid every thing waste."
Then
follows its developement in detail; the whole scene of
destruction
is pictured forth in vivid colours before the eyes:--
they
roar, they lift the axe, they cut down, they burn. In the
8th
verse, the conclusion assumes the general form of the intro-
ductory
clause: they burn all the places of revelation of God
in
the land. In verse 4, the reading j~yd,fEOm with a Iod, which
is
given by very many MSS. and editions, and is in agreement
with
the plu. in verse 8, is proved to be the correct one, by the
feminine
suffix which refers to it in verse 6. The plural is to be
explained
as Mywdqm
is, compare at Ps. lxviii. 35. The tem-
ple,
according to many expositors, got the name of "the place of
meeting,"
because the people met there for public worship.
But
there is a manifest allusion to the name of the tabernacle:
"The
Tabernacle of meeting." Now the import of this name
is
expressly given in Ex. xxv. 8, xxix. 42, 43, 45, 46, Num. xvii.
19:—the
tabernacle was so called, not because the people as-
sembled
there, but because God met the people there: compare
Beitr. P. III. p. 628, et seq. Inasmuch as lx
dfvm is the
place
where God himself dwells among his people,
it appears to
be
the very height of all that is dreadful, that even there the
enemies
roar, (comp. Lam. ii. 7, "they have made a noise in
the
house of the Lord"), and lift up the signs of their dominion.
if
jvfm
be rightly interpreted, it will be impossible to enter-
tain
the idea that the Psalm was composed during the time of
the
Maccabees. In this case the word would denote the
synagogues. It is, however, far
too lofty a word to admit of
420 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
being
thus used. The prerogative of the temple would be in-
jured.
There was only one place in the land
which God chose
to
put his name there, Deut. xii. 5, 11. The signs
of the ene-
mies
must, at all events, be interpreted as "the signs of their
dominion." The connection
will not allow of any thing else.
When
they let their signs be seen in the house of the Lord,
their
object can only be to proclaim themselves as masters of
that house. The word never
signifies usages. There is no-
thing
said as to what the signs consisted of, because nothing
depends
on that. But inasmuch as the Chaldeans, and also the
Assyrians
(compare Is. x. 13) made their own
strength their God,
(compare
Hab. i. 11, 16, and Delitzsh on the last passage), and
concerned
themselves very little about religion, there is no rea-
son
whatever for supposing that the enemies brought in the
images of their gods into the temple as
signs of their dominion,
and
set up the worship of them there. The signs of their
dominion
are rather to be considered as of a military
character;
and
the more so that the description directs attention not only
to
the setting up of military standards, but to the whole furious
conduct
of the enemies, for example, their shouts, their ges-
tures,
verse 5:—where formerly every thing had testified of the
dominion
of God, now every thing testifies of the dominion of
the
heathen. The sense in the 5th verse is: they destroy and
cut
down with as much indifference as if they were felling trees
in
a forest. The subject is the enemy of verse 3. The suffix in
hyHvtp cannot, except arbitrarily, be referred
to an omitted
noun,
or be taken as standing in a general sense. It refers, ac-
cording
to the usual construction of the plural with the femi-
nine,
to Mydfvm
in verse 4; and the reference is quite a natu-
ral
one, inasmuch as the temple has all along been the subject
spoken
of. Before the Chaldeans set fire to the temple, which,
according
to Jeremiah, happened a month after the capture of
the
city, (Jer. lii. 12), they removed out of it all the precious
metals,
ver. 17. 2 Kings xxv. 13. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 18. But
they
could not get at these without destroying the walls, which,
according
to 1 Kings vi. and vii., were in part overlaid with the
purest
gold, and especially without destroying the beautiful
carved work on the walls, spoken of
in 1 Kings vi. 29. There
are
no traces of any such destruction in the time of the Macca-
bees.
The second temple, from its poverty, had not so much
to
tempt the avarice of the enemies. Moreover, such a work
supposes
that the temple was devoted to entire
destruction,
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 5-9. 421
which
was not the case in the time of the Maccabees. At that
time
it was merely devoted to heathen worship. Instead of
jwdqm, in verse 7, many MSS. and editions read
jywdqm
in
the
plural, thy sanctuaries; compare at
Ps. lxviii. 35. The cir-
cumstance
that the plural rarely occurs is in favour of this read-
ing.
And it becomes necessary, if we refer the first clause of
ver.
8 to the sanctuary. “They desecrate to the ground” is illus-
trated
by Lam. ii. 2, "he has thrown down to the ground, de-
secrated."
There was nothing in the least like this in the time
of
the Maccabees. The temple was not then levelled to the
ground,
and thus polluted. It remained standing. In verse 8,
the
Mnyn
has the connecting vowel Kamets instead of Tseri, as
is
the case with Mryn in Num. xxi. 30; it is from hny, to rage,
here,
to destroy in a rage. The suffix is
generally supposed to
allude
to the Israelites, and a reference is made to Ps. lxxxiii.
4.
But we must refer it to the sanctuaries,
as this word forms
the
subject throughout the whole passage, and especially in the
parallel
clause. That by "the places of revelation of God" we
are
to understand the temple, with all its apartments, is evident
from
the word itself, (compare at verse 4), from the whole con-
nection,
(compare at verse 3), and from the first clause, in which
the
"all at once" corresponds to the expression here "all in the
land."
The expression, "all in the land," has been incorrectly
supposed
not to be applicable to the temple. The sanctuaries
in
were
in the land; and the circumstance, that when the temple
was
destroyed, there was not another such place to be found,
must
have peculiarly aggravated the pain which an Israelite felt,
and
was a proof of the extent to which God's honour was at stake,
and
his interests endangered. The assertion of those who are in
favour
of the Maccabean origin of the Psalm, that these words
describe
the destruction of the synagogues, is
met by the remark,
that
in all the copious accounts which we have of the transac-
tions
of these times, there is nothing said of any such work of
destruction.
The "signs of the Israelites," in verse 9, are the
signs
of the dominion of their God, whose places had been oc-
cupied
by the signs of the enemies, verse 4.
The wonderful
works
of God, Ps. lxxviii. 43, lxxxvi. 17, form the most promi-
nent
of these, by which the people had been delivered, when in
similar
circumstances, on former occasions, such as the bondage
of
the Egyptians or the invasion of the Assyrians. Then fol-
422 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lows
prophecy,—of the cessation of which
the prophet express-
ly
complains in the second clause, which stands related to
the
first as the particular to the general. The expression,
"there
is no longer any prophet," has very incorrectly been
maintained
to favour the Maccabean reference: it is, however,
altogether
against it, For it takes for granted that the people
of
the Lord had a little while ago
enjoyed the presence of pro-
phets.
It is only of fresh wounds that the Psalmist complains;
he
cannot be understood as expressing a desire for something
of
which the people had been deprived for a hundred years, and
with
the want of which they had long since become familiar.
The
words are to be explained from Ez. vii. 26, where it is
threatened,
"and they seek (in vain) the face of the prophet,"
from
Lam. ii. 9, "and their prophets find not the face of the
Lord,"
and from 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15, according to which Saul
got
no answer from the Lord through the prophets. Jeremiah
did
indeed survive the destruction of the temple, (and to this
reference
has been made in support of the Maccabean exposition),
but
his prophetical office terminated with it. It was assuredly
the
cessation of his office that more immediately gave occa-
sion
to the painful cry: there is no longer any prophet. This
standing
ruin of the prophetical class proclaimed, even in louder
accents
than the non-appearance of other prophets, that God
was
no longer
the
other signs of the dominion of God, this one also should cease
for
a long period of time, that the people might be taught how
they
had treated it, wherein they had offended, and might, at
the
same time, be led with tears of repentance to seek its re-
turn.a
By the "knowing how long," is meant a living know-
ledge. The exact length of
the captivity had been foretold by
Jeremiah
as fixed; but on the first infliction of the stroke, no
man
could take the comfort of this announcement, and no man
ought
to have done so, till the infliction had served its purpose.
Ver.
10 and 11.—Ver. 10. How long, 0 God,
shall the adver-
a Arnd: "Such punishments were frequently
inflicted upon the Jews, as it
is
written: At that time there was no word of God, and no prophet in the
land.
This is the most severe punishment and soul destitution, as, on the other
hand,
the pure word of God is the greatest consolation, as Jeremiah says, ch.
xv:
"thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me
the
joy and rejoicing of mine heart." This is not observed till God and the
precious
treasure are away. Then men may dig holes in the earth, and run
after
it like a hungry dog; but it cannot be found."
PSALM LXXIV. VER.
10-17. 423
sary reproach, the enemy
despise thy name for ever? Ver. 11.
Why drawest thou back
thy hand, and thy right hand? Recom-
pense out of thy bosom.—In reference to the
apparent contradic-
tion,
"how long—for ever," in verse 10, compare at Ps. xiii. 2.
"Thy
right hand," in verse 11, contains the more exact idea,
just
as "sun" stands related to "light" in verse 16. The right
hand
is the seat of strength. The annihilation, (compare hlk
in
Ps. lix. 13), proceeds from the bosom of God, inasmuch as
his
omnipotent right hand is at the time reposing inoperative
there.
The reading of the text is q.He without the Iod, the
more
rare
form: Prov. xvii. 23, Job xix. 27: the Massorites, as usual,
have
substituted the more common form with Iod.a
Ver. 12-17.—Ver. 12. And God is my king of old, who
works salvation in the
midst of the land.
Ver. 13. Thou break-
est through the sea by
thy strength, thou cleavest through the
heads of the dragons in
the water.
Ver. 14. Thou dashest to
pieces the heads of leviathan,
thou givest him for food to the
people of the wilderness. Ver. 15. Thou cleavest the fountain
and the flood, thou
driest up the perpetual stream. Ver. 16.
Thine is the day, thine
also is the night, thou hast prepared light
and the sun. Ver. 17. Thou hast set all the boundaries of the
earth,--as to summer and
winter, thou hast made them.—On
verse
12, Calvin: "The faithful mingle contemplation with
their
prayers, in order that they may collect new power of faith,
and
grow more full of earnestness in prayer. For we know
how
difficult it is to rise above all doubts, and to feel free and
joyful
in prayer. Here also the faithful recall to their recollection
the
memorials of the compassion and the power of God, by which
he
has made it known throughout all generations that he is the
king
of his elected people." God is named the King of Israel, as
being
their beloved deliverer, guardian, and provider. And inas-
much
as he has manifested himself as such of old, by the mighty
deeds
by which he delivered his people from
a Still Hitzig falsely
maintains that the reading in the text is qOH.
Hiller
has given the correct explanation of this, and a whole class of similar
cases, de Arcano Chethib. et Keri, p. 29: notandum est
hie, ubi Vau aut Iod
in
vocalibus homogeneis quiescentes, in una lectione expressae, in altera
neglectae
fuerunt, placuisse Massorethis quiescentem in Chethibo transponere
vel
post vocalem ejus literam scribere heterogeneam: in margine autem vel
transpositam quiescentem vel non transpositae quiescentis
homogeneam,
comp.
p. 251.
424 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
continue
yet farther to do so. What he was, guarantees what he
will
be. The participle denotes the usual
dealings of God. The
plural
tvfvwy
point to the rich fulness of salvation. That we can-
not,
with Stier, explain "in the midst of the land," as meaning in
the
midst of the earth," is obvious
from the reference to Ex. viii.
22
and verse 8. The words denote the comprehensive nature
of
the salvation: whoever has obtained possession of the in-
terior
of a country has got the ascendancy over the whole
boundaries,—whatever
is done there, extends to the whole cir-
cumference: compare, besides, Ex. viii. 22, "that thou
mayest
know
that I the Lord am in the midst of the land, i. e. over the
whole
extent of
ist
turns to the contemplation of those mighty deeds, which im-
plied
divine omnipotence, to sink into which is so very com-
fortable
to helpless feebleness. That it is only the divine omni-
potence,
and not the love of God, that is brought before
our
minds, is evident from "thy power", in the introduction,
and
from the consideration of every separate particular. The
sevenfold repetition of the emphatic
"thou" is assuredly not
accidental,
standing as it does in striking contrast to the
powerless
"I": it forms in fact the delivering right hand
which
rescues it froth the deep waters. That the preterites in
ver.
13-15, although they stand connected with a description
of
historical events, denote something going, something which
God
is still doing, (compare on the parallel passage Ps. lxvi. 6,
"he
turns the sea into dry land," &c.), is probable from "thou
givest"
in verse 14, and the mention of the floods
in verse 15,
while
the history records the drying up of only one
stream, the
restraining
of the sea by God, in reference to the dividing of
the
gures.
These appear as monarchs of the sea, and their subjec-
tion
as a sign of its. The two ideas, the subjugation of the sea,
and
that of the great sea monsters, appear in connection in the
passage
Is. Ii. 9, 10, which the Psalmist had decidedly before
his
mind: "Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord,
who
bringeth down pride, (not brought down,
for in that case
the
11th verse would not connect well,—it is, as here, something
going
on), pierces the dragon? Art thou not he who drieth up
the
sea, the waters of the great flood, who maketh the depths
of
the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?" and also in
Job
xxvi. 12, 13, " by his hand he puts in motion the sea, and
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 12-17. 425
by
his understanding he smites the pride
of the raging sea: by
his
breath the heaven becomes clear, his hand pierceth the fly-
ing
serpent." The last appears there as the Queen of the sea:
compare
also Ps. civ. 26. The inhabitants of the wilderness,
(compare
at Ps. lxxii. 9), are the inhabitants of the wilderness
which
bounds the sea, particularly the
ophagi, who depend for their
support upon the sea beasts cast
up
on the land. According to the common interpretation, the
dragons
and leviathan are intended figuratively to represent the
Egyptians
and Pharaoh, (compare Ez. xxix. 3, 4, where the cro-
codile
occurs as the emblem of the Egyptians); and the inha-
bitants
of the wilderness are the beasts of the desert, who got
for
their food the carcases of the Egyptians. But, in opposition
to
this, it is to be observed, that throughout the whole para-
graph
it is the dominion of God over nature, and not over man,
that
is described:—the sea, verses 13 and 14, the fountains and
rivers, verse 15, the day and the night, &c. Besides, in the
passage
quoted from Job, the piercing of the flying serpent oc-
curs
in connection with the general manifestation of the power
of
God over nature. And still further, the Psalmist has applied
the
word Mfl,
to the inhabitants of the wilderness, as if for the
purpose
of intimating that it was men and not
beasts that he
meant.
The use of the word in Prov. xxx. 25, as applied to
ants,
will not prove that it may stand for beasts here. There is
a
reason in the connection for the reference in that passage;
but
there is none here: the similarity of the ants to men is what
is
there spoken of. And, finally, to all this we may add, the
remarkable
agreement between the passage and what the an-
cients have recorded of the Ichthyophagi.a The Ntyvl, in ver.
14,
denotes the species. The plural does not occur. The histori-
cal
foundation of verse 15 is to be found in the supply of water
granted
in the wilderness, Ex. xvii. and Num. xx., and in the,
opening
of the passage through the
considers
these wonderful works of God, as being always re-
peated.
"To cleave" is a poetical expression for "to cause to
break
forth by cleaving": compare Job xxviii. 10. Constantly-
enduring rivers, are large
rivers which are not dried up in the
a Compare the passages in
Bochart, Georgr. S. 1. 4. c. 2. "Agatharchides
says:
they live upon the whales cast up on the shore; Diodor.: they are
supported
by the whales cast up on the shore, having at the time abundance
of
food on account of the great size of the beasts found, &c."
426 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
heat
of summer. The epithet tends to exalt the wonderful
power
of God. The Berleb. Bible: "Thou art also he who
driest
up the rivers of passion when they
are like to break
forth
in such a way as to overflow every thing."—The church
turns
from the manifestations of the omnipotence of God in his-
tory
to his mighty deeds at creation,
verses 16 and 17, which
are
continually renewed in providence.
Day and night are
thine,—they belong to thee,
according to the parallelism, as
their
creator. The light and the sun are related to each other
as
the special to the general, compare verse 11: the sun being
the
most glorious of the heavenly luminaries, compare Gen. i.
16.
The boundaries of the earth, in ver.
17, are its boundaries
next
the sea. The Psalmist here refers again to the history of
the
creation: compare at Ps. xxiv. 2.
At the conclusion, ver. 18-23, we
have the expanded pray-
er.a—Ver. 18. Remember this: the enemy reproacheth the
Lord,
and a foolish people
despiseth thy name.
Ver. 19. Give not to
the desire of the blood
thirsty thy turtle dove, the life of thy poor
ones forget not for ever. Ver. 20. Remember thy covenant, for
the darknesses of the
earth are full of the habitations of violence.
Ver.
21. 0 let not the oppressed turn back
ashamed, may the
miserable and the poor
praise thy name.
Ver. 22. Arise, 0
God, fight thou our
battle, remember thy reproach by the foolish
man continually. Ver. 23. Forget not the voice of thine adver-
saries, the tumult of
thine opponents riseth up continually.—That
in
verse 18 the address is not to the foolish, (compare at Ps. xiv.
