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THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 
 
BOOK OF PSALMS. 
 
 A NEW TRANSLATION. 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 
 FOR ENGLISH READERS. 
 
 J. J. STEWART PEROWNE, D.D., 
 
 EE.^N OF PETERBOROUGH. 
 
 FIFTH EDITION' 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS. 
 CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 
 1884 
 \All Rights Reserved.} 
 
LONDON" : 
 
 '.. CLAT, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL, E.G. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In deference to the suggestions which he has received 
 from many quarters, the Author has consented to the 
 publication of a popular Edition of his work on the 
 Psalms. The great bulk of the critical matter contained 
 in the original work has been omitted in this ; but in 
 other respects little change has been made either in the 
 text or in the notes. It is hoped that in its present 
 form the book may be more accessible to many English 
 readers, and that it will help to the more accurate 
 understanding of this most important portion of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 A. M. P. 
 
 CambridgEj December 6, 1876- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PACJP 
 
 POETRY OF THE HEBREWS I — 4 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS 5— g 
 
 THE PSALMS. 
 BOOK I. 
 
 PSALMS L — XLI 13 — 159 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 PSALMS XLII. — LXXII 163 — 323 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 PSALMS LXXIII.— LXXXIX 327— 441 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 PSALMS XC. — CVI 445—524 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 PSALMS CVII.-— CL 527—687 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 POETRY OF THE HEBREWS. 
 
 The Poetry of the Hebrews is mainly of two kinds, lyrical and 
 didactic. They have no epic, and no drama. Dramatic elements 
 are to be found in many of their odes, and the book of Job and 
 the Song of Songs have sometimes been called divine dramas ; 
 but dramatic poetry, in the proper sense of that term, was 
 altogether unknown to the Israelites. The remains of their lyric 
 poetry which have been preserved — with one marked exception, 
 the lament of David over Saul and Jonathan — are almost entirely 
 of a religious character, and were designed chiefly to be set to 
 music, and to be sung in the public services of the sanctuary. 
 The earliest specimen of purely lyrical poetry which we possess, is 
 the Song of Moses on the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. 
 It is the worthy expression of a nation's joy at being delivered, by 
 the outstretched arm of Jehovah, from the hand of their oppres- 
 sors. It is the grandest ode to liberty which was ever sung : and 
 it is this, because its homage is rendered, not to some ideal spirit 
 of liberty deified by a people in the moment of that passionate 
 and frantic joy which follows the successful assertion of their 
 independence, but because it is a thanksgiving to Him who is 
 the one only Giver of victory and of freedom. Both in form snd 
 
 B 
 
2 JNTR OD UCTION. 
 
 spirit it possesses the same characteristics which stamp all the 
 later Hebrew poetry. Although without any regular strophical 
 division, it has the chorus, " Sing ye to Jehovah, for He hath 
 triumphed gloriously,'' &c. It was sung evidently in antiphonal 
 measure, chorus answering to chorus and voice to voice ; it was 
 sung accompanied by dancing, and to the music of the maidens 
 playing upon the timbrels. Such is its fprm. In its spirit, it is 
 like all the national songs of the people, a hymn sung to the glory 
 of Jehovah. No word celebrates the prowess of the armies of 
 Israel or of their leaders. " Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is 
 become glorious in power; Thy right hand, O Jehovah, hath 
 dashed in pieces the enemy.'' Thus it commemorates that 
 wonderful victory, and thus it became the pattern after which 
 all later odes of victory were written. The people from whom 
 such poetry could spring, at so early a period of their history, 
 could not have been the rude ignorant horde which some writers 
 delight to represent them ; they must have made large use of 
 Egyptian culture, and in these respects, in poetry and music, 
 must have far surpassed their Egyptian masters. 
 
 Some fragments of poetry belong to the narrative of the 
 wanderings in the wilderness (see Numbers vi. 24, 26, and xxi. 
 17, 18). One grand relic of that tim"e has been preserved to us. 
 The 90th Psalm is "the Prayer of Moses, the man of God," 
 written evidently towards the close of the forty years' wandering 
 in the desert. As we might expect, the stormy period which 
 followed the first occupation of Canaan was not favourable to 
 poetry : but there is one song of that time which breathes all 
 the glow of fervent patriotism and genuine poetic inspiration — 
 the stirring Ode of the prophetess Deborah. 
 
 But the great era of lyric poetry begins with David. Gifted 
 with the highest inspiration of a poet, and finely skilled in 
 the minstrel's art, he stands foremost in the goodly company 
 of Hebrew bards. His solitary life in early youth, tending 
 his father's flock amidst the picturesque scenery and lonely 
 
POETRY OF THE HEBREWS. 3 
 
 mountains of Judea, fostered his natural taste, whilst constant and 
 loving intercourse with his God elevated and ennobled it. We 
 may see in his early poems, in all its freshness and originality, 
 that intense love of nature and nature's God which in after years, 
 amid all the trying vicissitudes of his life, ripened into the strong 
 love of the man for all that is true and pure, and hatred of 
 all deceit and impurity, combined with an almost childlike 
 simplicity of faith and trust in God. 
 
 As we might expect, so great a poet had many imitators. His 
 chief musicians, fired with their royal master's poetic fervour, 
 composed psalms almost equal to those of David himself. 
 
 Under Solomon, religious poetry does not seem to have 
 flourished. The age of poetry yielded to the wisdom of the 
 Mashal, the proverb or parable. Solomon is said to have written 
 a thousand and five songs (i Kings iv. 32), but only two psalms, 
 the 72nd and 127th, bear his name in the Hebrew titles, and it 
 is doubtful whether he was the writer of either of them. Two 
 other of the poetical books are ascribed to him, the Song of 
 Songs and Ecclesiastes. The first of these is a graceful and 
 highly-finished idyll, but Ecclesiastes is not a poem ; it is the 
 record of a long struggle with the perplexities, the doubts, the 
 misgivings which must beset a man of large experience and 
 large wisdom, who tries to read the riddle of the world before 
 his heart has been chastened by submission, and his spirit 
 elevated by trust in God. 
 
 From the days of Solomon till the Captivity, the cultivation 
 of lyric poetry languished amongst the Hebrews, with two 
 memorable exceptions. These were in the reigns of Jehoshaphat 
 and Hezekiah. Hezekiah, who has been termed the Pisistratus 
 of the Hebrew history, established a society of learned men 
 (Prov. XXV. i), whose duty it was to provide for the collection and 
 preservation of all the scattered remains of the earlier literature. 
 The arrangement of some portion at least of the present Psalter, 
 it may reasonably be supposed, was completed under theii 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 superintendence. Smaller separate collections were combined 
 into one ; and this was enriched partly by the discovery of older 
 hymns and songs, and partly by the addition of new. 
 
 Hezekiah himself encouraged the taste for this kind of poetry 
 by his own example. One plaintive strain of his, written on his 
 recovery from sickness, has been preserved in the Book of the 
 ~ Prophet Isaiah (chap, xxxviii.). In his reign were written a 
 number of beautiful poems by the Korahite singers (see Psalms 
 xlii. to xlix.). From this time till the return from the Captivity, 
 comparatively few Psalms were written, though in one sense 
 we may call the prophets psalmists. Jonah (chap, ii.), Isaiah 
 (chap, xii.), Habakkuk (chap, iii.), were all lyric poets. Two 
 Psalms (xxxi., Ixxi.) have been supposed by eminent critics to 
 have been written by Jeremiah. Some Psalms were written even 
 in Babylon itself (see Psalms Ixxiv., Ixxix., cii.), and many more 
 after the return from the Exile. We may therefore pronounce 
 that the Psalms belong as a whole, not to many, but chiefly 
 to two or three periods of Jewish history — to the age of David, 
 to that of Hezekiah, to the return from the Babylonish Captivity. 
 One portion of the Psalms belonging to the latter period (cxiii. — 
 cxviii.), the " Hall61," was sung at the great festivals in the 
 Second Temple, at the Passover, at Pentecost, at the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, and also at the Feast of Dedication and at the New 
 Moons. This was, doubtless, " the hymn " which our Lord and 
 His apostles are said to have sung at His last solemn Passover 
 before He suffered. One more question remains. Are any of 
 the Psalms later than the time of Ezra or Nehemiah? There 
 is no certain ground for concluding that the Psalter was closed 
 under Nehemiah, and there is no reason, so far as the history of 
 the Canon is concerned, why we s'hould refuse to admit the 
 existence of Maccabean Psalms, but there are not more than 
 two or three Psalms which can with any plausibility be brought 
 down to so late a period : (see Introductions to Psalms xliv., 
 Ixxiv., Ixxix.). 
 
rNSCRJPTIONS OF THE PSALMS. 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS. 
 
 The Inscriptions of the Psalms are chiefly of three kinds : — 
 
 I. Those which mark their musical or liturgical character. 
 II. Those which assign them to particular authors. 
 III. Those which connect them with certain historical events. 
 
 Any of these may occur separately, or be combined to form 
 one title. 
 
 I. We distinguish here between what may be called the 
 Liturgical and the musical notices. 
 
 i. " For the Precentor," or leader of the Temple choir. E.V. 
 " To the Chief Musician." 
 
 The title occurs fifty-five times in the Inscriptions. It probably 
 means the leader of the band, or of the singers ; or, in modem 
 phrase, " The Choir-master." 
 
 In three Psalms (xxxix., Ixii., Ixxvii.) the name of Jeduthun 
 (or Ethan) is added, who we know was one of David's choir- 
 masters. 
 
 " For teaching," Ps. Ix. This may perhaps intimate that the 
 Psalm was intended to be taught publicly by the Levites to the 
 people, but it may also mean that it was to be taught to the 
 Levites themselves. 
 
 " To bring to remembrance," Ps. xxxviii. and Ixx. In i Chron. 
 xvi. 4 it is joined with " To give thanks and praise," as a part of 
 the special duties of the Levites, who were set by David before 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Ark, and there it would seem to mean " to call to memory," 
 so as to praise and celebrate the goodness of Jehovah. The 
 expression may mean "A prayer to remind God of man." 
 
 ii. Notices of a musical kind. 
 
 " A Song " {Shir, Mizmor). A Psalm properly as sung with 
 instrumental accompaniment. 
 
 "Michtam." Perhaps a "Golden Poem;" or it may be 
 connected with the Arabic verb "to hide," and so "a mystery," 
 a song of deep import. 
 
 " Maschil." A " finely, skilfully constructed ode." 
 
 " Shiggaion." An " irregular or dithyrambic ode," from a 
 Hebrew verb meaning " to wander." See Hab. iii. 
 
 " A Song of Loves," Ps. xlv. — a song, that is, the subject of 
 which is love. 
 
 " Song of the Ascents." E.V. " Song of Degrees," Pss. cxx., 
 cxxxiv. Various explanations have been given of this title, but 
 the most probable explanation is, that they were songs composed 
 for the " goings-up " to the yearly festivals at Jerusalem. Hence 
 the title " Song of the Goings-up " = " A Pilgrim's Song." That 
 the caravans " went up " with singing is evident from Is. xxx. 
 29. The allusions to the Exile are readily explained by the fact 
 that these Psalms, or some of them, were composed for the 
 pilgrimages to the Second Temple. 
 
 Some of the titles refer to the instruments by which the Psalm 
 was to be accompanied — "to the flutes," "with stringed instru- 
 ments," or " upon a stringed instrument." Others, again, refer 
 to the measure, as " After the manner of maidens " CAlamoth), 
 Ps. xlvi.; "Upon the octave (below)" (Sheminith), Pss. vi., xii.; 
 see I Chron. xv. 20, 21. "Upon the Gittith," or as the form 
 of the word seems to imply, "after the Gittith manner," or 
 " manner of Gath," some particular measure or style of music 
 which had been borrowed from the Philistines, and named after 
 one of their chief cities. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS. 7 
 
 " Upon, i.e. after the manner of Jeduthun," one of the famous 
 singers of David. Others of like import. 
 
 Melodies denoted by Titles. — Ps. xxii., " After the Song beginning 
 Hind of the Dawn ; " Ps. Ivi., " The Silent Dove in far-off Lands," 
 or perhaps, " The Dove of the distant Terebinths ; '' " Destroy 
 not," Pss. Ivii., lix., Ixxv.: these being probably the first words of 
 some well-known song. "After lilies, the testimony," Ixxx., or 
 " After the lily of the testimony," Ix.; some would explain this 
 of a lily-shaped instrument. " Death of the son," Ps. ix., may 
 denote that the Psalm was to be sung to an air beginning with 
 the words " Death of the son." 
 
 Selah. — It may be well to discuss this here, though it is not 
 an inscription, but merely a musical sign. It is almost hopeless 
 to attempt to give a satisfactory explanation of this word " Selah." 
 By the Targums, the Talmud, and Aquila it has been rendered 
 " eternity/' because in Pss. Ixi. 5 and Ixxxix. 38 it seemed to 
 stand parallel with " for ever ; " by Ab. Ezra, " Amen ; " by 
 Gesenius, "pause, stillness, rest.'' Others, again, would explain 
 it in the sense of " elevation,'' " lifting up," whether of the voice 
 or of the music. As, however, it is most frequently introduced 
 at the end of a strophe, it would seem more probably to imply 
 the intervention at the particular place of a musical symphony. 
 This musical sign is clearly very ancient, inasmuch as it is found 
 in all the old versions, and inasmuch as even then its meaning 
 was matter of debate and uncertainty. (See Mr. Wright's article ' 
 in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, where the various hypotheses 
 are discussed.) 
 
 II. Inscriptions which give us the name of the author. 
 
 I. David. — His name is prefixed to all the Psalms in the 
 First Book with few exceptions, and to most of the Psalms 
 in the second half of the Second Book. After this his name 
 appears once in the Third Book, twice in the Fourth, and fifteen 
 times in the Fifth. In all, therefore, he is said to have written 
 
8 INTR OD UCTION. 
 
 seventy-three Psalms. In two Psalms of the First Collection, the 
 high title of " Servant of Jehovah " is added to his name. 
 
 2. David's Singers. — These appear in the Second and Third 
 Books. 
 
 (a) The Sons of Korah. — Eleven Psalms are ascribed to them. 
 They were one of the oldest Levitical families, long before the 
 time of David, and related to the still more ancient family of 
 Kohath, the son of Levi. In the time of David, Heman the 
 son of Joel, a member of this family, became famed for his skill 
 in music and song, and hence apparently the Korahites obtained 
 the name of "singers" (2 Chron. xx. 19). Hence it is that in 
 the Inscription of Ps. Ixxxviii. we have first the general title 
 assigning it to "the sons of Kora'h," and then the special 
 assigning it to Heman. 
 
 ip) Asaph. — He is said to have written twelve Psalms. He 
 is one of the three famous singers of David, and holds amongst 
 them, indeed, the foremost place. In later times he alone ranks 
 with David. 
 
 (c) Ethan the Ezrahite. — He is named only as the author of 
 one Psalm, the Eighty-ninth. He is the third of David's great 
 singers. 
 
 Besides the seventy-three Psalms of David, and twenty-three 
 of his singers, we have, according to the Hebrew Inscriptions, 
 two of Solomon's. One Psalm, the 90th, is attributed to Moses, 
 " the man of God." About a third of the Psalms are anonymous. 
 
 III. The third class of notices is that which purports to give 
 an account of the particular occasion for which a Psalm was 
 composed. 
 
 We must not, in all cases, rely impHcitly on the accuracy ot 
 these inscriptions ; for we find them only prefixed to the Psalms 
 of David, and then they mostly refer to events in David's life, 
 as recorded in the historical books. (Compare Inscription of 
 Psalm xxxiv. with i Sam, xxi. 14; that of Ps. lii. with i Sam. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS. 9 
 
 xxii. 9; that of Ps. liv. with i Sam. xxiii. 19; that of Ps. Ivi. 
 with I Sam. xxi. 11 — 15.) 
 
 Some of these historical notices are, beyond all reasonable 
 doubt, ancient and trustworthy j but of the majority of them we 
 may conclude that they were added from time to time by different 
 collectors. Some have evidently been derived from words or 
 allusions in the Psalms ; others from tradition, ascribing a 
 particular Psalm to a particular author. 
 
 The conclusion, then, at which we arrive here is the same as 
 in the case of the alleged authorship of certain Psalms. The 
 Inscriptions cannot always be relied on. They are sometimes 
 genuine, and really represent the most ancient tradition. At 
 other times they are due to the caprice of later editors and 
 collectors, the fruits of conjecture, or of dimmer and more 
 uncertain traditions. In short, the Inscriptions of the Psalms 
 are like the Subscriptions to the Epistles of the New Testament. 
 They are not of any necessary authority, and their value must 
 be weighed and tested by the usual critical processes. 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 PSALMS I.— XLI. 
 
PSALM I. 
 
 This Psalm seems to have been placed first in the collection, 
 because, from its general character and subject, it formed a suitable 
 introduction to the rest. The absence of any inscription, which is rare 
 in the First Book, seems to indicate that the Psalm was from the first 
 regarded in the light merely of an introduction originally to some 
 older and smaller collection. In some MSS. it is not numbered at all, 
 being treated simply as a preface. This must have been an early 
 arrangement, as our present Second Psalm is quoted as the First 
 (according to the best Greek MSS.) in Acts xiii. 33. In other MSS. 
 again, the two Psalms appear as one. Tradition is silent as to date 
 and authorship, but many considerations make it probable that it was 
 written by Solomon as a preface to a collection of his father's poetry. 
 It is worth notice that the word "mockers," " scorners," ver. i., occurs 
 nowhere else in the whole Psalter, but is frequently applied in the 
 earlier chapters of the Proverbs to those who set themselves to despise 
 and scoff at religion. 
 
 I Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the 
 counsel of the wicked. 
 Nor stood in the way of sinners, 
 Nor sat in the seat of scorners ; 
 
 I. The structure of the verse is very as the active habitual doers of ini- 
 exact, the parallelism in each member quity ; "the mockers " (Prov. xxi. 24), 
 being carefully preserved : a kind of who make an open scoff, and bias- 
 climax has also been noticed in the phenie : lastly, three degrees of open- 
 choice of expressions. Thus we have, ness in the evil doing, the "counsel" 
 first, three degrees of habit in the verbs referring, apparently, to hidden de- 
 ■' walked," "stood," " sat ; " — next, signs (cf. Job xxi. 16, xxii. 18 ; Jer. vii. 
 three degrees of evil in the character : 24) ; " the way " to public life ; "the 
 I lie "wicked," described as the pas- seat" (so the LXX., as in I Sam. xx. 
 sionate, or restless (cf Is. Ivii. 20, 18, 25), or perhaps "assembly" (as 
 Jobiii. 17); or perhaps, simply, as the cvii. 32, Jer. xv. 17), consessus, to a 
 u]irighteous, the false ; " the sinners," deliberate confederacy in wickedness. 
 
14 
 
 PSALM I. 
 
 2 But in the Law of Jehovah is his dehght, 
 
 And in His Law doth he meditate day and night. 
 
 3 So is he like a tree planted by streams of water, 
 
 That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, 
 And whose leaf also doth not wither : 
 And all that he doeth he maketh to prosper. 
 
 4 Not so are the wicked ; 
 
 But (they are) like the chaff which the wind driveth 
 away. 
 
 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgement, 
 Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 
 
 6 For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous, 
 
 And the way of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 2. The I^aw, i.e. the Book of the 
 Law, as is plain from the manifest 
 allusion to Josh. i. 8. See also Deut, 
 V. 3i,xi. i8 — 20, xvii. 19 ; Ps. xl. 7, 8. 
 
 Doth meditate. The verb an- 
 swers more nearly to the Latin me- 
 di'or than any other word. Strictly, 
 it means to utter any dull, confused 
 sound : and hence it is employed of 
 inward utterance, of the words a man 
 speaks to himself ; and also of giving 
 open and loud expression to the 
 thoughts. 
 
 3. Like a tree, &c. The figure 
 would be much more expressive in an 
 Eastern country than amongst our- 
 selves. The same figure is used of 
 outward prosperity, Job viii. 16, 17, 
 Ezek. xix. 10, and also of the confidence 
 and st-.ength ot the righteous, Ps. lii. 
 8, xcii. 12, Is. xliv. 4, Jer, xvii. 8, 
 Ezek. xlvii. 12. 
 
 And all, &c. A transition from 
 the figure of the tree to the person 
 who is compared to the tree. But, 
 apparently, the verbs are chosen so 
 as to carry on the metaphor ; for both 
 of them would refer to the tree as well 
 as to the man. 
 
 4. Not so. A simple but em- 
 phatic contrast. The wicked perish 
 even more utterly than the dry and 
 withered tree. They are as "the 
 chaff." Again, far more striking as 
 an Eastern image than among our- 
 selves. In Is. xvii. 13, " chaff of 
 the mountains ; " because the thresh- 
 ing-floors were usually on high, ex- 
 posed spots, where the wind would 
 sweep over them the more freely, 
 (See the same figure, Ps. xxxv. 5, Job 
 xxi. 18, Is. xxix. 5, xli. 2; Hos. xiii. 
 3. Cf. Matt. iii. 12. 
 
 5. In the judgement. Primarily 
 no doubt referring to the general course 
 of God's righteous judgements, with 
 an allusion to the forms of a human 
 tribunal : — but reaching further to the 
 final judgement. 
 
 Congregation of the right- 
 eous, i.e. the true Israelites who 
 are separated from the congregation 
 of the evil doers. (Cf. Ezek. xiii. 
 
 9-) 
 
 6. Knoweth, i.e. regards with 
 watchful care and love (xxxi. 7, cxliv. 
 3, Job xxiii. 10). 
 
PSALM II. 15 
 
 PSALM II. 
 
 This Psalm, like the last, bears no inscription, and it is impossible 
 to say who was its author, or what event occasioned its being written. 
 The older interpreters (especially the Jewish) referred it to David, and 
 the attacks made upon him by the Philistines (2 Sam. v.). Others, 
 again, suppose Solomon to be the king spoken of, and that it was 
 written at the time of his accession, when the Edomites and Syrians, 
 and probably other heathen tribes, were meditating a general insur- 
 rection. It would be better, however, to connect the Psalm with the 
 events mentioned in 2 Sam. x. There we find a confederacy of Syrians, 
 Ammonites, and others, who had formerly been subdued (2 Sam. viii. 
 3, 12), and who were now making a last effort for their independence. 
 The Psalm may refer to this struggle, and there may also be an 
 allusion to the promise which was shortly before given to David 
 (2 Sam. vii. 14). Such may be the historical meaning of this poem, 
 but we must look beyond this. The Jews themselves admit that the 
 earliest interpretation of this Psalm was Messianic, and that the 
 " anointed " is " King Messiah." Doubtless it had a prophetic 
 reference to the banding together of Herod and Pontius Pilate against 
 Christ (Acts iv. 25 — 27). But it may be said to have an ever repeated 
 fulfilment in the history of God's kingdom upon earth, which has in 
 all ages the powers of the world arrayed against it, and in all ages 
 with the same disastrous result to those who have risen " against the 
 Lord, and against His Anointed." 
 
 In form, the Psalm is dramatic, the action being carried on by 
 different speakers, who successively take their parts. It consists of 
 four strophes : — 
 
 I. The singer sees with astonishment the nations gathering together, 
 and their Princes conspiring to cast off the yoke of Jehovah and His, 
 Anointed. Ver. 1—3. 
 
 II. Jehovah, sitting throned in heaven, mocks their designs, and 
 confounds them with His word. Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
1 6 PSALM II. 
 
 III. The anointed king announces the Divine decree by which he 
 rules, which assures him of victory in the struggle, and of boundless 
 dominion. Ver. 7 — 9. 
 
 IV. The poet, in consequence of what he has seen, counsels the 
 rebellious monarchs to submit themselves to the sway of their lawful 
 sovereign. Ver. 10 — 12. 
 
 1 Why have nations raged tutnultuously, 
 And (why do) peoples meditate a vain thing >. 
 
 2 Kings of the earth set themselves, 
 And princes have taken counsel together 
 Against Jehovah and against His Anointed : — 
 
 3 " Let us break their bonds asunder, 
 
 And cast away their cords from us." 
 
 4 He that is throned in the Heaven laughs : 
 
 1. Why — a question at once of 
 wonder and horror. Why this attempt 
 to throw off the yoke of the true king ? 
 It is not a tyrant against wham they 
 are leagued. It is Jehovah himself 
 who is assailed in the person of the 
 King whom He has set on the throne. 
 Such an enterprise cannot but fail. 
 In its very nature it is "a vain thing," 
 In this word, says Luther, is com- 
 prised the argument of nearly the 
 whole Psalm. How can they succeed 
 who set themselves against Je-liovah 
 and against His Christ ? The abrupt 
 question is in the true spirit of lyric 
 poetry. So Horace, gazing with 
 horror on the spectacle of civil strife, 
 breaks forth: "Quo, quo scelesti 
 ruitis? aut cur dexteris, Aptantur enses 
 conditi?" 
 
 Meditate, as in i. 2. 
 
 2. Set themselves — of assuming 
 deliberately a hostile attitude as of 
 Goliath, I Sam. xvii. 16 ; of the angel 
 who meets Balaam, Num. xxii. Z2. 
 This verb is in the present ; for the 
 singer sees, as it were, their hostile 
 array before his eyes. The next is 
 again in the past, " they have banded 
 themselves," the conspiracy and con- 
 
 federacy having preceded the muster- 
 ing of their hosts to the battle. 
 
 After the double parallelism with 
 which the Psalm opens, there comes 
 the single line which, in its majestic 
 simplicity, at once reveals the design, 
 and the hopelessness of the design, 
 "Against Jehovah and against His 
 Anointed. " There is a very remark- 
 able comment on these words in the 
 Mechilta, quoted in the Yulkut Shi- 
 meoni (ii. f. 90, i Sch. p. 227) : 
 " Like a robber who was standing and 
 expressing his contempt behind the 
 palace of the King, and saying. If I 
 find the Son of the King, I will seize 
 him, and kill him, and crucify him, and 
 put him to a terrible death ; but the 
 Holy Spirit mocks at it, and saith : 
 He that dwelleth in the heavens 
 laughs." 
 
 3. Let us break their bonds 
 ASUNDER {i.e. those of Jehovah and 
 His Christ). The metaphor is bor- 
 rowed from restive animals which 
 break the cords, and throw off the 
 yoke. Cf Is. x. 27, Iviii. 6. The 
 phrase occurs again, evil. 14, and 
 often in Jeremiah. 
 
 4 — 6. And now from all this wild 
 
PSALM II. 
 
 17 
 
 The Lord hath them in derision : 
 
 5 Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, 
 And in His sore displeasure terrify them : 
 
 6 — " But / have set My King 
 
 On Zion, My holy mountain." 
 
 7 I will tell of a decree ; 
 
 Jehovah said unto me : " Thou art my son, 
 I have this day begotten thee : 
 
 tempest" of confusion upon earth, from 
 the trampling of gathering armies, 
 and the pride of kingly captains, and 
 their words of haughty menace, the 
 poet turns his eyes to heaven. There, 
 on His everlasting throne, sits the 
 Almighty King, in whose sight all 
 nations and kings are but as a drop of 
 the bucket 
 
 5. The change in the rhythm of the 
 original is worthy of notice ; it be- 
 comes full and sonorous, "donner- 
 artig " as Delitzsch calls it, rolling like 
 the thunder, and is rendered the more 
 effective by its contrast with the quiet 
 manner of ver. 4, 
 
 6. As the first strophe closed with 
 the words of the rebels, so this with 
 the words of Jehovah. 
 
 And in the words But I we have 
 the central truth of the Psalm. The 
 *• but '' is to be explained as referring 
 to an unexpressed "ye may plot," or 
 some thought of the kind, in the mind 
 of the speaker. It is God's own 
 answer to them that oppose Him. I 
 (the pronoun is emphatic in the Heb. ), 
 the King of heaven and earth, have 
 set my own King, my Son, and my 
 vicegerent, upon the throne. (Cf. I 
 Sam. xvi. i.) 
 
 On Zion, not the place where the 
 King was anointed, for that would 
 hold neither of type (whether David 
 or Solomon) nor of antitype : but as 
 the seat of dominion, the centre from 
 which His law goes forth, &c. Cf. 
 
 ex. 2 ; and in the fact that His throne 
 is on "the holy mountain," there is a 
 kind of anticipative hint of the great 
 truth which is first distinctly taught in 
 the iioth Psalm, that the Anointed 
 King should also be the Anointed 
 Priest. 
 
 7. A sudden change of speakers 
 takes place. The Son, the Anointed 
 King, appears, and proclaims the 
 Father's counsel concerning Him. He 
 has received of Jehovah a decree— 
 the new law of His kingdom. He 
 reigns not by the will of man, but 
 by the grace of God ; not by right 
 only as the Son of Jehovah, but 
 by covenant and promise likewise. 
 (See the stress laid on this Divine 
 calling as fulfilled in Christ in Heb. 
 
 V. S-) 
 
 The expression, "I this day have 
 begotten thee," can only mean, This 
 day have I declared and manifested 
 thee to be my Son, by investing thee 
 with thy kingly dignity, and placing 
 thee on thy throne. St. Paul teaches 
 us to see the/ulfilment of these words 
 in Christ's resurrection from the dead. 
 It was by that that He was declared 
 to be (marked out as, in a distinct and 
 pecuhar sense, opurBivTos) the Son of 
 God. (Rom. i. 4; cf. Acts xiii. 33.) 
 The day of Christ's coronation was 
 the day of His resurrection. From 
 henceforth He sits at the right hand 
 of the Father, waiting till His enemies 
 be made His footstool. 
 
i8 
 
 PSALM II. 
 
 8 Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for 
 
 thine inheritance, 
 And for thy possession the ends of the earth. 
 
 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron : 
 
 Like a potter's vessel shalt thou dash them in 
 pieces." 
 
 10 And now — ye kings, learn wisdom ! 
 Receive instruction, ye judges of the earth ! 
 
 1 1 Serve Jehovah with fear, 
 And exult with trembling ! 
 
 12 Kiss the Son lest He be angry, 
 
 And ye perish in (your) way ; 
 For soon is His wrath kindled : 
 
 Blessed are all" they that find refuge in Him ! 
 
 8. Ask of Me, and I will give 
 THEE. A poetical figure, by which is 
 represented God's willingness to give 
 to His Anointed the kingdoms of the 
 world. 
 
 lo. And now, drawing a conclu- 
 sion from what precedes (Prov. v. 7, 
 Is. xxviii. 22. ) 
 
 Judges of the earth, as in ver. 
 2, "kings of the earth," who had 
 placed themselves at the head of the 
 insuirection. 
 
 Learn wisdom ! Receive in- 
 struction. Submit yourselves ; not 
 only in a political sense, but also 
 in a religious sense, become His true 
 worshippers. 
 
 12. Kiss the Son. The verb has 
 been taken in two senses: (i) "to 
 cleave, adhere to, lay hold of," &c. — 
 a sense which is not supported by 
 usage ; and (2) "to kiss," i.e. accord- 
 ing to the Eastern custom, to proifer 
 homage and service. (Cf. i Sam. *, 
 I.) Gen, xli. 40 is probably to be ex- 
 plained in the same way : "thy mouth 
 shall all my people kiss,"* not as in 
 E.V. "according unto thy word shall>" 
 
 &c. The word is also u<;ed of the 
 worship paid to idols, I Kings xix. 18. 
 Hos. xiii. 2. We must therefore either 
 render (with the Syr.) " Do homage 
 to the Son," or (with Jerome) "proffer 
 pure homage, worship in purity." Both 
 translations are admissible. Nor does 
 it seem very important which we 
 adopt, though the interpretation of this 
 clause has sometimes been debated 
 as if it affected the Messianic character 
 of the Psalm. But that must be de- 
 termined by the general scope of the 
 Psalm, not by a single phrase ; not to 
 mention that ver. 6, 7, are quite as 
 emphatic as ver. 12. 
 
 It should be observed that two of 
 the names given by the Jews them- 
 selves to the Hope of Israel were 
 taken from this Psalm (and Dan. ix. 
 25), the Messiah, ver. 2, and the Son of 
 God, ver. 7. Nathanael says to Jesus, 
 " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God," 
 John i. 49, and both names are joined 
 together lay the High Priest, Mutt, 
 xxvi. 63. In like manner the name 
 " Son of Man " is taken from Ps. viii» 
 4, and Dan. vii. 13. 
 
 See Marginal Note in Bible. 
 
PSALM III. 19 
 
 PSALM III. 
 
 This and the following Psalm have several links of connection, are 
 in the same strain irf thought and feeling, and were probably com- 
 posed under the same circumstances. From the inscription of this 
 Psalm we learn what those circumstances were. It was written by 
 David when he fled from his son Absalom. Both Psalms, it has 
 been conjectured, were composed on the same day ; the one in the 
 morning, the other in the evening of the day following that on which 
 the king quitted Jerusalem. 
 
 From ver. 5 we gather that the Psalm is, as has been said, a morning 
 hymn. With returning day there comes back on the monarch's heart 
 the recollection of the enemies who threaten him, — a nation up in 
 arms against him, his own son heading- the rebellion, his wisest and 
 most trusted counsellor in the ranks of his foes (2 Sam. xv.— xvii.). 
 Never, not even when hunted by Saul, had he found his position one 
 of greater danger. The odds were overwhelmingly against him. 
 This is a fact which he does not attempt to hide from himself: 
 "How many are mine enemies;" "Many rise up against me;" "Many 
 say to my soul ; " " Ten thousands of the people have set themselves 
 against me." But sustained by Jehovah, he had laid him down 
 and slept in safety ; trusting in the same mighty protection, he would 
 lie down again to rest. Enemies might taunt (iii. 2) and friends might 
 fail him, but the victory was Jehovah's, and He could break the teeth 
 of the ungodly (iii. 7, 8). 
 
 The Psahn may be divided into four strophes : — 
 
 I. The present danger and distress. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 II. The recollection of mercy and help in times past. Ver. 3, 4. 
 
 III. As arising from this, the sense of peace and security even in 
 the midst of the present danger. Ver. 5, 6. 
 
 IV. The prayer for help against enemies, and for blessings upon 
 Israel. Ver. 7, 8. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 PSALM HI. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID, WHEN HE FLED FROM THE FACE OF HIS SON 
 
 ABSALOM.] 
 
 1 Jehovah, how many are mine adversaries, 
 Many are they that rise up against me ! 
 
 2 Many there be that say to my soul : 
 
 " There is no help for him in God." — [Selah.J 
 
 3 But Thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me ; 
 
 My Glory and the Lifter-up of my head. 
 
 4 With my voice to Jehovah do I cry, 
 
 And He answereth me from His holy mountain. — 
 [Selah.] 
 
 5 I laid me down, and slept ; 
 
 I awaked, for Jehovah sustaineth me. 
 
 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people 
 
 Which have set (themselves) against me round about. 
 
 1. How MANY, &c. ; nearly all 
 Israel. Compare 2 Sam. xvi. 15, 
 xvii. I, II — 13, with XV. 18. 
 
 That rise up against me. The 
 very expression used twice by the 
 Cushite who brings tidings to David of 
 the death of Absalom, and the defeat 
 of 'he rebels. (2 Sam. xviii. 31, 32.) 
 
 2. To MY SOUL, rather than "of 
 my soul, " though this is implied ; but 
 they aim at, and strike to, his soul. 
 He feds it, and feels how deadly the 
 aim is. 
 
 No HELP FOR HIM. David was 
 thinking perhaps of what Shimei had 
 said : " The Lord hath returned upon 
 thee all the blood of the house of Saul, 
 in whose stead thou hast reigned ; and 
 the Lord hath delivered the kingdom 
 into the hand of Absalom thy son " (2 
 Sam. xvi. 8). 
 
 3. A SHIELD. Such God had declared 
 Himself to be to Abraham in Gen. xv. 
 I, and that, it should be remembered, 
 just after Abraham had returned from 
 the battle with the kings. We cannot 
 wonder that such a name of God should 
 have had a peculiar preciousness for 
 
 David. No man was ever harder 
 pressed by enemies, and no man had 
 ever more cause to rejoice in the 
 thought that God was his shield. 
 
 4. Expresses not a single act, but 
 the habit of a life. Whenever I cry, 
 God hears me from His holy hill, i.e. 
 Zion, where was the ark of the 
 covenant. 
 
 The Priests and Levites, when he 
 left Jerusalem, would have carried the 
 ark after him. But with that faith 
 which can alone teach true resignation, 
 he says, " Carry back the ark of God 
 into the city : if I shall find favour in 
 the eyes of Jehovah, He will bring me 
 again, and show me both it and His 
 habitation." To David the ark was 
 no mere talisman. The presence and 
 favour of Jehovah were not bound to 
 the local symbol of His presence. ' In 
 the heart, not in the hands,' was 
 David's feeling. It was the very 
 opposite of that superstitious impulse 
 which led the Israelites to take the 
 ark with them into battle, i Sam. iv. 
 3 — 6. (2 Sam. ¥v. 25.) 
 
 5. I LAID ME DOWN. The pron. 
 
PSALM IV. 21 
 
 7 Arise, O Jehovah ! Help me, O my God ! 
 
 For Thou hast smitten all mine enemies on the 
 
 cheek-bone ; 
 Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. 
 
 8 To Jehovah belongeth the victory. 
 
 Let Thy blessing be upon Thy people. — [Selah.] 
 
 is emphatic, as if he would say, " I, 
 my very self, hunted and cursed by 
 my enemies, have tasted the good- 
 ness of the Lord even in the night 
 that is past.'' 
 
 7. Either an appeal to the past : O 
 Thou that didst save me from the 
 teeth of the lion and of the bear, and 
 didst destroy mine enemies on every 
 side, rise up now for me against them 
 that rise up against me. Or perhaps, 
 as in many other instances, the perfects 
 may anticipate the result, they express 
 the sure confidence that God will 
 crush his enemies, which he speaks of 
 as an already accomplished fact. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel how 
 appropriate, again, this metaphor, — - 
 smiting on the cheek-bone, breaking 
 the teeth, &c. — is in David's mouth. 
 
 As he himself had smitten the bear 
 and the lion when they came against 
 him, so should God smite his enemies. 
 
 8. Victory, or, "the help." 
 Such is his confident, courageous 
 answer to the timorous whispers of 
 friends, and the mocking exultation 
 of enemies. They said, "There is 
 no help for him in God." He replies, 
 To Jehovah belongeth help, help not 
 in this strait only, but in all times 
 and places. 
 
 Finally, how noble the prayer of 
 the royal exile, asking not for himself 
 alone, but for his poor, misguided 
 subjects — " Let Thy blessing be upon 
 Thy people." What a glimpse this 
 gives us of the greatness and gee erosity 
 of that kingly heart ! 
 
 PSALM IV. 
 
 David had said in the previous Psalm, " I laid me down and 
 slept : " he says in this, " I will lay me down in peace and sleep." 
 These words evidently connect the Psalms together. That was a 
 morning, this is an evening hymn. That was written with a deep 
 sense of thankfulness for the undisturbed rest which had followed the 
 most anxious, in some respects the dreariest, day of his life ; this was 
 written with a calm confidence, flowing directly from the previous 
 experience. The interval between the two Psalms may only have 
 been the interval between the morning and evening of the same day. 
 The thoughts and turns of expression in the one are not unlike those 
 iu the other. As in the former he heard many saying to his soul. 
 
2 2 PSALM IV. 
 
 "There is no help for him. in God" (ver. 2), so in this he hears many 
 saying, " Who will show us any good ? " (ver. 6). As in that he knew 
 that, though at a distance from the Tabernacle, he was not at a 
 distance from God, but would receive an answer to his prayer from 
 the "holy mountain" (,ver. 4), so in this, though the Priests have 
 returned with the Ark to Jerusalem, he can look for "the light of 
 Jehovah's countenance,'' which is better than the Urim and Thummim 
 of the priestly ephod. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that David does not cry to God for vengeance 
 on his enemies, but earnestly seeks to bring them to a better mind. 
 The strong feeling of injured innocence prompts no thought of 
 revenge, but only the noble desire to teach those who have done the 
 wrong a more excellent way. The monarch does not forget that he 
 is a monarch ; and with a monarch's heart, lifted here at least above 
 the littleness of personal resentment, he tries to win over the subjects 
 who have rebelled against him. 
 
 The Psalm may be said to fall into three unequal strophes : — 
 
 I. The cry directed to God. Ver. i. 
 
 II. The earnest warning addressed to his enemies, in two parts. 
 Ver. 2 — 5. 
 
 III. The calm expression on the part of David of his peace and 
 confidence in God. Ver. 6 — 8. 
 
 [for the precentor, with stringed instruments, a psalm 
 
 OF DAVID.] 
 
 1 When I cry, answer me, O God of my righteousness! 
 
 Thou that in straitness hast made room for me : 
 Be gracious unto me, and hear my prayer. 
 
 2 Ye sons of men ! how long shall my glory be (turned) 
 
 to shame t 
 
 I. God of my righteousness, 2. Sons of men. Generally "men 
 
 I.e. Thou who maintainest my right of high degree," nobles, &c., as op- 
 
 and my cause, asserting my righte- posed to "men of low degree," xlix. 
 
 ousness against the slanders of my 2, Jxii. 9. 
 
 enemies. (Cf. lix. 10.) But not to My glory, i.e. personal honour, 
 
 be conhned to this : it also means who character, as in Ixii. 7, Job xix 9 
 
 knowest the righteousness, the sin- here, perhaps, my state and dicnity 
 
 cerity of mv heart and life. as king, though it is frequently 
 
PSALM IV. 
 
 23 
 
 (How long) will ye love emptiness, will ye seek 
 after lies ? — [Selah.] 
 
 3 Know then, that Jehovah hath separated for Himself 
 
 one whom He loves. 
 Jehovah hearkeneth when I cry unto Him. 
 
 4 Tremble and sin not : 
 
 Commune with your heart, on your bed, and be 
 still— [Selah.] 
 
 5 Offer sacriiices of righteousness, 
 
 And trust in Jehovah. 
 
 6 There be many that say : " Who will show us (any) 
 
 good .? " 
 Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy countenance, 
 O Jehovah ! 
 
 used in a. more extended signifi- 
 cation. 
 
 3. Separated, or " marvellously 
 chosen." 
 
 4. He passes on to wise and loving 
 counsels. Tremble, i.e. before God, 
 not before me, and sin not against 
 Him. The LXX. " Be ye angry and 
 sin not," certainly a possible render- 
 ing of the words, viz. ** do not suffer 
 yourselves to sin in your anger," but 
 not suitable here. St. Paul (Eph. iv. 
 26) uses the words as they stand in 
 the Greek version, not, however, in 
 the way of direct citation. 
 
 Commune with, lit. say (it) in 
 your heart, i.e. reflect, meditate on 
 the truth I have already declared, ver. 
 3. Let the still hours of the night 
 bring calmer and wiser thoughts with 
 them. 
 
 5. Offer sacrifices of righte- 
 ousness, or righteous sacrifices, 
 as in li. 19. The phrase occurs first 
 in Deut. xxxiii. 19, and denotes either 
 (a) sacrifices that God will accejit, 
 because they are offered with clean 
 Hands and pure hearts ; or, (b) fitting 
 sacrifices, such as your past sin re- 
 
 quires, in order to put it away. But 
 the two come to the same thing, as it 
 is of course not merely outward offer. 
 ings which the Psalmist bids them 
 bring. (Cf. li. 19, Is. xxix. 13.) 
 Thus, " draw nigh to God, and He 
 will draw nigh to you. " 
 
 6. There be many that say. 
 Not the enemies addressed before. 
 The reference may be to the friends 
 and companions of David, whose heart 
 failed them in the day of trouble ; or 
 more widely, to the general proneness 
 of men to walk by sight rather than 
 by faith. 
 
 But David has learnt a better lore. 
 Though far from "the holy mountain," 
 there still dwells m his heart the bless- 
 ing wherewith the Priests of Jehovah 
 had there blessed His people. "Jeho- 
 vah make His face shine upon thee. . . 
 Jehovah lift up His countenance upon 
 thee, and give thee peace " (see Num. 
 vi. 24). To that remembered blessing 
 his heart now gives the echo iu the 
 prayer, "Jehovah, lift Thou up the 
 light of Thy countenance upon as. . . 
 Ip peace I will lay me down," &c. 
 
*4 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 7 Thou hast put a gladness in my heart, 
 
 More than when their corn and their wine abound. 
 
 8 In peace, at once will I lay me down and sleep ; 
 
 For Thou, Jehovah, alone makest me to dwell in 
 safety. 
 
 7. Their corn and tkeir wine. 
 To whom does the pronoun refer? 
 Hengstenberg and others have sup- 
 posed the aUusion to be to Ziba 
 (2 Sam. xvi. ), and the supply which 
 he brought for David and liis band. 
 Others think the pronoun is used in- 
 definitely, as in Ixv. 9, "Thou prepar- 
 est their corn," i.e. tlie corn of men in 
 general. Perhaps, however, the refer- 
 ence of the pronoun is to the "many" 
 of the previous verse. They in their 
 worldly-mindedness look for their 
 happiness in the abundance of their 
 earthly thing;s. Hence when adversity 
 threatens they begin to despond. 
 David, on the other hand, has a source 
 of joy, deeper and more unfailing be- 
 cause it flows from above. 
 
 For the comparison with the joy of 
 harvest and vintage as the great occa- 
 sions of festive mirth, see Is. ix. 3, 
 Jer. xlviii. 33. 
 
 Some have seen in this verse an 
 answer to the prayer of the previous 
 verse. David prays for the light of 
 God's countenance ; the answer is 
 g'ven in this gladness of heart. But 
 it is better to take the words, "Thou 
 hast put," &c., as the record of a past 
 as well as present experience, though 
 it still remains true that the "light" 
 is the source of the "gladness." 
 
 8. At once, sc, as soon as I lie 
 down I sleep, not harassed by dis- 
 turbing and anxious thoughts. For 
 this meaning of the adverb, see Is. 
 xlii. 14. 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 Like Psalm III. this is a morning prayer. But the circumstances 
 of the singer are different. He is not now fleeing from open enemies, 
 but he is in peril from the machinations of those who are secretly- 
 lying in wait for him (ver. 9, 10). He is not now an exile, but can 
 still enter the house of the. Lord and bow himself towards His holy 
 dwelling-place (ver. 7). 
 
 Throughout the Psalm there breathes a strong feeling that God is 
 pledged, by His very character as a righteous God, to defend and 
 bless the righteous. And David (if the Psalm be his) speaks as if in 
 the full consciousness of his own uprightness. Yet the words are not 
 the words of a self-righteous boaster ; for though no hypocrite or evil- 
 doer, he confesses that it is only in the loving-kindness of God that 
 he can enter His holy temple. 
 
PSALM V. 25 
 
 This last expression, "holy temple," it has been thought could not 
 have been used by David ; in whose time the Tabernacle was yet 
 standing. But for the discussion of this question, see the Note on 
 ver. 7 
 
 The Psalm consists of three parts : — 
 
 1. An earnest entreaty that God would hearken to the sigh of his 
 heart and the voice of his lips. Ver. I — 3. 
 
 II. Strophe A. The confidence of the righteous man in going to 
 God as a God who hates iniquity. Ver. 4 — 7. 
 
 III. Strophe B. The prayer grounded on this confidence, (1) for 
 guidance for himself: (2) for the destruction of his enemies : (3) for 
 the protection and blessing of all those who, like himself, love the 
 Lord. Ver. 8 — 12. 
 
 A kind of parallelism may be traced in the structure of the two 
 strophes. Thus ver. 4 answers to ver. 9 : ver. 4 — 6 (the character of 
 God) to ver. 10, where the Psalmist prays Him to manifest that 
 character in righteous vengeance : ver. 7 (the individual believer) 
 to ver. II, 12 (the collective body). 
 
 [for the precentor, with flute accompaniment, a psalm 
 
 OF DAVID.] 
 
 1 Give ear to my words, O Jehovah, 
 
 Consider my meditation. 
 
 2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God, 
 
 For unto Thee do I pray. 
 
 3 Jehovah, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice, 
 
 In the morning will I set in order for Thee (my prayer) 
 and will watch. 
 
 2. Mv King. The title is given to the more emphatically, if the Psalm 
 God, not merely in a general sense as was written by David, by one who 
 Ruler of the world — as the Canaanites was himself a king. See the Notes on 
 and others call their gods, Moloch xliv. 4, Ixxiv. 12. 
 
 and Milcom, or the Greeks addressed Unto Thee, i.e. not to man or 
 
 Zeus, as &vai, and PainKfis — but with angel ; to TAeg, for Thou wilt hear, 
 
 the distinct recognition of His theo- (Cf. xvii. 6.) 
 
 cratic relation to the people of Israel. 3. In the morning. Emphatic. 
 
 The King of the nation is here also I will set (or "lay") in ordeii 
 
 claimed by the individual as his king, (viz. my prayer). The word is used 
 
26 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, 
 
 Evil cannot sojourn with Thee. 
 Fools cannot stand in Thy sight ; 
 
 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity ; 
 Thou destroyest them that speak lies ; 
 
 The bloodthirsty and deceitful man doth Jehovah 
 abhor. 
 But as for me — in the multitude of Thy loving-kindness 
 will I enter Thy house ; 
 
 of laying in order the wood (Lev. i. 7) 
 and the victim (Lev. i. 8, vi. 12) for 
 the sacrifices. One of the first duties 
 of the priest, as soon as day dawned, 
 was to lay the wood in order for the 
 morning sacrifice (Lev. vi. 12, Numb, 
 xxviii. 4). So the Psalmist brings his 
 offering, prepares himself as a spiritual 
 sacrifice, and lays before God the fruit 
 of his lips. (The idea is expressed at 
 length in Ps. cxli. 2, "and the lifting 
 up of my hands as the evening sacri- 
 fice.") And then he "watches," 
 "looks out" (the same verb as in 
 Hab. ii. i), for an answer to his 
 petition, as the priest might look (or 
 as Elijah looked on Carmel) for the 
 fire from heaven to descend and con- 
 sume the victim. 
 
 4. The Psalmist expects to be 
 heard, for only the righteous can 
 approach a righteous God. " Ralio- 
 cinatur," says Calvin, "ab ipsius Dei 
 natura. " 
 
 " Evil (personified) cannot be a 
 guest or friend of Thine ; cannot 
 tarry in Thy house,'' as xv. I ; not 
 merely however with n reference to 
 the Temple, but to that spiritual 
 abiding in the presence of God, and 
 in the light of His countenance, which 
 is the joy only of them that are true 
 of heart. To the wicked the light 
 of God's countenance is a consuming 
 fire. 
 
 5. Cannot stand, lit. "set them- 
 selves," the same word as in ii. 2. 
 The allusion may be (i) to the judge- 
 
 ment, "cannot stand before God's 
 holiness and power as armed against 
 them," as in Deut. vii. 24, ix. 2, &c.; 
 or (2) to the privilege of nobles and 
 others who stand in the presence of 
 the King, cf. Prov. xxii. 29. So the 
 angels are said to stand before God 
 (Job i. 6, ii. I). 
 
 Workers of iniqiiitt occurs fre- 
 quently in Job and the Psalms as a 
 description of the wicked, and has 
 been adopted by our Lord in the 
 N.T., Matt. vii. 23. 
 
 7. As the Psalm is a morning hymn, 
 the futures may be taken strictly, 
 " I will enter," &c. But there is also 
 something of the potential meaning 
 about them : sc. the wicked cannot 
 enter, but I may (and will) enter 
 Thine house. The mention of the 
 house and the temple has sometimes 
 been regaided as a proof that the 
 Psalm could not have been written 
 by David. But the latter word means 
 properly a large building, "a palace," 
 and is used of the sanctuary at Shilob, 
 I Sam. i. 9, iii. 3, which seems to 
 have been not a tabernacle, but a 
 building of a more substantial kind. 
 We read at any rate of posts and 
 folding-doors (i Sam. i. 9, iii. 15); 
 whereas in the time of David, "the 
 ark of the covenant of the Lord re- 
 mained under curtains" (I Chron. 
 xvii. I). And there is certainly no 
 proof that the word is ever used of 
 this temporary structure. Still it is 
 possible- that" the word which had 
 
PSALM V. 
 
 27 
 
 I will bow myself towards Thy holy temple in Thy 
 fear. 
 
 8 Jehovah, lead me in Thy righteousness, because of 
 
 them that lie in wait for me. 
 Make Thy way plain before my face ; 
 
 9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth ; 
 
 Their inward part is a yawning gulf ; 
 
 already been employed when speak- 
 ing of the house in Shiloh continued 
 to be employed when only a tent was 
 pitched for the ark (i Chron. xv. i). 
 It might still be called a temple or 
 palace because of its solemn dedi- 
 cation as the house of God, the palace 
 of the Great King. 
 
 In the multitude of Thy 
 LOVING-KINDNESS. The Psalmist 
 has access to God not only because 
 he is of a different character from 
 those mentioned in ver. 6, but be- 
 cause the King of kings, of His grace 
 and goodness, permits him to draw 
 near. 
 
 8 — 10. In the former part of the 
 Psalm, David has placed himself in 
 sharp contrast with " the workers of 
 iniquity," with "them that speak 
 lies," Ac, and on this ground has 
 claimed the protection and favour of 
 Jehovah. Now he entreats more 
 directly guidance for himself and the 
 desti-uction of his enemies, as false 
 and treacherous men, like those whom 
 he has already described and whom 
 "Jehovah abhors." 
 
 8. Lead me (strictly, as a shep- 
 herd, cf. xxiii. 2, 3, xxxi. 3), used 
 almost exclusively of Divine guidance, 
 whether of the nation or of indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 In Thv righteousness. This 
 may be understood (i) of God's own 
 character. His righteousness itself 
 is pledged to succour those who wor- 
 ship Him and seek His guidance ; cf. 
 cxliii. I. Or (2) it may mean " the 
 way of God's righteousness " (cf. for 
 
 instance, Prov. viii. 20, xii. 28), called 
 God's righteousness, not only as pleas- 
 ing to Him, but as coming from Him 
 as its source, and as that which He 
 has appointed for men to walk in. 
 So "the righteousness of God " in the 
 N.T. means both God's own attribute 
 of righteousness (as in Rom. iii. 5), 
 and also the righteousness which 
 He requires of men, and gives to men, 
 Rom. i. 17, iii. 21, 22. Both senses 
 seem to be blended in Rom. iii. 25, 
 26. 
 
 Make Thy way. The way in 
 which Thou wouldst have me to go, 
 not any self-devised way of my 
 own. 
 
 Plain or straight, lit. "level," 
 lest I stumble and fall into the hand 
 of my adversaries. The "straight 
 way" may be either (morally) the 
 path of purity, uprightness, &c. ; or 
 (physically) the path of safety, pros- 
 perity; or rather, both ideas are com- 
 bined. 
 
 9. For. This gives the reason for 
 the prayer, " Lead me . because of 
 them that lie in wait for me : " for 
 their malice is such that I need Thy 
 care and guidance. With them, 
 mouth, heart, throat, and tongue are 
 all instruments of evil. 
 
 No faithfulness, lit. "nothing 
 firm, settled." 
 
 The expressions point not to foreign 
 oppressors, but evidently to ungodly 
 men in the nation itself who had 
 recourse to slander and treachery 
 when they dared not use open vio- 
 lence. It is the opposition and the 
 
28 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre, 
 
 (While) they make smooth their tongue. 
 
 10 Punish Thou them, O God : — • 
 
 Let them fall through their own counsels : 
 In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them 
 away ; 
 For they have rebelled against Thee. 
 
 1 1 And all who find refuge in Thee shall rejoice ; 
 For ever shall they shout for joy ; 
 
 And Thou wilt defend them : 
 And they who love Thy Name shall exult in Thee, 
 
 12 For Thou, O Jehovah, dost bless the righteous, 
 With favour dost Thou compass him as with a shield. 
 
 contest ever repeated between the 
 Church and the world. Cf. Gal. 
 iv. 29. 
 
 10. Against Thee. The enemies 
 of David are the enemies of David's 
 God. " Whoso toucheth you, toucheth 
 the apple of Mine eye. " " Saul, Saul, 
 why persecutes! thou Me ? " 
 
 11. And all .... shall, or, 
 So ijHALL ALL. For the cause 
 of .iDavid is the cause of all who 
 have David's heart and fear David's 
 God. The overthrow of his ene- 
 mies is the overthrow of the ene- 
 mies of the Church. If one memb'er 
 suffer, all suffer ; if one triumph, all 
 will be partakers in the triumph. 
 
 And Thou wilt defend them. 
 Or if we take the preceding verbs as 
 futures: "And Thou defendest (or 
 wilt defend) them :" the clauses being 
 thus simply linked together as fre- 
 
 quently in Hebrew, instead of saying, 
 "i5^(raMi^Thou,"&c. The verb means 
 strictly to cover, and the figure is either 
 taken from the cherubim with out- 
 stretched wings covering the mercy- 
 seat (hence of God, xci. 4) ; or from 
 the ifoofk or tabernacle used figuratively 
 of God's house as a place of shelter 
 and refuge from the world. See the 
 expansion of the figure. Is. iv. 5, 6. 
 
 Tht; Name. God's name is that 
 whereby He makes Himself known : 
 His revelation of Himself as a God 
 of Love and Grace to His people. 
 
 12. Shield. The word denotes 
 properly the large shield which 
 covered the whole body ; used of 
 the shield of Goliath, i Sam. xvii. 
 7. For the difference between this 
 and the other word used in iii. 3, 
 see Smith's Diet, of the Bible, Art 
 Arms. 
 
PSALM vr. 29 
 
 PSALM VI. 
 
 The first of the seven Penitential Psalms. 
 
 In great peril from his enemies, and in great anguish of heart, 
 David cries to God for mercy. In the malice of his enemies he sees 
 the rod of God's chastisement ; and therefore he makes his prayer to 
 God for deliverance. The struggle has lasted so long, the grief is so 
 bitter, that his health has given way, and he has been brought to the 
 gates of the grave. But even whilst thus pouring out the anguish 
 of his spirit, light and peace visit him, and he breaks forth into the 
 joy of thanksgiving. 
 
 The Psalm is said to be a Psalm of David, and there is no reason 
 to question this, although at the same time there is nothing in it to 
 guide us to any peculiar circumstances of his life. 
 
 The Psalm falls into three strophes : — 
 
 I. (ver. I — 3) and II. (ver. 4 — 7) are both the outpourings of the 
 heart in a cry for mercy, and in both it springs from the deep misery 
 of the sufferer. But in II. this is dwelt upon more at length as a 
 motive for deliverance. 
 
 III. The joyful assurance that already his prayer has been heard, 
 and that all his enemies shall perish. Ver. 8 — 10. 
 
 [for the precentor, with accompaniment of stringed 
 instruments. tjpon the octave.* a psalm of david.] 
 
 I Jehovah, in Thine anger rebuke me not ; 
 Neither in Thy hot displeasure correct me. 
 
 I. Anger displeasure. based upon this passage, Heb. xii. 3 — 
 
 The prayer occurs again, in almost the II. Indeed the whole Book of Job 
 
 same words, xxxviii, i. All God's is intended to correct the error that 
 
 chastisements are not in anger. There "chastisement always proceeds from 
 
 is a fatherly correction of love. "As a principle of anger." And the suffer- 
 
 many as I love I rebuke and chasten," ings of Christ are a witness to the 
 
 Rev. iii. 19. See also Ps. xciv. 12, contrary ; for that "the Father loveth 
 
 cxviii. 17, 18; Prov. iii. 11, 12; and the Son" is eternally true. Does the 
 
 • We may suppose the octave to meac that it was to be sung by men's voices. 
 
3-^ 
 
 PSALM VI. 
 
 2 Be gracious unto me, O Jehovah, for I languish : 
 
 Heal me, O Jehovah, for my bones are vexed. 
 
 3 My soul also is sore vexed ; 
 
 But Thou, O Jehovah, how long ? 
 
 4 Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul : 
 
 Oh save me for Thy loving-kindness' sake. 
 
 5 For in death there is no remembrance of Thee : 
 
 In the unseen world who shall give Thee thanks } 
 
 Psalmist then pray that God would 
 chasten him indeed, but in love, not 
 in anger? This is Luther's interpre- 
 tation : "This he regards not, nay 
 will readily suffer that he be punished 
 and chastened : but he begs that it may 
 be done in mercy and goodnes^;, 
 not in anger and fury ... he teaches 
 us therefore that there are two rods of 
 God ; one of mercy and goodness, 
 another of anger and fury. Hence 
 Jeremiah prays, chap, x, 24, 'O Lord, 
 correct me, but with judgement ; not 
 in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to 
 nothing.' " But though there is nothing 
 against this view considered in itself, 
 yet it does not hannonize with the 
 context ; for the Psalmist prays that 
 the rod may altogether be removed, 
 and that because body and mind are 
 alike giving way. The chastisement 
 has been so heavy, and has endured 
 so long, and his own sense of sin is so 
 grievous, that he begins to fear lest 
 God should shut up His tender mercies 
 in displeasure, and should consume 
 him in His wrath. 
 
 The meaning, says Calvin, is : "1 
 indeed confess that I deserve nothing 
 but destruction : but because I could 
 not endure the severity of Thy judge- 
 ment, deal not with me after my 
 deserts ; yea rather, forgive the sins 
 whereby I have provoked Thine anger 
 against me. " 
 
 3. But Thou, O Jehovah, how 
 lONG? Deep and troubled emotion 
 suffers him not to complete the sen- 
 
 tence. Perhaps we may supply, "How 
 long wilt Thou delay to liave mercy 
 upon me?" Cf. xc. 13. "Domine quo- 
 usque? " was Calvin's motto. The most 
 intense grief in trouble, it is said, could 
 never extort from him another word. 
 
 4. The beginning of this strophe is 
 closely linked to the end of the last. 
 
 Return ; for it seems to the suf- 
 ferer as if God had been absent during 
 his affliction. And there is no hope 
 for him but in God. Therefore the 
 repeated prayer. Do Thou be gracious 
 unto me : — how long wilt I'hou be 
 absent? Return 7hou, &c. And 
 observe, not only "be gracious, yi;? 1 
 languish" but "dehver me for Thy 
 loving-kindness' sake. " Any man may 
 use the first argument : only one who 
 has tasted that the Lord is gracious 
 can use the last. 
 
 .5. The argument here employed is 
 no doubt characteristic of the Old 
 Dispensation. They who then feared 
 and loved God, nevertheless walked 
 in shadows, and their hope was not 
 yet full of immortality. Hence their 
 earnest clinging to life, so different 
 from St. Paul's "desire to depart," to 
 which there is nothing parallel in the 
 Old Testament. It was not that they 
 dreaded annihilation, but rather a kind 
 of disembodied existence apart from 
 the Light of God's Presence. But we 
 should observe that premature death 
 seems to have been deprecated, as if 
 it were a token of God's displeasure. 
 " I said, O my God, take me not away 
 
PSALM VII. 
 
 31 
 
 6 I am weary with my groaning : 
 
 Every night make I my bed to swim, 
 I water my couch with my tears. 
 
 7 Mine eye wasteth away because of grief, 
 
 It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries. 
 
 8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, 
 
 For Jehovah hath heard the voice of my weeping ; 
 
 9 Jehovah hath heard my supplication, 
 
 Jehovah will receive my prayer. 
 10 All mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed ; 
 They shall turn backward, they shall be ashamed 
 suddenly. 
 
 m the midst of my days," Ps. cii. 24. 
 So also He7.ekiah prays, ' ' Mine age is 
 departed and is removed from me as a 
 shepherd's tent : I have cut off lilie a 
 weaver my life," Is. xxxviii. 12. The 
 Old Testament saint pleaded with 
 God for life, in order that that life 
 might be consecrated to His service. 
 And it is very touching to see how, 
 with the weakness of man's heart 
 trembling at dissolution, there mingles 
 the child-like confidence which fears 
 not to advance the plea that God's 
 glory is concerned in granting its 
 request. 
 
 8 — 10. Mark the sudden change, as 
 of sunrise upon night. Already the 
 prayer and the weeping have been 
 heard. Already Faith has triumphed. 
 Already he can defy the enemies who 
 have been maliciously anticipating his 
 end, and tell them they shall be disap- 
 pointed with a suddenness which only 
 makes the disappointment more bitter. 
 
 9. Hath heard — will receive. 
 The last is a consequence of the first. 
 He will grant, for He has heard. The 
 verb RECEIVE is used here in the 
 sense of favourably accepting, as gifts, 
 offerings, &c. 
 
 PSALM VII. 
 
 " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right .'" might stand as 
 the motto of this Psalm. In full reliance on God's righteousness, 
 David appeals to Him to judge his cause. The righteous God 
 cannot but save the righteous, and punish the vi'icked. This David 
 believes to be the law of His moral government : and he applies 
 it to his ovs-n case. His heart bears him witness that he has done 
 
32 PSALM VIL 
 
 no wrong to any man (ver. 3, 4), whereas his enemies have plotted 
 unceasingly to take away his life. He therefore confidently antici- 
 pates his own deliverance and their overthrow (ver. 17, 18), as the 
 manifestation of the righteous judgement of God. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt that David was (as is stated in the 
 Inscription) the author of this Psalm. Even Ewald, who in so 
 many other cases overthrows the authority of the inscriptions, admits 
 that here it is probably correct. Who Cush was we do not know. 
 Some have supposed that Cush was a sort of nickname or term of 
 reproach ("the Moor") applied to Saul, because of the blackness, 
 not of his face, but of his heart. But this is extremely improbable. 
 Others again have thought that it was intended to designate Shimei. 
 But it is more likely that Cush the Benjamite was one of Saul's 
 adherents, of whom some tradition had been preserved as one of 
 those who took an active part against David. 
 
 The circumstances narrated in i Sam. xxiv. and xxvi. might have 
 occasioned this Psalm. Twice did David spare the life of his enemy 
 when it was in his power to take it ; and Saul himself acknowledged, 
 "Thou art more righteous than I." It was thus that David, "hunted 
 like a partridge of the mountains," by his enemies, and at the same 
 time feeling conscious how little he deserved such persecution at the 
 hands of Saul, appealed to God as the Searcher of hearts to vindicate 
 his innocence and maintain his cause. 
 
 We have the following divisions : — 
 
 I. An Introduction, consisting (i) of an expression of confidence 
 God ; and (2) of a prayer for deliverance from enemies. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 II. A solemn protestation of his innocence before God. Ver. 3 — 5. 
 
 III. An appeal to God as the righteous Judge of all the earth, to 
 manifest in the most public manner (ver. 6, 7) His righteousness in 
 pronouncing sentence both upon himself (ver. 8) and upon his 
 enemies (ver. 9), with a confident assertion (ver. 10) as to the result. 
 Ver. 6 — 10. 
 
 IV. A description of God's dealing with the wicked, (i) in the 
 way of direct punishments, and (2) as leaving the wicked to be 
 snared in his own devices. Ver. 11 — 16. 
 
 V. A short thanksgiving on review of the righteous judgement of 
 God. Ver. 17. 
 
 in 
 
PSALM VII. 33 
 
 [SHIGGAION* OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG UNTO THE LORD, 
 CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH THE BENJAMITE.] 
 
 1 Jehovah, my God, in Thee have I found refuge, 
 
 Save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me ! 
 
 2 Lest he tear my soul, like a lion, 
 
 Rending in pieces, while there is none to deliver. 
 
 3 Jehovah, my God, if I have done this ; 
 
 If there be iniquity in my hands, 
 
 4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace 
 
 with me ; — 
 Yea rather I have rescued him that without cause is 
 mine adversary : — 
 
 5 Let the enemy pursue after my soul and overtake (it) ; 
 
 Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, 
 And make my glory abide in the dust. — [Selah.] 
 
 6 Arise, O Jehovah, in thine anger ; 
 
 I. With that word of Faith, Hope, 8, Gen. xlix. 6, "the scml," as tha* 
 
 and Love, " in Thee have I found which is noblest in man, that which 
 
 refuge," David begins his praj^er. most distinctly severs him from other 
 
 Cf. xi. I, xvi. I, xxxi. I, Ixxi. i. creatures and links him to God, — a 
 
 4. Him THAT WAS AT PEACE WITH Sense which here accords with the 
 ME, cf. xli. lo, Jer. xxxviii. 22. parallelism in the two previous mem- 
 
 Yea RATHER, &c. The allusion bers of the verse, — and then the 
 
 may perhaps be to what is recorded I dust must mean "the grave," or 
 
 Sara. xxiv. 4 — 7- "death," as in xxii. 15, 29. The 
 
 5. The expressions may imply either phrases "to tread down," "lay in 
 the depth of humiliation and degrada- the dust, " may, however, still refer 
 tion, or absolute destruction. to a death of ignominy. 
 
 My glory may either mean (a) as 6 — 8. The rapid utterance of feel- 
 in iv. 2, Job xix. 9, " character, ing has here somewhat broken the 
 good name, honour, position," &c., poet's words. Hitherto he has pro- 
 and then to lay this in the dust will tested his innocence ; now in the full 
 mean of course to degrade and to dis- consciousness of that innocence he 
 honour (as in many similar phrases, comes before the very judgement-seat 
 e.g. Ixxiv. 7, Ixxxrx. 39, Job xvi. 15, of God, and demanxk the fullest and 
 xl. 13) ;or (^) asinxvi. 9, XXX. 12, Ivii. most public vindication. Then he 
 
 See Introduction^ p. 6. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 PSALM VII. 
 
 Lift up Thyself against tlie fierce wrath of mine 
 adversaries, 
 
 Yea awake for me! — Thou hast commanded judge- 
 ment — 
 
 7 And let the congregation of the people come about Thee, 
 
 And over it do Thou return on high. 
 
 8 Jehovah ministereth justice to the peoples : 
 
 Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, 
 And according to my integrity be it done to me. 
 
 9 O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end. 
 
 And establish Thou the righteous ! 
 For Thou that triest the hearts and reins art a 
 righteous God. 
 lo My shield is upon God, 
 
 sees as it were in a vision tlie judge- 
 ment set: "Thou hast commanded 
 judgement.'' Next, that sentence may 
 be pronounced with due solemnity, he 
 calls upon God to gather the nations 
 round Him, and to seat Himself upon 
 His judgement-throne. Lastly, he 
 prays God, as the Judge of all nations, 
 to judge himself 
 
 6. Lift up Thyself, i.e. manifest 
 Thyself in all Thy glory of God ; 
 spoken as Judge, cf xciv. 2, Is. 
 xxxiii. 10. 
 
 7- I have ventured to follow Men- 
 delssohn in his translation : 
 
 " Versammle Volker um dein Rich- 
 terthron, i 
 
 Und wende dich gen Himmel iiber 
 sie." 
 
 This, though not quite literal, is less 
 harsh and bald than the literal ren- 
 dering, " And let the congregation of 
 the people coftipass Thee about," i.e. 
 let there be a solemn, deliberate, 
 and public vindication of my inno- 
 cence. 
 
 Over it, &e. God is represented 
 as coming down to visit the earth, and 
 to gather the nations before Him, and 
 
 then as returning and sitting down 
 above them on the judgement-seat. 
 
 The clause cannot mean that when 
 God has delivered His judicial sen- 
 tence, He is to return to His heavenly 
 throne (Wordssvorth). According to 
 this explanation, the words "over it," 
 i.e. the congregation of the people, are 
 pointless, and, moreover, the whole 
 verse evidently describes the act of 
 judgement, the crowd assembled to 
 hear the sentence, and then the de- 
 livery of the sentence. The verb 
 RETURN may mark that God has 
 resumed the office of judge, which for 
 a time He had seemed to abandon ; 
 or it may be explained as above. 
 
 8. We may paraphrase ' ' O Thou 
 who art the Judge of all the world, 
 judge me." 
 
 9. Wickedness of the wicked. 
 Comp. I Sam. xxiv. 13, to which there 
 may possibly be an allusion. The 
 second clause of the verse does in 
 fact (though not in form) give the 
 reason for the prayer contained in the 
 first clause. God " knoweth the 
 hearts," and being a God of know- 
 ledge is also a God of justice. He 
 therefore both can and will requite 
 each one according to his deserts. 
 
PSALM VI II. 3S 
 
 Who saveth them that are upright of heart. 
 
 11 God is a righteous Judge, 
 
 And a God who is angry every day. 
 
 12 If (a man) will not turn, He whetteth His sword ; 
 
 He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. 
 
 13 Yea for that man He hath made ready the weapons of 
 
 death ; 
 His arrows He maketh fiery (arrows). 
 
 14 Lo, he travaileth with iniquity : — 
 
 He hath both conceived mischief and brought forth 
 falsehood. 
 
 15 He hath digged a pit and hollowed it out; 
 And falleth into the pitfall of his making. 
 
 16 His mischief shall return upon his own head ; 
 
 And his violent dealing shall come down upon his 
 own pate. 
 
 17 O, let me give thanks to Jehovah according to His 
 
 righteousness : 
 And let me sing praise to the Name of Jehovah 
 Most High. 
 
 II — 16. God's dealing with the un- will again whet His sword. " And the 
 
 righteous vividly portrayed. first member of verse 13 will then be 
 
 11. Angry, the same word as Nah. rendered; "He hath also prepared 
 i. 2, 6. for Himself the weapons of death," 
 
 12. God is long-suffering, but if a &c. 
 
 man (if the wicked) will not turn. He 13. Yea for {i.e. against) that 
 
 will punish him in his wickedness. man (the pron. is placed first as em- 
 
 He whktteth His sword (cf. Deut. phatic) He hath (already) aimed the 
 
 xxxii. 41). The first member of this instruments of death, 
 
 verse might however be rendered, in 14. Not only the justice of God 
 
 accordance with a well-known He- punishes, but the wickedness of the 
 
 brew idiom, "Surely He {i.e. Jehovah) wicked effects his own destruction. 
 
 PSALM vni. 
 
 A Psalm of David — written by him perhaps, when, yet a youth, 
 he kept his father's flock on the hills of Bethlehem. Or if composed 
 in later years, not composed surely without many a thought of those 
 happier days, when the heavens by night first spake to him of the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PSALM VIII. 
 
 glory of God, We seem to see him in his lonely watchings, now 
 casting a vigilant glance around him lest any beast of prey threaten 
 "those few sleep in the wilderness," and now lifting a loving and 
 observant eye to heaven ; and as the bright stars come out one after 
 another in that Eastern sky, with a brilliancy and splendour almost 
 unimaginable to us, his heart fills with the thought that it is Jehovah 
 the God of Israel who has set His glory there, to be seen of all eyes 
 and to be praised even by the tongues of children. 
 
 But from heaven his thoughts turn again to earth, from the glory 
 of God to man formed to acknowledge that glory. And his first 
 thought is, as it must be in any case, an humbhng one. What is man, 
 man in his frailty, his littleness, his sin ? What is man in His sight 
 who made yon heavens and planted in them those glittering orbs ? 
 And then there comes a correcting thought, the thought of man's 
 greatness and dignity, as made in the image of God, and appointed 
 by Him to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth : " Thou 
 hast put all things under his feet." 
 
 It is evident from his words that the story of creation as given in 
 Gen. i. was before his mind. The pious shepherd boy had treasured 
 and pondered in his heart of hearts that record so sublime in its sim- 
 plicity ; the royal singer had often read it when his eyes prevented 
 the night watches that they might be occupied in God's word. 
 
 The Messianic import of the Psalm is not of a direct kind. It is, 
 however, necessarily implied in that mysterious relation of man to 
 God and that kingship over the inferior creatures of which the Psalm 
 speaks, for this rests upon the Incarnation. Man is what he is, 
 because the Son of God has taken upon Him man's nature. Man is 
 very near to God, higher than the angels, because the Christ is both 
 God and Man. This is the profound truth on which the Messianic 
 character of the Psalm depends. This truth is the key to its 
 i nterpretation. 
 
 But it does not follow that David saw this distinctly. He takes 
 what must in any case be the religious view of Creation, and of man's 
 relation to God on the one hand, and to the inferior animals on the 
 other. Some interpreters indeed have thought that David is de- 
 scribing, not man's actual position marred and broken by the Fall, 
 but his original condition as created in the image of God. It is the 
 ideal, it is the design and purpose of God, which for the moment 
 hides from his sight the havoc and confusion which have been 
 \rrought by sin, the broken sceptre and the discrowned king. Others, 
 
PSALM VII I. 37 
 
 again, think that the whole Psalm is prophetic, or rather predictive. 
 They conceive that it tells us what man shall be hereafter, redeemed 
 and restored in the Second Adam to his rightful supremacy. 
 
 But the language of the Psalm, taken in its obvious sense, favours 
 neither of these interpretations. David is manifestly speaking of the 
 present. He sees the heavens witnessing for God ; he sees man 
 placed by God as ruler upon earth ; he feels hovs' high an honour has 
 been put upon man ; he marvels at God's grace and condescension. 
 Man is king, however his authority may be questioned or defied. 
 
 When we turn to the New Testament where verses of this Psalm 
 are twice applied to Christ (besides our Lord's own quotation of 
 ver. 2, St. Matt. xxi. i6) we see at once the principle on which the 
 quotations rest. It is precisely that which I have already laid down. 
 The Incarnation explains it. In i Cor. xv. 27, St. Paul quotes with a 
 slight change, using the third person instead of the second, the words 
 of ver. 6, " Thou hast put all things under his feet," as describing 
 accurately the complete subjection of the universe to Christ. The 
 words may be true of man, but they are in their highest sense only 
 true of Christ as the Great Head of mankind, and of man only in Him. 
 Similarly the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (ii. 6 — 9) argues that 
 the words " Thou liast put all things under his feet " have not yet been 
 literally fulfilled of man, and declares that their proper fulfilment is 
 to be seen only in Jesus, whom God had made •' a little lower than 
 the angels," and had " crowned with glory and honour.'' 
 
 [Fob the precentor, upon the gittith.* a psalm of david.] 
 
 I Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all 
 the earth, 
 Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens ! 
 
 I. Our Lord. For the first time appears is, in fact, the thought which 
 
 in the Book of Psalms the personal is the key to the Book of Genesis, and 
 
 feeling is lost sight of in the national. indeed to the whole history of the Old 
 
 Jehovah is not the God of David only, Testament. The God who makes 
 
 but of Israel : fitting prelude to a Himself known to Israel by His Name 
 
 Psalm which forgets the individual in Jehovah, as their Redeemer, is the 
 
 the contemplation of God's glory in God who created the heavens and laid 
 
 theuniverse. The thought which here the foundations of the earth. 
 
 * The same as in Pss. Ixxxi. — Ixxxiv. — either ^n instrument which took its name from the 
 city of Gath, as there was an Egyptian flute, and a Doric lyre ; or a kind of measure or 
 melody (as the Greeks had Lydian, Dorian, &c. ). 
 
38 
 
 PSALM VIII. 
 
 2 Out of the mouth of children and sucklings Thou hast 
 
 founded strength, 
 Because of Thine adversaries, 
 That Thou mightest still the enemy and the avengei. 
 
 3 When I see Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, 
 
 The moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained ;— 
 
 4 What is man, that Thou art mindful of him. 
 
 And the son of man, that Thou visitest him ? 
 
 2. Children, not " babes," as the 
 E. V. ; they are more advanced in age 
 than the sucklings ; so that there is 
 a kind of climax, " not children only 
 but sucklings." As Hebrew mothers 
 did not wean their children till they 
 were three years old, this is no mere 
 figui-e of speech. 
 
 When expositors introduce here the 
 teaching of I Cor. i. 26 — 28, they 
 depart from the simple language of 
 the Psalm. David speaks literally of 
 children. And so our Lord Himself 
 applies the words. Malt. xxi. 16. 
 Even the faith of a little child is 
 bulwark enough against the folly of 
 men of corrupt heart and perverted 
 intellect. The stars above, and the 
 lips of infants below, show forth His 
 praise. 
 
 The enemy and the avenger 
 occurs again, xliv. 16. "Avenger" 
 in modem English hardly conveys the 
 sense of the Hebrew word ; it denotes 
 ' ' one who thirsts for or breathes re- 
 venge, one who is swift to avenge his 
 own quarrel." 
 
 3. David has spoken generally of 
 the glory of Jehovah, as seen in the 
 earth and the heavens, and which, is 
 so conspicuous that even children can 
 discern and acknowledge it ; he now 
 passes to a particular instance of its 
 manifestation, and one of the most 
 impressive, and draws thence the 
 lesson of God's marvellous condescen- 
 sion. 
 
 4. What is man. The first feeling 
 
 I is an overpowering sense of man's 
 I insignificance in presence of the vast- 
 ness and splendour, the mysterious 
 depth, and the exceeding glory of the 
 heavens, as seen at night. "The 
 1 vault of the sky arched at a vast and 
 ! unknown distance over our heads ; the 
 \ stars apparently infinite in number, 
 \ each keeping its appointed place and 
 course, and seeming to belong to a 
 wide system of things which has no 
 , relation to the earth ; while man is 
 '. but one arhong many millions of the 
 earth's inhabitants ; — all this makes 
 the contemplative spectator feel how 
 ; exceedingly small a portion of the 
 universe he is ; how little he must be 
 in the eyes of an Intelligence which 
 can embrace the whole." Add to 
 this revelation of darkness the revela- 
 tion of silence : the man is alone ; the 
 stir and noise of his own works, which 
 in the light of day filled and absorbed 
 him, are hushed and buried in dark- 
 ness ; his importance is gone ;— and 
 /'every person in every age and 
 country will recognize as irresistibly 
 natural the train of thought expressed 
 by the Hebrew Psalmist." It is need- 
 less to remark, if this be the feeling of 
 the untaught mind, how infinitely the 
 impression must be deepened in one 
 who looks upon the universe with the 
 aid of astronomical discovery and 
 theory. Such a person may well feel 
 " lost, confounded, overwhelmed, with 
 the vastness of the spectacle" . . . 
 " the distance between him and ihe 
 
PSALM VIII. 
 
 39 
 
 5 Yea, Thou hast made him a little lower than God, 
 
 And Thou crownest him with glory and honour. 
 
 6 Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of 
 
 Thy hands ; 
 Thou hast put all things under his feet ; 
 
 7 Sheep and oxen, all of them, 
 
 Yea, and the beasts of the field, 
 
 8 The fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea, 
 
 (And whatsoever) passeth through the paths of the seas. 
 
 9 Jehovah our Lord, 
 
 How excellent is Thy Name in all the earth ! 
 
 Creator appears to be increased be- 
 yond measure by this disclosure. It 
 seems as if a single individual could have 
 no chance and no claim for the regard 
 of the Ruler of the whole. " ( Whew- 
 ell, Astronomy, &c. Bookiii. chap, iii.) 
 Man. The Hebrew word denotes 
 man in his weakness and frailty (see 
 ix. 19, 2o), as in the next member 
 SON OF MAN (son of Adam) refers also 
 to his earthly nature as formed out of 
 the ground. 
 
 5. But through God's marvellous 
 condescension how great is man, little 
 less than Divine in nature, and lord of 
 all creation. 
 
 A LITTLE LOWER, lit. " And Thou 
 hast made him to want but little (or, 
 to come short but little) of God. " 
 
 Glory and honour, a common 
 expression for the Divine majesty, and 
 thence for the kingly as a reflection 
 of the Divine. The former word 
 etymologically means dignity, as that 
 which is weighty ; the latter represents 
 the external show and splendour. 
 
 6. Man is a king. God has put a 
 crown upon his head, and not only so, 
 but has given him a territory and 
 subjects. " All things under his feet," 
 with evident reference to the " let them 
 have dominion," of Gen. 1.26. What 
 David means by all " things " is then 
 explained — beasts, birds, and fishes, 
 which are in the same manner enume- 
 
 rated in Gen. i. St. Paul, however, ex- 
 tends the meaning of the "all things" 
 far beyond this. Jesus, as the true 
 Lord of all, shall have a universal 
 dominion. He must reign till He have 
 put all enemies under His feet. But 
 as yet we see not all things put under 
 Him. Sin, and death, and hell are 
 up in arms against Him, and these 
 are jiet to be subdued. Death, says 
 the Apostle, is the last enemy which 
 shall be destroyed. It is evident, 
 then, that David's "all things" and 
 Paul's "all things" are not-the same. 
 The one is thinking of the visible 
 world, the other of the invisible. The 
 one is praising God for His goodness 
 to man in making him lord over beasts, 
 and birds, and fishes ; the other is 
 thinking of a conflict with princi- 
 palities and powers, which Christ 
 conquers and which man can only 
 conquer in Christ. The one speaks 
 of that which is, the other of that 
 which is to come. 
 
 9. The Psalm closes with the same 
 expression of loving admiration with 
 which it opened, but with added em- 
 phasis after the singer has told the 
 tale of God's goodness to man : just 
 as the repetition of a passage in music 
 falls more sensibly on the ear, and 
 touches the heart with quicker emo- 
 tions, than the same passage when it 
 first occurs. 
 
40 PSALM IX. 
 
 A thousand years later other shepherds were keeping watch over 
 their flocks by night on the same hills of Bethlehem, while the same 
 stars looked down upon them from heaven. But a brighter glory than 
 the glory of the stars shone round about them ; and they knew better 
 than David himself the meaning of David's words, " Lord, what is 
 man that Thou art mindful of him ? " For to them it was said by the 
 angel, " Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, 
 which is Christ the Lord." 
 
 PSALM IX. 
 
 A THANKSGIVING to God, the righteous Judge, who punishes the 
 wicked and defends the cause of the oppressed. Throughout, with the 
 exception of verses 13, 14 (see note there), the Psalm is one continued 
 strain of triumph. Hence, by many it has been regarded as ii song 
 of victory, composed perhaps by David at the conclusion of the Syro- 
 Aramonite war, or after one of his victories over the Philistines. 
 
 From the times of the LXX. this Psalm has often been considered 
 as forming one poem with the Psalm immediately following. This 
 has arisen probably from the fact that the Tenth Psalm has no super- 
 scription-, an uncommon thing in the First Book, as well as from 
 the alphabetical arrangement, partially at least discernible in both 
 Psalms, and certain phrases and turns of expression found in 
 both, and not found elsewhere. But this last circumstance only 
 proves that the two Psalms are to be referred to the same 
 author, not that they originally constituted one Poem. And the 
 alphabetical arrangement is exceedingly imperfect, especially in the 
 Tenth Psalm ; nor does it properly complete the defective portion 
 of Psalm ix. Whereas, if we look to the general character of the 
 two, — the first, all triumph and hope ; the last, all prayer against 
 the deeds of violence and blood, which the poet mourns over, — the 
 Hebrew division must certainly be allowed to have much in its favour. 
 
 The strophical arrangement is as follows : — 
 
 L (Aleph) Resolve to praise Jehovah. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 II. (Beth, Gimel, He) Reason for thisr viz. His righteousne.ss as 
 manifested (a) personally, Ver. 3, 4. {d) generally. Ver. 5, 6. 
 
PSALM IX. 41 
 
 III. (Vau) Moreover, Jehovah is the only tnae and everlasting 
 Judge (ver. 7, 8), and therefore not only the destroyer of the wicked, 
 but the fortress of those that ti"ust in Him. Ver. 9, 10. 
 
 IV. (Zain) An exhortation to praise Jehovah because of this His 
 righteousness. Ver. 11, 12. 
 
 V. (Cheth) Prayer that this righteousness may be manifested to the 
 singer himself personally. Ver. 13, 14. 
 
 VI. (Teth) The destruction of the nations, by being taken in their 
 own devices, a witness to God's righteousness. Ver. 15, 16. 
 
 VII. (Yod) Further amplification of this destruction as contrasted 
 with the hope of the poor. Ver. 17, 18. 
 
 VIII. (Koph) A prayer that God would yet again declare the 
 majesty of His righteousness, as He had already done in times past. 
 Ver. 19, 20. 
 
 [for the precentor, to the tune "death of the son." 
 
 A PSALM of DAVID.] 
 
 (Aleph) I I WILL give thanks unto Jehovah with my 
 whole heart, 
 I will tell of all Thy wonderful works ; 
 2 I will be glad and exult in Thee, 
 
 I will sing to Thy Name, O Thou Most High; 
 (Beth) 3 Because mine enemies are turned backward, 
 
 (Because) they stumble and perish at Thy 
 presence. 
 4 For Thou hast maintained my right and my 
 cause. 
 Thou hast sat down on (the) throne, a 
 righteous Judge. 
 
 (Gimel) 5 Thou hast rebuked (the) nations. Thou hast 
 destroyed the wicked ; 
 Their name Thou hast blotted out for ever 
 and ever. 
 
 1,2. In this first strophe each line The verb is from the same root as the 
 
 begins with the first letter of the noun mizmor, " a psalm, " and means 
 
 alphabet (Aleph). both "to sing," and " to play." 
 
 2. Sing, rendered in our P. B. V. 4. Maintained my right, lit. 
 
 "sing psalms" (E.V. "sing praises"). "executed my judgement." 
 
42 PSALM IX. 
 
 (He) 6 The enemy is cut off,— they are perpetual ruins ; 
 
 And cities which Thou hast rooted out, — the' 
 very memorial of them is perished. 
 (Vau) 7 And Jehovah sitteth (as King) for ever, 
 
 He hath prepared His throne for judgement: 
 
 8 And He will judge the world in righteousness. 
 
 He will minister justice to the peoples in up- 
 rightness, 
 
 9 That so Jehovah may be a high tower to them 
 
 that are crushed, 
 A fortress in times of trouble, 
 lo And they who know Thy Name shall trust in 
 Thee, 
 Because Thou hast not forsaken them that seek 
 Thee, O Jehovah. 
 
 fZain) 1 1 Sing ye to Jehovah, who dwelleth in Zion, 
 Declare among the peoples His doings ; 
 12 For He who requireth blood remembereth them. 
 He hath not forgotten the cry of the afflicted. 
 
 8. He (emphatically) and not any quisition for blood " (E.V.), i.e. "de- 
 human judge; the world shall yet see mandeth satisfaction for bloodshed." 
 a rule of righteousness. This is God's character, as opposed to 
 
 g. That so, i.e. by virtue of His the scoff of the wicked, " He requir- 
 
 righteous exercise of judgement. May eth not," a. 4, 13 (where the same 
 
 BE, or rather May become, i.e. verb is used). Like the Goel, the 
 
 " prove Himself to be " a place of next of kin, who was bound to avenge 
 
 refuge and security. the murder of his kinsman, so God 
 
 10. Them that seek Thee, not calls the murderer to account, requires 
 to, be paraphrased coldly, that honour satisfaction at his hand. Gen. ix. 5, 
 Thee, worship Thee, &c. They who Deut. xviii. 19, and in a spiritual sense, 
 seek God seek Him for Himself ; not Ezek. xxxiii. 6, 8, xxxiv. 10. 
 
 like the worshipers of heathen deities. Them, i.e. "the afflicted," in the 
 
 who ask for other things of their gods next clause, the pronoun being placed 
 
 — wealth, honour, power, &c. first emphatically. 
 
 11. Jehovah dwells in Zion. There The afflicted. This seems at 
 is the visible seat of His dominion — least the primaiy notion of the word 
 but that dominion extends to the and its kindred form, though they ac- 
 whole earth, — therefore "publish quire also a moral signification, " the 
 among the nations His doings." Je- meek, the humble." The agHcted m. 
 hovah is " the Dweller in Zion " since the first instance would be the faithful 
 the ark was brought thither, Ixxvi. 2. part of the nation persecuted and op- 
 
 12. Requireth, or, " maketh in- pressed by the ungodly and the power- 
 
PSALM IX. 43 
 
 (Cheth) 13 Be gracious unto me, O Jehovah, 
 
 See mine affliction (which I suffer) from them 
 
 that hate me, 
 O Thou that liftest me up from the gates of 
 Death, 
 14 That so I may tell all Thy praise in the gates 
 of the daughter of Zion, 
 That I may exult in Thy saving help. 
 
 (Teth) 15 The nations have sunk down in the pit that 
 they made, 
 In the net which they hid is their own foot 
 taken. 
 16 Jehovah hath made Himself known. He hath 
 executed judgement ; 
 In the work of His own hands doth He snare 
 the wicked. [Higgaion — Selah.] 
 
 (Yod) 17 The wicked must return to the unseen world, 
 (Even) all the nations that forget God. 
 
 ful, and (2) the nation itself, trodden thought of God as the avenger of all 
 
 down by foreign tyrants. In either the oppressed, naturally drew forth 
 
 case it is they who through this very the prayer that Fie would look gra- 
 
 discipline learn meekness, submission, ciously upon the Psalmist himself, 
 resignation, who " in patience possess 14. In the gates, &c. As the 
 
 their souls. " In scarcely any instance most public place of concourse, this 
 
 is the primary meaning altogether in being in the East what the iriofi. was 
 
 abeyance. In Num. xii. 3, where our to the Greeks, and the forum to the 
 
 Version has "Now the man Moses Romans. 
 
 was very »zf^^," &c. the other render- 17. Must return. Not "be 
 
 ing, affliiied, is certainly more in har- turned" as E.V. The Biblical idea 
 
 mony with the context. (See also is that of a returning to the dust. 
 
 Num. xi. II — 15, Deut. i. 12.) And taken from the original passage in 
 
 so Luther: "Der Mann ■^zx geplagt Gen. iii. 19. Cf Job xxx. 23, of a 
 
 vor alien Menschen." return to Sheol (i.e. Hades, the unseen 
 
 13, 14. These two verses, accord- world), as here and Ps. xc. 3 : " Thou 
 
 ing to Delitzsch, contain the cry of the makest man return to destruction," 
 
 afflicted. If we take them as the expressions only to be explained by 
 
 prayer of the singer himself, they dis- the dimness which then hung over the 
 
 turb, he thinks, the unity of the grave and the life beyond it. The 
 
 Psalm, and interfere awkwardly with meaning is, that even now, before the 
 
 its general strain of triumph. But eyes of men, God's righteousness shall 
 
 this sudden change of feeling is not be seen in cutting off the wicked 
 
 uncommon in the Psalms ; and the by a sudden and premature end, 
 
44 PSALM X. 
 
 (Caph) 1 8 For not fcr ever shall the poor be forgotten ; 
 
 The hope of the afflicted shall not perish 
 eternally. 
 (Koph) 19 Arise, O Jehovah, let not mortal man be strong. 
 Let the nations be judged in Thy sight. 
 20 Put them in fear, O Jehovah ; 
 
 Let the nations know that they are but 
 mortal men. [Selah.] 
 
 and helping and exalting the right- He Is,— the Judge of the earth, with 
 
 g^us. reference perhaps to Num. *. 35. U. 
 
 19. Arise. A solemn appeal to Ps. iii. 7, vii. 6. 
 God to show Himself to be that which 
 
 PSALM X. 
 
 The Psalmist calls upon God to chastise the unbridled insolence 
 and scorn of the wicked. These have reached such a pitch, that it 
 seems as if God winked at evil. Men are not only doing wickedness, 
 but boasting of their wickedness, and, finding that justice does not 
 overtake them, are acting as if in the conviction that there is no God. 
 The prosperity (ver. 5), security (ver. 6), insolence (ver. 4, 11), deceit 
 (ver. 7), and violence (ver. 8—10) of these despisers of God is vividly 
 portrayed. The Psalm concludes with the triumphant assertion of 
 faith, that despite all seeming disorders, Jehovah is King, and that 
 He does hear and answer the cry of the oppressed. 
 
 It is impossible to say to what period of Jewish history the Psalm 
 is to be referred. The state of society which it supposes is peculiar. 
 The violent oppressors belonged apparently to heathen nations, who 
 had not yet been finally driven out of the land, but whose speedy 
 destruction the poet t.nticipates (ver. 76). Compare Psalm ix. 15, 16. 
 In that Psalm, too, in a still more marked manner than in this, 
 '' the wicked " and " the (heathen) nations " are identified. See ver. 
 S, 17, 19, 20. The only limit of tinie is that furnished by Psalm ix. 
 II, 14, from which it is certain that the Ark had already been placed 
 on Mount Zion. 
 
 On the connection between these two Psalms see the Introduction 
 to Psalm ix. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : 
 
PSALM X. 45 
 
 I. The first contains a forcible description of the wicked in the 
 full maturity both of his impiety and of his power, together with a 
 complaint to God against him. Ver. i — ii. 
 
 II. The second is an appeal to God to arise and show Himself the 
 avenger of the oppressed and the destroyer of the proud. Ver. 12 
 
 I. I Why, O Jehovah, standest Thou afar off 1 
 
 (Why) hidest Thou (Thine eyes) in times of 
 trouble } 
 
 2 Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted is 
 
 hotly vexed ; 
 They are taken in the devices they have imagined. 
 
 3 For the wicked boasteth of his soul's desire, 
 
 And he blesseth the robber ; he despiseth Jehovah. 
 
 4 The wicked, such is his scornfulness, (saith) " He 
 
 requireth not." 
 " There is no God," is the sum of his devices. 
 
 5 His ways are sure at all times : 
 
 Thy judgements are far above out of his sight : 
 As for all his adversaries, he puffeth at them. 
 
 1. Standest . . . afar off, i.e. the words 'of the evil-doer, accords 
 like an idle passive spectator, un- better with the clause following, and 
 concerned at the misery which he sees also with the similar expression, ver. 
 but refuses to relieve. Seexxii. i, ii— 13, " He hath said in his heart. Thou 
 19; XXXV. 22 ; xxxviii. II — 21. wilt not require." 
 
 HiDEST, viz. "Thine eyes." So There is KG God : not that he is 
 
 the ellipse is to be supplied. See Is. Uterally an atheist, but that the whole 
 
 i. 15. The same phrase is used of of his conduct, all his purposes and 
 
 men who leave wickedness unpunished schemes, are carried on as if there 
 
 (Lev. XX, 4; I Sam. xii. 3), or who were no God, — in a practical itmaX of 
 
 disregard the misery of others (Prov. His existence. See xiv. i. Others 
 
 xxviii. 27). render: " All his /i4^«^^fe are. There 
 
 2. The AFFLICTED or ' ' humble." is no God ; " but the noun properly 
 See on ix. 12. means schemes, devices, rather than 
 
 4. All the older versions render, thoughts, 
 " the wicked in (or, according to) his 5. Far above. The expression is 
 
 pride (lit height of his nostril) will just the opposite to xviii. 22, " all His 
 
 not inquire," viz. after God — never judgements are before me; "whereas 
 
 troubles himself, that is, whether God they are so far out of the sight of the 
 
 approves his conduct or not. But the wicked, that he acts as if they could 
 
 other interpretation, which makes the never reach him. See Job xxii. 12, 
 
 words " He {i.e. God) will not require" &c. 
 
46 PSALM X. 
 
 6 He saith in his heart : " I cannot be moved ; 
 
 From one generation to another I shall have no 
 misfortune." 
 
 7 Of cursing is his mouth full, of deceit and oppression. 
 
 Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. 
 
 8 He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages, 
 
 In secret corners doth he slay the innocent ; 
 His eyes are privily set against the helpless. 
 
 9 He lurketh in his hiding-place, as a lion in his lair ; 
 
 He lurketh to catch the afflicted ; 
 
 He doth catch the afSicted, drawing him in his net. 
 
 10 So he is crushed, sinks down and falls ; 
 
 The helpless (perish) by means of his strength. 
 
 11 He saith in his heart : " God hath forgotten ; 
 
 He hath hidden His fase ; He will never see it." 
 
 n. (Koph) 12 Arise, O Jehovah! O God, lift up Thine 
 hand ! 
 Forget not the afflicted. 
 1 3 Wherefore should the wicked despise God .' 
 
 7. Cursing ; apparently, from villages are meant the haunts of the 
 what follows, " perj ury " (though the robbers themselves, the places miO/iaVA 
 ■woxA. does not of itself mean this), they lurlced, not against which they 
 reckless false swearing in order to formed their designs ; nomad en- 
 effect his evil purposes. See lix. campments of predatory Bedouins 
 12, and Hos. iv. 2, in both which who thence fell upon helpless tra- 
 passages the same words " swearing vellers. This last seems more pro- 
 and lying" occur together, as here bable. Compare Gen. xxv. 16. 
 
 " swearing and deceit. " 9. There is some confusion in the 
 
 Under his tongue, — ^not to be metaphors employed. The wicked is 
 
 explained by a reference to the poison- compared first to the lion watching 
 
 bag of serpents, because the same for his prey, and then to the hunter 
 
 phrase occurs also in a good sense, taking wild animals in his net. Where- 
 
 Ixvi. 17, Cant. iv. Ii. Just in the as, again in ver. 10 we seem to have 
 
 same sense, "upon the tongue," xv. the image of the wild beast crushmg 
 
 3, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. his prey. 
 
 8. Villages. The word is ex- 12 — 18. Second principal division 
 plained, Lev. xxv. 31, to mean a coUec- of the Psalm, in which the poet (l) 
 tion of houses not inclosed within a cries earnestly to God for help and van- 
 wall. But it is doubtful whether thevil- geance upon his enemies (12 — I5);and 
 lages are mentioned because, fromtheir then (2) expresses bis confidence that 
 defenceless state, it was easier there to his prayer has been heard {l6 — 18), 
 plunder and kill; or whether by these 13. The argument is that God's 
 
PSALM X. 
 
 47 
 
 (Wherefore should he) say in his heart, " Thou 
 wilt not require (it) " ? 
 (Resh) 14 Thou hast seen (it) ; for Thou considerest mis- 
 chief and vexation, 
 That (men) may put(the matter) intoThyhand. 
 The helpless leaveth (it) to Thee : 
 
 Thou hast been the helper of the orphan. 
 (Shin) 15 Break Thou the arm of the wicked; and as for 
 the evil man, 
 When his wickedness is sought for, let it no 
 more be found. 
 16 Jehovah is King for ever and ever : 
 The nations have perished out of His land. 
 
 honour is concerned in the reproach 
 which is brought against it by the 
 success of the wiclced. 
 
 Wherefore should, &c. lit. 
 " Wherefore hath the wicked despised 
 God?" 
 
 14. Thou hast seen (it). An 
 emphatic energetic protest against the 
 words immediately preceding, and 
 also with a reference to the " He 
 will never see," ver. 11, throwing 
 back the word in the mouth of the 
 wicked. (Cf. xxxv. 22.) There is 
 a time coming, he feels assured, when 
 all this disorder will be set right. 
 God is not the passive spectator of 
 human affairs which these men deem 
 Him. He "considers" [i,e, regards 
 with interest and sympathy) what is 
 going on. See the same word, xxxiii. 
 13, Ixxx. 14, Hab. i. 3, 13, and in 
 many other passages. The helpless, 
 therefore, may leave all to God ; — 
 and with the more confidence, because 
 God has been the helper of those who, 
 like the orphan, are deprived of human 
 protectors. This appeal to past ex- 
 periences is always a ground of con- 
 fidence. The road we are now travel- 
 ling may be very dark, but let us look 
 back, and on some spot which we have 
 passed we shall see the light shining. 
 
 15. When his wickedness, &c. 
 Ordinarily such an expression might 
 seem to denote a wish that his wicked- 
 ness should be forgiven on repentance, 
 but that clearly is not the sense here. 
 The meaning must be, "Let the 
 wicked and his wickedness disappear, 
 so that even when sought for it cannot 
 be found." " To seek and not find" 
 is a proverbial expression, signifying 
 that an object has utterly perished or 
 disappeared, so as to leave no trace of 
 its existence. See xxxvii. 36, Is. xli. 
 12. 
 
 1 6. The triumph of faith, which, 
 knowing that Jehovah is King, already 
 sees by anticipation His righteous 
 judgement executed. The bold 
 plunderers who have so long infested 
 the land are already swept away, says 
 the singer, so sure is he of the issue. 
 The land, which is Jehovah's land, 
 must "be purged of all evil-doers," 
 as once of the Canaanites, who were 
 driven out. Israel may be " mightily 
 oppressed," as by Sisera of old, but 
 God will hear his cry, and give 
 strength to his trembling heart (ver. 
 17), and so manifest His power that 
 these tyrants who, with all their boast- 
 ing, are but weak mortal men (ver. 18), 
 shall no longer oppress His people. 
 
48 PSALM XI. 
 
 (Tau) \^ The desire of the afflicted hast Thou heard, 
 Jehovah ; 
 Thou estabHshest their heart ; 
 Thine ear hearkeneth (unto them), 
 1 8 That Thou mayest judge (the cause of) the orphan 
 and the oppressed, 
 So that mortal man of the earth may no more 
 terrify. 
 
 PSALM XI. 
 
 The singer is in danger of his life ; and timorous and faint-hearted 
 counsellors would fain persuade him to seek safety in flight. But, 
 full of unshaken faith in God, he rejects their counsel, believing 
 that Jehovah the righteous King, though He tries His servants, does 
 not forsake them. Not the righteous, but the vcicked have need to 
 fear. The Psalm is so short and so general in its character, that it 
 is not easy to say to what circumstances in David's life it should 
 be referred. The choice seems, however, to lie between his perse- 
 cution by Saul and the rebellion of his son Absalom. Dehtzsch 
 decides for the last, and thinks the counsel (ver. i), " flee to your 
 mountain," comes from the mouth of friends who were anxious to 
 persuade the king to betake himself, as he had before done when 
 hunted by Saul, to " the rocks of the wild goats " (i Sam. xxiv. 2). 
 It is in favour, to some extent, of this view that the expression in 
 ver. 3, " when the foundations are destroyed," points to a time when 
 lawful authority was subverted. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two strophes, which may be briefly charac- 
 terised : — 
 
 I. The timid counsels of the faint-hearted. Ver. i — 3. 
 II. The answer of faith. Ver. 4 — 7. 
 
 The first strophe, however, it should be observed, opens with the 
 calm assertion of confident trust, before we hear a word of expostu- 
 lation with those whose advice the Psalmist rejects. 
 
PSALM XI. 
 
 49 
 
 [for the precentor, (a psalm) of david.] 
 
 1 In Jehovah have I found refuge: 
 
 How say ye to my soul : i 
 
 " Flee ye to your mountain, (like) a bird ; 
 
 2 For lo ! the wicked bend the bow, 
 
 They have aimed their arrow upon the string, 
 
 To shoot in the dark at them that are upright in heart. 
 
 3 When the foundations are destroyed, 
 
 What can the righteous do 1 " 
 
 4 Jehovah is in His holy temple ; 
 
 Jehovah, — His throne is in heaven: 
 
 I. In Jehovah — under the shadow 
 of His wings (xxxvi. 7) — HAVE I 
 FOUND REFUGE ; I need no other 
 re'uge : how can ye say to me, &c. ; my 
 feet are on the true Rock, why should 
 I look elsewhere for safety ? This is 
 the full force of the expression. There 
 is moreover a force in the perfect, ' ' I 
 have found." It is an exclamaiton of 
 joyful confidence in the thought that 
 he Aas such a refuge, it is not yet to 
 seek. The advice here given and 
 which he repels is that of timid and 
 desponding friends, who would per- 
 suade him that all is lost, and that the 
 highest wisdom is to yield to circum- 
 stances, and to seek safety not in 
 resibtance but iu flight. But in fact 
 ihe voice which thus speaks is the 
 voice of the natural heart, of the selfish 
 and thereiore shortsighted and cow- 
 ardly instinct, which always asks first, 
 rot What is right ? but, What is safe ? 
 The advice may be well meant, but it 
 is unworthy. (Cf. iii. 3, iv. 8.) This 
 is the victory that overcometh the 
 world, even our faith. But it is often 
 a sorer trial for faith to have to with- 
 stand the pleadings of well-meaning 
 friends than to arm itself against 
 open enemies. 
 
 To YOUR mountain. This partly 
 peihaps follows the image of the bird, 
 
 "which, when hunted on the p'ain, 
 betakes itself to the woods and moun- 
 tains " (De Wette) ; but the moun tains, 
 caves, and fastnesses of Palestine 
 would be the natural hiding-place of, 
 persons in danger. {Cf. Judg. vi. 2, 
 I Sam. xiii. 6, i Mace. ii. 28, Matt. 
 xxiv. 16.) 
 
 2. Observe the change of tense : 
 " they are bending ; nay, they Aave 
 already aimed. " The image here used 
 of the bird pursued by the hunters 
 reminds us of what David says to 
 Saul, I Sam. xxvi. 20, " The king 
 hath come to seek me, as when one 
 hunteth a partridge in the mountains. " 
 
 4 — 7. The answer of Faith, the 
 glance directed from earth to heaven, 
 the full trust in the righteous and all- 
 seeing Lord, the confidence that what- 
 ever the apparent confusion and dis- 
 order of the lower world, there is an 
 Eye that sees and a Hand that directs 
 all, that even the suffering of the 
 righteous is part of a Divine purpose 
 of love. 
 
 Holy temple, used not only of 
 the Temple or Tabernacle in Jeru- 
 salem (see on v. 7), but also of the 
 heavenly temple, xviii. 6, xxix. 9, Is. 
 vi., Hab. ii. 20, Mic. i. 2. Here the 
 parallelism would rather favour the 
 latter. 
 
 E 
 
50 PSALM XII. 
 
 His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. 
 
 5 Jehovah trieth the righteous, 
 
 But the wicked and him that loveth violence doth 
 His soul abhor. 
 
 6 May He rain upon the wicked snares, 
 
 Fire and brimstone, and a burning wind, as the por- 
 tion of their cup. 
 
 7 For righteous is Jehovah, He loveth righteousness ; 
 
 They that are upright shall behold His face. 
 
 5. Trieth. The same verb as in 
 the previous verse, but used here in a 
 more definite sense with reference to 
 the result of the trial : puts them into 
 the furnace (the ■viax&. is used of the 
 testing of metals), that they may come 
 forth as pure gold. Cf. xvii. 3, Job 
 xxiii. 10. 
 
 6. The figures in this verse are 
 borrowed from the destruction of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 Snares. The word presents some 
 difficulty. It seems a harsh metaphor 
 to spealc of raining snares, especially 
 in immediate juxtaposition with fire 
 and brimstone. Still we must recollect 
 that the Hebrew poets were not always 
 careful to avoid incongruity of meta- 
 phor. We have immediately follow- 
 ing a metaphor of an entirely different 
 kind, " the portion of their cup." 
 
 7. Thus Faith kindles into Hope. 
 Not only does David make Jehovah 
 his refuge in calamity, but he can 
 rejoice in the thought that he shall 
 behold the face of God, — behold now 
 the light of His countenance even in 
 the midst of gloom and darkness. 
 (Cf iv. 8, xxi. 7.) Did his hope 
 reach beyond this, and are we 
 to suppose that here he looks for- 
 ward to seeing God in the resurrec- 
 tion ? "We cannot tell. But see xvi. 
 II, xvii. 15. To us, however, his 
 words may be the expression of 
 a " hope full of immortality." 
 •' We know that our light affliction 
 worketh out for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glorv." 
 We know that "when He shall 
 appear ... we shall see Him 
 as He is." 
 
 PSALM xn. 
 
 This, according to the title, is one of David's Psalms ; but there 
 is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his 
 history, which can lead us to associate the Psalm with any particular 
 period. Tholuck thinks it is aimed at persons by whom David 
 
PSALM XII. 51 
 
 was surrounded in the court of Saul. Others suppose that it was 
 occasioned by the treachery of the Ziphites, I Sam. xxiii. 19, and 
 xxvi. I, or the treachery of Ahithophel in Absalom's rebellion, 2 Sam. 
 xvii. I. But it is not one or two prominent individuals whose conduct 
 fonns the burden of the Psalmist's complaint. Jie is evidently 
 smarting from the falseness and hypocrisy, of the time. The defection 
 which he deplores is a national defection. Like Elijah in the deserts, 
 he feels himself alone. " There is not one godly man left : the 
 true-hearted are cut off." A taint has spread through society (to use 
 the modern expression, for which the Hebrew poet says, "this 
 generation "). Falsehood is everywhere : truth nowhere. The heart 
 of men is double ; their lips are flattering lips (ver. 3). And whilst 
 they utter slander, hypocrisy, and lies, they boast of their power ; and 
 not only give their tongues licence, but justify the licence : " Our 
 lips are our own ; who is lord over us ?" 
 
 Now this utter hollowness and insincerity are very hard to bear. 
 The few who, in the midst of the general corruption, still retain their 
 integrity are persecuted, and sigh for deliverance. This deliverance 
 is promised them in the form of a Divine interposition. The singer, 
 filled with the Spirit of prophecy, consoles himself, and those afflicted 
 like himself, not in his own words, but in the words of God (ver. 6). 
 And then remembering how pure those words are, how unalterably 
 true — not like the words of men which seem so fair, but are false — he 
 feels that there he can rest, calm in the conviction that, though the 
 wicked walk on every side, Jehovah will save them that love Him 
 from all their machinations (ver. 8). 
 
 Both the circumstances of the Psalmist and his prayer are very 
 similar to what we find in the two immediately preceding Psalms. 
 The belief here expressed as to the overthrow.of the wicked (ver. j — 
 8) may be compared with xi. 5— 7. In the latter passage that belief 
 is based upon God's character as a righteous God. In this Psalm it 
 rests apparently upon a special /rowzz>(?, but in fact upon God's word. 
 But God's word teaches us what God's character is. The difference 
 therefore is formal, nofreal. 
 
 The Psalm then consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. A complaint. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 II. The answer to that complaint. Ver. 5 — 7. 
 
 These two principal sections may be further subdivided as foUovir : — 
 
52 PSALM XII 
 
 L (i) The cry for help because 
 
 (a) good men are nowhere to be found ; and 
 
 (b) lies, and flattery, and insincerity prevail. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 (2) The prayer that flatterers and liars may be destroyed. Ver. 
 
 3,4- 
 
 II. (3) God's promise of help in answer to the cry for help: and 
 the Psalmist's Amen. Ver. 5, 6. 
 
 (4) The assurance and hope built upon the promise. Ver. 7, 8. 
 
 [for the precentor, upon the octave* (a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Save, Jehovah, for the good man ceaseth, 
 
 For the faithful fail from among the children of men. 
 
 2 They speak vanity, every one with his neighbour ; 
 
 With flattering lips and a double heart do they speak. 
 
 3 May Jehovah cut off all flattering lips, 
 
 (And) the tongue that speaketh great things, 
 
 4 Which say : " With our tongue w^e are strong, 
 
 Our lips are our own : who is lord over us .' " 
 
 5 " For the desolation of the aiiSicted, 
 
 For the deep sighing of the poor, 
 
 1. THE GOOD . . . THE FAITHFUL. be a Contradiction in speaking of 
 Amenfolk according to Luther, i.d. flattering lips, and a tongue that 
 those whose heart towards God and speaketh^rfa/, i.e. proud words. But 
 their neighbours is true and earnest, only at first thought. The men here 
 like the Amen of a prayer. described are evidently men occupy- 
 
 2. They speak vanity, i.e. empti- ing a high position, smooth and supple 
 ness, untruth (as xli. 6 ; cxliv. 8, 11). courtiers, perfect in the art of dis- 
 
 EvERY ONE with his NEIGHBOUR. sembling, yet glorying too in their 
 See the exact opposite of this en- power of saying what they list, how- 
 joined, Eph. iv. 25, and the duty ever atrocious the falsehood or the 
 grounded on the fact that we are calumny. 
 
 members one of another. But the 5. A remarkable instance of the 
 
 word "neiglibour" must not be pressed. close affinity between the Poet and 
 
 " Neighbour" and "brother" are used the Prophet among the Hebrews, 
 
 in Hebrew without thinking of the Each, though in different ways, was 
 
 exact relation implied in the words, the teacher of that Eternal Truth whicli 
 
 where weshouldsimplysay" another." he received from God. And this, bj 
 
 3. 4. At first thought thare seems to the way, suggests to us what ever; 
 
 * See note on inscription ot Psalm VI. 
 
PSALM XII. 
 
 53 
 
 Now will I arise,'' saith Jehovah, 
 
 " I will set him in the safety for which he longeth." 
 The words of Jehovah are pare words, 
 
 (Like) silver fined in a furnace in the earth, purified 
 seven times. 
 Thou, O Jehovah, wilt keep them. 
 
 Thou wilt preserve us from this generation for ever. 
 The wicked walk to and fro on every side, 
 
 When a rabble lifts itself up over the children of men. 
 
 true Poet should be. Broadly speak- 
 ing, tlie difference lay here, that the 
 Foet gave utterance to the longings, 
 aspirations, fears, doubts, anxieties of 
 man's heart ; whereas the Prophet 
 was commissioned to address himself" 
 directly to the people, as conveying to 
 them the message of God. Tlie one 
 represented, so to speak, the human 
 side of the truth — what man feels and 
 is ; the other the Divine — what God 
 is and requires. The one speaks for 
 man to God ; the other for God to 
 man. Here, however, David, instead 
 of expressing his own feeling of con- 
 fidence that God will answer him, 
 seems as it were to hear God himself 
 speaking ("Deum ipsum inducit lo- 
 quentem," Calvin). See the prophetic 
 counterpart of this. Is. xxxiii. lo. 
 
 6. The poet dwells on the purity 
 and perfect truth of God's promises, 
 not only as opposed to all lying lips 
 of men (though that, I believe, was in 
 his mind), but also that he may thus 
 more deeply print upon the heart of 
 
 the afflicted the certain fulfilment of 
 the promise. This emphatic assertion 
 was rendered necessary by the wide- 
 spread and apparently long-prevailing 
 corruption. For those who were 
 weak in faith might begin to doubt 
 whether the truth of God itself had 
 not failed. 
 
 7. The. faith and hope which rest 
 upon the fact just before stated, that 
 the words of Jehovah are pure words. 
 
 Them, i.e. "the afflicted and 
 poor," in ver. 5. In the second 
 clause, the pronoun in the He- 
 brew is in the singular used distri- 
 butively, "him," i.e. each one of 
 them. 
 
 This GENERATION, spoken of those 
 who not only live in the same age, 
 but are pervaded by the spirit of that 
 age. So Is. liii. 8. Here, the world 
 as opposed to the Church. 
 
 8. This verse is no doubt perplex- 
 ing ; this return to gloom and doubt is, 
 I Ijelieve, without parallel at tlie con- 
 clusion of a Psalm. 
 
54 PSALM XIII. 
 
 PSALM XIII. 
 
 In this Psalm we see a servant of God long and sorely tried by 
 the persecutions of unrelenting enemies, and, as it seems to himself, 
 forgotten and forsaken of God, pouring out the agony of his soul in 
 prayer. It is a long and weary struggle, it is a daily and houriy 
 martyrdom ; and wrestling with his despair, he can but cry (like the 
 souls under the altar, Rev. vi. lo). How long? And then calmer 
 words of prayer rise to his lips, ver. 3, 4. And at last faith asserts 
 her perfect victory (ver. 5). The rapid transition of feeling, from a 
 depth of misery bordering on despair, to hope, and even joy, is very 
 remarkable. 
 
 We have three strophes : — 
 
 I. The first is "the deep sighing" of a heart overwhelmed with the 
 agony of its despair. Ver, i, 2. 
 
 II. The calmer supplication succeeds, as if the very utterance of 
 its grief had made the burden less. Ver. 3, 4. 
 
 III. Prayer kindles into hope, lighted up with something even of 
 joy. Ver. 5. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 How long-, O Jehovah, wilt Thou forget me for ever } 
 
 How long- wilt Thou hide Thy face from me .'' 
 
 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul, 
 
 I. It is quite unnecessary to point ever ; " and then its hopelessness is 
 
 thus: "How long wilt Thou fbrget changed to expostulation, "How long 
 
 me? for ever?" as if there v/ere two wilt Thou forget me?" We may, if- 
 
 distinct questions. (See the same we choose it, paraphrase, "How long 
 
 double question, Ixxix. 5 ; Ixxxix. 46. ) wilt Thou make as if Thou wouldst 
 
 It is natural to a perturbed and doubt- forget me for ever ? " 
 ing heart thus to express itself, in a 2. The "how long" four times 
 
 confused and almost contradictory repeated ; for the long duration of the 
 
 manner. In its despair it thinks "God conflict is here the sting of the Poet's 
 
 hath forgotten me : " and yet out of grief. 
 
 the very midst of its despair there rises How LONG M UST I take counsel? 
 
 up the conviction, — "No, not for Lit. " put counsels or deliberations in 
 
PSALM XIII. 
 
 55 
 
 (Having) sorrow in my heart daily ? 
 How long shall mine enemy lift up himself against me ? 
 
 3 Consider, — answer me, O Jehovah my God, 
 
 Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the (sleep of) death. 
 
 4 Lest mine enemy say : " I have prevailed against him ; '' 
 
 (Lest) mine adversaries exult because I am moved. 
 
 5 But as for me — in Thy loving-kindness have I trusted ; 
 Let my heart exult in Thy salvation : 
 
 Let me sing to Jehovah, because He hath dealt bounti- 
 fully with me. 
 
 my soul." This strikingly describes 
 the helpless embarrassment of the 
 sufferer. Plan after plan suggests 
 itself, is resolved upon, and then 
 abandoned in despondency as utterly 
 unavailing. WelJ must David have 
 understood what this was, when, 
 hunted by Saul, he knew not where 
 to betake himself, at one time seeking 
 refuge among the Moabites, at another 
 in the wilderness of Ziph ; now an 
 outlaw hiding himself in the cave of 
 Adullam, and anon a captain in the 
 service of the King of the Philistines ; 
 and amid all his projects, haunted by 
 the mournful conviction, " I shall now 
 one day perish by the hand of Saul." 
 Sorrow in my heart. Not 
 only parallel to, but flowing from 
 " counsels in my soul," the burden of 
 a heart saddened by its own thought- 
 fulness. 
 
 3. The lamentation now passes into 
 prayer ; and to the fourfold complaint 
 of the first strophe answers the fourfold 
 petition of the second, though the 
 several members of the one do not 
 exactly correspond to the several mem- 
 bers of the other. 
 
 Consider ; " look upon me," op- 
 posed to the hiding of the face, i b. 
 
 Answer me, opposed to the forget- 
 ting, I a. First, look ; then, hear and 
 succour. " Thus," says Calvin, "does 
 the Holy Ghost purposely accommo- 
 date the forms of prayer to our feel- 
 ings." First, we must have the con- 
 viction that God sees us, and then we 
 can cry to Him ; first the assurance 
 that He is, and then that He is the 
 Rewarder of them that diligently seek 
 Him. 
 
 Lighten mine eyes,* said not of 
 spiritual but of physical support, as is 
 clearfrom what follows, " lest I sleep 
 the sleep of death ; " and also from 
 the other passages where the same 
 idiom occurs, I Sam. xiv. 27 and 29 
 (where the eyes of Jonathan are said 
 to be enlightened, when, after being 
 reduced to the extremity of faintness, 
 he partakes of food). 
 
 5- Supplication passes into the ex- 
 pression of a joyful confidence. Faith, 
 strengthened by prayer, rises above 
 the present with its sorrows, and sees 
 what is not as though it were : and 
 hopes yet to praise God with a song 
 because of His goodness. 
 
 In Thy loving-kindness, not in 
 personal merit, nor in the justice of 
 my cause. 
 
 * It is related that a child scarcely four yeary old (Princess Anne, daughter of Charles T.) 
 died with these words on her lips, "Lighten mine eyes, O Lord God ! and let me not sleep the 
 sleep of death." 
 
56 PSALM XIV. 
 
 PSALM XIV. 
 
 The feeling expressed in this Psalm i^s in some measure the same 
 which, as we have already seen, must have given occasion to the 
 Twelfth Psalm. The singer, keenly alive to the evils of his time, sees 
 everything in the blackest colours. The apostasy is so wide-spread 
 that all are involved in it, except the small remnant (imphed in 
 ver. 4) ; and the world seems again ripe for judgement as in the days 
 of Noah (ver. 2). 
 
 Both in this Psalm and in Psalm xii. the complaint is made that the 
 wicked oppress and devour the righteous, In both, corruption has 
 risen to its most gigantic height, but here the doi?igs of bad men, there 
 their •W07-ds, form the chief subject of complaint. 
 
 There is nothing in the Psalm which can lead us to fix its date or 
 authorship precisely. The feeling is common enough at all times in 
 men of earnest mind. Filled with a holy jealousy for God, no age 
 seems to them so corrupt as their own, because they are engaged in 
 perpetual and, as they are apt to think, hopeless encounter with its 
 evils. Indeed, despair would be the result, did not the promise of the 
 future lift them above the present (ver. 7). 
 
 This Psalm appears again with some variations, especially in ver. 
 5, 6, as Psalm liii. It is not certain which of the two may claim the 
 merit of being the original poem. Its place in the collection may 
 incline us to give this the preference. And the change in the Fifty- 
 third might very well have been introduced to adapt it to the peculiar 
 circumstances of the time. 
 
 The Psalm cannot be broken up into strophes ; but the first verse 
 answers to the third, and the second to the fourth. 
 
 [for the precentor, (a psalm) of david.] 
 I The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. 
 
 I. The FOOI.. Thus the Bible ever fessing themselves to be wise, become 
 
 speaks of those who have cast off tlie fools. Such men, who make a boast 
 
 fear of God. They are those whose of their reason and would fain walk 
 
 understanding is darkened ; who, pro- by the light of their reason, prove how 
 
rSALM XIV. 
 
 57 
 
 Corrupt, abominable are they in their doing ; 
 There is none that doeth good. 
 
 2 Jehovah hath looked down from heaven upon the 
 
 children of men, 
 To see if there be any that hath understanding, 
 That seeketh after God. 
 
 3 They are all turned away, together they have become 
 
 corrupt : 
 There is none that doeth good ; no, not one. 
 
 4 " Have they no knowledge, all the workers of iniquity, 
 
 Who eat my people, (as) they eat bread, 
 (And) call not on Jehovah .? " 
 
 little their reason is worth. The epithet 
 is the more cutting, because persons of 
 this kind generally lay claim to more 
 than ordinary discernment. 
 
 In his heart. Rather a practical 
 than a theoretical atheism ; not so 
 much a denial of the being of a God 
 as a denial of His moral government 
 of the world (cf. x. 5) ; and this evinced 
 in their actions rather than in their 
 words. Their lives show what the 
 thought of their hearts is (as indeed 
 immediately follows). " The fool " is 
 not the philosophic atheist with his 
 arguments ; but the man who by the 
 practice of wickedness so stifles and 
 corrupts within him the knowledge of 
 God that he virtually acknowledges 
 ru3 God. 
 
 2, 3. God appears as Witness and 
 Judge of what is done upon earth. 
 
 Looked down. The word used 
 strictly of looking out of a window, 2 
 Kings ix. 30 ; and again of God look- 
 ing upon tfie earth, cii. 19. As "they 
 have corrupted," reminds us of the 
 Flood ("all flesh hath corrufjted his 
 way on the earth," Gen. vi. 12), so 
 this "looking down" reminds us of 
 the Tower of Babel, Gen. xi. 5. 
 
 3. No, NOT one. " See," says 
 Luther, "how many words he uses 
 
 that he may comprehShd all, excluding 
 none. First he says t?//, th&n together^ 
 and then no, not one." This and the 
 two previous verses are quoted freely 
 by St. Paul (he does not adhere even 
 to the LXX.) in Rom. iii. 10, &c., in 
 proof of his position, that Jews as Well 
 as Gentiles are under sin. As his 
 argument is at this point addressed 
 particularly to the Jew, he reasons, 
 not from the sense of sin or the voice 
 of conscience, but from the Scriptures, 
 whose authority the Jew acknow- 
 ledged. The Jew would, of course, 
 admit the inference as to the state of 
 the Gentile world. 
 
 4. God Himself is introduced as 
 speaking. 
 
 No KNOWLEDGE, used absolutely 
 as in Is. i. 3. "Israel doth not 
 know," is stupid like the brutes. 
 
 Who eat, lit. "who, eating my 
 people, eat bi'ead ; " who so far from 
 being conscious of their guilt, devour 
 the righteous with the same uncon- 
 sciousness with which they would take 
 their accustomed meal. See the figure 
 still further carried out, Mic. iii. i — 3. 
 Cf. also for similar expressions, Jer. 
 X. 21, Hos. vii. 7, in both of which 
 passages the evil-doers are described 
 (as here) as men who do not pray, 
 
58 PSALM XV. 
 
 5 There were they in great fear ; 
 
 For God is in the generation of the righteous. 
 
 6 Tliough ye shame the counsel of the afdicted, 
 
 Yet Jehovah is his refuge. 
 
 7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! 
 When Jehovah bringeth back the captivity of His 
 
 people, 
 Then may Jacob exult, then may Israel be glad. 
 
 " they call not upon Jehovah ; " there- The COUNSEL OF THE AFFLICTED, 
 
 fore are they so brutish. But see /.£■. all that is done by those who beat 
 
 further on liii. 4. the reproach of Christ to advance 
 
 6. Though ye shame, or "ye God's glory upon earth. Thechildren 
 
 may put to shame" (yet ye shall not of the world cannot bring all this to 
 
 succeed), for God, &c. The A.V. is nought, for in fighting against the 
 
 clearly vvTrong in rendering, " Ye have righteous they fight against God, who 
 
 shamed," as if the verb were in the is in the midst of them, 
 past tense. 
 
 PSALM XV. 
 
 This Psalm is commonly supposed to have been written on the 
 occasion of the removal of the Ark to Zion, and the consecration of 
 the Tabernacle there, 2 Sam. vi. 12 — 19. (Cf. 1 Chron. xv. 16.) The 
 subject of the Psalm, and the occurrence of a similar question and 
 answer in xxiv. which was certainly composed for that occasion, might 
 indeed dispose us to adopt this view. 
 
 On the other hand, the name "holy mountain" (ver. i), as applied 
 to Zion, would rather suggest a later date. It was the removal of the 
 Ark thither which made the mountain holy. 
 
 The form of the Psalm is very simple. Properly speaking, it has no 
 strophes or divisions. It is a question (ver. l), and an answer to the 
 question (ver. 2 — -5). It teaches simply what is the condition of man's 
 approach to God with acceptance. There is implied in it, no doubt, 
 that all merely outward service is vain ; but the Psalm can scarcely 
 be said to be specially directed (like Psalm 1.) against lip service and 
 hypocritical worship. It describes rather the perfect character, the 
 man who can draw near to God and live in His presence. 
 
PSALM XV. 
 
 59 
 
 [a (psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 Jehovah, who may sojourn in Thy tabernacle ? 
 
 Who may dwell on Thy holy mountain ? 
 He that walketh perfectly, and worketh righteousness, 
 
 And speaketh truth in his heart ; 
 (That) hath not slandered with his tongue, 
 
 Hath done no evil to his friend, 
 
 Nor taken up a reproach against his neighbour ; 
 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned. 
 
 But he honoureth them that fear Jehovah ; 
 (Who) sweareth to (his own) hurt, and changeth not ; 
 
 1 . That tliis Psalm is no mirror for 
 tlie srlf-righteous to see themselves in, 
 is evident fromits first word, Jehovah. 
 It is in the presence of God and in the 
 light of God that the singer draws his 
 porlrait of the godly man. In His 
 sight neither the hypocrite nor the 
 formalist can stand. And on this 
 account, and not as a mere matter of 
 form, does David direct his question 
 to God. The answer is not to be con- 
 sidered as if coming from the heavenly 
 oracle, but the Poet himself gives it, 
 speaking by the light of the Spirit of 
 God, as cast upon his own heart, upon 
 the word of God, and upon the world 
 about him. So the Anglo-Saxon 
 Version paraphrases : * ' Then the 
 Lord answered the prophet through 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and 
 the prophet said : I know, yet I ask, 
 who dwells there ? " &c. 
 
 Tabernacle . . holy moun- 
 tain. These words must not be 
 explained away as mere figures of 
 speech. Tabernacle does not mean 
 merely "dwelling," as when it is said, 
 " The tabernacle of God shall be with 
 men," nor can we with Venema in- 
 terpret the HOLY mountain as merely 
 equivalent to a safe and indestructible 
 abode. It always means Zion, and 
 nothing else. 
 
 2, 3. The man with whom God 
 will hold counnunion is now described, 
 first as to what he is (ver. 2), and then 
 as to what he is not (ver. 3). 
 
 (a) He is a man (i) of whole heart 
 and life ; (2) who does the will ot 
 God ; and (3) speaks the truth because 
 he loves it : it dwells in his heart, and 
 he speaks it there first, before he 
 speaks it with his tongue. " It is a 
 beautiful order, " says Luther. ' ' First 
 the person must be acceptable by 
 cleanness (alluding to the Vulg. trans- 
 lation, qui ingreditur sine macula) ; 
 then the work by righteousness ; then 
 the word Ijy truth. So God has re- 
 gard to Abel (himself) first, and then 
 to his gifts. " 
 
 {i) He is noi one who injures 
 others either (i) by word ; or (2) by 
 deed ; or (3) by listening to and pro- 
 pagating slander. This is, I think, 
 the meaning of this last clause. 
 
 4, 5. Again, his character is further 
 described by affirmations and nega- 
 tions. 
 
 (a) He is one who turns away from 
 the evil and honours the good, who 
 regards as inviolable the sanctity of 
 an oath (not a casuist who sets himself 
 to find a pretext for breaking his 
 word, when it is inconvenient to keep 
 it). 
 
6o 
 
 PSALM XVI. 
 
 . 5 Who hath not put out his money to usury, 
 Nor taken a reward against the innocent. 
 He that doeth these things shall never be moved. 
 
 [b) He is not one who loves usury 
 or takes bribes. Tlie taking of usury 
 is strictly forbidden in the Law (Exod. 
 xxii. 25 ; Lev. xxv. 36, &c.), and 
 denounced by the Prophets {Is. xxxiii. 
 I5i "gain of oppressions;" Ezek. 
 xviii. 8, 13, xxii. 12, &c. ). 
 
 Thus, in heart, in tongue, in actions, 
 in his conduct, as a member of society, 
 he is alike free from reproach. 
 
 Such is the figure of stainless honour 
 drawn by the pen of a Jewish poet. 
 Christian chivalry has not dreamed of 
 a brighter. We have need often and 
 seriously to ponder it. For it shows 
 us that faith in God and spotless 
 integrity may not be sundered ; that 
 religion does not veil or excuse petty 
 dishonesties j that love to God is only 
 
 then worthy the name when it is the 
 life and bond of every social virtue. 
 Each line is, as it were, a touchstone 
 to which we should bring ourselves. 
 To speak truth in the heart — to take 
 up no reproach against a neighbour — 
 would not the Christian- man be per- 
 fect of whom this could be said? 
 And that other trait in this divine 
 character, ' ' who honoureth them that 
 fear the Lord " — is there a surer test 
 of our spiritual condition than this, 
 that we love and honour men because 
 they love Christ ? 
 
 The Epistle of St. James is the 
 New Testament expansion of, and 
 comment upon, this Psalm. For 
 another treatment of the same subject 
 in the Old, see Is. xxxiii. 13 — 16. 
 
 PSALM XVI. 
 
 Some have supposed that this Psalm was written by David in time 
 of peril, both because of the prayer with which it opens, " Keep me," 
 &c., and because of the conviction expressed in ver. 10. But if so, 
 the thought of peril is quite swallowed up in the consciousness of 
 God's presence and love. The Psalm is bright with the utterance of 
 a happiness which nothing earthly can touch. It expresses the 
 conviction of a life rather than of any sudden emergency. The 
 living God himself is David's portion and inheritance (ver. 5, 6) — 
 stands at his right hand (ver. 8) — is the joy of his heart now (ver. 9) 
 — and will fill him with joy and gladness for evermore. 
 
 A comparison of the Psalm with i Sam. xxvi. 19 might suggest that 
 it was written by David when he was in the wilderness of Ziph. 
 " They have driven me out this day," he says, " from the inheritance 
 of Jehovah, saying. Go, serve other gods." 
 
PSALM XVI. 6 1 
 
 But a few words on the prophecy contained in the latter part of the 
 Psalm. That we have here a prediction, and moreover a conscious 
 prediction on the part of David, is distinctly affirmed by St. Peter, 
 speaking under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 
 30, 31). The language which he uses is very remarkable. Alleging 
 ver. 8 — II in proof of the resurrection of Christ, he tells us that David 
 here spoke as a prophet ; that he knew that his great descendant 
 would be the Messiah, and that God would place Him on his throne ; 
 and that he foresaw and spake of the resurrection of Christ. It is 
 plain from all this that, according to St. Peter's view, David not only 
 uttered words which might be applied to Christ, but that he used 
 prophetic, that is, inspired language, and knew himself that he was 
 prophesying. But we may still allow a primary and lower reference 
 of the words to David himself, without lessening their prophetic 
 import ; in some parts even an exclusive reference, for it is not 
 necessary (and indeed seems scarcely possible) to refer the whole 
 Psalm to Christ because a part of it points to Him. 
 
 [a MICHTAM* of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Keep me, O God ; for I have found refuge in Thee. 
 
 2 I said to Jehovah, " Thou art my Lord : 
 
 I have no good beyond Thee, — 
 
 3 Of the saints who are in the land, 
 
 And the excellent in whom is all my delight. 
 
 4 Their sorrows shall be many who take another (god) 
 
 instead (of Jehovah) — 
 
 3. The saints. In God"s land The excellent, properly "the 
 there are others who, like David him- outwardly illustrious : " the root- 
 self, cleave to God, and with these he meaning is that of "glitier, splen- 
 claims fellowship. " The saints" are dour,'' &c. But the same adj. is ap- 
 all Israel, set apart as a nation, and plied to the name of God in viii. i, 
 severed from the surrounding heathen. and hence may contain the idea of a 
 See the original designation of Israel moral as well as of a merely outward 
 to be "akingdomi of priests and a glory. 
 
 holy nation," Exod. xix. 6. See also 4. Who take, z>. in exchange. The 
 
 Deut. vii. 6. word is properly used of obtaining a 
 
 * This word occurs in the Inscription of five other Psalms, Ivi. — Ix, The meaning has been 
 much questioned, and can, after all, be but a matter of conjecture. Many commentators 
 coimect it with the word "gold." '* A golden, or precious psaim." 
 
62 
 
 PSALM XVI 
 
 I will not pour out their drink-offerings of blood ; 
 Neither will I take their names upon my lips. 
 
 5 Jehovah is the portion of my territory and of my cup. 
 
 Thou maintainest my lot. 
 
 6 The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places, 
 
 Yea, I have a fair heritage. 
 
 7 I will bless Jehovah who hath given me counsel : 
 
 Yea in the night-seasons have my reins admonished me. 
 
 wife by the payment of a dowry, 
 Exod. xxii. 1 6. 
 
 Another, i.e. a false god, or that 
 which is not God (Is. xlii. 8, xlviii. 
 Il), but purposely, perhaps, put in 
 this indefinite form to signify "all 
 besides God and against God that a 
 man can inake an idol of." 
 
 "With such persons David will have 
 nothing to do. He is joined to the 
 saints, and he holds fast on Jehovah. 
 With the utmost strength of abhor- 
 rence, he repudiates the worship, 
 horrid and foul, of the surrounding 
 idolaters. 
 
 Their drink - offerings of 
 BLOOD : — ^not literally consi:.ting of 
 blood, but as associated with bloody 
 rites ; or ofifered with hands stained 
 with innocent blood ; or loathsome as 
 if . they were ;of blood. 
 
 So deejpisDavid'sloathingof idolatry 
 that he "Will not even pollute his lips 
 by mentioning the names of false gods, 
 in accordance with the command in 
 Exod. xxiii. 13, " The name of other 
 gods ye shall not mention ; it shall 
 not be heard in my raouth." 
 
 5. And of my cup. This also de- 
 pends on the word "portion." See 
 the same expression, ' ' portion of the 
 cup," xi. 6, but there used in malam 
 partem. The " cup " seems to be put 
 by synecdoche for the vAole meal. 
 He tiius speaks of God as the daily 
 food by which he lives. See our 
 Lord's words in John vi, , and connect 
 this with the expression of trust with 
 which the Psalni opens. 
 
 Thou maintainest my lot. 
 Therefore no creature can rob me of 
 it. Nor is the third comparison 
 unnecessary," says Calvin, "for it 
 often happens that the rightful owners 
 are thrust out from their own posses- 
 sion, because there is none to defend 
 them. But God hath given Himself 
 to us as our inheritance in such wise, 
 that by His aid we are ever maintained 
 in the enjoyment thereof." 
 
 6. The lines have fallen. In 
 allusion to the 'ancient custom ol 
 niark-ing out plots of land by measur- 
 ing lines. See the same phrase, Josh, 
 xvii. 5. The line was said to "fall" 
 as being "thrown" by lot. See 
 IVIicah ii. 5. 
 
 7. In the joyful remembrance that 
 he has such a possession, he breaks 
 forth into a strain of thanksgiving. 
 
 Who hath given me counsel, 
 i. e. through whose grace I have been 
 enabled to choose Him for my portion 
 (ver. 5, 6). David confesses that he 
 owes his blessedness to God. This is 
 the Divine part : the next clause gives 
 us the human. 
 
 My reins, hereapp. = " my heart." 
 (See Job. xix. 27, "my reins in my 
 bosom.") God has led me to find my 
 joy in Him, and now in the night- 
 seasons, as the time most favourable 
 to quiet thought, I meditate thereon. 
 The heart itself is said to admonish, 
 because it anxiously listens to the voice 
 of God, ar.d seeks to conform itself 
 thereto. 
 
PSALM XVI. 
 
 63 
 
 8 I have set Jehovah before me always ; 
 
 Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 
 
 9 Therefore hath my heart rejoiced, and my glory 
 
 exulted ; 
 Yea my flesh shall dwell in safety ; 
 
 10 For Thou wilt not leave my soul to the unseen world ; 
 
 Thou wilt not suffer Thy Beloved to see the pit. 
 
 1 1 Thou wilt make me know the path of life ; 
 
 8. God in David's eyes is no ab- 
 straction, but a person, real, living, 
 walking at his side. 
 
 9. My heart . . . MY GLORY {i.e. 
 soul) . . . MY FLESH ; in other words, 
 thewholeman. Inlike manner " soul, " 
 "heart," and " flesh," Ixxxiv. 2 ; and 
 " soul" and "flesh," Ixiii. I ; " heart" 
 and "flesh," Ixxiii. 26. "Spirit, soul, 
 and body," I Thess. v. 23. Flesh, 
 here as always, the living body : it never 
 means the corpse. So also the phrase 
 
 SHALL DWELL IN SAFETY mUSt be 
 
 understood of this life. (See Deut. 
 xxxiii. 28 ; Ps. iv. 8, xxv. 13.) Hence 
 these words as they stand in the 
 Hebrew cannot be regarded as a pro- 
 phecy that Christ's body should rest 
 safely in the tomb. They are the ex- 
 pression of David's confidence that 
 God would watch over his life, and 
 preserve him from death. In this 
 sense, of course, they are also applic- 
 able to our Lord, 
 
 10. To THE DNSEEN WORLD. Not 
 
 as in our Version, and in that of Luther 
 and others, " in hell." David says 
 nothing about what shall happen to 
 him after death, but is expressing his 
 conviction that God will not leave him 
 to perish, will not give him up to be 
 the prey of the grave, nor suffer him 
 (as follows in the next clause) to see 
 the pit. See Acts ii. 27. This was still 
 more strikingly true of Christ ; for 
 though He died, God did not leave 
 Him to Hades, did not suffer His soul 
 to remain there, or His body to rest 
 in the grave. 
 
 Thy Beloved. I have ventured 
 thus to render the word, because it 
 may just as well mean ' ' one who has 
 obtained favour of the Lord," as one 
 who ihoius love to God and love to 
 men 
 
 II. The PATH OF life. Not 
 merely, that is, the life of the body. 
 This is shown by the pleasure and the 
 joy spoken of afterwards, which are to 
 be found in God's Presence, and in 
 communion with Him. Life, in the 
 only true sense, is union with God ; 
 and from that springs, of necessity, the 
 idea of immortality. It seems im- 
 possible to suppose that David, who 
 liere expresses such a fulness of con- 
 fidence in God, such a living personal 
 rela'ionship to Him, could have ever 
 dreamed that such a relationship would 
 end with death. In this Psalm, and 
 in the next, there shines forth the 
 bright hope of everlasting life. 
 
 At the same time, in the utterance 
 of this confident persuasion and hope, 
 David was carried beyond himself. 
 He spake as a prophet knowing that 
 God had promised of the fruit of his 
 body to raise up Christ to sit on his 
 throne. The hope of his own im- 
 mortality was based upon, and bound 
 up in, the Life of Him wlio was at 
 once his Son and his Lord. What 
 was true of David in the lower sense, 
 was true in the fullest and highest 
 sense of Christ ; was only true of 
 David, because it was true of Christ ; 
 and is only true of any of us in and 
 through Him. according to His own 
 
64 PSALM XVIL 
 
 Fulness of joy in Thy Presence, 
 
 Pleasures are at Thy right hand for evermore. 
 
 words, " Because I live, ye shall live phecy of Christ they meaa all that is 
 
 also." Briefly, then, it must be said drawn from theoi by St. Peter and bt. 
 
 that ver. 9—11, so far as they refer to Paul, Acts xiii. In Christ s deliver- 
 
 David, express his confidence in God's ance from the grave and His Resurrec- 
 
 protecting care in tliis life and his tion, the whole fulness oftheirmeamng 
 
 Irope of a life to come. But as a pro- is exhausted. 
 
 PSALM XVIL 
 
 In this Psalm, a» servant of God, conscious of his own uprightness, 
 and surrounded by enemies, prays to be kept from the evil world, 
 and from evil men who persecute him ; and tlien from the dark 
 present looks forward with joy to the bright future. 
 
 Every tried and tempted servant of God may find in it the 
 touchstone whereby to prove himself; the sure refuge whither to 
 betake himself ; the hope which is the anchor of the soul, and which 
 entereth within the veil. The Psalm may be, as the inscription states, 
 a Psalm of David ; and if so, we may probably attribute its 
 composition to the time of Saul's persecution. 
 
 It may be divided into three strophes : — 
 
 I. The Psalmist's confidence in his appeal to God. Ver. i — 5. 
 
 («) This is based upon the righteousness of his cause, and the 
 absence of all hypocrisy in his prayer. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 (i5) The consciousness of this integrity further declared, and that 
 even on the closest scrutiny. Both heart (ver. 3) and life (ver. 4, 5) 
 are free from reproach, notwithstanding the evil by which he is 
 surrounded. 
 
 II. Prayer to be kept in the evil world. Ver. 6 — 12. 
 
 (a) The appeal now lies to God's marvellous loving-kindness and 
 lender affection, that he may be protected against his enemies. 
 
 ijj) The description of their bitterness (ver. 9), their pride (ver. 10), 
 and their relentless persecution (ver. n^ 12) is then given. 
 
PSALM XVII. 65 
 
 III. The spirit of the world, and the spirit which is of God, 
 Ver. 13 — I J. 
 
 (a) Prayer that the sword of Jehovah may overtal<e his enemies. 
 
 (jb") And then the broad contrast, not without its consolation ; their 
 portion, at the best, is for this life, and then perishes ; mine is in the 
 Presence and the Vision of God, and therefore cannot be taken 
 from me. 
 
 [a prayer of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Hear, O Jehovah, righteousness ; 
 Hearken to my cry ; 
 Give ear to my prayer 
 
 Which (is uttered) by no deceitful lips. 
 
 2 From Thy presence let my judgement go forth ; 
 
 Thine eyes behold uprightness. 
 
 3 Thou hast proved my heart ; 
 
 Thou hast visited (me) by night ; 
 Thou hast tried me (and) findest no evil thought in me, 
 Neither doth my mouth transgress. 
 
 4 As for the doings of men — by the word of Thy lips 
 
 I. Not only a righteous cause, but properly to melt in the fire, so as to 
 
 a righteous prayer, offered in all separate the dross from the ore. 
 
 sincerity, with no hypocritical reserve By night, as the season of quiet 
 
 or pretence, are urged as motives why thought and self-examination. Comp, 
 
 God should hear him. iv. 4, xvi. 7. 
 
 3. This has given offence to some 4. The doings of men, i.e. the 
 
 as an over-bold assertion of innocence. common course of action of worldly 
 
 Hencfe the Jewish interpreters sup- men. "Men" = the great mass ot 
 
 posed it to have been written by men (opposed to the "doings of 
 
 David before his fall. But it is not Jehovah," xxviii. 5), and here con- 
 
 absolutfe innocence which the Psalmist trasted with "the word of God." 
 
 here asserts : he is not indulging in Comp. the expression ' ' after the 
 
 self-righteous boasting, but appealing manner of men " (Hos. vi. 7, Job xxxi. 
 
 to God as knowing his uprightness of 34). Whatever men in general may 
 
 heart and honesty of purpose. do or say, I have but one guide and 
 
 Hast PROVED — hasttried — both rule of action, viz. Thy word. This 
 
 words used of the testing of metals, is the first mention of the opposition 
 
 and especially the latter, which means to which he was exposed and of that 
 
 F 
 
66 PSALM XVII. 
 
 I have kept (me from) the ways of the destroyer : 
 5 Holding fast with my goings in Thy paths, 
 My footsteps have not been moved. 
 
 11 6 As for me— I have called upon Thee, for Thou 
 answerest me, O God : 
 Incline Thine ear unto me ; hear my speech. 
 
 7 Show Thy marvellous loving-kindness O Thou 
 
 that savest those who find refuge (in Thee) 
 From them that lift themselves up against Thy 
 right hand. 
 
 8 Keep me as the apple — as the pupil — of an eye, 
 
 Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings, 
 
 9 Because of the wicked who would destroy me, 
 
 (Because of) mine enemies who eagerly compass me 
 about. 
 lO They are enclosed in their own fat, 
 
 With their mouth they speak proudljr. 
 
 contrast which comes out more clearly 
 in the next strophe, and which is com- 
 pleted in the last. 
 
 I HAVE KEPT (ME FROM), lit. " I 
 have watched, observed," but here 
 evidently with the further notion of 
 watching so as to avoid. 
 
 5. See Job xxiii. 1 1, Ps. xli. 12. 
 
 6 — 12. The prayer to be kept in the 
 evil world. The earnest, affectionate 
 cleaving to God, the prayer to be 
 hidden under the shadow of His wings, 
 is proof enough that the former part of 
 the Psalm is no merely self-righteous 
 boast. 
 
 7. Show, &c., lit. " make won- 
 derful," i.e. exhibit in a marked 
 manner Thy loving-kindness, which 
 loolcs at first sight as if David expected 
 ». special miracle to be wrought in his 
 favour. But the notion contained in 
 the verb only expresses the general 
 well-known cliaracter of God's loving- 
 kindness, which is always wonderiul, 
 
 and this David desires to experience 
 as others have experienced it before 
 him, as follows. 
 
 8. Both the images in this verse, 
 alike expressive of the affection of the 
 Psalmist, and of his deep sense of God's 
 tender care and love to him, are bor- 
 rowed from the beautiful passage in 
 Deut. xxxii. 10, 11. For the former, 
 see also Zeeh. ii. 8. The latter occurs 
 frequently. In the New Testament 
 our Lord uses the still more tender 
 image of the hen gathering her brood 
 under her wings (Matt, xxiii. 37). 
 
 9. Eagerly, lit. " with the soul, " 
 i.e. wiih the longing desire to destroy 
 me. 
 
 10. They are enclosed, &c. lit. 
 " Their fat have they shut up. " This 
 may refer both to theoutward condition 
 and the state of heart. These men 
 led a luxurious and selfish lite (as is 
 further said, ver. 14), in consequence 
 of which they had become proud and 
 
PSALM XVII. 
 
 67 
 
 1 1 "Withersoever we go, have they now surrounded us ; 
 
 Their eyes do they set to cast (us) down to the 
 earth, 
 
 12 Like as a lion that is greedy to ravin, 
 
 And as a young lion lurking in (his) lair. 
 
 III. 13 Arise, O Jehovah, go forth to meet him, cast him 
 
 down ; 
 
 Deliver my soul from the wicked, by Thy sword 
 
 14 From men, O Jehovah, by Thy hand— from men 
 
 of the world. 
 
 Whose portion is in (this) hfe, and whose belly 
 
 Thou fillest with Thy treasures, 
 "Who are satisfied with sons, and leave their sub 
 stance to their children. 
 
 unfeeling. For this double meaning 
 of "fatness," comp. on the one hand 
 Deut. xxxii. 1 5, Job xv. 27, and on the 
 other, Ps. cxix. 70, Isa. vi. 10. 
 
 13. If the enemy be thus fierce and 
 powerful, the more need for apowerful 
 protector. The image is a common 
 one in the Psalms, but may have 
 been suggested in the first instance by 
 David's personal experience. See note 
 on iii. 7. 
 
 Go FORTH TO MEET HIM, just as 
 David himself went forth, to meet first 
 the Hon and then the bear, and alter- 
 wards the champion of Gath. 
 
 By Thy sword, and in ver. 14, by 
 Thy hand. Not as in E. V. "the 
 •wicked which is Thy sword," and in 
 nextverse, " men whichare Thy hand." 
 David does not here regard the wicked 
 as the sword of God, as Isaiah (x. 5) 
 does the Assyrian as the rod of His 
 anger — a thought which would be 
 quite at variance with the whole scope 
 of the Psalm — but calls upon God to 
 destroy them. 
 
 14. Men of the world. The 
 word here used for " world " denotes 
 the transitory nature of the world as a 
 
 thing of time. Men of the world are 
 those who have made it their home, 
 and who, together with the world and 
 the lust thereof, are passing away. 
 (Comp. "men of the earth," Ps. x. 18.) 
 In the New Te-tament they are the 
 " world " of St. John, and the " child- 
 ren of the world," Luke xvi. 8. Being 
 thus worldly minded, they have their 
 portion in life, i.e. in the Ijrief years of 
 their existence upon earth. Then this 
 love of the world is opposed to the 
 love of the Father, not the present to 
 the future, so much as the temporal 
 to the eternal, the world to God. 
 The contrast to " their portion in 
 this life" is to be found in xvi. 5, 
 " Jehovah is my portion ; " and in 
 ver. 15 of this Psalm. On the one 
 side, the Outward, the Transitory, 
 the Unreal : on the other the Inward, 
 the Abiding, the True. We have 
 here a view of the world and of life 
 very remarkable for the Old Testa- 
 ment — a kind of anticipation of the 
 contrast between the flesh and the 
 spirit which St. Paul gives us, or tlie 
 love of the world and of God, of 
 which St. John speaks. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 PSALM XVIII. 
 
 I S As for me — in righteousness let me behold Thy face ; 
 Let me be satisfied, when I awake, with Thine image. 
 
 15. Worldly men have their sads- 
 faction in this life, in treasures, in 
 children ; David hopes to be satisfied 
 with the likeness, or rather real, mani- 
 fest bodily firm of God. See Num. 
 xii. 8. 
 
 When I awake. How are we to 
 understand these words? (i) Certainly 
 not "when I wake up from sleep," as 
 if there were a reference to the night 
 in ver. 3. Why should David expect 
 a clear vision of God, and especially of 
 His form, on the following morning, 
 or on the morning of any day, more 
 than at any other time? (2) Nor again 
 does he mean by "waking," a de- 
 liverance from the present night of 
 sorrow and suffering, as though he 
 would say, This my sorrow shall pass 
 
 away, and then I shall see God as 
 my Deliverer (which may perhaps 
 be the meaning of the hope which 
 Job expresses, chap. xix. ). The 
 night might be used as a figure of 
 suffering, but the sufferer would 
 scarcely be said to sleep in his suffer- 
 ing, and then to awake out of it. 
 I cannot doubt that the reference 
 is to "the waking from the sleep 
 of death," and therefore to a re- 
 surrection. " Waking " from death 
 occurs in 2 Kings iv. 31. Death is 
 spoken of as a sleep from which there 
 is no awaking. Job xiv. 12, Jer. li. 39. 
 Next, Is. xxvi. 19, "Awake — ye that 
 sleep in the dust," plainly refers to the 
 resurrection. See alsoEzekiel xxxvii; 
 I — 14, and Daniel xii. 2. 
 
 PSALM XVIIL 
 
 In this magnificent hymn the Royal Poet sketches in a few grand 
 outlines the tale of his life — the record of his marvellous deliverances 
 ihd of the victories which Jehovah had given him — the record, too, 
 of his own heart, the truth of its affection towards God, and the 
 integrity of purpose by which it had ever been influenced. Through- 
 out that singularly chequered life, hunted as he had been by Saul 
 before he came to the throne, and harassed perpetually after he 
 became king by rivals who disputed his authority, and endeavoured to 
 steal away the hearts 6f his people— compelled to fly for his life before 
 his own son, and engaged afterwards in long and fierce wars with 
 foreign nations — one thing had never forsakeh him, the love and the 
 presence of Jehovah. By His help he had subdued every enemy, and 
 
PSALM X VIII. 69 
 
 now, in his old age, looking back with devout thankfulness on the 
 past, he sings this great song of praise to the God of his life. With a 
 heart full of love he will tell how Jehovah delivered him, and then 
 there rises before the eye of his mind the whole force and magnitude 
 of the peril from which he has escaped. So much the more wonderful 
 appears the deliverance, which accordingly he represents in a bold 
 poetical figure, as a stooping of the Mpst High from heaven to save 
 him — who comes, as He came of old to Sinai, with all the terror and 
 gloom of earthquake, and tempest, and thick darkness. But God 
 delivers those only who tnist in Him, and who are like Him. There 
 must be an inner life of communion with God, if man will know His 
 mercy. Hence David passes on to that covenant relationship in 
 which He had stood to God. He had ever been a true Israelite, and 
 therefore God, the true God of Israel, had dealt with him accordingly. 
 And thus it is at the last that the servant of Jehovah finds his reward. 
 Jehovah, to whqm }ie had ever looked, did not forsake him, but girded 
 him with strength to the battle, and made even distant nations the 
 vassals pf his sway. 
 
 The hymn concludes as it had opened, with a joyful thanksgiving to 
 Jehovah, who had done so great things for him. 
 
 The inscription, which informs us that this hymn was composed 
 towards the end of David's life, is confirmed b/ the fact that we have 
 the same account given of its composition in 2 Sam. xxii., where this 
 hymii is also found, though with a number of variations. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three principal divisions or strophes, together 
 with an introduction and conclusion : — 
 
 I. Introduction, setting forth all that Jehovah is to the Psalmist. 
 Ver. I — 3. 
 
 II. Strophe I. The record of David's sufferings and peril, and the 
 mighty deliverai..ce by which he was rescued. Ver. 4 — 19. 
 
 III. Strophe II. The reason for this deliverance as based tipon 
 the character of God and the prmciples of His moral government. 
 Ver. 20—30. 
 
 IV. Strophe III. The blessings which he had received in his life ; 
 his own perservation and that of his race (ver. 28) ; help and strength 
 in battle, rule over all enemies. Ver. 31 — 45. 
 
 V. Conclusion, consisting of a joyful thanksgiving and acknow- 
 ledgement of all God's mercies. Ver. 46 — 50. 
 
70 
 
 PSALM XVIII. 
 
 [FOR THE PRECENTOR. (A PSALM) OF DAVID, THE SERVANT OF 
 
 Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song, 
 
 IN THE day that JeHOVAH DELIVERED HIM OUT OF THE HAND 
 OF ALL HIS ENEMIES, AND OUT OF THE HAND OF SAUL: AND 
 HE SAID :] 
 
 I. I Fervently do I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength. 
 
 2 Jehovah is my stronghold and my fortress and' my 
 
 Deliverer. 
 My God is my rock wherein I find refuge. 
 My shield and horn of my salvation, my high tower. 
 
 3 I will call upon Jehovah who is worthy to be praised, 
 
 So shall I be saved from mine enemies. 
 
 II. 4 The bands of death compassed me. 
 
 And the floods of ungodUness made me afraid. 
 
 Servant of Jehovah.. Also in 
 the inscr. of Ps. xxxvi., and, in the 
 mouth of God, "my servant," Ixxxix. 
 3, 20, as 2 Sam. iii. i8, vii. 5. David 
 is so called in a special sense as one 
 put in office, and commissioned by 
 God. The .=ame title is applied also 
 to Moses, Joshua, the Prophets, the 
 Angels, &c, , as sent by God to do 
 His work. It is strictly an official 
 designation, but is never applied by 
 any person to himself. In this it 
 differs from the word " servant " of 
 the New Testament. (Philip, i. I ; 
 Tit. i. I.) 
 
 I — 3. Looking back upon his 
 eventful life, a life full of peril and 
 full of mercy, David pours out his 
 heart, first in the expression of strong 
 and tender love to his God ; and then 
 in the attempt to set forth in some 
 measure, by employing one figure after 
 another, all that God had been to him 
 during the days of his pilgrimage. 
 
 The images, which are most of them 
 of a martial character, are borrowed 
 from the experience of David's life, 
 and the perpetual struggles in which 
 he was engaged. Some of them were 
 
 suggested by the natural configuration 
 of Palestine. Amid the "rocks," and 
 " fastnesses " of his native land, and 
 the "high tower" perched on some 
 inaccessible crag, he, with his band 
 of outlaws, had often found a safe 
 hiding-place from the wrath of Saul. 
 
 The " shield" and the "horn " seem 
 to stand respectively for all weapons 
 of defence and offence. The shield, as 
 covering the body ; the horn, as a 
 symbol of strength in attack (itself an 
 image, borrowed from animals who 
 push with their horns). Comp. i 
 Kings xxii. 1 1. The image is very 
 common in the Psalter. For a like 
 crowding together of metaphors in 
 addresses to God, see the opening of 
 Pss. xxxi. ixxi. 
 
 4. The bands of death (cf 
 Acts ii. 24), "the pains or pangs of 
 Death ; " a possible meaning, but not 
 so suitable here to the context, where 
 Death is represented, as in the next 
 verse, as a hunter (cf xci. 3). But in 
 Sam. the word employed means "bil- 
 lows," or lit. "breakers," instead of 
 "bauds." 
 
PSALM XVIII. 
 
 71 
 
 5 The bands of hell surrounded me, 
 
 The snares of death came upon me. 
 
 6 In my distress I called upon Jehovah, 
 
 And unto my God did I cry : 
 He heard my voice out of His temple, 
 
 And my cry before Him came unto His ears. 
 
 7 Then the earth was moved and did quake. 
 
 And the foundations of the mountains began to 
 
 tremble, 
 And were moved to and fro because He was wroth. 
 
 8 There went up a smoke in His nostrils. 
 
 And a fire out of His mouth devoured, 
 Coals were kindled by it. 
 
 5. Hel,l, lit. " Sheol," "the unseen 
 world," or here = "the grave." 
 
 6. Temple, i.e. not the temple, or 
 tabernacle (see v. 7), on Mount Zion, 
 but the temple in heaven, wherein 
 God especially manifests His glory, 
 and where He is worshipt by tlie 
 heavenly hosts — a place which is both 
 temple and palace. See xi. 4, xxix, 9. 
 
 7 — 19. A grand description of God's 
 appearance in person as Deliverer. 
 He comes to rescue His servant as 
 He came of old to Sinai, and all 
 nature is moved at His coming. 
 Similar descriptions of the Divine 
 manifestation, and of the effects pro- 
 duced by it, occur Ixviii. 7, 8, Ixxvii. 
 14 — 20, Ex. xix., Judg. V. 4, Am. ix. 
 5, Micah i.4 , Hab. iii. ; but the image 
 is nowhere so fully carried out as here. 
 David's deliverance was, of course, 
 not really accompanied by such con- 
 vulsions of nature, by earthquake, and 
 fire, and tempest, but his deliverance, 
 or rather his manifold deliverances, 
 gathered into one, as hethinksof them, 
 appear to him as marvellous a proof 
 of the Divine Power, as verily effected 
 by the immediate presence and finger 
 of God, as if He had come down in 
 visible form to accomplish them. 
 
 The image is carefully sustained 
 
 throughout. First, we have the earth- 
 quake, and then, as preluding the 
 storm, and as herald of God's wrath, 
 the blaze of the lightning (ver. 7, 8). 
 Next, the thick gathering of clouds, 
 which seem to touch and envelope the 
 earth ; the wind, and the darkness, 
 which shrouds Jehovah riding on the 
 cherubim (9 — 11). Lastly, the full 
 outburst of the storm, the clouds part- 
 ing before the presence and glory of 
 Jehovah, and pouring upon the earth 
 the burden with which they were 
 heavy — the thunder and the lightning 
 and the hail, — the weapons of Jehovah 
 by which, on the one hand, He dis- 
 comfits His enemies, and, on the other, 
 lays bare the depths of the sea, and 
 the very foundations of the world, 
 that He may save His servant who 
 trusts in Him (12 — 16). 
 
 The image with which the descrip- 
 tion opened in ver. 4, of a sinking, 
 drowning man, is resumed in ver. 16, 
 and thus completes the whole. In 
 ver. 17 — 19 the figure is dropped, and 
 the language falls into a lower key. 
 
 8. The swift approach of the storm 
 is vividly described. The smoke and 
 the fire are symbols of the Divine 
 wrath before which all creation must 
 ti'enible (see ver. 7) ; here they are 
 
72 
 
 PSALM XVI H. 
 
 9 And He bowed the heavens, and came down, 
 And thick darkness was under His feet. 
 
 10 And He rode upon a cherub and did fly, 
 
 And came fljang upon the wings of the wind. 
 
 11 He made darkness His secret place, His pavilion 
 
 round about Him, 
 Dark gloom of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 
 
 12 At the brightness that was before Him, His thick 
 
 clouds passed, — 
 Hail-stones and coals of fire. 
 
 13 Jehovah also thundered in the heavens. 
 
 And the Highest gave His voice. 
 Hail-stones and coals of fire. 
 
 14 And He sent forth His arrows and scattered them, 
 
 And lightnings innumerable, and discomfited them. 
 
 1 5 Then the channels of water were seen, 
 
 And the foundations of the world were discovered, 
 At Thy rebuke, O Jehovah, 
 
 the clouds and the lightning of the 
 storm, probably as seen about the 
 mountain summits and in the dis- 
 tance. 
 
 9. He bowed the heavens, 
 which, with their dark masses of low 
 hanging clouds, seemed almost to 
 touch the earth. Comp. cxliv. 5, and 
 Is. xlv. 8. 
 
 10. Upon a cherub ; or, perhaps, 
 rather a collective noun, and so used 
 for a plural. The cherubim are, as it 
 were, the living chariot of Jehovah, 
 and in their form, being compounded 
 of a man, a bull, a lion, and an ea^jle 
 (see Ezek. i. and x. ), seem to symbo- 
 lize the powers of nature. As to the 
 etymology of the word "cherub," we 
 are still quite in the dark. It remains 
 what Bahr calls it, a crux interpretum. 
 But there can be little doubt that the 
 cherubim — the living creatures of 
 Ezekiel — were emphatically the repre- 
 sentatives of the life of the creature, 
 and that in its most perfect form. The 
 
 four animals of which the cherub is 
 composed belong to the highest class 
 of organized beings, so that the old 
 Jewish proverb says: "Four things 
 are chiefest in the world. The lion 
 among beasts, the bull among cattle, 
 the eagle among birds, and man among 
 all (creatures) ; but God is the Most 
 High over all." There is evidently a 
 connection between this and the hea- 
 then symbols, such, for instance, as 
 they appear on the Assyrian monu- 
 ments. 
 
 12. At the brightness, &c., i.e. 
 the reflection of His glory, which 
 seems to pierce and part the clouds, 
 which then discharge the hail, the 
 lightning, and the thunder. The 
 repetition of the words, " hail-stones 
 and coals of fire," adds much to the 
 force of the description : " Hail is 
 rare in Palestine, but often the more 
 teiTible and destructive when it does 
 fall. Comp. Job xxxviii. 22, Josh. a. 
 1 1 ." — Ewald. 
 
PSALM XVIII. 73 
 
 At the blasting of the breath of Thy nostrils. 
 
 16 He sent from above ; He took me, 
 
 He drew me out of many waters, 
 
 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, 
 
 And from them that hated me ; for they were too 
 strong for me. 
 
 18 They came upon me in the day of my calamity, 
 
 But Jehovah was my stay. 
 
 19 And He brought me forth into a large place, 
 
 He delivered me, because He delighted in me. 
 
 HI. 20 Jehovah rewarded me according to my righteousness, 
 According to the cleanness of my hands did He 
 recompense me. 
 
 21 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, 
 
 And have not wickedly departed from my God. 
 
 22 For all His judgements are before me, 
 
 And His statutes I do not put away from me. 
 
 23 I have also been perfect with Him, 
 
 And have kept myself from iniquity. 
 
 24 Therefore Jehovah recompensed me according to my 
 
 righteousness ; 
 According to the cleanness of my hands in His eye- 
 sight. 
 
 20 — 30. Next follows the reason tenour of the Psalm everywhere 
 for this deliverance — the first hint of breathes a spirit of confidence and trusc 
 which had already been given in the in God, as far removed as possible 
 preceding verse in the words, " because from the spirit of self-righteousness. 
 He delighted in me." God deals The words are, in truth, words of 
 with men according as He sees their childlike, open-hearted simplicity, not 
 heart to be towards Him. Those who of arrogant boastfulness. Some allow- 
 walk before Him in simplicity and ance, too, must perhaps be made for 
 uprightness of heart may expect His the fact that under the Old Covenant 
 succour. And David here, as in the the knowledge of sin was more super- 
 last Psalm, asserts not his freedom ficial than it is under the New. Vet 
 from sin, but the consciousness of his St. Paul does not hesitate to say : " I 
 own integrity. Some, indeed, have have lived in all good conscience 
 seen in the language a too boastful before God unto this day ; " and a 
 spirit, and therefore would refer this man may call himself a miserable sin- 
 Psalm, as well as the last, to the time ner, and yet be more of a Pharisee th.in 
 before David's fall. But the general one who asserts his own righteousness. 
 
74 PSALM XVIII. 
 
 25 With the good Thou wilt show Thyself good, 
 
 With the perfect man Thou wilt show Thyself 
 perfect. 
 
 26 With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure, 
 
 And with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself 
 froward. 
 
 27 For Thou savest the afflicted people, 
 
 And bringest down high looks. 
 
 28 For Thou givest light to my lamp, 
 
 Jehovah my God maketh mydarkness to be bright. 
 
 29 For by Thee I can rush against a troop ; 
 
 And by my God I can leap over a wall. 
 
 30 As for God — His way is perfect ; 
 
 The word of Jehovah is tried ; 
 
 He is a shield to all who find refuge in Him. 
 
 IV. 31 For who is God but Jehovah, 
 
 And who is a rock save our God .'' 
 
 32 The God who girdeth me with strength. 
 
 And maketh my way perfect ; 
 
 33 Who maketh my feet like hinds' feet. 
 
 And setteth me on my high places ; 
 
 34 Who traineth my hands for war, 
 
 26. Thou wilt show thyself and continuance of life and happiness. 
 
 FROWARD. The expression seems See cxxxii. 17, and of the house of 
 
 rough and harsli, but is no doubt David, i Kings xi. 36, xv. 4 ; 2 Kings 
 
 designedly employed in contrast with viii. 19. So, on the other hand, the 
 
 what goes before. The meaning is — extinction of the royal race is com- 
 
 him who is perverse God gives up to pared to the quenching of the lamp, 2 
 
 follow his own perverse way, till it Sam. xxi. 17, 
 
 brings him to destruction. (See Ixxxi. 30. Tried, i.e. like metal purified 
 
 12, and Rom. i. 28). It is also, of in the fire ; in God's promise there 
 
 course, true, that to the perverse heart is no admixture of alloy ; see xii. 6. 
 
 God Himself appears perverse. The 31. The reference is to Deut. xxxii. 
 
 wicked man thinks that God is "alto- 4, 15, 18, &c. 
 
 getlier such an one as himself;" but 33. On my high places, i.e. the 
 
 this idea is not so prominent here as mountain strongholds which I have 
 
 the other. seized (as in taking the stronghold of 
 
 28. My lamp. Still more forcibly Zion itself). On the occupation of 
 
 in 2 Sam. xxii. 29. "Thou, OJehovah, the-ie military positions would depend 
 
 art my lamp. " The lamp lighted in the the possession of the whole country.- 
 
 house-is the image at once of ^?-i?j;>f«V)/ 34, In the preceding verse the 
 
PSALM XVIII. 75 
 
 So that mine arms can bend a bow of brass. 
 
 35 And Thou hast given me the shield of Thy salvation, 
 
 And Thy right hand hath holden me up, 
 And Thy graciousness hath made me great. 
 
 36 Thou hast made room for my footsteps under me, 
 
 That mine ankles have not slipped. 
 
 37 I pursued mine enemies and overtook them, 
 
 Neither did I turn again, until they were consumed. 
 
 38 I have smitten them, that they were not able to rise, 
 
 They are fallen under my feet. 
 
 39 For Thou hast girded me with strength to the battle ; 
 
 Thou hast bowed down under me those that rose up 
 against me. 
 
 40 Mine enemies also Thou hast made to turn their backs 
 
 before me. 
 So that I destroyed them that hate me. 
 4.1 They cried, — but there was none to save them,— 
 Even unto Jehovah, but He answered them not. 
 
 42 And I beat them small as the dust before the wind, 
 
 Like the mire of the streets I emptied them out. 
 
 43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the 
 
 people ; 
 Thou hast made me Head over the nations : 
 A people that I know not, serve me. 
 
 :omparison with the hind denoted Jehovah's wonderful condescension (by 
 
 he extraordinary swiftness, which, which he was taken from the sheep- 
 
 vhether for attack or escape, was folds to be king) made him great ; 
 
 :onsidered a great excellence in the Jehovah made room for him to stand, 
 
 rarriors of ancient times. Here, the and subdued those that rose up against 
 
 lending of a bow of brass (or him. 
 
 ronze, rather, which seems to have Thy graciobsness, lit. "meek- 
 
 leen tempered and rendered pliable ness," "lowliness," a very remarkable 
 
 ike steel with us) indicates his great word as applied to God, and just one 
 
 trength (comp. Job xx. 24). In of those links connecting the Divine 
 
 iomer, Ulysses leaves behind him at with the human, which in the Old 
 
 thaca a bow which no one but himself Testament so strikingly foreshadow an 
 
 ould bend, incarnation. 
 
 35. Yet it is not the bow of brass 41. The cry extorted in terror, and 
 
 fhicli has been David's pn tection, not coming from an upright heart 
 
 ut Jehovah's shield covered him ; (ver. 24, &c.), is not heard. See the 
 
 ehovah's right hand held him up ; opposite, ver. 6. 
 
76 PSALM XVIII. 
 
 44 At the hearing of the ear, they obeyed me, 
 
 The sons of the alien came crouching unto me. 
 
 45 The sons of the alien faded away, 
 
 They came trembling out of their strongholds. 
 
 V.46. Jehovah liveth, and blessed is my Rock, 
 And exalted the God of my salvation ; 
 
 47 Even the God who giveth me vengeance, 
 
 And subdued peoples under me. 
 
 48 Thou art He that deliverest me from mine enemies; 
 
 Yea, Thou liftest me up above those that rise 
 against me ; 
 Thou hast delivered me from men of vfcilence. 
 
 49 Therefore will I give thanks unto Thee, O Jehovah 
 
 among the nations ; 
 And to Thy Name will I sing praises : 
 
 50 Who giveth great deliverance to His King; 
 
 And showeth loving-kindness to His Anointed, 
 To David and his seed for evermore. 
 
 44. At the hearing of the ear, his seed. And as Jehovah has no 
 i.e. even at a distance, without seeing only placed him on the throne 
 me, as soon as they heard my com- Jerusalem, but has givenhimdominioi 
 mand. (Seejobxlii. 5.) over foreign nations, he will proclain 
 
 Came crouching, lit. " lied unto amongst these also the Name and thi 
 
 me," so descriptive of the abject, praises of his God. Here we have thi 
 
 crouching, fawning submission of the first utterance of a hope, which ii 
 
 Oriental. Cf. Ixvi. 3 (where see note), later times became clear and distiticl 
 
 Ixxxi. 15, " feigned submission. " that the heathen should learn to fea 
 
 45. Faded away, i.e. before the and worship Jehovah. 
 
 victorious might of David, like plants 49. St. Paul quotes this verse Rom 
 
 scorched and shrivelled before the hot xv. 9, as well as Deut. xxxii. 43 am 
 
 blast of the simoom (Is. xl. 7). Ps. cxvii, i, as proof that the salvatioi 
 
 Came trembling (lit. trembled of Christ belonged, in the purpose c 
 
 out of, &c.), i.e in order to give in God, to the Gentiles as well as th 
 
 their submission and to implore the Jews. The Psalm therefore look 
 
 clemency and protection of the con- beyond David. David and David' 
 
 queror (Micahvii. 17). rule over the nations are ibut a typ 
 
 46 — 50. The hymn now concludes and image of Christ, and of tha 
 
 with the praise of Jehovah, who had spiritual kingdom which He came t 
 
 done so great things for David and for establish. 
 
PSALM XIX. 77 
 
 tSALM XIX. 
 
 This Psalm consists of two distinct parts, in which are contrasted 
 rod's Revelation of Himself in Nature, and His Revelation of Him- 
 ;If in His Word. It speaks first of His glory as seen in the Heavens, 
 nd then of His glory as manifested in His Law. 
 
 It may have beeh written perhaps in the first flush of an Eastern 
 anrise, when the sun was seen " going forth as a bridegroom out of 
 is chamber, and rejoicing as a mighty man to run his course." The 
 ong breathes all the life and freshness, all the gladness and glory of 
 ]e morning. 
 
 This is one of the Psalms appointed by the Church to be read in 
 er service on the Festival of the Nativity. But the selection surely 
 oes not rest on any of those merely external and superficial points of 
 onnection which are commonly supposed to have guided it. Thus, 
 Dr instance, it has been said that the Psalm speaks of the glory of the 
 latural sun as seen in the heavens, and the Church celebrates on that 
 lay the rising of " the Sun of righteousness " upon the earth. Or 
 .gain, St. Paul illustrates the diffusion of the Gospel throughout the 
 forld bywords borrowed from the Psalm (Rom. x i8), and hence it 
 nay be naturally associated with the Incarnation which led to that 
 liffusion. But it is obvious that, if this quotation influenced the 
 election, the Psalm would far more appropriately have been appointed 
 or Ascension Day or Whitsunday.* 
 
 No, it is with a far profounder wisdom that the Church puts this 
 'salm into our lips on Christmas Day. What is the great truth which 
 he Church britigs before us so prominently on that day .? Not only 
 he Incarnation, but the truth that in the Incarnate Jesus we have the 
 )erfect Revelation of God. It is the Word who was with God and 
 ras God, who being in the bosom of the Father declared the Father, 
 vho as on that day became flesh. And what does the Psalm speak of, 
 )ut two other imperfect and partial and preparatory Revelations ot 
 jod, His Revelation in Nature and His Revelation in His written 
 
 * " In the Latin Church this Psalm is appointed for use also on the festivals of the As- 
 ension and of Trinity Sunday ; so likewise it was in the Sarum Use ; and in the Gregorian 
 Jse it is appointed for the Annunciation. " — iVordsworth, 
 
78 PSALM XIX. 
 
 word? Thus we are led step by step from the first and lowest Reve- 
 lation in the natural world, to the Revelation in the written word, 
 and then beyond and above these to the one great, perfect, all- 
 embracing, all-completing Revelation in His Son. The Gospel and 
 Epistle for the Day give the true explanation of the choice of this 
 Psalm. It begins, and they finish, the cycle of Divine Revelation to man. 
 
 The strophical arrangement of the Psalm is as follows :— 
 
 I. The Glory of God in Creation. Ver. i— 6. 
 
 (i) The witness of the heavens to God as their Creator (ver. i). 
 
 (2) The nature of the witness as continuous (ver. 2), though not 
 audible (ver. 3) ; and universal (ver. 4 a, b). 
 
 (3) The witness especially of the sun, who, as the most glorious of 
 the heavenly bodies, is chiefest herald of God's praise (ver. 4 c— 6). 
 
 II. The Gloiy of God in His Word. Ver. 7—14. 
 
 (1) The excellence and power (ver. 7—9); and the exceeding 
 preciousness (ver. 10, 11), of the Law of Jehovah. 
 
 (2) The prayer of the servant of Jehovah in the light of that Law, 
 to be kept from unconscious errors, as well as from open trans, 
 gressions (ver. 12, 13), from sins of the lip and sins of the heart 
 (ver. 14). 
 
 [for the precentor, (a psalm) of david.] 
 
 I. I The heavens are telling the glory of God ; 
 
 And the work of His hands doth the firmameni 
 declare. 
 
 I . The Psalm opens with the im- lasting order by which Day and Nigh 
 
 pression produced on the Poet's mind follow in sweet vicissitude — thesi 
 
 by the magnificence and the order of things aie not the offspring of Chance 
 
 Creation. Of the two clauses of this they are not the evolution of som( 
 
 verse, the first states the fact that the blind spirit enchained wit'hiu the mas, 
 
 heavens publish God's glory ; the which it vivifies ; much less are the; 
 
 second explains him] this is dfme, viz, the work of some evil power whosi 
 
 by testifying that He has made them. kingdom and whose triumph are to hi 
 
 Comp. viii. I, Rom. i. 20, Acts xiv. seen in the material universe. Got 
 
 17. This is the true meaning of the created them, and they show forth //i 
 
 heavens and their pomp. That splen- glory. His fingers fashioned them 
 
 dour which fills their arch, that beauty He clothed them with light as with 
 
 which so attracts the eye, that ever- garment, and put the sun in th 
 
PSALM XIX. 
 
 79 
 
 II. 
 
 2 Day unto day poureth forth speech . 
 
 And night unto night revealeth knowledge. 
 
 3 There is no speech, and there are no words, 
 
 Their voice is not heard : 
 
 4 Through the whole earth hath their line gone forth, 
 
 And their words unto the ends of the world. 
 For the sun hath He set a tabernacle in them ; 
 
 5 And he is like a bridegroom that goeth forth out 
 
 of his chamber ; 
 He rejoiceth as a mighty man to run his course. 
 
 6 From (one) end of the heaven is his going forth. 
 And his circuit as far as the (other) ends thereof. 
 
 Neither is anything hid from his heat. 
 
 7 The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul ; 
 
 The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise 
 the simple. 
 
 midst of them to show forth His 
 praise. 
 
 2. This verse expresses not so 
 much the progressive character, as 
 the never-failing continuance of the 
 testimony. There is no pause, no 
 change in the stately procession ; none 
 of them thrusts or breaks his ranks ; 
 for ever they abide the same. 
 
 3. Their voice is not heard, 
 lit. " is inaudible." This seems to be 
 1 kind of correction or explanation of 
 ;he bold iigure which had ascribed 
 Language to the heavens. The sense 
 is very well expressed in the well-known 
 paraphrase of Addison : — 
 
 " What though in solemn silence all 
 Move round this dark terrestrial ball. 
 * « » * 
 
 In reason's ear they all rejoice. 
 And utter forth a glorious voice," 
 &c. 
 
 4. St. Paul, Rom. x. 18, quotes the 
 ibrmer part of this verse in illustration 
 Df the progress of the Gospel. ' 'Fai lb , " 
 iie says, "cometh by hearing," and 
 
 then asks, " Have they {i.e. the 
 nations at large) not heard?" Yea, 
 rather, so widely has the Gospel been 
 preached, that its progress may be 
 described in the words in which the 
 Psalmist tells of God's Revelation of 
 Himself in Nature. 
 
 In them, i.e. in the heavens, hath 
 God set a tent or pavilion, &c. In 
 like manner a tabernacle or pavilion 
 is ascribed to the sun, Hab. iii. 11. 
 
 7. But the singer turns from God's 
 Revelation of Himself in Nature, to 
 His Revelation of Himself in His 
 written word. He turns from that 
 which was the common property of 
 all, to that which was the special 
 privilege of the Jew. In accordance 
 with this change of subject is the differ- 
 ence in the use of the Divine Names. 
 The transition to this new sub- 
 ject is no doubt somewhat abrupt, 
 but this only renders the con- 
 trast the more forcibly striking. 
 There is a quick rebound of the lieart 
 a^ it were from the world of Nature, 
 beautiful and glorious as it i=, to that 
 
8o PSALM XIX. 
 
 8 The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; 
 The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening 
 the eyes. 
 
 which is far more beautiful and more 
 glorious, the word of Revelation. But 
 despite the seeming abruptness, there 
 is a point of connexion between the 
 two portions of the Psalm. What the 
 Sim is in the natural world, that the 
 Law is in the spiritual : the one quick- 
 ens and cherishes all animal life — 
 nothing being hid from his heat ; the 
 other quickens and cherishes the life 
 of the soul. 
 
 7 — 10. It would be difficult to find 
 \/^a more perfect example of Hebrew 
 parallelism. In ver. 7, 8, we have in 
 each member of each verse the Law 
 of Jehovah described, firsf, by means 
 of a simple attribute setting forth its 
 inherent character ; and then sub- 
 joined, without a copula, what it is in 
 its effects upon the heart and spirit of 
 men. The second division, too, of 
 each member is constructed in .both 
 verses exactly on the sairte principle. 
 Thus to "perfect" in one clause, 
 answers "sure" in the next: to 
 " restoring the soul," " making wise 
 the simple, " and so on. In ver. 9 the 
 parallelism is no less strictly observed, 
 but it is thrown into a different form, 
 the latter half of each member being 
 now a further predicate of the nature of 
 the Law considered in itself, not in its 
 effects. In ver. 10 we have not the 
 effects of the Law, as before, but its 
 preciousness and sweetness set forth ; 
 and here again there is the most exact 
 parallelism between the two members 
 of the verse. 
 
 7. The law .... the testi- 
 mony. These are the collective 
 terms embracing the whole body of 
 "statutes," "judgements," &c. after- 
 wards mentioned. This revelation has 
 the name of "testimony," as testifying, 
 bearing witness of, God's character 
 
 both in His good will towards those 
 who obey Him, and in His displeasure 
 against transgressors, especially in tlie 
 latter sense. It is, as Harless says, 
 " the word of God, testifying of Him- 
 self, and affirming what He is, in 
 opposition to the apostasy of man." 
 See Deut. xxxi. 26, 27. Hence the 
 force of its connexion with the ark 
 and the itlercy-seat, Exod. xxv. i6, 
 xxvi. 34, Lev. xvi. 13; the symbol of 
 God's righteous severity against sin 
 being hidden beneath the symbol of 
 His grace and mercy. 
 
 Next we have its marvellous effects 
 declared. 
 
 Restoring the soul, i.e. it calls 
 it back from its wanderings by re- 
 minding it of its ingratitude, by setting 
 before it its high destiny, by bringing 
 it to its true Shepherd and Guardian. 
 Making wise the simple It 
 gives to each one who studies it with 
 open. Unprejudiced, candid mind, that 
 divine vrisdom whereby he attains to 
 salvation. Coilip. 2 Tint. iii. 15, "the 
 holy scriptvlres which are able to 
 nlake thee wise unto salvation." 
 The pilrposes for which scripture is 
 there said to be pirofitable should be 
 compared with what is said here. 
 
 The SIMPLE, lit. "the open," not 
 here, " the foolish, " as often in Pro- 
 verbs, but he who is ready to becoitle 
 a fool that he may be wise, who has 
 the true child-like spirit (Matt. xi. 25, 
 I Cor. i. 27). 
 
 8. Right, i.e. straight, as opposed 
 to the crooked ways of men. 
 
 Enlightening the eyes. Ac- 
 cording to the expressive Hebrew 
 idiom, it is to the soul what food is to 
 the worn and fainting body. It is 
 what the honey which he found in 
 the wood was to Jonathan, wheft he 
 
PSALM XIX. 
 
 8i 
 
 9 The fear of Jehovah is clean, standing fast for ever ; 
 The judgements of Jehovah are truth, they are 
 righteous altogether. 
 
 10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much 
 
 fine gold ; 
 Sweeter also than honey and the dropping of the 
 honeycomb. 
 
 1 1 Moreover Thy servant is enlightened by therh, 
 
 In keeping of them there is great reward. 
 
 1 2 As for errors, — who can discern (them) .' 
 
 From secret (faults) do Thou pronounce me innocent. 
 
 1 3 Also from presumptuous (sins) keep Thy servant back ; 
 
 Let them not have dominion over me ; 
 Then shall I be perfect. 
 
 And innocent from great transgression. 
 
 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of 
 
 my heart be acceptable before Thee, 
 
 returned wearied and exhausted from 
 the pursuit of his enemies. Cf. cxix. 
 18, Acts xxvi. 18, Eph. i. 18. 
 
 9. The fear of Jehovah. An- 
 other name for the Law, but as con- 
 templated not so much in its outward 
 aspect, as in its working on the heart. 
 
 1 1 . Personal experience of the bless- 
 edness of obeying God's Law, inas- 
 much as it brings with \'Coaia.enlighten- 
 ment and reward. 
 
 12. But with all this affection for 
 God's word, there is mingled awe and 
 reverence. That word lays a man bare 
 to himself. It judges him : it shows 
 him what is in him, convinces him 
 how much there is that needs to be 
 purged, how far even one who loves 
 it is from a perfect obedience. It is 
 at once a copy of the will of God, and 
 a mirror of the heart of man. Hence 
 it calls forth the penitent confession, 
 "As for errors, who can understand 
 them ? " and the prayer both to be 
 
 absolved — "pronounce me free " — and 
 to be kept from sin ; first for pardon, 
 and then for sanctification. 
 
 Errors, only here sins t>oth of 
 ignorance and infirmity, those which 
 are done unintentionally and un- 
 consciously. 
 
 Secret(faults), lit.things hidden, 
 i.e. not only from others, but from 
 our own hearts, through inobservance, 
 through a too ready forgetfulness of 
 them when observed, through the 
 habit of self-deception, 01 even through 
 their being wilfiilly cherished. 
 
 13. Presumptuous (sin.s). These 
 are sins done with z. high hand ; see 
 Num. XV. 27 — 31. Against these he 
 prays that they may not get the full 
 mastery over him. This completes 
 the climax, which begins with in- 
 voluntary, and advances in hidden, 
 presumptuous, and at length ruling sins 
 which leave a man their hopeless slave. 
 
 14. BE ACCEPTABLE, the usual 
 
 G 
 
82 PSALM XX. 
 
 O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer ! 
 
 formula applied to God's acceptance of the seventh time. The epithets " my 
 
 sacrifices offered to Him (Lev. i. 3, 4, Rock," "my Redeemer," have herea 
 
 &c.). Prayer to God is the sacrifice peculiar force. For He is my strength 
 
 of the heart and of the lips. Comp. in keeping the Law ; my Redeemer is 
 
 Hos. xiv. 2, "So vi'ill we oifer our delivering me from the guilt and the 
 
 lips as calves." power of sin. 
 The name Jehovah is repeated for 
 
 PSALM XX. 
 
 This is evidently a liturgical Psalm, and was intended originally, it 
 would seem, to be sung on behalf of a king who was about to go forth 
 to war against his enemies. The structure of the Psalm, and the 
 change from the plural to the singular, render it probable that it was 
 chanted in alternate measure by the congregation and the Priest or 
 Levite who led the choir. As the king stands within the sanctuary 
 offering his sacrifice, the whole assembled crorvvd of worshipers in the 
 spacious courts lift up their voices in the prayer, that Jehovah would 
 graciously accept those sacrifices, and send him help and victory in 
 the battle. 
 
 For what special occasion the Psalm was first composed, it is of 
 course now quite impossible to say. Some, following the Syriac 
 translator, would refer it to the time of David's war with the Syrians 
 and Ammonites (2 Sam. x.) ; but obviously it would apply to other 
 circumstances equally well. 
 
 The Psalm has no doubt a prophetical aspect, from the fact that the 
 Jewish king was, by virtue of his ofSce, a type of Christ. Luther, 
 indeed, observes : " This Psalm almost all expound of Christ. But 
 such an exposition appears to me to be too far-fetched to be called 
 literal. Accordingly, in its more simple and evident meaning, I think 
 it to be a kind of general litany for magistrates and those who are 
 placed in high ofifice, for whom the Apostle also (i Tim. ii. 2) bids 
 us first of all pray, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life." 
 
PSALM XX. S3 
 
 The Psalm consists of three parts : — 
 
 I. The prayer of the congregation. This was probably chanted by 
 ;he Levites, whilst the smoke of the sacrifices ascended towards 
 lieaven. Ver. i — 5. 
 
 II. Either the king himself, strengthened and encouraged by the 
 prayer of the congregation, or more probably one of the Levites, now 
 takes up the strain, gives utterance to his faith in God, and already 
 in spirit sees his enemies, great and powerful as they were, broken and 
 overthrown. Ver. 6 — 8. 
 
 III. The congregation once more respond, and taking up the words 
 of the king or the Levite (ver. 6), change them into a prayer for the 
 king, adding also a petition that their prayer may be heard. Ver. 9. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of david.] 
 The congregation led by the Levites. 
 
 1 Jehovah answer thee in the day of distress, 
 
 The Name of the God of Jacob defend thee. 
 
 2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, 
 
 And uphold thee out of Zion 1 
 
 3 Remember all thine offerings ; 
 
 And graciously accept thy burnt sacrifice. [Selah.J 
 
 4 Give thee according to thy heart's desire, 
 
 And fulfil all thy counsel ! ;' 
 
 5 So will we shout for joy because of thy salvation, 
 
 And in the Name of our God will we wave our banners. 
 Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions. 
 
 Ver. I — 4. The futures are all incense. To this last the verb " re- 
 
 optative, the prayers and wishes of »;ct2^»- " is peculiarly applicable. For 
 
 the people accompanying the offering the priest was to take a handful of it, 
 
 of tlie sacnfice. and bum it as a ^^ memorial" (of. 
 
 I. Defend THEE, lit. "set thee up Acts x. 4) upon the altar, to be an 
 
 on high," i.e. as in a fortress where no offering made by fire of a sweetsavour 
 
 enemy can do thee harm, or on a rock unto the Lord, Lev. ii. 2. 
 
 at the foot of which the waves fret Graciously accept, lit. "make 
 
 and dash themselves in impotent fury. fat, " but here in a declarative sense, 
 
 3. The king offers, as was usual, " regard as fat," and so "receive as fat, " 
 
 before going into battle (I Sam. xiii. i.e. as worthy to be offered, the fattest 
 
 3, &c.), his whole burnt-sacrifices, of the flock being chosen for sacrifice, 
 
 together with the bloodless offering of 4. THY petitions, i.e. all thy 
 
 Sue flouTi mixed vrith oil and frank- plans and measures in the war. 
 
 G 2 
 
S4 
 
 PSALM XXI. 
 
 The King or a Lcvite. 
 
 6 Now know I that Jehovah saveth His Anointed ; 
 
 He will answer him from His holy heaven 
 With the strength of the salvation of His right hand. ■ 
 
 7 Some of chariots and some of horses, 
 
 But we will make mention of the Name of Jehovah 
 our God. 
 
 8 They have bowed down and fallen, 
 
 But Tve have risen and stood upright. 
 
 The people and Levites. 
 
 9 O Jehovah, save the king ! 
 
 May He answer us when we cry (unto Plim) ! 
 
 6. The second division of the Psalm. 
 The oifering of the sacrifices had, we 
 may suppose, been concluded ; and 
 now, after a pause of some duration, a 
 single voice (probably of one of the 
 Levites) is heard, declaring that the 
 sacrifice has been graciously received, 
 and thence drawing an augury of 
 success. 
 
 The prayer had been (ver. i, 2) 
 that God would hear and send help 
 from the earthly sanctuary or Zion. 
 Now the answer is said to come from 
 His holy heaven. 
 
 7. According to the Law, Israel 
 was forbidden to maintain a standing 
 
 army. See the directions concerning 
 the king, Deut. xvii. 16. 
 
 With the sentiment here expressed, 
 comp. David's words to Goliath, 
 I Sam. xvii. 45, and Ps. xxxiii. 16, &c. 
 Similar language is common in the 
 Prophets. The basis of it all is to be 
 found in the Laiv, Deut. xx. 2 — 4, 
 xxxii. 30. 
 
 9. After the solo, the Chorus again 
 take up the strain. 
 
 O Jehovah, save the king, &c. 
 Such is the rendering of the LXX., 
 which is also followed by the Vulg., 
 Doniine salvumfac regem, whence our 
 "God save the King." 
 
 PSALM XXI. 
 
 The last Psalm was a litany before the king went forth to battle. 
 This is apparently a Te Deum on his return. In that the people 
 cried, " Jehovah give thee according to thy heart's desire : " in this 
 they thank God who has heard their prayer, " The wish of his heart 
 hast Thou granted him." 
 
PSALM XXI. 85 
 
 The Psalm was evidently sung in the Temple, either by the whole 
 congregation, or by a choir of Levites. Like the last, it is Messianic, 
 and in the same sense. Each Jewish monarch was but a feeble type 
 of Israel's true King : and all the hopes and aspirations ot pious 
 hearts, however they might have for their immediate object the then 
 reigning monarch, whether David himself or one of David's children, 
 still looked beyond these to Him who should be David's Lord as 
 well as his Son. 
 
 It fa,lls into two strophes :— 
 
 I. A Prayer to Jehovah on behalf of the king. Here we have 
 the gladness of the king ascribed (i) to what Jehovah has done, is 
 doing, and will do in his behalf; and (2) to the fact that the king 
 trusteth in Jehovah. Ver. i — 7. 
 
 II. Good wishes and words of happy augury addressed to the 
 king himself, who is assured of victory over all his enemies. Ver. 
 8—12. 
 
 [for the precentor. a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Jehovah, in Thy strength shall the king be glad, 
 
 And in Thy salvation how greatly shall he exult ! 
 
 2 The wish of his heart hast Thou granted him ; 
 
 And the desire of his lips hast Thou not refused. 
 [Selah.] 
 
 3 For Thou comest to meet him with blessings of prosperity, 
 
 Thou puttest a crown of fine gold upon his head. 
 
 4 He asked life of Thee : — Thou gavest (it) him. 
 
 Length of days, for ever and ever. 
 
 I, 2. Introduction. Jehovah has A crown of fine gold. Some 
 
 answered the prayer of the king, and .see a reference either to David's first 
 
 so filled him with joy. coronation, or to his taking the crown 
 
 I. Strength . . . salvation (or, of the king of Rabbah, 2 Sam. xii. 30. 
 
 SAVING help), words used especially But "Thou puttest a crown of fine 
 
 of strength and succour vouchsafed in gold upon his head " may only mean, 
 
 battle. " Thou givest him kingly dignity and 
 
 Ver. 3 — 6. The manner in which presence." 
 
 the king's prayer has been answered. 4. For ever and ever. There 
 
 3. Blessings OF prosperity, i.e. is no difficulty in this expression even 
 
 iilessings which bring and consist in as applied to David. It was usual to 
 
 prosperity ; cf. Prov. xxiv. 25. pray that the king might live for ever 
 
86 PSALM XXI. 
 
 5 Great is his glory through Thy salvation ; 
 
 Honour and majesty dost Thou lay upon him. 
 
 6 For Thou makest him (full of) blessings for ever ; 
 
 Thou dost gladden him with joy in Thy presence. 
 
 7 For the king trusteth in Jehovah, 
 
 And through the mercy of the Most High he shall 
 not be moved. 
 
 {^To the King.) 
 
 8 Thy hand shall find all thine enemies, 
 
 Thy right hand shall find out them that hate thee. 
 
 9 Thou shalt make them as a furnace of fire in the time 
 
 of thy wrathfulness : 
 Jehovah in His anger shall consume them ; and a fire 
 shall devour them. 
 
 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, 
 
 And their seed from among the children of men. 
 
 1 1 For they intended evil against thee ; 
 
 They imagined a mischievous device — which they 
 cannot perform. 
 
 12 For thou shalt make them turn their back: 
 
 On thy strings thou shalt make ready (thine arrows) 
 against the face of them. 
 
 (I Kings i. 31, Neh. ii. 3, &c.), and furnace," or by a metonymy the fur* 
 
 a like anticipation of an endless life nace may be put for the fuel which it 
 
 occurs in other Psalms (xxiii. 6, Ixi. consumes (as Ixxxiii. 14, "Thou wilt 
 
 6, xci. 1 6). But it applies most truly make them . . . . as the fire which 
 
 to Christ. consumeth the wood," instead of "as 
 
 5. Salvation, see on yer. i. the wood which the fire consumes;" 
 
 6. Lit. "Thou makest him bless- see also Zech. xii. 6). (2) The king 
 ings," i.e. blessed himself and the himself may be compared to a furnace, 
 bearer of blessing to others. Comp. "Thou shalt do with them, as a 
 Gen. xii. 2, Is. xix. 24, Ezek. xxxiv. furaace would, viz. consume them. 
 26. For the expression, JOY in Thy There is a similar ambiguity in the 
 PRESENCE, comp. xvi. II. reference of the image in xxxix. H. 
 
 9. Thou shalt make them as a id. Their fruit = children, pos^ 
 
 FURNACE OF FIRE. This is capable terity, &c, Lam. ii. 20, Hosea ix. 16 
 
 of two interpretations : (l) it may be more fully "frait of the womb, 
 
 equivalent to "as if they were in a cxxvii. 3, cxxxii. II 
 
PSALM XX IT. 87 
 
 13 Be Thou exalted, Jehovah, in Thy strength ; 
 So will we hymn and praise Thy might. 
 
 13. The singer has done with his Himself in all his power and glory, 
 
 good wishes and prophecies for the that His people may ever acknow- 
 
 king. Now he turns to the Giver of ledge Him as the only source of their 
 
 victory, and prays Him to manifest strength. 
 
 PSALM XXII. 
 
 According to the Inscription, this is one of David's Psalms. We 
 know, however, of no circumstances in his life to which it can possibly 
 be referred. In none of his persecutions by Saul was he ever reduced 
 to such straits as those here described. And yet there is a distinctness 
 in the enumeration of circumstances, as in ver. 18, 19, which connects 
 the Psalm evidently with some particular occasion. 
 
 It is more probable that the Psalm was composed by one of the 
 exiles during the Babylonish captivity. And though the feelings and 
 expressions are clearly individual, not nati'onal, yet they are the 
 feelings and expressions of one who suffers not merely as an in- 
 dividual, but so to speak in a representative character. 
 
 Hence we may regard him in His sufferings as a type of Christ ; and 
 surely it was most fitting that at the very time when the nation itself 
 was shown how, through its own sufferings in exile, the heathen were to 
 be claimed for Jehovah, it should also learn by means of this typical 
 instance, how, through the sufferings of the Great Deliverer, all its 
 hopes would be fulfilled. Thus the history of Israel was fashioned to 
 be typical of the history of Redemption, as well as that of the 
 individual Israelite to be typical of Christ. 
 
 The references in the New Testament to this Psalm, as fulfilled in 
 Christ, are many. The first words of it were uttered by Jesus on the 
 cross, Matt, xxvii. 46. The scorn of the passers-by, and the shaking 
 of the head, in ver. 7, have their counterpart in the story of the 
 crucifixion. Matt, xxvii. 39. The words of ver. 8 are found in Matt 
 
8S PSALM XXII. 
 
 xxvii. 43; the intense thirst, "my tongue cleaveth to my jaws," of 
 ver. 15, in John xix. 28 ; the parting of the garments, &c. ver. 18, in 
 John xix. 23 ; the piercing (if that is a correct rendenng ; see note on 
 the ver.) of the hands and feet in ver. 16, in the nailmg to the cross. 
 Similarly we are justified in interpreting the latter part of the Psalm 
 of the fruit of Christ's Passion and Resurrection by the way m which 
 ver. 22 is quoted. Heb. ii- 12, &c. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts :— 
 J. Complaint and Prayer. Ver. i— 21. 
 
 II. Vows and Hopes. Ver. 22 — 31. 
 
 Each of these principal divisions admits of its subdivision. For 
 we have — 
 
 I. First, the pouring out of the heart's sorrow, with one of the 
 tenderest appeals to God's compassionate Love that ever trembled 
 on human Kps (ver. 2—1 1) ; and next, the earnest entreaty for help, 
 because of the greatness and nearness of the peril (ver. 12—22). 
 The peril so near, and God so far off— this is the thought which 
 colours all, both complaint and prayer. 
 
 II. In the second part, again, we have, first, the vows of thanks- 
 giving for deliverance, and the praising of God's Name in the "midst 
 of the congregation" (ver. 23 — 27). Next, the confident hope that 
 God's kingdom shall be set up in all the earth, and that all, great and 
 low, shall submit themselves to Him (ver. 28 — 32). 
 
 According to a different and more general arrangement, the Psalin 
 consists of three parts : — 
 
 I. Complaint. Ver. i — 10. 
 II. Prayer. Ver. 11 — 21. 
 
 III. Expression of Hope. Ver. 22 — 31. 
 
 [for the precentor, to the melody "the hind of the 
 dawn."* a psalm of david.] 
 
 I. I My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me .' 
 
 I. Why ? What these words were in merit in that last agony the Perfect Man 
 the lips of the Holy One of God, heart was alone, alone with the sin of the 
 of man may not conceive. For a mo- world. But it is going beyond Scrip- 
 
 * Various explanations have been given of this title, but the most natural seems to be that 
 "the hind of 'the dawn " are the first words of some Other song, to the music of which this 
 was to be sung. 
 
PSALM XXII. 
 
 89 
 
 (Why art Thou) far from helping me, (and from) the 
 words of my roaring ? 
 
 2 O my God, I cry in the day-time, but Thou answerest 
 
 not, 
 And in the night season, and keep not silence : 
 
 3 And Thou art Holy, throned above the praises of Israel. 
 
 4 In Thee our fathers trusted ; 
 
 They trusted, and Thou didst rescue them : 
 
 5 Unto Thee did they cry and were delivered. 
 
 In Thee they trusted and were not ashamed. 
 
 6 But as for me — I am a worm, not a man, 
 
 A reproach of men, and despised of the people. 
 
 7 All they that see me, laugh me to scorn, 
 
 They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, (saying,) 
 
 8 " Cast (thyself) upon Jehovah — let Him rescue him. 
 
 Let Him deliver him, seeing He delighteth in him." 
 
 9 For Thou art He that took me out of the womb. 
 
 ture to say that a sense of God's wrath 
 extorted that cry. For to the last 
 breath He was the well-beloved of 
 the Father, and the repeated "My 
 God," "My God," is a witness even 
 then to His confidence in the Father's 
 Love. 
 
 2. Again "wy God." And this 
 verse further explains the "why" of 
 the first verse. It is as if he said " I 
 cannot understand this darkness. It 
 is not that I have forgotten Thee. 
 Day and night I cry— to me there is 
 no silence." 
 
 3, And there is another reason, 
 Thou art Holy : God's holiness is 
 but another asptct of His faithfulness 
 and mercy. 
 