—think of this, thou foolish man whom the
Lord despises—,
but,
as it is throughout the Psalm, to God, is evident from the
second
clause, and from verses 2 and 22. In ver. 19, wpn stands,
as
it not unfrequently does, in the sense of desire:
the desire
is
a poetical expression for the rapacity of the enemies, which is
similar
to that of wild beasts, to whom the innocent defenceless
and
timid doves are given over for prey. Many expositors
translate:
give not up to the ravenous beasts of prey the soul
of
thy doves. But tyH cannot be the stat. absol., and the form
of
this case, which in general is not well ascertained, in t--,
cannot
be adopted with this word, which is one of very common
a Amyraldus on ver. 8:
"From this verse to the end, the prophet brings
forward
and blends together with wonderful skill, all those considerations
which
might move God partly to compassion, and partly to zeal."
PSALM LXXIV. VER.
18-23. 427
occurrence.
Be sides hyH,
is not used of wild beasts, without an
epithet,
except in reckoning, as in Gen. vii. 14.a Others: "give
not
thy doves to the greedy host, the host of thy poor ones for-
get
not for ever." But hyH, in the sense of a "host," appears,
to
belong exclusively to the age of David, (compare at Ps. lxviii.
10);
and it is scarcely suitable here to apply the word "host",
both
to the scattered little company of the miserable remnant,
and
to the great throng of the wicked.
Remember the covenant,
verse
20: the right method of prayer is to hold up before God
his
covenant and his promises.b In the second clause the refe-
rence
is to Gen. vi. 11, 13, where it is said of the time before
the
flood: "for the earth was full of violence through them, and
behold
I recompense them with the earth." This undoubted
reference
shows that by the Crx we are not to understand the
land, but the earth. The Crx
ykwHm
stands opposed to the
lvxw ykwHm, and signifies,
"the earth is full, on which there
is
darkness, as there is on Sheol": compare Ps. cxliii. 3, "for
the
enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life
down
to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in "dark places,
where
are the dead of eternity," Lam. iii. 6, where the same ex-
pression
occurs, and Ps. lxxxviii. 6. The common interpreta-
tion
is: the lurking places of the land are full of the habitations
of
violence. But against this we would urge, with Michaelis,
that
the plural MykwHm always involves the notion of misery;
further,
the proud conquerors do not conceal themselves with
their
wickedness in lurking places; and
there seems no reason
why
the lurking places should be full of
the habitations,—the
a Venema: The word tyH without an epithet
added, does not denote a
wild
beast, but is accustomed to have every where an epithet along with it,
either
"of the field," "of the earth," or "of the
reeds."
b Arnd: The prophet here
grounds his prayer upon the covenant of grace,
which
God had made with the people of
covenant
by a strong oath, and by many wonderful works, with the beloved
land;
and it was the peculiar source of consolation, and place of refuge to the
Jews
in all their trouble: thus Daniel prays, ch. ix. "0 Lord who keepest
covenant
and grace to those who fear thee," thus we read in Ps. cxi. "He re-
members
his covenant for ever," and thus aged Zecharias, Luke i. says, "He
hath
remembered his holy covenant, and his oath which he swore to our father
Abraham."
We also may therefore rely firmly and surely upon the eternal
covenant
of grace, which God in the New Testament has made with us in
Christ,
through his merit and death, whereby he has reconciled us, and ob-
tained
forgiveness of sin and eternal life."
428 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
expression
ought rather to have been, "they are the habita-
tions."—“May
they praise,” in verse 21, is equivalent to "grant
that
they may be able to praise."—On "the tumult ascends
continually,"
in verse 23, compare Gen. iv. 10; xviii. 21, xix. 13.
"Forget
not" stands in the back ground, and therefore there
is
no reason to adopt the somewhat flat rendering of some,
"which rises."
PSALM LXXV.
THE people praises the Lord in
trouble, sure of salvation
from
him, verse 1, for he has promised to appear for judgment,
and,
with the omnipotence which he manifested at creation, to
establish
the tottering earth, verses 2 and 3. Supported on the
promise
of
horts
them to bring down their pride, inasmuch as the hope of his
deliverance
is not founded on his earthly neighbours,
but upon
God in heaven, who even now is
preparing judgment upon the
pretended
conquerors, verses 4-8. At the conclusion, the
people
express their determination to praise the Lord continual-
ly,
for the salvation of which in faith they are sure, and their
confident
assurance, that they will triumph in the Lord over all
wickedness,
verses 9 and 10.
The Psalm contains the complete
number ten. This is divid-
ed
into a three, (at the end of the third verse, there is a Selah),
and
a seven. The seven is divided into a five and a two. The
two
of the conclusion, and the three of the introduction, give
five,
corresponding to the five of the first part of the second
half,—so
that thus both the usual divisions of the ten, are here
artificially
wrought together.
There are very decisive reasons for
maintaining that the
Psalm,
was composed during the time of the distress under
Hezekiah.
The triumphant tone of the Psalm, does not allow
us
to descend to the time of the falling, or rather fallen state.
Ver.
4-8, render it quite evident that the Psalm was called
forth
by some severe distress on the part of the
compare
especially "the wicked of the earth," in verse 8. We
have
here, as in Ps. xlvi. a catastrophe of a universal character:
according
to ver. 3, the whole circle of the earth is shaken, and
PSALM LXXV. 429
the
whole circle of the earth will be calmed by the manifesta-
tions
of might on the part of God. The catastrophe of the
Assyrian
invasion was the only one of this kind that ever oc-
curred
in all history. According to ver. 2 and 3, the people
are
quieted in the midst of their trouble, by an assurance of
divine
assistance. This happened at the time of the Assyrian
invasion,
by the prophecy of Isaiah. In ver. 6, the places are
named,
from which
ance,—the
East, West, and South. The omission of the North,
indicates
that the enemy had come from that quarter;—and the
Assyrians
did make their entrance into Canaan from
this
we may add, that the Psalm is closely related to the xlvi,
(compare
at Ps. iv), which undoubtedly belongs to the Assyrian
period,
and that the following Psalm, which is also closely re-
lated,
and is inscribed with the name of Asaph, (compare at Ps.
lxxiv),
belongs also to the same era.
The question may be asked: was the
Psalm composed before,
or
after the Assyrian invasion. Ewald adopts the latter sup-
position.
The enthusiasm of the Psalm, he supposes, has been
awakened
by a glance at the first visible announcement of a
great
general judgment of God upon all nations. But there
are
decisive reasons in favour of the former view, which indeed
would
never have been abandoned, had it not been supposed,
that
there was an incongruity in conceiving of a song of triumph
sung
by the church, before the victory,
and while the trouble
was
still immediately lying upon her. In the Title, “To the
chief
musician, destroy not, a Psalm of Asaph, a Song of praise,”
the
expression, "destroy not," (compare at Ps. lvii. 1), which
does
not occur in the lxxvi, where we find the celebration of
the
victory, after it had been gained, shews that, under "Lord
God,
we praise thee," there lies concealed, "Lord, have mercy
on
us."a On the supposition that the Psalm was composed
after
the deliverance had been obtained, there is assuredly too,
little
said about it, and the basis laid for hope in the future,
is
too narrow. The thanksgiving and the praise in verse 9, are
merely
promised for future assistance,—a
proof that as yet none
a The Berleb. Bible:
"As these words are really a prayer, while at the
same
time the Psalm is thrown into the form, not of petitions, but of a thanks-
giving,
it ought to be considered as a thank-prayer, uttered before hand, and
containing
petitions within it."
430 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
had
been imparted. Finally, the following
Psalm, which was
also
composed by Asaph, expresses thanks and joy, for the
assistance
which had been already obtained. The two Psalms
make
up one entire whole, if the lxxvth be considered as a song
of
triumph over what had been promised.
The Psalm is consequently to be
considered as a lyrical com-
panion
to the prophecies, which Isaiah delivered in view of the
threatened
destruction, as a testimony to the living faith, with
which
the church at that time received the word of God, and
as
an intimation to the church at all times, that through a
similar
faith, she shall participate in a similar deliverance. The
exhortation
which Hezekiah in his time, addressed to the people,
according
to 2 Chron. xxxii. 7 and 8, is exactly parallel: "be
strong
and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king
of
him
is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help
us
and fight our battles"
Ver. 1-3.—Ver. 1. We praise thee, 0 God, we praise, and near
is thy name, they
publish thy wonders.
Ver. 2. "For I shall fix
a time when I shall
judge righteously.
Ver. 3. The earth, with
all its inhabitants, is
dissolved, I have weighed its pillars."—The
object
of the praise of God in verse 1, is his glory, to the con-
templation
of which the church has been raised by the announce-
ment
of salvation from him. The name of God,
(compare at
Ps.
xx. 1, xxiii. 3, xxix. 2), may be considered as near with a
two-fold
reference: objectively, as when in
his historically illus-
trated
glory, he comes near to deliver his people, (compare
Deut.
iv. 7, Is. xxx. 27, "behold the name of Jehovah comes
from
afar"); and subjectively, when the consciousness of this
glory
has been awakened in the mind, compare Jer. xii. 2. The
name
of the Lord is here said to be near
in this latter sense.
"Thy
name is near," stands in the middle between, "we praise
thee",
and "they publish," and is connected with the former,
not
with a "because", but with an "and." The "wonders" of
God
are those which are past, and those
which are anticipated
by
faith as future. One of God's wonders
placed before the
eyes,
gives living reality also to all the others. With the future,
the
past also is brought to the present.—In ver. 2 and 3, we
have
the grounds of the confidence which the church expressed
in
ver. 1: God has promised to her his help. Both verses con-
tain
the words of God, which are uttered in reply to the address
PSALM LXXV. VER. 1-3. 431
of
the church: you may well be thus full of my praise, for, &c.
rvfm is the point of time which God has fixed for
executing his
purposes:
compare Ps. cii. 13, thou wilt arise and have mercy
on
time, Hab. ii. 3, Dan. viii.
19, xi. 27, 35. At this point of time,
the
eye of faith shall, in the midst of suffering, be steadily
directed
towards God. Arnd: "Our God, who governs
the
world by his omnipotence and wisdom, has appointed
to
all things a boundary, and has also fixed a time and
an
hour for his judgment, and when this comes, he re-
veals
his judgments, and no man can hinder them. God with-
holds
his punishment for a very long time, but at last
it
comes with certainty, and makes no delay. Even the
heathen
have learned this from experience, according to the
Saying: sera tamen tacitis papa vent pedibus,
and also in the
words
of Val. Maximus, tarditatem poence
gravitate compensat.
That
point of time comes when the chastisement of the church
has
been brought to a close: compare Isa. x. 12, "And it shall
come
to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole
work
on
of
the king of
Septuagint,
give: "when I take a point of time." But in this
case
verses 2 and 3 stand too much like an aphorism: their
connection
with ver. 4 is not indicated. On Myrwym compare
at
Ps. lviii. 1. We have in this and the two following verses
the
substance of Isaiah's prophecies as delivered at that time:
compare,
for example, Is. xxxvii. 33-35, "Therefore, thus saith
the
Lord to the king of
by
the way by which he came by the same shall he return, and
defend
this city," etc.—The earth, in consequence of the success
of
the conqueror of the world is, as it were, dissolved, sunk
back
into its ancient chaotic state, but the same omnipotence
which
at that time brought its dissolution to an end, shall aid
it
now. That the first clause refers to the deliverance obtained
by
the destruction of the Assyrians, is evident from the parallel
passage
Ps. xlvi. 6, 7, "the peoples roar, the kingdoms shake
the
earth melts": compare ver. 2,
"therefore we are not
afraid,
though the earth is changed, and the mountains shake
in
the heart of the sea." Several expositors take ytnkt as a
prophetic praeterite: I will set fast its
pillars. But Nkt never
signifies
"to set fast", but always "to weigh," "to value":
and
432 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
therefore
the word must refer to the creation:—I
have weighed,
and,
in proportion to their size, I have placed them, compare
Job
xxxviii. 4-7. "Whatever our God has created, that he
can
and must maintain,"—in this way, what God has once done
is
a guarantee for what he will now do.
Ver. 4-8.—Ver. 4. I say to the proud, "be not
proud,"and to
the wicked, "lift
not up the horn."
Ver. 5. Lift not up your
horn on high, speak not
rashly with proud neck. Ver. 6. For
not from the rising of
the sun, and not from the going down of
the sun, and not from
the wilderness of mountains. Ver. 7.
But God judgeth, he
putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Ver.
8. For a cup is in the hand of the Lord,
and it is foaming
with wine, it is full of
mingled drink, and he poureth out of it,
and its dreg all the
wicked of the earth must sip, they must drink.
—The
people, confiding in the promise of the Lord, address, in
ver.
4, in a triumphant tone, their haughty enemies. It is
clear
from ver. 9th and 10th, that it is not the Psalmist, but the
Church
that speaks: compare also, "we praise", in ver. 1. Ac-
cording
to some expositors, (Koester), the address of God is
still
continued in this verse; according to others, (Tholuck), in
ver.
5th; and according to others, (Hitzig), even in ver. 6th.
But
ver. 7th, where God is spoken of in the third person, is con-
nected
with verse 6th, by a "for", and this verse is again con-
nected
in the same way with ver. 5, and verses 4 and 5 cannot
be
disjoined from each other. To this we may add, that by
these
assumptions, the formal arrangement of the Psalm would
be
destroyed, the Selah stands at the
end of the preceding
verse,
and the expression, "I say", at the beginning of this one,
indicates
a change of speaker. In reference to Myllvh, com-
pare
at Ps. v. 5. lxxiii. 3. Lift not up your
horn, i. e. furiously,
and
from a sense of your strength, and with the intention to
strike: compare the
fundamental passages, Deut. xxxiii. 17, and
1
Sam. ii. 1, 10, and also Ps, lxxxix. 7, 24, xcii. 10, cxlviii. 14.
—In
verse 5, pm is according to the accusative, and the pa-
rallel
passages Ps. xxxi, 18, xciv. 4, 1 Sam. ii. 3, the accus.,
rash. Is. xxxvii. 36,
furnishes the commentary, where the rash
speeches
of the Assyrians are put to the test. "In the neck"
is,
so that the neck is rendered prominent by it:—the neck
more
particularly displayed the pride, compare Job. xv. 26, Jer.
16.—In
verses 6 and 7, we have the reasons
why the wicked
should
not give full scope to their arrogance and haughtiness,
PSALM LXXV. VER. 4-8. 433
as
directed against the Israelites. They might indeed do so,
were
the Israelites, in the approaching contest, looking for help
from
the earth,—for help from the east, the west, or the south,
against
the north. The enemies might indeed scoff at such
foolish
hopes. But, inasmuch as the decision comes from above,
from
and
lifts up another, viz. his own miserable people, it is not a time
to
triumph but to tremble, in dread expectation of the coming
judgment.
Verse 6 is to be supplemented from the 7:—for it is
neither
from the east, &c. that the decision comes, that we expect
the
enemy to be brought down and ourselves to be raised up. That
the
Psalmist is not speaking of the quarters of heaven general-
ly,
but especially of countries around
"the
wilderness of mountains." This is a poetical term, de-
signed
to denote the mountainous districts of Idumea and
Arabia
situated to the southward of
Horeb
and Sinai: compare Deut. xi. 24, and Joshua i. 4, where
the wilderness is named as the
southern boundary of
what
is there denoted by the article is here expressed by
Myrh. The mountainous desert was designedly named last,
and
with special emphasis:—it was on this side that
on
whose assistance
cording
to the foolish imagination of the Assyrian, who, like the
world
even in our own day, could not conceive of a living con-
fidence
in a heavenly helper: compare Is. xxxvi. 4-6, "Thus
saith
the great king, the king of
trustest
thou that thou risest up against me? behold thou trust-
est
on this broken reed,
it
will go into his hand and pierce it: thus is Pharaoh king of
the status absolutes; and several
expositors, heedlessly enough,
following
this reading, translate: and not from the wilderness
cometh
elevation. This reading, however, is merely the product
of
exegetical imbecility. The mere "elevation comes" is not suffi-
cient;
it would have been necessary to have added the idea of
"that
of the righteous over the enemies," in order to explain the
connection
of ver. 6 and 7 with ver. 4 and 5, and of ver. 8 with ver.
6
and 7. In verse 7th the yk retains its usual sense of "for"; al-
though,
from viewing the relation under another aspect, we may
use
"but", "God" stands opposed to the earthly powers in the
east,
&c. The church looks always above. He
brings down one: the
434 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Berleb.
Bible, "who is proud and fancies himself secure." But
setteth up another: "the
miserable": compare 1 Sam. ii. 7, "the
Lord
makes poor and makes rich, he brings down and lifts up."
The
Psalmist appears to have had the song of Hannah distinct-
ly
before his mind. The Lord will soon show that the decision
depends
on him, as he is just rising up to judge and to annihi-
late
the wicked, verse 8. On "the cup of the Lord" as an em-
blem
of judgment, compare at Ps. lx. 3. The j`sm is not
"mingling,"
but "mingled drink", or "wine with which roots
have
been mingled", (compare the exposition in Is. v. 22), by
which
its intoxicatiug power was increased; so that we can re-
fer
the xlm,
and also the rmH to the cup and not to the wine,
The
j`x
stands in its usual sense “only”: they sip only, that is,
there
is nothing else for them than to sip its dregs (the dregs of
the
cup—svk
is used with both masc. and femin.), or they must
sip
it out to the dregs.
Ver. 9 and 10.—Ver. 9. And I will declare for ever, I will
sing praise to the God
of Jacob.
Ver. 10. And I will cut off all
the horns of the wicked,
the horns of the righteous shall be exalt-
ed.—At "I will make known", in verse 9, the
object is to be
taken
from what goes before,—the judgment of
God.—I will cut
off,—through the grace of
God, and in the strength which God
grants
me. How little reason there is for supposing, that God
speaks
here again, is evident from comparing the fundamental
passage
in Petit. (see at verse 4), from which it appears at the
same
time, that the speaker here is not a single individual, but
the
people: compare also Num. xxiii. 22.
PSALM LXXVI.
THE Lord, who has glorified himself
among
deeds,
and has fixed his habitation at
might
of the conqueror of the world, ver. 1-3. This event is
celebrated
in the main division, ver. 4-10: the Lord is mightier
than
all the plunder-and-victory-thirsty kingdoms of the world;
this
has been manifested by the overthrow of the mighty ene-
mies
accomplished by his omnipotence, and by the rest procur-
ed
through his judgments to the wildly agitated earth. In the
conclusion,
ver. 11 and 12, the Psalmist grounds on this great
PSALM LXXVI. 435
event
an exhortation, to the faithful to thank God, and to the
heathen
to do homage to him by gifts.
The division of the Psalm into four
strophes of three verses
each
is inadmissible. Verse 10 cannot possibly be disjoined
from
the preceding verse, with which it is connected by a "for",
and
be bound up with what follows. The Selah at the end of
verse
9 is not decisive in favour of this assumption, which vio-
lates
the sense. It stands in reference to "the earth was afraid
and
became quiet", at the end of
verse 8: this rest of the earth
should
meet with an echo in the souls of believers. The Psalm
may
be much better divided into a main-body of seven verses,
an
introduction of three, and a conclusion of two: these latter
making
up five, the signature of a half. The arrangement is
the
same as that of Psalm lxxv., with this difference, that here
the
whole number is 12, while there it is 10 verses, and that
the
main-body here consists of 7, and there of 5 verses. It is
perhaps
not accidental, that the two Psalms, which are strictly
connected
together, contain between them, including the titles,
twenty-four
verses.
It is very extraordinary that
Koester should still maintain
that
it is not possible to learn from the Psalm itself the occasion
on
which it was composed. There are very satisfactory reasons
for
referring it, as the translators of the Septuagint and the
Vulgate
saw, to the Assyrian catastrophe. The preceding
Psalm
was composed in prospect of this, and the Psalm before
us
after its actual commencement.a
The same animated appearance and
courageous tone which
characterize
the prophecies and also the Psalms of the Assyrian
period,
(comp. besides, Ps. lxxv. especially Ps. xlvi.), meet us in
this
Psalm. It celebrates, according to verse 3, a mighty over-
throw
of the enemies, which put an end at once to the war.
This
overthrow took place, according to the same verse, before
compass
of sacred history, there occurs no other example of the
overthrow
of the enemy before
place
without any co-operation on the part of the people, and by
an
immediate exercise of divine omnipotence, ver. 3, 6, and 8.
God
has manifested himself as one who cuts off the breath of
a The relation of the two
Psalms was therefore correctly stated by Gurtler:
"it
tells that the divine judgment which was promised in Ps. lxxv. had been
executed
on the enemies of the church."
436 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
princes,
ver. 12 the enemies are not only driven away, they
are
put to death. The catastrophe is an event in the world's
history: all the meek of the
earth are delivered through the
judgment
of God, ver. 9, the tumultuous earth
is, in conse-
quence
of this, quieted, ver. 8, and God has manifested himself as
terrible
to the kings of the earth, ver. 12.
The exhortation to the
heathen
to honour God by presents, ver. 11, is in accordance
with
the narrative as given in 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, that they ac-
tually
did so in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian
army.
The title: To the Chief Musician, for stringed instruments, a
Psalm, of Asaph, a song
of praise,
is followed by the introduc-
tion,
ver. 1-3. Ver. 1. God is known in Judah,
in
his name great. Ver. 2. And his tabernacle was in
his habitation in
the bow, shield and
sword, and battle. Selah.—God's being
known
in
rich
fulness of deeds of omnipotence and grace, by which he has
made
himself known. If God was known and celebrated by his,
church
under the Old Testament dispensation, he is infinitely
more
so now under the New, for which there has been reserved
the
most glorious revelation of his power and grace. In
—which
at that time only existed in
of
all the ancient associations of the whole people. "His ta-
bernacle"
renders it evident that we cannot translate yhyv in
verse
2 by "it is": the, correct translation is: it was. The
sanctuary
could only be thus named, inasmuch as, at the begin-
ning,
on its being first placed on
of
a tabernacle or tent. The ancient name
of
which
sure
and peaceful place,
Balaam,"
page 20,—the peaceful possession), is used here to in-
dicate
that it is significant: wherever the Lord dwells, security
and
peace are there, compare Ps. xlvi. 4, 5.a The Hmw, verse 3,
a Much doubt has been
cast upon the identity of the
and
passage
before us. 2. The Jewish tradition, (Onkelos, Josephus). 3. Adon-
izedeck
= Melchisedeck, is called the king of
Joshua:
Jos. x. 3. In all probability, this was the standing name of the
kings.
of the Jebusites. In all the Old Testament, there is no such thing as a
PSALM LXXVI. VER. 1-3. 437
means
always "hence", never "there": compare the Christol.
P.
105, and Hävernick on Ez. xlviii. 35. This remark sets
aside
the futile attempts which have been made, on the suppo-
sition
of this false sense, to remove the catastrophe from the
neighbourhood
of
broken
in falling from it. In the same way
as in the remark-
!ably
similar passage Ps. xlvi. 9, "who makes wars to cease to
the
ends of the earth, bow breaks and spear cuts asunder, cha-
riot
with fire burns," there is here also an abbreviated compari-
son:
God has rendered the conquerors as helpless as if their
arrows
had been broken, &c. The Jwr means always
"flame."
The
flames of the bow, are the shining
glittering arrows: com-
pare
Job xxxix. 33, Nah, iii. 3, and Deut. xxxii. 41. It is evi-
dent
from Ps. xlvi. 9, that by hmHlm we are to understand
"war,"
and not "military equipage." In the whole verse, the
subject
treated of is not one single defeat, but a catastrophe
such
as the Assyrian, which put an end at one stroke to the
whole
war. The "battle", occurring at the end of the verse,
points
expressly to this, Arnd: "We have, here to learn the
gracious
deliverance granted by God from bodily enemies, how
he
breaks all the human earthly power which is turned against the
church.
For the power of the enemies is human, earthly, flesh-
ly,
but the power of the church is spiritual, divine, and heaven-
ly.
There contend and fight with each other, the spirit and the
xxx.
18: but a closer investigation shews that Mlw, is there used as an
ad-
ject.,—that
it is not "Jacob came to Salem,"
but, "Jacob came in safety,"
in
spite of the village Selim found by Robinson, P. III. p. 322, in the neigh-
bourhood
of
observed,
the first city in
return
from
ment
of the promise made to him on his departure from
land
of promise, Gen. xxxi. 3 and 13, and also of the earlier promise made, to
him
when he set out to
verse
corresponds to Mlw here.—The only reason against the identity of
formerly
been called Jebus, is of no weight. This name is no more ex-
clusive
of the name of
are
exclusive of
the
city, the name
logy,
however, of
whatever
with any thing that occurred in David's time, and the absence of
every
account, in the historical records of this time, which are peculiarly copi-
ous,
are all against this supposition.
438 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
flesh:
spiritual power, by faith and prayer; and earthly power,
by
the sword, the bow, and the spear. Thus fought Goliath
and
David, Hezekiah and Sennacherib, Jehosaphat and the
Moabites,
Asa and the thousands of the Moors, and thus from
the
beginning, the church has fought against all the power of
tyrants,
and will still continue to fight till the end of the world;
—yea,
the church gains the victory, and conquers through the
cross,
according to the beautiful figure of the 19th chapter of
Revelations,
where we read that ‘the Son of God rides upon a
white
horse, and that out of his mouth there goeth a sharp
sword,
and that there follows him a great army.'" Within the
spiritual
as well as in the external domain, the Lord reveals
himself,
as one who breaks the arrows of those, who are the
enemies
of his church and of his faithful ones.
Ver. 4-10.—Ver. 4. Thou art illustrious, more glorious than
the plunder-mountains. Ver. 5. The strong hearted have disap-
peared, they have sunk
into their sleep, and all the men of might
have not found their
hands.
Ver. 6. Before thy rebuke,. 0 God
of Jacob, both have sunk
into a sleep, chariot and horse. Ver. 7.
Thou art dreadful: and
who can stand before thee, since thine
anger? Ver. 8. Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from
heaven; the earth was
afraid and was still.
Ver. 9. When
God rose up to judgment
to deliver all the meek. Selah. Ver.
10.
For the wrath of man praises thee, and with
the remainder
of wrath thou girdest
thyself.—The
plunder-mountains of verse
4
is a figurative expression for powerful plundering nations,
conquering
kingdoms. On "the mountains", as a figurative
term
for "kingdoms", compare at Ps. lxv. 6, 16, and the
singularly
similar passage Ps. xlvi. 2, 3. The epithet "plun-
der"
is illustrated from Nah. ii. 11, where
"the
habitation of lions, and the feeding
place of the young
lions," iii. 1,
"the bloody city, from which the prey departeth
not,"
and from Song of Sol. iv. 8, where the high hills, the em-
blems
of the kingdom of the world, which the Bride is instruct-
ed
to leave, that she may turn to her Bridegroom the Lord, is
described
as "the habitation of lions, the abode of leopards."
vllvtwx, in verse 5, (the Aramaic form, Ewald, §
238), is gene-
rally
translated "they are robbed", "plundered": but this
sense
is scarcely suitable here, and the sense "to be plunder-
ed"
is inadmissible in the only other passage where the Hiph.
occurs,
Is. lix. 15. The sense demanded there, "to be made a
PSALM LXXVI. VER. 4-10. 439
prey
of," "to disappear," is the one which must be adopted in
this
passage also. Even llvw, in Job xii. 17, 19, is not "to be
plundered,"
but "to be made a prey of." The disappearance,
without
leaving a trace behind them, of the strong spirits, the
pretended
lords of the world, fits in well with the second clause.
The
sleep is the sleep of death: compare at Ps. xiii. 3, Jer. li.
39,
57, and particularly Nah. iii. 18, "thy shepherds slumber,
0
king of
"and
behold they were all dead corpses." The expression,
"they
found not their hand," is used in contempt of the strong
men,
who, when they wished to turn their hand against the holy
city,
could not find their hand:—death had deprived them of it.
The
Nm
in verse 6, is the Nm of cause.
The Mrrn is
the partic.
and.
expresses the condition. The
pretended "Latinism"
(Koester),
v-v, (et—et), "as well as," occurs in Num. ix, 14,
Dan.
viii .13, and in other passages. The chariots are as it were
cast
in a deep sleep when their rattling has ceased. Tholuck:
"The
poet describes the scene, as if we were walking along with
him
through the camp, which such a short while ago was so full
of
life, but is now silent as death."—The Zzxm in verse 7 has its
usual
sense: "since," "since thy anger," "as soon as thou
roast
angry." In verse 8, "the earth was still," is not "a poeti-
cal
expression for the gloomy silence of nature under the di-
vine
judgment," (Koester), but it denotes the cessation of the
wild
uproar of the earth, the termination of the war: compare
"the
people's roar," Ps. xlvi. 6, "who makes wars to cease to the
end
of the earth," verse 10, and here verse 3, Is. xiv. 7, "the
whole
earth is at rest and quiet," Jos. xiv. 15, and other passa-
ges.
The earth, as opposed to heaven,
comes into notice more
particularly
as regards the noisy uproarious part of it, which is
reduced
to eternal silence in consequence of what is spoken
from
heaven. The meek, in verse 9, are in
the first instance,
and
chiefly, to be found in
eye
also upon the heathen nations, who are classed along with
oppression.
This assumption of the heathen into the number
of
the meek is unusual, and is to be
explained from the relations
of
the times, which led to the prevalence of milder,
views. In
verse
10 the connection indicated by "for", (the "for" does
not
refer to what immediately precedes, but to the whole con-
tents
of the strophe,—it leads back to the fact, celebrated in it,
440 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of
the destruction of the enemies, as its basis), the parallelism,
and
the history prevent us from regarding the praise as the
free
will praise of God. The thought is one which is frequent-
ly
expressed in Scripture, viz.: that wickedness, even rebellion
against
God, must promote his glory, inasmuch as its punish-
ment
calls forth the manifestation of his godhead: compare Ex.
ix.
16, and Ez. xxxviii. 16, "I bring thee into my land, that the
heathen
may know me when I shall be satisfied in thee:" verse
23.
Rom. ix. 17. To gird one's self, is to arm, to prepare for
battle;
the girdle, is the war-girdle to which the sword was
fastened:
compare Ps. xlv. 3, 2 Kings iii. 21, 1 Kings xx. 11,
Judges
11. God girds himself with the remainder
of the
wrath directed against
him,
(we can only think of this, and
not
of the wrath of God, as the suffix is wanting), i. e. the wrath
of
the enemies must, even to its last remnant, (compare
Myrwm in Ps. lxxv. 8), serve him as a weapon
by which to
accomplish
their destruction.
Ver. 11 and 12.—Ver. 11. Vow and pay to the Lord your
God, all ye who are round
about him: Gifts may be brought to
him, the dreadful One. Ver. 12. For he cuts one the breath of
princes, he is terrible
to the kings of the earth.—In the first
clause
of verse 11, the address is to those who are members of
the
people of the covenant. This is evident from "the Lord
your
God", from the fundamental passage, Deut. xxiii. 21,
"when
thou makest a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not
be
slack to pay it," and, finally, from "all ye who are round
about
him";—nothing similar to this is ever used of the heathen,
but
of
midst of them, and in Num. ii. 2, we
read "they shall encamp
round
about the tabernacle of meeting." This last reason shows,
at
the same time, that several interpreters have very inconside-
rately
connected "all ye who are round about him", contrary to
the
accus. with the second clause. As vows are generally made
at
the time of trouble, and not after deliverance has been ob-
tained,
the "vow and pay," must be held as equivalent to "pay
what
you have vowed": compare Ewald, § 418:—the fundamen-
tal
passage Deut. xxiii. 22, also is in favour of this. The in-
definite
expression, "they bring", of the second clause, (compare
Ewald,
§ 551), receives its exact limitation from the fundamental
passage,
Ps. lxviii. 18, on which also, as was shown at it, Is.
xxiii.
7, depends. The words are to be considered, as if read
PSALM LXXVII. 441
with
marks of quotation. Probably, the reference to the hea-
then
is intended to be placed beyond a doubt by the yw, which
is
always used of gifts from strangers.
That the heathen
responded to the exhortation of
the Psalmist, is evident from
2
Chron. xxxii. 23, "and many brought gifts to the Lord to
tation:
for,
i. e. as the preceding event shews. The Hvr here is
the
breath of life, (compare Ps. civ.
29); and the idea of pride,
has
been adopted without any foundation. The rcb "to cut",
is
generally used of vine dressers,
(compare Rev. xiv. 18, 19);
and
the representation of the enemies, under the figure of
vine
dressers, occurs in der. xlix. 9.
PSALM LXXVII.
THE congregation of the Lord cries
to him in deep pain for
help,
and the recollection of what the Lord has done in times
past,
does not tend to ameliorate this pain, but rather tends
to
increase it, ver. 1-3, and ver. 4-6, leads to doubt as to
whether
7-9.
But faith soon rises in its strength, and leads on to re-
signation,
while it makes use of those events, as sure pledges of
deliverance,
in which, at first, doubt had sought its nourishment,
particularly
the deliverance from
the
As to its formal arrangement, the
Psalm is ruled by the num-
bers
three and seven. It has seven strophes, each of three
verses,
With the exception of the last, in which the incomplete-
ness
of the sense is represented by the absence of the third
verse.
This defect in the conclusion, is compensated at the be-
ginning,
by the title,—so that the whole number is 21. The
thrice
repeated Selah, which stands each time at the end of a
strophe,
corresponds to the number three of the verses. The
seven
in the strophes is, as usual, divided into a three and a four:
the
great turning point, the transition from trembling de-
spondency,
to the joy of faith, is in verse 10.