 Throned above the praises, 
 &c., or inhabiting the praises^ appa- 
 rently with allusion to the phrase 
 " dwel ing between the cherubim," i 
 Sam. iv. 4 ; 2 Sam. vi. 2 ; cf. Ixxx. 1, 
 xcix. I. 
 
 The praises (plur. ) with reference 
 to the many acts of deliverance and 
 
 redemption which had from time to 
 time called forth a thankful remem- 
 brance. There is perhaps an allusion 
 to Exod. XV. II, 12. 
 
 4, 5. Thrice "they trusted," and 
 only once " they cried." 
 
 6. Every word of this verse finds its 
 echo in Isaiah. There Israel is "a 
 worm," xli. 14. And there "the 
 servant of Jehovah " is one whose 
 * ' visage is so marred that he is not 
 like a man," Hi. 14. See, also. Is. 
 xlix. 7, 1. 6, and iiii. 3, for similar 
 forms of expression. 
 
 7. St. Luke, m his account of our 
 Lord's crucifixion (xxiii. 35), has used 
 tlie verb employed by the LXX. 
 in this passage. 
 
 Shoot otJT the lip. Cf. xxxv. 
 21, Job xvi. 10. 
 
 Shake the head — clearly not as 
 an expression of compassion, but of 
 malicious joy. Cf cix.25, xliv. 14, 
 Ixiv. 8, where see Note. See also 
 Matt, xxvii. 39, 
 
qo PSALM XXII. 
 
 Thou didst make me trust, (when I was) on my 
 mother's breasts, 
 lo On Thee was I cast from the womb, 
 
 From my mother's belly THOU art my God. 
 
 II. 1 1 Be not far from me ; for trouble is hard at hand, 
 For there is none to help me. 
 
 12 Many bulls have come about me ; 
 
 Bashan's strong ones have beset me round. 
 
 13 They have gaped upon me with their mouth, 
 
 (As) a ravening and a roaring lion. 
 
 14 Like water am I poured out, 
 
 And all my bones are out of joint ; 
 My heart has become like wax, 
 
 It melteth in the midst of my body. 
 
 1 5 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. 
 And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; 
 
 And Thou wilt lay me in the dust of death. 
 
 1 6 For dogs have come about me, 
 
 The assembly of evil-doers have enclosed me. 
 Piercing my hands and my feet. 
 
 17 I can tell all my bones : 
 
 They stare, they look upon me. 
 
 11. Be not far (with reference to me. The enemies are still compared 
 ver. I ), for trouble is Hear. to savage animals, but the figure is 
 
 12. Bashan's STRONG ONES. The somewhat different :" dogs " not only 
 land of Bashan was celebrated for its as fierce, but as unclean. Almost the 
 ikt pastures (cf. Deut. xxxii. 14, and only trait of bitterness in the Psalm. 
 Amos iv. I ; Ezek. xxxix. 18), extend- We must remember that these dogs 
 ing from Jabbok to Mount Hermon, are the savage wild dogs of the East, 
 and eastward to the extreme boundary i Kings xiv. 11 ; Ps. lix. 6, 14, 15. 
 of Palestine. Piercing my hands and my 
 
 14. My bones are out of joint. feet. The present Hebrew text, if 
 
 Lit. " have separated themselves, " as adhered to, would require the render- 
 
 of a man stretched upon the rack. ing, "Like a lion, (coming about) my 
 
 We are reminded of Peter's words, hands and my feet." But the sense 
 
 ' ' Him, being delivered according to is poor, and the weight of critical 
 
 the determinate counsel and fore- authority is against it. 
 knowledge of God, ye have taken and 1 7- I CAN TELL. Before : "all 
 
 with wicked hands have crucified and my bones are out of joint." Hence it 
 
 slain : " Acts ii. 23. would seem that the body was racked 
 
 16. For dogs have come about by some violent torture ; not merely 
 
PSALM XXII. 91 
 
 1 8 They part my garments among them, 
 
 And upon my vesture do they cast lots. 
 
 19 But Thou, O Jehovah, be not far (from me) ; 
 
 O my Strength, haste Thee to help me. 
 
 20 Dehver my soul from the sword, 
 
 My only one from the power of the dog. 
 
 21 Save me from the lion's mouth, 
 
 And from the horns of the wild oxen — Thou hast 
 answered me. 
 
 III. 22 So will I tell Thy name to my brethren. 
 
 In the midst of the congregation will I praise 
 Thee : (saying,) 
 
 23 "Ye that fear Jehovah, praise Him ; 
 
 All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him ; 
 
 And stand in awe of Him, all ye the seed of Israel ! 
 
 24 For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction 
 
 of the afflicted, 
 Neither hath He hid His face from him ; 
 And when he cried unto Him, He heard." 
 
 emaciated by starvation and suffering. Thelifeis so called either because man 
 
 And thus in his utter miseiy he is a has but one life, or because it is the 
 
 gazing-stock to them that hate him : most precious of all things. 
 
 " they look upon me," i.e. with From the power (Heb. hand) of 
 
 malicious satisfaction at my sufferings. the dog. Similarly "from the hand 
 
 18. And now follows the last act of of the lion and the bear," i Sam. xvii. 
 
 indignity, perpetrated as it were in 37 ; " from the hand of the flame," 
 
 sight ot his death : his very clothes Is. xlvii. 14. 
 
 are stnpt from him, and are shared as 21. Wild oxen. "From the 
 
 plunder among his foes. This passage honis of the wild oxen (still found in 
 
 clearly cannot apply to David. Bat herds on the east of Jordan) — Thou 
 
 some Jew in exile may have really hast heard and delivered me " (opp. 
 
 suffered such things, and so have pre- to ver. 3, "Thou hearest not ). 
 
 figured in history the sufferings of Before it had been "Thou answevest 
 
 Christ All this was fulfilled to the not," — nowatthemostcriticalmoment 
 
 letter in Christ. See Johnxix. 23, &c. Faith asserts her victory, "Thou hast 
 
 20. My only one, or, as English answered." See the same sudden 
 Version, my darling. From the par- transition, the same quick assurance 
 allelism = my soul, my life. In similar that prayer has been heard, vi. 9, xx. 
 connexion, xxxv. 17. It occurs be- 6, xxviii. 6, xxxi. 22. The vows and 
 sides. Judges xi, 34, of Jephthah's thanksgivings which follow are a con- 
 daughter (see Gert. xxii. 2, Prov. iv. 3). sequence of this assurance. 
 
92 PSALM XXII. 
 
 25 Of Thee is my praise in the great congregation ; 
 
 My vows will I pay before them that fear Him. 
 
 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied, 
 
 They shall praise Jehovah that seek Him : 
 May your heart live for ever ! 
 
 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto 
 
 Jehovah, 
 And all the families of the nations shall worship before 
 Thee. 
 
 28 For Jehovah's is the kingdom ; 
 
 And He ruleth among the nations. 
 
 29 All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and worshipt, 
 Before Him shall all they that go down into the dust 
 
 bend the knee, 
 And whosoever cannot keep his soul alive. 
 
 30 A seed shall serve Him ; 
 
 It shall be told to the generation (to come) concerning 
 the Lord. 
 
 3 1 They shall come, they shall declare his righteousness 
 
 25. My vows, thank-offerings hopes fulfilled. Hence he speaks of 
 vowed in his trouble. The flesh of what is to be as if it already ■were. All 
 the sacrifice in such cases was to be " the fat ones of the earth " (the rich 
 eaten (Lev. vii. 16) : hence the account and mighty) as well as the poor, " who 
 of the banquet whicli follows, "they cunnot keep his soul alive," i.e. who 
 shall eat and be satisfied." is so poor that he has not the bare 
 
 26. May your heart live (i.e. means of subsistence, shall sit down 
 be full of all joy and blessedness). together at that banquet in the 
 This would have sounded more natural kingdom of heaven. (The same ban- 
 to our ears if it had been, "Their quet which is spoken of Is. xxv. 6.) 
 heart shall live for ever." This ab- They that go down into the 
 rupt transition, however, from narra- dust. Herenotliterally " thedead," 
 Uon in the third person to address in as in the expression " they that go 
 the second, is not unusual in Hebrew. down into the pit," &c., bat rather 
 See the next verse, and Zech. xiv. 5, they who are "ready to go down," 
 " The Lord my God shall come, and whose miserj is so great that they are 
 all the saints with Thee," instead of at the point to die. 
 "withjym." 31. They, «.f. this new generation, 
 
 29. The poet again returns to the this church which the Lord has 
 
 figure of the banquet, and uses here planted. 
 
 the past tenses instead of the future. His righteousness, not only as 
 
 as is veiy usual with the Prophets, be- manifested in the deliverance of His 
 
 cause in vision lie already beheld his righteous servant, but as manifested 
 
PSALM XXIII. 
 
 93 
 
 To a people that shall be born, that He hath done (it). 
 
 in all His great work of salvation, 
 both in the suffering and in the exalta- 
 tion of Christ, and also in providing the 
 feast for all who will partake thereof. 
 First he will praise God in the con- 
 gregation of Israel, and make known 
 Ilis name to his brethren. Then, all 
 nations shall come aitd sit down at the 
 banquet of fat things, and worship be- 
 fore the Lord. Lastly, to future ages 
 also shall God's righteousness be 
 declared. This hope of the conversion 
 of other nations to the faith of God's 
 elect, was in an especial manner 
 characteristic of the period of the 
 return from the Babylonish captivity. 
 The prophecies of Zechariah are full 
 of it ; and so are many of the Psalms 
 
 which probably date from that pe- 
 riod. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel how far 
 such hopes must have extended be- 
 yond the personal fortunes of the 
 singer, or any results that he could 
 possibly have anticipated from his 
 own sufferings. -If even in those 
 sufferings he was but a feeble type of 
 the Great Sufferer who should give 
 His life for the world, certainly in the 
 thanksgiving for his deliverance, and 
 the results of that deliverance, there 
 must have been but a very faint fore- 
 shadowing of the joy set before Him 
 who endured the Cross, and who saw 
 of the travail of His soul and was 
 satisfied. 
 
 PSALM XXIII. 
 
 It is unnecessary to refer this Psalm to any particular period of 
 David's history. As the outpouring of a heart which has found per- 
 fect rest in God, it was most probably written in advanced years, after 
 a long experience of God's goodness. Its language is coloured by the 
 reminiscences of his past life. Hi§ own shepherd experience no doubt 
 suggested the image of the former part : and in the latter we may per- 
 haps trace a recollection, more or less distinct, of the circumstances 
 mentioned 2 Sam. xvii. 27—29, when, on David's coming to Maha- 
 naim, during Absalom's rebellion, he and his party were succoured 
 and refreshed in their faintness and weariness, through the kindness 
 of Barzillai and other friends who supplied their wants. 
 
 [a psalm OP' DAVID.] 
 
 I Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want. 
 
 I. My Shepherd. The image, is first em.ployed by Jacob, Gen. xlviii. 
 nalur.1l amongst a nation of sheplierds, 15, "The God which fed me," liu 
 
94 
 
 PSALM XXIII. 
 
 2 In grassy pastures He maketh me to lie down ; 
 
 Beside waters of rest doth He guide me. 
 
 3 He restoreth my soul ; 
 
 He leadeth me in paths of righteousness, 
 For His Name's sake. 
 
 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 
 death, 
 I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me : 
 
 "my Shepherd ;'' xlix. 24. There, 
 as here, God is the Shepherd of the 
 individual, cf. Ps. cxix. 176, still more 
 frequently of His people; Ixxviii. 52, 
 Ixxx. I ; Micah vii. 14 ; Is. Ixiii. 11, 
 and especially Ezek. xxxiv. : most 
 beautifuUyandtouchingly in Is. xl. II. 
 So in the New Testament of Christ, 
 John X. I— 16, xxi. 15—17 ; Heb. xiii. 
 20 ; I Pet. ii. 25, v. 4. 
 
 On our Lord's appropriation of the 
 figure to Himself, F. W. Robertson say s 
 with much force and beauty : " ' I am 
 the Good Shepherd.' In the dry and 
 merciless logic of a commentary, trying 
 laboriously to find out minute points 
 of ingenious resemblance in which 
 Christ is like a shepherd, the glory 
 and the tenderness of this sentence are 
 dried up. But try to feel, by imagin- 
 ing what the lonely Syrian shepherd 
 must feel towards the helpless things 
 which are the companions of his daily 
 life, for whose safety he stands in 
 jeopardy every hour, and whose value 
 is measurable to him, not by price, 
 but by his own jeopardy, and then we 
 have reached some notion of the love 
 which Jesus meant to represent, that 
 Eternal Tenderness which bends over 
 us— infinitely lower though we be in 
 nature — and knows the name of each 
 and the trials of each, and thinks for 
 each with a separate solicitude, and 
 gave Himself for each with a Sacrifice 
 as special, and a Love as personal, as 
 if in the whole world's wilderness were 
 none other but that one." {Sermons, 
 2d Series, pp. 286, &c.) 
 
 I SHALL NOT WANT, or, perhaps, 
 "I cannot want," as describing not 
 only the present experience, but as 
 expressing confidence for all time to 
 come. Observe the absolute, / shall 
 not want, stronger than in xxxiv. 10, 
 or Dent. ii. 6, or viii. 9. These words 
 are the key-note of the Psalm. David 
 speaks them out of the fulness Of his 
 own experience. As he had watched 
 over, and provided for, and tended his 
 flock, leading them to the greenest 
 pastures, and finding for them the 
 water which in that country was so 
 scarce, and guarding them by night 
 from beasts of prey, so he felt his God 
 would provide for and watch over him. 
 
 2. Waters of rest or "refresh- 
 ment." (Not "still waters," as in 
 the very different phrase, Is. viii. 6.) 
 
 3. Paths of righteousness. 
 Not merely straiglit paths as opposed 
 to crooked, or level ground as opposed 
 to hills and valleys. This is rather 
 the blending of the natural image with 
 its spiritual counterpart. The God of 
 providence is the God of grace, and 
 who can tell where the one ends and 
 the other begins? Providence runs 
 up into grace, and grace loses itself 
 in providence. 
 
 For His Name's sake — ^not for 
 my deserving, but out of His own 
 goodness, for the manifestation of 
 His own glory, and the furtherance of 
 His kingdom upon earth. 
 
 4. This consciousness of Divine 
 protection is his support, not only in 
 quiet times, but even when dangers 
 
PSALM XXJV. 
 
 9S 
 
 Thy rod and thy staff — they comfort me. 
 
 5 Thou preparest a table before me, 
 
 In the presence of mine enemies : 
 Thou hast anointed my head with oil, 
 My cup runneth over. 
 
 6 Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all 
 
 the days of my life. 
 And I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for length of 
 days. 
 
 threaten. " Even though I should be 
 called upon to walk," &c. 
 
 They, — emphatic, because they are 
 TJiy rod and Thy staff. 
 
 5, 6. A guest at a royal banquet. 
 God is even more than a shepherd 
 who provides for the vpants of his 
 sheep. He is a king who lavishes his 
 bounty in rich provision for his guests. 
 This is an image also adopted by our 
 Lord in His parables. (Matt. xxii. 
 I, &c.) 
 
 5. Prepare a table, the common 
 formula for furnishing a meal, Prov. 
 ix. 2; Is. xxi. 5; Ezek. xxiii. 41. 
 
 In the presence of mine ene- 
 mies, I.e. who , look on, but cannot 
 harm me. The addition of this re- 
 mark would intimate that we have 
 more here than merely a figure. 
 Some recollection of the past seems 
 to break out which probably sug- 
 gested it. 
 
 On the anointing the head, which 
 was customary at banquets, comp. 
 xcii. 10. 
 
 6. I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE 
 
 OF Jehovah for length of days. 
 What did the Psalmist mean by this ? 
 The house of Jehovah might refer 
 primarily to the tabernacle, as later to 
 the temple. And if so, that to which 
 he looked forward was access to God 
 in His sanctuary, and the blessedness 
 of communion with Him there. But 
 is there no more than this ? no anti- 
 cipation of a more perfect and abiding 
 blessedness in the everlasting sanctuary 
 above ? To us the language seems to 
 bear such a meaning. It may not 
 have done so to David. To him it 
 was enough that he was the sheep or 
 whom the Divine Shepherd cared, the 
 guest for whom tbe Divine Host pro- 
 vided. He was thinking, perhaps, of 
 this life more than of the next. 
 
 PSALM XXIV. 
 
 This grand choral Hymn was in all probability composed and sung 
 on the occasion of the removal of the Ark from the house of Obed- 
 Edom, to the city of David on Mount Zion (2 Sam. vi.). It was a day 
 
96 PSALM XXIV. 
 
 of solemn gladness and triumph. From henceforth this mountain. 
 ci.ty was to be the seat of the royal residence, and the centre of 
 religious worship ; and hither David determined to bring the Arlc, 
 which had been left for nearly fifty years neglected at Kirjath- 
 Jearim. 
 
 It seems quite evident that the Psalm was intended to be sung 
 in antiphonal measure, voice answering to voice, and chorus to 
 chorus. Seven choirs of singers and musicians, so Josephus tells 
 us, preceded the Ark on this occasion, as the king commanded, he 
 himself playing upon the harp, and dancing before Jehovah with 
 all his might. 
 
 We may suppose the whole congregation, as they wound in festal 
 procession up the sacred hill, to have begun the solemn strain: 
 "Jehovah's is the earth, and the fulness thereof," &c. (ver. i, 2). 
 Then one choir, or it may have been only a single voice, asked the 
 question in ver. 3. "Who shall ascend into- the hill of Jehovah?" &c., 
 and was answered by another choir, or another voice, in ver. 4, " He 
 that is clean of hands," &c. ; whilst both finally united in ver. 5, 6, 
 " He shall receive a blessing," &c. After this prelude, the singing 
 ceased for a time (as the Selah seems to indicate), and the musical 
 instruments only were heard. In the second part, a band of Priests 
 and Levites heading the procession have already passed within the 
 gates, as representatives of the holy nation. And whilst the rest of 
 the vast assembly, as it still ascends, bursts forth with the magnificent 
 choral hymn, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates," &c., the company 
 from within reply, " Who is the King of Glory?" who thus demands 
 admittance ; and again the answer peals back from the choir without, 
 as with a voice of many waters, "Jehovah of Hosts, He is the King 
 of Glory." 
 
 The Psalm, then, consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The preparation for the entry of Jehovah into His holy moun- 
 tain. Ver. I — 6. 
 
 II. The entry itself. Ver. 7 — 10. 
 
 [a psalm of david.J 
 
 1 Jehovah's is the earth, and the fulness thereof; 
 The world, and they that dwell therein : 
 
PSALM XXIV. 
 
 97 
 
 2 For He hath founded it upon (the) seas, 
 
 And upon (the) streams doth He make it fast. 
 
 3 " Who shall ascend into the mountain of Jehovah ? 
 
 And who shall stand in His holy place ? " 
 
 4 " He that is clean of hands and pure of heart, 
 
 Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, 
 And hath not sworn deceitfully." — 
 
 5 " He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, 
 
 And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 
 
 6 This is the generation of them that seek after Him, 
 
 That seek Thy face, [O God of] Jacob ! " [Selah.] 
 
 7 " lyift up your hes^ds, O ye gates ; 
 
 And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, 
 That the King of Glory may come in." 
 
 2. Seas — STREAMS. The reference 
 is no doubt to the account of the 
 creation, in Genesis, the 4ry land 
 having enaergpd from the water, and 
 seeming to rest upon it. (Comp. 
 cxxxvi. 6, Prov. viii. 29.) 
 
 It may be mentioned as a curiosity 
 of Romish interpretation, that the 
 Vulgate super OTorza, * * upon the seas, " 
 fi3&consi&xie.&vcAo super Maria, "upon 
 (the Virgin) Mary. " 
 
 4. Unto vanity, i.e. either (i) the 
 perishing things of earth. Job xv, 31 ; 
 or (2) falsehood. Job xxxi. 5, which 
 signification passes over into a wider 
 one of moral evil in general, cxix. 37 ; 
 or (3) false gods, idols, xxxi. 6. It 
 may be taken here in the widest sense 
 of all that the human heart puts in the 
 place of God. 
 
 5. We are here told in. other words 
 (as at the close of Ps. xv. ) who is thus 
 worthy to enter the holy place. 
 
 A BLESSING, such as Abraham's 
 seed might look for (Gen. xv. 6). 
 
 Righteousness, not in the New 
 Testament sense of justification, but 
 in the Old Testament acceptation of 
 
 inward and outward holiness ; but still 
 even this regarded as a gift from the 
 God of his salvation. For this con- 
 rLe.Q>a.aahf±vittyvsalvalionzxvirighteous- 
 ness, see the note on Ixxi. 15, and cf. 
 cxxxii. 9, 16, and especially the pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah, xlv. 22, 24, xlvi. 13, 
 li. 5, Ivi. I. 
 
 6. Such are they, lit. "This is 
 the generation of them," &c. 
 
 7 — 10. The entry of Jehovah as the 
 King of Glory into His sanctuary. 
 Tiie festal procession has now reached 
 the gates of the city of Zion. " The 
 singers go before, the minstrels follow 
 after," and in the midst of these is the 
 Ark, "whose name is called by the 
 name of the Lord of Hosts, that dwell- 
 eth between the cherubim " (2 Sam. 
 vi. 2) ; so that the entry of the Ark is 
 the entry of Jehovah Himself into Zion 
 (Num. X. 35). By a sublime figure 
 the poet bids "the everlasting gates " 
 of 1 that grey old fortress be lifted up ; 
 for the greatest and most glorious of 
 all kings is He who now enters in, to 
 claim it for Himself. David had taken 
 the stronghold from the hands of the 
 H 
 
98 PSALM XXV. 
 
 8 " Who, then, is the King of Glory ? " 
 
 " Jehovah, strong and mighty ; 
 Jehovah, mighty in battle." 
 
 9 " Lift up your heads, O ye gates, 
 
 Yea lift them up, ye everlasting doors, 
 That the King of Glory may come in ! " 
 
 lo " Who, then, is that King of Glory ? " 
 
 " Jehovah of Hosts, 
 He is the King of Glory." [Selah.] 
 
 Jebusites. Butnot David, but Jehovah, and most fitly, in its Christian applicat 
 
 is the true King of Zion. The gates tion, celebrates the return of Christ as - 
 
 are termed "gates of old," or "ever- the King of Glory to His heavenly 
 
 lasting," as being of a hoar antiquity, throne, and the inauguration of that 
 
 possibly also vi'ith the hopeful anti- dominion which He thence exercises 
 
 cipation that they would abide for in the world. It will be fully accom- 
 
 ever. plished when the doors of all hearts, 
 
 This Psalm is no doubt prophetic, all temples, and all kingdoms, shallbe 
 
 or rather typical in its character. It thrown wide before Him ; when He 
 
 has been appointed by the Church as shall be acknowledged upon earth as 
 
 one of the Psalms for Ascension Day ; He is acknowledged in heaven. 
 
 PSALM XXV. 
 
 This is an acrostic or alphabetical Psalm, the first verse beginning 
 virith the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the other letters 
 following in order at the beginning of each successive verse. The 
 order indeed is not perfectly observed, as we find also in another 
 alphabetical Psalm, the 34th. Indeed, the last verse of these two 
 Psalms not only begins with the same letter, but with the same word^ 
 "redeem." Here the prayer is that God would redeem Israel; there 
 it is said that He redeems the soul of His servants. This looks like 
 design. It would seem to indicate that the same person was author 
 of both poems, and that the condition of the people was the same at 
 the time they were written. We have no means of fixing what that 
 
PSALM XXV. 99 
 
 time was, but they probably both belong to the later period of the 
 history — perhaps to the time of the Exile. Other Psalms which are 
 constructed on a similar principle are the 37th, the iiith, 112th, 
 119th, and 145th. 
 
 The Psalm hardly admits of formal division. It is a prayer for 
 instruction and forgiveness. 
 
 The recurrence of certain expressions, such as ''waiting" and 
 "being ashamed" (ver. 2, 3, 5, 20, 21) ; "affliction" and "afflicted" 
 (ver. 9 bis, 16, 18); the prayer for "instruction" (ver. 4, 5, 8, 9, 
 12, 14), together with earnest entreaty for "forgiveness" (ver. 7, 11, 
 18), gives a peculiar character to the Psalm. Its prevailing thought 
 is that God is the teacher of the afflicted, and the guide of the erring ; 
 and this is constantly repeated either in the way of statement or of 
 prayer. 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I (Aleph) Unto Thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul. 
 
 2 (Aleph) O my God, in Thee have I trusted ; 
 
 Let me not be ashamed, 
 
 Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 
 
 3 (Gimel) Ye^, none that wait on Thee shall be ashamed ; 
 
 They shall be ashamed who are faithless 
 without cause. 
 
 4 (Daleth) Thy ways, O Jehovah, make me to know ; 
 
 Teach me Thy paths : 
 
 5 (He) Guide me in Thy truth, and teach me ; 
 
 For Thou art the God of my salvation : 
 On Thee do I wait all the day. 
 
 6 (Zain) Remember Thy tender mercies, O Jehovah, 
 
 and Thy loving-kindnesses. 
 For they have been ever of old. 
 
 I. Unto Thee, emphatic, not to experience of it, that I may not be 
 
 any false god, or to any human deli- like the faithless ones who are put to 
 
 verer. Similarly ver. 2, 5. shame. 
 
 5. Lead me in Thy truth, more 6. Comp. Gen. viii. i, ix. 15, xix. 
 
 lit "Cause me to walk in Thy faith- 29, &c. An appeal to the uncliange- 
 
 falness," i.e. let me ever live in the ableness of God's nature, as well as a 
 
 H 2 
 
loo PSALM XXV. 
 
 7 (Cheth) The sins of my youth and my transgressions 
 remember not ; 
 According to Thy loving-kindness re- 
 member Thou me, 
 For Thy goodness' sake, O Jehovah. 
 
 II. 8 (Teth) Good and upright is Jehovah, 
 
 Therefore doth He teach sinners in the way, 
 9 (Yod) He guideth the afflicted in judgement. 
 And teacheth the afflicted His way ! 
 
 10 (Caph) All the paths of Jehovah are loving-kindness 
 
 and truth, 
 To them that keep His covenant and His 
 testimonies. 
 
 1 1 (Lamed) For Thy Name's sake, O Jehovah, 
 
 Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. 
 
 12 (Mem) What man is he that feareth Jehovah ">. 
 
 Him doth He teach the way that he should 
 choose. 
 
 13 (Nun) His soul shall dwell at ease. 
 
 And his seed shall inherit -the land. 
 
 calling to mind of past mercies. But 10) suggests the thought of manifold 
 
 sinis thatwhichshutsoutGod'smercy, failure, and the consequent need of 
 
 and hence the prayer for forgiveness pardon. 
 
 in the next verse.* 12. What man is he? or simply, 
 
 8. Sinners, here apparently vi'ith " Whosoever he is that feareth," &c. ; 
 reference to the etymology of the word, see xxxiv. 12. 
 
 those that "have erred and strayed" 13. Shall dwell, lit. "pass the 
 
 from the way. night," but used in the more extended 
 
 9. The AFFLICTED, see on ix. 12. sense, as in xlix. 12, xci. I, Frov. 
 
 10. Loving-kindness (or grace) xix. 23. 
 
 AND truth. See John i. 17. At EASE, lit. "in prosperity." 
 
 11. Again a prayer for forgiveness. Shall inherit the land. Cf. 
 that the grace and truth (ver. 10) may Exod. xx. 12, Lev. xxvi. 4, Deut. iv. 
 be manifested to his soul. The mention i, &c. 
 
 of the keeping of the covenant (ver. 
 
 *.The Autobiography of Petrarch closes with a quotation from this verse: "I pray to 
 Chnst that He may have mercy upon me, and may pardon and forget my youthful offences, 
 and m this my sohtude. no words sound sweeter upon my lips than those of the Psalai, 
 ' Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions.' " 
 
PSALM XXVI. 101 
 
 14 (Samech) The secret of Jehovah is for them that 
 
 fear Him, 
 And His covenant doth He make them 
 know. 
 
 15 (Ayin) Mine eyes are ever towards Jehovah, 
 
 For He shall pluck my feet out of the net. 
 
 16 (Pe) Turn Thee to me, and be gracious unto me. 
 
 For I am desolate and afflicted. 
 
 17 (Tsaddi) My heart is (full of) troubles: O set it at 
 
 liberty, 
 And bring me out of my distresses^ 
 
 18 (Resh) Look upon my affliction and my toil, 
 
 And forgive all my sins. 
 
 19 (Resh) Look upon mine enemies ; for they are many, 
 
 And they hate me with cruel hatred. 
 
 20 (Shin) O keep mj^ soul, and deliver me. 
 
 Let me not be ashamed; for I trust in Thee. 
 
 2 1 (Tau) Let perfectness and uprightness preserve me ; 
 
 For I wait on Thee. 
 
 22 (Pe) Redeem Israel, O God. 
 
 Out of all his troubles. 
 
 14. Secret. As God said, Gen. 14, Prov. iii. 21, Job xxix. 4. God 
 
 xviii. 17, " Shall I hide from Abraham alone possesses the truth, for He is 
 
 that thing which I do ? " Or the word the truth, and therefore He alone can 
 
 father means "close and intimate impart it, and He imparts it only to 
 
 communion," in which God makes them that fear Him. 
 Himself known to the soul. See Iv. 
 
 PSALM XXVI. 
 
 This Psalm has some points of resemblance, both in thought and 
 expression, to the last. Both open with the same declaration of trust 
 in God (xxv. 2, xxvi. i) ; in both there is the same prayer that God 
 v/ould redeem (xxv. 22, and xxvi. 11) and be gracious (xxv. 16, xxvi. 
 11) to His servants. Other points of contact may be found in xxv. 
 21, xxvi. II, and xxv. 5, xxvi. 3. There is, however, this marked 
 
to2 PSALM XXVI. 
 
 difference between the two, that there are wanting, in this Psalm, 
 those touching confessions of sinfulness and pleadings for forgiveness 
 which in the other are thrice repeated. Here is only the avowal of 
 conscious uprightness, an avowal solemnly made as in the sight of the 
 Searcher of hearts, and deriving, no doubt, much of its intensity and 
 almost impassioned force, from the desire, on the part of the singer, to 
 declare his entire separation from, and aversion to, the vain and evil 
 men by whom he is surrounded. 
 
 The Psalm furnishes no direct evidence as to its date, but it may 
 have been composed during Absalom's rebellion. His partisans may 
 especially be hinted at in the " vain men " and " dissemblers " of ver. 
 4, who had recently been unmasked ; for Absalom, it is said, '' had 
 stolen the hearts of the men of Israel." 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 Judge me, O Jehovah, 
 
 For I have walked in my integrity. 
 
 And in Jehovah have I trusted without wavering. 
 Prove me, O Jehovah, and try me, 
 
 Purify my reins and my heart : 
 For Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes. 
 
 And my conversation hath been in Thy truth. 
 
 1, Judge me, i.e. vindicate my He thus desires to keep nothing back; 
 cause, so that my innocency may be he will submit himself to the search- 
 made manifest : — do me justice (as vii. ing flame of the Great Refiner, that 
 8, XXXV. 24). all dross of self-deception may be 
 
 Integrity, not moral perfection, purged away, 
 
 but uprightness of heart, conscious 3. This verse gives the reason for 
 
 sincerity of intention, is meant (see the foregoing prayer. 
 
 Gen. XX. 5, i Kings ix. 4; and this, Loving-kindness .... truth. 
 
 as resting on that unwavering trust See above on xxv. 10. 
 
 in God which follows. We have here again those strong 
 
 2. Prove .... purify. Words assertions of conscious innocence, 
 used of the testing of metals, the last united even with an appeal to the 
 especially of trying and refining them searching scrutiny of God Himself, 
 by means of smelting, xii. 6, Ixvi. 10. which we have noticed in other Psalms, 
 The REINS, as the seat of the lower (See xvii. 3, xviii. 20 — 24.) The ex- 
 animal passions ; the heart, as com- planations given on those passages 
 prising not only the higher affections, will apply here. It is clear, on the one 
 but also the will and the conscience. hand, that this is no Pharisaic boast. 
 
PSALM XXVI. IC3 
 
 4 I have not sat with vain persons, 
 
 Neither do I go in with dissemblers ; 
 
 5 I hate the congregation of evil-doers, 
 
 And with the wicked do I not sit. 
 
 6 I wash my hands in innocency. 
 
 That so I may compass Thine altar, O Jehovah, 
 
 7 To make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, 
 
 And to tell of all Thy wondrous works. 
 S Jehovah, I love the habitation of Thine house. 
 
 And the place where Thy glory dwelleth. 
 9 Gather not my soul with sinners, 
 
 Nor my life with bloody men ; 
 
 10 In whose hand are evil designs, 
 
 And whose right hand is full of bribes ; — 
 
 1 1 Whilst as for me, in mine integrity do I walk : 
 
 Redeem me and be gracious unto me. 
 
 1 2 My foot standeth upon even ground : 
 
 Among the congregations will I bless Jehovah. 
 
 The trust in God, the eye fixed on His bolical (Deut. xxi. 6, Matt, xxvii. 24), 
 
 loving-kindness, the prayer to be after the fashion of the East, where it 
 
 proved and tried, could not proceed is common to address the eye as well 
 
 from a Pharisee. On the other hand, as the ear. The figure is borrowed 
 
 it must always be borne in mind, that apparently from Exod. xxx. 17 — 21, 
 
 the full depth and miquity of sin was where Aaron and his sons are com- 
 
 not disclosed to the saints of the Old manded to wash their hands and feet 
 
 Test. Sin could only appear to be before they approach to do service at 
 
 sin in all its blackness and malignity the altar. 
 
 when it was brought into the full light That so I may compass. This 
 
 of the Cross of Christ, And it is only compassing, or going round the altar, 
 
 as any man grasps that cross, that he was, it would seem from this passage, 
 
 can bear to look into the pollution a part of the ritual of Divine worship, 
 
 which cleaves to his nature. and was performed with the accom- 
 
 4. Vain persons, or, "men of paniment of music and singing, as may 
 
 vanity," as Job xi. 1 1. On this word be gathered from the next verse. 
 
 " vanity " see note on xxiv. 4. It signi- 8. I LOVE, &c., the antithesis to 
 
 fies all the enriptiness of the creature ver. 5, "I hate the congregation of 
 
 apart from God. evil-doers." 
 
 6. I wash my ha\ds. Here of 9. Thus he would have God judge 
 
 course only a figurative expression, him (ver. i), i.e. declare what he is, 
 
 though the action itself was often sym- by separating him from the wicked. 
 
104 FSALM XXVIl. 
 
 PSALM xxvn. 
 
 This Psalm, like the last, and the one which follows, may very 
 probably be referred to the time of Absalom's rebellion. All alike are 
 characterized by the affectionate remembrance of God's sanctuary, as 
 of one who was debarred from the privilege of constant and uninter- 
 rupted access to it. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts. The first (ver. i — 6) is an ex- 
 pression of the most assured confidence in Jehovah, whatever enemies 
 may threaten. The second (ver. 7 — 14) is an earnest cry for help and 
 comfort in present need, out of which the soul rises again to hopeful 
 trust in God. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Jehovah is my Light and my Salvation : 
 Whom shall I fear } 
 Jehovah is the defence of my life : 
 Of whom shall I be afraid t 
 
 2 When the evil-doers came near unto me 
 
 To eat up my flesh- — 
 My adversaries and mine enemies to (do) me (harin)j ■ 
 They themselves stumbled and fell. 
 
 3 Though a host should encamp against me, 
 
 My heart will not be afraid : 
 Though there rise up war against me, 
 
 I. My Light and my Salvation in the Old Test. But see xviii. 28, 
 
 . . . THE DEFENCE (or bulwark) OF MY xxxvi. 9, Ixxxiv. 11, and Deut. xxx. 
 
 LIFE. This, says Calvin, is the triple 20, "He is thy Life." 
 
 shield which he opposes to all the 2. To eat up my FLEsh, an image 
 
 different terrors which threaten him. taken from wild beasts ; see Job 
 
 My Light — the only instance of the xix. 22. 
 
 direct application of this name to God 3. A host. Lit. " though a CAMP 
 
PSALM XXVII. I OS 
 
 For all this do I trust. 
 
 4 One thing have I asked of Jehovah, 
 
 That will I seek after : 
 That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah 
 
 All the days of my life ; 
 To behold the beauty of Jehovah, 
 
 And to look with pleasure upon His temple. 
 
 5 For He shall keep me privily in His tabernacle in the 
 
 day of evil. 
 He shall hide me in the hiding-place of His tent ; 
 On a rock shall He set me up on high. 
 
 6 And now shall my head be set up above mine enemies 
 
 round about me : 
 So will I offer in His tent sacrifices of shouting, 
 So will I sing, yea I will make melody unto 
 
 Jehovah. 
 
 H. 7 Hear, O Jehovah, when I cry with my voice, 
 Be gracious also unto me and answer me. 
 8 To Thee hath my heart said : "Seek ye My face-^" 
 
 should encamp against me," but the S- The tent or tabernacle here 
 
 English idiom would hardly admit of spoken of, was not the Mosaic taber- 
 
 such a rendering. nacle of the congregation — for that 
 
 4. The supreme blessedness of a remained at Gibeon till Solomon re- 
 life entirely devoted, like that of the moved it to the Temple (see 2 Chron. 
 priests, to the service of God, seems i. 3, 4) — but the tent which David 
 often to have forced itself upon the erected for the Ark, when he removed 
 minds of the holy Psalmists (see xv., it to Zion (2 Sam. vi. 17). 
 xxiii., Ixv., Ixxxiv., &c., and note on 6. SACRIFICES OF SHOUTING : a. 
 xxvi. 8), and upon none more than stronger form of expression than the 
 upon that of David, who was compelled usual "sacrifices of thanksgiving," 
 so often to wander at a distance from and equivalent to *' sacrifices accom- 
 the sanctuary. There is the same panied with the loud and glad expres- 
 feeling here of the perfect security and sion of thankfulness," with perhaps 
 abounding happiness of such a dwell- an allusion to Num. x. 10. 
 ing-place as in Psalm xxiii. 6. Indeed 7. The triumphant strain of con- 
 the two Psalms have much in common. fidence now gives way to one of sad 
 
 Temple, here, as is evident from and earnest entreaty, 
 
 what follows, applied to the taber- 8. The words seek ye My face 
 
 nacle. (See note on Ps. v. 7.) But are the words of God, which the 
 
 I have retained the word, as it is servant of God here, as it were, takes 
 
 employed by our translators, in i Sam. from His mouth, that so laying them 
 
 iii, 3, to denote the building at Shiloh. before God, he may make his appeal 
 
io6- PSALM XXVII. 
 
 " Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek." 
 9 Hide not Thy face from me ; 
 
 Put not Thy servant away in anger : 
 Thou hast been my help ; cast me not away. 
 Neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 
 
 10 For my father and my mother (may) have forsaken me; 
 
 But Jehovah taketh me up. 
 
 1 1 Teach me, O Jehovah, Thy way. 
 
 And lead me in an even path. 
 Because of mine adversaries. 
 
 12 Give me not over into the will of mine adversaries; 
 
 For false witnesses have risen up against me. 
 And they that breathe out violence. 
 
 1 3 Oh did I not believe to see the goodness of Jehovah 
 
 In the land of the living ! — 
 
 14 Wait on Jehovah, 
 
 Be strong, and let thine heart be of good courage; 
 Wait, I say, on Jehovah. 
 
 the more irresistible. Thou hast said, Saul's persecution, when David was 
 
 "Seek ye My face ;" my heart makes compelled to separate from his parents, 
 
 those words its own, and builds upon and leave them under the protection 
 
 them its resolve. It takes them up of the king of Moab, i Sam. xxii. 3. 
 
 and repeats them, "Seek ye My face." But, as Delitzsch observes, he left 
 
 It first claims thus Thine own gracious them, not they him. It is better 
 
 words, O Lord, and then its echo to therefore to understand the expression 
 
 those words is, " Thy face. Lord, will hypothetically : " (Though) my father 
 
 I seek." Such is the soul's dialogue and my mother may have forsaken 
 
 with itself, when it would ' comfort me," «>. though my condition be help- 
 
 itself in God. We are reminded of less and friendless as that of a child 
 
 that touching scene in tlie Gospel his- deserted of his parents, there is One 
 
 tory, where another, a woman of who watches over me and will take 
 
 Canaan, in like manner overcomes me to His bosom. See Is. Ixiii. 16, 
 
 the Saviour with His own words : xlix, 15. 
 
 "Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the Taketh me up. " Receives me 
 
 crumbs," &c. Mark vii. 28. under His care and protection," or 
 
 10. Some have supposed that the perhaps, as Stier suggests, "adopts 
 
 allusion in this verse is to the time of me as Ills child ; " see xxii. 10. 
 
PSALM XX VI II. 10/ 
 
 I 
 
 PSALM XXVIII. 
 
 After earnestly beseeching God to hear him (ver. i, 2), the 
 Psalmist prays that he may not be involved in the evil doings of 
 
 ■ the wicked (ver. 3) ; and that they may receive righteous punishment 
 (ver. 4, 5). He thanks God that He has heard his prayer (ver. 6, 7), 
 and, acknowledging Him as the Saviour both of king and people 
 
 ■ (ver. 8), entreats Him to help and bless, and feed His heritage for 
 ever (ver. 9). 
 
 There is no valid reason why we should reject the traditional title 
 which gives the Psalm to David. Like the two preceding Psalms, it 
 might very well have been composed at the time of Absalom's re- 
 bellion. Verses 2 and 3 bear a close resemblance to Ps. xxvi. 8, 9. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 To Thee, O Jehovah, do I cry ; 
 
 my Rock, hold not Thy peace towards me ! 
 Lest, if Thou be silent from me, 
 
 1 become like them that go down into the pit. 
 
 2 Hear the voice of my supplications vifhen I cry to Thee, 
 
 When I lift up my hands toward the innermost pla.ce 
 of Thy sanctuary. 
 
 3 Draw me not away with the wicked. 
 
 And with the workers of iniquity; 
 
 I, 2. The earnestness of the cry is me in silence." The expression is 
 
 to be measured not only by the great- often applied to God, with reference 
 
 ness of the peril which threatened, to prayer which seems to remain 
 
 but by the faith which cleaves to God, unanswered : see xxxv. 22, xxxix. I2, 
 
 knowing that in Him only is there Ixxxiii. I, cix. I, &c., and compare 
 
 help. Hold not Thy peace to- Ixii. x, 5, Ixv. i. 
 WARDS ME : «>." Turn not away from 3. Draw me not away, viz. to 
 
io8 
 
 PSALM XXVIII. 
 
 Who speak peace with their neighbours, 
 But wickedness is in their hearts. 
 
 4 Give them according to their work, 
 
 And according to the wickedness of their doings ; 
 According to the operation of their hands give them, 
 Requite them that they have deserved ; 
 
 5 For they have no regard to the works of Jehovah, * 
 
 Nor to the operation of His hands : 
 (Therefore) shall He break them down, and not build 
 them up. 
 
 6 Blessed be Jehovah, 
 
 For He hath heard the voice of my supplications. 
 
 7 Jehovah is my Strength and my Shield ; 
 
 In Him hath my heart trusted, and I am helped ; 
 Therefore my heart leapeth for joy, 
 And with my song will I praise Him. 
 
 8 Jehovah is their strength, 
 
 And He is the saving defence of His Anointed. 
 
 destruction with them, as in Ezek. 
 xxxii. 20, See also Job xxiv. 22. 
 The same sentiment above, xxvi. 9. 
 
 Who speak peace, &c. Perhaps 
 the same as the "dissemblers," in 
 xxvi. 4. We might almost suppose 
 a. reference to the arts by which 
 Absalom secretly undermined Da- 
 vid's authority, and " stole away the 
 hearts " of the people, before he broke 
 out into open rebellion. But the 
 prayer which follows in the next verse 
 David would not have offered against 
 Absalom. The aiders and abettors 
 of the rebellion may, however, have 
 been in his mind. 
 
 4. GlVETHEM:ofajudicialact, Hos. 
 ii-. 14. With the language of this and 
 the next verse, comp. Is. i. 15, l6,iii. 8 
 — II, V. 19. I have spoken else- 
 where of these prayers for vengeance 
 upon the wicked, which sometimes 
 meet us in the Psalms. (See note at 
 the end of Psalm xxxv. ) In this 
 instance certainly there is no trace of 
 
 the expression of personal animosity 
 and the mere desire of revenge. It is 
 rather an appeal to God's justice to 
 deal with the righteous and the wicked 
 according to their deserts. 
 
 5. Thereason why God's judgement 
 should overtake the wicked, not their 
 malice against the Psalmist, but their 
 disregard of the Most High. See x. 
 4, and Is. V. 12, 19. The works of 
 Jehovah and the operation of His 
 hands are in manifest opposition to 
 those of the wicked in ver. 4. 
 
 6. In his own heart he has already 
 received the answer to his priiyer. He 
 knows that God will fulfil his peti- 
 tions, and therefore breaks out in the 
 glad certainty of faith, "Blessed be 
 Jehovah," &c. The certainty that 
 prayer is heard anticipates its visible 
 fulfilment. 
 
 7. With my song, lit. outof'wj 
 song ; the song being, as it were, the 
 source from which the praise flowed. 
 
 8. Their strength : the pron. 
 
PSALM XXIX. 109 
 
 9 O save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance : 
 Feed them also, and bear them up for ever. 
 
 thns emphatically mentioned before with God. It is impossible not to see 
 
 the word "people" to which it refers in these tender, loving words, " feed 
 
 in the last verse. See a similar in- them and bear them," the heart of 
 
 stance in ix. 12, Ixxxvii. i. the shepherd-king. Feed them, O 
 
 First the people, then himself their Thou true Shepherd of Israel (Ixxx. 
 
 monarch, but not David the man, but i) : bear them, carry them in Thine 
 
 David the king as anointed of God, arms (Is. Ixiii. g, xl. 11). Perhaps 
 
 and chosen to feed His people. the reference may be to Deut. i. 31 ; 
 
 9. Thy PEOPLE, Thine inherit- xxxii. 12. Compare with this the 
 
 ANCE. In those words are his plea conclusion of Ps. iii. 
 
 PSALM XXIX. 
 
 This Psalin is a magnificent description of a thunder-storm. Its 
 mighty march from north to south, the desolation and terror which it 
 causes, the peal of the thunder, the flash of the lightning, even the 
 gathering fury and lull of the elements, are vividly depicted. 
 
 The Psalm consists of five parts ; a prelude, the body of the poem 
 in three divisions, and a conclusion. The structure of the whole is 
 highly artificial, and elaborated with a symmetry of which no more 
 perfect specimen exists in Hebrew. But this evidently artificial mode 
 of composition is no check to the force and fire of the Poet's genius, 
 which kindles, and glows, and sweeps along with all the freedom and 
 majesty of the storm ; the whole Psalm being one continued strain of 
 triumphant exultation. 
 
 I. In the prelude, the singer lifts our thoughts at once from earth 
 to heaven, by calling on the angels who stand around the throne of 
 God to praise Him who manifests His glory in the thunder and 
 lightning which He sends upon the earth. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 II. Then follows the description of the storm, in the three strophes 
 which constitute the main body of the Poem. These are so con- 
 structed, that the first (ver. 3, 4) gives us the beginning of the storm, 
 the low, faint, muttering thunder in the distant heavens ; the next 
 
110 PSALM XXIX. 
 
 (ver. 5-^7) describes the storm at its height, when it crashes the 
 cedars, and shakes the mountains ; the last (ver, 8, 9) tells how it 
 passes on over the plain country to the forest of Kadesh in the soutl], 
 Vfhere it dies away. 
 
 But not only the arrangement of the three strophes, but the struc- 
 ture of each separate strophe, contributes in a very striking degree to 
 the vi'hole effect of the Poem. Each consists of five members, and 
 each begins with a fresh burst and closes with a lull in the tempest, 
 
 i. Thus, in the first strophe, we hear the first yet distant sound of 
 the thunder in the words, " The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters." 
 In the next two clauses, " The God of glory thundereth ; Jehovah is 
 upon many waters," the long loud peal grows more distinct, whilst 
 ver. 4 again is pitched in a lower key, as if telling us of a pause in 
 the storm. 
 
 ii. In the next strophe we have again, [a] first, the renewed fury of 
 the tempest, as, coming nearer yet, it falls on the glory of Lebanon, 
 and breaks her cedars in its might : " The voice of Jehovah breaketli 
 .the cedars," &c. ifi) Next, gathering with a wilder intensity of wrath, 
 it bursts upon the mountain peaks, roaring amid their rocks and 
 shattering them, and making the everlasting hills themselves to 
 tremble as with the throes of an earthquake, so that " Lebanon and 
 Sirion skip like the young of the wild ox." (c) Lastly, we hear it 
 sinking down in the line which describes the flashing of the forked 
 lightning: "The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire." 
 Ver. 5—7. 
 
 iii. Again the same structure is observable. One long peal after 
 another has rolled and reverberated along the sky, and now the 
 storm, in its jubilant strength, sweeps the whole land from north to 
 south, [a) Again it is up in its majesty : " The voice of Jehovah 
 maketh the wilderness to tremble.'' (<5) Again its last fury is poured 
 out upon the wilderness of Kadesh. The very hinds bow themselves 
 in travail-pangs, and the forest is torn open and laid bare, as the 
 hurricane drives through it in its path. {c) And again the tempest is 
 stilled, but this time its voice is hushed and lost for ever in the music 
 and songs of the heavenly host : " In His temple all that are therein 
 cry, Glory.'' Ver. 8, 9. 
 
 III. The conclusion consists, like the prelude, of two verses, each 
 of two members. And here we are beautifully reminded that 
 Jehovah, whom the angels praise, and who both rules and stills the 
 
PSALM XXIX. 1 1 1 
 
 ; elements in their wildest uproar, is the same Jehovah who gives 
 ■ strength a.ndpeace to His people. Ver. lo, ii. 
 
 : In the modern synagogue, this Psalm stands in the Jewish liturgy 
 to be used on the first. day of Pentecost (Shebuoth). 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Give unto Jehovah, O ye sons of God, 
 
 Give unto Jehovah glory and strength. 
 
 2 Give unto Jehovah the glory due to His Name. 
 
 Worship Jehovah in holy attire. 
 
 3 The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters, 
 
 The God of glory thundereth ; 
 Jehovah is upon many waters ; 
 
 4 The voice of Jehovah is in might, 
 The voice of Jehovah is in majesty. 
 
 5 The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars. 
 
 Yea Jehovah breaketh the cedars of Lebanon ; 
 
 6 And He maketh them to skip like a calf, 
 
 Lebanon and Sirion like the young of the wild ox : 
 
 7 The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire. 
 
 I. Sons OF God, "the angels," as masses of the storm-cloud charged 
 
 in Job ii. i. with water. Probably the latter. See 
 
 ' 2. In holy attire, heaven xviii. ii. 
 
 being thought of as one great temple, 4. In might. . . IN majesty. The 
 
 , and all the worshipers therein as attributes of God as displayed in the 
 
 clothed in priestly garments, and storm. 
 
 - doing perpetual service. In the 6. SlRiON, i.e. Anti-Lebanon, ace. 
 
 : earthly temple, in like manner, Priests to Deut. iii. 9, the Sidonian name of 
 
 , and Levites arrayed themselves on Hermon. 
 
 ' occasions of solemn pomp. Cf. 2 Chr. 7. With every thunder-peal comes 
 
 ' XX. 21, where E. V. has " beauty of the terrible forked lightning, so strik- 
 
 I holiness," Ps. ex. 3, where see note. ing in tropical and Eistern lands. 
 
 3. The waters. This may either Its vivid, zigzag, serpent -like flash is 
 
 refer to the Mediterranean Sea, from given in a few words, 
 
 i which the storm comes up (as J. D. Cleaveth the flames of fire, 
 
 ■ Michaelis), or to " the waters above i.e. parts the blaze of the lightning, 
 
 i the firmament," the dense lowering so as to give it the forked appearance. 
 
1 1 2 PSALM XXIX. 
 
 8 The voice of Jehovah maketh the wilderness to tremble. 
 
 Jehovah maketh the wilderness of Kadesh to tremble, 
 
 9 The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve. 
 
 And layeth the forests bare : — 
 And in His temple all that is therein uttereth, " Glory." 
 
 10 Jehovah sat throned above the Flood : 
 
 . Yea Jehovah sitteth throned a King for ever. 
 
 1 1 Jehovah giveth strength to His people ; 
 
 Jehovah blesseth His people with peace. 
 
 8. Kadesh, in the south of Pa- 
 lestine, thus indicating the course 
 taken by the storm. It sweeps the 
 land from north to south. "The 
 geographical notices of its situation," 
 says Stanley, of Kadesh, ' ' are unfor- 
 tunately too slight to be of much 
 service. Yet thus much they fix, that 
 it was ' in the wilderness of Zin, ' that 
 it was ' on the edge of the border of 
 Edom,' that it was near Mount Hor, 
 that it was at the southern point to 
 which the territory of Judah after- 
 wards reached. " He then gives rea- 
 sons for identifying Kadesh with 
 Petra. Travelling in the direction it 
 did, the storm would first reach the 
 'Arabah, and then pass on to the 
 acacias, and palms, and vegetation 
 which clothe the rocks of sandstone 
 in the neighbourhood of Petra. See 
 Stanley's interesting account of his 
 journey in the opposite direction, from 
 Petra to Palestine through the 'Ara- 
 bah. {Sinai and Palestine, p. 94, 
 &c.) 
 
 9. Maketh the hinds to calve. 
 This is a phenomenon which is also 
 noticed and recorded as a fact by 
 Arabian poets. 
 
 10. Flood, i.e. the Deluge. The 
 word here employed occurs nowhere 
 else, except in the story of the Flood 
 (Gen. vi. — xi.), and therefore refers, 
 I cannot help thinking, to that great 
 act of judgement, and not merely to a 
 recent inundation caused by the storm, 
 
 the mountain-torrents having been 
 swollen by the rain, and having flooded 1 
 the country. This might have hap- 
 pened. But the selection of so pe. 
 culiar a word " flood," as well as tie 
 fact that the verb is in the past tense, 
 ' ' sat throned," makes the other more 
 probable. I 
 
 Very beautiful is the conclusion of; | 
 the Psalm. If, in His heavenly temple | 
 above, all that are therein ascribe 
 " glory " to God, upon earth too He \ 
 has manifested that gloiy. He sat as 
 King when He sent the flood of water 
 to destroy the earth. He sits now, 
 and for ever will sit, as King. As 
 then He saved the righteous man 
 from death, so now He watches over 
 His people : for Jehovah is the God 
 of Israel. It was He who when the 
 storm waxed stronggave itits strength: 
 it was He who, when it was hnshed, 
 spread over earth, and sea and sky, 
 the sweet sabbath stillness of peace. 
 And He whose almighty power was 
 seen in the march of the tempest, 
 whose voice was heard in its wildest 
 uproar, and whose word stillad its 
 fiercest war, shaU He not give both 
 strength and peace? Yea, Jehovah, 
 who is strong and mighty, will give 
 His own strength to His people. And 
 He who is the Prince of Peace will 
 bless His people with peace. Thus 
 the Psalm begins, as Delitisdi says, 
 with a Gloria in exeelsis, and ends 
 with a Pax ir terris* 
 
PSALM XXX. 113 
 
 PSALM XXX. 
 
 This Psalm was composed after recovery from a sickness which 
 had very nearly proved fatal. The singer begins with an ascription 
 of praise to God for His great goodness, and calls upon all who, like 
 himself, had known the loving-kindness of Jehovah, to join him in 
 his thanksgiving. Thence he passes (ver. 6) 'to a recital of his own 
 experience, his pleading with God in his affliction, and God's answer 
 to his prayer. 
 
 According to the Inscription, the Psalm was composed " at the 
 dedication of the house." But what house ? Some would understand 
 the dedication of the spot on which the Temple afterwards stood, and 
 which David purchased of Araunah (2 Sam. xxiv., I Chron. xxi.). 
 This spot, it is true, together with the altar erected there, might be 
 called "the house of Jehovah " (as it is I Chron. xxii. l), or absolutely 
 " the house," even before the Temple was built. But if the Psalm 
 were written for this occasion, it could not have been written by 
 David, as he himself did not fall sick in the time of the pestilence 
 (2 Sam. xxiv. 17). 
 
 But perhaps, if the Inscription is trustworthy, it refers to the house 
 which David built in his new city of Zion, and the building of which 
 he seems to have regarded as a pledge of the security and prosperity 
 of his kingdom (2 Sam. v. II, 12). We must, however, still suppose 
 that he had suffered just before from a sickness about which the 
 history is silent. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. A thanksgiving on recovery. Ver. i — 5. 
 
 (i) An ascription of praise. Ver. i. The reason, viz. that God 
 had brought him back to life from the gates of death. Ver. 2, 3. 
 
 (2) An exhortation to others to unite with him in praise. The 
 reason, because God keepeth not His anger for ever. Ver. 4, 5. 
 
 II. A recital of the Psalmist's experience during his sickness. 
 Ver. 6 — 12. 
 
 I 
 
114 PSALM XXX. 
 
 (i) The sudden change by which he had been brought low. Ver 
 6,7. 
 
 (2) His prayer in his sickness. Ver. 8 — 10. 
 
 (3) The answer to his prayer and thanksgiving thereupon. Ver, 
 1 !, 12. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID. A SONG AT THE DEDICATION OF THE HOUSE.] 
 
 I. I I WILL extol Thee, O Jehovah, for Thou hast lifted 
 me up, 
 And hast not made mine enemies to rejoice over me, 
 
 2 O Jehovah, my God, 
 
 I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me. 
 
 3 O Jehovah, Thou hast brought up my soul from the, 
 
 grave : 
 Thou hast restored me to life, that I should not be of 
 them that go down into the pit. 
 
 4 Sing praises unto Jehovah, O ye beloved of His, 
 
 And give thanks to His holy name : 
 
 5 For His anger is but for a moment. 
 
 His favour for a life long : 
 At even, weeping may come in for a night, 
 But with the morning is a shout of joy. 
 
 r. Thou HAST LIFTED ME UP, lit. Wisdom, Power, Holiness, Trath,, 
 
 "Tliou hast drawn me up" {i.e. as Righteousness. God's memorial is 
 
 a bucket is drawn up out of a well). that great history of redemption which 
 
 It has been inferred from this expres- was, so to speak, the setting up of a 
 
 sion, that the Psalm was written by monument to His glory, on which all 
 
 Jeremiah when he was taken up out these attributes were inscribed, 
 of the dungeon. But this is turning 5. A reason why God's saints should 
 
 poetry into prose. The word is clearly praise Him, because He manifests 
 
 metaphorical. Himself to them in lo pe, not in wrath, 
 
 4. His HOLY NAME, lit. "His holy or if in wrath, but for a moment, 
 
 memorial," with reference, no doubt, Love rules over all. The literal ren- 
 
 to the passage, Exod. iii. 15, "This is dering of the verse is : " For in His 
 
 my name for ever, and this is my me- anger is (but) a moment, in His favour 
 
 morial to all generations." God's a life : in the evening weeping may 
 
 Name is His revelation of Himself, in come in to pass the night ; but with 
 
 all His various attributes of Love, the morning (there is) a shout of joy." 
 
PSALM XXX. 
 
 IIS 
 
 II. 6 And as for me — I have said, in my prosperity, 
 " I shall not be moved for ever." 
 
 7 Thou, O Jehovah, by Thy favour hadst made my 
 
 mountain to stand strong : 
 Thou didst hide Thy face : — I was troubled. 
 
 8 (Then) to Thee, O Jehovah, did I begin to cry. 
 
 Yea to Jehovah I made supplication : (saying,) 
 
 9 " What profit is there in my blood, when I go down 
 
 to the pit } 
 Shall the dust give thanks to Thee .' shall it declare 
 Thy truth t 
 
 10 Hear, O Jehovah, and be gracious unto me ; 
 
 O Jehovah, be Thou my helper." 
 
 11 (And) Thou didst turn for me my mourning into 
 
 dancing ; 
 Thou didst put off my sackcloth, and didst gird 
 me with joy ; 
 
 The parallelism is carefully preserved 
 in each member : " anger — favour ; " 
 "a moment — a life;" "evening — 
 morning ;" "weeping — joy." 
 
 We must not repeat the verb " fass 
 the night," with the second clause. 
 Weeping is described in the first under 
 the image of a wayfarer who comes in 
 at the evening to lodge for the night. 
 The suddenness and surprise of glad- 
 ness, on the other hand, in the morning 
 are beautifully represented by the 
 simple "at dawn a shout of joy," 
 without a verb. Just as the sun in 
 Eastern lands, without any long pre- 
 lude of twilight toannouncehiscoming, 
 leaps as it were in a moment above the 
 horizon, so does the light of God's love 
 dispel in a moment the long night and 
 darkness of sorrow. See the beautiful 
 parallel, Is. liv. 7, 8. 
 
 7. Hadst made strong, lit. 
 " Thou didst make strength to stand 
 to my mountain : "or perhaps "Thou 
 didst place a fortress upon my moun- 
 tain." The language is clearly figu- 
 
 rative, though the emblem no doubt is 
 borrowed from the stronghold of Zion. 
 
 9. He now gives us the words of 
 his prayer. 
 
 What profit. The earnest prayer 
 for life, so frequent with the Old Testa- . 
 ment saints, who walked in shadows, 
 and who only now and then caught ' 
 a glimpse of the world beyond the 
 grave. Their faith and hope were in 
 God, and therefore could not be 
 bounded by things temporal ; but we 
 must remember that the promises 
 made to them were mostly of a tem- 
 poral character, and that life and im- 
 mortality were not yet brought to 
 light. In seasons of despondency, 
 therefore, the abode of the dead 
 (Sheol) seemed dark and cheerless : 
 and there was not only a natural but 
 even a religious recoil from death, 
 because in this life only could men 
 praise God. In the land of forget- 
 fulness no Psalms could be sung. 
 Hezekiah's thanksgiving, Is. xxxviii. 
 and many expressions in the Book of 
 I 2 
 
ti6 
 
 PSALM XXXI. 
 
 1 2 To the end that (my) glory should sing praise to Thee, 
 and not be silent. 
 O Jehovah, my God, I will give thanks unto Thee 
 for ever. 
 
 Job, which last seems to have been 
 in the Psalmist's mind, are in the 
 same strain. The truth seems to be, 
 that whilst the Faith of the Old Tes- 
 tament saints in God was strong and 
 childlike, their Hope of Immortality 
 
 was at best but dim and wavering, 
 brightening perhaps for a moment, 
 when the heart was rejoicing in God 
 as its portion, and then again almost 
 dying away. 
 
 PSALM XXXI. 
 
 A Psalm in which earnest prayer for deliverance from trouble is 
 kindled and animated throughout by a lively trust and hope in God. 
 (Compare Psalms ix., xxvii.) , 
 
 It consists of three principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The singer prays God to be gracious to him in his trouble, ex- 
 pressing at the same time his trust in Him, who in times past had 
 been his deliverer. Ver. i — 8. 
 
 II. He pours out before God the story of his sufferings and his 
 sorrows, beseeching Him again to lift upon him the light of His 
 countenance, and to put his enemies to shame. Ver. 9 — 18. 
 
 III. He concludes with praise and thanksgiving to God for His 
 goodness to all who trust in Him, and particularly to himself, and 
 calls upon all the righteous to love the Lord. Ver. 19 — 24. 
 
 This Psalm is supposed by some to have been written by Jeremiah, 
 and in many of its expressions there is a resemblance to the Prophet's 
 writings. Compare Lament, iii., and Jer. xx. 10. 
 
 The phrase, "Fear on every side," ver. 13, occurs no less than six 
 times in Jeremiah. 
 
PSALM XXXI. 117 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I In Thee, O Jehovah, have I made my refuge. 
 Let me not be ashamed for ever ; 
 In Thy righteousness set me at hberty. 
 
 2 Indine Thine ear unto me, 
 
 Make haste to deliver me : 
 Be Thou to me a strong rock, 
 A house of fortresses to save me. 
 
 3 For Thou art my rock and my fortress. 
 
 And for Thy Name's sake Thou wilt lead me and 
 guide me ; 
 
 4 Thou wilt pluck me out of the net they have laid 
 
 privily for me. 
 For Thou art my strongliold. 
 
 5 Into Thy hand I commend my spirit : 
 
 Ver. I — 3 are found v/ith slight least, toreshadowed His sufferings ; 
 
 variation in Ixxi. i — 3. whereas, this is not in the same way 
 
 1. In Thy rightj£0Usness. See predictive. But the Holy One of 
 iv. I, V. 8. God, in that last hour of mortal 
 
 2. The fig^ures here employed are agony, chose these words of one of 
 the same as in xviii. His servants, to express the solemn 
 
 Strong rock, lit. "a rock of surrender of His life. And in so 
 
 ■'tronghold," i.e. not a rock with a doing, He gave them a new interpre- 
 
 castle upon it, but " a rock which is tation. The Jewish singer only meant 
 
 itself a stronghold." by them that he put himself and all 
 
 A HOUSE OF FORTRESSES : a poet- his hopes into the hand of God. 
 
 ical expression — a fortified place. Jesus meant by them, that^^ His awn 
 
 5. I COMMEND, i.e. place as a act, of His own free will. He gave up 
 
 deposit, entrust. His spirit, and therewith His life, to 
 
 With these words our Lord breathed the Father. And they who have died 
 
 out His life, St. Luke xxiii. 46, as He with their Lord, have died with the 
 
 b ^d before U5ed words from another same words on their lips. These were 
 
 rsalm in His agony on the cross. the last words of Polycarp, of Ber- 
 
 The first words were from a Psalm nard, of Huss,* of Jerome of Prague, 
 
 ( the 22nd ) which, typically at of Luther, Melanchthon, and many 
 
 * When the sentence of degradation from the priesthood was being executed upon John 
 Hufis, the last act of the Bishop who performed the ceremony was to pronounce the horrible 
 words *' and now we commit thy soul to the devil." To this Huss calmly replied, *' I com- 
 mend my spirit into Thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ; unto Thee I commend my spirit, which 
 Thou hast redeemed." Then he was carried to the place of public execution and burned to 
 dsath. 
 
ii8 PSALM XXXI. 
 
 Thou hast redeemed me, Jehovah, Thou God of 
 Truth. 
 
 6 I hate them that observe lying vanities ; 
 
 As for me — in Jehovah do I trust. 
 
 7 I will exult and rejoice in Thy loving-kindness, 
 
 That Thou hast seen my affliction, 
 
 (That Thou) hast known my soul in adversities, 
 
 8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, 
 
 (But) hast set my feet in a large room. 
 
 II. 9 Be gracious unto me, O Jehovah, for I am in trouble; 
 Mine eye is consumed with vexation, — my soul 
 and my body. 
 10 For my life is spent with sorrow, 
 And my years with sighing : 
 My strength hath failed, because of mine iniquity. 
 And my bones are consumed, because of all my 
 adversaries. 
 Ill have become a reproach to my neighbours ex- 
 ceedingly, 
 And a terror to mine acquaintance : 
 They that did see me in the streets fled from me. 
 
 1 2 I have been forgotten as a dead man out of mind ; 
 
 I am become like a broken vessel. 
 
 13 For I have heard the slander of many, 
 
 Fear on every side ; 
 Whilst they took their counsel together against me, 
 They devised to take away my life. 
 
 14 But as for me, I have trusted in Thee, O Jehovah ; 
 
 I have said, " Thou art my God." 
 
 others. "Blessed are they,'' says 7. Hast known. See note on 
 
 Luther, "who die not only y«- the i. 6. 
 
 Lord, as martyrs; not only in the 12. Out of mind, lit. "out of 
 
 Lord, as all believers; but likewise heart;" .'»im. "out of the moatli," 
 
 -juith the Lord, as breathing forth their Deut. xxxi. 2f. 
 
 lives in the words, ' Into Tliy hand I 13. The first two meSibers of the 
 
 commend my spirit.' " verse occur again, word for word, Jer. 
 
 Thou hast redeemed me. This xx. 10, and the phrase, "terror round 
 
 gives the reason why he entrusts his about," Jer. vi. 25, xx. 3, 4, xlvi. 5, 
 
 spirit to God. xlix. 29; Lam. ii. 22. 
 
PSALM XXXI. T19 
 
 15 My times are in Thy hand : 
 
 Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and 
 from them that persecute me. 
 
 16 Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant ; 
 
 O save me in Thy loving-kindness ! 
 
 17 O Jehovah, let me not be ashamed, for I have called 
 
 upon Thee : 
 Let the wicked be ashamed, let them be put to 
 silence in the grave ; 
 
 1 8 Let the lying lips be dumb. 
 
 Which speak haughtily against the righteous, 
 With pride and contempt. 
 
 II. 19 Oh, how great is Thy goodness. 
 
 Which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, 
 Which Thou hast wrought for them that find their 
 refuge in Thee, 
 In the presence of the sons of men. 
 
 20 Thou hidest them privily in the hiding-place of 
 
 Thy presence from the conspiracies of men ; 
 Thou keepest them in a tabernacle from the strife of 
 tongues. 
 
 21 Blessed be Jehovah, 
 
 That He hath showed me His marvellous loving- 
 kindness in a fenced city : 
 
 22 As for me — I have said in my confusion, 
 
 " I am cut off from the sight of Thine eyes." 
 Yet surely Thou didst hear the voice of my sup- 
 plications 
 
 16. The High Priest's blessing, striking figure of all : to be hidden in 
 
 um. vi. 25. Comp. Ps. iv. 6. the light of God's face, hidden in that 
 
 19. Thou HAST LAID UP, lit. "hid- splendour where His power is hidden 
 ;n ; " comp. " the hidden manna," (Hab. iii. 4) ; what an image at once 
 ev. ii. 17. of safety and blessedness ! Milton's 
 
 20. The hiding-place of Thy striking expression, " Dark with ex- 
 LESENCE, or " of Thy countenance ; " cess of bright, " explains how it is 
 sewhere, of God's tabernacle, xxvii. possible to be hidden in light. 
 
 ; or of His wings, Ixi. 4, or of His 21. David now turns to his own 
 
 «idow, xci. I. Bui this is the most experience. But what is the fenced or 
 
120 PSALM XXXir. 
 
 When Icried unto Thee. 
 
 23 O love Jehovah, all ye beloved of His I 
 
 Jehovah preserveth the faithful. 
 
 And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. 
 
 24 Be of good courage, and let your heart be strong, 
 
 All ye that wait upon Jehovah. 
 
 fortified city? I incline to thinlc there Thee lamas if! were in a fortified 
 
 is an historical reference in the words. place. 
 
 Possibly Ziklag may be meant. Most, 24. All ye that wait. The 
 
 however, understand it metaph = with Psalm ends as Psalm xxvii. 
 
 PSALM XXXII. 
 
 This is the second of the Seven Penitential Psalms, as they are 
 called, " which," says Selnecker, " St. Augustine used often to read 
 with weeping heart and eyes, and which, before his death, he had 
 written on the wall over against his sick-bed, that he might exercise 
 himself therein, and find comfort therein in his sickness." St. Augus- 
 tine's own words, " intelligentia prima est ut te noris peccatorem," 
 might stand as its motto. 
 
 There can be little doubt, I think, that this Psalm was composed 
 after Nathan came to David. Psalm li. was the confession of his 
 great sin and the prayer for forgiveness. This Psalm is the record of 
 the confession made and the forgiveness obtained, and the conscious 
 blessedness of his position as a son restored to his Father's house. 
 There was a shelter for him there now — " Thou art my hiding-place.'' 
 There was joy and gladness on his return — " Thou shalt compass me 
 about with songs of deliverance." And here he carries out the resolve 
 of Psalm li., " Then will I teach transgressors Thy way, and sinners 
 shall be converted unto Thee.'' 
 
 The instruction of the Psalm may be summed up in the words of 
 Prov. xxviii. 13, or in those of i John i. 8, 9. 
 
PSALM XXXII. 
 
 121 
 
 [a MASKIL of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Blessed is he whose transgression is taken away, 
 whose sin is covered : 
 
 2 Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah reckoneth not 
 
 iniquity, 
 And in whose spirit there is no guile. 
 
 3 For (while) I kept silence, my bones waxed old 
 
 Through my roaring all the day long. 
 
 4 For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me ; 
 
 My moisture was turned into the drought of summer. 
 [Selah.] 
 
 1, 2. Sin is here (as in Ex. xxxiv. 
 7) spoken of under three appellations, 
 so as to include the whole idea of sin 
 in all its manifestations : First, as 
 "transgression" or departure from 
 God, and open defection from His 
 covenant. Secondly, as "a coming 
 short of the mark, "a deflection from 
 
 ■ an aim, a not doing of our duty. 
 ; Thirdly, as including in the idea of 
 wrong doing, the guilt, and also the 
 punishment. And there is a threefold 
 ■blessedness. The man is one who 
 has his transgression taken away (lit. 
 who is Hf^htencd of the burden of sin), 
 comp. Exod. xxxiv. 7? St. John i. 29 ; 
 who has his sin covered, so that he is 
 in God's sight as one who has not 
 done the sin, cf. Ixxxv. 2, and Is. 
 xxxviii. 17, xliii. 25, xliv. 22. He is 
 also one — 
 
 2. To WHOM JEHOVAH RECXON- 
 ETH NOT INIQUITY, which according 
 to St. Paul's interpretation, Rom. iv. 
 6 — 9, is equivalent to saying that he 
 is one whose faith is reckoned for 
 righteousness. The non-reckoning of 
 iniquity, and the reckoning of righ- 
 teousness, are convertible terms : and 
 the righteousness so reckoned is faith, 
 or a righteousness without works. 
 But God only thus forgives and justi- 
 
 fies one who, with all truth and sin- 
 cerity of heart, confesses his sin, 
 making no reservation, no excuses, no 
 attempts still to hold fast and hide 
 some darling lust. 
 
 No Guile : no falseness, that is, 
 either to himself or to God. Of this 
 guilelessness Leighton remarks, 
 "Nothing is more pleasing to God, 
 who.seeth the heart, nothing more 
 like to God ; and therefore is it most 
 pleasing to Him, because it is most 
 like Him." — Meditat. Ethico-Crit. in 
 Psalm xxxii. 
 
 3. My bones ; see vi. 2, and cf. 
 Job xiii. 28. 
 
 Through my roaring, i.e. the 
 cry extorted from the anguish of his 
 spirit so long as he KEPT SILENCE, i.e. 
 refused to confess his sin. " Sin is a 
 serpent, and he that covers sin . does 
 but keep it warm, that it may sting 
 the more fiercely, and disperse the 
 venom and malignity thereof the 
 more effectually. " — Donne. 
 
 4. For (this gives the reason of his 
 roaring) God's hand was heavy upon 
 him (cf. I Samuel V. 6, 11 ; Job xxiii. 
 2 ; Ps, xxxviii. 2), and that hand is 
 "premens gravissima, sublevans sua- 
 vissima et potentissima." 
 
122 PSALM XXXII. 
 
 5 I said, I will acknowledge my sin unto Thee, 
 And mine iniquity did I not cover. 
 I said, " I will confess my transgressions unto 
 Jehovah." 
 And Thou tookest away the iniquity of my sin 
 [Selah.] 
 
 II. 6 For this cause let every godly man pray to Thee 
 In a time when Thou mayest be found ; 
 (So) surely when the great waters overflow, 
 They shall not reach unto him. 
 7 Thou art my hiding-place ; 
 
 Thou wilt preserve me from trouble ; 
 Thou wilt compass me about with songs of de- 
 liverance. [Selah.] 
 
 III. 8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou 
 shouldest go. 
 
 5. The end of the struggle — con- 
 fession, and so forgiveness and peace. 
 God covers sin, but man must not 
 cover his sin before God. "If vf& 
 confess our sin, He is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins. " (1 John i. 9. ) 
 The, former part of this verse contains 
 the resolve, " I would acknowledge," 
 &c. ; the second, the expression of tlie 
 resolve, "Isaid,"&c. 
 
 And Thou. The pronoun is em- 
 phatic : it was God's doing. To Him 
 he made his confession : He forgave. 
 The same words are used here of sin 
 and its forgiveness as in ver. i. The 
 confession and the taking away are 
 described as simidtaneous. " Vox 
 nondiim est in ore," says Augustine, 
 " et vulnus sanatur in corde. " 
 
 6. And now because of the grace 
 thus vouchsafed to every repentant 
 sinner, David would encourage all the 
 godly to seek Him who deals so 
 graciously with sinners. 
 
 In a time when Thou matest 
 BE FOUND, lit. " in a time of finding," 
 
 no object being expressed. Tk 
 object may either be Jehovah Himself 
 (as Is. Iv. 6 ; comp. Deut. iv. agjei, 
 xxix. 13), or more generally "grace 
 and forgiveness," as in the common 
 phrase "to find grace. " See also 
 Ixix. 13 ; Is. xlix. 8. 
 
 7. David's own joyful experience 
 of this safety, of which he is speakiog 
 to others. Scarcely has he held at 
 the hope to others, when he turns with 
 a happy trustfulness to God — 
 
 Thou art my HiDiNG-rLACE. He 
 would be hidden in God. St. Panl 
 could scarcely say more, "Ourlifeis 
 hid with Christ in God. " 
 
 Compass me about, i.e. give me 
 abundant cause, turn where I may/ to 
 praise Thee. God will do this, and 
 so be the author as well as the tip 
 of his praise. 
 
 8. Out of his past and present ex- 
 perience he will now counsel others, 
 and especially those who are still im: 
 penitent; and the itnour of his counsel 
 is, that they should not, like brutes, 
 
PSALM XXXIII. 123 
 
 I will watch over thee with mine eye. 
 9 Be ye not as horse, (or) as mule without understanding, 
 Whose trapping is with bit and bridle to hold them, 
 Or else they will not come nigh unto thee. 
 
 Many sorrows are to the wicked ; 
 
 But whoso trusteth in Jehovah, loving-kindness com- 
 passeth him about. 
 
 1 Rejoice in Jehovah, and exult, O ye righteous, 
 
 And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. 
 
 2sist and refuse submission till they guidance with the eye is a gentle 
 
 re forced into it, but that tbey should guidance. A look is enough, as op- 
 
 allingly come with repentance and posed to that bit and bridle which 
 
 onfession to God. the mulish nature requires. 
 
 The transition here to the direct 10. The usual contrast between the 
 
 )rm of address in the first person is lot of the ungodly and that of the 
 
 ertainly abrupt. Some have supposed righteous, as the sum of all that has 
 
 lat these are the words of God ; but been said, and as a great religious 
 
 erhaps David himself speaks with axiom, 
 omething of a father's warning. The 
 
 PSALM XXXIII. 
 
 God is the God of Creation, of Providence, of Grace. This is, in 
 few words, the Psalmist's theme. Jehovah created the world (ver. 
 ', ff.). Jehovah governs the world (ver. 10, ff.) ; and all nations and 
 :ings, whether they acknowledge Him or not, are but instruments in 
 -lis hand. Jehovah especially reveals Himself in mercy and love to 
 iis own chosen people (ver, 18, ff.). The key-note of this last 
 entiment is already struck in ver. 12. 
 
 This is one of the few Psalms in the First Book which in the 
 ■lebrew is without an inscription. 
 
 The Psalm consists of the following divisions :^ 
 
 I. An introduction, in which the singer calls on the righteous to 
 (raise Jehovah, with all manner of music. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 Then follow the reasons why He is worthy to be praised. 
 
124 PSALM XXXI I I. 
 
 II. (l) First, because He is Good and Faithful (ver. 4, 5); and 
 next (2), because by His word all things were created. Ver. 4— g. 
 
 III. Because He is the All-wise (ver. 10, 1 1), All-seeing (ver. 13- 
 15), and Almighty (ver. 16, 17) Ruler of nations. Ver. 10—17. 
 
 IV. Lastly, because He watches over (ver. 18), preserves (ver. 19), 
 and protects (ver. 20) all those that fear Him and trust in His Holy 
 Name. Ver. 18 — 21. 
 
 The Psalm concludes with a short petition, that it may be done 
 unto Israel according to his hope. 
 
 1 Shout for joy, O ye righteous, in Jehovah ; 
 
 For the upright, praise is comely. 
 
 2 Give thanks to Jehovah with a harp, 
 
 Upon a ten-stringed lute play unto Him. 
 
 3 Sing unto Him a new song. 
 
 Play skilfully on the strings with a loud noise. 
 
 4 For the word of Jehovah is upright ; 
 
 And all that he doeth is faithfulness. 
 
 5 He loveth righteousness and judgement : 
 
 The earth is full of the loving-kindness of Jehovah. 
 
 6 By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made ; 
 
 And all their host by the breath of His mouth. 
 
 7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap ; 
 
 He layeth up the depths in storehouses. 
 
 3. A NEW SONG, not here one 6. By the WORD, explained further 
 
 which has new marvels of God's ver. 9, the creative fiat as in Gen. L 
 Power and Grace for its theme, as in The breath of His mouth, ap- 
 
 xl. 3 ; xcviii. I (comp. Rev. xiv. 3), parently almost the same thing as 
 
 but rather one >7hicii springs freshly "the word" before. So in Is. a. 
 
 from a thankful and rejoicing heart; 4, "the breath of His lips," is used 
 
 one, which seeks to put an old theme of the sentence of judgement whicb 
 
 in a new light. thence issues. 
 
 4, 5. First the moral attributes of 7. The heaven and the sea are 
 God are mentioned as a reason why mentioned as the theatre of Gods 
 the righteous should praise Him. almighty power, as the eartli before 
 See the same attributes enumerated of His loving-kindness ; and dius me 
 in xxxvi. 5, 6, with the same reference Universe is summed up. 
 to God's providential care of His As AN heap, a figure I think mam- 
 creatures. Comp. Ixxxix. 14. festly suggested by the appearance 01 
 
PSALM XXX III. 
 
 125 
 
 8 Let all the earth fear before Jehovah ; 
 
 Let all the inhabitants of the wsrld stand in awe of 
 Him. 
 
 9 For he said, and it was : 
 
 He commanded, and it stood fast. 
 =10 Jehovah hath brought to naught the counsel of the 
 
 nations ; 
 He hath made the thoughts of the people of none 
 
 effect. 
 
 1 1 The counsel of Jehovah standeth fast for ever. 
 
 The thoughts of His heart to all generations. 
 
 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, 
 
 The people whom He hath chosen for His own 
 inheritance. 
 
 13 From heaven hath Jehovah looked, 
 
 He hath seen all the children of men. 
 
 14 From the place of His dwelling he hath looked down 
 
 Upon all the inhabitants of the earth, 
 
 15 (Even) He who fashioneth the heart of each of 
 
 them, 
 
 Who considereth all their works. 
 :i6 A king doth not triumph by a great host, 
 
 A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 
 17 A horse is a vain thing for victory. 
 
 Neither can he deliver any by his great power. 
 
 the waves of the sea. The expression people, as often : see Ps. xxiv. i. It 
 
 may have been borrovi^ed from Josh. is, however, immediately connected 
 
 iii. 13 — 16, and Exod. xv. 8. with the preceding verse ; for the fact 
 
 9. A manifest reference to Gen. i. that Jehovah's counsels stand fast for 
 3 : " and God said, let Light be, and ever is a matter of consolation for the 
 Light was." people whose God He is (cxivii. 19, 
 
 10, II. After speaking of God's 20), and whom He hath chosen for 
 power in creation, the Psalmist goes His own inheritance (xlvii. 4). 
 
 on to speak of His providence as 13 — 15. The Omnipresence and 
 
 ordering the world. Omniscience of God. He not only 
 
 12. I'his verse already anticipates observes man's doings, but knows 
 
 what is said more fully verses 18 — 20, their hearts as having created them, 
 
 and here we have the doctrine of This is implied in ver. 15. 
 God's universal Providence looked at 16, 17. The weakness and insuf- 
 
 in its special application to the chosen ficiency of all human power, however 
 
26 
 
 PSALM XXXIV. 
 
 8 Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him, 
 
 Upon them that hope in His loving-kindness. 
 
 9 To deliver their soul from death, 
 
 And to keep them alive in famine, 
 o Our soul hath tarried for Jehovah ; 
 
 He is our Help and our Shield. 
 :i For in Him our heart rejoiceth, 
 
 Because we have trusted in His Holy Name. 
 !2 Let Thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, be upon us. 
 
 According as we have hoped in Thee. 
 
 reat, as before of all human intellect 
 ' King, and mighty man, and horse " 
 !.«. war-horse, as elsewhere, "chariot 
 nd horse"), are selected as types of 
 arthly power in all its greatness. 
 
 i8. tfpON : more literally, "to- 
 /ards." 
 
 18—22. Hope — tarry — trust— 
 lOPE. This attitude of hope and 
 rust is the attitude of the Church in 
 ,11 ages, for she is not yet made 
 
 perfect ; but the Jewish Church was 
 in a special sense the Church of the 
 Future, and therefore also in a special 
 manner a waiting and hoping Church. 
 The whole history of Israel may, 
 indeed, be summed up in Jacob's 
 dying words ; " I have waited for Thy 
 salvation, O Lord." The Hebrew 
 language has accordingly several words 
 which express this hoping, forward- 
 looking attitude. 
 
 PSALM XXXIV. 
 
 This is, like the last, a Psalm in which God's providence and 
 Tioral government of the world are the subject of grateful acknow- 
 edgement. His guardian care of the righteous is more especially 
 ;elebrated and applied to the individual circumstances of the 
 Psalmist. 
 
 This is one of the alphabetical Psalms, on which see the Introduc- 
 :ion to Psalm xxv. The order of the Hebrew alphabet is preserved, 
 jxcept that there is no verse beginning with the letter Vau. The 
 number of verses, however, is made to correspond with the number 
 of letters in the alphabet, notwithstanding this omission, by means of 
 
PSALM XXXIV. 17.1 
 
 a verse added at the end, which begins (as is also the case in Psalm 
 XXV.) with the word " redeem." 
 
 No value can be attached to the superscription with its his- 
 torical reference, because, while it is borrowed from I Sam. xxi. 14, 
 Abimelech is substituted for Achish, which looks like a confusion 
 with the narrative in Gen. xx. xxi. ; and further, the contents of the 
 Psalm do not very readily, or naturally, harmonize with the supposed 
 circumstances. 
 
 The contents of the Psalm may generally be distributed into pairs 
 of verses. But the alphabetical order of course precludes anything 
 like very close connection. The principal thought of the Psalm is 
 God's care of the afflicted, and this appears repeated in different 
 forms. 
 
 The closest connection is between ver. 12 — 15, which contain one 
 consecutive piece of instruction.* 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID, WHEN HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOUR BEFORE 
 ABIMELECH ; AND HE WAS DRIVEN AWAY, AND HE DEPARTED.] 
 
 (Aleph) I I WILL bless Jehovah at all times, 
 
 Continually shall His praise be in my 
 mouth. 
 (Beth) 2 In Jehovah shall my soul make her boast : 
 
 The afflicted shall hear thereof and be glad. 
 (Gimel) 3 O magnify Jehovah with me, 
 
 And let us exalt His name together. 
 (Daleth) 4 I sought Jehovah, and He answered me, 
 
 And He delivered me out of all my terrors. 
 (He) 5 They looked unto Him, and were lightened ; 
 
 5. They looked, viz. "the af- may only mean generally "men 
 flicted," mentioned in ver. 2 ; or it looked ;" others, ie. besides myself, 
 
 * *' May z^th, 1603. — After a victory at sea, in which the Spanish commander Spinola was 
 killed, the Dutch admiral, ' bald-headed weather-beaten Joost de Moor,' farther pursuit being 
 impossible, piped all hands on deck, and officers and men fell on their knees, shouting in pious 
 
 triumph the 34th Psalm, ' I will bless the Lord at all times O magnify the Lord with 
 
 me, and let us exalt His name together.' So rang forth the notes of humble thanksgiving 
 across the placid sea, and assuredly those hardy mariners, having gained a victory with 
 their little vessels over twelve ships and 3,000 men — a numerical force of at least ten times 
 their number — such as few but Dutchmen could have achieved, had a right to give thanVis 
 to Him from whom all blessmgs flow." — MoTLEV, United Netherlands^ vol. iv. 
 
128 
 
 PSALM XXXIV. 
 
 (Zain) 
 (Cheth) 
 
 (Teth) 
 
 (Yod) 
 (Kaph) 
 
 (Lamed) 
 
 (Mem) 
 
 (Nun) 
 
 (Samech) 
 
 (Ayin) 
 
 And may their faces not be ashamed. 
 
 6 This afflicted man called, and Jehovah heard, 
 
 And saved him out of all his troubles. 
 
 7 The Angel of Jehovah encampeth round about 
 
 them that fear Him, 
 And delivereth them. 
 
 8 O taste and see that Jehovah is good ! 
 
 Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in 
 Him. 
 
 9 O fear Jehovah, ye His saints ! 
 
 For there is no want to them that fear Him.* 
 lo Young lions have lacked and suffered hunger, 
 But they that seek Jehovah shall not want 
 any (good thing). 
 Come, ye children, hearken unto me, 
 
 I will teach you the fear of Jehovah : 
 What man is he that desireth life, 
 That loveth (many) days that he may see 
 good } 
 Keep thy tongue from evil. 
 
 And thy lips from speaking guile ; 
 
 14 Depart from evil and do good, 
 
 Seek peace, and pursue it. 
 
 1 5 The eyes of Jehovah are towards the righteous, 
 
 And His ears (are open) unto their cry. 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 have in like manner experienced God's 
 loving-kindness. 
 
 Were lightened, ?.^. were bright 
 with gladness because Heheard them, 
 reflecting as it were the Light of His 
 countenance. 
 
 7. The angel. Not apparently 
 here used of any particular angel, as 
 "The Angel of the Covenant," or ' ' the 
 Captain of the Lord's host," but 
 rather in a collective sense, "troops 
 of angels." 
 
 8. O TASTE AND SEE. Comp. 
 Heb. vi. 5, I Pet. ii. 3. 
 
 II. A form of address common in 
 the Proverbs. See chapters i.— ix. 
 Similar is the use of -riKva by St 
 John in his Epistles. 
 
 13. On this taming of the tongue 
 — of which so much is said in the 
 proverbs of all nations — see xv. 2, 3, 
 xxxix. I — 3, cxli. 3 ; Prov. iv. 24, 
 xiii. 3, xxi. 23 ; St. James iii. 2 ff. 
 
 * " There is no want to them that fear Him.'' This was St. Columba's last verse as he 
 transcribed the Scriptures. These brought him to the foot of the page. " Here," said he, 
 *' 1 must stop; Eaithune, write out the rest" a.d. 597. 
 
PSALM XXXV. 129 
 
 (Pe) 16 The face of Jehovah is against the evil-doers, 
 
 To cut off the remembrance of them from 
 the earth. 
 (Tsaddi) 17 They cried, and Jehovah heard, 
 
 And delivered them out of all their 
 troubles. 
 (Koph) 18 Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a 
 broken heart, 
 And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 
 (Resh) 19 Many are the sufferings of the righteous, 
 
 But out of all of them doth Jehovah 
 deliver hijn. 
 (Shin) 20 He preserveth all his bones ; 
 
 Not one of them is broken. 
 (Tau) 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, 
 
 And they that hate the righteous shall be 
 punished. 
 (Pe) 22 Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants, 
 
 And all they that trust in Him shall not 
 be punished. 
 
 17. They, i.e. the righteous, men- are inseparable. The reward and 
 
 tioned ver. 15, and again ver. 19. the punishment partake of the nature 
 
 22. Be punished. The Hebrew of the things (or persons) rewarded 
 
 verb means to incur guilt, and then, and punished ; hence the same word 
 
 by a natural transition, to suffer as means both guilt and punishment, 
 
 guilty. Hence in the Hebrew, sin Akin to this is the well-known use of 
 
 and chastisement, righteousness and the word sin, for sin-offering. 
 the inanifestation of that righteousness. 
 
 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 This Psalm, if it be, as the inscription tells us, a Psalm of David, 
 must have been composed either during his persecution by Saul, or 
 during the revolt of Absalom. It is usual to connect it vfith his 
 words in i Sam. xxiv. 15, "Jehovah therefore be judge, and judge 
 between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause (the same ex- 
 pression as in ver. l of the Psalm), and deliver me by His judgement 
 
30 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 iut of thine hand." Its peculiar feature is that the enemies on whom 
 he Poet imprecates the righteous judgements of God, are men who 
 I ad formerly been his friends, men for whom he had prayed in their 
 oiTOw " with a brother's heart," and who now requited his love with 
 ngrateful hatred. Such an enemy Saul may have been; but we 
 lever find any trace of bitterness in Da,vid's feelings towards Saul. 
 ?he generous enemy whose heart smote him because he had cut off 
 laul's skirt, and who always recognized in Saul the Lord's Anointed, 
 TOuld never have called down the judgements of God upon his head, 
 t seems to me, therefore, more probable that the aiders and abettors 
 if Absalom's conspiracy, men like Ahithophel and his associates, are 
 limed at in the Poet's burning words. But all this, and even the 
 .Uthorship itself, must be matter of mere conjecture. 
 
 The Psalm falls into three principal divisions ; each of which closes 
 ivith a thanksgiving. 
 
 1. Ver. I — lo. I. Cry to God to come forth as a champion armed 
 or his defence (l — 3), 
 
 2. Prayer for the confusion and destruction of his enemies (4 — 8). 
 
 3. Thankful acknowledgement of God's dehverance (9, 10). 
 
 II. Ver. II — 18. I. Contrast between the love and good-will which 
 le had shown to his enemies, and the bitter hatred with which they 
 lad requited him (11 — 16). 
 
 2. Appeal to God against them, with vows of thanksgiving (17, 18), 
 
 III. Ver. 19 — 28. I. Prayer that they may not triumph, with 
 3escriptiofi of their craft and wickedness (79 — 21). 
 
 2. Again a prayer that God would appear to vindicate his cause 
 and put them to confusion (22 — 26). 
 
 3. The joy of all the righteous and of the singer, because God 
 executeth judgement upon the ungodly (27, 28). 
 
 [(A psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 1. 1 Contend, O Jehovah, with th&m that eontend with me ; 
 Fight Thou against them that fight against me. 
 2 Lay hold of shield and buckler, 
 
 2. An amplification of the figure able. It shows the earnest desire in 
 
 occurring already in the Pemtateuch, the Poet's mind to realize the fact 
 
 where God is spoken of as a. man of that God not only taught his fingefs 
 
 war, Exod, xv. 3, Deut. xxxii. 41. to fight, but mixed in the battle, 
 
 The bold anthropomorphic working fighting as it were by his side, and 
 
 out of the figure is, however, remark- assuring hire} of victory. 
 
PSALM XXXV. 131 
 
 And arise as my helper. 
 
 3 Draw out also the spear and battle-axe 
 
 Against them that pursue me ; 
 Say unto my soul, " I am thy salvation." 
 
 4 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek aftei 
 
 my soul : 
 Let them be turned back and brought to confusion 
 that devise my hurt. 
 
 5 Let them be as the chaff before the wind, 
 
 And the angel of Jehovah scattering (them). 
 
 6 Let their way be darkness and exceeding slipperiness, 
 
 And the angel of Jehovah pursuing them. 
 
 7 For without cause have they hid for me a pit with 
 
 their net ; 
 Without cause have they digged a pit for my soul. 
 
 8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares, 
 
 And let his net that he hath hid catch himself ; 
 Into that very destruction let him fall. 
 
 9 So shall my soul exult in Jehovah, 
 
 It shall be joyful in His salvation. 
 10 All my bones shall say, 
 
 " Jehovah, who is like unto Thee .'' 
 Who deliverest the afflicted from him that is too 
 strong for him. 
 Yea the afflicted and the poor from him that 
 spoileth him." 
 
 II. 1 1 Violent witnesses rise up. 
 
 They ask of me things that I know not, 
 
 4. Let them be turned bacic to be meant, " who took off Pharaoh's 
 Very similar words occur ver. 26. C£ chariot wheels, go that they drave 
 also xL 14, and Ixx. 2, 3. them heavily. " 
 
 5. As THE CHAFF. See i. 4, and 7. A common metaphor borrowed 
 comp. xviii. 42, Ixxxiii. 13. from the artifices employed for taking 
 
 The ANGEL OF Jehovah : here wild beasts, 
 perhaps, as in the last Psalm, not to n. Violent, i.e. unscrupulous 
 
 be understood of any particular angel. witnesses. 
 Delitzsch supposes the Angel of Israel 
 
 K 2 
 
32 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 1 2 They reward me evil for good : 
 
 My soul is bereaved. 
 
 13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing 
 
 was sackcloth ; 
 I humbled my soul with fasting. 
 And my prayer — may it return into my own bosom. 
 
 14 As though it had been my friend, my brother, so 
 
 did I behave myself; 
 As one who sorroweth for a mother, I bowed 
 down mourning. 
 
 15 But when I halted, they rejoiced and gathered 
 
 themselves together. 
 They gathered themselves together, smiting (me) 
 when I knew it not. 
 They did tear (me) and ceased not ; 
 
 16 With them that are profane in their outlandish 
 
 mouthings. 
 Gnashing upon me with their teeth. 
 
 17 O Lord, how long wilt Thou see (this) "i 
 
 Bring back my soul from their destructions, 
 My only one from the lions. 
 V3 I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation, 
 I will praise Thee among much people. 
 
 13. And, my prayer, &c. The 14. Mourning, i.e. with aii the 
 
 irayer I offered for them is a prayer outward signs of sorrow, especially 
 
 might have offered for myself. So the garments (as the word particularly 
 
 rue a prayer was it, so full of love, denotes), perhaps also the untriiiimed 
 
 hat I could wish nothing more than beard, unwashed face, &c., which 
 
 hat the blessings I asked for them were tokens of Oriental mourning, 
 
 hould be vouchsafed to me. This Comp. xxxviii. 6, Job i. 20, v. 11, 
 
 igrees, too, with what follows, " As &c. 
 
 hough for my friend or my brother," 15, 16. The cruel requital of all 
 
 fcc. It may perhaps be illustrate'd by this affection and sympathy, 
 
 eference to Matt. x. 13, Luke x. 6 ; 17. My only one. See note on 
 
 )r the rendering may be as in the E. v., xxii. 20. 
 
 ' My prayer returned into my own 18. Congregation, or " assem- 
 
 losom," which is supposed to denote bly," or "church," the Greek equi- 
 
 he posture of prayer, the head being valent being eV/cATjtria. 
 jowed on the breast. 
 
PSALM XXXV. 
 
 133 
 
 III. 19 Let not them that are mine enemies falsely rejoice 
 over me, 
 Neither let them that hate me without a cause 
 wink with the eye. 
 
 20 For not peace do they speak, 
 
 But against them that are quiet in the land they 
 devise words of deceit. 
 
 21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me ; 
 
 They said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen (it). 
 
 22 Thou hast seen, O Jehovah : keep not silence ; 
 
 O Lord, be not far from me. 
 
 23 Arouse Thyself and awake to my judgement, 
 
 My God and my Lord, to my cause. 
 
 24 Judge me according to Thy righteousness, O 
 
 Jehovah my God, 
 And let them not rejoice over me. 
 
 25 Let them not say in their heart, ' Aha, sc) would 
 
 we have it ;' 
 Let them not say, ' We have swallowed him upi' 
 
 22. Thou hast seen, with refer- 
 tnce to the " our eye HATH SEEN " 
 in the preceding verse. 
 
 This latter part of the Psalm is on 
 the whole calmer thati the former, as 
 if the spirit had found rest in pouring 
 out its complaints. Though the singer 
 again calls for confusion on his ene- 
 mies, the expressions are not so ap- 
 parently vindictive as at the beginning 
 of the Psalm. Comp. ver. 25, 26, 
 with ver. 4 — 6. 
 
 But how are we to account for sudh 
 prayers for vengeance at all? We 
 find them chiefly in four Psalms, the 
 7th, 35th, 69th, and 109th, and the 
 imprecations in these foim a terrible 
 climax. In the last, no less than 
 thirty anathemas have been counted. 
 Are these the mere outbursts of pas- 
 sionate and unsanctified feeling, or 
 are they the legitimate expression of 
 
 a righteous indignation ? Are they to 
 be excused as being animated by the 
 "spirit of Elias," a spirit not unholy 
 indeed, but far removed from the 
 meekness and gentleness of Christ j 
 or are they stereotyped forms in which 
 the spirit of Christian devotion may 
 utter itself ? Are they Jewish only, 
 or may they be Christiaii also ? An 
 utiihstructed fastidiousness, it is well 
 known, has made many persons recoil 
 from reading these Psalms at all. 
 Many have found their lips falter 
 when they have been called to join in 
 using them in the congregation, and 
 have either uttered them with bated 
 breath and doubting heart, or have 
 interpreted them in a sense widely at 
 variance with the letter. Some have 
 tried to reconcile them with a more 
 enlightened conscience, by regarding 
 such words not as the expression of a 
 
134 
 
 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion 
 
 together, 
 That rejoice at my hurt ; 
 Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour 
 That magnify themselves against me. 
 
 27 Let them shout for joy and be glad 
 
 Who have pleasure in my righteousness, 
 And let them say alway, Jehovah be magnified, 
 Who hath pleasure in the prosperity of His 
 servants. 
 
 wish; but as the utterance of a predic- 
 tion ; but the Hebrew optative, which 
 is distinct enough from the simple 
 future, absolutely forbids this expe- 
 dient. Others again would see in 
 them expressions which may lawfully 
 be used in the soul's wrestling against 
 spiritual enemies. And finally, some 
 would defend them as utterances of 
 righteous zeal for God's honour, and 
 remind us that if we do not sympa- 
 thise with such zeal, it may be not 
 because our religion is more pure, but 
 because our hearts are colder. 
 
 Now the real source of the difficulty 
 lies in our not observing and bearing 
 in mind the essential difference be- 
 tween the Old Testament and the 
 New. The older dispensation was in 
 every sense a sterner one than the 
 new. The spirit of Elias, though not 
 an evil spirit, was not the spirit of 
 Christ. (Luke ix. 55.) "The Son of 
 Man came not to destroy men's lives, 
 but to save them. " And through Him 
 His disciples are made partakers of 
 the same spirit. But this was not the 
 spirit of the older economy. The 
 Jewish nation had been trained in a 
 sterner school. It had been steeled 
 and hardened by the discipline which 
 had pledged it to a war of extermina- 
 tion with idolaters, and, however ne- 
 cessary such a discipline might be, it 
 would not tend to foster the gentler 
 virtues ; it is conceivable how even a 
 
 righteous man, under it, feeling it to 
 be his bounden duty to root out evil 
 wherever he saw it, and identifying, 
 as he did, his own enemies with the 
 enemies of Jehovah, might use lan- 
 guage which to us appears unneces- 
 sarily vindictive. To men so trained 
 and taught, what we call " religious 
 toleration " was a thing not only wrong 
 but absolutely inconceivable. 
 
 It may be quite true that we find 
 revenge forbidden as directly in fhe 
 Old Testament as in the New, as, for 
 instance, in Lev. xix. 18, " Thou 
 shalt not avenge," &c., though even 
 there there is a limitation, " against 
 the children of thy people." And it 
 may be no less true that we find in- 
 stances of imprecation in the New, as 
 when St. Paul says (2 Tim. iv. 14), 
 " Alexander the coppersmith did me 
 much evil : the Lord reward him 
 according to his works ; " or when he 
 exclaims. Acts xxiii. 3, "God shall 
 smite thee, thou whited wall," or, "If 
 any man love not the 'Lord J'esus 
 Christ, let him be anathema" (i 
 Cor. xvi. 22). But even these expres- 
 sions are very different from the va- 
 ried, deliberate, carefully constructed, 
 detailed anathemas of the Psalms. 
 And our Lord's denunciations, to 
 which Hengstenberg refers, are in no 
 way parallel. They are not cmses 
 upon individuals, but in fact solemn 
 utterances of the great truth, ' ' Except 
 
PSALM XXXVI. 
 
 135 
 
 28 So shall my tongue talk of Thy righteousness, 
 Of Thy praise all the day long. 
 
 ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
 But after all, whatever may be said 
 of particular passages, the general 
 tone which runs through the two 
 covenants is unquestionably differ- 
 ent. To deny this is not to honour 
 Moses, but to dishonour Christ. (St. 
 Matt. V. 43, xix. 8.) On the other 
 hand, we must not forget that these 
 imprecations are not the passionate 
 longing foi personal revenge. The 
 singer undoubtedly sees in his ene- 
 mies the enemies of God and His 
 Church. They that are not with 
 him are against God. And be- 
 cause the zeal of God's house even 
 consumes him, he prays that all the 
 doers of iniquity may be rooted out. 
 The indignation therefore is righteous, 
 though it may appear to us wrongly 
 directed, or excessive in its utterance. 
 Once more, the very fact that a 
 dark cloud hid God's judgement in 
 the world to come from the view of 
 the Old Testament saints, may be 
 
 alleged in excuse of this their desire 
 to see Him take vengeance on His 
 enemies here. How deeply the pro- 
 blem of God's righteousness exercised 
 their minds, is abundantly evident 
 from numerous places in the Psalms. 
 They longed to see that righteousness 
 manifested. It could be manifested, 
 they thought, only in the evident 
 exaltation of the righteous, and the 
 evident destruction of the wicked here. 
 Hence, with their eye always fixpd on 
 temporal recompense, they could even 
 wish and pray for the destruction of 
 the ungodly. The awful things of 
 the world to come were to a great 
 extent hid from their eyes. Could 
 they have seen these, then surely their 
 prayer would have been, not " Let 
 the angel of the Lord persecute them," 
 " Blot them out of Thy book ; " but 
 rather with Htm who hung on the 
 cross: "Father, forgive them; for 
 they know not what they do. " 
 
 PSALM XXXVI. 
 
 The Psalm is not so distinct in its features that we can assign it to 
 any particular occasion in the life of David, or associate it with any 
 definite period of Jewish history. 
 
 The Psalm opens with a striking picture of what a wicked man i* 
 who abandons himself, without check or remorse, to the inspirations 
 of his own evil heart. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 Next, as if oppressed and terrified with the picture which he has 
 
t32 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 12 They reward me evil for good : 
 
 My soul is bereaved. 
 J 3 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing 
 was sackcloth ; 
 I humbled my soul with fasting, 
 And my prayer — may it return into my own bosom. 
 
 14 As though it had been my friend, my brother, so 
 
 did I behave myself; 
 As one who sorroweth for a mother, I bowed 
 down mourning. 
 
 15 But when I halted, they rejoiced and gathered 
 
 themselves together. 
 They gathered themselves together, smiting (me) 
 when I knew it not. 
 They did tear (me) and ceased not ; 
 
 16 With them that are profane in their outlandish 
 
 mouthings. 
 Gnashing upon me with their teeth. 
 
 17 O Lord, how long wilt Thou see (this) "i 
 
 Bring back my soul from their destructions, 
 My only one from the lions. 
 i3 1 will give Thee thanks in the great congregation, 
 I will praise Thee among much people. 
 
 13. And my prayer, &c. The 14. Mourning, i.e. with all the 
 
 prayer I offered for them is a prayer outward signs of sorrow, especially 
 
 I might have offered for myself. So the garments (as the word partic-ilarly 
 
 true a prayer was it, so fyll of love, denotes), perhaps also the untriiumed 
 
 that I could wish nothing more than beard, unwashed face, &c., which 
 
 that the blessings I asked for them were tokens of Oriental mourning, 
 
 should be vouchsafed to me. This Comp. xxxviii. 6, Job i. 20, v. II, 
 
 agrees, too, with what follows, " As &c. 
 
 though for my friend or my brother," 15, 16. The cruel requital of all 
 
 &c. It may perhaps be illustrated by this affection and synipathy. 
 
 reference to Matt. x. 13, Luke x. 6 ; 17. My only one. See note on 
 
 ortherendevingmaybeasinthe E.V., xxii. 20. 
 
 "My prayer returned into my own 18. Congregation, or "assem- 
 
 bosom," which is supposed to denote bly," or "church," the Greek equi- 
 
 the posture of prayer, the head being valent being eKKXrjcria, 
 bowed on the breast. 
 
PSALM XXXV. 
 
 133 
 
 III. 19 Let not them that are mine enemies falsely rejoice 
 over me, 
 Neither let them that hate me without a cause 
 wink with the eye. 
 
 20 For not peace do they speak, 
 
 But against them that are quiet in the land they 
 devise words of deceit. 
 
 2 1 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me ; 
 
 They said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen (it). 
 
 22 Thou hast seen, O Jehovah : keep not silence ; 
 
 O Lord, be not far from me. 
 
 23 Arouse Thyself and awake to iny judgement. 
 
 My God and my Lord, to my cause. 
 
 24 Judge me according to Thy righteousness, O 
 
 Jehovah my God, 
 And let them not rejoice over me. 
 
 25 Let them not say in their heart, ' Aha, so would 
 
 we have it ;' 
 Let them not say, ' We have swallowed him up/ 
 
 22. Thou hast seen, with refer- 
 fence to the " our eye hath seen " 
 in the preceding verse. 
 
 This latter part of the Psalm is on 
 the Whole calmer than the former, as 
 if the spirit had found rest in pouring 
 out its Complaints. Though the singer 
 again calls for confusion on his ene- 
 mies, the expressions are not so ap- 
 parently vindictive as at the beginning 
 of the Psalm. Comp. ver. 25, 26, 
 with Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
 But how are we to account for suth 
 prayers for vengeance at all ? "We 
 find them chiefly in four Psalms, the 
 7th, 35th, 69th, and 109th, and the 
 imprecations in these foim a terrible 
 cHmax. In the last, no less than 
 thirty anathemas have been counted. 
 Are these the mere outbursts of pas- 
 sionate and unsanctified feeling, or 
 are they the legitimate expression of 
 
 a righteous indignation ? Are they tb 
 be excused as being animated by the 
 "spirit of Elias," a spirit not unholy 
 indeed, but far removed from the 
 meekness and gentleness of Christ j 
 oi- are they stereotyped forms in which 
 the spirit of Christian devotion may 
 niter itself? Are they Jewish only, 
 or may they be Christian also ? An 
 uhinstructed fastidiousness, it is well 
 known, has made many persons recoil 
 from reading these Psalms at all. 
 Many have found their lips falter 
 when they have been called to join in 
 using them in the congregation, and 
 have either uttered them with bated 
 breath and doubting heart, or have 
 interpreted them in a sense widely at 
 variance with the letter. Some have 
 tried to reconcile them with a more 
 enlightened conscience, by regarding 
 such words not as the expression of a 
 
134 
 
 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion 
 
 together, 
 That rejoice at my hurt ; 
 Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour 
 That magnify themselves against me. 
 
 27 Let them shout for joy and be glad 
 
 Who have pleasure in my righteousness, 
 And let them say alway, Jehovah be magnified. 
 Who hath pleasure in the prosperity of His 
 servants. 
 
 wish, but as the utterance of a predic- 
 tion ; but the Hebrew optative, which 
 is distinct enough from the simple 
 future, absolutely forbids this expe- 
 dient. Others again would see in 
 them expressions which may lawfully 
 be used in the soul's wrestling against 
 spiritual enemies. And finally, some 
 would defend them as utterances of 
 righteous zeal for God's honour, and 
 remind us that if we do not sympa- 
 thise with such zeal, it may be not 
 because our religion is more pure, but 
 because our hearts are colder. 
 
 Now the real source of the difficulty 
 lies in our not observing and bearing 
 in mind the essential difference be- 
 tween the Old Testament and the 
 New. The older dispensation was in 
 every sense a sterner one than the 
 new. The spirit of Elias, though not 
 an evil spirit, was not the spirit of 
 Christ. (Luke ix. 55.) "The Son of 
 Man came not to destroy men's lives, 
 but to save them. " And through Him 
 His disciples are made partakers of 
 the same spirit. But this was not the 
 spirit of the older economy. The 
 Jewish nation had been trained in a 
 sterner school. It had been steeled 
 and hardened by the discipline which 
 had pledged it to a war of extei-mina- 
 tion with idolaters, and, however ne- 
 cessary such a discipline might be, it 
 would not tend to foster the gentler 
 virtues ; it is conceivable how even a 
 
 righteous man, under it, feeling it to 
 be his bounden duty to root out evil 
 wherever he saw it, and identifying, 
 as he did, his own enemies with the 
 enemies of Jehovah, might use lan- 
 guage which to us appears unneces- 
 sarily vindictive. To men so trained 
 and taught, what we call " religious 
 toleration " was a thing not only wrong 
 but absolutely inconceivable. 
 
 It may be quite true that we find 
 revenge forbidden as directly in Ihe 
 Old Testament as in the New, as, for 
 instance, in Lev. xix. 18, " Thou 
 shalt not avenge," &c., though even 
 there there is a limitation, "against, 
 the children of thy people." And it 
 may be no less true that we find in- 
 stances of imprecation in the New, as 
 when St. Paul says (2 Tim. iv. 14), 
 "Alexander the coppersmith did me 
 much evil : the Lord reward him 
 according to his works ; " or when he 
 exclaims, Acts xxiii. 3, "God shall 
 smite thee, thou whited wall, " or, "If 
 any man love not the 'Lord Jesus 
 Christ, let him be anathema" (t 
 Cor. xvi. 22). But even these expres- 
 sions are very different from the va- 
 ried, deliberate, carefully constructed, 
 detailed anathemas of the Psalms. 
 And our Lord's denunciations, to 
 which Hengstenberg refers, are in no 
 way parallel. They are not curses 
 upon individuals, but in fact solemn 
 utterances of the great truth, " Except 
 
PSALM XXX VI. 
 
 135 
 
 28 So shall my tongue talk of Thy righteousness, 
 Of Thy praise all the day long. 
 
 yerepent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
 But after all, whatever may be said 
 of particular passages, the general 
 tone which runs through the two 
 covenants is unquestionably differ- 
 ent. To deny this is not to honour 
 Moses, but to dishonour Christ. (St. 
 Matt. V. 43, xix. 8.) On the other 
 hand, we must not forget that these 
 imprecations are not the passionate 
 longing ioi personal revenge. The 
 singer undoubtedly sees in his ene- 
 mies the enemies of God and His 
 Church. They that are not with 
 him are against God. And be- 
 cause the zeal of God's house even 
 consumes him, he prays that all the 
 doers of iniquity may be rooted out. 
 The indignation therefore is righteous, 
 though it may appear to us wrongly 
 directed, or excessive in its utterance. 
 Once more, the very fact that a 
 dark cloud hid God's judgement in 
 the world to come from the view of 
 the Old Testament saints, may be 
 
 alleged in excuse of this their desire 
 to see Him take vengeance on His 
 enemies here. How deeply the pro- 
 blem of God's righteousness exercised 
 their minds, is abundantly evident 
 from numerous places in the Psalms. 
 They longed to see that righteousness 
 manifested. It could be manifested, 
 they thought, only in the evident 
 exaltation of the righteous, and the 
 evident destruction of the wicked here. 
 Hence, with their eye always- fixed on 
 temporal recompense, they could even 
 wish and pray for the destruction of 
 the ungodly. The awful things of 
 the world to come were to a great 
 extent hid from their eyes. Could 
 they have seen these, then surely their 
 prayer would have been, not " Let 
 the angel of the Lord persecute them," 
 " Blot them out of Thy book ; " but 
 rather with Him who hung on the 
 cross : " Father, forgive them ; for 
 they know not what they do. " 
 
 PSALM XXXVI. 
 
 The Psalm is not so distinct in its features that we can assign it to 
 ?>ny particular occasion in the life of David, or associate it with any 
 definite period of Jewish history. 
 
 The Psalm opens with a striking picture of what a wicked man k 
 who abandons himself, without check or remorse, to the inspirations 
 of his own evil heart. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 Next, as if oppressed and terrified with the picture which he has 
 
136 PSALM XXXVI. 
 
 drawn of secure and thoughtful wickedness, the holy Psalmist turns 
 with a quick revulsion of feehrg to Him whose Love and Truth are 
 at all times a sure defence. Here he pours out all the fulness of his 
 heart. Words seem to fail him as there rise before him, in all 
 their length and breadth, the loving-kindness, the faithfulness, the 
 righteousness of Jehovah. Ver. 5—9. 
 
 Lastly, with his heart full of what God is, he prays that God would 
 Show His loving-kindness and His righteousness to those who, like 
 himself, were upright in heart, and defeat the designs of the wicked. 
 He concludes with the confideilt acknowledgement that his prayer 
 has been heard. Ver. 10 — 12. 
 
 [for the precentor, (a psalm) of daviDj The servant of 
 
 JEHOVAH.] 
 
 1 The wicked hath an oracle of transgression in his heart. 
 
 There is no fear of God before his eyes. 
 
 2 For he flattereth him in his eyes, 
 
 To find out his iniquity, (and) to hate (it). 
 
 3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit ; 
 
 He hath left off to behave wisely (and) to do godd. 
 
 4 Wickedness doth he devise upon his bed. 
 
 He setteth himself in a way that is not good, 
 He abhorreth not evil. 
 
 1. Oracle. Properly a divine of his hands, the evil schemes which 
 
 Utterance here used in the opposite he devises and executes (ver. 4). 
 
 sense of the source and fountain of As there is a chmax in the whole 
 
 evil in a wicked man's heart, inspiring description of the evil man, so espe- 
 
 and prompting him to do evil. cially is there a progress from bad to 
 
 In his heart. This is in accord- worse in ver. 3, 4. (i) He hath left, 
 
 ance with the reading of the Septua- off to do good ; (2) on his bed he 
 
 gint. The Hebrew text has " in my meiitaUs evil (iv. 4, Micah ii. l) ; (3) 
 
 heart : '' if we keep this, we must ex- he resolutely sets himself to do evil ; 
 
 plain, " that which transgression says (4) his very conscience is hardened, so 
 
 to the wielded is in my lieart," i.e. is that he does evil without repugnance 
 
 the subject of my thoughts. or misgiving. 
 
 Ver. I — 4 describe generally the 4. He abhorreth not, i.e. isfar 
 
 character of the ungodly: first, the enough from rejecting any instrument, 
 
 sin of his heart (ver. i, 2) ; tlien the however sinful, for attaining his 
 
 sin of his hps (ver. 3) ; lastly, the sin purposes. 
 
PSALM XXX Vl. 
 
 137 
 
 5 O Jehovah, as the heavens is Thy loving-kindness, 
 
 Thy faithfulness (reacheth) unto the clouds : 
 
 6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God, 
 
 Thy judgements are a great deep. 
 
 Man and beast dost Thou preserve, O Jehovah. 
 
 7 How precious is Thy loving-kindness, O God ! 
 
 And the children of men in the shadow of Thy 
 wings find refuge : 
 
 5 — g. Thd transitioh from this de- 
 scription of the wicked to the praise 
 of God's goodness and faithfulness, is 
 certainly very abrupt ; yet may we 
 not account for the abruptness here by 
 a very natural recoil of feelnig? No 
 good nian can ever delight to pourtray 
 the workings of a heart alienated froin 
 God. Tf the evil he sees around him 
 force him for a time to trace it to its 
 hidden source, or watch its outward 
 development, with the tfaore joy 
 and thankfulness will he find refuge 
 (see ver. 7) from its hideous shadow 
 in the faithfulness and goodness of 
 God. 
 
 5. He seems as if words failed hirti 
 when he would speak of the loving- 
 kindness, the faithfulness, the right- 
 eousness of God. (See the satne 
 attributes associated in like manner iti 
 xxxiii, 4) S» ^"*^ there also in connec- 
 tion with God's providential care of 
 His creatures.) The universe itself is 
 too httle to set forth their greatness. 
 (Comp. ciii. 11 ; Eph. iii. i!i.) 
 
 6. Mountains of God (so "ce- 
 dars of Gnd,"lxxx. 10) . . . AGREAt 
 DEEP (cf. Rom. xi. 33) : — the mightiest 
 things in creation, whether in the 
 height above, or in the depth beneath. 
 Not, however, are "mountains of 
 God" to be considered as only= 
 "highcFt mountains :" but, like "the 
 trees of Jehovah, " civ. 16, which are 
 explained as " ihe ce 'ars of Leiianon 
 which he hath planted" (comp. Numb. 
 
 xxLv. 6) ; and "the river of God," Ixv. 
 9, i.e, the rain which He sends down 
 upon earth ; so here the mountains 
 are spoken of as the work of His hand. 
 So too in Gen. xiii. 10, " the garden 
 of Jehovah " is not merely " a very 
 faiir garden," but the garden of Eden 
 which He Himself planted. 
 
 7. The remembirance of God's good- 
 ness, faithfulness, and righteousness, 
 and His care both of man and beast, 
 makes the singer to burst forth in holy 
 ecstasy : "How precious is Thylbving- 
 kindness, O God ! " This precious' 
 ness (coinp. cxxxix. 17) is then furthef 
 enlarged upon. God is viewed as 
 the gi^acious Host who provides for 
 all who come to His house and His 
 table. See the same figure, xxiii. 5, 
 xxxiv. 9. Here the loving-kindness of 
 God is the great subject of praise, be- 
 cause in this His faithfulness (in ful- 
 filling His promises) and His right- 
 eousness manifested in rewarding the 
 righteous (as well as in the punish- 
 ment of the wicked) maybe included. 
 In the same way when St. John says, 
 " God is Love," it is because Love 
 in fact embraces and implies all 
 other of the Divine attributes. 
 
 Children of men, purposely the 
 most general expression that could be 
 employed, every one who feels his 
 weakness and his sinfulness, and with 
 that feeling seeks refuge in God. 
 
 Shadow of Thy wings. See on 
 
'38 
 
 PSALM XXXVII. 
 
 8 They are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy 
 
 house, 
 And Thou makest them drink of the brook of Thy 
 pleasures ; 
 
 9 For with Thee is the Fountain of Life : 
 
 In Thy Light do we see Light. 
 O continue Thy loving-kindness to them that know 
 Thee, 
 
 And Thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 
 Let not the foot of pride come against me, 
 
 Neither let the hand of the wicked drive me away. 
 There have the workers of iniquity fallen ; 
 
 They are thrust down, and are not able to rise. 
 
 lO 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 8. Fatness ok Thy house, i.e. 
 generally the rich provision made 
 (comp. Job. xxxvi. i6, and Ps. xxiii. 5). 
 
 9. These are some of the most 
 wonderful words in the Old Testament. 
 Their fulness of meaning no commen- 
 tary can ever exhaust. They are, in 
 fact, the kernel and the anticipation 
 of much of the profoundest teaching 
 of St. John. 
 
 The Fountain of Life, i.e. of 
 all life, both animal and spiritual. 
 God only has Life in Himself, Life 
 underived, as our Lord says, John 
 V. 26. 
 
 In Thy Light. Comp. Dan. ii. 
 22, "The light dwelleth with Him ;" 
 and 1 John i. 5 — 7. Out of God all 
 
 is darkness. The creature is darkness, 
 our own hearts and consciences are 
 darkness, our duties are darkness, our 
 deeds are darkness (John iii. 19, 20) ; 
 the very order and constitution of the 
 world, yea the word of God itself, 
 except as seen in His Light, is 
 darkness. 
 
 10. Loving-kindness. For the 
 third time he dwells on this attribute 
 of God, and again associates it, as in 
 ver. 5, 6, with the " righteousness" oi 
 God. 
 
 12. There, pointing as it were to 
 the scene. The field on which God's 
 righteous judgement has been mani- 
 fested in the overthrow of the wicked 
 is before his eyes. 
 
 PSALM XXXVII. 
 
 A Psalm wherein the righteousness of God's providence is vindi 
 cated in His administration of the vv'orld. The Psalmist's own hear 
 had no doubt at one time been shaken by the apparent su<;cesses anc 
 
PSALM XXX VII. 1 3 9 
 
 triumphs of the ungodly, for it is a common temptation to distrust 
 God when we see " the ungodly in great prosperity." The advico 
 which the Psalmist gives is " to wait," " to trust in the Lord," to look 
 at the end, and to observe how even in this life God manifests His 
 righteousness, in rewarding the godly and punishing the wicked. 
 This sentiment is repeated in various forms, and with much beauty of 
 expression. The Psalm has something of a proverbial character 
 about it, owing no doubt in some measure to the fact that the writer 
 chose to fetter himself by an acrostical arrangement : for this is one 
 of the Alphabeti'cal Psalms, like Psalms xxv. and xxxiv. 
 
 [a (psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 (Aleph) I Fret not thyself because of the evil-doers, 
 
 Be not envious because of the workers of 
 iniquity. 
 2 For they shall soon be cut down Hke the grass, 
 And as the green herb shall they wither. 
 (Beth) 3 Trust thou in Jehovah, and do good ; 
 Dwell in the land, and enjoy safety. 
 4 Delight thyself also in Jehovah, 
 
 And He shall give thee the petitions of thy 
 heart. 
 (Gimel) 5 Cast -thy way on Jehovah, 
 
 And trust in Him ; and He shall bring (it) 
 to pass. 
 6 Yea He will bring forth thy righteousness as 
 the light. 
 And thy judgement as the noon-day. *^' 
 (Daleth) 7 Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him ; 
 
 I. The whole verse is to be found 4. Delight thyself in Him, 
 
 almost word for word, Prov. xxiv. 19 ; and so thou wilt choose and love that 
 
 the latter part of it also, Prov. iii. 31, which He chooses and loves ; therefore 
 
 xxiii. 17, xxiv. i. Comp. Ixxiii. 3. He will give thee thy heart's desires. 
 
 3. Trust in God is the true antidote 5. Cast thy way. Cf. xxii. 8. 
 
 for the fretfulness and envy which are i Peter, v. 7. 
 
 before forbidden. 6. He will bring forth, sc. like 
 
 Dwell in the land — for the the sun going forth in the morning, 
 
 promises to Israel, and Israel's glory Cf. Jer. li. 10. 
 
 as a nation, were bound up with the 7. Re-st in Jehovah, lit. Be silent, 
 
 Land. be still for Him ; a word expressive 
 
140 PSALM XXXVII. 
 
 Fret not thyself because of him wh( 
 
 prospereth in his way, 
 Because of the man who bringeth wickec 
 devices to pass. 
 (He) 8 Cease from anger, and let go wrath ; 
 Fret not thyself, only to do evil. 
 g For evil doers shall be cut off; 
 
 But those that hope for Jehovah, they shall 
 inherit the land. 
 (Vau) lo Yea, yet but a little while and the wicked is not, 
 And thou shalt diligently consider his place 
 and he is no more. 
 1 1 But the meek shall inherit the land. 
 
 And shall delight themselves in the abund- 
 ance of peace. 
 (Zain) 12 The wicked deviseth evil against the righteous, 
 And gnasheth upon him with his teeth, 
 13 The Lord laugheth at him, 
 
 For He hath seen that his day is coming. 
 (Cheth) 14 The wicked have drawn the sword, 
 They have also bent their bow, 
 That they may cast down the afflicted and the 
 poor. 
 That they may slay them that afe upi'ight itl 
 the way. 
 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart) 
 And their boWs shall be broken. 
 
 of that calm resignation which leaves ihwafd impulses, but oft Hiiil whs 
 
 itself absolutely in the hands of God. worketh in us both to will and to do 
 
 Perhaps the Prayer-book Vers, comes of His own good pleasure. 
 
 nearer, "Hold thee still m the Lord." 8. Only to di> evil, i.e. tiothing 
 
 This hushed, bowed temper of spirit but evil can conie of it. 
 
 best befits us. Here is the best cure II. The meek. See on ix. 12. 
 
 for dissatisfaction with the present The land. Cf. xxv. 13, and Matt. 
 
 and for anxiety about the future, that v. 5, where, however, the range is 
 
 we leave both in the hands of God. wider, "shall inherit M^^o'^A." 
 
 Here is our highest wisdom even for 13. Laugheth, cf ii. 4. 
 
 the life of our spirits, that we stay His DAY, cf. cxxxvii. 7; Jobxviil 
 
 ourselves not upon outward acts or 20 ; Jer. 1. 27, 31 ; Obad. 12. 
 
PSALM XXX VIL 141 
 
 (Teth) 16 Better is a little that the righteous man hath, 
 Than the riches of many wicked. 
 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, 
 But Jehovah upholdeth the righteous. 
 (Yod) 18 Jehovah knoweth the days of the perfect, 
 And their inheritance shall be for ever. 
 19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, 
 
 And in the days of famine they shall be 
 satisfied. 
 (Kaph) 20 But the wicked shall perish. 
 
 And the enemies of Jehovah be as the glor}^ 
 of the pastures : 
 They consume — in smoke they consume away. 
 (Lamed) 2 1 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again ; 
 But the righteous is bountiful, and giveth. 
 22 For they that are blessed of Him shall inherit 
 the land ; 
 And they that are cursed of Him shall be 
 cut off. 
 (Mem) 23 From Jehovah (is it) that a man's steps are 
 established, 
 So that He hath pleasure in his way. 
 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast 
 down. 
 For Jehovah upholdeth his hand. 
 (Nun) 25 I have been young, and (now) am old ; 
 
 Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, 
 
 16. See a similar sentiment, Prov. he is compelled to borrow, and can- 
 
 XV. 16. not pay ; whereas the righteous hath 
 
 18. Knoweth the days, i.e. even abundance not only for his own 
 
 watcheth over, careth for, lovingly wants, but for the wants of others. It 
 
 orders all that befalls them. is the promise, Deut. xv. 6, xxviii. 12, 
 
 20. The glory of the pastures, 44, turned into a proverb. 
 
 or MEADOWS {tiot of the flocks, cf. 23. He that would walk securely, 
 
 Ixv. 13, Is. XXX. 23), i,e. the grass and and so as to please the Lord, must 
 
 flowers. trust in the Lord to guide him. (Cf. 
 
 21, 22. The blessing and the curse Prov. xx. 24, and xvi. 9.) The sen- 
 of God, as seen in the different lots of timent is put in a general form, but 
 the righteous and the wicked. The the righteous man, as he appears in 
 wicked, through God's curse resting the Psalm, is meant, as is clear from 
 on him, is reduced to poverty, so that the next ver3e. 
 
142 
 
 PSALM XXXVII. 
 
 
 26 
 
 (Samech) 27 
 
 
 28 
 
 (Ayin) 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 (Pe) 
 
 30 
 
 
 31 
 
 (Tsaddi) 
 
 32 
 
 
 33 
 
 (Koph) 
 
 34 
 
 (Resh) 
 
 35 
 
 Nor his seed begging bread. 
 
 All the day long is he gracious and lendeth, 
 
 And his seed is blessed. 
 Depart from evil, and do good ; 
 
 And (so shalt thou) dwell for evermore. 
 For Jehovah loveth judgement, 
 
 And forsaketh not His beloved. 
 For ever t-hey are preserved ; 
 
 But the seed of the wicked is cut off. 
 The righteous shall inherit the land, 
 
 And dwell therein for ever. 
 The mouth of the righteous talketh of 
 wisdom, 
 
 And his tongue speaketh judgement. 
 The Law of his God is in his heart : 
 
 None of his steps shall slide. 
 The wicked lieth in wait for the righteous, 
 
 And seeketh (occasion) to slay him. 
 Jehovah will not leave him in his hand, 
 
 Nor condemn him when he is judged. 
 Wait on Jehovah, and keep His way, 
 So shall He exalt thee to. inherit the land : 
 
 When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt 
 see (it). 
 I have seen a wicked man full of violence, 
 
 And spreading himself like a green tree in 
 its native soil ; 
 
 26. See above, ver. 21, and comp. 
 cxii. 5. The promise inDeut., quoted 
 on ver. 21. no doubt it was which 
 made this characteristic of lending so 
 prominent. 
 
 31. The Law within is the guiding 
 principle which directs his steps. 
 
 33. Men may condemn, but God 
 acquits. Here, as in i Cor. iv. 3, the 
 righteous judgement of the Great Judge 
 is opposed to the a.va.Kpiv^'iv of human 
 judgement (TJmepo). 
 
 34. Wait on Jehovah. Keep 
 
 thine eye fixed on Him (cf. d^Oj3\e7re(V, 
 Heb. xii. 2) despite the prosperity of 
 the wielded, and the persecutions 
 wliich thou sufferest. 
 
 Thou shalt see it, or thou shalt 
 look upon it with satisfaction. 
 
 35. A TREE IN ITS NATIVE SOIL, 
 (one word in Hebrew), or " a tree 
 growing in its native soil," one that 
 has never been transplanted or dis- 
 turbed, that has therefore struck its 
 roots deep, and shot out with luxuriant 
 strength. 
 
PSALM XXX VIII. 1 43 
 
 36 Yet he passed away, and lo he was not : 
 
 Yea, when I sought him he could not be 
 found. 
 (Shin) 37 Observe the perfect (man), see the upright, 
 That the man of peace-hath a posterity ; 
 38 But the transgressors are destroyed together ; 
 The posterity of the wicked is cut off. 
 (Tau) 39 The salvation of the righteous is of Jehovah, 
 Their fortress in the time of trouble. 
 40 Yea, Jehovah helpeth them and rescueth them, 
 He rescueth them from the wicked, and 
 
 saveth them. 
 Because they have found refuge in Him. 
 
 37. Hath a posterity. As op- the word may mean " the future," the 
 
 posed to the wicked in the next clause end that yet awaits him. 
 
 whose posterity is cut off. Then it 40. He deliveretk them : because 
 
 would be="Thou shalt see thy they *-«j-^ in Him. The whole lesson 
 
 children's children and peace upon of the Psalm lies in these words. 
 Israel." Or instead of "posterity" 
 
 PSALM XXXVHI. 
 
 This Psalm tells the story of a bitter suffering. The suffering is 
 
 both in body and in mind. The body is wasted by a cruel and 
 
 ,' loathsome disease, and the mind is full of anguish, arising partly 
 
 ' from a deep sense of sin, and partly from the fear of relentless and 
 
 •* now rejoicing enemies. Body and mind, in such circumstances, act 
 
 and react upon one another. Mental anguish impairs the strength of 
 
 the body ; and bodily suffering and weakness make us less able to 
 
 face with steady and resolute courage the horrors which crowd upon 
 
 the mind. 
 
 Deserted even of his friends, consumed by a burning fever, with 
 beating heart and failing eyes, the sufferer describes himself as 
 " benumbed and sore broken " with his misery. Suffering seems here 
 to have reached its height. But out of the very midst of the furnace 
 
144 PSALM XXXVIII. 
 
 the suft'erer can say, " Lord, before Thee is all my desire — in Thee, 
 Jehovah, have I hoped ; " can cry with all the earnestness of a faith 
 purified by affliction, " Leave me not, be not far from me, O Lord, 
 my Salvation." 
 
 The Psalm may be said, to consist of three principal parts, each of 
 which opens with an address to God. Each of these contains an 
 appeal to God's mercy — each rests it on different grounds. 
 
 The first of these is based on the greatness of the suffering. Ver, 
 1—8. 
 
 The second on the patience of the sufferer, as well as on the 
 suffering. Ver. 9 — 14. 
 
 The third on ttiey^rtir lest, through his fate, wicked men should have 
 an occasion of triumph. Ver. 15 — 22. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID. TO BRING TO REMEMBRANCE.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, in Thy wrath rebuke me not, 
 
 Neither in Thy hot displeasure chasten me. 
 
 2 For Thine arrows stick fast in me. 
 
 And Thy hand presseth me sore. 
 
 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine 
 
 indignation ; 
 There is no health in my bones because of my sin. 
 
 4 For mine iniquities have passed over my head ; 
 
 Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me, 
 
 i. See note on vi. i, where very but as an appeal to the mercy of God, 
 
 nearly the same words occur. Most that he tells all his woe. There is a 
 
 of what has been said on that Psalm yet further appeal in the recognition 
 
 is applicable here, and need not be of God's hand. " 7%j«f arrows. . . 
 
 repeated. 77!^ hand." It is this conviction that 
 
 2. There is here, and in what fol- God has inflicted the chastisement, 
 
 lows, as Calvin observes, a taci t appeal that leads him to seek the remedy from 
 
 to God's promises. Why is it that the same source, 
 
 the saint of God thus sets forth all his 3. No soundness. Comp. Is. i. 6. 
 
 sufiferrngs, but because he knows that 4. Have passed. A metaphor, 
 
 his God will not lay on him a punish- as often, from waves passing over 
 
 ment heavier than he can bear ? It is the head. Comp. xviii. 16, Ixix. 2, 
 
 not therefore merely as a complaint, ij. 
 
PSALM XXX VIII. 1 4 5 
 
 5 My wounds stink, they are corrupt, 
 
 Because of my foolishness, 
 
 6 I am bent, I am bowed down sore. 
 
 All the day long have I gone mourning ; 
 
 7 For my loins are full of burning, 
 
 And there is no soundness in my flesh. 
 
 8 I am benumbed and sore broken, 
 
 I have roared by reason of the unrest of my heart. 
 
 9 Lord, before Thee is all my desire. 
 
 And my sighing is not hid from Thee. 
 
 10 My heart pulseth quickly, my strength hath failed me. 
 
 And the light of mine eyes — even that is gone from me. 
 
 1 1 My friends and my companions stand aloof from my 
 
 punishment. 
 And my kinsmen have stood afar off. 
 
 1 2 They also lay snares, that seek after my soul. 
 
 And they that strive to do me evil speak mischievous 
 things. 
 And meditate deceits all the day long. 
 
 5. Foolishness. His sin, as seen verses, without this verse, to see how 
 now in its true light, showing itself to much blacker the night of suffering 
 be folly, for all sin is self-destruction. grows. 
 
 This confession of his sin is, in fact, ii. Up to this point he has spoken 
 
 at the same time, a confession of the of his suffering as arising from his own 
 
 justice of his punishment. sta te both of body and mind. He de- 
 
 6. I AM BENT, properly, as writhing scribes now its aggravation from the 
 with pain, as Is. xxi. 3. conduct of others ; first of friends who 
 
 Mourning. See on xxxv. 14. deserted him, and next of enemies 
 
 8. I AM benumbed, lit. I have be- who plotted against him. And this 
 come deadly cold, cold as a corpse ; aggravation of his misery is again a 
 possibly with reference to the burning fresh argument with God, — an argu- 
 inflammation in the previous verse ; as ment borrowed, as Calvin reminds us, 
 marking the alternations in the fever- from the word of God, and one in- 
 fit, tended for our use. 
 
 9. The one gleam of comfort and My punishment, lit. "my blow," 
 refreshment in his misery ; the one a word always used of punishment as 
 bright ray which lights up the dark- inflicted by God. 
 
 ness; the one thought which sustains 12. Mischievous THINGS, lit. "a 
 
 him, that he may "unburden himself yawning gulf of destnictior., " as 
 
 of all his griefs in the bosom of God." though they would swallow me up. 
 We have but to read the first fourteen 
 
145 
 
 PSALM XXXVII L 
 
 13 But as for me, as a deaf man, I could not hear, 
 
 And (I was) as a dumb man that openeth not his 
 mouth. 
 
 14 Yea, I became as a man that heareth not, 
 
 And (as one) in whose mouth are no replies. 
 
 15 For in Thee, O Jehovah, have I hoped ; 
 
 Thou wilt answer (for me), O Lord my God. 
 
 16 For I said, — Lest they rejoice over me, 
 
 (Lest) when my foot is moved, they magnify them- 
 selves against me ; 
 
 17 For as for me, I am ready to halt. 
 
 And my smart is ever before me ; 
 
 18 For I must confess my iniquity, 
 
 I must be sorry for my sin ; 
 
 19 And mine enemies are vigorous (and) strong. 
 
 And they are many that hate me without cause ; 
 
 20 And requiting evil for good, 
 
 They withstand me for my following that which is 
 good. 
 
 14. No REPLIES, not here "re- 
 proofs" or "rebukes," but answers, 
 in self-vindication, to the calumnies 
 of his enemies, 
 
 Calvin sees two reasons for this 
 comparison of himself to a dumb 
 man : first, that he was compelled by 
 the injustice of his enemies to be 
 silent ; they would not suffer him to 
 speak : and next, his owa patient 
 submission to the will of God. But 
 I think the last only is prominent 
 here. It was not that David could 
 not, but that he would not, answer. 
 Comp. Rom. xii. 19. In this, he was 
 the type of a greater Sutferer in a 
 more august agony (Is. liii. 7 ; I Pet. 
 ii. 23). 
 
 16. I SAID, i.e. within myself. 
 
 Lest, with the usual ellipsis of 
 some verb, such as "I fear," but 
 again addressed as an argument to 
 God ; the argument being, that His 
 honour is concerned in upholding 
 
 His servant, lest the wicked should 
 triumph. Therefore, too, he leaves it 
 to God to answer, lest by answering 
 himself he should give occasion to the 
 enemy to blaspheme. 
 
 18. For. The conjunction recurs 
 here for the fourth time in verses 
 15 — 18. In ver. 15 David made no 
 reply to his enemies, for God, he fell, 
 would answer for him. Ver. 16, he 
 would have God to answer for him, 
 for he feared his enemies might have 
 occasion to triumph " when his foot is 
 moved." In ver. 17 theyS;- gives a 
 further reason why this is probable— 
 viz. his own weakness ; and in ver. 
 18, with a.\\oi\\er for, he confesses his 
 sin, which is the reason of his weak- 
 ness, whilst his enemies are' " vigorous 
 and strong." 
 
 21,22. With this conclusion of the 
 Psalm compare the similar expres- 
 sions, xxii. II, 19, XXXV. 22, xl. 13) 
 &c. 
 
PSALM XXXIX. 147 
 
 21 Leave me not, O Jehovah ; 
 
 My God, be not far from me. 
 
 22 Haste (Thee) to help me, 
 
 O Lord, my Salvation. 
 
 PSALM XXXIX. 
 
 " The most beautiful," says Ewald, " of all elegies in the Psalter." 
 It is the sorrowful complaint of a heart, not yet subdued to a perfect 
 resignation, but jealous with a godly jealousy, lest it should bring 
 dishonour upon its God, and longing for light from Heaven to scatter 
 its doubts. The holy singer had long pent up his feelings ; and 
 though busy thoughts were stirring within him, he would not give 
 them utterance. He could not bare his bosom to the rude gaze of 
 an unsympathizing world. And he feared lest, while telling his per- 
 plexities, some word might drop from his lips which would give the 
 wicked an occasion to speak evil against his God. (This feeling is 
 one the expression of which we have already had in the preceding 
 Psalm.) And when at last, unable to repress his strong emotion, he 
 speaks, it is to God and not to man. It is as one who feels how 
 hopeless the problem of life is, except as seen in the light of God. It 
 is with the deep conviction of personal frailty (ver. 6) and sinfulness 
 (ver. 9), as well as of the frailty and sinfulness of all men. It is with 
 the touching sadness of one who cannot be comforted. And yet the 
 weeping eye is raised to heaven, and amidst all his grief and per- 
 plexity, notwithstanding all that is so dark and cheerless in the world, 
 pilgrim and stranger as he is, the Psalmist can still say, " My hope is 
 in Thee" (ver. 7). 
 
 The Psalm consists properly of two parts : — 
 
 I. A preface descriptive of the circumstances under which it was 
 composed. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 II. The expression of the Psalmist's feelings at the time. Ver. 
 4-13. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PSALM XXXIX. 
 
 This latter part, however, may be again subdivided into three 
 sections, the first two of which close with the refrain and the Selah. 
 
 (0 A prayer to be taught rightly concerning the vanity of life. 
 Ver. 4, s. 
 
 (2) A confession of that vanity— a cleaving to God, and an ac- 
 knowledgement that sin deserves chastisement. Ver. 6— 11. 
 
 (3) A further prayer that God would hear him, and that because he 
 is but a stranger, and his days few upon earth. Ver. 12, 13. 
 
 [for the precentor, for JEDUTHUN.* a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 I SAID, Let me take heed to my ways, 
 
 That I sin not with my tongue : 
 Let me keep a bridle on my mouth, 
 While the wicked is yet before me. 
 
 2 I remained dumb in silence ; 
 
 I held my peace, and had no comfort, 
 And my sorrow was stirred. 
 
 3 My heart was hot within me ; 
 While I was musing a fire burned : 
 
 (Then) spake I with my tongue : 
 
 4 Make me know, Jehovah, mine end, 
 
 And the measure of my days what it is. 
 That I may know how frail I am. 
 
 I. I SAID, i.e. I thought, I formed the end of the Psalm. The introduc- 
 
 this resolution. (Comp. xxxviii. 16.) tion is the record of that inward 
 
 And the resolution was not to sin struggle out of which the Psalm itself 
 
 with his tongue. He feared lest his arose. And the words that he does 
 
 complaint should be misinterpreted as speak are directed to God in prayer 
 
 murmuring against God. But the sad- for teaching, not to man in com- 
 
 ness of his heart prevails against his plaints. 
 
 resolution ; the more the feeling was But in what relation does the prayer 
 
 checked, the more hotly it burned which follows stand to the perplexity 
 
 (comp. Jer. xx. 9), till at last it could which gave birth to it ? Why does he 
 
 be restrained no longer. ask, make me KNOW mine end? 
 
 4. The words that he "spake with The train of thought seems to be this : 
 
 his tongue" are those which follow to " Make me rightly to know and esti-> 
 
 * See also inscriptions to Ps. Ixii. and Ixxvii. ; the name of one of David's three choir- 
 masters. He is probably the same nerson as Ethan, i Chron, xv. 19. See General Introd. p. 8. 
 
PSALM XXXIX. 
 
 149 
 
 5 Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand-breadths, 
 And my life-time is as nothing before Thee : 
 
 Surely every man, at his best estate, is nothing but a 
 breath. [Selah.] 
 
 6 Surely in a shadow doth a man walk to and fro ; 
 Surely for a breath are they disquieted : 
 
 He heapeth up (treasures), and knoweth not who shall 
 gather them. 
 
 7 And now what have I waited for, O Lord .' 
 
 My hope is in Thee. 
 
 8 From all my transgressions deliver me ; 
 
 Make me not a reproach of the fool. 
 
 9 I was dumb, — I could not open my mouth ; 
 
 Because Thou didst it. 
 
 mate the shortness and u'hcertainty of 
 human Hfe, that so, instead of suffer- 
 ing myself to be perplexed with all 
 that I see around me, I may cast my- 
 self the more entirely upon Thee," as 
 indeed follows, "And now. Lord, 
 what wait I for ? " The prayer in xc. 
 12 is somewhat similar, though it 
 stands there in a different connection. 
 
 5. At HIS BEST ESTATE, lit. "stand- 
 ing fast," i.e. however firmly esta- 
 bhshed he may be. 
 
 A BREATH. Such is the literal 
 meaning of the word. In xc. 9, a 
 different word is used ; see note there. 
 
 6. With this verse, as is evident 
 both from the refrain at the end of the 
 last, and the Selah, a new strophe or 
 division of the Psalm begins. 
 
 Are they disquieted, lit. " do 
 they make a noise, or commotion." 
 All the fret and stir, all the eager 
 clamour and rivalry of men, as they 
 elbow and jostle one another to ob- 
 tain wealth and rank, and the enjoy- 
 ments of Ufe> are but a breath. ( Comp. 
 James iv. 13, 14, where, after describ- 
 ing the busy scene, the buyers and 
 sellers thronging the market-place, 
 and full of the thought of their trade 
 and of their speculations for the year, 
 
 he solemnly asks, ' ' For what is your 
 life ? For it is a vapour (oTyni's), which 
 appeareth for a little while, and then 
 vanisheth away.") 
 
 7. And now : turning away, as il 
 were, with a sense of relief from the 
 sad contemplation of man's fleeting, 
 transitory life, to fix the eye of his 
 heart on Him who abideth ever. We 
 seem almost to hear the deep sigh 
 with which the words are uttered. It 
 is remarkable that even here it is on 
 God Himself, not on a life to come, 
 that his hope sustains itself 
 
 8. From ALL MY transgressions. 
 He now strikes at once at the root of all 
 his sufferings and all his perplexities. 
 
 Make me not a reproach — 
 said, it would seem, with reference 
 to the temptation which had assailed 
 him before, to give utterance to his 
 disquietude even in the presence of 
 the ungodly. But the connection is 
 difficult, and it may only mean, "Do 
 not so chasten me that fools may 
 rejoice at my suffering." 
 
 Q. I was dumb. This clearly 
 refers to the resolve and conduct 
 described in ver. I,- 2. It does not 
 introduce the expression of a fresh 
 resolve, as many have supposed. 
 
5° 
 
 PSALM XXXIX. 
 
 Turn aside from me Thy stroke. 
 
 I am (even) consumed by the blow of Thine hand. 
 
 1 (When) with rebukes for iniquity Thou hast chastened 
 
 a man, 
 Thou makest his beauty melt away like the moth. 
 Surely every man (is but) a breath. [Selah.] 
 
 2 Hear m.y prayer, O Jehovah, 
 And give ear unto my cry ; 
 
 At my weeping be not silent : 
 For I am a stranger with Thee, 
 A sojourner, as all my fathers (were). 
 
 3 Look away from me, that I may recover strength, 
 
 Before I go hence, and be no more. 
 
 I COULD NOT OPEN ; or simply as 
 subordinate clause to the preceding, 
 without opening my mouth." He 
 us reiterates before God bow careful 
 : had been to avoid giving offence 
 7 any hasty word ; alleges the reason 
 r this, because he felt that his sufFer- 
 g was God's doing ; and urges it as 
 motive with God in the entreaty 
 hich follows. 
 
 10. Blow, lit. "attaclc;" the 
 ord only occurs here — paralledwith 
 'ROKF, which precedes. For this 
 St word, see on xxxviii. II. The 
 on. "I" expressed is emphatic, and 
 iplies a tacit contrast between his 
 vn weakness and the power of God, 
 hose hand was laid upon him. 
 
 11. This verse contains a further 
 ;ason why God should take away 
 ;is stroke. 
 
 Like the moth, i.e. his beauty 
 frail and perishing. The P.B.V. 
 like the moth fretting a garment," 
 )mpares the action of God in de- 
 roying man's beauty to the action of 
 le moth upon the garment, but the 
 )mparison does not seem so. appro- 
 riate. See also I Pet. ii. II and 
 en. xxiii. 4- 
 
 12. The Psalm closes with a still 
 lore earnest appeal to God's pitying 
 
 mercy, based still on that very transi- 
 toriness of life which is the burden ot 
 the whole. 
 
 A STRANGER ... A SOJOURNER, 
 Comp. the confession of David, 
 I Chron. xxix. 15, " For we are 
 strangers with Thee, and sojourn- 
 ers, as all our fathers (were). As a 
 shadow are our days upon the earth, 
 and there is no hope (here)." A 
 STRANGER, " One who is but a passing 
 guest:" A SOJOURNER, "one who 
 settles for a time in a country, but is 
 not a native of it." 
 
 As ALL MY FATHERS : as the patri- 
 archs had been in the laird which was 
 theirs only by promise. He himself, 
 he felt, and all men were on the earth 
 what Abraham was in the land of 
 promise : he could not call one foot 
 of it his own. Comp. also Lev. 
 XXV. 23. 
 
 1 3. The last verse is borrowed from 
 Job vii. 19, X. 20, 21. See also Job 
 vii. 8, ix. 25, xiv. 5, 
 
 Look away, i.e. keep not Thine 
 eye fixed upon me in anger : it an- 
 swers to "Turn aside Thy stroke," 
 in ver. 10. 
 
 That 1 may recover strength, 
 prop, applied to the countenance, 
 "That I may become cheerful." 
 
PSALM XL. 151 
 
 PSALM XL. 
 
 This Psalm consists of two parts. The first (ver. i — 10) tells the 
 story of God's mercies in a former time of trouble ; the second (ver. 
 II — 17) is a cry for the like help and deliverance, now that fresh 
 calamities are come. The writer, looking back to the past, tells how 
 he had been brought into the deepest abyss of misery ; he had been 
 like one falling into a pit, or sinking in a deep morass, where there 
 was no resting-place for his feet ; but God of His great mercy had heard 
 him when he cried, had delivered him from his trouble, had set his 
 feet on a rock, ^nd established his goings (ver. 2) : and not only had 
 He done this, but He had also given him a heart and a tongue to 
 praise Him (ver. 3). Then follows the expression of his feelings at 
 the time. Here, after speaking of the blessedness of trusting in 
 Jehovah, and of the wonders of His goodness, not only to the singer 
 himself, but to all Israel (comp. Ixxtii. i), he further declares what had 
 been the great lesson of his affliction, — how he had learnt that there 
 was abetter sacrifice than that of bulls and goats, even the sacrifice 
 of an obedient will ; and how, moreover, he had found that this truth 
 which God had opened his ears to receive (ver. 6) was in most perfect 
 harmony with the truth taught in the written law (ver. 7) ; and lastly, 
 how, constrained by a sense of gratitude, he had published to "the 
 great congregation " the loving-kindness and truth of the Lord. 
 
 In the second division of the Psalm, he pleads the past, and his 
 o^Ti conduct in the past, as a ground for renewed mercies being 
 vouchsafed to him, now that he is in fresh trouble, bowed down by the 
 burden of his sins (ver. 9), and cruelly pursued by his enemies (ver. 
 14). Thrice he prays earnestly for himself (ver. II, 13, 17) ; the last 
 time, faith having vanquished in the struggle, there mingles with the 
 cry for help the touching expression of confidence in God : " But as 
 for me, miserable and helpless though I be, the Lord thinketh upon 
 mc." With these personal petitions are joined others against the 
 mahce of his enemies (14, 15), and intercession on behalf of all those 
 who, like himself, love and seek Jehovah. 
 
 This second part, or rather the portion of it from ver. 13 to ver. 17. 
 
152 PSALM XL. 
 
 appears again, in an independent form, as Psalm Ixx. But it is, I 
 think, almost certain, that the Psalm in its present form is the original, 
 and the latter verses were subsequently detached and slightly altered, 
 in order to form a distinct poem. 
 
 Whether David was the author of this Psalm is a question which 
 we can hardly hope now to decide. There are expressions in it not 
 unlike those which we find in Psalms unquestionably his : but we 
 cannot pretend to point to any circumstances in his life to which it 
 undoubtedly refers. 
 
 With regard to the predictive character cf the Psalm, and the 
 reference of one portion of it in the Epistle to the Hebrews to Christ 
 something will be found on that subject in the note, on ver. 6. The 
 great principle of a typical predictiveness in all Jewish history is the 
 most satisfactory principle of interpretation in this and in all similar 
 
 [for The precentor, a psalm of david.] 
 
 1 Truly I had waited upon Jehovah, 
 
 And He indined unto me, and heard my cry ; 
 
 2 And He brought me up out of a pit of destruction. 
 
 Out of a miry swamp. 
 And set my feet upon a rock, 
 (And) made my footsteps firm ; 
 
 I, 2. lie tells liow Jehovah had would often have a damp and miry 
 
 rewarded his trust by answering his bottom. 
 
 prayer, and how He had rescued him Miry swamp, lit. "mire of mud," 
 
 from imminent destruction. an almost pleonastic expression ; 
 
 1. Truly I had waited, or "I comp. Ixix. 2. The expressions are 
 did indeed wait," as implying there clearly metaphorical. This I men- 
 was such a thing as an opposite tion, because some expositors have 
 temper of mind, and that this had maintained that the Psalm was 
 been carefully avoided. written by Jeremiah, and that the 
 
 2. The deliverance. The meta- reference is to the literal pit, or dim- 
 phor of the pit may be used either geon, into which he was cast. If so, 
 with reference 'to a pitfall for wild where, aslis Maurer, was the rock on 
 beasts, as vii. 15, or a dungeon, such which his feet were placed? 
 
 as that into which Jeremiah was Made my footsteps firm, i.i. 
 
 cast J Jer. xxxviii. 6), and which did not merely bring me into a place 
 
PSALM XL. 
 
 »S3 
 
 3 And He put a new song in my mouth, 
 
 (Even) praise unto our God : — 
 Many shall see (it) and fear, 
 
 And shall put their trust in Jehovah : — 
 
 4 Blessed is the man who hath made Jehovah his trust, 
 
 And hath not turned to the proud, and to such as go 
 aside falsely. 
 
 5 Thou hast greatly multiplied, O Jehovah my God, 
 
 Thy wonders and Thy thoughts towards us : — 
 They cannot be set in order unto Thee : — 
 Would 1 declare them, and speak of them. 
 They are more than I can tell. 
 
 6 In sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight, 
 — Mine ears hast Thou opened, — 
 
 Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou 
 required. 
 
 not 
 
 of safety and there leave me, but pro- 
 vided for my future security. 
 
 3. A NEW SONG, i.e. one cele- 
 brating with all the power of a recent 
 gratitude a new and signal act of de- 
 liverance. The old forms, the cus- 
 tomary expressions, tlie well-known 
 hymns were not enough. See on 
 xxxiii. 3. 
 
 4. His trust, i.e. object of trust, 
 as Ixv. 5, Is. XX. 5, and elsewhere. 
 This obviously is a continuation of 
 the last clause of the preceding verse. 
 "Many shall tnist in Jehovah, and 
 blessed are they who do so." The 
 next verse again gives the reason for 
 this trust, the manifold and marvel- 
 lous deliverances wliich God h.id 
 ever vouchsafed to Israel. 
 
 Hath kot turned, a word used 
 especially of apostasy from the true 
 God to idols, as Lev. xix. 4, Deut. 
 xxix. 18, Ilos. iii. I, and often. 
 
 5. Thou hast gkeatly multi- 
 plied, &c. : lit. "many hast Thou 
 made Thy wonders," &c. 
 
 6. He proceeds now to declare the 
 
 great truth which God had taught 
 him, and whicli it would seem he 
 had learnt in his affliction, that God 
 desires the sacrifice of the will rather 
 than the sacrifice of slain beasts. 
 
 We may perhaps paraphrase ver. 
 5 — 8 as follows : My heart is full to 
 overflowing with tlie thouglit of Thy 
 goodness. How can I express, how 
 can I acknowledge it ? Once I 
 should have thought sacrifices and 
 offerings a proper .ind sufficient ac- 
 knowledgement. Now I feel how 
 inadequate these are ; for Thou hast 
 taught me the truth ; my deaf un- 
 willing ears didst Thou open, that 
 I might understand that a willing 
 heart was the best offering I could 
 remler. Then, being thus taught 
 of Thee, I said, Lo, I come, jiresent- 
 ing myself before Thee, not with 
 a dead and formal service, but with 
 myself as a living saciifice. The 
 truth here inculcated is stated fully 
 in I's. 1., and is often insisted on 
 by the Prophets. Conip. I Sam. xv. 
 22 ; Ps. li. 16, Ixix. 30, 31 ; Is. i. 
 
154 
 
 PSALM XL. 
 
 7 Then said I, " Lo, I come ; 
 
 — In the roll of the Book it is prescribed to me,— 
 
 8 To do Thy pleasure, O my God, I delight, 
 
 Yea, Thy Law is in my inmost heart." 
 
 9 I have published righteousness in (the) great congre- 
 
 gation : 
 Lo, my lips I would not refrain, 
 O Jehovah, THOU knowest. 
 
 II ; Jcf. vii. 21, &c. ; Hos. vi. 6; 
 Mic. vi. 6—8. 
 
 Sacrifice, properly of slain 
 beasts. Offering, i.e. the blood- 
 less offering of fine flour, &c. Etjrkt- 
 OFFERING, the object of which was 
 to obtain the Divine favour ; whereas 
 that of the sin-offering was to 
 n-'ake propitiation. But the four are 
 here mentioned only with a view to 
 express in the largest way all manner 
 of sacrifices. 
 
 Mine ears hast Thou opened, 
 lit. " Ears hast thou dug (or pierced) 
 for me;" "given me open ears." 
 There is certainly no allusion to 
 the custom of nailing the ear of the 
 slave to the door-post as a symbol 
 of perpetual servitude and obedience 
 (Exod. xxi. 6). For this a different 
 Hebrew word is used ; only one ear 
 Was thus pierced ; and the allusion 
 would be far-fetched and quite out of 
 place here. 
 
 7. Lo, I come, i.e. to appear be- 
 fore Tliee ; a phrase used to indi- 
 cate the coming of an inferior into 
 the presence of a superior, or of a 
 slave before his master, Numb. xxii. 
 38, 2 Sam. xix. 20 : as in the simi- 
 lar expression "behold here I am," 
 — generally expressive of willing- 
 ness. 
 
 In the roll of the Book. 
 Another parenthetical clause, cor- 
 responding to the former, " Mine 
 ears hast Thou opened," that which 
 Thou hast taught me is that which 
 
 is contained in Thy law ; I find 
 there the same truth which Thy 
 Spirit hath already written on my 
 heart. The Book is the Book of 
 the Law of Moses. The roll shows 
 that it was written upon parchment;- 
 this is a word common enough in 
 Jer. and Ezek. 
 
 It is prescribed to me, or laid 
 upon me as a duty, exactly in the 
 same sense as the words occur 2 
 Kings xxii. 13, where on the dis- 
 covery of the Book of the Law, it 
 is said, " Great is the wrath of Je- 
 hovah — because our fathers heark- 
 ened not to the words of this Booki 
 to do according to all which is pre- 
 scribed to us ; " not as in E. V., 
 " v/hich is written coiicerning, us," 
 just as in this passage it has "it 
 is written of me," in this follow ; 
 ing the interpretation of the LXX.,^ 
 ■Tfepl kix.oZ ; an interpretation which 
 is adopted in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 8. To do Thy pleasure (or will). 
 These words would seem naturally to 
 depend on the foregoing, "Lo, I 
 come," and so they are twice cited in 
 Heb. x. 7, 9. Instead of that, how- 
 ever, a new verb is supplied, "I de- 
 light." 
 
 In my inmost heart (lit. " in the 
 midst of my bowels," as the seat of 
 the affections), written there on its 
 " fleshy tables," and not merely in 
 the Book. Comp. xxxvii. 31, Deut, 
 vi. 6, and see the prophetic promises 
 
PSALM XZ. 
 
 155 
 
 10 I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; 
 
 Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation have I uttered : 
 I have not concealed Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth 
 From (the) great congregation. 
 
 11 Thou, O Jehovah, wilt not refrain Thy tender com- 
 
 passions from me ; 
 Let Thy loving-kiiidness and Thy truth always 
 defend me. 
 
 12 For evils have come about me without number ; 
 
 My iniquities have taken hold upon me that I 
 cannot see : 
 They are more than the hairs of my head. 
 And my heart hath failed me. 
 
 13 Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me ; 
 
 O Jehovah, to help me, make haste 1 
 
 that so it should be with the whole 
 iiation (Jer. xxxi. 33, Is. li. 7). 
 
 9. But not obedience only, but 
 thanksgiving also shall form a part 
 |cf his grateful acknowledgement of 
 God's goodness ; he will both do the 
 will and speak the praises of Jehovah, 
 This last, too, is better than sacrifice, 
 1. 14, 15, 23 
 
 On the enumeration of the various at- 
 tributes of God, see above, xxxvi. 5 — 7. 
 
 0, 10. I HAVE PUBLISHED ... I 
 WOULD NOT REFRAIN ... I HAVE 
 NOT HID ... 1 HAVE UTT)i:RED . . . 
 I HAVE NOT CONCEALED : words are 
 heaped upon words to express the 
 eager forwardness of a heart burning 
 to show forth its gratitude. No 
 elaborate description could so well 
 have given us the likeness of one 
 whose " life was a thanksgiving." 
 
 II. The Psalmist turns to earnest 
 entreaty. Apparently, therefore, he 
 has recalled a former deliverance, in 
 order to comfort himself therewith in 
 his present sorrow, and pleads his 
 conduct in the past as a ground for 
 fresh mercies. Thou wilt not re- 
 frain, with evident reference to the 
 
 I WOULD not refrain, ver. 9. 
 Again, Thy loving-kindness and 
 Thy truth, with like reference to 
 the preceding verse, "As I have 
 not concealed them from others, so 
 let them ever defend me." 
 
 12. My iniquities. This verse 
 is quite decisive as to the question 
 which has been raised respecting the 
 Messianic interpretation of the Psalm. 
 It is quite impossil^le to refer such 
 words as these to Christ ; and when 
 expositors choose to say that " my 
 iniquities" mean " the iniquities laid 
 upon me,'' they are doing violence 
 most unjustifiably to the plain words 
 of the text. Such interpreters can 
 hardly find fault with' Romanists for 
 adding to the Word of God. 
 
 13. From this verse to the end ap- 
 pears in a separate form as Ps. Ixx., 
 where consult the notes for the varia- 
 tions, &c. 
 
 Be pleased (omitted in Ps. Ixx.), 
 here used apparently with reference to 
 *' 'Y\\y pleasure^' ver. 8. 
 
 The whole of the conclusion of this 
 Psalm reminds us of the conclusion of 
 
 Ps. XXXV. 
 
iS6 PSALM XLI. 
 
 14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together 
 
 That seek after my life to destroy it ! 
 Let them be turned backward, and put to shame, 
 That wish me evil ! 
 
 1 5 Let them be struck dumb as a reward of their shame, 
 
 That say to me. Aha, Aha ! 
 
 16 Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee 1 
 Let such as love Thy salvation say alway, 
 
 " Jehovah be magnified," 
 
 17 And as for me, — afflicted and poor, the Lord thinketl. 
 
 upon me. 
 Thou art my Help and my Deliverer : 
 O my God, make no long tarrying. 
 
 rSALM XLI. 
 
 This Psalm seems to have been written in a season of recovery 
 from sickness, and under a deep sense of the hypocrisy and ingrati- 
 tude of false friends, who came to the Psalmist pretending to condole 
 with him in his sickness, whilst in reality they hated him in their 
 hearts and wished for his death. In this respect the Psalm has some 
 resemblance to Ps. xxxviii., except that there the sufferer is deserted 
 by his friends, and has to complain of their coldness rather than of 
 their treachery. 
 
 The Psalm opens with a eulogy pronounced on those who know how 
 to feel for and show compassion to the miserable and the suffering. 
 This is evidently designed in order to condemn more forcibly, by 
 way of contrast, the opposite line of conduct which is the subject of 
 complaint. The Psalmist's own experience of the baseness and 
 hoUowness of the men who surrounded him made him only appreciate 
 more sensibly the great value of faithful sympathizing friends in a 
 season of affliction. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three parts : — 
 
 I. A blessing on those who with watchful love and compassion are 
 
PSALM XLI. IJ7 
 
 ever ready to succour the needy and the distressed. Such men shall 
 themselves experience the favour and loving-kindness of Jehovah 
 when they are laid on a bed of sickness. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 II. The Psalmist himself had found no sympathy. On the con- 
 trary, although (as I think is implied in the former part of the Psalm) 
 he had ever been ready to sympathize with others, he found, now 
 that he was himself in pain and suffering, the utter hollowness of 
 those who in brighter hours had called themselves his friends. (And 
 one is reminded of the complaint of Job, chaps, xxix. xxx.) Even the 
 most trusted counsellor, the most honoured guest, had treacherously 
 turned against him. Ver. 4—9. 
 
 III. A prayer that, being restored to health, of God's mercy, he 
 may be permitted to chastise his enemies ; and an expression of his 
 confidence that God will not suffer his enemies to triumph, but will, 
 as in times past, so now also deliver him. Ver. 10 — 13. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of david.] 
 
 1 Blessed is he that considereth the miserable : 
 
 In the day of evil Jehovah will deliver him. 
 
 2 Jehovah will keep him, and save him alive ; 
 
 He shall be blessed in the land : 
 
 And give Thou not him over to the will of his enemies : 
 
 3 Jehovah will support him on the couch of languishing : 
 
 All his bed hast Thou changed in his sickness. 
 
 1. The miserable, or "the suf- shall still survive, and that not with- 
 fering : " the word is one of wide out manifest tokens of God's grace : 
 meaning, and is used of the poor (as — words which by no means exclude 
 in Exod. xxx. 15), of the lean and the hope of a better life." The ex- 
 weak in body (as Gen. xli. 19), of the pression is, of course, due to that 
 sick in mind (as 2 Sam. xiii. 2). prominence given to temporal reward 
 
 2. In the land. On this Calvin which was characteristic of the Old 
 remarks : " It might indeed appear Testament. 
 
 absurd, that he promises himself a 3. His BED. The word above ren- 
 
 nappy life in the world, for our con- dered "couch" means more strictly 
 
 dition were hard indeed if a better the bed itself, whereas this denotes 
 
 lot did not await us elsewhere : but rather the keeping the bed in sick- 
 
 because many had despaired of his ness. 
 
 recovery, he expressly says that he Thou hast changed. Many 
 
158 
 
 PSALM XLT. 
 
 4 As for me— I said : " Jehovah, be gracious unto me; 
 
 Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee." 
 
 5 Mine enemies say evil of me : 
 
 " When will he die and his name have perished ? " 
 
 6 And if he come to see (me), he speaketh vanity, 
 
 His heart gathereth iniquity to itself ; 
 (When) he goeth abroad, he speaketh (it). 
 
 7 Together against me do all that hate me whisper ; 
 
 Against me do they devise evil for me : 
 
 8 " Some shocking thing (they say) is poured out upon him. 
 
 And (now) that he lieth, he shall rise up no more." 
 
 9 Yea mine own familiar friend, whom I trusted, 
 
 Who did eat of my bread, 
 
 Hath lifted up his heel against me. 
 
 understand this of the refreshment 
 and ease given to the sufferer by the 
 smootliing of the pillow, &c. ; and 
 hence the E. V., 5' Thou wilt make 
 all his bed," &c. But the meaning 
 rather is : " It is no longer a sick bed, 
 for Thou hast healed him of his 
 disease." 
 
 4 — 9. The hypocrisy of his pre- 
 tended friends described. Their con- 
 duct is precisely the opposite of that 
 which he has just before commended. 
 They come to visit him indeed, but 
 not from motives of compassion, but 
 with the secret hope that they may 
 see him perish. 
 
 4. As FOR ME — I SAID. The 
 pronoun is emphatic, and marks both 
 the transition from the previous eulogy 
 of the compassionate man to the 
 Poet's personal feelings and desires, 
 and also the opposition to the 
 "enemies " in the next verse. 
 
 For I HAVE SINNED, i.e. It is 
 my sin which has brought this suf- 
 fering on me : but obs. the prayer is, 
 "Pardon my sin," not "take away 
 my suffering." These words abso- 
 lutely forbid an application of the 
 whole Psalm to Christ. 
 
 8. Some shocking thing, lit. 
 *' thing of Belial," which may mean 
 either physical or moral evil. See. 
 xviii. 4. But the latter significatioa| 
 is the more common. Here the same 
 form of expression occurs as in ci. 3, 
 Deut. XV. 9, in both of which pas- 
 sages moral evil is meant. Perhaps, 
 however, " a thing of Belial " is a 
 punishment which coems for evil- 
 doing. 
 
 9. Who did eat of my bread. 
 The Oriental feeling as to the sacred- 
 ness of liospitality would stamp such 
 conduct with peculiar blackness. If 
 David wrote tlie Psalm, the ingrati- ■ 
 tude was the worse, because of the,. 
 honour conferred on one who was ad* ^ 
 mitted to the king's table (2 Sam, 
 ix. 10 ff. ; I Kings xviii. 19). 
 
 Part of this verse is quoted by ouir 
 Lord in John xiii. 18 as applicable to 
 the treacherous conduct of Judas, but 
 with the significant omission of the 
 words "mine own familiar friend 
 •whom I trusted ; " for our Lord knew 
 what was in Judas from the begin- 
 ning, and therefore did not trust him. 
 Nothing can be more decisive both 
 as to the way in which quotations 
 
PSALM XLI. 
 
 159 
 
 10 But Thou, O Jehovah, be gracious unto me, 
 And raise me up, that I may requite them : 
 
 i\ By this I know that Thou hast dehght in me, 
 That mine enemy doth not shout over me, 
 
 12 And as for me, — in mine integrity Thou hast upheld me. 
 
 And settest me before Thy face for ever. 
 
 13 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, 
 
 From everlasting and to everlasting, 
 Amen, and Amen ! 
 
 were made, and also as to the proper 
 ' interpretation of the apparently strong 
 phrase Iva. ^ ypai^i) irXtjpaQ^, with 
 which the quotation is introduced. 
 First, it is plain that particular ex- 
 p-essions in a Psalm may be appli- 
 cable to events which befel our Lord, 
 whilst the whole Psalm is not in like 
 manner applicable. And next it is 
 evident that "the Scripture is ful- 
 filled " not merely when a prediction 
 receives its accomplishment, but when 
 words descriptive of certain circum- 
 'stances in the life of the O. T. saints 
 find a still fuller and truer realization 
 —one not foreseen by the Psalmist, 
 yet one no less designed of God — in 
 the circumstances of our Lord's 
 
 earthly life. This will be peculiarly 
 the case here if Ahithophel be meant ; 
 for as David was in much of his life a 
 type of Christ, so the treachery of his 
 trusted counsellor would be a fore- 
 shadowing of the treachery of Judas. 
 
 10. That I may requite them. 
 Such a wish cannot be reconciled 
 with our better Christian conscience. 
 We find a purer and nobler tone of 
 feeling in vii. 4. 
 
 13 This last verse is no part of the 
 original Psalm, but is merely a later 
 doxology appended here when the 
 Psalms were collected in order to 
 mark the conclusion of the F'irst 
 Book. Similar doxologies occur at the 
 end of the three following Books. 
 
THE PSALMS, 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 PSALMS XLII.— LXXIl. 
 
 M 
 
The Second Book of the Psalms differs from the First by one dis-- 
 tinguishing characteristic, — its use of the Divine name. In the First 
 God is spoken of and addressed as Jehovah ; in the Second, as 
 Elohim, the latter name being that v\fhich, in our Version, is rendered 
 " God." According to the computation given by Delitzsch, Jehovah 
 occurs 272 times in the First Book, and Elohim but 15 times ; whereas 
 in the Second, Elohim occurs 164 times, and Jehovah only 30 times. 
 There is also another observable difference betvi'een the two Books, 
 In the First, all those Psalms which have any inscription at all, 
 are expressly assigned to David as their author ; whereas in the 
 Second, we find a whole series attributed to some of the Levitical 
 singers. These inscriptions will be found noticed in their place, 
 With regard to the meaning of the Divine Names, and their peculiar 
 and characteristic occurrence, it may suffice to refer to the articles 
 Jehovah, Genesis, and Pentateuch in Smith's Dictionary of the 
 Bible. 
 
PSALM XLII. 
 
 This Psalm, though its date and authorship are uncertain, leaves 
 us in no doubt as to the locality in which it was written. The Sacred 
 Poet was in the land beyond the Jordan, near the mountain ridges of 
 Hermon (ver. 6), in that land %vhich was "emphatically the land of 
 exile — the refuge of exiles." Many expositors are of opinion that the 
 Psalm was written by David on the occasion of his flight from his 
 son Absalom, when, as we read 2 Sam. xvii. 24, &c., having crossed 
 the fords of the Jordan near Jericho, he ascended the eastern height 
 and took refuge at Mahanaim. It was at this spot, consecrated in 
 patriarchal times by the vision of the Hosts of God to Jacob, — this 
 "sanctuary of the trans-Jordanic region," — that the exiled monarch 
 stationed himself, whilst the people that were with him spread them- 
 selves in the neighbouring wilderness. The words of the Psalm are 
 supposed to describe his sense of the greatness of his loss as debarred 
 from all access to the sanctuary of God in Zion. But there are 
 expressions in it which are clearly not applicable to David's circum- 
 stances at the time. David was not amongst enemies who would 
 mock him for his trust in Jehovah (xlii. 3, 10) ; on the contrary, he 
 was surrounded by friends who were full of devotedness to his person, 
 and who possessed the same religious faith with himself (2 Sam. xvii. 
 27 — 29). David could hardly say at such a time, " I go mourning all 
 the day because of the oppression of the enemy" (xlii. 9, xliii. 2), 
 however bitterly he might feel the unnatural conduct of his son and 
 the alienation of his subjects. 
 
 It has been conjectured that the Psalm is the lamentation of 
 an exile, or one who was being carried into captivity ; but the general 
 tone of the Psalm is rather that of one looking for a speedy restoration 
 to his native land. 
 
 There are good grounds for concluding that this Psalm and the 
 next constituted originally but one Poem, though there can be no 
 doubt that each Psalm is complete in itself; and it is conceivable 
 that, though originally existing as one Poem, the present arrangement 
 might have been adopted, the better to suit the purposes either of 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 PSALM XLII. 
 
 personal or liturgical use. The language of the 43d Psalm, it is 
 obvious, might be used by those who were not in the circumstances 
 indicated in the 42d. We have traces of a similar separation in 
 Ps. xl., the latter part of which appears in a detached form as Ps. Ixx., 
 and probably for the same reason. 
 
 Assuming, then, that the two Psalms are in fact one, the whole 
 may be divided into three strophes, each consisting of five verses, 
 and each closing with the same words. 
 
 I. The first expresses the longing of the soul after God and the 
 service of His sanctuary (xlii. 1,2); the deep sorrow occasioned by 
 the taunts of scoffing enemies (ver. 3) ; the attempt to find comfort in 
 the recollection of past occasions of spiritual blessing (ver. 4). The 
 expostulation at the close forms a refrain with which the two following 
 strophes are also concluded (ver. 5). 
 
 II. The sense of distance from God and of the loss of His 
 Presence oppresses the soul yet more (ver. 6, 7) ; yet still there is the 
 effort to rise out of this despondency (ver. 8) ; but again the enemies 
 who reproach and who triumph occupy the foreground, while God 
 seems to have forgotten, and his help to be far off (ver. 9). The 
 expostulatory refrain recurs as at the end of the first strophe. 
 
 III. The tone here is throughout more hopeful. First there is the 
 appeal to God's justice (xliii. i) ; then the ground of that appeal (ver. 
 2 a) ; then a further expostulation (ver 1 b, c) ; then the prayer for 
 Divine light and truth (ver. 3) ; and lastly, the confident hope of 
 restoration to the land, and of being permitted again to join in the 
 services of the sanctuary (ver. 4). The refrain as before (ver. 5). 
 
 [to the precentor, a maskil, of the sons of korah.] 
 
 I. I As a hart which panteth after the water-brooks. 
 So panteth my soul after Thee, O God. 
 2 My soul is athirst for God, for the Living God ; 
 
 2. My soul is athirst. The in the human heart best described as 
 
 figure occurs again Ixiii. i. Comp. the cravings of infinitude. We are 
 
 xxxvi. 8, 9, and Is, xli. 17, I v. i; so made that nothing which has limits 
 
 Jer. ii. 13. Of this thirst Robertson satisfies. . . . Man's destiny is to be 
 
 beautifully says : ' ' There is a desire not dissatisfied, but for ever unsatis- 
 
PSALM XLII. 
 
 i6s 
 
 When shall I come, and appear before God ? 
 
 3 My tears have been my food day and night, 
 
 While they say unto me continually, "Where is thy 
 God?" 
 
 4 These things would I remember, and pour out my soul 
 
 in me, — 
 How I passed with the (festal) throng. 
 How I led them in procession to the house of God, 
 With the voice of loud song and thanksgiving, — a multi- 
 tude keeping holy-day. 
 
 fied. . . . Infinite goodness — a beauty 
 beyond what eye hath seen or heart 
 imagined, a justice whicli shall have 
 no flaw and a righteousness which 
 shall have no blemish — to crave lor 
 that, is to be ' athirst for God.' " {Ser- 
 mons, 2d Series, pp. 120, 121.) 
 
 The Living God. Comp. Ixxxiv. 
 2, not only as opposed to the gods 
 of the heathen, but in opposition to 
 all dead abstractions, all vague head- 
 notions, as the Living Person, the 
 Source and Fountain of all life, loving 
 and loved in return, as xxxvi. 9. 
 
 WhEK shall I. . . APPEAR BE- 
 FORE God ? This is a phrase com- 
 monly used of going to the sanctuary 
 or temple : Ixxxiv. 7 ; Ex. xxiii. 1 7 ; 
 Deut. xvi. 16, xxxi. il ; I Sam, i. 22. 
 But the longing for the sanctuary was 
 because God's Presence was there 
 peculiarly manifested. 
 
 3. My TEARS HAVE BEEN, &C., i.e. 
 they have been my daily portion, like 
 my daily meal. See Ixxx. 5* eii. 9, 
 and Job iii. 24. 
 
 Where is thy God ? The bitter- 
 est of all taunts, see Ixxix. 10, cxv. 
 2 ; Joel ii. 17 ; Micah vii. 10, and 
 corap. xxii. 8, with Matt, xxvii. 43. 
 "This is ever the way in rehgious 
 perplexity : the unsympathizing world 
 taunts or misunderstands. In spiritual 
 grief they ask. Why is he not like 
 others ? In bereavements they call 
 your deep sorrow unbelief. In mis- 
 
 fortune they comfort you, like Job's 
 friends, by calling it a visitation . . . 
 they call you an infidel, though your 
 soul be crying after God. Specially 
 in that dark and awful hour, ' Eloi, 
 Eloi,' He called on God . they said 
 ' Let be, let us see whether Elias will 
 come to save Him.' " — Robertson. 
 
 4. These things would I re- 
 MtMBER, or, ''let me remember," 
 "fain would I remember." In such 
 a recollection there would be mingled 
 feelings of bitterness and consolation. 
 No doubt the thought of those happy 
 days in which he had travelled with 
 the festal caravan to the holy city, 
 would make him feel more intensely 
 his present lonelinesss, but it would 
 also be a kind of solace in his sorrow, 
 or, as Delitzsch terms it, "a bitter- 
 sweet remembrance." 
 
 These things, viz. what follows, 
 how I once led the rejoicing multi- ' 
 tudes in procession to the house of 
 God. 
 
 With the voice of loud song, 
 &c. These pilgrim caravans went up 
 to Jerusalem with all the accompani- 
 ments of music and song (see 2 Sam. 
 vi. 5, and the beautiful Mttle collection 
 of pilgrim songs preserved in Psalms 
 cxx. — cxxxiv., which were inspired 
 by and adapted to such occasions). 
 
 A multitude (a word occurring 
 with the same reference, 2 Sam. vi. 
 19), in apposition with the throng 
 
i66 
 
 FSALAI XLII. 
 
 5 Why art thou bowed down, O my soul, 
 And (why) art thou disquieted in me ? 
 Hope in God ; for I shall yet give Him thanks, 
 (Who is) the health of my countenance and my God. 
 
 II. 6 [My God,] my soul is bowed down in me : 
 
 mentioned above : keeping holy- 
 day, or festival ; tlie vford is used 
 absolutely, as in Exod. xxiii. 14. 
 
 5. Why art thou bowed down ? 
 lit. "Whybowest thou thyself down?" 
 " David here presents himself to us,'' 
 says Calvin, "divided into two parts." 
 It .is the struggle between the spirit 
 of faith and the spirit of dejection, 
 between- the higher nature and the 
 lower, between the spirit and the flesh. 
 The true I speaks ; the faith wliich 
 is born of God rebukes the depression 
 and gloom of his natural infirmity. 
 
 DlSQTTiETED, a word used else- 
 where of the raging and roaring of 
 the sea (as xlvi. 3) : His soul is tossed 
 and agitated like an angry sea. 
 
 In God. " This hope was in God. 
 The mistake we make," says Robert- 
 son, "is to look for a source of com- 
 fort in ourselves : self-contemplation 
 instead of gazing upon God ; " and 
 then, after showing that it is impos- 
 sible to derive consolation from our 
 o^Yi. feelings, because they are so vari- 
 able, or from our own acts, because 
 in a low state no man can judge of 
 these aright, and warning us that 
 besides, whilst engaged in this self- 
 inspection, we lose time in remorse, 
 he continues, " When we gaze on 
 God, then first the chance of consola- 
 tion dawns. He is not affected by 
 our mutability : our changes do not 
 alter Him. When we are restless, He 
 remains serene and calm : when we 
 are low, selfish, mean, or dispirited. 
 He is still the unalterable I AM, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, 
 in whom is no variableness, neither 
 
 shadow of turning. What God is in 
 Himself, not what we may chance to 
 feel Him in this or that moment to 
 be, that is our hope. ' My soul, hope 
 thou IN God.' " 
 
 I SHALT, YET GIVE HiM THANKS, 
 i. e. I shall do again as I have done 
 before. Once I went . . . with the 
 voice of song and thanksgiving, ver. 
 4, . . . and again I shall give Him 
 thanks. 
 
 6. The first division of the Psalm 
 ends with the expostulation addressed 
 to the soul in its despondency, "Why 
 art thou cast down ? " and with an 
 effort to rise into a brighter region of 
 hope. But the gloom is too deep to 
 be so soon dispersed. Therefore this 
 second strophe opens with the com- 
 plaint, " My soul is bowed down." 
 
 Throughout this second portion of 
 the Psalm, the constant fluctuations, 
 the alternations ,of despondency and 
 hope, are very remarkable. " My 
 soul is cast down, — therefore will I 
 remember Thee. All thy waves and 
 Thy billows are gone over me, — ^Je- 
 hovah will command His loving-kind- 
 ness. I will pray unto God, — though 
 my prayer be nothing but the out- 
 pouring of my complaint. God is my 
 Rock, — even whilst I say, Why hast 
 Thou forgotten me ? " 
 
 My soul is bowed down. The 
 rendering of the LXX. here, ^ i)'i/X'i 
 fiou iTapix^Ti, and that in the previous 
 verse, of the words. Why art thou 
 cast down, &c., ri Trspi^vnos f'TJ >livx4 
 fiov, are both appropriated by our 
 Lord ; the former in John xii. 27, the 
 latter in Matt. xxvi. 38. 
 
PSALM X LIT. 
 
 167 
 
 Therefore do I remember Thee from the land of 
 
 Jordan. 
 And (from) the Hermons, from the mountain of Mizar. 
 
 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the voice of Thy cataracts ; 
 
 All Thy breakers and Thy billows have passed over me. 
 
 8 (Yet) in the day-time will Jehovah command His loving- 
 
 kindness ; 
 And in the night His song (shall be) with me, 
 A prayer unto the God of my life. 
 
 9 (So) will I say unto God my Rock, " Why hast Thou 
 
 forgotten me ? 
 
 Therefore do I remember, in 
 that strange land so much the more. 
 Comp. the prayer of Jonah, ii. 4. 
 
 The land of Jordan, i.e. the 
 country east of the Jordan, which had 
 this special designation. 
 
 The Hermons, or the peaks or 
 ridges of Hermon, tlie plural being 
 used either because of the two peak^. 
 uf the mountain (Wi-son, Latid of the 
 Bible^ ii. 161), or perhaps of tne whole 
 range of its snowy heights. 
 
 Mizar, apparently the name of 
 some one of the lesser peaks of the 
 ^ame mountain range, though the 
 particular peak cannot now be identi- 
 fied. The older translators generally 
 supposed the word to be used merely 
 as an appellative, in its literal sense, 
 of "littleness" or " contempt," as if 
 the Sacred Poet were anxious to ex- 
 press how little in his eyes seemed even 
 that giant range, with all its snows 
 and forests, compared with the true 
 greatness and dignity of the holy hill 
 of Zion. But the objection to such 
 an interpretation is, that the Hebrew 
 Poets do not seek to depreciate the 
 greater mountains of Hermon and 
 Bashan, in comparison with Zion, but 
 rather to raise Zion to a level, or to 
 exalt it above these. Hengstenberg 
 supposes that the name of "con- 
 tempt " designates not the particular 
 
 mountain, but the whole trans-Jor- 
 danic temtory. 
 
 7. Deep calleth unto deep. 
 One vast body of water seems to 
 summon another, as if on purpose to 
 swallow him up. 
 
 At THE VOICE OF, i.e. accompanied 
 by the sound of, &c. Thy cata- 
 racts, or waterfalls ; such seems to 
 be the meaning here. 
 
 Breakers . . . billows, The 
 first, from a Hebrew verb meaning 
 "shiver, break," with the same idea 
 in Hebrew as in English, of the 
 waves breaking on the shore ; the last 
 of the waves as rolling. 
 
 8. Will COMMAND. A bright ray 
 of hope which gleams upon the singer 
 in the midst of his present despond- 
 ency. God will command, — send, 
 that is, like a divine Iris, or heavenly 
 messenger. His loving-kindness. So 
 xliii. 3, "Send Thy Light and Thy 
 Truth," &c. 
 
 In the night, not to be empha- 
 sized, as if intended in opposition to 
 in the DAY, but day and night are 
 used poetically to describe the con- 
 tinuance of the action. 
 
 His SONG, comp. Job xxxv. 10. 
 
 9. (So) WILL I SAY. The resolve 
 which follows, based on this his hope 
 in the goodness of God. 
 
1 68 PSALM XLIII. 
 
 Why go I mourning because of the oppression 
 of the enemy ? " 
 
 10 As though they would break my bones, mine 
 
 enemies reproach me, 
 While they say unto me all day long, " Where 
 is thy God?" 
 
 11 Why art thou bowed down, O my soul. 
 
 And (why) art thou disquieted in me ? 
 Hope in God ; for I shall yet praise Him, 
 
 (Who is) the health of my countenance, and 
 my God. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 HI. I Judge me, O God, 
 
 And plead my cause against an ungodly nation ; 
 From the man of deceit and wrong rescue ine ! 
 
 2 For Thou art the God of my strength : 
 
 Why hast Thou cast me off. 
 Why go I to and fro mourning because of the 
 oppression of the enemy ; 
 
 3 O send forth Thy Light and Thy truth ; let them 
 
 lead me, 
 
 1. Judge mk, i.e. " show the jus- 3. The one object of his heart's 
 tice of itiy cause," "pronounce sen- desire is to be restored to the house 
 tence for me," as often elsewhere. of God. 
 
 Against, lit. "from." A brief form Light and truth (instead of the 
 
 of expression for the fuller, "Plead more usual Loving-kindness and 
 
 my cause, so as to deliver me from." Truth) — these shall be to him, so he 
 
 Ungodly, lit. " not godly," or hopes, as angels of God, who shall 
 
 perhaps "not-good," if the adjective lead him by the hand, till thsy bring 
 
 be taken here as in xii. i, in its active him to the holy mountain, to the 
 
 sense ; hence "cruel," "unmerciful." tabernacle, and to the altar, there to 
 
 2. The question is repeated from offer his thank-offerings. Or possibly 
 xiii. 9, but in a stronger form. Not there may be an allusion to the Urini 
 "Why hast Thou forgotten?" but and Thummim, as the symbol of 
 " Why hast Thou cast off ? " Light and Truth. See the article 
 
PSALM XLIV. 169 
 
 Let them bring me to Thy holy mountain, and to Thy 
 tabernacles. 
 So will I come unto the altar of God, 
 
 Unto God my exceeding joy : 
 Yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God. 
 5 Why art thou bowed down, O my soul. 
 And why art thou disquieted in me t 
 Hope in God ; for I shall yet praise Him, 
 (Who is) the health of my countenance, and my God. 
 
 "Urim and Thummim," by the Rev. denote the several parts of the build- 
 
 E. H. Plumptre, in Smith's Diet, of ing, but see on Ixxxiv. i. 
 
 the Bible. 4. God my exceeding joy, lit. 
 
 Tabernacles. The plural may "God the joy of my exultation." 
 
 PSALM XLIV. 
 
 There is scarcely any Psalm which seems at first sight to furnish 
 a more decided clue to the probable date of its composition than this, 
 and yet leaves us, after all, in so much uncertainty. The notes of 
 time are apparently three. 
 
 1. The conquest of Palestine was looked back upon as distant, 
 " the times of old." 
 
 2. The period was a period of great national distress ; the people 
 were hard pressed by enemies. 
 
 3. All this had come on them not as a judgment for national sin : 
 hence the age must have been one when the nation was holding fast 
 to the worship of Jehovah and eschewing idolatry. 
 
 This last circumstance is so peculiar, that we might expect it to 
 decide the question. 
 
 Now we know of no period of Jewish history previous to the Exile, 
 when the assertion would be true that the people had not forgotten 
 God nor " stretched out their hands to any strange god." Hence 
 
170 PSALM XLIV. 
 
 many interpreters refer the Psalm to the time of the Maccabees, and 
 the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Others again refer the 
 Psahn to the time immediately preceding the Exile ; others suppose it 
 to have been written in the time of David. 
 
 Calvin says with perfect truth that, if anything is clear, it is that 
 the Psalm was written by anyone rather than by David. The com- 
 plaints which it contains, he observes, are most suitable to the 
 wretched and calamitous time when the cruel tyranny of Antiochus 
 was exercised without check ; or we may extend it more widely, 
 inasmuch as almost any time after the return from the Exile was a 
 time of trouble and rebuke. 
 
 This Psalm, if not composed in the time of the Maccabees, was, we 
 are told, used daily in the liturgy of that time. Each day the Levites 
 ascended the pulpit and cried aloud, " Awake, why sleepest Thou, 
 Jehovah ? " These Levitical Muezzin were termed " wakers.'' John 
 Hyrcanus put an end to this custom, saying, " Doth God sleep ? Hath 
 not the Scripture said, ' The Keeper of Israel slumbereth not, nor 
 sleepeth.' It was only in reference to a time when Israel was in 
 trouble, and the nations in rest and prosperity, that it was said, 
 ' Awake, why sleepest thou, O Jehovah ? ' " 
 
 The Psalm consists of four principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The Sacred Poet calls to mind the great deeds which God had 
 wrought for His people in the days of old. God alone, he confesses, 
 had given them possession of the land of Canaan, and had driven out 
 their enemies before them. Remembering this, they had ever made 
 their boast in His Name, and would still continue to praise Him. 
 Ver. 1—8. 
 
 II. Most painful is the contrast of the present with the past. God 
 has forgotten His people. He has given them over into the hand of 
 enemies, who hate, and insult, and slay them. God goes, not forth 
 now with their armies, as He had done when He brought them into 
 Canaan : they are scattered among the heathen and sold for nought. 
 Ver. 9 — 16. 
 
 III. And yet this cannot be a chastisement for their transgress, 
 sions ; for they have not forgotten God, but, on the contrary, die the 
 death of martyrs for His truth. Ver. 17—22. 
 
 IV. Therefore he prays that God the Saviour of His people, and 
 the Giver of Victory, would again be fa\'0urable unto them, as of old, 
 and redeem them from their enemies. Ver. 23 — 26. 
 
PSALM XLIV. 
 
 171 
 
 [for the precentor, of the sons of korah. a maskil.] 
 
 I. I God, with our own ears we have heard, 
 Our fathers have told us, 
 A work Thou didst work in their days, 
 In the days of old. 
 
 2 Thou, with Thine own hand, didst dispossess (the) 
 
 nations. 
 And didst plant them in : 
 Thou didst afflict (the) peoples, 
 And cause them to spread abroad. 
 
 3 For not by their own sword gat they the land in 
 
 possession. 
 Neither did their own arm give them the victory ; 
 
 I. The Psalm opens with a glance 
 al the past history of the nation, and 
 the acknowledgement that from the 
 firet every victory which they had 
 won, had been won, not Ijy their own 
 strength, but by the immediate hand 
 of God. This was, it might be said, 
 the perpetual lesson of their history. 
 They did not rise upon their Egyptian 
 masters, but God bowed the heart of 
 the monarch and the people by His 
 signs and wonders, till they thrust 
 them out in haste. At the Red Sea 
 they did not turn to fight with the 
 chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh ; 
 they were but to stand stilly and see 
 the victory of Jehovah. When they 
 came to Canaan, their first exploit 
 was not a feat of arms ; for Jericho 
 fell by a miracle. The Roman army, 
 by the lake Regillus, attributed its 
 victory to the two mysterious horse- 
 men who, on their white horses, led 
 the charge. The Jewish host with a 
 better faith believed that in every 
 battle an invisible Captain led them, 
 and knew that, whenever they con- 
 quered their enemies, it was because 
 an invisible arm gave them thevictory. 
 
 Our fathers have told us, in 
 
 accordance with the duty so often 
 impressed upon the minds of the 
 people, to perpetuate from generation 
 to generation "the mighty acts" of 
 Jehovah, on their behalf. See Exod. 
 X. 2, and comp. xii. 26, &c., xiii. 8, 
 14 ; Deut. vi. 20 ; Judges vi. 13. 
 
 2. Didst plant thevi in . . . didst 
 
 CAUSE THEM TO SPREAD them. 
 
 ABROAD. In each case the pronoun 
 refers to "our fathers," who are 
 thus emphatically contrasted with 
 the "nations "and " peoples " who 
 were dispossessed. The figure is 
 taken from the planting and growth 
 of a vine, and is carried out in Ps. 
 Ixxx. It first occurs in Exod. xv. 17, 
 "Thou ^i\t plant them in the moun- 
 tain of Thine inheritance.'* Comp. 
 2 Sam. vii. 10, and Ps, Ixxx. 8. For 
 the other verb, "Thou didst spread 
 them abroad " (like the roots and 
 branches of a tree), comp. Ixxx. 1 1, 
 Jer. xvii. 8, Ezek. xvii. 6. 
 
 3. For, a more emphatic insisting 
 upon the truth that God's power 
 alone had achieved alL 
 
 Give them the victory. Such 
 seems here, and generally in this 
 Psalm, to be the force of the word 
 
172 PSALM XLIV. 
 
 But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the Light 
 
 of Thy countenance, 
 Because Thou hadst a favour unto them. 
 
 4 Thou, even Thou 1 hyself, art my King, O God : 
 
 Command the victories of Jacob. 
 
 5 Through Thee shall we push dov/n our adversaries ; 
 
 In Thy Name shall we tread them under that rise 
 up against us. 
 
 6 For not in my bow do I trust, 
 
 And my soul cannot give me the victory : 
 
 7 But Thou hast given us the victory over our adver- 
 
 saries, 
 And hast put to shame them that hate us. 
 
 8 In God have we made our boast all the day long, 
 
 And to Thy name will we for ever give thanks. 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 II. 9 But Thou hast cast (us) off, and put us to confusion, 
 And goest not forth with pur hosts. 
 lO Thou makest us to turn back from (the) adversary, 
 
 usually rendered "save," "help." the pastures of Bashan. See Deut. 
 
 See above, xxxiii. 17. xxxiii. 17. Comp. also Ps. Ixxv. 4, 
 
 The RIGHT HAND and the ARM, 10; Ezek. xxxiv. 21; Dan. viii. 4; 
 
 as emblems of power : the LIGHT of i Kings xxii. 1 1. 
 
 Thy countenan'CE, as the mani- 6. The same contrast here and ia 
 
 festation of God's grace ; the last the next verse as before in ver. 3. 
 
 further explained by, " because Thou 8. The past experience of God's 
 
 hadst a favour," &c. Comp. Deut. saving might is the reason that they 
 
 iv. 37. praise and thank Him. 
 
 4 — 8. Application of this acknow- 9 — 16. The painful contrast intlw 
 
 ledged truth to the present and to the experience of the present, to all the 
 
 future. warrant of the past, and all the hopes 
 
 4. My King, apparently with a which had sprung from the past, 
 personal application to himself, the 9. Goest not forth, «'.^. as leader 
 Poet individually claiming his own of the army (see Judg. iv. 14; 2 Sam. 
 place in the covenant between God v. 24), as once visibly with the pillar 
 and His people. of a cloud, and the pillar of fire be- 
 
 CoMMAND, in Thy royal majesty, fore the host in the desert. This 
 
 as an act of sovereign authority. verse occurs almost word for word in 
 
 5. Push down, an image taken Ps. Ix., with which, and Ixxxix., this 
 from horned cattle, and of common Psalm has many points of resem- 
 occurrence in the Old Testament, blance. 
 
 borrowed, in the first instance, it 10. For themselves. "Attheit 
 
 would seem, from the fat buffaloes in own will." 
 
PSALM XLIV. 
 
 173 
 
 And they which hate us have spoiled for themselves : 
 
 1 1 Thou makest us like sheep (appointed for) food, 
 
 And Thou hast scattered us among the nations. 
 
 12 Thou sellest Thy people for nought, 
 
 And hast not increased (Thy wealth) by their price. 
 
 13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, 
 
 A scorn and a derision to them that are round 
 about us. 
 
 14 Thou makest us a proverb among the nations, 
 
 A shaking of the head among the peoples. 
 
 1 5 AH the day is my confusion before me, 
 
 And shame hath covered my face, 
 
 16 Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and blas- 
 
 phemeth, 
 
 11. Hast scattered. This may 
 perhaps refer to the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, De Wette, however, who in 
 the first edition of his Commentary 
 thought this and the next verse most 
 applicable to the time of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes, quotes 2 Mace. v. 11 — 23, 
 where we are informed that Antiochus 
 Epiphanes, on his return from Egypt, 
 carried Jerusalem by storm, slew in 
 three days 40,000 Jews, and had as 
 many more sold as captives. Hence, 
 according to him, the allusion in the 
 following verse. 
 
 12. Thou sellest. This need 
 not be explained literally of an his- 
 torical fact (see note on last verse) ; 
 it is a figure expressive of God's giving 
 up His people into slavery to their 
 enemies, just as, on the other hand, 
 their deliverance is described as re- 
 demption, ransoming. 
 
 For nought, lit. "fornot-riches," 
 i.e. for that which is the very opposite 
 of riches, a mere nothing. 
 
 Hast not increased, i.e. hast 
 gained nothing. This verse is almost 
 an expostulation with God. An 
 earthly ruler might sell men like cattle 
 to increase his own wealth, but God 
 
 catmot be richer by such merchandise. 
 Calvin's remark, however, is of im- 
 portance, as bearing on all this attri- 
 buting of their calamities to God : 
 "We must observe, however, that 
 God is represented as the author of 
 these calamities, not by way of re- 
 proaching Him, but that the faithful 
 may with the more confidence seek 
 the remedy from the Hand which 
 hath smitten and wounded." 
 
 13. Them that are round 
 ABOUT us (lit. "our surroundings," 
 Ixxix. 4, comp. Ixxx. 6), i.e. nations 
 like the Philistines, Edomites, Moab- 
 ites, and Ammonites, the bitterest 
 enemies of the Jews, whose insulting 
 mockery in the day of their triumph 
 is often the subject of complaint in 
 the later Prophets. 
 
 14. A PROVERB {mashal) or " by- 
 word," often used of words uttered in 
 mockery. Comp. Ixix. 12 ; Is. xiv. 
 4, possibly also the verb, Numb. xxi. 
 27 ("they that speak in proverbs," 
 E. V. ), where the taunting Amorite 
 song is quoted. 
 
 Shaking of the head. See on 
 xxii. 7. 
 
 16. The AVENGER. See on viii. 2. 
 
174 PSALM XLIV. 
 
 Because of the enemy and the avenger. 
 
 III. 17 All this is come upon us, and (yet) we have not 
 forgotten Thee, 
 Neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant ; 
 
 18 Our heart is not turned back, 
 
 Neither has our step declined from Thy path, — 
 
 19 For Thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, 
 
 And covered us with the shadow of death : — ' 
 
 20 If we had forgotten the Name of our God, 
 
 And stretched out our hands to any strange god, 
 
 2 1 Would not God search this out .'' 
 
 For He knoweth the secrets of the heart. 
 
 22 But for thy sake are we slain all the day long; 
 
 We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. 
 
 17 — 22. A complaint that all these 
 calamities have come upon them 
 without any fault or demerit on the 
 part of the nation. Such a complaint 
 is doubly remarkable. First, because 
 as an assertion of national innocence 
 and faithfulness to God's covenant, it 
 is without parallel in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and next, because it wears the 
 air of a reproach cast upon the righte- 
 ousness of God, in permitting the 
 chastisement. 
 
 It is on the ground of this national 
 adherence to the covenant, that the 
 Psalmist expostulates with God, who 
 has given them over into the hand of 
 their enemies. Such chastisement 
 appears to him unmerited. There is 
 nothing apparently in the conduct of 
 the nation at large to call for it. God 
 seems pledged by His very faithful- 
 ness to take away the rod. Such an 
 expostulation, however, it is clear, 
 can only be defended as coming from 
 a saint under the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation. No nation, no Church 
 now could, in the eyes of any of its 
 members, be so pure, that chastise- 
 
 ment laid upon it would seem unde- 
 served or unneeded. The work of 
 the Spirit has given a deeper view of 
 sin, has shown how much hidden 
 corruption may consist with the open 
 profession of godliness, and has 
 taught us to confess national guilt in 
 every national pimishment. 
 
 18. The negative must be repeated 
 with the second clause of the verse 
 from the first. 
 
 19. Place of jackai-S, a dreary, 
 waste, howling wilderness, commonly 
 described by the Prophets as in- 
 habited by such creatures. See the 
 similar expression "a dwelling of 
 jackals," used with a like figurative 
 meaning, Jer. ix, 11, x. 22, &c. 
 
 20. Stretched odt our h.ands, 
 i.e. in prayer. Comp. cxliii. 6, and 
 see xxviii. 2. 
 
 21. This solemn appeal to God's 
 omniscience shows the honest con- 
 viction of the national integrity, while 
 it is an indication at the same time 
 that the sense of sin was compara- 
 tively superficial. 
 
 22 For Thy sake. This passage 
 
PSALM XLV. 175 
 
 IV. 23 Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord ? 
 Arise, cast not off for ever. 
 
 24 Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face .'' 
 
 Why forgettest Thou our affliction (and) our 
 oppression .? 
 
 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust ; 
 
 Our body cleaveth to the earth. 
 
 26 Do Thou arise, to be a help unto us ! 
 
 And redeem us, for Thy loving-kindness' sake. 
 
 is cited by St. Paul, Rom. viii. 36, out cause upon his people : the latter 
 
 apparently from the LXX. , in illus- can rejoice in persecutions also, and 
 
 tration of the fact, that the Church exclaim, " Nay in all these things we 
 
 of God has in all ages been a perse- are more than conquerors, through 
 
 cuted Church. But there is this re- Him that loved us. " 
 
 markable difference between the tone 25. Is bowed down, Cf. xlii. 5. 
 
 ol the Psalmist and the tone of the Cleaveth to the earth, alluding 
 
 Apostle. The former cannot under- to the custom of mourners sitting 
 
 stand the chastening, complains that down in dust and ashes. See xxxv. 
 
 God's heavy hand has been laid with- 14. 
 
 PSALM XLV. 
 