That the Psalmist speaks in name of
the people, is evident,
particularly
in ver. 5 and 6, (compare the exposition): still the
national
reference is designedly brought forward with very little
442 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
prominence,
in order that individuals may find here a fountain
of
consolation in their particular troubles.
As regards the occasion on which the Psalm was composed,
the
strong prominence given to the deliverance from
leads
to the conclusion, that the people at the time, were in a
condition
similar to that in which they were, at the commence-
ment
of their existence as a nation, that a second Egyptian
bondage
was either at the time in actual existence, or was at
the
very door. Several expositors have adopted the period of
the
Babylonish captivity. But there are decisive reasons
against
this. Our Psalm is related in such a striking manner to
the
3d chapter of Habakkuk, that the agreement can only be
explained
by the supposition that the one writer made use of
the
expressions of the other. Delitzsch on Hab. p. 119, et seq.
has
endeavoured at great length, to show that our Psalm is the
original
composition. Among his reasons, there are at least two,
the
validity of which cannot be denied; 1st. The 3d chap-
ter
of Hab. is throughout formed after the model of the Psalm-
poetry.
The supposition that the prophet made use of this
Psalm
in writing that chapter, accounts for this. 2nd. Habak-
kuk
describes a future deliverance in figures borrowed from a
past
one. It is very unlikely that the Psalmist, who is occupied
with
the deliverance that was past, would have described that
deliverance
in language borrowed from the prophetic descrip-
tion
of a deliverance yet to come.—Now, as Habakkuk undoubt-
edly
prophesied under Josiah, the Psalm before us could not
be
composed at a later period than that of this king. The con-
tents
do not authorize us to adopt a later date, as it appears
clearly,
that the lamentations of Habakkuk are equally deep and
painful.
The ten tribes had, by that time, been carried into
captivity,
a fact which, according to the indications of ver. 2 and
15,
formed the most aggravating cause of the Psalmist's pain;
and
the single remaining tribe of
ly
threatened with a storm from the north. Jeremiah, who ap-
peared
first under Josiah, proclaimed from the very commence-
ment
of his undertaking, that this tribe would presently be re-
moved
in a frightful manner, and the eyes of Habakkuk were
continually
directed towards this dark cloud. The comparison
with
Ps. lxxiv., shews how very different would have been the
tone
of lamentation, had the author already witnessed the de-
struction
of the city and temple, to which there is not, throughout
the
Psalm, the least reference.
PSALM LXXVII. VER. 1-3. 443
The
object of the Psalm is to instruct us, how we may obtain
consolation
and peace in the severest distresses, by plunging
into
the earlier manifestations of the grace of God.
In reference to the Title: to the Chief Musician on
Jeduthun, a Psalm of
Asaph,
compare at Ps. lxii.
Ver.
1-3.—Ver. 1. I will call upon God and
cry, I will call
upon God, and, do thou
attend to me.
Ver. 2. In the time of
my trouble, I call upon
the Lord, my hand during the night hangs
open without ceasing, my
soul will not be comforted. Ver. 3. I
will think upon God, and
cry, I will meditate, and any spirit is
sunk, Selah.—In ver. 1, after "cry",
also at "my voice," the word
supplied,
is not " is", but " may be." According to several expo-
sitors,
the fut., with the h of effort, here and in the following
clauses,
stands in the sense of what is usual; but there is no foun-
dation
whatever for this, and the great heaping up of these fu-
tures,
and the hrkzx
ver. 11, where manifestly this future has its
original
sense, are all against this assumption: compare the hrkzx
in
ver. 4 and 12. The Nyzxh, is the imperative: compare the
hnyzxh, in Ps.v. 1, xvii. 1, xxxix. 12. In the
first part, God is, ac-
cording
to the rule, spoken of, and in the second clause, the address
to
him first preponderates, after the Psalmist has again come nearer
to
him. Still it occurs also in ver. 4. The imperative has very ge-
nerally
the abbreviated form, lFeq;ha; still the form lyFqh does
occur,
Is. xliii. 8. Jer. xvii. 8. Ps. xciv. According to the common
view,
Nyzxh,
should be either the infin. used instead of the
future,—"he will hear"; or the Praeter. with
the Vau relat.--
and at that time he
attends to me:
compare Ewald, § 299. But
the
Psalmist would be anticipating himself
were he here ex-
pressing
the confident assurance of being heard. The deepest
complaint
goes on to ver. 9, and it is there that, for the first
time,
we meet the great turning point. This supposition is ad-
missible,
only if we consider the verse as an introduction, giving
a
view at one glance of the whole contents of the Psalm. But
this
will not do, as it forms an integral part of the first strophe.
—In
ver. 2, the Psalmist, as is manifest from the last words,
and
indeed from the whole connection, is not praising his own
zeal
in prayer, but depicting the depth of his pain. The hrgn,
does
not signify simply, "it is stretched out", but only "It is
open": compare 2 Sam.
xiv. 14, Lam. iii. 49. The stretched out,
weak and powerless hand, conveys the
picture of relaxation of
444 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
whole body. The gvp, to be
stiff, to be dead, (compare at
Ps.
xxxviii. 8), is here to rest: compare
Lam. ii. 18. The last
clause
alludes, as does also Jer. xxxi. 15, to Gen. xxxvii. 35,
where
it is said of Jacob, when he got intelligence of the death
of
Joseph, "that he refused to be comforted." On comparing
ver.
15, it is clear that the Psalmist had before his eyes, the
second
loss of his son Joseph which Jacob suffered, viz. the de-
struction
of the kingdom of the ten tribes.—According to ver.
3,
the Psalmist has resolved to give way to his remembrance of
God
and his salvation in times past, (compare Ps. xlii. 4, and
here
vers. 6, 11, 5), though he knows that this must aggravate,
still
more severely the pain which he feels from his present
trouble.
On hymhx
and hHywx,
compare at Ps. lv. 2, 16.
Ver. 4-6.—Ver. 4. Thou holdest firm through the night
watches my eyes, I am
terrified and cannot speak. Ver. 5. I
think upon the days of
old, the years of ancient times. Ver.
6.
I will think of my song in the night, I
will meditate in my
heart, and my spirit
must inquire.—The
condition of the
Psalmist,
as described in the 4th verse, is called forth by the
consideration
of the early conduct of God towards his people.
Thou holdest firm, namely, by thoughts
upon those things spoken
of
in ver. 3, 5, and 6. The common interpretation is: thou
holdest
the watches of my eyes, i. e. my eye-lids. But hrmw,
never
occurs in this sense, and the form is clearly against it.
We
must rather consider the word, (which only occurs in this
passage),
as having the same sense as yrmwx, night watches,
Ps.
lxiii. 6, which differs from it only by the x prosth. and
therefore
not essentially. Compare on the accus., as employed
in
marking a point of time, Ewald, § 309. The parallel passage
confirms
this exposition, Lam. ii. 19, "arise, cry out in the night,
in
the beginning of the watches, pour
out thine heart like water
before
the face of the Lord": compare here ver. 2. The appa-
rent
contradiction between "I cannot speak", and the beginning,
where
the Psalmist announces his intention to pour out his com-
plaint
in loud lamentations, is explained by Calvin in the single
remark,
"that sufferers do not continue long like themselves,
but
at one time break out in sighs and lamentations, and at an-
ther
time, are silent as if their throat were tied."—Arnd: "In
such
troubles a man is often quite powerless, so that he cannot
speak,
but only thinks upon God and hopes in him; thus his
thoughts
and his hope are instead of words; and God, who
PSALM LXXVII. VER. 4-9. 445
searches
the heart, knows what is the mind of the spirt."—In the
5th
verse, allusion is made to Deut. xxxii. 7.—The first clause
of
verse 6th resumes, "I will think on God", in verse 3d.
The
comparison of this verse, and verse 11th, shew the incorrect-
ness
of Koester's rendering: I will take hold of the comforting
harp.
The Psalmist is resolved to call to recollection the early
grace
of God, for the purpose of aggravating thereby his pain:
since,
from a comparison of the better past, the whole misery of
the
comfortless present, came before his mind. That "in the
night"
is to be connected with "my song", (not "I will think
during
the night"), is manifest from the parallel passages, Ps.
xlii.
8. (compare at this passage), Ps. xcii. 2, and especially Job
xxxv.
10. In the stillness of night, those who feared God, thanked
him
for his grace. The Psalmist is resolved to recall to his re-
collection,
this his thanksgiving, and with it, the gracious deeds
by
which it had been called forth. These gracious deeds are
those
which, in the second part, are described at length, as hav-
ing
been imparted to the whole people in former times. This
retrospect
of the past, gives occasion to the Psalmist to inquire
and
to ask the question, whether it be the case, that God has
now
completely rejected his people, whom, in former days, he
had
so richly favoured: he cannot think so,—the supposition
seems
incongruous,—yet facts are altogether in its favour. The
object
of the inquiry is, in this way, recorded in the third
strophe,
which should be preceded by a colon.
Ver. 7-9.—Ver. 7. Will then the Lord cast off for ever, and
manifest his grace no
more?
Ver. 8. Is his compassion at
an end for ever, and has
his word disappeared for all genera-
tions. Ver. 9. Has God forgotten to be gracious, or shut up
in
wrath his compassion.—The expression in ver.
8, "is his word
at
an end," is equivalent to, "will God never speak more, has he
withdrawn
his word altogether?" According to the connection,
the
matter referred to, is promises of assistance and deliverance,
of
which God had often, in times past, assured his people by the
prophets, as for example, at the
time of the Assyrian oppression.
The
complaint is expressed also in Ps. lxxiv. 9, that there is no
longer
any prophet, that there is no one who can tell the people
the
end of their sufferings. Calvin: "The answer to the ob-
jection,
that to those who are in possession of the law of God,
his
word can never fail, is that, from the weakness of the times
special
promises were necessary."—On tvnH iii ver. 9, the in,
446 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
finitive
of NnH,
compare Ewald, § 354. Has he forgotten to
be
gracious, he who has so
emphatically called himself in his word
gracious
and. compassionate, Ex. xxxiv. 6. compare Ps. ciii. 8.
The
Jxb
in his anger, = being angry, compare Ps. xxvii. 9,
lvi.
7.
The matter takes now another turn.
Out of those glorious
manifestations
of God in the past, which had hitherto tended to
nourish
doubt, as to whether
chosen
people, there arises at once the firm
belief that he does.
Ver.
10-12—Ver. 10. Then I said: it is my
sickness, the
years of the right hand
of the Most High.
Ver. 11. I make
known the deeds of God;
for I will recall to my mind thy won-
ders of old. Ver. 12. And I think upon all thy doing, and will
meditate upon thy works.—In verse 10 the
Psalmist expresses
his
resolution of quiet resignation, which could be adopted only
on
the basis of trust in God and of hope, and in verses 11 and
12
he points out what it was that had led him to adopt this re-
solution.
The two clauses of verse 10 are to be supplemented
from
each other. The hlH signifies always in Pi. to be weak,
to be sick: compare at Ps. xlv.
12. My sickness, is the sick-
ness
laid upon me by the Lord, who is expressly named in the
second
clause as its author, and which therefore must be borne
quietly
and patiently: compare Jeremiah x. 19, "Woe to me
because
of my wounds, my stroke is painful, but I said, this is
only
sickness, and I will bear it",
and "thou hast done it", in
Ps.
xxxix. 9. The years of the right hand of
the Most High,
are
in themselves only the years which the right hand of the
Most
High has brought in. Their more immediate limitation,
as
years of suffering, is got from the
first clause: compare 1
Peter
v. 6, where also "the mighty hand of God" is limited by
the
connection to be his punishing hand.
The tnw
is used in
the
5th verse in the sense of years. Those translations are to
be
rejected which take it as the infinitive of hnw: "a change
of
the right hand of the Most High", or "the right hand of the
Highest
can change every thing," (Luther), or "an alteration for
the
worse." The means by which the Psalmist reaches to this
elevation,
is the manifestation of the deeds of the Lord, verse 11,
and
he reaches to it by getting absorbed in his meditations on
these
deeds. The reading rykzx, which has external evidence
in
its favour, is demanded by the sense. The reading in the
margin
destroys the sense of the "for." The xlp stands in
PSALM LXXVII. VER. 13-15. 447
the
singular wherever a series of wonders is spoken of, and
points
out the whole taken together as one great wonder.
In ver. 13-15, the Psalmist begins
his announcement of the
deeds
of the Lord, and his meditation on them, and goes on in
the
same strain to the end of the Psalm. Ver. 13. 0 God, in
holiness is thy way,
where is there a God, who was great as
God? Ver. 14. Thou art the God who dost wonders, thou hast
made known thy power
among the nations.
Ver. 15. Thou hast
redeemed with power thy
people, the sons of Jacob and of Jo-
seph. Selah. The way of God, in the
13th verse, is his doing,
his
conduct. This is in holiness, rests
upon it, i. e. it is sacred
and
glorious: compare at Ps. xxii. 3. Many translate: in the
sanctuary, viz. the heavenly sanctuary, compare Hab. ii.
20,
"the
Lord is in his holy temple, all flesh is still before him,"
Ps.
xi. 4, xviii. 6, xxix. 9. But the fundamental passage is de-
cisive
against this, Ex. xv. 11, "who is like thee among the
gods,
0 Lord, who is like thee, glorious in holiness?"
wdq:
compare
"glorious in power", Hkb in verse 6. On the
second
clause,
besides the passage already quoted in Ex., Deut. iii. 24
must
be compared. Calvin: "He does not, by the comparison,
recognize
in the least the existence of other gods, but he throws
contempt
upon the foolishness of the world for not being more
careful
to cultivate the friendship of the One God, whose glory
is
so manifest." On "thou hast made known among the peo-
ple
thy power," verse 14th, compare Ex. ix. 16, xv. 14. In verse
15
the deliverance out of
greatest
and most wonderful of all the works of God, and hence
as
containing the strongest pledge of future deliverance. The
Psalmist
had this especially before his eyes in the 13th and
14th
verses, but from this verse to the end of the Psalm he
is
occupied with it exclusively. With the
arm, so that the arm
thereby
was brought into action, that is, with outstretched arm,
Ex.
vi. 6. The naming of Joseph next to Jacob stands in refe-
hence
to the ten tribes, whose head was Ephraim, descended from
lone
of the sons of Joseph, (compare Ps. lxxviii, 67, lxxx. 1),
and
shews how much the loss went to the Psalmist's heart, and
how
he saw in the history a pledge of its deliverance. On the
"Selah" the Berleb. Bible: "do
thou at the same time sink
into
the quiet and stilless of the soul, that depends on God,
and
be baptized, at the end, into the name of the Father, the
Son,
and the Holy Ghost,"
Ver. 16-18.—Ver. 16. The waters saw thee, 0 God, the
448 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
waters saw thee, they
were afraid, and the floods trembled vehe-
mently. Ver. 17. The clouds streamed water, the clouds caused
the thunder to be heard,
and their arrows went abroad. Ver. 18.
The voice of thy crash
whirled round, lightnings illuminated
the earth, the earth
moved and shook.—The
sea appears, in
verse
16, as the enemy of the people of the covenant, and at
the
sight of God fighting on their behalf, it is afraid and gives
up
its feeble opposition: compare Hab. 10. The Mrz, in
verse
17, Po., is to cause to stream, to cause to flow. The ar-
rows of God are the lightning: compare verse 18, Hab. iii.
11,
Ps.
xviii. 14, cxliv. 6. The description throughout is a poetical
one.
For the passage of
only,
and not the destruction of the Egyptians that is spoken of,
so
that Ex. xiv. 24 might be compared), did not take place dur-
ing
a storm. It was to them a source of encouragement
when
they
heard the thunder above them, and saw the lightning
around
them. In verse 18, "in a whirl" = "whirling," de-
notes
the rapidity with which the peals of thunder followed each
other:
compare Ez. x. 13, where the wheels, on account of their
rapid
movements, are said lglg. The word is never clearly
used
of a whirlwind: that it is not so
used in Ps, lxxxiii. 13, is
manifest
from the parallel passage Is. xvii. 13.
Ver. 19, 20.—Ver. 19. In the sea was thy way, and thy paths
in many waters, and thy
footsteps were not known. Ver. 20.
Thou didst lead like a
flock thy people, by Moses and Aaron.—
In
ver. 19, the Keri reading, jlybw, thy path, is merely a bad
correction
from the parallelism. The last words point to the
wonderful
circumstance, that the waters returned after the
Lord
had gone through with his people. Berleb: "were not
known
by the Egyptians, that they might walk in them. For
the
waters returned immediately to the place which they had
formerly
occupied as soon as the Israelites had crossed, and
thus
covered the Egyptians," Ex. xiv. 26-28. Several main-
tain
falsely that the words refer to the wonderful passage
ever
goes through the water leaves no trace behind. But the
Israelites
went through on dry land. Hab. iii. 15 is an imita-
tion
of this verse. On verse 20 compare Micah vi. 4. Arnd:
"We
have therefore here the consolation that God will lead us
out
of all our troubles, and that, though they be ever so great
and
deep, like the
trary
to all human reason and thoughts."