 This Psalm is evidently a Marriage-song composed for some day 
 of royal espousals. It celebrates the nuptials of a Jewish king with 
 a princess, apparently of foreign extraction : but in honour of what 
 particular king it was written, is matter of conjecture. The older 
 and perhaps the more common interpretation refers it to Solomon's 
 nuptials with the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 
 
 On the whole, the general character of the Psalm, describing as it 
 does the majesty and persuasive eloquence of the king, the splendour 
 of his appearance and of his palace, and the hopes which he raised 
 for the future, is such as to make it more justly applicable to Solomon 
 than to any other of the Jewish monarchs, so far as we are acquainted 
 with their fortunes. Nor is it necessarily an objection to this view, that 
 
176 PSALM XLV. 
 
 the monarch in the Psalm is spoken of as a warrior, whilst Solomon 
 was peculiarly " a man of peace." Something must be allowed to 
 poetry. An extended dominion would naturally be associated with 
 ideas of conquest. And with the recollection of the father's exploits 
 fresh in his mind, the Poet could not but regard warlike virtues as 
 essential to the glory of the son. Besides, Solomon himself does not 
 seem to have been deficient in military spirit. Either in person or by 
 his captains he carried his arms far to the east, and conquered the 
 district Hamath Zobah, lying near the Euphrates. He took pains to 
 strengthen the fortifications of various towns in his dominions, as 
 well as the " Millo " or citadel of Jerusalem, and added largely to the 
 army which he already possessed, by the introduction of a new kind 
 of force, consisting of chariots and horses, and amounting, we are 
 told, to 1,400 chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. Why should not the 
 Poet say, addressing such a king, " Gird thee with the sword upon thy 
 thigh — in thy majesty ride forth and prosper" ? 
 
 But " a greater than Solomon is here." Evident as it is that much 
 of the language of the Poem is only properly applicable to the cir- 
 cumstances of the royal nuptials which occasioned it, it is no less 
 evident that much of it greatly transcends them. The outward glory 
 of Solomon was but a type and foreshadowing of a better glory to 
 be revealed. Israel's true king was not David or Solomon, but One 
 of whom they, at the best, were only faint and transient images. A 
 righteous One was yet to come who should indeed rule in truth and 
 equity, who should fulfil all the hopes which one human monarch 
 after another, however fair the promise of his reign, had disappointed, 
 and whose kingdom, because it was a righteous kingdom, should 
 endure for ever. Such a ruler would indeed be the vicegerent of 
 God. In such an one, and by such an one, God would reign. He 
 would be of the seed of David, and yet more glorious than all his 
 fellows ; human, and yet above men. It was because of this wonder- 
 fully close and real relation between God and Man — a relation which 
 the true king would visibly symbolize — that the Psalmist could address 
 him as God. In him God and Man would in some mysterious manner 
 meet. This perhaps he did see ; more than this he could not see, 
 The mystery of the Incarnation was not yet revealed. But David 
 knew that God bad made man to be but little short of divine 
 (Ps. viii. 5). And he and others, full of hopes, the very gi-eatness 
 of which made them indistinct, uttered them in words that went 
 far beyond themselves. 
 
PSALM XLV. 177 
 
 The mistake so commonly made in interpreting this Psalm and the 
 Song of Solomon, is to suppose that we have in them allegories, every 
 part of which is to find its appropriate spiritual interpretation. The 
 earthly fact has, as a whole, its spiritual counterpart. For Christ 
 speaks of Himself as " the Bridegroom," and of the Church as His 
 " bride,'' and of the kingdom of God under the figure of a marriage- 
 feast. (Matt. xxii. i, &c., xxv. and ix. 15. See also Ephes. v. 32, 
 2 Cor. xi. 2, and Rev. xix. 7, xxi. 2.) The same figure also occurs in 
 the Old Testament. God speaks of Himself as the bridegroom of the 
 Jewish /ot//£ (Is. liv. 5, Ixii. 5, Jer. iii. i, Ezek. xvi. 8, Hos. i. ii.), not, 
 however, observe, of any individual., as the Mystics are wont to speak. 
 But this Psalm is not an allegory. It is the actual celebration of a 
 circumstance in Jewish history, and deriving its higher meaning from 
 the fact that all Jewish history is typical. 
 
 The Messianic interpretation of the Psalm is the most ancient. 
 The Chaldee paraphrast on ver. 2, writes : " Thy beauty, O King 
 Messiah, is greater than that of the sons of men." And even the 
 later Jews take the same view. Aben-Ezra says : " This Psalm treats of 
 David, or rather of His Son Messiah, for that is His name, Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 24, ' And David My servant shall be their prince for ever.' " 
 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews (i. 8, 9) the writer rests upon this 
 Psalm, 3.mong others, his argument for the Divine Nature of Christ. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions, and a brief conclusion 
 in the shape of auguries for the future, 
 
 I. The praise of the royal bridegroom. His more than human 
 beauty, his persuasive eloquence, his might and prowess in war, his 
 divine majesty, and the righteousness of his sway, are extolled. 
 Ver. I — 9. 
 
 II. The description of the royal bride, her gold-inwoven garments, 
 the virgins who follow in her train, the music and songs of the bridal 
 procession. Ver. 10 — 15. 
 
 III. Anticipations and hopes expressed for the children by the 
 marriage, who shall perpetuate the dynasty of the monarch, so that his 
 name shall be famous for ever. Ver. 16, 17. 
 
 N 
 
.78 
 
 PSALM XL V. 
 
 [for the precentor, "on the lilies."* of the sons of 
 korah. a maskil. a song of love.] 
 
 1 My heart is overflowing with a goodly matter ; 
 
 I am speaking ; — my work is for a King : 
 My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. 
 
 2 Beautiful art Thou beyond the children of men ; 
 
 Grace is shed upon Thy lips : 
 Therefore hath God blessed Thee for ever. 
 
 3 Gird Thy sword upon (the) thigh, O mighty One, 
 
 (Gird on) Thy glory and Thy majesty. 
 
 1. This verse is a kind of preface of 
 a very unusual kind of Hebrew poetry, 
 in which the singer tells how great 
 his subject, and how full his heart is 
 of it. 
 
 Is OVERFLOWING, lit. boils or 
 bubbles up, his heart being stirred 
 within him by the greatness of his 
 subject. The metaphor may be taken 
 either from boiling water, or from a 
 fountain bubbling up from its source. 
 And that which inspires him is A 
 GOODLY MATTER {ein feines Lied, 
 Luther), a subject worthy of his 
 highest efforts (cf. Is. lii. 7, Zech. 
 
 i- 13)- 
 
 I AM SPEAKING — sc. it is thits that 
 I begin. My work, i.e. my poem, 
 the work or creation of my imagi- 
 nation, is for a king, is dedicated to 
 and inspired by him. 
 
 For A King. 1 see no reason to 
 supply the article which is wanting 
 in the Hebrew, though interpreters, 
 ancient and modern, with one consent 
 render "ttsKing." The absence of 
 the article only makes it more em- 
 phatic. It is a King — not a meaner 
 person — who is the object of my song. 
 
 2. The beauty of the monarch first 
 
 calls forth the Poet's praise (cf. Is. 
 xxxiii. 17), and then his persuasive 
 eloquence (Eccl. x. 12). Calvin ob- 
 serves, it were more kingly for kings 
 to win their subjects' hearts by gra- 
 cious words, than to rule them by 
 brute force. So, too, of the Great 
 Antitype, the true king, we read that 
 men wondered at the gracious words 
 {the \6yoi rijs x^P^'ro^, Luke iv. 22) 
 that proceeded out of His lips : for the 
 Lord hath given Him the tongue of 
 the learned, that He might know how 
 to speak a word in season to them 
 that were weary (Is. 1. 4). 
 
 Therefore, i.e. beholding this 
 beauty and this grace, do I conclude 
 that God hath blessed thee for ever, 
 Sucli gifts are the proof of God's 
 good-will towards thee. 
 
 3, But the king is not only fair to 
 look at, and gracious of speech, but 
 he is mighty in battle. The nations 
 shall fall under him. Nevertheless,, 
 " in righteoAisness doth he make war," 
 to uphold truth, and to avenge tie 
 oppressed. Instead, however, of di- 
 rectly celebrating his prowess, the 
 singer calls on the king to go forth to 
 battle, and predicts his victory. 
 
 * See the same inscription Pss. Ixix. and Ixxx., and a similar one Ps. ]x. It may have 
 reference to an instrument, shaped like a lily, or it may refer to the measure according to 
 which the psalm was to be sung. 
 
rSALM XL V. 
 
 179 
 
 4 Yea (in) Thy majesty ride on prosperously 
 
 On behalf of truth and righteous meekness ; 
 And let Thy right hand teach Thee terrible things. 
 
 5 Thine arrows are sharp, — (while) people fall under Thee ; 
 
 (They are sharp) in the heart of the King's enemies. 
 
 6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; 
 
 A sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of Thy 
 kingdom. 
 
 4. Yea. (in) Thymajesty: repeated 
 apparently for the sake of emphasis. 
 
 Ride on prosperously, lit. "malte 
 thy way, ride on," the first verb being 
 used adverbially, to add force to the 
 other "make thy way," i.e. either 
 lit. "pass through" the ranks of the 
 enemy, and overcome all obstacles, 
 or metaph. "be successful :" ride, 
 either in the war-chariot (l Kings 
 xxii. 32), or on the war-horse, as in the 
 Apocalyptic vision, xix. II. 
 
 On behalf of, i.e. in order to 
 assert and uphold, &c. Luth. der 
 Wahrheit zu gut. This is the very 
 loftiest conception of kingly might. 
 The wars which such a king wages 
 are not to acquire territory or renown. 
 
 6. Thy throne, O God. I have 
 retained the vocative, which is the 
 rendering of all the Ancient Versions ; 
 and so ttie passage is quoted in Heb. 
 i. 8. This rendering seems indeed at 
 first sight to be at variance with the 
 first and historical application of the 
 Psalm. Can Solomon, or any Jewish 
 king, be thus directly addressed as 
 God? We find the title given to rulers, 
 kings, or judges, Ixxxii. 6, 7, "I said, 
 years j^ods" (see our Lord's comment, 
 John X. 35) ; Exod, xxi. 6, where 
 E.V. has "judges," Heb. "gods." 
 Calvin, indeed, objects that ElohJm 
 i-i only Ihus used when more than one 
 person is meant, or with some restric- 
 tion, as when Moses is said to be 
 made a. God (Elohim) unto Pharaoh 
 (Exod. vii. I). But the word is 
 evidently used of one person in I 
 
 Sam. xxviii. 13, as is plain from 
 Saul's question, " What form is he 
 of?" though our Version renders, 
 "I saw gods ascending." Calvin, 
 however, admits the first application 
 to Solomon, only observing, that 
 "though he is called God, because 
 God hath stamped some mark of His 
 glory upon kings, yet so high .\. title 
 must go beyond any mere man." It 
 is one of the indications, as he rightly 
 remarks, that the Poet is thinking of 
 a greater King, and a more illustrious 
 kingdom (" canticum hoc altius quam 
 ad umbratile regnum spectare "). The 
 difficulty is to understand how far the 
 writer himself saw the purport of his 
 own words. That they have a mean- 
 ing which is only fully realized in 
 Christ, and that God designed this 
 fulfilment, I, for one, most unhesita- 
 tingly admit. But on the other hand, 
 it is impossible to suppose that the 
 mystery of the Incarnation was dis- 
 tinctly revealed, and clearly under- 
 stood, under the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation. God does not thus make 
 haste with men. I conclude, there- 
 fore, that in the use of such language 
 the Psalmist was carried beyond him- 
 self, and that he was led to employ it 
 by a tv/ofold conviction in his mind, 
 the conviction that God was the King 
 of Israel, combined with the convic- 
 tion that the Messiah, the true King, 
 who was to be in reality what others 
 were but in figure, was the son of 
 David. 
 
 A SCEPTRE OF UPRIGHTNESS, and 
 N 2 
 
i8o 
 
 PSALM XL V. 
 
 7 Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness, 
 
 Therefore God, (even) Thy God, hath anointed Thee 
 With the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. 
 
 8 Myrrh and aloes (and) cassia are all Thy garments ; 
 
 Out of ivory palaces music hath made Thee glad. 
 
 9 Kings' daughters are among Thy beloved, 
 
 The queen-consort stands at Thy right hand in gold 
 of Ophir. 
 
 lo Hearken, O daughter, and see and incline thine ear: 
 
 in the next verse, "Thou hast loved 
 righteousness. " Not only is righteous- 
 ness the kingliest of all virtues, but it 
 is the necessary basis of a throne and a 
 kingdom which are to endure for ever. 
 
 7. But this divine King is never- 
 theless a distinct person from God 
 Himself. God, even Thy God, 
 peculiar to this Book of the Psalms, 
 instead of '■^Jehm/ah Thy God." 
 See xliii. 4, 1. 7> Ixvii. 6. It is 
 contrary to all usage to render the 
 first noun as a vocative, "O God, 
 Thy God hath," &c. 
 
 With the oil of gladness. 
 Scarcely therefore is this the act of 
 coronation, the anointing to His 
 office (cf Ixxxix. 20, with Acts x. 
 38), but rather the meaning is, that 
 this king is, as it were, the very 
 personification of gladness, beyond all 
 the kings upon earth. 
 
 Fellows may either mean *' other 
 kings," or the friends who escorted 
 him at his marriage. 
 
 8. The song of love here reaches 
 its culminating point in the descrip- 
 tion of the king. It has pourtrayed 
 the king as man, as warrior, as god- 
 like ruler ; now it pictures him as 
 bridegroom on the day of his es- 
 pousals. (Compare vpith this the 
 vision of the Apocalypse, where the 
 "King of kings" goes forth to war, 
 followed by the armies in heaven, 
 after which there follows "the mar- 
 
 riage of the Lamb.'' Rev. xix. 7, 
 &c.) 
 
 Myrrh and aloes (and) cas- 
 SIA. (Cf Prov. vii. 17.) The royal 
 garments are so filled with perfumes, 
 that they seem to be nothing hut 
 perfumes. 
 
 And the marriage procession is 
 accompanied by music. 
 
 9. Kings' DAUGHTERS; other wives 
 and concubines of the monarch. Such, 
 as Calvin observes, is the evident 
 meaning of the words, although, as 
 polygamy had only the permission, 
 not the sanction, of God, it may seem 
 strange that this should be mentioned 
 as a feature in the splendour of the 
 monarch. But polygamy was practised 
 even by the best of kings, and the 
 Psalmist is describing the magnificence 
 of an Oriental court, such as it 
 actually existed before his eyes, not 
 drawing a picture of what ought to 
 be in a perfect state of things. 
 
 The QUEEN-CONSORT, the distin- 
 guished title of the newly-married 
 princess. 
 
 At Thy right hand, as the place 
 of honour ; so Bathsheba, as queen- 
 mother, sits on the right hand of 
 Solomon, i Kings ii. 19. 
 
 10. The sacred Poet now turns to 
 address the Bride. He bids her 
 forget her father's house, and devote 
 herself in reverent affection to her 
 new lord, promising her at the same 
 
PSALM XLV. 
 
 1-8 1 
 
 Forget also thine own people and Thy father's house, 
 
 11 That the King may desire thy beauty, 
 
 For He is thy lord, and do thou bow thyself down 
 before Him. 
 
 12 And the daughter of Tyre (shall come) with a gift : 
 
 The rich among the people shall intreat thy favour. 
 
 13 All glorious is the King's daughter in the inner palace, 
 
 Of thread of gold is her clothing. 
 
 14 On embroidered carpets of divers colours is she led forth 
 
 unto the King : 
 The virgins in her train, (that be) her companions. 
 Are brought unto Thee. 
 
 15 They are conducted with rejoicings and exultation ; 
 
 They enter into the King's palace. 
 
 16 Instead of Thy fathers, shall be Thy children, 
 
 Whom Thou shalt set as princes in all the earth. 
 
 time that rich gifts shall be poured 
 out at her feet. 
 
 ■ O DAUGHTER (like "my son," in 
 the Book of Proverbs), a common 
 Oriental style of address, when the 
 person who employed it, either from 
 age or authority, or as divinely com- 
 missioned, had a right to give in- 
 struction, such as a father might give 
 to his child. 
 
 11. Thy lord. Cf. Gen. xviii. 12. 
 
 12. The " daughter of Tyre " is a 
 mere personification of the people of 
 Tyre, according to the well-known 
 Hebrew idiom, "daughter of Zion," 
 &c. 
 
 13. A description of the magnificent 
 appearance presented by the queen, 
 as she stands, or perhaps sits, beside 
 the king on the throne, arrayed in 
 her royal and bridal apparel in the 
 inner apartments of the palace — the 
 presence-chamber where the throne 
 was placed. Her arrival there is an- 
 ticipated in this verse, as the bridal 
 procession is subsequently described ; 
 unless, as Maurer suggests, this was 
 not the king's palace, but some other. 
 
 where the bride was first lodged, and 
 whence she was conducted to the 
 king. 
 
 In the inner palace (not " with- 
 in," as E. v., whence have come the 
 commoninterpretations, thatthe bride, 
 the Church, must be pure within). 
 fv TOLs hcairlois, the further wall of the 
 house, which was over against the 
 principal entrance, and where the 
 throne stood. 
 
 14, 15. The bridal procession de- 
 scribed. The bride walks in Oriental 
 fashion on the richly woven carpets 
 spread for her feet, accompanied by 
 her maidens, and a festive band with 
 music, dancing, &c. 
 
 15. Rejoicings, lit. "joys," the 
 plural denoting fulness and manifold- 
 ness. 
 
 16 After having thus dwelt on the 
 personal graces of the royal pair, the 
 magnificence of their attire, and the 
 splendour of their retinue, the Poet 
 again addresses the King, and con- 
 cludes with congratulations and hopes 
 expressed as to the issue of the mar- 
 riage. The monarch cannot trace his 
 
i82 PSALM XLVI. 
 
 17 Let me (then) make Thy name known through all gene- 
 rations ; 
 Therefore shall the peoples give Thee thanks for ever 
 and ever. 
 
 descent from a long line of kings, but 
 his children shall be better to him 
 than royal ancestry. They shall be 
 made princes in all the earth — or, 
 perhaps in all the lajtd. Comp 
 Solomon's princes, 1 Kings iv. 2, 
 and Rehoboam's sons, 2 Chron. xi. 
 
 23- 
 
 This verse and those immediately 
 preceding are, to my mind, evidence 
 j sufficient that this Psalm cannot, as a 
 , whole, be regarded as prophetical of 
 the Messiah. It is only by doing 
 violence to language that the spiritual 
 sense is extracted ; and it seems to 
 me far wiser to acknowledge at once 
 
 the mixed character of such Psalms 
 as this. It does speak, no doubt, of 
 One who is higher than the kings 
 of earth, but it does so under earthly 
 images, It is typical, partially, yeS' 
 not altogether.' "The Sacred Poetl 
 sees the earthly king and the human ' 
 marriage before his eyes, but whilst 
 he strikes his harp to celebrate these, 
 a vision of a higher glory streams in 
 upon him. Thus the earthly and the 
 heavenly mingle. The Divine pene- 
 trates, fiallows, goes beyond the hu- 
 man; but the human is there. See 
 farther in Introduction and Notes to 
 Ps. ex. 
 
 PSALM XLVI. 
 
 This and the two lollowing Psalms are hymns ot triumph, com- 
 posed on the occasion of some great deliverance. I am inclined to 
 think that they all celebrate the same event, the slidden and miracu- 
 lous destruction of the army of Sennacherib under the walls of Jeru- 
 salem. That proud host had swept the land. City after city had 
 fallen into the power of the conqueror. The career of Sennacherib 
 and his captains had been one uninterrupted success. The capital 
 itself alone held out, and even there the enfeebled garrison seemed 
 little likely to make a successful resistance. The swollen river had, 
 in the language of the prophet, overflowed all its channels, and risen 
 even to the neck. It was at this crisis that deliverance came. When 
 there were no succours to be expected, when neither king nor army 
 could help the city, God helped her. He, the Lord of Hosts, was 
 
PSALM XLVl. 183 
 
 in the midst of her, keeping watch over her walls and defending her 
 towers. His Angel went forth at dead of night and smote the host 
 of the Assyrians, and when men awoke in the morning, there reigned 
 in that vast camp the silence and the stillness of death. Such a 
 deliverance must have filled the whole nation with wonder and joy. 
 The old days of Moses and David would seem to have returned. 
 The hopes of Prophets, so great and so glowing, yet so often appa- 
 .rently defeated, seemed now nearer to their accomplishment. The 
 times were at hand when Jerusalem should be indeed the joy of the 
 whole earth, when all nations should acknowledge Jehovah as their 
 King. Her towers, her palaces, the temple of her God, stood in all 
 their beauty, saved by a miracle from the spoiler's hand. God had 
 made Himself known there as a sure refuge, and henceforth His 
 Name would be acknowledged in the earth. 
 
 We should expect to find such a deliverance celebrated by songs 
 of thanksgiving and triumph. We should expect to find in these 
 songs some indications of the particular events which they were 
 intended to commemorate. Accordingly we do find, especially in this 
 Psalm and in the 48th, certain expressions which are most natural and 
 most intelligible, on the supposition that they were written at this time. 
 In this Psalm there occur, moreover, very remarkable coincidenceSj 
 both in thought and expression, with those prophecies of Isaiah which 
 were uttered in prospect of the Assyrian invasion. The Prophet had 
 compared the Assyrian army about to come to a mighty river, the 
 Nile or the Euphrates, overflowing its banks, carrying desolation far 
 and wide, rising till it had submerged all but the most prominent 
 objects. The Psalmist employs a like image when he compares the 
 enemies' of his country to an angry sea, its waves roaring, aijd the 
 mountains trembling at the swelling thereof. Isaiah had described 
 the peace and safety of Jerusalem, weak and defenceless as she 
 seemed to all eyes but the eye of Faith, under the emblem of her 
 own gently-flowing stream of Siloam (viii. 6). The Poet also sings 
 the praises of that stream, whose channels make glad the city of 
 God. Thus each has recourse to similar metaphors, and each 
 heightens their effect by contrast. Again the Prophet had assured 
 the house of David that it had a better defence than that of chariots 
 and horses ; and laughed to scorn the power of the enemy, saying, 
 "Associate yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces . . . take 
 counsel together, and ye shall come to nought .... for God IS 
 WITH US " {Jmmanu^ EI) ; and had symbolized the promised deliver- 
 
1 84 PSALM XLVI. 
 
 ance by the birth of the child, Immanuel. The ever- recurring thought 
 of the Psalm is, " God is our refuge and defence ; " " God is in the 
 midst" of the Holy City; Jehovah (God) of Hosts IS WITH US 
 {Immanu). The burden alike of Prophecy and Psalm is Immanuel, 
 God with us. 
 
 Luther's noble hymn, " Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," is based 
 upon this Psalm. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three strophes, the conclusion of each being 
 marked by the Selah, and that of the last two by the refrain. 
 
 I. In the first, God is magnified as the one sure defence at all 
 times. Those with whom God dwells can never fear, whatever perils 
 may threaten. Ver. I — 3. 
 
 II. The peace of Zion is secured by the abiding presence of God 
 in her ; and the discomfiture of all her foes is Certain. Ver. 4 — 7. 
 
 III. God has manifested but even now His saving might, in the 
 great deliverance which He has wrought. His arm has been made bare, 
 His voice has been heard. He is exalted in the earth. Ver. 8 — 11. 
 
 [for the precentor, of the sons of korah. upon alamoih.* 
 
 A song.] 
 
 I. I God is our refuge and strength, 
 A very present help in trouble. 
 
 2 Therefore do we not fear, though (the) earth be changed. 
 
 And though (the) mountains be moved into the heart 
 ' of (the) seas ; 
 
 3 Though the waters thereof roar, though they be troubled, 
 
 1 — 3- First strophe. The safety of the seas, &c. See below, ver. 6, 
 and security of the people of God, where the figure is dropt. 
 even when the earth itself and the 2. Though the mountains, &c. 
 strong foundations of the earth are The strongest figure that could be em- 
 shaken. The revolutions and com- ployed, the mountains being regarded 
 motions of the political world are as the great pillars of the earth. See 
 here described by images borrowed xviii. 7, Ixxv. 3, Ixxxii. 5 ; Job ix. 6. 
 irom the convulsions of the natural 3, 4. See another striking contrast, 
 world— the earthquake whiclr makes Is. x. ,33, 34 ; xi. i. 
 the mountains to tremble, the roaring 
 
 * To be sung en soprano. See Introd. p. 6. 
 
PSALM XL VL 
 
 i8s 
 
 Though the mountains quake with the swelling 
 thereof. [Selah.] 
 
 II. 4 A stream (there is) whose channels make glad the 
 city of God. 
 The holy place of the dwellings of the Most High. 
 
 5 God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be 
 
 moved ; 
 God shall help her, when the morning dawns. 
 
 6 Nations roared ; kingdoms were moved ; 
 
 He uttered His voice, — the earth melteth. 
 
 7 Jehovah (God of) Hosts is with us ; 
 
 A high tower unto us is the God of Jacob. 
 [Selah.] 
 
 4 — 7. The peace and tranquillity of 
 the city of God, whilst all is uproar 
 and confusion without her walls. 
 
 4. A STREAM. The one never- 
 filing stream of water with which 
 ■Jerusalem was supplied, and which, 
 in its gentle, undisturbed, refreshing 
 flow, was an image of the peace and 
 blessing which the Holy City enjoyed 
 under the protection of her God. 
 (See Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 
 181.) The probable allusion to Is. 
 viii. 6 has been already remarked on, 
 and the metaphor may have been 
 borrowed designedly, as Calvin sug- 
 gests, "that the faithful might learn 
 that, without any aid from the world, 
 the grace of God alone was sufficient 
 for them. . . . Therefore, though the 
 help of God may but trickle to us, as 
 it were, in slender streams, we should 
 enjoy a deeper tranquillity than if all 
 the power of the world were heaped 
 up all at once for our help." 
 
 5. She shall not be moved. 
 The antithesis to this follows in the 
 next verse, "Kingdoms were moved." 
 
 6. There is a manifest reference to 
 verses 2, 3, though the figure there 
 employed is now dropt, except so far 
 
 as we are reminded of it by the use of 
 the same verbs, " roared, " were 
 moved," words which are employed 
 in other passages, both of naturaland 
 political convulsions. 
 
 Uttered His voice, i.e. in thun- 
 der, on which the melting of the earth 
 is described as following immediately. 
 The thunder (called also in xxix. 
 "the voice of Jehovah") is the 
 symbol of the Divine judgement. 
 Comp. xviii. 13, and especially as ex- 
 plaining this passage, Ixxvi. &. 
 
 7. Jehovah (God of) Hosts. 
 The name first occurs in the mouth of 
 Hannah, I Sam. i. II, and, is applied 
 to God as the Great King whom, all 
 created powers, the armies both jn 
 heaven and in earth, obey. To this 
 Name the Psalmist immediately sub- 
 joins another, "the God of Jacob," 
 the covenant God of His people. 
 Thus we are reminded, as Calvin 
 remarks, of the double prop on which 
 our faith rests ; the infinite power 
 whereby He can subdue the universe 
 unto Himself, and the fatherly love 
 which He has revealed in His word. 
 Where these two are joined together, 
 our faith may trample on all enemies. 
 
1 86 
 
 PSALM XL VII. 
 
 III. 8 Come, behold the deeds of Jehovah, 
 
 Who hath done terrible things in the earth ; 
 9 (Who) stilleth wars to the end of the earth. 
 
 Who breaketh (the) bow and cutteth (the) spear in 
 
 sunder, 
 (And) burneth (the) chariots in the fire. 
 
 10 Cease ye, and know that I am God, 
 
 I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted' 
 upon the earth. 
 
 1 1 Jehovah (God of) Hosts is with us ; 
 
 A high tower unto us is the God of Jacob. [Selah.] 
 
 8 — II. The application of the 
 general truth of God's Presence and 
 help to the particular circumstances 
 of the nation at the present crisis. 
 Hence "Come, behold.''' Comp. 
 Ixvi. 5. 
 
 g. Stilleth. The participle ex- 
 presses the contmuance of the action. 
 Who not only does so now, but will 
 do so evermore, till His kingdom of 
 peace shall be set up in all the earth. 
 This hope, however, is not prominent 
 here, as it is in Mic. iv. 3, Is. ii. 4, 
 and ix. 5. " For every greave of the 
 greaved (warrior) in the battle- 
 tumult, and the (soldier's) cloak rolled 
 in blood, shall be for burning, and 
 fuel of fire " (where our Version has 
 
 most unhappily marred the sense, 
 by inserting "but this"), on which 
 follows the reign of peace of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 10. Cease ye. The verb is used 
 absolutely here, as in I Sam. xv. 16,, 
 but, strictly speaking, the expression 
 is elliptical. Lit. "Let your hand' 
 sink down," i.e. cease your efforts. 
 
 God Himself here "utters His 
 voice," as sole Judge and Arbiter of 
 the world. (So the A. S. paraphrase 
 supplies ' ' Then God answered and 
 said by the Prophet.") 'What are alt 
 the fret and stir of armies, and cap- 
 tains of armies, and kings and king- 
 doms, in His sight, who is the Ruler 
 and the Judge of all 1 
 
 PSALM XLVII. 
 
 A Hymn of triumph, in which the singer calls upon all the nations 
 of the earth to praise Jehovah as their King, and joyfully anticipates 
 the time when they shall all become one body with the people of 
 the God of Abraham. In this sense the Psalm may be called 
 Messianic, a prophecy of the final triumph of God's kingdom upon 
 
PSALM XLVIJ. 1S7 
 
 earth. The older expositors, for the most part, suppose it to have 
 'been written, like Psalm xxiv., on the occasion of the removal of 
 the Ark to Mount Zion (2 Sam. vi.), and to be a prophecy of the 
 Ascension of Christ, and of His kingly rule, as sitting at the right 
 hand of the Father. The Rabbinical interpreters regard the Psalm 
 as Messianic. 
 
 I think it probable that the Psa:lm vi'as composed, like the 46th and 
 48th, after the defeat of Sennacherib ; and Hupfeld is, I think, right 
 in calling it "a lyrical expansion of the idea prominent in xlvi. 10, 
 ■ that Jehovah is highly exalted above the nations, and the Great King 
 over all the earth." 
 
 We have two strophes, the end of the first being marked by the 
 Selah ; but the subject of both is in fact the same, the second, ver. 
 I 5 — 9; being only a lyrical variation of the first, ver. I — 4. The 
 I chief difference is, that what is expressed as a. wish or hope in the 
 first part (ver. 3, 4), viz. that God would make the nations the in- 
 heritance of Israel, is in the second (ver. 8, 9) regarded as already 
 accomplished. 
 
 Very probably this Psalm, like the 24th, was sung in choral anti- 
 phonies, one company of Levites beginning with the words " O clap 
 your hands," &c. (ver. i, 2), and another answering " He subdueth,'' 
 &c. (ver. 3, 4). Then again the first company would take up the 
 words, " God is gone up," &c. and would sing ver. 5, 6. The anti- 
 choir would respond in ver. 7 and 8 ; and finally both would unite in 
 ver. 9. 
 
 [FOR THE PRECENTOR. OF THE SONS OF KORAH. A PSALM.] 
 
 1 O ALL ye peoples, clap (the) hand ; 
 
 O shout unto God with the voice of singing ! 
 
 2 For Jehovah, Most High, is terrible. 
 
 '■ I, 2. The nations called upon to mer at the coronation of a new king, 
 
 do homage to Jehovah. Cf. Ps. 2 Kings xi. 12, and so here the 
 
 Ixvi. I , nations are to rejoice before their new 
 
 I. Clap (the) hand . . . shout, monarch. See also i Sam. x. 24, and 
 
 as demonstrations of joy, in solemn, comp. Num. xxiii. 21, " the shout of 
 
 festal procession. We have the for- a king." 
 
i88 
 
 PSALM XL VIL 
 
 A great King over all the earth. 
 He subdued peoples under us, 
 
 And nations under our feet ! 
 He chooseth for us our inheritance. 
 
 The pride of Jacob whom He loveth ! 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 5 God is gone up with a shout, 
 
 Jehovah with the voice of a trumpet. 
 
 6 Sing psalms to God, sing psalms; 
 
 Sing psalms to our King, sing psalms ! 
 
 7 For God (is) King of all the earth ; 
 
 Sing psalms in skilful strains. 
 
 8 God is King over (the) nations ; 
 
 God sitteth upon His holy throne. 
 
 9 The princes of (the) peoples are gathered together, 
 
 (To be) a people of the God of Abraham : 
 
 3, 4. There is considerable diffi- 
 culty in satisfactorily explaining these 
 verses. They seem, at first sight, to 
 refer to the past — to the destruction of 
 the Canaanites, and the establishment 
 of Israel in the promised inheritance. 
 But I incline to take the verbs as in the 
 present tense and paraphrase thus — 
 " God is ever choosing Israel's inhe- 
 ritance anew, inasmuch as He shows 
 Himself to be the true and mighty 
 Protector thereof." The present may 
 be used, as in civ. 2, where the act of 
 creation is spoken of as present, be- 
 cause its results are present. Comp. 
 Is. xiv. I, where Israel's restoration is 
 described as another choosing. 
 
 4. The pride of Jacob. Appa- 
 rently the Holy Land is so styled 
 here ; probably also the Excellency of 
 Jacob in Amos vi. 8, and perhaps in 
 viii. 7, though not apparently in 
 Nahum ii. 2. The Holy Land is so 
 called, as the glorious possession 
 v?herein Jacob prides himself, because 
 it is the gift of God's love and favour. 
 
 5. God is gone up. An expres- 
 sion taken from the entry of the Ark 
 into the City of David, 2 Sam. vi, 15. 
 Here God is said to ascend His royal 
 Throne either in heaven, or in Zion, 
 as manifesting and exercising His 
 sovereignty. Cf. Ixviii. 18, and ix. 4, 
 vii. 6. 
 
 With a shout (A.-S "with win- 
 some song"). See note on ver. I. 
 
 6. Sing psalms. The word means 
 both to sing and to play. 
 
 7. This verse contains the great 
 subject of the Psalm, the reason why 
 all nations are called to unite in this 
 festal joy. 
 
 In skilful strains, lit. "a skilful 
 song," a song either fine in its struc- 
 ture, or beautiful in its melody. 
 
 8. Is King, lit. " hath become 
 King," has asserted and is exercising 
 His sovereignty. 
 
 9. The prayer is answered, the hope 
 is accomplished. The princes of the 
 nations are gathered together, are 
 come in one body, as it were, on a 
 
PSALM XLVIJI. 189 
 
 10 For to God (belong) the shields of the earth ; 
 Very high is He exalted. 
 
 day of solemn coronation, to do lo. Shields of the earth, i.e. 
 
 homage as vassals to their liege Lord Princes as the defenders and cham- 
 and King, cii. 22, Is. Ixvi. 18. pions of their people. 
 
 PSALM XLVIII. 
 
 This Psalm, there is every reason to suppose, was composed on' 
 the same occasion as the two preceding. It celebrates God's pro- 
 tecting care of Jerusalem, and especially the deliverance of the city 
 from the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. xix., Is. xxxvi. &c.), as 
 may be inferred from the many verbal coincidences which present 
 themselves, on a comparison of the Psalm with the prophecies of 
 Isaiah relating to the Assyrian invasion (chaps, viii. xxviii., xxix. I — 7, 
 xxxiii.). See the Introduction to Psalm xlvi. 
 
 From ver. 9 it may be inferred that the Psalm was intended to be 
 sung in the Temple-service. The Rabbinical commentators refer 
 this, like the preceding Psalms, to the times of the Messiah, and the 
 struggle with Gog and Magog, which was to issue in the everlasting 
 glory of Jerusalem. 
 
 It consists of three parts or strophes. 
 
 I. An Introduction, which, after an ascription of praise to God, 
 describes the glory (ver. 2) and the security (ver. 3) of Zion, as the 
 city in which God hath made Himself known. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 II. The defeat of the enemy. Because God thus dwells in Zion, 
 and loves Zion, she has been saved out of the hand of the Assyrian. 
 That mighty host, led by its kingly captains, did but look upon the 
 city, and were confounded, as in a moment, broken as with the east 
 wind, v/hich breaks the ships of Tarshish, melting away, "like snow 
 in the glance of the Lord." Ver. 4—8. , 
 
igo 
 
 PSALM XLVIII. 
 
 III. Thanksgiving to God, whose praise is not only in Zion, but in 
 all the earth, and whose great deliverance the Poet would have 
 remembered in all time to come. Ver. 9 — 14. 
 
 [a song, a psalm, of the sons of korah.] 
 
 Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, 
 In the city of our God, (in) His holy mountain. 
 
 Beautiful in elevation, a joy of the whole earth, 
 Is the mountain of Zion, the sides of the north. 
 The city of (the) great King. 
 
 1 — 3. It is because Zion is the city 
 of God, that she so far surpasses all 
 other cities in beauty and renown. It 
 is the Glory of His Presence which 
 makes her glorious : the strength of 
 His Presence which inakes her safe. 
 
 1. Greatly to be praised. 
 Comp. xcvi. 4, cxlv. 3. 
 
 The city of our God, as again 
 in ver. 8. Comp. xlvi. 4. 
 
 2. Beautiful in elevation, or 
 "rising aloft in beauty." This is 
 precisely one of the most striking 
 features in the topography of Jeru- 
 salem. "Its elevation," says Stanley, 
 "is remarkable, occasioned not from 
 its being on the summit of one of the 
 numerous hills of Judsea, like most of 
 the towns and villages, but because it 
 is on the edge of one of the highest 
 table-lands in the coiratry. Hebron, 
 indeed, is higher still, by some hun- 
 dred feet ; and from the south, accor- 
 dingly, the approach to Jerusalem is 
 by a slight descent. But from every 
 other side the ascent is perpetual ; 
 and to the traveller appi-oaching Jeru- 
 salem from the west or east, it must 
 have always presented the appearance, 
 beyond any other capital of the then 
 known world — we may add, beyond 
 any important city that has ever ex- 
 isted on the earth — of a mountain 
 city ; breathing, as compared with the 
 
 sultry plains of the Jordan or of the 
 coast, a mountain air ; enthroned, as 
 compared with Jericho or Damascus, 
 Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness." 
 — Sinai and Palestine, pp. 170, 171. 
 
 A JOY OF THE whole EARTH. 
 Most recent interpreters render, "a 
 joy of the whole land," a rendering 
 which I am satisfied does not do jus- 
 tice to the largeness of the sacred 
 Poet's conceptions. In a Psalm where 
 the range of anticipation is so vide, 
 and in which God's name is declared' 
 to be known to the ends of the earth, 
 we must understand the language em- 
 ployed, in its broadest, not in its nar- 
 rowest sense. Comp. Lam. ii. 15. 
 " Is not this the city which they called 
 the crown of beauty, a joy of the whole, 
 earth?" and Is. Ix. 15, "a joy of 
 many generations." 
 
 The sides of the north. It is 
 not very clear what is meant by this 
 expression here. In other passages 
 it denotes " the furthest north," "the. 
 extremes! regions of the north," as in 
 Ezek. xxxviii. 6, 15, xxxix. 2, where 
 it is used of the land of Gog. In Is. 
 xiv. 13 (the only place, besides those 
 mentioned, where it occurs), it seems 
 to describe the locality of the Assyrian 
 Olympus, or mount of the gods ; but 
 here, it must be remembered, the case 
 is widely different, as the expression is 
 
PSALM XLVIII. 
 
 19: 
 
 3 God in her palaces 
 
 Hath made Himself known as a high tower. 
 
 4 For lo ! the kings were assembled, 
 
 They passed by together : 
 
 5 They saw (it), they were amazed ; 
 
 put into the mouth of the King of 
 Assyria himself. But for a Jew to 
 speak of Zion, the holy mountain, as 
 if it were no more than some mountain 
 of heathen fable, would have been 
 nothing short of profanity. 
 
 One thing is clear, that by "the 
 sides of the north" is indicated, in 
 some sense or other, the topography 
 of the Holy City. The question is, 
 to what particular part of it the words 
 refer, (i) Now Jerusalem itself did 
 not lie on the north, but on the south 
 side of the elevated table-land men- 
 tioned in a preceding note. But the 
 Temple dxA-\\t. north, i.e. north-east of 
 the city ; and as the Temple was, in 
 a peculiar sense, the dwelling-place of 
 God, the Psalmist may have intended 
 to designate this, when he spoke of 
 "the sides of the north," the expres- 
 sion being sufficiently accurate for the 
 purposes of poetry. Hence we have 
 thp Holy City regarded from three 
 different points of view, viz. "the 
 mount Zion " (the city of David), 
 "the sides of the north" (Mount 
 Moriah and the Temple), "the City of 
 the Great King" (Jerusalem proper, 
 comp. Matt. v. 35). (2) If, however, 
 Zion be the peak now leveled on the 
 north of the Temple Mount, as Fer- 
 gusson {Essay ^ p. 55 ff.) and Thrupp 
 [Ancient y.rusa em, p. 17 ff.) suppose, 
 "the mount Zion (on) the sides of the 
 north " may be the true rendering 
 here. And this, too, might pecu- 
 liarly be called "beautiful for eleva- 
 tion," as it was the highest point of 
 the whole plateau, and that which 
 would most readily strike the eye. 
 (3) Another reason may be suggested 
 
 why the north should be especially 
 mentioned, because an enemy ap- 
 proaching like the Assyrians, would 
 obtain their first view of the city on 
 that side. 
 
 3. Hath made Himself known 
 especially by the great act of deliver- 
 ance recently accomplished, a descrip- 
 tion of which immediately follows. 
 
 4. There follows, in a few linps, a 
 striking picture of the advance of the 
 hostile army, and of its sudden de- 
 struction. Compare with this the 
 wonderfully graphic description of the 
 same march in Is. x. 28 — 34. 
 
 The kings. The mention of 
 "kings " in the plural does not prove 
 that the Psalm cannot be referred to 
 the Assyrian invasion. They were 
 perhaps satraps, or petty kings (comp. 
 Judges V. 3, 19), dependent upon 
 Sennacherib. In his Annals, as lately 
 deciphered, he speaks of setting up 
 tributary kings or viceroys in Chaldasa, 
 Phcenicia, and Philistia, after con- 
 quering those countries. 
 
 Were assembled. The word is 
 used of a former confederation, as of 
 the Canaanite kings, Josh. xi. 5. 
 
 They passed by together : 
 spoken of the marching of an army in 
 battle array. Comp. Is. x. 29, &c. 
 But it might also be rendered, "They 
 vanished, disappeared at once, or al- 
 together." For this meaning of the 
 verb see xxxvii. 36. If so, this verse 
 expresses in its two clauses, briefly, 
 the gathering and the destniction of 
 the host, and then these two ideas 
 are expanded in what follows. 
 
 5. They, saw (it); viz. the Holy 
 City. The force of the descrip- 
 
192 
 
 PSALM XL VILL 
 
 They were terrified, they hasted away. 
 
 6 Trembhng took hold upon them there, 
 
 Pangs as upon a woman in travail : 
 
 7 (They were broken as) with the east wind 
 
 Which breaketh the ships of Tarshish. 
 
 8 As we have heard, so have we seen 
 
 In the city of Jehovah of Hosts, in the city of 
 
 our God ; 
 God will estabhsh it for ever. [Selah.] 
 
 9 We have thought, O God, on Thy loving-kindness 
 
 In the midst of Thy temple. 
 
 tion in this verse, as in the last, is 
 much increased by the way in which 
 the verbs follow one another without 
 a copula. Calvin well illustrates it by 
 Caesar's veni, vidi^ vici. A succession 
 of scenes is thus flashed upon the eye. 
 Each word is a picture. First, we 
 have the mustering of the hosts ; then 
 their march ; then their first sight of 
 the city ; then their astonishment, 
 their dismay, their wild panic and fl ight. 
 
 6, 7. This confusion and terror are 
 now further pourtrayed under two 
 Images : the first, that of a travailing 
 woman, a common one in the Old 
 Testament, and found also in the 
 New ; and the second, in which the 
 defeat of Sennacherib's army is com- 
 pared to the wreck and dispersion of 
 a navy in a storm. The image in this 
 case is presented with lyric vividness, 
 as if the sacred Poet were himself 
 looking on the scene. It is a com- 
 parison, without any particle of com- 
 parison to introduce it. 
 
 For the image, as descriptive of the 
 irresistible power of God, compare Is. 
 xxvii. 8, Amos. iv. 9, Jonah iv. 8, Jer. 
 xviii. 17, and see i Kings x. 22, where 
 ships of Tarshish denote the strongest 
 and largest ships. Comp. the "afHavit 
 
 Deus, et dissipantur" of our own 
 history. In Is. xxxiii. the Assyrian 
 power is also compared to a gallant 
 ship. 
 
 8. This marvellous deliverance is 
 but a fresh proof, in our own expe- 
 rience, of that wonder-working Love 
 which in the days of old has so often 
 manifested itself in Israel. The thing; 
 which our fathers have told us, w§, 
 have now witnessed with our own eyes. 
 (Comp. xliv. I.) And therefore, also, 
 the present is regarded as a pledge for 
 the future : " God will establish it- 
 make it stand firm — for ever," as 
 Ixxxvii. 5. 
 
 9 — 14. The next portion of the 
 Psalm consists of the grateful cele- 
 bration of that which God had done 
 for Zion. 
 
 9. We have thought, i.e. pon- 
 dered, considered in that deep, still, 
 heartfelt gratitude, whence issue the 
 loud praises of the tongue. In Thy 
 Temple, either as the place in which 
 the congregation met to acknowledge 
 God's loving-kindness, or as the place 
 in which He had manifested. His 
 loving-kindness. Calvin : ' ' locum ubi 
 invocaretur sedem virtutis et gloris 
 SHEe fore." 
 
PSALM XLVIII. 
 
 193 
 
 10 As is Thy Name, O God, so is Thy praise to the ends 
 
 of the earth ! 
 Full of righteousness is Thy right hand. 
 
 11 Let the mountain of Zion be glad. 
 
 Let the daughters of Judah rejoice. 
 Because of Thy judgements. 
 
 12 Compass Zion, and go round about her ; 
 
 Tell the towers thereof, 
 
 13 Consider her bulwarks, mark well her palaces, 
 
 That ye may tell it to the generations following. 
 
 14 For such is God, our God, for ever and ever ; 
 
 10. As IS Thy Name, so is, or, 
 as others, "So let Thy praise be," 
 i.e. Mayest Thou be praised accord- 
 ing to the greatness of Thy Name, 
 God's Name being here that Name 
 which He had got Himself in Israel, 
 by His manifold mighty acts on their 
 behalf. 
 
 11. The verbs may either be taken 
 as optatives, as above, or as simple 
 presents. "The mountain of Zion 
 rejoices," &c. Comp. xcvii. 8. 
 
 The daughters of Judah, not 
 here literally " the maidens of Judah," 
 though it was usual for these to take 
 a prominent part in the celebration of 
 every victory, with songs and dances ; 
 but, as the parallelism with "the 
 mountain of Zion " would indicate, the 
 various cities and villages of Judah 
 which had suffered from the invasion. 
 The metaphor is common in prose as 
 well as in poetry. 
 
 12. The glad sense of freedom, the 
 shout of deliverance, are no less no- 
 ticeable in this verse than the strong 
 patriotic feeling which breathes in it. 
 
 The horrors of the siege are at an 
 end. No hostile army lies before the 
 walls, and shuts the besieged within 
 the gates. Therefore it is that the 
 sacred Poet, kindling with emotion, as 
 he looks with all the pride and all the 
 
 deep affection of a true patriot on the 
 towers of Zion, which still stand in 
 their beauty, unscathed by the spoiler's 
 hand, calls upon all her inhabitants to 
 go forth, now that they can do so 
 freely, to look upon her beauty, to 
 gaze with affection upon her bulwarks, 
 to consider one by one her palaces. 
 
 13. Consider. The word occurs 
 only here, lit. "divide," i.e. mane 
 them one by one, in a poetical and 
 a figurative sense, answering to the 
 " tell her towers " before. 
 
 Still, in thus calling on them to 
 admire the material glory of their city, 
 the Poet would not have them do so 
 only that they may take pride in her 
 strength and her statelincss, but that 
 they may tell to generations to come 
 who that God is whose Hand has 
 saved her. 
 
 14. For such is God, or, "for 
 this is," &c. 
 
 It is interesting to compare with, 
 these words of the Jewish Poet a 
 similar burst of patriotic sentiment 
 from the lips of a Grecian orator: 
 Ka! o'/Se )iiv, says Pericles, TotoiSe 
 iyevovro' Toijs Se AoiTTOus XP"^ datpa- 
 Xeffrepay fiey eSx^cBatf aToKflorepav 
 Se ixTjbev d^iovv t-^v Is Tois 'jro\ef/.iovs 
 SLdyotav ex^ty, aKoirovvras fj.'fi ?.6yip 
 iwvcf T^c ti<pe\lai' . , . dK\i /;iaAAo>' 
 O 
 
194 
 
 PSALM XLIX. 
 He will be our Guide unto death. 
 
 T^v T^s Tr6\eci>s tvvafxiv Koff -qfj-epav 
 tpycf Beion^povs KoX 4paffT&i yiyvofie- 
 vous avrris, k,t.\. It is needless to 
 observe how exactly these last words 
 correspond to those of the Psalmist : 
 " Consider her bulwarks," &c. In- 
 deed, Arnold, in his note on the 
 passage in Thucydides (ii. 43), well 
 observes-,, that "the woi-ds epyu Sea- 
 fi.4i/otis might furnish matter for an 
 oration or a poem. They mean, 
 ' Look at our temples and the statues 
 which embellish them ; go down to 
 Piraeus, observe the long walls, visit 
 Che arsenals, and the- docks of our 
 three hundred ships ; frequent our 
 theatres, and appreciate the surpassing 
 excellence of our poets, and the taste 
 and splendour of^ our scenic repre- 
 sentations ; walk through the markets, 
 
 observe them filled with the produc- 
 tions of every part of the world ; and 
 listen to the sounds of so many dialects 
 and foreign languages, which strike 
 your ears in the streets of our city,, 
 the resort of the whole world.'" But 
 with the strong love of country, witii 
 the same enthusiastic admiration of 
 her present grandeur, the same fond 
 recollection of her glory in times past, 
 there is a very striking difference of 
 spirit. The Greek thinks only of the 
 men who achieved that glory, and who 
 embellished the city of their birth, 
 and whose right hand gave them the 
 victory ; the Jew traces all the glory 
 of his land, and all the success of her 
 children, immediately to God. With 
 the one all is of man, with the other 
 all is of God. 
 
 PSALM XLIX. 
 
 This Psalm is not inaptly described in the ancient Latin Version 
 of the Psalms (published with the Anglo-Saxon Paraphrase by Thorpe) 
 as, Vox- EcclesicB super Lazaj-o et divite purpurato. It is designed as a 
 vindication of the ways of God in sight of the different fortunes of 
 the righteous and the wicked in this world. It is no mere common- 
 place on the shortness of life and the uncertainty of riches. It is no 
 philosophical dissertation, which bids us bear up bravely in our perils 
 and sufferings, telling us that virtue is its own reward. It goes at 
 once to the root of the matter. It shows us not only the vanity of 
 riches, but the end of those who "boast themselves in their riches." 
 It comforts the righteous in their oppression and affliction, not merely 
 by the assurance that they shall finally triumph over the wicked, but 
 by the more glorious hope of life everlasting with God. Here is the 
 
PSALM XLIX. 195 
 
 true ground of consolation, that God will not only not forsake those 
 who trust in Him in this life, but that He will take them to Himself. 
 It is this doctrine specially enunciated, which gives the Psalm its 
 distinctive character, and which leads the Psalmist himself to claim 
 for it so attentive a hearing. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three parts : — 
 
 I. First : An Introduction, in which the whole world is called upon 
 to listen to the words of the Poet, and in which he further declares 
 that he speaks by Divine inspiration. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 Then follows the main body of the Poem, in two principal 
 divisions, marked by the refrain, which closes each. Ver. 5 — 12, 
 and ver. 13 — 20. * 
 
 II. The former of these contains, generally, a description of men 
 prosperous and rich, whose riches puff them up with pride, and with 
 the foolish imagination that they can secure for themselves an im- 
 mortality upon earth ; but who are so far from being able to save 
 themselves or others from death by their riches, that they are no 
 better than the beasts that perish. Ver. 5 — 12. 
 
 III. The remainder of the Psalm deals chiefly with the consolation 
 to be derived from the end of the righteous, as contrasted with the 
 end of the worldly. Ver. 1 3 — 20. 
 
 Others divide the Psalm differently, and consider ver. 5 — 15 to 
 contain one consecutive piece of instruction as to the several lots of 
 the worldly and the faithful ; and ver. 16 — 20, the application of the 
 instruction, by way of consolation, to those who are in suffering and 
 poverty, and to whom the prosperity of these men is a stumbling- 
 block. 
 
 It should be remarked, that the rich men of the Psalm are not 
 described as " the wicked," " the ungodly," " the violent," &c., as in 
 other Psalms. Only one hint is given in the word "iniquity" (ver. 
 S), that they are evil men. But this seems to be designed, as in our 
 Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, to show that the selfish, 
 proud, boastful use of riches, the mere luxuriousness of wealth, apart 
 from violence or unscrupulousness of conduct, is evil, and finds its 
 end in the outer darkness. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 
 
 PSALM XLIX. 
 
 [for the precentor, of the sons of korah.* a psalm.] 
 
 1 Hear ye this, all ye peoples, 
 
 Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, 
 
 2 Both low and high. 
 
 Rich and poor together ! 
 
 3 My mouth shall speak wisdom, 
 
 And the meditation of my heart shall be under- 
 standing ; 
 
 4 I will incline mine ear to a parable, 
 
 I will open my dark saying upon the harp. 
 
 I — 4. Introduction and announce- 
 ment of the Psalmist's purpose. 
 
 The opening is solemn and formal, 
 like that of the Prophets. Comp. 
 Micah i. 2, i Kings xxii. 28, with 
 Deut. xxxii. i, Is. i. 2, Ps. 1. i. 
 
 1. The world ; the term here 
 used is that which indicates its tem- 
 porary, fleeting character : see xvii. 14, 
 note. Two things are implied in this 
 verse : first, that the doctrine of the 
 Psalm concerns all ; and next, that it 
 is one which men are apt to neglect, 
 and to the consideration of which, 
 therefore, they need to be roused. 
 
 2. Low AND HIGH, lit. sons of 
 (common) men, and sons of (great) 
 men. Rich and poor, between 
 whom the instruction of the Psalm is 
 divided, its lessons being a warning 
 to the one, and a. consolation to the 
 other. 
 
 4. I WILL INCLINE MINE EAR, aS 
 
 one who listens patiently for the Divine 
 revelation. The inspiration of the 
 Poet, as well as that of the Prophet, 
 is from above. He cannot speak of 
 his own heart ; he must hear what 
 God the Lord will say. The inclin- 
 ing of the eai- is the act significant of 
 ready obedience on the part of man ; 
 
 the revealing or uncovering the ear (&3 
 it were, by drawing away the longhair 
 which laung over it) denotes the im- 
 parting of supernatural knowledge,^ 
 heavenly wisdom, and the like, on the- ■ 
 part of God, Is. 1. 5. Similarly,, 
 Wordsworth, speaking of a maiden 
 whose soul is filled, and whose very,' 
 features are moulded by the inspiratioK; 
 caught from the world of Nature : , - 
 
 "... Scv^ ^2!A lean her ear 
 In many a secret place. 
 Where rivulets dance their wayward 
 
 round, 
 And beauty bom of murmuring sound 
 Shall pass into her face." 
 
 Diodati supposes that the metaphor is 
 borrowed from musicians, who incline 
 the ear when they tune their instru- 
 ments, in order to ascertain that each 
 note is true. It is because he has 
 thus listened to receive a message 
 from above, that the Poet can call 
 upon all nations to hear him. He 
 who would be a tnie teacher of the 
 things of God must first incline his 
 ear to hear, before he can open his 
 lips to speak. 
 
 A PARABLE, a truth cast in a 
 
 See note ou the Inscription of Psalm Ixxxiv. 
 
PSALM XLIX. 
 
 '97 
 
 5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, 
 
 When iniquity at my heels compasseth me about ? 
 
 6 They that trust in their wealth, 
 
 And in the greatness of their riches make their 
 boast, 
 
 7 None (of them) can by any means redeem another. 
 
 Nor give to God a ransom for him, — • 
 
 8 And precious is the redemption of their soul, 
 
 And it must be let alone for ever, — 
 
 9 That he should still live continually, 
 
 That he should not see the grave. 
 10 For he must see it : 
 
 Wise men must die : 
 
 weighty, sententious form ; as a rid- 
 dle is one clothed in metaphor, &c. 
 Comp. Ixxviii. 2, Prov. i. 6. Both 
 words, however, are used of profound 
 and important traths. The very ex- 
 pression, " I will open," shows that 
 it is not the design of the Poet to 
 express himself in a dark, obscure 
 manner. 
 
 5. Why should I fear. The 
 consolatory result at which he has 
 arrived, after looking at the vi'orld, 
 and weighing in the balance those 
 whose fortune seems fair and prospe- 
 rous, is placed first, before he tells the 
 tale, as in xxxvii. I, Ixxiii. i. 
 
 The days of evil, not merely a 
 time of misfortune, as the parallelism 
 shows, but the time in which evil men 
 bear sway. 
 
 When iniquity, &c. lit. " when 
 the iniquity of my heels compasseth 
 me about." Comp. xliv. 15, "the 
 shame of my face covereth ii>e," in- 
 stead of " shame covereth my face." 
 
 Or, perhaps, Iniquity is supposed 
 to be lying, like a serpent in his path, 
 ready to fasten on the heel, as the 
 most exposed and vulnerable part. 
 
 7. Another, lit. "a brother," the 
 word, however, being employed in the 
 widest sense, as in Lev. xxv. 48, and 
 
 often. The sentiment is expressed in 
 its most general form, but with a 
 tacit opposition. Man cannot redeem 
 man from death : God only can do 
 this. 
 
 8. Soul, i.e. as is evident from the 
 whole scope ofthe context here, "life." 
 It is much to be regretted that super- 
 ficial readers of the Psalm so often 
 give a totally false meaning to this and 
 the preceding verse. The passage has 
 been alleged to prove that our Lord, 
 as the Redeemer of man, must be God 
 as well as man. The doctrine is most 
 true, but it is not in the Psalm, nor is 
 there the remotest allusion to it. All 
 that is here taught is, that no wealth 
 can save a man from death, because 
 the life of men is not in their own 
 hands, or in that of their fellows, but 
 only in the hand of God, who cannot 
 be bribed. There is a kind of solemn 
 irony in the idea of the richest of men 
 offering all his riches to God, to es- 
 cape death. 
 
 9. That he should live. This 
 is dependent on the last clause of ver. 
 7, " Nor give to God a ransom for 
 him, that he should live," &c., verse 
 8 being parenthetical. 
 
 10. Wise men, not simply mean- 
 ing that their wisdom cannot save 
 
198 
 
 PSALM XLIX. 
 
 Together the fool and the brutish person must perish, 
 And leave their wealth for others. 
 II Their inward thought is that their houses shall be for 
 ever, 
 Their dwelling-places to many generations : 
 They call (their) lands after their own names. 
 But man, being in honour, abideth net. 
 
 He is like to the beasts that are destroyed. 
 This their way is their folly, 
 
 And after them men approve their sayings. [Selah.] 
 14 Like sheep they are gathered to the unseen world ; 
 Death is their shepherd : 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 them, but that their utmost -n-isdom 
 will not lead them to make so profit- 
 able a use of their wealth, as thereby 
 to escape the grave. Die .... 
 PERISH : the words seem purposely- 
 chosen to denote the end respectively 
 of the Toise and the brutish. 
 
 11. After, their own names. 
 Thus hopmg to build for themselves 
 an immortality upon earth. 
 
 12. In HONOUR. These words be- 
 long to the subject "man," not to the 
 verb following. Man (being) in hon- 
 our, notwithstanding all the magnifi- 
 cence of his position and his wealth, 
 abideth not, — lit. does not pass the 
 night, is not so secure in his position 
 even as a wayfarer, who turns in for a 
 night's lodging at the inn. 
 
 Are destroyed, lit. " are reduced 
 to silence," the eternal silence of 
 death. 
 
 13. This verse is evidently closely 
 connected with ver. 11, and hence 
 Hupfeld would transpose it with ver. 
 12. It is, as he says, naturally con- 
 nected by the train of thought with 
 ver. II, and indeed carries on and 
 completes the picture, by showing 
 how these rich men have their example 
 followed even after their death. The 
 very expression, " Thu their way," 
 &c., is a summing up of what had 
 been just said. And the &/a,4, stand- 
 
 ing as it now does, at the end of ver, 
 13, instead of standing, as it naturally 
 would, after the refrain, ver. 12, seems 
 to intimate that there has been some 
 disarrangement. 
 
 This their way. Both the mean- 
 ing and the construction of this clause 
 are doubtful. It may mean (i) "This 
 their way [i.e. manner of life, course 
 of conduct) is their folly : " or (2) 
 "This their prosperous condition is 
 (or becomes) their infatuation (blind 
 confidence)." 
 
 Approvetheir sayings, lit. "find 
 pleasure in their mouth." Their ex- 
 ample and their words survive them. 
 Their maxims are the maxims which 
 find favour and currency in the world.' 
 Ewald carries on the construction 
 from the previous verse : 
 
 " This is the way of those who have 
 folly. 
 And of those after them who delight 
 to speak in like manner." 
 
 14. A further description of the end 
 of these rich fools. They perish like 
 cattle (ver. 12) ; they are laid in the 
 grave ; they descend to Hades {ShBl, 
 the world of spirits), and there they 
 are like a flock of sheep, with Death 
 for their shepherd, their beauty and 
 their glory gone. 
 
 Is their shepherd, i.e. feeds 
 
PSALM XLIX. 
 
 199 
 
 — And the upright have dominion over them in the 
 morning, — 
 And their beauty shall the unseen world consume, 
 That it have no more dwelling-place. 
 15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the 
 unseen world : 
 For He shall take me. [Selah.] 
 
 them (not feeds on them, as the 
 E.V.), tends them. They have been 
 like a flock fed to the full in fat pas- 
 tures during the day : they are now 
 like a flock which the shepherd, when 
 night comes, puts into the fold. 
 
 Have dominion, or, have tram- 
 pled upon them, putting their feet, as 
 it were, upon the neck of prostrate 
 foes. Stated as a past fact, because 
 the destruction of the wicked is also 
 regarded as already accomplished. 
 
 In the morning. Apparently the 
 morning of deliverance is meant, after 
 the night of misery and suffering which 
 they have experienced at the hand 
 of their oppressors. Some expositors 
 understand it of the morning of the 
 resurrection, and the kingdom and 
 dominion which the saints shall then 
 share with Christ. But see on ver. 1 5. 
 
 15. The lot of the righteous is now 
 contrasted with that of the wicked, 
 but with a personal application to the 
 Psalmist himself, "God shall redeem 
 my soul." 
 
 But, or, "only," as an exception 
 to the general lot of men, such as 
 those before described. 
 
 From the povfER or the unseen 
 WORLD, lit. "fromthehandof Shfiol," 
 i.e. the grave and Hades. 
 
 For He shall take me. This 
 short half-verse is the more weighty, 
 from its very shortness. 
 
 We have, then, in this passage 
 again (comp. xvi. Ii, xvii. 15), the 
 strong hope of eternal life with God, 
 if not the hope of a resurrection. In 
 the preceding verse, in the very midst 
 of the gloomy picture which he draws 
 
 of the end of the ungodly, there breaks 
 forth one morning-ray of light, the 
 bright anticipation of the final triumph 
 of the good over the evil. This is the 
 inextinguishable hope which animates 
 the Church of the Old Testament, as 
 well as that of the New. Righteous- 
 ness shall eventually, must in its very 
 nature, reign upon the earth. The 
 wicked shall find their end in Sheol 
 (see ix. 17), and the righteous shall 
 trample on their graves. This, and 
 not more than this, seems to have 
 been the meaning originally of the 
 Psalmist, in the words, ' ' And the 
 righteous have dominion over them in 
 the morning. " But now that he comes 
 to speak of himself, and his own per- 
 sonal relation to God, be rises into a 
 higher strain. He v/ho knows and 
 loves God has the life of God, and can 
 never perish. That life must survive 
 even the shock of death. " God," 
 says the Psalmist, " shall redeem my 
 soul from the hand of Hades, for He 
 shall take me," as He took Enoch, 
 and as He took Elijah to Himself. 
 We are not, of course, to suppose that 
 the Sacred Poet himself expected to 
 be taken up alive to heaven ; but those 
 great facts of former ages were God's 
 witnesses to man of his immortality, 
 and of the reality of a life with Him 
 beyond this world. It is a hope based 
 on facts like these which here shines 
 forth. It is a hope, not a revealed 
 certainty. It rests on no distinct 
 promise : it has not assumed the 
 definite form of a doctrine. But it 
 was enough to raise, to cheer, to en- 
 courage those who saw ungodliness 
 
2 00 PSALM L. 
 
 1 6 Be not thou afraid when a man groweth rich, 
 
 When the glory of his house is increased : 
 
 17 For when he dieth he can take nothing (away with him), 
 
 His glory cannot descend after him : 
 
 18 For though he blesseth his soul while he liveth, 
 
 — And men praise thee when thou doest good to 
 thyself — 
 
 19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers, 
 
 Who nevermore see the light. 
 
 20 Man, being in honour, and having no understanding. 
 
 Is like to the beasts that are destroyed. 
 
 prospering in this world. The end of 
 the -wicked, after all, was a thick dark- 
 ness which had never been penetrated ; 
 the end of the righteous, life with God. 
 (See the same contrast inxvii. I5) and 
 note there. ) 
 
 16. Having encouraged himself 
 with this hope, he now turns to en- 
 courage others. 
 
 18. Blesseth his soul, i.e. pro- 
 nounces himself a happy man. Comp. 
 Deut. xxix. 19, "blesseth himself'in 
 his heart," and the address of the rich 
 man to his soul, Luke xii. 19, "Soul, 
 thou hast much goods laid up for 
 many years." 
 
 19. He shall go. According to 
 the present text, "it shall ^o" i.e. 
 the soul (ver. 18), which is the only 
 subject, if the verb here is in the 3d 
 pers. fem. Some expositors, however. 
 
 alleging that such an expression is 
 not used of the soul, would take the 
 verb here as 2d pers. masc, "thou 
 shalt go," as if the rich man were 
 addressed : but this involves the ex- 
 ceeding harshness of a return, imme- 
 diately after, to the 3d pers., " Thou 
 shalt go to the generation of Us 
 fathers." 
 
 20. The Psalm concludes with the 
 refrain, as at ver. 12, but with the 
 alteration of one word. Instead of 
 "abideth not," we have now, "and 
 hath no understanding," orratherasa 
 sort of adverbial clause, "and with- 
 out understanding. " There is conse- 
 quently a fresh idea here. There the 
 statement is, that men in general are 
 like dumb cattle ; here, that only if 
 they possess not the true wisdom, they 
 perish like the brutes. 
 
 PSALM L. 
 
 This Psalm furnishes us with no evidence as to the time of its 
 composition, but in elegance and sublimity of language, in force and 
 dignity, it is worthy of the best days of Hebrew poetry. It is a 
 
PSALM L. 201 
 
 magnificent exposition of the true nature of that service and worship 
 which God requires from man. It rebulces the folly which thinks 
 that religion is a matter of sacrifices and gifts, and declares that 
 obedience and thanksgiving are the true fulfilling of the Law. It 
 condemns aUke a prevalent formahsm and a prevalent hypocrisy. 
 How needful it was to insist upon such truths we learn from the 
 whole history of Israel, and the perpetual and indignant remon- 
 strances of the Prophets. The tendency to substitute the outward 
 act for the inward, the sacrifices of bulls and goats for the sacrifice 
 of thanksgiving, was deeply ingrained in the nation, till at last it 
 ossified in Pharisaism, and wore its most hideous aspect on that day 
 of solemn Passover, when the sacrifices of the Law were offered by 
 those whose hands were stained with the greatest crime which the 
 world has seen. 
 
 The Psalm thus inculcates at length the same doctrine which we 
 find in briefer lines in Psalms xl. 6 — 8, li. 17, Ixix. 30, &c., and which 
 is implied in xv. and xxiv. i — 6. In its general tone and character it 
 is essentially prophetic. It consists of three principal parts : — 
 
 I. A magnificent exordium, in which the whole scene of judgement 
 is described. As formerly, at the giving of the Law on Sinai, so now 
 God is represented as appearing in Zion for the explanation of it, and 
 for judgement against its transgressors. Ver. i — 6. 
 
 II. From His judgement-seat God solemnly rebukes the errors 
 and delusions which prevailed as to' the nature of His service. He 
 reminds His people of the peculiar relation in which they stand to 
 Him, and asks if they can believe that sacrifices, merely as sacri- 
 fices, can be of any value to Him who has all creatures at His 
 command. Thanksgiving and prayer are the sacrifices in which 
 He dehghts, and these will best avail in the day of trouble. Ver. 
 7-iS- 
 
 III. But there were those in Israel who not only exalted the out- 
 ward service unduly, but who made its punctual observance a cloke 
 for, and a makeweight against, their iniquity. The first evil, indeed, 
 of superstitious formalism, naturally engendered this still deadlier 
 evil of conscious hypocrisy. Against this, sentence is now pro- 
 nounced ; and again the truth, already enunciated, is repeated, that 
 the love of a grateful heart is the sacrifice which is truly pleasing to 
 God. Ver. 16 — 23. 
 
202 PSALM L. 
 
 [a psalm of ASAPH.*] 
 
 I. I The God of gods, Jehovah, hath spoken, 
 
 And called the earth, from the rising of the sun to 
 the setting thereof. 
 
 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, 
 
 God hath shined. 
 
 3 Our God cometh, and surely will not keep silence ! 
 
 A fire devoureth before Him, 
 
 And round about Him a tempest rages : 
 
 I — 6. The Psalm opens with a, 
 description of God's coming to judge 
 His people. He comes now to Zion, 
 as once He came to Sinai. He 
 comes with all the gloom and terrors 
 of thunder, and lightning, and storm. 
 He summons before His judgement- 
 seat those whom He has taken into 
 covenant with Himself ; and at the 
 same time as exercising universal 
 dominion. He calls heaven and earth 
 to be His witnesses against them. 
 
 I. The God of gods. This is, 
 there can be no doubt, the proper 
 rendering of the words, El Elohim. 
 These three names of God occur in 
 the same way in Josh. xxii. 22, where 
 they are twice repeated. This is the 
 only use of the name Jehovah in the 
 Psalm, which is in accordance with 
 the general Elohistic character of the 
 second Book; but the adjunct, "God 
 of gods," is certainly remarkable. 
 
 The peculiar use of the Divine Names 
 in the Psalms, and in the historical 
 Books, is however too large a ques- 
 tion to be satisfactorily discussed in a 
 note. 
 
 The earth, as afterwards "the 
 heaven and the earth," are summoned 
 as witnesses of the solemn act of. 
 judgement, and as lending grandeur 
 to the whole awful scene — borrowed,,: 
 as Is. i. 2, from Deut. xxxii. i. 
 
 2. The perfection of beauty. 
 Comp, xlviii 2. The same expression 
 is applied to Zion also in Lament, ii, 
 15. Zion would be so called, as pos- 
 sessing the Sanctuary, whether Taber- 
 nacle or Temple. 
 
 Hath shined. Comp. Ixxx. i, 
 Deut. xxxiii. z. 
 
 3. God is seen coming, the devour- 
 ing fire and the migh-ty tempest being 
 the accompaniments of His Presence, 
 and the symbols of the judgement 
 
 * This is the first Psalm, and the only one in this Book, ascribed to Asaph. In the Third 
 Book of the Psalter, eleven Psalms, Ixxiii. — Ixxxiii., have his name prefixed to them. He was 
 one of the three choir-leaders or chief singers appointed under the direction of David to 
 preside over his great choral company of Levites, the other two being Heman and Ethan (or 
 Jeduthun). Comp. i Chron. xv. 16. &c. with xxv.i, &c. Tlieir special instruments of music 
 were cymbals of brass, i Chron. xv. 19, with which, and with harps and psalteries, they >/ere 
 said to prophesy, xxv. i. On the occasion of bringing up the Ark to Jerusalem, David 
 delivered "To Asaph and his brethren"the Psalm which had been composed to celebrate that 
 event, i Chron xvi. 7 ; and in the division of the Levitical services which became necessary, 
 as the tabernacle still remained at Gibeon, Asaph and his company were selected "to 
 minister before the Ark of Jehovah, and to record, and to thank and praise Jehr.vah tht 
 God of Israel," t Chron. xvi. 4, 5. In later times, Asaph was ranked with David as (UW 
 of the famous singers of Israel. Comp. Neh. xii. 46, with a Chron. xxix. 30. 
 
PSALM L. 
 
 203 
 
 4 He calls to the heavens from above, 
 
 And to the earth that He may judge His people. 
 
 5 " Gather My beloved together unto Me, 
 
 They that have made a covenant with Me by 
 sacrifice." 
 
 6 And the heavens have declared His righteousness. 
 
 For God is Judge Himself. [Selah.] 
 
 II. 7 " Hear, O my people, and I vifill speak ; 
 O Israel, and I will testify unto thee ; 
 God, (even) thy God, (am) I. 
 8 Not because of thy sacrifices do I reprove thee. 
 
 Yea, thy burnt-offerings (have been) always before Me. 
 
 which He will execute. See the more 
 elaborate working out of the same 
 image in xviii. 7 — 15. Comp. xcvii. 
 2-6. 
 
 . A TEMPEST RAGES, lit. "it is tem- 
 pestuous exceedingly." 
 
 5. All nature having been sum- 
 moned as witness to the awful scene, 
 God now speaks. 
 
 Gather, &c. To whom are these 
 words addressed ? Many suppose, to 
 the angels, as the ministers of God's 
 will. But it is unnecessary to make 
 the expression more definite than it is 
 in the Psalm. 
 
 My BELOVED, not "my saints,^' as 
 E.V., but " those who have obtained 
 favour, grace, in My sight, " or as is 
 explained in the parallel, "those 
 whom I have taken into covenant 
 with Myself" See note on xvi. 10. 
 God has made Himself known to 
 Israel : He has given them His Law 
 and His Covenant : and He comes 
 now to judge them, to see whether 
 they have kept His Law, whether 
 they have been faithful to His Cove- 
 nant 
 
 By sacrifice, lit. "upon sacrifice," 
 as that by means of which the cove- 
 nant was sealed, Exod, xxiv. 8. 
 
 6. For God is Judge. God is 
 now about to act as Judge Himself. 
 
 7. Then judgement opens. The 
 whole nation is called before the bar 
 of its Judge, who is " God " (the God 
 of the world), and " thy God " (the 
 God of Israel). 
 
 And I WILL SPEAK, or, "that 1 
 may speak," and in the next clause 
 " that I m.ay testify.'' 
 
 Testify against thee, or per- 
 haps " conjare thee," "solemnly warn 
 thee." 
 
 God, (even) thy God, in an 
 Elohistic Psalm, instead of "Jeho- 
 vah, thy God, " (see xlv. 7, with refer- 
 ence probably to the Mosaic formula, 
 as at the beginning of the Decalogue, 
 Exod. XX. 2). Compare the shorter 
 formula, " I am Jehovah," Ex. vi. 2, 
 6 — 8, which is so often repeated in 
 the solemn enactment of different 
 laws in the Book of Leviticus. It is 
 the utterance both of the Lawgiver 
 and of the Judge. 
 
 8. The reason for this act of judge- 
 ment is given. First, negatively. It is 
 not because the people had neglected 
 the externals of the Law, or had for- 
 gotten to offer the sacrifices appointed 
 by the Law. They had brought 
 them ; but they had brought them as 
 if the act were everything, and as if 
 the meaning of the act, and the spirit 
 in which it was done, were nothing. 
 
204 
 
 PSALM L. 
 
 9 I would not take out of thine house a bullock, 
 Nor he-goats out of thy folds ; 
 
 10 For Mine is every beast of the forest, 
 
 (And) the cattle upon the mountains by thousands. 
 
 1 1 I know every bird of the mountains, 
 
 And that which moveth in the field is with Me. 
 
 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee ; 
 
 For Mine is the world and the fulness thereof. 
 Should I eat the flesh of bulls, 
 
 Or drink the blood of he-goats ">. 
 Sacrifice unto God thanksgiving, 
 
 And pay thy vows to the Most High ; 
 I S And call upon Me in the day of trouble, 
 
 I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 But God demands no service for its 
 own sake, but only as»the expression 
 of an obedient will. A tlianltful 
 heart is more than all bumt-offerings. 
 The Prophets are full of the like 
 sentiments. Thus, in Isaiah, God 
 expostulates, ' ' To what purpose is 
 the multitude of your sacrifices unto 
 Me ? I am full of the bumt-offerings 
 of rams," &c. (i. 12; compare also 
 Iviii. and Ixvi. 3). Micahasks, "Will 
 Jehovah be pleased with thousands of 
 rams?" &c. (vi. 6 — 8). Hosea testi- 
 fies, "I will have mercy and not 
 sacrifice." And so deep-rooted was 
 this tendency in the people to exag- 
 gerate the importance of the dead 
 work, to bring the sacrifice of the 
 dumb animal instead of the sacrifice 
 of the heart, that Jeremiah carries the 
 opposition between sacrifice and obe- 
 dience even to the extreme of a 
 paradox. " For I spake not unto 
 your father.s, and I commanded them 
 not, in the day that I brought them 
 up out of the land of Egypt, concern- 
 ing burnt-offering and sacrifice ; but 
 this thing I commanded them, saying, 
 Hear My voice," &c. (vii. 22, 23). 
 
 Sacrifices, i.e. peace-offerings, 
 often joined with burnt-offerings, 
 as li. 16. See also xl. 6, the two 
 being mentioned probably as repre- 
 senting and including all manner of 
 sacrifices. 
 
 The following verses, 9 — 13, are in 
 a strain of lofty irony, in which the 
 gross stupidity which could suppose 
 that the flesh and blood of the victims 
 were of themselves acceptable to God, 
 is finely exposed. 
 
 10. Cattle. The word is most 
 commonly used of tame animals, but 
 here generally of large herds of 
 grazing cattle. 
 
 By THOUSANDS, lit. "on the moun- 
 tains of a thousand," i.e. where a 
 thousand are ; or, where they are by 
 thousands. 
 
 14. There follows now, positively, 
 what God requires. The sacrifices 
 which He wouldhave are thanksgiving, 
 and the prayer of faith in the time of 
 trouble. Comp. li. 17. 
 
 Under the name of Ikanks^imng 
 and prayer all the rest of religion 
 is comprehended. 
 
 Thy vows. Comp. cxvi. 13. 
 
PSALM L. 
 
 205 
 
 III. 1 6 But unto the wicked saith God : 
 
 " What hast thou to do to tell My statutes, 
 And that thou hast taken My covenant into thy 
 mouth ? 
 
 17 Whereas for thee — thou hatest instruction, 
 
 And hast cast My words behind thee ; 
 
 18 When thou sawest a thief— thou foundest pleasure 
 
 in him, 
 And with adulterers (has been) thy portion ; 
 
 19 Thy mouth thou hast let loose in wickedness, 
 
 And thy tongue frameth deceit ; 
 
 20 Thou sittest (and) speakest against thy brother. 
 
 Against thy mother's son thou utterest slander. 
 
 21 These things thou hast done, and (because) I kept 
 
 silence 
 
 16. The former part of the Divine 
 sentence was directed against those 
 who attached undue importance to 
 the external acts of religion. What 
 follows is directed against those who 
 make use of the outward observances 
 of religion as a mask and cloke under 
 which they may hide their iniquities. 
 First, formalists, and next, hypocrites 
 are condemned. With this and the 
 following verses, comp. Rom. ii. 17 
 —24. 
 
 To TELL, i.e. "to number," "to 
 count up," as if with a view to their 
 more punctual observance. 
 
 17. Whebeas for thee. The 
 pronoun is emphatic, and is thus 
 placed, to mark the strong contrast 
 between such a character and the 
 Law which he professes to understand. 
 Comp. Is. i. 15. 
 
 18. Foundest pleasure in him, 
 i.e. in his society ; in intercourse with 
 him, &c. Comp. Job xxxiv. 9. The 
 transgression of three commandments 
 of the Decalogue is specified, in the 
 same way as in Rom. ii. 1 7, &c. by 
 way of example. 
 
 19. Frameth, lit. " weaveth." 
 
 20. Thou sittest, i.e. in company 
 with others who slander and speak 
 evil. (See 1. i.) 
 
 Thy mother's son, stronger than 
 " thy brother," and intended to mark 
 the unnatural blackness of such con- 
 duct 
 
 Utterest slander. (The noun 
 occurs only here), the LXX. render 
 " puttest a stumbling-block," but 
 the other sense suit.s the parallelism 
 better. 
 
 21. And because the sinner is al- 
 lowed to go on long unpunished, he 
 waxes confident by his impunity, and 
 imagines that God is like himself, and 
 that good and evil are things indiffer- 
 ent ; not that he says so in words, but 
 his conduct shows his ignorance both 
 of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and 
 of the truth and righteousness of 
 God. 
 
 Kept silence, t.e. did not mani- 
 fest My abhorrence of sin by signal 
 vengeance on the ungodly. 
 
 But the long-suffering of God cannot 
 always be abused. The time comes 
 when the sinner is made to feel that 
 God is a righteous Judge. 
 
206 
 
 PSALM L. 
 
 Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one like 
 thyself ; 
 (But) I will reprove thee, and set all (the matter) in 
 order before thine eyes.'' 
 
 22 Consider, now, this, O ye that forget God, 
 
 Lest I tear (you), and there be none to deliver. 
 
 23 Whoso sacrificeth thanksgiving glorifieth me. 
 
 And whoso prepareth (his) way, 
 
 I will show him the salvation of God. 
 
 I WILL SET IN ORDER — the whole 
 sin in all its evil course, its poisonous 
 root, and its deadly branches, shall be 
 put before the man. The sin that he 
 did and would not look at, God shall 
 make him look upon. The sin which 
 he thought he could hide from God, 
 or which, with strange infatuation, 
 he supposed God took no notice of, 
 shall be proclaimed upon the house- 
 tops. 
 
 23. This third great division of the 
 Psalm concludes with the assertion of 
 the same truth as the second. The 
 lesson of the Psalm for all who per- 
 vert the Law of God, whether to pur- 
 poses of superstition or hypocrisy, is 
 the same : God desires the heart and 
 the will of man as the true sacrifice. 
 
 Sacrificeth thanksgiving, as 
 above, ver. 14. The verb is design- 
 edly employed, in order to mark the 
 nature of the sacrifice which God will 
 have : slay not victims, bring not 
 animals, but bring thanksgiving as 
 sacrifices. The E. V. with its render- 
 ing, " Offereik praise," loses sight of 
 the distinct reference to the Mosaic 
 sacrifices, which are not indeed abso- 
 lutely superseded — the time had not 
 yet come for this — but are put in their 
 true place. The very great promi- 
 nence again given to thanksgiving is 
 worthy of our careful notice. There 
 is no duty so commonly forgotten. 
 God showers down His benefits upon 
 us with both hands, large and free, 
 and we receive them as a matter of 
 
 course, and never consider Whose] 
 Love has bestowed them : and thus, 
 in our unthankfulness, we rob God 
 of His honour. I 
 
 Further, as thanksgiving is thus 
 dwelt upon because it is so commonly 
 forgotten, so it is also put as the sum 
 of religion because it, in fact, includes 
 all else. Faith, and prayer, and self- 
 denial, and the endurance of the cross, 
 and all holy exercises, are, as Calvin 
 observes, comprised in this one grace, 
 For it is by faith only that we ate 
 sensible of God's goodness ; therefore 
 he who is truly of a thankful spirit 
 has faith 5 he who is thankful triumphs 
 over his earthly trials: he who is thank- 
 ful is accomplishing man's highest 
 end, inasmuch as in all things he 
 gives glory to God. 
 
 The instruction of the Psalm abides: 
 it has not lost its force. The sacra- 
 ments and ordinances of the Chrisiian 
 Church may become to us, what sacri- 
 fice and offering were to the Jews, a 
 mere outward form ; a man may 
 give all his goods to feed the poor, 
 and yet have no love ; a man may be 
 punctual in his attendance at all holy 
 OFdinances, and yet cherish iniquity 
 in his heart, and, upon occasion, 
 secretly practise it. Hence the Psalm 
 is truly prophetical ; that is, universal 
 in its character. It deals with " the 
 sinners and the hypocrites in Zion," 
 but it reaches to all men, in all places 
 to the end of time. 
 
PSALM LI. 207 
 
 PSALM LI. 
 
 This Psalm is the expression of a deep and unfeigned repentance. 
 L is a prayer, first, for forgiveness, with a humble confession of sinful 
 eeds springing from a sinful nature as their bitter root ; and then for 
 ;newal and sanctification through the Holy Ghost ; together with 
 ows of thankfiilness for God's mercy to the sinner, and holy reso- 
 itions for the future. 
 
 It is the first of a series of Psalms, li. — Ixv., which, in the Second 
 look of the Psalter, are ascribed to David ; and, according to the 
 de, was written by him after his great sin, when the words of the 
 'rophet Nathan roused his conscience from its uneasy slumber, 
 lefore that, we cannot doubt, remorse had been busy with him. 
 lefore that, he had felt his misery, had fought against it, but had 
 ;fused to confess his sin. But the home-thrust, " Thou art the man," 
 ierced him to the heart, and this Psalm is but the fuller record of the 
 jiifession, " I have sinned," which the history mentions so briefly. 
 
 So profound a conviction of sin, so deep and unfeigned a penitence, 
 3 true a confession, a heart so tender, so contrite, a desire so fervent 
 )r renewal, a trust so humble, so filial in the forgiving love of God, 
 re what we find nowhere else in the Old Testament, but what we 
 light surely expect from " the man after God's own heart." This 
 salm, indeed, and the 32nd, justify the title thus given him. In 
 lem we see the true man. Great as had been his sin, it was not the 
 ti of a hardened nature, of the merely selfish sensualist, of the 
 espot to whom all men were but as tools to minister to his pleasures 
 id his crimes. And therefore, when the Prophet comes to him, he 
 ims to God with a real sorrow, and God meets him, as the father in 
 le parable meets his erring son, with a free forgiveness. 
 
 I see no ground for departing from the constant and reasonable 
 ;lief of the Church, that the Psalm was vmtten by David under the 
 rcumstances indicated in the title. 
 
 It consists of three principal divisions : — 
 I. The prayer for forgiveness. Ver. 1—8. 
 
20S 
 
 PSALM LI. 
 
 II. The prayer for renewal. Ver. 9 — 12. 
 
 III. The holy resolutions of one who has experienced the forgiving 
 love and the sanctifying grace of God. Ver. 13 — 19. 
 
 The Psalm concludes with a prayer for Zion and the utterance of I 
 a hope that the time will come when God will be honoured withj 
 " sacrifices of righteousness." * 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID, WHEN NATHAN THE 
 PROPHET CAME TO HIM AFTER HE HAD COME IN UNTO 
 BATHSHEBA.] 
 
 I. I Be gracious unto me, O God, according to Thy loving- 
 kindness. 
 According to the greatness of Thy tender mercies 
 blot out my transgressions : 
 
 I, 2. The prayer for forgiveness. 
 
 I. According to Thy loving- 
 kindness. In all godly sorrow there 
 is hope. Sorrow without hope may 
 be remorse or despair, but it is not 
 repentance. Hence the true penitent 
 always looks to the loving-kindness of 
 God, even at the very time when he 
 feels most deeply how he has sinned 
 against it. The cry on his lips is " My 
 Father^' even when he confesses, *' I 
 am no more worthy to be called Thy 
 son." 
 
 The greatness, &c. It is in this 
 that David seeks the ground of for- 
 giveness, not in himself. Comp. xxv. 
 6, 7. The deep sense of the ^rm^M^j-j 
 of his own sin makes him feel the 
 need of a great mercy. 
 
 Blot out. The forgiveness of sins 
 is expressed by the use of two figures. 
 The first, ihaX oi blotting out, "making 
 that which is done as if it had not 
 been done," is capable of two ex- 
 planations : either (1) it refers to 
 
 erasing from a book or tablet what 
 has been written therein, as Ex. xxxii. 
 32, Num. v. 23, comp. Ps. Ixix. 28, in 
 which case sin must here beregardedas 
 a debt entered against the debtor, and 
 so cancelled by being blotted oiitj 
 or (2) it may mean, in a more general ; 
 sense, the wipingaway of a thing, ancl';^ 
 so its entire removal, as in 2 King? 
 xxi. 13, it is said, " I will wipe (the 
 same word as here) Jerusalem as a 
 man wipeth a dish. " And in Is. xliv. 
 22, " I will blot out as a cloud thy 
 sins,'' i.e. take them away as a cloud 
 is swept away by the wind from the 
 face of heaven. 
 
 My transgressions. The use of 
 the plural has been variously ex- 
 plained. Some suppose that the 
 several sins of adultery and murder are 
 thus denoted. But this is too super- 
 ficial a view. No sin ever staiids 
 alone : each single transgression is, 
 the mother of many transgressions', 
 each is a root of bitterness wheao* 
 
 * It is mentioned in the Life of Bishop Blomfield that he used this Psalm every night in 
 addition to his other devotions. 
 
PSALM LI. 
 
 2og 
 
 2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, 
 
 And cleanse me from my sin. 
 
 3 For I know my transgressions, 
 
 And my sin is ever before me. 
 
 4 Against Thee — against Thee only have I sinned. 
 
 spring many bitter branches, so that 
 we cannot confess one sin without 
 confessing many. 
 
 On the various words used here 
 and in the next verse, transgres- 
 sions . . . INIQUITY . . . SIN, see 
 note on xxxii. I, 
 
 f 2. Wash me. This is the second 
 figure employed to denote the work- 
 ing of God's forgiveness for which 
 David prays. How is it to be under- 
 'stood? Does it refer only, like the 
 •first (the blotting out of sin), to the 
 act of forgiveness, or does it denote 
 the cleansing and purifying of the 
 biniier's soul, the sanctification of the 
 fspirit? 
 
 I So far as the figure itself is con- 
 f^emed, it might certainly be symboli- 
 vcal, as all outward washing was, of 
 inward purification. On the other 
 liand, the prayer here is for forgiveness 
 of sins— that the burden of guilt may 
 be taken away, and afterwards, in 
 ver. 10 fT., comes the prayer for 
 renewal and sanctification. The verb 
 in the next clause also, " cleanse me," 
 though a word of more general use, 
 is specially applied to the priest who 
 "pronounces clean" the leper, a de- 
 clarative act Comp. Lev. xiii. 6, 
 34. But we must not expect in the 
 0. T., and least of all in prayer, 
 sharply defined and accurate state- 
 ments of doctrine. Stier, who under- 
 stands the " washing" here of sancti- 
 fication, says, with perfect truth, that 
 justification and sanctification, though 
 distinct, are always closely connected 
 in Scripture. God does not declare 
 righteous without »zay6(«^ righteous. 
 
 3. For. This particle expresses, 
 
 not the reason why God should for- 
 give him, but the reason why he asks 
 for forgiveness ; namely, his own 
 sense and acknowledgement of his 
 sin. Those, however, who adopt the 
 first sense, regard the confession of 
 sin not as the meritorious cause of 
 forgiveness, but rather as an indis- 
 pensable condition (comp. xxxii. S> 
 Prov. xxviii. 13). 
 
 1 KNOW. There is no need to 
 render with the E. V. " I acknow- 
 ledge," though no doubt the confession 
 of sin is implied. That however is 
 not here prominent, but rather that 
 discernment of sin and of its true 
 nature which leads to a confession of 
 it. In xxxii. 5, " I will confess unto 
 Thee " is lit. " I will make Thee 
 know. '' 
 
 Is EVER BEFORE ME. Comp. xxxii. 
 3, 4. Luther says : ' ' That is, my 
 sin plagues me, gives me no resf, no 
 peace ; whether I eat or drink, sleep 
 or wake, I am always in terror of 
 God's wrath and judgement." But 
 surely here, not the terror of God's 
 wrath and judgement, but the deep 
 sorrow for despite done to God's love 
 and goodness, is the feeling upper- 
 roost. David dreads not punishment, 
 but separation from God. 
 
 4. Then follows an acknowledge- 
 ment of the double evil of sin : fir~t, 
 in its aim, and next in its source; 
 first, as done against God, and then 
 as springing from a corrupt nature. 
 
 Against Thee only. How could 
 this language come from the mouth 
 of David, who had been guilty of sins 
 which were so directly against men as 
 well as against God? The sin against 
 P 
 
PSALM LI. 
 
 And that which is evil in Thine eyes have I done : 
 That Thou mayest be just when Thou speakest, 
 
 Bathsheba whom he had tempted, the 
 sin against Uriah whom he had slain 
 by the sword of another, the sin 
 against his own family which he had 
 polluted, and against his kingdom 
 which he had weakened, — were not 
 all these sins against men ? They 
 were. And yet he says. Against Thee 
 only have I sinned. How are we to 
 understand this ? 
 
 First, the words are to be explained 
 by David's deep conviction of sin as sin. 
 For the moment all else is swallowed 
 up in that. Face to face with God, 
 he sees nothing else, can think of 
 nothing else, but His presence for- 
 gotten, His holiness outraged. His 
 love scorned. Therefore he must 
 confess and be forgiven by God before 
 he could even think of the wrong 
 done to his neighbour. 
 
 But secondly, this deep feeling of 
 the penitent heart, of the heart which 
 loves God above all things, has its root 
 in the very relation in which God 
 stands to his creatures. All sin, as 
 sin, is and must be against God. All 
 wrong done to our neighbour is wrong 
 done to one created in the image of 
 God;* all tempting of our neighbour 
 to evil is taking the part of Satan 
 against God, and, so far as in us lies, 
 defeating God's good purpose of grace 
 towardshim. All wounding of another, 
 whether in person or property, in body 
 or soul, is a sin against the goodness 
 of God. Hence the Apostle says (i 
 Cor. viii. 12), "But when ye sin so 
 against the brethren, and wound their 
 weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. " 
 In like manner, all love to our neigh- 
 bour is love to God whom we love in 
 him. On this prhiciple we shall be 
 judged : " Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it to the least of these, ye have done 
 it unto Me." It is not therefore 
 
 enough to explain these words of 
 David, "Against Thee only," by say- 
 ing that they are the expression of his 
 cmjn deep se?ise of his guilt and the 
 dishonour done to God. That feeling 
 rested upon the eternal truth of whicl} 
 it was the expression , a truth on whichi ' 
 as Hengstenberg observes, the Deest-f 
 logue itself is based: "Thou must 
 honour and love God in Himself, ih _ 
 those who represent Him on earth 
 (Deut. V. 16), "in all who bear His 
 image. The love of God appears 
 constantly in Deuteronomy, as the ofle 
 thing which of necessity carries along 
 with it the fulfilment of the whole 
 Law ; as for instance in chaps, xi. sai. 
 Earlier still, in Gen. ix. 6, the punish- 
 ment of murder is grounded on this, 
 that man bears God's image." "How 
 must David have trembled," says the 
 same commentator, "how must he' 
 have been seized with shame and 
 grief, when he referred everything to 
 God, when in Uriah he saw only the 
 image of God, the Holy One, who 
 deeply resented that injury, — the 
 gracious and compassionate One, ^ 
 whom he owed such infinitely rifeh 
 benefits, who had lifted him up frotf 
 the dust of humiliation, had so ofteii 
 delivered him, and had also given 
 him the promise of so glorious a 
 future ! " 
 
 That Thou mayest. Strictly 
 speaking, "in order that," which 
 would imply that the sin was done iii 
 order that God's justice might shme 
 the more conspicuously thereby ; and 
 this would seem of course to make 
 God the author of sin. 
 
 But St. Paul, arguing upon this 
 very passage in Rom. iii. 4, 5, refutes 
 tlie possible perversion that men are 
 at liberty to sin because thereby God's 
 righteousness is commended. On the 
 
 'Defaced the image of the dear Redeemer." — ShaJcespeare, Richard III 
 
PSALM LI. 
 
 (That) Thou mightest be pure when Thou judgest. 
 
 5 Behold, in iniquity I was brought forth, 
 
 And in sin- did my mother conceive me. 
 
 6 Behold, Thou delightest in truth in the inward parts, 
 
 one hand it is clear that all, even sin 
 itself, maybe regarded as contemplated 
 dnd comprised in the design of God ; 
 and yet on the other, man is free, and 
 sin is man's misdoing, and not God's 
 doing. But, after all, there is perhaps 
 no need to press the exact significa- 
 tion of the particle here. 
 
 When Thou speakest, i.e. as is 
 evident from the parallelism, "when 
 Thou givest sentence." 
 
 When Thou judgest. This is 
 the exact rendering of the Hebrew. 
 St. Paul, Rom. iii. 4, does not quote 
 front the Hebrew, but from the LXX. 
 "When Thou art judged," i.e. when 
 the justice of Thy dealings is called 
 in question. 
 
 5. Sin is now regarded in its source. 
 From my very earliest being, from 
 the hour when I was conceived, sin 
 has been with me. Sinfulness con- 
 sists not merely in so many several 
 sinful acts, but in a sinful and corrupt 
 nature. Tlie depth of the abyss of 
 sin is here opened before the eyes of 
 the penitent with a, distinctness of 
 which the instances are comparatively 
 few in the O. T. (Comp., however, 
 Jobxiv. 4, Gen. viii. 21.) Manifestly 
 not in extenuation, but in aggravation 
 of his sin does David thus speak ("ad 
 amplificandam malorum suomm gra- 
 vitatem a peccato original! ducit ex- 
 ordium," Calvin). " He lays on 
 himself the blame of a tainted nature, 
 instead of that of a single fault : not 
 a murder only, but of a murderous 
 nature. ' Conceived in sin. ' From 
 first moments up till then, he saw sin 
 -^sin — sin ; nothing but sin." — Robert- 
 son. Luther says: "If a man will 
 speak and teach aright of sin, he must 
 
 consider it in its depth, and show 
 from what root it and all that is god- 
 less springs, and not apply the term 
 merely to sins that have been com- 
 mitted. For from this error, that 
 men know not and understand not 
 what sin is, arises the other error tliat 
 they know not nor understand what 
 grace is. . . . According to this Psalm 
 then, we must say that all is sin which 
 is born of father and mother, and 
 from so evil a root nothing good can 
 grow before God." And Calvin : 
 " Here at length he confesses himself 
 guilty, not of one sin only or of many, 
 but he rises to the fountain-head, (ac- 
 knowledging) that from his mother's 
 womb he has brought nothing with 
 him but sin, and that by nature he is 
 altogether corrupt and as it were 
 smeared over with vices. . . . And 
 of a truth we do not thoroughly ac- 
 knowledge our sins unless we con- 
 demn our whole nature as corrupt." 
 
 Behold. The word is used to 
 indicate the attainment of a new and 
 higher knowledge (comp. Job iv. i8, 
 XV. 1 5, XXV. 5), as if it had come with 
 something of surprise on the mind, or 
 were seen with a new brightness. 
 The repetition of the word at the 
 beginning of the next verse marks 
 the connection and correlation of the 
 two. On the one hand, lo ! I have 
 seen sin as I never saw it before. On 
 the other, lo ! I have learnt that truth 
 is what Thou desirest in the secret 
 heart. 
 
 6. Truth. Uprightness of heart; 
 that very uprightness and integrity 
 which David and other of the O. T. 
 saints assert elsewhere, but in which, 
 now under deep conviction of his 
 P 2 
 
. PSALM LT. 
 
 And in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know 
 wisdom. 
 Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : 
 
 Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness, 
 
 (That) the bones which Thou hast crushed may exult 
 
 sinfulness, he feels himself to be so 
 deficient. 
 
 7. Thou shalt purge me. The 
 use of the future here, as well as the 
 meaning- of the verb, has been most 
 happily explained by Donne in his 
 Sermon on this verse (Sermon Ixii. ) : 
 " How soon and to what a height 
 came David here? He makes his 
 petition, his first petition, with that 
 confidence, as that it hath scarce the 
 nature of a petition : for it is in the 
 original : Thou wilt purge me, Thou 
 wilt wash me. Thou hadst a gracious 
 will and purpose to do it, before Ttiou 
 didst infuse the will and the ie.-ire in 
 me to petition it. Nay, this word 
 may well be translated not only Thou 
 wilt, but by the other denotation of 
 the future. Thou shalt. Thou shalt 
 purge me. Thou shalt wash me; Lord, 
 I do but remember Thee of Thy debt, 
 of that which Thy gracious promise 
 hath made Thy debt, to show mercy 
 to every penitent sinner. And then, 
 as the word implies confidence and 
 acceleration, infallibility and expedi- 
 tion too, that as soon as I can ask I 
 am sure to be heard ; so does it imply 
 a totality, an entireness, a fulness in 
 the work ; for the root of the word is 
 peccare, to sin, for purging is a purg- 
 ing of peccant humours ; but in this 
 conjugation [the Piel] ... it hath a 
 privative signification ; . . . and if 
 in our language that were a word in 
 use, it might be translated. Thou 
 shalt un-sin me." I am sorry that 
 want of space prevents my quoting 
 the beautiful passage in the same 
 sermon, in which Donne dwells on 
 
 the truth that God Himself alone can 
 thus purge the sinner, Domine Tu. 
 It will be found in vol. iii. p. 91 of 
 Alford's edition of the Works. 
 
 With hyssop. In allusion to the 
 purification enjoined by the Mosaic 
 ritual of the leper (Lev. xiv. 4 ff.) aud 
 those who had defiled themselves by 
 contact with a dead body (Num. xix. 
 6 ff. 18 ff.), the hyssop being dipped 
 in the blood of the bird which had 
 been killed, and so used to sprinkle 
 the person who was to be cleansed. 
 This is certainly a remarkable instance 
 of the manner in which the symbolism 
 of the Mosaic Law was understood 
 by a pious Jew. David evidently 
 sees that the outward purification is a- 
 sign of a better cleansing; anothef 
 proof of that profound spiritual in^ 
 sight which throughout the Psalm is 
 so striking, and which almost justifies 
 St. Augustine's saying, Sunt qwhui 
 expedit cadere. 
 
 Thou shalt wash me. Again 
 in allusion to a further ceremony of 
 purification enjoined by the Law, the 
 washing, namely, of the clothes, and 
 the bathing of ihe body of the defiled 
 person. Whiter than snow. 
 Comp. Is. i. i8. 
 
 8. Thoushaltmakemetohear: 
 not said with reference to God's an- 
 nouncement of forgiveness by the 
 Prophet Nathan, or as made in His 
 word, but rather with reference to 
 those public festivals in which the 
 whole congregation would unite in 
 praising God, and in which David 
 hoped now, as a forgiven sinner, to 
 take his own part. He would be one 
 
PSALM LT 
 
 213 
 
 II. 9 Hide Thy face from my sins, 
 
 And blot out all my iniquities. 
 
 10 Create for me a clean heart, O God, 
 
 And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
 
 1 1 Cast me not away from Thy presence. 
 
 And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. 
 
 of those who, with a heart full of 
 thankfulness, would openly testify 
 that thankfulness. 
 
 The bones : not merely, as Hup- 
 feld says, instead of the heart, but as 
 constituting the strength and frame- 
 work of the body, the crushing of the 
 bones being a very strong figure, 
 denoting the most complete prostra- 
 tion mental and bodily : see vi. 2. 
 
 9. The second division of the 
 Psalm begins here with the renewed 
 prayer for forgiveness. From the 
 confident assurance of the last two 
 verses, that God would do that which 
 he asked, David now passes to earnest 
 pleading with God. This is surely 
 what is to be found in all true prayer ; 
 it will be marked by fluctuations of 
 feeling ; its order will be the order of 
 need, not the order of the intellect. 
 Again, David asks for forgiveness 
 first, and then for renewal. 
 
 Hide Thy face, i.e., - Thy face of 
 wrath ; do not look upon them in 
 anger, or so as to bring me into judge- 
 ment. In the more common use of 
 the phrase, God is said to "hide His 
 face" in displeasure, the face of God 
 generally signifying His favour. 
 
 10. After the prayer for forgiveness 
 there follows now the prayer for re- 
 newal and sanctification. 
 
 A CLEAN HEART, as the necessary 
 condition of communion with God. 
 Comp. xxiv. 4 and Matt. v. 8. 
 
 Ckeate. a word always used 
 strictly of the creative power of God. 
 The whole spiritual being of the man 
 had, as it were, fallen mto a chaos. 
 The pure heart and the childlike 
 
 feeling of confidence could only return 
 as a new creation. Comp. Ephes. ii. 
 10, iv. 24. With this prayer compare 
 the promise in Jer. xxiv. 7 ; Ezek. xi. 
 
 19, xxxvi. 26. 
 
 A steadfast SPIRIT; one, that 
 is, firm in faith, not easily swayed 
 hither and thither through its own 
 weakness or by blasts of temptation, 
 and therefore also firm and constant 
 in obedience. 
 
 II. Cast me not away. Stier 
 sees an allusion partly to the exclu- 
 sion of the leper from the congrega- 
 tion (Lev. xiii. 46), and partly to the 
 rejection of Saul (I Sam. xvi. 13, 14); 
 but the expressions employed in both 
 cases are different. The phrase, as it 
 occurs 2 Kings xiii. 23, xvii. 20, xxiv. 
 
 20, Jer. vii. 15, refers to the rejection 
 of the nation of Israel from the favour 
 of God. 
 
 Take not Thy Holy Spirit 
 FROM ME. Calvin infers from this 
 that the Spirit had not been altogether 
 taken away from David, and hence 
 draws the consolatory conclusion, 
 that the faith of the elect cannot 
 finally fail. The Lutherans, on the 
 other hand, supposing a total loss, 
 and deeming a total renewal neces- 
 sary, insert the word "again,"— 
 "Take not (again) Thy Holy Spirit 
 from me." But the words do not 
 justify either interpretation. The 
 petition expresses rather the holy 
 fear of the man who has his eyes 
 open to the depth and iniquity of sin, 
 lest at any moment he should be left 
 without the succour of that Divine 
 Spirit, who was the only source in 
 
214 
 
 FSALM LI. 
 
 III. 
 
 12 Restore unto me the gladness of Thy salvation, 
 
 And uphold me (with) a willing spirit. 
 
 1 3 So will I teach transgressors Thy ways, 
 
 And sinners shall return unto Thee. 
 
 him of every good thought, of every 
 earnest desire, of every constant reso- 
 lution. It is the cry of one vpho 
 knovfs, as he never knew before, tlie 
 weakness of his own nature, and the 
 strength of temptation, and the need 
 of Divine help ; and to whom there- 
 fore nothing seems so dreadful as that 
 God should withdraw His Spirit. At 
 the same time we need not hesitate 
 to admit, that such a prayer in the 
 lips of David could not mean all that 
 it means now to a Christian. David 
 could hardly have understood by the 
 Holy Spirit a Divine Person, nor 
 could he have been made partaker of 
 the Spirit in the same sense that 
 Christians are : for not till Jesus was 
 glorified was the Spirit given in all 
 His light and power, in all His 
 quickening, sancdfying grace. But 
 we see in such prayers how marvel- 
 lously the words of Scripture are 
 adapted to our necessities ; how, 
 used at first as it were by children, 
 they still express the maturest feelings 
 of our Christian manhood, and, as 
 in this instance, have even become 
 permanently fixed in our Christian 
 liturgies. 
 
 12. The first clause of the verse 
 again puts, as a petition, that which 
 in ver. 8 is the utterance of a con- 
 fident hope and trust. 
 
 With a willing spirit, or, "a 
 free spirit." Comp. Ex. xxxv. 5, 22, 
 "willing of heart." The word mean- 
 ing "noble," ill Hebrew, and the use 
 of the word as a subst. "a prince," 
 are apparently derived from this. 
 The LXX. render "with a princely 
 spirit." The expression here, as well 
 a.« the similar expression in ver. lo. 
 
 "a steadfast spirit," refers immedi- 
 ately to the spirit of man, but to that 
 spirit as influenced and guided by the 
 Spirit of God. So the passage is 
 paraphrased in the " Christian Year" 
 (5th Sunday after Trinity) : 
 
 "With that free Spirit blest. 
 Who to the contrite can dispense 
 The princely heart of innocence." 
 
 Luther somewhere strikingly illus- 
 trates this close and intimate Union of 
 the Spirit of God with the spirit of 
 man, by saying that the latter, under 
 the influence of the former, is like 
 water heated by fire. 
 
 13. With a conscience set free from 
 guilt, with a heart renewed by the 
 Spirit of God, and full of thankful- 
 ness for God's great mercy, he cannot 
 keep silent, but will seek to turn other 
 sinners to God. The 32d Psalm, 
 which was probably written after 
 this (see Introduction to that Psalm), 
 shows us how this resolution was kept. 
 
 So WILL I TEACH, or, " So let me 
 teach." The form is optative, and 
 expresses that which he desires to dp, 
 as an evidence of his gratitude, and 
 as kjiowing how greatly his sin must 
 have been a stumblingblock to othee- . 
 Terrible had been the fruit of his sin, 
 not only in the wasting of his own 
 soul, but in the injury done to others. 
 Terrible was his punishment in wit- 
 nessing this ; and therefore the more 
 anxious is he, though he cannot undo 
 his own sin, to heal the breach, and 
 repair the evil of sin in other souls. 
 
 Thy ways, i.e. the ways of God's 
 commandments, in which He would 
 have men walk. Corap. xviii. 21. 
 
PSALM LI. 
 
 215 
 
 14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of 
 
 my salvation ; 
 My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. 
 
 15 Lord, open Thou my lips, 
 
 And my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. 
 
 16 For Thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; 
 
 (In) burnt-offering Thou hast no pleasure : 
 
 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, 
 
 A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not 
 despise. 
 
 18 Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion ; 
 
 14. Blood-guiltiness ; literally, 
 "bloods," the plural of this word 
 being used to denote blood shed, mur- 
 der. Comp. Gen. iv. 10, "The voice 
 of thy brother's blood," &c. Here, 
 too, the blood of Uriah, whom he had 
 slain, seems to cry against David for 
 punishment. See 2 Sam. xi. 15. 
 
 Thy righteousness. Why is 
 this attribute of God especially men- 
 tioned as the subject of praise ? Be- 
 cause the righteousness of God is that 
 attribute according to which He gives 
 to every one his own, to those who 
 with repentance and faith turn to 
 Him, the forgiveness which they ask, 
 and which He ^ms, promised to bestow. 
 Hence St. John says, " If we confess 
 our sins. He is faithful and just (or 
 righteous) to forgive us our sins." 
 
 15. Open my lips. His lips had 
 been sealed by sin, but God, by His 
 free forgiveness, would give him fresh 
 cause of rejoicing, and so would open 
 them. Calvin comp. xl. 3, where 
 the Psalmist says that God had put a 
 new song in his mouth. David thus 
 prays God to be gracious, that he 
 may be the loud herald of that grace 
 to others, " My mouth shall declare," 
 &c. 
 
 16. For, as expressing the reason 
 why he will offer to God the spiritual 
 offering of thanksgiving, a grateful 
 heart and grateful lips. 
 
 Sacrifice .... burnt-offer- 
 ing. In what sense God is said to 
 reject them is clear from xl. 6, 1. 8, 
 where see notes. The Rabbinical 
 interpreters suppose sin-offh-ings to 
 be meant, and think that these are 
 here set aside because for a sin like 
 David's, done with a high hand, no 
 sacrifice, but only repentance, could 
 avail. But the words here employed 
 in reference to sacrifices are never 
 used of sin-offerings, but always of 
 thank-offerings, and this sense is 
 plainly required by the context. 
 
 17. The sacrifices of God, i.e. 
 those in which He really has pleasure, 
 are A BROKEN HEART. Another evi- 
 dence of a deep sense of sin, and of a 
 tender conscience. When speaking 
 of thankfulness, we might have ex- 
 pected him to say, " a joyful heart, 
 or a thankful heart ; " but instead of 
 that he'says, "a contrite heart." For 
 the joy of forgiveness does not banish 
 sorrow and contrition for sin : this 
 will still continue. And the deeper 
 the sense of sin, and the truer the 
 sorrow for it, the more heartfelt also 
 will be the thankfulness for pardon 
 and reconciliation. The tender, 
 humble, broken heart, is therefore 
 the best thank-offering. 
 
 18, 19. The Psalm concludes with 
 a prayer (not as before for the in- 
 dividual) for the nation at large. 
 
2i6 PSALM LIT. 
 
 Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. 
 19 Then Thou shalt delight in sacrifices of righteousness, 
 In burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering ; 
 Then shall they offer up bullocks upon Thine altar, 
 
 It seems probable that the two Prophet Zechariah, in Smith's Dut, 
 
 concluding verses were added shortly of the- Bible. 
 
 after the return from exile, a time 19. Sacrifices of righteous- 
 
 when every effort was made to rouse NESS, i.e. such as God would accept, 
 
 the people whose heart had grown because offered in righteousness, from q 
 
 cold to a sense of the value of the a heart right with God, and not merelya 
 
 Temple services, and the appointed in external compliance with the Law. 
 
 worship of Jehovah. On this point I See note on iv. 5. 
 have said more in a article on the 
 
 PSALM LII. 
 
 This Psalm is not a pmyer or complaint addressed to God against 
 the oppression of the wicked ; it is a stern upbraiding addressed to 
 the man who, unscrupulous in the exercise of his power, and proud 
 of his wealth (ver. 7,) finds his delight in all the arts of the practised 
 liar. It is a lofty challenge, a defiance conceived in the spirit of 
 David when he went forth to meet the champion of Gath. The 
 calm courage of faith breathes in every word. There is no fear, no 
 trembling, no doubt, as to the end which will come upon the tyrant. 
 How vain is his boast in presence of the loving-kindness of God, 
 which protects His people ; in presence of the power of God, which 
 uproots the oppressor ! Such is briefly the purport of the Psalm, 
 Whether it was really composed by David on the occasion to which 
 the title refers it, may be a matter of doubt. We know too little of 
 Doeg to be able to say if the description in verses i — 4 applies to 
 him or not. Nor, in fact, does the title intimate that he is the sub- 
 ject of the Psalm. It only points out the occasion on which the 
 
PSALM LIT. 217 
 
 Psalm was written, and Saul's name is mentioned in it as well as 
 Doeg's. 
 
 Whilst,, therefore, the faith and courage which breathe in this Psalm 
 
 ^are such as to incline me to think that it was written by David, and 
 
 whilst there may even be an allusion, in ver. 8, to the sanctuary at 
 
 Nob, I see little reason on other grounds for maintaining the accuracy 
 
 of the inscription. 
 
 The Psalm scarcely admits of any formal strophical division, but 
 3fe arrangement is clear and natural. 
 
 ; The first verse states briefly the subject of the whole : the folly, 
 -namely, of boasting in wickedness when God's loving-kindness is the 
 ~sure and abiding defence of those against whom that wickedness is 
 directed Then follow : — 
 
 First, a description of the evil-doer, who, in this instance, is pour- 
 trayed as an habitual and practised liar. Ver. 2 — 4. 
 Next, a denouncing of God's judgement against him. Ver. 5. 
 Then the exultation of the righteous at his overthrow. Ver. 6, 7. 
 And lastly, the confidence and security of the Sacred Poet himself, 
 and his thankfulness to God for His goodness to him. Ver. 8, 9. 
 
 [for the precentor, a MASKIL of DAVID, WHEN DOEG THE 
 EDOMITE CAME AND TOLD SAUL, AND SAID TO HIM, DAVID CAME 
 INTO THE HOUSE OF AHIMELECH.] 
 
 I Why boasteth thou thyself in wickedness, O mighty- 
 man ? — 
 The loving-kindness of God (endureth) continually. 
 
 I. O MIGHTY MAN. So the E.V., this "boasting" (see x. 3) of the 
 whilst the Prayer-book Version has, mighty man there is then put m bnef 
 
 more pointedly, "O tyrant," and the but furcible contrast the "loving 
 
 LXX. i Ivvarhs ivofiiav. The word kindness of God," as that in which 
 
 evidently occurs here in a bad sense; the Psalmist him—" '-—^ 
 
 though this is the only instance of and confidtnce, i 
 
 such usage. Elsewhere it is used of deed rendered all 
 a hero, of one who shows his prowess Continually, 
 
 aud his valour in war, &c. With as xlii. 3, xliv. 8. 
 
2l8 
 
 PSALM LJL 
 
 Destruction doth thy tongue devise. 
 
 Like a sharp razor, working guile. 
 Thou lovest evil rather than good. 
 
 Falsehood rather than to speak righteousness. [Selah,] 
 Thou lovest all devouring words, 
 
 O thou deceitful tongue ! 
 God also shall break thee down for ever, 
 
 He shall seize thee, and pluck thee out of (thy) 
 tent, 
 And root thee out of the land of the living. [Selah.] 
 And (the) righteous shall see (it) and fear, 
 
 And over him shall they laugh (saying) : 
 
 2 — 4. It is remarkable that there, 
 follows, not the description of the 
 bold bad man, ruling all around him 
 by brute force, and crushing others 
 into submission at his will, but that 
 of one who gains his evil end by 
 means chiefly of unblushing, de- 
 liberate falsehood. 
 
 2. Destruction : properly, " a 
 yawning gulf," as in v. 9, the plural 
 form, of which the singular occurs in 
 ver. 7, in a different signification, 
 ' ' evil desire. " 
 
 LniE A SHARP RAZOR. Similarly, 
 in other passages, the tongue is com- 
 pared to a sharp sword, spears and 
 arrows, &c. 
 
 3. Righteousness, here opposed 
 to FALSEHOOD, because by this, not 
 only speaking the lie, but false conduct 
 is meant, the opposite of which, there- 
 fore, is not truth merely, but righte- 
 ousness. 
 
 4. Devouring words : literally, 
 *' words of swallowing up," which 
 accords exactly with the figures em- 
 ployed in V. 9, "their mouth is b. 
 yawning gulf, " &c. 
 
 5. Now comes, in short and power- 
 ful contrast to the unscrupulous vio- 
 lence, deceit, and falsehood of the 
 proud oppressor, the righteous judge- 
 ment of God. The most forcible 
 
 expressions are employed to describe 
 his utter overthrow and uprooting. 
 
 Also, i.e. " in like manner," ''as 
 thou hast done, so shall it be done to 
 thee." The law of the Divine deal- 
 ings is the law of retribution. 
 
 Break thee down, i.e. as a 
 house is broken to pieces and laid in 
 ruins. 
 
 Seize thee : properly, as coals are 
 taken with the tongs or the shovel. 
 
 Out of (thy) "tent. Some sup- 
 pose the herdsman's tent of Doeg to 
 be meant : others, the Tabemacle ; 
 as if the phrase, " to pluck or tear 
 away from the Tabernacle," were 
 equivalent to ' ' destroying from the 
 congregation," &c. 
 
 6. Shall see (it) and fear. 
 They shall witness it with that solemn 
 awe which must be felt by all who 
 understand aright the judgements of 
 God. But mingled with this fear 
 there will be joy, ■ — joy that the 
 wicked one is overthrown, joy that 
 God has executed His righteous ju(Jge- 
 ment. 
 
 Over him, over the wicked man 
 thus cast down, they shall laugh. 
 Such exultation, to our modern sen- 
 sibilities, seems shocking, because we 
 can hardly conceive of it, apart from 
 the gratification of personal vindictive- 
 
PSALM LI I. 
 
 219 
 
 Behold the man, who maketh not God his stronghold. 
 But hath trusted in the greatness of his riches, 
 (And) is strong in his evil desire. 
 But as for me, — (I am) like a green olive-tree, in the 
 house of God ; 
 I have trusted in the loving-kindness of God, (and 
 will do so) for ever and ever. 
 I will give Thee thanks for ever, for Thou hast done (it). 
 
 ness. But there is such a thing as a 
 righteous hatred, as a righteous scorn. 
 There is such a thing as a shout of 
 righteous joy at the downfall of the 
 tyrant and the oppressor, at the 
 triumph of righteousness and truth 
 over wrong and falsehood. This is 
 very different from imprecating the 
 judgement of God on the heads of the 
 ungodly. No such imprecation occurs 
 in this Psalm, nor is there in it any 
 trace of personal animosity. The ex- 
 planation, therefore, which has been 
 given in the notes on xxxv. 22, xli. 
 10, does not apply here. Indeed, 
 even in the New Testament, we 
 find exultation at the overthrow of 
 proud and luxurious wickedness. 
 ** Rejoice over her," it is said, at the 
 fall of Babylon, as seen in the Apo- 
 calypse, "thou heaven, and ye holy 
 apostles and prophets ; for God hath 
 avenged you on her," Rev. xviii. 20. 
 See also xix. i — 3, where the same 
 strain of holy triumph is repeated. 
 
 There is a manifest difference be- 
 tween such a strain of sentiment, and 
 the expression of a merely personal 
 hatred. A malicious joy over a pros- 
 trate foe is condemned in direct terms 
 in the Old Testament. See Prov. 
 xxiv. 17, Job xxxi. 29, and compare 
 2 Sam. i. 19 ff. 
 
 7. The words in which the righ- 
 teous express their triumph, pomting, 
 as it were, to the fallen oppressor, 
 and the lesson to be learnt from his 
 overthrow. His trust was in his 
 
 riches (comp. xlix. 6, Prov. x. 15, 
 xviii. II), and his strength and his evil 
 desire (see note on ver. 2), not in God. 
 8. In strong contrast to such a man 
 is the character and the hope of the 
 Psalmist himself. The tyrant shall 
 be like a tree rooted up (ver. 5) ; I, 
 he says, shall be like a tree ever green 
 and ever flourishing. Both images 
 are common in the Psalms. Comp. 
 i. 3, xxxvii. 35, xliv. 2, cxxviii. 3, 
 and especially xcii. 12, 13. The olive- 
 tree is here specially selected as a 
 type of gladness and fruitfulness ; 
 comp. Jer. xi. 16. Hupfeld finds 
 the figure perplexing, because he says 
 no trees grew even in the courts of 
 the Temple. But not to mention 
 that trees may have been planted in 
 the Temple area (see on xcii. 13), 
 there is no need, surely, to put such 
 an interpretation upon the words. 
 The olive is not said to be in the house 
 of God, any more than in the use of a 
 similar figure in cxxviii. 3, the olive- 
 plants are supposed to be round about 
 the table. Just as there it is said, 
 "Thy children about thy table are 
 like olive-plants," so here: "I, in 
 the house of God, am like an olive," 
 i.e. whilst permitted daily access to 
 His sanctuary and presence, I may 
 compare myself to that tree which, in 
 its greenness and fruitfulness, is an 
 apt emblem of joy. This is obviously 
 the form of the comparison, as in fact 
 is indicated by the accents. 
 9. Thou hast done. Absolutely, 
 
2 20 PSALM LIU. 
 
 And I will wait on Thy name, for it is good. 
 In the presence of Thy beloved. 
 
 as in xxii. 31, xxxvii. 5 ; the past Thy beloved. See xvi. 10, and 
 
 tense, expressing the fOKi'/'rfio» of faith note there; and for the vow of a 
 
 that his prayer has already been public thanksgiving, xxii. 25. 
 answered. 
 
 PSALM LIII. 
 
 This Psalm is only another version of the Fourteenth Psalm, from 
 which it differs in two particulars. First, in its use of the Name of 
 God, which here is Elohim instead of Jehovah, a peculiarity which is 
 characteristic of all the Psalms in the Second Book. Next, in the 
 remarkable deviation, ver 5, from the language of the parallel pas- 
 sage, ver. 5, 6, of Psalm xiv. This deviation is remarkable, because: 
 whilst there is a material difference in the setise of the two passages, 
 very many of the same or similar letters occur in both. It appears to 
 me almost certain that Ps. xiv. is the original, and that probably a 
 later poet may have, by making slight alterations, adapted it to the 
 circumstances of his own time. 
 
 The introduction and notes to Psalm xiv. may be consulted here. 
 In some few instances only, where it seemed desirable, additional 
 notes have been introduced, and especially where this text differs 
 from the other. 
 
 [for the precentor, upon MACHALATH.* a MASKIL of DAVID.] 
 
 I The fool hath said in his heart, Thefe is no God. 
 
 * The meaning of this word is uncertain (see title also of Psalm Ixxxviii.). From the 
 addition of a word in this latter Psalm signifying "to sing," and from the meaning of the 
 word Machalath itself, we may presume that the two Psalms were to be sung in a sad, 
 mournful tone. 
 
PSALM LIII. 22 1 
 
 Corrupt and abominable are they in (their) iniquity. 
 There is none that doeth good. 
 
 2 God hath looked down from heaven upon the children 
 
 of men, 
 To see if there is any that hath understanding, 
 That seeketh after God. 
 
 3 Every one of them is gone back, together they have 
 
 become corrupt, 
 There is none that doeth good, no not one. 
 
 4 " Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, 
 
 (Who) eat my people (as though) they ate bread, 
 (And) call not upon God t " 
 
 5 There were they in great terror, (where) no terror was. 
 
 I. Corrupt, &c. Lit. " They 
 have corrupted and made abomin- 
 able." 
 
 3. They have become corrupt. 
 A different verb from that employed 
 in ver. I, and one therefore for which 
 a different equivalent fhould be found 
 in our language ; perhaps '* tainted " 
 would convey the idea. It is used 
 "trictly of physical corruption (the 
 
 Vrabic cognate being used of milk 
 fhich turns sourt, but here, as in 
 ob XV. 16, transferred to moral cor- 
 uption. 
 
 4. Who eat, &c. These words 
 re very difficult, and are again capa- 
 ile of a different interpretation from 
 hat given in the note on xiv. A? is 
 here said, the literal rendering is, 
 'Eating my people, they have eaten 
 iread, they have not called on Je- 
 lovah." This may be explained, 
 ' Whilst they devour my people 
 comp. Jer. x. 25, Lam. ii. 16), they 
 ave eaten bread, &c. , i.e. in the midst 
 f their cruel destruction of Israel, 
 bey have gone on in their brutal 
 ecurity, eating and drinking, quite 
 sgardless of God, or of any reverence 
 3r His name." 
 
 I am now inclined, however, to 
 
 refer the words, "Who eatmy people," 
 to the first member of the verse : 
 "Have the workers of iniquity, who 
 devour my people, no knowledge ? 
 They eat bread (they live their care- 
 less life of self-enjoyment), they c-all 
 not upon Jehovah (do not acknow- 
 ledge or fear Him)." 
 
 5. There, as if pointing to the 
 scene ; see on Ixvi. 6. 
 
 Where no terror was. These 
 wrds are not in Ps. xiv. and are 
 somewhat difficult to explain. Do 
 they mean. No terror within^ or no 
 terror without? Taken with what 
 follows, and supposing the I'salm to 
 have been adapted to some such occa- 
 sion as the destruction of Senna- 
 cherib's army, they might mean, 
 ' ' suddenly, in the midst of their 
 proud security, when they were free 
 from all apprehension, they were 
 smitten with terror. " Others under- 
 stand it of external occasion of terror. 
 They were seized with a sudden 
 panic, where there was really no object 
 to occasion alarm. The words may 
 perhaps be a later gloss. As we do 
 not know for what occasion the altera- 
 tion was made in the text, their inter- 
 pretation must remain obscure. 
 
. PSALM LIV. 
 
 For God hath scattered the bones of him that 
 
 encampeth (against) thee. 
 Thou hast put (them) to shame; for God hath rejected 
 
 them. 
 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! 
 When God bringeth back the captivity of His people, 
 (Then) shall Jacob exult, (then) may Israel be glad. 
 
 Hath SCATTERED, ?.«. on the field rain (comp. jcxli. '7,' Ezek. vi., 5, 
 of battle, or around the walls of the Jer. viii. 2), .instead of being in- 
 city, there to whiten in the sun and terred. 
 
 PSALM LIV. 
 
 This Psalm, like several others of the Psalms ascribed to David 
 in the Second Book, refers, according to the title, to the time of his 
 persecution by Saul. The particular occasion was this. David had 
 taken refuge with six hundred men in the fastness of Keilah; but, 
 warned by Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, that the men of Keilah 
 were not to be trusted, he escaped into the wilderness of Ziph. Here, 
 however, he was very near falling into the hands of the- Ziphites, 
 who would have betrayed him to Saul, when happily an irruption of 
 the Philistines into the country compelled the king to desist from 
 his pursuit, and to turn his arms in another direction. See I Sam, 
 xxiii. 19, and the additional particulars furnished by the later annalist 
 I Sam. xxvi. i, from which sources the title is borrowed. 
 
 The language of the Psalm is, however, of so general a character, 
 that it might have been composed under almost any circumstances 
 of peril. Even the epithet "strangers" applied to the Psalmist's 
 enemies, ver 3, does not necessarily refer to foreign enemies, as 
 De Wette supposes. See note on the verse. 
 
PSALM LI V. 223 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. A prayer to God to hear and to judge the cause of His servant 
 together with the reason for this prayer in the violence and unscru- 
 pulousness of the enemies who beset him. Ver. 1^3. 
 
 II. The confident assurance that God will hear his prayer, and the 
 promise and vow of thanksgiving for God's goodness which is thus 
 anticipated. Ver. 4 — 7. 
 
 [for the precentor, with stringed instruments, a maskil 
 of david ; when the ziphites came and said to saul, 
 doth not david hide himself with us ?] 
 
 1 O God, by Thy Name save me. 
 
 And in Thy might judge my cause. 
 
 2 O God, hear my prayer ; 
 
 Give ear to the words of my mouth. 
 
 3 For strangers have risen up against me. 
 And ■violent men have sought after my soul ; 
 
 They have not set God before them. [Selah.J 
 
 4 Behold, God is my Helper, 
 
 I. By Thy Name. See above on could never have doubted on which 
 
 V. II. side layjusticeand right : but because 
 
 3. Strangers .... violent they were wicked men, ' ' who did not 
 MEN. Supposing the inscription of set God before them," they took 
 the Psalm to be correct, the enemies pleasure in hunting down one whose 
 thus spoken of would be the Ziphites. only fault was that he was the king's 
 As they belonged to Judah, the word enemy. The word " strangers " may 
 strangers seems to be used with mean only enemies, the idea of a 
 special bitterness. But the epithet foreigner, one of another country, pass- 
 would seem still more applicable to ing over readily into the idea of an 
 the men of Keilah, whom David had enemy, just as in Latin hostis meant 
 rescued from the Philistines, and who originally nothing more than hospes. 
 so basely requited his generous assist- Here, however, the epithet may be 
 ance. employed to denote the savageness 
 
 Their hostility to David probably and cruelty of these men. 
 
 was the result rather of a selfish 4. But though men were against 
 
 regard to their own interests than of him, David knew that God was with 
 
 any affection or loyalty to Saul. They him. 
 
224 
 
 PSALM L V. 
 
 The Lord is the Upholder of my soul. 
 
 5 He will requite the evil to mine adversaries: 
 
 Destroy Thou them in Thy truth. 
 
 6 With free will will I sacrifice to Thee, 
 
 I will give thanks to Thy Name, O Jehovah, for it is 
 good. 
 
 7 For out of all distress hath He delivered me, 
 
 And mine eye hath seen (its desire) upon mine enemies. 
 
 The Upholder of my soul. 
 Not as in E.V., "with them tliat 
 uphold my soul." For God is not 
 to him one out of many helpers, but 
 the only true helper. 
 
 6. With freewill, or, with glad 
 willihg heart, as the expression occurs 
 in Numb. xv. 3, and (without the pre- 
 position) in Hosea xiv. 4. This ex- 
 plains the motive of the sacrifice. The 
 offering would be a literal offering, as 
 appointed hy the law, but it would 
 be brought with all the cheerfulness 
 and love of a thankful heirt, not 
 under the compulsion of a vow, or in 
 mere slavish compliance to an esta- 
 blished ritual. 
 
 Thy Name . . . for it is good. 
 With reference to ver. i, "By Thy 
 Name save me." 
 
 It is possible that in the next verse 
 the Name of God is the subject of 
 the verb; so that we may render 
 "It hath delivered me. " If so, 
 this passage (and Is. xxx. 27) would 
 come very near the later Rabbinic 
 usage, according to which "the 
 Name " is constantly put for God 
 Himself. The original passage is 
 Lev. xxiv. II. 
 
 7. The perfects in this verse de- 
 note not that the deliverance is already 
 accomplished, but the confidence of, 
 faith that it will be, and give the 
 reason for the thanksgiving of the 
 preceding verse. 
 
 Mine eye hath seen. See note 
 on xli. 10. 
 
 PSALM LV. 
 
 As this Psalm is, in the title, ascribed to David, and as it contains 
 a bitter complaint of the faithlessness of a trusted friend, it has been 
 commonly supposed to refer to the desertion and treachery, of 
 Ahithophel in Absalom's rebellion. We know too little of Ahithophel 
 to be able to say whether he was the close personal friend of the 
 
PSALM LV. 225 
 
 king, as well as his councillor of state. But the prayer of David, 
 2 Sam. XV. 31, when he was told that Ahithophel was among the 
 conspirators, " O Lord, I pray Thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel 
 into foolishness," is very different from the general tone of this Psalm. 
 Here throughout, there is a sense of personal wrong ; the treachery 
 is without excuse. But if Blunt is right in supposing that Bathsheba 
 was the granddaughter of Ahithophel {Undesigned Coincidences, p. 147), 
 and that he, in revenge for the insult to his family, had espoused 
 the cause of Absalom, David could hardly complain of his deser- 
 tion. His own conscience must have told him how well-merited it 
 was. He could scarcely upbraid the man whom he had so wronged 
 with treachery to himself, though he might pray that his counsel 
 should not prosper. There is another objection to the view that 
 Ahithophel is aimed at in the Psalm. The writer of the Psalm is 
 evidently in the city (no doubt Jerusalem is meant, comp. ver. 14), 
 surrounded by evil men, but especially cognisant of the perfidy of 
 his trusted friend. If David, therefore, wrote the Psalm, he must 
 have written it before he left Jerusalem, and the treachery of Ahitho- 
 phel must have been already unmasked. But, according to 2 Sam. 
 XV. 30, it was not till David had begun his flight that he was told 
 that Ahithophel had joined the conspirators. The Psalm seems 
 therefore, to have been composed under other circumstances, and to 
 be directed at some person of whom we know nothing beyond what 
 the Psalm itself tells us. Conjectures, after all, are of little value. 
 One thing only is certain, and that is, that whoever the hollow friend 
 may have been, who knew so well to cloke his treacherous designs, — 
 v/ho, with war in his heart, could use words smoother than oil, — his 
 perfidy was very deeply felt, and very bitteriy resented by the man 
 who here records it At one moment sadness, at another indignation 
 prevails. In his sadness the Psalmist would flee away, and so escape 
 the suffering and the recollection of his wrong. In his burning indig- 
 nation at the black perfidy of which he had been made the victim, he 
 would have the earth open her mouth and swallow up the faithless 
 friend, together with all his accomplices. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The first contains the earnest appeal to God against his ene- 
 mies, the expression of his suffering, and the horror of mind which 
 has come upon him together with the longing to escape from the 
 
 Q 
 
226 PSALM LV. 
 
 hostility to which he was exposed, and the evil he was compelled to 
 witness. Ver. i — 8. 
 
 II. In the next his tone changes. The portentous wickedness 
 which has filled the whole city, and worse even than this, the perfidy 
 of the man he had trusted, rouse his indignation, and he prays that all 
 the counsels of the wicked may be brought to naught, and that they 
 themselves may go down alive into the grave. Ver. 9 — 15. 
 
 III. The last strophe is altogether in a calmer strain. It opens 
 and closes with the confession of trust in God, and though the figure 
 of the traitor again comes prominently into view, it does not provoke 
 the same burning imprecation as before. Instead of this, the Psalmist 
 rests calmly confident that the righteous shall never be moved, and 
 that the bloodthirsty and deceitful man shall speedily be cut off. 
 Ver. 16 — 23. 
 
 [for the precentor, on stringed instruments, a maskil 
 
 OF DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Give ear, O God, to my prayer, 
 
 And hide not Thyself from my supplication. 
 
 2 Hearken unto me, and answer me ; 
 
 I am tossed to and fro in my complaint, and must 
 groan, 
 
 3 Because of the voice of the enemy, 
 
 Because of the oppression of the wicked ; 
 For they cast iniquity upon me, 
 
 And in anger do they persecute me. 
 
 4 My heart is sore pained within me, 
 
 And terrors of death have fallen upon me : 
 
 5 Fear and trembling come upon, me. 
 
 And horror hath overwhelmed me. 
 
 5. Horror. The Hebrew word three other places : Job xxi. 6, Is. 
 so rendered is of comparatively rare xxi. 4, Ezek. vii. 18. 
 occurrence. It is to be found only in 
 
PSALM L V. 
 
 227 
 
 6 And I said : Oh that I had wings Hke the dove, 
 
 Then would I fly (awa)') and be at rest; 
 
 7 Lo, then would I flee afar off, 
 
 I would lodge in the wilderness : [Selah.J 
 
 8 Quickly would I haste nje to a place of shelter 
 
 From stormy wind (and) from tempest. 
 
 II. 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 Confound, O Lord, divide their tongues ; 
 
 For I have seen violence and strife in the city : 
 Day and night, they go about it upon the walls 
 thereof; 
 
 Iniquity also and mischief are in the midst of it. 
 Destruction is in the midst of it ; 
 
 Fraud and deceit depart not from the market-place 
 thereof 
 For it is not an ejaemy that reproacheth me ; 
 
 Then I might bear it : 
 
 6. Beat rest, lit. "dwell, abide,'' 
 i.f. have some fixed and settled place 
 of abode, where I should be free from 
 persecution, instead of leading a 
 ■wandering life, exposed to peril, and 
 at the mercy of my enemies. 
 
 9. The tone of sadness and melan- 
 choly now gives way to one of hot 
 and passionate indignation. He would 
 have escaped if he could from that 
 city of sinners, who vexed his righ- 
 teous soul from day to day with their 
 ungodly deeds ; but as he could not 
 do this, he would gladly see God's 
 judgements executed upon them. The 
 sudden outburst of these fervent, im- 
 petuous feelings, gives an irregularity 
 to the whole Poem. But this is 
 natural ; and there is no need to 
 suppose that its parts have been dis- 
 arranged, and that the order should 
 be restored by placing verses 12 — 14, 
 and 20, 21, immediately after verses. 
 
 Confound, or, "frustrate" (as in 
 Is. xix. 3, " I will frustrate, or, bring 
 
 to naught, its counsel ") ; lit. "swallow 
 up." 
 
 Divide. Comp. Gen. x. 25, xi. 
 I — 9, to which there may possibly be 
 ap allusion. 
 
 10. They go about, i.e. most 
 probably "the wicked," mentioned 
 ver. 3. The figure may perhaps be 
 borrowed from sentinels keeping their 
 watch upon the walls ; others think, 
 from besiegers watching the walls in 
 order to find some weak point. In 
 the former case we must render ' ' upon, ' ' 
 in the latter " roundabout the walls." 
 But neither figure need be pressed. 
 The walls in this clause of the verse 
 are parallel to the interior of the city 
 in the next clause, so that the whole 
 city-may be represented in all its parts 
 to be full of wickedness. 
 
 11. Market, or "broad place;" 
 the square or market-place near the 
 gates, where was the general place of 
 concourse. See on ix. 14. 
 
 12. For gives a special reason for 
 
228 
 
 PSALM L V. 
 
 Neither is it one who hateth me, that hath magnified 
 himself against me ; 
 Then I would hide myself from him. 
 
 13 But thou art a man, mine equal, 
 
 My companion, and my well-known friend ; 
 
 14 We were wont to take sweet counsel together. 
 
 To walk to the house of God among the thronging 
 crowd. 
 
 15 Let death come suddenly upon them ; 
 
 Let them go down to the unseen world alive ; 
 For wickedness is in their dwelling, in the midst 
 of them. 
 
 III. 16 As for me — unto God will I cry, 
 And Jehovah will save me : 
 17 Evening, and morning, and at "noon will I complain 
 and groan. 
 And He shall hear my voice. 
 
 the prayer in ver. 9, his eye falling 
 upon one in particular among the 
 crowd of enemies and evil-doers. 
 
 13. Mine equal, lit. " According 
 to my estimation," i.e. the estima- 
 tion or worth which I put upon him. 
 But such a sense does not apply here. 
 It must rather mean "of the same 
 rank and position as myself." 
 
 14. We were wont, &c. The 
 verb is in the imperfect (or future, as 
 it is commonly called). Lit. "we 
 were wont to make (our) counsel, or 
 confidentialintercourse, sweet." The 
 word which is here rendered ' 'counsel, ' ' 
 is rendered " secret " in xxv. 14, 
 where see note. In both passages the 
 meaning " close intimate intercourse " 
 would be suitable. 
 
 The crowd, here the festal cara- 
 van ; comp. xlii. 4. 
 
 15. Again Indignation at the black- 
 ness of this treachery, so far worse to 
 be endured than any open enmity. 
 
 To have trusted, and to find his trust 
 betrayed ; to have been one with a 
 man in public and in private, bound 
 to him by personal ties, and by the 
 ties of religion, and then to find hon- 
 our, faith, affection, all east to the 
 winds — this it was that seemed so 
 terrible, this it was that called for the 
 withering curse. Thus the second 
 strophe ends as it began, ver. 9, with 
 imprecations upon the wicked; the 
 intervening stanzas, in describing the 
 faithlessness of the trusted friend, 
 giving the reason for this anathema. 
 Let them go down. Comp. ix. 
 17. Alive, as Prov. i. 12. There 
 may possibly be an allusion to the 
 fate of Korah and his company. 
 Numb. xvi. 30, &c. 
 
 16. As FOR me. The pronoun 
 emphatic, in opposition to the con- 
 duct of his enemies. 
 
 17. Evening and morning, &c. 
 The three principal parts of the day 
 
PSALM L V. 
 
 229 
 
 18 He hath redeemed my soul, in peace, that they should 
 
 not war upon me, 
 For many were against me. 
 
 19 God shall hear (me) and humble them, 
 
 —And He sitteth (as King) of old — [Selah.J 
 The men who have no changes, and who fear not 
 God. 
 
 20 He hath put forth his nands against them that were at 
 
 peace with him : 
 He hath profaned his covenant (that he made). 
 
 21 Smooth as butter itself is his mouth ; 
 
 But his heart is war : 
 Softer are his words than oil ; 
 Yet are they drawn swords. 
 
 are mentioned, either as marking 
 special times set apart for prayer, or 
 as a poetical expression for "the 
 whole day," "at all times," "with- 
 out ceasing." Comp. V. 3; Ixxxviii. 
 I, 13 ; xcii. 2. 
 
 Complain and groan, the same 
 words as in ver. 2. 
 
 18. In peace, as denoting the end 
 of the redemption, the condition in 
 which he was placed thereby. 
 
 Many. Perhaps more literally, 
 With many (or, in great numbers) 
 were they gainst me. But the prep, 
 serves here, as elsewhere, to introduce 
 the predicate. Comp. liv. 3. 
 
 19. An obscure verse. Who are 
 they who have no changes ? Appa- 
 rently, those whom God is said to 
 humble or chastise. And what is the 
 meaning of the word " changes," as 
 here used? Many understand it of 
 a moral change ; ' ' who are without 
 change of heart or reformation." But 
 the word never occurs in this sense. 
 It mems, properly, "a change," in 
 the sense of succession; as of gar- 
 
 ments, of troops relieving guard, 
 seiTants leaving work, and the like. 
 Hence it would rather mean in a 
 moral sense : " They who have no 
 cessation in their course (by being 
 relieved guard, for instance), who 
 always continue and persevere in 
 their evil life." 
 
 20. The individual traitor (who 
 had once been the trusted friend) is 
 again prominent. 
 
 His covenant. Apparently not 
 a particular covenant solemnly made, 
 as that between David and Jonathan, 
 but figuratively the covenant implied 
 in a close friendship, of itself a holy 
 bond, the breaking of which is a 
 profanity. 
 
 21. Smooth, &c. Lit. "smooth 
 are the butterinesses of his mouth," or 
 as Ewald well renders, " Glatt sind 
 die Butterlippen seines Mundes." His 
 words drop from his lips like cream, 
 or butter. 
 
 Yet they. The pronoun is em- 
 phatic. They, those very words so 
 smooth and so fair. 
 
230 PSALM LVI. 
 
 22 Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, 
 
 And He shall sustain thee : 
 He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. 
 
 23 But Thou, O God, shall bring them down into the pit 
 
 of destruction : 
 Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half 
 their days ; 
 But as for me — I trust in Thee. 
 
 22. Thy burden. The word the rendering of the LXX. in his 
 
 occurs only here. But there are mind. 
 
 similar expressions in xxxvii. 5, "thy 23. Them, i.e. "the bloodthirsty 
 
 way;" and Prov. xvi. 3, "thy and deceitful men " in the next clause, 
 
 works." See also Ps. xxii. 10. — St. the pronoim being placed first as in 
 
 Peter, in I Pet. v. 7) evidently has many other instances. See on ix. 12. 
 
 PSALM LVI. 
 
 The complaint of one who, though hard pressed by enemies, 
 nevertheless trusts in God, rests in His promises, flees to Him for 
 succour, and renders thanks for His mercy. Throughout, his con- 
 fidence never forsakes him. Indeed we see here the victory rather 
 than the struggle of Faith. Hence the refrain, with which the lirst 
 and second parts conclude, " In God will I praise His word. , . 
 What can flesh (man) do unto me ? " 
 
 According to the inscription, it was composed when David was 
 detained in Gath by the Philistines. But on neither occasion when 
 he visited Gath does the history inform us of any such detention., 
 (i Sam. xxi. 11 — 16, and xxvii. — xxix.) Hengstenberg, indeed, and 
 Delitzsch suppose that some seizure or imprisonment is implied in the 
 words he "feigned himself mad in their hands;" and the expression' 
 at the beginning of chap, xxii., " David therefore departed thence, and 
 
PSALM LVI. 231 
 
 escaped to the cave of AduUam,'' may imply that he had been sub- 
 
 |jected to some confinement. Hupfeld concludes from the absence 
 
 of anything in the history corresponding to the title of the Psalm, 
 
 that the title is not to be trusted. Yet it is perhaps more likely, on 
 
 this very account that it rests upon some ancient tradition. A 
 
 finodern compiler would have endeavoured to make the title square 
 
 ' better with the history. 
 
 The Psalm falls naturally into three divisions : — 
 
 The first and second scarcely differ in their subject-matter. They 
 each contain a cry for help against enemies, and an expression of 
 confidence in God ; the second, however, being somewhat more 
 emphatic than the first. The first consists of ver. i — 4 ; the second 
 of ver. 5 — n. The Psalm then concludes (ver. 12, 13) with words of 
 devout thankfulness. 
 
 [for the precentor, to the tune of "the silent dove in 
 far-off lands."* a michtam of david, when the philis- 
 tines laid hold on him in oath.] 
 
 1 Be gracious unto me, O God, for man would svi^allow 
 
 me up : 
 All the day long he, fighting, oppresseth me. 
 
 2 Mine adversaries would swallow (me) up all the day long; 
 
 For many are they that fight proudly against me. 
 
 3 In the day that I am afraid, in Thee do I put my trust. 
 
 1. Man. The word used denotes verse, but without any object ex- 
 man in his weakness and frailty as pressed. 
 
 contrasted with God in His power 3. In the day, &c. Hupfeld 
 
 and majesty. thinks it a manifest contradiction to 
 
 2. Would swallow me up, lit. say, "In thedaythat I/^arl^reri;" 
 Hath panted after me, with open but there is no contradiction except 
 mouth ready to devour me, like a to the narrow understanding exeicis- 
 wild beast, tliirsting for my blood. ing its narrowest faculty of vision. 
 The verb is repeated in the next It is not even necessary to explain : 
 
 See Introduction, p. 7. 
 
232 
 
 PSALM LVI. 
 
 4 In God do I praise His Word : 
 
 In God have I put my trust ; I will not fear: 
 What can flesh do unto me ? 
 
 5 All the day long they wrest my words : 
 
 All their thoughts are .against me for evil. 
 
 "In the day when I have reason to 
 fear, or when terror assails me," &c. 
 Fear and trust may co-exist. Faith 
 may vanquish the rising fear, or, 
 with Peter sinking in the sea through 
 fear of the winds and the waves, may 
 only have strength to cry. Lord, 
 save me, I perish. Trust in God 
 does not make us cease to be men 
 and to have the feelings of men ; but 
 it gives a better than any stoical 
 calmness : it lifts the man who is 
 trembling in himself above the fear 
 which assails him ; in the very midst 
 of fear it listens to the voice which 
 says, Fear not, for I am with thee. 
 "Assuredly," says Calvin: "this is 
 the true test and proof of our faith ; 
 when fears harass us, so far as our 
 fleshy nature is concerned (pro sensu 
 carnis), but do not overthrow and 
 unsettle our minds. It seems, in- 
 deed, as \i fmr and hope were feel- 
 ings too contrary the one to the other 
 to dwell in the same heart ; but 
 experience shows that Hope there in 
 fact really reigns where some por- 
 tion of the heart is possessed by Fear. 
 For when the mind is calm and tran- 
 quil, Hope is not exercised, yea 
 rather is as it were hushed to sleep ; 
 but then, and not till then, does she 
 put forth all her strength, when the 
 mind has been cast down by cares 
 and she lifts it up, when it has been 
 saddened and disturbed and she calms 
 it, when it has been smitten with fear 
 and she sustains and props it." 
 
 4. In God, or perhaps "through 
 God " (comp. Ix. 12), i.e. by His help, 
 trusting in Him, do I praise. 
 
 His Word, i.e. His promise. 
 God Himself gives me to know ever 
 anew the truth of His promise, and 
 therefore I make my boast of it. 
 The promise of God, true and pre- 
 cious as it is, is nothing in itself, but 
 only in God, who makes it true and 
 precious to our souls. 
 
 I WILL NOT FEAR, or "I cannot 
 fear ; " for such may be the force of 
 the tense. " But how can David 
 thus all at once have put off all weak- 
 ness, so that he who but a moment 
 before was in dread 0^ death, now 
 courageously tramples upon his ene- 
 mies ? I answer that this confidence 
 is no proof that he was rid of all 
 fear, as if he were like a man placed 
 beyond the reach of every weapon 
 (extra telorum jactum positus), and 
 could quietly smile at all perils ; but 
 because he was so far from yielding to 
 fear that he rose victoriously above 
 it, and by holding up the shield of 
 hope and so driving back all appre- 
 hensions was defended by a sure 
 and certain salvation (munitus esset 
 certa salute), he might well break 
 forth with the holy boast. Because 
 I hope in God I will not fear." — 
 Calvin. 
 
 5. The second strophe contains a 
 fuller description of the attacks and 
 evil designs of his enemies, and a 
 cry to God to take vengeance upon 
 them. 
 
 They wrest my words, i.e. they 
 twist and pervert them, give them a 
 wrong meaning, falsely misrepresent 
 me. The expression, however, may 
 perhaps be taken in a wider sense. 
 
PSALM LVI. 
 
 ■^iz 
 
 6 They gather together, they hide themselves, they, even 
 
 they, watch my steps, 
 As they have hoped (to take away) my Hfe. 
 
 7 Shall they escape because of iniquity ? 
 
 In anger bring down the peoples, O God. 
 
 8 Thou tellest my wandering ; 
 
 O put Thou my tears into Thy bottle ; 
 Are they not in Thy book ? 
 
 " My words " may be = " my circum- 
 stances : " all that concerns me, all 
 that I say and do, they twist, turn it 
 into an occasion of bitterness and 
 sorrow to me. 
 
 6. They, even they. The 
 pronoun stands here emphatically. 
 
 My steps, lit. " my heels," the 
 heels being the part exposed to any 
 person coming from behind, or to an 
 enemy lying like a serpent in the 
 path. See on xlix, 5. Comp. Ixxxix. 
 51 ; Joh xviii. 9. 
 
 7. This verse gives vent to the 
 stronger feelings of the heart, in the 
 prayer that those who have banded 
 themselves in a treacherous con- 
 spiracy against the peace and life of 
 the Psalmist may be overthrown. 
 
 The people. Instead of saying 
 " mine enemies," his eye takes a 
 wider range. These men are only a 
 few out of many ungodly, and there- 
 fore he appeals to God as the Judge 
 of the world to root out all ungodli- 
 ness everywhere. Comp. lix. 5, 8, 
 and see on vii. 7. 
 
 8. As in the last Psalm we noticed 
 the sudden transition from sadness to 
 anger, from a tone of weariness and 
 despondency to one of stern indigna- 
 tion, so here we have the contrary. 
 For a moment the Psalmist prays for 
 destruction upon his adversaries ; then 
 he turns, with words of touching 
 entreaty, to God. 
 
 My wandering, perhaps "my 
 
 flight, or exile. '' Others understand, 
 **my (inward) restlessness." The 
 word, however, may mean "com- 
 plaint," " lamentation," &c. The 
 word is in the singular number, 
 perhaps, as Calvin suggests, in order 
 to express " his old wandering life, 
 as though he would term it one con- 
 tinuous exile." 
 
 The tone here is changed. The 
 Sacred Poet turns from man to God 
 with that tender personal affection 
 which is so striking both in this 
 Psalm and in the next, and which 
 makes one willing to believe that 
 these are, as the titles tell us. Psalm 
 of David. He knows that each day 
 of his wandering, each nook in whicli 
 he has found shelter, each step that 
 he has taken, every artifice by which 
 he has baffled his foes, — all have 
 been numbered by his Heavenly 
 Keeper. Yea, no tear that he has 
 shed, when his eye has been raised to 
 heaven in prayer, has fallen to the 
 ground. God he prays to gather them 
 all in His bottle, and trusts that He 
 will note them in His book. Comp. 
 cxxxix. 16, Ixix. 28, Exod. xxxii. 32, 
 Mai. iii. 16, in which the figure of 
 the book occurs. 
 
 The bottle is the skin-bottle 
 which in Eastern lands is used for 
 keeping water, milk, wine, &c. In 
 this he prays God by a bold figure 
 to treasure his tears. The prayer is, 
 no doubt, abrupt, coming as it does 
 
234 
 
 PSALM LVI. 
 
 9 Then shall mine enemies be turned backward, when 
 call (upon Thee) : 
 This I know, that God is for me. 
 
 10 In Gcd do I praise (His) word : 
 
 In Jehovah do I praise (His) word. 
 
 1 1 In God have I put my trust ; I am not afraid : 
 
 What can man do unto me ? 
 
 1 2 Upon me, O God, are Thy vows : 
 
 I will pay thanksgivings unto Thee. 
 
 13 For Thou hast delivered my soul from Death: 
 
 Hast Thou not (delivered also) my feet from stumbling, 
 
 between '.he double expression of 
 confidence: "Thou hast numbered," 
 &;c. "Are they not," &c. But 
 there is no reason on this account to 
 render, " My tears are put," &c. 
 Such a turn of the sentence may seem 
 less harsh ; but I confess I cannot 
 understand that Icind of criticism 
 which will allow no play to the emo- 
 tions of the heart, and which would 
 bind the spirit of prayer in the withes 
 of the rhetoricians- This verse has 
 been beautifully imitated in P. Ger- 
 hardt's Hymn (quoted by Hupfeld) : 
 
 "Du zahlst wie oft ein Christe wein', 
 Und was sein Kummcr sei ; 
 
 Kein stilles Thranlein ist so klein, 
 Du hebst und legst es bei. " 
 
 10. The refrain is varied from ver. 
 4 , by the emphatic repetition of the 
 first clause, with the substitution how- 
 ever in its repeated form of Jehovah 
 for Elohim. Calvin thus explains the 
 repetition : " Though to-day God may 
 have seemed to depart from me, 
 because He has withdrawn His aid, 
 still I will rest in His word. Should 
 
 the same thing happen to-morrow, or 
 the next day, I will persist in the 
 same praise of it." He goes on to 
 urge the importance of learning to ' 
 be thus content with the bare word 
 (nudo verbo contenti) in all our 
 trials. " For though God ever fur- 
 nishes believers with manifold sub- 
 jects of praise and boasting in the 
 benefits He bestows, still they can 
 scarcely take three steps unless they 
 have learned to lean only on the 
 word. " 
 
 12. Thy vows. i.^. the vows which 
 I have vowed to Thee. Are upon ■ 
 ME, i.e. it is incumbent upon me to 
 pay them, because the condition of 
 deliverance upon which I vowed has 
 been fulfilled. Cf Prov. vii. 14. 
 
 13. The verb from the first clause 
 of this verse must be repeated with 
 the second, where the change to the 
 question ("Hast Thou not," &c.) is 
 characteristic of the writer. See 
 ver. 8. 
 
 From stumbling, l>t. "from a 
 thrust or blow." 
 
 That I may walk, lit. "wallcto' 
 and fro, as expressive of the gene- 
 ral habit of the life. 
 
PSALM L VII. 235 
 
 That I may walk before God in the Light of Life ? 
 
 In THE Light of Life, or "in Comp. xxvii. 13, and the parallel 
 the light of the living," i.e. as a passage cxvi. 8, 9, where, however, 
 living man (as in Job xxxiii. 30). it is "land of the living." 
 
 PSALM LVII. 
 
 This Psalm is in many respects like the last, and, like that, was 
 probably written by David. 
 
 Both Psalms open with the same cry to God for mercy ; both are 
 written in circumstances of no common peril (Ivi. i, 2, 5, 6, Ivii. 
 4, 6) ; both are full of the same lofty trust in God, and courage in 
 the midst of danger (Ivi. 3, 4, 9 — 11, Ivii. i — 3, 7), and of the same 
 joy and thankfulness in the assurance of deliverance (Ivi. 12, 13, Ivii. 
 7 — 9). Both have even the same peculiar and characteristic expression 
 by which the enemy is described as one ready to swallow up ihe 
 Psalmist (Ivi. i, 2, and Ivii. 3), and both have a double refrain at the 
 conclusion of the two principal divisions of the Psalm. But this 
 Psalrn is written in a still more triumphant strain of holy confidence 
 than the last, and closes with a shout of exultation. 
 
 According to the title, it was written by David " when he fled from 
 Saul in the cave ; " or as the LXX. render it, " into the cave." The 
 history tells us of two occasions on which David found refuge in a 
 cave. The one cave was that of Adullam, situate in the face of the 
 cliffs which skirt the low valley of the Philistines, I Sam. xxii. ; the 
 other was that of En-£^edi, one of the numerous caves in the limestone 
 rock, among the " alps " or high pastures of the district on the western 
 bank of the Dead Sea. Hengstenberg thinks the former is meant, 
 because the connection between this and the preceding Psalm is so 
 close, and because, being alike in character and form, and. following 
 one another in the Psalter, they may reasonably be referred to the 
 same time. Now Psalm Ivi. was written, according to the inscription, 
 
236 FSALM L VII. 
 
 in Gath, and therefore this was probably composed immediately 
 afterwards when David hid himself in the cave of Adullam. Tholuck, 
 on the other hand, decides for En-gedi. But this is a question whicli 
 must be left. There is nothing in the Psalm either for or against the 
 title. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts, the conclusion of each being 
 marked by the refrain : — 
 
 I. The first contains a cry to God for mercy, together with an 
 expression of confidence in Him in the midst of enemies and dangers. 
 Ver. 1—5. 
 
 II. The second repeats briefly the story of his persecutions, and 
 then concludes with a triumphant acknowledgement of God's good- 
 ness. Ver. 6 — II. 
 
 [for THE IfiECENTOR. "DESTROY NOT."* A MICHTAM OF DAVID 
 WHEN HE FLED FROM SAUL, IN THE CAVE.] 
 
 I Be gracious unto me, O God, be gracious unto me, 
 For in Thee hath my soul found refuge ; 
 And in the shadow of Thy wings will I find refuge, 
 Until the destruction be overpast. 
 
 2 I will call upon God Most High, 
 
 Upon the God who conferreth benefits upon me. 
 
 3 He shall send from Heaven and save me. 
 
 Ver. I — 5. The cleaving of the more remarkable in the Psalms than 
 
 soul to God, and the trust in His this ever-recurring expression of a 
 
 power and mercy despite all perils. tender personal affection on the part 
 
 I. In the shadow of Thy wings. of the sacred Poet to God. There 
 
 This exceedingly striking image may is no parallel to this in the whole 
 
 have been suggested by Deut. xxxii. range of heathen literature. Monsters 
 
 II. See above on Ps. xvii. 8. Still to be feared and propidated were the 
 
 more tender is the N. T. figure, Matt. deities of paganism, but what heathen 
 
 xxiii. 37. Perhaps there is nothing ever loved his god ? 
 
 * See Introduction, p. 7. 
 
rSALM LVU. 237 
 
 — (Though) he that would swallow me up hath 
 reproached, [Selah] — 
 God shall send His loving-kindness and truth. 
 
 4 As for my life — in the midst of lions must I lie, 
 
 (Among) those who are ready to devour, even the 
 children of men, 
 Whose teeth are spears and arrows, 
 And their tongue a sharp sword. 
 
 5 Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, 
 
 (And) Thy glory above all the earth. 
 
 II. 6 They prepared a net for my steps ; 
 My soul was bowed down. 
 They digged before me a pit ; 
 
 They fell into the midst thereof (themselves). 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast ; 
 
 I will sing and play (upon the harp). 
 
 8 Awake up, my glory ; awake harp, and lute ; 
 
 I will wake the morning-dawn. 
 
 9 I will praise Thee among the peoples, O LORD, 
 
 I will play unto Thee among the nations. 
 10 For great unto the heavens is Thy loving-kindness, 
 And unto the clouds Thy truth. 
 
 He that would swallow me only at the righteous, but at God 
 
 DP. The same word which occurs in Himself in them. The prayer, there- 
 
 Ivi. I, 2, and one of the links con- fore, for God's exaltation is at the 
 
 necting the two Psalms. same time a prayer for his own de- 
 
 4. A SHARP SWORD. Cf. Iv. 21, liverance, but it is — may we not say? 
 lix. 7, Ixiv. 3, Prov. xxx. 14. — a less selfish and a noblsr prayer. 
 
 5. Be Thou exalted, i.e. mani- 7. My heart is steadfast, i.e. 
 fest Thy glory and Thy majesty in the in the confidence of faith. The ad- 
 exercise of Thy unirersal dominion jective is the same as in li, 10. 
 
 both in heaven and in earth. For 8. I will wake the morning- 
 
 this manifestation David prays ; that dawn. The figure is at once bold 
 
 this will be, he rests assured, and and beautiful. My song shall itself 
 
 this is his comfort when enemies awake the morning. Hengst com- 
 
 assaiL God's deliverance of those pares Ovid, Met. xi. 597 : " Non 
 
 who trust in Him is bound up with vigil ales ibi cristati cantibus oris 
 
 His gloiy ; for the wicked strike not Evocat auroram." 
 
238 PSALM LVIII. 
 
 1 1 Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, 
 (And) Thy glory above all the earth, 
 
 II. " Greater words of prayer than is in the sunrise of the Divine glory 
 
 these,'' says Delitzsch most truly, over both." 
 
 " never came from human lips. The latter part of this Psalm is 
 
 Heaven and earth have, as they repeated at the beginning of cviii., 
 
 imply, a mutually interwoven history, where see notes, 
 and the blessed, glorious end of this 
 
 PSALM LVIII. 
 
 This Psalm is a bold protest against unrighteous judges. It 
 opens with an indignant expostulation on their deliberate perversion 
 of justice, whilst they pretend to uphold it. It lays bare their 
 character and that of those whom they favour, as men thoroughly, 
 habitually, by their very nature, corrupt. And finally, because they 
 are thus beyond all hope of correction or amendment, it calls upon 
 God to rob them of their power, and to bring all their counsels to 
 naught. 
 
 The Psalm abounds in bold and striking images, and is remarkable 
 for a nervous force of expression. The title ascribes it to David, 
 but without assigning it to any pa.rticular occasion in his life. Various 
 guesses have been made as to the time of its composition, but the 
 Psalm furnishes us with no data for any certain or even probable 
 conclusion. 
 
 It consists of three principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The forcible picture of unrighteousness in the seat of judge- 
 ment. Ver. I — 5. 
 
 II. The swift punishment which is about to overtake these unjust 
 judges, and for which the Psalmist prays. Ver. 6 — 9. 
 
 III. Lastly, the joy of those who shall behold their overthrow, 
 and who shall acknowledge that, however the name Oi' justice may 
 
PSALM LVITI. 
 
 239 
 
 have been profaned by human judges who abuse their office, there is; 
 nevertheless, a righteous Judge in theearth. Ver. lo, ii. 
 
 [for THE PRECENTOli. " DESTROY NOT."* A MICHTAM OF DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Do ye of a truth in silence speak righteousness ? 
 
 Do ye with uprightness judge the children of men? 
 
 2 Nay, rather, in heart ye work iniquities ; 
 
 In the earth ye weigh out the violence of your hands, 
 
 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb, 
 
 They go astray from their birth, speaking lies. 
 
 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent : 
 
 They are like a deaf adder which stoppeth her ear, 
 
 5 Which hearkened not to the voice of enchanters, 
 
 1. In silence. They are dumb 
 when they ought to speak, as after- 
 wards they are said to be deaf when 
 they ought to hear. 
 
 2. In the earth, i.e. openly, in 
 your public administration j opposed 
 to the " in heart," before. 
 
 Ye WEIGH out; said sarcastically. 
 Ye pretend indeed to hold the balance 
 of justice, and nicely to weigh out to 
 each his just award, but violence is 
 the weight with which ye adjust the 
 scales. 
 
 3. Those to whom the indignant 
 question has been put cannot answer, 
 being condemned by their own con- 
 sciences, and therefore the Poet goes 
 on at once, abandoning the form of 
 address, to give a further description 
 of their character in the third person. 
 Or possibly the description may apply, 
 not to the unrighteous judges, but to 
 the evil-doers whom they countenance 
 and support. 
 
 From their birth, lit. "from 
 the belly." See on li. 5. The object 
 however, here, is clearly not to insist 
 upon the general truth of an innate 
 
 depravity, but rather to mark the 
 special character of these wicked men 
 as men whose whole life has been 
 one continuous unchecked career of 
 wickedness — bold, habitual, hardened 
 transgressors, whose maturity in vice 
 is what might be expected from their 
 early depravity. 
 
 4, 5- Their wickedness is despe- 
 rate, for they are like the adder, 
 which the subtlest charmer cannot 
 tame. The adder is mentioned as 
 peculiarly dangerous. (Comp. , xci. 
 13 ; Job XX. 14, 16 ; Deut. xxxii. 33 ; 
 Is. xi. 8.) The serpent-charmers, a 
 class of men so well known in the 
 East, are spoken of also Jer. viii. 1 7, 
 Eccles. X. 1 1. For instances of the 
 exercise of this art, which is still in 
 vogue, see Lane's Modern Egyptians, 
 vol. ii. chap. 20 ; Hengst. Egypt and 
 the Books of Moses, p. 99 (Transl. ), 
 and especially the very full account, 
 with references to authorities, both 
 ancient and modern, given by Kno- 
 bel, on Exod. vii. 11, pp. 60, 61. 
 
 5. Of ENCHANTERS, properly 
 " whisperers." The allusion is prob- 
 
 ' See Introduction, p. 7. 
 
240 PSALM LVHI. 
 
 To a charmer, charming never so wisely. 
 
 II. 6 O God, break their teeth in their mouths, 
 
 The jaw-teeth of the young hons wrench out, 
 Jehovah. 
 
 7 Let them melt away, as water which runneth apace; 
 
 When they shoot their arrows, let them be as 
 though cut off. 
 
 8 (Let them be) as a snail, which melteth away as- 
 
 it goeth, 
 (Like) the untimely birth of a woman, (as those' 
 who) have not beheld the sun. 
 
 9 Before your pots can feel the (fire of) thorns, 
 
 Both green and burning, they shall be whirled away. 
 
 ably to the hissing sound by which 
 the enchanters endeavoured to draw 
 out the serpents from their retreats. 
 
 A CHARMER, &c. lit. " one charm- 
 ing (with) charms," &c. (Deut. xviii. 
 II). 
 
 Never so wisely, lit. " (though) 
 he be made wise, i.e. well versed in 
 his art." (Comp. Is. iii. 3.) For a 
 like use of the participle, comp. 
 xxxix. 5, " at his best estate," lit. 
 " though standing never so fast." 
 
 6. There is an abrupt change in 
 the image employed. As these men 
 are incorrigible in their wickedness, 
 as they cannot be tamed, the Psalmist 
 prays God to destroy their power 
 for mischief ; but instead of continu- 
 ing the figure of the serpent-charmer, 
 who robs the sei-pent of his poison, he 
 suddenly represents them as young 
 lions, whose teeth he would see bro- 
 ken that they may no longer devour. 
 (Comp. iii. 7.) 
 
 7. Then in a series of bold figures 
 he draws further the picture of the 
 destruction which he would fain see 
 come upon them. 
 
 The first is taken from water run- 
 
 ning away, and so wasted and lost 
 (comp. 2 Sam. xiv. 14) : the next 
 from arrows shot, but with their, 
 points broken off and blunted, so; 
 that they fail to inflict a wound. 
 
 S. (Which) melteth away (as) 
 IT GOETH, lit. " which goeth in melt- 
 ing" (or slime), the noun being in 
 the accus. as describing the nature of 
 the action,- and the allusion being to 
 the slimy trail which the snail leaves 
 behind it, so that it seems to waste 
 away. Evidently this is nothing more 
 than a poetical figure, and need not 
 be explained therefore as a popular 
 error or a mistake in natural history. 
 
 Have not beheld the sun, 
 Comp. Job iii. 16. 
 
 9. The general sense of this difiS- 
 cult verse seems to be this : As a 
 sudden whirlwind in the desert sweeps 
 away the thorns which have been 
 gathered for cooking, almost as soon 
 as they have been set on fire, and 
 before the cauldron has grown hot 
 (comp. Eccles. vii. 6), so shall the 
 wicked, and all their yet incomplete 
 designs, be swept away by the wrath 
 of God. 
 
PSALM LIX. 241 
 
 III. 10 The righteous shall rejoice that he hath beheld (the) 
 vengeance, 
 He shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the 
 wicked ; 
 1 1 So that man shall say, Surely th^re is a reward for 
 the righteous, 
 Surely there is a God that judgeth in the earth. 
 
 10. On the satisfaction here ex- ii. A reward, lit. "fruit. "Comp. 
 
 pressed in the prospect of vengeance Is. iii. 10 ; Prov. i. 31. 
 
 on the ungodly, see on Iii. 6. Comp. There is a God, or, perhaps, 
 
 tlxviii. 23 ; Deut. xxxii. 42, 43. This " there is a Deity," the word Elohim 
 
 terrible vengeance was such as was not used so much in the personal 
 
 'not unconimonly practised in the wars sense, as in contrast to those false 
 
 of those times. judges who call themselves " gods " 
 
 but aje not. 
 
 PSALM LIX. 
 
 This Psalm, which in tone, colouring, and exptession, has much 
 in common with the four preceding Psalms, is said in the title to 
 Lave been composed by David when Saul's emissaries watched him 
 in his own house. The history is given in i Sam. xix. 11 — 18. 
 Saul commanded the mto whom he sent to surround the house, and 
 to kill David if he attempted to leave it They were baffled by 
 Michal's artifice, but from that hour Saul's hatred of him never 
 slumbered, and he never ceased to persecute him and to hunt him 
 down like a wild beast. It is quite consistent with David's character 
 that he should commemorate in his songs such a crisis in his life. 
 But the internal evidence lends little confirmation to the accuracy 
 of the title. The allusions in verses 6 and 14 are obviously not 
 peculiarly applicable to Saul's emissaries, as Hengstenberg admits ; 
 and all that seems certain is, that the Psalm was called forth by some 
 attack upon the life of its author. 
 
242 PSALM LIX. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions, ver. 1—9, and ver. 
 10 — 17. Each of these again falls into two lesser strophes ; the 
 first, in each case, closing with Selah, and the last, in each case, 
 opening with a similar verse, and closing with the refrain, 
 
 I. (i) A cry to God for help against enemies ; a description 
 of their persevering malice ; an assertion of the Psalmist's own 
 innocence, and the confiding of his cause to God as the Judge. 
 Ver. I — 5. 
 
 (2) A further account of the machinations of the wicked ; the 
 confident assurance of their discomfiture, and an expression of trust 
 in God. Ver. 6 — 9. 
 
 II. (i) This part opens with a renewed expression of trust in 
 God, especially with reference to the issue of the struggle with his 
 enemies ; repeats the Story Of their malice, and also the prayer for 
 their punishment, in such wise that God may be acknowledged as 
 the Judge of the earth. Ver. 10 — 13. 
 
 (2) It closes with the curse upon the wicked, and with joyful 
 acknowledgement of God's goodness to the Psalmist. Ver. 14 — 17. 
 
 [for the precentor, "destroy not." a MICHTAM of DAVID, 
 WHEN SAUL SENT, AND THEY WATCHED THE HOUSE TO PUT HIM 
 TO DEATH.] 
 
 I. (0 I Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God ! 
 
 Set me on high from them that rise up against 
 me. 
 
 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, 
 
 And save me from bloodthirsty men. 
 
 3 For lo, they have woven plots for my soul, 
 
 They gather themselves together against me in 
 their strength, 
 Not for my transgression, and not for any sin 
 of mine, O Jehovah ! 
 
 3. They HAVE WOVEN. The/^r- result is expressed by the verb in the 
 feci as describing the past plotting fresint tense, " They gather," &c. 
 and deliberation, whilst the present Not for my transgression, 
 
PSALM LIX. 
 
 243 
 
 4 Without guilt (of mine) do they run and set 
 
 themselves. 
 Awake, then, to meet me, and see ! 
 
 5 Yea, do Thou, O Jehovah God (of) hosts, God of 
 
 Israel, . 
 Rouse Thyself to visit all the nations ! 
 Spare not all them that are faithless in (their) 
 
 iniquity. [Selah.] 
 
 wai living among heathens ; others, 
 that the term "nations" is here im- 
 P'Operly applied to those Israelites 
 who, in their godlessness, were no 
 better than heathen. But the ex- 
 pression, "«// nations, " is against the 
 first view, and the second is wholly 
 unsupported by usage. It is more 
 probable that the language is intended 
 to denote that God is the, universal 
 Judge. "The nations," to an Israel- 
 ite, would be the embodiment of all 
 that opposed itself to God ; and in 
 appealing to God to punish them, he 
 would, in fact, be appealing to Him 
 to punish all evil wherever manifested. 
 The special judgement would follow 
 from the universal, and be an in- 
 stance of it. Even for the vindication 
 of his personal innocence, we find 
 one Psalmist (vii. 6 — 8) calling upon 
 God to assemble all nations to His 
 judgement-seat. 
 
 Such expressions seem to us ex- 
 aggerated, partly because of the com- 
 parative coldness of the Western 
 mind, and partly because it is very 
 dif&cult for us to conceive of the feel- 
 ings of a true Israelite, to whom the 
 whole outer heathen world was a 
 world lying under the heavy wrath of 
 God, and to whom the greater part 
 even of Israel itself seemed corrupt 
 and apostate. An intens'ty both of 
 privilege awd also of suffering thus 
 attached to the "small remnant," 
 which it is necessary to remember if 
 we would understand the strong lan- 
 guage of Psalmists and Prophets. 
 
 Faithless in (their) iniquity 
 R 2 
 
 &c., lit. "Without my transgression 
 and without my sin. " 
 
 4. Run and set themselves. 
 The words are military terms : for the 
 first, see xviii. 29 (according to one 
 interpretation), Job xv. 26, xvi. 14 ; 
 the other denotes the marshalling in 
 order, the array of troops, with a view 
 to the execution of a determined plan. 
 Or, as Hengstenberg explains, a 
 metaphor borrowed from an attack- 
 ing host, which, getting a firm foot- 
 ing on the walls of a beleaguered city, 
 is ready to rash in over them, or 
 through them has already broken, into 
 the city. 
 
 To meet me, i.e. to help me ; 
 comp. ver. 10, and see vii. 6. The 
 phrase is elsewhere used in the oppo- 
 site sense, xxxv. 2. 
 
 5 Thou. The pronoun is em- 
 phatic, the heart turning to God as 
 the sure defence against its fierce and 
 cruel enemies. 
 
 Jehovah God, or "Jehovah 
 Elohim," the name of God, which is 
 characteristic of the section, Gen. ii. 
 4^-iii. 23. Joined, as here, with 
 Sabaoth (hosts), it occurs besides 
 Ixxx. 4, 19, Ixxxiv. 8. In callng 
 Jehovah the God of hosts, the Psalmist 
 sets forth, as Calvin observes. His 
 boundless power; in adding the God 
 of Israel, the peculiar regard which 
 He has for His own children and the 
 Church. 
 
 All the nations, i.e. heathen 
 nations, but it is difficult to determine 
 why they are particularly mentioned 
 here. Some suppose that the Psalmist 
 
244 
 
 PSALM LIX. 
 
 (2) 6 They return at evening, they howl Hke the dog, 
 And make their round about the city. 
 
 7 Lo, they belch out with their rnouth, 
 
 Swords are in their lips ; 
 
 For who (they think) doth hear ? 
 
 8 But Thou, O Jehovah, dost laugh at them, 
 
 Thou meekest at all (the) nations. 
 
 9 O my strength, for Thee let me wait, 
 
 For God is my high tower. 
 
 II. (i) 10 My God with His loving-kindness shall come to 
 meet me, 
 
 or, iniquitous traitors. Ewald ren- 
 ders : alle siindiche Rduber, "all 
 sinful roViers" taking the other 
 meaning of the participle. 
 
 6. He compares his enemies to the 
 gaunt, hungry, half-starved, half-wild 
 dogs which to this day, in the East, 
 prowl in troops about the cities and 
 villages, without a master, look ng 
 for the ofifal and carrion which are 
 their food, wherever they can find it. 
 Comp. xxii. 16 ; I Kings xiv. n ; 2 
 Kings ix. 36. 
 
 At evening, i.e. every evening, 
 the evening being the time when 
 these animals usually assemble : or 
 denoting, as Calvin thinks, their 
 insatiable cruelty, "for he says that 
 they return at evening, not because 
 they rest at other times, but because 
 they are never tired in their wicked- 
 oess. If all day long they get no- 
 thing, the evening will find them still 
 running about the city." Comp. Iv. 
 10, Cant. iii. 2. 
 
 7. They belch out. Such seems 
 here to be the force of the word as 
 pven by the E. V. Properly it means 
 "to gush out," as water; see the 
 same word in xix. 2, " Day unto day 
 poiireth forth speech," Comp. xciv. 
 4 ; Prov. XV. 2, 28. 
 
 8. But Thou. These men with 
 their murderous thoughts, whose veiy 
 words are swords (comp. Hi. 2, Iv. 21, 
 Ivii. 4), and who feel so secure in 
 their bloodthirsty designs that they 
 think God hearkens not and will not ■ 
 punish, shall learn their mistake. 
 T/iou, O God, Thou whom they for- 
 get, wilt laugh them to scorn, as 
 Thou dost all throughout the world 
 who oppose Thee. Hence he says. 
 
 All nations, taking the widest 
 view, and therefore including those 
 who are here the prominent enemies. 
 See above on ver. 5 ; or, as Calvin 
 explains, though they should in num- 
 bers equal the whole world, yet they 
 and their power would all be mocked. 
 Comp. ii. 4, xxxvii. 13. 
 
 9. " David here ascends the watch- 
 tower of faith, whence he can look 
 down calmly on the violent assaults 
 of his foes, fully assured that they can 
 do nothing but by the permission of 
 God." — Calvin. 
 
 10. The prayer that follows is a 
 very fearful one. The Psalmist would 
 not have his enemies crushed in a 
 moment by the heavy hand of God, 
 but he would see them come to a 
 lingering end ; he would have God 
 take them, as it were, in their own 
 
PSALM LIX. 
 
 24S 
 
 God shall make me see (my desire) upon them 
 that lie in wait for me. 
 
 1 1 Slay them not, lest my people forget (it), 
 
 Make them reel by Thy power, and cast them 
 down, O Lord, our shield ! 
 
 12 Their mouth sinneth through every word of their 
 
 lips. 
 And so let them be taken in their pride ; 
 
 And because of (their) cursing and of lying 
 which they speak. 
 
 13 Consume (them) in wrath, consume (them), that 
 
 they be no more, 
 That men may know that God ruleth in Jacob 
 Unto the ends of the earth. [Selah.J 
 
 (2) 74 And they shall return at evening, they shall howl 
 like the dog, 
 
 infatuation ; he would see them reel 
 and stagger in the intoxication of their 
 own pride, and under the strong buf- 
 feting of God's hand, a spectacle and 
 a warning to all, before they are 
 finally cast down ; he would watch 
 their course as they are carried, blind 
 with passion, to the summit, thence 
 to be hurled headlong over the pre- 
 cipice. Comp. with this curse, 2 Sam. 
 iii. 29, and i Sam. ii. 36. 
 
 11. Make them reel, lit. " make 
 them wander," which many take 
 literally and not metaphorically. So 
 Hengst., who compares the curse on 
 Cain, Gen. iv. 12, and Numb. xxxiL 
 13, Ps. cix. lo. 
 
 Our shield, as in iii. 3, xviii. 2, 
 xxviii. 7. 
 
 12. Their mouth sinneth, &c. ; 
 lit. " The word of their lips (is) the 
 sin of their mouth," i.e. every word 
 of their mouth is sin. 
 
 13. Consume them. This does 
 not contradict the previous impre- 
 cation. He would have his enemies 
 
 destroyed at last, but only a/iir they 
 had been, by a protracted miserable 
 existence, a warning to men of God's 
 righteous severity. 
 
 God, and not Saul (if the allusion 
 be to him), or any other whatsoever. 
 
 Unto the ends of the earth. 
 This may mean that God, sitting in 
 Jacob, having there His Throne, ex- 
 ercises thence a, universal dominion. 
 But, according to tlie accent, these 
 words should rather be connected with 
 the words "that men may know." 
 So Calvin : " David indicates a sin- 
 gular kind of punishment, one the fame 
 of which would reach even the most 
 distant nations." And so Hengst., 
 who refers to David's words to Go- 
 liath, I Sam. xvii. 46, "That all the 
 earth may know that there is a God 
 in Israel." 
 
 14. This verse repeats what was 
 said in ver. 6, but the language of 
 ver. 15 shows plainly that a different 
 turn is given here to the expression. 
 There, the conduct of his enemies ij 
 
246 
 
 PSALM LX. 
 
 And make their round about the city ; 
 
 15 As for them, they shall wander about for food, 
 
 Without being satisfied must they pass the night. 
 
 16 But as for me, I will sing of Thy strength, 
 
 Yea I will shout aloud, in the morning, of Thy 
 loving-kindness. 
 
 17 For thou hast been a high tower for me, 
 
 And a refuge in the day when I was in distress. 
 
 18 O my strength, unto Thee let me sing. 
 
 For God is my high tower (and) the God of my 
 loving-kindness. 
 
 described ; here, their punishment. 
 They came about him lil-ce dogs ; like 
 dogs shall they be treated. Their sin 
 becomes its own curse. They come 
 with their mouth wide open, ready 
 to devour, but they shall find nothing 
 to satisfy their hunger ; they shall 
 remain, lean, hungry, savage, as they 
 came. So Calvin : " There is an 
 allusion to what he had before said 
 concerning their ravenous hunger. 
 For he does not now repeat the 
 words in the same iiense in which he 
 had employed them before, but ironi- 
 cally says that they shall be hungry 
 
 in another way. Before, he com- 
 plained that they barked like dogs 
 because they were urged by an in- 
 satiable desire to do mischief; but 
 now he mocks at their wicked at- 
 tempts, and says that, after they have 
 wearied themselves all day long, they 
 .shall fail of their object." 
 
 16 In the morning, here ap- 
 parently = "every fresh morning," 
 parallel to "in the evening," ver. 6, 
 14. 
 
 17. The refrain occurs as at the 
 end of the second strophe, ver. 9, 
 but with slight variations. 
 
 PSALM LX. 
 
 According to the title, this Psalm was composed in memory of 
 Joab's victory over the Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Nothing is 
 said in the scanty record in 2 Sam. viii. of the circumstances which 
 led to this war ; but it is probable that whilst David was engaged in 
 
PSALM LX. 247 
 
 his first Syrian campaign, the Edomites turned the opportunity to 
 good account, and threatened, if they did not actually invade, 
 Palestine. The king, therefore, was compelled hastily to detach 
 Joab and some part of his forces to meet these new enemies. 
 Whether they had not yet crossed the frontier, or whether they were 
 on their way back from a successful raid into Hebrew territory, as 
 has been conjectured, we do not know ; but a severe battle was 
 fought in the Valley of Salt, near the southern extremity of the Dead 
 Sea, in which the Edomites were defeated with great slaughter. 
 This battle decided the fate of the Edomites : they never rallied 
 after it, and Joab overran the whole country. After the fashion of 
 Eastern conquerors, he almost exterminated the male population, 
 garrisoned the principal cities with Hebrew troops, and reduced 
 the people to a state of vassalage. It was in the interval between 
 the first great battle and the final subjugation of the country that 
 this Psalm, as Hengstenberg and others suppose, was written. It 
 seems to acknowledge a partial success, and to anticipate a greater : 
 " Who will conduct me to the fortified city (or cities) ? Who hath 
 led me unto Edom?" Further, the Psalm speaks of the Moabites 
 and Philistines as recently vanquished enemies, and from 2 Sam. viii. 
 we know that they had been completely subdued by David shortly 
 before his Syrian campaign. Lastly, it supposes the unity of the 
 kingdom ; Jurtah being the nding tribe, and Ephraim at the same 
 time maintaining a high and honourable position, without dissension 
 and without rivalry ; and this was the case only during the reigns 
 of David and Solomon. 
 
 So far, no doubt, the contents of the Psalm agree very well with 
 the statement made in the title as to the date of its composition. 
 On the other hand, it opens with a wail of lamentation, which implies 
 that the arms of Israel had met with some terrible reverses, or that 
 the state had been shaken by intestine disorders. But we have no 
 record in the history of any such catastrophe at the time. On the 
 contrary, David seems to have been at the very height of his glory, 
 and to have been everywhere victorious. 
 
 To say the least, therefore, it is not certain that the Psalm belongs 
 to the age of David. In its lamentation over past disasiers, it bears 
 considerable resemblance to Psalm xliv., but it is so different from 
 it in style, that it cannot have been written by the same author, nor 
 does it seem to belong to the same period. Psalm xliv. is clearly 
 the later Psalm, and may have been partly based upon this. 
 
248 PSALM LX. 
 
 Ewald thinks that the Psalm in its present form is to be referred 
 to a time after the Captivity, but that "the words from ver. 6 
 as far as the first words of ver. 10, 'Hast not Thou, God?' 
 are borrowed from an older, and no doubt Davidic song. . . . The 
 dissimilarity strikes the eye at the first glance." The old passage, 
 according to him, was composed by David in the latter part of his 
 life, when he was threatened by the Philistines (comp. 2 Sam. v. 17, 
 &c., xxiii. 13, &c.) : he had besought counsel and strength from 
 Jehovah in the sanctuary, and he here records the cheering answer 
 which he received. The later poet, Ewald says, feeling how suitable 
 such an oracle was to his own times, though the enemies which he had 
 to fear were not Philistines, but other heathen nations, adopted it 
 without alteration, merely adding a new introduction and a new 
 conclusion in his own words, to make the whole more suitable to ■ 
 the times in which he lived. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three strophes : — 
 
 I. A lamentation over past disasters, with a cry for help. Ver. 1—5. 
 
 II. The appeal to God's word and promise as the sufficient pledge 
 that the prayer which precedes will be answered. Ver. 6 — 8. 
 
 III. The triumphant hope and anticipation of victory as springing 
 out of and resting upon the Divine oracles. Ver. 9 — 12. 
 
 [for the precentor, upon " THE LILY OF THE TESTIMONY."* 
 A MICHTAM OF DAVID. FOR TEACHING. WHEN WE FOUGHT 
 WITH ARAM OF THE TWO RIVERS (MESOPOTAMIA) AND ARAM 
 ZOBAH ; AND JOAB RETURNED AND SMOTE EDOM IN THE 
 VALLEY OF SALT (TO THE NUMBER OF) TWELVE THOUSAND 
 MEN.] 
 
 I. I . O God, Thou hast cast us off. Thou hast broken us ; 
 
 I Thou hast cast us off. The Thou hast broken us. The 
 
 same word as in xliv. 9, It is also word is employed of the defeat of 
 used of an individual in xliii, 2. an army whose ranks have been 
 
 * In the great darkness which envelopes this and other inscriptions, it is impossib'e to 
 explain the words satisfactorily, but they most probably denote the measure or melody to 
 which the Psalm was to be set. For Michtam, see Ps. xvi. page 62. 
 
PSALM LX. 
 
 249 
 
 Thou hast been angry ; restore us again. 
 Thou hast made the land to tremble, Thou hast 
 cleaved it ; 
 
 Heal the breaches thereof, for it hath tottered. 
 Thou hast showed Thy people a hard thing, 
 
 Thou hast made us drink infatuation as wine. 
 Thou hast given to them that fear Thee a banner, 
 
 broken, 2 Sam. v. 20, where the 
 comparison is made of water break- 
 ing through a dam. In Judges xxi. 
 15, it is said of the destruction of 
 the tribe of Benjamin, chat "Jeho- 
 vah had made a breach {Perez) in the 
 tribes of Israel," a great gap being 
 left as it were in the goodly phalanx 
 which the twelve tribes presented. 
 
 2. The metaphor is borrowed ap- 
 parently from the action of an earth- 
 quake, which had split asunder the 
 ground, and torn it into rifts and 
 chasms. In like manner there has 
 been a violent disorganization of the 
 body politic. Hupfeld infers from 
 the words "Heal the breaches there- 
 of," that the image (as in the pre- 
 vious verse) is that of a building or 
 wall broken down, an image fre- 
 quently employed in the O.T., and 
 one which in Is. xxx. 13 is applied 
 to the overthrow of the nation. But 
 both figures may have been in the 
 Psahnist's mind; the "trembling of 
 the land " denoting the earthquake, 
 and the second member of the verse 
 referring to its effects in broken build- 
 ings and tottering walls. Whether 
 the " cleaving " here spoken of is to 
 be understood of the actual disruption 
 of the kingdom and the separation of 
 the tribes is not certain. In any case, 
 however, verses 2 and 3 are more 
 readily understood of internal poli- 
 tical disorganization than of the terror 
 produced by hostile invasion. 
 
 3. Thou hast showed, lit. 
 ''made to see," i.e. made to feel or 
 
 experience, the verb of sight being 
 used, as in Greek, of tlie senses 
 generally. A hard thing, a heavy 
 fate ; the same word as in i Sam. 
 XX. 10, I Kings xii. 13. 
 
 Infatuation, or "bewilderment," 
 lit. "reeling, staggering," as the 
 effects of intoxication. This infatua- 
 tion is the wine which God has made 
 them drink, the two words being 
 in apposition with one another : the 
 rendering of the E.V., "the wine of 
 astonishment," is grammatically im- 
 possible. The same figure occurs 
 Ixxv. 8, Is. li. 17, 22, Jer. xiii. 13, 
 xxv. 15, xlix. 12, and in many other 
 passage.s. It denotes not merely a 
 Divine pimishment, but that kind of 
 punishment which comes of men's own 
 desperate indulgence of their pride, 
 folly, and passion. When men will 
 drink presumptuously of the cup of 
 their own wickedness, God forces it 
 as it were into their hands, till they 
 have drained the very dregs as the 
 cup of His WTath. Thus God pun- 
 ishes evil with greater evil, pride with 
 presumptuous pride, folly with more 
 desperate folly. As is usual in the 
 O. T. this, though sin as well as 
 curse, is ascribed directly to God, as 
 is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, 
 the sending of the evil spirit into 
 Saul, and of a lying spirit into the 
 false prophets. See note on li. 4. 
 
 4. A BANNER. The standard was 
 raised as a signal for war, round 
 which they were to rally. (Comp. 
 Is. V. 26, xiii. 2.) The fact that God 
 
250 
 
 PSALM IX. 
 
 That they may muster (around it) from before 
 the bow, [Selah.] 
 5 Thst Thy beloved may be delivered ; 
 
 Save (with) Thy right hand, and answer us. 
 
 II. 6 God hath spoken in His holiness ; 
 
 Let me exult, let me portion out Shechem, 
 And the valley of Succoth let me measure. 
 
 had given them such a banner, that 
 He had Himself reared it in the 
 midst of them, was a ground of hope 
 and also of prayer, " Save Thy right 
 hand," &c. 
 
 5. Thy beloved, the same word 
 as in Deut. xxxiii. 12, and in the 
 name Jedidiah given to Solomon. 
 
 6. Having thus encouraged him- 
 self and his people with the assur- 
 ance of God's favour and the hope 
 of deliverance, he now turns to the 
 promises on which those hopes rested. 
 " Namutcunque Deus innumeris gra- 
 tise suse exemplis nos obruat, nulla 
 tamen vigebit eorum notilia, nisi 
 prffifulgente verbo.'' — Calvin. 
 
 God hath spoken in His holi- 
 ness, almost equivalent to "hath 
 promised by His holiness." Comp. 
 Ixxxix. 35, " One thing have I sworn 
 by My holiness," Amos iv. 2. The 
 LXX. have hv t^ dyica avTov. Jerome, 
 In sanctuario suo, and so Luther, "In 
 His sanctuary," as if the allusion 
 were to an oracle shortly before re- 
 ceived ; and Delitzsch suggests that 
 in the war with Edom, David may 
 have received an oracle from the 
 High Priest by means of the Urim 
 and Thummim, which assured him 
 of the safety of the Holy Land, and 
 of his victory over the bordering 
 tribes. But, as he admits, the pro- 
 mise in 2 Sam. vii. 9 is quite sufficient 
 to meet the occasion. Hengst. thinks 
 that Gen. xlix., Numb, xxiv., Deut. 
 
 xxxiii. may also have been in the 
 Psalmist's mind. 
 
 In the words that follow, "Letrae 
 exult," &c., to the end of ver. 8, there 
 is some doubt who is the speakeri 
 According to some interpreters, it is 
 God. Ewald is of the same opinion, 
 except that he takes the first words, 
 " Let me exult," as the words of the 
 Psalmist himself, parenthetically^ 
 which is favoured by the accent— and 
 the rest as the utterance of the 
 Divine oracle. The most probable 
 view seems to me to be that the 
 king is the speaker, though it is pos- 
 sible that by a bold figure God Him- 
 self may be supposed to speak as an 
 earthly warrior, and as the leader of 
 the hosts of His people through 
 whom they achieve the victory He, 
 as their true King and Captain, 
 identifies Himself with them, and 
 hence speaks not only of their suc- 
 cess, but of their joy, as His own. 
 
 Portion out . . . measure, in 
 allusion to the assigning the different 
 portions of the conquered territory, 
 as by Joshua, on the conquest of 
 Canaan. Here, however, the figure 
 is borrowed from the original conquest 
 of the country and applied to its re- 
 constitution, not by means of a redis- 
 tribution of territory, but by a fresh 
 political organization, which should 
 give new life to the whole country, 
 and be as it were the beginning of a 
 new state. 
 
FSALM LX. 
 
 251 
 
 7 Mine is Gilead, and mine Manasseh, 
 
 Ephraim also is the defence of my head ; 
 Judah is my sceptre. 
 
 8 Moab is my wash-pot ; 
 
 Shechem and SUCCOTH are pro- 
 bably selected as famous names in 
 ancient times ; some tliink they are 
 intended to mark, the one the cis- 
 Jordanic, and the other the trans- 
 Jordanic region, and so to embrace 
 the whole land which Israel claimed 
 on both sides the river as his in- 
 heritance. Succoth was the first place 
 at which Jacob halted when, on his 
 return from Mesopotamia, he de- 
 scended from the mountains of Gilead, 
 and it received its name from the 
 '"booths" or "huts" which he then 
 butlt there. (Comp. Gen. xxxiii. 16, 
 18, with Judg. viii. 5 — 17, whence it 
 appears that Succoth lay between 
 Peniel, near the ford of the Jabbok, 
 and Shechem.) Shechem in tfie heart 
 of Palestine was his next station, and 
 there he found a permanent home : it 
 became afterwards the chief city of 
 the tribe of Ephraim, and for a time 
 Ihe capital of the northern kingdom. 
 But it seems doubtful whether Suc- 
 coth was on the east of the Jordan. 
 Jerome, indeed [Quasi, in Gen. xxxiii. 
 16), places it there, and the fact that 
 it was allotted to the tribe of Gad 
 {Josh. xiii. 27) renders this probable. 
 On the other hand, Robinson [B. R. 
 iii. 309, &c.) and Van de Velde (Syr. 
 and Pal. ii. 343) identify it with a 
 place called S&k&t, on the western 
 bank of the river. " Until the 
 position of Succoth is more exactly 
 ascertained, it is impossible to say 
 what was the valley of Succoth." 
 (See Mr. Grove's article Succoth, 
 in the Did. of the Bible. ) Why this 
 valley should be mentioned at all, it 
 is hard to say, except it be from its 
 old association with Shechem in the 
 history of Jacob, Gen. xxxiii. 
 
 7. This verse has reference both to 
 the geographical and to the political 
 division of the Holy Land. Geo- 
 graphically, Gilead and Manasseh de- 
 note the Israelitish territory east of 
 the Jordan, as Ephraim and Judah 
 represent Western Palestine. Poli- 
 tically, these two tribes were the mo^t 
 important, the one in the north, and 
 the other in the south ; and thus the 
 whole land and nation are in fact 
 summed up. 
 
 The defence of my head, the 
 strong and warlike tribe of Ephraim 
 being to the state what the helmet is 
 to the warriors in battle ; or perhaps, 
 *'the strength of my head," the allu- 
 sion being to Deut. xxxiii. 17, " His 
 horns are as the horns of a buffalo : 
 with them he shall push the nations." 
 
 My scej'tre, or " baton of com- 
 mand." The reference is to Gen. 
 xlix. 10, where, as well as in Numb, 
 xxi. 18, the parallelism seems to re- 
 quire this meaning. But the other 
 rendering, '* My Lawgiver," may be 
 defended by Deut. xxxiii. 21, Is. 
 xxxiii. 22, and has the support of the 
 Ancient Versions. 
 
 8. But the Psalmist anticipates not 
 the constitution only of the kingdom 
 in its integrity and its firm consolida- 
 tion by the union of the various 
 tribes, but the extension of the king- 
 dom also by the subjugation of neigh- 
 bouring nations. Those nations are 
 chiefly mentioned which had been 
 from the earliest times the enemies, 
 and the bitterest enemies, of Israel. 
 The order in which they are men- 
 tioned is from the east, and thence 
 along the south to the west. None 
 of them was ever completely subju- 
 gated, though David greatly reduced 
 
252 PSALM LX. 
 
 Upon Edom will I cast my shoe. 
 Because of me, O Philistia, cry aloud. 
 
 III. 9 Who will conduct me into the fenced city .' 
 Who hath led me unto Edom .? 
 
 10 Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off.' 
 
 And dost not Thou, O God, go forth with our 
 hosts .■" 
 
 1 1 O give us help from the adversary. 
 
 For vain is the salvation of man. 
 
 them and humbled their power, 2 
 .Sam. viii. ; but triumph over them 
 forms part of the promise of later 
 Prophets. See especially Is. xi. 14, 
 where it is promised in connection 
 with the union of Ephraim and 
 Judah. 
 
 The expressions which follow, indi- 
 cating the subjugation of Moab and 
 Edom, are decidedly contemptuous. 
 
 My wash-pot, expressive of the 
 state of ignominious bondage to which 
 the Moabites would be reduced. The 
 vessel used for wasliing the feet is 
 meant as a dishonourable vessel. 
 (Comp. Herod, ii. 172.) This mean- 
 ing is perhaps intended to be con- 
 veyed by the rendering of one of the 
 Greek translators, Ackcii't; t^s KaTa- 
 TraT'qa'eias /J.ov. 
 
 Will I cast my shoe. Edom 
 is regarded as the slave to whom 
 the master throws his shoes to be 
 taken away or to be cleaned. Comp. 
 Matt. iii. 11. The expression is not 
 used of taking possession of property, 
 for in Ruth iv. 7 the kinsman does 
 not throw his shoe, but takes it off 
 and gives it ; and so far from the 
 action being symbolical of taking pos- 
 session, it is symbolical of giving up 
 one's right. There is thus a connec- 
 tion between the two figures ; Moab 
 is the vessel in which he washes his 
 feet, Edom the slave to whom he casts 
 his shoe which he has just drawn off. 
 
 Cry aloud. I have left the word 
 in its ambiguity. As it is elsewhere 
 used of a shout of rejoicing and 
 triumph, it has been explained eitlier 
 (i) ironically, as by Kimchi, "Tri- 
 umph if thou canst, it is rather for 
 me to triumph now ; " or (2) of the 
 forced homage, the shout of welcome 
 and gratulation extorted by the victor 
 from the vanquished. (Comp. ii. 12, 
 xviii. 44. ) Ewald and others under- 
 stand it of the cry of fear and sorrow. 
 In the parallel pas'^age in cviii. 9 
 we have the eaiier reading, "Over 
 Philistia will I shout aloud," i.e. in 
 triumph, which Hupfeld would adopt 
 here. ' 
 
 9. The application of these Divme 
 promises to the present condition of 
 the nation. 
 
 Who will conduct mk, as the 
 expression of a. wish apparently = 
 " Oh for one to conduct me ! " 
 
 The fenced city. Comp. xxxi. 
 21. Although the article is want- 
 ing, still some particular city may 
 be meant, the absence of the article 
 being not uncommon in poetry. Heng- 
 stenberg thinks that " the wonderful 
 rock-built city of Petra " (comp. 2 
 Kings xiv. 7), others that Rabbalh ' 
 Ammon or Rabbath Moab, is meant; 
 Calvin, that the noun is used col- 
 lectively of fortified cities generally. 
 
 10. Hast not Thou, &c. This 
 might also be rendered " (Wilt) not 
 
FSALM LXI. 253 
 
 i2 Through God shall we do valiantly ; 
 
 And it is He who shall tread down our 
 adversaries. 
 
 rhou, God, (who) hast cast us off, without the pronoun Thou, and con- 
 
 md goest not forth," &c., there being sequently the relative who cannot be 
 
 m ellipse of the relative after the understood. See also xliv. 9. 
 
 personal pronoun. But in cviii. II, 12. Do VALIANTLY. Comp. cxviii. 
 
 iphere the passage is repeated, it is 16, and Numb. xxiv. 18. 
 
 PSALM LXI. 
 
 The title of this Psalm ascribes it to David, but does not say under 
 what circumstances it was composed (though according to the Syriac 
 Version it was when Jonathan revealed to him Saul's design to slay 
 nim). There is no reason to doubt that David was the author, and 
 the language of ver. 2 renders it probable that it was written when he 
 was shut out from the sanctuary, and therefore either during his per- 
 secution by Saul, or during the rebellion of Absalom. Verse 4 makes 
 the latter the more probable occasion. At a time when the Tabernacle 
 had itself no settled resting-place, the wish to dwell and abide in it, 
 as Delitzsch has rightly remarked, is not so natural as afterwards, 
 when the Ark was fixed on Mount Zion. 
 
 Again, if, as is most probable, the king spoken of in ver. 6 is 
 David — then it is clear that the Psalm must have been written after 
 he was king, and therefore in his flight from Absalom and on the 
 other side of the Jordan. Or if it be thought that David would not 
 thus speak of himself in the third person, the Psalm may still have 
 been composed under the same circumstances, by one of the friends 
 who accompanied him. 
 
 It consists of two principal divisions, ver. i — 5 and ver. 6 — 8. But 
 these again admit of sub-divisions : — 
 
 I. First, we have the usual introduction. Ver. i. 
 
2S4 
 
 PSALM LXI. 
 
 Then, the prayer, and the ground on which it rests. Ver. 2, 3. 
 Then, tlie ardent wish to dwell in the sanctuary of God, accom- 
 panied by the reason for such a wish. Ver. 4, 5. 
 
 II. Hopes expressed concerning the king. Ver. 6, 7. 
 
 Finally, the usual conclusion, the vow of grateful praise. Ver. 8. 
 
 FOR THE PRECENTOR. 
 
 ON A STRINGED INSTRUMENT (A PSALM) 
 OF DAVID.] 
 
 I. I. Hear my cry, O God ; 
 
 Attend unto my prayer. 
 
 2 From the end of the earth unto Thee do I call when 
 
 my heart is overwhelmed : 
 To a rock which is too high for me, Thou wilt lead 
 me. 
 
 3 For Thou hast been a I'efuge for me, 
 
 A strong tower from the face of the enemy 
 
 4 Let me sojourn in Thy tabernacle for ever, 
 
 Let me find refuge in the hiding-place of Thy wings. 
 [Selah.] 
 
 2. From the end of the earth. 
 A strong hypeiboHcal expression by 
 which the sacred Poet would describe 
 his own sense of his distance from the 
 sanctuary, or from the Holy Land. 
 Comp. Is. V. 26. The feeling is that 
 which is expressed in xlii. 6, and 
 other Psalms. 
 
 Is overwhelmed, or "fainteth.'' 
 The verb means literally " to covei'," 
 as iu Ixxiii. 6; hence " to cover one's 
 J ace in sorrow," and then as here, 
 "to be overwhelmed with distress." 
 
 To A ROCK, lit. " Upon a. rock," 
 the full construciion being " Thou 
 wilt lead me to and place me upon," 
 &c. The rock is a place of security 
 (comp. xl. 2), but it is one which he 
 cannot reach by his own unaided 
 effort. 
 
 Thou WILT lead ME. The words 
 may be either thus rendered as an 
 expression of confidence (future), or 
 
 as a prayer (imperative). There is 
 the same ambiguity in ver. 6. 
 
 3. This appeal to God is now 
 based, as commonly in the Psalms, 
 on the past experience of His mercy, 
 
 A STRONG TOWER, as in Judg. ix. 
 51, Prov. xviii. 10, "The name of 
 Jehovah is a strong tower." 
 
 4. Let me sojourn. See notes 
 on XV. I, xxvii. 4. 
 
 In Thy tabernacle, or "tent." 
 The expression is figurative, no doubt, 
 but would hardly have been employed 
 after the Temple was built, and hence 
 it is almost certain that the Psalm 
 belongs to the time of David. 
 
 For ever, lit. " (for) ages." The 
 plur, only occurs again cxlv. 13. 
 
 Thy wings. The figure is bor- 
 rowed, as the parallelism shows, from 
 the outstretched wings of the Che- 
 rubim over the Mercy-seat. See 
 Ivii. I. 
 
PSALM LXIl. 
 
 255 
 
 5 For Thou, O God, hast hearkened to my vows, 
 
 Thou hast given (me) the possession of them that 
 fear Thy Name. 
 
 I. 6 Thou wilt prolong the King's days, 
 
 His years shall be as many generations. 
 
 7 He shall sit (on his throne) for ever before God ; 
 
 Loving-kindness and truth do Thou appoint to 
 preserve him. 
 
 8 So let me sing of Thy Name for ever. 
 
 That I may pay my vows day by day. 
 
 5. The possession. Primarily 
 :his would be the Land of Canaan, 
 md then it would include all bless- 
 ngs, temporal and spiritual, which 
 were in fact implied and comprised 
 in the' possession of the land. 
 
 6, Thou wilt prolong, &c. lit. 
 " Days to the King's days wilt Thou 
 idd." The king, according to ihe 
 Targum, is the king Messiah. The 
 BtBmal duration of the kingdom here 
 anticipated, no doubt led to this inter- 
 pretation. But in the original sense 
 of the passage, not merely an in- 
 
 dividual monarch, but the dynasty^ 
 the whole royal house of David, may 
 be meant. But see note on xxi. 4. 
 
 The king is spoken of in the third 
 person, but the Psalm may neverthe- 
 less have been written by David 
 himself. 
 
 7. He shall sit. The verb may 
 only signify " fie shall abide^ dwell" 
 but when spoken of kings and judges 
 it is commonly employed in the more 
 formal and solemn sense of sitting 
 on the throne, the judgement-seat, 
 &c. 
 
 PSALM LXn. 
 
 This Psalm and the 39th are Psalms which, though very different 
 in their subject, yet are so similar in the phraseology which they 
 employ, that there can be no doubt that they were written by the 
 same author. Ewald supposes, from the nth verse of this Psahn, 
 that he was a Prophet, and one of the great supporters of true religion 
 in the struggle with the corrupt men of his time. We see him here, 
 
2s6 PSALM LXII. 
 
 he says, " contending with men, his fellow-citizens, who, upheld and 
 favoured by a worldly power which was just starting into fresh life, 
 endeavoured for this very reason to drag him down into the dust, 
 because they could not endure his spiritual greatness and superiority. 
 Long had they attacked him ; now they felt sure of his overthrow, 
 But, strong in his trust in God, though assailed and threatened afresh, 
 the divine Poet places himself in calm resignation in the hands of the 
 one true Redeemer, and not only finds in Him rest, refreshment, strength 
 for himself, but is also enabled to encourage, enlighten, and comfort 
 others." 
 
 Scarcely anywhere do we find faith in God more nobly asserted, 
 more victoriously triumphant ; the vanity of man, of human strength 
 and riches, more clearly confessed, courage in the midst of peril 
 more calm and more unshaken, than in this Psalm, which is as 
 forcible in its conception and its language as it is remarkable for the 
 vigorous and cheerful piety which it breathes. 
 
 Donne, in his sermon on ver. 9, says that Athanasius " observes in 
 the Psalm a summary abridgement of all : for of this Psalm he says 
 in general, Adversus insidiantes. Against all attempts upon thy body, 
 thy state, thy soul, thy fame, temptations, tribulations, machinations, 
 defamations, says this Psalm .... not that therein David puts himself 
 to weigh particular temptations and tribulations, but that he puts 
 every man, in every trial, to put himself wholly upon God, and to 
 know, that if man cannot help him in this world, nothing can ; and 
 for man. Surely men of low degree a7'e vanity, and men of high decree 
 are a lie ; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than 
 vanity." — Sermon Ixv. ; Works, vol. iii. p. 137, Alford's Edition. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three strophes of four verses each. The first 
 two express the blessedness and security of trust in God when 
 enemies assail, ver. 1—4 and ver. 5 — 8. The last places in forcible 
 contrast with this the folly of reliance on man, ver. 9 — 12. 
 
 [for the precentor, after the manner of jeduthun.* a 
 
 PSALM of DAVID.] 
 
 I. I Only upon God my soul (waiteth in) silence. 
 
 I. Only. The particle may be so affirmative. It occurs no less than 
 rendered as restrictive, or, surety, as six times in the Psalm. In xxxix. 
 
 * Perhaps a musical instrument called after the name of Jeduthun. 
 
PSALM LXII. 
 
 257 
 
 From Him cometh my salvation. 
 Only He is my rock and my salvation, 
 
 My high tower, so that I cannot be greatly moved. 
 How long will ye set upon a man ? 
 Will ye all of you break (him) down, 
 As (though he were) a bowing wall, a tottering fence ? 
 Only from his dignity have they taken counsel to 
 thrust him down. 
 They who have pleasure in lies, 
 
 5, 6, it is repeated three times in 
 three successive Imes, one of the in- 
 dications that the two Psalms are 
 by the same author. Our translators 
 have rendered it differently in dif- 
 ferent verses of this Psalm : in ver. i, 
 truly; in vers. 2, 4, 5) 6, only ; in 
 ver. 9, surely : but it is better to keep 
 the same word throughout, at least 
 in the same Psalm. If we render 
 only, the meaning will be here that 
 God exclusively is the object of trust ; 
 if surely, that this truth, that God is 
 his salvation, has come home to him 
 with a more lively conviction, with 
 a more blessed certainty, than ever. 
 Hupfeld thinks that in ver. 4 the ren- 
 dermg surely is necessary, and there- 
 fore that this is to be preferred through- 
 out ; on the other hand, in ver. 5, 
 only is certainly more suitable. 
 
 The first hue of the verse rendered 
 literally is, " Only unto God my soul 
 is silence," i.e, is hushed into perfect 
 resignation before Him, simply trust- 
 ing in His Love, and leaving all that 
 concerns me to the disposal of His 
 fatherly will. "It is," says Calvin, 
 "that settled submission, when the 
 faithful rest in the promises of God, 
 give place to His word, obey His 
 rule, and keep down every murmur 
 of passion in their hearts." But this, 
 as he also remarks most truly, is the 
 result, not of one only, but of many 
 struggles with the temptations of 
 Satan. 
 
 ^. My salvation. The repeti- 
 tion of the word is not without 
 meaning. Not only does his salva- 
 tion come from God, but God is his 
 salvation. The Being on whom he 
 \vaits, the loving Person in whom 
 he trusts, the God whose arms com- 
 pass hira a.bout, is to him all that 
 is comprehended in that great word 
 Salvation. He heaps these epithets 
 upon God, says Calvin, that he may 
 use them as so many shields against 
 the assaults of Satan. 
 
 3. Having thus strengthened him- 
 self in his God, the Psalmist turns to 
 address his enemies. The form of 
 the address is very similar to that in 
 iv. 2. There, they are men who 
 would turn his glory {i.e. his kingly 
 dignity) into shame, as here they 
 would thrust him down from his 
 high place. There too, as here, they 
 have pleasure in lies. But here the 
 circumstance " that they bless with 
 their mouth, but curse inwardly," 
 points to men who had worn the 
 courtier's mask of a smooth hypocrisy, 
 in order to conceal the better their 
 designs against his life and honour, 
 but who had thrown it off, as soon 
 as they found that they could do so 
 with safety. When he was in peril, 
 when he seemed to be already totter- 
 ing to his fall, like a wall shaking 
 and giving way, then they were ready 
 to finish the work by thrusting him 
 down altogether. 
 
 S 
 
258 PSALM LXII. 
 
 Who bless (each one) with his mouth, and curse 
 inwardly. [Selah.] 
 
 II. 5 Only upon God wait in silence, O my soul, 
 For from Him is my hope. 
 
 6 Only He is my rock and my salvation, 
 
 My high tower, so that I cannot be moved. 
 
 7 Upon God (resteth) my salvation and my glory ; 
 
 5. Wait in silence. The first 
 stroplie opens with the expression 
 of his resignation ; this, with the 
 exhortation to resignation. But this 
 is no contradiction. Tlie life of man's 
 spirit cannot always preserve the 
 same even tenour. The heart of 
 man is like the sea ; however calm 
 and smooth it may seem, a light 
 air will ruffle its surface. The resig- 
 nation, the trust in God, the peace, 
 the rest, whicli have come afier long 
 struggle and much prayer, may too 
 easily be broken. And hence, when 
 these have been attained, we need to 
 exhort ourselves to them in renewed 
 measure. 
 
 For from Him is my hope. 
 "He never disappoints the patient 
 abiding of His children. There is 
 laid up, he says, a sure reward for 
 my silence, and therefore will I re- 
 strain myself, lest my haste should 
 hinder the course of my salvation." 
 — Calvin. 
 
 6, 7. Still further he strengthens 
 himself in God, and again heaps up one 
 expression upon another, that he may, 
 as it were, feel how safe and sure 
 the ground is under him, how little 
 reason he has to be disquieted, what- 
 ever man may do unto him. (See 
 note on ver. 2). Then having thus 
 encouraged himself, he turns to en- 
 courage others. 
 
 On these reiterated names of God, 
 Donne beautifully observes, in the 
 
 Sermon before quoted : " Twice in 
 this Psalm hath he repeated this, in 
 the second and in the sixth verse. 
 He is my rock, and my salvation, and 
 my defence, and (as it is enlarged in 
 the seventh verse) my refuge and my 
 glory. If my refuge, what enemy can 
 pursue me? If my afe/wzcf, what temp- 
 tation shall wound me ? If my rock, 
 what storm shall shake me ? If my saU 
 vatioii, what melancholy shall deject 
 me ? If my glory, what calumny shall 
 defame me ? . . . Let him that is 
 pursued with any particular tempta- 
 tion, invest God, as God is a refuge, 
 a sanctuary. Let him that is buffeted 
 with the messengers of Satan, bat- 
 tered with his own concupiscence, 
 receive God, as God is his defence 
 and target. Let him that is shaked 
 with perplexities in his understand- 
 ing, or scruples in his conscience, 
 lay hold upon God, as God is his 
 rock and his anchor. Let him that 
 hath any diffident jealousy or suspi- 
 cion of the free and full mercy of 
 God, apprehend God, as God is his 
 salvation ; and him that walks in the 
 ingloriousness and contempt of the 
 world, contemplate God as his glory. 
 Any of these notions is enough to 
 any man, but God is all these, and 
 all else that all souls can think, to 
 every man." — Works, vol. iii. pp. i54i 
 
 155- 
 
 7, Upon God. Comp. vu. 10. 
 " My shield is upon God." 
 
PSALM LXII. 
 
 259 
 
 The rock of my strength, my refuge, is in God. 
 8 Trust in Him, at all times, O people ; 
 Pour out your hearts before Him. 
 God is a refuge for us. [Selah.] 
 
 HI. 9 Men of low degree are a breath, men of high degree 
 a lie ; 
 In the balances they will kick the beam, lighter 
 than a breath altogether. 
 
 10 Trust not in oppression, and in robbery be not vain ; 
 
 When wealth increaseth, set not (your) heart 
 (thereon). 
 
 1 1 Once hath God spoken ; twice have I heard this ; 
 
 That power belongeth unto God. 
 
 12 And to Thee, O Lord, belongeth loving-kindness, 
 
 For THOtJ rewardest every man according to his 
 work. 
 
 8. O PEOPLE. This may either 
 mean men generally, or the people 
 of Israel in particular ; or if the 
 Psalm be David's, it may refer to 
 his immediate followers. The word 
 is used in this sense of retainers^ 
 followers, &c., Judg. iii. i8, I Kings 
 xix. 21. These he exhorts to faith 
 and prayer, that, like himself, they 
 may learn the lesson of patience ; 
 and as in ver. 7 he had claimed God 
 as his own refuge, now he assures 
 them that He is their refuge as well 
 — God is a refuge for us. 
 
 9. In vivid contrast to that sure 
 help and refuge which are to be 
 found in God, the Psalmist now 
 places the weakness and worthless- 
 ness of man's strength and man's 
 resources. 
 
 Men of low degree, &c. Ut. 
 "sons of (common) men, sons of 
 (great) men." Comp. xlix. 2. 
 
 A BREATH. Symm. dr/its. Comp. 
 with this and the next verse, note 
 on xxxix. 5, 6, and the passage there 
 quoted from St. James. 
 
 10. Be not vain, i.e. put not a 
 
 foolish trust in. The verb is a very 
 expressive one, from the same root as 
 the word rendered ' ' breath " above. 
 Comp. Jer. ii. 5. 
 
 1 1 . In conclusion, the sacred Poet 
 solemnly confirms his previous ex- 
 hortation by an appeal to God's re- 
 velation. 
 
 Once . . . twice, i.r. many times. 
 Comp. Job xxxiii. 14, xl. 5. And 
 this is the substance of the revela- 
 tion, that God is both a God of 
 power, and a God of love. If we 
 need strength, let us find it not in 
 man, who is but as a fleeting vapour, 
 but in God, who is Almighty. If we 
 covet a reward, let us seek it not in 
 robbery or in riches, but from the 
 loving hand of Him who ^ewardeth 
 every man according to his work. 
 (Comp. Rom. ii. 6.) This is the 
 only tnily worthy representation of 
 God. Power without Love is bru- 
 tality, and Love without Power 
 is weakness. Power is the strong 
 foundation of Love, and Love 
 is the beauty and the crown of 
 Power. 
 
 S 2 
 
26o PSALM LXIII. 
 
 PSALM LXIII. 
 
 This is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and touching 
 Psalms in the whole Psalter. Donne says of it : "As the whole 
 book of Psalms is oleum effiisum (as the Spouse speaks of the 
 name of Christ), an ointment poured out upon all sorts of sores, 
 a cerecloth that supplies all bruises, a balm that searches all . 
 wounds ; so are there some certain Psalms that are imperial Psalms, 
 that command over all affections, and spread themselves over all 
 occasions, — catholic, universal Psalms, that apply themselves to all 
 necessities. This is one of those ; for of those constitutions which 
 are called Apostolical, one is, that the Church should meet every 
 day to sing this Psalm. And, accordingly, St. Chrysostom testifies, 
 ' That it was decreed and ordained by the primitive fathers, that 
 no day should pass without the public singing of this Psalm.'" And 
 again he observes, that " thS spirit and soul of the whole Book of 
 Psalms is contracted into this Psalm." — Sermon Ixvi. ; Works, vol. iii. 
 pp. 156, 157. 
 
 In many respects the Psalm bears a striking resemblance to 
 Ps. Ixi., and both Ewald and Maurer observe that the two must 
 clearly be referred to the same circumstances and the same author. 
 That the author was David I see no reason to doubt. Characterized 
 as it is by an exquisite tenderness and a deep personal affection 
 towards God, and yet not wanting, withal, in energy and even a 
 certain abruptness of expression, it bears all the marks of his poetry. 
 According to the inscription, it was written in the wilderness of 
 Judah, which would seem to intimate that it was written during his 
 persecution by Saul (comp. I Sam. xxii. 5), to which occasion the 
 Syriac Version expressly ascribes it ; see also xxiii. 14, 15, 24, 25, 
 xxiv. 2. But against this is ver. 11, where David, as in Ixi., speaks 
 of himself in the third person, and Speaks of himself as king. Hence 
 it is more probable that the Psalm was composed when he was on 
 the other side of the Jordan, in his flight from Absalom. The very 
 tenderness and depth of feeling which characterize it, and which 
 
PSALM LXIIL 
 
 261 
 
 it has in common with xhi., are what might be looked for in a heart 
 sorely wounded and tried in its natural affections, and therefore 
 cleaving with the more intense, devoted love to Him, of whom it 
 could say, " Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of 
 Thy wings will I shout for joy." 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The longing of the heart for God, and the joy of the heart in 
 communion with film. Ver. 1 — 8. 
 
 II. The anticipated destruction of his enemies, and his own 
 triumph in consequence. Ver. 9 — 11. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID. WHEN HE WAS IN THE WILDERNESS OF 
 JUDAH.] 
 
 I. I O God, Thou art my God, earnestly do I seek Thee ; 
 My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh pineth for Thee, 
 In a dry and weary land where no water is. 
 
 I. I SEEK Thee, not as the E.V. 
 ^^ Early will I seek Thee." The 
 noun which signifies "the dawn, 
 the early morning," and the verb 
 "to seek," are both from the same 
 root, and are both to be referred to 
 the same primitive idea. The mean- 
 ing of the root is to break in, and 
 hence this in the verb passes into 
 the signification of .?tf^>fe'«^( earnestly), 
 and in the noun the dawn is so 
 called as that which breaks in upon 
 the darkness. 
 
 My flesh, i.e. " my body," an- 
 swering to " my soul " in the parall., 
 and so describing the whole man. 
 Comp, xvi. 9. So again, Ixxxiv. 2, 
 " My heart and my flesh cry out for 
 the living God." In that intense 
 worship in which every thought, 
 feeling, desire, affection are centred 
 in the One true Object of Love, 
 body and soul both take their part. 
 
 It is as a living man, evei-y pulse 
 of his being filled with the love of 
 God, that he responds to that love. 
 And when he cries out, " O God, 
 Thou art my God, " this is not merely 
 an appropriation of God as the God 
 of his worship and trust : it is the 
 heart of flesh stretching out its hu- 
 man affections towards Him who has 
 a personal affection for His creature, 
 and whose loving-kindness it knows 
 to be better than life. 
 
 In a dry and weary land. 
 Some understand this literally, as 
 describing the wilderness of Judah 
 in which David was, according to 
 the title of the Psalm. Others sup- 
 pose that the language is figurative, 
 and expresses the spiritual thirst and 
 weariness of one who is shut out 
 from God's Presence in the Sanc- 
 tuary. There can be no doubt that 
 the last is the true interpretation. 
 
2 62 PSALM LXIII. 
 
 2|_So have I gazed upon Thee in the sanctuary, 
 To see Thy power and Thy glory ; 
 
 3 For thy loving-kindness is better than life ; 
 
 My lips shall praise Thee. 
 
 4 So will I bless Thee, while I live, 
 
 In Thy Name will I lift up my hands. 
 
 5 As wr'ith marrow and fatness shall my soul be satisfied, 
 
 And with lips of joyful shouting my mouth shall 
 praise (Thee). 
 
 6 When I have remembered Thee upon my bed. 
 
 Nevertheless, the figure may perhaps 
 have been suggested by the natural 
 objects which immediately surrounded 
 the Psalmist, as afterwards the allu- 
 sion to the jackals, ver. lo. 
 
 2. So : that is, with the same 
 ardent desire, or such views have I 
 had in past time of Thy glory, &c. 
 
 Thy power and Thy glory. 
 The special manifestation of these 
 attributes was in the Holy Place. 
 Comp. Ixxviii. 6i, where God is 
 said to have given His power and 
 His beauty {= glory here) into the 
 adversary's hand, when the Ark was 
 taken : see also I Sam. iv. 2i, where 
 the glory of God in like manner is 
 identified with the Ark. 
 
 3. Life, in all the fulness of its 
 earthly meaning. Life, and all the 
 blessings of life, as they are com- 
 monly enjoyed. Comp. xvii. 14; 
 Jer. viii. 3. 
 
 4. So, i.e, either with the same 
 yearning affection, with the same 
 heart of love and thanksgiving ; or, 
 acco7-dingly^ consequently (because of 
 Thy loving-kindness), as in Ixi. 8. 
 There is no reason to take the So in 
 this verse as answering to the So in 
 ver. 2. The connection between the 
 first four verses is not very exact, but 
 may be traced as follows : My soul 
 longeth for Thee (ver. i). With the 
 same longing with which I now de- 
 
 sire to see Thee, I once did see Thee 
 in Thy sanctuary (ver. 2). This long- 
 ing is because of Thy loving-kindness, 
 which is more precious than all else 
 (ver. 3). Accordingly I will praise 
 Thee all my life long (ver 4). 
 
 While 1 live, lit. "in, during, 
 my life. " 
 
 In Tht Name, see xx. i, 5, liv. i. 
 On the lifting up of the hands, as 
 the gesture of prayer, see xxviii. 
 2. 
 
 J. As WITH MARROVy AND FAT- 
 NESS, an image borrowed from a rich 
 and splendid banquet. Comp. xxit 
 26, 29, xxiii. 5, 6. HUpfeld, follow^ 
 ing J. H. Mich., thinks that the 
 reference is immediately to the sacri- 
 ficial meal which accompanied the 
 thank-offering, here used as an image 
 of thanksgiving (comp. 1. 13, liv. 6, 
 &c. ), and that the comparison is 
 between his delight in rendering 
 thanksgiving to God, and the en- 
 joyment of the fat of the sacrifices. 
 But the simpler explanation is the 
 more probable. Comp. Deut. xxxii 
 14, Is. XXV. 6, Jer. xxxi. 14. 
 
 Lips of joyful shouting, or 
 lips of jubilee. 
 
 6. When I have rbmemeered 
 ... I meditate. The heart having 
 begun to occupy itself with the 
 thought of God and His goodness, 
 recalling all His loving-kindnejs in 
 
PSALM LXIII. 
 
 263 
 
 II. 
 
 In the night-watches, when I meditate upon Thee. 
 
 7 For Thou hast been a help unto me, 
 
 And in the shadow of Thy wings willl shout for joy. 
 
 8 My soul hath followed hard after Thee, 
 
 Thy right hand hath upholden me. 
 
 9 But they to (their own) destruction seek my soul ; 
 
 They shall go into the lower parts of the earth, 
 
 past times, continues to dwell upon 
 it through the hours of the night. 
 
 In the night-watches, i.e. the 
 whole night through. According to 
 , the O. T. division, there were three 
 watches. (Comp. Lament, ii. 19, Jud. 
 vii. 19, Ex. xiy. 24.) According to 
 the Roman reckoning, which we find 
 in the N.T., four. 
 
 7. On this verse Donne remarks: 
 "Now as the spirit and soul of the 
 whole Book of Psalms is contracted 
 into this Psalm, so is the spirit and 
 soul of the whole Psalm contracted 
 into this verse." — Sennon Ixvi. vol. 
 iii. p. 157. It embraces, as he ob- 
 .wrves, the ' ' whole compass of time, 
 past, present, and future ; " David, 
 in the present distress, finding sup- 
 port in the past, and from that sure 
 ground looking forward with con- 
 fidence and joy to the future. 
 
 In the shadow of Thy wings. 
 Comp. xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, Ivii. i , Ixi. 4. 
 That which David " promises him- 
 self, is not an immunity from all 
 powerful enemies, nor a sword of 
 revenge upon those enemie.", [but 
 see ver. 10] ; it is not that he shall 
 have no adversary, nor that the ad- 
 versary shall be able to do him no 
 harm, .but that he should have a re- 
 freshing, a respiration, in velamento 
 alarum, under the shadow of God's 
 wings." — Donne, p. 170. 
 
 8. The verse describes the mutual 
 relation of the soul and God. The 
 soul follows after God and cleaves to 
 
 Him (the expression in the Hebrew 
 is literally, " my soul hath cleaved 
 after Thee," so that the tv.'o ideas 
 of following and cleaving are min- 
 gled) ; and God, on the other hard, 
 stays and upholds the soul with His 
 right hand. Out of that Hand of 
 Power and Love neither man nor 
 devil can pluck it. 
 
 9. Upon our modem feelings and 
 thoughts this and the next verse 
 seem, perhaps, somewhat to jar. 
 We pass all at once into a different 
 atmosphere. We have come down, 
 as it were, from the mount of holy 
 aspirations, into the common every- 
 day world, where human enemies are 
 struggling, and human passions are 
 strong. Yet this very transition, harsh 
 as it is, gives us a wonderful sense of 
 reality. In some respects, it brings 
 the Psalm nearer to our own level. 
 The man who has been pouring out 
 the fervent affection of his heart to- 
 wards God is no mystic or recluse, 
 lost in ecstatic contemplation, but 
 one who is fighting a battle with foes 
 of flesh and blood, and who hopes to 
 see their malice defeated, their power 
 crushed, and their carcases left to be 
 the prey of jackals in the wilder- 
 ness. What may be called the human 
 force of character remains even amid 
 thoughts whose impassioned earnest- 
 ness is not of thif world, and whose 
 strain of intensely exalted spiritual 
 fervour is such as but very few oan 
 reacli. 
 
264 
 
 PSALM LXIV. 
 
 10 They shall be given over to the power of the sword, 
 
 They shall become a portion for jackals. 
 
 1 1 But the king shall rejoice in God : 
 
 Every one that sweareth by Him shall boast him- 
 self; 
 For the mouth of them that speak lies shall be 
 stopped. 
 
 But they. The pronoun used 
 emphatically, as placing his enemies 
 in sharp contrast with himself. 
 
 Into the lower parts of the 
 EARTH. The expression seems here 
 to denote Sheol or Hades. The 
 sentiment is the same as in ix. 17, 
 Iv. 15. In cxxxix. 1 5 it denotes merely 
 "darkness, obscurity." In Is. xliv. 
 23 it seems to mean little more than 
 ihe earth, as opposed to the heavens. 
 Comp. Eph iv. 9. 
 
 II. The king. See Introduction 
 to the Psalm, and comp. Ixi. 6. 
 
 Every one that sweareth by 
 Him, i.e. every one to whom God is 
 the object of religious fear, and trust, 
 and worship (comp. Deut. vi, 13, 
 Is. xix. 18, xlv. 23, Ixv. 16, Amosviii. 
 14), the Psalmist himself, and his 
 friends and companions. Those on 
 the other hand who, because they 
 have no fear of God, seek to prevail 
 by lies, shall be confounded. 
 
 PSALM LXIV. 
 
 This Psalm contains a stirring and vigorous picture of the plotting 
 by which evil men were aiming at the Psalmist's life. It opens, as 
 is usual in such Psalms, with a cry to God against their machina- 
 tions ; it describes at length the methods they take to accomplish 
 their purposes ; and it concludes with a confident prediction of their 
 sudden and utter overthrow. We have already observed a similar 
 strain of feeling in other Psalms, such as the S2d, 57th, 58th, and 
 59th. In all these we find allusions to the mischief done by the tongui 
 of the wicked : in the last three the same figures are employed, the 
 tongue and its words being compared to arrows and swords. Comp. 
 Ixiv. 3, 4, with Ivii. 4, Iviii. 7, lix. 7, j 
 
PSALM LXIV. 265 
 
 The Psalm is said to be David's, and the reasons that have been 
 alleged to the contrary are of little weight. 
 
 The Psalm is regular in its structure, but scarcely admits of 
 strophical division. We have, however, after the introductory peti- 
 tion in ver. I, 2, 
 
 I. The description of the wicked and their devices. Ver. 3 — 6. 
 
 II. The destruction which shall assuredly come upon them, and 
 which shall fill the righteous with joy. Ver. 7 — 10. 
 
 [for the precentor. a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint, 
 
 From terror of the enemy preserve my life. 
 
 2 Hide me from the conspiracy of evil-doers, 
 
 From the throng of the workers of iniquity ; 
 
 3 Who have whet their tongue, like a sword, 
 
 Who have aimed their arrow, (even) a bitter word, 
 
 4 That they may shoot in (their) lurking-places at the 
 
 perfect ; 
 Suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not. 
 
 5 They strengthen themselves in an evil purpose ; 
 
 They reckon how they may lay snares privily ; 
 They say, Who shall observe them ? 
 
 2. Conspiracy. This word de- 5> ^- These verses carry on the 
 notes any kind of familiar inter- picture of the plots of these evil men, 
 course, but generally seci-et converse, and especially describe their resolute 
 plotting, &c. ; whereas the word persistence in their schemes, their 
 THRONG, in the parallelism, means confidence of success, and the depth 
 propedy, a noisy, tumultuous assem- and subtlety of their designs. 
 
 blage. Comp. Iv. 14, 5. They strengthen them- 
 
 3. Have aimed. The verb is selves, or they harden themselves, 
 used commonly of bending the bow, lit. " They strengthen for themselves 
 but is transferred also to the aiming an evil thing (word)," i.e. they take 
 of the arrow ; see Iviii. 7. For the every means to secure their object, 
 figures employed, comp. lii. 2. follow it up resolutely, &c. 
 
 4. And fear not, i.e. God, who They reckon; each part of their 
 takes vengeance on the wicked (comp. evil plot being, as it were, carefully 
 Iv. 19). gone over and enumerated. 
 
266 
 
 PSALM LXIV. 
 
 6 They search out iniquities ; 
 
 They have perfected (the) device devised (by them) : 
 And the inward part of each (of them) and the heart 
 is deep. 
 
 7 But God hath shot at them with an arrow ; 
 
 Suddenly have their wounds come. 
 
 8 And He hath made them stumble, with their own 
 
 tongue against them ; 
 All that look upon them shake the head. 
 
 9 And all men have feared, 
 
 And they have declared God's doing, 
 And His work have they considered, 
 lo The righteous rejoiceth in Jehovah, and hath found 
 refuge in Him ; 
 And all the upright in heart boast themselves. 
 
 Thet say, i.e. within themselves, 
 they think, as the word is often used 
 in such phrases ; for the fuller ex- 
 pression see X. 6. 
 
 Who shall observe them ? 
 The question is an indirect one, for 
 which the Syr. substitutes the direct, 
 " Who shallobserve us?" The pron. 
 them refers to the speakers, not to 
 the snares. The prep, with the pro- 
 noun is not merely instead of the 
 accus., but marks more distinctly 
 the aim of the verb. Lit. "Who 
 shall see (look) at them," as I Sam. 
 xvi, 7, 
 
 6. And the inward part, &c. 
 This last clause is added loosely, as 
 a further explanation of the character 
 of the men. Tholuck, who supposes 
 the Psalm to have been written by 
 David at the court of Saul, when he 
 became aware of the plots by which 
 
 others were seeking to injure him 
 and traduce him to the king, sees in 
 this clause the expression of amaze- 
 ment which fills the mind of the 
 upright, honest youth, when he first 
 becomes aware of the deep duplicity 
 and treachery of the aspirants to 
 royal favour, by whom he was sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 7. The Divine judgement is now 
 painted as if actually fulfilling itself 
 before the very eyes of the Psalmist. 
 Hence the verbs are in the past tense, 
 by which a certain dramatic effect is 
 produced, which is lost when they 
 are rendered in the future. So vividly 
 is the Divine judgement anticipated, 
 that it is as if already accomplished. 
 
 8. Shake the head. For the 
 gesture, as one of malicious triumph 
 in looking upon suffering, &c., see 
 xxii. 7- 
 
FSALM LXV. 267 
 
 PSALM LXV. 
 
 We can hardly doubt that this Psalm was composed on the 
 occasion of an abundant harvest, and was intended to be sung as a 
 hymn of thanksgiving by the whole congregation gathered before 
 God in Zion. From the allusions in verses 7, 8, it would seem that 
 the time was one of great political convulsions, of a shaking of 
 nations and kingdoms, in the midst of which God had manifested 
 His goodness to His people. The Psalm connects together these 
 two great concurrent instances of God's protecting care and love. 
 He had given peace to Zion when her enemies were raging around 
 her. He "had crovmed her with the year of His goodness when 
 drought and famine seemed to threaten. The "Hearer of prayer" 
 had heard the petitions of His people, when they met to confess 
 their sins and to make known their need before Him ; and now it 
 was but fitting that they should gather again within His courts, there 
 to thank Him for His mercy, and to show forth all His praise. 
 
 This twofold character of the Psalm is best explained by referring 
 it to the time immediately subsequent to the destruction of the 
 Assyrian army before Jerusalem. An abundant harvest, it had been 
 promised. Is. xxxvii. 30, should follow that event ; and the fields so 
 lately trampled beneath the feet of the invader seemed now, with 
 their waving crops, to sing and shout for joy. 
 
 The title of the Psalm assigns it to David, but it is impossible to 
 read it and not to feel that it bears every evidence of a later date. It 
 has been suggested, and with some appearance of probability, that the 
 Psalm was written about the time of Sennacherib's overthrow (i.e. 
 about 712 B.C.). 
 
 The Psalm consists of three strophes : — 
 
 I. The opening is an expression of the thoughts and feelings with 
 which the congregation may fitly approach God, now that they come 
 to thank Him for His goodness. Ver. i — 4. 
 
268 PSALM LXV. 
 
 II. Then follows the celebration of the mighty acts of Jehoval 
 both in the world of nature and also among the nations, so tha 
 His name is known and acknowledged to the ends of the earth 
 Ver. 5—8. 
 
 III. Lastly, the special thanksgiving which is called forth byth 
 refreshing rain which God has sent, and the rich and glorious harves 
 which is already waving and ripening before their eyes. Ver. 9—13. 
 
 The difference between the first and last strophe in the mode 
 expression is striking. In the first, there is a certain abruptness 
 The thoughts follow one another, not indeed altogether witliou 
 order, but without anything like formal cohesion. In the last, 01 
 the othei- hand, the language flows with the thoughts. The brigh 
 harvest-scene is before the eyes of the inspired singer. He stand 
 looking on the fields white already to the harvest, and his sou 
 within him rejoices in their glorious promise. The Poet and thi 
 world without him are at one accord. The fulness of joy in hi 
 heart, as he sees how his God has poured blessing upon the land 
 passes as it were by a contagion of sunny gladness into the inanimat 
 creation, and the very cornfields seem to him to shout together, ye 
 to sing for joy. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID. A SONG.] 
 
 I. I Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion : 
 And unto Thee is (the) vow paid. 
 
 I — 4. In these verses, whilst the One. But He Himself, in the pleji 
 
 meaning of the separate sentences is tude of His merey, covers those ini 
 
 clear, it is not equally easy to trace quities, will not look upon them, afli 
 
 the line of thought. I believe it to so suffers sinners to approach Hio 
 
 be this : In Zion God is known, there And how blessed ate they who 
 
 He is praised and worshipt. He is reconciled and pardoned, are thii 
 
 the hearer of prayer ; that is His very suffered to draw nigh ! Of tha 
 
 character, and therefore all fle^h blessedness may we ourselves h 
 
 comes to Him. All who feel their partakers, may we be filled and satis 
 
 weakness, all who need help and fied therewith, 
 grace, seek it at His hand. It is true i. Waiteth, lit. " is silent," th 
 
 that they who thus come, come with word being used apparently meta 
 
 the burden of sin upon them : their phorically, in the sense of resting m 
 
 iniquities rise up in all their strength so of waiting. So Diodati, "laud 
 
 and might, and would thrust them t' aspetta in Sion." The meaning is 
 
 away from the presence of the Holy as Calvin observes, that God is * 
 
PSALM LXV. 
 
 269 
 
 2 Thou that hearest prayer, 
 
 Unto Thee doth all flesh come. 
 
 3 Iniquities have prevailed against me ; 
 
 (But) as for our transgressions, Thou coverest them. 
 
 4 Blessed is he whom thou choosest, 
 
 And bringest near that he may dwell in Thy courts ! 
 So shall we be satisfied with the blessing of Thine 
 house, 
 
 gracious to His people that he sup- 
 plies them every day with fresh sub- 
 ject for praise. Others, however, 
 explain it of the silence of the heart 
 in devotion. 
 
 2. Thou that hearest 
 PRAYER. This is the very character 
 of God. **He describes not what 
 has once happened, but clothes God 
 with this everlasting attribute {per- 
 pduo ornaiu), as though he said, God 
 can no more be deaf to the prayers of 
 His people than He can deny Him- 
 self." — Calvin. 
 
 Unto Thee doth all flesh 
 COME. "Byjlesh is meant man in his 
 weaT^ness and need, but the word 
 scarcely includes here other animals. 
 It is dear, however, that the privilege 
 of access to God is not intended to be 
 confined merely to the Israelites, or 
 so general an expression would not 
 have been chosen. It is again, as in 
 the last verses, the statement of a fact, 
 true generally, true so far as men 
 pray at all. 
 
 Calvin and others, who render the 
 verbs in the future, see here a pro- 
 phecy of Christ's kingdom, and of the 
 conversion of the heathen, as in Is. 
 xlv. 23, 24. But the general tenour 
 of the Psalm does not support this 
 view. 
 
 3. Iniquities, lit. "things (or 
 words) of iniquities." 
 
 Have prevailed, lit. "have been 
 too strong for me." Comp. xl. 12. 
 It is the remembrance of this which 
 
 brings up before the mind the one 
 great obstacle to approach to God ; 
 the next line telling us hovif that 
 obstacle is removed. Calvin well 
 explains: "Although our iniquities, 
 as they deserve repulse, would cast 
 us far from Thy sight, yet because 
 Thou showest Thyself ready to be 
 reconciled, they will not prevent the 
 course of our prayers." Comp. Is. 
 lix. I, 2. 
 
 Against me. The pronoun of the 
 first pers. sing, comes in somewhat 
 abruptly. Del. thinks that the whole 
 congregation here speak as one man. 
 It is more probable that the Psalmist 
 makes a personal application to him- 
 self of that which was true of all, 
 putting his own guilt however in the 
 first place, as Daniel also confessed 
 his own sins first (Dan. ix. 20), and 
 then those of the people. 
 
 Thou coverest. See on xxxii. i. 
 The pronoun is emphatic, as though 
 to express the conviction that God, 
 and God alone, could do this. 
 
 4. Blessed. See notes on xv. 1, 
 xxvii. 4. This blessedness is here 
 felt especially as vouchsafed to God's 
 chosen, as the privilege of Israel rather 
 th?.n of other nations ("Blessed is 
 he whom Thou choosest"), and also 
 as flowing from the forgiving love of 
 God, who covers the transgressions 
 which else would separate from Him 
 even His chosen. 
 
 So shall WE be satisfied. "For 
 all that God's grace offers us we can 
 
zyo PSALM LXV. 
 
 The holy place of Thy temple. 
 
 II. 5 With terrible things in righteousness dost The 
 answer us, O God of our salvation, 
 Thou that art the trust of all the ends of the eartl 
 and of the sea afar off: 
 6 Who setteth fast the mountains by His strength, 
 
 give no better thanks than that we 
 hunger and thirst after it, and that 
 the poor empty soul be satisfied there- 
 with. ' ' — Delitzsck. 
 
 The holy place of Thy temple, 
 or perhaps, "with the holiness of Thy 
 temple." 
 
 5. The Psalmist now approaches 
 more nearly to his main subject : and 
 first, he declares God's wonders on 
 behalf of His people, wonders so 
 great and so signal, that all the earth 
 has been made to know that there is 
 a God in Israel. 
 
 Terrible things (as elsewhere, 
 "great things," "wondrous things"), 
 commonly used of God's great acts 
 wrought in behalf of Israel, especially 
 in their deliverance out of Egypt. 
 (Deut. A. 21 ; 2 Sam. vii. 23 ; Ps. 
 cvi. 22, cxlv. 6, &c.) 
 
 Dost Thou answer us, (not fut. 
 ' ' Thou wilt answer us," but) now, as 
 at all times, when our need is sore ; 
 IN righteousness (comp. Is. xlii. 
 6), that being the very foundation of 
 God's moral government of the world, 
 and that righteousness being mani- 
 fested in the salvation of His people 
 as in the overthrow of their enemies ; 
 a cloud and darkness to these, but a 
 light and defence to those. 
 
 Trust. "The meaning is," says 
 Venema, " that God is the most 
 certain help and defence of men, 
 whether He be acknowledged by them 
 and trusted in or not." Tholuck 
 thinks that the congregation, "lifting 
 
 up their hearts to the survey of Goc 
 wondrous works, declare the convi 
 tion that whatever of blessing and 
 consolation all the nations of tl 
 earth receive, issues from this sour 
 only, wherein is involved the co 
 fession, that all prayers of the heathi 
 also, however perverted their ideas 
 the Deity may be, still in reality moil 
 to the throne of the God of Israel, 
 He then refers to the testimony 
 the Prophet Amos (ix. 7), that ll 
 same fatherly Hand which led Isra 
 out of Egypt had also guided at 
 blessed heathen nations. But her 
 as in ver 2, it is the claim of God I 
 be tlius recognised and trusted ii 
 which is asserted. God is the Heari 
 of the prayers of all. He is the onl 
 object of trust, even though all do n( 
 pray to Him or trust in Him. ^ 
 Luther well says: "One may ru 
 over the wide world, even to its utmoi 
 extremity, yet Thou art the only fom 
 dation on which the trust of a man 
 heart can rest." At the same tiffi( 
 there is an anticipation of a universi 
 recognition and worship, such i 
 could not but spring up in the hearts < 
 those who were met together on sue 
 an occasion as this, to record God 
 wonderful works. In Ps. Ixvii. thi 
 anticipation becomes more nearly prf 
 dictive. 
 
 6, 7. Mountains and seas are nt 
 to be understood figuratively, ta 
 literally, the statement being that tli 
 same God who stills the eartl 
 
PSALM LXV. 
 
 271 
 
 Being girded about with might ; 
 
 7 Who stilleth the roaring of the seas, 
 
 The roaring of their v/aves, 
 And the tumult of the nations. 
 
 8 Therefore they that dwell in the ends (of the earth) 
 
 are afraid at Thy signs ; 
 Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and 
 evening to sing for joy. 
 
 [II. 9 Thou hast visited the earth, and made it overflow, 
 Thou greatly enrichest it with the brook of God, 
 which is full of water ; 
 
 .nd hushes the storm gives peace also 
 contending kingdoms and nations, 
 ioth in the natural and the political 
 forld He rules. The sea and the 
 \ations are mentioned together, the 
 me being so often used as an image 
 if the other. See xlvi. 
 
 8. Therefore, lit. "and (ac- 
 Ordingly) tliey have feared." 
 
 Signs. In like manner (rrifi€7oi> is 
 ised in the N. T. of miracles as 
 'tokens and indications of the near 
 iresence and working of God. " 
 
 Outgoings, or rather tAe places 
 fhere morning and evening have their 
 lirth {"les lieux d'ou surgissent 
 'aube et le crepuscule," Perret- 
 ieutil; "portals," Kay), the East 
 .nd West; the meaning being, that 
 11 things, the inanimate as vrell as 
 he animate creatures, from the rising 
 the setting of the sun, break forth 
 3to songs of joy before God. 
 
 Briefly, ver. 5 — 8 may be summed 
 p thus ; the whole wide world, its 
 lountains and its seas, and all the 
 wellers in the world from one end of 
 ^ to the other, are in the hand of 
 iod, wait upon Him, and He makes 
 11 to rejoice. 
 
 9- With this verse begins the 
 
 special subject of thanksgiving, the 
 thanksgiving for the harvest. It is 
 manifest, from the use of the perfect 
 tenses in ver. 9, 11, 13, that this is not 
 merely a general acknowledgement of 
 God's goodness in bringing the fruits 
 of the earth to maturity, but has 
 reference to a particular season. 
 
 Thou hast visited the earth, 
 or perhaps "the land." For this sense 
 of the word ' ' visit " Comp. Jer. xxvii. 
 22. On this Arnd. says : '* 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 or good gift to testify their 
 favour and love. Thus, although 
 God is 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 gracious 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 goodness. " 
 
 The brook of God, not as the 
 Chald. and others " the clouds," but 
 
27: 
 
 PSALM LX V. 
 
 Thou preparest their corn, 
 
 For so dost Thou prepare it ij.e. the earth).. 
 10 Thou waterest the furrows thereof abundantly, 
 
 Thou settlest the ridges thereof ; 
 With showers of rain Thou makest it soft ; 
 
 Thou blessest the increase of it. 
 Thou hast crowned the year with Thy goodness. 
 
 And Thy tracks drop fatness ; 
 The pastures of the wilderness drop (therewith), 
 
 And with exulting the hills gird themselves. 
 The meadows are clothed with flocks. 
 
 The valleys also are covered over with corn : 
 
 They shout together, yea they sing. 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 rather "the rain." The Arabs have 
 the same expression. Schultens quotes 
 from Hist. Tamerl. , p. 82, the Arabic 
 proverb: "When the river of God 
 comes, the river Isa (in Bagdad) 
 ceases." It is the heavenly stream 
 as opposed to earthly streams; called 
 a brook or channel (see on i. 3) with 
 reference to the irrigation of the land 
 by means of such. It is full of 
 vi'ater, whereas the wells which men 
 dig, the channels which they cut, dry 
 up and cease to flow. 
 
 The repetition of the verb prepare 
 seems designed to mark that all is 
 God's doing. He prepares the earth, 
 and so prepares the corn. 
 
 So, i.e. by sending the rain. The 
 present tenses are employed here to 
 express that this God does not in one 
 year only, but every year. 
 
 10. Settlest, lit. "pressest 
 down,'' describing vividly the effect 
 of a rich and abundant rain. The 
 same word is u^ed of bending 3. bow 
 in xviii. 34, where see note. The 
 ridges are the lines of earth thrown 
 up by the action of the plough be- 
 tween ike furrows. 
 
 11. With Thy goodness. At 
 other rendering, " Thou hast crowne 
 the year of Thy goodness," gives n 
 bad sense. The year of God's gooc 
 ness would mean the year in whic 
 it had been emphatically displaye 
 (comp. Is. Ixi. 2) ; and this might b 
 said to be crowned with the harvcsi 
 
 Thy tracks, prop, marh of tl. 
 chariot-wheels. Comp. xviii. 10, Deul 
 xxxiii. 26, Is. Ixvi. 15. 
 
 12. The pastures of the wii 
 DERNESS. Comp. Job xxxviii. 2i 
 27. But the wilderness does nc 
 mean a, bare desert, as the won 
 "pastures" shows; it is merely coii 
 trasted with the cultivated araM 
 land. 
 
 13. The MEADOWS. See note 01 
 xxxvii. 20. 
 
 They shout together, striving 
 as it were, and vying with on 
 another in their gladness ; as the re 
 flexive form of the verb denotes 
 Nothing can be more beautiful, 
 more truly poetical, than the figur 
 by which the valleys waving will 
 com are said themselves to shout am 
 sing. 
 
PSALM LXVI. 272 
 
 PSALM LXVI. 
 
 The Poet celebrates God's great deeds on behalf of His people, 
 and calls upon all nations to join in thanksgiving to Him. From the 
 language of verses 8 — 12, the Psalrn would seem to have been com- 
 
 i posed on the occasion of some special deliverance, but the expressions 
 used are too general to lead to any certain conclusion as to the time 
 when it was written. But it has been supposed, with some probability, 
 that the allusion is to the defeat of the Assyrians under Sennacherib. 
 Others refer it to the return from the Babylonish Captivity ; others, 
 again, to the times of the Maccabees. 
 
 In ver. 13, there is a sudden and remarkable change from the use 
 of the plural to the use of the singular. Some would explain this on 
 the principle that the people are personified, and therefore speak in the 
 
 .singular. This, however, is very unnatural ; no probable reason can 
 be given for such a personification. It is far more likely that the 
 
 "Sacred Poet, after having spoken for the whole congregation, speaks 
 for himself as one of that congregation, declaring with thanksgiving 
 God's goodness to himself, felt and acknowledged by himself, as well 
 ..8 to all Israel. In fact, as the Psalm was clearly intended for 
 the public worship of the Temple, the former part was probably 
 designed to be sung by the whole choir of Levites and the latter by a 
 
 jingle voice. 
 
 The Psalm consists of five strophes, three of them being dis- 
 tinguished by the Selah at the close ; — 
 
 I. The exhortation addressed to the whole world to give glory to 
 God. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 II. The recounting of God's great acts on behalf of His people in 
 times past. Ver. S — 7. 
 
 III. The wonderful deliverance recently vouchsafed. Ver. 8 — 12. 
 
 IV. The Psalmist himself promises to bring large offerings to God 
 in grateful acknowledgement of His goodness. Ver. 13 — 15. 
 
 V. He calls upon all to hear the story of God's mercy to himself, 
 and especially of His answer to his prayer. Ver. 16 — 20. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 PSALM LXVI. 
 
 Tfor the precentor, a song, a psalm.*] 
 
 II, 
 
 1 Shout unto God, all the earth ! 
 
 2 Sing .the glory of His Name, 
 
 Ascribe to Him glory, in His praise. 
 
 3 Say unto God, " How terrible is Thy work ! 
 
 Because of the greatness of Thy strength do Thine 
 enemies feign allegiance unto Thee. 
 
 4 In all the earth they bow down unto Thee and sing 
 
 to Thee ; 
 They sing Thy Name." [Selah.] 
 
 5 Come and see the acts of God : 
 
 Terrible (He is in) His doing concerning the 
 children of men. 
 
 2. Ascribe, &c., lit. "Make glory 
 His praise, " i. e. in giving Him praise 
 ascribe to Him that glory which is 
 His. The two nouns are in appo- 
 sition with one another. Comp. 
 Joshua vii. ig, Is. xlii. I2. 
 
 3. Say unto God. He now gives 
 the reason why God should be praised, 
 and he would have this acknowledge- 
 ment addressed directly to God, in order 
 to stir and rouse the hearts of those who 
 uttered it the more effectually : "for 
 nothing so compels us to a due rever- 
 ence towards God, as when we place 
 ourselves before His face. " — Calvin. 
 
 How TERRIBLE. Comp. the song 
 of the heavenly harpers, Rev. xv. 3. 
 
 Feign allegiance, i.e. do so in a 
 forced and reluctant manner, though 
 they would willingly withdraw their 
 necks from the yoke if they could. 
 Lit. "lie unto Thee," whence the 
 P. B. V. "shall be found liars unto 
 
 Thee." The E.V. has here, and in 
 xviii. 44, where the same word 
 occurs, " shall submit themselves," 
 and in the margin in both places 
 "yield feigned obedience," which is 
 doubtless the true rendering. 
 
 There is perhaps a tacit comparison 
 implied. If even His enemies must 
 render a forced and tardy and hypo- 
 critical submission, what should they 
 do to whom He has manifested Him- 
 self in love ? 
 
 4. Bow DOWN. It is unnecessary 
 to render the verbs as futures of 
 prediction. Faith boldly brings the 
 future into the present, and sees that 
 as already accomplished which is sb 
 in the purpose and will of God. Not 
 Zion only, but the whole earth is the 
 temple of God, wherein His praises 
 are sung. 
 
 5. Come and see. Comp. xlvi. 
 8. The dull hearts of men must be 
 
 * A Psalm. The addition of the word Psalm in the Hebrew would probably denote an 
 uccompaniment of instrumental music. 
 
PSALM LXVI. 
 
 275 
 
 6 He turned the sea into dry land, 
 
 They passed through the river on foot : — 
 There let us rejoice in Him ! 
 
 7 Ruling in His might for ever, 
 
 His eyes keep watch upon the nations ; 
 As for the rebellious — let them not exalt them- 
 selves. [Selah.] 
 
 HI. 8 Bless our God, O ye peoples, 
 
 And make the voice of His praise to be heard. 
 9 Who putteth our soul in life, 
 
 And hath not suffered our foot to be moved. 
 
 10 For Thou didst prove us, O God, 
 
 Thou didst fine us, as silver is fined. 
 
 1 1 Thou broughtest us into the net, 
 
 Thou didst put a heavy burden on our loins. 
 
 roused, their attention excited ; the 
 exhortation implying also that fresh 
 acts of God's power and grace are to 
 he heheld. 
 
 6. Faith makes the past as well as 
 the future her own. The God who 
 has now wrought wonders for His 
 people is the same who once led 
 them dryshod through the Red Sea 
 and through the Jordan. Those 
 miracles of the past recur in the 
 present. That ancient story is not 
 the record merely of a bygone age, 
 but is daily new, daily repeats itself 
 to those who have eyes open to see 
 and hearts open to perceive. Hence 
 the Psalmist says : 
 
 There let us rejoice in Him ! 
 There, pointing as it were to the field 
 m which God had made bare His 
 arm, and where the past history had 
 been repeated in the present, there 
 let us rejoice in Him. 
 
 7. Keep watch or "spy out." 
 All the attempts of the nations 
 against Israel are not unobserved 
 
 of God : hence the warning which 
 follows. 
 
 The rebellious, i.e. the heathen 
 nations who threaten Israel, and so 
 lift themselves up against God. 
 
 8. Agam he calls upon all nations 
 to bless God for His wonderful de- 
 liverance vouchsafed to His people. 
 Then he describes their oppression. 
 
 9. Who putteth our soul in 
 LIFE. The expression denotes the 
 being rescued from imminent peril, 
 like the phrase ' ' bringing up from 
 the gates of death," &c. 
 
 10. The suffering of Israel is now 
 described by a series of figures, the 
 first of which marks God^s purpose in 
 the affliction. 
 
 Thou didst prove, &c. Comp. 
 xii. 6, xvii. 3. 
 
 11. The NET. Probably here and 
 in, Ezek. xii. 13, this is the meaning 
 of the word. It occurs, however, 
 often in the sense of a hold, or strong, 
 
 fortified place, as in i Sam. xxii.* 5, 
 xxiv. 22, &c. Hence many take it 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 PSALM LXVI. 
 
 12 Thou madest men to ride over our head ; 
 We came into fire and into water : — 
 But Thou broughtest us out to abundance. 
 
 IV. 13 I will come into Thy house with burnt-offerings, 
 I will pay Thee my vows, 
 
 14 Which my lips openly uttered, 
 
 And my mouth spake when I was in distress. 
 
 15 Burnt-offerings of fatlings will I offer to Thee 
 
 With the incense of rams ; 
 I will sacrifice bullocks with goats. [Selah.] 
 
 V. 16 Come, hear, and let me tell, all ye that fear God, 
 What He hath done for my soul. 
 
 17 I called unto Him with my mouth, 
 
 And he was extolled with my tongue. 
 
 18 If I had regarded iniquity in my heart, 
 
 The Lord would not hear me. 
 
 here to mean/m<7«, siege, c&c. Simi- 
 larly, Luther and Hupfeld. They 
 nad been lik^ wild animals taken by 
 the hunter in the toils, or like beasts 
 of burden on whose loins a heavy 
 load was laid (an image of servitude) ; 
 they had been, as it were, cast down 
 and trampled upon by the horse 
 hoofs and chariot wheels of their 
 triumphant and savage enemies. 
 
 13. We have now the personal 
 acknowledgement of God's mercy, 
 first in the announcement on the 
 part of the Psalmist of the offerings 
 which he is about to bring, and 
 which he had vowed in his trouble ; 
 and then, in the record of God's 
 dealing with his soul, which had 
 called forth his thankfulness. 
 
 14. Openly uttered, literally 
 " opened," used in like manner of 
 vows. Judges xi. 35. 
 
 !■;. Incense, ie. evidently the 
 ste^m and smoke of the burnt sa- 
 
 crifices ascending in a cloud, thf 
 word being used in its root-meaning, 
 The enumeration of the various kind: 
 of offerings may be an expresstoi 
 of his zeal and devotion, or as de- 
 noting that he considered no offering! 
 too large or too costly. 
 
 17. He was extolled, lit. "ex- 
 tolling was under my tongue." 
 
 18. If I HAD SEEN, i.e. probably, 
 if I had been conscious of iniquitj 
 in my heart, the assertion being thai 
 of freedom from anything like pur- 
 posed deceit, as in xvii. i, xxxii. 2] 
 or the phrase may mean, as the Eng- 
 lish Version takes it, "If I W 
 regarded iniquity," i.e. looked upon 
 it with pleasure and satisfaction. 
 For the general sentiment of the 
 passage, comp. Job xxviL 8, 91 
 Is. i. 15. lix. J., 3 ; John ix. 31; 
 I John iii. 21. See South's Seimon 
 on this verse, vol. iv. p. 1 18. 
 
PSALM LXVII. 277 
 
 19 But surely God hath heard, 
 
 He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 
 
 20 Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my 
 
 prayer 
 Nor His loving kindness from me. 
 
 PSALM LXVH. 
 
 This Psalm, which, hke the last, is anonymous, is evidently much 
 later than the age of David, though it might have been composed either 
 in the time of Hezekiah, when great hopes began to be entertained 
 of God's purposes towards the nation, or at a time subsequent to the 
 return from the Exile, when those hopes were so signally revived. 
 The Psalm is not, properly speaking, a prophecy, if by that be under- 
 stood a prediction : it is rather the fervent expression of a well- 
 grounded hope. It is the joyful outpouring of a heart which longs 
 to see the God and King of Israel acknowledged and worshipt as 
 the God and King of the world. 
 
 The Psalm, which was clearly designed for liturgical use, and may 
 have been written, like the 65th, at the time of the gathering in of 
 the harvest (see ver. 6), opens with words borrowed from the blessing 
 of the High Priest in Numb. vi. 24 — 26. That this is not an expan- 
 sion of the words of the Psalm, and that the Psalmist ■alludes to 
 the blessing of the High Priest, is quite evident. That, a Psalm 
 designed for the Temple service should be built upon the solemn 
 Priestly Blessing so often heard in the Temple, a Blessing tlirice 
 repeated (comp. ver. I, 6, 7), is natural and easily explicable. That 
 the Psalm should have suggested the formula of the Blessing is 
 extremely improbable. Besides, in three other Psalms we have 
 allusions to the same formula, iv. 6, xxxi. 16, and the thrice-repeated 
 refrain in Ixxx. Who can believe that the Blessing was composed 
 out of these passages ? Psalm Ixxx. was written long after David's 
 time, and it is evident that all the expressions in the Psalms are 
 
2 8o PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 supposed to be here foreshadowed, in accordance with St. Paitl'i 
 citation of the Psalm in Ephes. iv. 8 — ii. 
 
 i. By many of them, indeed, the Psalm is regarded as a direc 
 prophecy of Christ and His Kingdom, and devoid altogether of an) 
 reference to events occurring at the time it was written. Thus the) 
 explain its several portions as describing the advent of Christ (ver, 
 1—6) ;;His doctrine (ver. 7 — 16) ; His triumphant ascent into heavet 
 (ver. 17, 18) ; and His dominion and kingdom (ver. 19—35). 
 
 ii. Others more reasonably maintain a first reference to the his- 
 torical circumstances of the time, and then apply the Psalm, eithei 
 in whole or in part, typically to Christ. 
 
 II. But even those who contend that the Psalm is to be explained, 
 in the first instance, by a reference to the circumstances under which 
 it was composed, are very much divided in their opinions. 
 
 i. The majority of interpreters suppose it to have been written at 
 the time when the Ark was removed from the house of Obed-Edom 
 to Mount Zion, 2 Sam. vi. 
 
 ii. Others again, from the martial character of the Psalm, conceive 
 that it was written at the successful termination of some war, when 
 the Ark, which had accompanied the army to battle, was brought 
 back to the holy mountain. 
 
 iii. Still the question remains, ■what victory is here commemorated'J 
 Of those who refer the Psalm to David's time, some think that it was 
 composed after David's victory over the Syrians and Edomites, 
 2 Sam. viii. Others, after that over the Syrians and Ammonites. 
 2 Sam. xi. xii. 
 
 iv. Another class of commentators hold that later victories are here 
 alluded to, because of the mention of the Temple (ver. 29) ; either that 
 of Jehoshaphat and Jehoram over Moab and Edom, 2 Kings iii. (so 
 Hitzig) ; or that of Hezekiah over the Assyrians (so Kimchi) ; or 
 finally, even those of the Maccabees, after the consecration of the 
 Temple, i Mace. v. 
 
 V. Others find in the Psalm not so much the celebration of a par- 
 ticular historical event, as the expression of a general idea, clothed in 
 a lyrical form. 
 
 vi. Gesenius, Ewald, and Hupfeld, all refer the Psalm to the 
 return from ■ the Babylonish Captivity. Ewald expressly connects 
 it with the dedication of the Second Temple, for which he thinks 
 it was written, and when it was probably sung. Both he and Hupfeld 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 28 1 
 
 consider that the second occupation of Canaan is described under 
 figures borrowed from the first. But the latter sees in the language 
 of the Psalm rather the promise than the accomplishment of the 
 return from Babylon. The march of God with His people through 
 the Arabian wilderness is, he says, made use of by the Poet as a 
 type and pledge of their speedy deliverance and restoration to theii 
 own land. 
 
 It will be seen from this bare enumeration that there is the greatest 
 difference of opinion both as to the occasion for which, and the 
 period at which, the Psalm was written : some regarding it as one of 
 the later, or even of the very latest of Hebrew poems ; and others 
 classing it with the very earliest. One set of critics sees in it every 
 evidence of antiquity and originality ; another sees in it every mark 
 of a late age, and a great absence of originality. All, however, 
 combine in praising its vigour, its life, its splendour ; all recognise in 
 it the work of a poet of no ordinary genius. 
 
 III. It remains for us to consider how far the allusions in the 
 Psalm itself may help us to determine its age, and the occasion for 
 which it was composed. 
 
 First, then, it is clear that the great central idea of the Psalm is 
 the choice of Zion as the dwelling-place of Jehovah. To this all 
 leads ; from this all flows. 
 
 Secondly, this fact of itself would lead us to fix upon the age 
 of David as the most probable time for the composition of the 
 :Psalm, and the removal of the Ark to Zion as the most probable 
 occasion. Nor is this set aside by the reference to the "Temple" 
 in ver. 28, inasmuch as the word here usually rendered Temple 
 is a word also applied to the Tabernacle (see note on Psalm v. 7) 
 at Shiloh. 
 
 Thirdly, the mention of the four tribes, Benjamin, Judah, Zabulun, 
 and Naphtali, as representatives of the Southern and Northern king- 
 doms respectively, seems more natural then than at any later period. 
 There does not appear to be in ver. 27 any prophetic anticipation of 
 a restoration of the kingdom, and the reunion of the tribes as of old, 
 such as Hupfeld is obliged to assume. " After the Captivity,'' says 
 Hengstenberg, " there could be no such thing as the distinct tribes of 
 Zabulun and Naphtali, with their princes.'' 
 
 . Fourthly, the peculiar manner in which the tribe of Benjamin is 
 introduced, as " little Benjamin their ruler," does not seem suitable 
 
282 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 to post-Exile times, bul is very naturally to be explained at a tin- 
 shortly subsequent to the death of Saul. The tribe which had bee 
 the royal tribe, and had so lately enjoyed the pre-eminence in Israe 
 might still be honoured with the title of " ruler." 
 
 Fifthly, Egypt and Ethiopia are mentioned evidently as th? grei 
 nations of the world, then occupying the most prominent positioi 
 It would seem, then, that the Psalm must have been written befoi 
 the great Asiatic monarchies, the Assyrian especially, had becom 
 formidable. 
 
 So far then as the historical allusions of the Psalm are concernet 
 the evidence is, on the whole, in favour of the age of David rathe 
 than of a much later period. 
 
 The general structure of the Psalm, notwithstanding all tl: 
 difficulties which beset many portions of it, is clear and well definei 
 It consists of the following divisions (which rest on the commo 
 principle of pairs of verses) : — 
 
 I. An introduction which, with true lyric animation, sets before i 
 the victorious march of God, the deliverances He has accomplishe 
 for His people, and the loud exultation to which they are called i 
 consequence. Ver. i — 6. 
 
 II. Then follows a glance at the former history — the journey ( 
 Israel through the wilderness, under the immediate guidance an 
 care of God. Ver. 7 — 10. 
 
 III. The triumphant occupation of the land of Canaan, and tl 
 flight of the hostile kings. Ver. 11 — 14. 
 
 IV. The choice of Zion as the abode of God, and His solemn enti 
 into it. Ver. 15—18. 
 
 V. The Psalmist contemplating the glorious results of this abod 
 of God in Zion, calls upon all Israel to praise Him, chiefly becauj 
 He will punish all the enemies of His people. Ver. 19 — 23. 
 
 VI. The next strophe reverts to a description of the triumpliai 
 procession. Ver. 24 — 27. 
 
 VII. The hope is expressed that all the nations of the world sha 
 acknowledge and submit themselves to Jehovah who dwelleth i 
 Zion. Ver. 28 — 31. 
 
 VIII. The Psalm closes with a summons to all the kingdoms ( 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 283 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of david. a SONG.J 
 
 1. I Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, 
 
 And let them that hate Him flee before His face. 
 
 2 As smoke is driven away, do Thou drive them away ; 
 
 As wax melteth before the fire. 
 So let the wicked perish from before the face of 
 God. 
 
 3 But let the righteous rejoice, let them exult before God, 
 
 And let them be glad with joy. 
 
 4 Sing unto God, play (on the harp) to His Name, 
 
 Cast up a highway for Him who rideth through the 
 deserts : 
 Whose name is Jah, and exult before Him. 
 
 1. As the last Psalm opened with 
 a reference to the High Priest's bless- 
 ing, Numb, vi. 24, so this opens with 
 a reference to the watchword, Numb. 
 X. 35, with which the Ark was wont 
 to set forward during the journeys in 
 the wilderness. " Rise up, O Je- 
 hovah, and let Thine enemies be 
 scattered ; and let them that hate 
 Thee flee before Thy face. " 
 
 "I cannot doubt," says Calvin, 
 "that Moses dictated this form of 
 prayer for all ages, in order that the 
 failhflil, relying on the Ark of the 
 covenant as the visible symbol of 
 God's presence, might rest sure that 
 tliey would be safe." 
 
 2. Ths figures here employed occur 
 elsewhere j comp. xxxvii. 20, xcvii. 
 5, Hosea xiii. 3, and Micah i. 4. 
 They describe forcibly the real weak- 
 ness, the easy and instantaneous over- 
 throw, of the strongest earthly power 
 when arrayed against God. 
 
 In the last member of this verse, 
 and the first of the next, Hengsten- 
 berg sees a reference to the conclusion 
 of the song of Deborah : "So let all 
 Thine enemies perish, O Lord, but 
 
 let them that love Him be as the sun 
 when he goeth forth in his might. " 
 
 3. The righteous. Here, Israel 
 as a nation regarded in its ideal 
 character, and as placed in contrast 
 with its heathen oppressors, " the 
 wicked." Comp. Habak. ii. 4. 
 
 4. The first part of the Introduc- 
 tion ends with the last verse, and 
 perhaps a second chorus here takes 
 up the strain. 
 
 Cast up a highway ; the figure 
 being borrowed from the custom of 
 Eastern monarchs, who sent heralds 
 and pioneers before them to make all 
 the necessary preparations — to remove 
 obstructions, &c. along the route 
 which they intended to follow. Great 
 military roads were mostly the work 
 of the Romans, and were almost un- 
 known before the Persian and Grecian 
 periods. Comp. Is. xl. 3, Ivii. 14, 
 Ixii. 10, where the same verb, or the 
 noun formed fipom it, occurs. 
 
 Who rideth, said perhaps with 
 allusion to the cherubim on which 
 Jehovah was borne (xviii. 10), God 
 Himself being the Leader and Cap- 
 tain of His people, riding as it were 
 
284 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 5 A Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows 
 
 Is God in His holy habitation. 
 
 6 God maketh the solitary to keep house ; 
 
 He bringeth forth the prisoners into prosperity : . 
 Only the rebellious abide in a land of drought. , 
 
 at their head, as an earthly captain 
 might lead his army, riding on a war- 
 horse. 
 
 The deserts, or " sandy .steppes " 
 (as in Is. xl. 3), such as those on both 
 sides of the Jordan over against 
 Jericho, and the Arabian deserts to 
 the south and east. The allusion is, 
 in the first instance, to the journey 
 of the Israelites through the wilder- 
 ness, or Arabah, though, supposing 
 the Psalm to be post-Exile, there 
 would be a further reference to the 
 deserts lying between Babylon and 
 Palestine. The word cannot mean 
 heavens, as the Targ. and Talmud 
 (led astray, probably, by the similar 
 figure in Deut. xxxiii. 26) ; nor the 
 West, as the LXX. and the Vulg. 
 render it. The former is found in 
 our P.B.V., ** magnify Him that 
 rideth upon the heavens, as it were 
 upon a horse," which is the more 
 remarkable, as that Version usually 
 follows the Vulg. and the German. 
 Here it departs from both. The 
 words "as it were upon a horse," 
 were added, I presume, as a further 
 explanation of the verb "rideth." I 
 can discover nothing answering to 
 them in any of the Ancient Ver- 
 sions. 
 
 5. The character and attributes of 
 God, and His gracious dealings with 
 His people, ars now alleged as the 
 reason why He should , be praised. 
 The " fatherless " and the " widows " 
 are mentioned as examples of those 
 who most need succour and protec- 
 tion. As Arndt says ; "The meaning 
 of the Holy Ghcst is, that God the 
 Lord is a gracious, friendly God and 
 
 King, whose first, highest, and pri 
 cipal work it is to give most atcentii 
 to the miserabiles personfe, that is, 
 those persons who ought to be mo 
 pitied, because they are helpless ar 
 comfortless. Great potentates in tt 
 world do not act thus ; they respe 
 the noblest and richest in the lani 
 the men who may adorn their cou 
 and strengthen their power and ai 
 thority. But the liighest glory 1 
 God is to compassionate the mise 
 able." God is boih the loving Fatk 
 and the righteous Judge: and tl 
 several classes of the lonely, the de 
 titute, the oppressed, the captive 
 are mentioned as so many instanci 
 of those who have experienced bol 
 His care and His righteousness, i 
 order that from these the coiiclusio 
 may be drawn in all similar case 
 Hengstenberg compares Hos. xiv. ; 
 " With Thee the fatherless findet 
 mercy ; " and therefore all who nee 
 mercy. 
 
 In His holy habitation, L 
 heaven, not the earthly sanctuar 
 (comp. xi. 4), " in opposition to th 
 earth, as the seat of unrighteoiisnei 
 and coldness of heart." (Hengst.) 
 
 6. The solitary . . . THE,PRiS0i> 
 ERS. Those who hold that the Psali 
 was written subsequently to th 
 Babylonish Captivity, see in thes 
 words an allusion to the actual cii 
 curnstances of Israel during the Exil( 
 But it is more natural to suppos 
 that these are mentioned as othi 
 particular examples, like the orpha 
 and the widow, of God's father! 
 care. 
 
 Only, here almost = but. It iro 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 285 
 
 11. 7 O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, 
 When Thou marchedst through the wilderness, 
 [Selah] 
 
 8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped before God, 
 
 Yon Sinai before God, the God of Israel. 
 
 9 With a bountiful rain Thou didst sprinkle Thine 
 
 inheritance, O God, 
 And when it was wearj', Thou didst refresh it ; 
 10 Thy creatures dwelt therein ; 
 
 Thou preparest in Thy goodness for the afflicted, 
 O God. 
 
 be explained, "it is not otherwise 
 than thus." Comp. Iviii. II. The 
 SEBELLIOUS ; all enemies of God, 
 whether heathen, or those who in 
 Israel itself were disobedient. 
 ' 7. The proper theme of the Psalm 
 now opens with allusions to the great 
 triumphal march of God at the head 
 of His people through the wilderness, 
 and in their occupation of the land of 
 Canaan. 
 
 The words of this and the next 
 verse are borrowed, with some vari- 
 ations, from the song of Deborah, 
 Judges V. 4, 5, and this again rests 
 on passages such as Deut. xxxiii. 2, 
 and Ex. xix. 16, &c. Comp. Habak. 
 iii. 3. The reference is first to the 
 terrors of the Theophany on Sinai, 
 and the glorious Majesty of God as 
 there seen. 
 
 Wentest forth . . . marchedst, 
 words used especially of going forth 
 to battle, God being regarded as the 
 Captain of His people. Comp. xliv. 
 9, Ixxxi. 5; Numb, xxvii. 17, 21; 
 Habak. iii. 13 ; Zech. xiv. 3. 
 
 The wilderness (or "waste"), as 
 Ixxviii. 40, cvi. 14. Comp. Deut. 
 xxxii. 10 ; Is. xliii. 19, 20. 
 
 Throughout their whole march 
 God's; Presence and Glory were mani- 
 fested, but never so awfully as when 
 He came down on Sinai, to give His 
 Law lo His people. Then all nature 
 
 ■was moved at His coming ; then] " so 
 terrible was the sight, that Moses 
 said, I exceeding fear and quake " 
 (Heb. xii. 21). Hence it is that the 
 great prominence is given to this 
 manifestation of God. And hence 
 He is here called " the God of 
 Israel," because from Sinai dates 
 God's covenant relation to Israel, as 
 Delitzsch observes. 
 
 8. Yon Sinai (the demonstrative 
 pron. prefixed, as in xlviii. 14). Some 
 verb must be supplied, "shook," "was 
 moved," from the first member of 
 the verse. The original passage, 
 Judges v. 5, contains the full ex- 
 pression. 
 
 9. A bountiful rain, lit. either 
 " a rain of free- willingness," which 
 has hence been interpreted to mean 
 rain as a gift of free grace (so Calv.), 
 or "a rain of liberality," i.e. as a 
 
 iberal, bountiful gift. There have 
 been various interpretations given, 
 some understanding this rain spirit- 
 ually, and others literally ; but to me 
 its seems certain that the expression is 
 used figuratively of refreshment and 
 blessing ; this appears, indeed, to be 
 required by the following clause : 
 "And when it was weary," &c. 
 
 Refresh; literally, "confirm," 
 "strengthen." 
 
 10. Thy creatures. I have left 
 the word in the ambiguity of the 
 
28C 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 III. II The Lord giveth the word : 
 
 The women who pubHsh the tidings are a 
 great host. 
 12 " Kings of hosts do flee, do flee, 
 
 And she that tarrieth at home divideth the 
 spoil. 
 
 original. Three different interpre- 
 tations have been given of it. 
 
 (i)\tf the rain spoken of in ver. 
 9 tie Ihe manna, then the creatures 
 here spoken of may be the quails ; 
 "Thy living creatures settled there- 
 in" {i.e. in Thine inheritance, among 
 Thy people, comp. Ixxviii. 28, "in 
 the tnidst of the camp ") ; with which 
 theirest of the verse corresponds, 
 ' ' Thou preparedst (them, as food, 
 see the same verb, Ixv. 9, Ixxviii. 20) 
 for the afflicted" (j.e. Thy people in 
 their distress). 
 
 (2) Others take the word here in 
 the meaning '' host," or troop, (as in 
 2 Sam. xxiii. 11, 13, where it is used 
 of an army)j i.e. the congregation, or 
 people of Israel. 
 
 (3) But it may also mean Israel 
 in another sense, viz. as compared to 
 a flock, a favourite image in the 
 Psalms: "Thy afflicted creatures," 
 which, however, might be rendered 
 in accordance with (2), "the congre- 
 gation of Thy afflicted ones. " 
 
 Thou preparest. The word may 
 be used here absolutely, = "Thou 
 prepares! a table," as in I Chron. xii. 
 39, and it need not be rendered as a 
 past, as referring to the provision in 
 the wilderness ; rather, that is one of 
 many repeated instances of God's care ; 
 and we :have consequently the state- 
 ment of a general truth. 
 
 II. The Sacred Poet now passes 
 to the actual occupation of the Holy 
 Land. 
 
 The Lord (Adonai) giveth 
 (the) word. The noun "word" 
 (which is found only in poetry) is 
 used in Ixxvii. 8, of the " word oi pro- 
 
 mise ; " in Habak. iii. 9, apparently 
 of the "word of power," or "word 
 of victory." Perhaps both meanings 
 may be combined here. It is in vir- 
 tue of God's word of promise that 
 Israel takes possession of Canaan ; 
 it is by His word of power that 
 the enemies of Israel are discomfited. 
 "God speaks — and the victory is 
 won." Others render "song of vic- 
 tory, " God Himself putting this into 
 the mouths of the women, who came 
 forth with timbrels and dances to 
 meet the victorious army on its 
 return. 
 
 The women. The participle is 
 in the feminine, and the allusion is to 
 the custom above mentioned. The 
 deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh's 
 host, the overthrow of Sisera, and 
 David's victory over Goliatli, were 
 all thus celebrated. Comp. Exod. 
 XV. 20 ; Judges v. I, 12 ; I Sam. 
 xviii. 6 ; 2 Sam. i. 20. 
 
 12. This and the next two verses 
 wear the air of being a fragment of 
 one of those ancient battle-songs sung 
 by the women after the defeat of the 
 foe. The fact that they have thus 
 been torn from their original context 
 accounts for the great obscurity which 
 hangs over them. It is indeed almost 
 hopeless now to understand the allu- 
 sions. 
 
 Kings of hosts, not those de- 
 feated by Moses, as the kings of the 
 Amorites, but, as the reference to 
 the song of Deborah clearly shows, 
 the Canaanitish kings, Judg. v. 19, 
 and vii. 25. 
 
 She that tarrieth at home; 
 the mistress of the household, so 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 287 
 
 13 Will ye lie among the sheep-folds, 
 
 As the wings of a dove that is covered with silver, 
 And her feathers with yellow gold ? — 
 
 called as keeping house, whilst her 
 husband goes forth to battle. An 
 expression peculiarly in conformity 
 with Eastern customs. Similar is 
 the phrase "women in the tent," 
 Judges V. 24. 
 
 DiviDETH THE SPOIL, not merely 
 "receives her portion of the spoil," 
 but rather "distributes among her 
 daughters and handmaidens, &c. 
 the share of the spoil" which her 
 husband has brought home. Hence 
 the mother of Sisera is represented 
 as .anticipating the share of the 
 spoil which would fall to her lot, 
 Judg. V. 30, "one coloured garment, 
 two pieces of embroidery as spoil for 
 my neck " (so, with a veiy slight cor- 
 rection, the passage should probably 
 be rendered). 
 
 13, 14. Scarcely two commentators 
 will be found to agree as to the 
 interpretation of these verses. The 
 only point on which there can be 
 said to be anything like a concensus 
 is in the explanation of the figure 
 in ver. 13. Nearly all see, in the 
 dove and the glittering of her wings 
 in the sunshine, an emblem of pros- 
 perity and peace, though some sup- 
 pose that the allusion is to the bright 
 armour of the warriors, glittering in 
 the sunshine. Cf. the same figure 
 in Soph. Aniig. 114, Aeu/c^s x^^^'^^ 
 TTTepvyi ffTeyav6s. 
 
 According to Hengstenberg, the 
 Israelites, to whom the address is 
 directed, are described figuratively as 
 the wings of the doves, &c., or they 
 are Hie doves whose wings glitter 
 with silver and gold. The allusion is 
 to the play of colours on the wings 
 of the dove in sunshine. This de- 
 notes the peaceful, and, at the same 
 time, splendid condition enjoyed by 
 
 Israel, in the lap of prosperity. The 
 same idea is carried out in the second 
 figure, that of the snow^ an image of 
 the bright gleam of heaven which 
 fell on the darkened land on the pros- 
 perous termination of the war ; — 
 when the Lord scatters kings, the 
 light of prosperity illuminates the 
 darkness of the land, just as dark 
 Zalmon becomes white when covered 
 with snow. He observes that snow 
 is generally used as an image of 
 brightness and purity. Comp. li. 7. 
 Is. i. 18, Mark ix. 3 (with Matt. xvii. 
 2), Rev. i. 14. Zalmon is a hill men- 
 tioned in Judges ix. 48, situated in 
 the neighbourhood of Shechem, and 
 covered with a thick wood, so that, 
 as Luther says, "it might be called 
 in German a Schwartzwald, or dark 
 forest, the dark or black mountain." 
 This interpretation, amongst many 
 that have been given, is, on the 
 whole, preferable to any of the 
 others. It has the merit of simplicity, 
 and it yields a fairly satisfactory sense. 
 I would venture, however, to suggest 
 another explanation of ver. 14. It 
 seems to me, as Ewald has remarksd, 
 that this verse is rather in opposition 
 to the preceding, than a continuation 
 of the same idea. The first describes 
 the 'sunshine of peace ; the second 
 the storm of war. M ay not then the 
 comparison of the snow refer to the 
 scattering of the kings ? May not 
 those kings and their armies, broken 
 and scattered far and wide over the 
 land, be agtly compared to the white 
 patches of snow, lying in broken 
 masses over the dark boughs on 
 the forest ? " When the Almighty 
 scattered kings in the land, it was 
 like a fall of snow on (darkly-wooded) 
 Zalmon." The comparison becomes 
 
2S8 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 14 When the Almighty scatters kings therein, 
 (It is as when) it snoweth in Zalmon." 
 
 IV. 15 A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan, 
 
 A mountain of many summits is the mountain 
 of Bashan. 
 
 16 Why look ye enviously, ye many-peaked mountains, 
 
 Upon the mountain which God hath desired to 
 
 dwell in } 
 Yea, Jehovah will abide therein for ever. 
 
 17 The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, are 
 
 thousands upon thousands. 
 
 still more strikingly apt when we re- 
 member how the arms and armour, and 
 rich spoil, dashed here and there in 
 the wild disorder of the flight, would 
 glitter like snow in the sunshine. 
 
 14. Therein, i.e. in the land, im- 
 plied, though not expressed, in what 
 goes before. 
 
 Zalmon, or "the dark mountain," 
 probably, as already remarked, the 
 hill mentioned in Judges ix. 48. the 
 only other passage where the word 
 occurs. 
 
 15. The end of all this manifesta- 
 tion of God's power on behalf of His 
 chosen, of all these splendid victories, 
 is the occupation of the Holy Land. 
 He has given it to His people that 
 He may abide and reign in the midst 
 of them. He has chosen, not the 
 lofty range of Bashan, but the more 
 lowly Zion for His seat : and to this 
 new Sanctuary He comes from Sinai, 
 attended by "an innumerable com- 
 pany of angels." 
 
 A MOUNTAIN OF GoD (not merely 
 "a high mountain," see on xxxvi. 6). 
 The huge range of Bashan, with its 
 sharp pillars and sharp pinnacles (its 
 " many peaks "), is so termed, as if 
 bearing witness in a special manner, 
 by its strong massive formation, to 
 the power of Him who created it. 
 (The basalt, or basanites of the an- 
 
 cients, has been supposed to take its 
 name from Bashan, where it is found). 
 This stood in the most striking con- 
 trast to the limestone formation and 
 unimposing character of the hills of 
 Central Palestine. These bold moun- 
 tain masses, rising in dark majesty, 
 and producing the impression of ever- 
 lasting strength, stand on one side, 
 while on the other is placed the 
 small and apparently insignificant 
 Zion, having no greatness or strength 
 in itself, but great and strong never- 
 theless in the immediate and glorious 
 Presence of God ; and hence the 
 former seem to look with envy upon 
 the latter at .=!eeing it thus elevated to 
 a height to which it had no natural 
 claim. Comp. xlviii. 2, Is- ii. z, 
 Others, again, suppose that Bashan 
 is styled " a mountain of God " as an 
 ancient seat of religious worship. 
 
 17. In solemn triumph, at the head 
 of armies of angels, and like a victor 
 who leads trains of captives and spoils 
 in long array, God enters His sanc- 
 tuary in Zion. 
 
 Chariots (the sing, used collec- 
 tively), i.e. war-chariots (comp. XX. 7)1 
 carrying out the image, as in Habak. 
 iii. 8, 15. The angelic hosts are 
 evidently meant. Comp. 2 Kings 
 vi. 17. 
 
 Twice ten thous.ind, lit. "two 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 289 
 
 The Lord among them (hath come from) Sinai into 
 His sanctuary. 
 iS Thou hast ascended up on high, 
 Thou hast led captives captive, 
 Thou hast taken gifts amongst men : 
 
 Yea, with the rebellious also, shall Jah God 
 abide. 
 
 myriads." Comp. Deut. xxxiii. 2 
 (where the angels are spoken of as 
 "holy myriads"); Dan. vii. 10. 
 These angels may be meant also in 
 Numb. X. 36 (the passage borrowed 
 in ver. i, and perhaps alluded to 
 here), "Return, O Jehovah, with the 
 myriads of the thousands of Israel." 
 
 Thousands upon thousands, 
 lit. " thousands of repetition. " 
 
 18. Thou hast ascended. Comp. 
 xlvii. 5. Whither? Not, I think, 
 as many interpreters explain, into 
 heaven ; for though that is the mean- 
 ing of the passage in its N. T. appli- 
 'ation (see below), it is not, appa- 
 rently, the primary mfianing. Here, 
 as we have seen, the triumphant pro- 
 cession winds its way up the sacred 
 hill of Zion. The ascent, therefore, 
 can be none other than the ascent of 
 the Ark into the tabernacle, or temple 
 there. 
 
 On high. See for this, as applied 
 to Zion, Jer. xxxi. 12, Ezek. xvii. 23, 
 »x, 40. 
 
 Captives, lit. a captivity, i.e. a, 
 number of captives ; the image being 
 still carefully preserved of the victor, 
 with his long train of captives follow- 
 ing him in the triumph. The ren- 
 dering of the E. v., "Thou hast led 
 captivity captive," is ambiguous, as it 
 might mean, " Thou hast led captive 
 those who have led others capti-e," 
 which, however, is not the meaning 
 of the Heb. phrase (comp. Judges 
 V. 12). 
 
 Gifts, i.e. tribute from the van- 
 quished ; or rather, perhaps, from all 
 those who submit themselves to His 
 sway. 
 
 Amongst men. This is the literal 
 rendering (not ^''for men," i.e. to let 
 them go free, nor of men, they them- 
 selves being the gifts, for the history 
 of David knows nothing of ' ' prisoners 
 who were sent as gifts to the sanc- 
 tuary," nor of "proselytes, who, as 
 it were, gave themselves as gifts to 
 God " ) ; and, in the context in which 
 it stands, is, of course, nearly the same 
 as "'from men." 
 
 The rebellious. This completes 
 the picture of the triumph. All — even 
 those nations which hold out the 
 longest in their stubborn resistance, 
 and refuse to submit themselves to 
 thegreat Victor— must finally acknow- 
 ledge His sway. All shall be united 
 in one kingdom, and God the Lord 
 shall reign in the midst of them. This 
 is the great prophetic idea which 
 recurs so often in the writings of 
 Psalmists and Prophets. God is the 
 King of all the earth ; and, in spite 
 of all opposition, His kingdom shall be 
 set up, and on the throne of that 
 kingdom. His Son, His Anointed 
 (the Messiah, the Christ), shall reign. 
 Hence it is that St. Paul (Eph. iv. 8) 
 applies this verse to the Resun-ection 
 and triumphant ascension of Christ. 
 It is true that in so doing he has de- 
 parted from the Heb. and from the 
 LXX. The latter have : Avafiis fij 
 U 
 
290 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 V. 
 
 19 
 
 Blessed be the Lord 
 
 Who day by day beareth our burden, 
 
 Even the God who is our salvation. [Selah.] 
 20 The God who is unto us a God of deliverances, 
 
 /36S Sd/iara Iv avdpc^-nip, Kal ycty direi- 
 6ovvTes TOO KaTaffKTjuaffai. The first 
 clause of this — the only part of it which 
 is intelligible — the Apostle retains, 
 except that he substitutes the 3d pers. 
 
 ■^XI^o-^'^'^^^<'^''< f°'' tli^ ^^ '' ^^^ *"■■ ''i^ 
 second clause he has : Kal ^SorKe 
 SSf^ara toTs dydpdiTrotSf " and gave gifts 
 unto men." Hence he is giving, not 
 a translation, but an interpretation of 
 the Hebrew. For the Hebrew verb 
 "to take" never means "to give." 
 We cannot, therefore, argue from the 
 meaning of the word, but we may 
 from the scope of the passage. The 
 truth is, that the Apostle sees in the 
 literal O. T. fact a higher spiritual 
 significance. The ascent of the Ark, 
 in which God was present, into Zion, 
 prefigured the ascent of Christ into 
 heaven. As God came down to fight 
 for His people, so Christ had de- 
 scended to this earth for the salvation 
 of men. As, on the return of the 
 Ark, the captives and the spoil ap- 
 peared in the procession, so on the 
 return of Christ in triumph to heaven 
 (Col. ii. 15) He led captive sin and 
 death and hell and all the evil powers. 
 As God had taken tribute among men, 
 which He, however, as the victorious 
 monarch of Israel, had given to Israel, 
 so Christ also had taken gifts among 
 men (in His human nature and through 
 His work on earth) which He now, 
 as ascended Lord, gave to men. The 
 Apostle sees that when a King takes, 
 he takes to give, and therefore sub- 
 stitutes the one word for the other, 
 without at all putting the one word as 
 the translation of the other. He seizes 
 the idea and represents it in its true 
 fulfilment, Calvin has some excellent 
 
 remarks on the principle of interpre- 
 tation to be followed here. 
 
 19. The description of the great 
 triumphal procession is here suddenly 
 broken off with an ascription of praise 
 to God as the Protector and Avenger 
 of His people, and is not again re- 
 sumed till ver. 24. 
 
 Beareth our burden. The ma- 
 jesty of God and the tenderness of 
 God are thus ever associated in Holy 
 Scripture. The same God who came' 
 once in awful glory to Sinai, and who 
 now, accompanied by myriads of an- 
 gels, enters into His sanctuary in Zion, 
 is the God who bears the burden 
 which is too heavy for us (or, per- 
 haps, " who bears « J," z. A carries ns, 
 as a shepherd when he finds the lost 
 sheep lays it upon his shoulder). 
 
 20. Means of escape from 
 DEATH, lit. "for death," or "with 
 reference to death." As Calvin ob- 
 serves, " With God are wonderful 
 and various and secret methods, 
 whereby He raises His children from 
 death to life. . . . Even when 
 He has suffered them to be in a 
 manner swallowed up. He certainly 
 furnishes marvellous means of es- 
 cape," &c. 
 
 21. The reverse of the previous 
 truth : God will take terrible ven- 
 geance on His enemies. 
 
 The HAIRY SCALP, personified, 
 i.e. the proud, bold, wilful, secure 
 sinner, the thick head of hair being 
 an image of youthful vigour and pride 
 (as in the case of Samson, and Ab- 
 salom). Similarly in Greek, koh^v, 
 to wear long hair, is Used metaphori- 
 cally, in the signification to plvmi 
 oneself, to be proud, &c. Comp. Is. 
 
PSALM LXVin. 
 
 291 
 
 And to Jehovah the Lord belong means of 
 escape from death. 
 
 21 But God will smite the head of His enemies, 
 
 The hairy scalp which goeth on still in his 
 trespasses. 
 
 22 The Lord hath said : " From Bashan will I bring 
 
 again, 
 I will bring them again from the depths of the sea, 
 
 23 That thou mayest wash thy foot in blood. 
 
 That the tongue of thy dogs may have its 
 portion from the enemy." 
 
 VI. 24 They have seen Thy goings, O God, 
 
 The goings of my God, my King, into the 
 sanctuary : 
 
 25 The singers went before, the minstrels followed. 
 
 In the midst of the damsels playing on the timbrels: 
 
 26 " In the congregations bless ye God, 
 
 22. I WILL BRING AGAIN. No 
 object is supplied, but it is evident 
 from the context that not Israel, as 
 the older commentators generally 
 supposed, but the enemies of Israel 
 are meant. God will bring these 
 back, wherever they may have fled in 
 the hope of safety, and give them up 
 to the vengeance of Israel. From 
 Bashan in the east, and from the sea 
 in the west, from the heights of the 
 mountains, and from the depths of 
 the sea (one or both of these anti- 
 theses may be designed), they shall 
 be brought back. The passage vfhich 
 really throws light upon this is the 
 simi^r passage in Amos ix. I — 3 : 
 "He thatescapeth of them shall not be 
 delivered. Though they dig into Sheol, 
 thence shall my hand take them ; 
 though they climb up into heaven, 
 thence will I bring them down. And 
 though they hide themselves in the 
 top of Carmel, I will search and take 
 them out thence ; and though they be 
 hid from My sight in the bottom of 
 
 the sea, thence will I command," 
 &c. 
 
 24. The picture of the triumphal 
 procession to the sanctuary is now 
 resumed. 
 
 They have seen, i.e. men in 
 general have seen (hence equivalent 
 to a passive, ' ' Thy goings have been 
 seen," as the LXX. eflcwpjjeTjo-oi'). 
 Hupfeld, however, supplies " the na- 
 tions," i.e. the hostile nations, as the 
 subject, and explains the "goings of 
 God " of the various acts already 
 celebrated in the Psalm. 
 
 Thy goings, here not the march 
 of Godagainst His enemies, asinlxxvii. 
 13, Hab. iii. 6, but, as is plain from the 
 context, His solemn entry into the 
 sanctuary. Here we have the visible, 
 as before, ver. 1 7, the invisible part of 
 the spectacle. 
 
 25. Playing on the timbrels, or 
 "beating the tambourine." Comp. 
 Exod. XV. 20, Judges xi. 34. 
 
 26. The words of this verse may be 
 a sudden outburst of feeling on the 
 
 U 2 
 
292 
 
 PSALM LX VIII. 
 
 (Bless) the Lord, (ye that are) of the fountain 
 
 of Israel." 
 27 There was little Benjamin their ruler, 
 The princes of Judah, their company, 
 The princes of Zebulun, (and) the princes of 
 
 Naphtali. 
 
 VII. 28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength : 
 
 Strengthen, O God, that which Thou 
 wrought for us from Thy temple. 
 
 hast 
 
 part of the Poet himself (comp. Judg. 
 V. 9), or, perhaps, the words sung 
 by the chorus of maidens. 
 
 The fountain of Israel. The 
 Patriarch, Israel, is the fountain from 
 which the whole nation has issued as a 
 stream. Comp. Is. xlviii. i, li. i. 
 
 27. Four of the tribes are mentioned 
 by name as taking part in the pro- 
 cession, these four being representa- 
 tives of the rest, Benjamin and Judah 
 of the Southern kingdom, and Zebulun 
 and Naphtali of the Northern. The 
 last two are especially named with 
 reference to the part which they 
 played in the war against Sisera, 
 and the position they occupy in the 
 song of Deborah (Judges v. 18). 
 The ancient commentators strangely 
 enough see in the mention of these 
 tribes an allusion to, or rather a 
 prophecy of, the birthplace of the 
 Apostles, and in Benjamin of the 
 Apostle Paul, whom TertuUian, in 
 reference to this Psalm, styles par- 
 vus Benjam.in. 
 
 Little Benjamin. So called, 
 either because their ancestor was the 
 youngest son of Jacob, or because it 
 was in reality the smallest tribe, 
 I Sam. ix. 21. It is called their 
 Ruler, because from that tribe came 
 Israel's first king. 
 
 Their company, or crowd, Judah 
 being the largest and most numerous 
 of the tribes. 
 
 28. The Psalmist now turns in 
 prayer to that God who has ascended 
 into His holy habitation, beseeching 
 Him thence to manifest His power in 
 the subjugation of all enemies ; he 
 beholds the nation bringing tribute to 
 Him as to their sovereign ; and finally 
 calls upon them to join in loud praise 
 and worship of Him who rules in 
 heaven, and who is the God of Israel. 
 
 Thy God. According to the pre- 
 sent text, there is here an abrupt ad- 
 dress to Israel. But we should pro- 
 bably read (with many of the ancient 
 Versions), "O God, command Thy 
 strength." 
 
 From Thy temple (or, perhaps 
 tabernacle, see note on Ps. v. 7). This 
 should, probably, be detached from 
 the next verse. 
 
 30. In ver. 29 the voluntary siih- 
 mission of foreign powers is described. 
 Here the prayer is that God would 
 compel to submission those who op- 
 pose themselves. 
 
 Rebuke, as in ix. 5. 
 
 The beast of the reed, evi- 
 dently a symbolical description of 
 Egypt. Either the crocodile (called 
 elsewhere Leviathan, Ixxiv. 14, comp. 
 Job xli. I, and tannin, Ixxiv. 13) Is. 1). 
 9, parall. with Rahab, ie. Egypt) is 
 meant ; or the hippopotamus, in Job 
 xl. 15 called behevioth, and said there 
 (ver 21) to be "arhongthe lotus, in the 
 covert of the reeds ;" (the reeds of the 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 293 
 
 29 Up to Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto 
 
 Thee. 
 
 30 Rebuke the beast of the reed, 
 
 The herd of bulls, with the calves of the peoples. 
 Trampling under foot those that have pleasure in 
 silver: 
 Disperse Thou the peoples that delight in wars. 
 
 3 1 The rich ones shall come out of Egypt ; 
 
 Cush shall haste to stretch forth her hands 
 unto God. 
 
 VIII. 32 O ye kingdoms of the earth, sing unto God, 
 Play (on the harp) to the Lord. [Selah.] 
 33 To Him who rideth through the heaven of 
 heavens which are of old : — ■ 
 
 Nile are niejlioned also in Is. xix. 6, 
 XXXV. 7.) Probably the former, as 
 the latter does not occur as a symbol 
 of Egypt. Gesen. (on Is. xxvii. I) 
 supposes the beast of the reed, i.e. 
 "the dragon, the crocodile," to be a 
 symbol of Babylon. Lowth {Prml.) 
 and Schnurrer think that the lion is 
 meant aS a symbol of Syria, lions 
 making their haunts in the thick reeds 
 by the rivers of Mesopotamia, and 
 also by the Jordan, Jer. xlix. 19. 
 Ewald also says, "The lion, or the 
 tiger, i.e. the great king." Egypt is 
 selected as an example of the nations 
 of the world, being at this time, no 
 doubt, the leading power. 
 
 Bulls, lit "strong ones." See 
 on xxiL 12. These are the leaders 
 of the nations, kings and captains, 
 whereas the CALVES are explained by 
 the addition of THE peoples, as the 
 nations themselves. 
 
 Trampling under foot. The 
 participle refers to God, not to the 
 calves. Hence some would change 
 it into the imperative, ** Trample 
 under foot." According to the re- 
 ceived text, this would stand : " (Re- 
 buke) those that prostrate themselves 
 with pieces (or bars) of silver," or. 
 
 " so that they prostrate themselves 
 with pieces of silver." The Psalmist 
 anticipates the entire subjection of all 
 the princes and nations of the earth 
 to the God who has now seated Him- 
 self on His throne in Zion. 
 
 31. Egypt and Ethiopia are men- 
 tioned as examples (as Tyre, xlv. 12, 
 see note there) of the most wealthy 
 and powerful nations, who will bring 
 their treasures and pour out their gifts 
 before God. Comp. Is. xliii. 3, xlv. 
 14, Ix. 5, &c. 
 
 Shall haste to stretch forth, 
 lit. "shall make to run." The allu- 
 sion is to stretching out the hands, 
 not in prayer, but in the offering of 
 gifts. 
 
 32. The remaining verses of the 
 Psalm are, in fact, prophetic. Stand- 
 ing in the midst of that future glory, 
 which, he anticipates so vividly that 
 it seems already to be present, the 
 Psalmist calls upon all the kingdoms 
 of the world to praise God whose 
 glory is in heaven, but who has also 
 chosen Zion, there to dwell, and to 
 manifest His glory, as He manifests 
 it in heaven. 
 
 33. The heaven of heavens, 
 i.e. the highest heavens (comp. Deut. 
 
294 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 Lo, he uttereth His voice, a voice of strength. 
 
 34 Ascribe ye strength unto God, 
 
 Whose majesty is over Israel and whose strength is 
 in the clouds. 
 
 35 Terrible art Thou, O God, from Thy sanctuaries, Thou 
 
 God of Israel ; 
 He giveth strength and much power unto the people, 
 Blessed be God. 
 
 X. 14, I Kings viii. 27), said to be 
 "of old" with reference to their 
 creation (comp. cii. 25) ; and on this 
 throning of God in the heavens, whilst 
 at the same time He appears as the 
 Redeemer and Protector of His people 
 upon earth, see Deut. xxxiii. 26. 
 
 His voice. Comp. xlvi. 6, and 
 xxix. 3, &c., where the thunder is 
 so called ; God's thunder being the 
 utterance of His power. 
 
 35. From Thy sanctuaries. So 
 ex. 2, "Jehovah shall send the rod of 
 
 Thy strength, out of Zion," as the 
 seat of God's dominion, as the centre 
 from which He exercises His power. 
 The plural, as Ixxiii. 17, Jer. li. 51, 
 Ezek. xxi. 2 (comp. Ps. Ixxxiv. i, 
 cxxxii. 5, 7), as expressing the z/anlia; 
 parts of the one sanctuary. 
 
 He giveth strength. Comp. 
 xxix. II, Is. xl. 29. 
 
 Much power. I have so rendered 
 in order to express the plural noun: 
 lit. "powers." It occurs nowhere 
 else. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 29s 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 When and by whom this Psalm was written, we have no very 
 certain clue to guide us ; unless, indeed, we are disposed to accept 
 the authority of the inscription, which tells us it was written by 
 David. AU that is certain from the general tenour of the Psalm is> 
 that it was written under circumstances of great and unmerited 
 suffering by one who was persecuted for righteousness' sake. The 
 zeal which he had shown for the service and honour of God had 
 provoked the hostility of bad men against him, and made him the 
 object of their unholy mockery. In the former part of the Psalm we 
 have the fact of this persecution detailed, in the form of a humble com- 
 plaint to God, together with an earnest prayer for deliverance. In 
 the latter part there is a marked change of feeling. The sad, humble, 
 subdued, entreating tone in which he had spoken, turns suddenly 
 into a strong outburst of indignant execration. One curse is heaped 
 upon another, till the whole terrible series is completed in the prayer 
 that those who have persecuted and mocked God's afflicted servant 
 may have their names blotted out from His Book of Life. 
 
 In some of its features this Psalm bears much resemblance to 
 Psalms XXXV. and cix. In all three Psalms there is the same deep 
 sense of grievous wrong, of innocence unjustly persecuted, and in all 
 alike the same burning indignation is poured in a hot lava-stream 
 of anathemas upon the persecutors. (See note on xxxv. 22.) 
 
 In other respects there are points of coincidence between this and 
 the Fortieth Psalm, which seem to justify the conclusion that the two 
 were written by the same person. In each the Sacred Poet describes 
 his affliction as a sinking in the deep mire (xl. 2, Ixix. 2) ; in the one 
 we have " They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs 
 of my head," Ixix. 4 ; in the other, " Mine iniquities .... are more 
 than the hairs of my head," xl. 12; in both there is the same hope 
 that the triumphant issue of the suffering endured will be a subject 
 of joy to the righteous, and the strengthening of their faith, xl. 3, 16, 
 
296 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 Ixix. 32. This last passage, again, bears a striking resemblance to 
 xxii. 26, so that Hitzig considers it certain that the Twenty-second 
 Psalm must also be ascribed to the same author. That author he 
 supposes to be Jeremiah. Seller, and others before him, had thrown 
 out the same suggestion with regard to Psalms xl. and Ixix. The 
 grounds on which this view rests are : (i) the character of the 
 suffering, which was occasioned by zeal for God's house, the humility 
 of the sufferer, and the scorn with which he was treated, all of which 
 correspond with what we read Jer. xv. 15 — 18 ; (2) the murderous hate /J 
 of the men of Anathoth towards Jeremiah, xi. 18 — 23, which may be 
 compared with the complaint of the Psalmist, ver. 8 ; (3) the close of 
 the Psalm, ver. 34 — 36, which is, as it were, a summary of what Jeremiah 
 foretold in his Book of Restoration, xxx. — xxxiii. ; (4) the peculiar 
 nature of Jeremiah's suffering, who was cast by the princes into the 
 dungeon or cistern of Malchiah, where he sank down in the mire. 
 To this the Prophet is supposed to allude in Lam. iii. 53 — 58, and, 
 according to Hitzig, this Psalm was his prayer whilst he lay in the 
 cistern or pit (comp. ver. 15). 
 
 If any inference can be drawn from style and language, if criticism 
 have any testing power, it would hardly be too much to say that this 
 Psalm could not have been written by David. 
 
 This has usually been regarded as a Messianic Psalm. No portion 
 of the Old Testament Scriptures is more frequently quoted in the 
 New, with the exception of Psalm xxii. When Jesus drives the 
 buyers and sellers from the Temple, John ii. 17, His disciples are 
 reminded of the v/ords of ver. 9. When it is said, John xv. 25, that 
 the enemies of Jesus hated Him without a cause, and this is looked 
 upon as a fulfilment of Scripture, the reference is probably to ver. 4 
 (though it may be also to xxxv. 19). To Him, and the reproach 
 which He endured for the sake of God, St. Paul (Rom. xv. 3) refers 
 the words of this Psalm, ver 9, " The reproaches of them that 
 reproached Thee are fallen upon me." In ver. 12 we have a 
 foreshadowing, of the mockery of our Lord by the soldiers in the 
 prastorium. Matt, xxvii. 27 — 30 ; in ver. 21, the giving of the vinegar 
 and the gall found their counterpart in the scenes of the Crucifixioflj -,; 
 Matt, xxvii. 34. In John xix. 28 there is an allusion, probablyi 
 to ver. 21 of this Psalm (and to xxii. 15). The imprecation in ver. 25 
 is said, in Acts i. 20, to have been fulfilled in the case of Judas 
 Iscariot, though, as the words of the Psalm are plural, the citation is 
 evidently made with some freedom. According to Rom. xi. 9, 10, 
 
PSALM LXIX. 297 
 
 the rejection of Israel may be best described in the words of ver. 
 22, 23. 
 
 It will be observed that many of these quotations are made 
 generally, by way of illustration and application, rather than as pro- 
 phecies which have received fulfilment. Enough, however, remains 
 to justify the Messianic sense of the Psalm, provided our interpre- 
 tation be fair and sober. The broad principle laid down in the 
 Introduction to the Twenty-second Psalm applies here. The history 
 of Prophets and holy men of old is a typical history. They were, 
 it may be said, representative men, suffering and hoping, not for 
 themselves only, but for the nation whom they represented. In their 
 sufferings, they were feeble and transient images of the Great Sufferer 
 who by His sufferings accomplished man's Redemption : their hopes 
 could never be fully realized but in the issue of His work, nor their 
 aspirations be truly uttered save by His mouth. But confessions of 
 sinfiilness and imprecations of vengeance, mingling with these better 
 hopes and aspirations, are a beacon to guide us in our interpretation. 
 They teach us that the Psalm is not a prediction ; that the Psalmist 
 does not put himself in the place of the Messiah to come. They show us 
 that here, as indeed in all Scripture, two streams, the human and the 
 Divine, flow on in the same channel. They seemed designed to remind 
 us that if Prophets and Minstrels of old were types of the Great 
 Teacher of the Church, yet that they were so only in some respects, 
 and not altogether. They bear witness to the imperfection of those 
 by whom God spake in time past unto the fathers, in many portions 
 and in many ways, even whilst they point to Him who is the Living 
 Word, the perfect Revelation of the Father. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions, each of eighteen 
 verses. These, however, again admit of subdivision as follows : — 
 
 I. (i) The lamentation, which declares the miserable condition 
 of the Psalmist. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 (2) The fuller account of his persecutions, especial prominence 
 being given to the fact that his sufferings are for the sake of God and 
 of His house, and the reproach to which he is exposed in consequence 
 Ver. 5—12. 
 
 {3) The prayer to God for deliverance, urged both upon the ground 
 of His great misery, and of God's great mercy. Ver. 13 — 18. 
 
 II. (i) He turns back, and again dwells upon the malice and 
 cruelty of his enemies. Ver. 19 — 21. 
 
298 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 (2) And then, roused by the recollection of his wrongs, conscious 
 that he is on the side of God and of truth, and that he has been 
 treated with shameful injustice, he calls for God's worst vengeance 
 upon his enemies. Ver. 22 — 28. 
 
 (3) Lastly, we have the threefold expression of joy : first, as regards 
 God's deliverance of himself, and his own acknowledgement of that 
 mercy (ver. 29 — 31) ; then, as regards the encouragement hereby given 
 to all the righteous (ver. 32, 33) ; and, finally, in prospect that God 
 will save Zion, and build up the cities of Judah (ver. 34 — 36). 
 
 [for the precentor, "upon LILIKS." (a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Save me, O God, 
 
 For the waters have come in unto my soul. 
 
 2 I have sunk in the mud of the abyss, where there is no 
 
 standing-place. 
 I have come into the depths of the waters, 
 And a flood hath overwhelmed me. 
 
 3 I am weary with my calling, my throat is parched. 
 
 Mine eyes have failed, whilst I wait for my God. 
 
 4 More than the hairs of my head are they that hate me 
 
 without cause, 
 
 Ver. 1 — 4. These contain the cry 3. Is parched, or "dried up," 
 
 for help, and the description of the lit. "is made hot," "burned," as in 
 
 Psalmist's miserable condition. cii. 3, where it is said of the bones 
 
 I. The waters, frequently occur- (comp. Job xxx. 30). See xxii. 15. 
 
 ring as an image of extreme danger, Whilst I wait. It was an ex- 
 
 as in xviii. 4 and 1 6, xxxii. 6, xlii. 7, ample, says Calvin, of a rare and 
 
 and often. wonderful patience, to wait upon God 
 
 Unto my soul, expressive of a in so deplorable a condition, and 
 
 peril threatening the life, as in Jer. adds, "When he speaks of his throat 
 
 iv. 10. Calvin, however, thinks that being parched, this is not as though 
 
 soul is put for heart, and that the ex- he had left off praying, but rather 
 
 pression denotes that the waters had intimates, that though his bodily 
 
 not only covered him, but had forced strength failed, the power of his 
 
 their way dov/n his throat. faith did not give way." 
 
 Flood. The vford flood in these 4. More than the hairs. Comp. 
 
 two verses is the well-known Shib- xl. 12. 
 
 boleth which the Ephraimites were WITHOUT CAUSE, as in xxxv. 19, 
 unable to pronounce, Judg. xii. 6. It xxxviii. 19. To this passage, pro- 
 occurs again, Is. xxvii. iz, "flood of bably, allusion is made by our Lord, 
 the river." John xv. 25; St» l)i.h%isiv (LXX. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 
 
 299 
 
 Strong are they that are my destroyers, mine enemies 
 without reason :— 
 That which I did not rob, then must I restore. 
 
 5 God, Thou knowest my foolishness, 
 
 And my guiltinesses have not been hid from Thee. 
 
 6 Let not them that wait on Thee be ashamed through 
 
 me, 
 Lord, Jehovah (of) hosts. 
 Let not them be confounded, through me, that seek Thee, 
 God of Israel. 
 
 7 For for Thy sake I have borne reproach, 
 
 01 /iiffovi'Tei) ^e Sajpetiv, words which 
 He introduces with Lva TTAnpuOil 6 
 \6yo^ i y€ypafif/.4vos ep T(J) vSfxij} avraSv. 
 Themaimner of citation plainly shows 
 how we are to understand 'Iva TT\npw6^ ; 
 what was true, in some sense, even of 
 the suffering Israelite under the law, 
 was still more true of Him in whom 
 was no sin, and whom, therefore, 
 His enemies did indeed hate without 
 cause. 
 
 That which I did not rob, &c. 
 The expression seems to be pro- 
 verbial It is equivalent to saying, 
 "I am treated as guilty though I 
 am innocent." Comp. Jer. xv. lo, 
 and the similar complaint in Ps. 
 ixxv. II. 
 
 Then must I restore. The 
 P. B. V. gives the sense very well : 
 " I paid them the things that I never 
 took." 
 
 5. Then follows the appeal to God 
 from the unrighteoubness of men. 
 The manner in which this appeal is 
 made is, however, unusual. Gene- 
 rally speaking, under such circum- 
 stances, we find a strong assertion of 
 the integrity and innocence of the 
 sufferer, and a complaint that he 
 suffers unjustly : here, on the con- 
 trary, we find him appealing to God's 
 knowledge of his foolishness and his 
 transgressions. The passage presents 
 
 a great difficulty to Augustine in his 
 attempt to explain the whole Psalm 
 as a prophecy of Christ ; and he 
 escapes from the difficulty by saying 
 that the words apply to the members 
 of Christ, and not to the Head. Some 
 would explain this : Thou knowest 
 exactly wliat the extent of my fooHsh- 
 ness is, and that I am not so guilty 
 as others would represent me, ' ' Thou 
 knowest roAfl^ my foolishness, &c., is." 
 We have here, as in xl. 12, a con- 
 fession of sinfulness, a confession that 
 that sinfulness has brought upon him 
 the punishment from which he now 
 suffers. With this confession he turns 
 to God, who knows him far better 
 than he knows himself. " God, Thou 
 knowest." He does not attempt to 
 assert that he is innocent, but only 
 that his enemies are unjust and mali- 
 cious in their attacks. And then he 
 urges his appeal for mercy on the 
 ground that others who trust in God 
 will be put to shame if His servant 
 is left to perish. 
 
 7. For Thy sake. Another rea' 
 son urged why God should rescue 
 him from his enemies. It is true he 
 is a sinner, it is true he suffers for his 
 sin ; nevertheless the men who have 
 injured him have injured him un- 
 justly. It is Jehovah himself, and 
 the people of Jehovah (see last verse), 
 
300 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 Confusion hath covered my face. 
 
 8 I have become estranged from my brethren, 
 
 And an alien to my mother's sons. 
 
 9 For zeal for Thine house hath consumed me, 
 
 And the reproaches of them that reproach Thee are 
 fallen upon me. 
 10 And I wept (and) my soul fasted, 
 
 And it became (a subject of) reproaches for me. 
 
 who are reproached in him : it is 
 Jehovah's honour, and the honour of 
 His house and worship which are at 
 stake. See note on xliv. 17 — 22. 
 
 The complaint is very similar to 
 the one made in xliv. 13, &c. Com- 
 pare particularly the expressions, 
 "for Thy sake," "confusion hath 
 covered my face," *' I became a pro- 
 verb," the only difference being that 
 there they are spoken of the nation, 
 here of the individual. An exact 
 parallel is to be found in Jer. xv. 15, 
 ' ' know that for Thy sake I have 
 suffered rebuke." 
 
 8. Even his own nearest of kin are 
 estranged- from him on this account. 
 Comp. the similar complaints, xxvii. 
 10, xxxi. II, xxxviii. 11. 
 
 9. Zeal for Thine house. Per- 
 haps for the state of neglect in which 
 it was, or for the profanation of the 
 sanctuary, though the phrase may 
 only mean zeal for God's service and 
 worship. Still, I think, this expres- 
 sion is only to be accounted for on 
 the supposition that the Temple was 
 standing. 
 
 Hath consumed, lit. "eaten." 
 Comp. cxix. 139. Similar expres- 
 sions with respect to the Prophets 
 will' be found, Jer. vi. 11, xv. 17, 
 XX. 9, xxiii. 9, Ezek. iii. 14, This, 
 which was true in various imperfect 
 degrees of these servants of God of 
 old, was in a far higher sense true of 
 the Only-begotten Son, who cou'd 
 
 say, I seek not mine own glory. 
 Hence, when He purged the Temple, 
 the disciples could not help thinking 
 of these words of the Psalm, as find- 
 ing their best application in Him. I 
 (John ii. 17.) I 
 
 Upon me, as upon all God's trae 
 prophets (comp. Jer. i. 6—8, Ezek. 
 ii. 6, 7), and above all upon the Great 
 Prophet of the Church, as St. Paul 
 reminds us, quoting these words, 
 Rom. XV. 3. 
 
 10. Fasting and sackcloth are as 
 usual the symbols of deep sorrow, 
 and of repentance. Comp. xxxv. 13. 
 But it has been disputed wtetkcr 
 they denote, (l) humiliation for kis 
 own sin, and outward tokens of his 
 suffering ; or (2) sorrow for the des- 
 pite done to God's honour and house ; 
 or (3) whether the Psalmist appears 
 here in a representative character, 
 sorrowing for the sins of his people, 
 shedding teats for those who had no 
 tears to shed for themselves, fasting 
 for those who were living in pleasure 
 in the earth and were wanton, putting 
 sackcloth on his loins for those wbo 
 saw not the judgements of God. It 
 is most probable, I think, that a 
 public expression of sorrow is meant, 
 and that this was called forth by the 
 general neglect of religion (ver. 9) 1 
 and then this public protest against 
 ungodliness was turned into ridicule 
 by those against whom it was di- 
 rected (ver. II, 12). 
 
PSALM LXIX. 
 
 301 
 
 1 1 I made sackcloth also my clothing, 
 
 And I became a proverb unto them ; 
 
 12 They that sit in the gate talk of me, 
 
 ■■ And the songs of them that drink strong drink (are 
 concerning me). 
 
 13 But as for me — my prayer is unto Thee, O Jehovah ! 
 
 In an acceptable time, O God, in the greatness of Thy 
 
 lovmg-kindness : 
 Answer me with the truth of Thy salvation. 
 
 14 Deliver me from the mire, that I sink not ; 
 
 Let me be rescued from my haters, and from the 
 depths of the waters. 
 1 11; Let not a flood of waters overwhelm me, 
 Neither let the abyss swallow me up. 
 And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 
 16 Answer me, O Jehovah, for Thy loving-kindness is 
 good; 
 
 12. In the gate, as the place of 
 public resort. See note on ix. 14. 
 
 Talk of me. The verb is used in 
 poetry, and may mean here either to 
 cowverse generally, or to sing songs, as 
 incv. 2, cxlv. 5. 
 
 And the songs, &c. . . . are 
 CONCERNING ME, lit. " And I am 
 (the subject of the) songs, &c." In 
 every boisterous company of drunk- 
 ards he is the butt of their unholy 
 merriment. 
 
 13. But as for me. The pro- 
 noun, as usual, emphatic ; in order 
 to mark the contrast between his own 
 conduct and that of such men ; and 
 a nom. absoL as in xxxv. 13, Gen. 
 xvii. 4. 
 
 In an acceptable time, lit. " in 
 a time of good pleasure. " The same 
 expression occurs in Is. xlix. 8. Comp. 
 Ps. xxxii. 6. 
 
 14. This and the next verse answer 
 to verses i, 2, almost the same ex- 
 pressions being employed, there in 
 
 describing the lamentable condition 
 of the Psalmist, here in pleading for 
 deliverance from that condition. 
 
 15. The pit. The Hebrew word 
 is commonly rendered in the E.V. 
 "well," but here and Iv. 23, and 
 Prov. xxiii. 27, rightly, "pit." It 
 means properly, (see App. to Stan- 
 ley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 512, ) 
 " a dug pit, usually with water at the 
 bottom " (except Gen. xiv. lo, where 
 it is used of the natural pits of bitu- 
 men). These wells, as is evident 
 from numerous vestiges of them still 
 remaining, had " a broad margin of 
 masonry round the mouth, and often 
 a stone filling up the orifice." This 
 explains the prayer, "Let not the 
 pit shut her mouth upon me." Such 
 a person would have been buried 
 alive. 
 
 16. Good, i.e. either sweet, com- 
 forting, as in Ixiii. 3, or gracious, 
 Xp^fTTiis. Comp. cix. 21. This ap- 
 peal to God's tender mercy, remarks 
 
302 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 According to the greatness of Thy tender mercies 
 turn unto me ; 
 
 17 And hide not Thy face from Thy servant, 
 
 For I am in distress ; answer me speedily. 
 
 18 Draw nigh unto my soul, ransom it ; 
 
 Redeem me, because of mine enemies. 
 
 * 
 
 19 Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my 
 
 confusion ; 
 Before Thee are all my adversaries. 
 
 20 Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of 
 
 heaviness, 
 And I waited for sympathy, and there was none ; 
 And for comforters, and have not found (them). : 
 
 2 1 And they gave me gall for my food, ,; 
 
 Calvin, " shows how great was the 
 strait of the holy Prophet . . . and 
 of a truth it is a very difficult matter 
 to be sure that God is gracious while 
 He is angry, and near while He is 
 far off. 
 
 19. The second principal division 
 of the Psalm opens with a renewed 
 appeal to God. Comp. ver. 5 and 
 ver. 13, There is a repetition of what 
 had been said already, ver. 4, 7, 9, 
 &c., together with the additional 
 aggravation mentioned in ver. 21. 
 
 Thou knowest. In the certainty 
 that all his sorrows, fears, sicknesses, 
 reproach, sufferings, are known to 
 God, the Psalmist again finds his con- 
 solation. 
 
 20. Full OF heaviness, or "sick," 
 or "faint." Perhaps here used in re- 
 ference to the mind rather than the body. 
 
 Sympathy. This is the only place 
 in the Psalter where the word is 
 found. Properly speaking, it is not a 
 noun, but a verb in the infin. Hence 
 the periphrasis in the E. V. " I 
 looked for some to take pity," or, as 
 in the marg., " to lament with." The 
 
 word sympathy has nowhere been 
 employed by our translators, but it 
 exactly conveys the force of the 
 Hebrew word, inasmuch as it is used 
 of sympathy in joy as well as in 
 sorrow ; see Job xhi. 1 1, where our 
 version renders " and they bemoaned 
 him:" " and they sympathised with 
 him " would have been better. They 
 would not bemoan him on his restora- 
 tion to health and prosperity. TBs 
 word also is used several times bjr 
 Jeremiah, xv. 5, xvi. 5, xlviii. 17, 
 
 21. Gall. What is the exact mean- 
 ing of the word it is difScult to say. 
 According to Hosea x. 4, it is a plant 
 " growing in the furrows of the field,'' 
 and there the E. V. renders it by 
 "hemlock." InDeut. xxix. 18, Lam. 
 iii. 19, it is joined with "wormwood." 
 Gesen. referring to Deut. xxxii. 32, 
 supposes some berry-bearing plant to 
 be meant, and conjectures that it may 
 be "the poppy." And this Mr. 
 Houghton (Smith's Did. of the Biiti, 
 App. Gall) thinks most probable, 
 where all is uncertain. Hengstenberg 
 suggests it may mean only "some- 
 
PSALM LXIX. 
 
 3°3 
 
 And when I was thirsty they gaye me vinegar to drink. 
 22 Let their table before them become a snare, 
 
 thingvery bitter," and not of necessity 
 any particular root or plant. 
 
 When I was thirsty, lit. "for 
 my thirst." 
 
 Vinegar or "sour wine;" the 
 Greek translators, Sjoj, and the Latin, 
 acitum. St. Matthew, who never for- 
 gets the foreshadowings of the O. T. , 
 alludes, there can be no doubt, to 
 this verse of the Psalm, when he 
 mentions, in his narrative of the Cru- 
 cifixion (xxvii. 34), that the Roman 
 soldiers offered our Lord "vinegar 
 mmgled with gall " (i(|oj, [oTvoi'] ^6Ta 
 Xo\5s (Kfuy/xiiiov), just before He 
 was nailed to the cross. St. Mark, 
 on the other hand, in his narrative 
 (xT. 23) speaks of ' ' wine mingled with 
 myrrh" [olyos ^ff^vpvifffi^yos). Dean 
 Aiford, in his note on the former 
 passage, seems to think that the two 
 potions could not be the same, though 
 he admits that olvos might mean the 
 same as S|oj, sour wine. But Mr. 
 Houghton has observed (in the article 
 before referred to) that " the wine 
 mingled with myrrh " "was probably 
 a mere ordinary beverage of the 
 Romans, who were in the habit of 
 seasoning their various wines, which, 
 as they contained little alcohol, soon 
 turned sour, with various spices, 
 drugs, &c. ; " and if so, then the same 
 potion may be described by St. Mat- 
 thew, and the words "with gall" 
 may either denote generally the bitter 
 nature of the draught, or some bitter 
 substance may have been purposely 
 added by way of mockery. It hais 
 been usually assumed that this drink 
 was given to criminals to stupefy, and 
 deaden pain ; but it does not seem that 
 myrrh has any of the properties of an 
 anodyne. 
 
 If, however, St. Matthew and St. 
 
 Mark admit of such reconciliation 
 (though were no reconciliation pos- 
 sible it need not startle us), the 
 allusion to this Psalm in St. John 
 presents another difficulty. This 
 Evangelist (xix. 28) tells us that 
 Jesus, in order that the .Scripture 
 might be accomplished, said, "I 
 thirst." But this was not before our 
 Lord was crucified, but at the last, 
 only just before He gave up the 
 ghost. It is clear, therefore, that he 
 and St. Matthew, though both ac- 
 knowledging the fulfilment of the 
 Psalm in our Lord's crucifixion, as- 
 sociate that fulfilment with two differ- 
 ent circumstances. But we are not, 
 therefore, compelled to conclude, as 
 Hupfeld does, that there is no fulfil- 
 ment at all. The Psalm is truly 
 tj'pical, and its whole meaning is ex- 
 hausted not in the one circumstance 
 only, but in both. 
 
 22. The imprecations which fol- 
 low can only be perplexing to those 
 who, having adopted a hard mechani- 
 cal theory of prophecy, feel them- 
 selves compelled to understand every 
 part of the Psalm as equally pre- 
 dictive of our Lord ; or to those who 
 persistently refuse to acknowledge the 
 difiference between the Old Testament 
 and the New. If we go on the broad 
 ground of a typical foreshadowing of 
 Christ in the person of some saint of 
 old, then we shall not be obliged to 
 assume that all his words are words 
 such as our Lord could use. And if 
 we remember what our Lord himself 
 has taught us, that the spirit of Elijah 
 — the greatest of the 0. T. Prophets 
 — is very different from the spirit ot 
 Christ, then we shall not be offended 
 at language in the mouth of a saint 
 under the old dispensation which we 
 
3°4 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 And when they are in peace (let it be) a trap. 
 
 23 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, 
 
 And make their loins constantly to shake. 
 
 24 Pour out upon them Thine indignation, 
 
 And let the fierceness of Thine anger overtake them. 
 
 25 Let their encampment be desolate, 
 
 In their tents let there be none to dwell. 
 
 26 For him whom Thou hast smitten have they persecuted, 
 
 do not find sanctioned under the new. 
 See more on this subject in tlie note 
 on XXXV. 22. 
 
 Their table, said with reference 
 to ver. 21. They had given him gall 
 and vinegar for his food : let their 
 food, their table, with all its sump- 
 tuousness and all its luxury, become 
 a snare to take them. It has been 
 spread for their enjoyment ; let it 
 turn to their destruction. Comp. 
 xxiii. 5. Or perhaps the meaning 
 may be ; Let them be like persons 
 who while sitting at their meals ' ' in 
 peace," in security, unarmed, and un- 
 suspecting, are suddenly surprised by 
 their enemies. Their ' ' table becomes 
 a snare," as exposing them to certain 
 destruction. 
 
 When they are in peace, lit. 
 " to (them) in peace, or in security." 
 It denotes that kind of security which 
 is the very gate of destruction. Comp. 
 I Thess. V. 3. The Apostle, citing 
 this passage in Rom, xi. 9 (eis 'Ko.yita., 
 
 AvTaTToSofia airoh), follows neither 
 the Hebrew nor the LXX., but either 
 quotes from memory or gives a free 
 rendering of his own. His appli- 
 cation of the words is also remarkable, 
 for he quotes them in illustration of 
 his position that a judicial blindness 
 has fallen upon the nation of Israel at 
 large, from which only "the elect" 
 had been exempted. To discuss the 
 principle of this illustration, would be 
 
 to discuss the whole question of cita- 
 tions in the New Testament from the 
 Old — a subject much too large to be 
 satisfactorily investigated in a note. 
 
 23. The darkening of the eyes 
 denotes weakness and perplexity, as 
 the enlightening of the eyes (see on 
 xix. 8) denotes renewed vigour and 
 strength. Similarly, the shaking of 
 the loins is expressive of terror and 
 dismay and feebleness. (Nah. ii. 10, 
 Dan. v. 6.) Or the first may mean 
 the depriving of reason and under- 
 standing ; the second, the tailing 
 away of all strength for action. 
 
 25. Their encampment. Prop. 
 ' ' the moveable village of nomadic 
 tribes," who usually pitch their tents 
 in a circle. The expression is of 
 course used here figuratively, in ac- 
 cordance with "tents" in the paral- 
 lelism. 
 
 26. The reason for the imprecation 
 is given, because of the unpitying 
 cruelty which delighted in adding to 
 the pain and affliction of one whom 
 God had already brought low. His 
 very suffering might have moved them 
 to compassion. Comp. Job xix. 21, 
 22. The plural in the second clause 
 of the verse. Thy wounded ones 
 (comp. Is. Ixvi. 16, Jer. xxv. 33), 
 passes from the individual instance 
 to the general'conduct of these men, 
 but implies at the same time that 
 there are some few others exposed to 
 the like treatment with himself. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 
 
 3°5 
 
 And of the pain of Thy wounded ones do they tell. 
 27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity, 
 
 And let them not come into Thy righteousness. 
 Let them be blotted out from the book of life, 
 
 And with the righteous let them not be written. 
 But as for me — I am afflicted and in pain : 
 Thy salvation, O God, shall set me up on high. 
 30 I will praise the Name of God with a song, 
 And magnify it with thanksgiving. 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 Do THEY TELL, as if they cminted 
 one by one every blow that fell upon 
 him, every cry that he had uttered, 
 only to turn it into mockery (comp. 
 lix. 12, bciv. 5). 
 k 27. Add iniquity, &c. i.e. let it 
 ; all stand against them in Thy Book; 
 one sin after another, as committed, 
 not being blotted out, but only swell- 
 ing the fearful reckoning. Comp. 
 Jar, xviii. 23. This swelling of the 
 ' catalogue of guilt is in fact swelling 
 tlie punishment. 
 
 Come into, i.e. "be partakers of" 
 (as Ezek. xvi. 7). 
 
 Thy righteousness, that right- 
 eousness which God gives and which 
 alone is accepted in His sight. 
 
 28. Book of life, or "of the 
 living" (as the LXX., Luth., Calv., 
 the E. v.), called in Exod. xxxii. 32 
 "the book of God." Comp. Is. iv. 
 3; Dan. xii. i. See also Luke x. 
 20 ; Phil. iv. 3 ; Rev. iii. 5, xiii. 8. 
 The figure is borrowed from the civil 
 Ifets or register in which the names of 
 citizens were enrolled (Jer. xxii. 30, 
 Ezek. xiii. 9). To be blotted out of 
 this denotes exclusion from all the 
 blessings and privileges of the theo- 
 cracy, and therefore from all hope of 
 salvation, as is evident from the next 
 clause : " let them not be written 
 with the righteous ;" the righteous 
 being the true Israelites, as in Habak. 
 ii. 4. This is the most terrible impre- 
 
 cation of all, though but the neces- 
 sary consequence of that obstinate 
 impenitence before supposed. Cal- 
 vin, who supposes God's eternal 
 counsel of salvation to be meant by 
 the book of life, is obliged to explain 
 away the obvious meaning of the 
 words, and argues that, inasmuch as 
 God's purpose cannot be changed, the 
 expression is merely adapted to human 
 notions. They, he says, who have 
 once been written in that book cannot 
 be really blotted out ; but because 
 God's counsel is secret to us, those 
 may be said to be "blotted out of 
 His book " whom he openly excludes 
 from His Church. It is this open 
 rejection therefore which is here 
 meant, and the expression is equiva- 
 lent to saying : " Do not reckon them 
 in the number of Thy people, neither 
 let them be gathered with Thy 
 Church. " To such straits is the ablest 
 of commentators driven, when he has 
 resigned himself to the fetters of an 
 inexorable logic. 
 
 29. The Psalm closes with joyful 
 hopes and vows of thanksgiving for 
 God's mercy, in this respect resem- 
 bling Psalm xxii. In this joy and 
 thanksgiving all other righteous suf- 
 ferers shall share. And finally Zioa 
 and the cities of Judah shall be re- 
 built, amid the imiversal jubilee of 
 all creation. 
 
 But as for me, placing himself 
 
 X 
 
3o6 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 31 And it shall please Jehovah better than an ox, 
 
 A bullock with horns and hoofs. 
 
 32 The afflicted have seen it and rejoice : 
 
 Ye that seek God, — let your heart live. 
 
 33 For Jehovah hearkeneth to the poor, 
 
 And His prisoners He hath not despised. 
 
 34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, 
 
 The seas and all that swarmeth therein. 
 
 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah, 
 
 And (men) shall dwell there, and possess it. 
 
 36 And the seed of His servants shall inherit it, 
 
 And they that love His Name shall abide therein. 
 
 emphatically in contrast to those who 
 had been the object of his impre- 
 cation. 
 
 31. With horns and hoofs, 
 lit. " showing horns, showing hoofs. " 
 The first is mentioned in order to 
 mark that the animal was not under 
 three years old, and therefore of the 
 proper age according to the Law ; 
 the last as intimating that it belonged 
 to the class of clean four-footed 
 animals, parting the hoof, Lev. xi. ; 
 and the meaning is, that the most 
 perfect and valuable of the sacrifices 
 ordained by the Law was not to be 
 compared to the sacrifice of a grate- 
 ful heart. See notes on 2., li. 
 
 32. LETYOUE.HEARTLIVE. Comp. 
 the same expression xxii. 26. 
 
 33. This joyful certainty of his own 
 'Jeliverance, this joyful hope that 
 others afflicted like himself will re- 
 joice together with him, rests upon 
 the known character of God, upon 
 
 the universal experience of His good- 
 ness. 
 
 His PRISONERS, i.e. those of His 
 people who have been led into cap- 
 tivity in Babylon. 
 
 34. In remembrance of this he 
 calls upon the universe to praise God. 
 
 35. The conclusion of the Psalm 
 is not unlike Is. Ixv. 9. If the 
 Psalm was written, as seems not im- 
 probable, by Jeremiah, there is no 
 reason why these verees may not 
 have formed part of the original 
 text. Indeed, there is but little pre- 
 tence for regarding them as a later 
 liturgical addition, made at the time 
 of the Exile. They are not so easily 
 separable from the context as the 
 close of Ps. xiv. for instance, or that 
 of li. Yet for those who maintain 
 that David was the author this is 
 the only tenable ground. Such words 
 could have no meaning in David's 
 mouth. 
 
PSALM LXX. 307 
 
 PSALM LXX. 
 
 This Psalm is a repetition, with some variations, of the last five 
 verses of Psalm xl. I see no reason to abandon the opinion which 
 I have expressed in the introduction to Psalm xl., that this Psalm 
 formed originally a part of that Psalm and was subsequently detached 
 and altered for a special occasion. 
 
 [for the precentor, (a psalm) of david. to bring to 
 remembrance.]* 
 
 1 God, (make haste) to deliver me ; 
 
 Jehovah, to help me make haste. 
 
 2 Let them be ashamed and put to the blush 
 
 That seek after my soul ; 
 Let them be turned backward and put to confusion 
 That wish me evil. 
 
 3 Let them be turned back as a reward of their shame 
 
 Who say, Aha ! Aha ! 
 
 1. O God, instead of O Jehovah, should have been so rendered in 
 xl. 13, and the verb BE pleased, xl. 14. 
 
 omitted here, which is expressed That wish me evil, lit. "that 
 
 there. delight in my evil, i.e. my misfor- 
 
 To help me, lit. "to my help." tune." 
 
 2. Put to the blush : in xl. 14, 3. Let them be turned. In xl. 
 there is added together, and at the I5,wehave the far stronger expression, 
 end of the next member of the verse let them be struck dumb, i.e. 
 TO destroy it. with amazement. 
 
 Put TO CONFUS-ION. The word As A reward of their shame. 
 
 * The same title occurs Ps. xxxviii. _ " To bring to remembrance,'* i.e. either as a memorial 
 of suffering and deliverance, or " to bring me into remembrance with God." 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 
 
 PSALM LXXI. 
 
 4 Let all those that seek Thee be glad and rejoice in 
 
 Thee, 
 And let them that love Thy salvation say alway, 
 " God be magnified." 
 
 5 And as for me, afflicted and poor, 
 
 O God, make haste unto me ! 
 My Help and my Deliverer art Thou ; 
 O Jehovah, make no long tarrying ! * 
 
 lit. "upon the heel of their shame," 
 and hence "as a consequence, re- 
 tribution," &c., and as a prep, simply 
 " on account of. " 
 
 4. God {Elohim) ; in xl. 16, Je- 
 hovah. 
 
 5. O God, make haste unto me. 
 For this, we have in xl. 17, "the 
 Lord thinketh upon me" {Adonai 
 instead of Elohim); and afterwards 
 "O my God," instead of "0 Jeho- 
 vah." 
 
 PSALM LXXI. 
 
 This Psalm is without any Inscription in the Hebrew. In the 
 LXX. its title is " (A Psalm) of David, of the sons of Jonadab, and 
 of those who were first led captive," a curiously composite title, 
 which contains a contradiction in itself. It may, however, have been 
 intended to denote that, in the opinion of the translators, the Psalm 
 was Davidic in origin, and, at the same time, to record the tradition 
 
 * '* On the 26th of September, 1660, St. Vincent de Paul being now near his end, desired the 
 Holy Communion, and passed the night in almost unceasing prayer. He requested that the 
 7ath Psalm might be read to him several times, and repeated as often as his strength would 
 allow the words 'Haste thee to help me— make no long tarrying, O my God.' On the 27th 
 a priest who was very dear to him came to his bedside to ask his blessing.. The dying man 
 began to speak in the words of the Apostle, ' I am persuaded that He who has begun a got^a 
 
 work in you will ' Here his uplifted hand sank down, and he fell asleep as gently as the 
 
 sun sinks to rest on a summer eve." — Stories 0/ Success. (S.P.C.K.) 
 
PSALM LXXl. 309 
 
 that it was a favourite Psalm with the Rechabites and the earlier 
 exiles. 
 
 On two points, only, do we gather any certain information from the 
 Psalm itself. First, it is evident that it was written by one already 
 past the meridian of life, and verging upon old age. . And, secondly, 
 it borrows so largely from other Psalms, the 22d,'3ist, 35th. and 40th, 
 some of them, probably. Psalms written long after the time of David, 
 that it must be regarded as one of the later specimens of Hebrew 
 poetry. 
 
 Other evidence of an internal kind renders it not improbable that 
 the Psalm was written by Jeremiah. It would apply obviously to his 
 circumstances. His Hfe had been a life of extraordinary perils and 
 extraordinary deliverances. He had been consecrated from his birth, 
 and even before his birth, to his office, (Jer. i. 5, compared with ver. 
 6 of the Psalm). He had discharged that office for more than thirty 
 years, and might, therefore, be verging on old age in the reign of 
 Zedekiah. The prominent position which he occupied for so long a 
 period before princes and people harmonizes well with the language 
 of the Psalm in verses 7 and 21. Finally, the style and general 
 character of the poetry are not unlike those of Jeremiah. There is 
 the same plaintive elegiac strain which we find in his writings, and 
 the same disposition to borrow from earlier poets. 
 
 All this falls in very well with the tradition which has been pre- 
 served by the LXX. A Psalm written by Jeremiah would very 
 naturally have a peculiar value in the eyes of the Rechabites whom 
 the Prophet mentions so honourably, and in the eyes of the first exiles 
 who had so often listened to the words of his lips. 
 
 The Psalm can hardly be said to have any regular strophical form. 
 
 It has first an Introduction. Ver. I — 3. 
 
 Then follow two main divisions. The first of these tells the story 
 of the past, recounts God's goodness and the Psalmist's trust, and 
 concludes with a prayer for the overthrow of his enemies. Ver. 
 
 4-13- 
 
 The next looks forward to the future, anticipates deliverance, 
 promises thanksgiving, and sees the prayer for the overthrow of his 
 enemies answered. Ver. 14 — 24. 
 
 Verses 13 and 24 correspond to one another almost in the manner 
 of a refrain. 
 
310 
 
 PSALM LXXI. 
 
 1 In Thee, O Jehovah, have I found refuge. 
 
 Let me not be ashamed for ever. 
 
 2 In Thy righteousness -deHver me and rescue me ; 
 
 Indine thine ear unto me, and save me. 
 
 3 Be Thou to me a rock of habitation to which I may 
 
 alway resort ; 
 Thou hast given commandment to save me ; 
 For Thou art my rock and my fortress. 
 
 I. 4 O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked, 
 From the grasp of the evil-doer and the violent. 
 
 5 For Thou, O Lord, Jehovah ! art my hope, 
 
 Thou art my trust from my youth up. 
 
 6 Upon Thee have I been holden up from the womb. 
 
 From my mother's bowels Thou art my bene- 
 factor. 
 
 I — 3. The opening of the Psalm is 
 borrowed, with sUght verbal altera- 
 tions, from the opening of xxxi. 
 
 3. To WHICH I MAY ALWAY 
 RESORT, i.e. where I may always find 
 safety when danger threatens. 
 
 Thou hast given command- 
 ment. It is not necessary to sup- 
 pose ihat the command is given to 
 the. Angels ; for, as Calvin long ago 
 observed, God has innumerable means 
 of imparting" help and protection, and 
 He may be said to command deli- 
 verance When He shows it in some 
 open and signal manner. Comp. 
 xliv. 4, Ixviii. 28. 
 
 , 5. My hope. Comp. Jer. xvii. 13, 
 1. 7, where >God is called "the Hope 
 of Israel. " So in the New Test. Christ 
 is called "our Hope," iTim. i. I; "the 
 Hope of glory," Col. i. 27. 
 
 6. Have I been holden up (in 
 the passage which has here been 
 imitated, xxii. 10, "I have been 
 cast"), an expression wonderfully 
 descriptive of what faith is, and of 
 what God is to those who trust in 
 
 Him. He is a father who bears thera 
 in His arms and carries them in His 
 bosom ; they are as children who 
 lean all their weight upon Him, 
 and find their sweetest rest in His 
 supporting hand. This is the very 
 idea of faith, according to its Hebrew 
 signification. When it is said in Gen. 
 XV. 6, that " Abraham believed God," 
 it means literally "he leaned upon 
 God" (though the root there is dif- 
 ferent, it is the same which means 
 to bear or carry a child. Numb. xi. 
 12, and in Is. xlix. 23 is used of a 
 nursing father). But the Psalmist 
 speaks here, not mainly of his own 
 trust in God, but rather of his ex- 
 perience of God's loving care and 
 protection. 
 
 My benefactor. In the mouth 
 of Jeremiah, if, as we have conjec- 
 tured, the Psalm was written by him, 
 such words have a pecuHar interest, 
 for they refer, no doubt, to that word 
 of Jehovah which came unto him, 
 saying, " Before I formed thee in the 
 belly I knew thee ; and before thou 
 
PSALM LXXI. 
 
 3" 
 
 Of Thee is my praise alway. 
 
 7 I have become as a wonder unto many, 
 
 But thou art my strong refuge. 
 
 8 My mouth shall be filled with Thy praise, 
 
 (And) with Thine honour all the day long. 
 
 9 Cast me not away in the time of old age, 
 
 When my strength faileth forsake me not. 
 ID For mine enemies have said of me — 
 
 And they that watch for my soul have taken counsel 
 together, 
 
 1 1 Saying : — God hath forsaken him, 
 
 Pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver. 
 
 12 God, be not far from me; 
 
 O my God, haste Thee to help me ! 
 
 13 Let them be ashamed, let them be consumed, 
 
 earnest forth from the womb I sancti- 
 fied thee." (Jer. i. 5.) 
 
 Of Thee, lit. "in Thee," God 
 being the great object of his praise, 
 and the construction being the 
 same as that with the verb in 
 xhv. 8. 
 
 7. A WONDER. Commentators are 
 divided in their interpretation of the 
 word. Some understand it in a good 
 sense, " a marvel of God's protecting 
 care and love, which had been vouch- 
 safed to him even in the extremest 
 perils." Others suppose him to mean, 
 that because of the greatness of the 
 sufferings and calamities which had 
 befallen him, he had been, as it were, 
 a portent, a prodigy. But perhaps 
 it is better to understand it as ap- 
 plying to his whole wonderful life 
 of tiials and blessings, of perils and 
 deliverances, such as did not ordi- 
 narily fall to the lot of man. It is 
 implied, at the same time, that his 
 life was a public life, such as that of 
 a Prophet, or leading man amongst 
 his people, or it would not have at- 
 
 tracted the notice and excited the 
 wonder of "many." 
 
 8. Filled. It is, I think, best 
 to take the verb here as a present, 
 describing the immediate and natural 
 consequence of all that care and love 
 which in the previous verses he had 
 celebrated. 
 
 9. This review of the past leads 
 him to look forward to the future, 
 and especially to the season of old 
 age, which already, it would seem, 
 was creeping upon him. 
 
 10. Have said of me. The pre- 
 position may be so rendered : " with 
 respect to me ; " or simply "to me ; " 
 as, "to my soul," iii. 2, where see 
 note. What they say is given in 
 ver. II, the intervening words being 
 parenthetical. 
 
 Have taken counsel toge- 
 ther, as Ixxxiii. 3, 5. Comp. ii. 2. 
 
 12. This and the next verse arc 
 composed of phrases borrowed from 
 other Psalms, xxii. II, 19, xxxviiu 
 21, 22, xl. 13. 
 
312 
 
 PSALM LXXI. 
 
 That withstand my soul ; 
 Let them be covered with reproach and confusion 
 That seek to do me evil. 
 
 II. 14 But as for me — I will alway hope, 
 
 And will praise Thee more and more. 
 
 1 5 My mouth shall tell of Thy righteousness 
 
 (And) of Thy salvation all the day ; 
 For I know no numbers (thereof), 
 
 16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord 
 
 Jehovah; 
 I will make mention of Thy righteousness, (even) 
 of Thine only. 
 
 17 O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth ; 
 
 , And hitherto do I declare Thy wondrous works. 
 
 1 8 Yea also to old age and grey hairs, O God, forsake 
 
 me not, 
 Till I declare Thine arm to (the next) generation, 
 Thy might unto all that are to come, 
 
 14. And will yet praise, &c., 
 lit. " And will add to all Thy 
 praise ; " but I have preferred adopt- 
 ing the more idiomatic rendering of 
 theE.V. 
 
 15. Righteousness. The Hebrew- 
 word has, most unfortunately, been 
 rendered here and in the next verse, 
 by French and Skinner, ** mercy," to 
 the grievous marring of the whole 
 passage. It never means anything 
 but righteousness^ least of all when 
 spoken of God. God's salvation 
 stands to his righteousness in the 
 relation of effect to cause. God has 
 pledged Himself to save those who 
 put their trust in Him, and as a 
 righteous God He cannot deny Him- 
 self This seems to be the counec- 
 lion between the two words in this 
 I'salm. In Isaiah, righteousnesses re- 
 
 not merely as an attribute of 
 God, but as imparted to man (almost 
 in the sense of justification), and so, 
 in fact, constituting his true salva- 
 tion. 
 
 No numbers (the Hebrew word 
 occurs only here). God's righteous- 
 ness and God's salvation are in- 
 finitely beyond all man's power to 
 calculate or to repeat, Comp. xl 5, 
 cxxxix. 18. 
 
 16. I WILL COME WITH, &C. i.e. 
 " I will come (into the Temple, pro- 
 bably, comp. Ixvi. 13) with all tlie 
 great and mighty deeds which God^ 
 has done on my behalf as my subject 
 of grateful praise." That tliis is the 
 meaning is plain from the parallelism 
 in the mext clause. 
 
 Of Thine only, lit. "of Tlice 
 alone." 
 
PSALM LXXl. 
 
 313 
 
 IQ And Thy righteousness, O God, which is very high, 
 Thou who hast done great things : 
 O God, who is Hke unto Thee ! 
 
 20 (Thou) who hast showed us distresses many and 
 
 sore. 
 Thou wilt quicken us again. 
 And from the depths of the earth Thou wilt lift us 
 
 up again. 
 
 21 Do Thou increase my greatness, 
 
 And turn (Thyself and) comfort me. 
 2Z Also /will give thanks unto Thee with a lute, (even) 
 Thy truth, O my God ; 
 I will play to Thee upon a harp, O Thou Holy One 
 of Israel. 
 23 My lips shall shout for joy, for I will play unto Thee, 
 And my soul which Thou hast redeemed : 
 
 18. Thine arm. Comp. Is. Hi. 
 10, liii. I ; Ezek. iv. 7. 
 
 To THE NEXT GENERATION, lit. 
 " to a generation," but here used ab- 
 solutely for the following generation, 
 '; as in xxii. 30. 
 
 19. And Thy righteousness. 
 The construction is continued from 
 ver. 18. Delitzsch, indeed, carries 
 it still further, and makes verses 19, 
 
 , 20, 21, all depend on the verb " I de- 
 ' Clare" in verse 18: "Till I declare 
 .... Thy might and Thy righteous- 
 ness, &c. . . . that Thou hast done 
 great things, &c. That Thou hast 
 showed, &c." 
 
 20. Thou hast showed, see 
 bt. 3. 
 
 The depths of the earth. A 
 figurative expression, like "the gates 
 of death," denoting the extremest 
 peril. Comp. Ixix. 2, 14. The 
 word " depths " is the same word as 
 inxxxiii. 7, " He layeth up the depths 
 in storehouses " (it is the plur. of the 
 word which occurs in Gen. i. 2), and 
 
 means the vast collection of waters in 
 the seas. God is said to bring back 
 His people to life, who had been, as 
 it were, drowned in the depths of the 
 waters. 
 
 21. Do Thou increase, or, 
 " mayest Thou increase." 
 
 My greatness. An unusual ex- 
 pression. The word is used of the 
 majesty of God, cxlv. 3, 6 ; of kings, 
 Esther i. 4 ; and of princes, vi. 3, 
 X. 2 ; and its use here, therefore, 
 would seem to imply that the Poet 
 was a person of considerable position 
 and influence. 
 
 22. With a lute, lit. "with an 
 instrument of a lute, or nabla" 
 
 Holy One of Israel. This name 
 of God occurs in the Psalms only in 
 two other places, Ixxviii. 41, Ixxxix. 
 18, these last two being, according 
 to Delitzsch, older Psalms than this. 
 In Isaiah this Name of God occurs 
 thirty times, in Habakkuk once, in 
 Jeremiah (who may have adopted it 
 from Isaiah) twice, 1. 29, li. 5. 
 
314 PSALM LXXIl. 
 
 24 Also my tongue shall talk of Thy righteousness all the 
 day, 
 For they are ashamed, for they are brought to 
 confusion, that seek my hurt. 
 
 PSALM LXXII. 
 
 Two Psalms only in the entire compass of the Psalter, this and the 
 127th, bear the name of Solomon. Apart from the question whether 
 these particular Psalms are rightly attributed to him or not, the fact 
 is worthy of notice, as it shows us that tradition, which has shed so 
 many glories round the name of Solomon,- did not suppose him to 
 have inherited his father's taste for rehgious poetry and music, or it 
 would not have failed to add this to his many other accomplishments. 
 
 Calvin, indeed, and others have conjectured that the inscription 
 even here does not denote that Solomon was the author. They 
 appeal to ver. 20, which tells us that this was the last prayer of 
 David, and they urge that accordingly the title must signify ^^ For 
 Solomon," not "of Solomon." Calvin observes: "After carefully 
 weighing all, I incline to the view that David uttered this prayer as 
 he was dying, and that it was put into the form of a Psalm by his 
 son, that the memory thereof might never perish. . . . But as Solomon 
 took the argument from his father, and only clothed it in the garb 
 of poetry, we may regard David as the principal author." 
 . But ver. 7.0, taken to the letter, would rather imply that all the 
 Psalms in this Book were written by David, whereas the inscriptions 
 themselves contradict this, not to mention that the verse itself is a 
 manifestly later addition. And in all other instances where the 
 name of an author is prefixed to a Psalm, it is prefixed with the same 
 preposition which is here employed. The inscription, beyond all 
 doubt, means to say that the Psalm is Solomon's. Nor do I see any 
 reason for rejecting the tradition thus conveyed to us. 
 
PSALM LXXII. 315 
 
 There have been many different conjectures as to the time when 
 this Psalm was written, but all the soundest expositors admit that the 
 hopes and aspirations here expressed — so grand and so far-reaching, 
 that they are little less than prophecies — find their fulfilment in One 
 greater than Solomon. " These promises were realized in Solomon, 
 but only typically. They expect, therefore, after Solomon their final 
 realization, and that, in that Son of David whom the Prophets of the 
 later kingdom foretell." 
 
 Solomon, then, may have uttered such a prayer, may have uttered 
 it for himself, and yet may have felt how far he was, how far any 
 human monarch must be, from approaching to the great ideal which 
 rose, in all its majesty, before his mind. Whether he uttered it 
 at the beginning of his reign, is more doubtful. The allusions to 
 Sheba and Tarshish would seem to imply a somewhat later date. 
 But be this as it may, we have here another instance of the way 
 in which prophecy rooted itself in the Jewish soil, how it looked 
 first to the Present and then to the Future, first to the Type and 
 then to the Antitype. Calvin observes most justly, and the obser- 
 vation bears upon the interpretation of all the Messianic Psalms : 
 " They who will have this to be simply a prediction of the kingdom 
 of Christ seem to twist the words very violently. And besides, we 
 should always take care not to give the Jews good reason for re- 
 proaching us, as if we were determined by mere force of sophistry 
 to apply to Christ what does not directly refer to Him." 
 
 The Targum, however, paraphrases the first verse of the Psalm 
 thus ; " O God, give the knowledge of Thy judgements to the King 
 Messiah, and Thy justice to the Son of King David." 
 
 And the Midrash Tehillim says of the king here mentioned : 
 "This is the King Messiah, for it is said. And a stem shall go 
 forth from the root of Jesse." Saadiah, on Daniel vii. 13, takes the 
 same view. 
 
 The Psalm is, like the second, the twentieth, twenty-first, and 
 forty-fifth, a Royal Psalm. 
 
 It has no regular strophical division, but consists of the following 
 parts : — 
 
 I. The prayer that the reign of the king may be a reign of 
 righteousness, peace, and prosperity, and that it may endure for 
 ever. Ver. i — 7. 
 
3i6 
 
 PSALM LXXll. 
 
 II. That his dominion may know no bounds, save those of the 
 world itself. Ver. 8— 1 1 . 
 
 III. Then follows the reason why such a dominion should be 
 granted him. He is worthy to receive riches, and honour, and 
 glory, and might, for he is the righteous saviour of the poor and 
 the afflicted. Ver. 12— 15. 
 
 IV. Lastly, the prayer is repeated both for prosperity and for an 
 everlasting and a universal dominion. Ver. 16, 17. 
 
 [(A psalm) of SOLOMON.] 
 
 I O God, give Thy judgements unto the king, 
 And Thy righteousness unto the king's son. 
 
 I. The prayer is that God would 
 give His righteousness to _ the king, 
 that so he may rule and judge right- 
 eously and his righteous government 
 produce righteousness, and therefore 
 peace, among the people. 
 
 The difference between the judge- 
 ments of God in the first clause, 
 and the righteousness of God in 
 the second, is this : the former refers 
 to the several decisions which the king 
 may be called upon to pronounce, 
 and the prayer is that these may be 
 so in accordance with the will of 
 God that they may be as if uttered 
 by His mouth ; the second refers 
 to the inner mind and spirit, the 
 wisdom and the discernment, which 
 should be the reflex of the Divine 
 mind. 
 
 This is the very idea of justice, 
 when the decisions of the earthly 
 judge are in perfect accordance 
 with those of the heavenly:' but 
 this can only be when there rests 
 upon the former ' ' the Spirit of the 
 Lord, the spirit of wisdom and under- 
 standing, the spirit of knowledge. 
 
 and of the fear of the Lord." To 
 One only was this Spirit given with- 
 out measure. In One only was this 
 idea realized. Solomon, it is true, 
 prayed (i Kings iii. 9) that God 
 would give him an understanding, or 
 rather obedient heart, that he might 
 judge his people ; and of him we 
 read (i Kings iii. 28), "And all 
 Israel heard of the judgement which 
 the king had judged, and they feafed 
 before the king, for they saw that the 
 wisdom of God was with him to do 
 judgement ; " and to him the Queen 
 of Sheba said (i Kings x. 9), "Be- 
 cause Jehovah loved Israel for ever, 
 therefore made He thee king to do 
 judgement and righteousness." But 
 Solomon did not fulfil the hope of 
 this prayer. The righteous judge 
 became the oppressor of his people ; 
 the wise king the weak, foolish, des- 
 picable voluptuary ; God brake in 
 pieces before the eyes of His people 
 the frail earthly type, that He might 
 lead them to wait for Him who was 
 " higher than the kings of theearth," 
 and who would ' ' not judge after tht 
 
PSALM LXXII. 
 
 3'7 
 
 2 Then shall he decide the cause of Thy people with 
 
 righteousness, 
 And of Thine afflicted with judgement. 
 
 3 May the mountains bring forth peace to the people. 
 
 And the hills in righteousness ! 
 
 4 May he judge the afflicted of the people, 
 
 Save the sons of the poor. 
 And crush the oppressor ! 
 
 5 So that they fear Thee while the sun endureth, 
 
 sight of His eyes, neither decide after 
 the hearing of His ears, but would 
 judge with righteousness the weak, 
 and decide with uprightness for the 
 afflicted of the earth." 
 
 The Talmudic saying is very strik- 
 ing, and worth quoting here : ** Every 
 judge who judgeth a judgement of 
 trudi truly, maketh the Divine Glory 
 (the Shechinah) to dwell in Israel." 
 —Sank. fol. 7, I. 
 
 The king's son. The stress laid 
 upon this is in accordance with Ori- 
 ental usage. That the king was of 
 royal ancestry was mentioned on coins, 
 public monuments, and the like. See 
 Is. xix. II. 
 
 3. The mountains and hills are 
 mentioned as being the great cha- 
 racteristic features of a country like 
 Palestine. Comp. Joel iii. 18 : "The 
 mountains shall drop down new wine, 
 and the hills shall flow with milk." 
 See Smith's JDici. of the Bible, art. 
 " Palestine," § 26. 
 
 ■' Peace. This is ever represented in 
 Scripture as the fruit of righteous- 
 ness, and as the great blessing of the 
 times of the Messiah. The king of 
 righteousness is also king of peace. 
 Comp. Is. ii. 4, ix. 5, 6, xi. 9, Ixv. 
 25 ; Micah iv. 3 ; Zech. ix. 10. 
 
 In righteousness. For the third 
 time this is mentioned as that attribute 
 which, beyond all others, stamps the 
 king and his rule over his people. 
 
 4. Sons of the poor, i^e. merely 
 "poor persons," in accordance with 
 the usual Hebrew idiom. 
 • 5. So that they fear Thee. 
 It is doubtful whether the address 
 is to God, or to the king. The change 
 from the third person to the second, 
 and vice versd, is so common in 
 Hebrew (see on xxii. 26), that the 
 person addressed, so far as the con- 
 struction is concerned, may certainly 
 be the king. Nor is the extended 
 duration of his reign implied in the 
 words "as long as the sun," &c., 
 against this view, even if we suppose 
 the words to be addressed originally 
 to a human monarch. Fosr the Jewish 
 monarch was ruler in a theocratic 
 kingdom, which by its very nature 
 was destined to endure for ever. 
 Comp. ver. 7, I7t and Ixxxix. 4, 28, 
 &c., 36, &c. ; and if in tho'ie passages 
 the throne and the race of the monarch 
 are the object of hope, whereas here 
 the hopes of the Psalmist centre in 
 his person, still this also finds its 
 parallel in xxi. 4, " He asked life 
 of Thee : Thou gavest (it) him. Length 
 of days for ever and ever " (see note 
 there). Still I think, considering that 
 the Psalm opens with a prayer ad- 
 dressed to God, it is better to suppose 
 that God is also addressed here ; and 
 then the clause will be conjunctive, 
 and mark the consequence of the 
 king's righteous rule. 
 
3i8 
 
 PSALM LXXII. 
 
 And as long as the moon unto all generations 
 Let him be as rain coming down upon the mown grass 
 
 As showers that water the earth. 
 Let the righteous flourish in his days, 
 
 And abundance of peace, till there be no more moon 
 
 The SUN and the moon are men- 
 tioned here, and again ver. 7, and in 
 Ixxxix. 37, as witnesses to an ever- 
 lasting order, and as it were figures 
 of eternity, things iixed and unchange- 
 able compared with the fleeting, 
 dying generations of men, as Jer. 
 xxxi. 35, xxxiii. 20 ; though, as com- 
 pared with God, themselves subject 
 to decay and destruction, cii. 26, &c.. 
 Is. li. 6, comp. Job xiv. 18. 
 
 As LONG AS THE SUN, lit. "with 
 the sun." Comp. Dan. iv. 3, "with 
 generation and generation." 
 
 Before the moon, or, "in the 
 presence of the moon," i.e. as long as 
 the moon shines, "so long as she 
 turns her face to the earth." In Job 
 viii. 16 the use of the preposition is 
 similar : " He is green before the sun," 
 though the phrase means there not 
 "as 'long as the sun shines," but 
 rather "in the sunshine," "under the 
 influence of the warmth and light of 
 the sun." 
 
 6. Let him be, &c., lit. "let him 
 come down as rain," the verb which 
 belongs -sstrictly to the figure being 
 applied improperly to the subject. 
 
 The gracious influence of the 
 monarch, and of his righteous sway, 
 is strikingly compared to the bountiful 
 shower which freshens the withered 
 herbage, and changes the brown, 
 bare, parched, dusty surface, as by a 
 touch of magic, into one mass of 
 verdure and bloom. We have the 
 same figure in Deut. xxxiL 2, Job 
 xxix. 22, 23, and Prov. xvi. 15. But 
 the most striking parallel is in the 
 last words of David, ^ Sam. xxiii. 4, 
 where it is said of one who ruleth 
 
 righteously and in the fear of God 
 among men, that he is 
 
 Like the light of the morning when 
 
 the sun ariseth, 
 A morning without clouds ;— 
 From the sunshine, from the rain, 
 
 the green grass (sprouts) from 
 
 the earth. 
 
 The mown grass, lit. "that which 
 is shorn, " whether fleece or meadm. 
 In the former sense it occurs Judg, vi. 
 37, and so the older translators all take 
 it, probably with the idea that the 
 reign of the monarch would be ac- 
 companied by signal tokens of the 
 Divine favour and blessing, like the 
 dew upon Gideon's fleece : in the 
 latter sense, the word is found Amos 
 vii. I (where the E. V. has "mow- 
 ings ") ; and this is indisputably its 
 meaning here, as the parallelism 
 shows. The mown meadow is par- 
 ticularly mentioned, because the roots 
 of the grass would be most exposed 
 to the summer heat, after the crop 
 had been gathered in, and the effect 
 would be most striking in the shoot- 
 ing of the young green blade after 
 the shower. " Striking image," says 
 Dr. Pusey, "of a world, in all ap- 
 pearance, hopelessly dead, but with a 
 hidden capacity for receiving life! 
 ver. 7. " — Daniel, p. 480, note. 
 
 7. Flourish, lit. "shoot," "bud 
 forth," &c., the figure which describes 
 the effects of the rain being thus 
 carried on. Comp. xcii. 7, '2. All 
 these sentences, Calvin observes, de- 
 pend on the first verse. " Therefore 
 that the righteous may flourish, and 
 the people be prosperous, David prays 
 
PSALM LXXII. 
 
 319 
 
 8 And let him have dominion from sea to sea, 
 
 And from the river to the ends of the earth. 
 
 9 Before him let the inhabitants of the wilderness 
 
 bow, 
 And let his enemies lick the dust. 
 ID Let the kings of Tarshish and the isles render gifts, 
 
 that the king may be clothed with 
 righteousness and judgement. It was 
 Solomon's office, indeed, to defend 
 the nghteous ; but it is Christ's work 
 to make men righteous, because He 
 not only gives to each one his right, 
 ^but by His Spirit fashions anew their 
 %iinds. And thus He brings back 
 agam righteousness, which else would 
 be banished from the world." 
 ^" Till there be no more moon. 
 See the same expression in Job xiv. 
 12. 
 
 8. In verses 5 — 7 the prayer and 
 the hope are that this kingdom should 
 endure for ever : in verses 8 — 1 1 that 
 it should know no hmits but those of 
 the earth itself. 
 
 From sea to sea. " From the 
 Mediterranean, their Western bound- 
 ary, to the encircling sea beyond 
 Asia's utmost verge ; and from their 
 Eastern boundary, the river, the Eu- 
 phrates, unlo the ends of the earth. " 
 (Pusey, Daniel, p. 480.) But perhaps 
 we have only a poetical expression, 
 not to be construed into the prose of 
 geography, or to be explained (as by 
 Kashi and others) as indicating the 
 extent of territory laid down in 
 Exod. xxiii. 31 : "1 will set thy 
 bounds from the Red Sea even unto 
 the sea of the Philistines, and from 
 the desert unto the river." There 
 may be an allusion to that passage 
 (comp. Gen. xv. 18), but if so, it is 
 expanded and idealized, as the ex- 
 pression " unto the ends of the earth " 
 (■IS in ii. 8) shows. The river is. 
 
 doubtless, the Euphrates, and it seems 
 probable, therefore, that the Poet had 
 in his eye the actual extent of the 
 kingdom to which Solomon succeeded, 
 who reigned " over all kingdoms from 
 the river Euphrate s to the border 
 of Egypt," and that he thus antici- 
 pated a dominion co-extensive with 
 the world. 
 
 10. Tarshish, in all probability the 
 same as the Greek Tapiriio-ais, a great 
 naval mart, and, according to Arrian, 
 a colony of the Phrenicians, in the 
 south of Spain. It traded with Tyre in 
 silver, iron, tin, and lead (Ezek. xxvii. 
 12). Tarshish and the isles, "the 
 empires on the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean," are here mentioned as 
 representatives of all the great mari- 
 time and commercial countries of the 
 world. 
 
 Render gifts, or "tribute." 
 Sheba, the great South Arabian 
 kingdom, so called after Sheba, one 
 of the sons of Joktan, Gen. x. 28. 
 The mention of this, as well as of 
 Tarshish above, harmonizes very well 
 with the opinion that this Psalm was 
 composed either by or for Solomon. 
 The Queen of Sheba, who came to 
 visit Solomon (i Kings x. i), was 
 queen of Sheba in Arabia, and not of 
 Seba, the Cushite kingdom of Ethi- 
 opia, as Josephus and some of the 
 Rabbinical writers would make out. 
 The kingdom of Sheba embraced the 
 greater part of the Yemen, or Arabia 
 Felix. See Mr. R. S. Poole's article 
 in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, ii. 1231. 
 
320 
 
 PSALM LXXII. 
 
 Let the kings of Sheba and Saba offer presents. 
 
 1 1 Yea, let all kings bow themselves down before him, 
 
 Let all nations serve him. 
 
 12 For he delivereth the poor when he crieth. 
 
 And the afflicted, who hath no helper; 
 
 13 He hath pity on the weak and poor, 
 
 And the souls of the poor he saveth ; 
 
 14 From oppression and from violence he ransometh theii 
 
 soul, 
 And precious is their blood in his eyes, 
 
 1 5 So that they live, and give him of the gold of Sheba, 
 
 And pray for him alway. 
 
 Saba, in E. V. " Seba," first men- 
 tioned as among the sons of Cush, 
 Gen. X. 7, and joined with Egypt and 
 Cush (E. V. Ethiopia) in Is. xliii. 3, 
 * ' a nation of Africa, bordering on or 
 included in Cush, and in Solomon's 
 time independent, and of political im- 
 portance." According to Josephus, 
 Seba was the ancient name of the 
 Ethiopian island and city of Meroe 
 {A. J. ii. 10, § 2), and this must at 
 least have formed part of any ancient 
 Ethiopian kingdom. See Mr. Poole 
 as above, ii. 1 1 89. 
 
 Presents. The word, like the 
 preceding "gifts," is a singular noun 
 collective : it only occurs once again, 
 Ezek, xxvii. 15. 
 
 The whole verse is in accordance 
 with what we read of Solomon, i 
 Kings V. I, X. lo, 25. 
 
 12. For he delivereth. The 
 reason is given why all kings and 
 nations should thus do homage to him 
 who sits on David's throne. He has 
 merited such submission by the 
 exercise of every royal virtue, by the 
 justice and the mercy of his sway, by 
 his deep sympathy with, and com- 
 passion for, the poor, by the protection 
 which he extends to them against the 
 mmisters of fraud and violence. It is 
 not that he merely covers with the 
 
 shadow of his throne all neighbouring 
 nations, and is acknowledged as tlieii 
 political head, but that the brighl 
 example which he sets, the Majestj 
 of Righteousness enthroned in M 
 person, compels all to bow before 
 him. 
 
 The verse occurs almost word for 
 word m Job xxix. 1-2, whence it is 
 perhaps borrowed. 
 
 14. Precious is their blood. 
 He will not see it spilt on the ground, 
 without avenging it. Comp. cxvi. 15, 
 I Sam. xxvi. 21, 2 Kings i. 13. 
 
 .15. Besides the Divine reward 
 which he has merited, ihe king shall 
 receive also the grateful acknowledge- 
 ment of those whom he has protected 
 and saved from death. 
 
 Gold of Sheba, the offerer be- 
 ing, it is supposed, a native of Sheba, 
 See on ver. 10. 
 
 And pray for him. Then ren- 
 dering of the P.B.V., "prayer shall 
 be made ever unto him," is quite 
 indefensible. The preposition never 
 occurs in this sense. But the excite 
 sive Messianic interpretation seemed 
 to require it. Augustine, however, 
 who here, as in Ps. Ixix., supposes 
 not Christ only, but Christ and the 
 Church to be .spoken of, explains the 
 prayer as made, not for Christ him- 
 
PSALM LXXIl. 
 
 321 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 (And) bless him all the day. 
 Let there be abundance of corn in the land, 
 So that on the top of the mountains the fruit 
 thereof rustles like Lebanon, 
 And let men spring forth from the city like the 
 herbs of the earth. 
 Let His Name be-for ever ! 
 Before the sun let His Name be continued, 
 And let men bless themselves in him ; 
 
 self, but for the kingdom of Christ : 
 " When we pray for Him, we pray 
 forthe Church, which is His body :" — 
 
 Ml mode of exposition which is most 
 
 ^bitrary, and only leads to endless 
 confusion and perplexity. Dr. Pusey, 
 on the other hand, renders, "And He 
 (the king) shall pray for him (the poor) 
 continually." " The words, " he says, 
 "anticipate the revelation by St. Paul, 
 ' He ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them.' (Heb. vii. 25, and Rom. 
 viii. 34. ) The words cannot be ren- 
 dered as in the P.B.V. , 'prayer shall 
 \r made ever unto Him : ' on the 
 other hand, the idiom is used exclu- 
 
 ; sively of the intercession of one nearer 
 to God for one less near. " He then 
 gives the instances of Abraham inter- 
 ceding for Abimelech, Gen. xx. 7 ; 
 Moses for Aaron, after the sin of the 
 calf, Deut. ix. 20 ; Samuel for the 
 people, I Sam. vii. 5> ""■ '9 — 23 ; 
 the prophet for Jeroboam, I Kings 
 xiii. 6 ; of Jeremiah, at Zedekiah's 
 request, Jer. xxxvii. 3 (comp. also 
 Jer. xlii. 2, 20, vii. 16, xi. 14, xiv. 11, 
 xxix. 7) ; of Job for his friends. Job 
 xlii. 10. "These are all the cases 
 in which the Concordances, at least, 
 give the idiom. The verb occurs with 
 other prepositions. Job xlii. 8, and 
 I Sam. ii. 25." 
 
 ' 16. On the top of the moun- 
 tains : not mentioned (as something 
 extraordinary) because the mountains 
 were usually the least fruitful parts of 
 
 the land, but because they were the most 
 prominent (see ver. 3). The idea is that 
 the whole country should be one bright 
 sunny picture of gladness and fertility, 
 the corn-fields being seen not only in 
 the valleys, but rising, terrace above 
 terrace, along the mountain-sides, till 
 they reach their summits. The rustling 
 of the corn-fields in the wind is com- 
 pared to the rustling of the cedars of 
 Lebanon, so thick shall the corn stand, 
 so rich shall be the harvest. 
 
 The common division of the verse 
 is : Let there be abundance of com 
 in the land on the top of the moun- 
 tains : Let the fruit thereof rustle, 
 &c. But, thus, the point is lost, or 
 at least obscured. This would seem 
 to imply that there was to be no com 
 anywhere but on the mountains, 
 whereas the object is to make the 
 com-fields on the mountains a prin- 
 cipal feature ; and there especially 
 would they be exposed to the action 
 of the wind, and be compared to 
 Lebanon. 
 
 Let men spring fokth. Comp. 
 xcii. 7> Job V. 25, Is. xxvii. 6. From 
 THE CITY, as the dwelling-place of 
 men. Comp. Numb. xxiv. 19. 
 
 17. Be continued, lit. "be pro- 
 pagated," continued in his offspring 
 (comp. xlv. 16), i.e. taking the verb as 
 a passive ; or if it be active, ' ' ever 
 make fresh shoots." 
 
 Bless themselves in him. The 
 same reflective form of the Hebrew 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 PSALM LXXII. 
 Let all nations call him happy ! 
 
 verb occurs in Gen. xxii. l8, xxvi. 4, 
 whereas in xviii. 18 the passive is em- 
 ployed, "and in him all the nations 
 of the earth shall be blessed." The 
 meaning seems to be, that the king 
 shall be to them the very type and 
 living image of all blessing, so that 
 they can wish for nothing higher or 
 more glorious than that his blessed- 
 ness should flow forth upon them. 
 There is so much truth in the note with 
 which Delitzsch concludes his com- 
 mentary on this Psalm, that, though it 
 is rather long, I will quote it : "Solo- 
 mon," he says, "was in truth a righ- 
 teous, gracious, God-fearing prince : 
 he established and even extended the 
 kingdom, he ruled over innumerable 
 people, exalted in wisdom and riches 
 above all the kings of the earth ; his 
 time was the most happy, the richest 
 in '.peace and joy, which Israel ever 
 knew. The words of the Psalm were 
 all fulfilled ill him, even to the mere 
 particular -of the universal dominion 
 which is wished for him. But the 
 end of his reign was not like the 
 beginning and the middle of it. The 
 fair, the glorious, the pure image of 
 the Messiah which he had exhibited 
 waxed pale. In the time of David 
 and Solomon, the hope of believers, 
 which was attached to the kingdom 
 of David, had not yet fully broken 
 with the present. That time, with 
 few exceptions, knew as yet no other 
 Messiah than the Anointed of God, 
 who was David or Solomon himself. 
 When, however, the kingdom, in the 
 person of these its two most glorious 
 representatives, had proved itself un- 
 able to bring to perfection the idea 
 of the 'Messiah or the Anointed of 
 God ; and when the line of kings who 
 followed thoroughly disappointed the 
 hope which clung to the Icingdom of 
 the present ; and when, though here 
 and there, as under Hezekiah, that 
 
 hope blazed up for a moment, it was 
 finally extinguished, and men were 
 driven from the present to look to the 
 future, — then, and not till then, did 
 there come a decisive break between 
 the Messianic hope and the existing 
 state of things : the image of the 
 Messiah was now painted on the pure 
 sky of the Future (though of the 
 immediate Future), in colours fur- 
 nished by the unfulfilment of the older 
 prophecy, and the contradiction he- 
 tween the existing kingdom and its 
 idea ; it became more and more, so 
 to speak, something super-earthly, 
 superhuman, extended into the future, 
 the invisible refuge and the invisible 
 aim of a faith despairing of the pre- 
 sent, and thereby rendered more 
 spiritual and more heavenly (comp. 
 the Messianic image as described in 
 colours borrowed from our Psalm, 
 Is. xi., Mic. V. 4, 7, Zech. ix. 9, 10). 
 Rightly to understand this, we must 
 free ourselves from the prejudice that 
 the cerjtre of the Old TestameU 
 gospel (Heils-Verkiindigung) layinthe 
 prophecy of the Messiah. Where is the 
 Messiah set forth as the Redeemer of 
 the world ? The Redeemer of the 
 world is Jehovah. The coming [Pa- 
 rusid) of Jehovah is the centre uf the 
 Old Testament gospel. How this 
 unfolded itself may be made clear by 
 means of a comparison. The Old 
 Testament, in relation to the Day of 
 the New Testament, is Night. In 
 this Night, thel-e rise in opposite 
 directions two stars of Promise. The 
 one describes its path from above 
 downwards : it is the promise of 
 Jehovah, who is about to come. The 
 other describes its path from below 
 upwards : it is the hope which rests 
 on the seed of David, the prophecy 
 of the Son of^ David, which at first 
 ran a course wholly human, and only 
 earthly. These two stars meet ai 
 
PSALM LXXII. 
 
 323 
 
 18 Blessed be Jehovah God, the God of Israel, 
 
 Who alone doeth wondrous things ! 
 
 19 And blessed be His glorious Name for ever, 
 
 And let all the earth be filled with His glory . 
 
 Amen and Amen. 
 20 Ended are the Prayers of 
 David the Son of Jesse. 
 
 last, they mingle so as to form but 
 one ; the Night vanishes, and it is 
 Day. This one star is Jesus Christ, 
 Jehovah and David's Son in one per- 
 son, the King of Israel and at the 
 same time the Redeemer of the 
 world ; in a vpord, the God-Man, 
 blessed be He ! " 
 
 18, 19. These verses are a later 
 doxology, appended here to mark 
 the close of the Second Book of 
 the Psalter. Similar doxologies occur 
 at the end of all the other books (see 
 at the end of Ps. xli.). This ap- 
 proaches the nearest to the regular 
 liturgical Berachah, or blessing ; for it 
 contains what is required in that, the 
 ^a«f of Jehovah, the Amen, and the 
 mention of the kingdom, though this 
 last is only implied in " the Name of 
 Hh Glory," and it is not expressly 
 said " the Name of the Glory of His 
 kingdom," as it is, for instance, in 
 the Berachah, at the pronouncing of 
 which, on the Day of Atonement, 
 the people fell on their faces, so often 
 as the Name of Jehovah passed over 
 the lips of the High Priest. 
 
 18. Jehovah God, see on lix. 5. 
 Who alone doeth wondrous 
 
 THINGS. Comp. cxxxvi. 4, and Job 
 ix. 8. 
 
 19. His glorious Name, or 
 "the Name of His Glory." Comp. 
 Neh. ix. 5 ; and with the concluding 
 words of the verse, Numb. xiv. 21. 
 
 The repeated Amen, with the con- 
 junction, is in the Old Test, peculiar 
 to those doxologies in the Psalter. 
 
 The characteristic difference be- 
 
 tween the two Books of the Psalter, 
 and the use of the Divine Names, is 
 preserved even in their concluding 
 doxologies. In the first, God is 
 spoken of as "Jehovah, the God of 
 Israel ; " here as ' ' Jehovah Elohim, 
 the God of Israel." 
 
 20. This verse, again (with which 
 may be compared Job xxxi. 40), does 
 not belong originally either to the 
 Psalm or to the Doxology, though 
 perhaps older than the last. It 
 is remarkable that the elder Kimchi 
 treated the wrords as an integral 
 portion of the Psalter. He says : 
 "When all shall have been ful- 
 filled, so that Israel, brought back 
 from exile, shall have been restored 
 to their land, and the Messiah, the 
 son of David, rules over them, then 
 will they need no more atonement, 
 and deliverance, and blessing, for 
 they will possess all, and then will 
 be ended the prayers of David the 
 son of Jesse " (quoted by Delifzsch). 
 
 As several Psalms bearing the 
 name of David occur in the later 
 Books of the Psalter, it is evident 
 that this notice, " ended are the 
 Prayers of David," &c., roust have 
 been placed originally at the end of 
 a smaller collection of Psalms, which 
 was supposed to comprise those only 
 which were known as his, or which 
 at the least belonged to his time. It 
 does not prove that all the Psalms 
 of the first two Books were regarded 
 as David's, or that he wrote none of 
 those which in the later Books go by 
 his name. 
 
 Y 2 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 PSALMS LXXIIL— LXXXIX. 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 There are some questions which never lose their interest, some 
 problems of which it may be said, that they are ever old and yet 
 ever new. Not the least anxious of such questions are those which 
 deal with God's moral government of the world. They lie close to 
 man's heart, and are ever asking and pressing for solution. They 
 may differ in different times, they may assume various forms, but 
 perhaps no man ever looked thoughtfully on the world as it is 
 without seeing much that was hard to reconcile with a belief in the 
 love and wisdom of God. 
 
 One form of this moral difficulty pressed heavily upon the pious 
 Jew under the Old Dispensation. It was this : Why should good 
 men suffer, and bad men prosper ? This difficulty was aggravated, 
 we must remember, by what seemed to be the manifest contradiction 
 between the express teaching of his Law and the observed facts of 
 human experience. The Law told him that God was a righteous 
 Judge, meting out to men in this world the due recompense of their 
 deeds. The course of the world, where those who had cast off the 
 fear of God were rich and powerful, made him ready to question 
 this truth, and was a serious stumbling-block to his faith. And 
 further, the Hebrew mind had never risen to the conception of 
 universal law, but was accustomed to regard all visible phenomena as 
 the immediate result of a free Sovereign Will Direct interposition, 
 even arbitrary interference, was no difficulty to the Jew, to whom 
 Jehovah was the absolute Sovereign of the world, not acting, so far 
 as he could see, according to any established order. Hence it 
 seemed to him inexplicable that the world of life should not reflect 
 perfectly, as in a mirror, the righteousness of God. 
 
 This is the perplexity which appears in this Psalm, as it does in 
 the 37th, and also in the Book of Job. Substantially it is the same 
 problem : but it is met differently. In tne 37th Psalm the advice 
 given is to wait, to trust in Jehovah, and to rest assured that in the 
 end the seeming disorder will be set right even in this world. The 
 
328 PSALM LXXiri. 
 
 wicked will perish, the enemies of Jehovah will be cut off, and the 
 righteons will be preserved from evil and inherit the land. Thus 
 God suffers wickedness for a time, only the more signally to manifest 
 His righteousness in overthrowing it. That is the first, the simplest, 
 the most obvious solution of the difficulty. In the Book of Job, where 
 the sorrow and the perplexity are the darkest, where the question 
 lies upon the heart "heavy as lead, and deep almost as life," the 
 sufferer finds no such consolation. As a Gentile, he has no need 
 to reconcile his experience with the sanctions of the Pentateuch. 
 But he has to do that which is not less hard, he has to reconcile 
 it with a life's knowledge of God, and a life's love of God. He 
 searches his heart, he lays bare his life, he is conscious of no 
 transgression, and he cannot understand why chastisement should 
 be laid upon him, whilst the most daring offenders against the 
 Majesty of God escape with impunity. Sometimes with a bitterness 
 that cannot be repressed, sometimes with a sorrow hushing itself into 
 resignation, he still turns to God ; he would fain stand before His 
 judgement-seat, plead with Him his cause, and receive a righteous 
 sentence. But Job does not find the solution of the Psalmist. 
 He is driven to find that all is a mystery. God will not give an 
 account of any of His matters. " I go forward, but He is not 
 there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him " Qob xxiii.). And 
 when Jehovah appears at the end of the book, it is to show the 
 folly of man, who would presume to think that, short-sighted and 
 ignorant as he is, he can fathom the councils of the Most High. 
 He appears, not to Uft the veil of mystery, but to teach the need of 
 humiliation and the blessedness or faith.* 
 
 In this Psalm, again, a different conclusion is arrived at. In part 
 it is the same as that which has already met us in Psalm xxxvii., in 
 part it is far higher. The Psalmist here is not content merely with 
 visible retribution in this world. He sees it indeed in the case of the 
 ungodly. When he was tempted to envy their lot, when he had all but 
 yielded to the sophistry of those who would have persuaded him to be 
 even as they, the temptation was subdued by the reflection that such 
 
 * There is a difficulty, no doubt, in reconciling this solution, or rather non-solution of the 
 problem, with that which is given subsequently in the historical conclusion of the Books. 
 There we find Job recompensed in this life for all his sufferings. If the historical parts of 
 the Book are by the sa:rxe author as the dialogue, theh we must suppose that when Job is 
 brought to confess his own vileness, and his own ignorance and presumption, then, and not 
 til then, does God rewdrd nim with temporal prosperity.; 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 329 
 
 prosperity came to an end as sudden as it was terrible. But he does 
 not place over against this, on the other side, an earthly portion of 
 honour and happiness for the just. Their portion is in God. He is 
 tlie stay and the satisfaction of their hearts now. He will take them 
 to Himself and to glory hereafter. This conviction it is which finally 
 chases away the shadows of doubt, and brings light and peace into 
 his soul. And this conviction is the more remarkable, because it is 
 reached in spite- of the distinct promise made of temporal recompense 
 to piety, and in the absence of a full and definite Revelation with 
 regard to the life to come. In the clear light of another world and its 
 certain recompenses, such perplexities either vanish or lose much of 
 their sharpness. When we confess that God's righteousness has a 
 larger theatre for its display than this world and the years of man, we 
 need not draw hasty conclusions from the "slight whisper" of His 
 ways which reaches us here. 
 
 It is an interesting question suggested by this Psalm, but one which 
 can only be touched on here, how far there is anything in common 
 betwjsen doubts, such as those which perplexed the ancient Hebrews, 
 and those by which modern thinkers are harassed.* There are some 
 persons, who now, as of old, are troubled by the moral aspect of the 
 world. To some, this perplexity is even aggravated by the disclosures 
 of Revelation. And men of pious minds have been shaken to their 
 inmost centre by the appalling prospect of the everlasting punish- 
 ment of the wicked. But the difficulties, which are, properly speaking, 
 modem difficulties, are of another kind. They are, at least in their 
 source, speculative rather than moral. The observed uniformity of 
 nature, the indissoluble chain of cause and effect, the absolute 
 certainty of the laws by which all visible phenomena are governed, 
 these are now the stumbling-blocks even to devout minds. How, 
 it is asked, can we reconcile these things with the belief in a Personal 
 God, or at least with an ever-active Personal Will ? Had the world 
 2ver a Maker .' or, if it had, does He still control and guide it ? 
 Knowing as we do that the order of cause and effect is ever the 
 iame, how can we accept miracles or Divine interpositions of any 
 jind ? What avails prayer, when every event that happens has been 
 srdained from eternity ? How can any words of man interrupt the 
 narch of the Universe ? Ships are wrecked, and harvests are 
 
 See Dr. A. S. Fairar's ^' Bampton Lectures : " Lecture i. p. 7, note. 
 
330 PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 blighted, and famine and pestilence walk the earth, not because men 
 have forgotten to pray, but in accordance with the unerring laws 
 which storm, and Wight, and disease obey. Such are some of the 
 thoughts — the birth, it may be said, of modern science— which haunt 
 and vex men now. 
 
 Difficulties like these are not touched upon in Scripture. But the 
 spirit in which all difficulties, all doubts, should be met, is the same. 
 If the answer lies in a region above and beyond us, our true wisdom 
 is to wait in humble dependence upon God, in active fulfilment of 
 what v/e can see to be our duty, till the day dawn and the shadows 
 flee away. And it is this which Scripture teaches us in this Psalm, 
 in Job, and in that other Book, which is such a wonderful record of 
 a doubting self-tormenting spirit, the Book of Ecclesiastes. It has been 
 said that the Book of Job and the 73rd Psalm " crush free thought."* 
 It would have been truer to say that they teach us that there are 
 heights which we cannot reach, depths which the intellect of man 
 cannot fathom ; that God's ways are past finding out ; that difficulties, 
 perplexities, sorrows, are best healed and forgotten in the Light which 
 streams from His throne, in the Love which by His Spirit is shed 
 abroad in the heart. 
 
 But the Psalm teaches us also a lesson of forbearance towards 
 the doubter. It is a lesson perhaps just now peculiarly needed. 
 Christian sympathy is felt, Christian charity is extended, towards 
 every form of misery, whether mental or bodily, except toward that 
 which is often the acutest of all, the anguish of doubt. Here it seems 
 as if coldness, suspicion, even denunciation, were justifiable. And 
 yet doubt, even to the verge of scepticism, as is plain from this Psalm, 
 may be no proof of a bad and corrupt heart ; it may rather be 
 the evidence of an honest one. Doubt may spring from the very 
 depth and earnestness of a man's faith. In the case of the Psalmist, 
 as in the case of Job, that which lay at the bottom of the doubt, that 
 which made it a thing so full of anguish, was the deep-rooted con- 
 viction of the righteousness of God. Unbelief does not doubt, faith 
 doubts. "f And God permits the doubt in His truest and noblest 
 servants, as our Lord did in the case of Thomas, that He may 
 thereby plant their feet the more firmly on the rock of His own 
 everlasting truth. There is perhaps no Psalm in which Faith asserts 
 
 * Quinet, CEuvres, t. i. c. 5, § 4. 
 
 + See Archbishop Whately, AntLotaiions on Bacons Essays, pp. 358, 359. 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 331 
 
 itself so triumphantly, cleaves to God with such words of lofty hope 
 and affection, and that precisely because in no other instance has the 
 fire been so searching, the test of faith so severe. It may be well to 
 remember this when we see a noble soul compassed about with dark- 
 ness, yet struggling to the light, lest we " vex one whom God has 
 smitten, and tell of the pain of His wounded ones " (Ps. Ixix. 26). 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts : — 
 
 I. The Psalmist tells the story of the doubts which had assailed 
 him, the temptation to which he had nearly succumbed. Ver. i — 14. 
 
 II. He confesses the sinfuless of these doubts, and explains how 
 he had been enabled to overcome them. Ver. 15 — 28. 
 
 These principal portions have their further subdivisions. 
 
 I. a. First we have, by way of introduction, the conviction to which 
 his struggle vidth doubt brought him, ver. I ; then the general state- 
 ment of his offence, ver. 2, 3. 
 
 h. The reason of which is more fully explained to be the prosperity 
 of the wicked, ver. 4, 5 ; and their insolence and pride in consequence, 
 ver. 6 — II. 
 
 ' c. The comfortless conclusion which he had thence drawn, ver. 
 12—14. 
 
 II. a. By way of transition, he tells how he had been led to 
 acknowledge the impiety of this conclusion, and how, seeking for 
 a deeper, truer view, he had come to the sanctuary of God, ver. 15 — 17, 
 where he had seen the sudden and fearful end of the wicked, ver. 
 18 — 20, and so had learned \!cit folly of his own speculation. 
 
 h. Thus recovering from the almost fatal shock which his faith had 
 received, he returns to a sense of his true position. God holds him 
 by his right hand, God guides him for the present, and will bring him 
 to a glorious end, ver. 23, 24 ; hence he rejoices in the thought that 
 God is his great and only possession, ver. 25, 26. 
 
 c. The general conclusion that departure from God is death and 
 destruction ; that in His presence and in nearness to Him are to be 
 found joy and safety, ver. 27, 28. 
 
332 
 
 PSALM LXXIIl. 
 
 [a psalm of ASAPH.*] 
 
 1 Surely God is good to Israel, 
 
 (Even) to such as are of a pure heart, 
 
 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone, 
 
 My- steps had well nigh slipt. 
 
 3 For I was envious at the arrogant, 
 
 I. SlfRELY. This particle, which 
 occurs twice again in this Psalm, is 
 rendered differently in each case by 
 the E. V. ; here truly, in ver. 13 
 verily, in ver. iS surely : but one ren- 
 dering should be kept throughout. 
 Here it is used afnnnatively, and ex- 
 presses the satisfaction with which the 
 conclusion has been arrived at, after 
 all the anxious questionings and de- 
 batings through wliich the Psalmist 
 has passed. ' ' Yes, it is so ; after all, 
 God is good, notwithstanding all my 
 doubts. " It thus implies at the Same 
 time a tacit opposition to a different 
 view of the case, such as that which 
 is described afterwards. ** Fresh from 
 the conflict, he somewhat abruptly 
 opens the Psalm with the confident 
 enunciation of the truth, of which 
 victory over doubt had now made him 
 more, and more intelligently, sure 
 than ever, that God is good to Israel, 
 even to such as are of a clean heart." 
 — Essential Coherence of the Old and 
 New Testament, by my brother, the 
 Rev. T. T. Perowne, p. 85, to which 
 I may perhaps be permitted to refer 
 for a clear and satisfactory view of 
 the whole Psalm. 
 
 It is of importance to remark that 
 the result of the conflict is stated 
 before the conflict itself is described. 
 There is no parade of doubt merely 
 as doubt. He ii&ies, first, and in the 
 
 most natural way, 'Caa final conviction 
 of his heart. 
 
 Israel. The next clause hmits 
 this, and reminds us that " they are 
 not all Israel, which are of Israel." 
 To the true Israel God is Love ; to 
 them " all things work together for 
 
 Of a pure heart. Comp. Matt. 
 v. 8. 
 
 2. But as for me. The pro- 
 noun is emphatic. He places him- 
 self, with shame and sorrow, almost 
 in opposition to that Israel of God 
 of which he had just spoken. He 
 has in view the happiness of those 
 who had felt no doubt. Calvin some- 
 what differently explains : Even I, 
 with all my knowledge and advan- 
 tages, I, who ought to have known 
 better. 
 
 Gone, lit. "inclined, "not so much 
 in the sense of being bent under him, 
 as rather of being turned aside, out 
 of the way, as in Numb. xx. 17, 2 
 Sam. ii. 19, 21, &c The verb in 
 the next clause expresses the giving 
 way from weakness, fear, &c., HAD 
 . . . SLIPT, lit. "were poured out" 
 like water. 
 
 3. Envious, as in xxxvii. i, Prov. 
 xxiii. 17, wishing that his lot were 
 like theirs who seemed to be the 
 favourites of Heavejju Calvin quotes 
 the story of Dionysius the Less, who. 
 
 * See note on Psalm 1. p. 202. 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 333 
 
 Wlien I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 
 i. For they have no bands in their death. 
 And their strength (continues) firm. 
 
 5 Into the same trouble as (other) men they come not 
 
 Neither are they plagued like (other) folk. 
 
 6 Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck ; 
 
 Violence covereth them as a garment. 
 
 having sacrilegiously plundered a 
 temple,- and having sailed safely 
 home, said : "Do you see that the 
 gods smile upon sacrilege ? " The 
 prosperity and impunity of the vricked 
 invite others to follow their example. 
 
 The arrogant. The vford de- 
 notes those whose pride and infatua- 
 tion amount almost to madness. It 
 is diificult to find an exact equivalent 
 in English. It occurs in v. 5, and 
 ^ain in Ixxv. 4. 
 
 4. Bands. This word "bands," 
 or "tight cords," or " fetters," occurs 
 only once besides. Is. Iviii. 6. This 
 is d;e simplest and most straight- 
 forward rendering of the words, 
 "They have no bands in their death " 
 (lit. at Qx for their death, i.e. when 
 they die). The objection brought 
 against it, that such a meaning is 
 at variance with the general scope 
 of the Psalm, the object of which 
 is not to represent the end of the 
 ungodly as happy (the very reverse 
 is asserted, ver. 17, &c.), but to de- 
 scribe the general prosperity of their 
 lives, is of no great force. For 
 we must remember that the Psalmist 
 is describmg here not the fact, 
 but what seemed to him to be the 
 fact, in a state of mind which he 
 confesses to have been unhealthy. 
 Comp. Job xxi. 13, and see the note 
 on ver. 18 of this Psalm. Other- 
 wise .it would be possible to render, 
 " For no bands (of suffering) 
 (bring them) to their death." No 
 
 fetters are so to speak laid upon 
 their limbs, so that they should be 
 delivered over bound to their great 
 enemy. They are not beset with 
 sorrows, sufferings, miseries, which 
 by impairing health and strength 
 bring them to death. This sense has 
 been very well given in the P. B. V., 
 which follows Luther : — 
 "For they are in no peril of death. 
 But are lusty and strong, " 
 
 5. The literal rendering of this 
 verse would be ; — 
 
 " In the trouble of man they are not. 
 And with mankind they are not 
 plagued. " 
 
 The first word used to express man 
 is that which denotes man in his 
 frailty and weakness. The other is 
 the most general term, Adam, man 
 as made of the dust of the earth. 
 These men seem exempt not only 
 from the frailties and infirmities of 
 men, but even from the common lot 
 of men. They appear almost to be 
 tempered and moulded of a finer clay 
 than ordinary human nature. 
 
 Plagued, lit. " smitten," i.e. of 
 God ; a word used especially of 
 Divine chastisement. Comp. Is. 
 liii. 4. 
 
 6. Is AS A CHAIN ABOUT THEIR 
 NECK, or, "hath encircled their neck." 
 See for the same figure, Prov. i. 9, 
 iii. 22. The neck is regarded as the 
 seat of pride : comp. Ixxv. 5, Is. 
 iii. 16. 
 
334 
 
 PSALM LXXni. 
 
 7 Their eye goeth forth from fatness ; 
 
 The imaginations of (their) heart overflow. 
 
 8 They scoff and speak wickedly, 
 
 Of oppression loftily do they speak. 
 
 9 They have set in the heavens their mouth, 
 
 And their tongue walketh through the earth. 
 lO Therefore turn his people after them, 
 
 7. From fatness, i. e. from a sleek 
 countenance, conveying in itself the 
 impression of worldly ease and en- 
 joyment. The whole figure is highly 
 expressive. It is a picture of that 
 proud satisfaction which so often 
 shines in the eyes of well-to-do men 
 of the world. 
 
 Overflow. The metaphor is 
 from a swollen river which rises 
 above its banks. The verb is used 
 absolutely, as in Hab. i. n, "Then 
 (his) spirit swells and overflows," 
 where the same figure is employed in 
 describing the pride and insolence of 
 the Chaldseans. See also Is. viii. 8. 
 This is better than, with the E.V., 
 to take the verb as transitive, "They 
 have more than heart could wish " 
 (lit. they have exceeded the imagi- 
 nations of the heart) : the two clauses 
 of the verse correspond, the proud 
 look being an index of the proud 
 heart ; these being followed, in the 
 next verse, by the proud spirit. 
 
 8. According to the Masore'ic 
 punctuation, the verse would be ar- 
 ranged thus : — 
 
 ' ' They scoff and speak wickedly of 
 oppression. 
 Loftily do they speak. " 
 
 Loftily, or "from on high," not 
 "against the Most High," as the 
 P. B. V. 
 
 9. In the heavens, not "against 
 the heavens." The stature of these 
 men seems to swell till it reaches 
 heaven. Thence they issue their 
 
 proud commands, the whole earth 
 being the theatre of their action. 
 
 10. Therefore. This is co-ordinate 
 with the ' ' therefore " in ver. 6. Both 
 depend on the statement in ver. 4, 5. 
 Because the wicked have no hands, 
 &c., therefore pride compasseth them, 
 &c., and therefore others are induced 
 to follow their example. 
 
 His people, instead of "thik 
 people." Either (i), in accordance 
 with a common Hebrew idiom, there 
 is an abrupt transition from the plu- 
 ral to the singular, an individual 
 being now substituted for the mass. 
 " ZTir people," in this sense, are the 
 crowd who attach themselves to one 
 and another of these prosperous sin- 
 ners, that they may share his pro- 
 sperity. Or (2), the pronoun refers 
 to God. Even His people, forsaking 
 Him, are led away by the evil ex- 
 ample, just as the Psalmist confesses 
 he himself was. 
 
 After them, lit. "thither," i.e. 
 to the persons before described, and, 
 as is implied, away from God. The 
 next clause of the verse is more 
 difficult of explanation. The E. V. 
 by its rendering, ' ' And waters of a 
 full (cup) are wrung out to them," 
 probably means us to understand that 
 the people of God, when they turn 
 hither, i.e. to the consideration of 
 the prosperity of the wicked, are 
 filled with sorrow, drink as it were 
 the cup of tears ; the image being 
 the same as in Ixxx. 5. The P. B. V. 
 comes nearer to the mark : — 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 335 
 
 And at the full stream would slake their thirst : 
 
 11 And they say : " How doth God know ? 
 
 And is their knowledge in the Most High ? " 
 
 12 Lo, these are the wicked, 
 
 And (these men), ever prosperous, have increased 
 (their) wealth. 
 
 13 Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, 
 
 And washed my hands in innocency, 
 
 14 And have been plagued all the day. 
 
 And chastened every morning. 
 
 "Therefore fall the people unto 
 them, 
 And thereout suck they no small 
 advantage," — 
 
 only that apparently in the second 
 clause the pronoun they refers, not 
 to the people, but to the wicked 
 mentioned before. Whereas it is the 
 people, the crowd of hangers-on, who 
 gather like sheep to the water-trough, 
 who suck this advantage, such as it 
 is, as the reward of their apo^asy. 
 
 And at the full stream, &c. 
 lit " and fulness of water is drained 
 by them;" i.e. broad and deep are 
 the waters of sinful pleasures, which 
 they, in their infatuation, drink. 
 
 n. And they say. The refer- 
 ence of the pronoun has again been 
 disputed. Mostly it is referred to 
 those just spoken of, who have been 
 led astray by the prosperity of the 
 .wicked to follow them. Hupfeld 
 thinks it is the wicked themselves (of 
 ver. 3) who thus speak ; and cer- 
 tainly the boldness of the language 
 employed, which questions the very 
 being of a God, is more natural in 
 the mouth of those whose long pro- 
 sperity and long security have made 
 them unmindful of His providence. 
 
 But much depends on the view we 
 take of the next three verses. Do 
 these continue the speech, or are they 
 
 the reflection of the Poet himself? 
 In this case the words must be 
 throughout the words of those who 
 have been tempted and led astray 
 by the untroubled happiness of the 
 wicked. They adopt their practi- 
 cally atheistical principles ; they ask, 
 " How doth God know ? " &c. ; they 
 point, with a triumph not unmingled 
 with bitterness, at their success : Lo, 
 these are the ungodly, whose sudden 
 and utter overthrow we have been 
 taught to expect ; they come to the 
 conclusion that the fear of God is in 
 vain, for it does not save a man from 
 suffering and disappointment, and 
 thus they justify their choice. It is 
 certainly in favour of this view that 
 ver. 15 seems naturally to introduce 
 the reflections of the Psalmist him- 
 self, who had almost been carried 
 away by the same sophistry. On the 
 other hand, Hengstenberg and Hup- 
 feld suppose the reflections of the 
 Psalmist to begin at ver. 12. Verses 
 13, 14 will then describe the temp- 
 tation which pressed upon him, the 
 thoughts which forced themselves into 
 his mind, and which, as verses 15, 
 16 show, he only with difficulty re- 
 pressed. He did utter his disap- 
 pointment, he was gliding on to 
 something worse, to the atheistic 
 language of ver. 11, when he checks 
 himself as in ver. 15. In favour of 
 
336 
 
 PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 15 If I had said, " Let me utter (words) like these." 
 
 Lo, I should have been faithless to the generation of 
 Thy children. 
 
 16 And when I pondered that I might know this, 
 
 It was a trouble in mine eyes ; 
 
 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God, 
 
 (Until) I considered their latter end. 
 
 18 Surely in slippery places dost Thou set them, 
 
 this interpretation it may be urged 
 that the LXX. have introduced a 
 KaX elira at the beginning of ver. 13. 
 
 15. If I HAD SAID : if I had 
 given way to the temptation to 
 utter thoughts and misgivings like 
 these. "The Hebrew Psalmist," it 
 has been well said, " instead of telling 
 his painful misgivings, harboured 
 them in God's presence till he found 
 the solution. The delicacy exhibited 
 in forbearing unnecessarily to shake 
 the faith of others is a measure of the 
 disinterestedness of the doubter." — 
 Farrar, Bampton Lectures, p. 27. 
 
 The generation of Thy 
 CHILDREN. As in xiv. S, " the 
 generation of the righteous." So 
 the people at large are called, Deut. 
 xiv. I. Here, however, the true 
 Israel, "the pure of heart," are 
 meant. But the individual is not 
 called a son of God under the Old 
 Testament, except officially, as in 
 ii. 7. 
 
 16. I PONDERED. See the same 
 use of the verb in Ixxvii. 5, " the days 
 of old;" Prov. xvi. 9, "one's way." 
 That I might know, i.e. recon- 
 cile all that I saw with the great fact 
 of God's moral government. 
 
 A TROUBLE, or a weariness, as of 
 a great burden laid upon me (comp. 
 Eccles. viii. 17). Thought could not 
 solve the problem. The brain grew 
 wearier, and the heart heavier. Light 
 and peace come to us, not by thinking. 
 
 but by faith. "In Thy Light we 
 shall see Light." God Himself was 
 the Teacher. 
 
 17. The sanctuary is the place 
 of His teaching ; not heaven, but the 
 Temple, as the place of His special 
 manifestation, not only by Urim and 
 Thummim, but in direct answer to 
 prayer. There, in some hour of 
 fervent, secret prayer, Uke that of 
 Hannah (i Sam. i. 13 : comp. Luke 
 Kviii. 10), or perhaps in some solemn 
 service — it may have been (who can 
 tell ?) through the words of some in- 
 spired Psalm — a conviction of the 
 truth broke upon him. 
 
 18. The conclusion is remarkable. 
 That which dispels the Psalmist's 
 doubts, and restores his faith, is the 
 end of the ungodly in this world, — 
 their sudden reverses, their terrible 
 overthrow in the very bosom of their 
 prosperity. Hitherto he has not 
 taken notice of this fact as he ought : 
 he has been so dazzled with the pro- 
 sperity of the wicked, that he has for- 
 gotten by what appalling judgements 
 God vindicates His righteousness. He 
 does not follow them into the next 
 world. His eye cannot see beyond 
 the grave. Even the great horror of 
 an evil conscience is scarcely, in his 
 view, a part of their punishment, 
 unless the expression "because of 
 terrors," in ver. 19, may be supposed 
 to point that way ; which, however, 
 is very doubtful. 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 337 
 
 Thou hast cast them down to ruin. 
 
 19 How are they brought to desolation as in a moment, 
 
 They have come to an end, they are cut off because 
 of terrors. 
 
 20 As a dream, when one awaketh, 
 
 So, O Lord, when Thou stirrest up Thyself, dost 
 Thou despise their image. 
 
 It is singular that in Job xxi. 13 
 (comp. ix. 23) it is reckoned as an 
 element in the good fortune of the 
 wicked, that they die not by a linger- 
 ing disease, but suddenly ; but it may 
 be that Job, perplexed and eager to 
 make everything tell on his side 
 which his iViends would urge against 
 him, is determined not to admit their 
 inference from the facts of Divine 
 Providence. Otherwise this passage 
 of Job supports the obvious rendering 
 of ver. 4, " They do not die by linger- 
 ing diseases, but easily," this being 
 the mistaken view afterwards cor- 
 rected. 
 
 "We come to the conclusion,'' it 
 has been well said, " that in the case 
 of the wicked this Psalm does not 
 plainly and undeniably teach that 
 punishment awaits them after death ; 
 but only that in estimating their con- 
 dition it is necessary, in order to vin- 
 dicate the justice of God, to take in 
 their whole career, and set over 
 against their great prosperity the 
 sudden and fearful reverses and de- 
 struction which they not unfrequently 
 encounter. But in turning to the 
 other side of the comparison, the case 
 of the righteous, we are not met by 
 the thought, that as the prosperity of 
 the wicked is but the preparation for 
 their ruin, so the adversity of the 
 godly is but an introduction to worldly 
 wealth and honour. That thought 
 is not foreign to the Old Testament 
 writers (see Tsalm xxxvii. 9— 11). 
 
 But it is not so much as hinted at here. 
 The daily chastening may coniinue, 
 flesh and heart may fail, but God is 
 good to Israel notwithstanding. He 
 is their portion, their guide, their 
 help, while they live, and He will 
 take them to His glorious presence 
 when they die. ' Nevertheless I am 
 continually with Thee, ' &c. The New 
 Testament has nothing higher or more 
 spiritual than this," — Essential Cohe' 
 rence, &c., pp. 86, 87. 
 