PSALM
LXXVIII. 449
PSALM
LXXVIII.
THE
Psalmist intimates in the beginning,
ver. 1-4, that his
object
is to make a practical use, for the instruction and warn-
ing
of the present, of the events of the time of Moses. In pro-
secution
of this object, he represents, first, ver. 5-8, the
destination of Israel: they should have been
guided into the
fear
of God by the deeds and the commandments of God, and
not
fallen into the bad manners of their forefathers in the
time
of Moses. He shews next, that
faithful to this destination: so
long as they continued under
the
guidance of Ephraim they forgot the deeds of God, and
violated
his commandments, ver. 9-11, and were in all respects
like
their forefathers, whose unbelief, hardness of heart, and
perversity,
in view of the glorious deeds of God, are described
at
length in ver. 12-10; they forgot unthankfully those glo-
rious
deeds of God by which he redeemed his people out of
they
provoked the Lord by their apostacy and rebellion, and
brought
down by this, his judgments upon them: he forsook
his
habitation in
hands
of the enemy, and his people to the sword, ver. 57-64.
Now
he has again taken compassion upon his people, and re-
ceived
then under his protection, but he has at the same time
transferred
the prerogative of Ephraim to
There is no formal arrangement
throughout the Psalm, and
there
are no strophes, unless we are to confound paragraphs
with
strophes. In a Psalm of such length, and especially in
one
of such a decidedly historical character, the absence of a
strict
formal arrangement, exactly corresponds with what is the
case
in similar Psalms; and therefore there is no necessity for
attempting,
with Koester, to force one. It is, however, not ac-
cidental
that the whole number of verses in the Psalm is 72-
6
times 12, the signature of the people of the covenant,—and
also
that the description of the great deeds of the Lord in ver.
43-55,
occupies 12 verses.
The general object of the Psalm is
to warn Israel, who had
escaped
the judgments of God, not to provoke a fresh judgment
450 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
by
a fresh apostacy. The conclusion, however, ver. 65-72,
indicates,
that besides this general object, the Psalmist designed
to
warn the Israelites against a special sin to which they were
peculiarly
liable from the circumstances of the times. The dan-
ger
was, that of not being willing to acquiesce in the divine
arrangement,
by which the prerogative of Ephraim was trans-
ferred
to Judah, of regarding that as a usurpation which was in
fact
a divine judgment, and of rebelling against the sanctuary
in
Zion and the dominion of David and his tribe.
The history renders it clear that
this object was both an im-
mediate
and a very important one. The numerous, powerful, and
haughty
tribe of Ephraim, had been in possession of precedency
during
the whole period of the Judges. The sanctuary in Shi-
loh
was in the heart of it. How very determined were its claims
for
precedency appeared from its objections to Gideon, Judges
viii.
1, and its opposition to Jepthah, Judges xii. 1.a It became
hence
a matter of great difficulty for this tribe to acquiesce in the
new
arrangement of things under David; and assuredly this
would
never have taken place, had not David been marked out
in
such a decided manner by God himself. For seven years
David
was king over Judah alone. The success of the rebellion
of
Absalom may assuredly be attributed, to a very great ex-
tent,
to the jealousy of Ephraim as its cause.b Similar conse-
quences
followed the insurrection of Sheba, who was supported
by
the whole of Israel, while the tribe of Judah remained faith-
ful
to its king, 2 Sam. xx. 2, Under David and Solomon, how-
ever,
participation in that national glory, the foundation of
which
was laid by these powerful kings, counterbalanced the
jealousy
of Ephraim, and thus broke the energy of that tribe;
just
as during the splendid career of Napoleon, the republicans
of
France remained quiet. But, after Solomon's death, it burst
out
into a violent flame; and the consequence of neglect-
ing
the warning of our Psalm, was the melancholy division
which
inflicted a death wound on the Israelitish nation.
a Compare the important
treatise of Verschuir, De AEmulatione
Isr. mutua.
b Compare Verschuir, p.
85: "It arose from the jealousy and envy of
the
tribes, who eagerly seized every occasion of attempting a revolution, and
of
rebelling, . . . . not so much for the purpose of placing the son on the
father's
throne, as with a view to take advantage of a state of confusion, for
the
purpose of finding out a way by which to tear the kingdom from Judah,
and
to free themselves from his yoke."
PSALM LXXVIII. 451
The method by which the Psalmist
seeks the accomplish-
ment
of his object, is by directing attention
to the events of the
time of Moses. These were peculiarly
well fitted, first, to bring
the
Israelites to a sense of their ingratitude, during the period
of
the Judges, and to fill them with righteous abhorrence of
their
former sins,—a state of mind which supplies the most
powerful
of all warnings against fresh transgressions. This
tendency
is particularly obvious in the second historical para-
graph,
ver. 42-55. And, second, to exhibit
this apostasy by
the
example of their fathers, and at the same time to open their
eyes
to the divine judgments, the perception of which formed
their
only security against fresh transgressions. This tendency
is
particularly predominant in the first historical paragraph, ver.
12-40.
In this paragraph the Psalmist holds up before the
people
the history, which had been written for the very pur-
pose
of promoting his present object, as a glass in which they
might
see their own face.
The assertion is altogether
unfounded, that the historical por-
tion
of the Psalm is only of secondary importance, and that the
author
acts contrary to his plan in going so much into detail.
The
introduction announces, almost in plain terms, that the pe-
culiar
object of the Psalm is to seek the good of the present
generation,
by directing attention to the events of the time of
Moses.
The assertion also is incorrect, that the author details
the
history of the Mosaic era and that of the Judges for warning.
It
is only the first of these periods that serves the author as a
torch,
(as it does to the author of the xcv. Psalm): the history of
the
Judges is the subject to be illustrated.
That the Psalm, which in the title
is called "An Instruction
of
Asaph," belonged to the age of David, and was therefore
composed
by the famous Asaph, cannot be
considered as doubt-
ful,
if we take a correct view of its contents. The last matters
of
fact on which the author touches, are the
which
by the fut. in ver. 72 is exhibited as still standing, and
the
settlement of the sanctuary on
the
people against a possible revolt from David and from the
sanctuary
in
the
Psalm after this event had taken place. He acts in the pro-
secution
of his object with such great tenderness,—not naming
expressly
even once the disruption which it is his purpose to pre-
vent,
and making no express mention whatever of any inclina-
452 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion
to this, which might exist at the time, but leaving his readers
to
make for themselves the practical application,—that it is ob-
vious
that he must have written at a time, when it was of im-
portance
not to irritate, for fear of increasing the dissatisfaction,
by
even supposing it to exist, and not to call forth the idea of
the
disruption, by naming it.
The passion for bringing down the
Psalms to the latest pos-
sible
date has been brought into exercise even in regard to this
Psalm.
To deny that the Psalm belongs to the time of David,
manifests
utter ignorance of its contents. Most of the recent
expositors
agree in the assumption, that it was composed after
the
captivity. De Wette, Ewald, and Koester,
consider it as
the
"product of religious hatred against the Samaritans," pro-
ceeding
on the assumption, which is contrary to history, that
the
Samaritans were the continuation of the kingdom of the ten
tribes:
compare against this the Beitr. P. II. p. 3, et seq.
llitzig
assigns the Psalm to the age of Antiochus, because it
warns
against a revolt, in utter ignorance
of the special object
of
the Psalm as dwelt upon in the concluding verses. The
69th
verse shews that it must have been composed before the
Chaldean
destruction. The Psalm is made use of in the book
of
Job: compare at ver. 64. It has been urged against the an-
tiquity
of the Psalm, that it rises very little above the style of
prose.
But Venema has correctly observed: "the style is plain
and
easy, such as a narrative of events requires."
If the Psalm undoubtedly belongs to
the age of David, it is
evident
that important results flow from it, bearing on the criti-
cism
of the Pentateuch. Those references to the Pentateuch,
and
that too as to the generally known and recognized book of
national
religion, by which all the Psalms of David's time are
pervaded,
occur here, in unusual numbers, and in a peculiarly
literal
manner,—a circumstance sufficiently accounted for by the
length
and character of the Psalm. Should any one be still dis-
posed
to maintain, that the Pentateuch in David's time did not
exist
in a complete state, and was not
generally acknowledged,
(which
last presupposes its composition by Moses), he will find
materials
enough in this Psalm to show him that such an opi-
nion
is utterly untenable.
The assertion has even been
hazarded, that our Psalm is to be
regarded
as a product of "the national animosity" and arro-
gance
of the Jews. The remarks made by Lange in the pre-
PSALM LXXVIII. VER.
1-4. 453
face
to P. L of the Life of Jesus, p. 10, with so much propriety
against
a similar hypothesis, which had been advanced in refe-
rence
to the New Testament, apply with equal force to this as-
sertion.
Men display very little knowledge of the Scriptures,
when
they attempt to discover in them the petty passions of
ordinary
life. Asaph, who was undoubtedly recognized by
Jewish
antiquity as a prophet among the psalmists, (2 Chron.
xxix.
30, Matt. xiii. 35), had indeed to say what was very un-
pleasant
to Ephraim; but in this he acted not as a Jewish parti-
zan,
(an idea quite out of place with him, who belonged not to
the
tribe of
God. The position which he
occupies was not one which he
had
assumed himself; he comes forward, as Jeremiah also did,
as
an interpreter of the deeds of God. That the accusation,
which
he brings against the Ephraimites, in the first instance,
and
also against the whole people, was a well founded one, is
rendered
sufficiently obvious by the division of the kingdom,
and
by the subsequent history of the ten tribes, who may be
considered
as represented here by Ephraim. The same vile
spirit
which, in that history, is conspicuous throughout,—Jero-
boam
was its representative,—was assuredly in existence during
the
period of the Judges, and, at the time when Ephraim was
the
ruling tribe, wrought consequences as disastrous to the
whole
nation, as it did at a later period to
with
this spirit in a very offensive manner on the two occasions
above
adverted to, in the history of the Judges.
The Introduction is ver. 1-4. The
Psalmist resolves to re-
count
the great deeds of the past, for the instruction and
warning
of the people of God, to transmit to posterity the in-
heritance
of their fathers, so urgently called for and needed at
the
present time.—Ver. 1. Receive my people
my law, incline
your ear to the words of
my mouth.
Ver. 2. I will open my
mouth with a similitude;
I will make known riddles from times
of old. Ver. 3. Which we have heard, and know, and our fa-
thers have told us. Ver. 4. We will not hold them back from
their children, making
known to the generation to come the praise
of the Lord, and his
wonders which he hath done.—hrvt, in
ver.
1, has never the sense of "doctrine," but always the sense
of
"the law"; and this sense is suitable here. The Psalmist
comes
forward as one who has authority: the "Seer," the
“Prophet,”
does not deliver well meant exhortations, which he
454 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
submits
to the judgment of his hearers, but laws,
which leave
no
choice between obedience and destruction: compare Is. i.
10.
"My people" indicates the love in which the effort of the
Psalmist
had originated. In reference to hfybx, in ver. 2,
properly,
"I will sputter out," compare at Ps. xix. 2; and on
lwm and tdyH at Ps. xlix. 4. The
Psalmist does not desig-
nate
as similitudes and riddles, his remarks which follow, mere-
ly
as such, but the historical events which his remarks expound
to
the people. This is evident from the expression "from
times
of old," and also from the 3d and 4th verses. These ap-
pellations
are founded on the fact that sacred history has, in
every
part of it, a concealed back ground of instruction,
that it is
a
prophecy turned in the contrary direction, to which through-
out
the maxim is applicable, mutato nomine de
to fabula narra-
tur, and upon which are
virtually written in legible characters the
words,
WHOSOEVER READETH, LET HIM UNDERSTAND: comp. Gal.
iv.
24, and particularly 1 Cor. x. 6. These appellations, moreover,
call
upon us to separate the kernel from the shell, and to press
out
the wine of instruction from the grapes of history. Mdq,
past time, is the common term
applied to the Mosaic period,
(compare
Ps. lxxiv. 2, lxxvii. 5, 11), and is to be taken here in
this
sense, and not as denoting the whole of antiquity. In the
quotation
in Matt. xiii. 34 and 35, the emphasis is laid on the
first
clause, "I will open my mouth in parables," and the Evan-
gelist
gives this part of the quotation literally from the Psalm.
A
prophet of the Old Testament, leaving the field of abstract
thought,
teaches in parables, which he clothes with flesh and
blood,
conveys instruction in the form of history, and thus
stamps
with his authority this method of instruction as one ad-
quate
to accomplish the end in view. In all this the Evangelist,
with
good reason, beholds a prophecy, that Christ, the true pro-
phet,
the best teacher, who must fully employ every adequate
means
of instruction, will avail himself also of this method. In the
second
clause Matthew allows himself greater liberty, and gives
rather
an application than a proper translation. In ver. 3 the
Psalmist
explains more precisely what it is that he means by
"similitudes"
and "riddles:" these are the universally known,
the
well accredited deeds of the Lord, which had been handed
down
from generation to generation. We are not, with most
expositors,
to connect this verse immediately with the 4th
verse:—the
similitude and the riddle are, when taken by them-
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 1-4. 455
selves,
somewhat obscure, and require explanation. The last
clause
also, "which our fathers have told us," serves as a pre-
paration
immediately for verse 4. Exodus x. 2 ought to be
compared: "that thou mayest tell in the ears of
thy son and of
thy
son's son what things I have wrought in
Sam.
vii. 22 and Ps. xliv. 1. Though the knowlege of the deeds
of
the Mosaic times is drawn from tradition, this is not exclu-
sive
of scripture. Even in the Pentateuch itself, oral tradition
is
mentioned (Deut. xxxii. 7), in reference to those very deeds
of
which it contains the full account; and in many passages we
meet
with pressing exhortations to be assiduous in continuing
the
stream of oral tradition. Scripture is the stay
and correc-
tive of oral tradition: it
does not supplant, it supplements it.
A
single glance renders it evident, that the Psalmist himself
drew
his account directly from Scripture, and not from oral
tradition.
But the Scripture would have been to him a shut
book,
with which he would not have known how to commence
any
thing, had he not been surrounded from his early youth
with
the atmosphere of tradition. Ver. 4 intimates that it is
the
sacred duty of the church, at all times, not to keep up in a
faithless
manner the property of tradition entrusted to her care
by
her forefathers, but faithfully to deliver it over to posterity,
and
thus justifies the attempt of the Psalmist, who sets about
the
discharge of this duty in the following part of the Psalm.
The
Psalmist does not say "our
children," but "their
child-
ren,"
although he meant the former. His object
is, to point
out
the duty of transmitting: what we have got from our fa-
thers,
we owe to our children, inasmuch as they did not hand it
to
us for our sakes only, but generally, for their children's.
tvlht properly praises, indicates the rich fulness of praise,
which
the Lord has acquired by his deeds. The "wonders" of
the
Lord form the centre point of the following representation.
The
Psalmist does not merely recount these: he represents also
the
position which the people, on the other hand, took up, and
points
out the disastrous consequences which resulted from
their
false position.
In the first paragraph we have the destination of
object
which God has appointed him to fulfil: God has given him
his
law, containing a summary of his deeds and ordinances, in
order
that, by the transmission of it to posterity, they might be
brought
to a living trust in God and to obedience to his command-
456 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
meats,
and might be preserved from the bad habits and the re-
bellious
conduct of their fathers in the wilderness. This, there-
fore,
was the problem proposed to
Judges.
Ver. 5. He erected a testimony in Jacob,
he laid down
a law in
their children. Ver. 6. In order that the generation to come
might learn it, the sons
who should still be born, and rise up
and relate it to their
children.
Ver. 7. And place their trust in
God, and not forget the
deeds of the Lord and keep his com-
mandments. Ver. 8. And might not be like their fathers, a re-
bellious and refractory
race, a generation which does not pre-
pare its heart, and does
not keep its spirit faithful to God.—
The
paragraph relates to those passages in the Pentateuch, in
which
the people are exhorted, faithfully to transmit the law to
their
posterity; for example Ex. xiii. 14, Deut. iv. 9, 23, vi. 6,
and
following verses. By the testimony
and the law in verse 5,
are
meant the whole contents of the Pentateuch, the direct
commandments
contained in it, and the deeds of the Lord.
which
are to be considered as indirect commandments: for all
the
deeds of God contain a kernel of instruction, of duty, and
of
warning; "I have done this for thee, what dost thou for
me?"
"be very thankful," to day, hear his voice, harden not
your
hearts, as at Meribah, as at Massah in the wilderness,
when
your fathers tempted me, saw and felt my works," &c.