 19. This verse, taken in connection 
 with ver. 27, seems almost to point, 
 as Ewald has remarked, to some 
 particular instance of the Divine 
 judgement which had recently been 
 witnessed. 
 
 20. As A DREAM, the unreality cf 
 which is only seen when a maa 
 awakes. Comp. xc. 5 ; Job xx. 8. 
 
 When thou stirrest up Thy- 
 self.- The verb in Hebrew is a dif- 
 ferent one from that in the previous 
 clause, although in the E. V. both 
 are in this passage rendered by the 
 same word, In xxxv, 23, where the 
 two verbs also occur together, our 
 translators have employed two dif- 
 ferent words to express them, and 1 
 have thought it best to do so here. 
 The figure is carried on. When God 
 thus awakes to judgement, the image, 
 the shadow of the wicked passes from 
 Him, as a dream from the mind of a 
 sleeper. He " despises " it, as a man 
 in his waking moments thinks lightly 
 of some horrible dream. 
 
35S 
 
 PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 21 For my heart grew bitter, 
 
 And I was pricked in my reins, 
 
 22 So brutish was I myself and ignorant, 
 
 I became a very beast before Thee. 
 
 23 And yet, as for me, — I am always with Thee, 
 
 Thou hast holden my right hand ; 
 
 24 Thou wilt guide me in Thy counsel, 
 
 21. For. There is no reason to 
 depart from this, the common mean- 
 ing of the particle. It explains the 
 whole of the previous struggle. I was 
 tempted to think thus, for I brooded 
 over these difficulties till I became no 
 better than the dumb cattle. So it 
 ever is. Man does not show wisdom 
 when he wearies himself to no pur- 
 pose with the moral and speculative 
 problems which beset him. His high- 
 est wisdom is to stay himself upon 
 God. 
 
 22. So BRUTISH, lit. "And I my- 
 self (the pronoun is emphatic) was 
 brutish." Comp. Prov. xxx. 2, 3. 
 
 A VERY BEAST. The noun is in 
 the plural, which is here used in a 
 superlative or emphatic sense, so that 
 we need not render " like the beasts," 
 still less "like Behemoth," as though 
 some particular beast were meant. 
 
 23. The words that follow, in their 
 exquisite beauty, need not comment 
 or interpretation, but a heart in unison 
 with them. They lift us up above 
 the world, above doubts, and fears, 
 and perplexities, into a higher and 
 holier atm,osphere : we breathe the 
 air of heaven. The man who can 
 truly use these words is not one who 
 has " crushed free thought," but one 
 who has seen all his doubts swallowed 
 up in the full light of God's love. 
 " Though all else in heaven and earth 
 should fail, the one true everlasting 
 Friend abides." — Ewald. 
 
 It strangely mars the force of such 
 ii passage to limit its application to 
 
 this life. To render the words of 
 ver. 24 as Grotius and others do, 
 " Thou shalt receive me with honour," 
 (in allusion to David as placed on the 
 throne), or "bring me to honour," 
 i.e. in this world, is to rob the whole 
 passage of its divine significance. The 
 verb "Thou shall take me" is the 
 same as that employed in xlix. 15, 
 and Gen. v. 24, to which last passage 
 there is doubtless an allusion in both 
 places in the Psalms. But this Psalm 
 is an advance on Ps. xlix. 
 
 The great difference, though with 
 essential points of contact, between 
 the hope of the life to come, as pour- 
 trayed even in such a passage as this, 
 and what we read in the New Testa- 
 ment, will best be understood by 
 comparing the language here with 
 St. Paul's language in the 4th and 5th 
 chapters of the Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, and the ist chapter of 
 the Epistle to the Philippians. 
 
 Thou hast holden ; either im- 
 plying that thus he had been saved 
 from falling altogether, when his feet 
 were almost gone (ver. 2), or perhaps 
 rather as stating more broadly the 
 ground of his abiding communion 
 with God, at all times and under all 
 circumstances. Comp. Ixiii. 8. 
 
 24. Thou wilt guide me. "With 
 confidence he commits himself to the 
 Divine guidance, though he does not 
 see clearly the mystery of the Divine 
 purpose (counsel) in that guidance."— 
 Delitzsch. It is because he has for- 
 gotten to look to that counsel, and to 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 339 
 
 And afterward Thou wilt take me to glory. 
 
 25 Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? 
 
 And beside Thee there is none upon earth in whom I 
 delight. 
 
 26 Though my flesh and my heart fail, 
 
 Yet God is the rock of my heart and my portion for 
 ever. 
 
 27 For behold they that are far from Thee must perish ; 
 
 Thou hast destroyed every one that goeth a whoring 
 from Thee. 
 
 28 But as for me — to draw near to God is good for me ; 
 
 I have made in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, 
 That I may tell of all Thy works. 
 
 trust in that counsel, that his faith has 
 received so startling a shock. 
 
 25. But Thee, or " beside Thee," 
 lit, "with Thee." These words are 
 to be supplied from the next clause, 
 a word or a phrase belonging to two 
 clauses being commonly in Hebrew 
 expressed only in one. 
 
 (There is) none, &c., lit. "I 
 have no delight (in any) upon the 
 earth." 
 
 26. Fail, lit. "have failed," i.e. 
 "may have failed." 
 
 27. The figure is very common. 
 Israel is the spouse of God, and 
 idolatry is a breaking of the marriage 
 vow. But here it seems to be used, 
 not merely of idolatry, but of de- 
 parture from God such as that 
 described in ver. 10. 
 
 28. At the end of this verse the 
 LXX. add, "in the gates of the 
 daughter of Zion," whence it has 
 passed though the Vulgate into our 
 Prayer-book Version. 
 
 PSALM LXXIV 
 
 Tins Psalm and the Seventy-ninth both refer to the same calamity, 
 and were, it may reasonably be conjectured, written by the same 
 author. Both Psalms deplore the rejection of the nation, the occu- 
 pation of Jerusalem by a foreign arnny, and the profanation of the 
 
340 PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 Sanctuary : but the Seventy-fourth dwells chiefly on the destruction 
 of the Temple ; the Seventy-ninth on the- terrible slaughter of the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem. Assuming that both Psalms refer to the 
 same event, we have to choose between two periods of Jewish history, 
 and only two, to which the language of the Sacred Poet could reason- 
 ably refer. The description might apply either to the invasion of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, or to the insolent oppression of Antiochus Epiphanes ; 
 and with one as the other of these two occasions it has been usually 
 connected. 
 
 There are in this Psalm some expressions which are most readily 
 explained on the supposition that it was composed in the time of the 
 Maccabees. 
 
 {a) One of these is the complaint (ver. 9), "There is no Prophet 
 any more." It is difficult to understand how such a complaint could 
 have been uttered when Jeremiah and Ezekiel were both living ; or 
 with what truth it could be added, " Neither is there any among us 
 who knoweth how long," when Jeremiah had distinctly foretold that 
 the duration of the Captivity should be seventy years (Jer. xxv. 11, 
 xxix. 10).* On the other hand, such words are perfectly natural in 
 the mouth of a poet of the Maccabean age. For 250 years, from the 
 death of Malachi, the voice of Prophecy had been silent. During 
 that long interval, no inspired messenger had appeared to declare 
 and to interpret the will of God to His people. And how keenly 
 sensible they were of the greatness of their loss in this respect we 
 learn from the frequent allusions to it in the First Book of Maccabees 
 (iv. 46, ix. 27, xiv. 41). The language of this Psalm, then, is but the 
 expression of what we know to have been the national feeling at 
 that time. 
 
 [Jj) Another feature of this Psalm is the description of the profan- 
 ation of the Sanctuary, and the erection there of the signs (ver. 4), 
 the military standards or religious emblems, of the heathen. 
 The Book of Maccabees presents the same picture. There we read 
 that Antiochus, on his return from the second Egyptian campaign, 
 " entered proudly into the sanctuary, and took away the golden 
 altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof" 
 (i. 21). Two years later, the king sent a division of his army against 
 
 "''■ '■.! 
 
 * It has been suggested to me by a friend, that this complaint would not be unsuitable to 
 the time of Esarhaddon's invasion (2 Chron. xxxiiu 11). That period was singularly barren 
 in prophets. 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 341 
 
 Jerusalem, which fell upon the city, and having made a great slaughter 
 of the inhabitants, plundered it, set it on fire, pulled down the houses 
 and walls, and carried away women and children and cattle. A strong 
 garrison was placed in the city of David, the sanctuary was polluted, 
 and the sabbaths and festival days profaned. The abomination of 
 desolation was set up on the altar, and sacrifice offered " on the idol 
 altar, which was upon the altar of God" (i Mace. i. 30—59. See also 
 
 ii, 8— 12, iii. 48— 51)- 
 
 On the other hand it has been urged, that there is nothing in the 
 language of the Psalm inconsistent with the supposition that it refers 
 to the Chaldean invasion. 
 
 Further, both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, it has been observed, indulge 
 in a similar strain. Thus the former sings : " Her gates are sunk 
 into the ground ; He hath destroyed and broken her bars : her king 
 and her princes are among the Gentiles : the Law is no more ; her 
 prophets also find no vision from fehovah " (Lam. ii. 9). And the 
 latter threatens : " Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet : but 
 the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients " 
 (Ezek. vii. 26). Neither of these passages, however, so absolutely 
 denies the existence of a prophet as that in the Psalm. One other 
 expression in the Psalm, ver. 3, " Lift up Thy feet to the everlasting 
 ruins," seems, it must be confessed, most suitable in the mouth of an 
 exile during the Babylonish captivity. 
 
 The relation both of this Psalm and the Seventy-ninth to the 
 writings of Jeremiah presents another difficulty. Jeremiah x. 25 is 
 almost word for word the same as Ps. Ixxix. 6, 7. Again, Lam. ii. 2 
 resembles Ixxiv. 7, and Lam. ii. 7 is very similar to Ixxiv. 4 ; and, as 
 we have already seen, there is at least a point of connection between 
 Ixxiv. 9 and Lam. ii. 9 ; besides these, other minor similarities may be 
 observed, on a comparison of the Psalmist with the Prophet. Now 
 we know that it is the habit of Jeremiah to quote largely and frequently 
 from other writers, from the Psalms and the Prophets. But on either 
 of the hypotheses above mentioned, as to the date of our two Psalms, 
 the writer of these must have imitated the language of Jeremiah. 
 This is, of course, quite possible. A similar problem, and a very 
 interesting one, arises out of the relation of Jeremiah to the later 
 chapters of Isaiah, xl. — Ixvi. That one of the two writers was familiar 
 with the other is beyond a doubt. 
 
 On the whole, I am inclined to think that this Psalm may be most 
 naturally explained by events that took place in the time of the 
 
342 PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 Maccabees. If, in any particular, the language seems too strong as 
 applied to that time— as, for instance, the description of the burning 
 of the Temple — this may be as readily explained by poetic exaggera- 
 tion, as ver. 9 is so explained by those who hold the opposite view. 
 Or, perhaps, as Calvin suggests, the v^'riter, overcome by the mournful 
 spectacle before his eyes, could not but carry back his thoughts to 
 the earlier catastrophe, and thence borrowed some images, blending 
 in his imagination the two calamities in one. 
 
 The Psalm does not consist of any regular system of strophes. 
 
 It opens with a cry of complaint, and a prayer that God would 
 remember His people in their desolation. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 It then pictures the triumph of the enemy, the destruction of the 
 sanctuary, and the loss of Divine counsel in the day of peril. Ver. 
 4—9. 
 
 Then again there is an appeal to God for help (ver. 10, 11), and 
 a calling to mind of God's past wonders on behalf of His people, 
 and of His Almighty power as seen in the world of Nature. Ver. 
 12 — 17. 
 
 And finally, based upon this, a prayer that God would not suffer 
 reproach to be brought upon His own Name, by the triumph of the 
 heathen over His people. Ver. 22, 23. 
 
 [a MASCHIL of ASAPH.*] 
 
 I Why, O God, hast Thou cast us off for ever, 
 
 Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of 
 Thy pasture 1 
 H Remember Thy congregation which Thou hast 
 purchased of old, 
 
 I. Hast Thou cast off. The ob- Sheep of Thy pasture ; a fa- 
 cet here may be supplied from the next vourite figure in those Psalms which 
 clause, viz. "the sheep of Thy pasture." are ascribed to Asaph. It is found 
 Why doth Thine anger smoke. also in Jer. xxiii. i. The name 
 For the figure, compare xviii. 8, where contains in itself an appeal to the 
 see note. There is a change in the compassion and tender care of the 
 tenses, the preterite in the first clause shepherd. Can the shepherd slay 
 being used to denote the act of casting his sheep ? 
 
 off, the future (present) here to denote 2. Thou HAST PURCHASED . . . 
 
 the continuance of the same. Thou hast ransomed. Both verbs 
 
 * See note on Ps. 1. p 202. 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 343 
 
 Which Thou hast ransomed to be the tribe of Thine 
 
 inheritance, 
 (And) the mount Zion wherein Thou hast dwelt. 
 3 Lift up Thy feet unto the everlasting ruins ! 
 
 The enemy hath laid waste all in the sanctuary ; 
 
 . contain in themselves a reason wliy 
 God sliould remember His people. 
 The first verb may mean only to get, 
 to enquire, the idea of a price paid 
 for the acquisition being not neces- 
 sarily contained in the vpord. So 
 Gen. iv. i, "I have gotten a man 
 with (the help of ) Jehovah : " Gen. 
 xiv. 22, " the most High God, pos- 
 sessor of heaven and earth : " Prov. 
 viii. 22, "Jehovah possessed me in 
 the beginning of His way." See 
 Acts XX. 28. " The church of God, 
 which He purchased (acquired) with 
 His own blood." I Tim. iii. 13 : 
 "Purchase (acquire) to themselves a 
 good degree." Comp. Eph. i. 14, and 
 I Thess. V. 9, where see Vaughan's 
 note. The second verb (gd-al, to 
 ransom, whence goel), from a root 
 meaning to loosen, is the technical 
 word for every kind of redemption 
 under the Law, whether of fields 
 (Lev. XXV. 25), tithes (Lev. xxvii. 
 3'i 33)1 or slaves (Lev. xxv. 48, 
 49). The next of Itin was called 
 Goel, because on him devolved the 
 duty of redeeming land which his 
 poor relation had been compelled to 
 sell (Lev. xxv. 25), and also because 
 on him fell the obligation of redeem- 
 ing, demanding satisfaction for, the 
 murder of a kinsman (Num. xxxv. 
 12, 19, and often). 
 
 Of old, as in xliv. 2, with refer- 
 ence, doubtless, to the deliverance 
 from Egyptian bondage. 
 
 The tribe. Such is, apparently, 
 the meaning of the word here, the 
 whole nation being regarded, not 
 as many tribes, but as one tribe, 
 probably in reference to other nations. 
 
 The same expression occurs besides 
 only in Jeremiah a. 16, and 11. 19, 
 whereas in Isaiah Ixiii. 17 we have 
 the plural form, ^^ the tribes of Thine 
 inheritance.^^ The E. V. has here 
 "rod of Thine inheritance," and so 
 Luther, Calvin, and others, and the 
 word frequently means ' ' rod, staff, 
 (as in xxiii. 4), sceptre (as xlv. 6), &c. 
 
 The congregation represents the 
 people in their religious aspect, the 
 TRIBE in their national and political 
 aspect. The two great facts, the re- 
 demption from Egypt and God's 
 dwelling in the midst of them, the 
 one of which was preparatory to the 
 other, here, as in the Sixty-eighth 
 Psalm, seem to sum up all their 
 history. 
 
 3. Lift up Thy feet (lit. foot- 
 steps, the woM being a poetical one), 
 i.e. Come speedily to visit those 
 ruins which seem as though they 
 would never be repaired. A similar 
 phrase (though the words in the 
 original are different) occurs in Gen. 
 xxix. I, where it is said of Jacob, 
 that after his vision " he lifted up his 
 feet," a phrase "which in Eastern 
 language still signifies to walk quick- 
 ly, to reach out, to be in good earnest, 
 not to hesitate." — Kitto, Bible Illus- 
 trations, i. 305. 
 
 Everlasting, the same word as 
 in ver. i, "for ever," i.e. which seem 
 to human impatience, looking forzvard, 
 as if they would never be built again. 
 
 In the sanctuary. This is his 
 greatest grief His country has been 
 laid waste with fire and sword, his 
 friends slain or carried into captivity, 
 but there is no thought so full of pain 
 
344 
 
 PSALM LXXJV. 
 
 4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of Thine 
 
 assembly ; 
 They have set up their signs as signs. 
 
 5 It seems as though one hfted up on high 
 
 Axes against the thickets of the wood : 
 
 as this, that the holy and beautiful 
 house wherein his fathers worshipt 
 has been plundered and desecrated by 
 a heatlien soldiery. Instead of the 
 psalms, and hymns, and sacred an- 
 thems which once echoed within those 
 walls, has been heard the brutal shout 
 of the fierce invaders, roaring lilve 
 lions (such is the meaning of the 
 word in the next verse) over their 
 prey. Heathen emblems, military 
 and religious, have displaced the em- 
 blems of Jehovah. The magnificent 
 carved work of the Temple, such as 
 the cherubim, and the palms, and the 
 pillars, with pomegranates and lily- 
 work (i Kings vi. 15, &c. if the allu- 
 
 - sion be to the First Temple), which 
 adorned it, have been hewed down 
 as remorselessly as a man would cut 
 down so much wood in the forest. 
 And then that splendid pile, so full 
 of sacred memories, so dear to the 
 heart of every true Israelite, has been 
 set on fire, and left to perish in the 
 flames. Such is the scene as it passes 
 again before the eyes of his mind. 
 
 4. Thine assembly, i.e. here evi- 
 dently " place of assembly," a word 
 originally applied to the Mosiac taber- 
 nacle, and afterwards to the great 
 national festivals. Here it would 
 seem the Temple is meant. Comp. 
 Lam. ii. 6, where the word occurs in 
 both senses. " He hath destroyed 
 His asiembly (or temple ; E. V. His 
 
 places of assembly) . . . He hath 
 caused to be forgotten solemn Jeast 
 aijd sabbath," &c. 
 
 Their signs. An emphasis, lies 
 on the pronoun ; comp. ver. 9. I 
 liave retained the literal rendering. 
 
 together with the ambiguity of the 
 original. These were either military 
 ensigns, standards, trophies, and the 
 like (as in Num. ii. 2 ff. ), the Temple 
 having been turned into a barrack, 
 or religious emblems, heathen rites 
 and ceremonies, perhaps even idols, 
 by which the temple and altar of 
 Jehovah were profaned. (In this 
 last sense the words would aptly de- 
 scribe the state of things under Anti- 
 ochus Epiphanes. Comp. i Mace. i. 
 54 and 59, '' Now the five-and-twen- 
 tieth day of the month they did sac- 
 rifice upon the idol altar, which was 
 upon the altar of God." Again in 
 chap. iii. 48, it is said that "the 
 heathen had sought to paint the like- 
 ness of their images " in the hook of 
 the Law.) This last sense is further 
 confirmed by the use of the word in 
 ver. 9. But both meanings may be 
 combined, the word sign being here 
 used in its most general sense of all 
 symbols of a foreign power of what- 
 ever kind. 
 
 5. This verse has been completely 
 misunderstood by our translators, who 
 have here followed Calvin, as well as 
 by nearly all the older interpreters. It 
 does not describe the preparation 
 once made for building the Temple, 
 by heVing down cedars in the forest 
 of Lebanon, but it compares the 
 scene of ruin in the interior, the de- 
 struction of the carved work, &c. to 
 the wide gap made in some stately 
 forest by the blows of the woodman's 
 axe. See the use of the same figure, 
 Jer. xlvi. 22. 
 
 It seems, lit. "it is known, 
 makes itself known, appears," &c. 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 345 
 
 6 And now the carved work thereof altogether 
 
 With hatchet and hammers they break down, 
 
 7 They have set Thy sanctuary on fire, 
 
 They have profaned the dweUing-place of Thy name 
 (even) unto the earth, 
 
 8 They have said in their heart : '' Let us make havoc of 
 
 them altogether." 
 They have burnt up all the houses of God in the 
 land. 
 
 9 Our signs we see not ; there is no Prophet any more, 
 
 Neither is there with us any who knoweth how long, 
 ID How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach } 
 And shall the enemy despise Thy name for ever ? 
 
 Or possibly, " he, i.e. the enemy, 
 makes himself known as one wlio 
 lifts up," &c. 
 
 7. They have set on fire, lit, 
 " They have cast into the fire. " Hup- 
 feld compares the German, " in Brand 
 legen, stecken," and the French, 
 "mettre a feu." 
 
 They have profaned . . . unto 
 the earth, i.e. "by casting it to 
 the earth," as the expression is filled 
 up in the E.V., but in the P.B.V. the 
 Enghsh idiom is made to adapt itself 
 to the Hebrew, and this I have fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 8, All the houses of God in 
 THE LAND, lit. "all the assemblies," 
 which must here mean "places of 
 assembly," as in ver. 4 and Lam. ii. 
 6. The work of devastation does 
 not stop short with the Temple. The 
 plain meaning of the word is, that 
 there were many other places for 
 religious worship in the land besides 
 the Temple, and that these, as well as 
 the Temple, were destroyed. Our 
 translators would seem, by their ren- 
 dering "synagogues," to have re- 
 garded this as a Maccabean Psalm, 
 
 Before the time of the Chaldean 
 invasion, synagogues are not men- 
 tioned, but it is scarcely credible 
 
 that even before the Exile there were 
 no houses of God, no place for reli- 
 gious worship except the Temple, in 
 Jerusalem. We read in the book of 
 Kings that in Elijah's time, and pro- 
 bably much earlier, there was an altar 
 of Jehovah on Mount Carmel, besides 
 the sacred places consecrated by the 
 Patriarchs and others such as Ramah, 
 Bethel, Gilgal, Shiloh, and the " high 
 places." See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 17. 
 
 9. Our signs, i.e. the signs of 
 God's dominion and presence in the 
 midst of us. Taken in connection 
 with what immediately follows, 
 ' ' There is no Prophet, " &c, , these 
 may mean miraculous signs, in which 
 sense the word frequently occurs. 
 Or it may only denote here religious 
 emblems, which were displaced to 
 m.ake room for the signs of fie 
 heathen. See ver, 4. 
 
 No Prophet, Such a complaint 
 seems most suitable to the time of the 
 Maccabees, when, in fact, the com- 
 plaint was frequent. See Introduc- 
 tion to the Psalm. 
 
 10, Taking up that word. How 
 long? the Psalmist turns with it to 
 God, beseeching Him not to suffer this 
 reproach to be cast upon His Name, 
 Thrice the same appeal is made : see 
 
346 PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 1 1 Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand ? 
 
 (Pluck it out) from the midst of Thy bosom, consume 
 (them) ! 
 
 12 Surely God is my King of old. 
 
 Working deliverances in the midst of the earth ; 
 
 13 Thou didst divide the sea through Thy strength, 
 
 Thou breakest the heads of the monsters upon the 
 waters. 
 
 14 Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan, 
 
 (That) Thou mightest give him as food to the people 
 inhabiting the wilderness. 
 
 verses 18 and 22. This holy jealousy 
 for the honour of God, as bound up 
 with His people's deliverance, is 
 characteristic of the Old Testament. 
 The feeling is strikingly exemplified 
 . in the prayers of Moses, Ex. xxxii. 
 12, 13 ; Num. xiv. 13 — 16 ; Deut. 
 ix. 28, comp. xxxii. 2t. 
 
 11. Why withdrawest Thou, 
 lit. Why raakest Thou to return, 
 i.e. into Thy bosom. See Ex. iv. 7, 
 where the full expression occurs : it 
 denotes, of course, a stale of in- 
 activity, the hand being enveloped in 
 the ample folds of the Eastern robes. 
 
 Pluck it out. It seems ne- 
 cessary here to supply the ellipse in 
 this way. The construction is a 
 pregnant one, similar to what we 
 have already had in ver. 7. For the 
 absolute use of the verb consume, 
 comp. lix. 13. 
 
 12. Surely, or, "and yet," in 
 spite of this seeming inactivity. The 
 appeal rests, first, on the fact that 
 God has already manifested His 
 power in signal instances on behalf 
 of His people, and next, on the 
 dom.inion of God as Creator and ab- 
 solute Ruler of the universe. 
 
 My King, expressive of the Strong 
 personal feeling of the Psalmist See 
 note on xliv. 4, and comp. Hab. i. 
 12, where in like manner the Prophet 
 claims his own covenant relation to 
 
 God, whilst speaking as the represen- 
 tative of the people. ' ' Art Thou 
 not from everlasting, O Jehovah 
 my God, my Holy One ? — we shall 
 mot die," 
 
 13 — 15. Special instances of God's 
 wonder-working power in the passage 
 of the Red Sea, in bringing water 
 from the rock, and in the passage of 
 the Jordan. 
 
 13. The monsters. A sym- 
 bolical description of the Egyptians. 
 Comp. Is. li. 9, and Ezek. xxix. 3, 
 where Pharaoh is called the '* mon- 
 ster which is the sea." The E.V. has 
 in all these places "dragon" as the 
 equivalent word. The same Hebrew 
 word, tannin., is employed again 
 cxlviii. 7, and also Gen. i. 21 (where 
 it is rendered whales), to denote huge 
 sea monsters, lit. creatures extended, 
 stretched out, hence serpents, cro- 
 codiles, &c. Perhaps the crocodile 
 (as in the next verse Leviat/ian) is 
 meant here as emblematic of Egypt. 
 The head of the monster has been 
 smitten, and the huge unwieldy car- 
 case lies floating on the waters. 
 
 The plural heads has been sup- 
 posed to refer to Pharaoh and his 
 jDrinces, but it may be only poetic 
 amplification. 
 
 14. Leviathan, i.e. the crocodile, 
 as in Job xli. I. In what sense is this 
 said to be given as food to thf people 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 347 
 
 15 Thou didst cleave fountain and brook ; 
 
 Thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers. 
 
 16 Thine is the day, Thine also is the night, 
 
 Thou hast established the light and the sun. 
 
 17 Tnou hast set all the borders of the earth : 
 
 Thou hast formed summer and winter. 
 
 18 Remember this,howthe enemy hath reproached Jehovah, 
 
 iiihabiling the wilderness ? Bochart, 
 who is followed by Hengstenberg 
 and others, supposes that the allusion 
 is to the Ichthyophagi, "who, accord- 
 ing to Agatherides, fed on the sea- 
 monstei's which were thrown up on 
 their shores. Comp. Herod, ii. 69. 
 Others, again, think that by the 
 people inhabiting the wilderness are 
 meant the Israelites, to whom the 
 Egyptians are said, figuratively, to be 
 given as food, i.e. as plunder. But 
 by far the simplest way is to under- 
 stand the passage as meaning that the 
 corpses of the Egyptians were cast 
 upon the shore, and so became the 
 prey of the wild beast, which are 
 here called a people inhabiting the 
 wilderness ; as in Prov. xxx. 25, 26, 
 the ants and the conies are called 
 "a people.'' Comp. also Joel i. 6; 
 Zeph. ii. 14. 
 
 15. Thou didst cleave foun- 
 tain, &c. Another instance of a 
 pregnant construction : for " Thou 
 didst cleave the rock, whence foun- 
 tain and brook issued forth." Comp. 
 Ixxviii. 15, and Hab. iii. 9. The 
 referen&e is, no doubt, to Exodus 
 xvii. 6. 
 
 Ever-flowing rivers, literally 
 "streams of constant flow." Here 
 the Jordan is meant, the plural being 
 used, not to denote the several 
 streams by which it is fed, but merely 
 by way of poetic amplification. 
 
 16. From the wonders wrought by 
 God on behalf of His people in their 
 history, the Poet rises to the wider 
 
 view of His ever-continued, ever dis- 
 played power arid majesty in the 
 world of nature. The 'miracle does 
 not lead him to forget God's power 
 and goodness in that which is not 
 miraculous. The one is rather a wit- 
 ness to, and an instance of, the other. 
 (The) light, or rather "lumi- 
 nary." It is the same word which 
 occurs in Gen. i. 14, 16, and is there 
 rendered *' lights." The singular is 
 used collectively for the plural, all 
 the heavenly bodies being meant, and 
 of these the sun is named the chief. 
 In the same way we have, as Hupfeld 
 remarks, Judah and Jerusalem, 
 Ephraira and Samaria, and so the 
 Greeks say, "EA\7)«'s re koL hS-i\vaioi, 
 and the lilce. 
 
 17. The borders of the 
 EARTH, i.e. not those merely by 
 which the land is divided from the 
 sea (Gen. i. 9, comp. Prov. viii. 29 ; 
 Job. xxxviii. 8, &c.), but all the boun- 
 dary lines by which order is pre- 
 served, as those of the seasons, those 
 of the nations, Deut. xxxii. 8 ; Acts 
 xvii. 26, &c. 
 
 Summer and winter, as before, 
 DAY and NIGHT, as marking the ever- 
 lasting order of the world, and per- 
 haps with reference to Gen. viii. 22. 
 This verb is used of the fashioning of 
 man and the animals, Gen. ii. 7, 19 
 from the dust, and here it is applied 
 to the seasons, as in Is. xlv. 7, to 
 "the light and the darkness," as 
 creatures of God's hand. 
 
 18. Remember. The petition re- 
 
348 
 
 PSALM LXXIV. 
 
 And how a foolish people have despised Thy Name. 
 
 19 Give not to the wild beast the soul of Thy turtle-dove, 
 
 Forget not the life of Thine aiiflicted for ever. 
 
 20 Look upon the covenant, 
 
 For the dark places of the land are full of the 
 habitations of violence. 
 
 21 O let not the oppressed turn back confounded, 
 
 Let the afflicted and the poor praise Thy Name ! 
 
 22 Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause. 
 
 Remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee all 
 the day long. 
 
 23 Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries, 
 
 The tumult of them that rise against Thee which 
 goeth up for ever. 
 
 curs (comp. ver. 2) with renewed 
 force after the Psalmist has comforted 
 himself with the recollection of God's 
 almighty power, as both ruling the 
 history of Israel, and giving laws to 
 the material universe. 
 
 A FOOLISH PEOPLE, i.e. the hea- 
 then oppressors of Israel, whether 
 Chaldean or Syrian. In ver. 22, 
 again, we have the same word, "the 
 foolish (man)." There the Targum 
 has "a foolish king," which has 
 been supposed to mean Antiochus 
 Epiphanes, though it might of course 
 refer to Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 20. Look upon the covenant. 
 The appeal lies to that, not to any- 
 thing in the Psalmist himself, or in 
 his people. " This," says Tholuck 
 "is the everlasting refuge of the 
 saints of God, even in the greatest 
 dangers. And even if they have 
 brolcen it, can the unbelief of men 
 make the truth of God of none 
 effect " ? The covenant is that made 
 first with Abraham, and then renewed 
 with him and with the fathers. 
 Comp. Ixxviii. 10. 
 
 The dark places, cr, "dark- 
 nesses." The word occurs elsewhere 
 
 of the darkness of the grave, Ixxxviii. 
 6, cxliii. 3^; Lam. iri. 6, and hence it 
 may be used here in a figurative sense, 
 merely as expressing, generally, 
 misery, gloom, &c., or as Delitzsch 
 explains (who understands the Psalm 
 of the Chaldean invasion), "Turn 
 where we may, the darkened land is 
 full of abodes of tyranny and oppres- 
 sion." It seems most probable, liow- 
 ever, that those spots are meant which 
 were the best fitted for scenes of 
 violence and murder — the haunts of 
 robbers, who there lay in wait for 
 their victims. The banditti would 
 speedily become numerous in a 
 country where law and order were 
 at an end. Comp. x. 8. 
 
 21. The oppressed, lit. "the 
 crushed : " turn back, as in vi. 10, 
 or, perhaps, simply "return" (the 
 usual meaning of the verb), i.e. from 
 his approach and entreaty to Thee. 
 
 22. Remember how, &c. : lit. 
 "Remember Thy reproach from a 
 foolish (mari) all the day." See note 
 on ver. 18. 
 
 23. Goeth up, i.e. which ascends 
 to heaven, crying aloud for ven- 
 geance. 
 
PSALM LXXV. 349 
 
 rSALM LXXV. 
 
 The Psalm celebrates in prophetic strain the righteous judgement 
 of God. The voice of God Himself from heaven declares His 
 righteousness, announces to the world that He is not, as human 
 impatience has ever been wont to deem, regardless of wrong and 
 suffering, but that He only waits for the moment which to His infinite 
 wisdom seems best, that He may chastise the insolence of evil-doers. 
 
 There are no clearly marked historical allusions in the Psalm. It 
 seems however not improbable, as has been conjectured by many 
 commentators, that it may refer to the time of the Assyrian invasion, 
 either as celebrating, or immediately anticipating, the defeat of 
 Sennacherib. Like Ps. xlvi., it bears some resemblance to the 
 prophecies of Isaiah uttered at that time. But there is, as Ewald 
 has observed, a difference in the manner in which the Prophet and 
 the Psalmist treats his subject. The Prophet adds thought to thought 
 and scene to scene ; he expands, enlarges upon, diversifies his theme 
 He sees in this one act of righteous judgement the prelude to many 
 others. He threatens not the Assyrian only, but other nations who 
 lift themselves up. The Poet, on the other hand, seizes upon the 
 one truth, the single thought of God's judgement as manifested in 
 this instance, and strives to present it to others with the same force 
 and vividness with which it has filled his own mind. He too is a 
 Prophet, a Prophet who has heard the words of God (ver. 2, &c.) and 
 seen the vision of the Most High, but a Prophet, as it were, under 
 narrower conditions and for a more limited purpose. 
 
 The close resemblance between many of the expressions in this 
 Psalm and parts of the song of Hannah in I Sam. ii. is very noticeable. 
 
 The Psalm opens with the ascription of praise which God's 
 wonders now and in all past time have called forth. Ver. .1. 
 
 It passes then to the prophetic announcement of the truth which 
 has been uttered from heaven and echoed with triumph upon earth, 
 of God's righteous judgement. Ver. 2 — 8. 
 
35° 
 
 PSALM LXXV. 
 
 Finally, it concludes with a determination to publish the praise of 
 Jehovah for ever, whilst the same prophetic strain of triumph is 
 heard, as in one last echo, repeating itself. Ver. 9, 10 
 
 [for the precentor, (to the melody) "destroy not."* 
 a psalm of asaph, a song.] 
 
 1 We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks ; 
 
 And that Thy Name is near Thy wonders have told. 
 
 2 " When the set time is come, 
 
 Ver. I, 2. The connection between 
 these verses is not, at first sight, very 
 obvious. It may, perhaps, be traced 
 as follows. First the Psalmist blends 
 in one the past and the present. God 
 has been, and is now, the object of 
 Israel's praise ; as He has both in the 
 past and in the present displayed His 
 wonders on their behalf. (Hence the 
 use of the perfect tense, lit. "We 
 have given thanks," &c.) Then he 
 abruptly cites the words of God, 
 words whose fulfilment he had just 
 witnessed, or whose approaching ful- 
 filment he saw in the spirit of 
 prophecy ; words that were them- 
 selves an exemplification of the truth 
 that God is near, despite the madness 
 of men and the disorders of the world. 
 
 I. And that Thy Name is 
 NEAR. The construction of this 
 member of the verse is doubtful. It 
 may be rendered in two separate 
 clauses : "And Thy Name is near : 
 they {i.e. men, or our fathers, as in 
 xliv. I, Ixxviii. 3) have told of Thy 
 wonders." But it is, perhaps, better 
 to connect the two clauses, as our 
 translators have done. Luther and 
 Mendelssohn, and, more recently, 
 Hupfeld and Bunsen, have taken the 
 same view. 
 
 Thy Name is neae, not " near in 
 
 our mouth," i.e. as the great object of 
 praise, but near in presence, near in 
 self-manifestation, near in love and 
 power, near in succour and blessing. 
 So in Deut, iv. 7, "What nation is 
 there that hath God so near uiito 
 them ?" Comp. xlviii., 1., Ixxvi., 
 "His Name is known," and see 
 xxxiv. 18, cxlv. 18. 
 
 2. God is abruptly introduced as 
 the speaker, as in xlvi. 10. The 
 oracle is thus given as from the mouth 
 of God Himself, to those who may 
 be in doubt or perplexity because 
 their lot is cast in troublous times. 
 
 When the set time is come, lit. 
 " When I shall have taken (reached) 
 the set time," i.e. the time appointed 
 in the Divine counsels. The thread 
 of time is ever running, as it were, 
 from the spindle, but at the critical 
 moment God's hand arres'ts it. God 
 is ever the righteous judge, but He 
 executes his sentence, not according 
 to man's impatient expectations, but 
 at the exact instant which He has 
 Himself chosen. The words are an 
 answer to all such misgivings as those 
 in Ixxiii. 3, as well as a rebuke to all 
 hasty and over-zealous reformers, who 
 would pull up the tares with the 
 wheat rather than wait for the harvest. 
 
 Set time. The Hebrew word has 
 
 * See note on the inscriptions of Ps, 1. and Fs. Ivii. 
 
PSALM LXXV. 
 
 351 
 
 I, even 1, will judge uprightly. 
 
 3 Though the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are 
 
 melting, 
 I myself have set up the pillars of it. [Selah.J 
 
 4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly. 
 
 And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn ; 
 
 5 Lift not up your horn on high, 
 
 Speak not with a stiff neck. 
 
 6 For not from the East, and not from the West, 
 
 And not from the wilderness cometh lifting up. 
 
 also the signification assembly, con- 
 grtgaiion, which our translators have 
 itdopted here, and which is common 
 in the phrase " tabernacle of the con- 
 •gregation,' &c. Cotnp. cii. 13 (where 
 the E. V. has correctly "set time " 
 instead of "congregation," as here) ; 
 Hab. ii. 3, "the appointed time, " i.i. 
 for the accomplishment of the vision. 
 And so also Dan. viii. 19, xi. 27, 35. 
 I, EVEN I. The pronoun is em- 
 phatic. 
 
 3. Such a critical moment is the 
 present. The world itself seems 
 " utterly broken down and clean dis- 
 solved" (Is. xxiv. 1-9, 20), but He 
 Vho once built it up like a stately 
 palace still stays its pillars with His 
 hand. The natural framework and 
 the moral framework are here identi- 
 fied. To the poet's eye, the world of 
 nature and the world of man are not 
 two, but one. The words of Han- 
 nah's song (i Sam. ii. 8) furnish an 
 exact parallel. "For the pillars 
 of the earth are Jehovah's, and He 
 hath set the world upon them,"— 
 language which, as the context shows, 
 has a moral application. 
 
 4. I SAID. Ewald and others sup- 
 pose the Divine utterance to end with 
 the previous verse. This is possible ; 
 for the Poet, speaking as a Prophet, 
 may thus triumph in the revelation 
 
 which has just been m.ade, and turn 
 it into a defiance of the proud. At 
 the same time, as there is no indica- 
 tion of any change of speaker, it is 
 better to regard this and the next 
 verse as a continuation of the Divine 
 oracle. 
 
 Unto the fools, &c., or, " Unto 
 the madmen. Deal not madly," — the 
 same words as in Ixxiii. 3, where see 
 references. 
 
 5. With a stiff neck. Here, 
 again, there is evidently an allusion 
 to the words of Hannah's song, 
 I Sam. ii. 3. 
 
 6. For. The Poet himself speaks, 
 taking up and applying to himself 
 and to others the Divine sentence 
 which he had just been commissioned 
 to deliver. Glory and power come 
 not from any earthly source, though a 
 man should seek it in every quarter 
 of the globe, but only from God, who 
 lifteth up and casteth down according 
 to His own righteous sentence. Again 
 an allusion to I Sam. ii. 6. 
 
 From the wilderness, i.e. the 
 South, the great wilderness lying in 
 that direction. Thus three quarters 
 are mentioned, the North only being 
 omitted. This may be accounted for, 
 supposing the Psalm to refer to Sen- 
 nacherib, by the fact that the Assy- 
 rian army approached from the North ; 
 
352 
 
 PSALM LXXV. 
 
 7 No, God is Judge, 
 
 He putteth down one, and lifteth up another. 
 
 8 For there is a cup in the hand of Jehovah, 
 
 And the wine foameth, it is full of mixture ; 
 And He poureth out of the same : 
 Surely the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth 
 Shall drain them out and drink them. 
 
 9 But as for me, I will declare for ever, 
 
 I will sing praises to the God of Jacob, 
 lo And all the horns of the wicked will I cut off, 
 
 (But) the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. 
 
 and therefore it would be natural to 
 look in all directions but that, for 
 assistance to repel the invader. 
 
 Lifting up. The word is evi- 
 dently an emphatic word in the Psalm; 
 it is the same which occurs in ver. 4 
 and 5, and again in ver. 7 and ver. 10. 
 I have, therefore, given the same 
 rendering of it throughout. The 
 rendering of the E. V. "promotion," 
 besides losing sight of the manifestly 
 designed repetition of the same word, 
 is peculiarly unfortunate in conveying 
 a wrong idea. "Lifting up," in its 
 Hebrew sense, does not mean ' ' pro- 
 motion," as we commonly understand 
 it, but deliverance from trouble, safety, 
 victory. The image, in particular, 
 of lifting up the head or the horn 
 (the last, borrowed from wild beasts, 
 such as buffaloes, &c., in which the 
 horn is the symbol of strength), 
 denotes courage, strength, victory 
 over enemies. See iii. 3, xviii. 2, 
 xxvii. 6. 
 
 8. The solemn act of judgement. 
 God puts the cup of His wrath to 
 the lips of the wicked, and holds it 
 there till they have drained it to the 
 uttermost. It is the same figure 
 which we have already had in Ix. 3. 
 In the Prophets, it occurs frequently ; 
 
 Is. li. 17 — 23 (comp. xix. 14) ; Hab. 
 ii. 15, 16; Ezek. xxiii. 32, &c.; 
 Jerem. xxv. 27 ; xlviii. 26 ; xlix. 12 ; 
 and, in the form of a symbolical 
 action, xxv. 15, &c. 
 
 Foameth, i.e. as it is poured into 
 the cup from the wine-jar, as is ex- 
 pressed in the next member of the 
 verse. 
 
 Mixture, i.e. the aromatic herbs, 
 &c. , which were put into the wine to 
 make it more intoxicating. See the 
 article WiNE in Smith's Diet, of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Poureth out, i.e. from the wind- 
 jar into the cup. 
 
 Of the same, the wine ; the 
 DREGS thereof are the dregs of the 
 cup. 
 
 9. But as for me -placing him- 
 self and the congregation of Israel in 
 opposition to the proud oppressors — 
 I will be the everlasting herald of 
 this great and memorable act. 
 
 10. Triumphantly in this last verse 
 he claims, for himself and for the 
 Church, a share in the signal act of 
 deliverance. That which God threat- 
 ens (ver. 4, 5), He accomplishes by 
 the hand of His servants. Every horn 
 of worldly power must fall before 
 Him. Comp. Rev. ii. 26, 27. 
 
PSALM LXXVI. 353 
 
 PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 This is one of several Psalms which, as has been remarked in the 
 Introduction to Psalm xlvi., were composed in celebration of the 
 miraculous overthrow of Sennacherib's army. From the days of 
 Israel's first occupation of the land, when God went forth with their 
 hosts, giving the victory by signs and wonders from heaven, no 
 deliverance so signal had been witnessed. Hence it roused in an 
 extraordinary degree the religious fervour of the nation, and called 
 forth loud songs of thanksgiving. Like Psalms xlvi. — xlviii., this 
 is an ode of victory over the Assyrians. It tells of Zion's glory and 
 Zion's safety (to which there may be an allusion in the name Salem), 
 because God has chosen it for His dwelling-place. It tells of the 
 discomfiture of that proud army, whose might was weakness itself 
 when arrayed against the might of Jehovah. It tells how the warriors 
 sank into their last sleep before the walls of the city, not beaten 
 down before a human enemy, not slain by any earthly arm, but at 
 the rebuke of the God of Jacob. And then the Poet looks beyond 
 the immediate scene. He beholds in this great deliverance, not the 
 power only, but the righteousness of God. It is God's solemn act 
 of judgement. It is His voice speaking from heaven and filling the 
 earth. And the lesson which this act of judgement teaches is, 
 the folly of man who would measure his impotent wrath against the 
 Majesty of God ; and the wisdom of submission to Him who is 
 the only worthy object of fear. 
 
 The Psalm consists of four strophes, each of which is comprised 
 in three verses. 
 
 I. The first celebrates Jerusalem and Zion as the abode of God, 
 and the place where He has manifested His power. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 II. The second describes in a forcible and animated manner the 
 sudden destruction of the beleaguering army. Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
 III. The third dwells on that event as a solemn, far-reaching act 
 of judgement, conveying its lesson to the world. Ver. 7 — 9. 
 
 A A 
 
354 
 
 PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 IV. The last tells what that lesson is, counselling submission to 
 Him whose power and whose righteousness have so wonderfully 
 made themselves known. Ver. lo — 12. 
 
 [for the precentor, with stringed instruments, a psalm 
 of asaph.* a song.] 
 
 1 In Judah is God known, 
 
 His name is great in Israel. 
 
 2 In Salem also hath been His tabernacle, 
 
 And His dwelling-place in Zion. 
 
 I — 3. The whple emphasis of this 
 first strophe consists in the prominence 
 given to the particular locality where 
 God has manifested His power. It is 
 on the same field where He has so 
 often gotten to Himself glory. It is in 
 Judah, in Salem, in Zion. It is there 
 (ver. 3, the word is peculiarly em- 
 phatic) that He hath dashed in pieces 
 the might of the foe. 
 
 I. Is KNOWN, or perhaps more 
 exactly, "maketh Himself known," 
 as in xiviii. 3, i.e. by the present de- 
 liverance which He has wrought. 
 
 In Israel. AccortEng to Hupfeld, 
 Israel is here mentioned in the paral- 
 lelism merely for the sake of the 
 poetry, although Judah only is meant. 
 He accounts for such usage by saying 
 that "Judah and Israel" was a com- 
 mon phrase to denote the whole na- 
 tion. But if the date assigned to the 
 Psalm be correct, there may be a 
 special reason for the mention of 
 Israel. Hezekiah was the first monarch 
 who made any attempt to restore the 
 ancient unity of the tribes. After the 
 fall of Samaria, and the deportation 
 of the inhabitants of the northern 
 kingdom by Esarhaddon, Israel, i.e. 
 the ten tribes, had no longer a national 
 
 existence. And yet we read that 
 Hezekiah, on his accession, after 
 purifying the Temple, and restoring 
 the worship of God, " sent to all Is- 
 rael and yudah, and wrote letters 
 also to Epkraim and Manasseh^ that 
 they should come to the house of the 
 Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the pass- 
 over unto the Lord God of Israel." 
 (2 Chron. XXX. i.) A study of the 
 whole chapter will show what im: 
 portance was attached to this union 
 of Israel with Judah, at the time, 
 and will explain, as it seems to me, 
 the mention of both together in the 
 Psalm. 
 
 2. Salem. The LXX. render h 
 elptfvri, and the Vulg. in pace: but 
 the word is evidently a proper name. 
 *' It seems to be agreed on all hands," 
 says Mr. Grove, " that Salem is here 
 employed for Jerusalem ; but whether 
 as a mere abbreviation, to suit some 
 exigency of the poetry, and point the 
 allusion to the peace which the city 
 enjoyed through theprotectionof God, 
 or whether, after a well-known habit 
 of poets, it is an antique name pre- 
 ferred to the more modern and familiar 
 one, is a question not yet decided." 
 
 His Tabernacle, lit. "booth," as 
 
 • See inscription, Ps. i. 
 
PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 355 
 
 3 There brake He the arrows of the bow, 
 
 Shield, and sword, and battle. [Selah.j 
 
 4 Glorious art Thou, (and) excellent 
 
 From the mountains of prey. ■ 
 
 made of interwoven or interlacing 
 boughs of trees, &c. (So the feast of 
 tabernacles is the feast of booths, or 
 huts.) The name may have been 
 ' used of any temporary structure, and 
 so of the Tabernacle, and then, as 
 
 '■\ here, of the Temple. Comp. xxvii. 5, 
 
 f \ and Lam. ii. 6. 
 
 \ \ But I am inclined to prefer another 
 
 ; \ meaning here, and one more in accor- 
 dance with the context. The word 
 may signify a dense thicket, the lair 
 of wild beasts. (It occurs in this 
 sense in x. 9, " like a lion in his 
 /ojV.") In ver. 4 it is said, "Thou 
 art glorious from the mountains of 
 pey." May not God be here likened 
 to a lion couching in his lair, and 
 going forth from those mountains to 
 destroy ? This seems almost certain, 
 when we find that the word in the 
 parallel, "His dwelling," is also used 
 in civ. 22 of the den of lions ; " the 
 lions roaring after <Cl\i\r prey, &c. . . . 
 lay them dovm in their dens." The 
 same word occurs in the same sense 
 in Am. iii. 4. Then we should ren- 
 der: "In Salem is His covert, and 
 His lair in Zion." Dean Stanley, 
 I find, takes the same view, Sinai 
 and Pal. p. 177, note 2. As regards 
 the figure itself, Jehovah is said in 
 two other passages to roar (as a lion), 
 Joel iii. 16. He is here, as it were, 
 identified with "the lion of the tribe 
 ofjudah." 
 
 3. There. Emphatically pointing 
 to the spot where the great deliver- 
 ance had been accomplished. Comp. 
 for the general sense of the verse 
 xlvi. 9 : — 
 
 " Who stilleth wars to the end of the 
 earth, 
 
 Who breaketh the bow and cutteth 
 the spear in sunder. 
 And burneth the chariots in the 
 fire." 
 
 Arrows of the bow, lit. "fiery 
 gleams, or lightnings of the bow," 
 the arrows being so called, from their 
 rapid flight, and their glittering in 
 the air ; or possibly with an allusion 
 to the burning arrows employed in 
 ancient warfare. 
 
 4. There is no comparison, as in 
 the E. v., "more glorious than the 
 mountains of prey," though the He- 
 brew would admit of such a rendering, 
 and it has been adopted by many 
 commentators. They suppose that the 
 Assyrian power^is tacitly compared 
 either to a lion going forth to ravin 
 (comp. the fuller picture in Nah. ii. 
 II — 13), or to robbers issuing from 
 their strongholds in the mountains. 
 And thus the power of God is said 
 to be "more excellent" than the 
 power of Assyria, whether regarded 
 as that of a lion, or as that of armed 
 banditti. But such a comparison is 
 flat and tame, and the rendering given 
 in the text is far preferable. See note 
 on ver. 2. God goes forth victoriously 
 from Zion to crush His foes. 
 
 " The promise," Tholucksays, "is 
 fulfilled :— 
 
 'I will break the Assyrian Ie my 
 
 land, 
 And upon my mountains treat wm 
 
 under foot.' (Is. xiv. 25.) 
 
 Yea, upon the mountains of Jerusalem 
 they themselves must become a prey, 
 who had hoped there to gather the 
 prey." The plural, MOUNTAINS, 
 either used in the wider sense, as in 
 A A 2 
 
3S6 
 
 PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 5 The stout-hearted have been spoiled, 
 
 They have sunk into their sleep, 
 And none of the men of valour have found their hands. 
 
 6 At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, 
 
 Both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 
 
 7 Thou, even Thou, art to be feared. 
 
 And who can stand before Thee when once Thou art 
 angry } 
 
 8 From heaven didst Thou cause judgement to be heard, 
 
 the passage just quoted from Isaiah, 
 or possibly of Zicn only, as in 
 Ixxxvii. I, cxxxiii. 3. The great pro- 
 minence always given to the moun- 
 tains of their native land, both by 
 Psalmists and Prophets, is a further 
 confirmation of tlie view that the 
 mountains of Palestine, not those of 
 Assyria, are here meant. See Mr, 
 Grove's admirable article, Pales- 
 tine, § 26, Smith's Diet, of the Bible. 
 
 5. They have sunk into their 
 SLEEP. (Comp. 2 Kings xix. 35.) 
 The verb (which is of a different root 
 from the noun "sleep") expresses 
 the languor and lassitude by which 
 a man is overpowered, and so falls 
 asleep. In all other passages where 
 it occurs, the E. V. renders it by 
 slumber. See, for instance, cxxi. 
 3, 4 ; Is. V. 27, &c. , and comp. Nah. 
 iii. 18, "Thy shepherds slumber, O 
 King of Assyria," where the word is 
 used, as here, of the sleep of death. 
 A third word is employed in the next 
 verse. 
 
 Have found their hands finely 
 expresses the helplessness and bewil- 
 derment of those proud warriors who 
 but a short while before had raised 
 their hands in scornful defiance against 
 Jerusalem (see Is. x. 32). The idiom 
 is apparently similar to our common 
 expression "losing heart." (Comp. 
 2 Sam. vii. 27, to "/«(^ heart.") 
 
 6. Are cast into a dead sleep. 
 In the Heb. this is but one word 
 (a participle), denoting present con- 
 dition. It is used of a profound 
 slumber, either (l) natural, or (2) 
 supernatural, the sleep into which 
 God casts men. Comp. Jud. iv. 21 ; 
 Dan. X. 9, and the noun from the 
 same root. Gen. ii. 21 ; i Sam. 
 xxvi. 12. 
 
 Chariot and horse, i.e. of course 
 the riders in chariots and on horses. 
 
 Byron's animated lines on the de- 
 struction of Sennacherib, which may 
 have been partly suggested by this 
 Psalm, will occur to every reader : — 
 
 " And there lay the steed with his 
 nostril all wide, 
 
 But through it there rolled not the 
 breath of his pride ; 
 
 And the foam of his gasping lay white 
 on the turf, 
 
 And cold as the spray of the rock- 
 beating surf. 
 
 And there lay the rider distorted and 
 pale. 
 
 With the dew on his brow, and the 
 rust on his mail." 
 
 7. When once Thou art angry, 
 lit. " from the time of Thine anger." 
 
 8. As in the last Psalm, God is 
 spoken of as the Judge (this is a 
 peculiar feature in the Psalms ascribed 
 to Asaph) ; and, as in that, He spfeaks 
 
PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 357 
 
 The earth feared and was still ; 
 9 When God arose to judgement, 
 
 To save all the afflicted of the earth. 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 10 For the wrath of man must praise Thee, 
 
 With the remainder of wrath Thou girdest Thyself. 
 
 11 Vow and pay unto Jehovah your God ; 
 
 ■ Let all that are round about Him bring presents unto 
 Him who ought to be feared ! 
 
 12 He cutteth off the spirit of princes : 
 
 He is to be feared by the kings of the earth. 
 
 from heaven, terrifying His enemies 
 witli the thunder of His word. Comp. 
 Ixxv. 2, 3, 7, 8. The train of thouglit 
 in the two Psalms has certainly suffi- 
 cient in common to justify us in as- 
 signing both to the same period. 
 
 10. With the remainder of 
 WRATH, &c. The meaning is not 
 very clear. Whose wrath is here 
 meant ? that of man, or that of God ? 
 Some undersand the latter, and ex- 
 plain the verse thus : All the wrath 
 of men, every attempt that they make 
 to defeat the will of God, does but 
 turn to their own discomfiture, and 
 His glory ; and after all their efforts. 
 He has a store, a residue, of wrath to 
 pour out upon them as punishment. 
 But the objection to this is, that in 
 the previous clause the wrath spoken 
 of is that of man : and it is better to 
 retain the same subject in both clauses. 
 Then we have : — 
 
 [a] Man's wra.th doth but praise 
 God. 
 
 {h) With the remainder of man's 
 wrath, his last impotent efforts to as- 
 sert his own power, God girds Him- 
 self, puts it on, so to speak, as an 
 Ornament — clothes Himself therewith 
 to His own glory. 
 
 Thus the parallelism of the two 
 clauses is strictly preserved. 
 
 The word WRATH is in the plural, 
 
 denoting either wrath of every kind, 
 or wrath in its intensity. 
 
 II. This is the end. God has 
 
 wrought His terrible act of judgement 
 
 — but the first of a long series of 
 
 judgements to be executed on the 
 
 nations, unless by timely submission 
 
 they acknowledge Him as their king. 
 
 See the similar exhortation in ii. ii. 
 
 Vow AND PAY. See on xxii. 25. 
 
 Bring presents, comp. Ixviii. 29. 
 
 Add that are round about, 
 
 i.e. the heathen nations, who are to 
 
 bring presents in token of homage, as 
 
 in Ixviii. 30. 
 
 Unto Him who ought to be 
 feared, lit. "to the Fear," «>. the 
 proper object of fear. See the same 
 use of the word in Is. viii. 12. In 
 like manner God is called *'the Fear of 
 Isaac " in Gen. xxxi. 43, 53 (thougt 
 there the word is different). 
 
 12. This verse, or at least the first 
 clause of it, reminds us of the last 
 verse of the preceding Psalm, which 
 closes in a similar strain. 
 
 He cutteth off, like a vine- 
 dresser, who prunes away the rank 
 boughs, or cuts off the ripe clusters of 
 the vine. Comp. Is. xviii. 5, where the 
 same image is employed by the Pro- 
 phet at the sane time, • Jud. viii. 2, 
 XX. 45 ; Jer. vi. 9, Ii. 33 ; Joel iii. 13 ; 
 Rev. xiv. 15. 
 
358 PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 This Psalm is the record, first, of a sorrow long and painfully 
 questioning with itself, full of doubts and fears, trying in vain to find 
 in itself, or in the past, a light for the present ; and then of the 
 triumph over that sorrow by the recollection of God's love and 
 power, as manifested in the early history of Israel. By whom the 
 Psalm was written, or to what period of the history it is to be referred, 
 it is now impossible to say. The manner in which, towards the 
 close, the passage of the Red Sea is dwelt upon, has led many to 
 conclude that it was written by one of the exiles during the Baby- 
 lonish captivity. Those two memorable events, the deliverance from 
 Babylon and the deliverance from Egypt, were always associated in 
 the minds of the Jews, the one being regarded, in fact, as the pledge 
 of the other. This, however, in itself, is not decisive. At any time 
 of great national depression, the thoughts of the true-hearted in 
 Israel would naturally revert to God's first great act of redeeming 
 love : and other Psalms (the 78th, the 80th, the 81st), evidently 
 not written during the Exile, look back to the Exodus, and the 
 wonders of God's Hand displayed then, and in the journey through 
 the wilderness. Besides, an inference of a positive kind, in favour 
 of an earher date, has been drawn from the relation of this Psalm 
 to the prophecy of Habakkuk. Delitzsch, in his Commentary on 
 the Prophet, has traced carefully the coincidences in thought and 
 expression between Hab. iii. 10 — 15, and verses 16 — 20 of the Psalm. 
 Among the various arguments by which he endeavours to establish 
 the priority of the Psalm, two seem to be of weight : first, that the 
 Prophet throughout his ode is in the habit of quoting from the 
 Psalms ; and secondly, that with his eye on the future, he arrays all 
 the images of terror and magnificence which are suggested by the 
 past, in order to describe with more imposing pomp the approaching 
 advent of Jehovah ; whereas the Psalmist is not looking to the future, 
 but dwelling on the past : hence it is far more probable that the 
 Prophet imitates the Psalmist, than that the Psalmist borrows from 
 
PSALM LXXVII. 359 
 
 the Prophet. Supposing this to be satisfactorily established, we might 
 reasonably infer that this Psalm was not written later than the reign 
 of Josiah. But on the other hand, as Hupfeld has pointed out, the 
 mode of expression in Habakkuk, as compared with that here em- 
 ployed, would lead us to an exactly opposite conclusion, (i) The 
 figure in Hab. iii. lo, " The mountains saw Thee, they were afraid 
 (lit. in pangs or throes)," is more natural and correct than the use of 
 the same figure as applied in the Psalm to the waters (ver. i6). . 
 (2) The phrase, " the overflowing of the waters," in Hab. iii. 10, is 
 more simple and natural than the corresponding phrase in ver. 17 of 
 the Psalm. Hence it is most likely that the latter was a designed 
 alteration in copying from the former. (3) That the lightning should 
 be termed the "arrows" of God in Habakkuk is quite in keeping with 
 the martial character and figures of the whole passage. In the Psalm, 
 on the other hand, the figure seems more out of place. 
 
 But whenever, and by whomsoever, the Psalm may have been 
 written, it clearly is individual, not national. It utterly destroys all 
 the beauty, aU the tenderness and depth of feeling in the opening 
 portion, if we suppose that the people are introduced speaking in 
 the first person. The allusions to the national history may indeed 
 show that the season was a season of national distress, and that the 
 sweet singer was himself bowed down by the burden of the time, 
 and oppressed by woes which he had no power to alleviate ; but it 
 is his own sorrow, not the sorrow of others, undel: which he sighs, and 
 of which he has left the pathetic record. 
 
 The Psalm falls naturally into two principal parts : the first, verses 
 I — 9, containing the expressions of the Psalmist's sorrow and disquie- 
 tude ; the second, verses 10 — 20, telling how he rose above them. 
 
 Of these, again, the former half consists of strophes of three verses, 
 1—3, 4— 6, 7— 9, the end of the first and third being marked by the 
 Selah. The latter may also be divided into three strophes, the first 
 two only being of three verses each, 10 — 12, 13 — 15 (the second having 
 the Selah), and the last consisting of five, 16 — 20. 
 
360 
 
 PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 [for the precentor, after the manner of jeduthun.* a 
 psalm of asaph.] 
 
 1 With my voice unto God let me cry 
 
 With my voice unto God, and may He give ear unto 
 me. 
 
 2 In the day of my distress have I sought the Lord ; 
 
 My hand in the night hath been stretched out and 
 failed not, 
 My soul refused to be comforted. 
 
 3 I would remember God, and must sigh, 
 
 I would commune (with myself), and my spirit is 
 overwhelmed. [Selah.] 
 
 1. And may He give ear, or 
 more literally, in the form of an ad- 
 dress to God, '"And do Thou give 
 ear." The constant interchange of 
 tenses in the first six verses lends 
 vividness to the expression of the 
 Psalmist's feelings. And thus are 
 marked the fluctuating emotions of 
 the mind, ever passing from the mere 
 statement of fact to the utterance of 
 feelings and desires. 
 
 2, 3. These verses show both the 
 reality and earnestness of the prayer, 
 and the strong faith of the Psalmist. 
 It is Qo occasional petition hastily put 
 up, but a struggle, like that of Jacob, 
 through the livelong night. It is even 
 a sorer conflict, for he has not found 
 the blessing as Jacob did. He can- 
 not be comforted. He would think 
 of God, but even that thought brings 
 him no strength ; he looks within, 
 and his sorrow deepens. 
 
 2. Hath been stretched out, 
 lit. "poured out" like water, 2 Sam. 
 xiv. 14 : or as the eye is said to be 
 poured out or dissolved in tears. Lam. 
 iii. 49 ; here apparently applied to 
 the hand stretched out in prayer. 
 "The stretched-out, weak, and 
 powerless hand," says Hengstenberg, 
 "conveys the picture of a relaxation 
 
 of the whole body." Or, there may 
 be a confusion of metaphor, that 
 being said of the hand which could 
 only properly be said of the eye 
 (hence the Targum substitutes the 
 latter for the former). The Rabbi- 
 nical writers understood my hand to 
 mean the hand, or blow, laid upon 
 me, and hence came the singular 
 rendering of the E. V. my sore ran, 
 &c. 
 
 And Failed not (or it may be 
 rendered as an adverbial clause, tjuith- 
 out intermission], lit. "and grew not 
 cold," like a corpse; "became not 
 weary," used, like the last verb, of 
 tears. Comp. Lam. ii. 18, "Let 
 tears run down like a river day and 
 night : give thyself no rest ; " and iii. 
 49, " Mine eye tricUed down (the 
 word rendered above has been stretched 
 out), and ceaseth not, without any 
 inter?mssion." The words 7'est and 
 intermission are derivatives from the 
 verb here employed, and are applied 
 to tears, perhaps ^s frozen at their 
 source. 
 
 Hath refused. Comp. Gen. 
 xxxvii. 35, where the same is said of 
 Jacob when he received the tidings of 
 Joseph's death. 
 
 3. Must sigh. See Rom. viii. 26 
 
 * See note on inscription of Ps. ?cxxix. 
 
PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 361 
 
 4 Thou hast held mine eyes waking ; 
 
 I am (so) troubled that I cannot speak. 
 
 5 I have considered the days of old, 
 
 The years of ages (past) ; 
 
 6 I would call to remembrance my song in the night, 
 
 I would commune with my heart, — and my spirit 
 hath made diligent search : 
 
 7 " Will the Lord cast oif for ever ? 
 
 And will He be favourable no more ? 
 
 8 Hath His loving-kindness come to an end for ever 
 
 Hath (His) promise failed to all generations ? 
 
 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? 
 
 Hath He shut up in anger His tender mercies ? " 
 [Selah.] 
 
 10 Then I said : This is my sorrow, 
 
 That the right hand of the Highest hath changed. 
 
 {ffrepa-y^oir aA.a?k7?T0is). '^St. Paul 
 leaches us that it is the Holy Ghost 
 who in such sighs makes intercession 
 for believers with God." — Tholuck. 
 
 4. I CANNOT SPEAK. Silence and 
 thought succeed to the uttered prayer. 
 But the heart still prays on in secret, 
 though the mouth is silent. 
 
 My song, properly, a song sung 
 to a striuged instrument, as the harp. 
 He would console himself with the 
 recollection of a happier past. Such 
 recollections, as Tholuck remarks, 
 may hush the storm of the soul, may 
 give a man courage to say to himself. 
 Thou art His, He cannot forsake thee. 
 But such recollections may also be 
 made the very instruments of Satan's 
 temptations, when the soul asks. Why 
 is it not always thus? and so falls 
 into the sad and desponding thoughts 
 which follow in the next verses. 
 
 In the night. This repeated 
 mention of the night (see va:. 2) 
 shows that he was one wlio loved the 
 stillness and the solitude of night for 
 
 meditation and prayer. (Comp. xvi. 
 7, xvii. 3.) 
 
 8. God's loving-kindness and God's 
 promise (or, word, as in Ixviii. 11, 
 and Hab. iii. 9) are the two props of 
 his faith. 
 
 9. In anger His tender mer- 
 cies. The words are evidently 
 placed with design in juxtaposition, 
 in order to heighten the contrast. 
 Comp. Hab. iii. 2, " In wrath re- 
 member mercy," where there is the 
 same juxtaposition in the Hebrew. 
 
 10. All this that I have been asking 
 myself, and saddening myself with 
 asking, seems impossible, and yet it is 
 this very change which perplexes me. 
 
 My sorrow, or perhaps " my 
 sickness," i.e., as Calvin explains, a 
 disease which is only for a time, and 
 to which, therefore, I should patiently 
 submit. Comp. Jer. x. 19. Others, 
 "my infirmity," i.e. the weakness of 
 my own spirit, which leads me to 
 take this gloomy view, and which I 
 must resist. 
 
362 
 
 PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 II (But) I will celebrate the deeds of Jah, 
 
 For I will call to mind Thy wonders of old ; 
 
 And I will meditate on all Thy work, 
 
 And commune with myself of Thy doings. 
 
 O God, Thy way is holy ! 
 
 Who is a great God as (our) God ? 
 
 14 Thou, even Thou, art the God that doest wonders. 
 
 Thou hast made known Thy strength among the 
 peoples. 
 
 15 Thou hast with (Thine) arm redeemed Thy people. 
 
 The sons of Jacob and Joseph. [Selah.] 
 
 That THE RIGHT HAND, &c., lit. 
 " the changing of tlie right hand." 
 This fact, that it is no more with him 
 as in days past, it is which fills him 
 with grief. And then in the next verse 
 he recovers himself, and passes from 
 self-contemplation to record God's 
 wonders for His people But another 
 rendering is possible. The word 
 changing may mean years: "The 
 years of the right hand," &c., and 
 the whole verse might be understood 
 thus : — ■ 
 
 "Then I thought : This is my sad- 
 ness, — 
 The years of the right hand of 
 the Most High." 
 
 i.e. the very recollection of those 
 years, and of God's help vouchsafed 
 in times past, does but increase my 
 present gloom. 
 
 1 1. With this verse the change of 
 feeling begins. Hitherto he has 
 looked too much within, has sought 
 too much to read the mystery of God's 
 dealings by the light of his own ex- 
 perience merely. Hence the despon- 
 dency, when he contrasts the gloomy 
 present with the far brighter and 
 nappier past. He cannot believe that 
 God has indeed forgotten to be gra- 
 cious, that He has indeed changed 
 His very nature ; but that he may be 
 
 re-assured and satisfied on this point 
 his eye must take a wider range than 
 that of his own narrow experience. 
 There lies before him the great history 
 of his people. There recurs especially 
 the one great deliverance never to be 
 forgotten, the type and the pledge of 
 all deliverances, whether of the nation, 
 or of the individual. On this he lays 
 hold, by this he sustains his siflkiiig 
 faith. 
 
 Thv wonders. The word is iu 
 the singular here, and also in ver. 14. 
 So also in the next verse Thy work, 
 because the one great wonder, the 
 one great work in which all othets 
 were included, is before his thoughts. 
 Corap. Hab. iii. 2, " Revive Thy 
 
 13. Is HOLY, lit. "is In holiness,'' 
 not as others, " in the sanctuary ; " 
 for the Psalmist, though speaking 
 generally of God's redeeming love 
 and power, is evidently thinking 
 chiefly of the deliverance from Egypt, 
 on which he afterwards dwells. Iii 
 this and the next verse tiiSre is an 
 allusion to Exod. xv. II, "Who is 
 like unto Thee, O Jehovah, among 
 the gods ? Who is like Th6e, glori- 
 ous in holiness, fearful in praises, 
 doing wonders ? " 
 
 15. Thou hast redeemed, a 
 word especially applied to the delivCB- 
 
PSALM LXXVII. 
 
 363 
 
 The waters saw Thee, O God, the waters saw Thee, they 
 were troubled ; 
 Yea, the depths also trembled ; 
 The clouds poured out water ; the skies thundered : 
 
 Yea, Thine arrows went abroad ; 
 The voice of Thy thunders rolled along. 
 The lightnings gave shine unto the world : 
 The earth trembled and shook. 
 
 ; from Egyptian bondage. See 
 1 on Ixxiv. 2. ' ' The word ' Re- 
 iption,' which has now a sense far 
 er and higher," says Dean Stanley, 
 •St entered into the circle of re- 
 )us ideas at the time when God 
 kerned His people from the house 
 jondage.' " — Jewish Church, Lect. 
 p. 127. 
 
 OSEPH, mentioned here apparently 
 the father of Ephraim (comp. 
 fiii. 67), and so as representing 
 
 kingdom of Israel (as Ixxx. i, 
 d, 5 ; perhaps this special mention 
 Joseph may indicate that the 
 finist himself belonged to the 
 thern kingdom. 
 
 6 — 20. There follows now a de- 
 ption of the manner in which the 
 ;mption (ver. 15) was accomplished 
 :he passage of the Red Sea. In 
 ;es 17 and 18, the rain, the thunder 
 
 lightning, and the earthquake, 
 
 features of the scene not men- 
 ed in the history in Exodus, 
 agh Tholuck sees an allusion to a 
 ni in Exod. xiv. 24. Both Philo 
 
 M. i. 32) and Josephus (Ant. ii. 
 § 3) add this circumstance in their 
 ratives of the event. "The Pas- 
 ;, as thus described," says Dean 
 nley, " was effected, not in the 
 nness and clearness of daylight, 
 in the depth of midnight, amidst 
 roar of the hurricane, which caused 
 sea to go back — amidst a darkness 
 ip only by the broad glare of the 
 
 lightning, as 'the Lord looked out' 
 from the thick darkness of the cloud." 
 He then quotes these verses of the 
 Psalm. (Jewish Church, pp. 127-8. ) 
 This is one of those instances in which 
 we obtain valuable incidental ad- 
 ditions, by means of the Psalmists 
 and Prophets, to the earlier narratives. 
 See Mr. Grove's Article on Oreb, in 
 Smith's Diet, of the Bible. 
 
 16. Saw Thee. Comp. cxiv. 3, 
 where both the Red Sea and the 
 Jordan are mentioned, a passage which 
 Hupfeld thinks is the original from 
 which both this and Hab. iii. 10 are 
 copied. 
 
 Were troubled, lit. "were in 
 pain," as of travail. The same ex- 
 pression is used of the mountains in 
 Hab. iii. 10: "The mountains saw 
 Thee, they were in pain ; " where the 
 verb seems more aptly to describe the 
 throes of the earthquake, by which 
 the mountains are shaken. 
 
 1 7. The way is made by means of 
 tempest and hurricane. 
 
 Poured out. Comp. Hab. iii. 
 10, " the overflowing of the waters." 
 (E.V.) In the same way the light- 
 ning is spoken of as " the arrows " of 
 God, in Hab. iii. 11. 
 
 18. Rolled along, lit. "was in 
 the rolling," with allusion to God's 
 chariot; or perhaps "in the whirl- 
 wind." 
 
 Gave shine. I have adopted 
 here the Prayer- Book Version of the 
 
364 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 19 Thy way was in the sea, 
 
 And Thy paths in (the) mighty waters, 
 And Thy footsteps were not known. 
 
 20 Thou leddest Thy people hke sheep 
 
 By the hand of Moses and Aaron. 
 
 same words in xcvii. 4 (its rendering 
 in tills place is less correct), in prefer- 
 ence to that of the E. V., "the light- 
 nings lightenedf^^ (i) because the verb 
 and the noun are from entirely differ- 
 ent roots ; (2) because the idiomatic 
 ^^ gave shine" is an exact equivalent 
 of the Hebrew. 
 
 19. Thy footsteps were not 
 KNOWN. " We know not, they knew 
 not, by what precise means the de- 
 liverance was wrought : we know not 
 by what precise track through the 
 gulf the passage was effected. We 
 know not, and we need not know ; 
 the obscurity, the mystery here, as 
 elsewhere, was part of the lesson. 
 . . . All that we see distinctly is, 
 that through this dark and terrible 
 night, with the enemy pressing close 
 behind, and the driving sea on either 
 side, He led His people like sheep 
 by the hand of Moses and Aaron." 
 —Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 128. 
 
 20. This verse stands in beautiful 
 and touching contrast with the last. 
 In that we have pourtrayed the ma- 
 jesty, the power, the unsearchable 
 mystery of God's ways ; in this. His 
 tender and loving care for His people, 
 as that of a shepherd for His flock. 
 See for a like contrast. Is. li. 15, 16, 
 xl. 10 — 12, Ivii. 15. 
 
 So ends the Psalm. Nor can I see 
 in such a close that abruptness which 
 has led some commentators to suppose 
 that the Psalm was never finished. 
 The one great example is given, and 
 that is enough. All is included in 
 that ; and the troubled, desponding 
 spirit has found peace and rest in the 
 view of God's redemption. "He 
 loses himself, as it were, in the joyful 
 recollection" (De Wette). So may 
 every sorrowful spirit now find peace 
 and rest in looking, not to itself, not 
 even to God's dealings with itself, but 
 to the cross of Christ. 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII.* 
 
 In this, the longest of the historical Psalms, the history of Israel 
 is briefly recapitulated, from the time of the Exodus to the final union 
 
 On this Psalm see Isaac Taylor, Spit-it of th^ Hebrew Poetry, p. 154. 
 
PSALM LXX VI 11. 365 
 
 of the tribes under David, and the establishment of the kingdom in 
 his family. This appeal to the past is made evidently with a purpose. 
 The Psahnist comes forward as a prophet to rebuke the sin, the in- 
 gratitude, the rebellion of his people. This he does by showing them 
 the present in the light of the past. God had wrought wonders in 
 hehalf of their fathers of old ; God had redeemed them from Egypt, 
 led them through the wilderness, brought them to His holy mountain. 
 But the history of their nation had been at once a history of wonders, 
 and a history of rebellions. Miracle had followed on miracle to win 
 them ; chastisement had succeeded to chastisement to deter them ; but 
 the miracle was forgotten, the chastisement produced but a temporary 
 reformation. They had ever been " a faithless and stubborn genera- 
 tion." It is evident, from his opening words, that the Psalmist was 
 anxious to bring out sharply and clearly the lessons with which the 
 past teemed. He saw that his people were in danger of forgetting 
 those lessons. He saw in that history, instruction, warning, reproof 
 for the age in which he lived. 
 
 It is, however, remarkable that another and more special purpose 
 appears in the Psalm. If the whole nation is rebuked, the rebuke 
 falls heaviest upon Ephraim. Ephraim is singled out as the leader 
 in the earlier apostasy of the people, as the very type of a faithless 
 and recreant spirit (ver. 12). The rejection of Ephraim and the choice 
 of Judah are dwelt upon at the close in a tone of satisfaction and 
 triumph, as the fulfilment of the purpose of God. It is scarcely 
 possible, therefore, to resist the conclusion, that the Psalm was written 
 after the defection of the Ten Tribes, and that it was designed either 
 to curb the pride of the northern kingdom, or to address a warning to 
 Judah, based on the example of Ephraim. 
 
 Various conjectures have been hazarded as to the time when the 
 Psalm was written, which we have not space to discuss here. 
 
 The Psalm itself furnishes us with the following data for a con- 
 clusion. 
 
 (i) It is clear from the concluding verses that it was written after 
 David was established on the throne ; from ver. 69 it might even be 
 inferred after the Temple had been built. (2) The manner in which 
 these events are spoken of leads naturally to the inference that they 
 were of no very recent occurrence ; men do not so speak of events 
 within their own memory. (3) The sharp contrast between Ephraim 
 and Judah, the rejection of Shiloh and the choice of Zion, are an 
 
366 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 indication, not of a smouldering animosity, but of an open and long, 
 existing separation. 
 
 But at this point two hypotheses become possible. 
 
 {a) On the one hand, the Psalmist's object may have been, by hold- 
 ing up the example of Ephraim, to warn Judah against a like falling 
 away, not from the house of David, but from the God of their fathers. 
 In this case we must suppose that a particular prominence is given to 
 the conduct of Ephraim, in the past history, though the whole nation 
 was guilty, in order to prepare the way for what is said of Ephraim's 
 subsequent rejection (see note on ver. 9). Such a warning might be 
 compared to that of Jeremiah at the time of the Chaldean invasion 
 (chap. vii.). 
 
 {S) On the other hand, the Psalmist's design may have been not 
 so much to warn Judah as to rebuke Ephraim. Hence it is, that 
 whilst speaking of the past history of all Israel he mentions only 
 Ephraim by name. Though all the burden of guilt in that mournful 
 past did not rest exclusively upon them, yet it is with them only that 
 he is concerned. Hence it is, too, that he dwells with so much pride 
 and satisfaction on the transference of the sanctuary from Shiloh to 
 Zion. That haughty tribe, strong in numbers and in power, might 
 boast that it had recovered its ancient ascendency. Ten out of the 
 twelve tribes might be lost to David's house. But God's presence 
 and favour were not with the ten, but with the two. His sanctuary was 
 not in Shiloh, but in Zion. He had chosen to be the ruler of his 
 people, no scion of the thousands of Ephraim, but the shepherd- 
 stripling of the tribe of Judah. 
 
 On the whole, I confess that the tone of triumph with which the 
 Psalm concludes seems to me to favour the last hypothesis, though I 
 fear I must also add that I am unsupported in this view by other 
 commentators. 
 
 [a MASCHIL of ASAPH.*] 
 
 I Give ear, O my people, to my law, 
 
 Incline your ear to the words of my mouth. 
 
 I — 4. The Introduction, announc- recall the past, that it may act as a 
 ing the Psalmist's purpose. He will warning for the present, and that 
 
 • See note on Ps. L 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 367 
 
 2 I would open my mouth in a parable, 
 
 I would utter dark sayings of old. 
 
 3 (The things) which we have heard and known, 
 
 And our fathers have told us, 
 
 4 We will not hide from their children ; 
 
 TeUing to the generation to come the praise of 
 Jehovah, 
 And His might and His wonderful works that He 
 hath done. 
 
 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, 
 
 And appointed a law in Israel, 
 
 the wholesome lessons which it 
 teaches may be perpetuated in the 
 future. In the following four verses 
 he declares that such commemoration 
 of God's wonders is the very destiny of 
 Israel. For this end did He give 
 them His Law, and the lively oracles 
 of His mouth. 
 
 1. My people. This does not 
 imply that God or the Messiah is the 
 speaker. The Prophet, speaking in 
 the name and by the authority of 
 God, as His inspired messenger, thus 
 addresses the nation. The opening 
 of the Esalm is similar to that of 
 Ps. xlix. See also Deut. xxxii. 1 ; 
 Is. i. 2: 
 
 My LAW, hc-e evidently used in 
 its wider sense of instruction generally, 
 as often in the Book of Proverbs. It 
 i| the teaching of a Prophet (Matt, 
 xiii. 35), and in that sense a law, a 
 law of hfe to those who hear it. 
 
 2. I WOULD OPEN. The form of 
 the tense expresses the wish, resolve, 
 &c. The sentence is very similar to 
 that in xHx. 4. The two words 
 PARABLE and DARK SAYINGS are the 
 same which occur in that passage, 
 where see note. 
 
 How are we to understand the 
 quotation made by St. Matthew of 
 this passage, who sees a fulfilment of 
 it in the parables spoken by our Lord 
 
 (Matt. xiii. 34, 35)? It cannot be 
 supposed for a moment that these 
 words were a prediction of our Lord's 
 mode of teaching, or that He Him- 
 self is here the speaker. But here, 
 as elsewhere, that which the Old 
 Testament Prophet says of himself, 
 finds its fittest expression, its highest 
 realization, in the Great Prophet of 
 the kingdom of Heaven. "Citatur 
 hie locus a Matthseo, et accommodaiur 
 ad Christi personam. ... In hac 
 igitur, parte quum similis Prophetae 
 fuerit, quia de sublimibus mysteriis 
 concionatus est in altiore dicendi 
 forma, apposite transfertur ad ejus 
 personam quod Propheta de se 
 affirmat." — Calvin. St. Matthew's 
 quotation runs, tlireus Tr\7ipoidijfj.T6 ^7}6ev 
 Sti Tov •KpofpTfTov KeyovTo^j 'Avol^Qj Iv 
 7rapa^o\diS rh (rr6fj.a pLOu, ipe^^ofiai 
 KEKpvpL^^va aird Kara^oKifS {Koffp-ov,) 
 The LXX. have in the latter clause : 
 tpdey^Ofxai TrpojSA.'jf/ittTa dn' dpxrjs. 
 
 4, We will not hide. Comp. 
 Job. XV. 18, where it used in like 
 manner of the faithful transmission of 
 truths received. All truth known is 
 a sacred trust, given to us, not for 
 ourselves alone, but that we may hand 
 on the^torch to others. 
 
 5. The very object with which God 
 gave His law and His testimony 
 (see on these words, note on xix. 7) 
 
368 
 
 PSALM LXXVin. 
 
 Which He commanded our fathers 
 To make known unto their children ; 
 
 6 In order that the generation to come might know(them), 
 
 (Even) the children which should be born, 
 
 (Who) should rise up, and tell (them) to their 
 children ; 
 
 7 That they might place their confidence in God. 
 
 And not forget the doings of God, 
 But keep His commandments ; 
 
 8 And not be as their fathers, 
 
 A stubborn and rebellious generation, 
 A generation that was not steadfast in heart, 
 And whose spirit was not faithful towards God, 
 
 9 The children of Ephraim, being equipped as archers, 
 
 was, that they might be preserved, 
 not in writing orfy, but by oral com- 
 munication and transmission, that 
 they might be a living power in the 
 people. See the commands in Ex. 
 X. 2, xii. 26, 27, xiii. 8 — 10, 14, 15 ; 
 Deut. iv. 9, vi. 20, &c. 
 
 8. That was not steadfast in 
 HEART, lit. " that did not establish 
 its heart," was ever wavering in its 
 allegiance. 
 
 9. The children of Ephraim. 
 An example of that " stubborn 
 and perverse generation '' mentioned 
 ver. 8. But why are the " children of 
 Ephraim " mentioned, and what par- 
 ticular sin of theirs is here alluded to ? 
 
 (1) We must not be led astray by the 
 expression "equipped as archers," 
 &c. to look for some defeats of the 
 tribe in battle, for it is not a chasthe- 
 inent, but a sin which is spoken of. 
 Hence the description of their car- 
 rying bows and turning back must be 
 a figure employed in the same sense 
 as that of " deceitful bow," ver. 57. 
 
 (2) The allusion cannot be to the 
 separation of Ephraim and the other 
 tribes from Judah, because it is the 
 earlier history of the nation in the 
 
 wilderness which is here before the 
 Poet's eyes. (3) Nothing is gained 
 by introducing the particle of com- 
 parison as in the P.V.B., "like as 
 the children of Eph." &c., for such 
 a comparison rests upon nothing. 
 (4) Nor can "the children of Eph- 
 raim" here stand merely for the 
 whole nation, as has sometimes been 
 maintained by referring to Ixxx. 2 
 and Ixxxi. 5, for in ver. 67 the dis- 
 tinction between Ephraim and Judah 
 is marked. (5) It would seem, then, 
 that i/ieir treacherous conduct is here 
 specially stigmatized, in order, as it 
 were, to sound the note of that re- 
 jection on which the Psalmist after- 
 wards dwells, ver. 67. Ephraim had 
 been, after the settlement in Caanan, 
 the most numerous and the most 
 powerful of the tribes. Shiloh, the 
 religous capital of the nation, and 
 Shechem, the gathering place of the 
 tribes (Josh. xxiv. i ; Jud. ix. 2 ; 
 I Kings xii. i), were both within its 
 borders. During the time of the 
 Judges it seems to have asserted a 
 kind of supremacy over the rest. Pes-. 
 sibly the Psalmist is thinking of this. 
 Having their rejection in view, he 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 369 
 
 Turned back in the day of battle. 
 
 10 They kept not the covenant of God, 
 
 And refused to walk in His Law; 
 
 1 1 And they forgat His doings, 
 
 And His wonderful works which He had shown them 
 
 12 In the sight of their fathers He did wonders. 
 
 In the land of Egypt, (in) the field of Zoan. 
 
 remembers their ancient position, and 
 regards them as leaders of the people, 
 and morally, leaders in their sin. It 
 is true this could only apply to their 
 history in the land of Canaan. Dur- 
 ing the wanderings in the wilderness, 
 with which a large part of the Psalm 
 is occupied, the tribe of Ephraim, so 
 far from holding a leading position, 
 wasthesmallestof all, except Simeon. 
 It may be, however, that the Psalm- 
 ist forgets or neglects this circum- 
 stance, and only thinks of the tribe as 
 the rival of Judah in later times, and 
 the leader in the revolt. But see the 
 remarks in the Introduction to the 
 Psalm. 
 
 Equipped as archers. This and 
 the next clause are designed ap- 
 parently to express, in a figure, the 
 feithlessness of the Ephraimites. 
 They are like archers who, fully 
 equipped for war, at the critical 
 moment when they should use their 
 weapons, afraid to meet the shock 
 of battle, wheel round and fly in 
 disorder. 
 
 Turned back. Comp. Judg. xx. 
 39> 41' Panic-struck, when they 
 were expected to be of service ; hardly 
 pretending flight, like the Thra- 
 cian archers, in order to take the 
 enemy at greater advantage. In any 
 case, the image is one of faithlessness. 
 The next verse is an explanation of 
 the figure. 
 
 The following paraphrase is given 
 m the Catena Aurea (from Aug. 
 
 Cassiod. and the Glossa Ord.) : " The 
 children of Ephraim taking aim 
 and shooting with the bow, — that is, 
 promising to keep the law, — and 
 openly saying, All that the Lord 
 hath said unto us we will do and 
 hear, turned bade in the day of 
 battle, when they said unto Aaron, 
 Make us gods to worship. They 
 failed in the day of battle, — that is, 
 in the day of temptation ; for the 
 prophet Hosea saith ; Ephraim is 
 as a silly dove that hath no heart. 
 For it is not hearing, but temptation, 
 that puts to the proof the promise 
 of obedience.*' 
 
 12. Zo.\N. Its Greek name was 
 Tauis. It lay "near the eastern 
 border of Lower Egypt .... on the 
 east bank of » the canal which was 
 formerly the Tanitic branch " (of the 
 NileJ. "Zoan is mentioned in con- 
 nection with the plagues in such a 
 manner as to leave no doubt that it is 
 the city spoken of in the narrative in 
 Exodus, as that where Pharaoh dwelt. 
 The wonders were wrought ' in the 
 field of Zoan,' which may either de- 
 note the territory immediately round 
 the city, or its nome, or even a king- 
 dom. This would accord best with 
 the shepherd-period. " See the article 
 Zoan, in the Diet, of the Bible, by 
 Mr. R. S. Poole. 
 
 '. It is remarkable that after begin- 
 ning in this verse to speak of the 
 
 ■ wonders in Egypt, the Psalmist drcps 
 all mention of them till ver. 43 (which 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 PSALM LXXVIIl 
 
 He clave (the) sea, and caused them to pass through, 
 
 And made (the) waters to stand as an heap. 
 And He led them with the cloud in the day-time. 
 
 And all the night (through) with a light of fire. 
 He clave rocks in the wilderness, 
 
 And gave them drink as (from the) grfeat deep. 
 1 6 He brought forth streams also out of (the) cliff, 
 
 And caused waters to run down like the rivers. 
 
 14 
 
 IS 
 
 17 Yet they went on to sin yet more against Him, 
 
 (Arid) to provoke the Most High in the desert. 
 
 18 And they tempted God in their heart, 
 
 To ask food for their lust ; 
 
 19 Yea, they spake against God, they said. 
 
 is a resumption of this verse), and 
 turns aside to dwell on the wonders in 
 the wilderness (see Introduction). 
 
 13. Now follows the exemplifica- 
 tion; in certain detailed instances, of 
 the fAithiessness, and disobedience, and 
 forgetfulness of their fathers in the wil- 
 derness. First, inver. 13 — 16, some of 
 God's wonders wrought on their be- 
 half are mentioned, and then, ver. 
 17 — 20, the thankless and perverse 
 spirit in which these wonders were 
 regarded. 
 
 As AN HEAP ; borrowed from Ex. 
 XV. 8. See note on xxxiii. 7. 
 
 15. Rocks. The word ^j«r shows 
 that the Psalmist is thinking in this 
 verse of the miracle at Horeb, re- 
 corded in Exod. xvii. (See note on 
 ver. 16.) 
 
 As (FROM the) great DEEP, lit. 
 " and gave them, as it were, the great 
 d^ep to drink " (or, " as (from) the 
 depths in abundance"). De Wette 
 Calls this a "gigantic" comparison. 
 But " the deep " here may mean, 
 perhaps, not the sea, but the great 
 subterranean reservoir of waters from 
 which all fountains and streams were 
 supposed to be supplied, as Deut. viii. 
 7. Comp. xlii. 7. 
 
 16. The word here used {Sela) "is 
 especially applied to the cliff at Ka- 
 desh, from which Moses brought 
 water, as Tsur is for that struck in 
 Ex. xvii." -^ Stanley, Sinai and 
 Palestine, App. § 29. 
 
 17. Yet they went on to sin. 
 In the verses immediately preceding 
 no special instance of transgression is 
 recorded, though such is implied in 
 the mention of the miracle of the 
 water, when they murmured against 
 God. Hence the murmuring for flesh 
 is described as a further and fresh in- 
 stance of sin. Hupfeld thinks it may 
 be only a phrase borrowed from the 
 Book of Judges, where it is commonly 
 prefixed to each fresh act of disobe- 
 dience (as in iii. 12J &c.) ; but there 
 the formula is quite in place, as it 
 follows the narration of previous 
 transgressions. 
 
 18. They tempted God, i.e. de- 
 manded, in their unbelief, signs and 
 wonders, to put His power to the 
 proof, instead of waiting in faith and 
 prayer for its exercise (repeated ver. 
 41, 56, as a kind of refrain, see also 
 cvi. 14). The original is Ex. xvii. 
 3, 7, where also the name Massah, 
 " tempting," is given to the spot. 
 
PSALM LXXVITI. 
 
 371 
 
 " Can God prepare a table in the wilderness ? 
 
 20 Lo, He smote (the) rock, that waters gushed out, 
 
 And torrents rushed along : 
 Can He give bread also ? 
 Or can He provide flesh for His people ? " 
 
 21 Therefore, (when) Jehovah heard (that). He was wroth. 
 
 And a fire was- kindled in Jacob, 
 
 And anger also went up against Israel ; 
 
 22 Because they believed not in God, 
 
 And put not their trust in His salvation. 
 
 23 Then He commanded the clouds above, 
 
 And opened the doors of heaven : 
 
 24 And He rained upon them manna to eat, 
 
 And gave them the corn of heaven ; 
 
 25 Bread of the mighty did they eat every one. 
 
 19, 20. The words here put into 
 the mouth of the people are only a 
 poetical representation of what they 
 said, not differing materially from the 
 historical narrative, Ex. xvi. 3, &c., 
 xvii. 2, 3, 7 ; Num. xi. 4, &c. , xx. 3, &c. 
 
 19. Prepare a table, lit. "set 
 out in order," the same phrase as in 
 xxiii. 5. 
 
 20. Waters gushed out occurs 
 also cv. 41 ; Is. xlviii. 21. 
 
 Flesh : the word is a poetical one. 
 "Bread and flesh" are used in the 
 same way of the manna and the quails 
 in Ex, xvi. 
 
 21 — 29. The awful punishment of 
 their sin. He gives the bread which 
 they ask (ver. 21 — 25), and then the 
 flesh (ver. 26—29), but His granting 
 of their desire is in itself the most 
 terrible of chastisements. The repre- 
 sentation is freely borrowed from the 
 two accounts in Ex. xvi. ; Numb. xi. ; 
 more particularly the last. 
 
 21 A FIRE, with allusion to the 
 " fire of Jehovah " in Numb. xi. I, 
 Whence the name of the place was 
 
 called Tab'erah, " burning "), where 
 also occurs the similar expression, 
 ' ' And when Jehovah heard (it). His 
 anger was kindled," 
 
 Also. This does not mark that 
 the fire of God's wrath was added to 
 the natural fire ; for the last was but 
 the expression of the first. But the 
 particle belongs, logically, to the verb 
 WENT UP, and denotes the retributive 
 character of this fiery scourge. 
 
 22. His salvation, as already 
 shown in the deliverance from Egypt. 
 
 24. Rained. Hence the expres- 
 sion in the preceding verse, "opened 
 the doors," &c., as in Gen. vii. II ; 
 2 Kings vii. 2 ; Mai. iii. 10. In the 
 same way the manna is said to be 
 ' ' rained " from heaven in Ex. xvi. 4. 
 (Every expression used shows plainly 
 that it was a miraculous gift, and not 
 a product of nature. ) Hence, too, it 
 is called corn of heaven, for which 
 we have " bread of heaven" in cv. 
 40 ; Ex. xvi. 4 ; John vi. 31. So 
 again — 
 
 25. Bread of the mighty (see 
 
 B B 2 
 
3)2 
 
 PSALM LXXVHI. 
 
 He sent them meat to the full. 
 
 26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, 
 
 And by His power He guided the south wind, 
 
 27 And He rained flesh upon them as the dust. 
 
 And winged fowls like as the sand of the seas; 
 
 28 And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, 
 
 Round about their habitations. 
 
 29 So they did eat and were well filled, 
 
 Seeing that He gave them their own de.sire. 
 
 the marginal rendering of the A. V.) 
 probably means " Angels' bread," not 
 as if angels were nourished by it, or 
 as if it were food worthy of angels, 
 but as coming from heaven, where 
 angels dwell. The word Mighty is 
 nowhere else used of the angels, 
 though they are said in ciii. 20 to be 
 "mighty in strength." Hence many 
 would render here "bread of nobles 
 or princes" (such is the use of this 
 word in Job xxiv. 22, xxxiv. 20), 
 i.e. the finest, the most delicate 
 bread. 
 
 26. Caused to blow, lit. "made 
 to journey, or go forth." 
 
 Guided (like a ilock). The two 
 verbs occur below, ver. 52, where 
 they are used of God's conduct of 
 His people. The usage here is bor- 
 rowed from the Pentateuch, where 
 both verbs are said of the wind, the 
 first in Numb. xi. 31, the second in 
 Exod. X. 13. The winds are thus 
 conceived of as God's flock, which 
 He leads forth and directs at His 
 pleasure. 
 
 East wind .... south wind. 
 These may be mentioned poetically, 
 without being intended to describe 
 exactly the quarter from which the 
 quails came. In Numb. xi. 31, it is 
 merely said that " there went forth 
 a wind from Jehovah, and brought 
 quails from the sea" which Hupfeld 
 too hastily asserts must be the Red 
 
 Sea [i.e. as he evidently means, the 
 Gulf of Suez) ; and that consequently 
 the quails must have been brought by 
 a west wind. But Kibrbth-hattaavah 
 was probably not far from the western 
 edge of the Gulf of Akabah. And 
 the quails at the time of this event 
 were, as Mr. Houghton has remarked 
 (see Quails, in Did. of ihe Bible), 
 on their spring journey of migration 
 northwards. "The flight which fed 
 the multitude at Kibroth-hattaavah 
 might have started from Southern 
 Egypt, and crossed the Red Sea near 
 Ras Mohammed, and so up the Gulf 
 of Akabah into Arabia Petrsea." In 
 this case, the wind blowing from the 
 south first, and then from the east, 
 would bring the quails. 
 
 27. Rained flesh : as before 
 "rained manna," from Exod. xvi. 4, 
 
 8, 13- 
 
 28. Let it fall. The word aptly 
 describes the settling of these birds, 
 unfitted for a long flight, and wearied 
 by their passage across the gulf. 
 Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 33, says that 
 quails settle on the sails of ships by 
 night, so as to sink sometimes the 
 ships in the neighbouring seas. The 
 verse follows Exod. xvi. 13 ; Numb. 
 xi. 31. 
 
 29. Were well filled, i.e. even 
 to loathing, as follows, ver. 30 (see 
 Numb. xi. 18—20). So in ver. 25, 
 "to the full," from Exod. xvi. 3, 12. 
 
PSALM LXXVJII. 
 
 373 
 
 30 They were not estranged from their desire ; — 
 
 Whilst their food was yet in their mouths, 
 
 31 The anger of God went up against them, 
 
 And slew the fattest of them. 
 And smote down the young men of Israel. 
 
 32 For all this, they sinned yet more, 
 
 And believed not His wondrous works, 
 
 33 Therefore did He make their days vanish in a breath. 
 
 And their years in terror. 
 
 34 When He slew them, then they inquired after Him, 
 
 Yea, they turned again and sought God ; 
 
 35 And they remembered that God was their Rock, 
 
 And the Most High God their Redeemer. 
 
 Their desire, the satisfaction of 
 their fleshly appetite. The word 
 (taavaK) no doubt alludes to ICib- 
 xofarhaitaavah, "the graves of desire, 
 or fleshly appetite." »umb. xi. 4, 34. 
 
 30. They were not estranged, 
 or, as it might be rendered, " (Whilst) 
 they were not (yet) estranged," i.e. 
 whilst they still found satisfaction 
 and enjoyment in this kind of food, 
 ■whilst it was yet in their mouths, the 
 anger of God went up, &c. The 
 passage is manifestly borrowed from 
 Numb. xi. 33, "And while the flesh 
 was yet between their teeth, ere it 
 was chev/ed, the wrath of Jehovah 
 was kindled against the people, and 
 Jehovah smote the people with a 
 very great plague ;" and so closely 
 borrowed as to be evidence that this 
 portion of the Pentateuch already 
 existed in writing. But, unfortu- 
 nately, we cannot draw hence any 
 argument for the age of the whole 
 Pentateuch in its present form. 
 
 31. Went up. See above, ver. 21, 
 and xviii. 8. 
 
 The FAiTEST : it may mean either 
 the strongest, or the noblest. Comp. 
 
 xxii. 29. On these and the young 
 men, the flower of the people, the 
 judgement especially falls. 
 
 32. The allusion seems to be to 
 Numb. xiv. 11, " How long will it be 
 ere they believe Me, for all the signs 
 which I have showed among them ?" 
 the words of God to Moses after the 
 return of the spies. ' And this is the 
 more likely, because the next verse 
 alludes to that cutting short of the life 
 of the people, which was the conse- 
 quence of their rebellion at that time. 
 (Numb. xiv. 28 — 34.) 
 
 33. In a BREATH. See xxxix, 5,6, 
 and the complaint of Moses, xc. 9, 
 though the word there used is dif- 
 ferent. 
 
 34. The passage that follows, to 
 the end of ver. 39, is a most striking 
 and affecting picture of man's heart, 
 and God's gracious forbearance, in 
 all ages : — man's sin calling for chas- 
 tisement, the chastisement producing 
 only temporary amendment, God's 
 goodness forgotten, and yet God's 
 great love never wearied, and God's 
 infinite compassion ever moved afresh 
 by man's weakness and misery. 
 
374 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 36 But they did but flatter Him with their mouth, 
 
 And they lied unto Him with their tongue ; 
 
 37 And their heart was not steadfast with Him, 
 
 Neither were they faithful in His covenant. 
 
 38 But He, in His tender mercy, covereth iniquity, 
 
 destroyeth not ; 
 And many a time turned He His anger away. 
 And stirred not up all His fury. 
 
 39 And He remembered that they were (but) flesh, 
 
 A wind that goeth and cometh not again. 
 
 and 
 
 40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness. 
 Did they grieve Him in the desert : 
 
 36. Did but flatter. Comp. 
 Is. xxix. 13, Ivii. II, lix. 13. "This 
 returning to God, at least so far as 
 the majority were concerned, was not 
 from any love of righteousness, but 
 only from the fear of punishment." — 
 Lyra. 
 
 37. Their heart was not 
 STEADFAST, &c.' This is the ever- 
 repeated complaint ; see ver. 8, 22. 
 There is no permanence, no stability 
 in the reformation which has been 
 produced. Comp. Hos. vi. 4. 
 
 38. The verbs in the first clause 
 are present, and should be so ren- 
 dered. It destroys the whole beauty 
 of the passage to render, " But he 
 •was so merciful," &c., as if the re- 
 ference were only to a particular occa- 
 sion. God's mercy is like Himself, 
 everlasting, and ever the same. 
 
 But He. The words are em- 
 phatic, and the allusion is to Ex. 
 xxxiv. 6 ; Numb. xiv. 1,8, 20. 
 
 39. Comp. Gen. vi. 3, viii. 21 ; 
 Job.yii. 7, 9, x. 21 ; Ps. ciii. 14 — 16 ; 
 and.ifor the word "goeth," or "pass- 
 eth'.away," of the wind, Hos. vi. 4, 
 xiii. 3. 
 
 40. After thus celebrating God's 
 tender compassion, in striking con- 
 trast with the perpetual rebellion and 
 ingratitude of the people, the Psalmist 
 resumes the sad tale afresh. But in- 
 stead of mentioning other instances 
 of rebellion in the wilderness (ver. 40) 
 he passes from that topic to dwell on 
 the wonders wrought in Egypt, the 
 lively recollection of which ought to 
 have kept the people from these re- 
 peated provocations. Thus he takes 
 up again the thread dropped at ver. 12. 
 
 The second principal portion 01 
 the Psalm begins with this verse. 
 It is occupied, first, with the narra- 
 tive of the plagues in Egypt, the 
 Exodus, and Israel's entrance into 
 the Promised Land, ver. 40—55. 
 It then touches briefly on the history 
 under the Judges, the Philistine in- 
 vasion in the time of Eli, which was 
 God's chastisement for transgression, 
 tlje disaster at Shiloh, whereby Eph- 
 raim was robbed of his ancient hon- 
 ours, and which led to the choice of 
 Zion, the ascendency of the 'tribe ot 
 Judah, and the union of the kingdom 
 under David, ver. 56 — 72. 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 375 
 
 41 Yea, again and again they tempted God, 
 
 And dishonoured the Holy One of Israel. 
 
 42 They remembered not His hand, 
 
 Nor the day when He redeemed them from the 
 adversary. 
 
 43 How He had set His signs in Egypt, 
 
 And His wonders in the field of Zoan, 
 
 44 And turned their rivers into blood. 
 
 So that they could not drink of their streams. 
 
 45 He sent among them flies which devoured them. 
 
 And frogs which destroyed them. 
 
 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, 
 
 (And) their labour unto the locust. 
 
 47 He smote their vines with hail. 
 
 43. In the enumeration of the 
 ilagues, the Psalmist does not follow 
 hetorder of the history, except as re- 
 prds the first and the last, and omits 
 ill mention of the third (the lice), the 
 ifth (murrain of cattle), the sixth 
 boils and blains on man and beast), 
 jid the ninth (darkness). 
 
 44. The first plague. Comp. Ex. 
 ii. 17, &c. 
 
 45- The fourth plague (Ex. viii. 
 10, &c. ), ai;d the second plague (Ex. 
 iii. I, &c.). 
 
 Flies. The rendering of the E.V., 
 'divers sorts of flies," comes from a 
 Frong derivation of the word from 
 
 root signifying to mix. 
 
 46. Caterpiller, or possibly the 
 rord means some particular species 
 f locust, or the locust in its larva 
 tete. (See Diet, of the Bible, III. 
 tpp. xxxix. ) This word is not used 
 1 the Pentateuch, but in Joel i. 4 it 
 > joined with the locust, as here. 
 
 47, 48. The seventh plague, that 
 f the hail mingled with fire (Ex. ij:. 
 3), with its effects, both on the pro- 
 uce of the land and on the cattle, 
 is belonging to the former, vines 
 
 and sycqmores are here mentioned, 
 as vines and fig-trees in cv. 33. De 
 Wette and Hupfeld assert that the 
 writer, as a native of Canaan, ascribes 
 too much prominence to the vine, the 
 cultivation of which was but little at- 
 tended to in Egypt, and which is not 
 said in the Pentateuch to have suf- 
 fered. But this is an unfounded as- 
 sertion. Mr. R. S. Poole, in his 
 learned article on Egypt, in the 
 Diet, of the Bible, says : *' Vines 
 were extensively cultivated, and there 
 were several different kinds of wine, 
 one of which, the Mareotic, was fa- 
 mous among the Romans." (Vol. i. 
 p. 497. ) Pharaoh's chief butler dreams 
 of the vinp. Gen. xl. 9 — 11 ; and the 
 vines of Egypt, as wejl as the . figs 
 and pomegranates, are thought of 
 with regret by the Israelite? in the 
 wilderness (Num. xx. 5). The mural 
 paintings at Thebes, at Beni-Hassan, 
 and in the Pyramids, contain repre- 
 sentations of vineyards. Boys are 
 seen frightening away the birds from 
 the ripe clusters, men gather them 
 and deposit them in baskets, and 
 carry them to the wine-press, &c. 
 
376 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 And their sycomore-trees with frost : 
 
 48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, 
 
 And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 
 
 49 He let loose upon them the burning of His anger, 
 
 Wrath and indignation and distress, 
 Letting loose evil angels (among them). 
 
 50 He made a free path for His anger ; 
 
 He spared not their soul from death, 
 But gave their life over to the pestilence ; 
 
 5 1 And smote all the first-born in Egypt, 
 
 The firstlings of (their) strength in the tents of Ham. 
 
 52 But He made His own people to go forth hke sheep, 
 
 And guided them in the wilderness hke a flock. 
 
 47. Frost, or, as this is unknown 
 in Egypt, pertiaps, rather, "huge 
 hailstones," but the word occurs no- 
 where else, and its iheaning is un- 
 certain. 
 
 48. Hot THUNDERBOLTS, or "light- 
 nings ; " the same word as in Ixxvi. 3, 
 "lightnings of the bow," where see 
 note, the allusion being to the fire 
 which ran along the ground, Ex. ix. 
 23. Comp. cv. 32. 
 
 49. This verse expresses generally 
 the whole work of devastation wrought 
 by the Divine ministers of evil in the 
 land of Egypt, and so strikingly in- 
 troduces the final act of judgement, 
 the destruction of the first-born, which 
 follows in ver. 50, 51. 
 
 Letting loose, lit. "a letting 
 loose of," &c., this being a noun, in 
 apposition with the preceding nouns, 
 and further, describing the action 
 of the verb, "He let loose." The 
 Poet lifts the veil and shows us the 
 wrath of God as the source, and 
 angels as the ministers of the destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Evil angels. Others render, 
 " angels, or messengers (the word 
 may mean either, as &-yytXo%, in 
 Greek) of evil," i.e. who work evil. 
 
 So Hengstenberg and Delitzsch, who 
 adopt the view of Ode, in his work 
 De Angelis, that God makes use ot 
 good angels to punish bad men, and ot 
 evil angels to buffet and chasten good 
 men. But this cannot be maintained : 
 see I Sam xvi. 14 ; i Kings xxii. 21, 
 &c. However, whichever rendering 
 is preferred, it comes to the same 
 thing, for ' ' evil angels " would not 
 mean here what was commonly un- 
 derstood by evil spirits, but angels 
 sent upon an evil mission — a mission 
 of destruction. There can be no 
 doubt of this, because the expression 
 must have been suggested by "the 
 destroyer" in Ex. xii. 13, 23. 
 
 50. Made a free path, lit. 
 "levelled a path," as Prov. iv. 26, 
 V. 6. 
 
 51. Firstlings of (their) 
 STRENGTH, lit. "beginning of 
 strengths," the plural being used 
 poetically for the singular which is 
 found in the same phrase. Gen. 
 xlix. 3 ; Deut. xxi. 17. 
 
 Tents of Ham. So "land of 
 Ham," in cv. 23, 27, cvi. 22. Comp. 
 Gen. x. 6. 
 
 52. See on ver, 26, and comp. 
 Ixxvii. 2a 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 377 
 
 53 And He led them safely so that they did not fear ; 
 
 And as for their enemies, the sea covered (them). 
 
 54 And He brought them to His holy border, 
 
 To yon mountain which His right hand had purchased. 
 
 55 He drove out also the nations before them, 
 
 And allotted them as an inheritance by line, 
 And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 
 
 56 But they tempted and provoked the Most High God, 
 
 And kept not His testimonies ; 
 
 57 But turned back and dealt faithlessly, like their fathers : 
 
 They were turned aside like a deceitful bow ; 
 
 58 And they angered Him with their high places. 
 
 And moved Him to jealousy with their 
 images. 
 
 59 When God heard (this). He was wroth. 
 
 And greatly abhorred Israel ; 
 
 60 So that He rejected the tabernacle in Shiloh, 
 
 graven 
 
 54. Yon mountain, i.e. Zion, 
 the building of the Temple there 
 being represented, as in Ixviii. 16, as 
 the great crowning act to which all 
 else pointed ; unless the noun is used 
 here collectively = " these moun- 
 tains," i.e. this mountain-land of 
 Palestine, as in Ex. xv. 17, "the 
 mountain of Thine inheritance." 
 Comp. Is. xi. 9. This last, it may be 
 said, is favoured by the parallelism. 
 
 55. And allotted them, lit. 
 "made them fall," in allusion to the 
 thnnmng of the lot. The pronoun 
 " them " is used somewhat incorrectly 
 (the nations having been just spoken 
 of as driven out), instead of "their 
 land." Corop. Josh, xxiii. 4, "See, 
 I have allotted (made to fall) unto you 
 these nations," &c, ; Numb, xxxiv. 2, 
 " the land which falleth to you as an 
 inheritance." 
 
 By line. See note on xvi. 6. 
 56 — 58. The renewed disobedience 
 of the nation, after their settlement 
 
 in the land, during the time of the 
 Judges. 
 
 56. Tempted and provoked, re- 
 peated from ver. 17, l8, and 41 ; 
 here the special act of provocation 
 being the worship of idols in the high 
 places. Corop. Judg. ii. 11, &c. 
 
 57. A deceitful bow, i.e. one 
 which disappoints the archer, by not 
 sending the arrow straight to the mark 
 (not "a slack bow," as some would 
 explain, referring to Prov. x. 4, "a 
 slack hand "). 
 
 60. The Tabernacle was at .Shiloh 
 during the whole period of the 
 Judges (Josh, xviii. 10 ; Judg. xviii. 
 31 ; I Sam. iv. 3). God rejected 
 and forsook it when the Ark was 
 given into the hands of the Philis- 
 tines, I Sam. iv. The Ark was never 
 brought back thither, and the Taber- 
 nacle itself was removed first to 
 Nob (l Sam. xxi.), and subsequently 
 to Gibeon (i Kings iii. 4)> Jeremiah, 
 when warning the nation against the 
 
378 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 The tent which He pitched among men. \ 
 
 61 And He gave His strength into captivity, ' 
 
 And His beauty into the adversary's hand. 
 
 62 Yea, He gave over His people tq the sword. 
 
 And was wroth with His inheritance. 
 
 63 Their young men the fire devoured. 
 
 And their maidens were not praised in the marriage- 
 song. 
 
 64 Their priests fell by the sword, 
 
 And their widows made no lamentation. 
 
 65 Then the Lord awaked, as one out of sleep, 
 
 Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of v/ine ; 
 
 66 And He smote His adversaries backward, 
 
 He put them to a perpetual reproach. 
 
 67 And He abhorred the tent of Joseph, 
 
 And chose not the tribe of Ephraim ; 
 
 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, 
 
 superstitious notion that the Temple 
 would be a defence, reminds them 
 how God had forsaken and rejected 
 the place of the first Tabernacle : 
 ' ' For go now to my place which was 
 in Shiloh, where I made My name 
 to dwell at the first, and see what I 
 havet done to it, because of the 
 wickedness of My people Israel." 
 (Jer. vii. 12. See also ver. 14, and 
 chap. xxvi. 6.) These passages do 
 not, perhaps, necessarily imply a. 
 destruction of Shiloh by enemies, — 
 certainly nothing of the kind meets 
 us in the history, — but a desolati^Dn 
 which followed on the removal of the 
 sanctuary. Calvin observes : ' ' The 
 mode of expression is very emphatic : 
 that God was so offended with the 
 sins of His people, that Me was forced 
 to forsake the one place in the whole 
 world which He had chosen." 
 
 Pitched, lit. "caused to dwell." 
 Comp. Josh, xviii. i, xxii. 19. 
 
 61. His strength .... His 
 
 BEAUTY. The Ark is so called be- 
 cause there God manifested His 
 power and glory. Comp. i Sam. iv. 
 3, zi, and Ps. cxxxii. 8. 
 
 63, 64. The utter desolation of the 
 land strikingly pictured by its silence. 
 Neither the joyous strains of the 
 marriage-song nor the sad wail of the 
 funeral chant fall upon the ear. It 
 was a land of silence, a land of the 
 dead. Comp. Jer. xxii. 18 ; Ezek, 
 xxiv. 23 ; Job xxvii. 15. There is, 
 perhaps, an allusion in ver. 64 to the 
 death of Hophni and Phinehas. 
 
 65^, 66. God punishes and then 
 delivers. The reference . is to the 
 long series of victories over the 
 Philistines, under Samuel, Saul, and 
 David. 
 
 65. As ONE OUT OF SLEEP, lit, 
 "as a sleeper." Comp. vii. 6, xliv. 
 
 23- 
 
 Like a mighty man : comp. Is. 
 xlii. 13. 
 
 68. The tribe oj Judah, 
 
PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 379 
 
 The mount Zion which He loved. 
 And He built His sanctuary hke high places, 
 
 Like the earth which He hath founded for ever. 
 He chose David also, His servant, 
 
 And took him from the sheep-folds ; 
 As he was following the ewes giving suck, He brought 
 him 
 
 To feed Jacob His people, 
 And Israel His inheritance. 
 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, 
 
 And led them with the skilfulness of his hands. 
 
 igh the sanctuary was planted, 
 "in Judah only, or in Benjamin 
 r, but on the confines of both 
 np. Josh. XV. 63with Judg. i. 21); 
 hat whilst the altars and the holy 
 :e were to stand within the bor- 
 ; of the one tribe, the courts of 
 Temple were to extend into the 
 lers of the other tribe, and thus 
 two were to be riveted together, 
 it were by a cramp, bound by 
 icred and everlasting bond." — 
 
 Blunt, Undersigned Coificidences^ &c. 
 p. 181. 
 
 69. Like high places, &c., or, 
 as we might say, "high as heaven, 
 and sure as the solid earth." 
 
 70 — 72. The faithful shepherd of 
 the flock became the faithful shepherd 
 of the nation ; just as the obedient 
 fishermen in tlie Gospel history be- 
 came the successful fishers of men. 
 
 On the figure here employed, see 
 Ixxvii. 20. 
 
 PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 "his Psalm is a lamentation over the same great national calamity 
 oh, as we have already seen, is bewailed in terms so pathetic in 
 Seventy-fourth. The two Psalms have, indeed, some points of 
 erence as well as of resemblance. The great features in the scene 
 nisery are presented in the two with a different degree of pro- 
 lence. In the one, the destruction of the Temple occupies the 
 !ground ; in the other, the terrible carnage which had made the 
 
38o PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 streets of Jerusalem run with blood is the chief subject of lamenta- 
 tion. In the former, the hope of deliverance and triumph breaks 
 out strongly in the very midst of the sorrow and the wailing (Ixxiv. 
 12, &c.). In the latter, the tone of sadness prevails throughout, with 
 the exception of the short verse with which the Psalm concludes. 
 There is also a marked difference in style. The Seventy-fourth 
 Psalm is abrupt, and sometimes obscure ; the Seventy-ninth, on the 
 contrary, flows smoothly and easily throughout. 
 
 But these differences are balanced by resemblances not less obser- 
 vable. Thus, for instance, we may compare Ixxix. 5, "how long for 
 ever," with Ixxiv. I, 10 ; Ixxix. i, the desecration of the Temple, with 
 Ixxiv. 3, 7 ; Ixxix. 2, the giving up to the wild beast, with Ixxiv. 19 ; 
 Ixxix. 12, the reproach of the God of Israel, with Ixxiv. 10, 18, 22; 
 Ixxix. 13, the comparison of Israel to a flock, with Ixxiv. i. There is 
 the same deep pathos in both Psalms ; in both, the same picturesque 
 force of description ; both the one and the other may be called, with- 
 out exaggeration, the funeral anthem of a nation. 
 
 There can, therefore, be little doubt that both Psalms, even if not 
 written by the same poet, yet bewail the same calamity. It is equally 
 certain that there are but two periods of the national history to which 
 the language of either could properly apply. But in attempting to 
 draw our inference from this Psalm, the same difficulties meet us 
 whi-ch have already met us in our attempts to determine the date of 
 Psalm Ixxiv. Does the Psalm deplore the destruction of Jerusalem 
 by Nebuchadnezzar, or is it a dirge over the sack of the city by 
 Antiochus Epiphanes ? 
 
 As there is no shadow of proof that the Canon was closed before 
 the Maccabean era, we are at liberty to form our opinion as to the 
 probable date of the Psalm purely on internal evidence. There is 
 one expression in the Psalm, and one only, which may seem to 
 favour the Babylonish exile. " Let the sighing of the prisoner come 
 before Thee-" (ver. 11). But even this might be used equally well 
 of the captives who were carried away by the army of Antiochus 
 (i Mace. i. 32). 
 
 We now come to difficulties of a more formidable kind. Two 
 passages in the Psalm are found elsewhere ; the one in Jeremiah, 
 the other in the First Book of Maccabees. 
 
 Verses 6 and 7 stand almost word for word in Jer. x 25. Does the 
 Prophet quote from the Psalmist, or the Psalmist from the Prophet.' 
 
 In favour of the former supposition it may be said : (l) that it is 
 
PSALM LXXIX. 381 
 
 Jeremiah's habit to quote largely from other writers, especially from 
 Job and the Psabns ; (2) that in his prophecy the verse imme- 
 diately preceding, the 24th verse of the chapter, is a quotation 
 from the Sixth Psalm ; (3) that the words occupy a more natural 
 position in the Psalm than they do in the Prophecy, inasmuch 
 as the prayer that God would punish the heathen follows imme- 
 diately on the complaint that His wrath burns like fire against 
 Israel ; and also inasmuch as the word " pour out " seems to have 
 been employed designedly with reference to the use of the same 
 verb in ver. 3, " they have poured out " (E. V. " they have shed ") ; 
 (4) that the difficult singular, ver. 7, is changed in Jeremiah into 
 the plural, and the passage further altered and expanded by the 
 addition, " and they have devoured him and consumed him," which 
 is quite in the style of Jeremiah, who rarely quotes without some 
 alteration of the kind. 
 
 The first and the last of these reasons are certainly not without 
 force. 
 
 It has not, I believe, been noticed, and yet it appears to me almost 
 <;ertain, that the prayer of Daniel (ix. 16) contains allusions to the 
 language of this Psalm : " for our sins and for the iniquities of our 
 fathers (comp. ver. 8 of the Psalm, where, though the word 'forefathers' 
 is different, the thought is the same), Jerusalem and Thy people are 
 become a reproach to all that are about us " (comp. ver. 4 of the 
 Psahn). 
 
 Still the question must remain an open one whether the passage 
 in Jeremiah or that in the Psalm is the original. Unless this question 
 can be positively settled, we have no clue to guide us as to the age of 
 the Psahn. Its language would apply almost equally well either to 
 the time of Nebuchadnezzar or to that of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 This seems to have been felt by some of the earlier commentators, 
 who, without venturing to bring it down in point of actual composition 
 so low as the latter period, have supposed it to be a prophecy of that 
 calamitous time. 
 
 The Psalm can hardly be said to have any regular strophical 
 divisions. 
 
 It consists, first, of a complaint (ver. i — 4) ; and then of a prayer 
 that God would visit His people again in mercy, and pour out His 
 vengeance upon their enemies (ver. 5 — 12); whilst a closing verse 
 announces the gratitude with which God's mercy will be acknowledged 
 (ver. 13). 
 
582 
 
 PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 [a psalm of ASAPH.] 
 
 1 O God, the heathen have come into Thine inheritance ; 
 
 They have defiled Thy holy temple ; 
 
 They have made Jerusalem a heap of stones. 
 
 2 They have given the dead bodies of Thy servants 
 
 To be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, 
 
 The flesh of Thy beloved unto the beasts of the 
 earth. 
 
 I — 4. Lament over the terrible 
 calamities which have befallen the 
 nation. 
 
 I. Heathen. This word I have 
 elsewhere translated "nations," but 
 the enemies of Jerusalem are here 
 so designated not merely as consist- 
 ing of different nations (though the 
 Chaldean army was thus composed), 
 but as profane intruders upon the 
 sacred soil. A religious idea is 
 evidently associated with the use of 
 the word. Hence I have followed 
 the rendering of the E. V. 
 
 Thine inheritance, the holy 
 land and the holy people (comp. 
 Ixxiv. 2, Ixxviii. 62, 71), holy as the 
 abode of God (as Exod. xv. 17), 
 itself a sanctuary. The same idea 
 of profanation, as connected with 
 foreign conquest, occurs frequently 
 in the Prophets (see Joel iii. 17 ; 
 Nah. i. 15 ; Is. xxxv. 8, Iii. i ; and 
 especially as parallel with this pas- 
 sage. Lam. i. 10). 
 
 Defiled. Although to a pious 
 Jew this defilement would be a thing 
 of not less horror than the destruc- 
 tion of the holy house, still it is 
 remarkable that if the Chaldean in- 
 vasion be meant, the profanation 
 only, and not the destruction of the 
 Temple (as in Ixxiv.), should be la- 
 mented. 
 
 A HEAP OF STONES, or rather, 
 plur. "heaps of stones," "ruins." 
 Thus was the prophecy of Micah 
 
 fulfilled, which he uttered in the 
 time of Hezekiah (iii. 12). *See also 
 Jer. xxvi. 1 8, where the prophecy is 
 quoted. In both passages the same 
 word is used, and in the A. V. ren- 
 dered "heaps." It occurs also in 
 the sing., Mic i. 6, " I will make 
 Samaria a heap of the field." 
 
 2. That which the Psalmist here 
 laments was threatened by Jere- 
 miah, vii. 33, " And the carcases of 
 this people shall be meat for the 
 fowls of the heaven and for the 
 beasts of the earth," &c. See also- 
 viii. 2 ; ix. 22 ; xv. 3 ; xvi. 4 ; xix. 
 7 ; the original passage being Deut. 
 xxviii. 26. 
 
 Thy beloved, or, "Thy pious 
 ones." See on xvi. 10. Vaihinger 
 argues that such a designation of 
 the people is a proof that the Psalm 
 cannot belong to the Chaldean in- 
 vasion ; for then the nation was 
 utterly evil and corrupt. But in 1. 
 5, the same title is given to the whole 
 nation as in the covenant with God, 
 at the very time when they are 
 charged with breaking that covenant. 
 So Habakkuk, after complaining 
 of the corruption of his people, and 
 seeing that their sins will bring 
 God's judgement upon them, still 
 speaks of them as "rightejjus," in 
 contrast with the Chaldeans, who are 
 "wicked" (Hab. i. 13). So it may 
 be here ; unless, indeed, the Psalmist 
 is thinking rather of " the faidilul 
 
PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 383 
 
 3 They have shed their blood like water round about Jeru- 
 
 salem ; 
 And there was none to bury (them). 
 
 4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, 
 
 A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 
 
 5 How long, O Jehovah ; wilt Thou be angry for ever ? 
 
 Shall Thy jealousy burn like fire ? 
 
 6 Pour out Thy fury on the heathen which know Thee not, 
 
 And upon (the) kingdoms which have not called upon 
 Thy name. 
 
 few," "the holy seed," than of the 
 many whose sins had called for 
 chastisement. 
 
 3. They have shed. It might be 
 better, though less idiomatic, to ren- 
 der " they have poured out, " and so 
 again in ver. 10, "which is poured 
 out." For it is the same word which 
 occurs also in ver. 6, "Pour out Thy 
 fury," &c.; and there may perhaps be 
 a designed antithesis in the repeti- 
 tion of the word. "As they have 
 poured out our blood, so do Thou 
 pour out upon them Thy fury. " 
 
 None to bury, this being, accord- 
 ing to the deep-rooted feeling of all 
 ancient nations, a great aggravation of 
 the calamity. Comp. Jer. xiv. 16, 
 xxii. 18, 19. 
 
 4. With the exception of the first 
 word, this is an exact repetition of 
 xliv. 13, where see note. (That 
 Psalm, as we have seen, may perhaps 
 be of the Maccabean age.) Comp. 
 also Ixxx. 6. 
 
 Neighbours. Such as the Edo- 
 mites, for instance (see cxxxvii. 7, 
 Lam. iv. 21, 22), if the earlier date 
 be preferred. 
 
 5 — 1- God may make use of the 
 heathen as "the rod of His anger," 
 wherewith to chasten His people, but 
 nevertheless, when His purpose is 
 
 accomplished, then His wrath is turned 
 against the oppressor. It is in this 
 conviction that the Psalmist prays, 
 ver. 6, " Pour,out,"&c. The ground 
 of his prayer is not only that they have 
 not called upon God's name, but they 
 have devoured yacob. Hence he asks 
 for a righteous retribution. Precisely 
 in the same spirit Habakkuk long be- 
 fore had said of the Chaldeans ; " O 
 Jehovah, for judgement Thou hast or- 
 dained them, and, O Thou Rock, for 
 correction Thou hast appointed them " 
 (i. 12) ; and then, after .pourtraying 
 the work of judgement wrought by 
 that "bitter and hasty nation," he 
 tells of "the parable" and "taunt- 
 ing proverb" which shall greet their 
 utter overthrow (ii. 6, &c. ). The 
 same law of righteous retribution is 
 frequently recognised by the Prophets. 
 See for instance Is. x. 12, 24 — 26, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 5. For ever. On this, as joined 
 with the question, see on xiii. I. 
 
 Like fire. Comp. Ixxviii. 21, and 
 the original passage, Deut. xxxii. 22. 
 
 6. This verse and the next are 
 repeated with slight variation in Jer. 
 X. 25. As to the question whether 
 the Psalmist borrowed from the Pro- 
 phet, or the Prophet from the Psalmist, 
 see Introduction. 
 
384 
 
 PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 7 For they have devoured Jacob, 
 
 And laid waste his pasture. 
 
 8 Oh remember not against us the iniquities of (our) fore- 
 
 fathers ; 
 Let Thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us, 
 For we are brought very low. 
 
 Pasture. Such is the proper 
 meaning of the word (not sanctuary, 
 as the Chald. — ^but see 2 Sam. xv. 
 25). Comp. Ixxxiii. I2 ; Ex. xv. 13 
 (where "His holy pasture" may 
 = " His holy border," Ixxviii. 54) ; 
 Jer. XXV. 30. The figure is thus sug- 
 gested, which is afterwards more fully 
 expressed in ver. 13, where, however, 
 the word rendered "pasture" is a 
 different one in Hebrew. It is a 
 favourite image in all this group of 
 Psalms. 
 
 8. Against us, lit. " with respect 
 to us," i.e. so that we should thereby 
 suffer. Daniel ix. 16 combines in 
 some measure the language of this 
 verse and ver. 4. The Prophet con- 
 fesses that Jerusalem and his people 
 have become "a reproach unto all 
 that are round about," not only be- 
 cause of their own sins, but for "the 
 iniquities of their fathers.''^ This 
 heritage of sin and its curse is indeed 
 fiiUy recognised in Holy Scripture. 
 God Himself publishes it in the Law 
 (Ex. XX. S; comp. xxxiv. 7). See 
 also Lam. v. 7> and 2 Kings xxiii. 26. 
 Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, and Hup- 
 feld are all at pains to argue that the 
 iniquities of the fathers are not visited 
 upon the children, except when the 
 children themselves are guilty. In 
 proof, they appeal to Deut. xxiv. 16, 
 2 Kings xiv. 6, Ezek. xviii. 20. But 
 only the last of these passages is in 
 point ; the other two, the latter of 
 which is merely a quotation from 
 the former, only lay down the rule 
 
 by which human tribunals are to be 
 bound. Fully to discuss this question 
 in a note would be quite impossible ; 
 it would require a volume. I will 
 only remark, (i) That, as a simple 
 matter of fact, the innocent do suffer 
 for the guilty. Children receive from 
 their parents their moral' and physical 
 Constitution, and both the taint and 
 the chastisement of sin are transmitted. 
 To this Scripture and experience alike 
 bear witness. (2) That there is a 
 mysterious oneness of being, a kind of 
 perpetual existence, which manifests 
 itself in every family and every nation. 
 Each generation is what all previous 
 generations have been tending to make 
 it. The streanj of evil gathers and 
 bears along an ever-increasing mass 
 of corruption ; so that upon the last 
 generation comes the accumulated load 
 of all that went before (Matt, xxiii. 
 35). But (3) Scripture nowhere 
 teaches that a man is guilty in the 
 sight of God for any sins but his own. 
 Sinning himself, he allows the deeds 
 of his fathers ; he is a partaker of 
 their iniquities ; he helps to swell the 
 fearful catalogue of guilt which at last 
 brings down God's judgement ; but his 
 condemnation, if he be condemned, is 
 for his own transgression^ not for those 
 of his fathers. 
 
 Come to meet. E.V. "prevent." 
 God's mercy must anticipate, come to 
 meet, man's necessity. 
 
 9. Twice the appeal is made "for 
 Thy Name's sake ; " that revelation 
 of God which he had made of Him- 
 
PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 385 
 
 ) Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy 
 Name, 
 Yea, deliver us, and cover our sins for Thy Name's 
 sake. 
 ) Wherefore should the heathen say. Where is their God ? 
 Let there be made known among the heathen in our 
 sight 
 The revenging of the blood of Thy servants which 
 is shed. 
 
 1 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before Thee, 
 
 According to the greatness of Thy power spare Thou 
 those th-at are appointed unto death. 
 
 2 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their 
 
 bosom 
 Their reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, 
 O Lord. 
 
 3 So we Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture will 
 
 give thanks to Thee for ever. 
 To all generations we will tell forth Thy praise. 
 
 If to Moses, when He passed by and 
 oclaimed the Name of Jehovah. 
 ;x. xxxiv. 6, 7.) Comp. Ps. xx. i, 
 fil 3, xxix. 2. 
 
 Cover our sins, and so "for- 
 ve " them, as the word is commonly 
 ndered. See xxxii. I. They have 
 OToked God's wrath, and from that 
 rath He only can hide them. 
 10. The fir.st clause of the verse is 
 )rrowed nearly word for word from 
 lel ii. 17, and this, Hengstenberg 
 inks, rests on Ex. xxxii. 12, Numb. 
 V. 15, l6 ; Deut. ix. 28. It is re- 
 ated in cxv. 2. 
 
 In our sight, lit. "before our 
 ■es." The expression suggests a. 
 eling of joy and satisfaction in be- 
 ilding the righteous judgement of 
 od. Comp. lii. 6, and note there. 
 The revenging of the blood, 
 c. : comp. Deut. xxxii. 43. 
 
 11. The sighing of the pri- 
 soner and those that are ap- 
 pointed UNTO death (Heb. "the 
 sons of death ") are expressions found 
 again in cii. 20, a Psalm written, there 
 can be no doubt, during the Exile. 
 By "the prisoner" must be meant, if 
 this Psalm refers to the same time, 
 the whole nation, whose captivity in 
 Babylon, as well as their bondage in 
 Egypt, is regarded as an imprison- 
 ment. If, on the other hand, the 
 Psalm is Maccabean, the allusion will 
 be to those who were carried captive 
 by Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 
 12. Unto OUR neighbours. ' Be- 
 cause their scorn was more intolerable, 
 and also more inexcusable, than the 
 oppression of distant enemies. Comp. 
 ver. 4. Sevenfold, as in Gen. iv. 
 15, 24. Into their bosom : comp. 
 Is. Ixv. 7, Jer. xxxii. 18. 
 
 C C 
 
385 PSALM LXXX. 
 
 PSALM LXXX. 
 
 As in the case of most of the historical Psalms, so in the case of 
 this, it is impossible to say with certainty at what period it was written. 
 The allusions are never sufficiently definite to lead to any positive 
 conclusion. It is not a little remarkable that even the mention of 
 the tribes in verse 2, so far from being a help, has rather been a 
 hindrance to interpretation. The prayer which recurs so often, 
 ver. 3, 7, 14, 19, would seem to imply that the people were in exile : 
 but it may be a prayer, not for restoration to their land, but only for 
 a restoration to prosperity, the verb " turn us again " being capable of 
 either explanation. All that is certain is, that the time was a time of 
 great disaster, that the nation was trampled down under the foot of 
 foreign invaders. The Poet turns to God with the earnest and 
 repeated prayer for deliverance, and bases his appeal on the past. 
 God had brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it in Canaan. 
 How could He give up that vine to be devastated by the wild beasts ? 
 Will He not appear at the head of the armies of Israel, as once He 
 went before her sons in the desert with a pillar of fire .? Will He not, 
 as of old, lift up the light of His countenance upon them ? 
 
 The • mention of the three tribes, " Ephraim, Benjamin, and 
 Manasseh," may perhaps denote that this is a Psalm for the 
 northern kingdom. Some have supposed it to have been a prayer 
 of the Ten Tribes in their captivity in Assyria, and it has been 
 conjectured that the Inscription of the LXX., virtp toO ' ktrmiplov, 
 is to be taken in this sense. Calvin, on the other hand, thinks 
 that it is a prayer for the Ten Tribes, by a poet of the southern 
 kingdom. 
 
 In the journey through the wilderness the three tribes of Ephraim, 
 Beniamin, and Manasseh were ranged side by side, and in the order 
 of march followed immediately behind the Ark (Numb. ii. 17 — 24). 
 This explains their mention in the Pfialm. The prayer of the 
 Psalmist is, that God would again lead His people, again go forth at 
 
PSALM LXXX. 387 
 
 the head of their armies as He did of old. Everything favours this 
 interpretation. God is addressed as the Shepherd of Israel who led 
 Joseph " Uke a flock," with manifest reference to the journeys through 
 the wilderness (see Ixxvii. 20). The petition is, that He who " is 
 throned above the Cherubim would shine forth." Here the allusion 
 is to the Ark, and the manifestation of the Divine glory. Then 
 naturally comes the mention of those tribes whose position was 
 directly behind the Ark. Hence the whole prayer may be regarded 
 as a prayer for national restoration, and for the same Divine suc- 
 cour which had been so signally vouchsafed to their fathers in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Still, whilst on this ground I am disposed to believe that the whole 
 nation is the object of the Psalmist's hopes and prayer, I am also 
 inclined to think that the prominence given to Joseph and Benjamin 
 may best be accounted for by supposing that the Psalmist was either 
 a native of the northern kingdom, or that he had some strong sym- 
 pathy with his brethren in Israel. In the 77th, 78th, and 8ist Psalms, 
 we meet with a similar peculiarity in the form of the national desig- 
 nation, and in all it may indicate some special relation on the part of 
 the writer to the kingdom of IsraeL 
 
 [for the precentor, according to " THE LILIES — A TESTIMONY."* 
 A PSALM OF ASAPH.] 
 
 I Thou Shepherd of Israel, give ear, 
 Thou that leadest Joseph hke a flock ; 
 Thou that sittest (throned above) the Cherubim, shine 
 forth. 
 
 I. Shepherd of Israel. On the (Throned above) the Cheru- 
 
 figure as common to this group of bim : as in xcix. i. Comp. xxii. 3, 
 
 Psalms, bearing the name of Asaph, "throned above the praises of Israel," 
 
 see on Ixxvii. 20. There is an allu- where see note. The expression de- 
 
 sion to Gen. xlviii. 15, "the God notes the dwelling of God in His 
 
 who was my Shepherd" [E.V. "who temple, and the manifestation of His 
 
 fed me "], and xlix. 24. In hoth presence there, as is evident from the 
 
 passages Jacob blesses Joseph and his verb following, 
 
 sons. So here it follows: "Thou Shine forth, appear in all Thy 
 
 tliat leadest Joseph like a flock." Glory and Majesty for our help. See 
 
 * See note on Ps. xlv. p. 173. 
 
 C C 2 
 
38S 
 
 PSALM LXXX. 
 
 2 Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseli, 
 
 Stir up Thy strength and come to save us. 
 
 3 O God, do Thou turn us again. 
 
 And show the light of Thy countenance, that we may- 
 be saved. 
 
 4 O Jehovah, God (of) hosts. 
 
 How long wilt Thou be angry with Thy people that 
 prayeth .' 
 
 1. 2, where the same word is used of 
 God's coining forth from His Sanc- 
 tuary in Zion to execute judgement. 
 
 2. To SAVE us, Heb. " for our 
 salvation. " 
 
 Before Ephraim, &c. The three 
 tribes are mentioned together with 
 reference to the position which they 
 occupied in the march through the 
 wilderness, where they followed in 
 the order of procession immediately 
 behind the Ark. (See Numb. ii. 17 — 
 24, ) This falls in with the language 
 of the previous verse, ** Thou that 
 sittest enthroned above the Cherubim^ 
 shine forth." It is strange how com- 
 pletely this fact, which is the obvious 
 explanation of the mention of these 
 three tribes together, has been over- 
 looked by nearly all the recent Ger- 
 man interpreters. Bear this in mind, 
 and it becomes evident that, what- 
 ever the national disaster here de- 
 plored, the prayer is that these tribes 
 may be restored to their ancient 
 position, united as of old, and as of 
 old led by God Himself, with the 
 visible symbols ot His Presence. 
 
 3. Turn us again, either from 
 the Exile, supposing the Psalm to 
 have been written after the captivity 
 of the Ten Tribes ; or in the more 
 general sense of recovery from dis- 
 aster, as in Ix. i. 
 
 Show the light of Thy coun- 
 tenance. Again an allusion to the 
 history of the people in the wilder- 
 
 ness, Numb. vi. 25. See on Ixvii. i, 
 iv. 6. 
 
 4. God (of) hosts, see on lix. 5. 
 On this repetition of the Divine 
 Names Hengstenberg remarks : "In 
 prayer all depends upon God, in the 
 full glory of His being, walking before 
 the soul. It is only into the bosom 
 of such a God that it is worth while 
 to pour out lamentations and prayer. 
 ' Jeh ovah, ' correspondi ng to the ' Shep- 
 herd of Israel,' ver. i, points to the 
 fulness of the love of God towards His 
 people ; and ' God, (God of) hosts,' 
 corresponding to ' throned above the 
 Cherubim,' to His infinite power to 
 help them." 
 
 How long wilt Thou be angry, 
 &c. ; lit. " How long hast Thou 
 smoked." The preterite after the in- 
 terrogative in this sense is unusual. 
 But the full form of expression would 
 be, " How long hast Thou been . . . 
 and wilt continue to be . . . angry." 
 Comp. Ex. X. 3, xvi. 28. The use of 
 the verb " to smoke," said of a per- 
 son, is also without parallel. The 
 usual phrase would be, "will Thine 
 anger smoke." Comp. Ixxiv. i ;xviii. 
 8 (where see note) ; Deut. xxix. 20. 
 But the figure is bolder here than in 
 the other passages, as it is applied 
 immediately to God Himself. God, 
 who is Light and Love, is also "a 
 consuming fire." 
 
 With Thy people that pray- 
 eth, lit. "i« {i.e. during) the prayer 
 
PSALM LXXX. 
 
 3S9 
 
 5 Thou hast fed them with tears as bread, 
 
 And hast made them to drink of tears in great 
 measure. 
 
 6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours, 
 
 And uur enemies mock (us) at their pleasure. 
 ^ God (of) hosts, turn us again, 
 
 And show the light of Thy countenance, that we may 
 be saved. 
 
 8 Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt, 
 
 Thou didst drive out the heathen and plant it ; 
 
 9 Thou madest room before it, 
 
 And when it had taken root, it filled the land : 
 
 10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, 
 
 And the boughs thereof were like the cedars of God. 
 
 11 She sent out her branches unto the sea, 
 
 And her young shoots unto the river. 
 
 of Thy people. " That which seems 
 so mysterious, that wliich calls for 
 the expostulation and the entreaty is, 
 that even whilst they pray, in spite of 
 that prayer, God's wrath is hot dgainst 
 them. 
 
 6. A STRIFE, i.e. not an object of 
 contention amongst themselves, but 
 rather an object which they vied with 
 one another in assailing. 
 
 Unto our neighbours, not the 
 great powers, such as the Assyrians, 
 Chaldeans, and Egyptians, but the 
 petty states which bordered on Judaea, 
 who were always ready to exult over 
 every misfortune that befel the Israel- 
 ites. Comp. Ixxix. 12. 
 
 At their pleasure, lit. " for 
 themselves," i.e. for their own satis- 
 faction. 
 
 8, Thou broughtest out, or 
 "transplantedst." Delitzsch quotes 
 from Shemoth Rabba, c. 44. " When 
 cultivators wish to improve a vine, 
 what do they do ? They root it up 
 out of its place, and transplant it to 
 
 A vine. The same comparison 
 is found in other passages : Is. v. i — 
 7, xxvii. 2 — 6 ; Jer. ii. 21, xii. 10 ; 
 Ezek. xvii. 5 — 10. In some of these 
 passages the figure of a vineyard is 
 mixed with that of the vine, and 
 such is partly the case here : see ver. 
 1 2. That tiiere is a reference to the 
 blessing of Joseph (see above on ver. 
 i) can hardly be doubted. Observe 
 especially the word "son,"' ver. 15 
 (E. V. "bough"), compared with 
 Gen. xlix. 22, " Joseph is a fruitful 
 son " (E. V. " a fruitful bough "). 
 
 Thou didst drive out, &c. 
 Comp. xliv. 2. 
 
 9. Madest room, by destroying 
 the Canaanites, as the soil is prepared 
 for planting, by " gathering out the 
 stones," &c. Comp. Is. v. 2. 
 
 10. Cedars of God. See on 
 xxxvi. 6. 
 
 11. Sea . . . RIVER, i.e. from 
 Gaza on the Mediterranean to Eu- 
 phrates. Comp. Ixxii. 8. The allusion 
 is to the time of Solomon, of whom it 
 
39° 
 
 PSALM LXXX. 
 
 12 Why hast Thou broken down her hedges, 
 
 So that all they which pass by the way do pluck 
 her ? 
 
 13 The boar out of the wood doth root it up, 
 
 And the wild beasts of the field devour it. 
 
 14 O God (of) hosts, turn, we beseech Thee, 
 
 Look down from heaven, and see. 
 And visit this vine ; 
 
 1 5 And protect that which Thy right hand hath planted. 
 
 And the son whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. 
 
 16 It is burnt with fire, it is cut down ; 
 
 They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. 
 
 17 Let Thy hand be over the man of Thy right hand, 
 
 all the region on this side the river, 
 from Tiphsah [i.e. Thapsacu-^, on tlie 
 western banlc of the Euphrates) even 
 to Azzah (or Gaza)," I Kings Iv. 24. 
 Comp. Deut. xi. 24, "Every place 
 whicti the soles of your feet shall 
 tread upon shall be yours ; from the 
 wilderness and Lebanon, from the 
 river, the river Euphrates, even unto 
 the west sea shall be your boundaries. " 
 See also ^j>en. xxviii. 14 ; Josh. i. 4. 
 
 12. Portions of this verse are re- 
 peated in Ixxxix. 40, 41. Comp. 
 also Is. V. 5. 
 
 13. The BOAR OUT OF THE WOOD, 
 as in Jer. V. 6, "the lion out of the 
 wood." It has been supposed that 
 some particular enemy is meant, such 
 as the Assyrian monarch or Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, but this is negatived by the 
 indefinite expression in the parallel 
 clause, " the M'ild beasts of the field," 
 or more literally, ' ' that which moveth 
 in the field." 
 
 15. The son. Ewald and others 
 render "the branch," or "shoot,'' 
 referrhig to Gen. xlix. 22, where the 
 word no doubt occurs in this sense 
 (see above on ver. 8), a sense which 
 would be very suitable here v\ith 
 
 reference to the figure of the vine. 
 But the expressions in ver. 17, "son 
 of man," " man of Thy right hand," 
 seem rather to indicate that here, 
 too, the figure is dropt. The am- 
 biguous word may, however, have 
 been chosen designedly, the more 
 readily to connect the figure with 
 what follows. The son evidently, 
 means the nation of Israel, as in 
 Ex. iv. 22 ; Hos. xi. i. 
 
 Thou m.^idest strong, i.e. whom 
 Thou didst carefully rear till it 
 reached maturity. Comp. Is. xliv. 
 14, where the same word is used of 
 a tree. See also Ixxxix. 21, and 
 similar expressions in Is. i. 2, xxiii. 4. 
 
 16. It is cut down. The word 
 occurs also in Is. xxxiii. 12, of thorns 
 cut down that they may be burned. 
 In this verse the lamentation over 
 the present condition of the nation 
 is resumed. In the first clause the 
 figure of the vine reappears ; in the 
 second there is an abrupt transition, 
 to the nation of whom the line is 
 the figure. 
 
 17. Man of Thy right hand. 
 This has been explained (l) "one 
 whom Thy right hand protects, 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 391 
 
 Over the son of man whom Thou madest strong for 
 Thyself : 
 
 18 So will we not go back from Thee : — 
 
 Do Thou quicken us, and we will call upon Thy Name. 
 
 19 Jehovah, God (of) hosts, turn us again. 
 
 Show the light of Thy countenance, that we may be 
 saved. 
 
 one who is the object of Thy special 
 care and love ; or {2) " one whom 
 Thou hast won for Thyself by Thy 
 right hand " (in allusion to God's put- 
 ting forth His power on behalf^ of 
 Israel) ; or (3) with reference to ver. 
 15, one whom God's right hand 
 planted. This last is perhaps best, as 
 thus the tv/o clauses of ver. 1 7 answer 
 to the two of ver. 15. Israel has 
 been both planted and made strong 
 by God, and on both grounds asks 
 
 God's protecting care. Some see 
 in this title, together with that of 
 "son of man " in the next clause, 
 a designation of the Messiah, who 
 in the same sense is said, in ex. i, 
 S, to sit on the right hand of God. 
 But the obvious relation of this 
 verse to ver. 17 rather leads to the 
 conclusion that the nation of Israel, 
 the vine spoken of before, is meant. 
 
 18. Quicken us, i.e. restore us to 
 a new life. Comp. Ixxi. 20 ; Ixxxv, 6. 
 
 PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 This Psalm was apparently intended to be sung at one or more of 
 the great national Festivals. There has, however, been much differ- 
 ence of opinion as to the particular Festival or Festivals for which 
 it was originally composed. 
 
 The view which is maintained by some of the most eminent critics 
 supposes that the exhortation of the Psalm refers both to the Feast 
 of Trumpets on the first of the month, and to the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles, which lasted from the fifteenth to the twenty-first or twenty- 
 second. This would explain the mention both of "the new moon'' 
 and of "the full moon," both marking important Festivals, and 
 Festivals occurring in the same month. Both would be kept with 
 loud expressions of joy. The blowing of cornets, and the apparatus 
 of musical instruments, by which the first is to be announced, were 
 
392 PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 certainly not usua at the Passover, whereas they would be perfectly 
 in keeping with so joyous an occasion as the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 The music in Hezekiah's celebration of the Passover (2 Chron. xxx. 
 21, &c), to which Hengstenberg refers, was probably exceptional. 
 The peculiar circumstances under which the Feast was then kept, 
 and the great joy which it called forth, would sufficiently account for 
 this mode of celebration, but there is no hint given that musical 
 instruments were ever employed, as the Passover was originally 
 observed ; and the general character of the Feast is against such a 
 supposition.* It is a further evidence that the Feast of Tabernacles 
 is meant, that it is styled so emphatically " our feast." See note on 
 ver. 3. 
 
 On the relation of the two Festivals which, on this supposition, are 
 combined, more will be found in the note on that verse. 
 
 Properly speaking, there are no strophical divisions. The Psalm 
 consists of two parts : — 
 
 I. In the first the Psalmist summons his nation to the Festival, 
 bidding them keep it with loud music and song, and every utterance 
 of joy, because it was ordained of God, and instituted under circum- 
 stances worthy of everlasting remembrance. Ver. i — 5. 
 
 II. In the next he abruptly drops his own words. What those 
 circumstances were, what the meaning of God's revelation then given, 
 the people had forgotten ; and it is for him, in his character of 
 Prophet as well as Poet, to declare. It is for him to show how that 
 voice from the past had its lesson also for the present ; how every 
 festival was God's witness to Himself ; how it repeated afresh, as it 
 were, in clear and audible accents, the great facts of that history, 
 the moral of which was ever old and yet ever new. But the Psalmist 
 conveys this instruction with the more imposing solemnity, when, 
 f-uddenly breaking off his exhortation, he leaves God Himself to 
 speak. 
 
 I is no more the ambassador, it is the Sovereign who appears in 
 the midst of His people, to remind them of past benefits, to claim 
 their obedience on the ground of those benefits, and to promise the 
 utmost bounties of grace, on the condition of obedience, for the 
 future. Ver. d — 16. 
 
 There could be no grander conception of the true significance of 
 
 * Hwjce TholiTck conjectures that this Psalm was composed for Hezekiah's celebration. 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 393 
 
 tlie religious feasts of the nation than this. There are so many 
 memorials of God's love and power, so many monuments set up to 
 testify at once of His goodness, and of Israel's ingratitude and per- 
 rerseness, so many solemn occasions on which He comes as King 
 and Father to visit them, to rekindle anew their loyalty and their 
 affection, and to scatter amongst them the treasures of His bounty. 
 To give this interpretation to the Festivals, to put in its true light 
 the national joy at their celebration, appears to have been the object 
 of the Psalmist. If so, it is a matter of secondary importance what 
 particular Festival or Festivals were chiefly before his eye. 
 
 [for the precentor, upon the GITTITH.* (a psalm) of ASAPH.] 
 
 1 Sing joyfully unto God our strength, 
 
 Shout aloud unto the God of Jacob. 
 
 2 Raise a song, and bring hither the timbrel, 
 
 The pleasant harp with the lute. 
 
 3 Blow (the) cornet in the new moon, 
 
 Ver. I — 5. The Festivals are to 
 be kept with the loudest expressions 
 of joy and thanksgiving, as Israel's 
 special privilege, as instituted by 
 God Himself, and as a gieat me- 
 morial of His redemption. 
 
 1. Shout aloud. There may be 
 an allusion in this verb to the ex- 
 pression in Numb. xxix. I, where the 
 noun employed is from the same root 
 (rendered in the E.V., "it is a day 
 oi blowing the trumpets"). On the 
 first day of the seventh month (Tisri) 
 two silver trumpets (at a later period 
 120, see 2 Chron. v. 12) were to be 
 blown. 
 
 2. Raise a song &c. or, "take 
 musick" (the noun is used both of 
 the human voice and of instru- 
 mental music), "and strike the 
 timbrel." 
 
 3. The cornet. " The shophnr 
 is especially remarkable as being 
 
 the only Hebrew instrument which 
 has been preserved to the present 
 day in the religious services of the 
 Jews. It is still blown, as in time 
 of old, at the Jewish new year's 
 festival, according to the command 
 of Moses (Numb. xxix. i)." (Engel, 
 Hist, of Music, p. 292. ) Tlaese in- 
 struments are commonly made of 
 cows' or rams' horns ; they differ 
 somewhat in shape, some being 
 much more curved than others, and 
 the tube of some not being round 
 but flattened. Engel mentions one 
 in the Great Synagogue in London, 
 which has this verse of the Psalm 
 inscribed on it. He also quotes 
 David Levi (Kites and Ceremonies 
 of the Jews), as saying that the 
 trumpet is made of a ram's horn, 
 in remembrance of Abraham's sacri- 
 fice (Gen. xxii. 12, 13), which, accord- 
 ing to the Jewish tradition, was on 
 
 See note on Ps. viii. p. 37. 
 
394 PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 At the full moon, on our (solemn) feast. 
 
 4 For it is a statute for Israel, 
 
 An ordinance of the God of Jacob : 
 
 5 He appointed it as a testimony in Joseph, 
 
 the new year's day, "and therefore 
 we make use of a ram's horn, be- 
 seeching the Almighty to be propitious 
 to us in remembrance and through 
 the merits of that great event." 
 
 In the new moon. Strictly 
 speaking, this might be any new 
 moon ; for in the beginnings of their 
 months they were to blow with trum- 
 pets over their burnt-offerings, &c.. 
 Numb. X. lo ; but perhaps the new 
 moon of the seventh month, the new 
 year's day, is especially meant. (See 
 Numb. xxix. i.) And so the Chald. 
 paraphrases, ' ' in the month of 
 Tisri. " 
 
 At the full moon. Such is 
 apparently the meaning of the word 
 here, and of the similar Aramaic 
 form in Prov. vii. 20 (though the 
 E.V. has in both passages "the 
 appointed time "). If, then, the new 
 moon is that of the seventh month, 
 * ' the full moon " must denote the 
 Feast of Tabernacles, which began 
 on the 15th of the same month. 
 Accordingly there follows — 
 
 On our (solemn) feast, i.e. 
 the Feast of Tabernacles, which 
 was also called pre-eminently ' ' the 
 Feast," I Kings viii. 2, 65 (where 
 the E.V. has "a feast," wrongly), 
 xii. 32 ; Ezek. xlv. 25 ; Neh. viii. 
 14 ; 2 Chron. v. 3, vii. 8. 
 
 But are we to understand that 
 both Festivals, that at the new 
 moon and that at the full, were to 
 be ushered in with the blowing of 
 cornets? Such seems to be the 
 meaning. Delitzsch thus explains, 
 I think rightly, the reference to the 
 two. Between the Feast of Trum- 
 pets on the 1st of Tiari, and the Feast 
 
 of Tabernacles, which lasted from the 
 15th to the 2ist or 22nd, lay the 
 Great Day of Atonement on the loth 
 of the month. This circumstance 
 gave a peculiar significance to the 
 Feast of Tabernacles — made it, in 
 fact, the chief of all the Feasts, inas- 
 much as it was the expression of 
 the joy of forgiveness and -.reconcilia- 
 tion declared by the High Priest to 
 the nation on that solemn day. Hence 
 it was kept with more than ordinary 
 rejoicing. And hence the Psalmist 
 would have the gladness of the new 
 moon repeated "at the full moon, 
 on the day of our solemn feast." 
 The first was but a prelude to the 
 last ; the one looked forward to the 
 other ; and therefore the loud music 
 of the one was to usher in the other 
 also. 
 
 4. For. The festivals are thus 
 joyfully to be kept because they are 
 of Divine appointment, and a spe- 
 cial and distinguishing privilege of 
 the nation. The same preposition 
 before ' ' Israel " marks them as the 
 recipients, before "God" denotes 
 that He is the Author and Giver of 
 the law. 
 
 5. Testimony, used of a single law, 
 or not, as usually, of the whole body 
 of laws. See note on xix. 7. It was 
 a great witness and memorial set up 
 of God's power and love. 
 
 Joseph. Hupfeld remarks that it 
 is used after "Israel" and "Jacob" 
 in the preceding verse, merely as 
 another designation of the whole 
 nation, as Ixxx. I. Hengstenberg 
 says, "Joseph occupies the place of 
 Israel here, because during the whole 
 period of their residence in the land 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 395 
 
 When He went forth against the land of Egypt, 
 Where I heard a language that I knew not : 
 
 of Egypt the nation owed everything 
 to Joseph, 'the crowned among his 
 brethren,' Gen. xlix. 26. Their 
 oppression began with the king who 
 knew not Joseph, and this name 
 could only belong to them with re- 
 ference to that time." And similarly 
 Calvin. But it is far more natural, 
 surely, to see in the use of this name 
 here, as in Psalm Ixxx., an indication 
 that the viriter belonged to the 
 northern kingdom. 
 
 Against the land of Egypt, 
 wrongly rendered by the Ancient 
 Verss. "from the land of Egypt," 
 because they supposed that "the going 
 forth" could only be that of Israel 
 out of Egypt. But it is simpler to 
 retain the usual meaning of tlie pre- 
 position, and to refer the pronominal 
 suffix, not to Israel, but to God : 
 " When He ((iod) went forth against 
 the land of Egypt, " as in the slaying 
 of the first-born (Exod. xi. 4, "I 
 will go forth through the midst of 
 Egypt "), and in all that He did for 
 the deliverance of His people. 
 
 As this verse connects "the institu- 
 tion of the Feast with a particular 
 event, namely, the departure from 
 Egypt, it does unquestionably furnish 
 a strong argument to those who be- 
 lieve that the allusion is to the Pass- 
 over. For no other Feast was then 
 instituted. This difficulty is usually 
 got rid of by saying that the note of 
 time is not to be pressed, and that 
 the Feast of Tabernacles did belong 
 to the earlier legislation, Exod. xxiii. 
 16 ; x\xiv. 22. But I confess this is, 
 to my mind, not quite satisfactory. 
 On the other hand, both the Jewish 
 tradition and the manner of celebra- 
 tion as here described are against the 
 Passover. I incline, therefore, to 
 think that the "new moon" and 
 
 " full moon " are put for any feasts 
 that were held at those times respec- 
 tively, all of which, beginning with 
 the Passover, might thus be spoken 
 of as dating from the Exodus. 
 
 I HEARD. The first person is used 
 because the Psalmist speaks in the 
 name of his people, identifying him- 
 self with them. 
 
 A LANGUAGE THAT I KNEW NOT. 
 What was this unknown tongue? 
 Two interpretations have been. given. 
 It has been explained (i) Of the lan- 
 guage of the Egyptians, which was -<x 
 foreign tongue to the Hebrews, who 
 were "strangers in the land of 
 Egypt." Comp. cxiv. i, " the people 
 of strange language," with Deut. 
 xxviii. 49 ; Is. xxxiii. 19 ; Jer. v. 15. 
 Accordingly, this fact is mentioned as 
 one of the aggravations of their con- 
 dition in Egypt, like the toiling with 
 "the burden" and " the basket." 
 (2) Of the voice of God, a voice which 
 the people had heard as uttered in 
 His judgements upon the Egyptians, 
 and in His covenant made with them- 
 selves, but had not understood (comp. 
 Acts vii. 25). This language is then 
 given in substance in a poetical form 
 by the Psalmist, who seems suddenly 
 to hear it, and to become the inter- 
 preter to his people of the Divine 
 voice. He here places in a fresh 
 lig^t, gives a new application to, the 
 earlier revelation, the meaning and 
 purpose of which were not then 
 understood. 
 
 Hupfeld supposes it to be called an 
 "unknown" language merely be- 
 cause it is Divine, unlike the every- 
 day known language of men. Ab. 
 Ezra sees a reference to the words 
 of God uttered on Sinai. So also 
 Delitzsch, who would explain the 
 expression by reference to Exod. vi. 2, 
 
396 
 
 PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 6 " I removed his shoulder from the burden, 
 
 His hands ceased from (toihng with) the basket. 
 
 7 In thy distress thou calledst, and I delivered thee, 
 
 I answered thee in the secret place of thunder, 
 
 I proved thee by the waters of Meribah : [Selah.] 
 
 8 ' Hear, O my people, and let Me testify unto thee ; 
 
 O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken unto Me, 
 
 &c. *'It was the language of a 
 known, and yet unknown God, which 
 Israel heard from Sinai. God, in 
 fact, now revealed Himself to Israel 
 in a new character, not only as the 
 Redeemer and Saviour of His people 
 from their Egyptian bondage, but also 
 as their King, giving them a law 
 which bound them together as a 
 people, and was the basis of their 
 national existence. " 
 
 The latter interpretation, which 
 regards the language here spoken of 
 as the voice of God, and as virtually 
 given ill the following verses, is now 
 that most commonly adopted. 
 
 6. The words of God follow with- 
 out any indication of a change of 
 speakers. The Prophet identifies 
 himself with, and becomes the organ 
 of, the Divine voice. He reminds 
 Israel of that fact in connection with 
 which the Festival was instituted. 
 
 It is as though, amidst all the glad- 
 ness of the feast, and all the music 
 and the pomp of its celebration, other 
 thoughts arose, not to check, but to 
 guide the current of a holy exultation. 
 The sound of trumpet and timbrel 
 and sacred song must be hushed, 
 while Jehovah speaks to tell His for- 
 getful people the lesson of their past 
 history associated with that festival, 
 the warning and the expostulation 
 suggested by their own perverseness. 
 If they would praise Him aright, it 
 must be with hearts mindful of His 
 goodness, and sensible of their own 
 unworthiness and ingratitude. For 
 
 the spirit in which all festivals should 
 be kept, see on the offering of the 
 first-frurts, Deut. xxvi. i — n. 
 
 Burden, in allusion to Ex. i. ii ; 
 v. 4, 5 ; vi. 6 ; where the same word 
 occurs in the plural. 
 
 The basket. This word is not 
 found in Exod., and its meaning is 
 doubtful. It may either mean (i) a 
 basket, in which heavy burdens were 
 carried, such as are now seen pour- 
 trayed on the monuments at Thebes ; 
 or (2) an earthen pot, with reference 
 to the work in clay which the Israel- 
 ites were compelled to perform. 
 Hence the E.V. renders "his hands 
 were delivered from making Mi? /ofa." 
 
 7. The secret place of thun- 
 der is the dark mass of the thunder- 
 cloud in which God shrouds His 
 Majesty. (Comp. xviii. 11 ; Hah. 
 iii. 4.) Here there is probably a 
 special reference to the cloud from 
 which Jehovah looked forth in the 
 passage through the Red Sea, Exod. 
 xiv. (comp. the note on Ixxvii. 16) ; 
 as there follows the mention of the 
 second great miracle, the giving the 
 water from the rock. 
 
 I PROVED THEE. (Deut. xxxiii. 8.) 
 The mention of Israel's sin here, 
 which did not of itself belong to an 
 account of the institution of the feast, 
 prepares the way for the exhortation 
 which follows. 
 
 8 — 10. This is a discourse within a 
 discourse. It is the language which 
 God held with His people when He 
 proved them. 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 397 
 
 9 That there should be in thee no strange god, 
 
 And that thou shouldest not bow down unto the god 
 of the stranger ! 
 
 10 — I am Jehovah thy God, 
 
 Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, 
 Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it' 
 
 11 But My people hearkened not unto My voice, 
 
 And Israel was not willing to obey Me. 
 
 12 So I gave them up unto the stubbornness of their 
 
 heart, 
 That they should walk after their own counsels. 
 
 13 Oh that My people would hearken unto Me, 
 
 That Israel would walk in My way ! 
 
 14 I would soon put down their enemies, 
 
 And turn My hand against their adversaries. 
 
 15 The haters of Jehovah should crouch before Him 
 
 And their time should be for ever. 
 
 16 He would feed thee also with the fat of wheat. 
 
 8. Comp. Deut. vi. 4, and see the 
 note, Ps. 1. 7. 
 
 10. Comp. Deut. v. I, 6, &c. 
 
 11. Luther remarks : "It is some- 
 thing dreadful and terrible that He 
 says My people. If it had been a 
 stranger, to whom I had shown no 
 particular kindness, &c." 
 
 12. So I GAVE THEM UP. The 
 word is used of the lettmg go of 
 captives, slaves, &c. ; of giving over 
 to sin. Job viii. 4. This is the great- 
 est and most fearful of all God's 
 punishments. Comp. Ixxviii. 29. 
 
 Stubbornness. The word occurs 
 once in the Pentateuch, Deut. xxix. 
 19, and several times in Jeremiah. 
 The E.V. renders it here, "lusts," 
 and in all the other passages " imagi- 
 nation," but wrongly. 
 
 13. A transition is here made from 
 the Israel of the past to the Israel of 
 the present, because the history of 
 
 the former is repeated m the history 
 of the latter. 
 
 14. And turn My hand. There 
 is no need to supply any ellipse or 
 explain the phrase as meaning '* again 
 turn." It is used as in Is. i. 25 ; 
 Amos i. 8. 
 
 15. To Him, i.e. Israel (for "the 
 haters of Jehovah" are the enemies 
 of Israel) ; and hence with the usual 
 change from the collective sing, to 
 the plural, " their thas" in the next 
 clause is "the time of Israel." 
 
 Time, in the general sense of du- 
 ration merely, and not implying pro- 
 sperity. Indeed the word may be 
 used of times of adversity as well as 
 prosperity (see xxxi. 15). 
 
 16. The form of the promise is 
 borrowed from Deut. xxxii. 13, &c. 
 Comp. Ezek. xvi. 19. 
 
 He would feed thee. The 3rd 
 person instead of the 1st, which recurs 
 
39S PSALM LXXXII. 
 
 And with honey out of the rock should I satisfy thee. 
 
 again in the next clause. These 
 abrupt interchanges of persons are by 
 no means uncommon in Heb. poetry. 
 Comp. xxii. 26. 
 
 Fat of wheat, as cxlvii. 14, Deut. 
 xxxii. 14 ; comp. Gen. xlix. 20. So 
 "fat of the land," Gen. xlv. 18 ; of 
 
 fruits. Numb, xviii. 12, 29, as denoting 
 the best of the kind. 
 
 Honey out of the rock : another 
 image of the abundance and fertihty 
 which would have been the reward of 
 obedience. 
 
 PSALM LXXXII. 
 
 This Psalm is a solemn rebuke, addressed in prophetic strain, to 
 those who, pledged by their office to uphold the Law, had trampled 
 upon it for their own selfish ends. It is a " Vision of Judgement," in 
 which no common offenders are arraigned, as it is no earthly tribunal 
 before which they are summoned. 
 
 God Himself appears, so it seems to the prophet, taking His stand 
 in the midst of that nation whom He had ordained to be the wit- 
 nesses of His righteousness, amongst the rulers and judges of the 
 nation who were destined to reflect, and as it were to embody in visible 
 form, the majesty of that righteousness. He appears now not, as in 
 the 50th Psalm, to judge His -people, but to judge the judges of that 
 people ; not to reprove the congregation at large for their formality 
 and hypocrisy, but to reprove the rulers and magistrates for their open 
 and shameful perversion of justice. 
 
 As in the presence of God, the Psalmist takes up his parable against 
 these unjust judges : " How long will ye judge a judgement which is 
 iniquity " (such is the exact force of the original), " and accept the 
 persons of the ungodly ? " These men had scandalously desecrated 
 their office. They had been placed in the loftiest position to which 
 any man could aspire. They were sons of the Highest, called by His 
 name, bearing His image, exercising His authority, charged to execute 
 His will, and they ought to have been in their measure His living 
 
PSALM LXXXII. 399 
 
 representatives, the very pattern and likeness of His righteousness and 
 wisdom. But instead of righteousness they had loved unrighteousness. 
 They had shown favour to the wicked who were powerful and wealthy. 
 They had crushed the poor, the defenceless, the fatherless, whose only 
 protection lay in the unsullied uprightness and incorruptibility of the 
 judge, and whom God Himself had made their charge. 
 
 A witness of these wrongs, the Psalmist appeals to them to dis- 
 charge their duty faithfully and uprightly : "Judge the miserable and 
 fatherless," &c. (ver. 3, 4). But the appeal is in vain. They have 
 neither feeling nor conscience. Morally and intellectually, intellec- 
 tually because morally, they are corrupt. The light that is in them 
 is darkness. And thus, venal, unscrupulous, base, hard-hearted, the 
 judges and magistrates have loosened the bonds of law, and the con- 
 sequence is that the foundations of social order are shaken, and the 
 whole fabric threatened with dissolution. Such is the terrible picture 
 of a disorganized society, the very fountains of justice defiled and 
 poisoned, suggested to us by the words in which the Psalmist here 
 addresses the judges of Israel. He himself had thought, he tells us, 
 that their high dignity, and the representative character of their 
 office, placed them so far above other men that they were like beings 
 of a different race ; but he warns them that the tyrannous exercise of 
 their power will not last for ever, that, as in the case of other rulers of 
 the world, it may only accelerate their fall. And then, finally, he 
 turns to God, and appeals to Him who is the Judge, not of Israel 
 only, but of the world, to arise and execute judgement in the earth, 
 which they who bore His name had perverted. 
 
 The passages which approach most nearly to the Psalm in their 
 general character are (l) the following verses from Isaiah (iii. 
 13—15): "Jehovah standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge 
 the people. Jehovah will enter into judgement with the ancients 
 of His people and the provinces thereof: for ye have eaten up the 
 vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. ' What mean ye 
 that ye beat My people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor ? ' 
 saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts:" — and (2) Jehoshaphat's charge 
 to his judges, which " he set in the land, throughout all the fenced 
 cities of Judah, city by city " (2 Chron. xix. 5 — 7) : " Take heed 
 what ye do ; for ye judge not for man but for Jehovah, wko is with 
 you in the judgement. Wherefore now let the fear of Jehovah be 
 upon you ; take heed and do it : for there is no iniquity with 
 Jehovah our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." 
 
400 PSALM LXXXH. 
 
 It IE a peculiarity of the Psalms of Asaph that God is for the most 
 part spoken of as Judge ; as exercising that judgement for His own 
 glory, both in Israel and among the nations of the world. See Psalms 
 I., Ixxv., Ixxvi. 
 
 [a psalm of ASAPH.] 
 
 I God standeth in the congregation of God : 
 In the midst of (the) gods doth He judge. 
 
 I. Earthly rollers and judges are 
 not, as they are too ready to think, 
 supreme, independent, irresponsible. 
 There is One higher than the highest. 
 As Jehoshaphat reminds the judges of 
 Israel, God is with them in the judge- 
 ment. Calvin quotes, to the like 
 effect, the words of Horace : 
 
 " Regum timendorum in proprios 
 
 greges, 
 Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis," 
 
 &c. 
 
 Men cannot see God with their bodily 
 eyes, but He is present with the king 
 on his throne (hence Solomon's 
 throne is called the throne of Jeho- 
 vah, I Chron. xxix. 23), with the 
 judge on the judgement-seat, with all 
 who hold an authority delegated to 
 theui by Him. 
 
 Standeth; more literally, "taketh 
 His stand." 
 
 In the congregation of God, 
 i.c. in the midst of Israel itself (called 
 in Numb, xxvii. 17, xxxi. 16, Josh, 
 xxii. 16, 17, "the congregation of 
 Jehovah"), and not only in the midst 
 of the people who are the witnesses 
 of His righteousness) but amidst the 
 judges of the people who are the re- 
 presentatives of His righteousness. 
 They are called 
 
 Gods, not merely as having their 
 authority from God, but as His vice- 
 gerents, as embodying in themselves 
 the Majesty of Law, as those in whom 
 
 men look to find the most perfect 
 earthly pattern of Di-vine attributes, 
 of ti-uth and justice, and mercy and 
 impartiality. This name "gods" is 
 applied to the judges of Israel in the 
 Pentateuch. (See Exod. xxi. 6, xxii. 
 8, 28.) There, I think, Elohim does 
 not mean God, in whose name judge- 
 ment is pronounced, but the judges 
 themselves acting in His name and 
 by His authority. If in Exod. xxii. 28, 
 we must render, ' ' thou shall not 
 revile God, nor curse the ruler of thy 
 people," rather than " thou shalt not 
 revile the-j-udges" &o., still it is im- 
 plied that the ruler bears the image of 
 God, and that every insult offered to 
 such a representative of God in His 
 kingdom is an insult against God. 
 The use of the name "gods" may 
 have been intended to remind the 
 world how near man, created in God's 
 image, is to God Himself So in the 
 8th Psalm it is said, " Thou hast made 
 him a little lower than God." (See 
 note there on ver. 5.) This would hold 
 especially of those high in office. 
 Thus God says to Moses in reference 
 to Aaron, " Thou shalt be to him in- 
 stead of God " (Exod. iv. 16). And 
 again : " See I have made thee a god 
 to Pharaoh" (vii. i). In I Sam. 
 xxviii. 13, the witch of Endor says of 
 Samuel, " I saw a god ascending out 
 of the earth" (in allusion either to 
 his majestic appearance or possibly to 
 his ofiSceas judge). In Ps. xlv. 6, the 
 
PSALM LXXXII. 
 
 401 
 
 2 How long will ye give wrong judgement, 
 
 And accept the persons of the wicked ? [Selah.j 
 
 3 Judge the miserable and fatherless, 
 
 Do justice to the afiflicted and needy. 
 
 4 Rescue the miserable and poor, 
 
 Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. 
 
 5 They know not, and they understand not. 
 
 king is called God (see note there). 
 But it was in connection with the 
 office of judge that the stamp of divi- 
 nity was most conspicuous. " The 
 judgement is God's," Deut. i. 17 ; 
 whoever comes before it comes before 
 God. So, again, Moses uses the 
 phrase, "When ye come to me, to 
 inquire of God," Exbd. xviii. 15. 
 Tile same idea is found in heathen 
 writers. Seneca (de dementia, i. i) 
 makes Nero say : " Electus sum qui 
 in teri'is Deorum vice fungerer ; ego 
 vitas necisque gentibus arbiter, qualem 
 quisque sortem statumque habeat in 
 manu mea positum est." ' 
 
 2. It is usual to consider what fol- 
 lows, to the end of ver. 6, as the words 
 of God, as He appears, in vision, 
 pleading with the judges of His 
 people. To me it seems preferable to 
 regard the passage as a rebuke ad- 
 dressed, in the true prophetic strain, 
 by the Poet himself, to those whose 
 miquity called for the protest (some- 
 what in the same strain as in Iviii. i, 
 2) ; ver. 6, in particular, is thus more 
 forcible, and the address to God, in 
 ver. 7, less abrupt. 
 
 Hovir LONG, like Cicero's " Quous- 
 que tandem ; " the abuse having be- 
 come intolerable, because of its long 
 standing. 
 
 Give wrong judgement, lit. 
 "judge iniquity;" "give a judge- 
 ment which is iniquity itself : " (the 
 opposite being "judging upright- 
 ness," Iviil I). Comp. Lev. xix. 15. 
 
 Accept the persons. Such, 
 there can be no doubt, is the meaning 
 of the phrase here, and so it is under- 
 stood by the LXX. Comp. Prov. 
 xviii. 5 ; Lev. xix. 15. Jehoshaphat 
 in his address to the judges (2 Chron. 
 xix. 7) reminds them that " with the 
 Lord our God is no respect of persons, 
 nor taking of gifts. " 
 
 3. Miserable. See note on xli. i . 
 Needy : it is persons such as these 
 who most of all need the protection 
 of the judge. Their very existence 
 depends on his integrity. The orphan 
 who has lost his natural protectors, 
 the humble who have no powerful 
 friends, the poor who can purchase no 
 countenance, to whom shall they look 
 but to God's vicegerent ? And if he 
 violates his trust, God who is the 
 " God of the widow and the father- 
 less " (Ixviii. 5), and who in the Law 
 declares, " Cursed be he who per- 
 verteth the cause of the stranger, the 
 fatherless, and the widow" (Deut. 
 xxvii. 19), will not leave him un- 
 punished. 
 
 Do JUSTICE TO, lit. "justify,"' i.e. 
 give them their due. 
 
 5. Those expositors who consider 
 verses 2 — 6 to contain the words of 
 God, suppose that here, either the 
 Psalmist introduces his own reflec- 
 tions, or that a pause takes place after 
 ver. 4, during which God waits to see 
 whether those whom He rebukes will 
 listen to His rebuke. But the transi- 
 tion from the 2nd person to the 3rd is 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 PSALM LXXXIL 
 
 In darkness they walk to and fro : 
 All the foundations of the earth are out of course. 
 
 6 I myself have said, Ye are gods., 
 
 And ye are all sons of the Most High. 
 Yet surely like (other) men shall ye die, 
 And fall like one of the princes. 
 
 so common as to render either expo- 
 sition unnecessary. It is one strain 
 continued, only that now the infatua- 
 tion, as before the moral perversion, of 
 the judges is described. 
 
 The expostulation falls dead without 
 an echo. The men are infatuated by 
 their position, and blinded by their 
 own pride. 
 
 They know not, absolutely, as 
 in liii. 4 ; Ixxiii. 22. Comp. Is i. 3. 
 Moral blindness is the cause of all 
 sin. 
 
 In darkness : Prov. ii. 13. 
 
 They walk to and fro : denot- 
 ing generally the conversation, manner 
 of life, &c. 
 
 All the foundations, &c. 
 Comp. Ixxv. 3. The dissolution of 
 society is the inevitable result of cor- 
 ruption in high places. 
 
 6. I HAVE said. The pronoun is 
 emphatic. If these are the words of 
 God, as most interpreters suppose, 
 then in pronouncing judgement upon 
 the judges, He declares that it was 
 He Himself who called them to their 
 office, and gave them the name, to- 
 gether with the dignity which they 
 enjoy. (This interpretation falls in 
 readily with our Lord's words in John 
 x. 34.) If, on the other hand, the 
 Psalmist speaks, he expresses his own 
 feelings and convictions. "There 
 was a time when I myself thought 
 that your office and dignity clothed 
 you with something of a superhuman 
 character, but you have degraded it, 
 and degraded yourselves ;. you are but 
 mortal men, your tenure of office is 
 
 but for a little while.'' He does not 
 add, what naturally suggests itself to us, 
 and what Calvin inserts here, that they 
 must shortly give an account before 
 the bar of God. If this is implied in 
 ver. 7, it is not after death. 
 
 Our Lord appeals to this verse in 
 His argument with the Jews when 
 they charged Him with blasphemy, 
 "because He, being a man, made 
 Himself God." (John x. 34—38.) 
 His words are : " Is it not written in 
 your Law, I said ye are gods? If 
 it called them gods to whom the word 
 of God came — and the Scripture can- 
 not be broken — say ye of Him whom 
 the Father sanctified, and sent into the 
 world. Thou blasphemest, because I 
 said I am the Son of God?" The 
 argument is one a minori ad majus. 
 How could they charge Him with 
 blasphemy in claiming to be the Son 
 of God when their own judges had in 
 their own scriptures been styled gods I 
 They moreover were unrighteous 
 judges (the worthy ancestors, it , is 
 implied, of the unrighteous Pharisees 
 and members of the Sanhedrim, who 
 were our, Lord's bitterest opponents), 
 whereas He -Was One whom the 
 Father had sanctified, and sent into the 
 world, and whose life and works were 
 a witness to His righteousness. ,By 
 nature, and irrespective of their office, 
 they had no right to the name of 
 Elohim, "gods," nor had they proved 
 themselves worthy of it by their cha- 
 ractei-. He was in character as in 
 nature Divine. To them,M« word of 
 God had come, whether the word of 
 
PSALM LXXXIII. 
 
 403 
 
 7 Arise, O God, judge Thou the earth, 
 
 For Thou hast all the nations for Thine inheritance. 
 
 God's revelation, or the word by 
 which they had been appointed to 
 their office. He was Himself the Word 
 of the Father. Their office was but 
 for a time ; they were mortal men, 
 yet wearing, by Divine permission, a 
 Divine name. He had been with the 
 Father before He came into the world, 
 was by Him sealed and set apart, and 
 sent to be not a judge but the Christ, 
 not one of many sons, but emphati- 
 cally the Son of God, the King of an 
 everlasting kingdom. Both in His 
 
 office and in His person He has far 
 more right to the title " Son of God " 
 than they have to that of "gods." 
 There is moreover further implied in 
 this argument that the Old Testament 
 does contain hints, more or less ob- 
 scure, preludes and foreshadowings, 
 which might have arrested the 
 thoughtful reader, as mysteriously 
 prefiguring that close and real union 
 between God and man which was 
 afterwards fully exhibited in the In- 
 carnation. 
 
 PSALM LXXXIII. 
 
 We know of no period in the history of Israel when all the various 
 tribes here enumerated were united together for the extermination of 
 their enemy. The annals have preserved no record of a confederacy 
 so extensive. Hence it has been assumed that the enumeration in 
 the Psalm is merely designed to subserve the purposes ofi poetry, to 
 heighten the colouring, to represent the danger as even greater and 
 more formidable than it really was. It may have been so. Divine 
 inspiration does not change the laws of the imagination, though it 
 may control them for certain ends. Or it may have been that the 
 confederacy as originally formed, and as threatening Israel, was 
 larger than that which actually advanced to the struggle. The wider 
 the alliance, and the more heterogeneous its elements, the more pro- 
 bable it is that some would drop ofif, through dissensions, or jealousies, 
 or the working of timid counsels. But as this Psalm helps us to com- 
 plete the narrative in Judges of the defeat of the Midianites (see note 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 PSALM LXXXIII. 
 
 on ver. ii), so it may itself supplement the narrative of the particular 
 event which called it forth. It may describe some event which we 
 read in the history, but which there assumes less formidable propor- 
 tions, and in so doing it may help us to complete the picture. If so, 
 there can be very little doubt with what portion of the history it best 
 synchronizes. The confederacy must be that which threatened Judah 
 iti the reign of Jehoshaphat, the account of which is given in 2 Chron. 
 XX. There, as in the Psalm, Moab and Ammon, "the children of 
 Lot," are the leading powers ; and though there is some doubt about 
 the reading '' other beside the Ammonites," in ver. i, the Edomites 
 are mentioned as forming a part of the invading army. These might 
 naturally include bordering Arabian tribes, mentioned more in detail 
 in the Psalm. 
 
 One expression in Jehoshaphat's prayer bears a close resemblance 
 to the language of the Psalm in ver. 12, when he prays, "Behold, 
 I say, how they reward us to come to cast us out of Thy possession 
 which Thou hast given us to inherit." (2 Chron. xx. II.) The 
 remark with which the narrative ends : " And the fear of God was 
 on all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard tliat the 
 Lord fought against the enemies of Israel," is almost like a recorded 
 Answer to the prayer with which the Psalm closes. 
 
 It has been conjectured, as the Psalm is said to be "a Psalm of Asaph," 
 that it may have been composed by Jahaziel, the " Levite of the sons 
 of Asaph," who encouraged Jehoshaphat's army before it went out 
 to battle ; and that the Psalm itself may havCj been chanted by the 
 band of singers whom the king appointed to precede the army on 
 its march (Ibid. ver. 21.) But no argument can be built upon the 
 title. One thing, however, is clear, the confederacy of which the Psalm 
 speaks was formed before Assyria became a leading power. Moab 
 and Ammon hold the foremost place, while Asshur joins them only 
 as an ally : " they are an arm to the children of Lot." The Poet is fully 
 alive to the danger which threatens his nation. Look where he may, 
 the horizon is black with gathering clouds. Judah is alone, and his 
 enemies are compassing him about. The hosts of invaders are settling 
 like swarms of locusts on the skirts of the land. East, south, and 
 west, they are mustering to the battle. The kindred but ever hostile 
 tribe of Edom on the border, issuing from their mountain fastnesses ; 
 the Arab tribes of the desert ; the old hereditary foes of Israel, 
 Moab and Ammon ; the Phihstines, long since humbled and driven 
 back to their narrow strip of territory by the sea, yet still apparently 
 
PSALM LXXXIJI. 405 
 
 formidable, — all are on the march ; all, like hunters, are hemming in 
 the lion who holds them at bay. 
 
 It is against this formidable confederacy that the Psalmist prays. 
 He prays that it may be with them as with the other enemies of Israel, 
 with Jabin and Sisera, in days of old. But he prays for more than 
 deliverance or victory. He prays that the Name of Jehovah may be 
 magnified, and that all may seek that Name. Two expressions, in 
 fact, give the key to the Psalm — show us the attitude of the Poet 
 in presence of the danger : ver. 5, " They are confederate against 
 Thee;" ver. 18, "Let them know that Thau art most high over all 
 the earth." 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : — 
 
 I. The first describes the magnitude of the danger, and enumerates 
 the foes who are gathering on all sides, hemming in Judah, and 
 intending by mere force of numbers utterly to crush and destroy it. 
 Ver. 1—8. 
 
 II. The next contains the prayer for their complete overthrow, with 
 an appeal to God's former mighty acts on behalf of His people when 
 threatened by their enemies. Ver. 9 — 18. 
 
 [a song, a psalm of ASAPH.*] 
 
 1 God, keep Thou not silence, 
 
 Hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God. 
 
 2 For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult. 
 
 And they that hate Thee have lifted up (their) head. 
 
 3 Against Thy people they plot craftily. 
 
 And take counsel together against Thy hidden ones. 
 
 1. Keep not silence, lit. "Let Have lifted up (their) head. 
 (there) not (be) silence to Thee," as Comp. iii. 3 ; xxyii. 6 ; and Judg. 
 in Is. Ixii. 7. On the general sense viii. 28. 
 
 of this verse see note on xxviii. I. 3. Plot craftily, ht. "make 
 
 2. Thine enemies, in itself a crafty (their) plot, or secret consul- 
 ground of appeal and of consolation. tation." 
 
 Make a tumult, lit. "roar like Thy hidden ones: those whom 
 
 the waves of the sea." God holds in the hollow of His 
 
 * Se; Note on Ps. 1. p. 202. 
 
4o6 
 
 PSALM LXXXIII. 
 
 4 They say, " Come, let us cut them off that they be no 
 
 more a nation, 
 And that the name of Israel be no more in remem- 
 brance." 
 
 5 For they have taken counsel with (one) heart together, 
 
 Against Thee they are confederate : — 
 
 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, 
 
 Moab and the Hagarenes ; 
 
 7 Gebal and Ammon, and Amalek, 
 
 Philistia, with them that dwell at Tyre. 
 
 8 Asshur also is joined with them, 
 
 hand ; those to whom He is a wall 
 of fire round about them, that none 
 may do them hurt; those of whom 
 He says, he that toucheth you 
 toucheth the apple of Mine eye. 
 Comp. xvii. 8 ; xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 20. 
 
 4. That they be no more a 
 NATION. Comp. Jer. xlviii. 2 ; Is, 
 vii. 8 ; and similar phrases in xvii, 
 I, XXV. 2. They would in their fury 
 blot out Israel from the map of the 
 world, or, as Calvin says, "it is 
 as if they had formed the design of 
 subverting the counsel of God on 
 which the continued existence of the 
 Church hath been founded." 
 
 5. With (one) HEART TOGETHER, 
 perhaps it would be simpler and more 
 certain to render : " They have taken 
 counsel in tlieir heart together" 
 (Jerome, corde fariter), the heart 
 being the source of their machina- 
 tions. Comp. V. 9 ; Ixiv. 5 ; i Chron. 
 xii. 38. 
 
 Against Thee, as in ver. 3, 
 " against Thy people." God and 
 His people are one. So our Lord 
 says to Saul, "Why persecutest 
 thou Me ? " 
 
 6—8. The enumeration of the con- 
 federate tribes. First, those on the 
 south ..and east. Then, those on the 
 west, Philistia and Tyre. Lastly, the 
 Affiyrians in the north, not yet re- 
 
 garded as a formidable power, but 
 merely as allies of Moab and Am- 
 mon. 
 
 6. The tents, as properly descrip- 
 tive of the nomad Arabian tribes.. 
 
 The Ishmaelites, according to 
 Gen. XXV. 18, were spread over the 
 whole tract of country south of Pales- 
 tine, lying between Egypt and the 
 Persian Gulf Part of this territory 
 is occupied by Amalekites in i Sam. 
 XV. 7. 
 
 The Hagarenes dwelt to the 
 east of Palestine, in the land of 
 Gilead. Tliey were driven out by 
 the tribe of Reuben in the time of 
 Saul (l Chron. v. 10, 18 — 20). 
 
 7. Gebal, usually supposed to de- 
 note the mountainous country south 
 of the Dead Sea, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Petra (Arab. Dgebel). 
 
 8. Asshur. If the Psalm was 
 written in Jehoshaphat's reign, this 
 is the first mention of the Assyrians 
 since the days of Nimrod, and here 
 evidently they hold a subordinate 
 place. We do not hear of the Assy- 
 rian kingdom as a great power for- 
 midable to Israel till the time of 
 Menahem, who " was reduced to the 
 necessity of buying off an invasion of 
 the Assyrians (the fii-st incursion of 
 that people) under Pul," (2 Kings 
 XV. 19.) 
 
PSALM LX XXIII. 407 
 
 They have been an arm to the children of Lot. 
 
 9 Do Thou to them as unto Midian, 
 
 As unto Sisera, as unto Jabin at the torrent of 
 Kishon, 
 
 10 Who were destroyed at En-dor, 
 
 Who became dung for the land. 
 
 11 Make them, (make) their nobles, like 'Oreb and like 
 
 Zeeb ; 
 Yea, all their princes, like Zebah and like Zalmunna, 
 
 They have been an arm. 
 Corap. xliv. 3, Ixxi. l8 ; Is. xxxiii. 2. 
 This agrees with the statement in 
 Chronicles that Moab and Ammon 
 were the leaders of the confederacy. 
 
 9. Midian, mentioned by antici- 
 pation with reference, not to the 
 example which immediately follows, 
 but to that in ver. 11. The victory 
 of Gideon over the Midianites was 
 one of the most glorious in the 
 national history, one the memory of 
 which was fondly cherished. When 
 Isaiah would describe the victories 
 which are to precede the peaceful 
 reign of the Messiah, he can compare 
 the overthrow of the enemy to no- 
 thing so well as to that on "the day 
 of Midian." The allusion to it here 
 may also have been suggested by 
 the fact, that many of the enemies 
 now arrayed against Israel were the 
 same as on that occasion ; for with 
 the Midianites were the " Amalekites 
 and all the children of the East." 
 (Judg. vL 33. See Is. ix. 4, x. 26 ; 
 Hab. iii. 7.) 
 
 Sisera . . . Jabin. See the 
 history in Judg. iv. v. 
 
 The torrent of Kishon, which 
 swept away the corpses of the enemy, 
 Judg. v. 21. Others, " the valley 
 or Wadi of Kishon : "—the Hebrew 
 word means both. 
 
 10. En-dor is not mentioned in 
 Judges, but the Psalm shows us that 
 
 tradition associated with that spot 
 the death of the two chiefs. It is a 
 considerable but now deserted vil- 
 lage, four miles south of Tabor. The 
 name occurs besides, Josh. xvii. 11 ; 
 I Sam. xxviii. 7. 
 
 II. 'Oreb and Zeeb, the two 
 " princes," or probably " generals of 
 the army," whilst Zebah and Zal- 
 munna have the title of "kings." 
 (Judg. vii. 25 ; viii. 5). The allusions 
 here and in Is. x. 26, help us to 
 complete the narrative in Judges. 
 Isaiah implies that the slaughter must 
 have been awful beyond anything 
 that the history records, for " he 
 places it in the same rank with the 
 two most tremendous disasters re- 
 corded in the whole of the history 
 of Israel — the destruction of the 
 Egyptians in the Red Sea, and of 
 the army of Sennacherib." Here 
 the discomfiture and flight of the 
 Midianites is prominent. " In ima- 
 gery both obvious and vivid to every 
 native of the gusty hills and plains 
 of Palestine, though to us compara- 
 tively unintelligible, the Psalmist 
 describes them as driven over the 
 uplands of Gilead like the clouds of 
 chaff blown from the threshing-floors ; 
 chased away like the spherical masses 
 of dry weeds which course over the 
 plains of Esdraelon and Philistia — 
 flying with the dreadful hurry and 
 confusion of the flames, that rush and 
 
4o3 
 
 PSALM LXXXIII. 
 
 12 Who said : " Let us take to ourselves 
 
 The pastures of Gad in possession." 
 
 1 3 O my God, make them as the whirHng dust. 
 
 As stubble before the wind. 
 
 14 As a fire that burneth a forest. 
 
 And as a flame that setteth the mountains in a blaze, 
 
 15 So pursue them with Thy tempest, 
 
 And with Thy hurricane make them afraid. 
 
 16 Fill their faces with confusion, 
 
 That they may seek Thy Name, O Jehovah. 
 
 leap from tree to tree and hill to hill 
 when the wooded mountains of a 
 tropical country are by chance ig- 
 nited." See the article Ores, in 
 Smith's Diet, of the Bible. 
 
 12. Pastures. Others, " habita- 
 tions." But there is no reason to 
 depart from the usual signification. 
 See on Ixxix. 7. Comp. xxiii. 2. 
 Israel is God's flock lying down in 
 His pastures. The figure accords 
 with the usage of Psalms ascribed to 
 Asaph. 
 
 13. As THE WHIRLING DUST. 
 The same word is rendered by the 
 E. V. in the parallel passage, Is. 
 xvii. 13 : a rolling thing. 
 
 ' ' And (they) shall be chased as the 
 chaff of the mountains before 
 the wind, 
 
 And like a roUing thing before the 
 whirlwind. " 
 
 Here both the A. V. and P. B. V. 
 have " as a wheel," and so all the 
 ancient versions. But the parallel 
 rather suggests "spherical masses 
 of weeds " (as Mr. Grove renders), 
 chaff, dust, anything driven in rolling 
 masses by the wind. 
 
 14. The image in this verse is also 
 found in Isaiah. See chap. ix. 18, 
 X. 17, 18 ; and comp. Zech. xii. 6. 
 
 Hupfeld connects this with the 
 
 preceding verse, and so supposes a 
 confusion in the figure (such as he 
 finds also in xxi. 9), the sense being, 
 " O my God, make them as a forest 
 which is burned with fire." But it is 
 far better to take ver. 14 and ver. 15 
 as the two members of the com- 
 parison, and then there is no need to 
 resort to such metonymy. Both 
 images are as consistent as they are 
 grand. In both there is the same 
 thought of the rushing wind— in the 
 first sweeping all before it, in the 
 second spreading the terrible confla- 
 gration ; in the two combined, the 
 swift breathless pursuit and the un- 
 sparing slaughter. 
 
 15. With this verse and what fol- 
 lows comp. XXXV. 4 — 6. 
 
 16. The object with which the 
 Psalmist prays for the Divine judge- 
 ment upon the foes who are gather- 
 ing to swallow up his people is re- 
 markable. It is " that they may seek 
 the Name of Jehovah, that they may 
 know (ver. 18) that He is most high 
 over all the earth." This is the 
 nobler aspiration which mingles with 
 the prayer for vengeance. The man 
 in danger, feeling his own and his 
 country's peril, desires to see his 
 enemies destroyed with a slaughter 
 as terrible, a discomfiture as com- 
 plete, as that on the " day of Midian." 
 The man who loves and fears Jehovah 
 
PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 409 
 
 17 Let them be ashamed, and made afraid evermore, 
 
 Yea, let them be confounded and perish, 
 
 18 And let them know that Thou, (even) Thy Name 
 
 Jehovah alone, 
 Art most high over all the earth. 
 
 desires to see others, even his ene- 
 mies, love and fear Him too. A pious 
 Englishman in Luclinow, or Delhi, 
 or Cawnpore, during the Indian Mu- 
 tiny, might have understood how 
 possible it was to reconcile the two 
 parts of the prayer. 
 
 The prayer in ver. l8 might indeed 
 only mean that by their overthrow they 
 should be forced to acknowledge the 
 power and greatness of Jehovah, an 
 external subjection as iii xxxi. 17, 
 but the prayer that they should seek 
 His Name must mean more than this. 
 
 The end of all God's judgements, as 
 of all history, is the same, that all 
 should confess that Jehovah is One, 
 and His Name One, Zech. xiv. 9. 
 
 18. Thou, Thy Name, i.e. Thou 
 who dost reveal Thyself as Jehovah. 
 Calvin observes that the pronoun is 
 emphatic, because there is implied 
 a comparison between the true God, 
 the God of Israel, and all false gods, 
 ' ' as though the prophet had said. 
 Lord, make them feel that their idols 
 which they have made for themselves 
 are nothing. " 
 
 PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 In its general character this Psalm very nearly resembles Psalm 
 xlii. — xliii. Like that, it is the ardent outpouring of a man of no 
 common depth and tenderness of feeling, the expression of a devoted 
 love for the house and worship of Jehovah. Like that, it is written 
 under circumstances of suffering and depression, at a time when the 
 Psalmist was in exile, or at a distance from the Sanctuary. Like that, 
 it touches, and even more fully, on the celebration of the national 
 feast, and pictures the crowd of pilgrims on their way to the Holy 
 City. In both Psalms there is the same deep pathos, the same " ex- 
 quisite delicacy and tenderness of thought," in both the same strain 
 of remembrance and of anticipation, half sad, half joyful. Certain 
 turns of expression are the same in both. Compare ver. 2 here with 
 
410 PSALM LXXXIV 
 
 xlii. I, 2 ; ver. 4 here, " they will still (or yet) praise Thee," with 
 xlii. 5, " for I shall yet praise Him;" the name of God as "the 
 living God," ver. 2 here, and xlii. 2 (occurring nowhere else in the 
 Psalter) ; the phrase, " appear before God," ver. 7 here, and xlii. 2 ; 
 " Thy dwellings " or " tabernacles,'' ver. i here, and xliii. 3. But with 
 all these resemblances, there is this difference, that here nothing is 
 said to define exactly the locality in which the Psalm was written ; 
 nor is there any allusion to the taunts of enemies, to " men of deceit 
 and wrong," such as meet us in xlii. — xliii. 
 
 From the general likeness in structure, and sentiment, and colour- 
 ing of language, and yet perfect distinctness and originality, of the 
 two Poems, Ewald is doubtless right in concluding that both are by 
 the same author. 
 
 The former part of this Psalnj may also be compared with Psalm 
 Ixiii., and there are expressions which connect it with Psalms xxvii. 
 and Ixv. 
 
 Mr. Plumptre, who gives reasons for concluding that all the Korahite 
 Psalms were written during the reign of Hezekiah, by members of 
 that Levitical family, considers the Psalm to have been written on the 
 same occasion as Psalm xlii., and supposes that " a devout Levite or 
 company of Levites was hindered by the presence of Sennacherib's 
 army from going up at the appointed seasons to take their turn in the 
 ministrations of the Temple." He draws attention to " the touch which 
 indicates the closest possible familiarity with the Temple precincts. 
 The Levite minstrel remembers 'the sparrow and the swallow' that 
 fluttered about the courts of the Sanctuary there, and built their 
 nests upon its eaves, as they now love to haunt the enclosures of the 
 Mosque of Omar." He observes what new force the Psalmist's 
 words acquire, " I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my 
 God," &c., if we regard them not as the vague indeterminate wish of 
 any devout worshiper, but remember that they fell from the lips of 
 one of those sons of Korah "whose special function it was to be 
 ^keepers of the gate of the taber7iacle' in the time of David (l Chron. 
 ix. 19), and sure to be appointed therefore to an analogous service in 
 the Temple." And he concludes that " this Psalm, like Psalm xlii., 
 was written by some Levite detained against his will ' in the land of 
 Jordan ' and ' on the slopes of Hermon,' somewhere, i.e.. in the upland 
 Gilead country, and that when the recollection of past journeys to 
 Jerusalem would bring back the scenes of travel through the valley 
 of the Jordan, which, with its deep depression and tropical climate. 
 
PSALM LXXXIV. 4ti 
 
 had from the earliest date been famous for its balsam-weeping trees. 
 Some parched rock-ravine on the way would be that which the 
 Psalmist would think of as having been watered by the tears of 
 pilgrims." {Biblical Studies, pp. 163 — 166.) 
 
 The Psalm consists of two principal divisions : the first of which 
 dwells on the blessedness of God's service in His house, the supreme 
 happiness of those who are permitted to take their part in it, ver. 
 1—7 ; the second consists of a prayer that the Psalinist himself, 
 though shut out from access to the Sanctuary, may nevertheless find 
 God to be his sun and shield, ver. 8 — 12. 
 
 [for the pkecentor. upon the gittith.* a psalm of the 
 
 SONS OF KORAH.t] 
 
 1 How lovely are Thy dwellings, O Jehovah (of) Hosts 1 
 
 2 My soul longeth, yea even fainteth, for the courts of 
 
 Jehovah ; 
 
 I. Thy dwellings. The plural And the same may be said of the 
 
 may either be used to denote the plural ** courts," in the next verse. 
 several parts of the sanctuary (see 2. By the COURTS, that part of 
 
 on Ixviii. 35), or perhaps rather the building is meant which was for 
 
 poetically, instead of the singular. the people at large. (So in Is. i. 12, 
 
 Comp. jtliii. 3, xlvi. 4, cxxxii. 5, 7. "Who hath required this at your 
 
 * See note on Ps. viii. p. 37. 
 
 t These words are first found in the inscriptions of Pss. xlii., xlvii. It is remarkable that the 
 inscription should assume this anonymous character, mentioning not the individual singer, but 
 only the family to which he belonged ; especially when we have in the inscriptions of other 
 Psalms (as, for instance, Ixxiii. — Ixxxiii.) the individual, instead of the family, or the like. 
 This may be owing to some circumstance lyith which we are unacquainted. These Levitical 
 singers may have been like the Bardic families or colleges/ in other nations, especially those 
 living in the mountain regions. All may have made poetry and music their profession, and 
 only in rare cases did an individual, perhaps, like Asaph, acquire great personal reputation. 
 The " Korah " whose " sons " are here spoken of, is the Levite who headed the insurrection 
 against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (Numb, xvi.)- We find his descendants existing 
 as a powerful Levitical family in the time of David, at least if they are to be identified, as is 
 probable, with the Korahites mentioned in i Chron. xii. 6, who, like our own warlike bishops 
 of former times, seem to have known how to doff the priestly vestment for the soldier's armour, 
 and whose hand could wield the sword as well as strike the harp. These Korahites were a 
 part of the band who acknowledged David as their chief at Ziklag; warriors "whos^ faces, 
 it is said, were Hke the faces of lions, and who were (for speed) like gazelles upon the 
 mountains," According to i Chron. ix 19, the Korahites were, in David's time, keepers of 
 the threshold of the Tabernacle; and still earlier, in the time of Moses, watchmen at the 
 entrance of the camp of the I evites. In i Chron xxvi. i — ig, we find two branches of this 
 family associated with that of Merari. as guardians of the doors of the Temple. There is 
 probably an allusion tr this their office, in Ps. Ixxxiv. 10* But the Korahites were also 
 celebrated musicians and singers, i Chron. vi. 16 — 33, where Heuian, one of the three famous 
 musicians oT the time, is said to be a tvorahite (comp. i .Chron. xxv.). The musical reputation 
 of the faniily continued in the time of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 19. 
 
412 
 
 PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 My heart and my flesh cry aloud to the living God. 
 
 3 Yea the sparrow hath found a house, 
 
 And the swallow a nest for herself where she hath 
 laid her young, 
 (Even) Thine altars, O Jehovah (of) Hosts, 
 My King and my God ! 
 
 4 Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house ! 
 
 hand to tread my courts.^' Comp. 
 Ixv. 4, cxvi. 19.) 
 
 On this intense expression of per- 
 sonal affection to God and His wor- 
 ship, see note on Ixiii. i. 
 
 Soul . . . heart . . . flesh. 
 Even more strongly than there (where 
 ' ' heart " is omitted) maiking the 
 whole man, with every faculty and 
 affection. The verbs are also very 
 expressive. The first, longeth, 
 means literally, " hath grown pale," 
 4s with the intensity of the feeling ; 
 the second, fainteth, is more ex- 
 actly, "faileth," or "is consumed," 
 (Job xix. 27). 
 
 Cry aloud. The verb in this 
 conjugation is used elsewhere of a 
 Joyful utterance, and some would 
 retain this meaning here, as if, even 
 amidst the sadness of exile, there 
 mingled with his longing a joy as he 
 remembers, and anticipates, in spite 
 of all that is adverse, communion 
 with God in Zion. 
 
 Living God. See note on xlii. 
 2, the only other place in the Psalms 
 where God is so named. This par- 
 ticular form of expressioi), 'El Chay, 
 occurs but twice beside in the O. T., 
 Josh. iii. 10, Hos. i. 10. In the 
 New Testament the name ' ' Living 
 God " is found in St. Matthew's 
 and St. John's Gospels, in the speech 
 of Paul and Barnabas in the Acts 
 (xiv. 15), in several of St. Paul's 
 Epistles, four times in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, and once in the 
 Revelation. 
 
 3. My King and my God. Thus 
 
 joined also in v. 2. The Psalmist, at 
 a distance from Zion, envies the birds 
 who are free to build their nests in 
 the immediate precincts of the Tem- 
 ple. They have a happiness which 
 he cannot enjoy. They are nearer to 
 God, so it seems to him in his de- 
 spondency, than he is. This is all 
 that is meant. Nor can I see any- 
 thing "trivial" in such a thought. 
 " Thine altars " is a poetical way of 
 saying "Thy house." It is mani- 
 festly a special term instead of a 
 general. Yet it has been seriously 
 argued, that no birds could or would 
 ever be suffered to build their nests 
 on the altar. Surely this sort of ex- 
 pression, which is hardly a figure, is 
 common enough. A parte potion fit 
 denominatio. We say, * ' There goes 
 a sail." What should we think of a 
 man who should argue that a sail 
 cannot go. The altars mean the 
 Temple. There was 
 
 "No jutty frieze, 
 Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but 
 
 these birds 
 Had made their pendant bed," 
 
 not to mention that trees grew within 
 the sacred enclosure, where birds 
 might have built their nests. The 
 comparison between the lot of the 
 birds, happy in their nearness to the 
 house of God, and the Psalmist far 
 removed and in exile, is suggested 
 rather than developed ; but it is suf- 
 ficiently obvious. 
 