That
we are to exclude neither these indirect, nor (with Steir)
the
direct commandments is evident, from the usus
loquendi,
("testimony"
and "law" must certainly denote the law usually
so
called), from those passages in the Pentateuch, in which the
exhortation
faithfully to transmit to posterity, refers at the same
time
to the deeds and to the commandments, and finally and
incontrovertibly,
from verses 7th, 10th, and 11th, where the
deeds
and the commandments are expressly mentioned as the
contents
of the law. The fathers are specially
the Israelites of
the
Mosaic period. By the teaching or
making known is meant
not
a mere external transmission, but one of such a kind as goes
from
heart to heart. The Berleb.: "And even to persevere in
teaching,
and to press it upon them with all earnestness."—In
ver.
6, the object to be taught and learned is the law and testi-
mony,
which God erected in Jacob and laid down in
The
generation to come is the Israelites
existing in the time of
the
Judges. At vmqy (Mvq, is not to arise,—of future time—but
PSALM LXXVIII. VER.
5-8. 457
to
rise up; God has erected, in ver. 5, therefore they should
rise up), the copula is
designedly omitted, for the purpose of
connecting
closely together and blending into one "the know-
ing"
and "the rising up": wherever, within the domain of
religion,
there is a true, a real knowledge, such as that spoken
of
in ver. 7, there, there is also preaching:
whatever fills the
heart
flows out at the lips; whatever a man feels to be of vital
importance,
he endeavours to set it before his family. The sub-
ject
in ver. 7 is "the following generation," the sons who
should
be born,
appears
as the second generation succeeding the Mosaic one,
which
is the first. We cannot make the sons and the grand-
sons
at the same time the subject. On the first clause the
Berleb.:
"The law which God erected in
of
love and truth. It requires nothing else, than that men
know
the blessings of God, that they be grateful to him for
these,
that they love him, that they depend upon him for his
bounties,
and that they surrender themselves to him without
reserve."
The fundamental passage is Deut. xxxi. 11, "Thou
shalt
read this law before all
they
may hear and learn, that they may fear the Lord your
God,
and observe carefully all the words of this law": compare
on
the last clause, Deut. iv. 40, xxxiii. 9.—In ver. 8th, the
fathers
are again the Israelites of the Mosaic time. The re-
proaches
which Moses uttered against his contemporaries are to
be
compared, Deut. ix. 6, 7, xxxi. 27. The rrvs, and hrm,
are
from Deut xxi. 18. The man who had a stiff-necked and
rebellious
son, as there spoken of, may be considered as an em-
blem
of God, in relation to
The
phrase vbl Nykh, cannot be interpreted by the Nvkn in ver.
37.
It does not mean, "to set right the heart," but "to pre-
pare
the heart": compare Sir. ii. 17, "they who feared the
Lord,
prepared their hearts," etoimasousi, xviii. 22. This is
clear
from
the want of "to the Lord," here, and in Job xi. 13, and
from
the construction with l, in 2 Chron. xx. 33. In 1 Sam.
vii.
3, the phrase signifies: to prepare the heart unto the Lord,
so
as to turn to him.
In ver. 9-11, we are told how far
the Israelites, during the pe-
riod
of the Judges, satisfied the positive destination pointed out
for
them according to ver. 5-7:—they acted contrary to the very
design
of their existence. They did the very opposite of what
458 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
they
ought to have clone,—they forsook, in a cowardly spirit,
the
duties assigned to them in war, they did not walk in the
commandments
of their God, and forgot shamefully his deeds
and
wonders. Ver. 9. The sons of Ephraim are
(cowardly)
bowmen, they turned back
in the day of battle.
Ver. 10. They
did not keep the
covenant of God, and would not walk in his
law. Ver. 11. And they forgot his deeds and his wonders
which
he let them see.—In ver. 9 the first
clause is to be supplemented
from
the second, which contains the ground of the comparison of
the
sons of Ephraim to bowmen: they are compared to bowmen,
because
they turned back in the day of battle, and therefore
they
could be nothing else than cowardly
bowmen. Those who
do
not supply in this way, suppose that bowmen are used figu-
ratively,
to denote those who turn their backs in battle and fly,
because
the practice of these troops is, when attacked, to fly,
and
in their flight to shoot at the enemy. But this feigned
flight
does not suit here. Others, with greater probability,
suppose
that the bowmen are named, because, from their light
armour,
they were better adapted for real
flight. But of such an
inclination
on the part of the bowmen to fly, there are no traces
whatever,
and it is not even clear that they were light armed
troops,
although Jahn asserts that they were, Archäol. 2. 2. p.
424.
The reason why they are named in this individualizing
way,
is undoubtedly because, among the Hebrews and the na-
tions
with whom they had to do, bowmen formed the
main body
of
the army: comp. Hos, i. 5, Ps. lxxvi. 3, Ez. xxxix. 3. That
the
Ephraimites are merely compared to
cowardly bowmen, and
that
it is only in a figurative sense that the Psalmist speaks of
their
flight in the day of battle, as indicating their apostacy in
the
day of their trial, appears from ver. 57th, where the Eph-
raimites,
who are here compared to the men, are
compared to
bows which will not do their
work, from the connection with
what
goes before, according to which we are led to expect here
a
description of the way in which
appointed
him by God, and with what follows, which, from this
point
forwards, speaks of the violation of the covenant by
The
sons of Ephraim do not stand here at
all in opposition to
the
rest of
during
the period of the Judges, the ruling tribe. This is evi-
dent
from the connection with ver. 5-8, where the Psalmist
speaks
of the whole of
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 9-11. 459
and
from the 41, 42, 56, and following verses, where what is
here
said of Ephraim is said of the whole of
as
day that the conduct of Ephraim and of the whole of
as
here described, belongs to the period of the Judges; and we
must
say, that that man understands nothing whatever of the
whole
connection and tendency of the Psalm, who finds here
the
apostacy of the ten tribes. The whole Psalm ends with the
government
of David. In. the 41st and following verses, the
Psalmist
speaks of the same apostacy of Ephraim or
the
59th and following verses, he is expressly spoken of as ex-
isting
in the time before the ark of the covenant was carried
away
by the Philistines; and this event, as well as the defeat,
the
rejection of
nifies
always "to be armed," and not, as Gesenius assumes, "to
stretch
the bow, contrary to 2 Chron. xvii. 17, and other pas-
sages,
and contrary to the sense of qw,ne. That twq
ymvr sig-
nifies
"bowmen," and nothing else, appears clear from Jer. iv.
29.
The armed of the bowmen, are "those of the bowmen who
are
armed," or "those men who are both armed and bowmen."
The
j`ph
in the sense of "to turn round," is from Judges xx. 39.
The
Berleb: "This representation is
given to us for instruction
and
reflection, that we may not grow weak in faith, and fall
away
in the time of battle. This is commonly the case with
those
who rely too much upon themselves, and have not unre-
servedly
surrendered themselves to God. They fancy them-
selves
strong, so long as there are no enemies before them, and
prepare
to fight them in imagination. But as soon as real ene-
mies
come within sight, they fly before them and become un-
faithful."—In
ver. 10 we have the opposite of the duty assigned
to
in
ver. 11 the opposite of the "not forgetting the deeds of God."
The
deeds and wonders of God are those done in
during
the sojourn in the wilderness. These had been seen by
the
fathers, as the representatives of the Israelites of all times.
This
is clear from the expression: which he let them see.
The opposition between what the
Israelites were, and what
they
ought to have been, is drawn in ver. 9-11, keeping in
view
the point at the conclusion of the paragraph which de-
scribes
the destination of
460 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
not
be like their fathers, a rebellious race. The design of the
Psalmist,
is not merely to refer, in short terms, to the manner in
which
they acted in reference to this point, but to enter into
detail,
according to his purpose as expressed in the introduc-
tion,
to hold up the glass of the fathers to the sons, in order that
they
might see in it their own image. He hence depicts, at
great
length, the way in which the fathers acted: the theme of
the
whole paragraph is: "the fathers were a rebellious and re-
fractory
race, a race who did not prepare their hearts, and
whose
spirits did not continue faithful to God." He next
shows,
in the 41st and following verses, that the Israelites, dur-
ing
the period of the Judges, were like their
fathers.
We are first told in ver. 12-16,
with a view to placing the
rebellious
and refractory conduct of the fathers in its true light,
what
God did to the fathers, how he allured them to love and
to
good works.—Ver. 12. Before their fathers
he did wonders,
in the
the sea and let them
pass through, he placed the waters as an
heap. Ver. 14. And he led them during the day by a cloud,
and
during the whole night, by
the light of fire.
Ver. 15. He clave
the rocks in the
wilderness, and let the waters flow down like a
stream.—The wonders of God follow each other in
historical or-
der.
There are first, in ver. 12, the wonders and the signs in
mist
intends, at a subsequent part, and in another connection,
(ver.
43-55), to take up the consideration of them at length.
Ver.
12 cannot be connected with ver. 8-11, as many would
do,
in their excessive zeal for a strophe formation, of which there
is
not here one single trace. For it does not at all contain a
general statement to be
developed in what follows, but it forms
part
of a description of particulars,
namely, the wonders in
wonders
during the sojourn in the wilderness. The clause "be-
fore
their fathers," which refers back to the 8th verse, is to be
considered
as if printed in Italics. Next to the
in
opposition to the sea and the wilderness, we have the plain
of Zoan, the country round the
ancient royal city
out
as the theatre of the great deeds of God. The author has
pointed
out, in his treatise on "
p.
41, that there is here expressly said, what is only alluded to
in
Num. xiii. 22. The xlp, stands collectively as at Ps. lvii. 12.
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 12-15. 461
--In
verse 13, there is the passage through the
a
heap", is from Ex. xv. 8, to which passage allusion is else-
where
made: compare at Ps. xxxiii. 7. The Psalmist reserves
the
Mylzvn,
in that passage, for ver. 16.—In ver. 15 and 16, the
sending
of the waters at Rephidim in Ex, xvii. 6, and at Kadesh
in
Num. xx., are joined together. That we must not, through
excessive
historical caution, (as in what follows, deeds are re-
ferred
to which happened before the second of these events), re-
fer
the allusion merely to the first, is evident from the plural,
Myrc, and from the undoubted quotation of the first
half of the
16th
verse, from Num. xx. 8. The agreement is verbal, with
this
exception, that instead of the prosaic word Mym, which is
there
used, we have here Mylzvn: compare at ver. 13. Ver. 15th
refers
to both occasions, and verse 16, to the second as the
greater.
This is evident from the fls, which, in the Pentateuch,
is
used only of the second occasion, because it was only then
that
water came from the rock. In Ex. the word
rvc
is always
used:
compare the Beitr. III. p. 379. This, as the general term,
(compare
on rvc,
properly not a rock, but a stone, at Ps. xviii.
2),
might be used in the plural, and applied to both occasions.
He
"clave," refers back, in the first instance, to, "he
clave,"
in
ver. 13th, but, at the same time, in connection with this first
cleaving
in grace, it directs attention to its
opposition, that
cleaving in wrath, in the days of old, of which
we read in Gen.
vii.
11, "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up":
compare
similar allusions to the history of the deluge in Ps.
xxix.
10, xxxii. 6. It is only from the allusion to this passage,
that
we can explain how the great flood
should send forth water,
(as
if it had something to do on the occasion), which at a former
time,
at the deluge, sent forth its waters for the destruction of
the
sinful world. We require only to see this allusion, to aban-
don
the idea that hbr, contrary to the accusative, may be con-
sidered
as an adverb: richly. The plural tvmvht denotes
the
flood in an absolute sense, the mundane sea, and is used in
the
same way as Behemoth, Chokmoth, Ps.
lxxiii. 22. As in
reality
there is only one flood meant, the adjective stands in the
singular
number: compare Ewald, § 569. Berleb: "should
they
not now have drunk with the mouth of faith, and praised
the
great work of God."
There follows in ver. 17-20, the
rebellious and refractory
conduct,
with which
462 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
went on still to sin
against him, and rebelled against the Most
High in the wilderness. Ver. 18. And they tempted God in
their heart, to ask meat
for their souls.
Ver. 19. And they
spoke against God, they
said: will God be able to provide a
table in the wilderness? Ver. 20. Behold he has struck the rock,
so that waters gushed
out, and the streams overflowed, will he
be able also to give
bread, or will he prepare flesh for his people?
—"They
went on," in ver. 17, refers in reality to Ex. xvii. 2,
where
an account is given of the sinful and refractory conduct
of
the Israelites, previous to the first sending of water, when
they
said, " Is the Lord in the midst of us or not?" (Ven. sicut
jam
antea potus causa, ita et deinceps mox propter cibum), and
also
to Ex. ix. 34, where the very same
expression is used of
Pharaoh,
the personification of obstinacy and rebellion. The
expression,
"they rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness,"
(properly
"in a dry land," with reference to what is before re-
corded
as to God sending them a supply of water), refers to the
fundamental passage, Deut. ix. 7: compare ver. 24, xxxi. 27.
The
hrmh
here, and in ver. 40, occurs frequently in the
Pentateuch.
The construction with the accusative, which oc-
curs
also there occasionally, Deut. i. 26, 43, ix. 23, is to be ex-
plained
from a modification of the sense:—with the preposition
it
is, "to act rebelliously towards," with the accusative "to
treat."—The
tempting of God in ver. 18, consists
in this, that
they
unbelievingly and insolently demanded,
instead of expect-
ing
in the exercise of faith, and supplicating. They wished to
put
God to the proof, with a view to renounce him altogether,
in
case he should not give them what they wanted, whereas
they
ought to have been firmly convinced, long before, that he
was
both able and willing to give, and that he would give in
due
time: compare Ex. xvii. 7, Deut. vi. 6, where the tempting
of
God by
in
the midst of us or not?" that is, "we shall now see and try,
it
will be shewn whether he is so." God has a right to try man,
because
man is a being of ambiguous and uncertain character:
but
man cannot try God without being guilty of great offence,
and
injurious conduct; God says, that we try him when we
doubt
whether he is God or not. "In their hearts," points to
the
evil fountain of the heart, from which the words of the mouth
proceed,
(compare Matth. xii. 35), and serves also to aggravate the
offence.
Man is always disposed to separate the mouth from the
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 17-20. 463
heart,
and to claim immunity for the latter: compare Math. xii.
37.
The emphasis lies on "they demanded,"
not on "for their
soul."
The wpn
denotes the animal, the food-craving soul,
(comp.
Rom. xi. 6, Deut. xii. 20), and not the desire for what is
necessary.
The sin lay not in what in they desired, but in the
way
and manner in which they desired it. What follows, shews
that
the Psalmist connects together a double demand and
temptation,
the one recorded in Ex. xvi. and the other in Num.
xi.
The first one was followed by the sending of manna, and
preceded
the first giving of water; but the Psalmist, with poe-
tical
freedom, has wrought together into one figure, the two oc-
casions
on which bread was given, as he formerly did with the
water.
It was enough, that the more aggravated temptation,
and
the more remarkable sending of food, happened later.—The
19th
verse contains in substance exactly what the Israelites
really
said, and the 20th verse gives rather what they would
have
said had they spoken honestly and sincerely, with a view
to
exhibit clearly the unjustifiable nature of their conduct. It
is
characteristic of unbelief, to remain wilfully in ignorance of
what
God has previously done to exhibit his godhead; and it
therefore
acts towards him as if he had revealed himself for the
first
time. But when this cloak is removed, it stands in its en-
tire
nakedness. The MHl, is not food,
but bread, compare Ex.
xvi.
3, 12; the manna was given them as bread, ver. 25, the
quails
as flesh, ver. 27.
In ver. 21-31, we are told how God
acted towards the re-
bellious
and refractory generation: his wrath burned against it;
he
gave them what they desired, bread and flesh, and in this
way
made them ashamed of their unbelieving wicked doubts,
and
thus manifested his real godhead, but after this happen-
ed,
there followed severe punishment. Ver. 21. Therefore,
when the Lord heard it
he was angry, and a fire was kindled
against Jacob, and wrath
rose up against
cause they believed not
in God, and trusted not in his salvation.
Ver.
23. And he commanded the clouds above,
and opened the
doors of heaven. Ver. 24. And rained upon them manna to
eat, and gave them the
corn of heaven.
Ver. 25. Every one ate
the food of the strong,
he sent them provisions to the full. Ver.
26.
He caused the east wind in heaven to
blow, and brought for-
ward by his power the
south wind.
Ver. 27. And rained upon
them flesh as dust, and
feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
464 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver.
28. And let them fall in the midst of the
camp round about
their habitations. Ver. 29. And they ate and were fully satis-
fied, and he gratified
their appetite.
Ver. 30. They were yet in-
dulging their appetite,
the food was still in their mouth. Ver.
31.