 4. Even the birds are happy, who 
 find shelter beneath the sacred roof; 
 
PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 413 
 
 They will be still praising Thee. [Selah.] 
 
 5 Blessed are the men whose strength is in Thee, 
 
 In whose hearts are (those) ways, 
 
 6 Who passing through the Vale of Weeping, make it a 
 
 place of springs ; 
 
 far more happy — truly blessed are 
 they who dwell there, rendering the 
 reasonable service of a thankful heart. 
 The blessedness of God's house is 
 that there men praise Him. This it 
 was that made that house so precious 
 to the Psalmist. And what Christian 
 man can climb higher than this, — to 
 find in the praise of God the greatest 
 joy of his life ? 
 
 They will be still praising 
 Thee, 2.«. "always, continually." 
 
 5 — 7. But not only blessed are 
 they who dwell in the holy place in 
 God's city, and near to His house ; 
 blessed are they who can visit it, with 
 the caravan of pilgrims, at the great 
 national festivals. They cherish the 
 remembrance of such seasons. Every 
 spot of the familiar road, every sta- 
 tion at which they have rested, lives 
 in their heart. The path fliay be dry 
 and dusty, through a lonely and sor- 
 rowful valley, but nevertheless they 
 love it. The pilgrim band, rich in 
 hope, forgets the trials and difficulties 
 of the way : hope changes the ragged 
 and stony waste into living fountains. 
 The vale blossoms as if the sweet rain 
 of heaven had covered it with bless- 
 ings. Hope sustains them at every 
 step; from station to station they 
 renew their strength as they draw 
 nearer to the end of their journey, 
 till at last they appear before God, 
 present themselves as His worshipers, 
 in His sanctuary in Zion. 
 
 Such appears to be the general 
 scope of the passage, though the 
 meaning of the secoild clause, "In 
 whose heart are the ways," has been 
 much questioned. 
 
 There have been various interpre- 
 tations of the word " ways," but they 
 do not fall in with the general strain 
 and tenour of verses 5 — 7. The ways 
 (lit. " highways ") are those traversed 
 by the caravans of pilgrims — the ways 
 to the sanctuary. No wonder that 
 in all ages men have rejoiced to find 
 in this beautiful picture an image of 
 the Christian life. To what can that 
 so aptly be compared as to a pilgrim- 
 age in a vale of tears ? Is it not by 
 the hope of appearing before God in 
 the heavenly Jerasalem that the Chris- 
 tian is sustained? Does he not find 
 fountains of refreshment in the wil- 
 derness of the world ? Does not 
 God's grace visit him like the sweet 
 refreshing shower from heaven ? Does 
 he not advance from strength to 
 strength, from grace to grace, from 
 glory to glory, till he reaches his 
 journey's end ? 
 
 6. The Vale of Weeping. The 
 meaning of the word "Baca" is 
 doubtful, but all the ancient versions 
 render it by "weeping," and the 
 Masora remarks that it is the same 
 as "'&zzi!a" weeping. Comp. xxiii. 
 4, "valley of the shadow of deaths" 
 Burckhardt tells us that he found a 
 valley in the neighbourhood of Sinai, 
 which bore the name of "the valley 
 of weeping." 
 
 Others take Baca to be the name 
 of a tree, as it is in 2 Sam. v. 24, 
 I Chron. xiv. 14 ; and either (as the 
 E. V. there renders) "a mulberry- 
 tree," or more probably some species 
 of balsam-tree, dropping its tears of 
 balm, and so taking its name from 
 the Hebrew root which signifies 
 
4H 
 
 PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 Yea, the early rain covereth (it) with blessings. 
 
 7 They go from strength to strength, 
 
 (Every one of them) appeareth before God in Zion. 
 
 8 O Jehovah, God (of) Hosts, hear my prayer. 
 
 Give ear, O God of Jacob. [Selah.] 
 
 9 See, O God our shield, 
 
 And look upon the face of Thine anointed ; 
 
 10 For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand 
 
 (elsewhere) ; 
 I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, 
 Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 
 
 1 1 For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield, 
 
 " weeping." In this case some sandy 
 valleyis meant, where the trees grew, 
 and which took its name from them. 
 "With the love for detecting allusive 
 and, as it were, ominous meanings in 
 proper liames, which was character- 
 istic of Hebrew thought at all times, 
 . . . the Psalmist plays upon its ety- 
 mological significance. " — Plumptre, 
 Biblical Studies, p. 165. 
 
 The meaning of the verse is, that 
 the faith and hope and joy of the 
 pilgrims make the sandy vpaste a 
 place of fountains, and then (this is 
 the Divine side of the picture) God 
 from heaven sends down the rain of 
 His grace. The word denotes the 
 soft, gentle, autumnal rain (Joel ii. 23) 
 which fell after the crops were sown. 
 Thus the Vale of Weeping becomes 
 a Vale of Joy. 
 
 A PLACE OF SPRINGS. This is the 
 strict meaning of the word, rather 
 than "a spring" or "fountain." 
 Comp. cvii. 35. 
 
 7. From strength to strength, 
 ever renewing it, in spite of the toils 
 of the way, and in view of the jour- 
 ney's end, as Is. xl. 31. Comp. John 
 i. 16, and 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
 Appeareth. See note on xlii. 2. 
 
 Comp. especially Exod. xxiii. 17, 
 xxxiv. 23. 
 
 8. The Psalmist has pictured to 
 himself the blessedness of those who 
 dwell in the holy city, in immediate 
 proximity to God's house, the blessed- 
 ness of those who can join the pilgrim 
 caravans. Now he pours out a prayer 
 for himself that he, though distant, 
 may share the same blessing. 
 
 9. Our shield, and again ver. 
 II ; so God is called in iii. 3, where 
 see note, xxviii. 7, &c. 
 
 Look upon the face of Thine 
 ANOINTED. This foUowmg imme- 
 diately upon the words in ver. 8, 
 "hear my prayer," favours the sup- 
 position that the Psalm was written 
 by the king. So also does the use 
 of the pronoun of the first person in 
 ver. 10, introduced by the conjunc- 
 tion "for." Another might, how- 
 ever, offer the prayer on his behalf. 
 See XX., xxi., Ixi. 6. 
 
 10. Be a door-keeper, lit. "lie 
 on the threshold," or "busy oneself 
 on the threshold ; " the lowest place, 
 the meanest office in God's house is 
 a happiness and an honour beyond 
 all that the world has to offer. 
 
 11. Jehovah God (Elohim). This 
 
PSALM LXXXV. 
 
 415 
 
 Jehovah giveth grace and glory. 
 
 No good thing doth He withhold from them that 
 walk uprightly. 
 12 Jehovah (of) Hosts, 
 
 Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee ! 
 
 form of the Divine Name is charac- 
 teristic, as is well known, of the sec- 
 tion, Gen. ii. 4 — iii. 24, where it first 
 occurs. This is the only passage in 
 the Psalter where it is employed. 
 
 A SUN. This is the only place 
 where God is directly so called. In 
 other passages we have the more 
 general name of "Light," as in 
 xxvil I. Comp. however, Is. Ix. 19, 
 20 ; Rev. xxi. 23 ; and the expres- 
 sion " Sun of Righteousness," as 
 applied to the Messiah, Mai. iv. 2. 
 
 Upkightly, lit. "in perfectness ;" 
 
 see XV. 2. To such persons God will 
 'show His salvation, all that is com- 
 prised in those two great words 
 "grace" and "glory," whether they 
 can enter His earthly house or not. 
 
 And the Psalmist rises at last to 
 the joyful conviction, not only that 
 they are blessed who dwell in God's 
 house (ver. 4), or they who swell the 
 festal throng on their way to that 
 house (ver. 5), but they who, whether 
 they worship in it or not, are one 
 with Him by faith : " Blessed is the 
 man who trusteth in Thee." 
 
 PSALM LXXXV. 
 
 There seems every reason to conclude that this Psalm was written 
 after the return of the exiles from the Babylonish captivity. It opens 
 with an acknowledgement of God's goodness and mercy in the 
 national restoration, in terms which could hardly apply to any other 
 event. But it passes immediately to earnest entreaty for deliverance 
 from the pressure of existing evils, in language which almost con- 
 tradicts the previous acknowledgement. First we hear the grateful 
 confession, " Thou hast turned the captivity of Jacob ; " and then we 
 have the prayer, " Turn us, O God of our salvation." If the third 
 verse contains the joyful announcement, "Thou hast withdrawn all 
 Thy wrath," &c., the fifth pleads as if no such assurance had been 
 
4i6 PSALM LXXXV. 
 
 given : " Wilt Thou for ever be angry with us ? Wilt Thou draw out 
 Thine anger to all generations ? " 
 
 The most probable way of explaining this conflict of opposing 
 feelings is by referring the Psalm to the circumstances mentioned by 
 Nehemiah (chap. i. 3). The exiles on their return, he learnt, were 
 " in great affliction and reproach." And when he obtained leave to go 
 to Jerusalem himself, it was only in the midst of perpetual opposition 
 and discouragement (chap iv.) that he was able to carry on his work 
 of restoration. The bright prospect which was opening before them 
 had been quickly dashed. They had returned indeed, but it was to 
 a desolate land and a forsaken city, whose walls were cast down, and 
 her gates burned with fire ; whilst jealous and hostile tribes were 
 ever on the watch to assail and vex them. Hence it is that the 
 entreaty for mercy follows so hard upon the acknowledgement that 
 mercy has been vouchsafed. The 126th Psalm is conceived in a some- 
 what similar strain. In the latter portion of this Psalm (from ver. 8) 
 the present misery is forgotten in the dawning of a glorious future. 
 The prayer has been uttered ; the storm of the soul is hushed ; in 
 quietness and resignation the Psalmist sets himself to hear what God 
 will say, and the Divine answer is given, not in form, but in 
 substance, in ver. 9 — 12. It is a glowing prophecy of Messianic 
 times, most naturally connecting itself with the hopes which the 
 return from Babylon had kindled afresh, and well fitted to enable 
 those who heard it to triumph over the gloom and despondency of 
 the present. 
 
 It is not surprising, considering the bright picture which the latter 
 verses contain, that this Psalm should have been appointed by the 
 Church for the services of Christmas Day. 
 
 According to Hupfeld, the Psalm falls into two nearly equal 
 portions : — 
 
 (i) The Prayer of the people, or for the people, ver. 1—7 ; (2) the 
 Divine promise, ver. 8—13. Ewald and Olshausen suppose that 
 the first was intended to be sung by the congregation, the second 
 by the Priest, who after prayer seeks and receives the Divine answer. 
 
PSALM LXXXV. 417 
 
 [rOR THE PRECENTOR. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH .*] 
 
 1 Thou hast become favourable, O Jehovah, unto Thy 
 
 land, 
 Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. 
 
 2 Thou hast taken away the iniquity of Thy people. 
 
 Thou hast covered all their sin. [Selah.] 
 
 3 Thou hast withdrawn all Thy wrath, 
 
 Thou hast turned from the fierceness of Thine 
 anger. 
 
 4 Turn us, O God of our salvation. 
 
 And cause Thine indignation towards us to cease. 
 
 5 Wilt Thou for ever be angry with us .'' 
 
 Wilt Thou draw out Thine anger to all generations .'' 
 
 6 Wilt not Thou quicken us again, 
 
 That Thy people may rejoice in Thee .■* 
 
 7 Show us Thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, 
 
 And grant us Thy salvation. 
 
 8 I would hear what God Jehovah will speak. 
 
 1—3. The acknowledgement of Quicken, &c. Comp. Ixxi. 20, 
 
 God's goodness to His people in their Ixxx. 18. 
 
 restoration from the Babylonish cap- In Thee. Not in any earthly 
 
 tivity. blessings, even when they are vouch- 
 
 1. Tho0 hast brought BACK, safed J not in corn, or wine, or oil ; 
 &c. See on Ixviii. 18. not in the fatness of the earth or the 
 
 2. Taken away . . . covered. dew of heaven ; but in Him who 
 Both words are used in xxKii. i, where giveth all these things, who giveth 
 see notes. more than all these, Himself. 
 
 5. Forever. The emphatic word 8. I would hear, or, "let me 
 placed first, because there seemed to hear." Having uttered his sorrows 
 be no end to their calamities. Even and his prayer for better days, he 
 the return to their own land had would now place himself in the atti- 
 brought them apparently no rest, no tude of calm and quiet expectation, 
 consolation, no hope for the future. Like Habakl^uk, he will betake him 
 
 6. Thou. The pronoun is em- to his watch-tower, and wait to hear 
 phatic ; for God alone can thus revive what the Lord will speak. "He 
 the sad hearts and broken hopes of might have said," Calvin observes, 
 His people. "what the Lord will do; but since 
 
 * See note on Ps. Uxxiv., p. 411. 
 
 E E 
 
4i8 
 
 PSALM LXXXV. 
 
 For He will speak peace to His people and His be- 
 loved, 
 Only let them not turn again to folly. 
 9 Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, 
 That glory may dwell in our land. 
 
 10 Loving-kindness and truth have met together ; 
 
 Righteousness and peace have kissed (each other). 
 
 1 1 Truth springeth out of the earth, 
 
 And righteousness hath looked down out of heaven. 
 
 12 Jehovah will give that which is good, 
 
 And our land will give her increase. 
 
 God's benefits to His -Church flow 
 from His promises, the Psalmist men- 
 tions His mouth rather than His 
 hand, and at the same time teaches 
 us that patience depends on the calm 
 listening ear of faith." 
 
 Peace : that is God's great word, 
 which in fact sums up and comprises 
 all else, peace with Him declared to 
 all who are His beloved, the objects 
 of His loving-kindness (see on xvi. 
 lo) having the privileges of their cove- 
 nant relation to Him. 
 
 Folly : so the infatuation of sin is 
 spoken of. Comp. xiv. i, xlix. 13. 
 Or, perhaps idolatry may be meant; 
 and especially if the reference is to 
 the Babylonish captivity. 
 
 9. Glory, i.e. the manifested 
 Presence of God tabernacling visibly 
 amongst them, as of old. This hope 
 was destined to have its fulfilment, 
 but in a better and a higher sense, 
 when He who was the brightness of 
 the Father's glory tabernacled in hu- 
 man flesh, and men "beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only-be- 
 gotten of the Father." 
 
 10. The four virtues here men- 
 tioned are, as Calvin remarks, the 
 four cardinal virtues of Christ's king- 
 dom. Where these reign amongst 
 men, there must be true and perfect 
 felicity. He adds, however, "if any 
 one prefers to understand, by the 
 
 loving-kindness and truth here men- 
 tioned, attributes of God, I have no 
 objection to such a view." But the 
 truth is, the last are the basis and 
 source of the first. 
 
 11. The earth brings forth truth as 
 she brings forth the natural fruits, and 
 righteousness looks down from heaven 
 like some approving angel on the 
 renewed and purified earth. 
 
 The figures are designed in both 
 verses to show that these virtues are 
 not regarded merely in their separate 
 aspect, but as meeting, answering one 
 another, conspiring in perfect har- 
 mony to one glorious end. For this 
 mutual blessing from the heaven 
 above and the earth beneath, comp. 
 Is. xlv. 8, Hos. ii. 21 — 23. 
 
 12. The Psalmist passes from 
 spiritual to temporal blessings. " If 
 anyone objects to this mixing of the 
 two, the answer is easy : thei'e is 
 nothing to shock us, if God, whilst 
 He blesses the faithful with spiritual 
 blessings, should vouQhsafe to them 
 also some taste of His fatherly love 
 in the good things of this world ; for 
 St. Paul assures us that godliness 
 hath the promise of this life as well 
 as that which is to come." — Calvin. 
 He adds an important remark : "This 
 verse, moreover, shows us that the 
 power of fruitfulness was not once for 
 all bestowed on the earth (as men of 
 
PSALM LXXXVI. 419 
 
 13 Righteousness shall go before Him, 
 
 And follow His footsteps in the way. 
 
 no religion choose tc tnagine, that but that every year it is fertilized by 
 God at the creation j;ave to the the secret virtue of God, according as 
 several parts of His universe their He sees fit to testify to us His good- 
 several oihce, and then left them ness. 
 alone to pursue their own course), 
 
 PSALM LXXXVI. 
 
 This Psalm, which is inserted amongst a series of Korahite Psalms, 
 is the only one in the Third Book ascribed to David. That it was 
 written by him we can hardly suppose. Many of the expressions are, 
 no doubt, such as we meet with in his Psalms,, but there are also many 
 which are borrowed from other passages of Scripture. 'Indeed, the 
 numerous adaptations of phrases employed by other writers may 
 reasonably be taken as evidence of a much later date. Further, the 
 style is, as Delitzsch remarks, liturgical rather than poetical, and is 
 wholly wanting in that force, animation, and originality for which 
 David's poems are remarkable. The Psalm is stamped by the use 
 of the Divine Name, Adonai, which occurs in it seven times. 
 
 There is no regular strophical division, nor is it always easy to trace 
 clearly the connection between the several parts of the Psalm. Hup- 
 feld denies that there is any. Tholuck has traced it far more carefully 
 than any commentator I am acquainted with, and in the notes I have 
 given the substance of his remarks. 
 
 The introductory portion (ver. i — 5) consists of a number of earnest 
 petitions, based on several distinct pleas — the suffering (ver. i), the 
 faith (ver. 2), the continued and earnest supplication (ver. 3, 4) of the 
 Psalmist, and the mercy and goodness of God (ver. 5). 
 
 In the next part (ver. 6 — 13) he resumes his petition; expresses 
 his confidence that God will hear him, comforting himself with the 
 majesty and greatness of God, who is able to do all that he asks 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 PSALM LXXXVI. 
 
 (ver. 8-;— lo ; prays for guidance and a united heart, mixing with his 
 prayer resolves as to his conduct, and thanksgiving for deliverance 
 (ver. II— 13). 
 
 Finally (ver. 14 — 17) he speaks of the peril by which he has been 
 threatened, turns to God with affectionate confidence as to a graciotis 
 God, and casts himself fearlessly upon His mercy. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Bow down Thine ear, O Jehovah, answer me : 
 
 For I am afflicted and poor. 
 
 2 Keep my soul, for I am one whom Thou lovest ; 
 
 Do Thou, O my God, save Thy servant, 
 Who putteth his trust in Thee. 
 
 3 Be gracious unto me, O Lord, 
 
 For unto Thee do I cry all the day. 
 
 4 Rejoice the soul of Thy servant. 
 
 For unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 
 
 5 For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive. 
 
 And plenteous in loving-kindness to all them that 
 call upon Thee. 
 
 1. Bow DOWN, &c. Comp.lv. i, The appeal is not to anything in him- 
 2- self, but to God's goodness. This is 
 
 Afflicted and poor : alleged in clear from ver. 5. At the same time 
 the same way as a reason, xl. 1 7. he does not hesitate to say what the 
 This is not the highest ground which attitude of his heart is towards God, 
 can be taken in pressing for an answer and to urge his simple absolute con- 
 to our prayer, but it is a ground which fidence in God, as well as his unceas- 
 God suffers us to take, both because ing earnest prayer, as reasons why he 
 He declares Himself to be the helper should be heai-d. This is the language 
 of the needy ^comp. xii. 5), and be- of honest, straightforward simplicity, 
 cause it is the sense of their need and not of self-righteousness, 
 misery which drives men to God. 4. I LIFT up my SOUL, as in xxv. I. 
 Comp. for the same epithets xxxv. 5. Ready to forgive. The ad- 
 10, xxxvii. 14, Ixxiv. 21. jecLive occurs nowhere else. The 
 
 2. One whom Thou lovest. general sentiment of the verse ire- 
 The first plea was his need ; now he peated in 15) is borrowed from such 
 pleads his own covenant relation to passages as Exod. xx. 6, xxxiv. 6, 9 ; 
 God. It is unfortunate that the E.V. Numb. xiv. 18, 19, 
 
 renders : " for I am holy" (The It is on the broad ground of God's 
 
 mar^n gives the true rendering.) mercy, and of that mercy as freely 
 
PSALM LXXXVI. 
 
 421 
 
 6 Give ear, O Jehovah, to my prayer. 
 
 And hearken to the voice of my supplications. 
 
 7 In the day of my distress, I will call upon Thee, 
 
 For Thou wilt answer me. 
 
 8 There is none like unto Thee among the gods, O 
 
 Lord, 
 Neither (are there any works) like unto Thy works. 
 
 9 All nations whom Thou hast made 
 
 Shall come and bow themselves down before Thee, 
 O Lord, 
 And shall give glory to Thy name. 
 
 10 For great art Thou, and doest wondrous things : 
 
 Thou art God alone. 
 
 11 Teach me, O Jehovah, Thy way, 
 
 I will walk in Thy truth ; 
 
 bestowed on all "who seek it, that he 
 rests. He applies the general truth 
 (ver. 5) to his own case (ver. 6). In 
 ver. 7 he pleads again the need, under 
 the pressure of which he cries to God : 
 it is no unmanly, petulant, peevish 
 complaint that he utters. The ca- 
 lamity is real, ' and there is but one 
 who has power to deliver him. 
 
 6. Comp. V. I ; xxviii. 2 ; cxxx. 2. 
 
 7. Comp. XX. I ; 1. 15 ; Ixxvii. 2 ; 
 xvii. 6. 
 
 8 — 10. There are two kinds of 
 doubt which are wont in the hour of 
 temptation to assail the soul ; the 
 doubt as to God's willingness, and the 
 doubt as to God's pmver to succour. 
 The first of these the Psalmist has 
 already put from him : he now shows 
 that he has overcome the second. 
 God is able as well as willing to help, 
 and every being on the face of the 
 earth who receives help, receives it 
 from the hand of Him who is the 
 only God, and who shall one day 
 be recognised (so speaks the strong 
 prophetic hope within him, ver. 9) 
 as the only God. This hope rests on 
 the fact tliat God has created all men 
 
 ("all nations -whomThou hast made"), 
 and nothing can be imagined more 
 self-contradictory than that the spirit 
 which has come from God should re- 
 main for ever unmindful of 'its source. 
 In ver. 8 it might seem as if God were 
 merely compared with the gods of the 
 nations. In ver. 10 they are plainly 
 said to be "no gods," though they 
 " be called gods. " There is but one 
 God : " Thou art God alone." 
 
 8. The first half of the verse is 
 borrowed from Exod. XV. 11. Comp. 
 Ixxxix. 8, Ixxi. 19, &c With the 
 second half comp. Deut. iii. 24. 
 
 9. Nearly as in xxii. 27. Comp. 
 Ixvi. 4 ; Is. Ixvi. 18, 23 ; Zech. xiv. 
 9, 16. 
 
 10. Comp. Ixxvii. 13, 14, with Ex. 
 XV. II. See also Ixxxiii. 18 ; 2 Kings 
 xix. 15, 19 ; Neh. ix. 6. 
 
 11. The first clause is word for 
 word as in xxvii. 11. Comp. xxv. 4. 
 
 Walk in Thy truth, xxvi. 3. 
 
 Although in a great strait, and in 
 fear of his enemies, the Psalmist, like 
 all who pray aright, offers first the 
 petition, ' ' Hallowed be Thy Name, " 
 before he asks, " Give us this day our 
 
422 
 
 PSALM LXXXVI. 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 Unite my heart to fear Thy Name ; 
 I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God, with my 
 whole heart, 
 And I will glorify Thy Name for ever. 
 For Thy loving-kindness is great toward me. 
 
 And Thou hast delivered my soul from the unseen 
 world beneath. 
 14 O God, the proud are risen against me, 
 
 And an assembly of violent men have sought after 
 my soul. 
 And have not set Thee before them. 
 
 daily bread," and " deliver us from 
 evil. " He confesses that his spiritual 
 eye is not yet perfectly enlightened, 
 his heart not yet perfect with God. 
 And while he rejects every other way, 
 every other rule of life, but the eternal 
 rule of God's truth, he prays first that 
 he may more clearly discern that way, 
 and then that all the various desires, 
 interests, passions, that agitate the 
 human heart, may have no hold upon 
 him, compared with the one thing 
 needful — " to fear God's name." 
 U.NITE MY HEART — Suffer itnolonger 
 to scatter itself upon a multiplicity of 
 objects, to be drawn hither and thither 
 by a thousand different aims, but turn 
 all its powers, all its affections in one 
 direction, collect them in one focus, 
 make them all one in Thee. The 
 prayer derives a special force from the 
 resolution immediately preceding : "I 
 will walk in Thy truth. " The same 
 integrity of heart which made the 
 resolve could alone utter the prayer. 
 The nearest Old Testament parallels 
 are : the "one heart," Jer. xxxii. 39 ; 
 " And I will give them one heart and 
 one way, that they may fear me for 
 ever : " and the ■ ' ' whole heart " of 
 love to God, Deut. vi. 5, x. 12. Our 
 Lord teaches us how needful the 
 prayer of this verse is. Comp. what 
 He says of " the single eye," the 
 impossibility of serving two masters, 
 
 the folly and the wearisomeness of 
 those anxious cares by which men 
 suffer themselves to be hampered and 
 distracted, and in contrast with all 
 this the exhortation, ' ' Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of God," &c. (Matt. vi. 
 19 — 34.) See also the history of 
 Martha and Mary, Luke x. 38—42. 
 
 12. Why does he offer this prayer 
 for a " united heart " ? That he may 
 then with his " whole heart " give 
 thanks to God for all His infinite 
 loving-kindness. God's mercies are 
 a motive to greater thankfulness, and 
 to a more whole-hearted undivided 
 service. Briefly, the connection in 
 ver. II, 12, is this : "Teach me Thy 
 way, (and then) 1 will walk, &c. 
 Unite my heart, (and then) I will 
 give thanks." 
 
 13. Comp. Ivii. 10; Ivi. 13; cxvi. 
 8. 
 
 The unseen world beneath, 
 i.e. under the earth. Comp. Exod. 
 XX. 4, with Phil. ii. 10. For similar 
 phrases see Ezek. xxxi. 14, 16, 18; 
 Ps. Ixiii. 9, cxxxix. 15 ; Ezek. xxvi. 
 20, xxxii. 18, 24 ; Is. xliv. 23, and 
 Ps. Ixxxviii. 6 ; Lam. iii. 54, 
 
 14. Now at last he comes to the 
 peril, and now (ver. 15) his appeal 
 lies even more fully than in ver. 5 to 
 God's glorious Name by which He 
 made Himself known to Moses, Exod. 
 xxxiv. 6. This verse explains what 
 
PSALM LXXXVII. 423 
 
 15 But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and 
 
 gracious. 
 Long-suffering and plenteous in loving-kindness and 
 truth. 
 
 16 turn unto me, and be gracious to me, 
 
 Give Thy strength unto Thy servant, 
 And save the son of Thy handmaid. 
 
 17 Show me a sign for good. 
 
 That they who hate me may see and be ashamed. 
 Because Thou, Jehovah, hast liolpen me, and com- 
 forted me. 
 
 the peril was, and what he means by 17. A sign, i.e. not a miraculous 
 
 the deliverance from Hades. The sign, but an evident proof of Thy 
 
 words are borrowed, with a slight good-will towards me, such as shall 
 
 variation ("proud men" instead of force even my haters to acknowledge 
 
 "strangers"), from liv. 3. that Thou art on my side. 
 
 16. Son of Thy handmaid, as For good. Comp. Neh. v. 19, 
 
 in cxvi. 16. xiii. 31, and often in Jeremiah. 
 
 PSALM LXXXVII. 
 
 This Psalm presents us with one of those startling contrasts to the 
 general tone of Jewish sentiment and belief which meet us in various 
 passages of the Prophetical writings. The Jewish nation was, even 
 by its original constitution, and still more by the provisions of the 
 Law of Moses, an isolated nation. Shut in by the mountains, the 
 sea, the desert, it was to a great extent cut off from the world. And 
 the narrowness of its spirit corresponded to the narrowness of its 
 geographical position. It was pervaded by a jealous exclusiveness 
 which was remarkable even among the nations of antiquity, and 
 which derived its force and sanction frdm the precepts of its religion. 
 The Jews were constantly reminded that they were a separate people, 
 distinct, and intended to be distinct, from all others. Their land 
 was given them as a special gift from Heaven. Both they and their 
 
424 PSALM LXXXVII. 
 
 country belonged to God, in a sense in which no other people and 
 country belonged to Him. It was a holy Ark which no profane 
 hands might dare to touch ; or if they did, they must perish in the 
 attempt. As a natural consequence of this belief, the Jewish people, 
 for the most part, regarded their neighbours as enemies. Judaism 
 held out no hope of a brotherhood of nations. The Jewish Church 
 was not a missionary church. So far as the Jews looked upon the 
 world around them, it was with feelings of antipathy, and with the 
 hope, which was never quenched in the midst of the most terrible 
 reverses, that finally they, as the chosen race, should subdue their 
 enemies far and wide, and that, by the grace of Heaven, one sitting 
 on David's throne would be king of the world. Psalmists and 
 Prophets shared the feeling. They exulted in the thought that the 
 king who ruled from Zion would dash the nations in pieces like a 
 potter's vessel, fill the places with dead bodies, and lead rival kings 
 in the long array of his triumph. 
 
 But mingling with these anticipations, and correcting them, there 
 were others of a nobler kind. The Prophets speak not only of vic- 
 tories, but of voluntary submission. The vision which rises before 
 them is not only of a forced unity of nations, such as that which 
 was achieved by the iron hand of Roman dominion, but of a unity 
 of faith and love. They see the mountain of the Lord's house exalted 
 above the hills, and all nations, not led thither in the conqueror's 
 train, but flowing to it with one impulse, attracted by its glory, longing 
 to taste its peace (Is. Ix. 2 — 4). They see Gentiles coming to the 
 light of Jerusalem, and kings to the brightness of her rising. They 
 foretell a time when all wars and all national antipathies shall cease, 
 when " the root of Jesse " shall be as a standard round which all 
 nations shall flock, and the temple of Jehovah the centre of a common 
 faith and worship. 
 
 It is this last hope which expresses itself in this Psalm, but which 
 expresses itself in a form that has no exact parallel in other passages. 
 Foreign nations are here described, not as captives or tributaries, 
 not even as doing voluntary homage to the greatness and glory of 
 Zion, but as actually incorporated and enrolled, by a new birth, 
 among her sons. Even the worst enemies of their race, the tyrants 
 and oppressors of the Jews, Egypt and Babylon, are threatened with 
 no curse ; no shout of joy is raised in the prospect of their overthrow, 
 but the privileges of citizenship are extended to them, and they are 
 welcomed as brothers. Nay, more, God Himself receives each one as 
 
PSALM LXXXVII. 425 
 
 a child newly-born into His family, acknowledges each as His son, 
 and enrols him with His own hand in the sacred register of His 
 children. 
 
 It is this mode of anticipating a future union and brotherhood of 
 all the nations of the earth, not by conquest, but by incorporation 
 into one state, and by a birthright so acquired, which is so remark- 
 able. In some of the Prophets, more especially in Isaiah, we observe 
 the same liberal, conciliatory, comprehensive language toward foreign 
 states, as Tyre and Ethiopia, and still more strikingly toward Egypt 
 and Assyria (chap. xix. 22 — 25). But the Psalm stands alone amongst 
 the writings of the Old Testament, in representing this union of nations 
 as a new birth into the city of God. 
 
 This idea gives it a singular interest, and clearly stamps it as 
 Messianic. It is the Old Testament expression of the truth which 
 St. Paul declares, when he tells us that in Jesus Christ "there is 
 neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ; " or when 
 he writes to the Gentile Church at Ephesus, " Now therefore ye are 
 no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, 
 and of the household of God." 
 
 It is the first announcement of that great amity of nations, or rather 
 of that universal common citizenship of which heathen philosophers 
 dreamt, which was " in the mind of Socrates when he called himself 
 a citizen of the world," which had "become a commonplace of the 
 Stoic philosophy, which Judaism tried finally to realize by the admis- 
 sion of proselytes, through baptism, into the Jewish community ; which 
 Rome accomplished, so far as the external semblance went, first by 
 subduing the nations, and then by admitting them to the rights of 
 Roman citizenship. But the "true fulfilment of this hope is to be 
 found only in that kingdom which Christ has set up. He has gathered 
 into His commonwealth all the kingdoms of the earth. He has made 
 men one, members of the same family, by teaching them to feel that 
 they are all children of the same Father. He has made it evident that 
 the hope of the Jewish singer is no false hope ; that there is a Father 
 in heaven who cares for all, whatever name they bear. Thus the 
 Psalm has received a better and higher fulfilment than that which 
 lies on the surface of its words. It is fulfilled in Christ. 
 
 There are two principal epochs to which the Psaim may be 
 referred : — 
 
 I. Its tone, as has been already observed, falls in with that of some 
 
426 PSALM LXXXVII. 
 
 of the prophecies of Isaiah. Hence it has been referred, not without 
 reason, to the reign of Hezekiah. Some have supposed that it was 
 a song of triumph, written, hke Psalms xlvi. — xlviii., after the defeat 
 of Sennacherib ; others, more probably, that it was a hymn composed 
 for some solemn reception of proselytes into the Church, " the Psalmist 
 and his brother Levites exulting in this admission of converts as they 
 would do in a national victory." 
 
 II. Calvin and others refer the Psalm to a time subsequent to the 
 return from the Captivity. It was designed, as Calvin thinks, to 
 console the exiles, whose hearts must have died down within them 
 as they thought of the present enfeebled, impoverished, defenceless 
 state of their city ; who sighed as they looked at their temple, so far 
 inferior in beauty and stateliness, as well as in the imposing splendour 
 of its worship, to the house which their fathers remembered ; and who, 
 dispirited and girt by enemies, needed every encouragement for the 
 future. A study of the earlier chapters of Zechariah, and the later 
 chapters of Isaiah, in connection with this Psalm, may lead us to 
 adopt this view. But our conclusion must depend, to a great extent, 
 on the date which we are disposed to assign to the later chapters of 
 Isaiah (xl. — Ixvi.). 
 
 The outline of the Psalm is as follows : — 
 
 It opens with an outburst of intensely national feeling, celebrating 
 the glory of^Zion as the city of God. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 But the patriotic sentiment is too large and too grand to suffer any 
 narrow jealousy to interfere with it, and therefore all nations are said 
 to be gathered to her as children to one mother. It lends more force 
 and dignity to this idea, that God Himself appears as the speaker, 
 declaring of one and another, foreign and hostile nations, that their 
 true birthplace is there, in Zion. Finally, one brief, obscure verse 
 tells of the joy and happiness of the holy city, welcoming new children 
 on all sides, and making them partakers in her joy. Ver. 7. 
 
 [of the sons of korah.* a psalm, a song.] 
 
 I His foundation upon the holy mountains doth Jehovah 
 love, 
 
 I — 3- The same deep affection expressed here which are expressed 
 and admiration for the holy city are in Psalm xlviii. But there is nothing 
 
 * See note on Ps. Ixxxiv., p. 411. 
 
PSALM LXXXVII. 
 
 427 
 
 2 (He loveth) the gates of Zion more than all the dwell- 
 
 ings of Jacob. 
 
 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
 
 city of God ! [Selah.] 
 
 4 " I will mention Rahab and Babylon among them that 
 
 know Me ; 
 
 in the language employed to lead us 
 to suppose that the city has just es- 
 caped from the horrors of war. The 
 "gates" are mentioned, not as part 
 of the fortifications, but as one of the 
 most prominent features of the city — 
 the place of concourse, of judgement, 
 &c 
 
 Every word is emphatic. His 
 FOUNDATION, the city and the temple 
 which He, Jehovah Himself, hath 
 built ; UPON THE HOLY MOUNTAINS, 
 consecrated by His immediate and 
 manifested Presence : which Jehovah 
 LOVETH, and with a special and dis- 
 tinguishing affection, as compared not 
 only with other nations, but even with 
 other parts of the Holy Land itself. 
 
 Upon the holy mountains. The 
 plural is used with reference to the 
 mountainous character of the v/hole 
 country. "Jerusalem was on the 
 ridge, the broadest and most strongly 
 marked ridge of the backbone of 
 the complicated hills which extend 
 through the whole country from the 
 Desert to the plain of Esdraelon." — 
 Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, chap, 
 iii. p. 176. He compares its position 
 in this respect to that of Rome, that 
 " each was situated on its own cluster 
 of steep hills" (p. 175). 
 
 3. Glorious things : not earthly 
 splendour or victories, but such a 
 gathering of nations into her bosom 
 as follows in the next verse. 
 
 4. I will mention. The words 
 are the words of God. We have 
 the same abrupt introduction of 
 the Divine Speaker in other Psalms. 
 
 Comp, xiv. 4 ; perhaps xxxii. 8 ; Ixxv. 
 2 ; Ixxxi. 6 ; and (according to some 
 expositors) Ixxxii. 2. 
 
 Rahab. Originally the word de- 
 notes pride, ferocity. So in Job ix. 
 13, "The helpers of pride {Rahab) 
 do stoop under him." Possibly even 
 there, and certainly in Job xxvi. 12, 
 it is the name of some fierce monster 
 of the deep, probably the crocodile ; 
 "He divideth the sea by His power, 
 And by His understanding He smiteth 
 the proud monster {Rahab)." In Ps. 
 Ixxxix. 10, there can be no doubt of 
 the reference to Egypt : ' ' Thou hast 
 broken Rahab in pieces," the croco- 
 dile of the Nile being there, taken as 
 the symbol of that kingdom. So too 
 in Is. 11. 9, " Art thou not it that 
 hath cut Rahab {i.e. smitten Egypt) 
 a7td wounded the dragon ? " and xxx. 
 7, ' ' The Egyptians shall help in 
 
 vain, &c They are Rahab 
 
 (proud, mighty, &c.)." The name, 
 then, is applied to Egypt as a vast 
 and formidable power, of which the 
 crocodile might naturally be regarded 
 as a symbol. 
 
 Among them that know Me, 
 lit. "as belonging to (the number of) 
 them that know Me." The verb to 
 know is here used in that deeper and 
 wider sense in which it frequently 
 occurs in Scripture, both of God and 
 of man. Comp. i. 6 (where see note), 
 and xxxvi. 10 ; John x. 14, 15. It 
 is the Icnowledge of friendship, the 
 knowledge which springs of intimate 
 acquaintance, the knowledge of parent 
 and child. 
 
428 
 
 PSALM LXXXVII. 
 
 Lo Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia : 
 
 ' This one is bom there.' 
 And to Zion it is said : 
 
 ' One after another is born in her, 
 
 And the Most High Himself shall stablish her.' 
 Jehovah shall reckon when He writeth the nations, 
 
 ' This one is born there.' " [Selah.] 
 
 Philistw, Tyre, Ethiopia. Of 
 all these nations it shall be said that 
 one and another of them ("this one," 
 as if pointing to them) has become 
 a worshiper of Jehovah,, and an 
 adopted citizen of Zion, "born 
 there. " With regard to these nations, 
 see the prophecies of Isaiah quoted 
 in the Introduction, and comp. Ixviii. 
 31. There, so Zion is designated 
 even before she is named. 
 
 5. And to Zion, or "o/ZiON," it 
 is said, ONE after another, lit. 
 "man and man," i.e. vast multitudes 
 are born. in her, as the nations one 
 after another become incorporated as 
 her children. Tlie LXX. here render, 
 not, "it shall be said to Zion," but 
 " Mother Zion shall say," and Zion is 
 spoken of as a mother Is. Ixvi. 7, li^' 
 1 — 3, Ix. 4, 5 ; but the sense here is 
 different. It is remarkable that the 
 figure of a new birth is used to ex- 
 press the admission of the different 
 nations to the rights of citizenship in 
 Zion. 
 
 " Clearly Zion stands in opposition 
 to the countries mentioned before, the 
 one city to the whole of the different 
 countries, the one city of God to all 
 the kingdoms of the world." — 
 Velilzsch. These kingdoms one 
 after another lose their population, 
 cease to be kingdoms, whilst their 
 inhabitants all contribute to swell the 
 population of that city which Gqd's 
 own right hand establishes and makes 
 glorious. 
 
 6. When Jehovah writeth, i.e. 
 takes a census of the nations (corap. 
 the figure Ezek. xiii. 9, Is. iv. 3, and 
 see note on Ps. Ixix. 28), the most 
 glorious thing that He can say of each 
 of them, the crown of all their history, 
 shall be this, not the record of their 
 separate national existence or policy 
 or dominion, but the fact that they 
 have become members by adoption of 
 the city of God. Zion shall be the 
 metropolis of the world. 
 
 This one is born there. The 
 words are repeated, as by God 
 Himself, as He enters one after 
 another in the register of His 
 city. 
 
 7. The compressed brevity of this 
 verse makes it extremely obscure. 
 There are various interpretations. It 
 may be rendered : — 
 
 "Both they that sing and they that 
 dance, AH my fountains (of delight), 
 are in thee ; " meaning that every 
 source of pleasure, music, singing, &c., 
 was to be found in Zion. 
 
 The verse might be arranged 
 thus : — 
 
 In thee are they that sing and they 
 that dance. 
 In thee are all my living springs. 
 
 This is abrupt, but still a natural 
 touch of genuine poetic feeling. 
 
 Milton, in his paraphrase, gives a 
 similar interpretation : — 
 
PSALM LXXXVIII. 429 
 
 7 Both they that sing and they that dance, 
 All my fountains, are in thee. 
 
 '' Both they who sing and they who In thee fresh brooks and soft streams 
 
 dance glance, 
 
 With sacred songs are there ; And all my fountains clear." 
 
 PSALM LXXXVIII. 
 
 This is the darkest, saddest Psalm in all the Psalter. It is one 
 wail of sorrow from beginning to end. It is the only Psalm in which 
 the expression of feeling, the pouring out of the burdened heart 
 before God, fails to bring relief and consolation. In every other 
 instance, however heavy the gloom, however oppressed and dejected 
 the spirit of the sufferer, prayer and supplication are mingled with 
 thanksgiving, the accents of lamentation are changed into the notes 
 of triumph, the darkness of midnight gives way to the brightness of 
 faith's morning-dawn. The deeper the sorrow at the opening, the 
 greater the joy at the close. But here the darkness continues to the 
 end. There is no confidence expressed that prayer will be heard, 
 no hope uttered, much less any triumph. The Psalm ends with 
 complaint, as it began. Its last word is " darkness." One ray of 
 light only struggles through the gloom, one star pierces that thick 
 midnight blackness ; it is the name by which the Psalmist addresses 
 God: " O God of my salvafiun."* That he can address God by that 
 name is a proof that faith and hope are not dead within him ; it is 
 the pledge of his deliverance, though he cannot yet taste its comfort. 
 There is but one such Psalm, as if to teach us that our Father's will 
 concerning us is not to leave us in our dejection, but, in answer to the 
 prayer of faith, to lift us out of it ; there is one, that we may remember 
 that even His truest servants may be called upon " to walk in darkness 
 
 ' Adolph fcTonod, in "Les Adieux," says of this Psalm, " Le seul Psaume qui soit tout 
 emjer dans la douleur." But in vcr. i, "O Lord God of my salvation," he sees "ie germe 
 d'e^^rance." 
 
43° PSALM LXXX VIII. 
 
 and have no light," that thus they may be the better trained, like a 
 child holding his father's hand in the dark, to trust in the name of 
 the Lord, to stay themselves upon their God." 
 
 The older expositors commonly interpreted the Psalm of Christ and 
 His Passion, either in Gethsemane or on the Cross. And our Church 
 has, in a measure, sanctioned this application by appointing this as 
 one of the Psalms for Good Friday. 
 
 As to the author, and the circumstances under which the Psalm 
 was written, various conjectures have been made, but they are really 
 worth nothing. One thing only is clear, that it is not a national 
 Psalm, and that it does not deplore the Babylonish captivity, or any 
 other national calamity. It is, throughout, personal and individual. 
 Uzziah when smitten with leprosy, Jeremiah in the dungeon, Hezekiah 
 in his sickness. Job in his sufferings — to all these in turn has the 
 authorship of the Psalm been assigned. But neither the thoughts nor 
 the expression of the thoughts favours one of these hypotheses more 
 than another, excepting that, in one or two instances, the language 
 has some affinity with that of the Book of Job, whereas the language 
 of ver. 15, " I am afflicted from my youth up," is, to say the least of it, 
 very exaggerated language in the mouth of any of these persons, and 
 hardly to be justified by any pressure of sorrow. 
 
 Delitzsch goes so far as to draw hence the inference, that Heman 
 the Ezrahite was the author of the Book of Job ; but the words which 
 he quotes as common to this Psalm and Job are- to be found in other 
 places of Scripture : they cannot be called characteristic words, and 
 therefore the argument built upon them falls to the ground. 
 
 [a song, a psalm of the sons of korah. for the precentor, 
 "after machalath l'annoth."* a maschil of heman the 
 
 EZRAHITE. f] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, God of my salvation, 
 
 I have cried day and night before Thee. 
 
 2 Let my prayer come before Thee, 
 
 Incline Thine ear to my cry. 
 
 * To be sung in a sad, mournful tone. . . . 
 
 t Heman the Ezrahite, celebrated together with Ethan (to whom the next Psalm is ascnbed/ 
 
 for his wisdom, i Kings iv. 31 In i Chron. vi. 33, 42, both are mentioned as Levitic&l singers. 
 
PSALM LXXXVIII. 
 
 431 
 
 3 For my soul is full of troubles, 
 
 And my life draweth nigh to the unseen world. 
 
 4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit, 
 
 I am become as a man that hath no strength, 
 
 5 Among the dead, cast away. 
 
 Like the slain, lying in the grave. 
 Whom Thou rememberest no more, 
 But they are cut off from Thy hand. 
 
 6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, 
 
 In darkness, in the deeps. 
 
 7 Upon me Thy fury lieth hard, 
 
 And Thou hast afflicted (me) with all Thy v/aves. 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 3 Thou hast removed my familiar friends far from me, 
 
 3. The greatness of his affliction, 
 which has brought him to the very 
 edge of the grave, is urged as a reason 
 why God should hear him. Comp. vi. 
 4, 5; XXX. 3; Is. xxxviii. 10, II. 
 
 Is FULL OF TROUBLES, lit, "is 
 satiated with evils." Comp. cxxiii. 
 4; Lam. iii. 15, 30. 
 
 4. That hath no strength, i.e. 
 not merely as worn out with pain and 
 suffering, which would be an anti- 
 climax, but, as the parallelism shows, 
 lilte the unsubstantial shadowy phan- 
 toms which people the unseen world. 
 
 5. Cast away, or as the E. V. 
 "free," i.e. left alone, with none to 
 care for n:e, in that unseen world 
 whence even God's Presence seemed 
 to be withdrawn. 
 
 But it is the same strain of feeling 
 which we have already had in vi. 5, xxx. 
 9, where see note.s. His eye is looking 
 down into the darkness ; he sees him- 
 self already numbered with the dead. 
 But what are the dead ? Beings who 
 "know not anything," "clean for- 
 gotten, out of mind," beings whom 
 God Himself remembers not. " The 
 
 living, the living, he shall praise 
 Thee : '' this was the feeling, not of 
 Hezekiah only, but of all the Old 
 Testament saints, in seasons of gloom 
 and despondency. It could not be 
 otherwise till the bright light of 
 Christ's resurrection was cast upon 
 the grave and the world beyond. 
 
 6. In the lowest pit. See on 
 Ixiii. 9, Ixxxvi. 13. Comp. Lam. iii. 
 55, and Ezek. xxvi. 20. 
 
 In the deeps, usually said of the 
 sea, as in Ixviii. 22 ; Exod. xv. 5 ; 
 here of Hades. 
 
 8. Thou hast removed, as be- 
 fore, "Thou hast laid," &c., thus 
 directly tracing all to God's will and 
 fatherly hand. 
 
 My FAMILIAR friends. The word 
 expresses close intimate friendship, 
 more than the mere " acquaintance " 
 of the E.V. He is like one shut 
 up in a prison — these cannot come 
 in to him, nor he go forth to them. 
 Delitzsch thinks that, according to 
 Levit. xiii., this sounds like the com- 
 plaint of a leper, the leprosy more- 
 over being just that death in life 
 
432 
 
 PSALM LXXXVIU. 
 
 Thou hast made me an abomination unto them ; 
 I am shut up, (so that) I cannot g-Q forth. 
 9 Mine eye wasteth away because of affliction ; 
 
 I have called upon Thee, O Jehovah, every day, 
 I have stretched forth my hands unto Thee. 
 
 I o Wilt Thou show wonders unto the dead .' 
 
 Shall the shades below arise and give Thee thanks ? 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 I I Shall Thy loving-kindness be told in the grave, 
 
 (Or) Thy faithfulness in destruction t 
 
 12 Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark .' 
 
 And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness } 
 
 13 But as for me^unto Thee, O Jehovah, have I cried. 
 
 And in the morning my prayer cometh to meet 
 Thee. 
 
 14 Why, O Jehovah, easiest Thou off my soul ? 
 
 (Why) hidest Thou Thy face from me ? 
 
 (Numb. xii. 12) which is so patheti- 
 cally described as the Psalmist's con- 
 dition. 
 
 The cry here is repeated in ver. 18. 
 
 An abomination, lit. " abomi- 
 nations," the plural intensifying and 
 enlarging the idea. Comp. note on 
 Ixviii. 35. 
 
 10. Arise, i.e. "rise up,'' not 
 "rise again from the dead" (comp. 
 Ixxxviii. 5). The language refers to 
 what takes place in the unseen world, 
 not at the resurrection. Comp. Is. 
 xiv. 9. 
 
 The expostulation is like that of 
 Job : "If a man die, shall he live 
 again ? " There is no question of the 
 general resurrection, but only the im- 
 probability that God should restore 
 to life one who was already dead. 
 Calvin observes that "this state of 
 feeling cannot be excused, inasmuch 
 as it is not for us to prescribe to God 
 Vifhen He shall give us succour ; for 
 
 we wrong His power, if we are not 
 assured that it is as easy for Him to 
 restore life to the dead as to prevent 
 and avert the last extremity. And 
 of a truth the constancy of the saints 
 has ever shown some traces of the 
 weakness of the flesh, so that God's 
 fatherly indulgence has had to make 
 allowance for the defects which are 
 mingled even with then- very vir- 
 tues." 
 
 13. But as for me, emphatic; 
 though thus at the very edge of death, 
 though bowed down with the heavy 
 load of aflfliction, still I look to Thee. 
 This unwearied "continuing instant 
 in prayer " is the victory of faith in 
 the midst of trials which, but for this, 
 would end in despair. It had been 
 one lifelong suffering from his youth 
 up, yet still his earnest pleading" had 
 never ceased. Such prayers are those 
 "unutterable groanings" of which 
 St. Paul speaks. 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 433 
 
 15 I am afHicted, and ready to die : from my youth up, 
 
 I have sufifered Thy terrors (till) I am distracted. 
 
 16 Over me Thy fierce wrath hath passed ; 
 
 Thy horrors have cut me off. 
 
 17 They have compassed me like waters all the day, 
 
 They have come round about me together. 
 
 18 Thou hast removed lover and friend far from me, 
 
 My familiar friends are — darkness. 
 
 16. Thy HORRORS : a frequent ex- to the grave, Thou art my father," 
 
 pression in the Book of Job, vi. 4; &c. "The Psalm ends with anener- 
 
 ix. 34 ; xiii. 21, &c. getic expression of its main thought — 
 
 18. Darkness, lit. " the place of the immediate vicinity of death. The 
 
 darkness," the dark kingdom of the darkness is thickest at the end, just 
 
 dead, is now all I have to look to, as it is in the morning before the 
 
 instead of friends, or, as we might rising of the saxi." —Hengstenberg. 
 
 say, The grave is now my only friend. But here, at least, the sun does not 
 
 Similar expressions occur in Prov. vii. rise. 
 4, and in Job xvii. 14 : "I have said 
 
 PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 There can be little doubt that this Psalm was written in the 
 latter days of the Jewish monarchy, when the throne of David had 
 fallen, or was already tottering to its fall, and when the prospect for 
 the future vcas so dark that it seemed as if God had forgotten His 
 covenant and His promise. Tholuck's conjecture is not improbable, 
 that the king of whom the Psalm speaks (ver. 45) is the youthful 
 Jehoiachin, who after a reign of three months was deposed and 
 imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar, and of whom it was said, that no 
 man of his seed should " prosper, sitting on the throne of David." 
 The lamentation over him in Jeremiah xxii. 24 — 29, may be taken 
 as evidence that he was beloved by his subjects, and the Prophet 
 and the Psalmist indulge in a similar strain as they behold the last 
 hope of David's house perish. 
 
434 PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 There is no reason to conclude from ver. 47, that the king himself 
 is the author of the Psalm (see note there) ; and from ver. 18, indeed, 
 the contrary may perhaps be inferred. 
 
 The Psalm opens by a reference to the Promise given to David, 
 2 Sam. vii. 8, &c. This Promise, and the attributes of God on 
 which the Promise rests, and which are the great pledge of its ful- 
 filment, form the subject of the poet's grateful acknowledgement, 
 before he passes to the mournful contrast presented by the ruin of 
 the house of David, and the blighting of his people's hopes. He 
 turns to the glorious past, that by its aid he may rise out of the grief 
 and discouragement of the present. He takes the Promise, and 
 turns it into a song. He dwells upon it, and lingers over it. He 
 dwells on that which is the ground and pillar of the Promise — the 
 faithfulness of God — and then he first lifts his loud lament over the 
 disasters which have befallen his king and people, speaking out his 
 disappointment, till his words sound like a reproach ; and next pleads 
 earnestly with God that He would not suffer His enemies to triumph. 
 
 Certain words and thoughts run through the Psalm, and give it a 
 marked character. Such are, especially, the constant reference to 
 the " faithfulness of God," in confinning His covenant and promise, 
 ver. I, 2, 5, 8, .14, 24, 33, 49 (comp. also the use of the participle 
 "faithful," ver. 28, 37) ; the phrase " 1 will not lie," ver. 33, 35 ; " I have 
 sworn," ver. 3, 35, 49 ; and the " covenant," ver. 3, 28, 34, 39. 
 
 [a MASCHIL of ETHAN THE EZRAHITE.*] 
 
 I I WILL for ever sing of the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah, 
 I will make known Thy faithfulness with my mouth 
 to all generations. 
 
 I, 2. The loving-kindness and the is not speaking in his own name, but 
 
 faithfulness of Jehovah are the source in the name of the Church which 
 
 of the Promise. We are led to the abideth ' ' ever. " But they may refer 
 
 source, that thence we may track the to the everlasting continuance of God's 
 
 stream. love and faithfulness, as pledged to 
 
 I. For ever. The position of David and his seed, 
 these words before the verb has been Loving-kindnesses, plural, as in 
 
 supposed to indicate that the Psalmist Is. Iv. 3, ' ' the sure mercies [faithfiil 
 
 • See note on Ps. Ixxxviil 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 435 
 
 2 For I have said, For ever shall loving-kindness be built up, 
 
 In the heavens shalt Thou establish Thy faithfulness. 
 
 3 " I have made a covenant with My chosen, 
 
 I have sworn unto David My servant ; 
 
 4 For ever will I establish thy seed, 
 
 And build up thy throne to all generations." [Selah.J 
 
 5 And the heavens shall praise Thy wondrousness, O 
 
 Jehovah, 
 Thy faithfulness also, in the assembly of the holy ones. 
 
 6 For who in the sky can be compared with Jehovah, 
 
 (Who) is like unto Jehovah among the sons of the 
 mighty .' 
 
 7 A God very terrible in the council of the holy ones, 
 
 loving-kindnesses] of David." For the 
 same union of these two attributes of 
 God, see xxxvi. 5- 
 
 2. For I HAVE SAID, i.e. this is 
 the conviction whence springs the 
 resolve in ver. i. 
 
 Be built up, like some stately 
 palace, rising even greater and fairer, 
 stone by stone, before the wondering 
 eyes of men, knowing no decay, never 
 destined to fall into ruin. 
 
 In the heavens, lit. " As for the 
 heavens, Thou shalt establish Thy 
 faithfulness in them." The heavens 
 are the type of unchangeableness and 
 perpetuity, as compared with the rest- 
 less vicissitudes, the ever-shifting 
 shows of earth. Comp. cxix. 89. 
 
 3, 4. These are the words of God, 
 the sum of His promise as given in 
 2 Sam. vii. They are introduced with 
 remarkable abruptness, standing alone 
 in their forcible brevity, whilst the 
 Psalmist passes on to celebrate at 
 length the might and faithfulness of 
 the Promiser. In the 19th verse he 
 returns to the promise, and then ex- 
 pands and dwells upon it. 
 
 Most of the expressions, " David 
 My servant," " establish," "forever," 
 "build," the parallelism of "seed" 
 and "throne, "My chosen," are 
 
 taken, either directly or indirectly, 
 from the original passage in 2 Sam. 
 
 5. At first sight the passage which 
 follows to ver. 18 appears to break 
 the train of thought. But the object 
 of the Psalmist is to place in the 
 strongest light those attributes of 
 God on which the fulfilment of His 
 Promise depends. For " in a promise 
 everything depends upon the person 
 who promises. The question there- 
 fore occurs, Has he the will and the 
 power to fulfil the promise ? " — Heng- 
 stenberg. Hence the Psalmist dwells 
 first upon God's power as exhibited 
 and confessed in creation, then upon 
 His righteousness, goodness, and truth, 
 as manifested especially to His people, 
 of whom and of whose king He is 
 the protector. 
 
 Thy WONDROUSNESS (lit. wonder) : 
 not " Thy wondrous works," but 
 ' ' Thy wonderful mysterious nature 
 and being," as separate and distinct 
 from that of all created beings. The 
 word occurs in Is. ix. 6, as one of the 
 names of Messiah (comp. also Judg. 
 xiii. 18). 
 
 Assembly of the holy ones, 
 
 i.e. the angels, to which corresponds 
 
 in the next verse, ' ' the sons of the 
 
 mighty ; " comp. xxix. i. They are 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 
 
 PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 And to be feared above all them that are round 
 about Him ? 
 
 8 O Jehovah, God of Hosts, 
 
 Who is mighty as Thou, O Jah ! 
 And Thy faithfulness is round about Thee. 
 
 9 Thou rulest the pride of the sea ; 
 
 When the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. 
 
 10 Thou hast crushed Rahab, as one that is slain ; 
 
 With Thy mighty arm Thou hast scattered Thine 
 enemies. 
 
 1 1 Thine are (the) heavens, Thine also is the earth ; 
 
 Thou hast founded the world and the fulness thereof 
 
 1 2 Thou hast created the north and the south. 
 
 Tabor and Hermon shout for joy in Thy Name. 
 
 called an ''assembly,*' or ''congre- 
 gation," as the church above, which, 
 like the church below, worships and 
 praises God. In this second clause 
 the verb must be repeated from the 
 first : " Thy faithfulness also is 
 praised," &c. 
 
 8. And Thy faithfulness. Or 
 as Ewald : " And what faithfulness is 
 like Thy faithfulness," &c. 
 
 Round about Thee, God's attri- 
 butes being personified, as in ver. 
 14 and Ixxxv. 13. Then follow proofs 
 and instances, first, of God's might, 
 ver. 9 — 13, and then of His faithful- 
 ness, ver. 14 — 18. 
 
 K>. Rahab ; here probably, as in 
 Ixxxvii. 4 (where see note) a name 
 ofi Egypt. God's power as ruling the 
 sea would naturally be connected in 
 the Psalmist's mind with that great 
 manifestation of His power in the 
 deliverance from Egypt. Compare 
 the same association of ideas in Ixxiv. 
 13 — 17. Others take the word in the 
 more general sense ai pride {i.e. our 
 proud foes), as in Job ix. 13, xxvi. 
 12. In the context of both passages 
 in Job, God's power over the sea is 
 magnified, but the Book is too far 
 removed from the circle of Israelitish 
 
 history to allow of our seeing any 
 reference there to the passage of the 
 Red Sea. 
 
 As ONE THAT IS SLAIN. The 
 particle of comparison must not be 
 pressed. The sense is : "Thou hast 
 crushed Egypt, so that it lies fallen, 
 like one who has received a deadly 
 wound." 
 
 11. Thou hast founded, &c. : 
 lit. "As for the world and the fulness 
 thereof, Thou hast founded them." 
 And so in the next verse : " The 
 north and the south, Thou hast cre- 
 ated them." 
 
 12. Tabor and Hermon do not 
 denote merely the West and East, 
 as most interpreters explain. They 
 are mentioned rather as conspicuous 
 mountains in a mountain land. Ta- 
 bor, "remarkable for the verdure, 
 which climbs — a rare sight in Eastern 
 scenery — to its very summit " (Stan- 
 ley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 35°) > 
 Hermon, as its name imports, "the 
 lofty prominent peak," crowned with 
 snow, the most striking of all the 
 mountains of Palestine, are fit repre- 
 sentatives of the whole country ; open, 
 as it were, the loud hymn of praise. 
 See Ixxii. 3 ; xcviii. 8. 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 437 
 
 13 Thine is an arm (clothed) with might, 
 
 Strong is Thy hand, hjgh is Thy right hand. 
 
 14 Righteousness and judgement are the pillars of Thy 
 
 throne. 
 Loving-kindness and Truth go to meet Thy face. 
 
 15 Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound, 
 
 That walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Thy countenance. 
 
 16 In Thy name do they exult all the day. 
 
 And in Thy righteousness are they exalted. 
 
 17 For Thou art the glory of their might. 
 
 And in Thy favour our horn is exalted ; 
 
 18 For to Jehovah belongeth our shield. 
 
 And to the Holy One of Israel our king. 
 
 19 Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy beloved and saidst, 
 
 " I have laid help upon a mighty man. 
 
 14. Pillars, or perhaps as others, 
 "basis, foundation." 
 
 15—18. Such is the God, so full 
 of majesty and power, who has given 
 the promise. Blessed, therefore, are 
 the people who have Jehovah for 
 their God. They may well rejoice in 
 their privilege. 
 
 15. The joyful sound, i.e. the 
 loud music of trumpets, &c., in the 
 festivals, especially on the New Year's 
 Day, Lev. xxiii. 24, or on extra- 
 ordinary occasions. Numb. x. I — 10, 
 xxiii. 21 ; Josh. vi. 5, 20, &c. See 
 ouxxvii. 6; Ixxxi. I. This Israel 
 only knows, because Israel only is the 
 people of God. They are blessed, 
 because they, and they only, of all 
 nations, can keep these solemn feasts 
 to His praise. 
 
 18. Our shield, i.e. as is evi- 
 dent from the parallelism, the king. 
 Comp. xlvil 10. The rendering, 
 "■Jehovah is our shield," is against 
 grammar. 
 
 19. The mention of the king in the 
 preceding verse leads now to the re- 
 fumption and expansion of the pro- 
 
 mise given to David. The two aspects 
 of God's relation to David and his 
 house and kingdom are herein pre- 
 sented to us, an outward and an in- 
 ward, corresponding to the two great 
 attributes of God which are praised 
 in ver. I — 18 ; His omnipotence and 
 His faithfulness. To the first of these 
 belong : (a) David's exaltation to the 
 throne, ver. 19 ; (b) God's constant 
 aid, and hence his victory over his 
 foes, ver. 21 — 23, and extended 
 dominion, ver. 24, 25. To the second, 
 which is the most prominent, God's 
 fatherly relation to David's seed, 
 which is shown in (a) the exaltation 
 to the dignity of a son, who is also 
 the first-born, and therefore holds the 
 pre-eminence above all kings, ver. 26, 
 27 ; accordingly (b\ an everlasting 
 covenant made with him and his 
 seed, and an everlasting kingdom, 
 ver. 28, 29 ; hence, too, (c) the trans- 
 gressions of his sons are visited, in- 
 deed, with a fatherly chastisement, 
 ver. 30 — 32, but cannot make the 
 covenant void, ver. 33, 34 ; (d) and 
 the assurance is finally repeated, that 
 
438 PSALM LXXXJX. 
 
 I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 
 
 20 I have found David My sewant, 
 
 With My holy oil have I anointed him ; 
 
 21 With whom My hand shall be established ; 
 
 Mine arm also shall strengthen him. 
 
 22 No enemy shall exact upon him, 
 
 No son of wickedness shall afflict him. 
 
 23 And I will beat down his adversaries before his face, 
 
 And plague them that hate him ; 
 
 24 And My faithfulness and My loving-kindness shall be 
 
 with him, 
 And in My Name shall his horn be exalted ; 
 
 25 And I will set his hand on the sea, 
 
 And his right hand on the rivers. 
 
 26 He shall call Me ' Thou art my Father, 
 
 My God, and the Rock of my salvation.' 
 
 27 Also I will make him My first-born, 
 
 Highest of the kings of the earth. 
 
 28 For ever will I keep for him My loving-kindness, 
 
 And My covenant is faithful with him. 
 
 29 And I will make his seed (to endure) for ever. 
 
 And his throne as the days of heaven. 
 
 30 If his children forsake My law, 
 
 And walk not in My judgements, 
 
 this covenant which God has once 25. The sea . . . THE rivers, 
 
 confirmed by an oath, cannot lie, and i.e. the Mediterranean Sea and the 
 
 that therefore the seed as well as the Euphrates, with reference, no doubt, 
 
 throne of David must endure as the to the extent of Solomon's dominion, 
 
 very heavens. See above on Ixxx. 11. Or the range 
 
 Then, referring to the time when of hope may be wider, as in Ixxii. 8. 
 
 the promise was given. The plural "rivers" is in accordance 
 
 Thy beloved. On this word see with poetic usage, and need not be 
 
 note on xvi. 10. David is evidently explained of the Euphrates and its 
 
 meant, though the revelation was separate channels, or the Euphrates 
 
 made in vision, not to him, but to and Tigris, &c. 
 
 Nathan (2 Sam. vii. 4, 17). 27. My first-born. As he calls 
 
 A MIGHTY MAN. Comp. 2 Sam. Me " Father," so I not only acknow- 
 
 xvii. lo. ledge him as My son, but as My first- 
 
 22. Son of wickedness. This born, and therefore My heir. (So 
 
 clause is taken verbatim from the Israel is called the first-born, Exod. 
 
 words of the promise in 2 Sam. vii. iv. 22, and Ephraim, Jer. xxxi. 9.) 
 
 10. 30. There follows a paraphrase of 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 439 
 
 31 If they profane My statutes, 
 
 And keep not My commandments, 
 
 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, 
 
 And their iniquity with stripes. 
 
 33 But My loving-kindness will I not break off from him, 
 
 Nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. 
 
 34 I will not profane My covenant, 
 
 Nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips ; 
 
 35 Once have I sworn by My holiness, 
 
 I will not lie unto David. 
 
 36 His seed shall be for ever, 
 
 And his throne as the sun before Me. 
 
 37 He shall be established for ever as the moon, 
 
 And as the faithful witness in heaven." 
 
 38 But Thou hast cut off, and rejected, 
 
 Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed. 
 
 2 Sam. vii. 14. The chastisement 
 is a necessary part of the paternal 
 relationship, Heb. xii. The sins of 
 individuals wiU be punished by (Jod's 
 fatherly correction, but the covenant 
 cannot cease, the promises made to 
 the seed as a whole cannot be with- 
 drawn. Their unfaithfulness cannot 
 make the faithfulness of God of none 
 effect (Rom. iii. 3). But see, as pre- 
 senting a different view, I Kings viii. 
 
 25- 
 
 32. The rod . . . stripes. In 
 2 Sam. vii. qualifying expressions are 
 added: "rod of men," "stripes of 
 the children of men : " not meaning 
 "such punishmraits ss all men, be- 
 cause ail are sinners, are exposed 
 to ;" but either (i) chastisement-s such 
 as men (comp. for similar phraseology 
 Hos. vi. 7, Job xxxi. 33)^ human 
 fathers, employ for the correction, 
 not the destruction of their children ; 
 "for what son is there whom the 
 father chasteneth not ? " or (2) chas- 
 tisement fitted to the measure of man's 
 endurance (comp. i Cor. a. 13). 
 
 35. Once, J. ^. "once for all." 
 By My holiness, as in Amos 
 iv. 2. 
 
 37. The faithful witness. 
 This, according to the parallelism, 
 must be " the moon." Luther and 
 others have supposed the rainbow to 
 be meant. Others, again, think that 
 the witness is God himself, and ren- 
 der, " And a faithful witness is in 
 heaven." But the moon is more for 
 certain seasons tlian any other orb : 
 in all countries she has been the arbiter 
 of festivals. 
 
 38. But now comes the mournful 
 contrast. This covenant, made by the 
 almighty and all-faithful God, con- 
 firmed and ratified by an oath, eternal 
 as the heavens are eternal, sure as the 
 order of the Universe is sure — what 
 has become of it ? Has it not failed, 
 or is it not in danger of failing? 
 Appearances are against its perpetuity, 
 against the truth of God. The ex- 
 postulation of the Psalmist is nothing 
 less than a reproach. God has with 
 His own hand cast down the throne 
 
440 PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 39 Thou hast made void the covenant of Thy servant, 
 
 Thou hast profaned his crown (by casting it) to the 
 ground. 
 
 40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges, 
 
 Thou hast made his strongholds a ruin. 
 
 41 All they that pass by the way have spoiled him, 
 
 He is become a reproach to his neighbours. 
 
 42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his adversaries. 
 
 Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 
 
 43 Also Thou turnest the edge of his sword. 
 
 And hast not made him to stand in the battle. 
 
 44 Thou hast made his glory to cease. 
 
 And hast cast his throne down to the ground ; 
 
 45 Thou hast shortened the days of his youth, 
 
 Thou hast covered him with shame. [Selah.] 
 
 46 How long, O Jehovah, wilt Thou hide Thyself, for 
 
 ever t 
 Shall Thy fury burn like fire .' 
 
 of David, and annulled the covenant : 45. Thou hast shortened, &c. 
 
 so it seems to one who measures pro- This has been explained by Grotius 
 
 mise and performance by a human and others of the short reigns of the 
 
 standard. later sovereigns of Judea. But if 
 
 The boldness of the expostulation spoken of an individual monarch, the 
 
 has scandalized the Jewish interpre- expression would naturally mean that 
 
 ters. Aben Ezra tells the story of a he had grown old before his time; 
 
 wise and pious Jew in Spain, who comp. Hos. vii. 9 : if of the family of 
 
 would never read nor listen to this David, it would be a figure denoting 
 
 Psalm, and he and others would get its failing strength before it attained 
 
 rid of the offence by taking ver. 38 — to the glory and dominion promised. 
 
 45 as expressing the scoff of enemies, 46. The transition from expostula- 
 
 not the reproach of the Psalmist. But tion to pleading ; which of itself shows 
 
 see the exactly similar language in how the expostulation is to be under- 
 
 xliv. 9 — 22, and notes there. stood. It is human weakness dis- 
 
 40. His HEDGES. The pronouns covering to God its inmost heart 
 
 in this and the next verse refer gram- There is a sense of wrong, and the 
 
 matically to the king, but in sense to true man says that he feels it, speaks 
 
 the people, who are regarded as one it out, and asks God to set it right, 
 
 with their monarch. The expressions It is an example of the perpetual clash 
 
 are borrowed from Ixxx. 12. between convictions and facts. See 
 
 44 Glory, lit. " purity," and thus Hab. i. 2, 3. 
 
 "splendour," "majesty," arfd the The pleading consists of two parts, 
 
 like. each comprised in three verses. The 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 441 
 
 47 G remember how short a time I have to live ! 
 
 For what vanity hast Thou created all the sons of 
 men ! 
 
 48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death, 
 
 That can deliver his soul from the hand of the 
 unseen world ? [Selah.] 
 
 49 Lord, where are Thy former loving-kindnesses. 
 
 Which Thou swarest unto David in Thy faithful- 
 ness ? 
 
 50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants. 
 
 How I bear in ray bosom [the reproach of] many 
 peoples, 
 
 51 Wherewith Thine enemies have reproached Thee, O 
 
 Jehovah, 
 Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of 
 Thine anointed. 
 
 52 Blessed be Jehovah for evermore. Amen, and Amen. 
 
 argument of the first is the shortness 
 of human life ; that of the second, 
 the dishonour cast upon God by the 
 triumph of His enemies. 
 
 How LONG . . . FOR EVER. See 
 note on xiii. I, and comp. Ixxix. 5. 
 
 47. How SHORT A TIME : a fre- 
 quent ground of appeal to God's for- 
 bearing mercy, xxxix. 5 ; Job vii. 6, 
 xiv. I, &c. 
 
 For the sentiment in this and the 
 two following verses, see note on 
 hcxxviii. 10. The occurrence of the 
 pronoun of the first person singular 
 can only be explained by its being in- 
 tended to describe a fact of common 
 experience, for in ver. 17, 18 the 
 people speak in the first person plural, 
 and the Anointed is always spoken of 
 •in the third person. The " I " is the 
 expression of personal feeling, mea- 
 suring others by itself. Or ver. 47 —49 
 may mean, " Let me, even me, see 
 Thy restoring love." 
 
 49. Former loving-kindnesses ; 
 noc the promise itself, but the mani- 
 
 fold proof of its fiilfilment in past 
 times. 
 
 50. I BEAR IN MY BOSOM. The 
 phrase elsewhere signifies "cherish- 
 ing with tender care and affection." 
 It is here rather the expression of an 
 intense sympathy with the Anointed 
 as the representative of Jehovah, and 
 is urged as a plea why God's faith- 
 fulness should be vindicated. 
 
 51. Footsteps, i.e. as we might 
 say, "every step he takes." Comp. 
 xvii. II ; xxii. 16 ; xlix. 5' The 
 Targum interprets this as a reproach, 
 because of the tarrying of the foot- 
 steps of the Messiah. And so Kimchi : 
 "He delays so long in coming, that 
 they say he will never come." Thus 
 ends the Third Book of the Psalter, 
 like the First and Second, with a Mes- 
 sianic Psalm. 
 
 52. The Doxology is no part of the 
 original Psalm, but was added sub- 
 sequently, to mark the close of the 
 Book. 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 PSALMS XC— CVI. 
 
PSALM XC. 
 
 " The 90th Psalm," says Isaac Taylor, " might be cited as perhaps 
 the most sublime of human compositions, the deepest in feeling, the 
 loftiest in theologic conception, the most magnificent in its imagery. 
 True is it in its report of human life as troubled, transitory, and sinful. 
 True in its conception of the Eternal, — the Sovereign and the Judge, 
 and yet the refuge and the hope of men, who, notwithstanding the 
 most severe trials of their faith, lose not their confidence in Him ; 
 but who, in the firmness of faith, pray for, as if they were predicting, 
 a near-at-hand season of refreshment. Wrapped, one might say, in 
 mystery, until the distant day of revelation should come, there is here 
 conveyed the doctrine of Immortality : for in this very plaint of the 
 brevity of the life of man, and of the sadness of these his few years of 
 trouble, and their brevity and their gloom, there is brought into con- 
 trast the Divine immutability ; and yet it is in terms of a submissive 
 piety : the thought of a life eternal is here in embryo. No taint 
 is there in this Psalm of the pride and petulance, the half-uttered 
 blasphemy, the malign disputing or arraignment of the justice or 
 goodness of God, which have so often shed a venomous colour upon 
 the language of those who have writhed in anguish, personal or relative. 
 There are few, probably, among those who have passed through times 
 of bitter and distracting woe, or who have stood the helpless spec- 
 tators of the miseries of others, that have not fallen into moods of 
 mind violently in contrast with the devout and hopeful melancholy 
 ■which breathes throughout this Ode. Rightly attributed to the Hebrew 
 Lawgiver or not, it bespeaks its remote antiquity, not merely by the 
 majestic simplicity of its style, but negatively by the entire avoidance 
 of those sophisticated turns of thought which belong to a late — a 
 lost age, in a people's intellectual and moral history. This Psalm, 
 undoubtedly, is centuries older than the moralizing of that time, 
 when the Jewish mind had listened to what it could never bring into 
 a true assimilation with its own mind — the abstractions of the Greek 
 Philosophy."— .S^zrzV of the Hebrew Poetry, pp. 161-3. 
 
446 PSALM XC. 
 
 " There are important internal reasons," says Hengstenberg, "which 
 may be urged in favour of the composition of the Psalm by Moses, as 
 announced in the title. The poem bears throughout the stamp of 
 high antiquity ; * there is no other Psalm which so decidedly conveys 
 the impression of being the original expression of the feelings to 
 which it gives utterance. There is, moreover, no other Psalm which 
 stands so much by itself, and for which parallel passages furnish so 
 little kindred matter in its characteristic peculiarities. On the other 
 hand, there occurs a series of striking allusions to the Pentateuch, 
 especially to the poetical passages, and above all others to Deut. 
 xxxii., allusions which are of a different kind from those which occur 
 in other passages in the Psalms, and which do not appear, like them, 
 to be borrowed. Luther remarks in the Psalm another peculiarity : 
 ' Just as Moses acts in teaching the law, so does he in this prayer. 
 For he preaches death, sin, and condemnation, in order that he may 
 alarm the proud who are secure in their sins, and that he may set 
 before their eyes their sin and evil, concealing, hiding nothing.' The 
 strong prominence given to the doctrine of death as the wages of sin 
 is characteristic of the Psalm, a doctrine of not frequent occurrence 
 in Holy Scripture, and especially not in the Psalms, and which is 
 proclaimed as distinctly and impressively as it is here only in the 
 Pentateuch, Gen. ii., iii., and in those ordinances of the ceremonial 
 law which threaten death." 
 
 The points of resemblance between the language of the Psalm and 
 expressions occurring in parts of the Pentateuch, and more particularly 
 in Deuteronomy, wUl be found mentioned in the notes. To those who 
 believe, as I do, that Deuteronomy was written by Moses, they furnish 
 an argument for the Mosaic authorship of the Psalm. 
 
 " This Psalm, then, is one of the oldest of the inspired utterances. 
 It is the prayer which is read over the mortal dust of some hundreds 
 of the children of men, every week, in London alone. And so used, 
 none of us finds it antiquated. The lapse of 3,000 years has not 
 made it necessary to discard this clause and that. Words that 
 described the relation of the children of Israel to the eternal God, 
 serve still to express the devotion of English hearts turning to God 
 in their sorrow. As these grand words are uttered, the curtain that 
 hangs round our life seems to draw back, and we see, beyond, depths 
 that we dreamt not of. From time and the slow succession of events, 
 
 * So Herder calls it " that ancient Psalm, that hymn of eternity." 
 
PSALM XC. 447 
 
 from the minutes and the hours that seem so long and so many, we 
 mm to God, whose eternal nature was as it now is even when the 
 world was formed, and to whom a thousand years are no more than 
 the middle watch of the night is to a sound sleeper. Nations that 
 seem established for ever are carried off down the roaring cataract of 
 time ; men full of pride, and glory, and power, grow and perish like 
 grass; and God alone remains unchangeable — the same yesterday, 
 and to-day, and for ever." — Archbishop of York's Sermons preached 
 at Lincoln's Inn, p. 2. 
 
 The Psalm has no strophical division, nor even any regular rhyth- 
 mical arrangement. It consists of two principal parts : — 
 
 I. The first is a meditation on the Eternity of God, as it stands in 
 contrast with the weakness and transitoriness of man (ver. I — 12) ; 
 and here we have, first, the contrast stated (ver. i — 6), and then the 
 reason of this transitoriness, viz. man's sin, and God's wrath as 
 following thereon, together with the prayer for wisdom to turn to 
 a practical account these facts of human life (ver. 7 — 12). 
 
 II. The second (ver. 13 — 17) is a prayer that God — who, notwith- 
 standing Israel's sin, and notwithstanding the chastisement that sin 
 has provoked, is still Israel's Home and Refuge — would now at last 
 have compassion upon His people, give them joy for sorrow (ver. 
 13 — 15), and crown all their labours with success (ver 16, 17). 
 
 [a prayer of MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD.] 
 
 I Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place 
 In all generations. 
 
 Ver. I — 6. The eternity and un- pilgrims,'' of what He had been both 
 
 changeableness of God contrasted with to their fathers and to themselves, 
 the transitoriness of man. Our dwelling-place, or " a 
 
 I. Thou hast been, or "hast place of refuge for us." The word, 
 
 proved Thyself to be." It is the record which occurs Deut. xxxiii. 27, coia- 
 
 of a past experience, not merely the bines both ideas, and would have 
 
 statement of what God is in His own a peculiar force of meaning for the 
 
 nature. It is the acknowledgement of IsraeUtes in the wilderness. For 
 
 what God has been to Abraham, to Israel was without a country and 
 
 Isaac, and to Jacob, when they had without a home, finding here and 
 
 no fixed dwelling-place, but " con- there only a brief resting-place beside 
 
 fessed that they were strangers and the well and under the palms of the 
 
448 
 
 PSALM XC. 
 
 Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 
 Or ever Thou gavest birth to the earth and the world, 
 Yea from everlasting to everlasting, Thou (art) God. 
 
 Thou turnest frail man to dust, 
 
 And sayest : Return, ye children of men. 
 
 For a thousand years in Thy sight 
 
 Are (but) as yesterday, when it passeth, 
 And (as) a watch in the night. 
 
 desert. And Israel was without a 
 refuge, exposed to enemies and a. 
 thousand perils. 
 
 In all generations, lit. "in 
 generation and generation," a phrase 
 which occurs Deut. xxxii. 7. 
 
 2. Thou gavest birth to. " Or 
 ever the earth and the world were 
 formed." 
 
 Earth . . . world. The former 
 is the more common and general 
 word ; the latter, which is exclu- 
 sively used in poetry, denotes, ac- 
 cording to its etymology, the fruit- 
 ful earth (comp. Prov. viii. 31 ; 
 Job xxxvii. 12). 
 
 3. To DUST : lit. "to the state of 
 one who is crushed, reduced to 
 dust," with allusion, no doubt, to 
 Gen. iii. ig. 
 
 Return. As men perish by the 
 breath of God, so by Mis word He 
 calls others into being : " one gene- 
 ration goeth, and another cometh." 
 Such is probably the meaning. 
 Some suppose the second clause of 
 the verse to be merely a repetition of 
 the first : 
 
 " Thou turnest men to destruction, 
 And sayest. Turn if.e. to destruc- 
 tion), ye children of men." 
 But if an emphatic repetition were 
 designed, the form of the sentence 
 wotild rather have been : 
 " Thou sayest, Turn to destruction, 
 ye children of men, 
 And they are turned." 
 
 4. Yesterday. To a Jew, the 
 
 new day began in the evening 
 
 A WATCH IN the night. The 
 night was anciently divided into 
 three, later into four watches. 
 There is a climax ; for the past 
 day, short as it seems, was, whilst 
 it was passing, capable of measure- 
 ment : it had its hours and its 
 mmutes, its thoughts and its acts, 
 and its memories. But the night- 
 watch "is for us as though it were 
 not ; we sleep through the watch 
 of the night, living but observing 
 nothing." " In those words, 'a 
 thousand years in Thy sight are 
 but as yesterday," &c, the Psalmist 
 has thrown a light upon the nature 
 of God such as a volume of reason- 
 ing could not have kindled. With 
 God there are no measures of time. 
 With us time is the name we give 
 to the duration of a certain succes- 
 sion of thoughts and efforts, each 
 of which for a moment held full 
 possession of us, each of which cost 
 us a certain pain, and contribttted 
 a little to that weariness which at 
 last took shelter in repose. The 
 Most High does not and cannot so 
 govern the world. He does not 
 loqk away from the earth to add fuel 
 to the sun ; He does not leave one 
 nation of the earth neglected whilst 
 He works mighty social changes in 
 another. . . . All that we mean by 
 time must now be left out of the 
 account. ... It would be a longer 
 
rSALM xc. 
 
 449 
 
 5 Thou sweepest them away (as with a flood) ; they are 
 
 (as) a sleep : 
 In the morning they are as grass which springeth afresh. 
 
 6 In the morning it flourisheth and springeth afresh, 
 
 In the evening it is cut down and withereth. 
 
 7 For we have been consumed by Thine anger, 
 
 And by Thy fury have we been terrified ; 
 
 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, 
 
 Our secret (sins) in the light of Thy countenance. 
 
 9 For all our days have passed away in Thy wrath, 
 
 We have spent our years as a thought : 
 
 and more tedious task, if a man were 
 the worker, to build a world than to 
 guide a wayward nation through its 
 fortunes : but what means longer or 
 shorter, where there is no labour, nor 
 waiting, nor weariness, but only the 
 streaming forth of an omnipotent will ? 
 Dare we say that it cost more to 
 construct the universe than to guide 
 the footsteps of one man during the 
 short year that has just closed ! " — 
 Archbishop of York's Sermons, 
 pp. 6—8. 
 
 The sentiment of the verse is re- 
 peated by St. Peter, who gives also 
 the converse, 2 Pet. iii. 8. 
 
 5. Thou sweepest, &c. Or the 
 two clauses may be dependent upon 
 one another, as in the P.B.V. : "As 
 soon as Thou hast swept them away, 
 they are (or, become) as a sleep." 
 
 In the morning. This can 
 hardly mean "in eaily youth," as 
 some of the Rabbis explain. The 
 words, strictly speaking, are a part 
 of the comparison ("they are as 
 grass which springeth afresh in the 
 morning"), and are only thus placed 
 fiist to give emphasis to the figure. 
 In the East, one night's rain works 
 a change as if by magic. The field 
 at evening was brown, parched, arid 
 as a desert : in the morning it is green 
 with the blades of grass. The scorch- 
 
 ing hot wind (James i. 11 ) blows upon 
 it, and again before evening it is 
 withered. 
 
 6. It is cut down. Others render : 
 " It is dried up. " The P. B. V. gives 
 both meanings : " it is cut down, dried 
 ■up, and withered." 
 
 8. Our secret (sins), or, "our 
 secret (heart) ; " for the word is 
 singular. Tlie whole inner being, 
 that which is in man (John ii. 25), 
 the pollution and sinfulness of which 
 is hidden from a man himself, till 
 it is set iu the light of God's counte- 
 nance. 
 
 Light, or more properly, "lumi- 
 nary." The light of God's counte- 
 nance is everywhere else spoken of as 
 a light of love and approbation. 
 ( Hence, the Syriac renders the second 
 clause "make us grow young again 
 in the light of Thy countenance." 
 Here it is a revealing light. The 
 "light" or rather "sun" of God's 
 countenance shines down into the 
 dark abysses of the human heart, 
 bringing out its hidden evils into 
 strong and painful relief. The nearest 
 parallel expression occurs in Prov. 
 XV. 30, where the same word is used, 
 rendered in the E.V. "the light of 
 the eyes." It means " that which 
 contains and gives the light, as the 
 sun, a lamp, &c." 
 
 G G 
 
45° 
 
 PSALM XC. 
 
 10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten, 
 
 Or (perchance) by reason of strength, fourscore 
 years ; 
 And their pride is (but) labour and vanity, 
 
 For it hath past swiftly, and we have fled away. 
 
 1 1 Who knoweth the might of Thine anger. 
 
 And Thy wrath, according to the fear that is due 
 unto Thee ? 
 
 1 2 So teach us to number our days, 
 
 That we may gain a heart of wisdom. 
 
 13 Return, O Jehovah ! — how long ? — 
 
 And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants. 
 
 9. As A THOUGHT. The same 
 comparison is found in Homer, as an 
 emblem of speed : i^aeX irrep^y ije 
 
 10. The days of our years (a 
 common expression in Genesis). The 
 literal rendering of this clause is, "as 
 for the days of our years in them are 
 seventy years." 
 
 Or (perchance). More literally, 
 " or if they (the years) be with ful- ' 
 ness of strength." 
 
 Their pride (the word occurs 
 only here), i.e. the pride of the years, 
 meaning all in which men make their 
 boast, as health, strength, honour, 
 riches, &c. 
 
 For it HATH past, &c. Words 
 which come with double force from 
 the lips of one now standing himself 
 on the extreme verge of life, and 
 looking back on the past. Com p. 
 the language of St. John, ' ' The 
 world passeth away and the lust 
 thereof," &c. 
 
 n. Who KNOWETH, i.e. "regard- 
 eth, considereth aright. " 
 
 12. Teach us, lit. "To number 
 our days, so teach us," i.e. in this 
 manner teach us, give us this Icind 
 of instruction. The position of the 
 woids and the accents justify this 
 
 interpretation. Others take so in 
 the sense of accordingly. And others 
 again connect it with what goes be- 
 fore : " So., i. e. according to the fear 
 due unto Thee." 
 
 That we may gain, gather, 
 bring in as a harvest, the fruit of the 
 earth, &c. : a heart of wisdom, a 
 wise heart is the fruit which we are to 
 gather from the Divine instruction. 
 
 13. The prayer which follows 
 springs from the deep source of the 
 preceding meditation. God is ever- 
 lasting, man transitory stnd sinful. 
 Man does not consider his sin aright, 
 even when God lays His hand upon 
 him. He needs Divine instruction 
 that he may take to heart the lesson 
 both of his sinfulness and his transi- 
 toriness. But Moses does not forget 
 that, in spite of all, God has been 
 and still is the home of His people. 
 He is a compassionate God, as well 
 as a God that punisheth transgression. 
 And therefore he asks not only that 
 he and his people may learn the 
 lesson of Divine wisdom, but that 
 the God who had chastened them 
 would visit them with His loving- 
 kindness, that the night of sorrow 
 may flee away, and the morning of 
 gladness dawn. God's love, God's 
 
PSALM XC. 
 
 451 
 
 14 satisfy us in the morning with Thy loving-kindness, 
 
 That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 
 
 15 Make us glad according to the days in which Thou 
 
 hast afflicted us, 
 The years wherein we have seen evil. 
 
 16 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, 
 
 And Thy majesty upon their children. 
 
 17 And let the graciousness of Jehovah ou God be upon 
 
 us ; 
 And the work of our hands do Thou establish upon 
 us; 
 Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it. 
 
 personal manifestation of Himself, 
 His blessing descending upon them 
 as they enter upon their new life in 
 the promised inheritance, — for this, 
 and not for anything less, he prays. 
 " And the prayer is a presage of the 
 end of their pilgrimage, and of their 
 forgiveness, and their settlement in 
 the land that God had given them." 
 
 Return. This may mean, as in 
 Exod, xxMi. 12, "Turn from Thine 
 anger," or, as in Ps. vi. 4, " Turn to 
 Thy people." 
 
 How LONG. See notes on vi. 3, 4. 
 
 Let it repent thee, or, "show 
 compassion towards." The fuller ex- 
 pression is found in Ex. xxxii. 12, 
 " Let it repent Thee of the evil," &c. 
 The phrase occurs frequently in the 
 Prophets. 
 
 14. In the morning, when the 
 night of sorrow is spent. Comp. 
 xlvi 5, cxliii. 8. 
 
 15. Afflicted us, or "humbled 
 ns," the same word which is used in 
 
 Deut. viii. 2, where this "humbling" 
 is said to have been God's purpose in 
 those forty years' wandering. 
 
 16. Thy work. The word is 
 used both of God's judgements and of 
 His acts of grace. Comp. Ixxvii. 12, 
 xcii. 4, xcv .9, and Hab. iii. 2. Here 
 the bringing of Israel into his inherit- 
 ance is meant. 
 
 Upon, as coming down out of 
 heaven, and so descending upon. 
 
 ry. Graciousness. This is pro- 
 bably a better rendering than 
 "beauty," which I have retained in 
 xxvii. 4- 
 
 The work of our hands, an- 
 other expression which runs all 
 through Deuteronomy. 
 
 The order deserves notice. God's 
 work is first to appear, His majesty 
 to be revealed ; then man's work, 
 which is God's work carried out by 
 human instruments, may look for His 
 blessing. 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 PSALM XCI. 
 
 PSALM XCI. 
 
 This Psalm, which in the Hebrew has no inscription, is by the 
 LXX., apparently without sufficient reason, ascribed to David. It 
 celebrates, with considerable variety and beauty of expression, God's 
 loving and watchful care, and the perfect peace and security of those 
 who make Him their refuge. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that the Psalm was written during 
 the prevalence of a pestilence (such for instance as that mentioned 
 in 2 Sam. xxiv. 15)*, for the variety of figures employed shows that 
 the Psalmist is thinking of peril of every kind, coming from whatever 
 source, and that he paints all dangers and fears vividly to the eye of his 
 mind, in order to express the more joyfully his confidence that none 
 of these things can move him, that over all he is more than conqueror. 
 It is St. Paul's fervid exclamation, " If God be for us, who can be 
 against us ? " expressed in rich and varied poetry. 
 
 1 He that sitteth in the secret place of the Most High, 
 
 That resteth under the shadow of the Almighty, 
 
 2 Saith of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortre.ss. 
 
 My God, in whom I trust. 
 
 3 For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter. 
 
 From the devouring pestilence. 
 
 4 With His feathers shall He cover Thee, 
 
 1. Resteth (lit. " lodgeth, passeth God of covenant and grace, who has 
 
 the night "). revealed Himself to His people ; and 
 
 In each clause of verses I, -2, God it is of such a God that the Psalmist 
 
 is spoken of by a different name. says in holy confidence, He is " my 
 
 God is " Most High," far above God," in whom I trust. 
 
 all the rage and malice of enemies; 3. Snare OF THE hunter. Comp. 
 
 "Almighty," so that none can stand xviii. 5, cxxiv. 7, Hos. ix. 8. 
 
 before His power; "Jehovah," the 4. With His feathers. Seethe 
 
 • Stier mentions that some years ago an eminent physician in St. Petersburg recommended 
 ihie Psalm as the best preservative against the cholera. 
 
PSALM XCI. 
 
 And under His wings shalt thou find refuge, 
 His truth shall be (a) shield and buckler. 
 
 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night, 
 
 (Nor) for the arrow that flieth by day, 
 
 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, 
 
 (Nor) for the sickness that wasteth at noon-day. 
 
 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, 
 
 And ten thousand at thy right hand, 
 (But) it shall not come nigh thee. 
 
 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold 
 
 And see the reward of the wicked. 
 
 9 For Thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge : — 
 
 Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation ; 
 ID (Therefore) there shall no evil befall thee, 
 
 Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent ; 
 II For He will give His angels charge over thee. 
 
 To keep thee in all thy ways. 
 
 453 
 
 beautiful passage, Deut xxxii. II, 
 and note on Ps. xvii. 8, Ixiii. 7. 
 
 5. Terror by night (comp. Song 
 of Sol. iii. 8, Prov. iii. 23 — 26), iu 
 allusion, probably, to niglit attacks 
 like those of Gideon (Judg. vii. ), a 
 favourite artifice of Oriental warfare ; 
 or perhaps to a destruction like that 
 of Sennacherib. 
 
 7. It shall not come nigh 
 THEE. The singular refers to any 
 and every one of the evils mentioned 
 inver. 5, 6. "As the general who 
 carries with hira the conviction that 
 he is called to a great work, whilst 
 the bullets fall thick as hail about 
 him, stands with calm eye and firm 
 foot, and says, I know that the bullet 
 is not yet cast which can strike me,, 
 so stands the man of prophetic faith 
 in the hour of danger, with the con- 
 viction that the thunderbolt will turn 
 aside from his head, and the torrent 
 dry up at his feet, and the arrow fall 
 
 blunted from his breast, because tht 
 Lord wills it." — Tholuck. 
 
 10. Tent. An instance of the 
 way in which the Patriarchal life 
 became stereotyped, so to speak, in 
 the language. There is an allusion, 
 perhaps, to Israel's exemption from 
 the plagues of Egypt, Exod. xii. 23. 
 
 11. Angels; not as "guardian 
 angels," but as God's ministers in 
 the government of the world, and 
 especially as "sent forth to minister 
 for them that shall be heirs of sal- 
 vation." (Comp. xxxiv. 7.) By the 
 "lion and adder" there is no need 
 to understand exclusively, or chiefly, 
 the powers of darkness, the evil 
 spirits. As by "a stone" all hin- 
 drances, so by "the lion and dragon " 
 all hostile powers, are denoted, more 
 particularly in the natural world. 
 This may be illustrated from histories 
 like those of Samson, David, Daniel, 
 &c., and especially by Matt. iv. 6. 
 
454 
 
 PSALM XCII. 
 
 12 On (their) hands they shall bear thee (up), 
 
 Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 
 
 13 Upon the lion and adder shalt thou tread, 
 
 Thou shalt trample the young lion and serpent under 
 thy feet. 
 
 14 " Because he hath set his love upon Me, 
 
 Therefore will I deliver him ; 
 I will set him on high, because he knoweth My Name. 
 
 1 5 When he calleth upon Me, I will answer him, 
 
 I (will be) with him in trouble, 
 
 I will deliver him and honour him ; 
 
 16 With long life will I satisfy him, 
 
 And show him My salvation." 
 
 What a prophecy of the victory of 
 faith over the material as well as over 
 the spiritual world, and that not only 
 by miraculous but by non-miraculous 
 means 1 Comp. Mark xvi. 18 ; Luke 
 X. 19 ; John xiv. 12. The quotation 
 both in Matt. iv. 6, and Luke iv. 10, 
 II, is made from the LXX., but the 
 former omits the whole of the clause 
 "to keep thee," &c., and the latter 
 the words " in all thy ways," so that 
 it would seem that the omission of 
 this last was designed in the mouth of 
 the tempter. The ' ' ways " spoken 
 of in the Psalm are the "ways" of 
 obedience and duty, not the " ways " 
 of presumption or self-seeking. 
 
 14 — 16. God's answer to the soul 
 which trusts -in Him. " God himself 
 comes forward to establish the faith 
 
 of His servant, writes deeper in the 
 soul so great a consolation, and con- 
 firms the testimony to His servant. 
 ' He hath set his love upon Me— he 
 knoweth My Name^he calleth upon 
 Me' — these are the marks of a true 
 servant of God. God draws nigh to 
 one who so draws nigh to Him." 
 Compare with this passage 1. 15, 23. 
 The special promise of long life at 
 the close, as a temporal blessing, is in 
 accordance with the general character 
 of the Old Testament. Still it is pos- 
 sible that men like the Psalmist, full 
 of faith in God, attached a deeper aud 
 more spiritual meaning to promises 
 and hopes like these, than was at- 
 tached to them by the majority of their 
 countrymen. 
 
 PSALM'XCII. 
 
 This Psalm is called a Psalm for the Sabbath-day, and, as we learn 
 from the Talmud, was appointed to be used in the Temple service on 
 
PSALM XCIL 455 
 
 that day. It was sung in the morning when, on the offering of the 
 first lamb, the wine was poured out as a drink-offering unto the Lord 
 {Numb, xxviii. 9). At the evening sacrifice one of the three passages, 
 Exod. XV. I — 10, II — 19, Numb. xxi. 17 — 20, was sung. The Talmudic 
 treatise above referred to gives the following as the selection of Psalms 
 for the service, each day of the week, in the second Temple. On the 
 first day, Ps. xxiv. ; on the second, Ps. xlviii. ; on the third, Ps. Ixxxii. ; 
 on the fourth, Ps. xciv. ; on the fifth, Ps. Ixxxi. ; on the sixth, Ps. xciiL ; 
 on the seventh, "A Psalm or song for the Sabbath-day, i.e. A Psalm 
 or song for the future age (the age of the Messiah), all of which will 
 be sabbath." 
 
 It celebrates in joyful strain the greatness of God's works, and 
 especially His righteous government of the world, as manifested in 
 the overthrow of the wicked, and the prosperity and final triumph of 
 the righteous. The apparent success of the ungodly for a time is 
 admitted, but this is a mystery which worldly men, whose under- 
 standing has become darkened, cannot penetrate (ver. 6). The Psalm 
 therefore touches upon the same great principles of the Divine govern- 
 ment which are laid down in such Psalms as the first, the thirty- 
 seventh, the forty-ninth, and the seventy-third. But here there is no 
 struggle with doubt and perplexity, as in the seventy-third ; the Poet 
 is beyond all doubt, above all perplexity ; he has not fallen down to 
 the low level of the brutish man (comp. Ixxiii. 22 with ver. 6 of this 
 Psalm) ; he is rejoicing in the full and perfect conviction of the 
 righteousness of God. 
 
 [a psalm, a song for the sabbath day.] 
 
 1 It is a good thing to give thanks to Jehovah, 
 
 And to sing psalms to Thy Name, O Most High, 
 
 2 To declare Thy loving-kindness in the morning, 
 
 And Thy faithfulness every night, 
 
 3 Upon a ten-stringed instrument and upon the lute. 
 
 With sound or music upon the harp. 
 
 I. It is a good thing, i.e. a able to God, but a real joy to tha 
 delightful thing, not merely accept- heart. 
 
456 PSALM XCII. 
 
 4 For Thou hast made me glad, O Jehovah, through that 
 
 Thou hast done, 
 I will sing aloud because of the works of Thy hands. 
 
 5 How great, O Jehovah, are Thy works ! 
 
 Very deep are Thy thoughts. 
 
 6 A brutish rnan knoweth not, 
 
 And a fool doth not consider this. 
 
 7 When the wicked spring as the green herb, 
 
 And all the workers of iniquity do flourish. 
 It is that they may be destroyed for ever. 
 
 8 And Thou, O Jehovah, art (throned) on high for ever- 
 
 more. 
 
 9 For lo. Thine enemies, O Jehovah, 
 
 For lo. Thine enemies shall perish, 
 
 And all the workers of iniquity shall melt away. 
 lO But Thou hast exalted my horn like (the horn of) a 
 wild ox ; 
 I am anointed with fresh oil. 
 
 4. The great reason of all this joy. 6. A FOOL ; in the same sense as in 
 The Psalmist has witnessed the mani- xiv. I. 
 
 festation and the triumph of the eter- 8. This verse, consisting of but one 
 
 nal righteousness of God. line, expresses the great central fact 
 
 That Thou hast done, or " Thy on which all the doctrine of the Psalm 
 
 doing ; " not here God's power in rests. This is the great pillar of the 
 
 Creation (a misunderstanding which universe and of our faith, 
 
 may have led to this Psahn being On h-igh. The word occurs only 
 
 associated with the Sabbatical rest of here as a predicate of God. Lit. 
 
 creation), but God's moral govern- "height," or " in the height " (accu- 
 
 ment of the world. So also in the sative). Elsewhere God is said "to 
 
 next clause, the works of Thy inhabit the height," Is. Ivii. 15 ; to be 
 
 HANDS, as in cxliii. 5. "glorious in the height," xciii. 4; 
 
 5. How GREAT ; not as in Ixxiii., and in Mic vi. 6 we have "God of 
 "it was a trouble in mine eyes." height, "«>." God on high, "or "God 
 Faith wonders and adores. Men's in heaven. " 
 
 thoughts on such subjects are but 9. Shall melt away, lit. "shall 
 folly. It is as though they considered separate themselves, disperse," break- 
 not (ver. 6). Faith is the true inter- ing up as it were without the applioa- 
 preter of the world (ver. 7). tion of any external force. 
 
 Very DEEP. Comp. xxxvi. 6 ; xl. 10. Fresh OIL, or "green oil," as in 
 
 5 ; cxxxix. 17; Rom. xi. 33. Latin, <;/«</« z/2nV.f, said of the best oil. 
 
PSALM XCII. 
 
 457 
 
 1 1 Mine eye also hath seen (its desire) upon them that lie 
 
 in wait for me, 
 And mine ear hath heard (its desire) of the evil 
 doers that rise up against me. 
 
 12 The righteous shall spring as the palm, 
 
 He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 
 13 They that are planted in the house of Jehovah 
 
 Shall spring in the courts of our God ; 
 
 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age, 
 
 They shall be full of sap and green, 
 
 15 To declare that Jehovah is upright. 
 
 My rock in whom there is no unrighteousness. 
 
 II. Them that lie in wait for 
 ME ; the same whom in ver. 9. he 
 calls ** Thine enemies." Sure of the 
 triumph of the kingdom of God, he is 
 sure also of his own triumph. 
 
 12—15. What is true of the 
 Psahnist is true of all who are 
 partakers of the same faith. The 
 date-palm and the cedar are se- 
 lected as the loveliest images of 
 verdure, fruitfulness, undecaying 
 vigour and perpetuity. " Througiiout 
 the year, in the winter's cold as in 
 the summer's heat, tlie palm continues 
 green : not by years but by centuries is 
 the cedar's age reckoned." — Iholuck. 
 , There is also a contrast : " The wicked 
 spring as the green herb, or grass" 
 (ver. 7), which soon withers away ; 
 " The righteous spring as the palm," 
 which is ever green and ever fruitful. 
 
 Besides this, there are only two 
 passages in the Old Testament where 
 the palm is used in comparison — 
 Song of Sol vii. 7, where it is said of 
 the bride, "Thy stature is like to a 
 palm-tree ; '' Jer. x. 5, where the idols 
 are said to be "upright as a palm- 
 tree : " and one in the Apocrypha, 
 Ecclus. xxiv. 14, "I was exalted 
 
 like a palm-tree in Engaddi. " This, 
 as Dr. Howson has noticed, is re- 
 markable, considering the beauty of 
 the tree, and its frequent recurrence 
 in the scenery of Palestine. 
 
 13. The figure need not be so far 
 pressed as to imply that such trees 
 actually grew in the Temple-court 
 (see on lii. 8). Still it is by no means 
 improbable that the precincts of the 
 Temple contained trees. 
 
 14. Theyshallstillbearfrhit, 
 in allusion probably to the great fruit- 
 fulness of the date-palm, which, when 
 it reaches maturity, produces three or 
 four hundred pounds' weight of fruit, 
 and has been known even to produce 
 six hundred pounds' weight. 
 
 15. To declare, &c. Thus in the 
 end, God's righteous government of 
 the world will be manifested. The 
 flourishing of the workers of iniquity 
 has been but for a moment (ver. 7, 
 9, 11) ; the joy and prosperity of the 
 righteous is for ever. This is the 
 signal proof of God's righteousness : 
 this is the justification of the Psalmist's 
 confidence resting ever on that un- 
 shaken "Rock." 
 
458 PSALM XCIII. 
 
 PSALM XCIII. 
 
 The sum and substance of this Psalm is contained, as Hitzig has 
 remarked, in the eighth verse of the preceding Psalm. It celebrates 
 the majesty of Jehovah as Ruler of the Universe. He is Creator 
 of the world. He has been its King from everlasting ; it rests upon 
 Him, and is stayed by His might. AU the powers of nature obey 
 Him, however lawless they may seem, as all the swelling and rage 
 of men of which those are but a figure, must obey Him. But His 
 majesty and His glory are seen, not only in controlling the powers of 
 nature, and whatsoever exalteth and opposeth itself against Him, but 
 in the faithfulness of His word, and in the holiness of His house. 
 
 As the Psalm speaks of a particular manifestation of Jehovah's 
 kingly rule, of a time when He has taken to Himself His great power 
 and reigned (see note on ver. i), it may in this sense be termed Mes- 
 sianic. For, as Delitzsch has pointed out, the Old Testament pro- 
 phecy concerning the kingdom of God consists of two series of predic- 
 tions, the one of which speaks of the reign of the anointed of Jehovah 
 out of Zion, the other of the reign of Jehovah Himself as the great 
 King over all the earth. These two lines of prophecy converge in the 
 Old Testament, but never meet. Only here and there do we discern 
 an intimation (as in xlv. 7) that the two are one. 
 
 I Jehovah is King, He hath clothed Himself with 
 majesty ; 
 Jehovah hath clothed Himself, He hath girded Him- 
 self with strength. 
 
 I. Is King. More exactly, " hath His majesty fully displayed and ac- 
 
 become King," as if by a -solemn knowledged ; as it is said in the Apo- 
 
 coronation (comp. the same expres- calypse of the final manifestation, 
 
 sion of a new monarch ascending the " The kingdoms of this world are be- 
 
 throne, 2 Sam. xv. 10; I Kings i. 11 ; come the kingdoms of our Lord and 
 
 2 Kings ix. 13). He has been King of His Christ." 
 
 from everlasting, but now His king- Hath clothed Himself. Comp. 
 
 dom is visibly set up. His power and civ. i, 2 ; Is. li. 9 ; Job xl. 10. 
 
PSALM XCIII. 459 
 
 \ Yea, the world is established that it cannot be moved. 
 
 2 Thy throne is established of old ; 
 
 Thou art from everlasting. 
 
 3 The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah, 
 
 The floods have lifted up their voice, 
 The floods lift up their roaring. 
 
 4 More than the voices of many mighty waters, 
 
 (Even than) the breakers of the sea, 
 Jehovah on high is mighty. 
 
 5 Thy testimonies are very faithful : 
 
 Holiness becometh Thy house, O Jehovah, for ever. 
 
 Yea, the world, &c. The effect 
 of the Divine rule and power, as in 
 xcvi. 10. The reference is apparently 
 not merely to the creation of the 
 world and its providential administra- 
 tron, but to these as representing in 
 a figure the moral government of God. 
 For the throne of God in ver. 2 de- 
 notes, as Calvin says, His righteous 
 sway and government, and the lan- 
 guage of ver. 3 is to be understood 
 figuratively as well as literally. 
 
 Hupfeld infers from the use of the 
 word " floods " (comp. Hab. iii. 8), 
 the epithet of " mighty " in next verse, 
 which is used of waters besides only 
 in Exod. xv. lo, and the "lifting up 
 the voice," as in Hab. iii. lo (comp. 
 bixvii. 17, 18), that there is an allusion 
 to the passage of the Red Sea. 
 
 Their ROARING, lit. "their blow," 
 or "beating," said of the dashing of 
 the surf in thunders upon the shore. 
 
 The word occurs only here ; in the 
 next verse the plural " voices " is 
 used here only of the sea, elsewhere 
 always of the thunder. 
 
 4 Jehovah on high. Comp. 
 xcii. 8, xxix. 10. 
 
 5. The transition is abrupt, from 
 the majesty of God as seen in His 
 dominion of the world of nature, to 
 His revelation of Himself in His 
 word. At the same time there is a 
 connection between the two, as in 
 xix. God who rules the world, He 
 whose are the kingdom, and the 
 power, 'and the glory for ever, has 
 given His testimonies to His people, 
 a sure and faithful word, and has 
 Himself come to dwell among them, 
 making His house and His people 
 holy. 
 
 For ever, lit. "for length of 
 days," as in xxiii. 6. 
 
46o FSALM XCIV. 
 
 PSALM XCIV. 
 
 By the LXX. this is called " A lyric Psalm of David, for the fourtl' 
 day of the week." It is probably not a Psalm of David, but the latter 
 part of the Inscription accords with the Talmudic tradition (see In- 
 troduction to Ps. xcii.). 
 
 The Psalm opens with an appeal to God to execute righteous- 
 vengeance on wicked rulers, judges who oppress and crush the help- 
 less, whilst in their folly they dream that His long-suffering is but 
 the supineness of indifference. It concludes with the expression of a 
 calm confidence that God's righteousness will be finally manifested. 
 The righteous, taught by God's fatherly disciphne, and upheld by 
 Him, can wait for the end, when the wicked shall reap the reward of 
 their wickedness, and shall be utterly destroyed. 
 
 The conviction thus expressed of the righteousness of God's govern- 
 ment is similar to that in Ps. xcii., except that here tliis conviction is 
 grounded more directly on personal experience. ■ 
 
 The Psalm may be thus divided : — 
 
 1. An Introduction, consisting of an appeal to God. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 2. The reason for this appeal, namely, the insolence and oppression 
 of the wicked. Ver. 3 — 7. 
 
 3. The blindness and folly of such conduct, as a virtual contempt 
 of God. Ver. 8— ii. 
 
 4. In contrast with this the blessedness of those who are taught of 
 God, and who can therefore in their confidence possess their souls. 
 Ver. 12 — 15. 
 
 5. The strong personal conviction of Jehovah's righteousness, based 
 upon past experience. Ver. 16 — 19. 
 
 6. A conviction which extends also to the future, and by virtue of 
 which the Psalmist sees righteous retribution already accomplished 
 upon the wicked. Ver. 20 — 23. 
 
PSALM XCIV. 461 
 
 1 Jehovah, Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, 
 
 Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. 
 
 2 Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth. 
 
 Render a reward to the proud. 
 
 3 How long shall the wicked, O Jehovah, 
 
 How long shall the wicked triumph 1 
 
 4 They pour forth, they speak hard things, 
 
 All the workers of iniquity carry themselves proudly. 
 
 5 Thy people, O Jehovah, they crush. 
 
 And Thine inheritance do they afflict. 
 
 6 The widow and the stranger they slay, 
 
 And they murder the fatherless ; 
 
 7 And say : " Jah seeth not, 
 
 Neither doth the God of Jacob regard (it)." 
 
 8 Consider, O ye brutish among the people ! 
 
 And, ye fools, when will ye be wise .'' 
 
 9 He who planteth the ear, shall He not hear .? 
 
 Or He that formeth the eye, shall not He see t 
 10 He that instructeth the nations, shall not He reprove, 
 
 I. God TO WHOM, &c. : lit. " God 8. The utter folly of this denial of 
 
 of vengeances." Comp. ix. 12, Jer. a Divine providence, because judge- 
 
 li. 56. ment is not executed speedily. The 
 
 5. Crush : Prov. xxii. 22 ; Is. iii. argument which foUovi's is from the 
 15. . perfections of the creature to those 
 
 6. The LXX. have transposed the of the Creator. The very nature of 
 words "fatherless" and "stranger," God and of man convicts these fools 
 and rendered the last "proselyte." of their folly. "Can anything," says 
 The widow and the fatherless are Herder, " more to the point be urged, 
 mentioned often, as particular in- even in our time, against the tribe of 
 stances of those whose misery ought philosophers who deny a purpose and 
 to excite compassion, but whose de- design in Nature ? All that they allege 
 fencelessness makes them the easy of the dead abstraction which they 
 prey of the wicked. term 'nature,' the heathen ascribe 
 
 7. "Jah SEETH NOT." Comp. X. to their gods : and what the Prophets 
 II, lix. 7. Not that they deliberately say against the one holds against the 
 utter such blasphemy, but their con- other," 
 
 duct amounts to this, it is a practical 10. In the English Bible this is 
 
 stheism. See on xiv. i. brolcen up into two questions, and 
 
462 
 
 PSALM XCIV. 
 
 (Even) He that teacheth man knowledge ? 
 1 1 Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of man, 
 That they (are but) vanity. 
 
 12 Blessed is the man whom Thou instructest, O Jah, 
 
 And teachest out of Thy law, 
 
 13 To give him rest from the days of evil. 
 
 Till the pit be digged for the wicked. 
 
 a clause is supplied in the second 
 member, whicli does not exist in the 
 Hebrew, "Shall not He know?" 
 But this is incorrect. There is a 
 change in the argument. Before 
 it was from the physical constitution 
 of man ; now, it is from the moral 
 government of the world. He who 
 is the great Educator of the race 
 ("who nurtureth the heathen," 
 P. B. v.), who gives them all the 
 knowledge they possess, has He 
 not the right, which even human 
 teachers exercise, of chastening, cor- 
 recting, reproving? He may not 
 always exercise the right, but it is 
 His. This, which I believe to be 
 the true interpretation of the verse, 
 is that of the LXX. : * O TraiSeuojc 
 iQvi), oixl e\67|€t ; b SiScia'Kuv dvdpto- 
 irov ■yvamti. Hengstenberg remarks 
 that the doctrine of an influence 
 exercised by God upon the con- 
 sciences of the heathen is of com- 
 paratively rare occurrence in the 
 Old Testament, a fact to be explained 
 by the very depraved condition of 
 such of the heathen as were the 
 near neighbours of the Israelites, and 
 among whom few traces of such an 
 influence could be seen. On this 
 Divine education see Rom. i. 20, ii. 
 
 14. IS- 
 
 II. So far from "not seeing," 
 "not regarding," as these "brutish " 
 persons fondly imagine, Jehovah 
 reads their inmost thoughts and 
 
 devices, as He reads the hearts of 
 all men, even though for a time 
 they are unpunished. The verse is 
 quoted in i Cor. iii. 20, i Kipios 
 yiyt^cTKet rods 5ia\oynTfj.ois tuiv aoipm 
 irt eialy ixdratoL, which only deviates 
 from the version of the LXX. in 
 the substitution of the special a-oipiv, 
 as more suitable to the Apostle's 
 argument, for the general duBpiirmv. 
 
 Vanity, lit. "a breath," as in 
 xxxix. 5, 6. 
 
 Probably the best rendering of this 
 clause would be, "For they {i.e. 
 men) are but a breath ; " this vanity, 
 weakness, and emptiness of men 
 being alleged as a reason why God 
 sees and understands their thoughts : 
 they are finite, whereas He is in- 
 finite. 
 
 12. The Psalmist turns to comfort 
 the individual sufferer. God, who 
 educates the heathen (ver. 10), edu- 
 cates also the Israelite, giving him 
 a better instruction (comp. Deut. 
 viii. 5 ; Job v. 17), inasmuch as it is 
 that of a direct Revelation. 
 
 14. To GIVE HIM REST. This is 
 the end of God's teaching, that His 
 servant may wait in patience, im- 
 moved by, safe from the days 
 OF EVIL (comp. xlix. 5), seeing the 
 evil all around him lifting itself up, 
 but seeing also the secret, mysterious 
 retribution, slowly but surely accom- 
 plisliing itself. In this sense Ihe 
 "rest" is the rest of a calmj self- 
 
PSALM XCIV. 463 
 
 14 For Jehovah will not thrust away His people, 
 
 Neither will He forsake His inheritance. 
 
 15 For judgement must turn unto righteousness, 
 
 And all the upright in heart shall follow it. 
 
 16 Who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? 
 
 Who will set himself up for me against the workers 
 of iniquity .■' 
 
 17 Unless Jehovah had been my help, 
 
 My soul had soon dwelt in silence. 
 
 18 (But) when I said, My foot hath slipt. 
 
 Thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, held me up. 
 
 19 In the multitude of my anxious thoughts within me, 
 
 Thy comforts refreshed my soul. 
 
 20 Can the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, 
 
 Which frameth mischief by statute ? 
 
 I spirit, as Is. vii. 4, xxx. 15, 
 xxxii, 17, Ivii. 20, and " to give 
 him" = "that Thou mayest give 
 liim.'' Others interpret the "rest" 
 of external rest, deliverance from 
 sufferings (comp. Job iii. 13, 17) ; 
 tlien "to give " would be = "so as 
 to give," &c. 
 
 14. For. God vpill give peace to 
 the man whom He teaches, for he is 
 a partaker of the covenant, one of 
 that PEOPLE and that inheritance 
 which He cannot forsake, and He 
 cannot forsake them till righteousness 
 ceases to be righteousness. 
 
 15. For JUDGEMENT, &c. Judge- 
 ment cannot always be perverted, 
 cannot always faQ. It must appear 
 in its true character at last as very 
 righteousness. This, no doubt, was 
 what Luther meant by his forcible 
 rendering : — 
 
 "Denn Recht muss doch Recht 
 bleiben. " 
 
 Shall follow it, lit. "(shall 
 he) after it," i.e. shall give in their 
 
 adhesion to it, openly avow their at- 
 tachment to it. For (he phrase, 
 see I Sam xU. 14 ; 2 Sam. ii. 10 ; 
 I Kings xiv. 8. 
 
 16 — 19. Application to himself, and 
 record of his own experience. 
 
 17- Silence, i.e. of the grave, or 
 the unseen world, as in xxxi. 18, 
 cxv. 17. 
 
 20 — 23. This strophe, like the last, 
 applies the general doctrine of the 
 Psalm to the individual case, the 
 personal security of the Psalmist, and 
 the righteous retribution visited upon 
 the evil-doers. But for "Jehovah my 
 God, " in ver. 22, we have, in ver. 23, 
 "Jehovah our God," as if to remind 
 us that his personal welfare does not 
 stand apart from, but is bound up 
 with, that of the nation. Comp. 
 ver. 14. 
 
 20. The throne or "judgement- 
 seat." The word is purposely em- 
 ployed, as Calvin observes, to show 
 that he is inveighing, not against com- 
 mon assassins or thieves, but against 
 tyrants who, under a false pretext of 
 
464 PSALM XCV. 
 
 21 They gather themselves in troops against the soul of 
 
 the righteous, 
 And condemn the innocent blood. 
 
 22 But Jehovah hath been a high tower for me, 
 
 And my God the rock of my refuge. 
 
 23 And He hath requited them their own iniquity. 
 
 And shall destroy them through their own wicked- 
 ness ; 
 Jehovah our God shall destroy them. 
 
 justice, oppressed the Church. The BLOOD, i.e. " condemn the innocent 
 
 throne of the king, the seat of the to death ; " comp. Matt, xxvii. 4. 
 
 judge, which is consecrated to God, 23. Hath requited, lit. "hath 
 
 tliey stain and defile with their caused to return," as vii. 16, Hv. 5. 
 
 crimes. The preterites here express, not so 
 
 By statute. They claim to be much what has already taken place, 
 
 acting according to law, seeking to as the confidence of faith which looks 
 
 hide their unrighteousness by n holy upon that which shall be as if already 
 
 name. accomplished. Hence the interchange 
 
 21. Condemn the innocent with the futures which follow. 
 
 PSALM XCV. 
 
 This Psalm is one of a series, as has been already observed, 
 intended for the Temple worship, and possibly composed for some 
 festal occasion. Both the joyfulness of its opening verses, and its 
 general character, in virhich it resembles the 8ist Psalm, would render 
 it suitable for some of the great national feasts. 
 
 As to the date of its composition nothing certain can be said. 
 The LXX. call it a Psalm of David ; and the writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, in making a quotation from the Psalm, uses the expres- 
 sion " in David," but this is evidently only equivalent to saying " in 
 the Psalms." In the Hebrew it has no Inscription. 
 
 In Christian liturgies the Psalm has commonly been termed the 
 
PSALM XCV. 
 
 465 
 
 Invitatory Psalm. We are all familiar with it, as used in the Morning 
 Service of our Church ; and it has been sung in the Western Churches 
 from a very remote period before the Psalms of the Nocturn or 
 Matins. (Palmer, Grig. Liturg. i. 221.) 
 
 It consists of two very distinct parts : — 
 
 I. The first is an invitation to a joyful public acknowledgement of 
 God's mercies. Ver. i — 7. 
 
 II. The second (beginning with the last member of ver. 7 to the 
 end) is a warning to the people against the unbelief and disobedience 
 tlirough which their fathers had perished in the wilderness. 
 
 1 Come, let us sing (joyfully) unto Jehovah, 
 
 Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation ; 
 
 2 Let us go to meet His face with thanksgiving. 
 
 With psalms let us shout aloud unto Him. 
 
 3 For a great God is Jehovah, 
 
 Yea, a great King above all gods. 
 
 4 (Even He) in Whose hand are the deep places of the 
 
 earth : 
 
 1—7. The character of the invita- 
 tion here given, to worship God, not 
 with penitence and brokenness of 
 heart, but with loud thanksgiving, is 
 the more remarkable, when we recol- 
 lect in what a strain the latter part of 
 the Psalm is written. 
 
 I. Unto Jehovah. Augustine 
 lays stress on this : " He invites to 
 a great feast of joy, of joy not unto 
 the world, but unto the Lord." And 
 in the next clause, where the Latin 
 ia^juhilemus, he explains it of a joy 
 which runs beyond all words. 
 
 Rock of our salvation, as in 
 kxxix. 26. Comp. "rock of my 
 refuge," xciv. 22. 
 
 3. A threefold reason is given why 
 this worship should be offered T\'ith 
 glad hearts and loud thanksgivings — 
 that Jehovah is a King more glorious 
 
 than all "who are called gods, and 
 who are worshipt," that He is the. 
 Creator of the world, that He is the 
 watchful shepherd of His own chosen 
 people. 
 
 Above all gods : not the angels, 
 but all the gods of the heathen. 
 Comp. Exod. xviii. 11, xv. 11, &c. 
 It cannot be inferred from this lan- 
 guage that the Psalmist supposed the 
 heathen deities to have any real 
 power, or real existence (comp. xcvi. 
 S). He is merely contrasting heathen 
 objects of worship, clothed in the 
 imagination of their worshipers with 
 certain attributes, and the One true 
 supreme object of worship, who 
 is really all, and more than all, 
 which the heathen think their gods 
 to be. See more in the note on 
 xcvii. 7. 
 
 H H 
 
466 
 
 PSALM XCV. 
 
 And the heights of the mountains are His. 
 
 5 Whose is the sea, — and He made it. 
 
 And His hands formed the dry land. 
 
 6 O come let us worship and bow down, 
 
 Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker. 
 
 7 For He is our God, 
 
 And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep 
 of His hand. 
 
 To-day oh that ye would hear His voice : 
 
 8 " Harden not your heart as at Meribah, 
 
 As in the day of Massah [trial] in the wilderness, 
 
 6. O Come. Again the invitation 
 to lowliest adoration and worship, 
 called forth afresh by the remem- 
 brance of God's revelation to, and 
 covenant with Israel. 
 
 Our Maker, and ver. 7, Our 
 God, thus asserting the personal 
 covenant relationship of God to His 
 people (so Moses speaks of " the 
 Rock who begat thee, the God who 
 made thee," Deut. xnxii. 18) ; and 
 here, as so often elsewhere, God's 
 majesty as seen in Creation is linked 
 with His love as sefen in Redemption. 
 See on xix. 7. 
 
 7. People of His pasture. 
 There is here the same solemn strain 
 of warning and expostulation break- 
 ing in upon the very joy and glad- 
 ness of the Temple worship, as we 
 have already observed in Ixxxi. 6. 
 Psalms like these seem to have had 
 a double ^jurpose. They vpere not 
 only designed to be the expression of 
 public devotion, the utterance of a 
 nation's supplications and thanks- 
 givings, but they were intended also 
 to teach, to warn, to exhort. They 
 were sermons as well as liturgies. 
 Hence, too, the prophetic character 
 which marks them. The Psalmist, 
 like every true preacher, comes as an 
 ambassador from above, speaking not 
 
 his own words, but the words which 
 God has given him, the words which 
 God Himself has uttered. 
 
 The warning here rests, as in 
 Ixxviii., Ixxxi., &c., on the example 
 of their fathers in the desert. 
 
 To-day, the present moment, as 
 critical and decisive, the day of 
 grace which may be lost ; or the 
 reference may be to some special 
 circumstances under which the Psalm 
 was composed. " To-day " refers 
 not only to a particular historical 
 crisis, but to every occasion on wUch 
 the Psalm was used in public wor- 
 ship. " Often as they were faithless, 
 the ' to-day ' sounded ever anew ; for 
 the 'gifts and calling of God are 
 without repentance.' " — Tholuck. 
 
 8. Harden not. Bleek asserts 
 that this is the only place where to 
 "harden the heart" is spoken of as 
 maris act, elsewhere it is said to be 
 God's act ; but this is not correct. 
 Man is said to harden his own heart, 
 Exod. ix. 34 ; I Sam.vi. 6; Prov. xxviii. 
 14 ; Deut. XV. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13. 
 
 Meribah, "striving" or "pro- 
 vocation." Massah, "temptation" 
 or " trial." From Exod. xvii. I— 7> 
 it would appear that both names were 
 given to the same locality. But, 
 according to Numb, xx, i — I3i '^* 
 
PSALM XCV. 
 
 467 
 
 9 When your fathers tried Me, 
 Proved Me, yea saw My work. 
 
 10 Forty years (long) was I grieved with (that) generation, 
 
 (saying) 
 ' It is a people that do err in (their) heart, 
 And they do not know My ways ; ' 
 
 1 1 So that I sware in My wrath. 
 
 They shall not enter into My rest." 
 
 names were given to two different 
 places on different occasions. Comp. 
 also Deut. xxxiii. 8, "Thy Holy One 
 whom thou didst prove at Massah, 
 and with whom thou didst strive at 
 the waters of Meribah." 
 
 In the wilderness of Zin, near 
 Kadesh, where the second murmur- 
 ing against Moses and Aaron for 
 want of water took place (Num. 
 XX. l). 
 
 9. Tried Me. In allusion to 
 Massah, "trial," in ver. 8. 
 
 My work.' Whether miracles of 
 deliverance or acts of judgement, all 
 that I did. 
 
 9. Forty years. These words 
 in the quotation in Heb. iii. 9 are 
 joined, as in the Syriac, with the 
 preceding verse, and the word 
 "wherefore" is inserted after them. 
 This departs both from the Hebrew 
 and the LXX. The alteration is 
 evidently intentional, because the 
 passage is afterwards quoted iii. 17 
 as it stands in the Psalm. 
 
 Was I GRIEVED. The word is a 
 strong word, expressive of loathing 
 and disgust. 
 
 A PEOPLE THAT DO ERE, lit. "a 
 people of wanderers in heart." There 
 may be, as Hupfeld suggests, an 
 allusion to the outward wandering in 
 the wilderness as the punishment of 
 this inner wandering. The same 
 word is used of the former, cvii. 4. 
 
 And they do not, &c. This is 
 ahnost equivalent to "for they do 
 not," &c. Their ignorance of the 
 
 straight way of God, ' ' the king's high- 
 way" (as Bunsen calls it), is the 
 reason that they wander in crooked 
 by-paths. 
 
 II. I SWARE. The reference is to 
 Num. xiv. 21, &c., 28, &c. 
 
 My rest : strictly "place of settle- 
 ment," as the abode of God (comp. 
 cxxxii. 8, 14), but used also of the 
 land of promise (Deut. xii. 9), as a 
 place of rest after the wandering in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 The author of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews (iv. 6 — 9) argues, from the 
 use of the word "to-day" in ver. 7, 
 that the language of the Psalm is. 
 applicable not merely to the times of' 
 the Law, but also to the Gospel dis- 
 pensation ; and from the reference to 
 God's rest here, " in David" {i.e. in 
 the Book of Psalms), that Canaan 
 was not the true rest. Joshua did 
 not bring the people unto God's rest, 
 he says, otherwise we should not find, 
 in a Psalm written so long after the 
 settlement of the people in Canaan, a 
 warning addressed to them not to sin 
 as their fathers, lest they also through 
 unbelief should fail of God's rest. 
 Hence, he argues, the rest must be still 
 future &TroA.€i7reTcti (?pa (ra^ParifffiSs. 
 This, however, is not clear on the 
 face of the Psalm, as the words "they 
 shall not enter into My rest " seem to 
 refer to the J>ast, not the present, his- 
 tory of Israel. Hence Calvin remarks 
 on the quotation in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews : Subtilius disputat quam 
 ferant proohetse verba." 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 PSALM XCVI. 
 
 PSALM XCVI. 
 
 This grand prophetic Psalm looks forward with joyful certainty to 
 the setting up of a Divine kingdom upon earth. But it is only 
 indirectly Messianic. It connects the future blessings, not with the 
 appearance of the Son of David, but with the coming of Jehovah. 
 And it has already been pointed out (in a note on Psalm Ixxii. 17) 
 that there are in the Old Testament two distinct lines of prophecy, 
 culminating in these two advents. Their convergence and ultimate 
 unity are only seen in the light of New Testament fulfilment. The 
 same hopes, however, gather about both, as may be seen, for instance, 
 by a comparison of this Psalm with such a passage as Isaiah xi. i — 9. 
 Calvin, in his Introduction to the Psalm, observes that it is "an 
 exhortation to praise God, addressed not to the Jews only, but to 
 all nations. Whence " (he adds) " we infer that the PsaJm refers 
 to the kingdom of Christ ; for till He was revealed to the world, 
 His name could not be called upon anywhere but in Judaea." 
 
 The LXX. have a double Inscription : — - 
 
 (i) " When the House was built after the Captivity," which is 
 probably correct, as indicating that the Psalm was composed after the 
 Exile, and for the service of the second Temple. 
 
 (2) " An Ode of David," which seems to contradict the other, but 
 was no doubt occasioned by the circumstances that this Psalm, 
 together with portions of Psalms cv. and cvi., is given with some 
 variations (which will be found in the Notes) by the author of the 
 Book of Chronicles, as the Psalm which was sung when the Ark 
 was brought into the sanctuary in Zion. 
 
 The Psalm consists of four strophes (of which the first three are 
 perfectly regular, consisting of six lines each) : — 
 
 I. Jehovah is to be praised in all the world and at all times. 
 Ver. I — 3. 
 
 II. He alone is worthy to be praised, for all other objects of 
 worship are nothing. Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
PSALM XCVI. 469 
 
 III. Let all the heathen confess this, and give Him the honour due 
 to His Name. Ver. 7 — g. 
 
 IV. Let all the world hear the glad tidings that Jehovah is King ; 
 and even things without life share the common joy. Ver. 10 — 13. 
 
 1 Sing unto Jehovah a new song, 
 
 Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth. 
 
 2 Sing unto Jehovah, bless His name, 
 
 Publish His salvation from day to day. 
 
 3 Declare His glory among the nations. 
 
 His wonders among all the peoples. 
 
 4 For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, 
 
 He is to be feared above all gods ; 
 
 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, 
 
 But Jehovah made the heavens. 
 
 6 Honour and majesty are before Him, 
 
 Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. 
 
 7 Give unto Jehovah, O families of peoples, 
 
 Give unto Jehovah glory arid strength ; 
 
 I. A NEW SONG. See on xxxiii. for idols, but occurring also as early 
 
 3. The new song is not the Psalm as Lev. xix. 4, xxvi. I. See the 
 
 itself, but one which shall be the fit strong assertions of their absolute 
 
 expression of all the thoughts and nothingness in Is. xli. xliv. 
 hopes and triumphs of the new and 5. Jehovah made the heavens. 
 
 glorious age which is about to dawn. So has He manifested His power and 
 
 It is the glad welcome given to the majesty as the Creator in the eyes of 
 
 King when He enters His kingdom. all the world ; but the chief mani- 
 
 Comp. with this verse Is. xlii. 10, festation of His glory is in Israel, "in 
 
 Ix. 6, Ixvi. 19. His sanctuary." Compare the same 
 
 2., Publish, i.e. "proclaim good strain in xcv. 3 — 7. 
 tidings." 7 — 9. The families of the nations 
 
 4. The manifestation of God's themselves are called upon to take up 
 
 glory. Comp. cxlv. 3, xlviii. I. the song in which Israel has made 
 
 Above all gods (as in xcv. 3 ; known to them the salvation of 
 
 see note on xcvii. 7.) Here, as is Jehovah. Comp. Zeph. iii. 9. 
 plain from what follows, the heathen These three vejses are taken partly 
 
 deities, which are idols, lit. " no- from xxix. i, 2. 
 things," a favourite word in Isaiah 
 
470 
 
 PSALM XCVI. 
 
 8 Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name, 
 
 Bring presents, and come into His courts. 
 
 9 Bow yourselves before Jehovah in holy vestments, 
 
 Tremble before Him, all the earth. 
 
 lo Say ye among the nations : Jehovah is King, — 
 
 Yea the world is established that it cannot be 
 
 moved, — 
 He shall judge the peoples uprightly. 
 
 1 1, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult. 
 Let the sea thunder, and the fulness thereof; 
 
 12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein. 
 
 Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy 
 
 1 3 Before Jehovah ; — For he cometh ; 
 
 For he cometh to judge the earth; 
 He shall judge the world in righteousness. 
 And the peoples in His faithfulness. 
 
 8. Presents, in allusion to the 
 Oriental custom which required gifts 
 to be brought by all who would be 
 admitted to the presence of a king. 
 Comp. xlv. 12, Ixviii. 29, Ixxii. 10. 
 
 10. The glad tidings which the 
 world is to hear. The world's largest 
 hopes are to be fiilfiUed. A new era 
 is to begin, a reign of righteousness 
 and peace, a time so blessed that even 
 the inanimate creation must be^ par- 
 takers of the joy. Comp. Is. xxxv. i, 
 xlii. 10, xliv. 23, xlv. Sj'^xlix. 13, Iv. 
 12. With the coming of Jehovah and 
 the setting up of His kingdom all the 
 broken harmonies of creation shall be 
 restored. Not "the sons of God " 
 only, but the whole creation is still 
 looking fonvard to this great consum- 
 mation. (Rom. viii. 21.) 
 
 Jehovah IS King, lit. "hath be- 
 come King ; " hath taken to Himself 
 His great power and reigned. See 
 xciii. I ; Rev. xi. 17. 
 
 Yea the world,. &c. This clause 
 is introduced somewhat abruptly, and 
 quasi-parenthetically, from xciii. i. It 
 
 may be owing to the abruptness of 
 this clause that the Chronicler has 
 transposed some of the clauses in his 
 adaptation of the Psalm. His arrange- 
 ment (l Chr. xvi. 30 — 33) is as fol- 
 lows : "Tremble before Him all the 
 earth, yea the world is established 
 (that) it cannot be moved. Let the 
 heavens rejoice, and let the earth 
 exult, and let them say among the 
 nations, Jehovah is King. Let the 
 sea thunder, and the fulness thereof. 
 Let the field exult, and all that is 
 therein. Then shall the trees of' the 
 wood shout for joy before Jehovah, 
 Fot He cometh to judge the earth." 
 
 13. He COMETH. The repetition 
 is full of force and animation. The 
 participle is used to express more 
 vividly the coming of Jehovah, as if 
 actually taking place before the eyes 
 of the Psalmist. It is a. coming to 
 judgement, but a judgement which is 
 to issue in salvation. This judgement 
 in righteousness and faithfulness, and 
 the peace which follows thereon, are 
 beautifully pourtrayed in Is. xi. I — 9- 
 
PSALM XCVII. 471 
 
 PSALM XCVII. 
 
 The advent of Jehovah, and His righteous rule over the whole 
 earth, is the subject of this Psalm, as of the last. Here, however, it 
 would seem as if some great display of God's righteousness, some 
 signal deliverance of His people, had kindled afresh the hope that 
 the day was at hand, yea had already dawned, when He would take to 
 Himself His great power and reign. 
 
 "Jehovah is King." Such is the glad assurance with which the 
 Psalm opens. He Has come to take possession of His throne with all 
 the awful majesty with which He appeared on Sinai. All nature is 
 moved at His presence. The heavens have uttered their message, 
 telling of His righteousness, and all the nations of the world have seen 
 His glory. His empire must be universal. Already the idols and the 
 worshipers of idols are ashamed : and Zion rejoices in the coming of 
 her King. He is near, very near. The first flush of the morning is 
 akeady brightening the sky. They who love His appearing may 
 look for Him, in holy abhorrence of evil and in faithfulness of heart, 
 waiting till they enter into the joy of flieir Lord. Such is briefly the 
 purport of the Psalm. 
 
 The structm-e of the Psalm, like the last, consists of strophes of 
 three verses. 
 
 I. In the first, the coming of Jehovah is pourtrayed as if actually 
 present. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 II. In the second, its effects are described on nature, and its purpose 
 with reference to the world at large. Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
 III. The third speaks of the different impression produced on the 
 heathen and on Israel, and the exaltation of God above all earthly 
 power as the final result. Ver. 7 — 9. 
 
 IV. The fourth is an exhortation to the righteous, and also a 
 promise full of consolation. Ver. 10—12. 
 
472 
 
 PSALM XCVII. 
 
 1 Jehovah is King : let the earth exult, 
 
 Let the multitude of the isles be glad (thereof). 
 
 2 Cloud and darkness are round about Him, 
 
 Righteousness and judgement are the pillars of His 
 throne. 
 
 3 A fire goeth before Him, 
 
 And devoureth His adversaries round about Him. 
 
 4 His lightnings gave shine unto the world, 
 
 The earth saw, and trembled. 
 
 5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence 
 
 Jehovah, 
 At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
 6 The Heavens have declared His righteousness. 
 
 And all the peoples have seen His glory. 
 
 of 
 
 1. The strain of the preceding 
 Psalm, xcvi. ,lo, ii, is here resumed. 
 Comp. also Is. xlii. lo — 12, li. 5. 
 
 Multitude of the isles, lit. 
 '.'the many isles," or "many as they 
 are." (Comp. Is. lii. 15.) The word 
 rendered "isles" is used strictly of 
 the islands and coasts of the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea (as in Ixxii. lo) ; but per- 
 haps here, as in the later chapters of 
 Isaiah, in a wider sense, of heathen 
 countries at large. 
 
 2. The coming of God is thus fre- 
 quently described by later prophets 
 and psalmists in images borrowed 
 from the manifestation of God on Sinai 
 (Exod. xix. 9, 16, XX. 21 ; Deut. iv. 
 II, V. 23) ; as in xviii. g. 
 
 The pillars, or "foundation.'' 
 The word is singular, and means 
 strictly "support." Comp. Ixxxix. 
 14. 
 
 3. A FIRE, as in 1. 3. Comp. also 
 Hab. iii. 5, and the whole description 
 in that chapter, so solemn and so 
 majestic, of God's coming judgement. 
 
 4. Gave shine unto. See on 
 
 Ixxvii. 18, whence the first member of 
 this verse is taken : with the second 
 compare Ixxvii. 16. 
 
 5. The mountains melted : com- 
 pare Micah i. 4, and Ps. Ixviii. 2. 
 
 The Lord of the whole earth. 
 This name of God occurs first in Joshua 
 iii. II, 13, where the Ark (at the 
 passage of the Jordan) is called " the 
 ark of Jehovah the Lord of the whole 
 earth, " as if emphatically ; then when 
 the people were about lo occupy their 
 own land, to.distinguish Jehovah their 
 God from the merely local and na- 
 tional gods of the heathen. The name 
 is found again in Micah iv. 13 ; Zech, 
 iv. 14, vi. 5. 
 
 6. Have declared His right- 
 EOtfSNESS. This is the end and pur- 
 pose of God's coming (as in I. 6). 
 He comes to judge, and the act of 
 judgement is one which the whole 
 world shall witness, as in Ixxvii. I, 4i 
 Ixxix. 10, xcviii. 3. Comp. the lan- 
 guage used of the great deliverance 
 from Babylon, Is. xxxv. 2, xl. S> l''- 
 10, Ixvi. 18. 
 
PSALM XCVII. 
 
 473 
 
 7 Ashamed are all they that serve graven images, 
 
 That boast themselves in idols : — 
 Bow down before Him, all ye gods. 
 
 8 Zion heard and was glad, 
 
 And the daughters of Judah exulted. 
 Because of Thy judgements, O Jehovah. 
 
 9 For Thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth, 
 
 Thou art greatly exalted above all gods. 
 
 7. This and the next verse describe 
 the twofold result of the "Divine 
 judgement — the impression produced 
 on the heathen and on Israel, the 
 confusion of all vforshipers of idols, 
 and the joy and exultation of the 
 prople of God. 
 
 Ashamed, a vrord frequently em- 
 ployed with the same reference by 
 the prophet Isaiah. It is a shame 
 arising from the discovery of'the utter 
 vanity and nothingness of the objects 
 of their trust. 
 
 All ye gods. The LXX. and 
 the Syr. both understand these to 
 be angels. But the word Elohim 
 (God) nowhere occurs in the sense 
 of angels. The Chald. paraphrases : 
 "all WHO worship idols." But doubt- 
 less heathen deities are meant. As 
 all the worshipers' are confounded, 
 so must all the objects of their wor- 
 ship be overthrown, as Dagon was 
 before the Ark of the Lord : all must 
 yield before Him who is the Lord 
 of the whole earth. If this be the 
 meaning, the line may be taken as a 
 sarcastic, contemptuous challenge to 
 the idols of the heathen . If so, we need 
 not enter into the question whether 
 angels or spiritual beings were the 
 real objects of worship, idols being 
 only their representatives. Augustine 
 supposes a heathen excusing himself 
 when charged with idol-worship by 
 saying that he does not worship the 
 image but " the invisible deity which 
 
 presides over the image," and arguM 
 that this is a plain proof that the 
 heathen worship not idols but demons, 
 which is worse. He quotes in sup- 
 port of this view the language of St. 
 Paul in I Cor. x. 19, 20, viii. 4. But 
 he continues, if the pagans say we 
 worship good angels, not evil spirits, 
 then the angels themselves forbid such 
 worship : " Let them imitate the an- 
 gels and worship Him who is worshipt 
 by the angels ; " and then he cites the 
 passage in theLatin version, Adorate 
 eum, omnes angeli ejus. Calvin here, 
 as in the two preceding Psalms, xcv. 
 3, xcvi. 5, understands by " gods " 
 both angels and also those creatures 
 of the human imagination, the pro- 
 jected images of their own lusts 
 and fears, which men fall dovm and 
 worship. 
 
 3. Heard and was glad : bor- 
 rowed from xlviii. 11, where see note, 
 and the opposite to "the earth saw 
 and trembled," ver. 4. Although the 
 coming of Jehovah has been pour- 
 trayed in in'.ages full of awe and terror, 
 yet here, as in the two preceding 
 Psalms, it is described as a coming to 
 be welcomed with jubilant gladness 
 by His Church. In the same spirit 
 our Lord, when speaking of the signs 
 of fear which shall be the precursors 
 of His second coming, says, "When 
 ye shall see these things begin to come 
 to pass, then lift up your heads : for 
 your redemption draweth nigh. " 
 
474 
 
 PSALM xcvin. 
 
 lO 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 O ye that love Jehovah, hate evil ; 
 
 He keepeth the souls of His beloved, 
 
 He rescueth them from the hand of the wicked. 
 Light is sown for the righteous, 
 
 And gladness for the upright in heart. 
 Be glad in Jehovah, O ye righteous, 
 
 And give thanks to His holy Name. 
 
 10. The Psalm closes with a prac- 
 tical application, because the King 
 and Judge is drawing near, a warning 
 against the evil which is in the world, 
 and an assurance of Divine protection 
 and blessing to those who ' ' hate 
 evil." Comp. xxxiv 14 — 22. 
 
 11. Light is sown. The figure 
 has been understood to mean that the 
 prosperity of the righteous is future, 
 just as seed is cast into the earth, and 
 
 only after a time springs up and bears 
 fruit. But it is far simpler to take 
 the verb "sown" in the sense of 
 "scattered," "diiifused." 
 
 Milton uses the same figure of the 
 dew : 
 
 " Now Mom her rosy steps in th' 
 Eastern clime 
 Advancing, sow'd the earth with 
 Orient pearl." 
 
 PSALM XCVHI. 
 
 This Psalm is little more than an echo of Psalm xcvi. Its subject 
 is "the last great revelation, the final victory of God, when His 
 salvation and His righteousness, the revelation of which He has pro- 
 mised to the house of Israel, shall be manifested both to His own 
 people a-nd to all the nations of the earth." 
 
 The Inscription of the Psalm in the Hebrew is only the single word 
 Mizmor, " Psalm.'' In the Syriac the Inscription runs, " Of the 
 Redemption of the people from Egypt." Both the beginning and end 
 of the Psalm are taken from Psalm xcvi. The rest of it is drawn 
 chiefly from the latter portion of Isaiah. 
 
 This Psalm follows the reading of the First Lesson in our Evening 
 Service. It was first inserted there in 1552, though it had not been 
 sung among the Psalms of Vecpers or Compline. 
 
PSALM XCVIII. 475 
 
 [a psalm.J 
 
 1 Sing unto Jehovah a new song. 
 
 For He hath done marvellous things ; 
 His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him 
 salvation. 
 
 2 Jehovah hath made known His salvation, 
 
 Before the eyes of the nations hath He revealed His 
 righteousness. 
 
 3 He hath remembered His loving-kindness and His 
 
 faithfulness to the house of Israel ; 
 All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of 
 our God. 
 
 4 Make a loud noise to Jehovah, all the earth ; 
 
 Break forth and sing joyfully, and play, — 
 
 5 Play unto Jehovah with the harp, 
 
 With the harp and the voice of a psalm ; 
 
 6 With trumpets and the voice of a cornet. 
 
 Make a loud noise before Jehovah, the King. 
 
 7 Let the sea thunder, and the fulness thereof. 
 
 The world and they that dwell therein. 
 
 1. The first two lines are taken Righteousness, parallel with 
 from xcvi. I; the last line, and ver. "salvation," as so firequently in the 
 2, 3, from Is. lii. lo, Ixiii. 5. latter portion of Isaiah. See note on 
 
 Hath gotten Him salvation, Ixxi. 15. 
 
 or"the victory," as in E.V. Comp. 3. Loving-kindness .. . faith- 
 
 xlix. 4, Is. lix. 16, Ixiii. 5. I have fulness, the two attributes expres- 
 
 preferred here the former rendering, sive of God's covenant relationship to 
 
 because in the next verse the noun His people. 
 
 occurs from the same root, and there 4. Break forth and sing, as in 
 
 the rendering " salvation " is, I think. Is. lii. 9, though the more common 
 
 preferable to "victory." phrase is "break forth into singing" 
 
 2. Before the eyes, &c. ; Ian- (Is. xiv. 7; xHv. 233 xlix. 13 ; liv. i). 
 
 especially applied (as in 5. Voice of a psalm, as in Is. 
 Isaiah) to the great deliverance from li. 3. 
 Babylon. See xcvii. 6. 7. Compare xcvi. II, and xxiv. I. 
 
476 PSALM XCIX. 
 
 8 Let the streams clap their hands, 
 
 Together let the mountains sing for joy, 
 
 9 Before Jehovah, for He cometh to judge the earth, 
 
 He shall judge the world with righteousness. 
 And the peoples with uprightness. 
 
 8. Clap their hands. The same 2 Kings xi. I2. On the next verse 
 phrase occurs Is. Iv. I2 ^ elsewhere a see xcvi. 13. 
 different verb is used, as in xlvii. i j 
 
 PSALM XCIX. 
 
 This is the last of the series of Royal Psalms, of Psalms which 
 celebrate the coming of Jehovah as King. The first of the series is 
 the 93rd. This opens with the announcement that " Jehovah is King," 
 passes on to tell that His throne has been from everlasting, that He 
 made the world and that He rules it — rules the rage of the elements 
 and the convulsions of political strife, of which that is the figure— and 
 then concludes with one brief glance at His revelation of Himself to 
 His people, and the distinguishing glory of the house in which He 
 deigns to dwell, " Holiness becometh Thine house for ever." 
 
 The 95th Psalm* ascribes glory to Him as "a great King above all 
 gods " (ver. 3). The 96th would have the glad tidings run far and wide 
 that "Jehovah is King," that " He shall judge the people righteously" 
 (ver. 13). The 97th opens "Jehovah is King," speaks of the glory of 
 His advent, and of the joy with which it is welcomed by His people. 
 The 98th calls upon all lands to break forth into loud shouts " before 
 the King Jehovah," to go forth and to meet Him with glad acclaim, 
 with the voice of harp and cornet and trumpet, as men go forth to 
 ,meet a monarch who comes in state to take possession of the throne 
 of his fathers. The 99th, like the 93rd and the 97th, opens with the 
 
 * The 94th Psalm seems out of place in the series : it does not, like the rest, speak of the 
 reign of Jehovah ; and the number seven, if we take the looth Psalm as the closing Doxology, 
 is complete without it. 
 
PSALM XCIX. 477 
 
 joyful announcement that " Jehovah is King,'' and then ^bids all men 
 fall down and confess His greatness, and worship Him who alone is 
 My. Both the first and the last of the series, the 93rd and the 99th, 
 celebrate the kingly majesty and the holiness of Jehovah, and also the 
 holiness of His worship. 
 
 All these Psalms, then, alike tell of the setting up of a Divine 
 kingdom upon earth. All alike anticipate the event with joy. One 
 universal anthem bursts from the whole wide world to greet the 
 advent of the righteous King. Not Zion only and the daughters of 
 Judah are glad, but the dwellers in far off islands and the ends of 
 the earth. Even inanimate nature sympathises with the joy ; the sea 
 thunders her welcome, the rivers clap their hands, the trees of the 
 wood break forth into singing before the Lord. In all these Psalms 
 alike the joy springs from the same source, from the thought that on 
 this earth, where might has so long triumphed over right, a righteous 
 King shall reign, a kingdom shall be set up which shall be a kingdom 
 of righteousness, and judgement, and truth. 
 
 In this Psalm, not only the righteous sway of the King, but His 
 awful holiness, forms the subject of praise ; and the true character of 
 His worshipers as consecrated priests, holy, set apart for His service, 
 is illustrated by the examples of holy men of old, like Moses, Aaron, 
 and Samuel. 
 
 1 Jehovah is King, the peoples tremble ; 
 
 He sitteth throned upon the cherubim, the earth is 
 moved. 
 
 2 Jehovah in Zion is great, 
 
 And He is exalted above all the peoples. 
 
 3 Let them give thanks unto Thy great and fearful Name ; 
 
 I. Is King, lit. "hath become 3. Let them give thanks, or 
 
 King," regnum capessivit. the words may be taken as the 
 
 He siTTfETH. This is a participle, utterance of the Psalmist's hope that 
 
 and is, strictly speaking, not so much God's "great and fearful Wame " 
 
 an independent clause as a, further (Deut. x. 17) which is known in 
 
 description of the manner of God's Israel shall be glorified in all the 
 
 kingly rule : He rules sitting throned, world: "they shall give thanks," 
 
 &c. &c. But the optative fonn of ex- 
 
 Upon the cherubim. See note pression accords best with the exhor- 
 
 on Ixxx. I. tation in ver. 5, 9. 
 
478 
 
 PSALM XCIX. 
 
 He is holy. 
 And the might of the King loveth judgement ; 
 Thou hast established uprightness, 
 Thou hast executed judgement and righteousness in 
 Jacob. 
 Exalt ye Jehovah our God, 
 
 And bow down at His holy footstool : 
 He is holy. 
 Moses and Aaron among His priests, 
 And Samuel among them that called upon His Name — 
 They called upon Jehovah, and He answered them. 
 
 He is holy. This might be ren- 
 dered "/;is holy," i.e. tlie Name of 
 God, mentioned just before. The 
 meaning is the same in either case, 
 for God's Name "is God Himself in 
 His revealed holiness," as Delitzsch 
 observes. 
 
 4. The might of the King: the 
 same King who is mentioned ver. I, 
 Jehovah. His might is no arbitrary 
 power, like that of earthly tyrants, 
 but a judgement-loving might. His 
 power only expresses itself in right- 
 eousness. He has " established up- 
 rightness" as the great eternal law 
 of His government, the inner prin- 
 ciple of His sway, and He has mani- 
 fested it in all His acts: He "has 
 executed Judgement and righteousness 
 in Jacob." 
 
 5. Footstool : properly, the lower 
 part or step of the throne (as Is. Ixvi. 
 I, Ezelc. xliii. 7), put for the throne 
 itself. In cxxxii. 7) it is spoken, 
 apparently, of the Sanctuary, "His 
 dwellings, or tabernacles," being in 
 the parallelism. So the sanctuary is 
 called "the place of My feet," Is. 
 Ix. 13. In I Chron. xxviii. 2 it is 
 used of the ark of the covenant : in 
 Lam. ii. i, of the holy city (or perhaps 
 the Temple) ; in Is. Ixvi. I (comp. Matt, 
 v. 35), of the whole earth. Here it 
 seems doubtful whether the earthly 
 or the heavenly sanctuary be meant. 
 
 6. The great subject of the Psalmist's 
 praise is the holiness of God. It is a 
 holy God whom he calls upon all 
 men to worship. It is "a holy foot- 
 stool," "a holy mountain," before 
 which they bow down ; it is there- 
 fore a holy worship which they must 
 render. Such was the worship of 
 His saints of old : and then likewise 
 Jehovah manifested His holiness, 
 both in "forgiving" and in "taking 
 vengeance" (ver. 8). 
 
 Moses . . . among His priests. 
 The priestly ofSce was exercised by 
 Moses in the sprinkling of the blood 
 of the covenant, Exod. xxiv. 6 — 8, 
 and again in the whole ritual for the 
 consecration of Aaron and his sons, 
 Levit. viii., as well as in the service 
 of the sanctuary, before that conse- 
 cration took place, Exod. xl. 22 — 27. 
 So likewise he "called upon the 
 Lord" as "a priest," in intercession 
 for his people, Exod. xvii. 11, 12, 
 xxxii. 30 — 32 (comp. Ps, cvi. 23) ; 
 Num. xii. 13. Samuel also, though 
 not here classed with the priests, but 
 mentioned as a great example of 
 prayer, not only like Moses discharged 
 priestly functions, but also like Moses 
 interceded for the people. We-4nd 
 him at Ram ah offering sacrifices in 
 the high place, and his independent 
 priestly position so recognised by the 
 people, that they would not partake 
 
PSALM C. 
 
 479 
 
 7 In the pillar of a cloud He spake unto them ; 
 
 They kept His testimonies and the statute He gave 
 them. 
 
 8 Jehovah, our God, Thou didst answer them ; 
 
 A forgiving God didst Thou prove to them. 
 And (a God) taking vengeance of their doings. 
 
 9 Exalt ye Jehovah our God, 
 
 And bow down before His holy mountain ; 
 For Jehovah our God is holy. 
 
 uf the sacrifice till he had blessed it. 
 (I Sam. ix. 12, 13.) We find him on 
 the occasion of a battle offering a 
 whole bumt-offering unto Jehovah 
 (l Sam. vii. g), at the same time that 
 he sternly rebukes Saul for presuming 
 to do the same thing (i Sam. xiii. 
 II — 13). For the efficacy of his 
 prayers and intercessions — on which, 
 and not on sacrifices, the stress is 
 here laid — see the instances in i Sam. 
 vii. 8, 9, xii. 16 — 18. Comp. Ecclus. 
 xivi. 16, 17. 
 
 7. In the pillar of a cloud. 
 Strictly this applies only to Moses, 
 or at the most only to Moses and 
 Aaron : see Num. xii. 5. 
 
 They kept His testimonies ; 
 an evidence of the holiness of those 
 who called on Jehovah, and whom 
 
 He answered. This latter clause 
 might be disposed in two lines, 
 thus : — 
 
 " They kept His testimonies. 
 And He gave them a statute 
 (statutes)." 
 
 This verse would then, like all the 
 others in this strophe, consist of 
 three lines. 
 
 8. Taking vengeance. As it is 
 clear that this cannot refer to -the 
 three great examples cited above, the 
 pronouns in this verse (and perhaps, 
 as Calvin and others think, in ver. 7) 
 must refer to the people at large, who 
 though not mentioned are in the 
 Psalmist's thoughts, as he goes back 
 to their ancient history. 
 
 PSALM C. 
 
 If we are right in regarding Psalms xciii.— xcix. as forming one 
 continuous series, one great prophetic oratorio, whose title is 
 'Jehovah is King," and through which there runs the same great 
 
48o 
 
 PSALM C. 
 
 idea, this Psalm may be regarded as the Doxology which closes the 
 strain. We find lingering in it notes of the same great harmony. It 
 breathes the same gladness : it is filled with the same hope, that all 
 nations shall bow down before Jehovah, and confess that He is God. 
 
 [a psalm for the thank-offering.*] 
 
 1 Shout aloud unto Jehovah, all the earth. 
 
 2 Serve ye Jehovah with gladness, 
 
 Come before His presence with a song (of joy). 
 
 3 Know ye that Jehovah, He is God : 
 
 He hath made us and we are His, 
 
 We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 
 
 4 O come into His gates with thanksgiving, 
 
 (Into) His courts with praise : 
 
 Be thankful unto Him, bless His Name. 
 
 1. Shout aloud : used of the 
 welcome given to a king who enters 
 his capital, or takes possession of the 
 throne, as in xcviil. 4, 6, Ixvi. I. 
 
 All the earth. As in all the 
 preceding Psalms, xciii.' — xcix., so 
 here, the hope of the Psalmist goes 
 far beyond the narrow limits of his 
 own people and country. The bless- 
 ing of Abraham has become the 
 heritage of the Gentiles. The whole 
 world is to acknowledge Jehovah, and 
 to rejoice before Him. 
 
 2. Serve ye. Compare ii. 11 ; 
 where, however, in accordance with 
 the warlike character ascribed to the 
 monarch, it is added ' ' with fear, " 
 instead of " with joy " as here. 
 
 3. Know ve, i.e. learn by ex- 
 perience. 
 
 Hath made us ; i.e. not merely 
 " hath created us," but hath made us 
 what we are, viz. His people. Comp. 
 I Sam. xii. 6 : "It is Jehovah that 
 
 made (E. V. advanced) Moses and 
 Aaron." See also Deut. xxxii. 6, 18; 
 Ps. xcv. 6. And so Israel is called- 
 "the work (lit. making) of Jehovah," 
 Is. xxix. 23, Ix. 21. 
 
 4. The knowledge that Jehovah 
 has chosen Israel to be His inheri- 
 tance and the sheep of His pasture 
 is not to tend to the exclusion of 
 others from the same privileges. On 
 the contrary, all nations are to flow to 
 Jerusalem, and worship in the Temple. 
 What in Isaiah ii. 2, 3 appears in 
 the form of prediction, is here invi- 
 tation, as in Is. ii. 5. "His temple 
 is open to all. They may enter in ; 
 and when they enter may expect 
 great things : ' For Jehovah is gra- 
 cious, and His loving-kindness and 
 truth never fail,' according to the 
 repeated expressions of the Halle- 
 lujah-Psalms and Psalms of thanks- 
 giving." — DelUzsch. 
 
 » ITie expression is used apparently in a liturgical sense, to denote that the Psalm was to 
 be sung duimg the offering of thank-offerings. 
 
PSALM CI. 481 
 
 5 For Jehovah is good, His loving-kindness is for ever, 
 And His faithfulness unto all generations. 
 
 5. Good, i.e. "gracious," "kind," as in xxv. 8, xxxiv. 8. 
 
 PSALM CI. 
 
 This Psalm has been styled " the godly purposes and resolves of a 
 king." It might also be described as " Speculum Regis," a mirror 
 for kings and all that are in authority. It opens with the joyful 
 contemplation of God's mercy and justice as kingly virtues, in their 
 measure and degree to be manifested in earthly kings. It then 
 records the king's pious resolve to keep his own heart and life un- 
 spotted, and to remove from him all that might lead him astray. Yet 
 scarcely has he uttered the resolve, when, reflecting on all that such a 
 resolve implies, he breaks forth in the earnest cry that God Himself 
 would come to him and take up His dwelling with him, giving him 
 grace to walk in " a perfect way." Thus having consecrated himself 
 and his house, he declares further how he will provide for the purity 
 of his court. With jealous care he will exclude those who are the 
 bane of kings' houses — the slanderer, the proud, the deceitful, the liar. 
 None but the faithful, none but those who, like himself, walk in a 
 perfect {i.e. blameless) way, shall be admitted to places of honour 
 and trust about his person. Finally, the work of zealous reformation 
 shall extend to his capital, the city of Jehovah, and to the utmost 
 borders of the land, that he may see realized under his sway the 
 great ideal, " Ye shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy 
 nation." 
 
 All this falls in admirably with the early part of David's reign, and 
 the words are just what we might expect from one who came to the 
 throne with a heart so true to his God. If the words " When wilt 
 Thou come unto me .'' " may be taken to express, as seems most 
 
 I I 
 
482 
 
 PSALM CI. 
 
 natural, David's desire to see the Ark at length fixed in the Tabernacle 
 which he had prepared for it on Zion, the Psalm must have been 
 written whilst the Ark was still in the house of Obededom (2 Sam. 
 vi. 10, 11). 
 
 [a psalm (3F DAVID.] 
 
 I WILL sing of loving-kindness and judgement, 
 Unto Thee, O Jehovah, will I sing psalms. 
 
 I will give heed to a perfect way. 
 
 — When wilt Thou come unto me .' — 
 
 I will walk with a perfect heart within my house. 
 
 1. Loving-kindness and judge- 
 ment. These can only be the theme 
 of praise as Divine attributes. But it 
 is as a king who would frame his own 
 rule and his kingdom after the Divine 
 pattern that David makes these attri- 
 butes the burden of his song. lie 
 meditates on the mercy and the right- 
 eousness of God, that he may learn 
 the lesson of that mercy and right- 
 eousness himself. He meditates on 
 them till his heart glows with the 
 thought of their surpassing excellence, 
 as seen in the Divine government, 
 and with the earnest desire that the 
 same kingly virtues may be trans- 
 ferred into his own life and reign. 
 
 Sing psalms, or perhaps, rather, 
 "play," i.e. upon the harp or other 
 musical instruments. 
 
 2. I WILL GIVE HEED. The ex- 
 pression shows his sense of his own 
 responsibility. The possession of ab- 
 solute power too often dazzles and 
 blinds men. An Eastern despot 
 might have cast off all restraint, or at 
 least might have allowed himself 
 large licence in the indulgence of 
 his passions or his follies, almost 
 ■without scandal or hatred. The 
 nobler, therefore, is this resolve. 
 
 When wilt Thou come? It 
 would be possible to render : " I will 
 give heed to a perfect way when 
 Thou comest unto me ; " but the 
 question is far more expressive. It 
 bursts forth from the heart, moved 
 and stirred to its inmost centre, as 
 it thinks of all the height and depth 
 of that resolve "to walk in a perfect 
 way." How shall a frail son of man 
 keep his integrity ? The task is too 
 great for his own strength, honest 
 and sincere as the resolution is, and 
 therefore he cries, " When wilt Thou 
 come unto me?" — come to be ray 
 abiding guest — come not only to 
 dwell on Zion, in Thy tabernacle, 
 but with me Thy s'ervant, in my house 
 and in my heart (comp. John xiv. 23), 
 giving me the strength and the grace 
 that I need? The expression is no 
 doubt remarkable as occurring in the 
 Old Testament ; though if it be un- 
 derstood as referring to the removal 
 of the Ark to Zion (see Introduction 
 to the Psalm), it would be but a 
 claiming of the promise in Exod. xx. 
 24: "In all places where I record 
 My Name / -will come unto thee, and 
 bless thee." 
 
PSALM CI. 
 
 483 
 
 3 I will not set before mine eyes any wicked thing ; 
 
 The sin of unfaithfulness do I hate, 
 It shall not cleave unto me. 
 
 4 A froward heart shall depart from me, 
 
 A wicked person I will not know. 
 
 5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, 
 
 Him will I destroy. 
 
 6 Whoso hath a high look and proud heart. 
 
 Him I will not suffer. 
 
 7 Mine eyes are upon the faithful in the land. 
 
 3. Set before mine eyes, t.e. as 
 an example to imitate. According to 
 Calvin, he speaks in the previous 
 verse of the manner in which he will 
 regulate his private life ; in this of 
 his duties as a king. 
 
 Wicked thing, lit. "thing of 
 Belial." 
 
 The sin of unfaithfulness, lit. 
 "the doing of turnings aside," All 
 such deviations from truth, from in- 
 tegrity, from that Divine lav? by vifhich 
 lie rules himself, shall not "cleave" 
 to him. Temptations to such a course 
 may beset him. The whisper might 
 come. Policy requires this course, 
 craft must be met by craft, power is 
 given to be used, kings are above 
 liw, and the like. But he refuses 
 to listen to the whisper of the ser- 
 pent, and when it would fasten its 
 fangs in him, he shakes it off. 
 
 4. First David proves himself, 
 laying down the rule for his own 
 guidance ; then he determines what 
 his court and household shall be. 
 
 In this verse he repudiates gene- 
 rally "the froward heart'' and "the 
 wicked person." In the following he 
 enters more into detail. 
 
 A WICKED PERSON, or "wicked- 
 ness ; " but the former accords better 
 with ""the froward heart" (comp. 
 Prov, xi. 20) in the parallelism. 
 
 5. The secret slanderer, seeking to 
 ingratiate himself into his prince's 
 favour by pulling down others, and 
 the hauglity, over-bearing noble (ver. 
 6), would be no uncommon characters 
 in any court, least of all an Oriental 
 court. Such persons would David 
 destroy. Thus he exercised the 
 kingly virtue of "judgement" (ver. i). 
 "As a private individual he could 
 never have ventured on such a mea- 
 sure ; but when he was placed on the 
 throne, he received from God's hand 
 the sword with which he was to 
 punish wrong-doing." 
 
 6. A PROUD heart, lit. "whoso 
 is wide of heart," i.e. as puffed up 
 and blovra out with pride (comp. 
 Prov. xxi. 4, xxviii. 25). Elsewhere 
 the phrase, "a wide heart," occurs in 
 a very different sense. It is said of 
 Solomon that God gave him "a wide 
 heart," i.e. comprehensiveness, a large 
 grasp, the power not only of gathering 
 fects, but the power of seeing their 
 mutual relation; breadth of sympathy, 
 and breadth of understanding. 
 
 I WILL NOT suffer. Or, "I- can- 
 not away with." Is. i. 13 ; Jer. xliv. 
 22. 
 
 7. Mine eyes are upon. Comp. 
 xxxii. 8, xxxiv. 15, Ixvi. 7. His min- 
 isters shall be chosen, not for high 
 birth, or gifts of fortune, or talents, 
 
 112 
 
484 
 
 PSALM CII. 
 
 That they may dwell with me. 
 Whoso walketh in a perfect way, 
 He shall be my servant. 
 
 8 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house, 
 
 He that speaketh lies shall not be established in my 
 sight. 
 
 9 Every morning will I destroy the wicked of the land, 
 
 That I may cut off all workers of iniquity from the 
 city of Jehovah. 
 
 or accomplishments, or flattering lips, 
 or supple compliance, but for incor- 
 ruptible fidelity ; the word "faithful" 
 implying that faithfulness to God is 
 the basis of such fidelity to their 
 king. 
 
 Whoso walketh in a perfect 
 WAY, i.e. with evident reference to 
 ver. 2, "whoever has laid doiyn for 
 himself the same rule of integrity, is 
 actuated by the same purity of motive 
 as I myself am." 
 
 8. Worketh deceit, as in lii. 2. 
 Be established, or " abide," 
 
 "continue :" comp. cii. 28. 
 
 9. Every morning. Fast as the 
 evil springs under shelter of the dark- 
 ness, it shall be destroyed with the 
 returning light. The allusion isj 
 doubtless, to the Oriental custom of 
 holding courts of law in the early 
 morning. (See the same allnsion in 
 
 Jer. xxi. 12. "Execute judgement 
 in the morning, and deliver him that 
 is spoiled, " &c. and comp. Luke xxii. 
 66 ; John xviii. 28.) 
 
 Day by day vrill he exercise his 
 work of righteous judgement, purging 
 out all ungodliness from the Holy 
 City. His zeal is like the zeal of 
 Phinehas, a zeal for God and for His 
 honour. He will have a pure state, 
 a pure city, as the writer of the 104th 
 Psalm hopes to see a pure earth (civ. 
 35), without spot or stain of sin. It is 
 like the dream which fascinated the 
 Roman Poet, of an Astraa redtuc. 
 It is a hope which finds its accom- 
 plishment in the Apocalyptic vision, 
 in that new Jerusalem into which 
 " there shall in no wise enter any- 
 thing that defileth, or worketh abomi- 
 nation, or maketh a lie." (Rev. xxi. 
 27.) 
 
 PSALM cn. 
 
 This Psalm must have been written by one Of the exiles in 
 Babylon, probably towards the close of the Captivity, when the hope 
 of a return seemed no longer doubtful. In mournful strains he de- 
 
PSALM CII. 485 
 
 scribes his bitter lot. Sorrow and pain had been very busy with him. 
 His very heart was smitten within him, as the grass is withered in 
 the hot eye of the sun. He was alone, with no friend to comfort 
 him ; his enemies turned his misery into a proverb ; his life was 
 drawing to a close under the heavy wrath of God. 
 
 But when he has time to look away from his sorrow, a prospect so 
 bright and so glorious opens before him, that in the thought of it all 
 else is swallowed up and forgotten. Zion's deliverance is at hand. 
 Her God has not forsaken her. The grounds on which his hope 
 rests are broad and manifold ; for Jehovah is the everlasting King 
 (yer. 12) ; the time fixed in His counsels is come (ver. 13) ; the hearts 
 of her children are moved with a more passionate longing for her 
 restoration (ver. 14) ; the prayer of His suffering people has prevailed, 
 the sighing of the prisoner has entered into His ears (ver. 17, 19, 20). 
 A new nation shall be born in Zion, and other nations and kingdoms 
 shall be gathered into her to praise Jehovah (ver. 18, 21, 22). 
 
 Once again, as for a moment, the sadness of the exile and the 
 sufferer prevails. His life is ebbing away, his heart and his flesh fail. 
 Shall he be permitted to look upon that glory with the thought of- 
 which he has been comforting himself, the vision of which has been 
 passing before his eyes ? " O my God, take me not away in the 
 midst of my days ! " is the natural and touching petition v/hich breaks 
 from his lips, as he fears lest his eyes should be closed in death before 
 that glory appears. And then suddenly, as if every cloud of appre- 
 hension were dispelled, he triumphs in the thought that there is One 
 who changeth not ; that though the solid frame of the universe itself 
 should crumble into dissolution, yet He is the same "yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever," the one Hope and Stay of His children now and 
 in all generations to come. 
 
 On the Messianic character of the Psalm, and the quotation made 
 from it in the Epistle to the Hebrews, see the remarks 9.t the end on 
 ver. 25 — 27. 
 
 The Psalm is clearly individual, not national, and must have been 
 intended for private rather than liturgical use, as the Inscription 
 seems designed to inform us. This Inscription is peculiar ; it stands 
 quite alone among the Titles prefixed to the Psalms ; for it describes 
 the character of the Psalm, and marks the circumstances under which 
 it should be used. In all other instances the Inscriptions are either 
 musical or historical. 
 
486 PSALM CIL 
 
 [a prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, ane 
 before jehovah poureth out his complaint.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, hear my prayer, 
 
 And let my cry come unto Thee. 
 
 2 Hide not Thy face from me ; 
 
 In the day of my distress incline Thine ear unto me. 
 In the day that I call answer me speedily. 
 
 3 For my days are consumed in smoke, 
 
 And my bones are burnt up as a firebrand. 
 
 4 My heart is smitten, and dried up like grass, 
 
 For I have forgotten to eat my bread. 
 
 5 Because of the voice of my groaning, 
 
 My bones have cleaved to my flesh. 
 
 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness, 
 
 I am become like an owl of the ruins. 
 
 7 I have watched, and have been, 
 
 1, ,'. The opening words are such 5. To my Flesh. More naturally 
 
 as are found in other Psalms : comp. in Lam. iv. 8, " Their skin cleaveth 
 
 xviii. 6; xxxix. 12; xxvii. 9 ("hide to their bones;" the expression de- 
 
 not Thy face") ; lix. 16 (" In the day noting extreme emaciation. In job 
 
 \yhen I was in distress"), and xviii. 6; xix. 20, however, it is "my bone 
 
 xx*i. 2 ("incline Thine ear unto cleaveth to my skin," which may refer 
 
 me"); Ivi. 9..("In the day when 1 to a state of weakness and relaxation 
 
 call"); Ixix. 17; cxliii. 7 ("answer brought on by severe pain, in which 
 
 me speedily"). But all these are the bones have lost their power of 
 
 forms of expression which would motion. 
 
 easily pass into the common language 6. A pelican (E. V. Cormorant) 
 
 of prayer. . . . An owl. Both are mentioned 
 
 3. My eones. The bones are Lev. xi. 17, 18, and the former as 
 burned (see on Ixix. 3) as the brand inhabiting the wilderness, Zeph. ii. 
 is when placed on the fire. Comp. 14; Is. xxxiv. II. The owl is called 
 xxii. 15, xxxi. 10, xxxii. 3. in Arabic, "mother of the ruins." 
 
 4. Smitten, as by a sun-stroke. 7. I have watched, sleep having 
 Comp. cxxi. 6; Hos. ix. 16; Jon. iv. 8. been driven away by sorrow. With 
 
PSALM CII. 
 
 /.87 
 
 Like a lonely bird on the house-top. 
 
 8 All the day have mine enemies reproached me, 
 
 They that are mad against me have made their oaths 
 by me. 
 
 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, 
 
 And mingled my drink with weeping, 
 
 10 Because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath. 
 
 For Thou hast taken me up and cast me away. 
 
 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth. 
 
 And I am withered like grass. 
 
 12 But Thou, O Jehovah, sittest throned for ever. 
 
 the next clause of the verse may be 
 compared Virg. jEn. iv. 462 : — 
 
 "Solaque culminibus ferali carmine 
 bubo 
 Visa queri, et longas in fletum du- 
 cere voces." 
 
 And Gearg. i. 403 : — 
 
 " De culmine summo 
 
 Nequicquam seros exercet noctua 
 cantus." 
 
 Ovid also has — 
 
 "In adverse noctumus culmine bubo. '' 
 
 8. Made their oaths by me, 
 i.e. when they curse, choose me as an 
 example of misery, and imprecate 
 upon themselves or others my mis- 
 fortunes — say, "God do to me, to 
 thee, as He has done to this man." 
 Comp. Is. Ixv. 15 ; Jer. xxix. 22. 
 
 9. Ashes like bread, Lam. iii. 
 16. Comp. Ps. xlii. 3, "my tears 
 are my food," Ixxx. 5. 
 
 10. "The acknowledgement is 
 the same as in xc. 7 — 9. It is sin 
 which has thus provoked God's dis- 
 pleasure ; the two nouns, ' indigna- 
 tion ' and ' wrath, ' are in the Hebrew 
 the strongest which the language pos- 
 sesses." — DelUzsch. 
 
 Thou hast taken me up, &c. 
 God's wrath has seized and whirled 
 
 him aloft, only to cast him, as worth- 
 less, away. So in Is. xxii. 18, ' ' He 
 will toss thee like a ball into a large 
 country. " 
 
 11. That declineth. The word 
 is used properly of the day at its 
 close (as in Jud. xix. 9), or the sun 
 as setting, and so here transferred to 
 the evening shadows (comp. cix. 23), 
 which would strictly be said to 
 lengthen. The figure describes the 
 near approach of death. 
 
 12. But Thou. This is the great 
 consolatory thought by which he rises 
 above his sorrow. He, the individual, 
 may perish, but Zion's hopes rest 
 on her Eternal King. And yet this 
 might seem, as Calvin remarks, a 
 far-fetched consolation. What is it to 
 us that God changeth not, that He 
 sitteth King for ever, if meanwhile 
 our condition is so frail and feeble 
 that we cannot continue for a moment 
 in one stay ? His unchangeable peace 
 and blessedness do but make our life 
 seem the more complete mockery. But 
 the Psalmist recalls God's promises 
 to His Church, especially that great 
 covenant promise, "I will dwell in 
 the midst of you " (Exod. xxv. 8). 
 Resting on this, he feels sure that 
 God's children, however miserable 
 their state, shall have their share in 
 that heavenly glory wherein God 
 dwelleth. Because God changes not. 
 
488 
 
 PSALM CII. 
 
 And Thy memorial is to all generations. 
 
 1 3 Thou wilt arise (and) have compassion upon Zion, 
 
 For it is time to have pity upon her, 
 For the set time is come. 
 
 14 For Thy servants find pleasure in her stones, 
 
 And have pity upon her dust. 
 
 1 5 And the nations shall fear the Name of Jehovah, 
 
 And all the kings of the earth Thy glory, 
 
 16 Because Jehovah hath built Zion : 
 
 He hath appeared in His glory ; 
 
 17 He hath turned to the prayer of the poor-destitute, 
 
 And hath not despised their prayer. 
 
 18 This shall be written for the generation to come, 
 
 His promise and covenant change not, 
 and therefore we may ever lift our 
 eyes to His throne in heaven, from 
 which He will surely stretch forth His 
 hand to us. 
 
 SiTTEST THRONED, as in ix. 7, 
 xxix. 10. 
 
 Thy Name, lit. " Thy memorial," 
 as in Exod. iii. 15. 
 
 13. Because God is eternal there- 
 fore Hfi will have compassion on 
 Zion. Or we may connect this verse 
 with the following : Thou, Jehovah, 
 the covenant God and our Father, 
 wilt rebuild the walls of Zion, for even 
 we her children love her very dust. 
 
 The set time. See on Ixxv. 2. 
 It is not necessary to understand this 
 definitely of the seventy years pro- 
 phesied by Jeremiah, xxv. 11, 12, 
 xxix. 10. It is rather the time when 
 her warfare is accomplished. 
 
 14. Stones . . . dust. It is 
 strange that Luther and others should 
 have understood these of the materials 
 for building the new city. They evi- 
 dently denote the ruins of the old. 
 (Neh. iv. 2, 10.) 
 
 Have pity upon her dust. 
 Zion was not only dear to them in 
 
 her glory, when the splendour of her 
 Temple riveted every eye ; but her 
 very dust is sacred, her very ruins are 
 dear. " Quamvis subversum sit tem- 
 plum, et deformis tantum vastitas 
 illuc appareat, fideles tamen, in ejus 
 amore manere defixos, in putridis 
 lapidibus et corrupto caemento agnos- 
 cere Dei gloriam." — Calvin. And 
 then he applies all this to the spiritual 
 Zion, the Church, bidding us remem- 
 ber that the more mournful her de- 
 solations, the less should we cease to 
 love her; yea, rather, the more 
 earnestly should our sighs and prayers 
 go up on her behalf. 
 
 15. The effect produced on the 
 heathen world by the manifestation 
 of God's glory, as seen in the re- 
 demption and restoration of His 
 people, which is not only the accom- 
 plishment of a sovereign purpose, but 
 vouchsafed in answer to prayer. 
 
 17. Poor-destitute. I have 
 retained this rendering of the P.B.V. 
 because the word expresses utter 
 nakedness and destitution. The 
 Hebrew word only occurs here and. 
 Jer. xviL 6. 
 
 18. Shall be written. The 
 
PSALM CII. 
 
 489 
 
 And a people new-created shall praise Jah. 
 
 19 For He hath looked down from His holy height, 
 
 From heaven hath Jehovah beheld the earth, 
 
 20 That He might hear the sighing of the prisoner. 
 
 That He might set at liberty those that are doomed 
 to death, 
 
 21 That (men) may declare the name of Jehovah in Zion, 
 
 And His praise in Jerusalem, 
 
 22 When the peoples are gathered together. 
 
 And the kingdoms to serve Jehovah. 
 
 23 He hath brought down my strength in the way. 
 
 He hath shortened my days. 
 
 24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my 
 
 days ; — 
 
 only place in the Psalms where the 
 memory of great events is said to be 
 preserved in writing : elsewhere (as 
 in xxii. 31, xliv. i, Ixxviii. 2) it is 
 left to oral transmission. 
 
 A PEOPLE NEW-CREATED, Or "a 
 
 people to be created," as in xxii. 31, 
 "a people that shall be bom. " There 
 is, as Calvin remarks, an implied 
 antithesis between the new creation 
 of the people and their present de- 
 stniction. "The return from the 
 Captivity was like a second birth." 
 See Cicero {Ep. ad Att. vi. 6, § 4). 
 " The passage strikingly teaches that 
 even when the Church seems dead 
 it can be created anew when God 
 wills. Let us never therefore de- 
 spair, but rest assured that He who 
 created a world out of nothing, can 
 also bring His Church out of the 
 darkness of death." 
 
 19. He hath looked. Comp. 
 Deut xxvi. 15. 
 
 20. Doomed to death. Heb. 
 "sons of death." See on Ixxix. 11. 
 
 22. On this gathering of the nations 
 in Jerusalem comp. xxii. 27, Ixviii. 
 
 32 ; Is. xlv. 14. It is a fulfilment of 
 the prophecy in Gen. xlix. 10. 
 
 23. Again he returns to the con- 
 trast between his own weakness and 
 
 .the brevity of human life, on the one 
 hand, and the eternity and unchange- 
 ableness of God on the other (see 
 above, ver. 11, 12), finding in this 
 last his perfect satisfaction and rest. 
 
 In the WAV, i.e. in the journey of 
 life. Those who suppose the Psalm 
 to express the feelings rather of the 
 nation at large than of the individual, 
 see here an allusion to the journey 
 through the wilderness, as in Exod. 
 xviii. 8 ; Numb. xvi. 12, 13, xx. 14. 
 
 24. The abrupt transition in this 
 verse is full of pathetic beauty. The 
 prayer that his life may not be pre- 
 maturely cut short seems to spring in 
 this instance not merely from a natural 
 clinging to life (as in JHezekiah's case. 
 Is. xxxviii. 10, II), but from the 
 intense desire to see God's glory 
 manifested in Israel's restoration. 
 Then, having uttered that prayer, 
 without waiting for the answer, he 
 magnifies God's eternity and un- 
 
49° 
 
 PSALM CII. 
 
 Thy years are to all generations. 
 25 Of old Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, 
 
 And the heavens are the work of Thy hands : 
 ■2.6 They shall perish, but Thou remainest, 
 
 And all of them shall wax old as a garment, 
 
 As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall 
 be changed ; 
 
 27 But Thou art the same. 
 
 And Thy years shall not come to an end. 
 
 28 The children of Thy servant shall continue, 
 
 changeableness. He finds in these 
 his strength in weakness ; he feels 
 that he can rest on the Everlasting 
 Arms. He draws his highest con- 
 solation from the thought, that though 
 he himself may perish, cut off in the 
 midst of his days ; though the heavens 
 and the earth may be changed, and 
 wax old as a garment j yet He who 
 created them is ever the same, that 
 His purposes cannot be frustrated, 
 that His Church, the children of His 
 servants, shall abide, the witness and 
 the monument of His love. 
 
 25. The creation of the world 
 implies its transitoriness. That which 
 had a beginning shall have an end. 
 He alone who created all cannot 
 change. Comp. Is. li. 6, liv. 10. 
 Elsewhere the order of nature is 
 spoken of as unchanging, as in cxlviii. 
 6. Comp. Gen. viii. 22. And such 
 expressions occur as *' the everlasting 
 mountains, " " the everlasting heavens j" 
 but as compared with. God all that is 
 most abiding has upon it the impress 
 of decay and death. On the other 
 hand, there is nothing here which 
 contradicts the promise made else- 
 where of "new heavens and a new 
 earth" (2 Pet. iii. 13). 
 
 27. THOU (art) the same, lit. 
 "Thou art He." Comp. the same 
 form of expression. Is. xli. 4, xlvi. 4. 
 
 Or in a different sense, as in Deu', 
 xxxii. 39, "I am He," i.e. I am God, 
 I am Jehovah, the only true God, 
 comp. Is. xliii. 10, 13, xlviii. 12, Iii. 
 6 ; and see Nehem. ix. 6, " Thou art 
 He, Jehovah alone," &c. 
 
 28. Dwell, i.e. in the land, as in 
 xxxvii. 29, Ixix. 36, where the full 
 expression occurs. 
 
 Verses 25 — 27 are quoted m the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews (i. 10—12) 
 as addressed to Christ, and form a 
 part of the \\Titer's proof from the 
 Old Testament that He, as the Sun 
 of God, is higher than the angek. 
 The quotation stands between two 
 others, one from the 45th, the othei 
 from the I loth Psalm, bearing on the 
 same argument. But these are both 
 of them Messianic Psalms, and the 
 principle on which the quotation rests 
 is sufficiently obvious. It is by no 
 means so easy to understand why the 
 words of this Psalm should have been 
 quoted, as it does not seem at first sight 
 to be a Messianic Psalm. It may be 
 observed, however, (I) that it is in this 
 sense Messianic, that it looks forward 
 to Israel's redemption from captivity, 
 and the future glory of Zion ; (2) 
 that, as has been observed in the note 
 on Ps. Ixxii., there are two great lines 
 of Messianic hope running through 
 the Psalms, the one human,- the othei 
 
PSALM cm. 491 
 
 And their seed shall be established before Thee. 
 
 divine ; the one of which the reign of 
 the Son of David, the other of which 
 the advent of Jehovah, is the great 
 end and object. Here the Psalmist 
 is occupied with the latter, the appear- 
 ing of Jehovah in His glory. (3) 
 This identification of the Jesus of the 
 New Testament with the Jehovah of 
 the Old is what we find elsewhere ; 
 comp. John xii. 41 with Is. vi. (Isaiah 
 sees the glory of Jehovah, St. John 
 tells ns it was the glory of Christ), 
 and John xix. 37, "they shall look 
 on Him whom they pierced," which 
 in Zech. xii. 10 is language used 
 
 directly of Jehovah. The difference 
 between these quotations in St. Johr 
 and the one in the Ep. to the Hebrews 
 is, that the argument in the lattei 
 requires that the Messianic charactei 
 of the Psalm should be conceded. (4^ 
 Not only the revelation, the appearing 
 of Jehovah in Zion, but also th< 
 creation of the world (ver. 25) woulc 
 point to the Great Mediator, ths 
 Eternal World, as the person hert 
 spoken of, and on this last ground, 
 especially, the quotation in th( 
 Epistle to the Hebrews seems tc 
 rest. 
 
 PSALM cm. 
 
 This beautiful Psalm is the outpouring of a full heart in thanks- 
 giving to Jehovah for His grace and compassion, both as experiencec 
 by the Psalmist in his own life, and also as manifested to his natior 
 in their history. It celebrates especially God's mercy in the forgive- 
 ness of sin, and that tender pity, as of a human father, wherewith H« 
 remembers the frailty, and stoops to the weakness, of His children, 
 It is a hymn of which the text and motto are to be found in that reve- 
 lation of Himself which God gave to Moses when He proclaimed 
 Himself as "Jehovah, tenderly compassionate and gracious, long- 
 suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth " (Exod. xxxiv. 6). 
 
 Nothing certain can be said as to the author and date of the Psalm, 
 though various conjectures have been hazarded. 
 
 The Psalm consists of three parts : — 
 
 I. A prelude, in a strain of trustful gladness, in which the Psalmist 
 seeks to stir up gratitude within him, by the review of God's mercies 
 to him as an individual. Ver. i — 5. 
 
492 PSALM cm. 
 
 II. The body of the Poem, in a more reflective tone, full of a quiet, 
 tender, pathetic, even melancholy beauty, in which, after a brief 
 allusion to the facts of the national history, the great covenant 
 relationship of God to His people, fonns the prominent ground of 
 hope amid human sins and transitoriness. Ver. 6 — 18. 
 
 III. A triumphant conclusion. Joy in the remembrance of God's 
 goodness to himself and his people predominates over every other 
 feeling. Such a joy must utter itself in praise. Praise seems its 
 natural employment, and therefore the natural employment of all 
 other creatures which it summons to a holy sympathy and fellowship 
 with itself. Ver. 19 — 22. 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Bless Jehovah, O my soul, 
 
 And all that is within me (bless) His holy Name. 
 
 2 Bless Jehovah, O my soul. 
 
 And forget not all His benefits ; 
 
 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquity, 
 
 Who healeth all thy diseases, 
 
 1. All THAT IS WITHIN me; not Diseases or "sicknesses," pri- 
 as opposed to outward or mere lip marily, at least, of body, as in Dent, 
 service, but expressing the desire to xxix. 22 ; 2 Chron. xxi. ig : and this 
 enlist every thought, faculty, power, agrees with what follows ; though 
 the heart with all his affections, the possibly the maladies of the soul may 
 will, the conscience, the reason, in a be included. " Even when sin is for- 
 word the whole spiritual being, all in given," says Augustine, "thou stiJl 
 man that is best and highest, in the carriest about with thee an infirm body 
 same heavenly service. . . . Death is not yet swallowed up 
 
 2. Forget not. This touches the in victory, this corruptible hath not 
 secret spring of so much ingratitude : yet put on incorruption, still the soul 
 — forgetfulness, the want of re-collec- herself is shaken by passions and 
 tion, or gathering together again of temptations. . . [But] thy sicknesses 
 all the varied threads of mercy. shall all be healed, doubt it not. 
 Comp. Dent. vi. 12, viii. 11, 14. They are great, thou wilt say; but 
 
 3. FORGIVETH, the first and greatest the physician is greater. To an Omni- 
 of all the Divine benefits to the soul potent Physician no sickness is in- 
 burdened with a sense of guilt and curable ; only suffer thyself to be 
 defilement : therefore also that which healed, thrust not away His hand, 
 calls first for acknowledgement. He knoweth what He doeth. ... A 
 " God's benefits will not be before human physician is mistaken some- 
 our eyes, unless our sins be also be- times ; why ? Because he did not 
 fore our eyes." — Augustine. make that which he undertakes to 
 
PSALM cm. 
 
 493 
 
 4 Who redeemeth thy life from the pit, 
 
 Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender 
 mercies, 
 
 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good (things), 
 
 So that thy youth renews itself as the eagle. 
 
 6 Jehovah executeth righteousness 
 
 ■ And judgement for all that are oppressed. 
 
 heaL God made thy body. God 
 made thy soul ; He knoweth how 
 to re-create that which He created ; 
 He knoweth how to re-form that 
 which he formed ; only be thou still 
 under the hands of the Physician . . . 
 suffer thou His hands, O soul that 
 blessest Him, forgetting not all His 
 benefits : for He healeth all thy sick- 
 
 4. From the pit (see on xvi. 10); 
 including death, the grave, Hades. 
 The Targum renders, " from Ge- 
 henna." 
 
 Crowneth. The love of God not 
 only deUvers from sin, disease, and 
 death. He makes His children kings, 
 and weaves their crown out of liis 
 own glorious attributes of loving- 
 kindness and tender mercies. 
 
 5. Satisfieth. Giving Himself 
 to us as the bread of life. Augustine 
 observing that every creature has its 
 own good : " Seek thine own good, 
 soul. None is good but one, that is 
 God. The highest good, that is my 
 good. What, then, can he want who 
 hath the highest good ? . . . God is 
 this good. What kind of good, who 
 
 can say ? Behold we cannot say, 
 and yet we are not permitted to be 
 silent." 
 
 As the eagle : i.e. so that in 
 strength and vigour thou art like the 
 eagle. The rendering of the E. V., 
 " so that thy youth is renewed like 
 the eagle's," is grammatically justi- 
 fiable, but very unnecessarily makes 
 the Psalmist responsible for the fable 
 of the eagle's renewing its youth.* 
 Neither this passage nor Is. xl. 31 
 countenances any such fable. There is 
 an allusion, no doubt, to the yearly 
 moulting of the feathers of the eagle 
 and other birds, the eagle being 
 selected as the liveliest image of 
 strength and vigour. The P. B. V. 
 gives the sense rightly : " Making 
 thee young and lusty as an eagle. " 
 
 6. He passes from his own ex- 
 perience to that of the Church at 
 large : God's mercies to the individual 
 are only a part of that vast circle of 
 mercy which embraces all Israel. 
 
 All that are oppressed ; the 
 Church of God being a suffering 
 Church. 
 
 * The fable of the eagle's renewing its youth has received different embellishments. The 
 version of Saadia, given by Kimchi, is as follows : The eagle mounts aloft into heaven till he 
 comes near to the seat of central fire in the sun, *hen, scorched by the heat, he casts himself 
 down into the sea. Thence he emerges again with new vigour and fresh plumage, till at last 
 in his hundredth year he perishes in the waves. Augustine's story is more elaborate and far 
 less poetical. According to him, when the eagle grows old, the upper curved portion of the 
 beak becomes so enlarged, that the bird is unable to open its mouth to seize its prey. It 
 would die of hunger, therefore, did it not dash this part of its beak against a rock till the 
 troublesome excrescence is got rid of Then it can devour its food as before, vigour is restored 
 to its body, splendour to its plumage, it can soar aloft ; a kind of resurrection has taken place. 
 Thus it renews its youth. And then, wonderful to say, having told this story gravely, he 
 makes Christ riie rock, adding, " in Christ thy youth shall be renewed as tbe eagle's." 
 
494 
 
 PSALM cm. 
 
 7 He hath made known His ways unto Moses, 
 
 His acts unto the children of Israel. 
 
 8 Jehovah is full of compassion and gracious, 
 
 Long-suffering and plenteous in loving-kindness. 
 
 9 He will not alway be contending, 
 
 Neither keepeth He (His anger) for ever. 
 
 10 Not according to our sins hath He dealt with us, 
 
 And not according to our iniquities hath He requited 
 us ; 
 
 1 1 For as high as heaven is above the earth. 
 
 So mighty is His loving-kindness upon them that fear 
 Him. 
 
 12 As far as the East is from the West, 
 
 So far hath He removed our transgressions from us. 
 
 1 3 Like as a father hath compassion on his children. 
 
 So Jehovah hath compassion on them that fear Him, 
 
 14 For He knoweth our frame. 
 
 He remembereth that we are dust. 
 
 7. His ways, in allusion to the 
 prayer of Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 13 : 
 " If I have found grace in Thy sight, 
 make known to me Thy way, and let 
 me know Thee." 
 
 8. The verse is taken from Exod. 
 xxxiv. 6. Comp. Ixxxvi. 5, 15, cxi. 
 4, cxlv. 8 ; Joel ii. 13 ; Nehem. ix. 
 17, 31- 
 
 9. Comp. Is. Ivii. 16, "For not 
 for ever will I contend, and not per- 
 petually will I be angry; for the spirit 
 would fail before me, and the souls 
 that I have made." 
 
 Keepeth. See the same absolute 
 use of the verb. Lev., xix. 18, "Thou 
 shalt not keep (i.e. chierish any grudge) 
 against the children of thy people ; " 
 Nah. i. 2 ; and of the synonymous 
 ■wox&.(shA7nar)]tx. iii. 5, 12. Calvin 
 compares the French phrases il lui 
 garde, il me Va gardf. 
 
 II. The expressions in xxxvi. 5, 
 
 Ivii. 10, are similar. God's love is 
 like Himself, infinite. It cannot be 
 measured by all the measures of the 
 universe. 
 
 12. Removed our transgres- 
 S-IONS. The forgiveness of sin (as in 
 ver. 3) is the great proof of God's 
 love. "The expression describes, in 
 language which might be that of the 
 N. T., the effects of justifying grace." 
 — Del. Comp. Micah vii. 19, "Thou 
 wilt cast all their sins into the 
 depths of the sea;" Is. xxxviii. 17. 
 " Thou hast ca?t all my sins behind 
 Thy back." 
 
 14 — 16. Man's weakness and transi- 
 toriness is itself an appeal to God's 
 fatherly compassion. Compare Gen. 
 viii. 21, and see the same ground taken 
 in Ps. xxxix. 5, 13, Ixxviii. 39 ; Job 
 vii. 7. 
 
 14. Our frame, lit. "oux fash- 
 ioning," as in Gen. ii. "j, "And He 
 
PSALM cm. 
 
 495 
 
 15 As for frail man, his days are as grass : 
 
 As a flower of the field, so he fiourisheth. 
 
 16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, 
 
 And the place thereof knoweth it no more. 
 
 17 But the loving-kindness of Jehovah is from everlasting 
 
 to everlasting upon them that fear Him, 
 • And His righteousness to children's children ; 
 
 18 To such as keep His covenant, 
 
 And to those that remember His precepts to do them. 
 
 19 Jehovah hath established His throne in the heavens, 
 
 And His kingdom ruleth over all. 
 
 20 bless Jehovah, ye His angels, 
 
 That are mighty in strength, that execute His word, 
 Hearkening to the voice of His word. 
 
 fashioned (formed) man of the dust, " 
 &c; or as a potter moulds and 
 fasUons the clay, Is. xxix. 16, xlv. 
 9, II ; Job X. 8. 
 
 15. Compare, for the figures in this 
 and the next verse, xxxvii. 2, 10, 36, 
 xc 5, 6; Is. xl. 6 — 8, li. 12; Job 
 Jiiv. 2; and for the phrase, "the 
 place thereof knoweth it no more," 
 job vii. 10. 
 
 17. The same contrast between 
 man's transitoriness and God's un- 
 changeableness which occurs in Psalm 
 xc. For the third time God's mercy 
 aod loving-kindness is said to be 
 upon " them that fear Him " (comp. 
 ver. II — 13), as if to remind us that 
 there is a love within a love — a love 
 which they only know who have 
 tasted that the Lord is gracious, who 
 fear Ilim and walk in His ways, as 
 well as a love which "maketh the 
 sun to shine, and sendeth rain upon 
 the just and the unjust. " In the next 
 verse there is the same limitation, 
 "To such as keep His covenant," 
 and to those who not only know, but 
 "*" Hi? mil The blessings of 
 
 the covenant are no inalienable right. 
 Children's children can only inherit 
 its blessings by cleaving to it. Comp. 
 Exod. XX. 6, xxiv. 7 ; Deut. vii. 9. 
 
 19. The concluding portion of the 
 Psalm extols the greatness and ma- 
 jesty of Him who has thus stooped in 
 pity to His children. The Psalmist 
 had begun by calling upon his own 
 soul to bless Jehovah for His good- 
 ness ; he had associated with him- 
 self, as partakers in that goodness, all 
 who feared the Lord. Now he con- 
 cludes by calling on the angels in 
 heaven and all creation, inanimate as 
 well as animate, to ascribe blessing 
 and honour and power to Him who 
 sitteth upon the throne. Lastly, from 
 all that vast congregation of wor- 
 shippers praising God, he turns to him- 
 self, that his voice may not be wanting 
 in the mighty anthem, " Bless thou 
 Jehovah, O my soul." 
 
 20. Mighty in strength, or 
 "strong warriors" (see note on lii. 
 i), as afterwards " all His hosts" by 
 which not the stars but the angels 
 are meant, as is plain from the paral- 
 
496 PSALM CIV. 
 
 21 Bless ye Jehovah, all His hosts, 
 
 Ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. 
 
 22 Bless Jehovah, all His works. 
 
 In all places of His dominion. 
 Bless Jehovah, O my soul. 
 
 lelism, "ye ministers of His that do way in Ps. cxlviii. first the angels and 
 
 His pleasure. " See also Ps. civ. 4 ; then the whole creation is called upon 
 
 Dan. vii. 10. to praise God. 
 22. All His works. In the same 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 
 The general argument of this Divine Ode of Creation has been well 
 expressed by Calvin. " This Psalm," he says, " differs from the last, 
 in that it neither treats of God's special mercies bestowed on His 
 Church, nor lifts us to the hope of a heavenly life ; but painting for 
 us in the frame of the world, and the order of nature, the living image 
 of God's wisdom, power, and goodness, exhorts us to praise Him, 
 because in this our frail mortal life He manifests Himself to us as a 
 Father." It is a bright and living picture of God's creative power, 
 pouring life and gladness throughout the universe. 
 
 There are several points in the Psalmist's treatment of his subject 
 which deserve especial notice. 
 
 1. First there is here, what is not to be found to the same extent, 
 if at all, in any other ancient poetry, the distinct recognition of the 
 absolute dependence of the universe, as created, upon the Creator. 
 " He is before all things, and by Him all things subsist." This truth 
 is throughout implied. It forms the very basis, and, so to speak, main 
 thread of the Poem. 
 
 2. Secondly, the great work of creation is here regarded not as a 
 thing of the past merely : the Universe is not a machine once set 
 a-going, and then left to its fate or to inexorable laws. The Great 
 
PSALM CI V. 497 
 
 Worker is ever working.* " The world and all things owe their past 
 origin and their present form to the continuous operation " of God. 
 Creation ever repeats itself; death is succeeded by life. He who 
 made, renews the face of the earth. It is the same profound view 
 of the relation of the Cosmos to the Creator, which St. Paul exhibits 
 in his speech on Mars' hill. He, too, is careful not to separate the 
 past from the present. "God, who made the world," did not then 
 leave the work of His fingers : the streaming forth of His Omnipo- 
 tence and His Love was not checked or stayed ; on the contrary, every 
 part of His creation rests at every moment on His hands ; " 'Rsgivelh 
 to all life and breath, and all things " (Acts xvii. 25). 
 
 3. Thirdly, in its main outline the Poem follows the story of 
 Creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis. There manifestly 
 is the source whence the Psalmist drew. Meditating on that sublime 
 description, itself - poem, he finds in it his subject and his inspiration. 
 And yet the Psalm is not a mere copy of the original. Breathing the 
 same lofty spirit, it has a force and an originality of its own. In some 
 respects the Psalm, even more strikingly than the early record, 
 exhibits the infinite greatness, the order, the life of the Universe. But 
 the creation of Genesis is a creation of the past ; the creation of the 
 Psalm is a creation of the present. The one pourtrays the beginning 
 of the eternal order, the other its perpetual, living spectacle. Hence, 
 too, the Ode has far more animation than the Record. The latter is a 
 picture of still life ; the former is crowded with figures full of -tir and 
 movement. How vivid are the images which it calls up ! — the wild 
 ass roaming the sands of the wilderness, stooping to slake his thirst 
 at the stream which God has provided ; the birds building their nests, 
 and breaking forth into song in the trees which fringe the margin of' 
 the torrent-beds ; the wild goats bounding from rock to rock, and 
 finding their home in the inaccessible crags ; the young lions filling 
 the forest by night with their roar, and " seeking from God their 
 prey ;" and the sea with the same plenitude of life, its depths peopled 
 with huge monsters and swarming myriads of lesser fish, and its 
 surface studded with sails, the image of the enterprise, the traffic, the 
 commerce of the world ; and lastly, in fine contrast with this merely 
 animal activity of creatures led by their appetites, the even tenour, the 
 
 * See the excellent remarks on the importance of this view of nature in reference to 
 miracles, in the Rev. D J. Vaughan's valuable work Christian Evidences and the Bilite, 
 P-97- 
 
 K K 
 
4o8 PSALM CIV. 
 
 calm unobtrusive dignity of man's daily life of labour : take all these 
 together, and we have a picture which, for truth and depth of colouring, 
 for animation, tenderness, beauty, has never been surpassed. 
 
 It is not surprising that this great Hymn of Creation should have 
 called forth the warmest expressions of admiration from those who 
 have studied it, and that they should have vied with one another in 
 praising it as a masterpiece which has rarely been exceeded. One 
 writer* " prefers it to all the lyric poetry of the Greeks and "Romans." 
 Anotherf declares that "in Hebrew poetry there is little that can , 
 compare with it in precision of outline, and in the delicacy of its 
 transitions, as well as in its warm sympathy with nature, and in the 
 beauty of its images." 
 
 The Psalm is without any strophical division, but its main outline, as 
 has been said, follows the first chapter of Genesis. The Poet begins 
 with the light, and the heaven with its clouds and storms, ver. 2 — 4, 
 corresponding to the works of the First and Second Days, Gen. i. 3 — 8. 
 Then he passes to the earth, first describing its original chaotic state, 
 and the separation of earth and water by the voice of God, ver. 5—9, 
 in accordance with Gen. i. 9, 10 (first portion of the Third Day's work) ; 
 and then the varied adoi'nment of the earth as the dwelling-place of 
 living creatures, in a strain which goes far beyond the narrative in 
 Gen. i. II, 12. The mention of the heavenly bodies follows, ver. ig — 23 
 (Fourth Day's work), but with a more direct reference to the life of 
 men and animals than in Gen. i. 14 — 18. Then, after a short exclama- 
 tion of admiring gratitude, ver. 24, the Poet, who has already woven 
 into his verse so happily some portion of the creative wonders of 
 the Fifth and Sixth Days, the birds and beasts, and creeping things, 
 and man, Gen. i. 20 — 26, turns back again, ver. 25, 26, to speak of the 
 sea and its life. Gen. i. 21. Finally, after expressing, in vivid phrase, 
 the absolute dependence of all this vast and manifold creation upon 
 its Maker, ver. 27- — 30, he longs to see the bright original restored, to 
 find himself and all God's creatures parts of the mighty harmony, 
 that a new sabbath of creation may dawn, a rest of God, in which He 
 shall rejoice in His works and they in Him, and the world become a 
 temple filled with the anthem of praise, ver. 31 — 35. 
 
 * Hupfeld. f Amyraldus. 
 
PSALM CIV. 
 
 499 
 
 1 Bless Jehovah, O my soul ! 
 
 Jehovah my God, Thou art very great, 
 Thou art clothed with honour and majesty, 
 
 2 Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment. 
 
 Thou spreadest out the heavens like a curtain, 
 
 3 Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters. 
 
 1. Clothed, comp. xciii. i. 
 
 2. Thou coverest Thyself, lit. 
 "covering Thyself" (and in the next 
 member "spreading out"). These 
 expressions give a present force to 
 God's creative action, and teach us 
 to regard it not merely as a thing of 
 the past, but as still operative. The 
 fifth verse, on the other hand, opening 
 with a past tense, takes us back to 
 the original creation of all things. 
 
 With light. This is the First 
 Day. At the creation God said, 
 "Let there be light." Here, where 
 the creation is an ever-continued work, 
 He apparels Himself with light. The 
 final revelation tells us that " God is 
 Light," I John i. 5 ; comp. John 
 
 i-4-9- 
 
 " In comparing the light to a robe," 
 
 says Calvin, "he signifies that, though 
 
 God is invisible, yet His glory is 
 
 manifest. If we speak of His essen- 
 
 i fal bemg, it is true that He dwelleth 
 
 in light inaccessible ; but inasmuch 
 
 ' as He irradiates the whole world with 
 
 . His glory, this is a robe wherein He 
 
 . m some measure appears to us as 
 
 'visible, who in Himself had been 
 
 hidden." 
 
 Spreadest out the heavens. 
 The same figure in Is. xl. 22 (comp. 
 xlii. 5; xliv. 24). This describes 
 briefly the work of the Second Day, 
 Gen. i. 6 — 8. The heavens are the 
 firmament, the expanse (as the Hebrevr 
 word literally means) which is spread 
 out to separate the waters. And in 
 the waters above God lays, as it were, 
 the floor of His palace. 
 
 Like a curtain, i.e. the curtain 
 of a tent. 
 
 Both Athanasius and Augustine 
 observe, that in the use of this figure 
 the Psalmist designs to mark not 
 merely the form of the heaven, but 
 the ease with which God works. 
 " For easy as it is," says the former, 
 "for a man to stretch out a skin, 
 so easy is it for God to create the 
 heaven which did not exist before." 
 Augustine: "What infinite labour, 
 and toil, and difficulty, and continued 
 effort it costs to spread out one little 
 room ; ihere is no effort of this kind 
 in the works of Goc Thou art not 
 to think that God spread out the 
 heaven as thou spreadest out the roof 
 of thy house ; but as easy as it is for 
 thee to spread out a single skin, so 
 easy was it for God to spread out that 
 vast heaven. . . . Nay, God did not 
 spread out the heaven as thou spread- 
 est out the skin. For let a skin, 
 wrinkled or folded, be placed before 
 thee, and command it to be unfolded 
 and stretohed out ; spread it out by 
 the word. ' I cannot,' thou vrilt 
 reply. See then how far thou comest 
 short of the ease with which God 
 worketh. " 
 
 3. Who layeth the beams. 
 The figures, as Calvin remarks, are 
 all designed to teach the same truth, 
 viz. that we are not to pierce heaven 
 in Older to discover God, because He 
 meets us in His world and presents 
 everywhere living pictures to our eyes. 
 We must not suppose that anything 
 was added to Him by the creation of, 
 K K 2 
 
500 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 
 Who maketh the clouds His chariot. 
 
 Who walketh upon the wings of the wind ; 
 Who maketh His messengers winds, 
 
 His ministers a flaming fire. 
 He established the earth upon the foundations thereof, 
 
 the world ; it is for our sakes that He 
 puts on this garment. 
 
 His chambers, lit. "upper cham- 
 bers," i/Vepya, built on the flat roof 
 of the Eastern houses. For the 
 literal use of the word, see for in- 
 stance 2 Kings iv. lo ; for the figu- 
 rative, as here, Am. ix. 6, and comp. 
 Jer. xxii. 13, 14. 
 
 In the waters, i.e. the waters 
 above the firmament. Gen. i. 7. It 
 is impossible not to admire the bold- 
 ness of the figure. 
 
 4. Some of the ablest of the re- 
 cent commentators have rendered 
 this verse : 
 
 "Who maketh the winds His mes- 
 sengers, 
 The flaming fire His ministers ; '' 
 
 and had the construction of the sen- 
 tence in Hebrew permitted it, I should 
 have no hesitation in preferring this 
 rendering. It would seem to be the 
 natural sense of the words, and that 
 which harmonizes best with the con- 
 text. But unless the grammatical 
 difficulty can be removed, we must 
 render " He malieth His messengers 
 winds," &c., i.e. "He clodies His 
 messengers with the might, the swift- 
 ness, the all-pervading subtilty of 
 wind and fire." This is far better 
 than to explain that God's messengers 
 (or angels) are the secret agents who 
 assume the forms of wind and light- 
 ning, in order to accomplish His will, 
 that what we see working around us 
 are not blind forces of nature, but 
 beings to whom natural objects are 
 a veil concealing their operation. 
 This view has no apparent support 
 
 in Scripture, though it has been illus- 
 trated with great beauty of language 
 by Dr. Newman in his Sermon on 
 the Feast of St. Michael : " But how 
 do the wind and water, earlh and fire 
 move? Now, here Scripture inter- 
 poses, and seems to tell us that all 
 this wonderful harmony is the work 
 of Angels. Those events which we 
 ascribe to chance, as the weather, or 
 to nature, as the seasons, are duties 
 done to that God who maketh His 
 Angels to be winds, and His Minis- 
 ters a flame of fire. . . . Thus, when- 
 ever we look abroad we are reminded 
 of those most gracious and holy 
 Beings, the servatns of the Holiest, 
 who deign to minister to the heirs of 
 salvation. Every breath of air, and 
 ray of light and heat, every beaQtiful 
 prospect is, as it were, the skirts of 
 their garments, the waving of the 
 robes of those whose faces see God 
 in heaven." 
 
 5. The work of the Third Day in 
 its two great divisions ; first, the 
 separation of the land and water 
 (ver. 5 — 9) ; next, the clothing of the 
 earth with grass, herbs, and trees 
 (i>er. 10 — 18). The Poet, however, 
 ranges beyond the first creation, and 
 peoples the earth with the living 
 creatures of the Fifth Day. It is not 
 a picture of still life like that in 
 Genesis, but a, living, moving, ani- 
 mated scene. 
 
 He established. God's order is 
 itself the surest prop. 
 
 Upon the foundatio.ms 
 THEREOF. Comp. Job xxxviii. 4 — 6; 
 Prov. viii. 29. On the other hand, 
 in Job xxvi. 7, God is said to "hang 
 
PSALM CIV. 
 
 501 
 
 That it should not be moved for ever and ever. 
 
 6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment, 
 
 Above the mountains did the waters stand. 
 
 7 At Thy rebuke tliey fled, 
 
 At the voice of Thy thunder they were scattered, 
 
 8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank, — 
 
 To the place which Thou hadst established for them. 
 
 9 Thou hast set them a bound that they can not pass, 
 
 the earth upon nothing." Mendels- 
 sohn gets rid of the figure here by 
 rendering " Thou hast established the 
 earth in herself," but it must be a 
 diUl mind which needs thus to be 
 guarded against misapprehension. Yet 
 it is curious to see how these obvious 
 figures have been strained, and a hard 
 literal, prosaic sense given to what is 
 manifestly poetry. This was one of 
 the passages which, according to 
 Father Sanchez, was most strongly 
 relied upon in the controversy with 
 Galileo. 
 
 6—8. These verses hang together 
 in construction, and are a poetical 
 expansion of Gen. i. g. 
 
 6. The original chaos is described 
 not according to the heathen notion, 
 as a confused mass, earth and water 
 mingled together, but the earth as 
 already formed, yet completely en- 
 veloped in the water. The "earth 
 standing out of the water, and in the 
 water," 2 Pet. iii. 5. This vast 
 swelling tumultuous sea hears the 
 "rebuke" of God, and sinks to its 
 appointed place ; the earth appears, 
 emerges from her watery covering, 
 and shows her surface diversified 
 with mountain and valley. 
 
 So Milton : — 
 
 "The earth was form'd, but in the 
 womb as yet 
 
 Of waters, embryon immature in- 
 volved. 
 
 Appear'd not : over all the face of 
 
 earth 
 Main ocean flow'd." 
 
 7. Comp. Ixxvii. 17— 19. At Thy 
 REBUKE ; comp. xviii. 15 ; Ixxvi. 6 ; 
 Is. 1. 2, and Matt. viii. 26. 
 
 8. The mountains rose, i.e. they 
 seemed to rise as the waters sub- 
 sided. Comp. Ovid, Met. i. 43 : 
 
 "Jussit et extendi campos, subsidere 
 
 valles, 
 Fronde tegi sylvas, lapidosos sur- 
 
 gere montes ; " 
 
 and 244 : 
 
 "Flumina subsidunt, montes exire 
 
 videntur, 
 Surgit humus, crescunt loca, decre- 
 
 scentibus undis." 
 
 And Milton : — 
 
 " Immediately the mountains huge 
 
 appear 
 Emergent, and their broad bare backs 
 
 upheave 
 Into the clouds, their tops ascend the 
 
 sky ; 
 So high as heaved the tumid hills, 
 
 so low 
 Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad 
 
 and deep. 
 Capacious bed of waters," &c. 
 
 Paradise Lost, book vii. 
 
 g. A BOUND separating the sea 
 from the land, as in Job .xxxviii. 8 — 1 1. 
 See for a wider view, extending 
 
502 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 
 That they turn not again to cover the earth ; 
 
 10 Who sendest forth springs along the torrent-beds, 
 
 They flow between the mountains, 
 
 1 1 They give drink to all the beasts of the field. 
 
 The wild asses-quench their thirst. 
 
 1 2 Above them the fowls have their habitation, 
 
 They sing among the branches. 
 
 13 He watereth the mountains from His chambers ; 
 
 The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy work. 
 
 14 He maketh grass to grow for the cattle, 
 
 still further this separation of the 
 elements, Job xxvi. 8 — 10, Prov. 
 viii. 27, 29. Delitzsch says it might 
 almost seem as if the Poet who wrote 
 these words did not suppose the Flood 
 to be universal, but it is far more 
 probable that he is not thinking of 
 the Flood, but only of the everlasting 
 order first established at the creation, 
 and afterwards confirmed in the cove- 
 nant made with Noah, Gen. ix. 
 9 — 16. 
 
 10. The loving care, the tender 
 sympathy with which God, clothing 
 the earth with beauty, provides at 
 the same time for the wants of all 
 His creatures. Even the wild ass 
 which shuns the approach of man, 
 and the birds of heaven, which have 
 no keeper, are not left unprovided 
 for. 
 
 The torrent-beds. The word 
 {nathal) denotes both the torrent and 
 the valley through which it flows, 
 corresponding to the Arabic Wady. 
 
 11. Quench their thirst, lit. 
 "break their thirst," a phrase which 
 occurs only here. Comp. the Latin 
 
 frangere sitim. 
 
 12. Above them, or, "beside 
 them." The banks of the streams 
 and the valleys would first be clothed 
 with trees, and there the foliage 
 would be most luxuriant. 
 
 The fowls of heaven (E. V. 
 air), a frequent expression in Genesis, 
 as in i. 30, ii. 19, &c. 
 
 1 3. God waters the earth not only 
 by the fountains and torrents, but by 
 the rain. Comp. Gen. ii. 5 and 10. 
 
 He watereth. lit. "He giveth 
 drink to," the same word as in ver. 
 II. The MOUNTAINS are mentioned 
 not only because on them the clouds 
 rest, from them the streams descend, 
 but because Palestine was a mountain- 
 land. Comp. Deut. xi. 11, "a land 
 of mountains and of valleys, of the 
 rain of heaven it drinketh water" 
 (unlike Egypt, which was watered 
 by the Nile). Thus doubly watered, 
 from above and from beneath (comp. 
 Gen. xlix. 25), the earth brings forth 
 grass for the cattle, and its various 
 fruits, com and wine and oil for the 
 use of men — for the cattle what they 
 need, for man more than he needs — 
 that which makes his heart glad and 
 his countenance bright. 
 
 His chambers, the clouds, as in 
 ver. 3, where they are built on the 
 waters. 
 
 The FRUIT OF Thy work, i.e. 
 apparently the rain, as seems to be 
 required both by the parallelism and 
 by the expression "the earth is satis- 
 fied." 
 
 14. Grass. . . . green herb. 
 
PSALM CJV. 
 
 S°3 
 
 And green herb for the service of man ; 
 
 That He may bring forth bread from the earth, 
 15 And that wine may make glad the heart of man, 
 And that oil may cause (his) face to shine. 
 And' that bread may strengthen man's heart. 
 The trees of Jehovah are satisfied, 
 
 The cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted ; 
 Where the birds make their nests : 
 As for the stork, the cypresses are her house. 
 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 Comp. Gen. i. II, 29, 30; iii. 18; 
 Ex. X. 12, the latter comprising not 
 vegetables only, but com, &c. 
 
 For the service of man. This 
 seems the most natural interpretation, 
 corresponding to "for the cattle " in 
 the first member, and may be sup- 
 ported by the use of the word in 
 I Chron. xxvi. 30. 
 
 Bread in this verse seems to be 
 used in its most general signification to 
 denote all by which man is nourished. 
 In the next verse it is mentioned in 
 its proper sense, together with wine 
 and oil, as the three most important 
 products of the soil, the three essen- 
 tial elements of an Eastern banquet, 
 the object being to set forth the bounty 
 of God's provision for man. He fur- 
 nishes no scanty table. He gives with 
 no niggard hand. 
 
 15. From the satisfying of the 
 earth by the precious rain, the Poet's 
 thoughts turn to the satisfying of 
 man by the earth. Not that man is 
 the main subject, but rather the herbs 
 and the trees ; only he passes for a 
 moment from them to their chief 
 uses, viz. for man, and for fowls, and 
 for beasts. 
 
 And that oil, &c., lit. "And to 
 cause (or, that He may cause) his face 
 to shine with oil," the face being 
 
 mentioned rather than the head which 
 was anointed, because the radiancy of 
 joy is seen in the face. 
 
 Strengthen man's heart, Gen. 
 xviii. 5 ; Jud. xix. 5. Comp. Ps. 
 cv. 16. 
 
 16. The trees of Jehovah, so 
 called, as planted, not by human 
 hand, but by God Him.self (as ,in the 
 next member), trees of the forest and 
 the mountain, in opposition to those 
 which come under human cultivation, 
 such as the vine and the olive, which 
 are implied in ver. 15. See note on 
 xxxvi. 6. 
 
 Are satisfied, i.e. with the rain, 
 as in ver. 13. 
 
 1 7. These trees have their use ; 
 they are a home and a shelter for the 
 birds — probably the larger birds are 
 specially intended, as the stork is 
 named, the smaller tribes of singing 
 birds having already been mentioned, 
 ver. 12. 
 
 The stork. The word means'in 
 Hebrew, "the pious, or affectionate 
 bird." 
 
 18. The high mountains and 
 PRECIPICES or "cliffs" are men- 
 tioned, because they, like the trees, 
 are a shelter for the wild animals. 
 God provides food, and God provides 
 shelter for His creatures. 
 
504 PSALM CIV. 
 
 The steep precipices are a refuge for the conies. 
 
 He hath made the moon for seasons ; 
 
 The sun knoweth his going down : 
 20 Thou makest darkness — and it is night, 
 
 Wherein all the beasts of the forest do move. 
 The young lions roar after their prey, 
 
 And seek their food from God : 
 The sun ariseth, — they get them away, 
 
 And lay them down in their dens. 
 Man goeth forth to his work, 
 
 And to his labour until the evening. 
 
 24 How manifold are Thy works, O Jehovah. 
 
 In wisdom hast Thou made them all . 
 The earth is full of Thy riches. 
 
 25 Yonder is the sea, great and broad. 
 
 19 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 Conies. I have left the word as in 
 the E. v., though incorrect. The 
 creature meant is the hyrax Syriacus. 
 
 19. Transition to the w'ork of tlie 
 Fourtli Day, but still so contrived as 
 to introduce another picture of life 
 upon the earth, and the contrast be- 
 tween the life of tlie night and the 
 life of the day. 
 
 The moon mentioned first, because 
 to the Hebrew mind the night natu- 
 rally preceded the, day, as throughout 
 Gen. i., "And it was evening and it 
 was morning." Hence we have fir^jt 
 the night-scene, ver. 20, 21, and then 
 the day-scene, ver. 22, 23, 
 
 For seasons, as in Gen. i. 14. 
 
 Knoweth his going down. 
 Comp. Job xxxviii. 12 ; Jer. viii. 7. 
 This mention of the sunset prefaces 
 the way for the night-picture which 
 follows. 
 
 20 — 23. Even the night has its 
 busy life ; the beasts of prey are 
 abroad, and they, too, wait upon 
 [he providence of God. The whole 
 
 picture is finely conceived, and the 
 contrast is perfect between the rest- 
 less movement and roaring of the 
 wild beasts, and man's calm life of 
 labour, continued in the quiet light of 
 day from morning till evening. All 
 the other creatures wait upon God, 
 in simple dependence upon Him ; 
 man must labour, as well as gather 
 what God gives him, if he would be 
 satisfied with good. 
 
 24. Having thus come to man, the 
 crown of all creation, and so touched, 
 as it were, by anticipation, on the work 
 of the Sixth Day, the Psalmist pausesj 
 to review with grateful wonder the 
 multitude of God's works, and the 
 wisdom which is manifest in creation. 
 
 25. Then he remembers that there 
 is one vast field of creative wonders 
 of which as yet he has said nothing. 
 The sea, too, has its life — a life in its 
 depths, of things small and great — a 
 life of the coral insect as well as of 
 the whale, and also a ' life on its sur- 
 face, where ' ' go the ships " carrying 
 
PSALM CIV. 
 
 505 
 
 Wherein are things moving without number, 
 Beasts both small and great. 
 
 26 There go the ships, 
 
 (And there) leviathan whom Thou hast formed to 
 take his pastime therein. 
 
 27 All of them wait upon Thee, 
 
 That Thou mayest give them their food in its season. 
 
 28 That Thou givest them, they gather ; 
 
 Thou openest Thine hand, they are satisfied with 
 good; 
 
 29 Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled ; 
 
 Thou takest away their breath, they die 
 And turn again to their dust. 
 
 30 Thou sendest forth Thy breath, they are created, 
 
 the thoughts and the passions, the 
 skill and the enterprise of human 
 hearts. 
 
 The way in which the sea is men- 
 tioned indicates a writer not living on 
 the coast. It is visible, perhaps, but 
 at a distance. Its monsters are not 
 famihar objects, but are vaguely de- 
 scribed as " leviathan." 
 
 26. Leviathan ; not here as in 
 Ixxiv. 14 ; Job, E. V. xli. I, "the 
 crocodile," but a general term for all 
 "sea-monsters." 
 
 Therein, i.e. in the sea, the pro- 
 noun referring to the more remote 
 noun. It is strange that Ewald should 
 render "whom Thou hast made to 
 play with him," and appeal to Job, 
 E. V. xli. 5, as supporting the ren- 
 dering. The Jewish tfedition does 
 indeed make Leviathan the plaything 
 of the Almighty, but there is nothing 
 of the kind in Scripture. 
 
 27, 2S. In allusion, probably, to 
 Gen. i. 29, 30. 
 
 27. Wait upon Thee. The verb 
 occurs in the same sense and with the 
 same construction, cxlv. 15. 
 
 In its season. Or the suffix may 
 refer distributively to the animals {not 
 
 to the food) : " to each one in his 
 season," "at the fitting time." 
 
 28. Gather. The word denotes 
 properly " to pick up objects from the 
 ground," as stones, flowers, ears of 
 corn, grapes, wood, &c. ; here, pro- 
 vender. There is no allusion to the 
 gathering of the manna, 
 
 29, 30. God is not only the liberal 
 and provident householder, the gra- 
 cious father of a famil)'. He is the 
 Fountain of Life to His creatures. 
 Comp. xxxvi. 8, g. 
 
 29. Thou hidest Thy face ; a 
 phrase elsewhere used to express 
 God's wrath or displeasure ; here in 
 a physical sense, the withdrawal of 
 His care. 
 
 Troubled. See the same expres- 
 sion, xxx. 7 ; and comp. Job xxiii. 15. 
 
 Turn aGain to their dust, as 
 in Gen. iii. 19. Job xxxiv. 15. 
 
 30. The reference can hardly be to 
 Gen. ii. 7, Where the inbreathing of 
 life is confiiied exclusively to the crea- 
 tion of roan, but rather to i. 2, where 
 the Spirit of God is the great vivifying 
 Agent in all Creation. 
 
 Thou seNdest forth. Comp. 
 Acts xvii. 25, Thy BREATH. The 
 
5o6 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 
 And Thou renewest the face of the ground. 
 
 3 1 Let the glory of Jehovah be for ever ! 
 
 Let Jehovah rejoice in His works ! 
 
 32 Who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth, 
 
 When He toucheth the mountains, they smoke. 
 
 33 Let me sing to Jehovah, as long as I live, 
 
 Let me play unto my God, while I have my being. 
 
 34 Let my meditation be sweet unto Him : 
 
 As for me, I will rejoice in Jehovah. 
 
 35 Sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, 
 
 And the wicked shall be no more. 
 Bless Jehovah, O my soul ! 
 
 same word in Hebrew may be ren- 
 dered " breath " or " spirit." As the 
 reference is here only to physical life, 
 I have retained the former, especially 
 as the same word is employed in the 
 previous verse, where there can be no 
 doubt as to the meaning. Comp. Job 
 xxxiii. 4, xxxiv. 14, 15, Eccl. xii. 7, 
 with Ps. cxlvi. 4. God is called "the 
 God of the spirits of all flesh," Num. 
 xvi. 22, xxvii. 16, Heb. xii 9, and 
 He "in whom we live, and move, 
 and have our being," Acts xvii. 28. 
 
 Thou renev?est, life ever suc- 
 ceeding death, and all life being, as 
 it were, a new creation. 
 
 " States fall, arts fade, but Nature 
 does not die." 
 
 31. ' The Psalm closes with the 
 prayer that the glory of that God 
 who has thus manifested His glory in 
 creation may endure for ever, and 
 that He who looked with loving 
 approbation upon His works when 
 they were first created, pronouncing 
 all "very good," may ever rejoice 
 in them : for He is a God awful in 
 His majesty, One whose look makes 
 
 the earth tremble, One whose touch 
 consumes the mountains. One who 
 could in a moment blot out the crea- 
 tion He has made. 
 
 33. And as the Psalmist utters the 
 devout wish that God may rejoice in 
 His works, so he utters the wish for 
 himself that he may ever rejoice in 
 God, that his thoughts and words 
 may find acceptance with Him. This 
 is the truest, highest harmony of 
 creation ; God finding pleasure in His 
 creatures. His reasonable creatures 
 finding their joy in Him. But this 
 harmony has been rudely broken ; , 
 the sweet notes of the vast instru- 
 ment of the Universe are jangled out 
 of tune. Sin is the discord of the 
 world. Sin has changed the order 
 (Kiiff^uoj) into disorder. Hence the 
 prophetic hope (35) that sinners shall 
 be consumed, that the wicked shaU 
 be no more, that thus the earth shall 
 be purified, the harmony be restored, 
 and God, once more, as at the first, 
 pronounce His creation " very good." 
 In the prospect of such a consumma- 
 tion, the Poet calls upon his own 
 soul, and upon all around him, to 
 bless and praise Jehovah. 
 
FSALM CV. 507 
 
 Hallelujah. 
 
 35. Hallelujah, or, "Praise ye way in which it is connected with 
 
 Jah." The Talmud and Midrash tlie prospect of the final overthrow 
 
 observe that this is the first Halle- of the wicked is remarkable, and full 
 
 lujah in the Psalter, and that the of meaning. 
 
 PSALM CV. 
 
 This Psalm, like the 78th and the lo6th, has for its theme the early 
 history of Israel, and God's wonders wrought on behalf of the nation; 
 but it differs from both those Psalms in the intention with which it 
 pursues this theme. The 78th Psalm is didactic ; its object is to teach 
 a lesson : it recalls the past, as conveying instruction and warning for 
 the present. The 106th Psalm is a Ps^m of penitential confession. 
 The history of the past appears in it only as a history of Israel's sin. 
 In this Psalm, on the other hand, the mighty acts of Jehovah for His 
 people from the first dawn of their national existence are recounted 
 as a fitting subject for thankfulness, and as a groirnd for future obe- 
 dience. Those interpositions of God are especially dwelt upon which 
 have a reference to the fulfilment of His promise, which exhibit most 
 clearly His faithfulness to His covenant. Hence the series begins 
 with the covenant made with Abraham, tracing all the steps in its 
 fulfilment to the occupation of the Promised Land. This is commenced 
 as the theme of the Psalm in ver. 8 — 1 1. 
 
 The first fifteen verses are found in i Chron. xvi. 8 — 22 (with some 
 slight variations), as the first portion of the festal song which, on the 
 day when the Ark of God was brought to its resting-place on Zion, 
 was delivered by David into the hands of Asaph and his brethren, 
 " to give thanks unto Jehovah." The second part of that song consists 
 of Psahn xcvi., the first verse of Psalm cvii., and the forty-seventh and 
 forty-eighth verses of Psalm cvi. The last of these is the doxology 
 which closes the Fourth Book, and was evidently a late addition. It 
 seems, therefore, impossible to doubt that the song in the Chronicles 
 is a combination from other sources. 
 
•SoS PSALM CV. 
 
 Like the last Psalm, this closes with a Hallelujah. It is the first of 
 a number of Psalms beginning with the word Hodu, " Give thanks " 
 (cv., cvii., cxviii., cxxxvi.), which Delitzsch styles " Hodu-Psahns," 
 or Confitemini, just as those which begin with Hallelujah may be 
 called Hallelujah Psalms, cvi., cxi.— cxiii., cxvii., cxxxv., cxlvi.— el. 
 
 O Give thanks to Jehovah, call upon His Name, 
 
 Make known among the peoples His doings ; 
 Sing unto Him, play unto Him, 
 
 Meditate of all His wondrous works. 
 Make your boast of His holy Name, 
 
 Let the heart of them rejoice that seek Jehovah. 
 Enquire ,ye after Jehovah and His strength, 
 
 Seek His face evermore. 
 Remember H!is wondrous works that He hath done. 
 
 His tokens, and the judgements of His mouth, 
 O ye seed of Abraham His servant. 
 
 Ye children of Jacob, His chosen. 
 He, Jehovah, is our God, 
 
 1—6. The greatness of God's love, meant, as these are chiefly dwelt 
 
 as manifested 'to His people in their upon afterwards, 
 
 histoiy, calls for the fullest acknow- 6. Seeu of Abraham : in i Chron. 
 
 ledgement. The Psalmist would have xvi. 13, "seed of Israel." His 
 
 Israel sound forth His praises among chosen, plural, referring to the 
 
 all nations. They are not to sit down people, not to Jacob. It is on this 
 
 in idle satisfaction with their own ground, because they are Abraham's 
 
 privileges. His "doings" {ver i), seed, because they are God's chosen, 
 
 His "wondrous works" (ver. 2, 5), because they are Jacob's children. 
 
 His "tokens," "the judgements of heritors of the covenant and the 
 
 His mouth" (ver. 5), "His holy promises, that they are bound, beyond 
 
 Name" (ver. 3), as the revelation of all others, to " remember " what God 
 
 His character and attributes, — all has done for then:. On the other 
 
 these are to form the subject of loud hand, God, who made the covenant 
 
 thanksgiving, — all these are to be- with their fathers, "remembers" it 
 
 come, through Israel, the heritage of (ver. 8), " for His part will surely 
 
 the world. keep and perform " it. 
 
 I. Taken word for word from Is. 7. The Psalmist begins himself 
 
 xii- 4- that praise of God to which he has 
 
 5. Tokens . . . judgements ; exhorted his people. And first he 
 
 the miracles ill Egypt are chiefly extols "the covenant," "the word" 
 
PSALM CV. 
 
 509 
 
 His judgements are in all the earth. 
 
 8 He hath remembered His covenant for ever, 
 
 The word which He confirmed to a thousand 
 generations ; 
 
 9 (The covenant) which He made with Abraham, 
 
 And His oath (which He sware) unto Isaac, 
 
 10 And He established it unto Jacob for a statute, 
 
 Unto Israel for an everlasting covenant, 
 
 1 1 Saying, " Unto thefe will I give the land of Canaan, 
 
 The line of your inheritance." 
 
 12 When they were (but) a small number. 
 
 Very few and sojourners therein, 
 
 13 And went to and fro from nation to nation, 
 
 From (one) kingdom to another people, 
 
 14 He suffered no man to oppress them. 
 
 And reproved kings for their sakes, (saying,) 
 
 15 "Touch not Mine anointed ones. 
 
 (or promise), "the oath" by which 
 God had bound Himself to the patri- 
 archs, and which He "remembered," 
 i.e. fulfilled, when He brought them 
 into the land of Canaan. 
 
 Our God, by covenant, but also 
 Judge and Ruler of all nations. 
 
 8. He hath remembered : in 
 I Chron. xvi. 12, "remember ye.'' 
 
 To A THOUSAND GENERATIONS : 
 from Deut. vii. 9. 
 
 9. Unto Isaac, in allusion to Gen. 
 xxvi. 3, where God says to Isaac, 
 " To thee and to thy seed will I give 
 all these countries, and I will per- 
 form the oath which I sware unto 
 Abraham thy father ; '' comp. Gen. 
 xxii. 16. 
 
 II. The line, i.e. an inheritance 
 measured out by line, as in Ixxviii. 
 55 ; see note on xvi. 6. 
 
 12 — 15. The Divine protection by 
 which the small beginnings of the 
 nation were shielded. 
 
 12. A SMALL NUMBER, lit. "men 
 of number," as in Gen. xxxiv. 30; 
 see also Deut. iv. 27, xxvi. 5 ; Jer. 
 xliv. 28. So Horace says, "Nos 
 numerus sumus." 
 
 13. Nation . . . people. "The 
 former denotes the mass as bound 
 together by a common origin, lan- 
 guage, country, descent ; the latter 
 as united under one government." — 
 Dditzsch. 
 
 14. Kings, viz. of the Egyptians, 
 Gen. xii. 17, and of the Pliilistines, 
 Gen. XX., xxvi. 
 
 15. Touch not, with allusion, 
 perhaps, to Gen. xxvi. 11. 
 
 Mine anointed, i.e. specially set 
 apart and consecrated. The Poet 
 uses the language of his own time, 
 not that of the patriarchs, who were 
 never anointed. But inasmuch as in 
 David's time priests and prophets 
 were anointed (i Kings xix. 16), when 
 he would say that the patriarchs are 
 
S'o 
 
 PSALM CV. 
 
 And to My prophets do no harm." 
 
 1 6 And He called for a famine upoij the land, 
 
 He brake every staff of bread. 
 
 17 He sent before them a man, 
 
 Joseph was sold for a slave ; 
 
 18 They afflicted his feet with fetters, 
 
 He was laid in iron (chains), 
 
 priests of the true God, and therefore 
 to be regarded as sacred, he gives 
 them the epithet " anointed," as in the 
 next hemistich "prophets," a name 
 which God bestows upon Abraham, 
 Gen. XX. 7, whenhesays to Abimelech, 
 "And now give the man back his 
 wife, for he is a prophet ; and if he 
 pray for thee, thou shalt live." 
 
 My prophets, a good instance 
 of the wide signification of this word. 
 It is derived from a root signifying to 
 boil, to bubble up. The prophet is one 
 in whose soul there rises a spring, a 
 rushing stream of Divine inspiration. 
 In the later language he not only 
 receives the Divine word, but he is 
 made the utterer of it, the organ of 
 its communication to others. But 
 in the earlier instances, as in that of 
 Abraham, his official character does 
 not distinctly appear, though doubt- 
 less, like Noah, he was " a preacher 
 of righteousness," and taught his own 
 family (and through them ultimately 
 the whole world) the way of the 
 Lord. (See Gen. xviii. 19.) Here 
 the prophet means little more than 
 one to whom God speaks, one with 
 whom He holds converse, whether by 
 word, or vision, or dream, or inner 
 voice. (Comp. Num. xii. 6 — 8.) We 
 approach nearest to what is meant by 
 styling the patriarchs prophets, when 
 we read such passages as Gen. xviii. 
 17, " And Jehovah said, Shall I hide 
 from Abraham that thing which I 
 do ? ' or again, the pleading of Abra- 
 ham for Sodom, in ver. 23 — 33 of the 
 
 same chapter. It is, indeed, as 
 pleading with God in intercession that 
 Abraham is termed a ' ' prophet " in 
 Gen. XX. 7. The title is thus very 
 similar to that of the "Friend of 
 God," Is. xli. 8 ; 2 Chron. xx. 7; 
 James ii. 23. 
 
 16. From this point, as far as ver. 
 38, the history of the nation in Egypt 
 is followed, with a recognition of the 
 Divine Hand fashioning it at every 
 step, and at every step accomphshing 
 the fulfilment of the pi'omise. 
 
 l5 — 22. First, the preliminary steps 
 in the history of Joseph. The famine 
 in Canaan was no chance occurrence ; 
 God called for it. (Comp. 2 Kings 
 viii. I ; Am. v. 8 ; Hag. i. 11.) 
 Joseph's position in Egypt was no 
 accident ; God had sent him thither : 
 so he himself traces the hand of God, 
 Gen. xlv. 5, 1. 20. 
 
 16. Staff ok bread. The figure 
 occurs first in Lev. xxvi. 26 ; comp. 
 Is. iii. I. The same figure is sug- 
 gested in civ. 15, "bread that 
 strengtheneth (stayeth) man's heart." 
 
 18. This is a much harsher picture 
 of Joseph's imprisonment than that 
 given in Genesis xxxix. 20 — 23, xi. 4. 
 But it may refer to the earlier stages 
 of the imprisonment, before he had 
 won the confidence of his gaoler, or 
 it may be tinged with the colouring 
 of poetry. 
 
 With FETTERS. Heb. "with the 
 fetter." Tl^e word occurs only here 
 and cxlix. 8. 
 
 He was laid in iron. I have 
 
PSALM CV. 
 
 5^' 
 
 19 Until the time that his word came, 
 
 The saying of Jehovah had tried him. 
 
 20 The king sent and loosed him, 
 
 The ruler of the peoples, and let him go free. 
 
 21 He made him lord over his house, 
 
 And ruler over all his substance, 
 
 22 To bind his princes at his will. 
 
 And to teach his elders wisdom. 
 
 23 Israel also came into Egypt, 
 
 here followed the paraphrase of the 
 E. V. In the margin, however, the 
 literal rendering of the Hebrew is 
 correctly given, " His soul came into 
 iron." ("His soul," merely a peri- 
 phrasis of the person = "he," as in 
 Ivii. 4, xciv. 17), i.e. he was a pri- 
 soner, bound with chains. Jerome, 
 "in fermm venit anima ejus." The 
 more picturesque but incorrect ren- 
 dering of the P. B. v., "the iron 
 entered into his soul," follows the 
 Vulg., "ferrum pertransiit animam 
 ejus." The force of the expression 
 has made it stereotyped in our lan- 
 guage. It is a striking instance of 
 the supremacy of the P. B. V. Pro- 
 bably not one reader in a hundred 
 ever thinks of any other translation 
 of the verse, or is aware that the 
 Bible Version is different. 
 
 19. His word. This may be (i), 
 "the word of Joseph," i.e. either (a) 
 his interpretation of the dreams of 
 the king's officers in the prison, which 
 finally led to his own liberation, Gen. 
 xlL 12 ; or {fi) the word revealed to 
 him in dreams of his own future exalt- 
 ation, Gen. xlii. 9 ; or (2) "the word 
 of Jehmah" viz. that wliich first fore- 
 told, and then fulfilled the promise of, 
 his exaltation. If we adopt (i), then 
 the meaning is, Joseph lay in prison 
 till his interpretation of the dreams 
 came to pass. 
 
 Came, i.e. was fulfilled, a word 
 
 used in the same way of the fulfil- 
 ment of prophecies, Jud. xiii. 12, 17 
 (" come to pass," E. V.) ; \ Sam. ix. 
 6 ; Jer. xvii. 15. 
 
 The saying (utterance, promise) 
 OF Jehovah, different from the word 
 in the previous verse. This seems 
 most naturally to be understood, not 
 of God's interpretation of the dreams, 
 but of God's promise of future exalta- 
 tion conveyed to him in his dreams. 
 The Divine utterance has ascribed to 
 it a living effectual power, as in cxix. 
 50. It proved him by testing his 
 faith during the years of suffering 
 and imprisonment which intervened 
 between the promise and its fulfil- 
 ment. 
 
 20. With what follows, comp. 
 Gen. xli. 14, 39, 40, 44. 
 
 22. To BIND. The earliest in- 
 stance of the use of the word in a 
 sense approaching to that which it 
 had later, in the phrase "binding and 
 loosing." It denotes here generally 
 the exercise of control. " The capa- 
 bility of binding is to be regarded as 
 an evidence of authority ; a power of 
 compelling obedience, or, in default 
 thereof, of inflicting punishment." — 
 Phillips. 
 
 To TEACH . . . WISDOM ; not to 
 be pressed of literal instruction in the 
 art of politics, but merely expressing 
 in poetical form what is said in Gen. 
 xli. 38, 39. 
 
512 
 
 PSALM CV. 
 
 And Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham. 
 
 24 And He caused His people to be fruitful exceedingly, 
 
 And He made them stronger than their adversaries. 
 
 25 He turned their heart to hate His people, 
 
 To deal subtilly with His servants. 
 
 26 He sent Moses His servant, 
 
 Aaron whom He had chosen. 
 
 27 They did among them His signs 
 
 And tokens in the land of Ham. 
 
 28 He sent darkness and made it dark, — 
 
 And they rebelled not against His words. 
 
 23. Land OF Ham, asinlxxviii.51. 
 
 24. Comp. Exod. i. 7 ; Deut. 
 xxvi. 5. What follows to ver. 38 is 
 a risumi of the history as given in 
 the first twelve chapters of Exodus, 
 and especially of the plagues. The 
 fifth and sixth plagues, however, are 
 omitted altogether, and the plague 
 of darkness is placed first : in other 
 respects the order of Exodus is ob- 
 served. That in Ixxviii. 44, &c. is 
 different. 
 
 25. He turned. This direct as- 
 cription of the hostility on the part 
 of the Egyptians to God as its author 
 gave early offence. Hence the Chald. 
 and Arab, render, "their heart was 
 turned." Grotius and others would 
 soften the expression as meaning only 
 that God suffered this hostility, aris- 
 ing from the increase of the people. 
 But the difficulty is exactly of the 
 same kind as when it is said that God 
 hardened Pharaoh's heart, or as we 
 find in Is. vi. 9, 10 ; Mark iv. 12 ; 
 John xii. 39, 40 ; Rom. xi. 8. See 
 notes on li. 4, Ix. 3. 
 
 To DEAL SUBTILLY ; the same 
 word as in Gen. xxxvii. 18 (where 
 E. V. "they conspired against"). 
 Compare Exod. i. 10, "Come and 
 let us deal wisely with them : " the 
 reference is to the putting to death 
 the male children. 
 
 26. Whom He had chosen, viz. 
 as His priest. 
 
 27. Among them, the Egyptians. 
 Comp. Ixxviii. 43 ; Exod. x. 2, " My 
 signs which I have done (lit. set, 
 placed) among them. '' 
 
 28. The ninth plague (Exod. x. 
 21 — 29) mentioned first, — why, it is 
 difficult to see. Hengstenberg thinks 
 because ' ' darkness is an image of the 
 Divine wrath," and "the Egyptians 
 were in this sense covered with dark- 
 ness from the first to the last plague." 
 But this is far-fetched. The variation 
 in the order of the plagues from the 
 narrative in Exodus may be paralleled 
 by the variation in the order of the 
 commandments as quoted by our 
 Lord in Matt. xix. 18, 19 ; Mark x. 
 19 ; Luke xviii. 20, — passages in 
 which the order and enumeration 
 differ from one another as well as 
 from the original in Exod. xx. 
 
 And they rebelled not, i.e. 
 Moses and Aaron, who, and not the 
 Egyptians, must here be the subject. 
 The obedience of Moses and Aaron 
 to the Divine command may here be 
 made prominent, with reference to 
 the unwillingness of Moses in the first 
 instance, and also to the subsequent 
 disobedience of both, Num. xx. 24, 
 xxvii. 14. 
 
PSALM CV. S13 
 
 29 He turned their waters into blood. 
 
 And made their fish to die. 
 
 30 Their land swarmed with frogs 
 
 In the chambers of their kings. 
 
 31 He spake the word, and there came flies. 
 
 Gnats in all their border. 
 
 32 He gave (them) hail as their rain, 
 
 Flaming fire in their land. 
 
 33 He smote also their vines and their fig-trees. 
 
 And brake the trees of their border. 
 
 34 He spake the word, and the locusts came. 
 
 And grasshoppers without number, 
 
 35 And devoured all the green herb in their land. 
 
 And devoured the fruit of their ground. 
 
 36 And He smote all the first-born in their land. 
 
 The firstlings of all their strength. 
 
 37 And He brought them forth with silver and gold, 
 
 And there was none among their tribes that stumbled. 
 
 38 Egypt was glad when they went forth. 
 
 For their terror had fallen upon them. 
 
 39 He spread a cloud for a covering, 
 
 29. The first plague, Exod. vii. 37. With silver and gold : 
 
 14—25 i in the next verse, the second, Exod. xii. 35. 
 Exod. viii. i— 14. That stumbled. See the same 
 
 31. The fourth plague, that of flies, phrase, as descriptive of vigour. Is. 
 Exod. viii. 20 — 24, and the third, that v. 27, "none shall be weary or 
 of gnats, or mosquitoes (E.V. "lice"), stumble among them ;" and for the 
 Exod. viii. i6 — 19. general sense comp. Exod. xiii. 18. 
 
 32, 33. From the third plague he 38. Was glad : Exod. xii. 31 — 
 passes to the seventh, Exod. ix. 13 — 33. Their terror: xv. 14 — 16; 
 35' Deut. xi. 25. 
 
 34) 35- The eighth plague, Exod. 39 — 41 . Three of the principal 
 
 t- 'I — 20, where only one kind of miracles in the wilderness, which 
 
 ocust is mentioned. Here we have sum up the period between the de- 
 
 ilso, "grasshopper" (a species of parture from Egypt and the entrance 
 
 (Bust winged, Nah. iii. 17, and hairy, into the Promised Land. But it is 
 
 er. li. 27), as in Ixxviii. 46, "cater- remarkable that the great miracle of 
 
 liller " in the parallelism. the passage of the Red Sea, a favou- 
 
 36. The fifth and sixth plagues are rite theme with poets and prophets, 
 
 mitted, and the series closed with is not even alluded to. 
 
 be las^ in language borrowed from 39. Spread a cloud : not, as in 
 
 otviii. 51. Ex. xiv. 19, as a protection against 
 
 ILL ' 
 
SI4 
 
 PSALM CV. 
 
 And fire to lighten the night. 
 
 40 They asked and He brought quails, 
 
 And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 
 
 41 He opened the rock and the waters flowed, 
 
 They went along the deserts (as) a river. 
 
 42 For He remembered His holy word, 
 
 (He remembered) Abraham His servant, 
 
 43 And He brought forth His people with gladness, 
 
 His chosen with a song of joy, 
 
 44 And He gave them the lands of the nations. 
 
 And they took possession of the labour of the peoples ; 
 
 45 That they might keep His statutes. 
 
 And observe His laws. 
 
 Hallelujah. 
 
 their enemies, but rather over their 
 heads, as a protection against the 
 burning sun. 
 
 40. See on Ixxviii. 24, 27. 
 
 They asked. The verb is in the 
 sing. , referring to the people. 
 
 41. Rock. The word is ^j«r, and 
 therefore the miracle at Horeb is in- 
 tended ; see on Ixxviii. 15. 
 
 42 — 45. Conclusion, giving, first 
 the reasons why God had thus dealt 
 with Israel, viz. His own promise, 
 and the faith of His servant Abraham, 
 as in ver. 8, 9 ; next, the result in 
 their history, that by virtue of this 
 covenant they had taken possession 
 of the land of Canaan ; lastly, the 
 great purpose designed by all that 
 marvellous guidance, "That they 
 
 might keep His statutes, and observe 
 His laws." 
 
 43. With gladness, alluding, 
 probably, to the song of triumph 
 after the overthrow of Pharaoh and 
 his captains in the Red Sea. Comp. 
 Is. XXXV, 10: *'And the redeemed 
 of Jehovah shall return and come 
 to Zion with a song of joy, and ever- 
 lasting gladness shall be on their 
 head," &c. 
 
 44. Labours ; not only cultivated 
 lands, but cities, treasures, &c. 
 
 45. That they might keep. 
 This was God's purpose, that Israel 
 should be a holy nation in the midst 
 of other nations, a priesthood repre- 
 senting the world, and claiming it for 
 God as His world. 
 
PSALM CVI. 515 
 
 PSALM CVI. 
 
 This is the first of a series of Hallelujali Psalms : Psalms of which 
 the word Hallelujah is, as it were, the Inscription (cvi., cxi. — cxiii., 
 cxvii., cxxxv., cxlvi. — cl.). As in the last Psalm, so here, the history 
 of Israel is recapitulated. In that it was turned into a thanksgiving ; 
 in this it forms the burden of a confession. There, God's mighty acts 
 for His people were celebrated with joy ; here. His people's sin is 
 humbly and sorrowfully acknowledged. Nothing is more remarkable 
 in these great historical Psalms than the utter absence of any word or 
 sentiment tending to feed the national vanity. All the glory of Israel's 
 history is confessed to be due, not to her heroes, her priests, her 
 prophets, but to God ; all the failures which are written upon that 
 history, all discomfitures, losses, reverses, the sword, famine, exile, are 
 recognized as the righteous chastisement which the sin of the nation 
 has provoked. This is the strain of such Psalms as the 781.1, the 
 105th, the io6th. This is invariably the tone assumed by all the 
 divinely-instructed teachers of the people, by the prophets in their 
 great sermons, by the poets in their contributions to the national 
 liturgy. There is no other poetry in the world of a popular and 
 national kind so full of patriotic sentiment, and yet at the same time 
 marked by so complete an abstinence from all those themes which 
 are commonly found in poetry written for the people. There is not a 
 single ode in honour of Moses or Aaron, or Joshua or David ; there 
 is not one which sings the glory of the nation, except as that glory is 
 given it of God. The history of the nation, whenever referred to, is 
 referred to almost invariably for the purpose of rebuke and upbraiding, 
 certainly not for the purpose of commendation or self-applause. 
 
 From ver. 47 it may be fairly inferred that the Psalm is of the date 
 of the exile, or was written shortly after the return of the first com- 
 pany of exiles. It is, however, remarkable that both that verse and 
 the closing doxology, together perhaps with the first verse of this 
 
 L L 2 
 
5i6 PSALM CVI. 
 
 Psalm, fonii the concluding portion of the Psalm which, according to 
 the author of the Book of Chronicles, was sung by David when he 
 removed the Ark to Mount Zion, i Chron. xvi. 34—36. On this point, 
 see more in the Introduction to Ps. cv., and the note on ver. 48. 
 
 The Psalm has no strophical division. It consists of an Intro- 
 duction, ver. I — 6. It then follows the history of Israel as a history 
 of perpetual transgressions, first, from Egypt through the wilderness, 
 ver. 7 — 33, and then in the Holy Land, 34 — 46, and concludes 
 with a prayer for deliverance from the present calamity, viz. the 
 captivity in Babylon, ver. 47. 
 
 1 Hallelujah ! 
 
 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah, 
 
 (Who) can tell forth all His praise .'' 
 
 3 Blessed are they that keep judgement, 
 
 He that doeth righteousness at all times. 
 
 4 Remember me, O Jehovah, with the favour thou bearest 
 
 unto Thy people, 
 O visit me with Thy salvation ; 
 
 5 That I may see the prosperity of Thy chosen. 
 
 I — 5. The first five verses seem the blessedness of those who, instead 
 
 to stand alone, and to have little or of despising thf'' goodness, as Israel 
 
 no direct connection with the rest had done, walked in the ways of the 
 
 of the Psalm. Hupfeld regards the Lord, keeping judgement and doing 
 
 first three verses, in particular, as righteousness (ver. 3) ? Or again, 
 
 nothing but a general introduction, what more natural than that the sense 
 
 and one quite at variance with the of the national privilege, the claim of 
 
 strain of the Psalm as a confession of a personal share in that privilege, 
 
 sin. But this is a hasty and super- should spring in the heart and rise to 
 
 ficial view. The first verse, no dOubt, the lips of one who felt most deeply 
 
 is of the nature of a doxological for- the national sin and ingratitude? 
 mula, such as we find in some other Good, i.e. not so much in reference 
 
 of these later Psalms. But the second to His own nature as in His gracious 
 
 and third verses have an immediate dealing with men. 
 bearing on what follows. What so 2. The mighty acts are all that 
 
 fitting to introduce the confession of a He has done for His people, as His 
 
 nation's sin and ingratitude as the re- praise is .^11 the glory which He has 
 
 hearsal of God's goodness manifested thus manifested, and which calls for 
 
 to it, and the acknowledgement of praise flrom them. 
 
PSALM CVI. 517 
 
 That I may be glad with the gladness of Thy nation, 
 That I may make my boast with thine inheritance. 
 
 6 We have sinned with our fathers, 
 
 We have done iniquity, we have dealt wickedly. 
 
 7 Our fathers in Egypt considered not Thy wonders, 
 
 They remembered not the multitude of Thy loving- 
 kindnesses, 
 But rebelled at the sea, at the Red Sea ; 
 
 8 And (yet) He saved them for His Name's sake, 
 
 To make His might to be known. 
 
 9 And He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up, 
 
 And He made them go through the depths as (through) 
 the wilderness. 
 
 10 And He saved them from the hand of the hater, 
 
 And ransomed them from the hand of the enemy. 
 
 11 And the waters covered their adversaries, 
 
 Not one of them was left. 
 
 12 And they believed His words. 
 
 6. The language is borrowed evi- faded, that they were forgotten even 
 dently from that of Solomon's prayer, when the people stood on the shore 
 1 Kings viii. 47. Comp. Dan. ix. 5 ; of the Red Sea. Again, in ver. 13, 
 Bar. ii. 12, where in the same way zi, this forgetfulness is censured, 
 several words are used in confession, Comp. Ixxviii. 11 ; Deut. xxxii. 18 ; 
 as if to express both the earnestness and see note on Ps. ciii. 2. 
 
 of deep conviction, and also the sense Rebelled ; with reference to the 
 
 of mawyfcA/ transgressions. occurrence in Ex. xiv. 10 — 13. 
 
 With our fathers. The nation This is the first act of transgression 
 
 is thus regarded as a whole, one in of which confession is made, 
 
 guilt and one in punishment. See 8. His MIGHT to be known, as 
 
 note on Ixxix. 8. Not only the in Ixxvii. 14. 
 
 "fathers in Egypt" (ver. 7) are 9. Compare, for the form of ex- 
 meant, because the generation in pression, Nah. i. 4 ; Is. 1. 2, li. 10, 
 Canaan are also mentioned (ver. 34 Ixiii. 13. 
 —36). II. Not one of them was left. 
 
 7. Our fathers in Egypt. Comp. Ex. xiv. 28. 
 
 These words are connected together 12. They believed . . . they 
 
 by the accents, but the words "in sang, with evident reference to Ex. 
 
 Egypt" belong to the whole sentence. xiv. 31, xv. i : " And Israel saw the 
 
 The "wonders "are wonders wrought great act (lit. hand) which Jehovah 
 
 in Egypt, the impression of which, had done against Egypt, and the 
 
 great as they were, had so quickly people feared Jehovah, and they 
 
S'8 
 
 PSALM CVl. 
 
 They sang His praise. 
 
 13 Very soon they forgat His doings, 
 
 They waited not for His counsel ; 
 
 14 And lusted for themselves a lust in the wilderness, 
 
 And tempted God in the waste. 
 
 15 And He gave them their request, 
 
 And sent leanness (withal) into their soul. 
 
 16 And they were jealous against Moses in the camp, 
 
 Against Aaron, the holy one of Jehovah. 
 
 17 (Then) the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, 
 
 And covered the congregation of Abiram ; 
 
 believed on Jehovah and His servant 
 Moses. Then sang Moses and the 
 children of Israel this song." Both 
 the faith and the song are mentioned, 
 not in praise of their conduct, but 
 only as still further proof that, what- 
 ever impressions were produced, 
 whether by God's judgements or His 
 mercies, were but temporary and on 
 the surface. The goodness of Israel 
 was like the dew, early gone. 
 
 13 — 33. The confession of Israel's 
 sins m the wilderness. On the first 
 of these, the lusting for food, comp. 
 Ixxviii. 18, 29, and Ex. xv. 22—24, 
 xvii. 2. See also Ex. xvi. and Num. 
 xi. 
 
 13. Waited not ; were not con- 
 tent to exercise a patient dependence 
 upon God, leaving to Him to fulfil 
 His own purposes in His own way, 
 But would rather rule Him than sub- 
 mit themselves to His rule. 
 
 14. Lusted for themselves a 
 LUST ; the expression is taken from 
 Num. xi. 4. 
 
 15. He gave them their re- 
 quest. See on Ixxviii. 21, 29. 
 
 Leanness. Comp. Is. x. 16, xvii. 
 4. This LEANNESS and sickness may 
 refer to the loathing of the food, fol- 
 Itiwed by great mortality (the " blow 
 of God "), Num. xi. 20, 33, the soUL 
 being here used only in a physical 
 
 sense of the life. But the figurative 
 sense is equally true and equally per- 
 tinent. 'The very heart and spirit of 
 a man, when bent only or supremely 
 on the satisfaction of its earthly de- 
 sires and appetites, is always dried 
 up and withered. It becomes a lean, 
 shrunk, miserable thing, always crav- 
 ing more food, yet drawing thence 
 no nourishment, "magnas inter opes 
 inops." 
 
 16 — 18. The second great sin in 
 the wilderness was the insurrection 
 against their divinely-appointed lead- 
 ers. The reference is to Num. xvi., 
 xvii. 
 
 16. The HOLY ONE. Aaron is 
 so called on account of his priestly 
 office. It was this, as an exclusive 
 privilege, which was assailed by 
 Korah and his company, on the 
 ground that all the congregation were 
 " holy," i.e. set apart and consecrated 
 to God as His priests. 
 
 17. Opened. In Num. xvi. 30, 
 32, xxvi. 10, the fuller expression 
 occurs, "opened her mouth." Co- 
 vered, as in Num. xvi. 33. 
 
 Dathan and Abiram only are men- 
 tioned, and this is in strict agreement 
 with Num. xxvi. 11, where it is 
 said, " Notwithstanding M^ children 
 of Korah died not." And the same 
 thing is at least implied in Num. xvi. 
 
PSALM CVI. 519 
 
 18 And a fire was kindled in their congregation, 
 
 A flame burned up the wicked. 
 
 19 They made a calf in Horeb, 
 
 And bowed themselves before the molten image, 
 
 20 And they bartered their glory, 
 
 For the likeness of an ox that eateth grass. 
 
 21 They forgat God their Saviour, 
 
 Who had done great things in Egypt ; 
 
 22 Wondrous things in the land of Ham, 
 
 Fearful things by the Red Sea. 
 
 23 Then He said He would destroy them, 
 
 Had not Moses His chosen stood in the breach 
 before Him, 
 
 27, where it is said tliat, just before 
 the catastrophe took place, "Dathan 
 and Abiram " (there is no mention of 
 Korah) "came out and stood in the 
 door of their tents." See this noticed 
 and accounted for in Blunt's Veracity 
 of the Books of Moses, Part I. § 20, 
 p. 86. 
 
 18. The other punishment, the de- 
 struction by fire, befell the 250 princes 
 of the congregation who offered in- 
 cense before the Lord, Num. xvi. 
 2.35- 
 
 The wicked, as in Num. xvi. 26, 
 "Get ye up from the tents of these 
 wicked men." 
 
 19. The third instance of trans- 
 gression, the worship of the calf: see 
 Ex. xxxii. There is probably also a 
 reference to Deut. ix. 8 — 12, where 
 Moses reminds the people of their 
 sin, especially as Boreb (which is the 
 common name in Deuteronomy), and 
 not Sinai, is here the name of the 
 mountain. 
 
 20. Their glory, i.e. their God, 
 who had manifested Himself to them 
 in His glory ; glory, like light, being 
 used in Scripture to denote the Di- 
 vine perfections. Others understand 
 
 by the expression the God who was 
 the source and fountain of their glory, 
 or that revelation of God to them 
 which distinguished them from all 
 other nations. Comp. Deut. iv. 7. 
 '* For M'hat nation is there so great, 
 who hath God so nigh unto them, as 
 the Lord our God is in all things that 
 we call upon Him for ? " But the 
 closest parallel is Jer. ii. ri, "Hath 
 a nation bartered their gods, which are 
 yet no gods? But My people have 
 bartered their glory iox that which doth 
 not profit." 
 
 Likeness, properly "Hiodel" or 
 "figure." See the same word in 
 Deut. V. 6 — 8. 
 
 21. Forgat God ; with reference, 
 perhaps, to the warning, Deut. vi. 12, 
 "Beware least thou forget Jehovah." 
 
 22. Land of Ham, as in cv. 23, 
 27. Comp. Ixxviii. S'j "tents of 
 Ham," peculiar to these historical 
 Psalms. 
 
 23. Then he said, lit. "And He 
 said (resolved, uttered His word), to 
 destroy them," Deut. ix. 13. Comp. 
 Ex. xxxii. 10. 
 
 In the breach. The intercession 
 of Moses is compared to the act of a 
 
S20 
 
 PSALM CVI. 
 To turn away His fury from destroying (them). 
 
 24 And they rejected the desirable land. 
 
 They believed not His word ; 
 
 25 And they murmured in their tents, 
 
 They hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah. 
 
 26 Then He lifted up His hand against them. 
 
 To make them fall in the wilderness, 
 
 27 And to make their seed fall among the nations, 
 
 And to scatter them in the lands. 
 
 28 They were yoked also unto Baal-peor, 
 
 And ate the sacrifices of the dead. 
 
 brave leader, covering with his bodj 
 the breach made in the walls of his 
 fortress. Comp. Ezek.xxii. 30, "And 
 I sought for a man among them, that 
 should make up the hedge, and stand 
 in the gap {breach, as here) before Me 
 for the land, that I should not destroy 
 it." 
 
 24—27. A fourth act of sin, — the 
 rebellion which followed on the report 
 of the spies, Num. xiii. xiv. 
 
 24. The desirable land, so 
 called also in Jer. iii. 19 ; Zech. vii. 
 14 (inE. V. "pleasant land "). The 
 other expressions in this and the next 
 verse are from the Pentateuch: "they 
 rejected " (E. V. "despised"). Num., 
 xiv. 31 ; " murmured in their tents," 
 Deut, 1. 27 ; "lifted up His hands," 
 as in Ex. vi. 6, Deut. xxxii. 40 : "to 
 make them fall," as in Num. xiv. 29, 
 32. The phrase, " to lift up the 
 hand," refers to the custom in the 
 taking of an oath. Comp. Gen. xiv. 
 22. The threat of exile (ver. 27. ), of 
 which nothing is said in Num. xiv., 
 is taken, doubtless, from Lev. xxvi. ; 
 Deut. xxviii. Compare the same ex- 
 pression Ezek. XX. 23, "I lifted up 
 Mine hand unto them also in the 
 wilderness, that I would scatter them 
 
 among the heathen, and disperse them 
 through the countries. " 
 
 28. They were yoked : a fifth 
 transgression in the wilderness, re- 
 corded in Num. xxv. The same verb 
 is used there, ver. 3, with reference 
 to the prostitution which accompanied 
 the worship of Baal-peor, "the Moa- 
 bite Priapus." Comp. i Cor. vi. 16, 
 17, and with the next clause, ate 
 THE SACRIFICES, I Cor. X. 18 — 21, 
 with Num. xxv. 2. 
 
 The dead. Two interpretations 
 have been given : (l) that idols are 
 meant, as opposed to " the living 
 God." Comp. Jer. x. 10, 11, and 
 the contemptuous expression, " car- 
 cases of their kings " (probably said 
 of idols, as rivals of the One true 
 King of Israel), in Ezek. xliii. 7> 9- 
 Comp. Lev. xxvi. 30 ; Jer. xvi. 18. 
 (2) tJsage, however, is rather in fa- 
 vour of some allusion to necromantic 
 rites, as in Deut. xviii. 11, "onewlio 
 seeketh to the dead ; " js. viii. 19, 
 " should a people seek to the dead 
 (by the aid' of necromancers, consult- 
 ing them as Saul consulted the Witch 
 of Endor), on behalf of the living ? " 
 
 This 28th verse, as Delitzsch re- 
 marks, is of historical importance, as 
 
PSALM CVI. 
 
 521 
 
 29 And gave provocation with their doings, 
 
 And a plague brake in upon them. 
 
 30 Then Phinehas stood (up) and did judgement, 
 
 And (so) the plague was stayed ; 
 
 31 And it was counted unto him for righteousness, ' 
 
 Unto all generations for evermore. 
 
 32 They angered (God) also at the waters of Meribah, 
 
 And it went ill with Moses for their sakes. 
 
 having given rise to the prohibition of 
 flesh offered in sacrifice to idols. St. 
 Paul teaches that the pollution, when 
 it exists, is not in the meat which has 
 been offered in sacrifice, but in the 
 Conscience of the eater, i Cor. x. 28, 
 29. 
 
 29. A PLAGUE. The word is used 
 of a Divine judgement, more com- 
 monly of sickness, but here, as in 
 Numb. XXV. 8, 9, 18, of the slaughter 
 accomplished by human instruments. 
 Comp. Ex. xxxii. 35. 
 
 30. Stood. See the similar ex- 
 pression, Numb. XXV. 7, "And when 
 Phinehas saw it, he rose up ; " and 
 the same verb as here. Num. xvi. 48, 
 of Aaron's intercession. It is a pic- 
 ture of the one zealous man rising up 
 from the midst of the inactive multi- 
 tude, who sit still and make no effort. 
 
 Did JUDGEMENT, not, as in P.B.V. 
 followingtheChald.andSyr., "prayed" 
 {id. interceded). The two figures, 
 Aaron standing virith the incense, and 
 with the true priestly heart, between 
 the dead and the living, and making 
 atonement, and Phinehas as the mi- 
 nister of righteous vengeance turning 
 away wrath, form a striking and in- 
 structive contrast. The one makes 
 atonement in saving life, the other in 
 destroying it. 
 
 31. It was counted unto him 
 FOR righteousness ; it was looked 
 
 upon as a righteous act, and rewarded 
 accordingly. The same thing is said 
 of the JaitA of Abraham, Gen. xv. 6 : 
 a striking instance of the fearlessness 
 of expression which is to be found in 
 the Scriptures, as compared with the 
 dogmatic forms of modern contro- 
 versial theology. This verse has given 
 occasion to whole disquisitions on the 
 subject of justification, with which 
 it really has nothing to do, though at 
 least the language is in perfect ac- 
 cordance with that of St. James (ii. 
 20 — 26). 
 
 The reward of this righteousness 
 was the perpetual continuance of the 
 priesthood in his family (Num. xxv. 
 
 12, 13)- 
 
 Unto all generations, &c., lit. 
 "for generation and generation, to 
 (all) eternity," a remarkable instance 
 of the hyperbolic way in which this 
 and similar phrases are employed, 
 and one which is a warning against 
 hastily building doctrines upon mere 
 words. 
 
 32. The sixth instance of trans- 
 gression — the rebellion against Moses 
 and Aaron at Meribah, in the fortieth 
 year of the wandering. Num. xx. 
 
 2—13- 
 
 It went ill with. This must 
 be the meaning here (though else- 
 where, the same phrase means "it 
 grieveij, or displeased," as in Neh. ii. 
 
522 
 
 PSALM CVI. 
 
 33 For they rebelled against His Spirit, 
 
 And he spake unadvisedly with his hps. 
 
 34 They did not destroy the peoples, 
 
 As Jehovah had commanded them ; 
 
 35 But they mixed themselves with the nations, 
 
 And learnt their works ; 
 
 36 And served their idols. 
 
 And they became to them a snare ; 
 
 37 And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to 
 
 false gods ; 
 
 38 And shed innocent blood. 
 
 The blood of their sons and their daughters^ 
 Which they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, 
 And the land was polluted with bloodshed. 
 
 10, xiii. 8 ; Jon. iv. l). Comp. Deut. 
 i. 37, iii. z6, " also Jehovah was 
 angry with ti\& for your sakes.^^ The 
 reason why Moses was forbidden to 
 enter the Promised Land is here stated 
 more distinctly than in the narrative. 
 It was the exasperation into which 
 he suffered himself to be betrayed in 
 uttering the words in Numb. xx. 10 ; 
 though the impatient spirit was shown 
 also in striking the rock twice. 
 
 33. They rebelled against His 
 Spirit. Three explanations of this 
 line have been given, (i) By "his 
 spirit " has been understood the spirit 
 of Moses, and accordingly the line 
 has been rendered in the E. V. " they 
 provoked his spirit." This, however 
 is to give a meaning to the verb 
 which it never has. (2) The words 
 have been understood of disobedience 
 against God ; "they rebelled against 
 His (God's) Spirit." Comp. Is. Ixiii. 
 10, " But they rebelled and vexed 
 His Holy Spirit," with Ps. Ixxviii. 
 40. But (3), retaining this last ex- 
 planation. It is still a question what is 
 
 the subject of the verb. It may be 
 said of Moses and Aaron, that they 
 rebelled (see Num. xx. 24, xxvii. 14), 
 but it is better to assume that the 
 people are the subject, the two clauses 
 of ver. 33 thus answering to the two 
 of ver. 32. 
 
 34. Disobedience in the land of 
 Canaan itself, especially in not rooting 
 out the nations (as enjoined Ex. xxiii. 
 32, 33, and often repeated, Josh, 
 xxiii. 12, 13), and the adoption of 
 their idolatrous worship. 
 
 36. A SNARE, as the warning ran, 
 Ex. xxiii. 33, xxxiv. 12 ; Deut vh. 
 16. Of the abominations of the 
 heathen, that of human sacrifices, as 
 in the worship of Moloch, is especially 
 dwelt upon. This was an offering to 
 FALSE GODS, X\\. " lords, " like jSaff/iW 
 ^Adonim, and then applied to gods, 
 
 38. Polluted. The strongest 
 word taken from Num. xxxv. 33 ; 
 comp. Is. xxiv. 5. The land, the 
 very soil itself, was polluted and 
 accursed, as well as the inhabitants 
 (ver. 39). 
 
PSALM CVL 523 
 
 39 And they were defiled with their works, 
 
 And went a-whoring with their doings. 
 
 40 Then the anger of Jehovah was kindled against His 
 
 people, 
 And He abhorred His own inheritance. 
 
 41 And He gave them into the hand of the nations, 
 
 And their haters ruled over them. 
 
 42 And their enemies oppressed them, 
 
 And they were bowed down under their hand. 
 
 43 Many a time did He deliver them. 
 
 But they rebelled (against Him) in their counsel, 
 And were brought low through their iniquity. 
 
 44 But He looked upon their distress, 
 
 When He heard their cry. 
 
 45 And He remembered for them His covenant, 
 
 And pitied them according to the greatness of His 
 loving-kindness. 
 
 46 And He made them to find compassion 
 
 In the presence of all who carried them captive. 
 
 47 Save us, O Jehovah our God, 
 
 And gather us from the nations, 
 
 40 — 43. The terrible and repeated as in I Kings viii. 28, of the cry of 
 
 judgements of God. distress. 
 
 42. They were bowed down, 45. Pitied them, or "repented," 
 elsewhere said of the enemies of Is- as in xc. 13. 
 
 rael, Jud. iii. 30, iv. 23, viii. 28, 46. There is a reference to Solo- 
 
 ». 33. mon's prayer, i Kings viii. 50. Comp. 
 
 43. In their counsel, as in Neh i. 11 ; Dan. i. 9. 
 
 Ixxxi. 12; Jer. vii. 24, emphatically 47. The grace of God, already 
 
 opposed to the counsel and purpose shown to His people, leads to the 
 
 of God. prayer of this verse — a supplication 
 
 44. The Psalmist turns no'vr to the for w^hich the whole Psalm has pre- 
 other side of God's dealings with His pared the way. The language would 
 people. It was not all anger. If seem to indicate that the Psalm was 
 they forgot His covenant. He remem- written in exile, though the same 
 bered it. Even in the land of their prayer might also have been uttered 
 captivity, He softened the hearts of by one of those who returned in the 
 their captors. first caravan, on behalf of his brethren 
 
 Their cry. The word which is who were still dispersed, 
 often used of the song of joy, here, 
 
524 
 
 PSALM CVI. 
 
 That we may give thanks unto Thy holy Name, 
 That we may glory in Thy praise. 
 
 48 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, 
 From everlasting to everlasting. 
 And let all the people say. Amen ! 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 Glory in Thy praise, or " deem 
 ourselves happy in that we can praise 
 Thee." 
 
 48. The last verse is merely a 
 Doxology added at a time subsequent 
 to the composition of the Psalm, to 
 mark the close of the Book. The 
 first line varies but slightly from that 
 at the end of Ixxii., "Blessed be 
 Jehovah God, the God of Israel." 
 
 The Chronicler who quotes this 
 verse (see Introduction to this Psalm 
 
 and cv.), changes the wish, " Let all 
 the people say, Aroen,"(into the his- 
 toric sense, "And all the people 
 said. Amen, and praised Jehovah" 
 (I Chron. xvi. 36). The fact that he 
 has incorporated this verse as well 
 as the preceding in his Psalm, is a 
 proof that already in his time the 
 Psalter was divided, as at present, 
 into Books, the Doxology being re- 
 garded as an integral portion of the 
 Psalm. 
 
THE PSALMS. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 PSALMS CVII.-CL. 
 
PSALM evil. 527 
 
 PSALM CVII. 
 
 There is no obvious reason why, in the division of the Psalter into 
 Five Books, the doxology marking the close of the Fourth Book should 
 have been placed at the end of the io6th Psalm. On the contrary, 
 the io6th and 107th Psalms seem to have certain links of connexion, 
 and many critics have supposed that they are the work of the same 
 author. 
 
 Not only are the opening words of the two Psalms identical, but 
 what is the subject of prayer in the one is the subject of thanksgiving 
 in the other. In cvi. 47 the Psalmist prays that God would gather 
 Israel from the heathen : in cvii. 3 he exhorts Israel to give thanks to 
 Him who has brought them back from their captivity. 
 
 It has been asserted by some expositors that there is an historical 
 connexion between Psalms civ. — cvii., and it is assumed that the 
 107th Psahn is designed chiefly to celebrate the return from the 
 Babylonish Captivity. But such an interpretation, however, can 
 scarcely be maintained. 
 
 It is evident that the Psalm is not historical. It describes various 
 incidents of human life, it tells of the perils which befall men, and 
 the goodness of God in delivering them, and calls upon all who have 
 experienced His care and protection gratefully to acknowledge them ; 
 and it is perfectly general in its character. The four or five groups, 
 or pictures, are so many samples taken from the broad and varied 
 record of human experience. 
 
 Such a Psalm would have been admirably adapted to be sung in 
 the Temple-worship, at the offering of the thank-offerings. 
 
 But, whatever may have been the circumstances under which the 
 Psalm was written, or the particular occasion for which it was intended, 
 there can be no doubt as to the great lesson which it inculcates. It 
 teaches us not only that God's Providence watches over men, but 
 that His ear is open to their prayers. It teaches us that prayer may 
 be put up for temporal deliverance, and that such prayer is answered. 
 
528 PSALM CVII. 
 
 It teaches us that it is right to acknowledge with thanksgiving 
 such answers to our petitions. This was the simple faith of the 
 Hebrew Poet. 
 
 It is needless to say how readily such a faith is shaken now. First, 
 there is the old and obvious objection that all such prayers, even 
 when offered by men of devout mind, are not answered. Calvin 
 notices the difficulty, quoting the story of the wit, who, when he 
 entered the temple, and observed the votive tablets suspended there 
 by merchants, recording their escape from shipwreck by the favour of 
 the gods, sarcastically remarked, " I see no record of those who 
 perish in the sea, and yet the number of them must be immense." 
 Calvin replies, as might be expected, that though a hundredfold more 
 are lost than escape, still God's goodness is not obscured; that He 
 exercises judgement as well as mercy ; that all deserve destruction, 
 and that therefore His sovereign mercy ought to be acknowledged in 
 every instance where it is displayed. It would have been better, 
 surely, to have replied, that answers to prayer are not all of one kind ; 
 and that God as really answers His children's supplication when He 
 gives them strength and resignation in prison or in sickness, as when 
 He " breaks in pieces the bars of iron," or " sends His word and 
 heals them ; " when He suffers them to sink beneath the raging waters, 
 with heaven open to their eyes, as when He "brings them to their 
 desired haven." Closely akin to this there arises another question. 
 Does God ever answer prayer by direct action upon the material 
 world ? Are not the laws of the universe the expression of His will } 
 Are they not, therefore, unchangeable ? And is it not both presump- 
 tuous and selfish to ask Him to change the phenomena, which are the 
 result of those laws : presumptuous, because we thus dictate to Him 
 what is best for us ; selfish, because the blessing we crave nlay be 
 at the expense of injury and loss to others ? I conceive it may 
 be replied, that it is not for the most part by immediate action in the 
 material world that God grants our petitions. Even if we were 
 forced to concede that now, since the age of miracles is past, God 
 never so acts, still this should not trouble us, seeing how wide the 
 region is in which indirectly our prayers even for temporal blessings 
 may be answered. " Thus, for instance " (I venture to repeat what 1 
 have said elsewhere*), " we pray that the cholera or the murrain may 
 be stayed. God does not with His own hand take away the plagae; 
 
 * 7'A<? Feast t>/ Harvest. A Sermon preached in St. Peter's Church, Carmarthen, p, 19. 
 
PSALM CVII. 529 
 
 but He puts it into the heart of some physician to find the remedy 
 which will remove it. He does not hush the storm in a moment ; but 
 He gives the mariner courage and skill to steer before it till he reach 
 the haven. He does not shower bread from heaven in a famine ; but 
 He teaches the statesman how, with wise forethought and patient 
 endeavours, at least to mitigate the calamity. How often we speak of 
 happy inspirations, little knowing what we mean when we speak thus ! 
 And how unable we are to trace the chain ! We cannot see God's 
 Spirit prompting the prayer, or suggesting the remedy which shall be 
 the answer to the prayer. But the antecedent and the consequent are 
 as really there, the links of the chain are as essential as they are in 
 any of the phenomena of the material world, which present them- 
 selves to our bodily senses. And thus the answer comes not by direct 
 interference with the laws of nature, but in accordance with the laws 
 of the spiritual world, by the Divine action on the heart of man." If 
 so, then the answer may be acknowledged with devout thanksgiving, 
 and men may praise the Lord for His goodness. 
 
 1 " O GIVE thanks unto Jehovah, for He is good, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever," 
 
 2 Let the ransomed of Jehovah say (so). 
 
 Whom He hath ransomed from the hand of the adver- 
 sary, 
 
 3 And gathered them out of the lands. 
 
 1. The Psalm opens with the same in Is. Ixii. 12 (whence it may be 
 doxological formula as cvL, only borrowed), Ixiii. 4 ; comp. xxxv. 9, 
 here it is put into the mouth of the 10. 
 
 exiles returned from Babylon. For The adversary, the oppressor in 
 
 a similar opening see cxviii. I — 4. Babylon ; or the word may mean, as 
 
 In earlier Psalms where phrases of inver. 6, "distress." "From the hand 
 
 the kind occur, they do not stand at of distress " might be said in Hebrew, 
 
 the beginning of the Psalm, and the in the same way as "from the hand 
 
 verb "say" precedes the doxology, of the dog " (xxii. 20). 
 instead of following it ; see xxxv. 27, 3. Gathered them, as in cvi. 47, 
 
 xl. l6. and generally in the Prophets (comp. 
 
 It is the old liturgical doxology Is. xi. 12, Ivi. 8, and often) of the 
 
 which, as in Jer. xxxiii. II, is to be return from the Captivity. For the 
 
 heard in the mouth of the captives samepictureseels. xliii. 5, 6, xlix. 12. 
 
 restored to their own land. The exiles, free to return, are seen 
 
 2. Ransomed of Jehovah ; as flocking, not from Babylon only, but 
 
 M M 
 
53° 
 
 PSALM evil. 
 
 From the East and from the West, 
 From the North and from the South. 
 
 4 They wandered in the wilderness, in a pathless waste, 
 
 A city where men dwell they found not ; 
 
 5 Hungry and thirsty, 
 
 Their soul fainted in them : 
 
 6 Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, 
 
 And He delivered them out of their distresses ; 
 
 7 And He led them by a straight way, 
 
 from all lands, "like doves to their 
 windows." 
 
 3. The South, lit. "the sea" 
 fif the text is correct), which every- 
 where else means the West (the Medi- 
 terranean Sea), but must obviously 
 here denote the South. 
 
 4. The first example : the cara- 
 van which has lost its way in the 
 desert. The interpretation of the 
 verse will vary according to the view 
 we take of its connection with the 
 preceding. 
 
 (i. ) We may take the " ransomed 
 of Jehovah" (ver. 2) as the subject 
 of the verb; and then («), by tho.se 
 who adopt the historical interpreta- 
 tion of the Psalm, the picture which 
 follows has been held to be a descrip- 
 tion either (i) of what befell the Jews 
 who (Jer. xliii. ) fled into the wilder- 
 ness to escape the Chaldeans, after 
 the taking of Jerusalem ; or (2) of 
 the perils encountered by the cara- 
 vans of exiles as they crossed long 
 tracts of sandy desert on their return ; 
 or (3) intended to set forth in a figure 
 the miseries of the Exile itself. Or 
 {!)) "the ransomed of Jehovah" may 
 be taken in a wider sense, as de- 
 noting, not the captives at Babylon, 
 but all Jews exposed to the risks and 
 hardships of foreign travel. 
 
 (ii.) The subject of the verb may 
 be changed, and this, either because 
 (a) the Psalmist having begun to 
 
 speak of God's goodness to the exiles, 
 restored by His hand to the land of 
 their fathers, goes on to speak of 
 other instances in which His good- 
 ness has been manifested. Or ($), 
 because the first three verses were a 
 liturgical addition, framed with par- 
 ticular reference to the return from 
 Babylon, and prefixed to a poem 
 originally designed to have a wider 
 scope. 
 
 They wandered. The subject 
 of the verb (see last note) may be 
 "men" generally. The incident de- 
 scribed was doubtless not uncommon. 
 The usual track of the caravan is 
 lost — obliterated, perhaps, by the 
 sandstorm. 
 
 A CITY WHERE MEN DWELL, lit. 
 "a city of habitation" (as E.V.). 
 No particular city is meant, as P.B. V., 
 " the city where they dwelt," much 
 less is Jerusalem intended, but any 
 inhabited city, as opposed to the 
 uninhabited wilderness. 
 
 5. Fainted, lit. " covered itself," 
 as with darkness, sorrow, and the 
 like, as in Ixxvii. 3, cxlii. 3, cxliii. 4 ; 
 Jon. ii. 7. 
 
 6. Then they cried. So it ever 
 is ; the pressure of a great need only 
 forces men to seek God. Prayer is 
 not only the resource of good men, 
 but of all men in trouble. It is a 
 natural instinct even of wicked men 
 to turn to God at such times. 
 
PSALM evil. S3 1 
 
 That they might go to a city where men dwell ; — 
 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His loving- 
 kindness, 
 
 And for His wonders to the children of men : 
 For He satisfieth the longing soul, 
 
 And filleth the hungry soul with good. 
 
 10 Sueh as sat in darkness and the shadow of death, 
 
 Being bound in affliction and iron, 
 
 1 1 Because they rebelled against the words of God, 
 
 And despised the counsel of the Most High, 
 
 12 And He brought down their heart with labour, 
 
 They stumbled, and there was none to help ; — 
 
 13 Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble. 
 
 He saved them out of their distresses ; 
 
 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of 
 
 death. 
 And brake their bonds asunder : 
 MS Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His loving- 
 I kindness, 
 
 \ And for His wonders to the children of men : 
 
 re^or He brake the doors of brass. 
 
 And cut the bars of iron in sunder. 
 
 17 Foolish men, because of the way of their transgression, 
 
 8. Others render, " Let them praise the fuller phrase Job. xxxvi. 8 "bound 
 His loving-kindness before Jehovah, in fetters, and holden in cords of 
 and His wonders before the children affliction." 
 
 of men," i.e. let them confess His II. Words . . . counsel. The 
 
 goodness before God and man. commandments of God as given in 
 
 9. There is a reference to ver. 5 ; the Law, and His counsel as declared 
 "longing" answers to "thirsty," as by His prophets, are chiefly meant; 
 in Is. xxix. 8. for throughout the passage language 
 
 10 — 16. The second example — that is employed which implies the theo- 
 
 of prisoners. cratic position of Israel. But the 
 
 10. Darkness, &c. The same ex- reference may be wider. The law 
 presiiion occurs Is. xlii. 7, xlix. 9 ; written in the conscience, the instruc- 
 Micah vii. 8, of the gloom of the tion given by inner revelation (comp. 
 prison-house. Comp. Virgil, ^^n. xvi. 7), need not be excluded. 
 
 ^- 734^ " Neque auras Respiciunt, 16. The expressions are apparently 
 
 ciausse tenebris et carcere caeco." taken from Is. xlv. 2. 
 
 Affliction and iron. Comp. 17 — 22. Third example: sick per- 
 
 il M 2 
 
SS'z 
 
 PSALM CVII. 
 
 And because of their 
 upon themselves. 
 
 iniquities, bring affliction 
 
 Their soul abhorreth all manner of food, 
 
 And they draw near to the gates of death. 
 Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, 
 
 He saveth them out of their distresses : 
 He sendeth His word, and healeth them. 
 
 And rescueth them from their graves. 
 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His 
 kindness, 
 
 And for His wonders to the children of men. 
 And let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving. 
 
 loving- 
 
 sons brought by their sickness to the 
 edge of the grave. 
 
 17. Foolish men, so called be- 
 cause of the moral infatuation which 
 marks their conduct, as in xiv. i, 
 where see notes ; men of earthly, sen- 
 sual, selfish minds, who turn a deaf 
 ear to w^arning, and despise counsel 
 {comp. Prov. i. 7, xii. 15, xiv. 3, 9, 
 XV. 5» xxvii. 22), and who can only 
 be brought to reason by chastisement. 
 Tlie expression seems quite to exclude 
 the notion that the allusion is to 
 " a party of sick exiles, enfeebled 
 probably by labours, or by uncon- 
 genial climates, so that their soul 
 abhorred ail manner of meat, and 
 they were hard at death's door." — 
 Liddon. Such persons would not be 
 described as "foolish," but rather as 
 objects of pity. 
 
 The way of their transgres- 
 sion. The expression is used to de- 
 note the course of conduct, the habit 
 of the life, and is not merely pleo- 
 nastic. 
 
 Bring affliction upon them- 
 selves. Tlie proper reflexive signi- 
 fication of the conjugation is by all 
 means to be retained. It most ex- 
 pressively marks how entirely a man 
 brings upon himself his own punish- 
 ment, i have here, and in what 
 
 follows, after the example of our 
 translators, preferred the present tense 
 to the past. This change of tense exists 
 in the Hebrew, and the rendering 
 gives more force and animation to 
 the picture ; though it would certainly 
 be possible to continue the use of 
 the past tense throughout. 
 
 18. Comp. the similar passage. 
 Job xxxiii. 20 — 22. 
 
 20. He sendeth His WORD. The' 
 same expression occurs in cxlvii. 15, 
 18; comp. Is. Iv. II. We detect in 
 such passages the first glimmering of 
 St. John's doctrine of the agency of the 
 personal Word. The Word by which 
 the heavens were made (xxxiii. 6) 
 is seen to be not merely the expres- 
 sion of God's will, but His messenger 
 mediating between Himself and His 
 creatures. It is interesting to com- 
 pare with this the language of Elihu 
 in the parallel passage of Job xxxiii. 
 23, where what is here ascribed to 
 the agency of the Word is ascribed 
 to that of the "mediating angel, or 
 messenger." 
 
 Graves. The word may be taken 
 in this sense, in allusion to their 
 nearness to death, ver. 18, or it may 
 mean ' ' pits " metaphorically, the pit 
 of suffering into which they have 
 sunk. 
 
PSALM CVII. 533 
 
 And tell of His works with a song of joy. 
 
 23 They that go down to the sea in ships, 
 
 That do business in great waters, 
 
 24 These (men) have seen the works of Jehovah, 
 
 And His wonders in the deep. 
 
 25 For He commandeth and raiseth a stormy wind, 
 
 Which lifteth up the waves thereof. 
 
 26 They mount up to heaven, 
 
 They go down (again) to the depths, 
 Their soul melteth because of trouble. 
 
 23 — 31. Fourth example : sea- 
 farers tossed and driven by the tem- 
 pest, and brought at last safe into 
 port. The description may be com- 
 pared with the language of Jonah i. , 
 ii. It is the most highly finished, the 
 most thoroughly poetical of each of 
 the four pictures of human peril and 
 deliverance. It is painted as a lands- 
 man would paint it, but yet only as 
 one who had himself been exposed to 
 the danger could paint the storm — the 
 waves running mountains high, on 
 which the tiny craft seemed a play- 
 thing, the helplessness of human skill, 
 the gladness of the calm, the safe 
 refnge in the haven. 
 
 Addison remarks that he prefers 
 this description of a ship in a storm 
 before any. others he had ever met 
 with, and for the same reason for 
 which "Longinus recommends one 
 in Homer, because the poet has not 
 amused himself with little fancies 
 upon the occasion, as authors of an 
 inferior genius, whom he mentions, 
 had done, but because he has gathered 
 together those circumstances which 
 are the most apt to terrify the imagi- 
 nation, and which really happened in 
 the raging of a tempest." By the 
 way, lie adds, "how much more 
 comfortable as well as rational is this 
 system of the Psalmist, than the pagan 
 
 scheme in Virgil and other poets, 
 where one deity is represented as 
 raising a storm, and another as laying 
 it ! Were we only to consider the 
 sublime in this piece of poetry, what 
 can be nobler than the idea it gives 
 us of the Supreme Being thus raising 
 a tumult among the elements, and re- 
 covering them out of their confusion ; 
 thus troubling and becalming nature?" 
 Spectator, No, 489. 
 
 23. Go DOWN TO THE SEA, as in 
 Is. xlii. 10 ; Jon. i. 3. 
 
 Business. There is no need to 
 restrict this to the management of 
 craft by seamen. It includes the oc- 
 cupations of fishermen, traders, per- 
 sons on a voyage, &c. 
 
 24. The works of Jehovah, 
 AND His wonders, i.e. His rule cf 
 the elements : how at His word the 
 storm raises the billows high as 
 heaven, how at His word it sinks 
 down hushed and gentle as the soft 
 breath of summer. 
 
 25. For He commandeth, lit. 
 " and He said," the phrase which 
 occurs so often in Gen. i. to describe 
 God's creative fiat. 
 
 26. They mount up, i.e. not "the 
 waves," but "the seafarers." The 
 same expression occurs, but in a dif- 
 ferent sense, in civ. 8, where see 
 note. 
 
534 PSALM CVII. 
 
 27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, 
 
 And are at their wits' end. 
 
 28 Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, 
 
 And He bringeth them out of their distresses. 
 
 29 He husheth the storm to a gentle air, 
 
 So that the waves thereof are still. 
 
 30 Then are they glad because they be quiet, 
 
 And He leadeth them to their desired haven. 
 /'31 Let them give thanks to Jehovah (for) His loving- 
 j kindness. 
 
 And (for) His wonders to the children of men. 
 3'2 Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the 
 people, 
 And praise Him in th-e assembly of the elders. 
 
 33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness. 
 
 And water-springs into dry ground ; 
 
 27. Reel to and fro, or, even 30. Haven. This is probably the 
 
 more exactly, "spin round and meaning of the word, but it occurs 
 
 round." nowhere else. The rabbinical inter- 
 
 Are at their wits' end, lit. preters render it "shore," "coast." 
 "all their wisdom (skill, resources, 32. Assembly. See note on i. I. 
 
 &c.) swalloweth itself up," or "com- 33. The cliaracter of the Psalm 
 
 eth of itself to nought. " * changes at this point. We have no 
 
 29. A GENTLE air. This, and longer distinct pictures as before ; the 
 
 not absolute " stillness," " calm " beautiful double refrain is dropped, 
 
 seems to be the meaning of the word. the language is harsher and more 
 
 The waves thereof, lit. " their abrupt. Instead of fresh examples of 
 waves," but the plural suffix must deliverance from peril, and thanks- 
 refer to the sea, and may perhaps giving for God's mercies^, we have 
 have been occasioned by the plural now instances of God's providential, 
 "great waters ", in ver. 23. See note government of the world exhibited in 
 on ver. 25. Others refer the plural two series of contrasts. The first of 
 pronoun to the seafarers ; " their these is contained in ver. 33 — 38, and 
 waves," i.e. tho-tie on which they are expresses a double change — the fruit- 
 tossed, and which threaten to engulf ful well-watered land smitten, like 
 them. the rich plain of Sodom, with desola- 
 
 * The whole description up to this point finds a striking parallel in Ovid, Trist. i. 2 : — 
 * Me miserum quanti montes volvuntur aquarum : 
 
 Jamjam tacturos sidera summa putes. 
 QuantEe diducto subsidunt aequore valles : 
 
 Jamjam tacturos Tartara nigra putes. 
 Rector in incerto est, nee quid fugiatve petatve 
 Invenit ; ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis." 
 
PSALM CVII. 
 
 S35 
 
 34 A fruitful land into a salt-marsh, 
 
 Because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein. 
 
 35 (Again) He turneth the wilderness into a pool of water, 
 
 And a dry land into water-springs. 
 
 36 And there He maketh the hungry to dwell, 
 
 And they built a city to dwell in ; 
 
 37 And sow fields, and plant vineyards. 
 
 Which may yield the fruit of (yearly) produce. 
 
 38 And He blesseth them so that they multiply greatly, 
 
 And suffereth not their cattle to be minished. 
 
 39 And when they are minished and brought low 
 
 Through (any) oppression, evil, or sorrow, 
 
 40 " He poureth contempt upon princes. 
 
 And maketh them to wander in the waste (where there 
 is no) way." 
 
 tion, and changed into a salt-marsh ; 
 and anon, the wilderness crowned 
 with cities, like Tadmor (of which 
 J*linysays, vasto ambitu arenis includit 
 (igros), and made fertile to produce 
 com and wine : the second is con- 
 tained in ver. 39 — 41, and expresses 
 jomewhat obscurely the changes in 
 the fortunes of men (as the last series 
 did those of countries), viz. how the 
 poor and the humble are raised and 
 the rich and the proud overthrown. 
 
 35. He turneth, &c. The lan- 
 guage is borrowed from Is. xli. 18, 
 tg, and hence it has been supposed 
 that the allusion here is to historical 
 events ; that ver. 33 rlepicts the deso- 
 lation of the land whilst the Jews were 
 captives in Babylon, ver. 35 the 
 change which took place on their 
 return. But the passages in Isaiah 
 (comp., besides that already quoted, 
 XXXV. 6, 7, xlii. 15, 16, xliii. 19, 20, 
 xliv. 27, 1. 2) refer not to the Holy 
 Land, but to the deserts through 
 which the exiles would pass on their 
 return ; and further, the language em- 
 ployed is far too general to be thus 
 
 limited to one event. It describes 
 what frequently has occurred. The 
 histories of Mexico and of Holland 
 might furnish examples of such a 
 contrast. 
 
 39. At first sight it seems as if 
 there were no new subject. Another 
 reverse is apparently described as 
 befalling those who had just risen 
 into prosperity. It may have hap- 
 pened, says the Poet, that the pro- 
 sperity of this race, living at peace 
 amid its herds and flocks, and the 
 labours of its hands, has provoked 
 the envy and the cupidity of some 
 neighbouring tyrant. He destroys 
 their harvest, and burns their home- 
 stead, and drives off their flocks ; but 
 God pours contempt upon him, leads 
 him astray in the wilderness to perish, 
 and restores the victims of his tyranny 
 to more than their fonner fortune. 
 
 40. This verse is a quotation from 
 Job xii. 21, where it stands in a series 
 of participial sentences describing the 
 method of God's government. Here 
 it is introduced abruptly, and is 
 scarcely intelligible except by refer- 
 
S36 PSALM CVIII. 
 
 41 And He setteth the poor on high out of affliction, 
 
 And maketh families like a flock. 
 
 42 The upright see (it) and are glad, 
 
 And all iniquity hath shut her mouth. 
 
 43 Who is wise that he should observe these things. 
 
 And that they should understand the loving- 
 kindnesses of Jehovah .■" 
 
 etice to the passage in Job from these acts of Divine Providence, 
 
 whence it is taken. Comp. Job v. 16. 
 
 41. Like a flock : a figure ex- 43. The conclusion, in the form of 
 pressive of large increase, as in Job a question, such as that with which 
 xxi. II. Hosea concludes his prophecy, xiv. 
 
 42. The impression produced by 9. 
 
 PSALM CVIII. 
 
 This Psalm consists of portions of two others, the first half of it 
 being taken from the syth Psalm, ver. 7 — 11, and the latter half from 
 the 60th, ver. 5 — 12. It bears the name of David, because the original 
 passages both occur in Psalms ascribed to him as their author. But 
 there is no reason for concluding that these fragments were thus united 
 by David himself. Some later Poet probably adapted them to circum- 
 stances of his own time ; possibly wished thus to commemorate some 
 victory over Edom or Philistia. The change in the ninth verse, as 
 compared with the corresponding passage in the 60th Psalm, may be 
 held to favour this view. There are a few other not very important 
 variations of the text, which will be pointed out in the notes. 
 
 For the interpretation at large, the Notes on the other two Psalms 
 may be consulted. 
 
 [a song, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 I My heart is steadfast, O God, 
 
 I will sing and play, yea, even my glory. 
 
 I. My GLORY, i.e. "my soul," with belong to the rational being, as created 
 all those powers and faculties which in the image of God. See Gen. ix. 6. 
 
PSALM CVIII. 537 
 
 2 Awake, lute and harp, 
 
 I will wake the morning-dawn. 
 
 3 I will give thanks unto Thee among the peoples, O 
 
 Jehovah, 
 And I will play unto Thee among the nations. 
 
 4 For great above the heavens is Thy loving-kindness, 
 
 And thy truth (reacheth) unto the skies. 
 
 5 Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, 
 
 And Thy glory above all the earth. 
 
 6 That Thy beloved may be delivered. 
 
 Save with thy right hand, and answer me. 
 
 7 God hath spoken in His holiness : 
 
 Let me exult, let me portion out Shechem, 
 And the valley of Succoth let me measure. 
 
 8 Mine is Gilead, mine Manasseh, 
 
 Ephraim also is the defence of my head ; 
 Judah is my sceptre : 
 
 9 Moab is my washpot ; 
 
 Upon Edom will I cast my shoe ; 
 
 Over Philistia will I shout (in triumph). 
 ID Who will conduct me into the fortified city .' 
 Who hath led me unto Edom .■' 
 
 11 Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off.' 
 
 And wilt Thou not go forth, O God, with our 
 hosts } 
 
 12 give us help from the adversary. 
 
 For vain is the salvation of man. 
 
 13 Through God we shall do valiantly. 
 
 And He shall tread down our adversaries. 
 
 3. Jehovah. In Ivii. " Adonai " Ps. Ix. The passage consists of two 
 (I-ord). lines of the first strophe of that 
 
 4. Above : comp. cxiii. 4. In Psalm, and the second and third 
 xxxvi. 5 the form of expression is strophes complete. 
 
 somewhat different ; " in the hea- 9. On the change in this verse, 
 
 vens . . . unto the clouds : " see instead of " Because of me, O Philis- 
 
 also Jer. li. 9. tia, cry aloud," the principal variation 
 
 6— 13. These verses are taken from in the Psalm, see note on Ix, 8. 
 
S38 PSALM CIX. 
 
 PSALM CIX. 
 
 This is the last of the Psalms of imprecation, and completes the 
 terrible climax. The remarks already made in the Note on xxxv. 22, 
 in the Introduction to Ixix., and the Note on ver. 22, may be consulted 
 here. 
 
 This Psalm differs from the 69th in being levelled against one enemy 
 chiefly, not against many. This circumstance may partly account for 
 the even more intensely-wrought and detailed character of the curse. 
 In the awfulness of its anathemas, the Psalm surpasses everything of 
 the kind in the Old Testament. Who the person was who was thus 
 singled out for execration, it is in vain to conjecture. Those who hold, 
 in accordance with the Inscription, that the Psalm was written by 
 David, suppose that Doeg or Cush, Shimei or Ahithophel, is the object 
 of execration. 
 
 In Acts i. 20, St. Peter combines a part of the 8th verse of this 
 Psalm, " his office let another take," with words slightly altered from 
 the 25th verse of the 69th Psalm, and applies them to Judas Iscariot 
 Hence the Psalm has been regarded by the majority of expositors, 
 ancient and modern, as a prophetic and Messianic Psalm. The 
 language has been justified not as the language of David, but as 
 the language of Christ, exercising His office of Judge, or, in so far 
 as He had laid aside that office during his earthly life, calling upon 
 His Father to accomplish the curse. It has been alleged that this is 
 the prophetic foreshadowing of the solemn words, "Woe unto that 
 man by whom the Son of man is betrayed ; it were good for that man 
 if he had not been born" (Matt. xxvi. 24). The curse, in the words 
 of Chrysostom, " is a prophecy in form of a curse " (7r/)o07rei'a h 
 ci'Sei dpSs). 
 
 The strain which such a view compels us to put on much of the 
 language of the Psalm ought to have led long since to its abandon- 
 ment. Not even the woes denounced by our Lord against the 
 Pharisees can really be compared to the anathemas which are here 
 strung together. Much less is there any pretence for saying that 
 those words, so full of deep and holy sorrow, addressed to the traitor 
 
PSALM CIX. 539 
 
 in the Gospels, are merely another expression of the appalling de- 
 nunciations of the Psalm. But terrible as these undoubtedly are, to 
 be accounted for by the spirit of the Old Dispensation, not to be 
 defended by that of the New, still let us learn to estimate thera 
 aright. This is the «a;«ra/ voice of righteousness persecuted. These 
 are the accents of the martyr, not smarting only with a sense of 
 personal suffering, but feeling acutely, and hating nobly, the triumph 
 of wickedness. 
 
 The strains of this Psalm are strains which have lingered even in 
 the Christian Church, not softened by "the meekness and gentleness 
 of Christ." Let anyone read the closing passage of Tertullian's 
 treatise De Spectaculis, in which he does not hesitate to speak of the 
 joy and exultation with which, at the Day of Judgement, he shall look 
 upon the agonies of the damned, of the delight with which he shall 
 see the kings of the earth, and the rulers who persecuted the Name 
 of the Lord, melting in flames fiercer than those which they lighted 
 for the Christians, philosophers burning with their disciples, tragic 
 actors shrieking with real pain, the charioteer red upon his fiery wheel, 
 and the wrestler tossing in the flames, till the fierce invective ends in 
 a perfect shout of triumph as he thinks of the grandeur of the spec- 
 tacle — let anyone, I say, read passages such as this, let him remember 
 how long it was held a sacred duty by Christian Fathers and Bishops 
 to persecute, and then let him pause before he passes a too sweeping 
 judgement on " the fierce vindictiveness " of the Jew. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 God of my praise, be not silent ! 
 
 2 For a wicked mouth and a deceitful mouth have they 
 
 opened against me, 
 They have spoken against me with a false tongue ; 
 
 I. God of my praise, /. e. the offers the prayer, ' Be not silent ' 
 
 object of my praise (Jer. xvii. 14). (comp. xxviii. i, xxxv. 22). God 
 
 "The name contains the ground of speaks when He interferes to judge 
 
 the prayer. The God whom the and to save." — Delitzsch. 
 
 Psalmist has hitherto found reason to 2. A wicked mouth, &c., lit. 
 
 praise will now also give him fresh "» mouth of the wicked, and a 
 
 reason for praise. In this faith he mouth of deceit." 
 
S40 
 
 PSALM CIX. 
 
 3 Yea, with words of hatred have they compassed mi 
 
 about, 
 And fought against me without a cause. 
 
 4 For my love they are adversaries unto me, 
 
 But I (give myself unto) prayer, 
 
 5 They have requited me also evil for good, 
 
 And hatred for my love. 
 
 6 Set Thou a wicked man over him. 
 
 And let an adversary stand at his right hand. 
 
 7 When he is judged let him go forth condemned, 
 
 And let his prayer be turned into sin. 
 
 4. They are adversaries unto 
 ME, or " withstand me " (as in 
 xxxviii. 20). 
 
 I (GIVE MYSELF UNTO) PRATER, 
 lit. " I (am) prayer," i.e. one who 
 prays, having recourse to no other 
 means of defence. So in cxx. T, "1 
 (am) peace ;" ex. 3, "Thy people (are) 
 freewillingness. " The sense is, "I 
 find refuge in prayer, committing my- 
 self and my cause to Thee." Comp. 
 Ixix. 12, 13. 
 
 5. For the sentiment comp. xxxv. 
 12, xxxviii. 20. 
 
 6. Leaving the mass of his enemies, 
 the Psalmist suddenly singles out one, 
 on whom he pours out the terrible 
 curse which follows. See a similar 
 transition in Iv. 12. Ver. i — 5 do 
 not give whole grounds for the curse ; 
 they are resumed in ver. 16 — 18. 
 
 Set, i.e. in an official capacity. 
 Here, "appoint as judge," or "set 
 over him with power and authority 
 to punish." 
 
 An ADVERSARY, or, " Satan." 
 Let him have not only an unrighteous 
 judge, but a malicious accuser. On 
 the whole, I prefer the more general 
 word "adversary," which is that of 
 the margin of the E.V., especially as 
 the same root occurs several times in 
 the Psalm ; see note on ver. 4. It is 
 not indeed certain from the language 
 
 of ver. 7 that the process is supposec 
 to take place before a human tribunal 
 for the " prayer " there spoken of ii 
 prayer to God, not supplication t( 
 the human judge. But, on the othe: 
 hand, " a wicked man " in the paral 
 lelism, and the general tenour of wha 
 follows, are rather in favour of thi 
 rendering " adversary." In Zech 
 iii. I, where there is the same form 
 expression, — " and he showed mi 
 Joshua the High Priest standim 
 before the angel of Jehovah, and thi 
 adversary (or, the Satan) standing a 
 his right hand to be an adversar; 
 unto him " — Satan himself is doubtlesi 
 meant, for the whole sense is that 
 a vision, as also in Job i. 6^13 
 This last passage shows how earl; 
 the name occurred as a proper name 
 There is no pretence, therefore, fo: 
 saying that the use of the name a: 
 that of the Evil Spirit is later thai 
 this Psalm. 
 
 7. When he is Judged, &c 
 When his case is called let him G( 
 FORTH, leave the court, withsentenci 
 pronounced against him "guilty." 
 
 His PRAYER, not addressed to thi 
 human judge for mitigation of the sen 
 tence, but here, as always, prayer t( 
 God. The criminal looking in vain fo 
 pity or justice at the hands of man 
 turns in his extremity to God ; but evei 
 
PSALM CIX. 
 
 541 
 
 8 Let his days be few, 
 
 His office let another take. 
 
 9 Let his children be orphans. 
 
 And his wife a widow. 
 
 10 Let his children also be continually vagabonds and 
 
 beg, 
 (Driven) from their ruined houses let them seek 
 (their bread). 
 
 1 1 Let the extortioner lay snares for all that he hath, 
 
 And let strangers spoil his labour. 
 
 12 Let there be none to continue kindness unto him. 
 
 Neither let his fatherless children have any to 
 favour (them). 
 
 13 Let his posterity be cut off. 
 
 In the next generation let their name be blotted out. 
 
 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with 
 
 Jehovah, 
 And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. 
 
 there, at the very fount of mercy, 
 let mercy fail him, let his prayer 
 aggravate his guilt. The utterance 
 of such a wish is the most awful part 
 of the imprecation. That prayer may 
 thus draw down not forgiveness but 
 Wrath, see Is. i. 15 : Prov. xxviii. 9 
 ("He that turneth away his ear from 
 hearing the law, even his prayer shall 
 be abomination "), xv. 8, xxi. 27. 
 But it is one thing to recognise this 
 as a fact in the Divine government 
 of man, it is another thing to im- 
 precate it. 
 
 8. His office, implying that the 
 person held a position of some im- 
 portance. The LXX. iTricTKOTriJ, 
 whence in Acts i. 20 the passage is 
 applied to Judas. In this verse a 
 double loss is imprecated, — the loss 
 of life, " let his days be few," and the 
 loss of honour, "let another take his 
 office;" in ver. 11 a third is added, 
 the loss of property. 
 
 9. The curse passes in accordance 
 with the Mosaic law (' ' visiting the 
 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
 dren ") to the family of the offender. 
 This has occasioned considerable per- 
 plexity to those who take the whole 
 Psalm as prophetic, and aimed through- 
 out at Judas Iscariot. 
 
 10. Beg. The object, " bread " 
 (comp. xxxvii. 25, Prov. xx. 4), must 
 be supplied here, and with the verb 
 ' * seek " in the next member. 
 
 From their ruined houses, lit. 
 " from, out of, their ruins." 
 
 11. Lay snares for, admirably 
 descriptive of the acts of the usurer. 
 
 12. Continue kindness to him- 
 self in distress, or to his children. See 
 the same phrase, xxxvi. 10. 
 
 14, 15. The curse goes backward 
 as well as fonvard. The whole race 
 of the man is involved in it ; root and 
 branch he is accursed. Not the guilt 
 of the individual only, but the guilt of 
 all his guilty ancestors, is to be re- 
 membered and visited on his posterity. 
 For the great law, comp. Matt, xxiii. 
 32—36. 
 
542 
 
 PSALM CIX. 
 
 I ; Let them always be before Jehovah, 
 
 That He may cut off the memory of them from the 
 earth. 
 i6 Because he remembered not to show kindness, 
 But persecuted the afflicted man and the poor, 
 
 And the broken-hearted, to put (them) to death ; 
 
 17 And he loved cursing, and it came unto him. 
 
 And he had no delight in blessing, and it was far from 
 him ; 
 
 18 Yea, he clothed himself with cursing as (with) a 
 
 garment, 
 And it came like water into his bowels, 
 And like oil into his bones ; 
 
 19 Let it be unto him as a garment (wherewith) he 
 
 covereth himself, 
 And as a girdle that he is always girded withal. 
 
 20 This is the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, 
 
 And of them that speak evil against my soul. 
 
 16. He remembered not : there- 
 fore " let his iniquity be remembered, " 
 ver. 14. 
 
 To PUT TO DEATH. The intensive 
 form of the Hebrew verb denotes the 
 eagerness, the relentless cruelty of the 
 persecutors. 
 
 Because. We may paraphrase this 
 and the following verses thus : " Be- 
 cause he persecuted the poor, because 
 cursing was as water to his thirsty 
 soul, as marrow and fatness to his 
 bones, let it be unto him as a garment, 
 let it wrap him round and envelope 
 him, covering him from head to foot, 
 and clinging to him like a girdle 
 which never leaves his loins." 
 
 20. Two explanations of this verse 
 are possible, according to the view we 
 take of the former part of the Psalm, 
 (i) It may mean, " My enemies may 
 curse me thus, but after all this cursing 
 returns upon themselves. This is the 
 
 reward they themselves receive from 
 the hand of the righteous Judge" 
 (comp. vii. 15, 16). (2) Those who 
 take the passage ver. 6 — 19, not as 
 the words of the Psalmist, but as the 
 vifords of his enemies, suppose the 
 genitive here to be subjective : "This 
 is mine adversaries' award unto me ; 
 this is the sentence they would pro- 
 cure against me from Jehovah, when 
 they pray. Set Thou a wicked man 
 over him," &c. But the addition 
 "from Jehovah" renders the first ex- 
 planation far the more probable ; 
 " This is the reward which my adver- 
 saries receive from Jehovah." The 
 sentence is clear and intelligible. But 
 on the other interpretation we should 
 have expected, not " from Jehovah " 
 meaning " supplicated from Jehovah," 
 but rather the personal pronoun which 
 can hardly be omitted, "This is mine 
 adversaries' reward unto me." 
 
PSALM CIX. 5,i3 
 
 21 But Thou, O Jehovah Lord, deal with me for Thy 
 I Name's sake, 
 
 For Thy loving-kindness is good : deliver Thou me. 
 
 22 For I am afflicted and poor. 
 
 And my heart is wounded within me. 
 
 23 As a shadow, when it lengtheneth, am I gone hence, 
 
 I have been driven away as the locust. 
 
 24 My knees have become weak through fasting. 
 
 And my flesh hath failed of fatness. 
 
 25 As for me, — I have become a reproach unto them ; 
 
 When they see me they shake their head. 
 
 26 Help me, O Jehovah my God, 
 
 Save me according to Thy loving-kindness. 
 
 27 And let them know that this is Thy hand ; 
 
 Thou, Jehovah, hast done it. 
 
 28 (Though) they curse, (yet) Thou blessest ; 
 
 They arose and were put to shame, 
 (But) Thy servant rejoiceth. 
 
 29 Mine adversaries are clothed with confusion ; 
 
 They cover themselves with their own shame (as with) 
 a mantle. 
 
 30 I will give thanks ' greatly to Jehovah with my 
 
 mouth. 
 
 21. But thou. He turns from "I have been shaken out," as from 
 
 his adversaries to God, from their a cloth, or mantle, or the deep folds 
 
 curses to His loving-kindness. The of an Eastern robe. See the use of 
 
 emphatic pronoun, and the double the verb in Neh. v. 13, vi'here the 
 
 name of God, both mark the earnest- shaking out of the upper part of the 
 
 ness of the appeal. See the use of robe is symbolical of the Divinejudge- 
 
 these two names in Ixviii. 20, cxl. 7, ment. 
 
 cxli. 8 ; Hab. iii. 19. The second As the locust, as easily terrified 
 
 member of the verse might be ren- and driven away. Comp. Job xxxix. 
 
 teed, "Deliver me, because Thy 20; Exod. x. 19. 
 
 loving-kindness is good ; " or, again, 25. Shake their head. See on 
 
 ie imperative, "Deliver me," might xxii. 7. 
 
 3e transferred to the beginning of 27. At the close of the Psalm the 
 
 la. 22. individual persecutor drops out' of 
 
 23. As A SHADOW, &c. Comp. sight, and a return is made to the 
 
 :ii. 11. plural number, as in ver. 2 — 5. 
 
 I Have been driven away, lit. 30, 31. The Psalm closes with the 
 
544 PSALM ex. 
 
 And in the midst of many will I praise Him. 
 
 31 For He standeth at the right hand of the poor, 
 
 To save (him) from those that judge his soul. 
 
 confident and joyful anticipation that right hand of the poor, defenceless 
 
 the prayer in ver. 26, 27 is heard and victim, to protect him. There, the 
 
 answered. persecutor finds no mercy at the hands 
 
 There is, further, a remarkable con- of the human judge, into whose hands 
 
 trast between these verses and verses he has fallen. Here, the Great Judge 
 
 6, 7. There, the adversary stands at ofall rescues "the poor" firom "those 
 
 the right hand of the wicked man to that judge his soul." 
 accuse him ; here, Jehovah, at the 
 
 PSALM ex. 
 
 This Psalm claims emphatically to be the fruit and record of a 
 Divine revelation. The words of the Poet, though shaped in the 
 Poet's heart, come to him from the very sanctuary of the Most High. 
 It is an oracle, an utterance of Jehovah, which he has heard, and 
 which he is to declare to others. It is an oracle which concerns a 
 king who reigns in Zion ; it is addressed to one to whom the Poet 
 does homage, calling him " Lord ; " it assures him of the high favour 
 of Jehovah, who lifts him to a share in His own regal dignity, giving 
 him the victory over all his enemies. The Poet then pictures the king 
 going forth to battle, sun-ounded by his youthful warriors, bright and 
 numberless as the dew-drops on a summer's morn, willing to shed their 
 heart's blood in his service, each one robed as a priest, each one a 
 soldier of God. 
 
 As he gazes on the vision which has been called up by the first 
 •word from heaven, another divine word sounds in his ear ; the word 
 confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, that the king shall also be A PRIEST 
 
 FOR EVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MeLCHIZEDEK. 
 
 Then he follows the king in imagination to the war, sees him win- 
 ning victory after victory with great slaughter, aided by God Himself 
 in the fight, and securing the fruits of his victories by a pursuit of 
 
PSALM ex. 545 
 
 his enemies which knows no check even in the burning heat of an 
 Eastern sun. 
 
 If we were at Uberty to adopt in this Psalm the same principles of 
 interpretation which we have already adopted with regard to all the 
 other Messianic Psalms, it would present no special difficulty. We 
 might suppose it to have been written by some poet of David's time, 
 who would naturally speak of David himself as his lord. In the first 
 and lowest sense his words would apply to David as the theocratic 
 king ; in their ultimate and highest sense they would be fulfilled in 
 David's great Descendant, in Him who was both David's son and 
 David's lord. But we seem to be precluded from this method of 
 interpretation here by the argument which, according to all the 
 Evangelists, our Lord, in disputing with the Pharisees, builds upon 
 the first verse of the Psalm. " When the Pharisees were gathered 
 together," St. Matthew tells us, "Jesus asked them, saying, What 
 think ye of Christ ? whose son is He ? They say unto Him, The son 
 of David. He saith unto them. How then doth David in spirit call 
 Him lord, saying, The Lord said unto my lord, Sit thou on My right 
 hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool .? If David then call Him 
 lord, how is He his son?" (xxii. 41 — 45). In St. Mark's Gospel still 
 more emphatically : "And Jesus answered and said, while He taught 
 in the temple. How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David ? 
 (For) David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my 
 lord, Sit thou on My right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool David (therefore) himself calleth Him lord, and whence is He 
 his son ?" (xii. 35—37). In St. Luke the quotation is introduced by 
 " David himself saith in the Book of Psalms," but there is no other 
 variation of any importance. 
 
 Now in this argument all turns on these two points : first, that 
 David himself wrote the Psalm, and next, that in writing he was 
 moved by the Holy Ghost. David himself, in a confessedly Mes- 
 sianic Psalm, is speaking not of himself, but of his great Descendant, 
 and, so speaking, calls Him his lord. David was able to do this, 
 was able in faith to recognise the true Divine greatness of One who, 
 according to the flesh, would be his son, because he spake as the 
 organ of a Divine revelation, as " he was moved by the Holy Ghost." 
 This is clearly the scope of our Lord's argument. And if so, then it 
 is plain that there can be no lower reference of the Psalm to David 
 or any other Jewish monarch. It is a prediction, and a prediction of 
 the Christ as the true King, as the everlasting Priest after the order of 
 
 N N 
 
546 PSALM ex. 
 
 Melchizedek. Nor is there anything to startle us in such a conclusion, 
 unless we are prepared to deny altogether the possibility of a revelation 
 of the future. The real difficulty is this, that, taking this view of the 
 Psalm, it differs from all the other prophetic Psalms which, in their 
 first intention at least, refer to David or Solomon, or some other Jewish 
 monarch. And further, the language of the latter part of the Psalm is 
 such as to be only fairly applicable to an earthly king literally reigning 
 in Zion, and literally engaged in fierce and bloody war with his enemies ; 
 and therefore it becomes the more difficult to understand on what 
 principle the former part of the Psalm can be detached from a primary 
 reference to some reigning monarch. 
 
 Whilst, however, we maintain what our Lord's argument compels 
 us to maintain, that the Psalm is a prediction, we cannot tell to what 
 extent it was a conscious prediction. We do not know how far David 
 himself needed an interpretation of the vision in which he saw the 
 majestic figure of the priestly King. His words may have been higher 
 than his thoughts : they may have been pregnant with a meaning 
 which he did not see. Unless we deny all inspiration, we must be 
 prepared to admit this. At the same time, he is not wholly lifted out 
 of his own age and time. If he speaks of a Messiah to come, and 
 so far sees something of His greatness as to call him "lord," he is 
 still suffered to conceive of Him, partially at least, as an earthly 
 monarch fighting bloody battles with His enemies. The Psalm thus 
 sinks down towards its close into — must we not say .' — a lower key. 
 The image which it presents to us is an image partly of fine gold, but 
 partly of clay. We may indeed think ourselves at liberty to take the 
 earthly words as symbols of spiritual truths. We may understand 
 the victories of the Messiah as won in the kingdom of mind and heart, 
 not as won with sword and spear. But we cannot suppose that it 
 was with any such meaning that David wrote, " He shall judge among 
 the nations, filling them with corpses." To his eye the struggle was 
 one of flesh and blood, the victory such as he had himself obtained, 
 the triumph that of an earthly conqueror. 
 
 Again, as we may allow that the prediction was partially at least 
 unconscious, or that the vision was obscure, so we may also admit 
 that it was vouchsafed in connection with circumstances and events 
 to which it would stand in some definite relation. Prophecy — and 
 the inspired songs of Psalmists are often prophecies — never seems 
 wholly to forsake the ground of history. However extended the vista 
 which stretches before him, that vista begins at the Prophet's feet. 
 
PSALM ex. 547 
 
 The present is his home and his starting-point, though he may make 
 "all the ages" his own. So we must look to some occurrence in 
 David's life for the secret impulse of his song ; and none seems so 
 naturally and obviously to associate itself w-ith the language of the 
 Psalm, as that marked occurrence to which, in all probability, many 
 other Psalms are due, the bringing up of the Ark of God into the 
 Tabernacle which he had prepared for it in Zion. David on that 
 occasion danced before the . Ark, girded with a linen ephod, offered 
 burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and blessed the people in the 
 name of the Lord of hosts ;* and thus, though but in a passing and 
 temporary manner, prefigured in his own person the union of the 
 kingly and priestly offices. Zion had become, by the removal of the 
 Ark thither, the seat of Jehovah's visible Presence. The king, there- 
 fore, who made Zion his abode, was himself in some sense the assessor 
 of Jehovah on His throne. Jerusalem, tradition said, was the ancient 
 Salem, the capital of Melchizedek ; and the memories which thus 
 lingered about it and hallowed it may have helped David to under- 
 stand how the true Ruler, Priest as well as King, should be Priest, not 
 after the ancient and venerable order of Aaron, but after the order 
 still more ancient and more venerable, of Melchizedek. It may, more- 
 over, have been wisely ordered not only with a view to the future 
 Antitype, but with regard to the present relation between the king 
 and the priesthood, that no hint should be given of any unwarranted 
 assumption on the part of the one of the duties belonging to the other. 
 David did not interfere with the Levitical priesthood as existing in his 
 own day ; he pointed to a time when that priesthood would be super- 
 seded by a higher. 
 
 It may throw still further light on some of the expressions in the 
 Psalm, if we recollect in what a spirit and with what resolves David 
 had begun his reign, how jealously he desired to maintain the purity 
 of his household and of his court (see Psalm ci.), how firm his deter- 
 mination was to have recognised under his sway the great ideal to 
 which Israel was called, " Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests 
 iSnd a holy nation." For the people of the king in the Psalm who 
 
 * See 2 Sam. vL 14 — 18. I own I cannot see any evidence in this passage that '* David 
 was recognised as the head of the priesthood," or that " the union of priesthood and kingship 
 in David was more complete than in any other sovereign in Judah." We read of no repetition 
 of such acts as those here recorded ; the occasion itself was peculiar ; and certainly no stress 
 can be laid upon the expression " he offered bumt-offerings and peace-offerings before the 
 Lord," for the same might be said of anyone who brought the victims to the priests to sacrifice, 
 t-£- Solomon and all the congregation, 1 Kings viii. 5. 
 
 ' N N 2 
 
548 PSALM ex. 
 
 offer themselves willingly to fight his battle are priestly soldiers. I 
 the king is henceforth to be a priest on his throne, he is so as em 
 bodying in his own person the priestly character of the people. He i; 
 not only the military chief, he is the religious head of the nation, th( 
 representative both of Church and State. 
 
 It has been said that it is of importance for the right understandiri; 
 of the Psalm, and especially of the third verse of the Psalm, to bea: 
 in mind the military character of the Hebrew priesthood. It is per 
 haps of more importance to bear in mind that the whole nation was 
 at once a nation of soldiers and a nation of priests. They were thf 
 soldiers of God pledged to a crusade, a holy war ; pledged to ths 
 extermination of all idolatry and aU wickedness, wherever existing, 
 The character of the war marked the character of the soldiers. Thej 
 were God's "sanctified ones." They were set apart as priests foi 
 His service. That zeal for God ■ should have manifested itself chiefly 
 in the priesthood, and that they should not have hesitated to draw 
 the sword, is readily accounted for by the fact that in them the 
 ideal of the nation culminated : they were in every sense its repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 The Psalm is not only quoted by our Lord as Messianic in the 
 passages already referred to ; it is more frequently cited by the New 
 Testament writers than any other single portion of the ancient Scrip- 
 tures. Comp., besides those passages in the Gospels, Acts ii. ^i>„ 35 ; 
 I Cor. XV. 25 ; Heb. i. 13, v. 6, vii. 17, 21, x. 13. 
 
 In later Jewish writings, in the Talmud and the Rabbis, nearly every 
 verse of the Psalm is quoted as referring to the Messiah. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 I The oracle of Jehovah unto my lord : 
 « Sit Thou at My right hand, 
 
 I. Sit Thou at My right hand, allusion to it both amongst the Arabs 
 
 i.e. on My throne. The expression and the Greeks. The viceroys of the 
 
 denotes that the person thus honoured amdent Arab kings sat on the right 
 
 occupied the second place in the king- hand of the king. Ibn Cotaiba says : 
 
 dom, taking rank immediately after " The ^«Vo/fe^ is the dignity of sitting 
 
 the king, and also sharing as viceroy next to the king. But the Radaf^t 
 
 in the government. The custom was who holds rank after the king) sits on 
 
 a common one in antiquity. We find his right hand, and if the king drinks, 
 
PSALM ex. 549 
 
 Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." 
 
 the Radaf drinks next, before all 
 others ; and if the king goes out upon 
 an expedition, the Radaf sits on his 
 seat and acts in his room till he re- 
 turns; and if the king's army goes 
 forth to war, the Radaf receives a 
 fourth part of the booty." — ElCH- 
 HORN, Monum. Antiquiss. Hist. Ara- 
 htan, p. 220. 
 
 Similarly the Greek poets spoke 
 of their gods as (rvi'eSpot,ir(ip^5poi, at'v- 
 Spoi/oi with Zeus. So Pindar {Fragm. 
 Ed. Schneider, p. 55) speaks of 
 Minerva as associated vrith Zeus in 
 his sovereignty, and receiving his 
 commands for the other gods : Se^tav 
 iwri x^'^P^ "^ou iraTpds Kads^on^vrjv, 
 Ttis ivToXas Tots deots awo^ex^f^Sai, on 
 which Aristides observes that Minerva 
 was dyyekov fiei^ojy^ and that she 
 r;T(3y dryyeXtap dWois SiWa eVtraTTe*, 
 JXpwTTj irapa tov irarpis irapaKafifid- 
 f^Hwa. And Callimachus (J/ymn. in 
 )ApoU., ver. 28) says that Apollo is 
 'able to reward the Chorus, if they 
 sing to please him, because he sits at 
 the right hand of Zeus, SuVotoi ydp. 
 Ire! Alt Senior ^a-rai. In both these 
 passages it is clear that this session at 
 the right hand of Zeus indicates not 
 merely » mark of honour conferred, 
 but actual participation in the royal 
 dignity and power. 
 
 It is true that we have no exactly 
 parallel instance in the O. T. When 
 Solomon placed Bathsheba on his 
 throne, and gave her a seat at his 
 right hand ( i Kings ii. 19), this was 
 done as a mark of honour, not as 
 associating her with himself in the 
 government. So also in Ps. xlv. 9, 
 the queen consort stands at the right 
 hand of the king as the place of 
 honour — though possibly there the 
 expression may denote more than this, 
 nay signify her joint sovereignty, for 
 the Tyrians are said to entreat her 
 favour with gifts, ver. 12. The same 
 
 mark of honour was conferred by the 
 king of Syria on Jonathan (i Mace. 
 X. 63). There is a more nearly parallel 
 passage in Matt. xx. 20, &c. (comp. 
 Mark x. 35, &c.), where the mother 
 of Zebedee's children asks for her two ' 
 sons that they may sit one on the right | 
 hand and the other on the left of our 
 Lord in His kingdom. It is evident' 
 that in the Psalm not an occasional 
 honour, but a permanent dignity is, 
 meant, for Jehovah is to aid the king, 
 in effecting the subjugation of his ene- 
 mies : he is to sit at Jehovah's right ! 
 hand till that subjugation is effected, i 
 If, then, this be the meaning ; if, 
 the solemn address "Sit Thou at My| 
 right hand," is equivalent to saying, j 
 "Be Thou associated with Me in! 
 My kingly dignity, in My power and : 
 universal dominion," then the best- 
 comment on the passage is to be 
 found, as even some of the Jewish 
 interpreters have seen, in Dan. vii. 
 13, 14, where "one like the Son of 
 Man comes with the clouds of heaven, ' 
 and is brought unto the Ancient of 
 Days, and there is given Him do- 
 minion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
 that all people, nations, and lan- 
 guages should serve Him." The two 
 passages, the one from the Psalm 
 and the other from Daniel, are, in 
 fact, combined by our Lord Himself, 
 when standing before the high priest. 
 He says, " Hereafter ye shall see the 
 Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
 of God, and coming in the clouds of 
 heaven." The same interpretation is 
 given by St. Peter, Acts ii. 34 — 36. 
 Comp. Ephes. i. 20 — 22 ; Heb. i. 
 
 13. 14- 
 
 Until. St Paul, in i Cor. xv. 
 24 — 28, gives a limitation to the 
 meaning of the passage which does 
 not lie on the surface. He argues 
 from the words of this verse that 
 Christ must reign until (i.f. only until) 
 
SSo 
 
 PSALM ex. 
 
 2 The sceptre of Thy might Jehovah shall stretch forth out 
 of Zion (saying) : 
 " Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies." 
 
 He has put all enemies under His feet, 
 and that then His mediatorial reign 
 will cease, and He will give up the 
 kingdom to God, even to the Father. 
 But this sense is not necessarily con- 
 veyed by the use of the conjunction 
 " until." It does not follow that what 
 takes place until a certain limit is 
 reached must cease immediately after- 
 wards. Thus, for instance, in cxii. 8, 
 ' ' He shall not be afraid until he see 
 his desire upon his enemies ; " Gen. 
 xxviii. 15, " I will not leave thee 
 until I have done that which I have 
 spoken to thee of ; '' Deut. vii. 24, 
 ' ' There shall no man be able to 
 stand before thee until thou have 
 destroyed them," — the "until" is 
 clearly not to be pressed as if it were 
 equivalent to " only until, not after- 
 wards." The context must determine 
 in each case whether the "until" is 
 inclusive or exclusive of a time sub- 
 sequent to the limit mentioned, and 
 heire the general tenour of the Psalm 
 does not seem to favour a restriction 
 to previous time. This is accordingly 
 one of those instances in which a 
 peculiar turn is given in the N. T. to 
 the language of the Old. 
 
 Thy footstool, lit. "a stool for 
 Thy feet," an emblem of complete 
 subjection ; comp. viii. 6, xviii. 38. 
 The allusion is probably to the cus- 
 tom of conquerors placing their feet 
 on the necks of the conquered. See 
 Josh. X. 24, 25. 
 
 2. Having announced the oracle 
 vrtiich he has received by Divine re- 
 velation, the Poet turns to address 
 the king, and declares by what 
 means he is to conquer, viz. by the 
 help of God, and the willing courage 
 and self-sacrifice of his own people. 
 The Son of David has His royal seat 
 
 in Zion, the city of David. Thence, 
 by the grace of God, He shall gii^ 
 laws to the world, for Jehovah Him- 
 self, whose vicegerent He is, in whose 
 strength He rules, holds and sways 
 His sceptre. So the throne of even 
 the earthly king is in like manner 
 called the throne of Jehovah (i Chron. 
 xxviii. 5, xxix. 23). 
 
 The sceptre of Thy might, i.e. 
 of ' ' Thy kingly majesty," as in Jer. 
 xlviii. 17 ; Ezek. xix. 14. Chtysofe- 
 tom plays upon the word ^i^'m 
 (LXX.) as a rod of strength and con- 
 solation, as in xxiii. 4 ; a rod of 
 chastisement, as in ii. 9, I Cor. iv. 
 21 ; a symbol of kingly rule, as in 
 Is. xi. I, Ps. xlv. 6. It was by this 
 rod, he says, that the disciples 
 wrought when they subdued the 
 world in obedience to the command, 
 " Go and make disciples of all 
 nations ; " a rod far more powerfiil 
 than that of Moses, "for that divided 
 rivers, this brake in pieces the un- 
 godliness of the world." And then 
 with profound truth he adds, " Nor 
 would one err who should call the 
 Cross the rod of power ; for this rod 
 converted sea and land, and filled 
 them with a vast power. Armed with 
 this rod, the Apostles went forth 
 throughout the world, and accom- 
 plished all that they did, beginning 
 at Jerusalem." The Cross which to 
 men seemed the very emblem of 
 shame and weakness, was, in truth, 
 the power of God. 
 
 Rule Thou, or, " Have domi- 
 nion," the same word as in Ixxii. 8. 
 The imperative contains in itself a 
 prediction or promise of fulfilment. 
 See for the same use of the imperal. 
 xxxvii. 3. Gen. xx. 7. These words 
 are probably (as many of the best 
 
PSALM ex. 
 
 SSI 
 
 3 Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day that 
 Thou warrest, 
 (Clad) in holy vestments : 
 (As the dew) from the womb of the morning, 
 
 commentators suppose) addressed by 
 Jehovah to the King. Others think 
 that the Poet himself thus speaks. 
 
 3. Thy people. In the midst of 
 His enemies, the King has His own 
 faithful adherents. God, ■who holds 
 the sceptre of His Anointed, and 
 assures Him of victory, has also given 
 Him a willing people, working in 
 their hearts by His Spirit joyfulness 
 and courage, and ready self-sacrifice. 
 Comp. Is. xxviii. 5, 6, " In that day 
 shall the Lord of hosts be foi: a crown 
 of glory . . . and for strength to 
 them that turn the battle to the 
 gate." 
 
 Offer themselves willingly, 
 lit. " are free-will offerings, " i.e. give, 
 devote themselves as a willing sacri- 
 fice. Comp. for the form of expres- 
 sion cix. 4, "I am prayer," and for 
 the sacrificial sense of the word Exod. 
 XXXV. 29. Lev. xxii. 18, 21, 23, Am. 
 iv. 5. This interpretation harmonizes 
 best with the priestly character assigned 
 both to the warriors and to their leader. 
 Otherwise the word often loses its 
 sacrificial meaning ; and so here many 
 render, "Thy people are most will- 
 ing," lit. "are willingnesses" (plur. 
 for sing, as more emphatic, com- 
 prising every possible aspect of the 
 idea contained in the word, alacrity, 
 readiness, devotion in every form). 
 They are no hireling soldiery; they 
 serve not of constraint nor for filthy 
 lucre. For this sense of the word, 
 see>the notes on li. 12, liv. 6, and 
 comp. Hos. xiv. 4, "I will love them 
 freely." 
 
 In the day that Thou war- 
 KEST, lit. "in the day of Thy hosl," 
 i.e. in the day Thou musterest Thy 
 
 host to the battle ; or we may ren- 
 der, "in the day of Thy powei;" for 
 the word occurs in both significa- 
 tions. 
 
 In holy VESTMENTS. Comp. 
 xxix. 2, xcvi. 9. The youthlul 
 warriors who flock to the standard 
 of the king are clad in holy attire, 
 combatants in a holy war. Comp 
 Is. xiii. 3, 4, "I have commanded 
 My iatictified ones, I have also called 
 My mighty ones for Mine anger. . . . 
 The Lord of hosts mustereth the host 
 of the battle." {See also I Sam. xxv. 
 28 ; Jer. vi. 4, ' ' Sanctify ye wai 
 against her ; " li. 27, " Raise a stand- 
 ard, blow a trumpet among the 
 nations, sanctify the nations against 
 her.") But more is implied perhaps 
 than this. The "holy garments " are 
 priestly garments. They who wear 
 them are priestly warriors, in the 
 train of a priestly leader. If so, the 
 imagery is the same as in Rev, xix. 
 14, where it is said that "armies in 
 heaven followed Him (whose name is 
 called the Word of God) upon white 
 horses, clothed in firie linen, white and 
 clean. " The garments of Aaron and 
 the priests were of linen, Exod. 
 xxviii. 39, 42, Lev. vi. 10, xvi. 4, 
 and they were called "holy gar- 
 ments," Exod. xxviii. 4, Lev. xvi. 4. 
 The Hebrew word there rendered 
 garments is different from that em- 
 ployed in this and the two parallel 
 passages in the Psalms, but apparently 
 the same thing is intended. Some 
 have supposed that the allusion is 
 to a solemn religious service held 
 before going out to battle, but we 
 have no evidence of the existence 01 
 any such custom. 
 
552 
 
 PSALM ex. 
 
 (Is) to Thee the dew of Thy young men 
 Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent : 
 " Thou art a priest for ever 
 After the order of Melchizedek." 
 
 Thy young men, lit. "Thy 
 youth." Elsewhere the word means 
 the time of youth, as in Eccl. xi. 9, 
 10 ; and so it has been understood 
 here, the object 'veing thus to mark 
 the vigour and p ovyess of the leader, 
 as the dew denotes fresh and early 
 beauty. But tihe parallelism requires 
 us to take "Thy youth" here in a 
 collective sense, = " Thy young men." 
 
 The dew which, especially in the 
 East, falls so copiously, is most pro- 
 bably employed here as a figure de- 
 noting infinite multitude. Comp. the 
 use of the figure in 2 Sam. xvii. 11, 
 12, " Therefore I counsel that all 
 Israel be gathered to thee . . . as 
 the sand that is by the sea for multi- 
 tude .... and we will light upon 
 him as the dew falleth on the ground," 
 &c. Others find the point of com- 
 parison here in the brightness and 
 freshness of the dew ; and this may 
 oe suggested by the figure as well as 
 multitude. In Mic. v. 7 the point of 
 comparison seems to be different : 
 " And the remnant of Jacob shall be 
 in the midst of many people as a dew 
 from Jehovah, as showers upon the 
 grass, that tarrieth not for man nor 
 waiteth for the sons of men." Here 
 the point is, that the dew, like the 
 rain, is a wonderful gift of God, with 
 which man has no concern. 
 
 4. This verse contains th"e great 
 central revelation of the Psalm. How 
 weighty it is, and of how vast im- 
 port, may be inferred from the solem- 
 nity of the introduction "Jehovah 
 hath sworn " (see on the Divine oath, 
 Heb. vi. 13* 17, 18), and this is 
 carried to the very highest pitch by 
 the addition of the words ' ' And will 
 not repent," i.e. the decree is abso- 
 
 lutely immutable (for God Himself is 
 said to have repented. Gen. vi. 6). 
 It is the solemn inauguration of the 
 Messiah in time to the priestly office. 
 It is the first intimation of the union 
 of the kingly and priestly functions in 
 His person. See the later typical 
 representation of the same truth in 
 Zech. vi. 12, 13. The writer of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews dwells on the 
 significance of each expression in this 
 verse : " with an oath " — " for ever" 
 — " After the order of Melchizedek." 
 
 (1) He lays stress on the fact that 
 this solemn inauguration into the 
 priestly office was by an oath, which 
 was not the case with the institution 
 of the Levitical priest. This, he 
 observes, is a proof that Christ is 
 Mediator of a better covenant than 
 that of Moses (Heb. vii. 20 — 22). 
 
 (2) He argues that as the priest- 
 hood rests on an unchangeable foun- 
 dation, so it is in its nature unchange- 
 able : a Priest for ever. ' ' He, be- 
 cause He abideth for ever, hath His 
 priesthood unchangeable, " vii. 23, 2'i. 
 
 (3) He enlarges upon all those 
 points in which Melchizedek, rather 
 than Aaron, was the most fitting type 
 of Christ ; passing over, however, in 
 entire silence, that which in tlie 
 Patristic and Romish expositors holds 
 a prominent place, the bringing forth 
 of bread and wine. Another and 
 essential feature of the type which is 
 implied in Heb. vii. is too often over- 
 looked, viz. that the priesthood of 
 Melchizedek was not only before the 
 law, but was a Gentile priesthood, 
 and therefore the most fitting type of 
 a universal priesthood. 
 
 5 — 7. The martial strain of ver. 
 2—4 is resumed. There the might 
 
PSALM ex. 
 
 5 The Lord at thy right hand 
 
 Hath crushed kings in the day of His wrath. 
 
 6 He shall judge among the nations, 
 
 He hath filled (them) with corpses, 
 
 SS3 
 
 of the King and his army were de- 
 scribed, here the conflict and the 
 victory. It is remarkable how these 
 eartlily images, this warlike tone, pre- 
 dominates, considering the language 
 of ver. 4. The priestly character of 
 the monarch, the very name of Mel- 
 chizedek, who was not only king of 
 righteousness, but king of Salem, 
 that is, king of peace (Heb. vii.), 
 would have led us to expect anything 
 hnt the picture of a battle-field covered 
 with corpses and a leader in full 
 pursuit of his enemies. Still it must 
 not be forgotten that we have a paral- 
 lel example in the New Testament 
 See Rev. xix. u — 16. 
 
 5. The Lord ('Adonai). This 
 form of the plural is never used except 
 as a Divine Name. The Targum 
 gives as the equivalent here "the She- 
 chinah of Jehovah." Is this name 
 here applied to Jehovah or to the 
 King? Many expositors argue that 
 the King must be meant ; and, on 
 the other side, it has been argued 
 that (i) the name of 'Adonai is never 
 elsewhere given to the Messiah, or to 
 any but God ; (2) that the expression 
 "in the day of His wrath " is more 
 naturally to be interpreted of God 
 than of the Messiah. 
 
 The arguments are so nearly ba- 
 lanced, that it is difficult to decide, 
 although most of the recent expositors 
 —even those who hold to the Mes- 
 sianic interpretation — understand by 
 'Adonai, ver. 5, not the Messiah, but 
 Jehovah. It should be observed, 
 however, that there is no reason why 
 the King, who is called 'Elohim (God) 
 in Ps. xlv., should not be called 
 'Adonai (Lord) in this Psalm. On 
 
 the other hand, to assume a change of 
 subject, whether that change is to be 
 introduced at the begirming of ver. 
 6 or ver. 7 (see below), is perfectly 
 justifiable ; and it is more justifiable 
 in this instance, because Jehovah and 
 the King are so closely associated, 
 that what the one does the other may 
 be said to do. It is Jehovah's throne 
 on which the King sits, it is Jehovah's 
 hand which wields the King's sceptre : 
 Jehovah discomfits the King's ene- 
 mies, and the King pursues them in 
 their flight. It may be remarked, 
 further, that throughout the Psalm 
 the address is directed to the King and 
 Priest, and that in cix. 31 Jehovah 
 " stands at the right hand" of the 
 poor to succour and defend him, as 
 here at the right hand of the King. 
 
 Taking this view, however, it is still 
 difficult to say whether the King is the 
 subject of both verses 6 and 7, or only 
 of ver. 7. I prefer, however, regarding 
 the King as the subject of ver. 6. 
 
 Kings. There may, perhaps, be 
 an allusion to the glorious victories of 
 old, such as that of Moses, Num. xxi. ; 
 of Joshua, Josh. x. ; of Deborah, 
 Judg. V. 3, 19 ; of Gideon, Judg. viii. 
 Comp. Ps. Ixviii. I2. If so, this 
 would account for the use of the past 
 tense, '■'hath crushed," all God's 
 judgements having been judgements 
 executed on behalf of His Anointed. 
 But as the future tenses are inter- 
 changed with the past in the next two 
 verses, it seems better to regard the 
 former as indicating that the victory 
 is yet future, while the latter imply 
 that it is represented so vividly to the 
 Poet's eye that he can conceive of it 
 as already accomplished. 
 
5 54 PSALM ex. 
 
 He bath crushed the heads over wide lands. 
 7 Of the brook in the way shall He drink ; 
 Therefore shall He lift up (His) head. 
 
 6. The heads. The word is who has made so terrible a slaughter 
 singular, but used apparently in a that the field of battle is covered 
 collective sense, either literally as in with corpses, is now seen pursuing his 
 Ixviii. 21, or metaphorically of ra/wj, enemies. Wearied with the battle 
 princes. and the pursuit, he stops for a mo- 
 
 7. Of THE BRO0K IN THE WAY, ment on the way to refresh himself by 
 or, if we follow the accents, " Of the drinking of the torrent rushing by, 
 brook (or torrent) shall he drink in and then " lifts up his head," derives 
 the way." The victorious leader, new vigour to continue the pursuit. 
 
 I subjdin the following paraphrase of the Psalm : — 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah, — it is His revelation that I hear, it is His 
 word addressed to one who, though He be my son, is yet my lord, — 
 ' I give Thee honour and dignity equal to My own, I associate Thee 
 with Myself in kingly rule and dominion, until I have subdued every 
 enemy who shall dare to lift himself up against Thee.'" 
 
 Then, turning to the King who has thus been solemnly placed on 
 the throne of Jehovah, and who rules as His vicegerent in Zion, the 
 Psalmist says : " From Zion, Thy royal seat, shall Jehovah Himself, 
 on whose throne Thou sittest, stretch out the sceptre of Thy dominion. 
 So close shall be the fellowship between Him and Thee. Thou shalt 
 sit on His throne, He shall wield Thy sceptre. His might shall be 
 Thy might, His kingdom shall be Thy kingdom, and Thou shalt not 
 only subdue Thine enemies, but before they are yet vanquished Thou 
 shalt rule in the midst of them. When Thou goest forth to war, 
 Thine own people shall flock with glad and willing hearts to Thy 
 standard. They shall come clad, not in armour, but in holy vestments 
 as ministering priests, for Thou hast consecrated them to be Thy 
 priestly soldiers. They shall come a youthful host, in numbers num- 
 berless as the dew, bright and fresh as the dew from the womb of 
 the morning. 
 
 " Yet another solemn word concerning Thee have I heard. It is a 
 word confirmed by an oath, the oath of the Most High, which cannot 
 be broken. By that oath He hath made Thee Priest as well as King ; 
 King Thou art. Priest Thou shalt be henceforth ; Priest not after the 
 law of a carnal commandment, or by descent through the Levitical 
 
PSALM CXI. 555 
 
 priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek, — Priest therefore not 
 of the Jew only, but of the Gentile also,— Priest not for a time, but 
 for ever." 
 
 Then, looking on the leader, the host, the conflict, the Poet ex- 
 claims : " The Lord, the God of hosts who is with Thee, O King, who 
 is at Thy right hand to succour and give Thee the victory in the battle, 
 hath already crushed the rival monarchs that dispute Thy sway. 
 Thou shalt be a judge and ruler among the nations whom He has 
 given Thee as Thine inheritance. The vast battle-field is strewn with 
 the corpses of Thy foes. Far and wide hast Thou extended Thy con- 
 quests, vanquishing one leader after another ; and Thou shalt reap the 
 fruit of Thy victories like a warrior who, pressing hotly on the rear ot 
 his enemies as they flee before him, scarcely pauses for a moment to 
 snatch a hasty draught from the wayside brook, and then with renewed 
 ardour, with head erect and kindling eye, continues the pursuit. Thus 
 shall victory be crowned, and not a foe remain.'' 
 
 PSALM CXI. 
 
 This Psalm and the next are framed exactly on the same model. 
 They are both alphabetical Psalms. In both the letters of the alphabet 
 mark not only the beginning of verses, as in other Psalms, but the 
 beginning of each several clause of the verses. In both there are 
 exactly twenty-two lines, each line consisting usually of three words ; 
 and in both the order of the alphabet is strictly preserved, which is 
 not the case in other alphabetical Psalms (see, for instance, xxv., 
 xxxiv., xxxvii.). Finally, so exactly does the structure of the two 
 Psalms correspond, that the first eight verses in both consist each of 
 two lines, and the last two verses of three lines. 
 
 But the Psalms answer to one another not only in structure, but in 
 thought. The same significant phrases occur in both, and occur in 
 such a way as to mark the mutual relation of the two Poems. In 
 the 1 1 ith, the mighty deeds, the glory, the righteousness of Jehovah 
 
558 
 
 PSALM CXI. 
 
 
 Yod 
 
 6 
 
 Caph 
 
 
 Lamed 
 
 7 
 
 Mem 
 
 
 Nun 
 
 8 
 
 Samech 
 
 9 
 
 Ayin 
 
 Pe 
 
 Tsaddi 
 
 o 
 
 Koph 
 Resh 
 
 He remembered His covenant for ever. 
 
 The might of His works hath He declared to 
 His people, 
 
 To give them the heritage of the nations. 
 
 The works of His hand are truth and judge- 
 ment ; 
 
 Faithful are all His statutes ; 
 
 They are upheld for ever and ever, 
 
 They are done in truth and uprightness. 
 
 He hath sent redemption to His people ; 
 
 He hath commanded His covenant for ever; 
 
 Holy and awful is His Name. 
 
 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, 
 
 how inextinguishable was the warlike 
 predatory spirit in the mind of the 
 writer, good Israelite and devout wor- 
 shiper of Jehovah as he was. Late 
 as he lived in the history of his 
 nation, he cannot forget ' the power ' 
 of Jehovah's 'works,' by which his 
 forefathers acquired the ' heritage 
 of the heathen;' and to him, as to 
 his ancestors when conquering the 
 country, it is still a firm article of 
 behef that those who fear Jehovah 
 shall obtain, most of the spoil of His 
 enemies — those who obey His com- 
 mandments shall have the best success 
 in the field." — Diet, of the Bible, art. 
 Meat. 
 
 To the above may be added the 
 probable allusion to the deliverance 
 from Egypt, and the occupation of 
 Canaan, in ver. 9. It is doubtful, 
 however, whether the rendering "good 
 success " in ver. 10 is correct, 
 
 Delitzsch, on the other hand, sup- 
 poses that by the "memorial" is 
 meant the Festivals, which were insti- 
 tuted to keep alive the remembrance 
 of God's mighty works in the days of 
 Moses, and by the "food," the meal 
 accompanying the sacrifices, and the 
 Pfischal feast. [It is with reference 
 
 to this verse, doubtless, that Luther 
 calls the Psalm "an Easter or Paschal 
 Psalm."] Theodoret, Augustine, and 
 others understand by this ' ' food " in 
 the N. T. sense the Eucharist, and 
 the Psalm has been accordingly used 
 Eis a Eucharistic Psalm. It is a 
 curious instance of the way in which a 
 word may draw to itself a whole train 
 of thought with which it has really no 
 connection. 
 
 8. Upheld ; not, however, by any 
 external proof, but by their own in- 
 herent power. 
 
 9. He hath sent. There is pro- 
 bably an allusion to the redemption 
 from E^pt, and in the next member 
 to the Sinaitic covenant. Then Je- 
 hovah revealed Himself as the holy 
 and the awful God. But here, and 
 throughout the Psalm, I have rendered 
 the past tenses as perfects, because the 
 reference is evidently not exclusively 
 to the past, but also to the still pre- 
 sent results of the " redemption " and 
 the "covenant." 
 
 He hath commanded. The 
 verb is used, as in cv. 8, in its original 
 sense of appointing, establishing. 
 
 10. The beginning of wisdom. 
 Comp. Job xxviii. 28. 
 
PSALM CXII. 
 
 559 
 
 Shin A good understanding have all they that do 
 
 them: 
 Tau His praise endureth for ever. 
 
 A GOOD UNDERSTANDING, Or per- 
 haps rather " understanding of, in- 
 sight into, that which is good." 
 Comp. Prov. iii. 4, xiiL i S ; 2 Chron. 
 jux. 22, 
 
 They that do them. The 
 reference of the plur. pron. "them" 
 
 can only be to the " statutes '' men- 
 tioned in ver. 7. The P. B. V. 
 "thereafter." Augustine lays stress 
 on this "doing." ^' Bonus est intel- 
 iectus," he says ; "quisnegat? Sed 
 intelligere et non facere periculosum 
 est. Bonus eigo facientibus." 
 
 PSALM CXII. 
 
 On this Psalm, see the Introduction to Psalm cxi. In its general 
 character it resembles Psalms i. and xxxvii. In the Vulgate the title 
 is " Conversio Aggasi et Zachariae." 
 
 1 Hallelujah ! 
 
 Aleph Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah, 
 
 Beth That delighteth greatly in His commandments. 
 
 2 Gimel His seed shall become mighty in the earth. 
 Daleth The generation of the upright shall be blessed ; 
 
 3 He Wealth and riches are in his house, 
 
 Vau And his righteousness standeth fast for ever. 
 
 1. Comp. i. I, 2. 
 
 2. Mighty. The word is com- 
 monly used of warlike strength and 
 prowess, but sometimes also in a 
 more general sense of wealth, sub- 
 stance, &c. So Boaz is called "a 
 mighty man of wealth," Ruth ii. I ; 
 and Kish, i Sam. ix. i j see also 
 2 Kings XV. 20. 
 
 3. Wealth and riches. So in 
 the Proverbs these are said to be the 
 gift of Wisdom to them that love 
 her. See iii. 16, viii. 18, xxii. 4. Su 
 even in the New Testament : see Mark 
 X. 29, 30. 
 
 His righteousness, &c. It seems 
 a bold thing to say this of anything 
 human, and yet it is true ; for all 
 
S6o 
 4 Zain 
 
 PSALM CXII. 
 
 There ariseth a light in the darkness for the 
 upright, 
 Cheth (He is) gracious, and of tender compassion, 
 and righteous. 
 
 5 Teth Happy is the man who showeth favour and 
 
 lendeth, 
 Yod He shall maintain his cause in (the) judgement ; 
 
 6 Caph For he shall not be moved for ever, 
 
 Lamed The righteous shall be in everlasting remem- 
 brance. 
 
 7 Mem Because of (any) evil tidings he shall not fear : 
 Nun His heart is established trusting in Jehovah. 
 
 8 Samech His heart is upheld, he cannot fear, 
 
 Ayin Until he see (his desire) upon his adversaries. 
 
 human righteousness has its root in the 
 righteousness of God. It is not merely 
 man striving to copy God. It is God's 
 gift and God's work. There is a living 
 connection between the righteousness 
 of God and the righteousness of man, 
 and therefore the imperishableness 
 of the one appertains to the other also. 
 Hence the same thing is affirmed 
 here of the human righteousness which 
 in cxi. 3, is affirmed of the Divine. 
 
 4. A LIGHT FOR THE UPRIGHT. 
 Comp. xcvii. 11, "Light is sown for 
 the upright." 
 
 In the next clause of the verse the 
 three adjectives occasion some diffi- 
 culty. Although they are in the sin- 
 gular number, whilst "the upright" 
 in the preceding line is plural, it 
 seems most natural to take them as 
 intended further to describe the cha- 
 racter of the upright. The first two 
 epithets, elsewhere applied only to 
 Jehovah, are so applied in cxi. 3, and 
 the relation of the two Psalms makes 
 it almost certain, therefore, that they 
 are here applied to His servants. See 
 also Matt. v. 45, 48 ; Is. Iviii. 8. The 
 change from the plural to the singular 
 
 is certainly unusually harsh, as the 
 epithets are loosely strung together, 
 without anything to mark their re- 
 ference ; but this may be accounted 
 for in some measure by the require- 
 ment of the alphabetical arrangement. 
 Others take the three attributes as 
 in opposition with the noun "light" 
 in the preceding clause, God Himself 
 being the " Light" (as in xxvii. i) ; 
 comp. I3. X. 17, Ix. 1^3 ; Mai. iv. 2 : 
 ' ' There hath arisen a Light, viz. He 
 who is gracious," &c. 
 
 5. He SHALL MAINTAIN, &c., men- 
 tioned as an instance of his happiness, 
 which is then confirmed by what 
 follows, ver. 6. 
 
 6. In everlasting remem- 
 brance. Comp. Prov. x. 7. 
 
 7. Further evidence of the happi- 
 ness of such a man — a clear conscience 
 and a heart that trusts not in itself 
 but in God, and thus is raised above 
 all fear. The epithets " established," 
 "trusting," "upheld," are all stri- 
 kingly descriptive of the true attitude 
 of faith, as that which leans upon and 
 is supported by God. The two last 
 are combined also in Is. xxvi, 3. 
 
PSALM CXIII. 5G1 
 
 9 Pe He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor ; 
 
 Tsaddi His righteousness standeth fast for ever, 
 Koph His horn shall be exalted with glory. 
 10 Resh The wicked shall see (it) and be grieved. 
 Shin He shall gnash his teeth and melt away, 
 Tau The desire of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 9. He hath dispersed. The behalf of the poor, 2 Cor. ix. 9. 
 
 verb occurs in Prov. xi. 24, in the His horn ; see on Ixxv. 5. 
 
 same way, of the free and active ex- 10. Shall gnash his teeth, as 
 
 ercise of charity. This verse is quoted in xxxv. 16, xxxvii. 12. 
 
 by St. Paul when exhorting the Co- Melt away, i.e. through jealousy 
 
 rinthians to liberal contributions on and annoyance. 
 
 PSALM cxni. 
 
 With this Psalm begins " the Hallel " which was sung at the three 
 Great Feasts, at the Feast of Dedication, and at the New Moons. 
 At the Feast of the Passover it was divided into two parts, the first 
 of which, consisting of Psalms cxiii. cxiv., was sung before the meal, 
 that is, before the second cup was passed round ; and the second, 
 consisting of Psalms cxv.^cxviii., after the meal, when the fourth 
 cup had been filled. This last, probably, was "the hymn" which 
 our Lord and His Apostles are said to have sung {yiurfiuav-m. Matt. 
 xxvi. 30, Mark xiv. 26), after His last Passover. 
 
 Paulus Burgensis styles Psalms cxiii. — cxviii. Alleluia Judaot-um 
 magnum, and this has been a very usual designation. But according 
 to the ancient Jewish tradition this series of Psalms is called simply 
 "the Hallel," or sometimes "the Egyptian Hallel," whereas the name 
 " Great Hallel " is given to Psalm cxxxvi. 
 
 The Psalm may be said to be a connecting link between the Song 
 of Hannah and the Magnificat of the Virgin. 
 
 It may be viewed as consisting of three strophes. 
 
 O O 
 
562 PSALM CXIII. 
 
 1. The first exhorts to the praise of Jehovah as the one great object 
 of praise. Ver. i — 3. 
 
 2. The second sets forth His greatness. Ver. 4—6. 
 
 3. The third magnifies His condescension. Ver. 7—9. 
 
 The second and third of these divisions, however, are closely con- 
 nected, and, in fact, run into one another. 
 
 1 Hallelujah ! 
 
 Praise, O ye servants of Jehovah, 
 Praise the Name of Jehovah. 
 
 2 Blessed be the Name of Jehovah 
 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 
 3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the 
 
 same 
 Let the Name of Jehovah be praised. 
 
 4 Jehovah is lifted up above all nations, 
 
 His glory is above the heavens. 
 
 5 Who is like Jehovah our God, 
 
 Who sitteth throned on high, 
 
 6 Who stoopeth down to see 
 
 (What is) done in the heaven and in the earth .■• 
 
 7 He raiseth the miserable from the dust, 
 
 (And) lifteth up the poor from (the) dunghill, 
 
 8 That he may set (him) with princes, 
 
 (Even) with the princes of His people. 
 
 I. Servants of Jehovah; all " maketh high to sit ; " as in the next 
 
 Israel as a nation consecrated to His verse, "maketh low to see." The 
 
 service ; comp. Ixix. 36, cxxxv. i same antithesis occurs cxxxviii. 6. It 
 
 (where this same verse is found, but denotes not merely the omniscience 
 
 with the clauses transposed), cxxxvi. 2. of God, but His greatness and His 
 
 3. Let the Name, &c. This condescension. Comp. viii. 4, and 
 
 rendering seems preferable in the the striking expansion of the same 
 
 context, though we might render "is thought, Is. Ivii. 15. 
 
 worthy to be praised," as in xviii. 3, 7. This and the next verse are 
 
 or simply "is praised." almost word for word from the Song 
 
 5. SlTTETHTHRONED0NHlGH,lit. of Hannah, I Sam. ii. 8. 
 
PSALM CXIV. 563 
 
 9 Who maketh the barren woman to keep house. 
 As a joyful mother of children. 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 9. The curse of barrenness was so 
 bitter a thing in Jewish eyes, that its 
 removal was hailed as a special mark 
 of Divine favour. The allusion to it 
 here was suggested, doubtless, by 
 Hannah's history, and by the strain 
 of Hannah's song already qaoted : 
 see I Sam. ii. 5. 
 
 Maketh the barren woman, 
 &c. : ht. " maketh her who is barren 
 
 of (in) the house to dwell," i.e. ma- 
 keth her who through barrenness has 
 no family to have a family, and so 
 have a fixed, settled habitation in the 
 land. The use of the phrase in Ixviii. 6 
 is somewhat different, as there the 
 word " house " means the place of 
 abode ; here, the family. Compare 
 the expression "to make a house," 
 Exod. i. 21 ; 2 Sam. vii. 11. 
 
 PSALM CXIV. 
 
 This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the Psalms which touch 
 on the early history of Israel. It is certainly the most graphic and 
 the most striking in the boldness of its outlines. The following 
 remarks may perhaps illustrate the conception and plan of the Poem. 
 
 1. In structure it is singularly perfect. This rests upon the common 
 principle of pairs of verses, and thus we have four strophes, each con- 
 sisting of two verses ; each of these verses, again, consists of two 
 lines, in which the parallelism is carefully preserved. 
 
 2. The effect is produced, as in Psalm xxix., not by minute tracing 
 of details, but by the boldness with which certain great features of the 
 history are presented. 
 
 3. A singular animation and an almost dramatic force are given to 
 the Poem by the beautiful apostrophe in ver. 5, 6, and the effect of 
 this is heightened in a remarkable degree by the use of the present 
 tense. The awe and the trembling of nature are a spectacle on 
 which the Poet is looking. The parted sea through which Israel 
 walks as on dry land, the rushing Jordan arrested in its course, the 
 
 O O 3 
 
564 FSALM CXIV. 
 
 granite cliffs of Sinai shaken to their base— he sees it all, and asks in 
 ■wonder what it means. 
 
 4. Then it is that the truth bursts upon his mind, and the impression 
 of this upon the reader is very finely nianaged. The name of God, 
 which has been entirely concealed up to this point in the Poem 
 (even the possessive pronoun being left without its substantive, 
 " J udah was His sanctuary, Israel was His dominion "), is now only 
 introduced after the apostrophe in verses 5, 6. 
 
 " The reason seems evident, and this conduct necessary, for if God 
 had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains 
 should leap and the sea retire ; therefore, that this convulsion of nature 
 may be brought in with due surprise. His name is not mentioned till 
 afterward ; and then with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is 
 introduced at once in aU His majesty."* 
 
 We have no clue to guide us as to the age of the Psalm, or the 
 occasion for which it was written, except that perhaps the forms in 
 ver. 8, which are found in other late Psalms, may be taken to indicate 
 a date after the Exile. 
 
 1 When Israel went forth out of Egypt, 
 
 The house of Jacob from a people of strange 
 language, 
 
 2 Judah became His sanctuary, 
 
 Israel His dominion. 
 
 3 The sea saw and fled, 
 
 I, 2. The introduction sets forth lit. "a stammering {i.e. an unintelli- 
 
 at once both the great redemptive act gible) people. " Comp. Deut. xxviii. 
 
 and ,also the end of the redemption, 49 j Is. xxviii. 1 1, xxxiii. 19 ; Jer. v. 
 
 viz., that God Himself might dwell 15. 
 
 among and rule His people. 2. His sanctuary. Comp. Exod. 
 
 This sanctifying of the nation, as a xv. 17, where the Promised Land is 
 
 nation to Himself, took place in the called ' ' the Sanctuary, O Lord, 
 
 wilderness before the law was given : which Thy hands have established." 
 
 " Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of His dominion or kingdom : comp. 
 
 priests and a holy nation" (Exod. Num. xxiii. 21. 
 
 xix. 6). ■ 3: The sea saw, viz. God, whose 
 
 A PEOPLE OF STRANGE LANGUAGE, name and whose presence are still 
 
 * Spectator, No. 461. 
 
PSALM CXV. 
 
 IH 
 
 Jordan was turned backwards ; 
 
 4 The mountains skipped like rams. 
 
 The hills like young sheep. 
 
 5 What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest ; 
 
 Thou Jordan, that thou art turned backwards ? 
 
 6 Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams ; 
 
 Ye hills, like young sheep ? 
 
 7 Before the Lord tremble, O earth, 
 
 Before God (the God of) Jacob ; 
 
 8 Who changed the rock into a pool of water, 
 
 The flint-stone into a fountain of waters. 
 
 purposely concealed. Comp. Ixxvii. 
 l6 ; xcvii. 4 ; Hab. iii. 10. 
 
 The passage of the Red Sea and 
 of the Jordan are combined, not only 
 as miracles of a similar character, but 
 as marking the beginning and the end 
 of the great deliverance — the escape 
 from Egypt, the entrance into the 
 Promised Land. 
 
 4. The reference is probably to 
 the terrors which accompanied the 
 giving of the Lav? on Sinai (Exod. 
 xix. 18, "and the whole mount 
 quaked greatly "), although these con- 
 vulsions of nature form a part of every 
 Theophany, or manifestation of God. 
 
 Comp. xviii. 7, Ixxvii. 18; Hab. iii., 
 Is. Ixiv. I — 3. For the figure see Ps. 
 xxix. 6. 
 
 8. The rock (tsAr), referring to 
 the miracle in Exod. xvii. 6. The 
 FLINT-STONE (or perhaps " the steep 
 cliff"). 
 
 These miracles are selected as the 
 most striking proofs of ' ' God's abso- 
 lute creative omnipotence, and of the 
 grace which changes death into life. " 
 They are, moreover, parallel miracles 
 like the two mentioned in ver. 3, and 
 thus the poetical effect is height- 
 ened. 
 
 PSALM CXV. 
 
 This is evidently one of the later liturgical Psalms. It was pro- 
 bably composed for the service of the Second Temple, whilst yet the 
 taunts of their heathen adversaries were ringing in the ears of the 
 
566 PSALM CXV. 
 
 returned exiles, and whilst yet contempt for the idolatries which they 
 had witnessed in Babylon was fresh in their hearts. 
 
 The Psalm opens with a confession of unworthiness and a prayer 
 that God would vindicate His own honour against the scoff of the 
 heathen. Ver. i, 2. 
 
 It exalts Him, the Invisible, Omnipotent, absolutely Supreme 
 Ruler of the universe, and pours contempt upon the idols and their 
 worshipers. Ver. 3 — 8. 
 
 It bids all Israel, both priests and people, put their trust in Him 
 who is alone worthy of trust, the help and shield of His people. Ver. 
 9 — 12. 
 
 It promises that Jehovah shall give His blessing to them that thus 
 trust in Him, and calls upon them in return to give Him thanks for 
 ever. Ver. 12 — 18. 
 
 Ewald's conjecture that the Psalm was intended to be sung whilst 
 the sacrifices were offered, and that at ver. 12 the voice of the priest 
 declares God's gracious acceptance of the sacrifice, is not improbable. 
 He gives ver. i — 11 to the congregation, ver, 12 — ij to the priest, 
 ver. 16 — 18 to the congregation. But it seems more likely that the 
 change of voices comes in at ver. 9, and that, as Tholuck supposes, 
 in each of the verses 9, 10, 11, the first line was sung as a solo, 
 perhaps by one of the Levites, and the second by the whole choir. 
 
 {The Congregation^ 
 
 I Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, 
 But unto Thy Name, give glory, 
 
 Because of Thy loving-kindness, because of 
 Thy truth. 
 
 I. Not unto us. The'repetitioti given by Moses, St. John could say, 
 
 of the words expresses the more vividly jj x"'-?'* ""l »! dAjJecia Sid '\i\ao\i 
 
 the deep sense of unworthiness, the Xpta-roS iyeyero, John i. 1 7. 
 unfeigned humility which claims no- Both these attributes of God would 
 
 thing for itself be assailed if the taunt of the 
 
 LoviNG-KiNDNESS .... TRUTH. heathen should be allowed to pass 
 
 The two great characteristic attributes unsilenced. It is God's glory which 
 
 of God, even in the Old Testament ; is at stake, 
 ihouph in contrast with the Law as 
 
PSALM CXV. 
 
 567 
 
 2 Wherefore should the nations say : 
 
 " Where now is their God ? " 
 
 3 But our God is in the heavens ; 
 
 He hath done whatsoever He pleased. 
 
 4 Their idols are silver and gold, 
 
 The work of men's hands. 
 
 5 A mouth have they, but they speak not ; 
 
 Eyes have they, but they do not see. 
 
 6 They have ears, but they hear not ; 
 
 A nose have they, but they do not smell. 
 
 7 They have hands, but they handle not ; 
 
 Feet have they, but they walk not : 
 
 They do not utter any sound with their 
 throat. 
 
 8 Like unto them are they that make them. 
 
 Every one who putteth his trust in them. 
 
 3. But, or "and yet." See the 
 same use of the conjunction in ii. 6. 
 The answer to the taunt of the 
 heathen, who, seeing no image of 
 Jehovah, mocked at His existence. 
 First, He is in heaven, invisible in- 
 deed, yet thence ruling the universe ; 
 next, He doeth what He will, in fine 
 contrast with the utter impotence of 
 the idols of the heathen. The last ex- 
 pression denotes both God's almighty 
 power and His absolute freedom. 
 This, truthfully accepted, does away 
 with all (J prii)ri objections to mi- 
 racles. 
 
 4. Silver and gold, i.e. how- 
 ever costly the material, this adds no 
 real value to the image; it is, after 
 all, man's workmanship. This seems 
 to be the thought : otherwise the 
 Psalmist would have said "wood 
 and stone" rather than "silver and 
 gold." This agrees also with what 
 loUows. " Though they may be of 
 costly materials, they are but of hu- 
 
 man workmanship ; though they may 
 have the form and members of man, 
 they are lifeless." 
 
 We have the same description of 
 these dumb and deaf and dead gods 
 in cxxxv. 15 — 18, probably borrowed 
 from this passage. Comp. Deut. iv. 
 28, and the sarcastic picture in Is. 
 xliv. 9 — 20. 
 
 8. Like unto them. So true it 
 is, not only that as is man so is his 
 god, but the reverse also, as is the 
 god so is his worshiper. Comp. Is. 
 xliv. 9, where what is elsewhere said 
 of the idols is said of the worshipers, 
 that they are " emptiness ; " and ob- 
 serve the use of the verb " to become 
 vain," 2 Kings xvii. 15 ; Jer. ii. 5, 
 applied in like manner to idolaters. 
 They who, turning away from God's 
 witness of Himself in the visible crea- 
 tion, worship! the creature rather than 
 the Creator, received in themselves 
 the sentence of their own degrada- 
 tion, " Their foolish heart became 
 
S68 
 
 PSALM CXV. 
 
 [Levites and Choir?) 
 
 9 O Israel, trust in Jehovah ! 
 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 10 O house of Aaron, trust ye in Jehovah ! 
 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 11 Ye that fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah ! 
 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 {The Priest?) 
 
 12 Jehovah (who) hath been mindful of us will bless- 
 
 He will bless the house of Israel, 
 He will bless the house of Aaron. 
 
 13 He will bless them that fear Jehovah, 
 
 Both small and great. 
 
 darkened." They became blind and 
 deaf and dumb and dead, like the 
 idols they set up to worship. 
 
 9. The change in the strain of the 
 Psalm here must unquestionably have 
 been accompanied by a change in the 
 music. And it appears highly pro- 
 bable, as has been said, that the first 
 line of this and the two following 
 verses was sung as a solo by some one 
 of the Levites, and the second line, or 
 refrain, which occurs in each verse, 
 "He is their help and their shield," 
 by the choir. 
 
 Trust in Jehovah, in contrast 
 with the ' ' trust " of the previous 
 verse. Tiust in Jehovah, for He is 
 not like the idols ; He is the living 
 God, " the help and the shield " 
 (comp. xxxiii. 20) of them that trust 
 in Him. Trust in Jehovah, for He 
 hath been mindful of us in times past. 
 He uiiill bless us in time to come 
 (ver. 12). The threefold division, 
 Israel — house of Aaron — they that 
 fear Jehovah, is the same as in cxviii. 
 
 2, 3, 4. In cxxxv. 20 the house of 
 Levi is added. 
 
 10. First the people at large are 
 exhorted to this trust, then the priests, 
 because to them was confided the wor- 
 ship of Jehovah, with them it rested 
 to keep it pure, and they might natu- 
 rally be expected to lead the people 
 in the path of holy tnrst. 
 
 11. Ye that fear Jehovah. 
 This has been understood of pro- 
 selytes of the gate, in accordance 
 with the later Jewish and New Test, 
 usage, as in the Acts, a-iSdiami t6v 
 @e6i>, or simply iTeP6fiei'oi. Comp. 
 Acts xiii. 43, 50. But in other places 
 in the Psalms the phrase occurs of all 
 Israel; see xxii. 23, ciii. 11, 13, 17. 
 
 12. Hath been mindful .... 
 WILL bless. The past is the pledge 
 of the future. Again the same three 
 classes are Mentioned as in the three 
 preceding verses. 
 
 This blessing, thus promised (ver. 
 12, 13) and thus supplicated (ver. 14, 
 15), was sung, as Ewald conjectures, 
 
PSALM CXVI. 
 
 569 
 
 14 May Jehovah increase you more and more, 
 
 You and your children ! 
 
 15 Blessed be ye of Jehovah, 
 
 The Maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 ((The Congregatio}i) 
 
 16 The heavens are Jehovah's heavens ; 
 
 But the earth He hath given to the children 
 of men. 
 
 17 The dead cannot praise Jah, 
 
 Neither all they that go down into silence ; 
 
 18 But we will bless Jah 
 
 From henceforth even for ever, 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 by the priest. But see Introduction 
 to Ps. cxviii. 
 
 14. Increase vou. Comp. Gen. 
 XXX. 24 ; Deut. i. 1 1 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 3. 
 
 15. Maker of heaven and 
 EARTH. The title has reference to 
 the impotent idols before described. 
 
 16. The words in this and the next 
 verse are simple enough, but their 
 connection with the rest of the Psalm 
 is not very clear. Perhaps it may be 
 traced thus : In ver. 15 Jehovah is 
 said to have mad6 heaven and earth. 
 Then in ver. 16 these are distributed : 
 heaven is His abode ; earth is the 
 
 abode of man. But the mention of 
 heaven and earth suggests the thought 
 of another region, that luiseen v/or'd 
 below where none can praise God as 
 they do on this fair earth which He 
 has given to the children of men. 
 But what the dead cannot do, we will 
 do, — we to whom our God has given 
 the earth, we to whom He has been 
 a help and a shield, we whom He has 
 blessed and will bless, we with thank- 
 ful hearts will never cease to show 
 forth His praise. 
 
 17. Comp. cxviii. 17 ; Is. xxxviii. 
 18, 19. 
 
 PSALM CXVI. 
 
 In this Psalm one who has been in peril of death (ver. 3, g, 15) 
 gives thanks to God with a full heart for the deliverance which has 
 been vouchsafed to him. Beginning with the expression of a love to 
 
570 PSALM CXVI. 
 
 God called forth by His mercy, the Psalmist then passes in review all 
 God's goodness, till he feels that it surpasses infinitely not only all 
 his deserts, but all adequate power of acknowledgement (ver. 12) ; 
 and he concludes by declaring that in the most public manner, before 
 the assembled congregation, he will confess how great the debt he 
 owes, and bind himself solemnly to the service of Jehovah. 
 
 The Psalm is evidence of the truth and depth of the religious life 
 in individuals after the return from the Exile ; for there can be little 
 doubt that it must be assigned to that period. Many words and 
 turns of phrases remind us of earlier Psalms, and especially of the 
 Psalms of David. His words must have laid hold in no common 
 degree of the hearts of those who were heirs of his faith, and have 
 sustained them in times of sorrow and suffering, and nothing would 
 be more natural than that later Poets should echo his strains, and 
 mingle his words with their own when they poured forth their prayers 
 and praises before God. 
 
 I LOVE (Him) because Jehovah heareth 
 
 My voice (and) my supplications, 
 Because He hath inclined His ear unto me. 
 
 Therefore as long as I live will 1 call (upon Him). 
 The cords of Death compassed me, 
 
 And the pains of the unseen world gat hold upon me. 
 Distress and sorrow did I find : 
 Then I called upon the name of Jehovah, 
 
 " O Jehovah, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul." 
 Gracious is Jehovah and righteous ; 
 
 I. I LOVE. The verb stands alone 2. As LONG AS I LIVE, lit. "in my 
 
 without any expressed object, as if the days." 
 
 full heart needed not to express it. 3. The later Psalmists would na- 
 The object appears as subject in the turally often use David's words as the 
 next clause, from which it is readily best expression of their own feelings, 
 supplied: "I love Jehovah, for He especially in seasons of peril and sor- 
 heareth, "&c. The writer is fond of row. See xviii. i — 6. 
 this pregnant use of the verb without 5. Instead of saying directly, "Je- 
 an, object expressed. See ver. 2, " I hovah answered me," he magnifies 
 call," and ver. 10, " I believe." For those attributes of God which, from 
 the sentiment, comp. xviii. 1, "Ten- the days of His wonderful self-reve- 
 derly do I love Thee. " lation to Moses (Ex. xxxiv. 6), had 
 
PSALM CXVI. 
 
 571 
 
 Yea, our God showeth tender compassion. 
 
 6 Jehovah keepeth the simple : 
 
 I was in misery and He helped me. 
 
 7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul, 
 
 For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee. 
 
 8 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, 
 
 Mine eye from tears. 
 
 My foot from stumbling. 
 
 9 I will walk before Jehovah 
 In the land of the living. 
 
 I believe (in Him) ; — for I must speak : 
 
 I was greatly afflicted. 
 I said in my confusion, 
 
 " All men are liars." 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 How shall I repay to Jehovah 
 All His benefits unto me .' 
 
 been the joy and consolation of every 
 tried and trusting heart. See Intro- 
 duction to ciii. The epithet "right- 
 eous " is added here, as in cxii. 4. 
 
 6. The simple. The very sim- 
 plicity which lays them most readily 
 open to attack is itself an appeal for 
 protection to Him who "showeth 
 tender compassion. " 
 
 7. The deliverance vouchsafed in 
 answer to prayer stills the tumult of 
 the soul. The rest is the rest of 
 con6dence in God. 
 
 10. The E. v., "I believed, there- 
 fore have I spoken," follows the 
 LXX., hri(rrev(ra, St6 iKd\T\cra, a 
 rendering which is also adopted by 
 St. Paul, 2 Cor. iv. 13, in illustration 
 of the truth that a living faith in the 
 heart will utter its convictions with 
 the mouth. But the Hebrew will 
 not admit of such a rendering. The 
 following are possible interpretations : 
 (0 "I believe when I speak," i.e. 
 when I break forth into the com- 
 
 plaint which follows in the next 
 clause. Or (2), "I believe" — em- 
 phatic, i.e. I do believe, I have learnt 
 trust in God by painful experience — 
 " for I must speak " — I must confess 
 it, "I, even I (pron. emphatic), wa's 
 greatly afflicted ; 1 myself (pron. em- 
 phatic, as before) said," &c. The 
 latter explanation seems, on the 
 whole, preferable, as it gives the due 
 prominence to the repeated pronoun, 
 and moreover a satisfactory sense is 
 obtained. The Psalmist declares that 
 he stays himself upon God ("I be- 
 lieve"), for he had looked to him- 
 self, and there had seen nothing but 
 weakness ; he had looked to other 
 men and found them all deceitful, 
 treacherous as a broken reed. Comp. 
 Ix. II, Ixii. 9, cxviii. 8, g. There is 
 an allusion to this passage in Rom. 
 iii. 4. 
 
 II. The first member is the same 
 as in xxxi, 22. 
 
572 
 
 PSALM CXVI. 
 
 1 3 I will take the cup of salvation, 
 
 And call on the Name of Jehovah. 
 
 14 My vows unto Jehovah will I pay, 
 
 Yea, in the presence of all His people let me (pay 
 them). 
 
 15 Precious in the sight of Jehovah 
 
 Is the death of His beloved. 
 
 16 I beseech Thee, O Jehovah — for I am Thy servant, 
 
 I am Thy servant, the son of Thine handmaid ; 
 Thou hast loosed my bonds. 
 
 17 I will sacrifice unto Thee the sacrifice of thanks- 
 
 giving. 
 And I will call upon the Name of Jehovah. 
 
 18 My vows will I pay unto Jehovah, 
 
 Yea, in the presence of all His people let me (pay 
 them), 
 
 19 In the courts of Jehovah's house, 
 
 In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem ! 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 13. The cup. Many see in the 
 word an allusion to the " cup of bless- 
 ing" at the Paschal meal (Matt. xxvi. 
 27), and 'this would accord with the 
 sacrificial language of ver. 14, 17. 
 It is true there is no evidence of any- 
 such custom at the celebration of the 
 Passover in the Old Test. ; but as the 
 custom existed in our Lord's time, 
 the only question is as to the time of 
 its introduction. If it was introduced 
 shortly after the Exile, this Psalm 
 may very well allude to it. Others 
 understand by " the cup," in a figu- 
 rative sense, the portion allotted 
 to man, whether of prosperity, as in 
 xvi. 5, xxiii. 5 ; or of adversity, as in 
 xi. 6, Ixxv. 8. So the Arabs speak 
 of "the cup of death," "the cup of 
 love," &c. Then the meaning of the 
 verse will be, " I will accept thank- 
 
 fully and with devout acknowledge- 
 ment the blessings which God gives 
 me as my portion." 
 
 14. Let me (pay them). I have 
 endeavoured thus to render here, 
 and in ver. 18 (the refrain), the in- 
 terjection which is used in beseeching. 
 It is a part of the same interjec- 
 tion which occurs in ver. 4 and 
 16, and which is there rendered, 
 "I beseech Thee." A fondness 
 for these forms is characteristic of the 
 Psalm. 
 
 15. Precious ... is the death, 
 i.e. it is no light thing in the sight of 
 God that His servant should perish. 
 The more obvious form of expression 
 occurs in Ixxii. 14, "precious is 
 their blood in His eyes." 
 
 16. Son of Thine handmaid. 
 Comp. Ixxxvi. 16 ; 2 Tim. i. 5. 
 
PSALMS CXVIL, CXVIII. 
 
 573 
 
 PSALM CXVII. 
 
 This short Psalm may have been a doxology intended to be sung 
 after other Psalms, or perhaps at the beginning or end of the Temple 
 service. In many MSS. and editions it is joined with the following 
 Psalm, but without any suf&cient reason. 
 
 1 PRAISE Jehovah, all ye nations, 
 
 Laud Him, all ye peoples ! 
 
 2 For His loving-kindness is mightily shown towards us, 
 
 And the truth of Jehovah is for ever. 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 z. Loving-kindness . . . truth. 
 These two great attributes of God 
 (see on cxv. i), as manifested to 
 Israel, "towards us," are to be the 
 subject of praise for the heathen, an 
 indication of those wider sympathies 
 which appear to have manifested 
 themselves after the Exile. Hence 
 the first verse is quoted by St. Paul, 
 
 Rom. XV. lo, II, together with Deut. 
 xxxii. 43, "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, witk 
 His people," as showing that in the 
 purpose of God the Gentiles were 
 destined to be partakers, together 
 with the Jews, of His mercy in 
 Christ. 
 
 Is mightily shown. Comp. 
 ciii. II. 
 
 PSALM CXVHL 
 
 It is evident that this Psalm was designed to be sung in the 
 Temple worship, and was composed for some festal occasion. Its 
 liturgical character is shown by the formula with which it opens and 
 closes, " O give thanks to Jehovah," &c. ; by the introduction of 
 
574 PSALM CXVIII. 
 
 different voices, which may be inferred in ver. 2 — i, ; and by the 
 frequent repetition of certain lines as a refrain in the former half of 
 the Psalm, which can leave httle doubt that it was constructed with a 
 view to antiphonal singing. The allusions in the latter part, and 
 especially ver. 24, " This is the day which Jehovah hath made," &c. 
 point to some great festival as the occasion for which it was written. 
 Its general character, and the many passages in it borrowed from 
 earlier writers, render it probable that it is one of the later Psalms, 
 and we may assume that it was composed after the return from 
 the Captivity. 
 
 Four different occasions have been suggested for which it might 
 have been written : — 
 
 1. The first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh 
 month of the first year of the Return, when nothing but the altar had, 
 as yet, been erected for the worship of God, Ezra iii. i — 4. (Ewald.) 
 
 2. The laying of the foundation-stone of the Second Temple in the 
 second month of the second year, Ezra iii. 8 — 13. (Hengstenberg.) 
 
 3. The completion and consecration of the Temple in the twelfth 
 month of the seventh year of Darius, Ezra vi. 15 — 18. (Delitzsch.) 
 
 4. The extraordinary celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after 
 the completion of the Second Temple, recorded in Neh. viii. 13 — 18. 
 (Stier.) 
 
 The following considerations may help us to decide : — 
 
 1. The use of the Psalm in the Ritual of the Second Temple leads 
 to the conclusion that it was composed originally for the Feast of 
 Tabernacles. For the words of the 25th verse were sung during that 
 Feast, when the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed ; that 
 is, once on each of the first six days of the Feast, and seven times on 
 the seventh day. This seventh day was called "the great Hosannah" 
 {Save now, ver. 25) ; and not only the prayers for the Feast, but even 
 the branches of trees, including the myrtles which were attached to 
 the palm-branch {Lulab), were called " Hosannas." Further, although 
 the Psalm itself contains no direct allusion to any of the national 
 Feasts, yet the use of the word " tents " in ver. 1 5 at least accords very 
 well with the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 
 2. In the next place, it seems equally clear that the Psalm supposes 
 the completion of the Temple. The language of verses 19, 20, " Open 
 
PSALM CXVIII. S75 
 
 me the gates of righteousness," " This is the gate of Jehovah,'' and the 
 figure employed in ver. 22, " The stone which the builders rejected is 
 become the head stone of the corner," cannot be easily explained on 
 any other supposition. The allusions in verses 8 — 12 to the deceitful- 
 ness of human help and the favour of princes, as weU as to the active 
 interference of troublesome enemies, are exactly in accordance with 
 all that we read of the circumstances connected with the rebuilding of 
 the Temple. The most probable conclusion therefore is, that the 
 Psalm was composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles, after the completion of the Second Temple. (Nehemiah 
 viii.) 
 
 The congregation speak of themselves sometimes in the singular, 
 sometimes in the plural, but it is not necessary to assume that 
 in the fonner case the words were sung by a single voice, and in 
 the latter by many. It is more probable that in some portions of 
 the Psalm, although it was intended for public worship, the personal 
 feelings of the writer were uppermost. There is the same change, 
 for instance, in the "Te Deum," and such variations are perfectly 
 natural 
 
 1 O GIVE thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 2 Let Israel now say. 
 
 That His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 3 Let the house of Aaron now say. 
 
 That His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 4 Let them now that fear Jehovah say. 
 
 That His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 5 Out of (my) straitness I cried unto Jah, 
 
 Jah answered me (and set me) in a large place. 
 
 6 Jehovah is on my side, I am not afraid ; 
 
 What can man do unto me .'' 
 
 1—4. Comp. Ezra iii. 11, where in favour of Hengstenberg's view as 
 
 the same refrain is found as the bur- to the occasion on which the Psalm 
 
 den of the psalmody which was sung was first sung. See Introduction to 
 
 at the laying of the foundations of the Psalm, 
 the Second Temple. This is so far 6. Borrowed from Ivi. 9, 1 1. 
 
576 PSALM CXVIU: 
 
 7 Jehovah is on my side, to help me. 
 
 Therefore I shall see my desire upon them that hate 
 me. 
 
 8 It is better to find refuge in Jehovah 
 
 Than to put any trust in man : 
 
 9 It is better to find refuge in Jehovah 
 
 Than to put any trust in princes. 
 
 10 All nations compassed me about, 
 
 But in the name of Jehovah will I cut them off. 
 
 1 1 They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me 
 
 about. 
 But in the name of Jehovah will I cut them off. 
 
 12 They compassed me about like bees, 
 
 They were extinguished like a fire of thorns : 
 In the name of Jehovah will I cut them off. 
 
 1 3 Thou didst thrust sore at me, that I might fall. 
 
 But Jehovah helped me. 
 
 14 Jah is my strength and my song. 
 
 And He is become my salvation. 
 
 7. To HELP MK, or "as my marking their close and pertinacious 
 Helper." Comp. liv. 4. hostility. 
 
 8, 9. See Ixii., xxxiii. 16 — 19, and 12. Like bees. See the same 
 comp. cxlvi. 3. figure Deut. i. 44. 
 
 The allusion is probably to the Fire of thorns, quickly blazing 
 
 hostility of the Samaritans and the up and as quickly dying out. Comp. 
 
 Persian satraps during the building Iviii. 9. 
 
 of the Temple. The Jews had learnt 13. Thou didst thrust sore, 
 
 by painful experience how little they orperhaps, "Thou didst wza'^a? thrust, 
 
 could trust in princes, for the work &c. . . . but," for the emphasis in 
 
 ■which had been begim under Cyrus the repetition of the verb belongs, 
 
 had been threatened under Cambyses, not merely to the idea contained in 
 
 and had been suspended under the the verb, but rather to the whole 
 
 pseudo-Sraerdis, and it was not till sentence, and implies an opposition, 
 
 Darius came to the throne that they as here in what follows. The words 
 
 were allowed to resume it (Ezra are an apostrophe to the enemy, here 
 
 iv. ). addressed as an individual. 
 
 10. All nations, i.e. the neigh- 14. In the first line there is a 
 
 bouring tribes, who harassed the reminiscence of Israel's song of 
 
 returnin- exiles, the four times triumph at the Red Sea, Ex. xv. 2 
 
 repeated '' compassed me about " (comp. Is. xii, 2). 
 
PSALM CXVIII. 
 
 577 
 
 15 The voice of joyous song and salvation 
 
 Is in the tents of the righteous : 
 The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly. 
 
 16 The right hand of Jehovah is exalted, 
 
 The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly. 
 
 17 I shall not die, but live. 
 
 And I shall tell forth the works of Jah. 
 
 18 Jehovah hath chastened me sore. 
 
 But He hath not given me over unto death. 
 
 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, 
 
 I will go into them, I will give thanks to Jah. 
 
 20 This is the gate of Jehovah, 
 
 The righteous shall enter into it. 
 
 15. Tents, or "tabernacles." 
 " We can imagine with what special 
 force the words [of this verse] would 
 come to those who then were, or had 
 but recently been, keeping their Feast 
 of Tabernacles, dwelling in the tem- 
 porary huts which they constructed 
 of the branches of the olive and the 
 fig-tree, the myrtle and the palm, 
 and rejoicing in the great deliverance 
 which God had given them." — 
 Plumptre, Biblical Studies, pp. 274, 
 275. 
 
 17. The personal feeling of the 
 Psalmist seems here to predominate, 
 though the Psalm is so manifestly 
 liturgical, and therefore intended to 
 represent the feelings of the congre- 
 gation, that the personal experience 
 includes that of the nation at large. 
 Each one of those redeemed cap- 
 tives may take up the words and 
 utter them as his own, and the whole 
 nation as one man may adopt them 
 also. Nationally and individually 
 they are alike true. 
 
 19. The gates of righteous- 
 ness. The gates of the Temple 
 are so called with reference to the 
 service of God, and the character He 
 
 requires of His worshipers. This 
 b evident from the next verse, "The 
 righteous shall enter into it ." Comp. 
 V. 4, " Evil cannot dwell with Thee," 
 i.e. in Thy house; xv. i, 2, "Who 
 may dwell on Thy holy mountain? 
 He that walketh perfectly and worketh 
 righteousness" &c. See also xxiv. 
 3 — 6. What David had declared to 
 be the necessary condition of all ac- 
 ceptable worship in the first Temple 
 was felt to be true also of the 
 second. 
 
 The demand "Open to me" may 
 be understood either (i) literally, in 
 which case it is best explained as the 
 words of the singers in the festal pro- 
 cession when they reach the Temple 
 gates (see Introduction to the Psalm) ; 
 or (2) figuratively, as implying the 
 readiness and alacrity with which the 
 Psalmist will go to the house of God, 
 there to offer his sacrifices and to utter 
 his thanksgivings. Comp. Is. xxvi. 2, 
 "Open ye the gates, that the righteous 
 nation may enter in," where right- 
 eousness is made the condition of 
 entrance into "the strong city" of 
 God's building, as here into the holy 
 place. 
 
 P P 
 
578 
 
 PSALM CXVIII. 
 
 21 I will give thanks unto Thee, for Thou hast answered 
 
 me, 
 And art become my salvation. 
 
 22 A stone which the builders rejected 
 
 Is become the head (stone) of the corner. 
 
 22. A STONE. The imagery is 
 drawn obviously from the building 
 of the Temple. "Some incident in 
 the progress of the works had pro- 
 bably served as the starting-point of 
 the parable. Some stone — a frag- 
 ment, we may conjecture, of the Old 
 Temple, rescued from its ruins — had 
 seemed to the architects unfit for the 
 work of binding together the two 
 walls that met at right angles to each 
 other. They would have preferred 
 some new block of their own fashion- 
 ing. But the priests, it may be, 
 more conversant with the traditions 
 of the Temple, knew that that was 
 the right place for it, and that no 
 other stone would answer half as 
 well. The trial was made, and the 
 issue answered their expectations. 
 Could they fail to see that this was 
 a type and figure of what was then 
 passing in the history of their nation ? 
 Israel had been rejected by the 
 builders of this world's empires, and 
 seemed now about to be once more 
 ' ihe head of the corner.'" (Biblical 
 Studies, p. 275.) They had been 
 despised by their heathen masters, 
 but now, by the good hand of their 
 God upon them, they had been lifted 
 into a place of honour. They, re- 
 jected of men, were chosen of God 
 as a chief stone of that new spiritual 
 building which Jehovah was about to 
 erect ; that temple of the world, the 
 foundation of wliich was to be laid in 
 Zion. In Matt. xxi. 42 — 44 (Mark 
 xii. 10, 11 ; Luke, xx. 17), our Lord 
 applies the words of this and the 
 nest verse to Himself, The quota- 
 tion was, it would seem, purposely 
 taken from the same Psalm from 
 
 which the multitude had just before 
 taken their words of salutation (see 
 on ver. 25, 26), as they went forth 
 to meet Him and conduct Him in 
 triumph into Jerusalem. But there is 
 more than an application of the 
 words. Israel is not only a figure of 
 Christ, there is an organic unity be- 
 tween Him and them. Whatever, 
 therefore, is true of Israel in a lower 
 sense, is true in its highest sense of 
 Christ. Is Israel God's "first-bora 
 son"? the name in its fulfilment be- 
 longs to Christ (Matt. ii. 15) ; if 
 Israel is "the servant of Jehovah," 
 he is so only as imperfectly repre- 
 senting Him who said, ' ' My meat is 
 to do the will of Him who sent me, 
 and to finish His work." If Israel 
 is the rejected stone made the head 
 of the comer, this is far truer of Him 
 who was indeed rejected of men, but 
 chosen of God and precious ; the 
 corner-stone of the one great living 
 temple of the redeemed, whether 
 Jews or Gentiles. (Comp. Eph. ii. 
 20. ) See the use of the same figure 
 in its application to our Lord by 
 St. Peter, Acts iv. 11 ; i Pet. ii. 7. 
 
 The passage which fprms the 
 connecting link between this Psalm 
 and the N. T. quotatwrns is Isaiah 
 xxviii. 16, " Behold, it is I who have 
 laid securely in Zion a stone, a tried 
 precious corner-stone, most securely 
 laid : he that believeth (i. e. resteth 
 thereon) shall not flee (through fear 
 of any evil)." In this passage the 
 Messianic reference is still more di- 
 rect, even if we suppose a primary 
 reference to the house of David. (It 
 is interpreted as Messianic both by 
 the Targum and, amongst the Rabbi- 
 
PSALM CXVIII. 
 
 S79 
 
 23 This is Jehovah's doing, 
 
 It is marvellous in our eyes. 
 
 24 This is the day which Jehovah hath made, 
 
 Let us exult and be glad in it. 
 
 25 I beseech Thee, O Jehovah, save now, 
 
 I beseech Thee, O Jehovah, send now prosperity. 
 
 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah, 
 
 We have blessed you from the house of Jehovah. 
 
 27 Jehovah is God, and showeth us light ; 
 
 Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns 
 of the altar. ^ 
 
 nical commentators, by Rashi. ) In 
 marked contrast with this, it is said 
 of Babylon, Jer. li. 26, " They 
 shall not take of thee a stone for a 
 comer, nor a stone fur a founda- 
 tion." 
 
 23. This change in Israel's destiny, 
 the restoration to their land, the re- 
 building of their Temple, the future that 
 was opening before them — these things 
 are a miracle ; Jehovah's hand alone 
 could have accomplished it. 
 
 24. This is the day, i.e. perhaps 
 the great day of festival with reference 
 to which the Psalm was composed. 
 It is possible, however, that this verse 
 is rather to be connected with the 
 previous verse, so that "the day" is 
 not the Feast-day, but the day (the 
 time) on which Jehovah had wrought 
 for Israel : "This is Jehovah's doing 
 . . . this is the day which He hath 
 made." The prayer of the next verse 
 falls in best with the latter interpre- 
 tation. 
 
 25. I BESEECH Thee. Comp. cxvL 
 4, 16. 
 
 Save NOW, or rather, "Save, I pray" 
 (Hoianna). The particle of entreaty 
 is repeated in each member of this 
 verse, so that altogether it occurs 
 four times, as if to mark the earnest- 
 ness of the petition. The English 
 word "now" is not, therefore, a 
 
 particle of time, but a particle of 
 entreaty, as in Eccl. xii. i, " Re- 
 member now thy Creator," i.e. 
 "Remember, I beseech thee, thy 
 Creator." 
 
 With this word "Hosanna," and 
 words from the next verse, " Blessed 
 be tHe that cometh," &c., the multi- 
 tude welcomed Jesus as the Messiah, 
 the Psalm being perhaps already re- 
 cognised as a Messianic Psalm. Ac- 
 cording to the Midrash, in the words 
 of ver. 26 the people of Jerusalem 
 welcome the caravans of pilgrims 
 coming up to the feast. 
 
 26. According to the accents the 
 rendering would be " Blessed in the 
 name of Jehovah be He that cometh," 
 the formula being the same as in the 
 priestly blessing, Num. vi. 24 ; Deut. 
 xxi. 5 ; 2 Sam. vi. 18. Comp. Ps. 
 cxxix. 8. 
 
 From the house of Jehovah, 
 the priests standing there to bless 
 those who entered. 
 
 27. Showeth us light, in allu- 
 sion to the priestly blessing, "Jehovah 
 make His face shine (lighten, the 
 same verb as here) upon thee." 
 Comp. iv. 6. 
 
 The sacrifice. The word com- 
 monly denotes the feast ; here, as in 
 Ex. xxiii. 18, the victim offered at the 
 feast. 
 
 P P 2 
 
S8o PSALM CXIX. 
 
 28 Thou art my God, and I will give Thee thanks, 
 
 (Thou art) my God, and I will exalt Thee. 
 
 29 O give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 Unto the horns of the altar. garlands (or boughs)," following the 
 
 The expression is apparently a preg- LXX. <TviTT-naa<r6s sofrrrjv Iv Tols 
 
 nant one, and the sense is, '* Bind the ivvK6.^ovffLv. As regards this rendering, 
 
 victim with cords till it is sacrificed, the word translated in the text cords 
 
 and its blood sprinkled on the horns m2i.y mean thick ioughs,T!vKi(rfi.aTa(sts 
 
 of the altar. " Ezek. xix. 1 1 ; xxxi. 3, 4), but the 
 
 Luther has ' ' Deck the feast with verb cannot mean deck or wreathe. 
 
 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 This is the longest and the most elaborate of the Alphabetical 
 Psalms. It is arranged in twenty-two stanzas, according to the 
 number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza is composed 
 of eight verses, each verse consisting of two members only, and each 
 beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. Thus each of the 
 first eight verses begins with the letter Aleph, each of the next 
 eight with the letter Beth, and so on throughout the alphabet. In 
 the third chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah a similar arrange- 
 ment is adopted, but there the stanzas or groups consist only of three 
 verses, each beginning with the same letter. Other instances of this 
 acrostic arrangement occurring in the Psalter will be found enume- 
 rated in the Introduction to Psalm xxv. -(See also the Introduction to 
 Psalm cxi.) 
 
 The great subject of the Psalmist's praise is the Law of God. In 
 this respect the Psalm may be said to be an elaborate expansion of 
 the latter part of Psalm xix. The Masoretes observe, that in eveiy 
 verse but one, the 122nd, there is direct reference to the Law under 
 some one of the ten names (supposed to allude to the Ten Command- 
 
PSALM CXTX. S8i 
 
 ments), word, saying, testimonies, -way, jud(;ement, precept, command- 
 ment, law, statute, faithfulness (or according to another reading, 
 righteousness). They ought, however, to have excepted also the 132nd 
 verse. In ver. 121, "judgement and righteousness," if not denoting 
 the Law immediately, are employed with reference to the requirements 
 of the Law. 
 
 The date of the Psalm cannot be fixed with anything like certainty, 
 though it may probably be referred to a time subsequent to the return 
 from the Babylonish captivity. 
 
 (a) The allusions to " princes " (ver. 23) and " kings " (ver. 46) who 
 did not share the faith of the Psalmist, may be taken to denote that 
 the Jews were subject at this time to foreign dominion. 
 
 [p) The Law of which he speaks as hi-s daily study, as his delight 
 and his counsellor, must obviously have been the written Law, and it 
 may be inferred that it was now in the hands of the people. Whether 
 this was the case to any extent before the Exile, we have now no 
 means of ascertaining. After the Exile, copies of the Scriptures were 
 multiplied. The efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were directed 
 in the first instance to the collection of the Sacred Books (2 Mace. ii. 
 13), must have been directed eventually to their dissemination. 
 Accordingly, we find that copies of " the books of the Law,'' or of 
 "the book of tlie Covenant," were in the possession of the people at 
 the time of the Maccabees (i Mace. i. 55, 56). In the Psalm the 
 writer perhaps includes in " the word " of God, not only the Law, but 
 other writings regarded as sacred. In Zech. vii. 12, "the former 
 Prophets'' seem to be placed on a level with " the Law." 
 
 {c) The general character of the Psalm, which is a meditation 
 rather than a poem, as well as its place in the Collection, favours the 
 supposition that it is one of the later Psalms. 
 
 (d) The alphabetical arrangement, it has also been argued, forbids 
 our assigning it to an earlier period : " adapted for didactic rather 
 than for lyric expression, it belongs," it has been said, " to an age no 
 longer animated by the soul of poetry, but struggUng to clothe its 
 religious thoughts in a poetic form."* It is, however, far from certain 
 that this acrostic device is of itself evidence of the decline of the 
 poetic spirit. Some of the oldest poems in our own language are 
 constructed on the principle of alliteration. It is the same in Welsh 
 poetry. And unless the different stages of Hebrew poetry were more 
 
 • The Psalms Chronologically Arranged, by Four Friends, p. 383. 
 
S82 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 dearly marked than they are at present, its acrostic character can 
 hardly be taken as setthng the question of the date of any single 
 Psalm. 
 
 The circumstances of the Psalmist may be inferred in some mea- 
 sure from the language of the Psalm itself. He is suffering from per- 
 secution. His enemies are men of rank and authority (ver. 21, 23), 
 having both the power and the wiU to crush him (ver. 61, 69). His 
 constaney is severely tried. He is exposed to reproach and contempt 
 on account of his religion, and has reason to fear lest his hope and 
 trust in God should be put to shame (ver. 6, 22, 31). He is solicited 
 to give up his faith for gain, and even perhaps invited to join in 
 idolatrous viforship (ver. 36, 37). These things make him sad (ver. 
 25, 28), but he stays himself upon the word and promise of God. 
 That word in all its varied aspects of law and promise, of precepts 
 and judgements, had been his comfort in his affliction, his most 
 precious possession, dearer to him than all earthly treasures ; he had 
 meditated upon it day and night ; it had been a lamp to his feet and 
 a light to his path. He had taken it for his rule of life, he longed to 
 know it better, he prayed to have the veil taken off his eyes that he 
 might behold its hidden wonders. These thoughts, and thoughts 
 like these, recur again and again. He is never wearied of declaring 
 his love of God's Law, or of praying for more light to understand it, 
 more power to keep it, to keep it with his " whole heart." (The fre- 
 quency of this last expression is striking evidence of the earnestness 
 of the writer : see on ver. 2.) But there does not seem to be any- 
 thing like continuity, or progress of thought, or of recorded experience, 
 in the several stanzas of the Psalm. 
 
 Still, "if we would fathom the depth of meaning in the written 
 Law of Israel, if we would measure the elevation of soul, the hope, 
 the confidence even before princes and kings, which pious Jews 
 derived from it, we must turn to this Psalm. Here is an epitome of 
 all true religion, as conceived by the best spirits of that time. To 
 such a loving study and meditation on the Law the alphabetical 
 arrangement is not inappropriate ; and if the Poem be necessarily 
 somewhat cramped, it is nevertheless pervaded by the glow of love, 
 and abounds in spiritual life." 
 
 Delitzsch thinks that the Psalm must have been written by a young 
 man, and appeals to ver. 9, and ver. 99, 100, as supporting this view. 
 But the language of ver. 9 is rather that of one who, looking back 
 on his own past life, draws the inference which he seeks to impress 
 
PSALM CXIX. 583 
 
 upon the young, that youthful purity can only be preserved by those 
 who from their early year's take God's word for their guide. Just so in 
 Ecclesiastes xii. i, it is the man of mature age and large experience 
 who gives the wise and friendly counsel, " Remember, I beseech 
 thee, thy Creator in the days of thy youth.'' The lesson in each 
 case comes with double force, because it comes from the lips of one 
 who speaks with the authority of experience. When it is said in 
 verses 99, 100 of this Psalm, that the Psalmist is wiser than his 
 teachers, wiser than the aged, the only conclusion that can be drawn 
 is that he is not advanced in life. It is plain that the writer is not an 
 old man, or he would not compare his knowledge of the Law with the 
 knowledge of the aged. But it does not follow that he is a young 
 man. The teachers whom he has outstript may have been those 
 whose disciple he once was, not those whose disciple he still is ; or he 
 may refer to authorized teachers, to whom he listened because they 
 sat in Moses' seat, though he felt that they had really nothing to 
 teach him. Indeed, the whole strain of the Psalm, its depth and 
 breadth of spiritual life, and the long acquaintance which is every- 
 where implied in it with the word of God, can leave us in no doubt 
 that it was written by a man who was no longer young, who had at 
 least reached " the middle arch of Hfe." 
 
 Alepk. 
 
 1 Blessed are the perfect in the way, 
 
 « Who walk in the law of Jehovah. 
 
 2 Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, 
 
 That seek Him with the whole heart, 
 
 3 Who also have done no iniquity. 
 
 Who have walked in His ways. 
 
 4 Thou hast enjoined Thy precept.s, 
 
 That (we) should keep (them) diligently. 
 
 5 O that my ways were established 
 
 To keep Thy statutes. 
 
 6 Then shall I not be ashamed, 
 
 2. With the whole heart. 6. Ashamed, i.e. put to shame, 
 
 An expression characteristic of this iry hope being frustrated. This is 
 Psalm. Comp. ver. 10, 34, 58, 69, 145. the shame meant, not shame of cor- 
 
S84 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 When I have respect unto all Thy commandments. 
 
 7 I will give thanks to Thee with uprightness of 
 
 heart, 
 When I learn Thy righteous judgements. 
 
 8 I will keep Thy statutes : 
 
 O forsake me not utterly. 
 
 Beth. 
 
 9 Wherewithal shall a young man keep his path pure >. 
 By taking heed (thereto) according to Thy word. 
 
 10 With my whole heart have I sought Thee: 
 
 let me not wander from Thy commandments. 
 
 1 1 In my heart have I hid Thy word, 
 
 That I might not sin against Thee. 
 
 12 Blessed art Thou, O Jehovah : 
 
 Teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 13 With my lips have I told 
 
 Of all the judgements of Thy mouth. 
 
 14 In the way of Thy testimonies I have rejoiced, 
 
 As much as in all manner of riches. 
 
 15 I will meditate in Thy precepts, 
 
 And have respect unto Thy paths. 
 