Then the wrath of God rose up against
them, and he slew
the fat ones among them,
and struck down the young of
—"The
Lord heard and was angry," in ver. 21, signifies "when
the
Lord heard, he was angry:" comp. Num. xi. 1. The fire is
not
a literal fire, as many imagine from an unseasonable com-
parison
of Num. xi., where there is a narrative of an event
which
has no connection whatever with the passage before us,
but
the fire of divine wrath: comp. at
Ps. xviii. 7. This is most
manifest
from the repetition in ver. 31, where it is only divine
wrath
that is spoken of, (it is also named here in the way of ex-
planation
in the third clause), and where its manifestations are
likewise
described as in Num. xi. The germ of this figurative re-
presentation
occurs in Num. xi.: compare ver. 10, "and the
anger
of the Lord was kindled
greatly," and ver. 33, "the an-
ger
of the Lord burned against his
people." The qwn is not,
as
Hävernick on Ez. p. 615, supposes, "to prepare," but "to
kindle;"
were it not so, why, should the verb be always used in
connection
with fire? The hlf is used of ascending wrath in
2
Sam. xi. 20. On ver. 22 compare James i. 6, 7, "let him
pray
in faith, nothing doubting Jet not such a man
think
that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." But when,
as
in the present instance, a man receives any thing for the gra-
tification
of those desires by which he has tempted God, he re-
ceives
it in wrath, which could not happen
to faith in the divine
mercy.
On "they believed not," compare Num. xiv. 11; on
"in
his salvation," Ex. xiv. 13, xv. 2. There is a reference in
"he
opened the doors of heaven" to "the windows of heaven
were
opened," in the history of the deluge, Gen. vii. 17, in the
same
way as in ver. 15. On ver. 24, compare
Ex. xvi. 4, "be-
hold
I rain bread from heaven for you." On "corn from heaven,"
Berleb.:
"instead of the fruit, from which, in ordinary cases,
men
are accustomed to prepare meal and bread." On the
manna,
see the author's treatise on Balaam. Ex. xvi. 6 renders
it
evident that by wyx is meant "every man." The term
"to
satisfaction",
in the second clause, which in like manner refers
to
the rich supply of provisions, corresponds to it. By "the
strong
ones," many, after the example of the Septuagint, the
PSALM LXXVIII. VER.
21-31. 465
Chaldee,
and the Book of Wisdom xvi. 20, (for it is beyond a
doubt
that the expression a]gge<lwn trofh>n e]yw<misaj
ton lao<n sou
re-
fers
to the passage before us), understand "angels," and others
"men
of rank,"—"bread of the nobles," "rare, costly food:"
compare
Judges v. 25, "in a lordly dish." Against this latter
idea,
it is urged, that the passages which have been adduced
for
the purpose of shewing that rybx, strong, is also used of
princes
and nobles, are not satisfactory. In Job xxiv. 22, xxxiv.
20,
Ps. lxviii. 30, the sense of "strong" is demanded by the
connection,
In 1 Sam. xxi. 7, Doeg is called "the strong (one)
of
the herdmen," not at all as being the principal one among
them.
Decisive evidence as to the contrary of this is furnished
by
ch. xxii. 9, where he holds a military office,
in all probabili-
ty,
however, as the commander of the troops who were entrust-
ed
with the care of the royal cattle:—the
strong guardian or
patron of the herdmen. On the other hand, the
entirely analo-
gical
expression in Ps. ciii. 20, "the powerful heroes," shews
that
Myrybx
is a very suitable term for referring to angels. We
are
not, however, to adopt the idea of "meat serving for the
nourishment
of angels,"—such a strange representation as this
lies
without the field of Scripture; the Psalmist, moreover, gives
nothing
new in reference to the history of the times of old; he
merely
clothes in a poetical dress the account given by Moses,
—but
of "meat from the region of the
angels," corresponding
to
the bread or the corn of heaven in the Pentateuch, and in
verse
24. This is the idea adopted in the Chaldee: "food
which
came from the habitation of the angels." The most com-
plete
collection of the translations which have been given of
this
passage, is to be found in Jac. Ode, de Angelis, p. 799, et
seq.,
though he does not himself consider that this passage re-
fers
to angels. "He sent them provisions" refers to Ex. xii.
39,
"they had provided no provisions." The fbwl is from
Ex.
xvi. 3.—The murmuring Israelites had desired not only
bread, but flesh, according to ver. 20. The 26 and
following
verses
describe how this was given to them. "He caused the
east
wind to blow in heaven," rests on Num. xi. 31, "and there
went
forth a wind from the Lord"; from which passage it is
clear
that "the heaven" is introduced as the habitation of God,
corresponding
to "from the Lord", and being parallel to "by
his
power." In the fundamental passage it is only the wind in
general
that is spoken of; we have here the east wind and the
466 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
south
wind. The Berleb.: "Both of these are winds which by
their
strength carry along with them every thing that comes in
their
way; and were therefore employed to collect and carry
forward
the fowls." It is self-evident that the Psalmist does
not
understand the two winds as blowing together, but in suc-
cession. On ver. 27 compare Ex. xvi. 3, Num. xi. 31, 32. The
rFmy assimilates the quails to the manna. On
"he let fall in
the
midst of his camp," in ver. 28, (the suffix is to be referred to
byks, Num. xi. 31.—The expression, "they were
fully satisfied"
in
ver. 27, shows that their wish was gratified not only complete-
ly,
but to excess: compare Num. xi,
18-20. The hvxt, lust,
is
from Num. xi. 4. In preference to, "he gave them what
they
wanted," we may, on account of what follows, translate, "he
brought
to them (Job xlii. 11, 1 Kings ix. 9,) the object of their
lust,"
or "the thing for which they lusted."—On ver. 30 com-
pare
Num. xi. 33, "the flesh was still between their teeth, it
had
not yet been finished," trky xl. Corresponding to this
last
expression we have, "they were not parted from their
lust,"—
rvz is
"to turn back," "to be removed," "to be
estranged
from." Hence, and also in accordance with the pa-
rallelism,
hvxt
cannot here mean "lust," (several: still they
did
not go against their passion), but only "the object of lust."
This
translation also is the only one that corresponds to the
history.
The depopulating sickness originated even with the
loathing
and the surfeiting. Even while their wish was being
gratified,
their punishment was preparing: compare Num. xi. 20
with
ver 33. The otherwise strange expression vrz has been in-
troduced
from the allusion to Num. xi. 20, "and it was loath-
some,"
xrzl,
properly, "for estrangement",—outwardly they
were
not separated, but inwardly they were all the more
so.
On ver. 31, compare Num. xi. 33, "and the wrath
of
Jehovah burned against the people, and the Lord smote the
people
with a very great plague." Among those who were
struck
down "the fat ones," (compare Is. x. 16, Judges
iii.
29, Ps. cv. 15), and "the young," are singled out and
brought
prominently forward, as the healthiest and the strong-
est,
who, in spite of their health and strength, were unable to
resist
the power of the depopulating disease which God sent
among
the people. The grH with b, is "to strangle
among."
But the Israelites, in the days of
old, fully manifested them-
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 32-40. 467
selves
to be a rebellious and a refractory generation, in that
they
were not, even by those severe visitations, brought to a
right
state of mind, but continued still to persevere in sinning
against
God. They were therefore visited with an annihilating
divine
judgment. They turned to God when this lay immediate-
ly
upon them, but their repentance never was any thing else than
superficial.
It was thus that they acted towards their God, who
was
full of compassion and love. Truly, therefore,
the
days of old, was a refractory and a rebellious generation:--
this
it was the immediate design of the Psalmist to shew.—Ver.
32.
With all this they sinned yet more, and
believed not for his
wondrous works. Ver. 33. Therefore he caused their days to be
consumed in vanity, and
their years in terror.
Ver. 34. When
he slew them, they
inquired after him and returned and sought
God. Ver. 35. And remembered that God was their rock, and
God the Most High their
Redeemer.
Ver. 30. And they dissem-
bled to him with their
mouth, and they lied to him with their
tongue. Ver. 37. And their heart was not firm with him, and
they were not steadfast
in his covenant.
Ver. 38. And he is
compassionate, forgives
their iniquities, and destroys them not,
and often turns away his
wrath and awakens not all his zeal.
Ver.
39. And he remembered that they were
flesh, a breath which
passes away without
returning.
Ver. 40. How often did they
rebel in the wilderness,
and vex him in the desert?—It is evi-
dent
from Num. xiv. 11, and also from the following verse, that
"they
sinned yet more," in ver. 32, refers to the conduct of
the
Israelites after the return of the spies. The correct trans-
lation
of the following clause is not, "they believed in his won-
derful
works," but "they believed (God, comp. ver. 22) through
his
wonderful works." This is evident from the fundamental
passage,
Num. xiv. 11, "And the Lord said to Moses, how long
will
this people provoke me, and how long will it be ere they
believe
me for all the signs which I have shewed among them?"
—Ver.
33 refers to the condition into which the Israelites were
brought
in consequence of the divine judgments subsequent to
the
sending out of the spies. The vanity
denotes the useless
character
of their existence, and the entire state of helplessness
into
which they were brought. The terror
refers to the extra-
ordinary
tokens of divine wrath which broke in upon them, and
by
which they were hurried off the earth: compare, "when he
slew
them," in the following verse and in Ps. lxxiii. 19.—The
438 THE BOOK OP PSALMS.
expression,
"when he slew them," in ver. 34, refers to the.-
judgments
from the sending out of the spies till the death of
Moses,
beyond which it is not possible to go, throughout this
description,
without destroying the entire organism of the
Psalm.
On ver. 36, Berleb.: "What a large book might be
written
on the similarity, in this respect, of the people in our
own
day! The seats of repentance might speak here!"--In re-
ference
to Nvkn,
in ver. 7, compare at Ps. li. 10. In ver. 38-
and
39, with a view to place the conduct of
light,
prominence is given to the truth, that they acted in this
way
towards their God, who was full of compassion and love.
Ver.
38 is thrown into a very general form, but the general af-
firmations
are made with a special application, as the inserted
preter.
hbrh
shews, to case en hand: and he is,
according to
the proof afforded by
his conduct at this time, compassionate, &c.
Allusion
is made to the fundamental passage Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7;--
instead
of rpk
there stands there xWn, and instead of tyHwh
as
in Deut. iv. 31, there is there Hqn. Berleb.: "He
destroy-
ed
them not altogether and suddenly; he did not direct
against
them any judgments which would have destroyed them
utterly,
so as to requite them in his wrath all at once, as he had
often
threatened to Moses that he would do," Ex. xxxii. 10,
Num.
xiv. 12, xvi. 21. On ver 39, compare "er kennt das arm
Gemilchte,
Gott Weiss wir
Nun
lob, meine Seele, den Herrn. The suffering and the
brevity
of this life, form a reason why God does not act
altogether
strictly with us: compare Ps. ciii. 14-16. On
the
second clause, compare the dependant passage in Job x.
24,
"Ere I go without return (to the upper world), to the land
of
darkness and of the shadow of death."
The Psalmist, in considering the
conduct of the Israelites
during
the period of the Judges, with a view to the exhortation,
"be
ye not like your fathers," having exhibited a picture of
this
rebellious and refractory race, now proceeds, in prosecution
of
his object, to shew the similarity of the Israelites during the
period
of the Judges. After a short notice, in ver. 41 and 42,
there
follows, in ver. 43-45, with a view to exhibit their guilt
in
its true light, a representation of the grace and the mercies
by
which God had laid them under obligations, no less than he
had
their fathers at an earlier period.—Ver. 41. And they
tempted God anew, and
dishonoured the Holy One of
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 41-55. 469
Ver.
42, They did not remember his hand, on
the day when he
redeemed them from the
enemy.
Ver. 43. Who laid down his
signs in
He turned their rivers
into blood, and they drank not their water.
Ver.
45. He sent against them vermin, which
devoured them,
and frogs which
destroyed them.
Ver. 46. He gave to the cater-
pillar their increase,
and their labour to the locust. Ver. 47.
He destroyed their vines
by hail, and their sycamore trees by
frost. Ver. 48. He gave up their cattle to the hail, and
their
flocks to the flames. Ver. 49. He sent against them the fierceness
of his wrath, anger and
indignation and trouble, a host of afflic-
tion-angels. Ver. 50. He made a way for his wrath, he spared
not their soul from
death, and gave their life over to the pesti-
lence. Ver. 51. And
slew all the first born in
of their strength in the
tents of Ham.
Ver. 52. Then he caused
his people to go forth
like sheep, and led them like a flock in the
wilderness. Ver. 53. And he led them on sqfely, and they feared
not, but the sea covered
their enemies.
Ver. 54. And he brought
them to his holy
boundary, the mountain which his right hand
had procured. Ver. 55. And he drove out before them the hea-
then, and caused them to
fall to them as an inheritance, and the
tribes of
from
the expression standing in opposition, in the 40th verse,
"in
the wilderness," from the circumstance, that in the enume-
ration
of the wonderful deeds of God, the introduction to the land
of
those
here referred to are distinguished from the fathers in
the
wilderness. The temptation followed
here, according to-
ver.
56, where the subject is resumed, in consequence of their
apostacy
to idol worship, by which they put God to the proof,
whether
he would indeed demonstrate his true godhead.
There
is no necessity whatever for endeavouring to seek the
uncertain
aid of the cognate dialects in interpreting hvth. It
occurs
in Ez. ix. 4, undoubtedly in the sense of, "to set a mark
upon":
and in like manner, in the Pib. in 1 Sam. xxi. 14, Num.
xxxiv.
7, 8, The mark, according to the
connection, is one of
disgrace, just as the Latin word
notare, is used in the sense of
dishonour,
to disgrace. This sense accords well with the ap-
pellation
given to God, "The Holy One of Israel:" compare
at
Ps. lxxi, 22. To cast reproach upon such a God, the Holy
470 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and
the Glorious One, is the height of iniquity.—On "his hand."
in
verse 42, i. e. "how his hand manifested itself at that time,"
comp.
Ex. vii. 5, xiii. 9. On "the enemy," Deut. vii. 8. In refe-
rence
to the paragraph, ver. 43-45, which the 42nd verse in-
troduces,
Venema remarks: "The design of this paragraph
is,
in the way of parenthesis, to exhibit in the most aggra-
vated
form the crime of tempting God, as conjoined with
that
of extreme ingratitude."—Ver. 43 is connected with
verse
12. The signs, and the wonderful deeds of God,
which
were there shortly referred to, as exhibiting the depravi-
ty
of the fathers, are here depicted at length, in illustration of
the
depravity of the sons, for whose sakes, as well as their
fathers',
these were brought to pass, and who were, equally with
them,
laid under the deepest obligations. The fundamental
passage,
to which also Ps. cv. 27 refers, is Ex. X. 1, 2, "I have
hardened
his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might
lay down these my signs before him,
and that thou mayest tell
to
thy son, and to thy grandson, what I have done in
and
my signs which I have laid down before them."—The
enumeration
of the wonders and signs begins with the first, and
ends
with the last; in the middle, however, the Psalmist speaks
with
considerable latitude.—In ver. 44, the first of the wonders
wrought,
or the first plague, was the turning of
the water into
blood. The Myrxy
is from Ex.
vii. 19, (compare Egypt. p. 119),
and
denotes here in a wider sense, the arms
and the canals of the
The
second clause refers to Ex. vii. 18, 20.—The gnats are al-
together
omitted; the third and the fourth plague are inverted
in
ver. 45. On Arob, properly mixture, dirt, then flies, com-
pare
Eg. p. 114. The expression, "and they consumed them",
is
not at all againt this sense. Philo, in describing the dog-flies
of
selves
with blood and flesh," Schäfer in Mich. Suppl. "it gorges
itself
with blood, and makes bloody boils, severe pains." The
tyHwh, is from Ex. viii. 20, where it is used
of the vermin,
here
mixed up in one pair with the frogs.—On lysH, in ver. 26,
originally
an appellative of the locust, 1 Kings 37, and after-
wards
poetically a name given to them, (lsH is used in Deut.
xxviii.
38, of "the feeding of the locusts"), compare Chris. III. p.
157.—The
vine is particularly mentioned in the
Mosaic record,
as
it is here in the 47th verse, and in Ps. cv. 33, in connection
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 41-55. 471
with
the devastation produced by hail. The "blunder against
history"
recoils upon the head of the critic, who brings such an
accusation
against the Psalmist. Compare the proof that in
the
vine was cultivated, and wine made from the earliest times,
world
is described, and after that, in ver. 48, the ruin that fell
upon
the cattle, and thus by gradual ascent, man himself is
reached,
vet 49-51. The second clause refers to the fire
among
the hail, which is expressly mentioned in Ex. ix. 23,
24:
compare also Ps. cv. 32,
always
flame, never lightning: although in this passage, it is
certainly
the fire of heaven, or lightning, that is meant. This
observation
also sets aside the miserable conjecture, rbd,
pestilence, for drb.—Ver. 49-51, refer
singly and alone to the
last
and the severest plague, the death of the first born in
as
is seen from the manifest reference to it in ver. 49. The
three
days' darkness, as well as the gnats and the destruction of
the
cattle, are passed over wholly in silence. In the first half
of
ver. 49th, the accumulation of terms, signifying divine wrath,
is
designed to set forth the dreadful nature of this last judgment,
which
is mentioned for the first time in plain language, at the
end
of the whole description in verse 57. In the second clause,
Myfr is to be taken in the sense of mala, as for example, at
Prov.
xii. 12, the genitive in the object.: compare Hvm ykxlm,
in
Prov. xvi. 14. The fundamental passage is Ex. xii. 13, 23,
according
to which, the death of the first born in
to
have been accomplished by the destroyer,
tyHwmH:
pare
Heb. xi. 28. It is doubtful whether the tyHwm is used in
Exod.,
collectively, for an army of destroying angels, as in Lam.
xiii.
17, or denotes merely the angel of the Lord appointed to
execute
vengeance, a sense which is favoured by 2 Sam. xxiv.
16.
In this latter case, the Psalmist must be supposed to point
expressly,
only to the retinue by which the
"Captain of the
Lord's
host," as the Angel of the Lord is called in Jos. v. 15,
would,
as a matter of course, on such an occasion be attended:
—the
commander goes forth to battle, only at the head of his
army.
The translation, "an host of evil
angels," might, if
necessary,
be justified grammatically,--angels who
belong to the
class of evil angels. But the reference to
the passage above
quoted
in Exod., where no mention whatever is made of evil
angels,
and where the destroyer appears as in intimate com-
472 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
mullion
with God,—the analogy of the judgment of God upon the
Assyrians,
which was effected by the Angel of the Lord, 2 Kings
xix.
34, and the whole doctrine of Scripture, on the subject of
angels,
are altogether against it:—Jac. Ode, de Angelis, p. 741, et
seq.,
skews that God sends good angels to
punish wicked men, and
employs bad angels to
chastise good men.
The idea, however,
that
"bad" stands instead of "evil bringing," is undoubtedly
contrary
to the language. It is better to translate: angels of
the
wicked, i. e. sent to punish them.—In ver. 50, the rbd re-
quires
attention. In the account, as given in Exod, there is
nothing
expressly said, as to the death of the first born being
occasioned
by pestilence. Still, chapter ix. 15,
and the natural
analogies,
lead to this: compare
51st
verse, "the beginning of their strength", a poetical expres-
sion
for "the first born", is taken from Jacob's blessing, Gen.
xlix.
3; as it is also in Deut. xlix. 3.
of
Ham, in reference to Gen. x. 6, according to which, the
Egyptians
descended from Ham.—In ver. 52, "he made his
people
to go forth," is from Ex. xii. 37: compare xv. 22. The
wilderness
began on this side the
the
guidance of the Israelites through it, which in ver. 53 is
brought
prominently forward, as the point from which their
being
guided like a flock is viewed, forms a portion of their
guidance
through the wilderness.--In "they were not afraid", it
is
not the faith of the Israelites, according to the connection,
that
is praised, but the grace of God, which removed from them
all
cause of fear. The second clause renders it evident, that
the
Psalmist's thoughts are chiefly dwelling upon the pas-
sage
through the
safety
of the Israelites, and the destruction of the enemies, are
both
connected together.—In ver. 54,
next
after the holy land, as the centre of it, and as representing
it.
Although this mountain was not brought under the power
of
the Israelites till the time of David, it is viewed, as if from
the
beginning it had formed part of the land. It had already
been
hallowed, by a transaction which occurred in patriarchal
times,
Gen. xxii. (compare the Beitr. p. 195), and in the dim
obscurity
of prophecy, it had been pointed out, as the spiritual
centre
in future times of the land, Ex. xv. 13, 17. The verse
before
us is founded on this last passage. These fundamental
passages,
especially the concluding clause of the second, "to
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 56-64. 473
the
sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy hands have prepared," exclude
a
reference, which. several expositors have sought to find to the
called
"this goodly mountain." Ewald's idea that
referred
to, is set aside by the considerations, that it would have
been
utterly inconsistent with the object which the Psalmist
had
in view, to have given prominence to
of
the sanctuary, (compare Ps. lxxiv. 2, lxviii. 16), and finally,
from
the circumstance, that the ruins of
upon
a little hill, which is overshadowed by the mountains in
its
neighbourhood, Robinson, III. 1, p. 303.—That in ver, 55, we
must
interpret, "he caused them, (i. e. their territory), to fall
as
an inheritance," (the lbH is properly the measuring-line,
and
not unfrequently, the portion of land
measured, compare
at
Ps. xvi. 6), is evident from the fundamental passage, Num.
xxxiv.
2, "this is the land which has fallen to you as an inhe-
ritance,"
hlHnb,
and from the parallel passage, Ps. cv. 11.
In ver. 56-64, the representation of
the rebelliousness of the
Israelites
is continued during the period of the Judges, and at-
tention
is directed to the divine judgments which overtook
them,
as they had overtaken their fathers in a former age, after
they
failed in fulfilling the appointment which had been made
to
them, not to insult God as their fathers had done. Ver. 56.
And they tempted and
grieved God the Most High, and did not
observe his testimonies. Ver. 57. And turned back and were
faithless, they changed
like a deceitful bow.
Ver. 58. And en-
raged him by their high
places, and provoked him by their idols.
Ver.
59. When God heard, he was angry, and
cast
Ver.
60. And forsook the habitation of
which he erected among
men.
Ver. 61. And gave up his strength
to captivity, and his
glory into the hand of the enemy. Ver. 62.
And gave over his people
to the sword, and was wroth against his
inheritance. Ver. 63. The fire consumed their young men, and
their maidens were not
celebrated. Ver.
64. Their priests fell
by the sword, and their
widows did not weep.—On
ver. 56-58,
compare
Judges ii. 7, and following verses.a Ver. 56 refers to
a Venema: "The
prophet having brought to a close this parenthetical re-
view
of the judgments of God, upon the enemies, and of the benefits conferred
on
474 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Deut.
vi. 16 and 17: "Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God,
as
ye tempted him at Massah: they observed not the command-
ments
of the Lord and his testimonies."—"As
their fathers," in
ver.
57, points back to ver. 8. "They changed," in contrast to
what
they should have been and had been, indicates an inci-
pient
change of conduct for the better:
compare Judges ii. 7.--
A
deceitful bow, is one which disappoints
the trust placed in it,
just
as streams which, in summer, when they are most needed,
become
dry, are said to be deceitful and
faithless, Is. lviii. 11,
Job
vi. 15. The Israelites, instead of being compared to cow-
ardly
soldiers, as they are in ver. 9, are here compared to use-
less
weapons. Hos. vii. 16, "they are like a deceitful bow,"
depends
on our passage. The syfkh, in ver. 58, is from Deut.
xxxii.
21, and the xynqh from Deut. xxxii. 16, 21: comp. Ex.
xx.
5.—Ver. 59 is intentionally the same as ver. 21:--they were
faithless
like their fathers, and therefore there is repeated upon
them
the punishment of their fathers.
nation, as at ver. 55. It is
against them, and not against the
ten
tribes only, that the charge of apostacy is brought, ver. 56
—58,
it was upon them that the punishments described in the
following
verses fell, from the forsaking of the sanctuary in
from
which all
ver.
60 Calvin: "It is a most impressive expression, that God
should
have been offended by the constant transgressions of his
people,
so as to be constrained to forsake the only place which
he
had selected upon earth." The holy tabernacle was at
Beitr.
p. 52, et seq. That God did forsake his sanctuary
in
that place, so that it became like a dead
carcass without a
soul,
was visibly demonstrated to all men, by the catastrophe
described
in the following verses, and more especially when the
ark
of the covenant actually came into the hands of the Philis-
tines.
The men of those days were informed, by facts which took
place
before their eyes, that God would never again dwell in
length,
upon the statement which had been briefly made in ver. 41, as to the
temptation
and rebellion of the people." On this, we would observe, that the
word,
"parenthetical", must be either removed, or at least, explained and
modified.
Compare the introduction.
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 56-64 475
place,
and the holy tabernacle was removed from it, first to
Nob,
1 Sam. xxi. 2, and subsequently, after the destruction of
that
city by Saul, to
sents
this catastrophe, as a declaration made by God in deeds,
that
he would not again dwell at
warning
the people not to substitute a blind confidence in the
temple,
in room of true repentance, he says: "Go to my place
at
and
see what I have done to it, on account of the wickedness of
my
people
not
at all refer to a destruction of the place by enemies, of
which
the history knows nothing, but to a desolation of it, fol-
lowing
in consequence of the removal of the sanctuary, which
in
reality proceeded not from man, but from God. The mat-
ter,
however, did not end with this removal. The sanctuary
was,
and continued to be a corpse, until it rose in a glorified
form
on
true
sanctuary passed directly from Shiloh to
III.
48. Nkw
signifies in Pih. to make, or to cause to
dwell,
(compare
Deut. xii. 11, and other passages), and never to dwell.
Luther
falsely: when he dwelt among men. "To cause to
dwell"
is applied to the sanctuary in Jos. xviii. 1, "And the
whole
congregation of the children of
ther
at
of
the Pih.) the tabernacle of meeting:" compare ch. xxii. 19.
The
erection of the holy tabernacle was only in a lower sense,
that
is, as far as its boards, &c. are concerned, the work of men,
who
even here wrought under the direction of God. As far as
regards
its substance, the sanctuary was singly and alone, the
work
of God, who, in fulfilment of his promise, "I will dwell in
the
midst of you," Ex, xxv. 8, breathed into the body the living
soul,
and caused his name to dwell there, Deut. xii. 11. The
church
is, in, spite of all builders and carpenters, always
built
only by the Lord. It is only in consequence of not
adopting
this spiritual sense, that some expositors have felt them-
selves
obliged to have recourse to the violent assumption of a
double
ellipsis:—the tabernacle (where) he
caused (his name)
to dwell among men. Compare Ez. xi. where
the substance
of
the tabernacle, the Shechinah, went back into heaven. The
words
call down a woe upon the wickedness of the people,
476 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
by
which they rendered themselves unworthy, and robbed
themselves,
of such a glorious privilege.—In ver. 61, the ark of
the
covenant is called the strength of
God, (zf
has only this
sense),
because it was the pledge of the manifestation of divine
power
on behalf of
tain,
so that, in consequence of the loss of it, they were given
up
as a helpless prey to their enemies: compare Ps. cxxxii. 8,
1
Sam. iv. 3, and the Beitr. III.-p. 54.. In like manner, the ark
of
the covenant is called the ornament of God, as the place of
manifestation
of his glory. As such, the ark of the covenant is call-
ed
also the honour or the glory of
Luther,
after the example of the Septuagint and the Vulgate,
falsely
refers the suffix in this passage.—Ver. 62 refers more
particularly
to the great slaughter by the Philistines, in which
thirty
thousand Israelites perished, 1 Sam. iv. 10.—In ver. 63,
the
fire is the fire of battle: compare
Num. xxi. 28. Instead
of, they were celebrated or praised, Luther has: they must re-
main unmarried. The praises of the
bride used to be cele-
brated
on the day of her marriage. Now, that the young then
are
slain, the voices of the bridegroom and of the bride are
alike
hushed in silence.—The first clause of verse 64 refers to
the
death of the sons of Eli, 1 Sam. iv. 11, 17. The weeping is
the
solemn mourning: compare Gen. xxiii.
2. This presup-
poses
the presence of the dead body, and takes place at the in-
terment.
Compare Jer. xxii. 18, where it is said of Jehoiakim:
"They
shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, Ah,
Lord,
he shall be buried with the burial of an ass." It is clear
as
day, that our passage is the original one, and that Job xxvii.
15,
"where his widows weep not," occurs word for word, is the
copy.
The singular affix, as there used, where it is the ungodly
that
is spoken of, has a strange appearance as applied to an
ideal
person; and this strange appearance is assuredly of itself
sufficient
to indicate the original.
Now the Lord has again received his
people into favour, but,
in
the exercise of his sovereign authority, he has at the same
time
made a change in regard to internal arrangements; and
woe
to the man who will not acquiesce in these appointments!
Ver.
65-72.—Ver. 65. Then the Lord awaked like
one sleep-
ing, like a warrior rejoicing
with wine.
Ver. 66. And he struck
back his enemies, he
gave them an eternal reproach. Ver. 67.
477 PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 65-72.
But he rejected the
tents of Joseph, and selected not the tribe of
Ephraim. Ver. 68. And selected the tribe of
his sanctuary, like the
earth which he has founded for ever.
Ver.
70. And he selected David his servant,
and took him from
the flocks of sheep. Ver. 71. He brought him from the suckling
sheep, that he might
feed Jacob his people, and
tance. Ver. 72. And he fed them with upright heart, and
guided
them, with skilful hands. In the song of Moses,
it is said to be
the
way of God, that he first punishes the sins of his people,
and
then delivers them out of the oppressive power of the in-
struments
of his punishment. The Psalmist announces, in ver.
65
and 66, that God, on this occasion also, adopted this me-
thod.
These verses refer to the prosperous events which hap-
pened
under Samuel, Saul, and David, the commencement of
which
is related in. 1 Sam. v. The Nnvrtm is not to be derived
from
the imaginary root, Nfr, to
overpower, Hiph. to be over-
powered, which would furnish an
incongruous (for a man recover-
ing
from intoxication does not rejoice) and an ignoble figure,
such
as is never employed in Scripture, but from the very com-
mon
root Nnr,
to rejoice, to shout for joy:—a
warrior rejoicing
with
wine, one who has increased by wine the strength and cou-
rage
which always belong to him: compare Ps. civ. 16. It has
been
erroneously said, that this does not suit with the "awak-
ing."
There might be some force in this objection, were the
expression,
instead of "like one sleeping," "from his sleep,"
which,
in Judges xvi. 14, 20, is used of Samson. "To awake,"
however,
is used in a figurative sense, and denotes the return
from
repose to action.--On ver. 66 Luther, instead of "back,"
has,
"on the back parts," with reference to 1 Sam. v. 9. But
rvHx, in such connections, always signifies "back,"
although
sometimes
it has the sense of "behind," and, at the most, there
is
an allusion to that circumstance and double sense. The
eternal shame is in accordance
with the history. The Philistines
went
downward step by step, till they disappeared from the
scene
altogether. The expression, "and he rejected," refers
back
to ver. 59; the rejection of all Israel had come to an end,
but
the rejection of the house of Joseph, and specially of the
tribe
of Ephraim, who held the sceptre of that house, still re-
mained.
This rejection is limited by the connection. It did
478 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
not
relate to their forming part of the Lord's people. This
privilege
Ephraim at that time retained in all its integrity: and
even
at a later period, when he had actually apostatized, it was
not
wholly withdrawn; as the sending of the prophets from time
to
time made manifest. It relates singly and alone to the pre-
cedency,
which was transferred to
lost
this. In ver. 48, the Psalmist says in general, that the
Lord
had selected
notice
as invested with a twofold excellence;--it is the seat of
the
sanctuary and of the Israelitish monarchy. And in ver. 69—
72,
both of the prerogatives, imparted to
tioned
separately; the sanctuary in ver. 69, and the monarchy in
ver.
70-72.—The first clause of ver. 69
refers to the glory and,
spiritual excellence of the sanctuary on
Zion; and the second to
its
unchangeableness, in opposition to
removed:—it
is high as the mountains, firm as the earth, and
therefore
it presents an impenetrable bulwark against every at-
tempt
which might be made to remove it. Mymr, high,
not
heights, is a poetical
expression for high mountains. To the
eye
of faith, the sanctuary in
ed
externally an insignificant appearance, seemed to rise like a
mighty
giant to heaven. Against the translation, "like heaven's
height,"
we may urge, that Mr is the common term applied to
a
mountain, (comp. for example, the hmr, in so many of the
proper
names of high-lying places), while it is never
applied to
heaven,
and that the sanctuary on
heaven,
but frequently to high hills,—comp. Ps lxviii. 15, 16, and
the
passages quoted there. On the second clause, comp. Psalm
lxviii.
16, "the Lord shall dwell there for ever," and Psalm
cxxxii.
14, "this is my rest for ever." The Psalmist has no anti-
cipation
of an impending destruction of the temple, foretold as
it
was by the oldest of the prophets. Still, this is not absolutely
excluded
by the expression, "for ever." For even the eternity
of
the earth is not absolute, according to the doctrine of the Old
Testament:
comp. Ps. eii. 27.—The call of David from the con-
dition
of a shepherd, ver. 70, 71, indicates "the pious and pru-
dent
shepherd-concern of the chosen king." (Steir): Who is
the
man that would rebel against such a king, graciously granted
by
God, instead of rendering him thanks! "It is for this reason
also,
that mention is made of the suckling sheep, because, in at
PSALM LXXVIII. VER, 65-72. 479
tending
to these, the faithfulness of the shepherd is most con-
spicuously
seen:" comp. Is. xl. 11, and for the whole, 2 Sam.
vii.
8, "I have taken thee from the sheep-cote, from following
the
sheep, to feed my people
with
b,
is "to tend," or, "to perform the duties of a shepherd
among the sheep."—Stier:
“Serve therefore this king whom
God
has given you with faithfulness, come together under his
shepherd's
rod to the sanctuary of
your
fathers:"—this is the concluding fundamental tone of the
whole
Psalm.
END OF
VOL. II.
J. THOMSON, PRINTER,
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report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt:
ted.hildebrandt@gordon.edu