 16 In Thy statutes will I delight myself; > 
 
 1 will not forget Thy word. 
 
 science in comparing a man's life II. In my heart. It is to me no 
 
 witVi the requirements of the Law. merely outward rule of conduct: it is 
 
 Have respect unto, lit. " look a power and a life within, 
 
 upon," z.«. with care and thought, so Word, or rather "saying,'' 
 
 as to make them the rule of life. "speech," distinct from the word 
 
 7. Judgements; here and through- employed, for instance, in ver. 9. 
 
 out this Psalm not used of God's acts Both words are constantly inter- 
 
 of judgement, but merely as the changed throughout the Psalm, 
 
 equivalent of "law," "precepts," 14. All manner of riches. 
 
 and the like, utterances as of a Judge Comp. what is sa,id of the incom- 
 
 and Lawgiver, and found in this parable worth of wisdom, Prov. ii. 4, 
 
 sense even in the Pentateuch, Ex. iii. 13 — 15, viii. 10, ll, 19, xvi. 16, 
 
 xxi. I, xxiv. 3 ; Lev. xviii. 4, 5. xxii. i ; Job xxviii. 15 — 19. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 585 
 
 Gimel. 
 
 17 Deal bountifully with Thy servant that I may live, 
 
 And so will I keep Thy word. 
 
 18 Open Thou mine eyes, 
 
 That I may behold wondrous Things out of Thy 
 law. 
 
 19 I am a sojourner in the earth : 
 
 Hide not Thy commandments from me. 
 
 20 My soul breaketh for (the) longing 
 
 (That it hath) unto Thy judgements at all times. 
 
 21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that they are cursed, 
 
 Which do wander from Thy commandments. 
 
 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt ; 
 
 For I have ke.pt Thy testimonies. 
 
 23 Princes also have sat and spoken one with another 
 
 against me. 
 But Thy servant meditateth in Th)'^ statutes. 
 
 24 Thy testimonies also are my delight, 
 
 And my counsellors. 
 
 Daleth. 
 
 25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust ; 
 
 17. That I may live; or the 20. Breaketh, lit. "is broken,'' 
 construction may be, "Let me live as expressive of the intensity of the 
 (or, if I live), so will I," &c. The desire, which seems to pervade the 
 gift of life, if vouchsafed, shall be whole man, and leave him crushed 
 devoted to the keeping of God's word. and powerless in its grasp. Bishop 
 
 18. Wondrous things; an ae- Taylor speaks somewhere of "the 
 knowledgement of treasures in the violence of the desire, bursting itself 
 Divine word not seen by common with its fulness into dissolution." 
 eyes, needing, indeed, spiritual dis- 21. That they are oursed. 
 cemment, and heavenly unveiling : The adjective is a predicate marking 
 hence " Open Thou." the effect of God's rebuke. 
 
 19. A SOJOURNER, here therefore 22. Remove from me, lit. "take 
 but for a short time (see on xxxix. off from me," shame being regarded 
 12), and needing for that time Divine as a cloak or mantle covering the 
 teaching. Hence the prayer "Hide person. 
 
 not," i.e. reveal, show me the inner 25. Cleaveth unto the dust. 
 
 sense and true application of " Thy See on xliv. 25. 
 commandments. " 
 
536 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 Quicken Thou me according to Thy word. 
 
 26 I have told my ways, and Thou heardest me ; 
 
 Teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 27 Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts, 
 
 So shall I meditate of Thy wondrous works. 
 
 28 My soul melteth for heaviness ; 
 
 Stablish Thou me according unto Thy word. 
 
 29 Remove from me the way of lying, 
 
 And with Thy law be gracious unto me. 
 
 30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness ; 
 
 Thy judgements have I laid (before me). 
 
 3 1 I have stuck unto Thy testimonies : 
 
 O Jehovah, put me not to shame. 
 
 32 I will run the way of Thy commandments, 
 
 When Thou shalt enlarge my heart. 
 
 He. 
 
 33 Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of Thy statutes, 
 
 And I shall keep it unto the end. 
 
 34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy law, 
 
 That I may keep it with my whole heart. 
 
 35 Make me to walk in the path of Thy commandments; 
 
 For therein do I delight. 
 
 36 Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, 
 
 26. I HAVE TOLD MY WAYS. I the term, but "unfaithfulness" to 
 
 have laid before Thee severally, num- God, to vfhich, in the next verse, 
 
 bering them as it were, all the acts ' ' the way of faithfulness " is opposed, 
 
 and events of ray life. With Thy law, or "Graciously, 
 
 28. Melteth, lit. "droppeth," impart Thy law unto me.'' 
 
 weeps itself away, so to speak. 32. ISnlarge my heart, i.e. ex- 
 
 Stablish, lit. "set me up again," pand it with a sense of liberty and 
 
 the meaning being nearly the same as joy, as in Is. Ix. 5 ; 2 Cor. vi. li, 13. 
 
 in the often-repeated prayer, " quicken See on ci. 6. 
 
 me." 36. My heart, to which answers 
 
 Word. See on ver. II. in the next verse "mine eyes," as 
 
 29. The way of lying, i.e. not representing the senses through which 
 falsehood in the common sense of the forbidden desire is kindled in the 
 
PSALM CXIX. 587 
 
 And not to covetousness. 
 
 37 Turn away mine eyes from seeing vanity 
 
 In Thy way quicken Thou me. 
 
 38 Stablish Thy promise unto Thy servant, 
 
 Who is (devoted) to Thy fear. 
 
 39 Turn away my reproach which I fear, 
 
 For Thy judgements are good. 
 
 40 Behold, I have longed after Thy precepts : 
 
 In Thy righteousness quicken Thou me. 
 
 Vau. - 
 
 41 Let Thy loving-kindness also come unto me, O 
 
 Jehovah, 
 Thy salvation according to Thy promise. 
 
 42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that re- 
 
 proacheth me ; 
 For I trust in Thy word. 
 
 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my 
 
 mouth ; 
 For I have waited for Thy judgements. 
 
 44 So shall I keep Thy law continually, 
 
 (Yea) for ever and ever. 
 
 45 And I shall walk at liberty ; 
 
 heart. Comp. Is. xxxiii. 15 ; Job its aim and object (cxxx. 4), tends to 
 
 xxxi. I, 7. cherish a holy fear. 
 
 Covetousness, or rather, " gain 39. The train of thought seems to 
 
 unjustly acquired. " be : Keep me from the reproach of 
 
 37. Turn away, lit. "make to breaking Thy commandments, for 
 pass on one side " of the object. those commandments are not griev- 
 
 From seeing, i.e. being attracted ous, but good, sweet, and full of 
 
 by, and finding pleasure in (Is. xxxiii. blessing to one who longs after them 
 
 15) VANITY, all which, as being as I do. Or " the reproach " may be 
 
 against God, or without God, is un- that of his enemies (ver. 42), who 
 
 real and unstable ; but perhaps idoh taunt him as the servant of God. 
 are especially meant. 43. The sense seems to be, " Give 
 
 38. The second member of the me the power faithfully to witness 
 ver. might also be rendered : " Wliich for Thy truth, and so to answer him 
 (promise) is for Thy fear," i.e. either that reproacheth me " (ver 42). 
 
 [a) is given to them that fear Thee ; 45. At liberty, lit. " in a wide 
 
 \b], which has the fear of Thee for space," where there is nothing to 
 
5S8 
 
 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 For I have sought Thy precepts. 
 
 46 And I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kin^ 
 
 And not be ashamed. 
 
 47 And I will delight myself in Thy commandments, 
 
 Which I love. 
 
 48 My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandmen 
 
 which I love ; 
 And I will meditate in Thy statutes. 
 
 Zain. 
 
 49 Remember the word unto Thy servant, 
 
 Upon which Thou hast caused me to hope. 
 
 50 This is my comfort in my affliction. 
 
 For Thy word hath quickened me. 
 
 5 1 (The) proud have had me greatly in derision ; 
 
 (Yet) have I not swerved from Thy law. 
 
 52 I remember Thy judgements of old, O Jehovah, 
 
 check or hinder freedom of actioH, as 
 in cxviii. 5- 
 
 46. Before kings. It may be 
 inferred that the Psalm was written 
 whilst Judaea was in subjection to 
 foreign rule. The viceroys of the 
 Persian king may be meant. 
 
 48. My HANDS WILL I LIFT UP. 
 The expression denotes the act of 
 prayer, as in xx^'iii. 2, Ixiii. 4, cxxxiv. 
 2, cxli. 2. Comp. Lam. iii. 41, ** Let 
 us lift up our heart with our hands. " 
 Here it would seem to denote figura- 
 tively reverence, devotion of heart, 
 and the like ; unless we suppose it to 
 be a locutio firagnans="l will pray 
 to Thee for grace to keep Thy com- 
 mandments. " 
 
 49. The word, apparently some 
 special word of promise which had 
 been his stay in his affliction, and 
 had roused him to new hope and 
 ■courage (ver. 50). 
 
 50. My comfort. Comp. Job 
 
 vi. 10, the only other place where 
 the word occurs. It is the "word" 
 (ver. 49) which is his comfort. Others 
 render the ver. " This is my comfort, 
 &c. . . . that Thy word hath quick- 
 ened me.'' 
 
 For Thy Word. Here, as is 
 evident from the mention of "afflic- 
 tion '"' — and indeed throughout the 
 Psalm — the verb "quicken" is used 
 not merely in an external sense of 
 "preservation from death," but of 
 "reviving the heart," "imparting 
 fresh courage," &c. 
 
 51. Have had me in derision, 
 i.e. probably both on account of his 
 misery and his trust in God. The 
 verb is from the same root as the 
 noun "scorners," "mockers," in i. i. 
 Comp. for the same connection be- 
 tween the spirit oi pride and the spirit 
 of irreligious scoffing, Prov. xxi. 24. 
 
 52. Judgements, in the same 
 sense as throughout the Psalm, God's 
 
PSALM CXIX. 589 
 
 And have comforted myself. 
 
 53 Burning indignation hath taken hold upon me, 
 
 Because of' the wicked that forsake Thy law. 
 
 54 Thy statutes have been my songs 
 
 In the house of my pilgrimage. 
 
 55 I have remembered Thy name in the night, O Jehovah, 
 
 And have kept Thy law. 
 
 56 This I had, 
 
 Because I kept Thy precepts. 
 
 Cheth. 
 
 57 "Jehovah is my portion," 
 
 I said, that I might keep Thy words. 
 
 58 I entreated Thy favour with (my) whole heart ; 
 
 Be gracious to me according to Thy promise. 
 
 59 I thought on my ways. 
 
 And turned back my feet unto Thy testimonies. 
 
 60 I made haste, and delayed not 
 
 To keep Thy commandments. 
 
 61 The cords of the wicked have been wound about 
 
 me, 
 But Thy law have I not forgotten. 
 
 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee, 
 
 Because of Thy righteous judgements. 
 
 63 I am a companion of them that fear Thee, 
 
 And of them that keep Thy precepts. 
 
 64 The earth, O Jehovah, is full of Thy loving-kindness : 
 
 Teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 righteous laws which He revealed OF to what "this " refers. If to what 
 
 OLD, which are ever true and ever in goes before, it may be to the remem- 
 
 force. brance of God's Name. Otherwise 
 
 54. Pilgrimage, or rather "so- we must render: "This has been 
 
 jouming." In this earth I am but (vouchsafed) to me, that I have kept 
 
 a passing guest, as at some wayside Thy statutes," i.e. such has been tlie 
 
 inn. Contp. Gen. xlvii. 9. gift of Thy grace. 
 
 56. This 1 had. It is not clear 
 
S90 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 Tetk. 
 
 65 Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, 
 O Jehovah, according unto Thy word. 
 
 (^ Teach me good perception and knowledge. 
 For I have believed Thy commandments. 
 
 6y Before I was afflicted I went astray, 
 But now have I kept Thy word. 
 
 68 Thou art good, and doest good : 
 
 Teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 69 The proud have forged a lie against me ; 
 
 /, with (my) whole heart, will keep Thy precepts. 
 
 70 Their heart is as fat as grease : 
 
 As for me, (in) Thy law do I delight. 
 
 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, 
 
 That I might learn Thy statutes. 
 
 72 The law of Thy mouth is better unto me 
 
 Than thousands of gold and silver. 
 
 Yod. 
 
 73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me : 
 
 Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy com- 
 mandments. 
 
 66. Good PERCEPTION, lit. "good- for a Jtne sense or apprehension of 
 
 ness of perception " or discernment ; God's word. 
 
 that fine taste and delicate feeling 67. Thy saying or "promise." 
 which are like a new sense. So St. See note on ver. 11. 
 Paul prays for the Church at Philippi, 69. The proud. The same over- 
 that their "love may abound more bearing, tyrannical oppression already 
 and more in knowledge and in all mentioned, ver. 51, 61. 
 perception," iv fmyvticrei xai irian HAVE FORGED, lit. "have patched 
 crfo-6j)<r€i. The two words correspond up." Comp. Job xiii. 4. 
 to the two Hebrew words here ; but the 70. Fat. For the figure as ex- 
 latter, aiad-Duis, marks in the Epistle pressive of want of feeling, see xvii. 
 (chap. i. 9) the delicate tact by which 10, Ixxiii. 7 ; Is. vi. 10. 
 Christian love should be character- 71. It is good for ME. See 
 ised. Here the Psalmist prays rather ver. 67. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 591 
 
 74 They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me ; 
 
 For in Thy word have I hoped. 
 
 75 I know, O Jehovah, that Thy judgements are right, 
 
 And that in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me. 
 "j^ Let, I pray Thee, Thy loving-kindness be for my 
 comfort, 
 ' According to Thy promise unto Thy servant. 
 ']'] Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may 
 live; 
 For Thy law is my delight. 
 
 78 Let the proud be ashamed, for they have dealt 
 
 perversely with me without a cause : 
 As for me, I meditate in Thy precepts. 
 
 79 They that fear Thee will turn unto me. 
 
 And they shall know Thy testimonies. 
 
 80 Let my heart be perfect in Thy statutes, 
 
 That I be not ashamed. 
 
 Caph. 
 
 8 1 My soul hath fainted for Thy salvation ; 
 
 In Thy word have I hoped. 
 
 82 Mine eyes have failed for Thy promise, 
 
 Saying, " When wilt Thou comfort me } " 
 
 83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke : 
 
 (Yet) do I not forget Thy statutes. 
 
 76. Even when a man recognises 80. Perfect, i.e. whole, undi- 
 
 that afiSiction is sent in " faithfulness," vided. 
 
 ihat God has a wise purpose of love 83. A bottle in the smoke, i.e. 
 
 ui sending it, still is it in itself bitter, a skin bottle for wine. The figure is 
 
 and therefore he prays that he may generally supposed to denote the 
 
 bave God's " I'oving-kindness " and misery and affliction of the Psalmist, 
 
 flis " tender mercies " as his comfort who compares himself to one of these 
 
 in the midst of affliction. Comp. wine-skins blackened and shriveled 
 
 Heb. xii. 11. and rendered useless by the smoke of 
 
 79. Will TURN, or there may be the fire in which it is hung. Rosenm., 
 
 the expression of a wish, " Let them however, explains it as the custom of 
 
 turn." the ancients to hang skins full of wine 
 
 They shall know. i.e. by their in the smoke, in order to mellow the 
 
 own experience. wine. In this case, the figure would 
 
592 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 84 How many are the days of Thy servant ? 
 
 When wilt Thou execute judgement on them that 
 persecute me ? 
 
 85 The proud have digged pits for me, 
 
 who are not after Thy law. 
 
 86 All Thy commandments are faithfulness : 
 
 They persecute me wrongfully ; help Thou me. 
 
 87 They had almost consumed me upon earth ; 
 
 But as for me, I forsook not Thy precepts. 
 
 88 Quicken me after Thy loving-kindness, 
 
 So shall I keep the testimony of Thy mouth. 
 
 Lamed. 
 
 89 For ever, O Jehovah, 
 
 Thy word is settled in heaven ; 
 
 90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations ; 
 
 Thou hast established the earth, and it standeth 
 fast : 
 
 91 For Thy judgements, they stand fast (unto) this day; 
 
 For all things are Thy servants. 
 
 92 Unless Thy law had been my delight, 
 
 I should then have perished in my affliction. 
 
 93 I will never forget Thy precepts : 
 
 For by them Thou hast quickened me. 
 
 94 Thine am I, save me ; 
 
 For I have sought Thy precepts. 
 
 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me ; 
 
 (But) Thy testimonies do I consider. 
 
 denote the mellowing and ripening of changing, everlasting character, as in 
 
 the character by affliction. Ixxxi;;, 2. 
 
 84. How MANY. Comp. xxxix. 91. For Thy judgements, i.e. 
 
 4. It is an argument why God should "with reference to Thirne ordinances 
 
 take speedy vengeance on his enemies, of laws, they («'.?. heaven and earth) 
 
 that he may see it executed before he stand fast. " 
 
 dies. All things, lit. "the whole," i.e.- 
 
 89. In hea'VEN, as marking its un- the universe. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 593 
 
 96 I have seen an end of all perfection ; 
 
 Thy commandment is exceeding broad. 
 
 Mem. 
 
 97 O how I love Thy law : 
 
 It is my meditation all the day. 
 
 98 Thy commandments make me wiser than mine 
 
 enemies ; 
 For they are ever with me. 
 
 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers ; 
 
 For Thy testimonies are my meditation. 
 100 I understand more than the aged ; 
 
 For Thy precepts have I kept. 
 lOi I have refrained my feet from every evil path, 
 
 That I might keep Thy word. 
 
 102 From Thy judgements have I not turned aside ; 
 
 For Thou hast taught me. 
 
 103 How sweet is Thy promise unto my taste, 
 
 (Yea, sweeter) than honey to my mouth. 
 
 104 Through Thy precepts I get understanding ; 
 
 Therefore I hate every path of falsehood. 
 
 Nun. 
 
 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my foot. 
 
 And a light unto my path. 
 
 96. All perfection. If this all other things are bounded by a 
 
 rendering is correct, the meaning is narrow compass, 
 
 obvious. There is nothing upon earth Broad. Comp. Job xi. 7 — 9. 
 
 to which there does not cleave some 98. Make me wiser, i.e. teach 
 
 defect. But perhaps the clause should me a different wisdom and a better 
 
 rather be rendered : " I have seen an vrisdora than theirs ; not one which 
 
 end, a limit, to the whole range (or consists in policy, or craft, or human 
 
 compass) of things ;" ameaning which prudence. So, too, as he is wiser 
 
 may be defended by the use of the than his enemies, he is wiser than his 
 
 similar word in Job xxvi. 10, xxviii. 3, teachers (ver. 99), wiser than the aged 
 
 and which harmonizes with the next (ver. 100), and his wisdom is that 
 
 clause: "Thy commandment is ex- practical wisdom which consists in the 
 
 ceeding broad," has no limits, whilst fear of the Lord, and which leads him 
 
 to eschew all evil (ver. loi). 
 
 Q Q 
 
594 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 1 06 I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed 
 
 That I will keep Thy righteous judgements. 
 
 107 I am afflicted very greatly ; 
 
 Quicken me, O Jehovah, according unto Thy word. 
 
 108 Accept, I beseech Thee, O Jehovah, the freewill offer- 
 
 ings of my mouth, 
 And teach me Thy judgements. 
 
 109 My soul isicontinually in my hand; 
 
 Yet do I not forget Thy law. 
 
 1 10 The wicked have laid a snare for me ; 
 
 Yet have.I not strayed from Thy precepts. 
 
 111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever ; 
 
 For they are the rejoicing of my heart. 
 
 112 I have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes 
 
 Always, (even unto) the end. 
 
 Samech. 
 
 1 1 3 I hate them that are of double mind, 
 
 But Thy law do I love. 
 
 1 14 Thou art my hiding-place and my shield : 
 
 I have hoped in Thy word. 
 
 115 Depart from me, ye evil doers. 
 
 That so I may keep the commandments of my 
 God. 
 
 1 16 Uphold me according unto Thy promise, that I may 
 
 live, 
 And let me not be ashamed of my hope. 
 
 117 Hold Thou me up, and so I shall be saved. 
 
 And have respect unto Thy statutes continually. 
 
 109. My soul is in my hand. lasting heritage. Comp. xvi. 5, 6, 
 
 He has been faithful even in constant where the Psalmist cliims God Him- 
 
 peril of death. Comp. Judg. xii. 3 ; self as his heritage. 
 I Sam.xix. 5, xxviii. 21 ; Jobxiii. 14. 113. Of double mind. See the 
 
 III. God's law is an everlasting noun from the same root, I Kings 
 
 possession (comp. ver. 98), more truly xviii. 21, " How long halt ye between 
 
 so than the land of Canaan itself, two opinions?" and comp. the ivhf 
 
 which was given to Israel for an ever- S/fi/xos of St. James (i. 8). 
 
PSALM CXIX. 595 
 
 118 Thou hast made light of all them that wander from 
 
 Thy statutes ; 
 For their deceit is falsehood. 
 
 119 Thou hast put away all the wicked of the earth like 
 
 dross ; 
 Therefore I love Thy testimonies. 
 
 120 My flesh trembleth for terror of Thee, 
 
 And because of Thy judgements I am afraid. 
 
 Ain. 
 
 121 I have done judgement and righteousness; 
 
 Leave me not to mine oppressors. 
 
 122 Be surety for Thy servant for good j 
 
 Let not the proud oppress me. 
 
 123 Mine eyes fail for Thy salvation, 
 
 And for the promise of Thy righteousness. 
 
 124 Deal with Thy servant according to Thy loving-kind- 
 
 ness, 
 And teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 125 I am Thy servant, give me understanding, 
 
 That I may know Thy testimonies. 
 
 126 It is time for Jehovah to act ; 
 
 (For) they have broken Thy law. 
 
 127 Therefore I love Thy commandments 
 
 Above gold, yea, above fine gold. 
 
 118. Falsehood, i.e. self-decep- eousness, apparently terms employed 
 tion : they rely upon their deceitful with reference to the Law. It is 
 artifices in vain, and only to their own equivalent to saying, "I have kept 
 confusion. Thy law." 
 
 119. Like dross, i.e. by the fire 122. Be sorett, as in Is. xxxviii. 
 of Thy judgement. Comp. Jer. vi. 14 ; Job xvii. 3. This and ver. 132 
 28 — 30 ; Ezek. xxii. 18—20 ; Mai. iii. are the only two verses in the Psalm 
 2, 3. which contain no allusion to the Law. 
 
 120. Trembleth, or "shuddereth," 126. To act. The verb is used 
 strictly used of the hair as standing absolutely of God's acts of judgement, 
 erect in terror. Comp. Job iv. 15. as in Jer. xviii. 23 ; Ezek. xxxi. II. 
 
 121. Judgement and right- 
 
 Q Q 2 
 
590 FSALM CXIX. 
 
 128 Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all 
 
 (things) to be right ; 
 (And) I hate every false way. 
 
 Pe. 
 
 129 Wonderful are Thy testimonies ; 
 
 Therefore hath my soul kept them. 
 
 130 The revelation of Thy words giveth light, 
 
 It giveth understanding unto the simple. 
 
 131 I opened my mouth and panted ; 
 
 For I longed for Thy commandments. 
 
 132 Look Thou upon me, and be gracious unto me, 
 
 As Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy Name. 
 
 133 Establish my steps by Thy promise, 
 
 And let no iniquity have dominion over me. 
 
 134 Redeem me from the oppression of man, 
 
 That I may keep Thy precepts. 
 13s Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant. 
 And teach me Thy statutes. 
 
 136 In rivers of water mine eyes run down, 
 
 Because they keep not Thy law. 
 
 Tsaddi. 
 
 137 Righteous art Thou, O Jehovah, 
 
 And upright are Thy judgements. 
 
 138 Thou hast commanded Thy testimonies in righteous- 
 
 ness 
 And exceeding faithfulness. 
 
 130. Revelation, lit. "opening," 133. Have dominion, as in xix. 
 i.e. unfolding or unveiling^ not en- 13. 
 
 iraKir^, as in E.V. 136. In eivees of WATER : see 
 
 131. I OPENED MY mouth, an the same phrase Lam. iii. 48. 
 .expression denoting eager desire, as in 138. In righteousness AND 
 Job xxix. 23. Like one oppressed faithfulness. The nouns may 
 with burning heat, and longing for either be used adverbially, or they 
 some cool spring of water, or some may be accusatives in apposition, " as 
 Iresh breeze to fan his brow. righteousness," &c. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 597 
 
 139 My zeal hath consumed me; 
 
 Because mine adversaries have forgotten Thy 
 words. 
 
 140 Thy promise is tried to the uttermost, 
 
 And Thy servant loveth it. 
 
 141 I am small and despised ; 
 
 (Yet) do not I forget Thy precepts. 
 
 142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. 
 
 And Thy law is truth. 
 
 143 Distress and anguish have taken hold on me ; 
 
 Thy commandments are my delight. 
 
 144 The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting ; 
 
 Give me understanding, that I may live. 
 
 Koph. 
 
 145 I called with (my) whole heart : 
 
 " Answer me, Jehovah, so will I keep Thy statutes." 
 
 146 I called upon Thee : " Save me, 
 
 So will I keep Thy statutes." 
 
 147 Early in the morning twilight did I cry ; 
 
 I hoped in Thy word. 
 
 148 Mine eyes have prevented the night-watches, 
 
 That I might meditate in Thy promises. 
 
 149 Hear my voice according unto Thy loving-kindness ; 
 
 O Jehovah, quicken me according to Thy judge- 
 ment. 
 
 150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief; 
 
 They are far from Thy law. 
 
 151 Thou art nigh, O Jehovah, 
 
 And all Thy commandments are truth. 
 
 139. Comp. Ixix. 9. means "to anticipate," "to go to 
 
 140. Tried, lit. " fined," as metals meet," with the accus. (as in xvii. 
 are in the fiimace, and hence pure, 13) ; and used absolutely, as here, it 
 free from all admixture of dross, true. must mean " I rose early." 
 
 Comp. xii. 6. 151. They are nigh (ver. 150) to 
 
 147. Early, lit " I was before- persecute and destroy me ; Thou art 
 
 hand, in the twilight. " The verb nigh to help me. 
 
598 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 152 Long since do I know from Thy testimonies 
 That Thou hast founded them for ever. 
 
 Resh. 
 
 153 Look upon mine affliction, and dehver me; 
 
 For I do not forget Thy law. 
 
 154 Plead my cause and ransom me ; 
 
 Quicken me according to Thy word. 
 
 155 Salvation is far from the wicked ; 
 
 For they have not sought Thy statutes. 
 
 156 Many are Thy tender mercies, O Jehovah, 
 
 Quicken me according to Thy judgements. 
 
 157 Many are my persecutors and mine adversaries; 
 
 I have not swerved from Thy testimonies. 
 
 158 I saw the faithless and was grieved, 
 
 Because they kept not Thy word. 
 
 159 See how I love Thy precepts; 
 
 Quicken me, O Jehovah, according to Thy loving- 
 kindness. 
 
 160 The sum of Thy word is truth. 
 
 And every one of Thy righteous judgements 
 (endureth) for ever. 
 
 Schin. 
 
 161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause; 
 
 But my heart standeth in awe of Thy word. 
 
 162 I rejoice because of Thy promise. 
 
 As one that findeth great spoil. 
 
 163 As for falsehood, I hate and abhor it ; 
 
 Thy law do I love. 
 
 164 Seven times a day do I praise Thee, 
 
 Because of Thy righteous judgements. 
 
 158. Was grieved, lit "felt Because, or "who," viz. "the 
 
 loathing." Comp, cxxxix. ai. faithless. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 
 
 165 Great peace have they which love Thy law, 
 
 And they have no stumbling-block. 
 
 166 I have hoped for Thy salvation, Jehovah, 
 
 And have done Thy commandments. 
 
 167 My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, 
 
 And I love them exceedingly. 
 
 168 I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies ; 
 
 For all my ways are before Thee. 
 
 Tau. 
 
 169 Let my cry come near before Thy face, O Jehovah ; 
 
 Give me understanding, according to Thy word. 
 
 170 Let my supplication come before Thy face ; 
 
 Deliver me according to Thy promise. 
 
 171 Let my lips pour forth praise ; 
 
 For Thou teachest me Thy statutes. 
 
 172 Let my tongue sing of Thy promise, 
 
 For all Thy commandments are righteousness. 
 
 173 Let Thine hand be a help unto me; 
 
 For I have chosen Thy precepts. 
 
 174 I have longed for Thy salvation, O Jehovah, 
 
 And Thy law is my dehght 
 
 175 Let my soul live, and praise Thee, 
 
 And let Thy judgements help me. 
 
 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep : seek Thj 
 
 servant. 
 
 165. No STUMBLING- BLOCK. those stumbling-blocks which are e-v 
 
 LXX. oix effTic ouToii aKiviaKov. occasion of falling to others. 
 
 Comp. the -words of St. John, okAv- 166. I have hoped. Comp. t 
 
 iaKov oiK eo-Tiy iv avra (l John ii. words of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 18. 
 
 10). So we may supply here, "no 168. For ALL my ways. In sa 
 
 stumbling-block in them," or "in ing "I have kept Thy precepts," 
 
 their path." When God's law is make no vain boast, I say it as in Ti 
 
 loved, instead of being struggled sight, who seest all my life, 
 
 against, the conscience is at peace, 172. Sing of, or perhaps "i 
 
 and the inward eye is clear; a man peat," "echo." 
 
 sees his duty and does it, free from 176. According to the accents, t 
 
6oo PSALM CXX. 
 
 For I do not forget Thy commandments. 
 
 rendering would rather be, "I have to denote the helpless condition of the 
 
 gone astray ; seek Thy servant as a Psalmist, without protectors, exposed 
 
 lost sheep." In what sense can one to enemies, in the midst of whom he 
 
 who has so repeatedly declared his wanders, not knowing where to find 
 
 love of God's word, who has a^3erted rest and shelter. But in the "I have 
 
 that.he has kept God's precepts, make gone astray," there is doubtless the 
 
 this confession? The figure cannot sense of sin as well as of weakness, 
 
 be employed here in the same sense, though there is also the consciousness 
 
 for instance, in which it is employed of love to God's law, " I do not for- 
 
 in our Lord's parable. He who is get Thy commandments." Comp. 
 
 the lost sheep here is one who does with this xix. 12 — 14. The word 
 
 not forget God's commandments. The rendered "lost" may be rendered 
 
 figure, therefore, seems in this place "ready to perish." 
 
 PSALM CXX. 
 
 With this Psalm begins a series of fifteen Psalms, all bearing the 
 same title, " Songs of the goings-up " (E.V. " Songs of degrees "), and 
 constituting originally, no doubt, a separate hymn-book — a Psalter 
 within a Psalter. Of the different interpretations which have been 
 given, the most probable is that which supposes that the Psalms to 
 which this title is prefixed were intended to be sung by the caravans 
 of pilgrims " going up " to keep the yearly feasts at Jerusalem. The 
 collection in its present form must have been made after the return 
 from Babylon, some of the songs containing manifest allusions to the 
 Captivity as still in the recollection of the writers. All these odes 
 have certain features in common. With one exception (the 132nd) 
 they are all short -the utterance of a single thought or feeling, a sigh, 
 a hope, a joy. They are all pervaded by the same quiet, graceful, 
 tender beauty, the charm of which was so felt by a Spanish com- 
 mentator, that he does not hesitate to say that this collection is to the 
 rest of the Psalms what Paradise was to the rest of the world at its 
 first creation. 
 
 The first in the collection is a prayer against the lying tongues of 
 treacherous neighbours, whom the Poet compares, for their cruelty 
 
PSALM CXX. 601 
 
 and perfidy, to the savage hordes of the Caucasus or of the Arabian 
 desert. But whether the Psalmist thus pictures the heathen among 
 whom he dwells in exile, or the wild tribes with whom no treaty can 
 be kept, by whom he is beset on his way back from Babylon to 
 Palestine, or the Samaritans, Arabians, and others, who after their 
 return attempted, by false representations to the Persian monarch, to 
 thwart the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra iv.) and the fortification of 
 the city (Nehem. ii. — iv.), it is impossible to say. The allusions are 
 brief and obscure. 
 
 [a pilgrim song. 
 
 1 Unto Jehovah, when I was in distress, 
 
 I cried, and He answered me. 
 
 2 Jehovah, deliver my soul from lying lips. 
 
 From a deceitful tongue. 
 
 3 What shall He give unto thee, and what shall He add 
 
 unto thee, 
 O thou deceitful tongue } 
 
 4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, 
 
 I. Cried . . . answered. The with its character. As the lying 
 
 verbs are in the past tense, but do not tongue is a sharp sword (Ivii. 4), as 
 
 refer merely to a past occasion. Past it is a sharp arrow (Jer. ix. 8), as it 
 
 experience and present are here com- is set on fire of hell (James iii. 6), 
 
 bined. From the past he draws so shall the man who employs it be 
 
 encouragement for the present. destroyed by the arrows and the fire 
 
 3. Give . . . add. The phrase of the Mighty One, i.e. God. 
 
 seems to mean: "What calamities It is in favour of the first interpre- 
 
 shall He heap upon thee ? How shall tation that it falls in with the general 
 
 puni-hment upon punishment visit scope of the Psalm, in which the Poet 
 
 thee?" complains that, loving peace himself, 
 
 4. The expressions of this verse he meets with nothing btit hostihty 
 may either (i) describe fiirther the and treachery. On the other hand, 
 treacherous tongue (" thou that art as that he should burst forth into an im- 
 sharp arrows," &c.), as in Ivii. 4, precation of God's judgements on the 
 "whose teeth are spears and arrows, head of these treacherous neighbours 
 and their tongue a sharp sword," Ixiv. is quite in accordance with what we 
 3, "who have sharpened fheir tongue find in other Psalms, where the cir- 
 Uke the sword, and have aimed their cumstances are similar. Comp., for 
 arrow, even a bitter word " -see also instance, Ps. Iviii. 
 
 Iv. 21, lix. 7 ; or (2) the punishment The .mighty. Even if we take 
 
 of the tongue, a punishment according this verse as describing the punish- 
 
602 
 
 PSALM CXXI. 
 
 With coals of broom. 
 Woe is me that I have sojourned in Meshech, 
 
 That I have dwelt beside the tents of Kedan 
 My soul hath too long dwelt 
 
 With him that hateth peace. 
 As for me, I (am for) peace ; 
 
 But when I speak, they (are) for war. 
 
 ment of the lying tongue, we need 
 not take ' ' the mighty " to mean God, 
 as the Talmud does. The expression 
 may only mean ' ' sharp arrows, as of 
 nwarrior." Comp. cxxvii. 4; Jer. 1. 9. 
 Broom, not as E. V., following 
 Jerome, "juniper." The shrub 
 meant is the genista tnonosperma 
 (Arab, retem), the root of which, ac- 
 cording to Burckhardt {/tin. ii. p. 
 791), is used for fires in the desert, 
 and has the property of retaining the 
 heat for a considerable time. The 
 same shrub is mentioned i Kings xix. 
 4 ; Job XXX. 4. The latter passage 
 may mean, not that the root of the 
 genista was used for food, which 
 seems unlikely, as it is very Iritter, but 
 perhaps that it was used for fire, "to 
 warm them" (comp. Is. xlvii. 14). 
 Wonderful stories are told by Jerome 
 (De mansionibus Israel ad Fabiolam, 
 XV.), and in the Midrash Tehillim, 
 how travellers, having cooked their 
 food with a fire made of the juniper- 
 wood (which they suppose to be the 
 wood here meant), and returning a 
 year after to the same spot, still found 
 the embers alive. 
 
 These COALS are an image either 
 of the burning, devouring character 
 of the tongue, or of its pnnLshment. 
 "Arrows WITH if.e. together with) 
 coals," not, as others, "fiery arrows," 
 or "arrows sharpened and made 
 hard by means of fire," which would 
 have been differently expressed. 
 
 5. Meshech, probably the Moschi 
 of Herodotus (iii. 94), mentioned, 
 together with Tubal, Gen. x. 2, 
 Ezek. xxvii. 13 ; a barbarous tribe 
 situated south-east of the Caucasus, 
 between the Black Sea and the 
 Araxes ; and 
 
 Kedar, one of the predatory 
 hordes roaming the Arabian desert. 
 By the names of these remote and 
 barbarous tribes, the one to the north, 
 the other to the south of Palestine, 
 the Psalmist intends to mark the 
 savage character of those who sur- 
 round him. We might speak in the 
 same way, says De Wette, of Turks 
 and Hottentots. 
 
 7. The literal rendering of the first 
 clause is, "I (am) peace," as in 
 cix. 4, " I (am) prayer." The pro- 
 noun in each clause is emphatic. 
 
 PSALM CXXI. 
 
 This beautiful Psalm is the trustful expression of a heart rejoicing 
 in its own safety under the watchful eye of Him who is both the 
 
PSALM CXXI. 603 
 
 Maker of heaven and earth, and the Keeper of Israel. The Creator 
 of the Universe, the Keeper of the nation, is also the Keeper of the 
 individual. The one ever-recurring thought, the one characteristic 
 word of the Psalm, is this word keep. Six times it is repeated in the 
 last five verses of this one short ode. The beauty of this repetition is 
 ^unfortunately destroyed in the Authorized Version by the substitution 
 in the last three instances, in verses 7 and 8, of the verb " preserve '' 
 for the verb " keep.'' For the use of the same word in the original 
 is evidently designed, — designed to mark by this emphasis of itera- 
 tion the truth of God's loving care for the individual, and so to 
 banish all shadow of doubt, fear, anxiety, lest in the vast sum the 
 unit should be forgotten. 
 
 Under what circumstances the Psalm was written is doubtful. Some 
 suppose it to have been written in exile. Others understand by " the 
 mountains " in ver. i, not the mountains of Palestine at large, but the 
 one mountain or mountain-group of Zion, as the dwelling-place of God, 
 the plural being used as in cxxxiii. 3, Ixxxvii. i, and leave it an open 
 question whether the Psalmist was in exile, or merely at a distance 
 from the sanctuary. 
 
 Others, again, have conjectured that this was the song sung by the 
 caravans of pilgrims going up to the yearly feasts, when first they 
 came in sight of the mountains on which Jerusalem stands. 
 
 The Psalm has no marked divisions, but falls naturally into pairs 
 of verses. The Inscription, "A song for the goings-up," differs 
 slightly from that which is prefixed to other odes of this collection. 
 
 [a psalm.] 
 
 1 I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the mountains. 
 
 Whence should my help come ? 
 
 2 My help (cometh) from Jehovah, 
 
 I The mountains, as already Comp. Ixxxvii. i ; cxxxiii. 3 ; xiv. 7, 
 
 remarked in the Introduction, either " Oh that the salvation of Israel were 
 
 those of Palestine, as in Nahum i. come out of Zion;" xx. 2, "Jehovah 
 
 15, and in Ezekiel, "the mountains send thee help from the sanctuary, 
 
 of Israel ; " or, the ridge on which and uphold thee out of Zion. 
 lay Jerusalem and the Temple. 
 
6o4 
 
 PSALM CXXl. 
 
 The Maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 3 May He not suffer thy foot to be moved ; 
 
 May He that keepeth thee not slumber. 
 
 4 Behold, He doth neither slumber nor sleep 
 
 That keepeth Israel. 
 
 5 Jehovah is thy Keeper, 
 
 Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
 
 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, 
 
 Nor the moon by night. 
 
 7 Jehovah shall keep thee from all evil. 
 
 He shall keep thy soul, 
 
 8 Jehovah shall keep thy going out and 
 
 coming in, 
 
 thy 
 
 2. Maker of heaven and 
 EARTH ; a name of God occurring 
 especially in these Pilgrim odes, and 
 other later Psalms, as in cxv. 15, 
 cxxiv. 8, cxxxiv. 3, cxlvi. 6. God's 
 creative power and majesty were, 
 especially during the Exile, impressed 
 upon the heart of the nation, in con- 
 trast with the vanity of the gods of the 
 heathen. Comp. Jer. x. ii, "Then 
 shall ye say unto them {i. e. the Jews 
 to the Chaldeans), The gods that 
 have not made the heavens and the 
 earth, even they shall perish from 
 the earth, and from under these 
 heavens." 
 
 3. The Psalmist turns to address 
 himself. First he utters the wish 
 that God's watchful care may be ex- 
 tended to him ; then the conviction 
 that the Keeper of Israel, He who 
 has been the God of his fathers, 
 whose Hand has led the nation 
 through all its eventful history, doth 
 not — will not, cannot — slumber nor 
 sleep. Comp. cxxxii. 4 ; I Kings 
 xviii. 27 ; Is. v. 27. 
 
 5. Thy shade, as a. protection 
 against the burning rays of the sun. 
 Comp. xci. I, "shall abide under 
 the shadow of the Almighty ; " Is. 
 
 XXV. 4, "Thou hast been a shadow 
 from the heat ; " xxxii. 2, " As the 
 shadow of a great rock in a weary 
 land. " 
 
 Upon thy right hand : a figure, 
 denoting generally succour, help, &c. 
 (as in cix.' 31, ex. 5), i.e. Jehovah 
 standing upon thy right hand to de- 
 fend thee is thy shade. 
 
 6. Sun-stroke, a special danger of 
 the East. See 2 Kings iv. 18 — 20; 
 Joh. iv. 6 ; and comp. Ps. cii. 4, ' 
 where the heart is said to be smitten 
 like gi-ass. In the same way the in- 
 fluence of the moon is considered to 
 be very injurious to the human frame, 
 in hot climates more particularly. 
 Delitzsch mentions having heard from 
 Texas that the consequence of sleep- 
 ing in the open air when the moon 
 was shining was dizziness, mental 
 aberration, and even death. The 
 names given to persons of disordered 
 intellect, crf\nvia^6fj.evoi, lunatici, 
 "lunatics," arose from the wide- 
 spread belief in the effects of the 
 moon on those who were exposed to 
 its influence. 
 
 8. Thy going out and thy 
 coming in ; a phrase denoting the 
 whole life and occupations of a man. 
 
PSALM CXXII. 60s 
 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 
 Comp. Deut. xxviii. 6, xxxi. 2 ; coming in" marks the completeness 
 I Sam. xxix. 6, &c. The threefold of the protection vouchsafed, ex- 
 expression, "shall keep thee . . . tending to all that the man is and 
 Ihy soul . . . thy going out and thy that he does. Comp. I Thess. v. 23. 
 
 PSALM CXXII. 
 
 This Psalm, more emphatically than any in the collection to which 
 it belongs, merits the title of a Pilgrim song. It was evidently com- 
 posed with immediate reference to one of the three yearly festivals, 
 when the caravans of pilgrims " went up " to the Holy City. The Poet 
 is living in the country. As the time of the Feast draws near, his 
 friends and neighbours come to him, inviting him to join them in their 
 visit to Jerusalem. It is with this picture that he begins his Poem. 
 He tells us how his heart filled with joy as they bade him come 
 with them " to the house of Jehovah." We see the procession start- 
 ing ; we see beaming eyes and happy faces, and hear the music of 
 gladness with which the pilgrims beguile the tediousness of the 
 journey. The next verse transports us at once to the Holy City 
 itself. " Our feet have stood within thy gates ;" the few words are 
 enough. They have reached their journey's end ; they are in the 
 city which they love. Then the Poet tells us, first, the impression 
 made upon his mind by her stateliness and her beauty; and next 
 how there comes crowding upon his memory the scenes of her earlier 
 grandeur, the thought of all she had been as the gathering-place of 
 the tribes of Jehovah, the royal seat of David and of his house. 
 
 Filled. with these thoughts, inspired by these memories, he bursts 
 forth into hearty, fervent prayer — the prayer of one who loved his 
 country as he loved his God, with no common devotion — for the 
 welfare of that city so glorious in her past history, and with which 
 aU hopes for the future were so intimately bound up. And so the 
 beautiful ode closes. 
 
 The Psalm is called in the title a Song of David. It is certainly 
 possible that Psalms written by him might be comprised in a collection 
 
6o6 PSALM CXXII. 
 
 which formed a hymn-book for the pilgrims ; but I cannot think that 
 the expression " thrones of the house of David " would be a natural 
 one in David's lips. The phrase points, surely, to a dynasty which 
 has long been established : verses 4 and 5 are clearly a retrospect. 
 
 As most, if not all, of these Psalms belong to a period subsequent 
 to the Captivity, we turn more naturally to that time as furnishing 
 the occasion for the composition of this ode. But, even if we fix 
 upon that as the most probable date, still the question arises. Is the 
 whole Psalm a retrospect, or does it spring out of the new life of the 
 people ? Does it paint only the recollection of former pilgrimages in 
 the days of Zion's first glory, or does it paint the feelings of one who 
 sees the old state of things revived, and who joins the pilgrims going 
 up now as they went up of yore ? 
 
 The Psalm is too bright, the pictures are too fresh, to be the utterance 
 of an old man returned from the Exile (as some think) or of one still 
 far from his native land. There is none of that " deep sighing " of 
 the exile or the old man looking back on a departed glory which 
 must have made itself felt, none of that melancholy which breathes, 
 for instance, in such a Psalm as the 42nd, and even the 84th. The 
 gladness of the first verse is a gladness still warm at the heart of 
 the Poet ; the picture of the second is one the lines of which are 
 not yet effaced from the eye of his mind. The reminiscences of the 
 past, as he has heard the tale from others, or as he has read it in the 
 words of other Psalmists and Prophets, mingle with the present, and 
 Jerusalem, rising from her ashes, seems to him fair and stately, her 
 bulwarks strong, and her palaces magnificent, as of old. 
 
 [a pilgrim song, of DAVID.] 
 
 1 I WAS glad when they said unto me, 
 
 Let us go into the house of Jehovah. 
 
 2 Our feet have stood 
 
 I. The HOUSE OF Jehovah. His 2. Have stood ~This may be a 
 
 joy was that he should worship there strict perfect, implying that they are 
 " in the presence of Jehovah." still standing. It is the lively expres- 
 
PSALM CXXII. 
 
 607 
 
 Within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 
 Jerusalem, that art built 
 
 As a city which is compact together ! 
 Whither the tribes went up, the tribes of Jah, 
 
 (As it was) a Jaw' for Israel, 
 
 To give thanks to the Name of Jehovah. 
 For there were set thrones for judgement, 
 
 sion of the satisfaction and delight of 
 one who finds himself on this high 
 day of festal joy within the sacred 
 walls, mingling with the throng of wor- 
 shipers who crowd the courts of the 
 Temple, and taking his part, with 
 a full sense of his privileges as an 
 Israelite, in the solemn services of 
 the Feast. 
 
 3. Built. This has been ex- 
 plained in three different ways. (l) 
 It has been closely joined with what 
 follows, " built as a city which," &c. 
 (2) It has been taken in the sense 
 of "well-built, stately." (3) It has 
 been understood emphatically to de- 
 scribe the city as rebuilt after the Exile, 
 "which is built again," or, " O thou 
 that art built again." Of these, the 
 last is preferable. 
 
 Compact. This has been under- 
 stood by some to refer to the natural 
 conformation of the ground on which 
 the city stood. So Stanley, speaking 
 of "those deep ravines which separate 
 Jerusalem from the rocky plateau of 
 which it forms a part, " observes that 
 they must have not only "acted as 
 its natural defence, but must also 
 have determined its natural bound- 
 aries. The city, wherever else it 
 spread, could never overleap the 
 valley of the Kedron or of Hinnom. 
 . . . The expression of compactness 
 was still more appropriate to the 
 original city, if, as seems probable, 
 the valley of Tyropieon formed in 
 earlier times a fosse within a fosse, 
 shutting in Zion and MoHah into one 
 
 compact mass, not more than half 
 a mile in breadth." — Sinai and Pales- 
 tine, pp. 172, 173. 
 
 If, however, the Psalm refers, as is 
 probable, to the city as rebuilt after 
 the Exile, then the epithet alludes 
 to the reconstruction of walls and 
 houses ; the city is compaet, because 
 there are no more waste places, no 
 more gaps and heaps of ruin. 
 
 4. The Poet glances here, and in 
 the next verse, at the earlier times, 
 when Jerusalem had been the great 
 religious and political centre of the 
 nation, the dwelling-place of Jeho- 
 vah, to whose Temple all the tribes 
 were gathered at the three great 
 Feasts, and the seat of government 
 of the kings of the houst of David. 
 
 A LAW. The word usually means 
 "testimony," but here must evidently 
 be understood in a wider sense. The 
 "law" is that according to which all 
 males were to appear before the 
 Lord three times in the year : Ex. 
 xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23 ; Deut. xvi. 16. 
 Comp. Ps. Ixxxi. 4, 5- 
 
 5. For. Jerusalem had become 
 the religious capital of the nation, 
 because it was already the civil 
 capital. The Jaw had enjoined that 
 the supreme tribunal should be in the 
 same place as the sanctuary (Deut. 
 xvii. 8, 9). But Jerusalem was first 
 the civil metropolis, " the city of 
 David " (2 Sam. v. 9, vi. 12, 16), 
 before it became "the city of God." 
 To a Jewish mind, however, the 
 religious and the political importance 
 
6o8 PSALM CXXIII. 
 
 (The) thrones of the house of David. 
 
 6 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
 
 They shall prosper that love thee. 
 
 7 Peace be within thy bulwarks, 
 
 Prosperity within Thy palaces. 
 
 8 For my brethren and friends' sakes, 
 
 Let me now wish thee peace. 
 
 9 For the sake of the house of Jehovah our God 
 
 I will seek thy good. 
 
 of the city were not so much con- 
 trasted as identical ; Church and 
 State were not two, but one. 
 
 Thrones for judgement. The 
 king was also the judge : see on 
 Ixxii. I. Comp. 2 Sam. xv. 2 j 
 I Kings iii. 1 6, 17. 
 
 The house of David. The ex- 
 pression plainly points to successors of 
 David, not to members of his family 
 associated with himself in government, 
 administration of justice, &c. 
 
 7. Bulwarks . . . palages, as 
 in xlviii. 13. 
 
 8. The last four verses of the 
 Psalm breathe a spirit of the noblest, 
 most unselfish patriotism. Not for 
 his own sake, but for the sake of his 
 brethren — the people at large — and 
 for the sake of his God, His temple, 
 and His service, he wishes peace to 
 Jerusalem, and calls upon others to 
 wish her peace. With love to Israel, 
 and love to Jehovah, there is natu- 
 rally united a warm affection for 
 Jerusalem, a hearty interest in her 
 welfare. 
 
 PSALM CXXIIL 
 
 Alsted beautifully entitles this Psalm Oculus Sperans, " The Eye 
 of Hope." " This," says Luther, " is a deep sigh of a pained heart 
 which looks round on all sides, and seeks friends, protectors, and 
 comforters, but can find none. Therefore it says, ' Where shall I, a 
 poor despised man, find refuge ? I am not so strong as to be able 
 to preserve myself; wisdom and plans fail me among the multitude 
 of adversaries who assault me ; therefore I come to Thee, O my God, 
 to Thee I lift my eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens.' He 
 
PSALM CXXIII. 609 
 
 * 
 places over against each other the Inhabitant of heaven and the 
 
 inhabitants of the earth, and reminds himself that, though the world 
 
 be high and powerful, God is higher still. What shouldest thou do, 
 
 then, when the world despises and insults thee ? Turn thine eyes 
 
 thither, and see that God with His beloved angels and His elect looks 
 
 down upon thee, rejoices in thee, and loves thee." 
 
 This Psalm is either the sigh of the exile, towards the close of the 
 
 Captivity looking in faith and patience for the deliverance which he 
 
 had reason to hope was now nigh at hand ; or it is the sigh of 
 
 those who, having already returned to their native land, were still 
 
 exposed to "the scorn and contempt" of the Samaritans and others, 
 
 who, favoured by the Persian Government, took every opportunity 
 
 of harassing and insulting the Jews. Comp. Nehem. ii. 19, " They 
 
 laughed us to scorn and despised us," with ver. 4 of the Psalm, " The 
 
 scorn of them that are at ease, the contempt of the proud." 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes, 
 
 O Thou that art throned in the heavens ! 
 
 2 Behold, as the eyes of slaves unto the hand of their 
 
 masters. 
 As the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her 
 
 mistress ; 
 So our eyes (look) unto Jehovah our God, 
 Until He be gracious unto us. 
 
 1. Comp. cxxi. I. phrases, a nutu pendere, a vultu, art, 
 
 2. As THE EyES OF SLAVES,, &c. Plautus {Aulul.) uses the ex- 
 watching anxiously the least move- pression of a slave "oculos in oculis 
 ment, the smallest sign of their mas- heri habere ; " and Terence (Adelph ) 
 ter's will. The image expresses "oculos nunquam ab oculis dimo- 
 complete and absolute dependence. vere." Tn those passages, however, 
 Savary (in his Letters on Egypt, p. the ready obedience of the slave may 
 131;) says : "The slaves stand silent also be denoted by his attitude. In 
 at the bottom of the rooms with the Psalm the eye directed to the 
 their hands crossed over their breasts. hand of God is the oculus sperans, 
 Wilh tlieir eyes fixed upon theirmaster, the eye which waits, and hopes, and 
 they seek to anticipate every one is patient, looking only to Him and 
 of his wishes." Comp. the Latin none other for help. 
 
 R R 
 
6 10 FSALM CXXIV. 
 
 3 Be gracious unto us, O* Jehovah, be gracious unto us, 
 
 For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 
 
 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled 
 
 With the scorn of them that are at ease, 
 With the contempt of the proud. 
 
 3. Exceedingly fiixed, or per- 
 haps "has long been filled." (Comp. 
 cxx. 6.) This expression, together 
 with the earnestness of the repeated 
 prayer, "Be gracious unto us," shows 
 that the "scorn" and "contempt" 
 have long pressed upon the people, 
 and their faith accordingly exposed 
 to a severe trial. The more remark- 
 
 able is the entire absence of anything 
 like impatience in the language of 
 the Psalm. From the expression of 
 trustful dependence with which it 
 opens, it passes to the earnest, heart- 
 felt kyrie eleison in which it poors out 
 in a few words the trouble whence 
 springs the prayer. 
 
 PSALM CXXIV 
 
 The last Psalm was the sigh of an exile in Babylon, waiting in 
 absolute trust and dependence upon God for the deliverance of him- 
 self and his people from captivity. This Psalm is the joyful acknow- 
 ledgement that the deliverance has been vouchsafed. The next 
 Psalm, the 125th, describes the safety of the new colony, restored to 
 its native land, and girt round by the protection of Jehovah. Here, 
 then, we have three successive pictures, or rather three parts of one 
 and the same picture ; for they are not only linked together, as repre- 
 senting successive scenes in one history, but they are also pervaded 
 by on,e great master thought, which lends its unity to the whole 
 group. In each there is the same full recognition of Jehovah's grace 
 and power as working both for the deliverance and the security of 
 His people. In the 123rd Psalm, "The eye waits upon Jehovah, till 
 He be gracious." In the 124th, "' If Jehovah had not been on our 
 side, men had swallowed us up alive. . . . Our help is in the name of 
 Jehovah." In the 125th, " The mountains are about Jerusalem, and 
 Jehovah is round about His people." 
 
PSALM CXXIV. 6ti 
 
 There can be little doubt that this Psalm (the 124th) records tl/e 
 feelings of the exiles when the proclamation of Cyrus at length per- 
 mitted them to return to their native land. Yet the figures employed 
 are somewhat startling. The swelling waters rising till they threaten 
 to sweep all before them is an image expressing, far more strongly 
 than anything in the history would seem to warrant, the hostility of 
 their conquerors to the Jews. The bird escaped from the broken 
 snare is an image rather of sudden, unlooked-for deliverance, than of 
 a return so deliberate, so slow, in some instances apparently so re- 
 luctant, as that of the Jews from Babylon. The figures remind one 
 rather of the earlier deliverance from Egypt. The Egyptians did 
 ■' rise up " against them. Pharaoh and his chariots and his horsemen 
 followed hard after them, and did seem as if about to swallow them up 
 when they were entangled in the wilderness. The waves of the Red 
 Sea overwhelming their enemies might have suggested naturally the 
 figure by which the might of those enemies was itself compared to 
 swelling waters. The hasty flight might well be likened to the escape 
 of the bird from the broken snare ; the blow struck in the death of 
 the first-born to the breaking of the snare. 
 
 Still the language of poetry must not be too closely pressed. Indi- 
 viduals may have felt strongly their oppression in Babylon. How 
 keenly some had reason to remember their captive condition, we see 
 from the 137th Psalm. And the providential means by which their 
 deliverance was at last effected were unlocked for, and may have well 
 taken them by surprise. The power of Babylon had been broken by 
 Cyrus, and the conqueror had set them free. " When Jehovah turned 
 again the captivity of Zion, then were we like unto them that dream." 
 Moreover, we know how constantly both Prophets and Psalmists are 
 in the habit of comparing the return from Babylon to the deliverance 
 from Egypt. Twice had the nation been in bondage to other nations, 
 in a strange land ; twice had the yoke of its masters been broken ; 
 and, unlike as the circumstances may have been under which the two 
 great acts of national redemption were accomplished, still the one was 
 naturally associated in the minds and thoughts of the people with the 
 other. And hence a Poet celebrating the one might almost uncon- 
 sciously borrow His imagery from the other. 
 
 The title, which gives the Psalm to David, is probably of nu 
 authority. 
 
 R R 2 
 
6j2 psalm cxxv. 
 
 [a pilgrim song, of DAVID.] 
 
 1 If Jehovah had not been on our side, — 
 
 May Israel now say — 
 
 2 If Jehovah had not been on our side, 
 
 When men rose up against us ; 
 
 3 Then had they swallowed us up alive, 
 
 When their anger was kindled against us ; 
 
 4 Then had the waters overwhelmed us. 
 
 The stream had gone over our soul ; 
 
 5 Then there had gone over our soul 
 
 The proudly-swelling waters. 
 
 6 Blessed be Jehovah, 
 
 Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 
 
 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird from the snare of the 
 
 fowlers ; 
 The snare is broken, and we are escaped. 
 
 8 Our help is in the Name of Jehovah, 
 
 The Maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 3. Swallowed us up alive. the melting of the snow in spring. 
 Comp. Iv. 15 ; Prov. i. 12 j with For the figure comp. xviii. 16, Ixix. 
 Num. xvi. 32, 33, where the phrase i, 2, cxliv. 7. 
 
 is used of the company of Korah. 5. Proudly-s ■ "Jlltng. Comp. 
 
 4. The STREAM, i.e. the mountain- xlvi. 3, Ixxxix. 9, and the vffpmT/it 
 torrent as sv/oUen by the rains and Trora/ids of .lEschylus, /'.V. 717. 
 
 PSALM CXXV. 
 
 The exiles had been restored to their own land (see Introduction 
 to last Psalm), but fresh perils' awaited them there. Not only were 
 they perpetually molested by the Samaritans and others in the 
 
PSALM CXXV. 613 
 
 rebuilding of the Temple and of the city walls, but they were troubled 
 with internal dissensions ; Ezra found the " abominations of the 
 heathen" countenanced by the intermarriages of the Jews who re- 
 turned from the Captivity with " the people of those lands," and was 
 dismayed when he learnt that "the hand of the princes and the 
 rulers had been chief in this trespass." Nehemiah, at a later period, 
 had to contend against a faction within the city who had taken the 
 bribes of the Samaritans. In rebuilding the walls, he did not trust 
 the priests, the nobles, or the rulers, till he had begun the work 
 (Neh. ii. 16, vi. 17). Even the prophets took part with his enemies 
 against him. Shemaiah, he found, had been hired by Tobiah and 
 Sanballat, and " the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets " 
 had joined the plot, and sought " to put him in fear," and so to 
 hinder his work (vi. 10 — 14). 
 
 To these plots and this defection on the part of many of the Jews 
 themselves there is probably an allusion in ver. 3 and 5. On the other 
 hand, the faith of the Psalmist rises above all these dangers. There 
 is One who is the sure defence of His people, who is their bulwark as 
 the mountains are the bulwark of Jerusalem. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 They that trust in Jehovah are like Mount Zion, 
 
 Which cannot be moved, 
 (But) standeth fast for ever. 
 
 2 As for Jerusalem, the mountains are round about her, 
 
 1, 2. Two images of the security in by mountains, except on the 
 of those who trust in Jehovah : (l) eastern side, where it may be said to 
 they stand firm as Zion itself, they be enclosed by the arms of Olivet, 
 are like a mountain which cannot be with its outlying ridges on the north- 
 shaken; (2) they are girt as by a wall east and south-east." Viewed from 
 of mountains — a natural bulwark any other direction, Jerusalem always 
 against all enemies. appears "on an elevation higher than 
 
 2. Mountains are round about the hills in its immediate neighbour- 
 HER. " This image is not realized," hood. Nor is the plain on which it 
 says Dean Stanley, " as most persons stands enclosed by a continuous 
 familiar with our European scenery though distant circle of mountains 
 would wish and expect it to be rea- like that which gives its peculiar 
 lized. Jerusalem is not Uterally shut charm to Athens and Innsbruck. The 
 
6i4 
 
 PSALM CXXV. 
 
 And Jehovah is round about His people, 
 From this time even for evermore. 
 For the rod of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of 
 the righteous, 
 That the righteous put not forth their hands unto 
 iniquity. 
 Do good, O Jehovah, to them that are good. 
 
 And to them that are upright in their hearts. 
 But as for those who turn aside to their crooked paths, 
 
 mountains in the neighbourhood of 
 Jerusalem are of unequal height, , . . 
 only in two or three instances . . . 
 rising to any considerable elevation. 
 Even Olivet is only 180 feet above 
 the top of Mount Zion. Still they 
 act as a she! ter ; they must be sur- 
 mounted before the traveller can see, 
 or the invader attack, the Holy City ; 
 and the distant line of Moab v^ould 
 always seem to rise as a wall against 
 invaders from the remote east." It 
 is of these distant mountains tliat 
 Josephus speaks (Bell. Jud. vi. v. l) 
 as "the surrounding mountains," 
 uvv^X^i 5e 77 TT^pala Kol ri irepi^ 6p7]. 
 — Sinai and Palestine ^ pp.174, '75* 
 
 Is ROUND ABOUT HiS PEOPLE. 
 Comp. Zech. ii. 4, S, "Jerusalem 
 shall be inhabited as towns without 
 walls, for I, saith Jehovah, will be 
 unto her a wall of fire round about." 
 
 3. For introduces an example of 
 God's protecting care — an example 
 not taken from the past, but which 
 faith anticipates and is sure of, as if. 
 already accomplished. 
 
 The rod of wickedness. The- 
 expression may refer to the Persian 
 rule under favour of which the Sama-' 
 ritans and others annoyed the Jews. 
 The wd or sceptre could not apply to 
 the Samaritans, for they did not mh 
 over the Jews. But it was through, 
 them that the tyranny of the Persian, 
 couit made itself felt ; and they con- 
 
 trived, moreover, to gain over a con- 
 siderable part, and that the most 
 influential part, of the Jews to their 
 side. The fear was, as the next clause 
 shows, lest in this state of things the 
 defection should spread still more 
 widely. 
 
 Rest, i.e. "lie heavy," so as to 
 oppress, as in Is. «xv. 10, with a 
 further sense of continuance of the 
 oppression. 
 
 The lot of the righteous is 
 the Holy Land itself ; comp. xvi. 5> 
 6. The consequence of a long con- 
 tinuance of this oppressive rule would 
 be that the righteous, the sound 
 and true part of the nation, would 
 itself be tempted to despair of God's 
 succour, and so be drawn away from 
 its stedfastness (comp. xxxvii. 7> ^j 
 xlix. 13, Ixxiii. 13, 14 ; Job xv. 4). 
 
 4, 5. The Psalm ends with a con- 
 fident assertion of righteous requital 
 — first in the form of a prayer, and 
 then in the utterance of a hope, both 
 springing from the same faith in the 
 righteousness of God. 
 
 5. Turn aside to their crook- 
 ed PATHS, lit. "bend their crooked 
 ■paths," i.e. so turn their paths aside 
 as to make them crooked. Comp. 
 Judg. V. 6. The expression does not 
 ■necessarily denote a going over to 
 Iheathenism : .it would describe the 
 xonduct of those who, in the time of 
 
 Nehemiah, made common cause with 
 
PSALM CXXVI. 615 
 
 Jehovah shall make them go their way with the 
 workers of iniquity. 
 Peace be upon Israel. 
 
 the enemies of Israel (Neh. vi. 10 — so as to perish. 
 14, xiii. 28 — 31). Peace upon Israel. Comp. the 
 
 Make them go their way, i.e. conclusion of cxxviii. 
 
 PSALM CXXVI. 
 
 The first colony of exiles had returned to Palestine. The permis- 
 sion to return had been so unexpected, the circumstances which had 
 led to it so wonderful and so unforeseen, that when it came it could 
 hardly be believed. To those who found themselves actually restored 
 to the land of their fathers it seemed like a dream. It was a joy 
 beyond all words to utter. God, their father's God, had indeed 
 wrought for them, and even the heathen had recognised His hand. 
 
 It is with these thoughts that this beautiful Psalm opens. But, 
 after all, what was that little band of settlers which formed the first 
 caravan ? It was only as the trickling of a tiny rill in some desert 
 waste. Hence the prayer bursts from the lips of the Psalmist, Bring 
 back our captives like mighty streams, which, swoln by the wintry 
 rains, descend to fertilize the parched and desolate wilderness. Then 
 comes the thought of the many discouragements and opposition 
 which the first settlers had to encounter ; it was a time of sowing in 
 tears (Ezra iv. 11 — 24). Still, faith could expect a joyful harvest. He 
 who had restored them to the land would assuredly crown His work 
 with blessing. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 I When Jehovah brought back the returned of Zion, 
 We were like unto them that dream. 
 
 I. Like unto them that dream, that we could scarcely believe it was 
 i.e. so unexpected and so wonderful true, and not a dream, 
 was our redemption from the Exile, 
 
6i6 
 
 PSALM CXXVl. 
 
 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
 
 And our tongue with songs of joy. 
 
 3 Then said they among the nations, 
 
 " Jehovah hath done great things for them." 
 
 4 (Yea) Jehovah hath done great things for us ; 
 
 (Therefore) were we glad. 
 
 5 Bring back, O Jehovah, our captives 
 
 As streams in the south. 
 
 6 They that sow in tears 
 
 Shall reap with songs of joy. 
 
 7 (The sower) may go along weeping, 
 
 Bearing (his) handful of seed ; 
 
 8 He shall surely come with songs of joy, 
 
 2. Filled with laughter, as 
 in Job viii. 21. 
 
 5. Streams, or rather " channels " 
 (watercourses). The south is the 
 image of a dry and thirsty land, which 
 wanted springs. Comp. Judg. i. 15. 
 
 Palestine without her people has 
 been like the south country parched 
 with the drought of summer : the 
 return of her inhabitants will be 
 grateful as the return of the mountain 
 torrents when, swoln by the wintry 
 rains, thoy flow again along the beds 
 of the Tfitercourses, carrying with 
 them life and verdure and fertility. 
 We find the expression of the same 
 feeling under a different figure Is. 
 xlix. 18, where the land, like a be- 
 reaved mother, waits for her children, 
 whose return will fill her heart withjoy. 
 
 6. They that sow in tears. 
 The sowing is a season of trouble and 
 anxiety, but the rich harvest makes 
 amends for all. So though the new 
 
 colonists were exposed to many trials, 
 yet a glorious future was before them. 
 That time of labour, and trouble, 
 and opposition, and discouragement, 
 and anxious waiting, should by no 
 means lose its reward. The weeping 
 should be changed into joy ; the 
 weeping should be the path of joy. 
 Comp. for the .contrast between the 
 sowing and the reaping, Haggai ii. 
 
 3-9. 17—19* 
 
 7, 8. These verses are merely an 
 expansion of the image in ver. 6, 
 with the common substitution of the 
 singular for the plural, to bring out 
 more clearly the figure of the in- 
 dividual sower. 
 
 7. This verse might perhaps be 
 more exactly rendered : ' ' He who 
 beareth the handful of seed may 
 indeed weep every step that he goes." 
 
 Go ALONG weeping, or, yet more 
 strongly, "take no step of his way 
 without weeping." 
 
 * Edmund Poole, accused of conspiring to place Mary Queen of Scots on tlie English 
 throne, and confined in that part of the Tower of London called the Beauchamp Tower, has 
 left this record of himself engraven on the walls— I.H.S. Qui Semin , . in lachrirais ifl 
 exultatione motet. AE. 31, E. Poole, 1562. 
 
PSALM CXXVII. 617 
 
 Bearing his sheaves (with him). 
 
 Handful of seed, lit. " that scattered on the field. Hence a sower 
 which is dra\vn into the hand" out of is called "a drawer of seed," Amos 
 the vessel or fold of the robe to be ix. 13. 
 
 PSALM CXXVII. 
 
 This and the next Psalm form two bright companion pictures of 
 social and domestic life, and of the happiness of a household which, 
 trained in the fear of God, is blessed by His providence. 
 
 There is not a word in either Psalm to guide us as to the time of 
 its composition. The title gives the 127th to Solomon (only one 
 other in the entire Psalter, the 72nd, being ascribed to him), but it 
 may be doubted whether with sufScient reason. In form, in rhythm, 
 in general tone and character, it resembles all the others in this 
 collection. It has been conjectured that the proverb-like structure 
 of the Psalm, the occurrence in it of several words and phrases also 
 occurring in the Proverbs, and possibly a supposed allusion to the 
 name Jedediah in ver. 2, " His beloved," and to the building of the 
 Temple in ver. i, may have led some collector to conclude that 
 the Psalm was Solomon's. In the Septuagint it is anonymous. In 
 the Syriac it is said to have been spoken by David concerning 
 Solomon ; but also concerning Haggai and Zechariah, who urged 
 the building of the Temple. 
 
 The great moral of the Psalm is, that without God's blessing all 
 human efforts and human precautions are in vain ; that man can never 
 command success ; that God gives and man receives. There is a 
 passage in Tennyson's " Lotos Eaters," the strain of which is not 
 unlike that of ver. 3 of the Psalm, except that there is a shadow of 
 sadness and weariness on the words of the modern Poet which does 
 not rest on the spirit of the Hebrew bard : — 
 
 " Why are we weigh'd upon with heaviness, 
 And utterly consumed with sharp distress, 
 
6i8 PSALM CXXVII. 
 
 While all things else have rest from weariness ? 
 All things have rest : why should we toil alone ? 
 We only toil who are the first of things, 
 And make perpetual moan, 
 Still from one sorrow to another thrown : 
 Nor ever fold our wings, 
 And cease from wanderings ; 
 Nor steep our brows in slumber's holy balm ; 
 Nor hearken what the inner spirit sings, 
 ' There is no joy but calm ! ' 
 Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things ? " 
 
 [a pilgrim song, of SOLOMON.*] 
 
 1 Except Jehovah build the house, 
 
 They labour upon it in vain that build it ; 
 Except Jehovah watch over a city, 
 (The) watchman waketh (but) in vain. 
 
 2 Vain is it for you that ye rise up early, that ye late 
 
 take rest. 
 That ye eat the bread of sorrows ; 
 So He giveth His beloved sleep. 
 
 I, 3. The truth seems obvious and 2. That ye rise, or "who rise.'' 
 undeniable that all success is from Tlie Hebrew expression runs literally: 
 God, "An Gottes Segen ist alies " making early to rise, making late to 
 gelegen;" yet practically this is by sit {down)." It is an artificial length- 
 most men forgotten. The spirit of ening of the natural day. 
 the Chaldean invader of whom the Bread of sorrows, or perhaps 
 Prophet says, "This his strength is rather "of wearisome efforts." Comp. 
 his GoA," t\ie Dexlra mihi Deus, \sm Prov. v. 10, "and thy wearisome 
 the heart, if not on the lips, of others efforts (i.e. what thou hast gotten 
 besides the atheist. with labour and toil) be in the house 
 
 I. A HOUSE, not "the Temple," as of a stranger." There is an allusion, 
 
 some explain, nor "the family," as no doubt, to Gen. iii. 17, "in sorrow 
 
 otliers, but the structure itself, as is (or weariness) thou shalt eat of it all 
 
 evident from the context. Watch- the days of thy life." 
 
 MAN, lit. " keeper," z>. by night, as So; some interpret this He GiVETH 
 
 in cxxi. 3, 4. (it) i.e. bread, the necessaries of life, 
 
 * There are coincidences of expression which have been supposed to justify this title, see 
 Proverbs v. 10, xxiii. 30 The whole Psalm may be considered an expansion of Proverbs 
 
PSALM CXXVIT. 
 
 619 
 
 3 Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, 
 
 The fruit of the womb (His) reward. 
 
 4 Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man. 
 
 So are the sons of (a man's) youth. 
 
 5 Happy is the man who hath filled his quiver v/ith them. 
 
 IN SLEEP, but I am inclined to prefer 
 the rendering, " So He giveth His 
 beloved sleep," though it is no doubt 
 diiEcult to explain the reference of the 
 particle "so." I suppose it refers to 
 the principle laid down in the pre- 
 vious verses, there being a tacit com- 
 parison, ' ' as all labour is vain without 
 God's providence, so He gives the 
 man who loves Him and leaves all in 
 His hands, calm refreshing sleep." 
 
 There is no discouragement here, it 
 is needless to say, to honest labour. 
 It is undue anxiety, a feverish strain- 
 ing, a toiling, as if toil of itself could 
 command success, the folly of which 
 is condemned. Comp. for a similar 
 sentiment Prov. x. 22 , " The blessing 
 of Jehovah maketh rich, and toil can 
 add nothing thereto." The teaching 
 is that of our Lord in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, "Wherefore I say unto 
 you, Be not anxious for your life, what 
 ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, 
 neither for your body, wherewith ye 
 shall be clothed," &c., Malt. vi. 25 — 
 34. See also Luke x. 41 ; I Pet. v. 
 7. God's "beloved" are not ex- 
 empted from the great law of labour 
 which lies upon all, but the sting is 
 taken from it when they can leave all 
 results in a Father's hand, with abso- 
 lute trust in His wisdom and good- 
 ness. - 
 
 3. Behold, as drawing particular 
 attention to one marked example of 
 God's good gifts ; which none can 
 question is emphatically Yi\% gift ; on 
 this the Poet lingers, "allured by the 
 charm of the subject," for such there 
 was, especially to an Oriental, to 
 whom a numerous progeny was the 
 
 first of blessings, giving value and 
 stability to all others. 
 
 A HERITAGE, Or perhaps here, in a 
 wider sense, "a possession." 
 
 4. Sons of youth, i.e. sons of 
 early married life (as in Prov. v. 18, 
 ' ' a wife of youth " is one married 
 when a man is young). Oh the other 
 hand, in Gen. xxxvii. 3, "a son of old 
 age " is one born when his father is old. 
 
 These sons of a man's youth are 
 particularly mentioned, because they 
 would naturally grow up to be a sup- 
 port and protection to their father in 
 his old age, when he would most need 
 their support. 
 
 5. They. The pronoun may refer 
 only to the father, though some think 
 it includes both father and sons. 
 
 In the gate, heie mentioned 
 chiefly as the place of judgement 
 (Dent. xxi. 19 ; Is. xxix. 21 ; Amos 
 V. 12), as well as of all public acts. 
 See on ix. 14. The allusion is to law- 
 suits, in which, if unjustly accused or 
 brought before an unrighteous judge, 
 a man need not fear lest he should be 
 "put to shame," i.e. lose his cause ; 
 his stalwart sons would not suffer 
 might to prevail against right. 
 
 The phrase, "speak with their 
 enemies," in the sense of defending 
 their cause, may be illustrated by 
 Josh. XX. 4, " And he (the man-tlayer 
 who has fled) shall stand in the en- 
 trance of the gate of the city, and shall 
 speak his words {i.e. plead his cause) 
 in the ears of the elders of that city. " 
 Comp. 2 Sam. xix. 8 ; Jer. xii. I. 
 
 Others understand by speakhig with 
 enemies in the gate a battle fought 
 with besiegers at the gates. This 
 
620 PSALM CXXVllI. 
 
 They shall not be ashamed, when they speak with 
 their enemies in the gate. 
 
 certainly harmonizes better with the 
 warlilce figure of the quiver full of 
 arrows ; but can ' ' to speak with ene- 
 mies " mean to fight with them ? If 
 so, it must be an idiom something like 
 that of "looking one another in the 
 face," 2 Kings xiv. 8, II. 
 
 With the sentiment of ver. 4, 5, 
 compare Soph. Antig. 641 — 644 : 
 
 Tohrov yap oVt/eK^ ai/5pe? evxovTai yoyoLs 
 KaTTjicoovs (pvaaVTes ^v 5(i;U0is e^et;/, 
 
 Kol rhv (^iXov TifJ-tatrif e^.ifcrou Trarpt. 
 
 So, too, inEcclus. xxx. 5, 6, it is said 
 of a father that "while he lived, be 
 saw and rejoiced in him (his son) ; 
 and when he died, he was not sorrow- 
 ful. He left behind him an avenger 
 against his enemies, and one that shall 
 requite kindness to his friends." The 
 coincidence of expression in the last 
 two passages is remarkable. 
 
 PSALM CXXVIII. 
 
 The Introduction to the preceding Psalm may be consulted on 
 this, which is a sunny picture of the family happiness of one who 
 fears God, and leads a holy life. 
 
 Luther calls this an " Epithalamium or Marriage Song, vcherein the 
 Prophet comforteth them that are married, wishing unto them and 
 promising them from God all manner of blessings." 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts : — 
 
 1. The description of the happy life. Ver. i — 4. 
 
 II. The good wishes and promises for him who has entered upon 
 it. Ver. 5, 6. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 Happy is every one that feareth Jehovah, 
 
 That walketh in His ways. 
 
 2 For the labour of thy hands thou shalt eat, 
 
 2. The labour of thy hands. —the quiet peaceful life of a thriving, 
 This is the first part of the blessing, prosperous, yeoman in the country, 
 
PSALM CXXVIII. 
 
 621 
 
 Happy art thou, and it (shall be) well with thee. 
 
 3 Thy wife (shall be) like a fruitful vine, in the inner part 
 
 of thy house ; 
 Thy children, like olive-plants, round about thy 
 table : 
 
 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth 
 
 Jehovah. 
 
 5 Jehovah bless thee out of Zion, 
 
 And (mayest thou) look on the prosperity of 
 Jerusalem 
 All the days of thy life, 
 
 6 And see thy children's children. — 
 
 Peace be upon Israel. 
 
 with no fear that the harvest will be 
 trodden down by the invader before it 
 is ripe, or the cattle swept off by sonae 
 roving predatory tribe. The opposite 
 condition is threatened as a curse in 
 the Law : " Ye shall sow your seed 
 in vain, for your enemies shall eat it," 
 Lev. xxvi. 16 ; " Thou shalt build an 
 house, and thou shalt not dwell there- 
 in ; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and 
 shalt not gather the grapes thereof," 
 &c., Deut. xxviii. 30 — 33, 39, 40. 
 See also Am. v. 11 ; Micah vi. 15 ; 
 Eccles. vi. I, 2 ; and for a contrast, 
 in this respect, between the lot of the 
 righteous and that of the wicked. Is. 
 iii. 10, II. 
 
 3. The comparison would perhaps 
 be brought out more clearly by ar- 
 ranging the verse as follows ; — 
 
 Thy vrife shall be in the inner part of 
 thy house 
 
 Like a fruitful vine ; 
 Thy children round about thy table 
 
 Like the shoots of the olive. 
 
 In the inner part, lit. "the 
 sides of thy house," as in Am. vi. 10, 
 i.e. the women's apartments, as mark- 
 ing the proper sphere of the wife 
 engaged in her domestic duties, and 
 
 also to some extent her seclusion, 
 though this was far less among he 
 Jews than among other Orientals. 
 
 The VINE is an emblem chiefly of 
 fruitfulnesSj but perhaps also of de- 
 pendence, as needing support ; the 
 OLIVE of vigorous, healfhy, joyous 
 life. The same figui-e is employed 
 by Euripides, Here. Fur. 839, Med. 
 1,098. 
 
 5. Looking on the beautiful family 
 picture, the Poet turns to greet the 
 father of the household, and to wish 
 him the blessing of which he has 
 already spoken in such glowing terms. 
 
 Out of Zion, as the dwelling-place 
 of God, His earthly throne and sanc- 
 tuary, whence all blessing comes ; 
 cxxxiv. 3, XX. 2. 
 
 Then follows the truly patriotic 
 sentiment — the wish that he may see 
 the prosperity of Jerusalern, as well as 
 that he may live long to see his chil- 
 dren and grandchildren. The welfare 
 of the family and the welfare of the 
 state are indissolubly connected. 
 
 (Mayest THOU) look, lit. "look 
 thou." 
 
 6. Children's children. So 
 Virgil : " Adspicies . . . natos nato- 
 rum et qui nascentur ab illis. " 
 
62 2 PSALM CXXIX. 
 
 PSALM CXXIX. 
 
 The nation, delivered from the Babylonish Captivity, may well 
 look back to all her past history, and trace in it the same great law 
 of suffering, and the same ever-repeated tokens of God's mercy. The 
 record is a record of conflict, but it is also a record of victory (ver. 2). 
 The great principle on which Israel's final deliverance rests is the 
 righteousness of Jehovah (ver 4). That has been manifested, as often 
 before, so now in cutting asunder the cords by which the people had 
 been bound in Babylon. Full of thankfulness at this deliverance, the 
 Poet draws thence an augury and a hope for the overthrow, complete 
 and final, of their oppressors. 
 
 The Psalm consists, accordingly, of two stanzas, each of four 
 verses ; the first containing the record of the past, the second the 
 prayer (which is also a hope, and almost a promise) for the future. 
 
 In subject, style, and rhythmical structure, it most nearly resembles 
 Psalm cxxiv. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 Greatly have they fought against me, from my youth 
 
 up— 
 May Israel now say — 
 
 2 Greatly have they fought against me, from my youth up, 
 
 (But) they have not also prevailed against me. 
 
 I. Greatly, or "long." of youth," &c Hos. ii. 15 ; Jer. ii. 
 
 Fought AGAINST ME, lit. "have 2, xxii. 21 ; Ezelc. xxiii. 3. 
 been adversaries unto ipe." 2. Have not prevailed. This 
 
 From .my youth up. The youth is the point of the Psalm. The New 
 
 of the nation was in Egypt, at which Testament parallelis 2 Cor. iv. 8 — 10, 
 
 time God speaks of His relation to and the whole history of the Christian 
 
 Israel as "love of youth," "espousals Church is an echo of the words. 
 
PSALM CXXX. 
 
 623 
 
 3 (The) ploughers ploughed upon my back, 
 
 They made long their furrows. 
 
 4 (But) Jehovah is righteous, 
 
 He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 
 
 5 Let them be ashamed and turned backward, 
 
 As many as hate Zion. 
 
 6 Let them be as the grass on the housetops, 
 
 That withereth afore it be plucked up : 
 
 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand. 
 
 Nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom ; 
 
 8 Neither do they which go by saj;-, 
 
 " The blessing of Jehovah be upon you." 
 " We bless you in the name of Jehovah." 
 
 3. Furrows. Deep wounds, such 
 as those made by the lash on the back 
 of slaves. Comp. Is. i. 6, and a 
 different but not less expressive imag4, 
 li 23- 
 
 4. The cords. The figure pro- 
 bably is taken from the yoking of 
 oxen : when the traces are cut, the 
 bullock is free. Or "the cord " may 
 be, in •>. wider sense, an image of 
 slavery, as in ii. 3. 
 
 6. Grass on the housetops, 
 easily springing up, but having no 
 root. The flat roofs of the Eastern 
 Ijouses "are plastered with a com- 
 position of mortar, tar, ashes, and 
 sand," in the crevices of which grass 
 
 often springs. The houses of the 
 poor in the country were formed of a 
 plaster of mud and straw, where the 
 grass would grow still more freely : 
 as all the images are taken from 
 country life, it is doubtless to country 
 dwellings that the Poet refers. Comp. 
 2 Kings xix. 26 ; Is. xxxvii. 27. 
 
 The picture of the harvest-field is 
 like that in Ruth ii. 4, where in like 
 manner we have the greeting and 
 counter-greeting. "And behold Boaz 
 came from Bethlehem and said unto 
 the reapers, Jehovah be with you. 
 And they answered him, Jehovah 
 bless thee." 
 
 PSALM CXXX. 
 
 This Psalm is a cry to God for the forgiveness of sin. The 
 Psalmist pleads that he has long waited upon God, trusting in His 
 word. Out of his own experience he exhorts all Israel in like manner 
 
624 PSALM CXXX. 
 
 to hope, and wait, and look for God's mercy and redemption, which 
 will assuredly be vouchsafed. 
 
 "When Luther, in the year 1530, was in the fortress of Coburg, on 
 four occasions during the night there seemed to pass before his eyes 
 burning torches, and this was followed by a severe headache. One 
 night he saw three blazing torches come in at the window of his 
 room, and he swooned away. His servant, coming to his assistance, 
 poured oil of almonds into his ear and rubbed his feet with hot 
 napkins. As soon as he recovered, he bade him read to him a por- 
 tion of the Epistle to the Galatians, and during the reading fell 
 asleep. The danger was over, and when he awoke, he cried out 
 joyfully : ' Come, to spite the devil, let us sing the Psalm De profundi! , 
 in four parts.' 
 
 "Being asked on one' occasion which were the best. Psalms, he 
 replied, ' The Pauline Psalms ' {Psalmi Paulini), and being pressed 
 to say which they were, he answered : ' The 32d, the 51st, the 130th, 
 and the 143rd. For they teach us that the forgiveness of sins is 
 vouchsafed to them that believe without the \a.'^ and without works ; 
 therefore are they Pauline Psalms ; and when David sings, " With 
 Thee is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared," so Paul likewise 
 saith, " God hath concluded all under sin, that He may have mercy 
 on all." Therefore none can boast of his own righteousness, but the 
 words, "That Thou mayest be feared," thrust away all self-merit, 
 teach us to take off our hat before God and confess, gratia est non 
 meritum, remissio non saiisfactio, it is all forgiveness, and no merit.' " 
 — Delitzsch. 
 
 This is the sixth of the seven Penitential Psalms, as they are called. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 Out of the depths have I called upon Thee, O Jehovah ! 
 
 2 Lord, hear my voice : 
 
 Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my sup- 
 plications. 
 
 3 If Thou, O Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, 
 
 O Lord, who shall stand .' 
 
 I. Out of the depths. Deep 3. Mark, lit. "keep,"or "watcli," 
 
 waters, as so often being an image of so as to observe, 
 
 overwhelming affliclion : comp. Ixix. Who shall (or can) stand? 
 
 2, 14 ; Is. li. 10. Comp. Ixxvi. 7 ; Nah. i. 6 ; Mai. iii. 2, 
 
PSALM CXXX. 
 
 625 
 
 But with Thee is forgiveness, 
 
 That Thou mayest be feared. 
 I have waited for Jehovah, my soul hath waited ; 
 
 And in His word have I hoped. 
 My soul (looketh) for the Lord, 
 
 4. But, or rather for, the con- 
 junction referring to what is implied 
 in the previous verse. The senti- 
 ment expanded would be : "If Thou 
 shouldest mark iniquities, none can 
 stand ; but Thou dost not mark 
 them, /w with Thee is forgiveness." 
 
 That Thou mayest be feared. 
 God freely forgives sin, not that men 
 may think lightly of sin, but that they 
 may magnify His grace and mercy in 
 its forgiveness, and so give Him the 
 fear and the honour due imto His 
 Name. So in xxv. 11, the Psalmist 
 prays, " For Thy Name's sake pardon 
 mine iniquity;" and Ixxix. 9, "Purge 
 away our sins for Thy Name's sake," 
 i.e. that God's Name may be glorified 
 as a God who pardoneth iniquity, 
 transgression, and sin. This for- 
 giveness is a far more powerful 
 motive than any other to call forth 
 holy fear and love and self-sacrifiice. 
 Luther says : " Why doth he add, 
 'That Thou mayest be feared'? . . . 
 It is as if he should say, I have learned 
 by experience, O Lord, why there is 
 mercy with Thee, and why of right 
 Thou mayest challenge this title unto 
 Thyself, that Thou art merciful and 
 forgivest sins. For in that Thou 
 shuttest all under free mercy, and 
 leavest nothing to the merits and 
 works of men, therefore Thou art 
 feared. But if all things were not 
 placed in Thy mercy, and we could 
 take away our sins by our own strength, 
 no man would fear Thee, but the 
 whole world would proudly contemn 
 Thee. For daily experience shows 
 that where there is not this know- 
 ledge of God's mercy, there men 
 walk in a presumption of their own 
 
 merits. . . . The true fear of God, 
 the true worship, the true reverence, 
 yea, the true knowledge of God 
 resteth on nothing but mercy, that 
 through Christ we assuredly trust 
 that God is reconciled unto us. . . . 
 Christian doctrine doth not deny or 
 condemn good works, but it teachetli 
 that God willeth not to mark in- 
 iquities, but willeth that we believe, 
 that is, trust. His mercy. For with 
 Him is forgiveness, that He may be 
 feared and continue to be our God. 
 Whoever, then, do believe that God 
 is ready to forgive, and for Christ's 
 sake to remit, sins, they render unto 
 God true and reasonable service ; 
 they strive not with God about the 
 law, works, and righteousness, but, 
 laying aside all truth in themselves, do 
 fear Him because of His mercy, and 
 thus are made sons who receive the 
 Holy Ghost, and begin truly to do 
 the works of the law. So, in these 
 two lines, David sets forth to us the 
 sum and substance of all Christias- 
 doctrine, and that Sun which giveth 
 light to the Church." 
 
 5. I have waited. This has 
 been the attitude of soul in which 
 God's mercy has come to me. 
 
 In His word, on the ground of 
 His promises, I have claimed that 
 mercy, and now my soul " is unto the 
 Lord," that I may ever find fresh 
 mercy, and grace for all my need. 
 This waiting, hoping attitude is the 
 attitude of a true heart, of one not 
 easily discouraged, of one that says, 
 " I will not let Thee go, except Thou 
 bless me." 
 
 6. My SOUL (looketh) for, lit. 
 "my soul is unto the Lord" (as in 
 
 S S 
 
626 PSALM CXXXI. 
 
 More than watchers (look) for the morning. 
 
 (I say, more than) watchers (look) for the morning. 
 
 7 Let Israel hope in Jehovah ; 
 
 For with Jehovah is loving-kindness, 
 And with Him is plenteous redemption. 
 
 8 And He will redeem Israel 
 
 From all his iniquities. 
 
 cxxiii. 2, "our eyes are unto Jeho- 
 vah "), as the eyes of watchers through 
 the long and weary night look eagerly 
 for the first streaks of the coming day. 
 Delltzsch quotes in illustration of the 
 expression the words of Chr. A 
 Crusius on his death-bed, when lifting 
 up his eyes and hands to heaven he 
 exclaimed : " My soul is full of the 
 grace of Jesus Christ, my whole soul 
 is unto God." 
 
 Watchers, not merely "watch- 
 men," as in cxxvii. I, but all who, 
 from whatever cause, are obliged to 
 keep awake. No figure could more 
 beautifully express the longing of the 
 soul for the breaking of the day of 
 God's loving mercy. 
 
 7. He has not been disappointed 
 
 of his hope, and therefore he can bid 
 Israel hope. 
 
 Plenteous redemption, or more 
 literally, "redemption plenteously." 
 He calls it plenteous, as Luther says, 
 because such is the straitness of our 
 heart, the slendemess of our hopes, 
 the weakness of our faith, that it far 
 exceeds all our capacity, all our peti- 
 tions and desires. 
 
 8. HE emphatic, He alone, for 
 none other can. 
 
 From his iniquities, not merely 
 from the punishment. The redemp- 
 tion includes the forgiveness of sins, 
 the breaking of the power and do- 
 minion of sin, and the setting free 
 from all the consequences of sin. 
 
 PSALM CXXXI. 
 
 Whether written by David, to whom the title gives it, or not, this 
 short Psalm, one of the most beautiful of the whole Book, assuredly 
 breathes David's spirit. A childlike simplicity, an unaffected humility, 
 the honest expression of that humility as from a heart spreading itself 
 out in conscious integrity before God — this is what we find in the 
 Psalm, traits of a character like that of David. Delitzsch calls the 
 Psalm an echo of David's answer to Michal, 2 Sam. vi. 22, "And 1 
 will become of still less account than this, and I will be lowly in 
 
PSALM CXXXI. 
 
 627 
 
 mine own eyes." At the same time, with the majority of interpreters, 
 he holds it to be a post-Exile Psalm, written with a view to encourage 
 the writer himself and his people to the same humility, the same 
 patient waiting upon God, of which David was so striking an 
 example. 
 
 [a pilgrim song, of DAVID.] 
 
 Jehovah, my heart is not haughty. 
 
 Nor mine eyes lifted up : 
 Neither have I exercised myself in things too great. 
 
 And in things too wonderful for me. 
 But I have stilled and hushed my soul. 
 
 As a child that is weaned of his mother ; 
 
 1. "All virtues together," it has 
 been said, ' ' are a body whereof 
 humility is the head." It is this chief 
 crowning virtue to which the Poet 
 lays claim ; for "Jehovah hath respect 
 unto the lowly," cxxxviii. 6, and 
 "dwelieth with him that is of an 
 humble spirit," Is. Ivii. 15. 
 
 Mine eyes lifted up, as in xviii. 
 27, ci. 6; therefore a Davidic ex- 
 pression. Pride has its seat in the 
 heart, looks forth from the eyes, and 
 expresses itself in the actions. 
 
 Have I exercised myself, lit. 
 "walked," a common figure for the 
 life and behaviour. 
 
 Too GREAT . . . TOO WONDER- 
 FUL, here probably in a practical 
 sense, " I have not aimed at a posi- 
 tion above me, involving duties and 
 responsibilities too heavy for me." 
 Comp. for the phrase. Gen. xviii. 14, 
 "Is anything too wonderful for Je- 
 hovah?" Deut. xvii. 8, "When a 
 matter is too wonderful (too hard) for 
 thee for judgement;" xxx. 11, "For 
 this commandment ... is not too 
 wonderful for thee, it is not far off." 
 
 2. I HAVE STILLED MY SOUL, i.e. 
 the pride and passions which were 
 
 like the swelling waves of an angry 
 sea. 
 
 The two next clauses of the verse 
 would be more exactly rendered : — 
 
 " As a weaned child upon his mother" 
 
 {i.e. as he lies resting upon his 
 mother's bosom) ; 
 
 "As the weaned child (I say), lies 
 my soul upon me. " 
 
 The figure is beautifully expres- 
 sive of the humility of a soul chas- 
 tened by disappointment. As the 
 weaned child no longer cries, and 
 frets, and longs for the breast, but 
 lies still and is content, because it is 
 with its mother ; so my soul is weaned 
 from all discontented thoughts, from 
 all fretful desires for earthly good, 
 waiting in stillness upon God, finding 
 its satisfaction in His presence, rest- 
 ing peacefully in His arms. 
 
 "The weaned child," writes a 
 mother, with reference to this passage, 
 " has for the first time become con- 
 scious of grijf. The piteous longing 
 for the swe^Dourishment of his life, 
 the~-broken sob of disappointment, 
 mark the trouble of his innocent 
 S S 2 
 
628 
 
 PSALM CXXXIl. 
 
 As the weaned child (I say) is my soul within me. 
 3 Let Israel hope in Jehovah, 
 
 From henceforth even for ever. 
 
 heart: it is not so much the 
 suffering ; he has felt that before, and 
 cried while it lasted ; but now his 
 joy and comfort are taken away, 
 and he knows not why. When his 
 head is once more laid on his 
 mother's bosom, then he trusts and 
 loves and rests, but he has learned 
 the first lesson of humility, he is 
 cast down, and clings with fond help- 
 lessness to his one friend." 
 
 At a time when the devices of our 
 modem civilization are fast tending 
 
 to obliterate the beauty of this figure, 
 mothers no longer doing their duty 
 by their children, it seems the more 
 necessary to draw attention to it. 
 
 3. Prayer, as at the close of the 
 last Psalm, that the experience of 
 the individual may become the ex- 
 perience of the nation, that they too 
 may learn to lie still, and trust, and 
 wait, in that hope which, like faith 
 and love, abideth for ever (l Cor. 
 xiii. 13). 
 
 PSALM CXXXIl. 
 
 This Psalm is a prayer that God's promises made to David may 
 not fail of fulfilment, that He virill dwell for ever in the habitation 
 which He chose for Himself in Zion, and that the children of David 
 may for ever sit upon his throne. It opens with a recital of David's 
 efforts to bring the Ark to its resting-place ; it ends with a recital of 
 the promises made to David and to his seed. 
 
 There has been much difference of opinion as to the occasion for 
 which the Psalm was written. 
 
 I. The majority of the ancient interpreters regard it as a prayer of 
 David's, either at the consecration of the Tabernacle after the removal 
 of the Ark thither, or at the time when he formed the design of build- 
 ing the Temple, and received in consequence the promise in 2 Sam. 
 vii., or at the dedication of Araunah's threshing-floor, 2 Sam. xxiv. 
 
 Others, with more probability, have thought that the Psalm was 
 written in commemoration of the completion and dedication of the 
 Temple, either by Solomon himself, or by some Poet of his time. On 
 such a view, this ode is seen to be harmonious and consistent 
 
PSALM CXXXir. 629 
 
 throughout. It is perfectly natural that Solomon, or a Poet of his 
 age writing a song for such an occasion, should recur to the earlier 
 efforts made by his father to prepare a habitation for Jehovah. On 
 the completion of the work, his thoughts would inevitably revert to 
 all the steps which had led to its accomplishment. It is no less 
 natural that at such a time the promise given to David should seem 
 doubly precious, that it should be clothed with a new interest, a fresh 
 significance, when David's son sat upon his throne, and when the 
 auspicious opening of his reign might itself be hailed as a fulfilment 
 of the promise. It is, moreover, in favour of this view that ver. 8 — 10 
 of the Psalm form, with one slight variation, the conclusion of Solo- 
 mon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple, according to the 
 version of that Prayer given in the Chronicles (2 Chron. vi. 41, 42). 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, remember for David 
 
 All his anxious cares, 
 
 2 How he sware unto Jehovah, 
 
 (And) vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob : 
 
 3 " I will not come into the tent of my house, 
 
 I will not go up to the couch of my bed, 
 
 I. Remember, i.e. so as to fulfil take a wider range, there may also 
 
 Thy promise made to him: comp. be included in these " anxious cares " 
 
 2 Chron. vi. 42. his earnest desire to build the Temple, 
 
 All his anxious cares, ht. "all and the great preparations which he 
 
 his being afflicted." David had tor- made with that object, by collecting 
 
 mented himself with his anxiety to the materials, furnishing the design 
 
 prepare a suitable earthly dwelling- to his son, and making provision for 
 
 place for Jehovah. First', the build- the service and worslup of God on a 
 
 ing of the Tabernacle on Mount Zion, scale of unexampled magnificence, 
 and the solemn bringing up of the 2. How he svtarb, lit. "who 
 
 Ark there, had engaged his thoughts. sware." 
 
 The prayer in ci. 2, "O when wilt Mighty One of Jacob. This 
 
 Thou come unto me?" is the best name of God (repeated in ver. S) 
 
 comment on David's afflictions and occurs first in Gen. xlix. 24, in the 
 
 anxious cares till his purpose was mouth of the dying Jacob. It is 
 
 accomplished. In contrast with this, found besides only in three passages : 
 
 he says himself, " We did not seek it in Is. i. 24 (" Mighty One of Israel"), 
 
 (did not trouble ourselves about it) in xlbt. 26, Ix. 16. 
 
 the day of Saul," i Chron. xiii. 3. 3- Tent of MY house, i.e. the 
 
 Next, if we suppose the Psalm to tent which is my house" (as m the 
 
630 
 
 PSALM CXXXII. 
 
 4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, 
 
 Nor slumber to my eyelids, 
 
 5 Until I find a place for Jehovah, 
 
 A dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob." 
 
 6 Lo, we heard of it at Ephrathah, 
 
 next clause, " the couch which is my 
 bed "), a good instance of the way in 
 which the associations of the old 
 patriarchal tent life fixed themselves 
 in the language of the people. 
 
 4. Sleep to mine eyes. See the 
 same proverbial expression, Prov. vi, 4. 
 
 5. A DWELLING. This has been 
 referred to the placing the Ark in a 
 fixed abode on Zion, after its many 
 wanderings ; comp. Ixxviii. 68, 69. 
 And this appears to me to be very 
 probable. 
 
 6. This verse is extremely obscure, 
 but it seems at any rate to describe in 
 some way the accomplishment of 
 David's purpose. 
 
 What are we to understand by 
 Ephrathah and "the fields of the 
 wood"? 
 
 {A) To take the latter expression 
 first. This may be either an appel- 
 lative or a proper name. In the last 
 case it may be rendered, "fields of 
 Jaar," Jaar being a shortened form of 
 Kirjath-yraWOT, "the city of woods," 
 for Jearim, "woods" is only the 
 plural of Jaar, "wood." 
 
 (B) Ephrathah, as the name of a 
 place, occurs elsewhere as the ancient 
 name of Bethlehem, Gen. xxxv. 16, 
 ig, xlviii. 7; Ruth iv. II. In Micah 
 V. 2, the two names are united, 
 Bethlehem-Ephrathah. 
 
 Other explanations have been given 
 of the name. 
 
 (a) Although Ephrathah is only an 
 ancient name for Bethlehem, yet as 
 Ephrathite as frequently denotes an 
 Ephraimite as a Belhlehemite, so it is 
 possible that Ephrathah here may be 
 
 a name for Ephraim. In that case, 
 the allusion is to the first resting- 
 place of the Ark in Shiloh, which 
 was the capital of Ephraim : " We 
 heard in ancient story that the Ark 
 was placed in Shiloh ; we found it, 
 when at last it was to be removed to 
 its new abode, at Kirjath-jearim. " 
 The word found would naturally 
 suggest the many vicissitudes and 
 wanderings of the Ark in the in- 
 terval. 
 
 (fi) It has been supposed that 
 Ephrathah is not a proper name, but 
 denotes, in accordance with its ety- 
 mology, the fruitful land, by way of 
 contrast with the fields of the wood, 
 i.e. the forest district ; and thus the 
 whole land would be poetically sum- 
 med up under the two heads of the 
 fertile and the woody regions, and 
 the meaning would be, " From all 
 parts of the land we flocked at the 
 summons of our king, to bring up the 
 holy Ark to its dwelling-place in Zion. " 
 In this case, the verbs "heard" . . . 
 "found" cannot be taken as de- 
 scribing different and contrasted acts, 
 but as referring to one and the same 
 event. 
 
 (7) Ephrathah has been conjec- 
 tured (also with reference to its 
 etymological meaning of the "fruitful 
 country ") to be a name for Beth- 
 shemesh, the spot where the Ark was 
 first deposited by the Philistines, and 
 whence it was subsequently removed 
 to "the fields of the wood," i.e. 
 Kirjath-jearim. According to this 
 interpretation, which is that of Hup- 
 feld, the verse would mean. 
 
PSALM CXXXII. 
 
 631 
 
 We found it in the field of the wood : 
 
 7 " Let us come into His dwelling, 
 
 Let us bow ourselves before His footstool. 
 
 8 Arise, O Jehovah, into Thy resting-place, 
 
 Thou, and the Ark of Thy strength. 
 
 9 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness, 
 
 And let Thy saints shout for joy." 
 10 For Thy servant David's sake. 
 
 Turn not away the face of Thine Anointed. 
 
 " We heard that the Ark was brought 
 to Bethshemesh first, 
 We found it at Kiijath-jearim.'' 
 
 (5) Lastly, Ephrathah has been 
 identified with the district about 
 Kirjath-jearim. 
 
 On the whole, whichever interpre- 
 tation we adopt, the general scope of 
 the passage seems to be : Remember 
 Thy servant David, remember all 
 his efforts to build Thee an habitation 
 for Thy Name ; he gave himself no 
 rest till he had brought the Ark to 
 Zion. We heard where the Ark was, 
 we went to fetch it, saying one to 
 another as we brought it to its new 
 abode, "Let us come into His 
 dwelling," &c. And now, by the 
 memory of David, by the memory of 
 Thy covenant with him and his faith- 
 fulness to that covenant, we plead 
 with Thee. Reject not the prayer of 
 our king, who is David's son, grant 
 him the request of his lips, fulfil all 
 his desires. (Comp. xx. i — 4.) 
 
 7. His dwelling, or "taber- 
 nacles," the house which David calls 
 " curtains," 2 Sam. vii. 2, purposely 
 repeated from ver. 5. 
 
 His footstool. See on xcix. 5. 
 
 8. As in ver. 7 we have the ex- 
 pression of the feelings of the con- 
 gregation in David's time, so in ver. 8 
 there may be a transition to the lan- 
 guage of the people in Solomon's 
 
 time. To the Foetus thoughts the 
 congregation is one, and the utterance 
 of their feelings is one. He blends 
 together the song which was raised 
 when the Ark was carried up to 
 Zion, with the song which was raised 
 when it was again moved from Zion to 
 its final resting-place in the Temple, 
 2 Chron. v. 2 — 5, vi. 41. 
 
 Arise. The words are taken from 
 the old battle-cry of the nation, when 
 the Ark set forward, "to search out 
 a resting-place for them " (Numb. *. 
 33—36). 
 
 Ark of Thy strength. The 
 only place in the Psalms where the 
 Aric is mentioned. This designation 
 occurs only here and in 2 Chron. 
 vi. 41. 
 
 9. Let Thy priests. The bless- 
 ing of God's presence in its effects 
 both upon the priests and the 
 people. 
 
 Righteousness. In the promise, 
 ver. 1 5, which corresponds to this 
 prayer, salvation is the equivalent 
 word : see on Ixxi. 15. 
 
 Saints or "beloved," as also in 
 ver. 16. See on xvi. 10. From this 
 verse are taken the petitions in our 
 Liturgy: " Endue Thy ministers with 
 righteousnebs. And make Thy chosen 
 people joyful." 
 
 10. Turn not away the face, 
 i.e. refuse not the prayer. See the 
 same phrase I Kings ii. 16, 17, 20, 
 
632 
 
 PSALM CXXXII. 
 
 1 1 Jehovah hath sworn unto David, 
 
 It is truth, He will not depart from it, — 
 
 " Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. 
 
 12 If thy sons will keep My covenant, 
 
 And My testimonies which I shall teach them. 
 Their sons also for ever and ever 
 Shall sit upon thy throne." 
 
 13 For Jehovah hath chosen Zion, 
 
 He hath desired it as an abode for Himself 
 
 14 This is my resting-place for ever and ever, 
 
 Here will I abide, for I have desired it. 
 
 15 I will abundantly bless her provision, 
 
 I will satisfy her poor with bread. 
 
 16 Her priests will I clothe with salvation, 
 
 And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 
 
 where the E.V. renders "deny me 
 not, say me not nay. " 
 
 Thine Anointed. This cannot 
 be David. It would be extremely 
 harsh to say, " For David's sake 
 refuse not the prayer of David." 
 Obviously the Anointed here must 
 be Solomon (or some one of David's 
 descendants), who pleads David, and 
 the promises made to David, as a 
 reason why his prayer should not be 
 rejected. In 2 Chron. vi. 42, the 
 verse stands somewhat differently : 
 " O Jehovah God, turn not away the 
 face of Thine Anointed : remember 
 the ) oving-kindnesses of David Thy ser- 
 vant." The last clause most probably 
 means, " Thy loving-kindnesses to 
 David," but others render "the good- 
 ness or piety of David Thy servant," 
 the meaning of the Hebrew word 
 being ambiguous. The prayer is a 
 prayer for the fulfilment of the pro- 
 mise. Hence the promise is quoted, 
 ver. II, 12. Others suppose that the 
 subject of the prayer is to be found 
 in ver. 8, 9. 
 
 II. Hath SWORN . . . will not 
 DEPART, marking the unchangeable- 
 
 ness of the promise, as in ex. 4, 
 "Jehovah hath sworn and will not 
 repent." Comp. Ixxxix. 34 — 37. The 
 substance of the promise follows, as 
 given in 2 Sam. vii. 
 
 13. The choosing of Zion as the 
 seat of the sanctuary is mentioned as 
 being closely and intimately connected 
 with the choosing of David as king, 
 and the tribe of Judah as the ruling 
 tribe. The connection is : Jehovah 
 has given the sovereignty to David 
 and to David's house ; for He has 
 chosen Zion to be His own dwelling- 
 place. The religious centre and 
 political centre of the people are one 
 and the same : exactly as in cxxii. 
 
 4, 5- 
 
 14. My- RESTING-PLACE. Shiloh 
 had been abandoned ; for a time the 
 Ark was at Bethel, Jud. xx. 27 ; then 
 at Mizpah, Jud. xxi. 5 > afterwards, 
 for twenty years, at Kirjath-jearim, 
 I Sam. vii. 2 ; and then for three 
 months in the house of Obed-Edom, 
 before it was finally brought to its 
 last resting-place. 
 
 l6. A promise that the petition in 
 ver. 9 shall be granted. 
 
PSALM CXXXIII. 633 
 
 17 There will I make the horn of David to bud, 
 
 I have prepared a lamp for mine Anointed. 
 
 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame, 
 
 But upon himself shall his crown shine. 
 
 17. Make the horn ... to will I give one tribe, that David My 
 
 BUD. Giving ever new strength to servant may have a lamp always be- 
 
 his house and victory over all ene- fore Me in Jerusalem, the city which 
 
 mies. See on Ixxv. 5, and comp. I have chosen Me to put My Name 
 
 Ezek. xxix. 21. there." 
 
 A LAMP. See on xviii. 28. Comp. 18. Shine, lit "blossom."' 
 
 I Kings xi. 36, "And u-nto his son 
 
 PSALM CXXXIII. 
 
 Herder says of this exquisite little song, that " it has the fragrance 
 of a lovely rose." Nowhere has the nature of true unity — that unity 
 which binds men together, not by artificial restraints, but as brethren 
 of one heart — been more faithfully described, nowhere has it been so 
 gracefully illustrated, as in this short ode. True concord is, we are 
 here taught, a holy thing, a sacred oil, a rich perfume which, flowing 
 down from the head to the beard, from the beard to the garment, 
 sanctifies the whole body. It is a sweet morning dew, which lights 
 not only on the lofty mountain-peaks, but on the lesser hills, em- 
 bracing all, and refreshing all with its influence. 
 
 The title of the Psalm gives it to David. Hence it has been con- 
 jectured that it refers to the circumstances attending his corona- 
 tion at Hebron, when, after eight years of civil war, " all the tribes of 
 Israel," laying aside their mutual animosities, came to David into 
 Hebron, and spake, saying, " Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh " 
 (2 Sam. V. i). The picture of a united nation is given still more 
 vividly in the narrative of the Chronicles (i Chron. xii. 38 — ^40). 
 
 Others have supposed that the Psalm was suggested by the sight 
 of the multitudes who came up from all parts of Palestine to be 
 present at the great national Feasts in Jerusalem. 
 
634 PSALM CXXXIII. 
 
 Again, others, and perhaps the majority of commentators, refer the 
 Psalm to the time of the return from the Captivity, when, there being 
 no longer any division of the kingdom, the jealousies of the tribes 
 had ceased, and all who returned, of whatever tribe, were incor- 
 porated in one state. That at this time there was a real unity of 
 heart and mind in the nation, may be inferred from the narratives in 
 Ezra and Nehemiah. Thus, for instance, we read in Ezra iii. i, that 
 " when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were 
 in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to 
 Jerusalem." And in Nehem. viii. i : "And all the people gathered 
 themselves together as one man into the street that was before 
 the Water Gate, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring 
 the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded 
 to Israel." 
 
 But in truth there is not a syllable in the Psalm which can lead 
 us to any conclusion respecting its date. Such a vision of the 
 blessedness of unity may have charmed the Poet's heart and inspired 
 the Poet's song at any period of the national history. And his words, 
 though originally, no doubt, intended to apply to a state, would be 
 equally true of a smaller circle, a family or a tribe. 
 
 [a pilgrim song, of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Behold how good and liow pleasant (it is) 
 
 For brethren to dwell together (in unity). 
 
 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head. 
 
 I. BiSHOLD draws attention to an that those who are of one race and 
 
 important truth. Augustine says of one stock should live in peace and 
 
 this first verse, that the very sound of harmony together as living members 
 
 it is so sweet that it was chanted even of the same body, filled with the 
 
 by persons who knew nothing of the same spirit, seeking, in mutual for- 
 
 rest of the Psalter. He also says that bearance and sympathy, the same 
 
 this verse gave birth to monasteries : ends. 
 
 it was hke a trumpet-call to those 2. The first figure is taken from the 
 
 who wished to dwell together as oil which was poured on the head of 
 
 brethren (fratres or friars). the High Priest at his consecration 
 
 FOR BRETHREN TO DWELL TO- (Ex. xxix. 7 ; Lev. viii. I2, xxi. Jo). 
 
 GETHER. The exact force of the The point of the comparison does not 
 
 Hebrew is, "for them who are lieinthe/?-^«(?aiK«joftheoil, orinits 
 
 brethren also to dwell together," i.e. all-pervading fragrance ; but in this, 
 
PSALM CXXXIII. 
 
 63s 
 
 Which descended upon the beard, (even) Aaron's beard, 
 Which descended to the edge of his garments ; 
 3 Like the dew of Hermon which descended upon the 
 mountains of Zion, 
 For there Jehovah commanded the blessing. 
 
 that being poured on the head, it did 
 not rest there, but flowed to the beard, 
 and descended even to the garments, 
 and thus, as it were, consecrated the 
 whole body in all its parts. All the 
 members participate in the same bless-, 
 ing. Comp. I Cor. xii. This is the point 
 of the comparison. Other thoughts 
 may be suggested by it, as that the 
 spirit of concord, both in a state and 
 in a family, will descend from those 
 who govern to those who are govern >d ; 
 or again, that concord is a holy thii.g, 
 like the holy oil, or that it is swett 
 and fragrant, like the fragrant oil ; 
 but these are mere accessories of the 
 image, not that which suggested its 
 use. If, as is commonly assumed, 
 the point of comparison lay in the all- 
 pervading fragrance of the oil, the 
 addition to the figure, "which de- 
 scended upon the beard . . . which 
 descended to the edge of his garments " 
 Would be thrown away. But under- 
 stand this as typifying the consecration 
 of the whole man, and the extension 
 of the figure at once becomes appro- 
 priate, and full of meaning. 
 
 The precious oil, lit. ' ' the good 
 oil," i.e. the sacred oil, for the pre- 
 paration of which special directions 
 were given, and which was to be 
 devoted exclusively to the eonsecra- 
 tion of holy things and persons, 
 Ex. XXX. 22 — 33. Hence the image 
 implies not only that the whole body 
 is united, but that the whole body is 
 consecrated. 
 
 Aaron, named not because he 
 only was thus anointed, but as the 
 representative of all priestly anoint- 
 ing : see Ex. xxviii. 41, xxx. 30, xL 15. 
 
 Which descended. I have fol- 
 lowed the Hebrew in retaining the 
 same word in the three successive 
 lines. We have here, as in so many 
 of the Pilgrim Songs, the repetition 
 of the same word in connection with 
 the same subject. See the repetition 
 of the word '^keep" in cxxi., and the 
 same rhythmical figure in cxxiii. 3, 4, 
 cxxiv. I, 3, 4, &c. 
 
 Edge, or rather "collar," lit. 
 "mouth," "opening," as the mouth 
 of a sack. The image does not repre- 
 sent the oil as descending to the skirts, 
 the lower edge of the garment. It is 
 enough that it touch the robe to 
 sanctify it. Accordng to the Law, 
 the garments of the priests were sprin- 
 kled with the holy oil, Ex. xxix. 2I ; 
 Lev. viii. 30. 
 
 3. The second image expressive of 
 the blessing of brotherly concord, is 
 taken from the dew. Here again it 
 is not the refreshing nature of the dew, 
 nor its gentle, all-pervading influence, 
 which is the prominent feature. That 
 which renders it to the Poet's eye so 
 striking an image of brotherly con- 
 cord, is the fact that it falls alike on 
 both mountains: that the same dew 
 which descends on the lofty Hermon 
 descends also on the humbler Zion. 
 High and low drink in the same 
 sweet refreshment. Thus the image 
 is exactly parallel to the last ; the oil 
 descends from the head to the beard, 
 the dew from the higher mountain to 
 the lower. (Hermon in the north, 
 and Zion in the south, may also 
 further suggest the union of the north- 
 ern and southern tribes. ) 
 
 There. In Zion the blessed fruits 
 
636 PSALM CXXXIV. 
 (Even) life for evermore. 
 
 of this brotherly concord may chiefly An old pilgrim narrates, that every 
 
 be looked for, for Jehovah Himself morning at sunrise a handful of dew 
 
 has made it the great centre of all floated dovro from the summit of 
 
 blessing and all life. Hermon, and deposited itself upon the 
 
 This last verse lends some colour to church of St. Mary, where it was im- 
 
 the view that the Psalm vfas intended mediately gathered up by Christian 
 
 to be sung at the gathering of the leeches, and was found a sovereign 
 
 tribes for the great national Feasts. remedy for all diseases ; it was of this 
 
 Comp. cxxviii. 5, cxxxiv. 3. dew, he declares, that David spoke 
 
 The similitude of the dew has taken prophetically in this Psalm. — Itinerary 
 
 shape in a legend. of St. Anthony, 
 
 PSALM CXXXIV. 
 
 " Three things are clear with regard to this Psalm," says Delitzsch. 
 " First, that it consists of a greeting, ver. i, 2, and a reply, ver. 3. 
 Next, that the greeting is addressed to those Priests and Levites who 
 had the night-watch in the Temple. Lastly, that this Psalm is pur- 
 posely placed at the end of the collection of Pilgrim Songs in order 
 to take the place of a final blessing.'' 
 
 That the address is not to any person in the habit of frequenting 
 the Temple is evident, because it was only in rare and exceptional 
 cases (Luke ii. 37) that such persons could be found in the Temple 
 at night. And, further, the word " stand " in ver. i is the common 
 word to express the service of the Priests and Levites, who had 
 their duties by night as well as by day (i Chron. ix. 33). 
 
 The Targum, too, explains the first verse of the Temple watch : 
 
 "The custom in the Second Temple appears to. have been this. 
 After midnight the chief of the door-keepers took the key of the inner 
 Temple, and went with some of the Priests through the small postern 
 of the Fire Gate. In the inner court this watch divided itself into two 
 companies, each carrying a burning torch ; one company turned west, 
 the other east, and so they compassed the court to see whether all 
 were in readiness for the Temple service on the following morning. 
 In the bakehouse, where the Mincha ('meat-offering') of the High 
 
PSALM CXXXIV. 637 
 
 Piiest was baked, they met with the cry, ' All well.' Meanwhile the 
 rest of the Priests arose, bathed themselves, and put on their gar- 
 ments. They then went into the stone chamber (one-half of which 
 was the hall of session of the Sanhedrim), and there, under the super- 
 intendence of the officer who gave the watch-word, and one of the 
 Sanhedrim, surrounded by the Priests clad in their robes of office, their 
 several duties for the coming day were assigned to each of the Priests 
 by lot (Luke i. 9)." 
 
 Accordingly it has been supposed by Tholuck and others that the 
 greeting in ver. i, 2, was addressed to the guard going off duty by 
 those who came to relieve them ; and who in their turn received the 
 answer in ver. 3. Others conjecture that the greeting was inter- 
 changed between the two companies of the night-watch, when they 
 met in making their rounds through the Temple. Delitzsch, however, 
 thinks that the words of ver. i, 2, are addressed by the congregation 
 to the Priests and Levites who had charge of the night-service, and 
 that ver. 3 is an answer of blessing from them to the congregation 
 who were gathered on the Temple-mount. 
 
 [a pilgrim song.] 
 
 {The Greeting). 
 
 1 Behold, bless ye Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, 
 
 Which by night stand in the house of Jehovah. 
 
 2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary, 
 
 And bless ye Jehovah. 
 
 {The Answer). 
 
 3 Jehovah bless thee out of Zion, 
 
 I. Behold. The word draws By night. Lit. "in the nights." 
 
 attention here to a duty, as at the See reference to a night-service in I 
 
 beginning of the last Psalm it drew Chr. ix. 33. 
 
 attention to a truth at once important Stand. A common word for the 
 
 and attractive. service of the Priests and Levites, 
 
 Servants of Jehovah. The Deut. x. 8 ; i Chr. xxiii. 30 ; 2 Chr. 
 
 expression of itself might denote the xxix. 11. 
 
 people at large, but the next clause 3. Bless thee. The singular 
 
 limits it (as in cxxxv. 2) to the Priests instead of the plural " bless you. '' 
 
 and Levites. because the words are taken from 
 
638 PSALM CXXXV. 
 
 (Even He who is) the Maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 the form used by the High Priest in Maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 blessing the people, Num. vi. 24. As in cxxi. 2,, cxxiv. 8. 
 
 Out of Zion. See on cxxxv. 21. 
 
 PSALM CXXXV. 
 
 A Psalm intended for the Temple service, and one of the Halle- 
 lujah Psalms, though not placed in the same series with the rest. 
 It is, like Ps. cxxxiv., an exhortation to the Priests and Levites who 
 wait in the sanctuary to praise Jehovah, both because of His goodness 
 in choosing Israel to be His people, and because of His greatness 
 and the Almighty power which He has shown in His dominion 
 over the world of nature, and in the overthrow of all the enemies 
 of His people. Then His abiding Majesty is contrasted with the 
 nothingness of the idols of the heathen. The Psalm is almost 
 entirely composed of passages taken from other sources. Compare 
 ver. I with cxxxiv. i ; ver. 3 with cxlvii. i ; ver. 6 and 1 5 — 20 with 
 cxv.; ver. 7 with Jer. x. 13 ; ver. 14. with Deut. xxxii. 36 ; ver. 8 — 12 
 with cxxxvi. 10 — 22. 
 
 Delitzsch not inaptly describes the Psalm, on this account, as a 
 species of mosaic, applying to its structure the expression of the old 
 Roman poet Lucilius : " Quam lepide lexeis compostse ut tesserulae 
 omnes." The prophecies of Jeremiah furnish many instances of a 
 similar composite diction. Zephaniah takes his words and phrases 
 almost entirely from Jeremiah. Many sentences in the Book of 
 Proverbs would naturally appear in other writers, and a collector of 
 proverbial wisdom must by the very nature of the case compose a 
 mosaic instead of painting a picture. Several of the Psalms are speci- 
 mens of this composite work. The diction of the 97th and 98th Psalms 
 in particular is a series of coloured fragments, as it were, from the 
 later chapters of Isaiah. The tesserula of this Psalm, on the other 
 hand, are gathered from the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. 
 
PSALM CXXXV. 
 
 639 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 1 Praise ye the Name of Jehovah, 
 
 Praise (it), O ye servants of Jehovah. 
 
 2 Ye that stand in the house of Jehovah, 
 
 In the courts of the house of our God, 
 
 3 Praise ye Jah, for Jehovah is good ; 
 
 Sing Psalms unto His Name, for it is lovely. 
 
 4 For Jah hath chosen Jacob to Himself, 
 
 Israel for His peculiar treasure. 
 
 5 For I know that Jehovah is great. 
 
 And that our Lord is above all gods. 
 
 6 All that Jehovah pleaseth He hath done. 
 
 In heaven and in earth, 
 
 In the seas and in all deeps. 
 
 1. The opening of the Psalm re- 
 sembles the opening of cxxxiv. 
 
 2. In THE COURTS. See on Ixxxiv. 
 2. The mention of these "courts" 
 is no evidence that the exhortation is 
 addressed not merely to the Priests, 
 but to the people. Nor can this be 
 inferred from the formula in ver. 19, 
 20, which is common to these liturgi- 
 cal Psalms ; comp. cxv. 9 — II. The 
 address is, as in cxxxiv. I, to the 
 Levites who sang Psalms and played 
 on the diflferent musical instruments 
 which were used in the service of Goi, 
 and to the Priests who blew with the 
 trumpets and repeated the liturgical 
 prayers and the blessings. 
 
 The thrice-repeated Jehovah, fol- 
 lowed by Jah — ^Jehovah — ^Jah, may 
 have a reference to the form of the 
 priestly blessing in which they "put 
 the Name of Jehovah upon the chil- 
 dren of Israel," Num. vi. 22 — 27. 
 Thrice the priests uttered the Name ; 
 thrice, and yet thrice again, the 
 congregation echoed it back in their 
 song. 
 
 3. It /S LOVELY. According to the 
 parallelism, this will refer either, to 
 the Name of Jehovah, or to Jehovah 
 Himself, "for He is lovely." But 
 according to the analogy of cxlvii. I 
 (comp. Prov. xx,iii. 8) the subject is 
 the song: "for it is pleasant, viz. 
 thus to sing praise. " 
 
 4. Then follow the several grounds 
 of this praise. First, because He has 
 chosen Israel. Next, because He is 
 higher than all the gods of the heathen, 
 as He has shown in His absolute 
 supremacy over the world of nature, 
 ver. 5 — 7. Then, because He re- 
 deemed His people from Egypt, ver. 
 8, 9, Lastly, because, vanquishing 
 all their enemies. He gave them the 
 Promised Land, ver. 10 — 12. 
 
 5. I KNOW. The pron. is emphatic, 
 and the phrase marks a strong per- 
 sonal conviction (sometimes, as in xx. 
 6, one newly gained). 
 
 6. All that He pleaseth. 
 This absolute supremacy of God over 
 all the forces and phenomena of the 
 natural world is staled in the same 
 
640 PSALM CXXXV. 
 
 7 He bringeth up vapours from the end of the earth, 
 
 He hath made lightnings for the rain. 
 
 He sendeth forth the wind out of His treasuries. 
 
 8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, 
 
 Both of man and beast : 
 
 9 (Who) sent signs and wonders into the midst of thee, 
 
 O Egypt, 
 Upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants ; 
 
 10 Who smote many nations. 
 
 And slew mighty kings. 
 
 1 1 Sihon, king of the Amorites, 
 
 And Og, the king of Bashan, 
 
 And all the kingdoms of Canaan ; 
 
 1 2 And gave their land as an heritage, 
 
 An heritage unto Israel His people. 
 
 13 O Jehovah, Thy name (endureth) for ever, 
 
 Thy memorial, O Jehovah, to all generations. 
 
 14 For Jehovah judgeth His people, 
 
 And repenteth Himself concerning His servants. 
 
 1 5 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, 
 
 The work of men's hands. 
 
 16 They have a mouth, and speak not • 
 
 Eyes have they, and see not. 
 
 way as in cxv. 3, with reference more lit. "from man unto beast." 
 
 particularly to the weakness of the 13. Comp. Exod. iii. 15. 
 
 gods of the nations, as also in this 14. Borrowed from Deut. xxxii. 
 
 Psalm, ver. 15—18. 36. Comp. for the second clause of 
 
 7. The verse occurs sjmost word the verse Ps. xc. 13. 
 
 for word in Jer. x. 13, li. 16. For. Here is the proof and evi- 
 
 Vapours, or perhaps "clouds" as dence that Jehovah's Name and 
 
 formed of masses of vapour. memorial abide for ever ; that He 
 
 From the end of the earth, will manifest, as in the past, so in 
 
 i.e. either from the horizon on which the future. His righteousness and His 
 
 they seem to gather, or from the sea ; mercy to Israel, 
 
 or perhaps, as Augustine says, because Judgeth, i.e. see that they have 
 
 " unde surrexerint nescis." right, which is in fact the conse- 
 
 FOR THE rain, i.e. to accompany quence of His " repenting concern- 
 
 the rain. ing," or " having compassion of," 
 
 His treasuries. Comp. Job His servants. 
 
 xxxviii. 22. 15 — 18. Borrowed with some varia- 
 
 8. Both of man and beast j tion from cxv. 4 — 8. 
 
PSALM CXXXVI. 641 
 
 17 They have ears, and (yet) they hear not, 
 
 Yea, they have no breath at all in their mouths. 
 
 18 They that make them shall be like unto them, 
 
 Every one that putteth his trust in them. 
 
 19 O house of Israel, bless ye Jehovah : 
 
 O house of Aaron, bless ye Jehovah : 
 
 20 O house of Levi, bless ye Jehovah : 
 
 Ye that fear Jehovah, bless ye Jehovah. 
 
 21 Blessed be Jehovah out of Zion, 
 
 (Who) dwelleth in Jerusalem. 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 19, 20. Precisely as in cxv. 9 — 11, 
 cxviii. 2 — 4, only that liere "the 
 house of Levi" is added. 
 
 21. As in cxxviii. 5, cxxxiv. 3, 
 Jehovah blesses out of Zion, so here, 
 on the other hand, His people bless 
 
 Him out of Zion. For there thej 
 meet to worship Him ; there not onl) 
 He, but they, may be said to dwell 
 (Is. X. 24) ; and thence accoidinglj 
 His praise is sounded abroad. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVI. 
 
 This Psalm is little more than a variation and repetition of the 
 preceding Psalm. It opens with the same liturgical formula with 
 which the io6th and 11 8th Psalms open, and was evidently designed 
 to be sung antiphonally in the Temple worship. Its structure is 
 peculiar. The first line of each verse pursues the theme of the 
 Psalm, the second line, " For His loving-kindness endureth for ever,'' 
 being a kind of refrain or response, like the responses, for instance, 
 in our Litany, breaking in upon and yet sustaining the theme of the 
 Psalm ; the first would be sung by some of the Levites, the second 
 by the choir as a body, or by the whole congregation together with 
 the Levites. We have an example of a similar antiphonal arrange- 
 ment in the first four verses of the 11 8th Psalm; but there is no 
 
 T T 
 
042 PSALM CXXXVI. 
 
 other instance in which it is pursued throughout the Psalm. The 
 nearest approach to the same constant repetition is in the " Amen " 
 of the people to the curses of the Law as pronounced by the Levites, 
 Deut. xxvii. 14. 
 
 In the Jewish liturgy this Psalm, with its twenty-six responses, is 
 called " the Great Hallel," by way of distinction from " the Hallel," 
 simply so called, which comprises Psalms exiii. — cxviii., though there 
 is some uncertainty as to the former designation ; for according to 
 some "the Great Hallel" comprises cxxxv. 4 — cxxxvi., and according 
 to others, cxx. — cxxxvi. 
 
 According to an old rule of writing observed in sdme of the most 
 ancient MSS., the two lines of the verses ought to be arranged each 
 in a separate column, or, as the phrase runs, " half-brick upon half- 
 brick, brick upon brick." 
 
 It may be observed that the verses are grouped in threes as far as 
 ver. 18, and then the Psalm concludes with two groups of four verses 
 each. It is possible that ver. 19 — 22 did not originally belong to this 
 Psalm, being introduced from the previous Psalm, and that there were 
 thus, in the first instance, 22 lines, corresponding to the number of 
 letters in the Hebrew Alphabet.* 
 
 1 O GIVE thanks unto Jehovah, for He is good. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 2 O give thanks unto the God of gods, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 2, 3. God of gods . . . Lokd of lords, from Deut. a. 17. 
 
 * " One February night, A.D. 358, the ^eat church at Alexandria was bright with lights 
 far into the night, and still the congregation did not disperse. The Bishop Athanasius was. 
 there, and the service was to be prolonged till morning, for next day the Holy Communion 
 was to be celebrated, and it was the frequent custom among the early Christians to spend the 
 preceding night in prayer and singing hymns. All knew that further troubles were hanging 
 over their beloved Bishop, and that the time of his presence with them would probably be 
 very short. Suddenly a clashing noise broke the .stillness— the church was surrounded by 
 armed men — with calm presence of mind Athanasius rose and gave out the 136th Psalm, which 
 has to every verse the response * For His mercy, &c.' The whole congregation joined in 
 thundering forth those grand words, when the doors burst open, and the imperial envoy at the 
 head of a body of soldiers walked up the aisle. For a moment, the soldiers drew back in awe 
 at the solemn sound of the chanting, but again they pressed on, and a shower of arrows flew 
 through the church. Swords flashed, arms rattled, and rough shouts interrupted the music. 
 Athanasius retained his seat till the congregation had dispersed. Then he too disappeared in 
 the darkness, and no one knew where he was gone. He found a refuge among bis old friends 
 the Hermits of Egypt." 
 
PSALM CXXXVL 643 
 
 3 O give thanks unto the Lord of lords, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 4 To Him who alone doeth great wonders, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 5 To Him who in wisdom made the heavens, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 6 To Him that stretched out the earth, above the waters, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 7 To Him who made great lights, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 8 The sun to rule the day, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 9 The moon and (the) stars to rule the night, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 10 To Him who smote Egypt in their first-born, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 1 1 And brought forth Israel from the midst of them. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 12 With a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 13 To him who divided the Red Sea into parts. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 14 And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 15 And overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 16 To Him who led His people through the wilderness. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 5. In wisdom. Comp. civ. 24; 16, which means not lights, but 
 Prov. iii. 19 ; Ter. x. 12. luminaries ; the bodies, that is, which 
 
 6. Stretched out ; from the hold the light. 
 
 same root as the wori firmament or 9. To rule, lit. "for dominions 
 
 expanse in Gen. I. Comp. Is. xlii. 5, over ; " the plural, poetically, instead 
 
 xliv. 24. of ^^^ singular, as in the preceding 
 
 Above the waters. Comp. verse, and in Gen. i. 
 jjjjjy 2 ' 1° — 22. Almost word for word as 
 
 7.' Lights. The word is em- in cxxxv. 8—12. 
 ployed here strictly, instead of the 15. Overthrew, lit. "shook out, ' 
 
 correspondine word in Gen. i. 14 — 3S in Ex. xiv. 27. 
 
 T T 2 
 
644 PSALM CXXXVir. 
 
 ly To Him who smote great kings, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 1 8 And slew mighty kings, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 19 Sihon king of the Amorites, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 20 And Og the king of Bashan, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 2 1 And gave their land for an heritage, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 22 An heritage unto Israel His servant, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 23 Who remembered us in our low estate. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 24 And rescued us from our adversaries, 
 
 For His loving- kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 25 (Who) giveth food to all flesh. 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 26 O give thanks to the God of heaven, 
 
 For His loving-kindness (endureth) for ever. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVII. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever as to the time when this Psalm 
 was written. It expresses the feelings of an exile who has but just 
 returned from the land of his captivity. •■In all probability the writer 
 was a Levite, who had been carried away by the armies of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar when Jerusalem was sacked and the Temple destroyed, and 
 who was one of the first, as soon as the edict of Cyrus was published, 
 
PSALM CXXXVII. 64; 
 
 to return to Jerusalem. He is again in his own land. He sees agaii 
 the old familiar scenes. The mountains and the valleys that his foo 
 trod in youth are before him. The great landmarks are the same 
 and yet the change is terrible. The spoiler has been in his home 
 his vines and his fig-trees have been cut down, the House of his Goc 
 is a heap of ruins. His heart is heavy with a sense of desolatioi 
 and bitter with the memory of wrong and insult from which he ha: 
 but lately escaped. 
 
 He takes his harp, the companion of his exile, the cherished relii 
 of happier days, — the harp which he could not string at the biddins 
 of his conquerors by the waters of Babylon ; and now with falterinj 
 hand he sweeps the strings, first in low, plaintive, melancholy cadenc( 
 pouring out his griefs, and then with a loud crash of wild and storm; 
 music, ansv/ering to the wild and stormy numbers of his verse, h( 
 raises the pasan of vengeance over his foes. 
 
 He begins by telling in language of pathetic beauty the tale of hii 
 captivity. He draws first fhe picture of the land — so unlike his owi 
 mountain land — the broad plain watered by the Euphrates and in 
 tersected by its canals, their banks fringed with willows, with n( 
 purple peak, no deep, cool glen to break the vast, weary, monotonou! 
 expanse ; and then he draws the figure of the captives in their dee[ 
 despondency, a despondency so deep that it could find no solac{ 
 even in those sacred melodiesvvhich were dear to them as life — " Ai 
 for our harps, we hanged them upon the willows by the water-side.' 
 Next, his verse tells of the mocking taunt of their captors, " Sing u: 
 one of the songs of Zion ; " and the half-sad, half-proud answer o 
 the heart, strong in its faith and unconquerable in its patriotism 
 "How shall we sing Jehovah's song in a strange land?" It were £ 
 profanation, it were a treachery. Sooner let the tongue fail to sinj 
 than sing to make the heathen mirth ; sooner let the hand lose hei 
 cunning than tune the harp to please the stranger. 
 
 No wonder that then, brooding over the memory of the past 
 brooding over his wrongs, and seeing around him in blackened ruins 
 and wasted fields the footsteps of the invader, the Poet should uttei 
 his wrath. No wonder that the Psalm concludes with that fierce 
 outburst of natural resentment, a resentment which borrows almost a 
 grandeur from the religious fervour, the devoted patriotism, whence 
 it springs. Terrible have been the wrongs of Jerusalem : let the 
 revenge be terrible. Woe to those who in the day of her fall took 
 part with her enemies and rejoiced in her overthrow, when they ought 
 
646 PSALM CXXXVII. 
 
 rather to have come to her aid. Woe to the proud oppressors who 
 have so long held her children captive, and made their hearts bitter 
 with insult and wrong. " Blessed shall he be who taketh thy little 
 ones, and dasheth them against the rock." 
 
 T\'hat a wonderful mixture is the Psalm of soft melancholy and fiery 
 patriotism ! The hand which wrote it must have known how to smite 
 sharply with the sword, as well as how to tune the harp. The words 
 are burning words of a heart breathing undying love to his country, 
 undying hate to his foe. The Poet is indeed 
 
 " Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, 
 The love of love." * 
 
 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we 
 
 wept 
 When we remembered Zion. 
 
 2 Upon the willows in the midst thereof 
 
 We hanged up our harps. 
 
 3 For there they that led us away captive asked of us a 
 
 song, 
 And they that spoiled us (required of us) mirth, 
 (Saying) " Sing us one of the songs of Zion." 
 
 4 How should we sing Jehovah's song 
 
 In a strange land 1 
 
 4, 5. How sing a holy song on a fore the King said unto me. Why is 
 
 strange, profane soil? How sing a thy countenance sad, seeing thou art 
 
 song of joy when the city and Temple not sick ? And I said. Let the King 
 
 of our God lay in ruins ? Compare live for ever : why should not my 
 
 the words of Nehemiah, "Where- countenance be sad when the city, the 
 
 * St. Vincent de Paul was taken captive by pirates, and sold at Tunis as a slave to the 
 Turks. By one of these he was again sold to a renegade nobleman from Nice, now living in 
 the country, with his three wives, as a Moharaedan. St. Vincent de Paul worked in his 
 garden, and one pf the Turkish ladies, who was fond of talkiug with hitn^ one day ordered 
 him to sing one of his hymns to his God. With tears in his eyes he sang the Psalm of the 
 Captivity, *' By the waters of Babylon." The lady was so touched by the song and by all he 
 told her of his faith, that in the evening she rebuked her husband foi: his apostasy. He was 
 filled with remorse and anxiety for. his soul's safety, and after much converse with his slave 
 resolved to return to Christendom and the goispel. After ten months he made his escape, 
 taking Vincent with him, and when they arrived safely in France, the penitent was publicly 
 re-admitted into the Church, E^t km%uQa.— Stories ofSitccess, S.P.C.K. 
 
PSALM CXXXVII. 
 
 64 
 
 5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
 
 Let my right hand forget (her cunning). 
 
 6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth 
 
 If I remember thee not ; 
 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefcst joy. 
 
 7 Remember, O Jehovah, the children of Edom 
 
 (In) the day of Jerusalem, 
 
 Who said, Rase it. Rase it, even to the foundation 
 thereof. 
 
 8 O daughter of Babylon that.shalt be destroyed, 
 
 Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee 
 As thou hast served us. 
 
 9 Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little 
 
 ones 
 Against the rock. 
 
 place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth 
 waste, and the gates thereof are con- 
 sumed with fire?" (Neh. ii. 2, 3.) 
 
 5. Forget. Probably there is an 
 aposiopesis ; or we may supply either, 
 as the E. V., "her cunning," i.e. her 
 skill with the harp, or more generally, 
 "the power of motion." 
 
 7. As he broods over his wrongs, 
 as he looks upon the desolation of 
 his country, as he remembers with 
 peculiar bitterness how they who 
 ought to have been allies took part 
 with the enemies of Jerusalem in the 
 fatal day of her overthrow, there 
 bursts forth the terrible cry for ven- 
 geance ; vengeance first on the false 
 kindred, and next on the proud con- 
 querors of his race. Lam. iv. 21, 
 22 ; Ezek. xxv. 8, 12 — 14 ; Obad. 
 I — 21 ; Jer. xlix. 7 — 22 ; Is. Ixiii. 
 1—4. 
 
 8. That shalt be destroyed, 
 or perhaps, "doomed to destruc- 
 tion." Others, " that are laid waste," 
 
 as if referring to the taking of Baby 
 Ion by Cyrus. Compare for the sen 
 thnent, Jer. li. 56, "Because thi 
 spoiler is come upon her, even upoi 
 Babylon, and her mighty men an 
 taken, every one of their bows i 
 broken ; for Jehovah is a God of re 
 compenses, He shall surely requite.' 
 See also for the same principle of retri 
 button in the overthrow of Babylon 
 Is. xlvii. I — 9. 
 
 9 Little ONES, lit. "sucklings." 
 With such barbarous cruelty war 
 were carried on, even by compara 
 tively civilized nations. Comp. fo: 
 Biblical examples 2 Kmgs viii. 12,' xv 
 16; Is. xiii. 16; Hos. X. 14, xiii. 16; 
 Nah. iii. 10. So Homer, paintint 
 the sack of a city, mentionsias one o 
 its features, v-^iria reicya BaW6iJ.ei/c 
 irporl yairi. And again, Andromachi 
 addressing her child says, ai S' ai 
 reitos ^ ^fiol aiiT^ . . . "Eij/eat . . 
 TJ Tis'AxafcS;/ 'P:i|/ei, x^^P^s tAoJy airi 
 TT^ipyoVf hvyp^y 6\s9poi/, 
 
48 PSALM CXXXVUi. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVIII. 
 
 According to the Hebrew title, this is a Psalm of David. So far 
 IS the Psalm itself is concerned, we have no clue to guide us ; neither 
 he language nor the allusions will warrant any conclusion as to date 
 >r authorship. The mention of the Temple in ver. 2 does not prove 
 hat the Psalm was not written by David, for the word rendered 
 ■Temple" might be used of a structure like the Tabernacle (see on 
 ^er. 7). Nor does the hope or prophecy co.ncerning the kings of the 
 larth in ver. 4 necessarily point to a post-Exile time, for hopes of a 
 limilar kind are found also in earlier Psalms (see note on that verse). 
 
 The Psalm consists of three strophes : — 
 
 (i) In the first the Poet encourages himself to praise God both 
 jecause of His goodness and faithfulness and His great promises, 
 ind also because he himself had had his prayers answered. Ver. 
 
 ;— 3- 
 
 (2) He utters the hope, the prophecy, that the kings of the earth 
 ihall acknowledge the greatness of Jehovah, — His greatness chiefly in 
 his, that He does not measure by any human standard of great and 
 ;mall, of high and low. Ver. 4 — 6. 
 
 (3) He applies all that he has learnt of Jehovah's character to 
 lis own individual experience in prospect of trouble and danger 
 fer. 7, 8. 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 I I WILL give thanks unto Thee with my whole heart, 
 Before the gods will I sing pr'ais'e unto Thee : 
 
 1. Unto Thee. The Being who who are followed by Luther, Calvin, 
 
 s addressed is not named till ver. 4. and others, understand it of the 
 
 [t is as though in ihe P.-almist's ansrek. JJut, thbugh the angels are 
 
 leart there could be but one object of called upon to praise God, they are 
 
 jraise, whether named or unnamed. nowliere in the O. T. regarded as wit- 
 
 Befork the gods. This has nesses of or sharers in tlie worship of 
 
 jeen variously explained. TheLXX., men. It is far more probable that 
 
PSALM CXXXVIII. 
 
 649 
 
 2 I will bow myself before Thy holy Temple, 
 
 And I will give thanks to Thy Name, because of 
 Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth. 
 For Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy 
 Name. 
 
 3 In the day that I called, Thou answeredst me. 
 
 Thou madest me courageous with strength in my 
 soul. 
 
 4 All the kings of the earth shall give thanks unto Thee, 
 
 O Jehovah ; 
 For they have heard the words of Thy mouth. 
 
 5 And they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah ; 
 
 For great is the glory of Jehovah. 
 
 6 For (though) Jehovah is high, yet He seeth the humble; 
 
 And the proud He knoweth afar off. 
 
 " the gods '' are the false gods, the ob- 
 jects of heathen worship, in the very 
 presence of whom, and to the confu- 
 sion of their worshipers, the Psalmist 
 wi)l utter his praise of the true God. 
 See xcv. 3, xcvi. 4, 5, cxv. 3 — 8. 
 
 2. Thy word, or "promise." 
 Comp. Ivi. 10, Ix. 6, Ixii. 11. No 
 particular promise is meant. 
 
 Above aLl Thy Na.me. The ex- 
 pression seems to mean that to the 
 soul waiting upon God, and trusting 
 in His word, the promise becomes so 
 precious, so strong a ground of hope, 
 that it surpasses all other manifesta- 
 tions of God's goodness and truth ; or 
 in the promise may here also be in- 
 cluded the fulfilment of the promise. 
 
 4. All THE KINGS OP THE EARTH. 
 
 See the expression of the same feeling 
 in Ixviii. 29 — 32, Ixxii. 10, 11, cii. 15. 
 For they have heard. This 
 sounds in thtf Old Testament ilinost 
 like an anticipation of SL Paul's 
 words : " But I say have they not 
 heard? Yea verily, their sound is 
 gone forth into all the world." It 
 
 is to be explained by the deep con- 
 viction in the Psalmist's heart that 
 GoiTs words cannot be hidden, must 
 be published abroad. Others, how- 
 ever, render, " When they (shall) have 
 heard." 
 
 Sing of the ways. Having 
 heard the tidings, *'the words of 
 God's mouth," they will Joyfully cele- 
 brate His mighty acts. Comp. ciii. 
 7, where "His ways" correspond to 
 "His acts " in the parallelism. 
 
 6. Is high. Comp. Cxiii. 5, 6. 
 
 He knoweth afar off. This 
 is the only proper rendering of the 
 clause ; but the expression is some- 
 what remarkable, (i) It has been 
 explained by reference to cxxxix. 2 
 ("Thou understandest my thoughts 
 afar off"), which would mean, God 
 knows (observes) the proud, distant 
 as they may think themselves to be 
 from His control. (2) But it seems 
 rather to mean, God knows them 
 (regards them) only at a distance, 
 does not admit them into His fel- 
 lowship ; He does not "see" them 
 
650 PSALM CXXXIX. 
 
 7 If I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt quicken 
 
 me: 
 Against the wrath of mine enemies Thou wilt stretch 
 
 out Thine hand, 
 And Thy right hand shall save me. 
 
 8 Jehovah will perfect that which concerneth me ; 
 
 Jehovah, Thy loving-kindness (endureth) for ever : 
 Forsake not the works of Thy hands. 
 
 as He "seetli the humble." (3) Or work He has begun. See the same 
 
 it would be possible to explain, He wordinlvii. 2, andcomp. the^TriTEAeo' 
 
 knows them so as to keep them at a of Phil. i. 6.* 
 distance. Forsake not, or "relax not," 
 
 7. If I WALK. Compare xxiii. turning into a prayer what he had 
 4, and Ixxi. 20. just before expressed as a conviction 
 
 8. Perfect, i.e. accomplish the of his own mind. 
 
 PSALM CXXXIX. 
 
 Nowhere are the great attributes of God — His Omniscience, His 
 Omnipresence, His Omnipotence — set forth so strikingly as they are 
 in this magnificent Psalm. Nowhere is there a more overwhelming 
 sense of the fact that man is beset and compassed about by God, per- 
 vaded by His Spirit, unable to take a step without His control ; and yet 
 nowhere is there a more emphatic assertion of the personality of man 
 as distinct from, not absorbed in, the Deity. This is no pantheistic 
 speculation. Man is here the workmanship of God, and stands in 
 the presence and under the eye of One who is his Judge. The power 
 of conscience, the sense of sin and of responsibility, are felt and 
 acknowledged, and prayer is offered to One who is not only the Judge, 
 but the Friend ; One who is feared as none else are feared ; One who 
 is loved as none else are loved. 
 
 * This verse was Bishop Aiidrewes' favourite ejaculatory prayer. See Liddon, Somt 
 Elements 0/ Reiigioti-^ Lecture iii., p. 105. 
 
PSALM CXXXIX. 651 
 
 Both in loftiness of thought and in expressive beauty of language 
 the Psalm stands pre-eminent, and it is not surprising that Aben Ezra 
 should have pronounced it to be " the crown of all the Psalms." 
 
 The Psalm is anonymous in the Hebrew, but it is probable that it 
 was written after the Exile. 
 
 The rhythmical structure is, on the whole, regular. There are four 
 strophes, each consisting of six verses ; the first three strophes con- 
 taining the proper theme of the Psalm, and the last the expression of 
 individual feeling. 
 
 I. In the first strophe the Poet dwells on the omniscience of God 
 as manifested in His knowledge of the deepest thoughts and most 
 secret workings of the human heart. Ver. i — 6. 
 
 H. In the second, on His omnipresence ; inasmuch as there is no 
 corner of the universe so remote that it is not pervaded by God's 
 presence, no darkness so deep that it can hide from His eye. Ver. 
 7 — 12. 
 
 III. The third strophe gives the reason for the profound conviction 
 of these truths, of which the Poet's heart is full. No wonder that God 
 should have so intimate a knowledge of man, for man is the creature 
 of God : the mysterious beginnings of life, which none can trace ; the 
 days, all of which are ordered before the first breath is drawn, — these 
 are fashioned and ordered by the hand of God. Ver. 13 — 18. 
 
 IV. In the last strophe the Psalmist turns abruptly aside to ex- 
 press his utter abhorrence of wicked men — an abhorrence, no doubt, 
 deepened by his previous meditation on God and His attributes, and 
 called forth px-obably by the circumstances in which he was placed ; 
 and then closes with a prayer that he himself may, in his inmost 
 heart, be right with that God who has searched him and known him 
 and laid His hand upon him, and that he may be led by Him in the 
 way everlasting. Ver. 19 — 24. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, Thou hast searched me, and known (me). 
 
 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, 
 
 Thou understandest my thought afar off. 
 
6S2 
 
 PSALM CXXXIX. 
 
 3 Thou hast searched my path and my bed, 
 
 And Thou art acquainted with all my ways. 
 
 4 For before a word is j'et on my tongue, 
 
 Lo, O Jehovah, Thou knowest it altogether. 
 
 5 Behind and before hast Thou beset me, 
 
 And laid Thine hand upon me. 
 
 6 (Such) knowledge is too wonderful for me, 
 
 It is too high, I cannot attain unto it. 
 
 7 "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit .? 
 
 Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence t 
 
 8 If I climb up into heaven, Thou arc there. 
 
 And if I make my bed in hell, lo. Thou art there. 
 
 9 (If) I take the wings of the morning, 
 
 (If) I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
 
 10 Even there shall Thy hand lead me, 
 
 And Thy right hand shall hold me. 
 
 1 1 And should I say : Only let darkness cover me. 
 
 And the light about nie be night ! 
 
 3. Thou hast searched, lit. 
 "Thou hast winnowed," or " sifted." 
 
 5. Beset me, or "shut me in." 
 Zu-cay. Job ili. 23, xiii. 27, xiv. 5, 13, 
 [6, xix. 8. 
 
 Laid Thine hand. Job xiii. 21, 
 cxxiii. 7' Therefore, in the utmost 
 ;xercise of his freedom, man is only 
 accomplishing what God's counsel and 
 'oreknowledge have determined. 
 
 Witli the general sentiment of the 
 first strophe compare. Acts xvii. 28,' 
 "In Him we live, and move, and 
 liave our being, " 
 
 6. (Such) knowledge. See a 
 similar strain of acknowledgement at 
 ihe close of the third strophe, ver. 17, 
 18, and compare Rom. xi. 33, " O 
 :he depth of the riches both of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God I 
 How unsearchable are His judge- 
 ments, and His ways past finding 
 :.ut!" 
 
 Thy Spirit. " The word Spirit," 
 says Calvin, "is not put liere simply 
 for the power of God, as commonly 
 in the Scriptures, but for His mind 
 and understanding. For inasmuch 
 as the spirit in roan is the seat of 
 understanding, the Psalmist transfers 
 the same to God ; which is clearer 
 from the second member, where the 
 word face {p-esenci) is put for know- 
 ledge or sight." 
 
 8. My bed in hell, lit. " Should 
 I make the unseen world {Sheol) my 
 bed." Comp. Is, Ivii. 9. 
 
 9. If I could fly with the same 
 swiftness from east to west as the first 
 rays of the morning shoot from one 
 end of heaven to the othei". 
 
 Wings of the. morning. So the 
 sun is said to have wing-, Mai. iv. 2. 
 
 Uttermost parts of the sea, 
 i.e. the furthest west. 
 
 11. And the light aSout me. 
 
PSALM CXXXIX. 6s 3 
 
 12 Even darkness cannot be too dark for Thee, 
 
 But the night is Hght as the day ; 
 
 The darkness and light (to Thee) are both alike. 
 
 13 For Thou hast formed my reins, 
 
 Thou didst weave me together in my mother's womb. 
 
 14 I will give Thee thanks for that I am fearfully and 
 
 wonderfully made ; 
 Wonderful are Thy works, 
 
 And my soul knoweth (it) right well. 
 
 15 My bones were not hid from Thee, 
 
 When I was made in secret, 
 
 (When) I was curiously wrought (as) in the lower 
 parts of the earth. 
 
 16 Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect. 
 
 And in Thy book were they all of them written, — 
 The days which were ordered, when as yet there 
 was none of them. 
 
 17 And how precious unto me are Thy thoughts, O God, 
 
 The rendering of the E. V., "even Curiously wrought. The veri 
 
 the night shall be light about me," is is used of some kind of parti-coloured 
 
 defensible, and has the advantage of work, but whether woven or embroi- 
 
 adhering to the order of the words in dered is doubtful, 
 
 the Hebrew. In secret. Comp. .lEsch. Eumen. 
 
 12. Cannot be too dark for 665, hi o-KcJTOKn v(fi\>os redpa/jiii4vn. 
 Thee, lit. " cannot be dark (so as to In the depths of the earth. 
 hide) from Thee." Elsewhere the phrase denotes "the 
 
 13. " Who can have a truer and unseen world," comp. Ixiii. 9, Ixxxvi. 
 deeper knowledge of man than He 13. Here, as the parallelism shows, 
 who made him ? ^' it is used in a figurative sense to 
 
 My reins. See on xvi. 7. It describe a. region of darkness and 
 
 seems to denote the sensational and mystery. 
 
 emotional part of the human being, 16. My substance yet being 
 
 as afterwards " the bones " denote imperfect. One word in the ori- 
 
 the framework of the body. ginal, which means strictly anything 
 
 Weave me together, as in Job ro//ed together- as a ball, and hence is 
 
 X. II, " Thou hast woven me together generally supposed to mean here the 
 
 (E. V. fenced me) with bones and foetus or embryo. 
 
 sinews." All of them, i.e. the days men- 
 
 15. My bones, lit. "my strength,'" tioned in the next verse, 
 
 but here evidently meaning the bony 17. He breaks off in wonder and 
 
 framework of the body. admiration and holy thankfulness, as 
 
6S4 
 
 PSALM CXXXJX. 
 
 How great is the sum of them ! 
 
 18 If I would tell them, they are more in number than 
 
 the sand : 
 When I awake, I am still with Thee. 
 
 19 Oh that thou wouldest slay the wicked, O God ; 
 
 Depart from me, ye bloodthirsty men ; 
 
 20 Who rebel against Thee with (their) wicked devices, 
 
 (Who) lift up themselves against Thee in vain. 
 
 21 Should I not hate them which hate Thee, O Jehovah, 
 
 And should I not be grieved with them that rise up 
 against Thee ? 
 
 before in ver. 14; these expressions 
 af personal feeling lending not only 
 much beauty and force, but also much 
 reality, to the contemplation of God's 
 ittributes. Comp. xxxvi. 7, xcii. 5 ; 
 Rom. xi. 33. 
 
 How PRECIOUS, or perhaps (in 
 iccordance with the root-meaning of 
 .he word) "how hard to understand " 
 Yit. "how heavy, or weighty"), in 
 which case it would correspond with 
 :he aye^epeipi)Ta of Rom. xi. 33. 
 
 18. More in number. Comp. 
 d. 5. 
 
 When I awake, lit. " I have 
 A'aked," i.e. as often as he awakes 
 rom sleep, he finds that he is again in 
 ;he presence of God, again occupied 
 mth thoughts of God, again medi- 
 :ating afresh with new wonder and 
 idmiration on His wisdom and good- 
 less. 
 
 19. How strangely abrupt is the 
 ;uming aside from one of the sublimest 
 ;ontemplations to be found anywhere 
 n the Bible, to express a hope that 
 righteous vengeance will overtake the 
 ivicked. Such a passage is startling, — 
 itanling partly because the spirit of the 
 New Testament is so different ; partly 
 loo, no doubt, because " our modem 
 Divilization has been so schooled in 
 iraenities " that we hardly know what 
 
 is meant by a righteous indignation. 
 It is well, however, to notice the fact, 
 for this is just one of those passages 
 which help us to understand the 
 education of the world. Just because 
 it startles us is it so instructive. The 
 63rd Psalm presents us, as we have 
 seen, with a similar contrast. There, 
 however, the feeling expressed is of a 
 more directly personal kind. David 
 is encompassed and hard pressed by 
 enemies who are threatening his life. 
 He has been driven from his throne 
 by rebels, and the deep sense of wrong 
 makes him burst forth in the strain of 
 indignation and of anticipated victory, 
 " They that seek my life to destroy it 
 shall be cast into the pit," &c. Here, 
 apparently, the prayer for the over- 
 throw of the wicked does not arise 
 from a sense of wrong and personal 
 danger, but from the intense hatred of 
 wickedness as wickedness, from the 
 deep conviction that, if hateful to a 
 true-hearted man, it must be still 
 more intensely hateful to Him who 
 searcheth the hearts and trieth the 
 reins. The soul, in the immediate 
 presence of God, places itself on the 
 side of God. against all that is opposed 
 to Him. Still, the prayer, "Oh that 
 Thou wouldest slay the wicked," can 
 never be a Christian prayer. 
 
PSALM CXL. 
 
 22 With perfect hatred do I hate them ; 
 
 I count them mine enemies. 
 
 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart : 
 
 Try me, and know my thoughts : 
 
 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
 
 And lead me in the way everlasting. 
 
 6S5 
 
 23. Search me. "That man 
 must have a rare confidence," says 
 Calvin, " who offers himself so boldly 
 to the scrutiny of God's righteous 
 judgement." And then he remarks 
 that such a prayer is no evidence of self- 
 ignorance or a presumptuous spirit, but 
 of integrity of heart and the absence 
 of all hypocrisy. It is connected with 
 what precedes in this way : that, 
 having declared his utter separation 
 from, and aversion to, the wicked, he 
 prays that this may be no mere out- 
 ward separation ; he remembers that. 
 
 even whilst he seems most opposed to 
 the wicked, the All-seeing Eye may 
 discern in him some way of evil and 
 sorrow; that only as God holds his 
 hand, and leads him, can he walk in 
 the way of life. 
 
 24. _ Wicked way, or rather " way 
 of pain," i.e. leading to pain, such 
 pain and smart being the consequences 
 of sin, as in Is. xiv. 3. 
 
 Way everlasting, i.e. the one 
 true abiding way, which leads to tlie 
 true and everlasting God. 
 
 PSALM CXL. 
 
 This Psalm is a prayer for protection against enemies who were 
 both violent and crafty and unscrupulous in the use of their tongues. 
 The general strain of the Psalm is like that of many which occur in 
 the earlier Books, and like them it is ascribed to David. In tone 
 and language it resembles Psalms Iviii. and Ixiv., but we have no 
 means of testing the accuracy of the Inscription. The chief pecu- 
 Harity of the Psalm is, that it has several words which occur nowhere 
 else. The impression left upon the mind in reading them, I think, is 
 that they are cast in David's vein and in imitation of his manner 
 rather than written by David himself; but it would be absurd to 
 
6s6 PSALM CXL. 
 
 dogmatize in a matter where we are really left with nothing to guide 
 us, unless we are disposed to accept the tradition from which the title 
 has sprung. 
 
 The strophical division of the Psalm is, on the whole, regular. 
 There are four strophes, consisting each of three verses, except that 
 the third, instead of consisting of three verses of two members, con- 
 sists of two verses of three members, so that the length of each 
 strophe is in fact the same. There is also a concluding strophe of 
 two verses. The close of the first three strophes is marked by the 
 Selah. 
 
 [for the precentor, a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Deliver me, O Jehovah, from the wicked man, 
 
 From the violent man preserve me. 
 
 2 Who have imagined evil things in (their) hearts ; 
 
 All the day they stir up wars. 
 
 3 They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent. 
 
 Adder's poison is under their lips. [Selah.] 
 
 4 Keep me, O Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked, 
 
 From the violent man preserve me, 
 
 Who have purposed to thrust aside my steps. 
 
 5 The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords. 
 
 They have spread a net by the side of the road, 
 They have set gins for me. [Selah.] 
 
 6 I said to Jehovah, Thou art my God, 
 
 Give ear, Jehovah, to the voice of my suppli- 
 cations. 
 
 I. Wicked man, or "wicked 3. Sharpen their tongues. 
 
 men'' . . . " violent men " (the sing. Comp. lii. 2. And for the next clause, 
 
 being used collectively for the plur.), Iviii. 4, x. 7. 
 
 which is more in accordance with the 4. The opening of the second 
 
 plural in the next verse. strophe is a repetition with slight 
 
 The VIOLENT MAN, lit. "man of variation of the opening of the first, 
 violences." 
 
PSALM CXLI. 657 
 
 7 O Jehovah Lord, Thou strength of my salvation, 
 
 Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. 
 
 8 Grant not, O Jehovah, the desires of the wicked, 
 
 Further not his v/icked device, that they be not 
 hfted up. [Selah.]. 
 
 9 [When they lift up] the head that compass me about, 
 
 Let the mischief of their own lips cover them. 
 
 10 Let hot burning coals fall upon them, 
 
 Let them be cast into the fire, 
 
 Into floods of waters that they rise not again. 
 
 1 1 An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth. 
 
 The violent man — evil shall hunt him to overthrow 
 (him). 
 
 12 I know that Jehovah will maintain the cause of the 
 
 afflicted. 
 The right of the poor. 
 
 13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Thy Name ; 
 
 The upright shall dwell in Thy presence. 
 
 7. Covered MY HEAD, /.^. as with 11. An evil speaker, lit. "a 
 
 a helmet. Comp. Ix. 7- man of tongue ; " not, however, used 
 
 Battle, lit. "armour," as in l here in the sense of "a talkative 
 
 Kings X. 25 ; 2 Kings x. 2 ; Ezek. man ;" as the similar phrase, "a man 
 
 xxxix. 9, 10. oflips"(E.V. " a man full of talk "), 
 
 10. Let them be cast, lit. "let in Job xi. 2, but with the further 
 
 one cast them, " or perhaps Jehovah notion of evil speaking, as in ver. 3. 
 may be the subject of the verb, "May 13. Dwell in Thy presence. 
 
 He cast them." See xi. 7, xvi 11. 
 
 PSALM CXLL 
 
 This Psalm presents some peculiar difBculties of interpretation 
 which are due to the extreme abruptness with which in verses 5 — 7 the 
 thoughts follow one another, and the extreme obscurity which hangs 
 over the allusions. 
 
 U U 
 
55-8 PSALM CXLI. 
 
 It has been usual to accept the Inscription which assigns the 
 Psahn to David, and to refer it to the time of his persecution by 
 Saul. Ver. 5 has generally been supposed to allude to David's 
 jenerous conduct in sparing the life of his foe when he was in his 
 power (see i Sam. xxiv., and comp. the note on ver. 6 of this Psalm), 
 but it is quite impossible on this supposition to give any plausible 
 interpretation to ver. 7. 
 
 Delitzsch, with more probability, refers the Psalm to the time of 
 Absalom's rebellion. He sees an allusion to David's distance from 
 the sanctuary and the worship of the sanctuary in ver. 2, and he ex- 
 plains ver. 6 of the punishment which shall overtake the rebel leaders, 
 and the return of the people to their allegiance. 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, I have called upon Thee, haste Thee unto 
 
 me ; 
 Give ear to my voice when I call upon Thee. 
 
 2 Let my prayer be set forth (as) incense before Thee, 
 
 The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice 
 
 3 Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth, 
 
 Keep the door of my lips. 
 
 2. Lifting ttp of my hands, i.e. to Thee as are the daily sacrifices of 
 
 evidently, as the parallelism requires, Thine own appointment." (The 
 
 in prayer ; comp. xxviii. 2. minchah is used i Kings xviii. 29, 36, 
 
 Evening SACRIFICE. The sacrifice of the whole evening sacrifice, and 
 here meant is strictly the offering con- of the morning sacrifice 2 Kings 
 sisting of fine flour with oil and frank- iii. 20.) The incense may be men- 
 incense, or of unleavened cakes tioned because, as ascending in a 
 mingled with oil, which was burnt fragrant cloud, it was symbolical of 
 upon the altar (Heb. minchah, E.V. prayer (Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4) ; and the 
 "meat-offering") : see Lev. ii. i — 11. same would hold also of the " meat- 
 This, however, like the "incense," offering," of which it is said that the 
 was only added to the burnt-offering, priest was to burn a part as "amemo- 
 the lamb which was offered every rial," " a jju^rf jaz/oa?- unto Jehovah " 
 morning and evening (Ex. xxix. 38 — ■ (Lev. ii. g). 
 
 42 ; Numb, xxviii. 3—8). It would 3. Set a watch. Comp. xxxiv. 
 
 seem, therefore, that these two, "the 13, xxxix. I, Prov. xiii. 3, xxi. 23. 
 
 incense" and "the offering of fine The prayer is apparently directed 
 
 flour, " &c., stand for the morning and against the temptation to indulge in 
 
 evening sacrifices j and the sense is, rash and foolish words, such as wicked 
 
 "Let my daily prayer be acceptable men would indulge in (see next verse). 
 
PSALM CXLI. 
 
 659 
 
 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, 
 
 To busy itself in wicked doings with men that work 
 iniquity ; 
 And let me not eat of their dainties. 
 
 5 Let a righteous man smite me, it shall be a kindness ; 
 
 And let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon my 
 head, 
 Let not my head refuse (it) : 
 For yet is my prayer against their wickednesses. 
 
 6 (When) their judges have been hurled down the sides 
 
 of the rock. 
 
 Others suppose that he prays to be 
 kept from the temptation to break out 
 into bitter words against his perse- 
 cutors (as against Saul, if the Psalm 
 be David's) ; or into murmurs and 
 complaints against God. 
 
 4. Incline not. See note on 
 cxix. 36. 
 
 Dainties. It is unnecessary to 
 explain this of things sacrificed to 
 idols, as if the Psalmist were sur- 
 rounded by heathen : comp. xvi. 4. 
 The temptation is rather to an easy, 
 luxurious, sensual life, as in Ixxiii. 
 
 5. According to the rendering I 
 have preferred of this verse, the sense 
 will be : " I will gladly welcome even 
 the reproofs of the good (comp. Prov. 
 xxvii. 6; Eccl. vii. 5), and I will avail 
 myself of prayer .as the best defence 
 against the wickedness of my perse- 
 cutors." It is possible, however, that 
 the last clause may refer not to his 
 enemies, but to the righteous, in which 
 case it must be rendered, "For still 
 ttiy prayer shall be offered in their 
 misfortunes.'" 
 
 In ver. 4 he had prayed that he 
 might not be led astray by the evil he 
 saw around him, nor allured by the 
 blandishments and luxurious pro- 
 sperity of the wicked. Now he says^ 
 
 on the contrary, " let me ever be ready 
 to welcome even reproof from the 
 righteous," which, however harsh, is 
 salutary. The wounds of a friend are 
 faithful, and better than the kisses of 
 an enemy. 
 
 6. This verse, difficult in itself, is 
 still more difficult because it has no 
 very obvious connection either vpith 
 what precedes or with what follows. 
 The allusions are so obscure that it is 
 impossible to do more than guess at 
 the meaning. 
 
 Their judges must be in a general 
 sense the "rulers" or "princes" of 
 " the wicked ; " for the pronoun must 
 refer to them. The verse apparently 
 describes a punishment which has been 
 or will be inflicted upon them (see for 
 this mode of punishment 2 Chron. xxv. 
 12; Luke iv. 29). The verb hurled 
 DOWN is the same which is used, z 
 Kings ix. 33, of the throwing down of 
 Jezebel from the window. 
 
 The SIDES of the rock, lit. 
 "along," or "by the sides (Heb. 
 hands) of the rock or precipice." 
 Comp. cxl. 5, "by the side of the 
 path;" Jud. xi. 26, "by the sides 
 (E.V. coasts, Heb. hands] of Anion." 
 Others, "into the hands (i.e. the, 
 power) of the rock," with the same 
 U U 2 
 
66o 
 
 PSALM CXLI. 
 
 Then they shall hear my words that they are sweet. 
 
 7 As when one furroweth the earth (with the plough), 
 
 Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the 
 grave. 
 
 8 For unto Thee, O Jehovah, Lord, are mine eyes. 
 
 In Thee have I found refuge ; O pour not out my soul. 
 
 9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, 
 
 From the gins of the workers of iniquity. 
 lo Let the wicked fall into their own nets, 
 Whilst that I escape. 
 
 notion of punishment, but rather as 
 in cxxxvii. 9, being hurled against the 
 rock. 
 
 They shall hear, i.e. of course 
 not tlie "judges," but either their 
 followtrs who have been led astray by 
 their pernicious influence, or perhaps, 
 more generally, men shall hear. If 
 the Psalm is to be referred to Absa- 
 lom's rebellion, or any similar occa- 
 sion, the sense will be, " When the 
 leaders in the insurrection meet with 
 the fate they deserve, then the subjects 
 of the king will return to their alle- 
 giance." And the expression, "they 
 shall hear my words that they are 
 sweet," would be a thoroughly Orien- 
 tal mode of describing the satisfaction 
 with which they would welcome the 
 gracious amnesty pronounced by their 
 offended sovereign. 
 
 Others, who suppose that the Psalm 
 alludes to David's magnanimity in 
 sparing Saul when he was in his power 
 (i Sam. xxiv.), explain : "When their 
 leaders (meaning Saul) were let go 
 (suffered to escape) along the sides of 
 the rock, they heard my words that 
 they were sweet," — recognised, that 
 is, my forbearance and generosity in 
 sparing my enemy, instead of taking 
 his life. 
 
 7. As WHEN ONE furroweth, 
 &c., lit. "as one who furroweth and 
 cleaveth in the earth." The allusion 
 
 is as obscure as in the previous verses, 
 and the point of the comparison is 
 differently explained. The bon<is 
 scattered are compared either (i) to 
 the clods broken by the ploughshare, 
 or (2) to the seeds scattered in the 
 earth turned up by the plough. 
 
 At the mouth, or perhaps "for 
 the mouth," i.e. so as to be swallowed 
 up by it. 
 
 Grave. Sheol, the abode of the 
 dead, though here perhaps nothing 
 more than the grave may be meant. 
 The verse thus describes a complete 
 and disastrous overthrow, and ap- 
 parently of the whole nation ; for 
 now we have the pronoun of the first 
 person, " our bones. " 
 
 8. For. The conjunction does not 
 refer to what immediately precedes, 
 but either to what is said in ver. 4, 5, 
 or perhaps rather to the whole of the 
 former part of the Psalm, so far as it 
 consists of petition : " Listen to my 
 prayer, — keep me from temptation, — 
 
 for unto Thee are mine eyes." 
 
 PouK NOT out my SOUL, i.e. give 
 not my life up to destruction. 
 
 9. From the snare, lit "from 
 the hands of the snare." 
 
 10. Into their own nets. The 
 pronoun is singular, used distribu- 
 tively, — " Each one of them into his 
 ovm net. 'J- For the sentiment comp. 
 vii. 15. 
 
PSALM CXLIL 6Si 
 
 PSALM CXLIL 
 
 This is the last of the eight Psalms which, according to their 
 Inscriptions, are to be referred to David's persecution by Saul. Like 
 the 57th Psalm, it is supposed to describe his thoughts and feelings 
 when he was " in the cave," though whether in the cave of Adullam 
 (i Sam. xxii. i) or in that of Engedi (i Sam. xxiv. 3) is not clear. 
 (See Introduction to Psalm Ivii.) The general strain of the Psalm is 
 that of the earlier Books. It expresses in language like that of David 
 the cleaving of the heart to God, the deep sense of loneliness, the cry 
 for deliverance, the confidence that that deliverance will call forth the 
 sympathy and the joy of many others. But whether it is written only 
 in imitation of David's manner, or whether it is a genuine work of 
 David's extracted perhaps from some history, and added, at a time 
 subsequent to the Exile, to the present collection, it is impossible now 
 to determine. 
 
 [a MASCHIL* of DAVID WHEN HE WAS IN THE CAVE. A PRAYER.] 
 
 1 With my voice to Jehovah will I cry. 
 
 With my voice to Jehovah will I make my supplication. 
 
 2 I will pour out before Him my complaint ; 
 
 My trouble before Him will I make known. 
 
 3 When my spirit is overwhelmed within me. 
 
 Thou knowest my path : 
 In the way wherein I walk 
 
 Have they hidden a snare for me. 
 
 4 Look on the right hand and see, 
 
 ,3. When my spirit. The first Is overwhelmed, lit. "darkens 
 
 nieniber of this verse is perhaps to be itself." 
 
 connected with the preceding verse, Within me, lit. "upon me." 
 
 precisely as the same words are found 4. On the right hand, as the 
 
 connected in the title of Ps. cii. direction in which he would naturally 
 
 • See Int., p. 6. 
 
662 PSALM CXLIJl. 
 
 There is none that will know me ; 
 Refuge hath failed me ; 
 There is none that seeketh after my soul. 
 
 5 I have cried unto Thee, O Jehovah, 
 
 I have said, Thou art my refuge, 
 My portion in the land of the living. 
 
 6 Attend unto my cry. 
 
 For I am brought very low : 
 Deliver me from my persecutors. 
 For they are too .strong for me. 
 
 7 Bring forth my soul out of prison, 
 
 That I may give thanks to Thy Name : 
 The righteous shall come about me, 
 
 Because Thou dealest bountifully with me. 
 
 look for succour (a irapaordTris). See 5. My PORTION. Comp. xvi. S, 
 
 icvi. 8, cix. 6, 31, ex. 5, cxxi. 5. Ixxiii. 26. 
 
 That will know, lit. " that re- 7. Out of prison. This is clearly 
 
 :ognises me." Comp. Ruth ii. 10, to be understood figuratively. Comp. 
 
 19' the parallel passage, cxliii. 11. 
 
 Seeketh after, i.e. "troubleth Come about me, «>. sympathising 
 
 limself concerning," as in 2 Sam. xi. in my joy, though elsewhere the word 
 
 J ; Job X. 6. is used in a hostile sense.* 
 
 PSALM CXLIII. 
 
 This is the last of the seven Penitential Psalms, as they are called. 
 [n the Hebrew it is styled a Psalm of David ; in some copies of the 
 LXX. it is further said to have been written when he had to flee from 
 lis son Absalom. It is probable that the deep tone of sorrow and 
 mguish which pervades the Psalm, and the deep sense of sin, led to 
 he belief that it must be referred to that occasion. The spirit and 
 
 * The last passages of Scripture quoted by St. Francis d' Assist were St. John xiii. and this 
 ■erse, '* The righteous shall compass me about, for Thou shalt deal bountifully with me." 
 ' Me expectant justi, donee retribuas me." The righteous wait expectant till I receive my 
 ecompense. A.D. 1226, " Life of St. Francis," by Mrs. Oliphant: Sunday Library. 
 
PSALM CXLIII. 66 
 
 the language, it is true, are not unworthy of David ; yet the man 
 passages borrowed from earlier Psalms make it more probable thj 
 this Psakn is the work of some later Poet. Delitzsch says very trub 
 that if David himself did not write it— and he admits that the man 
 expressions derived from other sources are against such a suppositio 
 —still the Psalm is " an extract of the most precious balsam from th 
 old Davidic songs." Like other post-Exile Psalms (such, for instance 
 as the ii6th and 119th), it is a witness to us of the depth and realit 
 of the religious life in the later history of the nation, and an evidenc 
 also of the way in which that life was upheld and cherished by th 
 inspired words of David and other Psalmists and Prophets of old. 
 
 The Psalm consists of two parts, each of which is of six verses, th 
 conclusion of the first being marked by the Selah. The first portio: 
 contains the complaint (ver. 1—6) ; the second, the prayer founde( 
 on that complaint (ver. 7 — 12). 
 
 [a psalm of DAVID.] 
 
 1 O Jehovah, hear my prayer. 
 
 Give ear to my supplications. 
 
 In Thy faithfulness answer me, (and) in Thy 
 righteousness. 
 
 2 And enter not into judgement with Thy servant ; 
 
 For before Thee no man living is righteous. 
 
 3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul, 
 
 1. In Thy faithfulness ... in chastisement, calling him to repent 
 Thy righteousness. It is to God's ance. 
 
 own character that the appeal is made. See in many of the passages referrei 
 
 It is there first, and not in his own to in Job the same deep sense 
 
 misery, that the sinner finds the great man's unrighteousness before a right 
 
 argument why his prayer should be ecus God which the Psalmist her 
 
 answered. It is precisely the same expresses. Yet it is that very right 
 
 ground which St. John takes : " If we eousness before which he trembles, t( 
 
 confess out sins, He is faithful and which he appeals, which he needs, ii 
 
 riiihteous (true to His promise and which alone he can stand before hi 
 
 true to His revealed character) to for- Judge. The passage clearly shows 
 
 give us our sins." says Calvin, that he is justified who i; 
 
 2. Enter not into judgement, considered and accounted just befor( 
 as in Job ix. 32, xxii. 4. He traces God, or whom the heavenly Judg( 
 his suffering to his sin : the malice of Himself acquits as innocent. 
 
 his enemies is the rod of God's 3. For the enemy. This is thi 
 
164 
 
 PSALM CXLIIl. 
 
 He hath smitten my life down to the earth, 
 
 He hath made me dwell in darkness as those that 
 are for ever dead. 
 
 4 And my spirit is overwhelmed in me, 
 
 My heart within me is desolate. 
 
 5 I have remembered the days of old, 
 
 I have meditated on all Thou hast done, 
 On the work of Thy hands do I muse. 
 
 6 I have stretched forth my hands unto Thee, 
 
 My soul (thirsteth) after Thee as a thirsty land. 
 
 [Selah.] 
 
 7 Make haste (to) answer me, O Jehovah, 
 
 My spirit faileth : 
 
 easoii why he turns to God so 
 amestly. The outward suffering, the 
 ersecution, the chastisement laid 
 pon him — it may have been through 
 ome guilt of his own — had purged 
 tve spiritual eye, had made him look 
 /ithin, had shown him his own heart, 
 :s sinfulness and its misery, as he had 
 ever seen it before ; and this deep 
 ense of sin and misery had led to the 
 rayer in ver. 2. Hence his deliver- 
 ncefromhisenemyand the forgiveness 
 f his sin are naturally connected in 
 .is mind. 
 
 In darkness, lit. "in darknesses." 
 s in Ixxxviii. 6, where it is used of 
 le abode of the dead. 
 
 Comp. with this verse vii. 5 ; Lam. 
 ii. 6 ; i?s. Ixxxviii. 3 — 6. 
 
 For ever jjead. The dead are so 
 ailed as "fixed in an eternal state," 
 s those who can never return again 
 D this world. 
 
 4. Is OVERWTHELMED. The Same 
 iford as in Ixxvii. 3, cvii. 5, cxlii. 3. 
 ' Having spoken of his outward 
 roubles, says Calvin, "he now con- 
 ;sses the weakness of his spirit, 
 rhence we gather that his was no 
 
 stony fortitude, but that, whilst over- 
 whelmed with sorrow so far as his 
 natural feelings were concerned, he 
 stood and was supported only by faith 
 and the grace of the Spirit." 
 
 Is DESOLATE, or rather "is full of 
 amazement," lit. " astonies itself;" 
 seeks to comprehend the mystery of 
 its sufferings, and is ever beaten back 
 upon itself in its perplexity. Comp. 
 Ixxvii. 3 — 6, II — 12. 
 
 6. I HAVE STRETCHED FORTH MY 
 HANDS, as the weary child stretches 
 forth its hands to its mother, that on 
 her bosom it may be hushed to rest 
 
 After Thee. " Observe how he 
 binds himself to God alone, cuts off 
 every other hope from his soul, and, 
 in short, makes his very need a 
 chariot wherewith to mount up to 
 God." 
 
 Thirsty, lit. "weary," "languish- 
 ing." " In great heat we see the 
 earth cracking and gaping, as though 
 with open mouth she asked for the 
 rain from heaven." — Calvin. 
 
 7. In the second half of the Psalm 
 many of the expressions are borrowed 
 from earher Psalms. With the prayer 
 
PSALM CXLIII. 
 
 66 = 
 
 Hide not Thy face from me, 
 
 That so I become hke unto them that go down intc 
 the pit. 
 
 8 Cause me to hear Thy loving-kindness in the morning, 
 
 For in Thee have I trusted ; 
 Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, 
 For unto Thee have I lifted up my soul. 
 
 9 Deliver me from mine enemies, O Jehovah, 
 
 Unto Thee have I fled to hide me. 
 
 10 Teach me to do Thy will, 
 
 For Thou art my God ; 
 
 Let Thy good Spirit lead me in a straight path. 
 
 11 For Thy Name's sake, O Jehovah, quicken me. 
 
 In Thy righteousness bring my soul out of distress. 
 
 in this verse comp. xxvii. 9, Ixix. 17, 
 cii. 2 ; with the second clause comp. 
 Ixxxiv. 2, where the ardent longing 
 for God is expressed in the same way. 
 
 That so I become, &c., is word 
 for word as in xxviii. I ; comp. 
 Ixxxviii. 4. 
 
 8. In the morning, i.e. early, 
 soon. Comp. Moses' praver, xc. 14. 
 
 Various interpretations have been 
 given, which are thus summed up by 
 Calvin: — "i^dverbium matie frigide 
 quidam restringunt ad sacrificia. 
 Scimus enim quutidie bis sacrificia 
 offerre solitos, matutinum et vesper- 
 tinum. Alii subtilius accipiunt, quod 
 Deus mitius agens cum suis servis 
 dicatur formare novum diem. Alii 
 metaphoram esse volunt et notari 
 prosperum lastumque statum : sicut 
 triste et calamitosum tempus saspe 
 notatur per tenebras, Sed miror in 
 hac voce quaeri extraneos sensus, qua 
 simpliciter repetit quod prius dixerat 
 feslina. Mane ergo tantundem valet 
 ac tempestive vel celeriter." 
 
 The way in which I should 
 WALK. Comp. XXV. 4, cxlii. 3, with 
 Exoii. xxxiii. 13. 
 
 Lifted up my soul, as in xxv. i, 
 Ixxxvi. 4. 
 
 9. Fled to hide me, lit. "untc 
 Thee have I hidden (myself)." Bui 
 the phrase is very peculiar and it: 
 meaning doubtful. 
 
 10. To do Thy will, not merelj 
 to know it ; hence the need of th< 
 Holy Spirit's aid. His quickening, 
 guiding, strengthening, as well as His 
 enlightening influence. 
 
 Thy good Spirit, as in Neh. ix. 
 20 : comp. Ps. li. II. 
 
 In a straight path, lit. "in a 
 level land," or " on level ground,' 
 where there is no fear of stumbling 
 and falling. Comp. Is. xxvi. 7, "The 
 path of the righteous is level. Thot 
 makest level (even as if adjusted 
 in the balance) the road of tht 
 righteous." 
 
 Comp. with this verse generallj 
 xxvii. II, xxxi. 3, xl. 8, ciii. 20. 
 
 11. Out of distress. Comp. 
 cxlii. 7' 
 
 The series of petitions in ver. 8 — 12 
 may be thus grouped : — 
 
 (i) Prayer for God's mercy 01 
 loving-kindness, as that on which all 
 
>66 
 
 PSALM CXLIV. 
 
 12 And of Thy loving-kindness cut off mine enemies. 
 And destroy all the adversaries of my soul ; 
 For I am Thy servant. 
 
 langs, and then for guidance (ver. 8). 
 
 (2) For deliverance from enemies, 
 nd then still more fully for a know- 
 edge of God's will, and the gifts of 
 -lis Spirit, that He may obey that will 
 ver. 9, 10). 
 
 (3) For a new life, and deliverance 
 rom suffering, and now not only for 
 eliverance from his enemies, but for 
 tieir destruction (ver. 11, 12). 
 
 Hence the second petition in (l) 
 nswers to the second petition in (2) ; 
 lie first in (2) to the second in (3). 
 
 Further, in ver. 8 — 10, the ground 
 of the petition in each case is the 
 personal relation of the Psalmist to 
 God : "In Thee have I trusted," 
 ' ' Unto Thee have I lifted up my soul," 
 "Unto Thee have I fled," "Thou 
 art my God ; " and so also at the close 
 of ver. 12, "I am Thy Servant." On 
 the other hand, in ver. 11, and the 
 first member of ver. 12, the appeal is 
 to God and His attributes, "For Thy 
 Name's sake," "in Thy righteous- 
 ness," "of Thy loving-kindness." 
 
 PSALM CXLIV. 
 
 This is a singularly composite Psalm. The earlier portion of it, to 
 le end of ver. 11, consists almost entirely of a cento of quotations, 
 rung together from earlier Psalms ; and it is not always easy to 
 ace a real connection between them. The latter portion of the 
 salm, ver. 12 — 15, differs completely from the former. It bears the 
 amp of originality, and is entirely free from the quotations and allu- 
 ons with which the preceding verses abound. It is hardly probable, 
 Dwever, that this concluding portion is the work of the Poet who 
 implied the rest of the Psalm : it is more probable that he has here 
 anscribed a fragment of some ancient Poem, in which were por- 
 ayed the happiness and prosperity of the nation in its brightest 
 lys,— under David, it may have been, or at the beginning of the 
 ign of Solomon. 
 
 His object seems to have been thus to revive the hopes of his 
 ition, perhaps after the return from the Exile, by reminding them 
 
PSALM CXLIV. 667 
 
 how in their past history obedience to God had brought with it its 
 full recompense. 
 
 The Psalmist recounts glorious victories in the past, complains 
 that the nation is now beset by strange, i.e. barbarous, enemies, so 
 false and treacherous that no covenant can be kept with them, prays 
 for deliverance from them by an interposition great and glorious as 
 had been vouchsafed of old, and anticipates the return of a golden 
 age of peace and plenty. 
 
 [(a psalm) of DAVID.] 
 
 1 Blessed be Jehovah my rock, 
 
 Who traineth my hands for the war, 
 My fingers for the battle. 
 
 2 My loving-kindness and my fortress. 
 
 My high tower and my deliverer. 
 My shield, and He in whom I find refuge, 
 Who subdueth my people under me. 
 
 3 Jehovah, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge 
 
 of him .■■ 
 
 1. Blessed, &c. " In the strength easily shaken, especially when some 
 of this Benedictus it is said that Louis storm of trial beats upon them . Hence, 
 gained the victory over Alaric, King if God should promise us His succoui 
 of the Goths." — Delitzsch. in one word, it would not be enough ; 
 
 The first two verses are taken from in fact, in spite of all the props and 
 
 Ps. xviii. 2, 34, 46. aids He gives us, we constantly tottei 
 
 2. My loving-kindness. A singu- and are ready to fall, and such a for- 
 !ar expression for ' ' God of my loving- getfulness of His loving-kindness steah 
 kindness," lix. 10, 17; Jon. ii. 9. upon us that we come near to losing 
 "Deum . . . bonitatem suam nomi- heart altogether. 
 
 nat, ab 00 manare intelligens quicquid Who subdueth, as in xviii. 47, 
 
 possidetbonorum."— Ca/OTK. only there wehave " peoples " mstead 
 
 My deliverer, lit. " my deliverer of " my people," as here. The Psalm- 
 
 for me " as the expression is found in ist is not triumphing in the exercise oi 
 
 the other version of Ps. xviii. in 2 despotic power, but gratefully acknow- 
 
 Sam. xxii. 2. On the heaping to- ledges that the authority he wields 
 
 gether of epithets and titles of God, comes only from God. 
 Calvin remarks that it is not super- 3. This and the next verse are again 
 
 fluous, but designed to strengthen and borrowed from other passages. The 
 
 confirm faith ; for men's minds ire weakness of man seems here to be 
 
fis PSALM CXLIV. 
 
 A son of man, that Thou makest account of him ? 
 As for) man, he is h'ke a breath, 
 
 His days are as a shadow that passeth. 
 Bow Thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down. 
 
 Touch the mountains that they smoke, 
 last forth lightning, and scatter them. 
 
 Send forth Thine arrows and destroy them. 
 ?end forth Thine hand from above. 
 
 Rid me, and dehver me from great waters, 
 From the hand of strange persons, 
 ^ A'hose mouth hath spoken falsehood. 
 
 And whose right hand (is) a right hand of lies. 
 
 9 O God, a new song will I sing unto Thee, 
 
 Upon a ten-stringed lute will I play unto Thee. 
 
 Who giveth victory unto kings. 
 
 Who riddeth David His servant from the hurtful sword. 
 
 1 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange persons. 
 
 •ged as a' reason why God should noting faithlessness to a solemn cove- 
 
 )me to his succour against his enemies. nant, the right liand being lifted up in 
 
 er. 3 is a variation of viii. 4. Ver. the taking of an oath, 
 
 resembles xxxix. 5, 6 : cornpare cii. 9. The prayer for deliverance is 
 
 [ ; Job viii. 9, xiv. 2. followed by the promise of thankful- 
 
 5. Here begins the direct prayer for ness for the aid vouchsafed. The 
 le overthrow of his enemies. The "new song," however, is not 
 salmist longs for a Theophany, a given. 
 
 )ming of God to judgement, which O God. The Elohim in this verse 
 
 ; describes in language again bor- is the only one in the last two Books 
 
 )wed from xviii. 9, 14 — 16. of the Psalter, except in Ps. cviii., 
 
 Touch the mountains, as in civ. which is a composite Psalm formed of 
 
 2, with allusion perhaps to Exod. two old Davidi? Elohistic Psalms, and 
 
 ix. 18, XX. 18. therefore clearly a weak attempt to 
 
 6. Cast forth lightning, lit. reproduce the old Davidic Elohistic 
 lighten lightning, " The verb occurs style. " — Delitzsch. 
 
 owhere else, and the verb translated A new song. Comp. xxxiii. 3, xl. 
 
 rid " ill the next verse is found only 3, xcii. 3. 
 
 ere in this sense, so that even a 10. David His servant. Men- 
 
 ■riter who borrows so largely as this tioned here apparently as an example 
 
 salmist has still his peculiarities. of all kings and leaders, but with 
 
 7. Strange persons, lit. "sons obvious reference to xviii. 50. 
 
 r the stranger," as in xviii. 44. 11. This verse is repeated as a 
 
 8. A right hand of lies, de- refrain from ver. 7, 8.. 
 
PSALM CXLIV. 
 
 Whose mouth hath spoken falsehood, 
 
 And whose right hand is a right hand of lies. 
 
 COc 
 
 1 2 We whose sons are as plants 
 
 Grown up in their youth ; 
 Our daughters as corner-pillars, 
 Sculptured to grace a palace ; 
 
 1 3 Our garners full, 
 
 Affording all manner of stores ; 
 Our sheep multiplying in thousands. 
 In ten thousands in our pastures ; 
 
 14 Our oxen laden (with the produce of our fields) ; 
 
 No breach and no sallying forth (from our walls). 
 And no cry (of battle) in our streets. 
 
 12. The passage which follows to 
 the end, is, as has already been re- 
 marked, altogether unlilce the rest of 
 the Psalms. 
 
 As PLANTS. In a striking sermon 
 on this verse, the late Archdeacon 
 Hare says of the figure here em- 
 ployed : " There is something so pal- 
 pable and striking in this lype, that, 
 flve-and-twenty years ago, in speak- 
 ing of the gentlemanly character, I 
 was led to say, ' If a gentleman is to 
 grow up, he must grow like a tree : 
 there must be nothing between him 
 and heaven. ' " 
 
 This figure marks the native 
 strength and vigour and freedom of 
 youth of the land, as the next 
 does the polished gracefulness, the 
 quiet beauty, of the maidens. They 
 are like the exquisitely sculptured 
 forms (the Caryatides) which adorned 
 the comers of some magnificent hall 
 or chamber of a palace. 
 
 Corner-pillars, lit. " comers,'' 
 Zech, -at. 15. 
 
 To GRACE A PALACE, lit. "(after] 
 the mode of structure of a palace. " 
 
 13. Pastures. This (and nol 
 "streets," E.V.) is the meaning ol 
 the word here, as in Job v. 10, Prov. 
 viii. 26. 
 
 14 Every expression in this verse 
 is of doubtful interpretation. 
 
 Laden (with the produce of 
 OtJR FIELDS), or perhaps " great with 
 young," i.e. "fruitful," which accords 
 better with the preceding description 
 of the sheep. 
 
 No sallying forth, lit. "going 
 out," which has been interpreted 
 either of "going forth to war," or 
 "going forth into captivity." This 
 and the previous expression, taken 
 together, most naturally denote a 
 time of profound peace, when no 
 enemy lies before the walls, when 
 there is no need to fear the assault 
 through the breach, no need to sally 
 forth to attack the besiegers. Comp. 
 Amos v. 3. 
 
 Cry (of battle). Such seems the 
 
!o PSALM CXLV. 
 
 ; Happy is the people that is in such a case ; 
 
 Happy is the people who hath Jehovah for its God. 
 
 obable meaning from the context ; picture of the most perfect, undis- 
 
 it may mean, generally, " cry of turbed peace and tranquillity, 
 rrow," as in Jer. xiv. 2. 15. Happy. The temporal bless- 
 
 Streets, lit. broad open places, ing of prosperity, as a sign of God's 
 
 uTeia. favour, is natural enough under the 
 
 The whole passage, 12 — 15, is a Old Dispensation. 
 
 PSALM CXLV. 
 
 This is the last of the Alphabetical Psalms, of which there are 
 ;ht in all, if we reckon the 9th and loth Psalms as forming one. 
 ke four other of the Alphabetical Psalms, this bears the name of 
 ivid, although there can in this case be no doubt that the Inscrip- 
 m is not to be trusted. As in several other instances, so here, the 
 rostic arrangement is not strictly observed. The letter Nun is 
 nitted. 
 
 This is the only Psalm which is called a Tehillah, i.e. " Praise " or 
 Hymn," the plural of which word, Tehillim, is the general name for 
 e whole Psalter. In the Talmud it is said : " Every one who repeats 
 e Tehillah of David thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of 
 z world to come. And why? Not merely because the Psalm is 
 Dhabetical (for that the 119th is, and in an eightfold degree), nor 
 ly because it celebrates God's care for all creatures (for that the 
 reat Hallel does, cxxxvi. 25), but because it unites both these 
 alities in itself." 
 
 [a hymn of DAVID.] ► 
 
 : Aleph I will exalt Thee, my God, O King, 
 
 And I will bless Thy Name for ever and ever. 
 
 r. Foe. ever and ever. Not victurus est: but the heart lifted up 
 :rely, as Calvin, etiamsi plura sccula to God, and full of the thoughts of 
 
PSALM CXLV. 
 
 671 
 
 2 Beth Every day will I bless Thee, 
 
 And I will praise Thy Name for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 3 Gimel Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised. 
 
 And His greatness is unsearchable. 
 
 4 Daleth One generation to another shall praise Thy 
 
 works, 
 And declare Thy mighty acts. 
 
 5 He Of the glorious honour of Thy majesty. 
 
 And of Thy wondrous works, will I meditate 
 
 6 Vau And (men) shall speak of the might of Thy 
 
 terrible acts, 
 And I will tell of Thy greatness. 
 
 7 Zain They shall abundantly utter the memory oi 
 
 Thy great goodness, 
 And sing aloud of Thy righteousness. 
 
 8 
 
 Cheth 
 
 9 
 
 Teth 
 
 10 
 
 Yod 
 
 II 
 
 Caph 
 
 12 
 
 Lamed 
 
 Gracious and of tender compassion is Jehovah 
 
 Long-suffering and of great loving-kindness, 
 Jehovah is good unto all. 
 
 And His tender compassions are over all 
 His works. 
 All Thy works give thanks to Thee, O Jehovah, 
 
 And Thy beloved bless Thee. 
 They talk of the glory of Thy kingdom. 
 
 And speak of Thy might. 
 To make known to the sons of men His mighty 
 acts. 
 
 And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. 
 
 God, can no more conceive that its 
 praise should cease, than that God 
 Himself should cease to be. 
 
 3. Greatly to be praised, or 
 "greatly praised." 
 
 5. Thy wondrous works, lit. 
 " the words of Tliy wondrous works." 
 Comp. Ixvi. 3. 
 
 Meditate, or perhaps "rehearse,"' 
 i.e. in poet 17. 
 
 6. And I will tell, &c., lit. 
 "and as for Thy greatnesses (01 
 great acts), I will tell of every one 
 of them." 
 
 7. Abundantly utter. Sc 
 the verb is not inaptly paraphrased 
 by our translators ; lit. it is " poui 
 forth," the same word as in xix. 2, 
 lix. 7. 
 
 ro. Thybeloved. Seeoncxlix. 1. 
 
72 PSALM CXLVL 
 
 3 Mem Thy kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, 
 
 And Thy dominion for all generations. 
 
 4 Samech Jehovah upholdeth all them that fall, 
 
 And raiseth up all those that be bowed dowi 
 
 5 Ayin The eyes of all wait on Thee, 
 
 And Thou givest them their food in it 
 season ; 
 
 6 Pe Opening Thine hand. 
 
 And satisfying the desire of every livin: 
 thing. 
 
 7 Tsaddi Jehovah is righteous in all His ways. 
 
 And loving in all His works. 
 
 8 Koph Jehovah is nigh to all them that call upon Hin 
 
 To all who call upon Him in truth. 
 
 9 Resh He fulfilleth the desire of them that fear Hin 
 
 And when He heareth their cry He helpet; 
 them. 
 
 Shin Jehovah keepeth all them that love Him, 
 
 But all the wicked will He destroy. 
 
 1 Tau Let my mouth speak the praise of Jehovah, 
 
 And let all flesh bless His Holy Name fc 
 ever and ever. 
 
 14. The glory, the majesty, the thing. (We have here a resumptio 
 
 :ernity of God's kingdom, of which and expansion of the thoughts in ve 
 
 ) much has been said — how are they 8, 9. ) 
 
 lanifested? Wherein is the con- All them that fall. Other 
 
 jicuous excellence of that kingdom "them that are ready to fall." 
 ;en? Not in the symbols of earthly 15. This verse, and the first clau: 
 
 ride and power, but in gracious con- of the next, are taken from civ. 27, zi 
 ascension to the fallen and the 16. Satisfying the desire, li 
 
 ■ushed, in a gracious care which " satisfying every living thing wil 
 
 rovides for the wants of every living (the object of) its desire." 
 
 PSALM CXLVL 
 
 With this Psalm begins another series of Hallelujah Psalms, wil 
 'hich the Book closes. Certain of the words and phrases seem ( 
 
PSALM CXLVI. 673 
 
 connect it with the l4Sth ; others are borrowed from the 104th and 
 ii8th. The LXX. ascribe it, as they do the 138th and the next two 
 Psahns, to Haggai and Zechariah. It is by no means improbable that 
 this Inscription represents an ancient tradition, for nothing would be 
 more natural than that these Prophets should directly or indirectly 
 have contributed to the liturgy of the Second Temple, to which these 
 Psalms so evidently belong. Later they formed, together with Psalms 
 cxlix. and cL, a portion of the daily morning prayer ; they also had 
 the name of " Hallel," though expressly distinguished from " the 
 Hallel " which was to be sung at the Passover and the other Feasts. 
 
 The Psalm bears evident traces, both in style and language, and 
 also in its allusions to other Psalms, of belonging to the post-Exile 
 literature ; and the words of verses 7 — 9 are certainly no inapt expres- 
 sion of the feelings which would naturally be called forth at a time 
 inmiediately subsequent to the return from the Captivity. 
 
 It is an exhortation to trust not in man (ver. 3, 4), but in Jehovah 
 alone (ver. 5), — an exhortation enforced by the exhibition of Jehovah's 
 character and attributes as the one really worthy object of trusi 
 (ver. 6 — 9), and confirmed by the fact that His kingdom does not 
 contain the seeds of >veakness and dissolution, like all earthly king- 
 doms, but is eternal as He is eternal (ver. 10). 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 1 Praise Jehovah, O my soul ! 
 
 2 I will praise Jehovah while I live, 
 
 I will play (on the harp) unto my God while I hav( 
 my being. 
 
 3 Trust not in princes, 
 
 CNor) in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 
 
 4 His breath goeth forth ; he turneth to his earth, 
 
 2. While I have my being, lit. after their return from Babylon. Se 
 "wiule I yet (am)." Not in this on cxviii. 8,9. 
 
 song only will he utter His praise, No HELP, or "no salvation. 
 
 but "his life shall be a thanksgiving Comp. xxxiii. 16, Ix. II. 
 
 unto the Power that made him." 4. His breath. Comp. civ. 2c 
 
 3. Tl^usT NOT IN PRINCES. A And, with his breath, His thought 
 wamiiig which might be called forth or "purposes," however grand i 
 by the circumstances of the nation conception, however masterly th 
 
 X X 
 
t PSALM CXL VI. 
 
 In that very day his thoughts perish. 
 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
 
 Whose hope (rests) upon Jehovah his God, 
 Who made heaven and earth, 
 The sea, and all that therein is ; 
 Who keepeth truth for ever ; 
 (Who) executeth judgement for the oppressed, 
 (Who) giveth bread to the hungry : 
 Jehovah looseth the prisoners, 
 Jehovah openeth the eyes of the blind, 
 
 Jehovah raiseth up them that are bowed down, 
 Jehovah loveth the righteous ; 
 Jehovah keepeth the strangers. 
 
 He setteth up the widow and the fatherless. 
 But the way of the wicked He turneth aside. 
 
 icution, all come to an end. The 
 ;nce, the philosophy, the states- 
 nship of one age is exploded in 
 : next. The men who are the 
 sters of the world's intellect to-day 
 I discrowned to-morrow. In this 
 ; of restless and rapid change they 
 ,y survive their own thoughts i 
 ;ir thoughts do not survive them. 
 5. Who made (as in cxv. 15, cxxi. 
 cxxiv. 8, cxxxiv. 3, this designation 
 
 God being characteristic of the 
 er Psalms). First, He is an 
 'mighty God, as the Creator of the 
 iverse ; next, He is a faithful God 
 who keepeth truth for ever ") ; 
 ■ther, He is a righteous God (ver. 
 
 a bountiful God (z'l^. ), a gracious 
 •A (ver. 7 — 9). 
 
 Who keepeth. In the series of 
 rticiples marking the several acts 
 
 attributes of God in this and the 
 xt two verses, this only has the 
 tide prefixed, perhaps because the 
 almist designed to give a certain 
 ominence or emphasis to this attri- 
 ite of God, that He is One "who 
 ;epeth truth for ever. " It is, in fact. 
 
 the central thought of the Psalm. 
 For on this ground beyond all others , 
 is God the object of trust. He is true, 
 and His word is truth, and that word 
 He keeps, not for a time, but for ever. 
 7 — 9. These verses portray God's 
 character as a Ruler. It is such a 
 God who is Ziun's King, ver. lO. 
 Such an One men may trust, for He is 
 not like the princes of the earth, ver. 3. 
 
 7. Looseth the prisoners. 
 Comp. Is. Ixi. I. 
 
 8. Openeth THE EYES, lit. "open- 
 eth the blind, " i. e. maketh them to see. 
 The expression may be used figura- 
 tively, as a remedy applied either to 
 physical helplessness, as Deut. xxviii. 
 29, Is. xxix. 18, Job xii. 25 ; or to 
 spiritual want of discernment as. 
 Is. lix. 9, 10, xlii. 7, 18, xliii. 8. 
 Here the context favours the former. 
 
 Raiseth up. This word only 
 occurs once besides, cxlv. 14. 
 
 9. The strangers . . . the 
 WIDOW . . . THE fatherless, the 
 three great examples of natural de- 
 fencelessness. 
 
 Hi TURNETH ASIDE, That which 
 
PSALM CXLVII. 67: 
 
 10 Jehovah shall be king for ever, 
 
 Thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 happens in the course of God's Provi- in Scripture to His immediate agency 
 dence, and as the inevitable result of 10. Shall Bt King. See Intro 
 
 His righteous laws, is usually ascribed duction to xcix. 
 
 PSALM CXLVII. 
 
 Like the last Psalm, and like those which follow it, this is evidentb 
 an anthem intended for the service of the Second Temple. It cele 
 brates God's almighty and gracious rule over His people and ove; 
 the world of nature, but mingles with this a special commemoratioi 
 of His goodness in bringing back His people from their captivity anc 
 rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In the allusions to these event; 
 in ver. 2, 3, and ver. 13, 14, we shall probably be justified in seeinj 
 the occasion of the Psalm. Ic may have been written for the dedi 
 cation of the wall of Jerusalem, which, as we learn from Nehem. xii 
 27, was kept " with gladness, both with thanksgivings and with sing 
 ing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps." It is indeed no 
 improbable, as Hengstenberg suggests, that not this Psalm only, bu 
 the rest of the Psalms to the end of the Book, are all anthem: 
 originally composed for the same occasion. The wall had been buil 
 under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty and discouragemen 
 (Neh. ii. 17 — iv. 23) ; its completion was celebrated with no commoi 
 joy and thankfulness ; " for God had made them rejoice with grea 
 joy ; the wives also and the children rejoiced : so that the joy o 
 Jerusalem was heard even afar off." See Neh. xii. 27 — ^43. 
 
 The Psalm cannot be said to have any regular strophical arrange 
 ment, but the renewed exhortations to praise in ver. 7, 12, suggest i 
 natural division of the Psalm. It is a Trifolium of praise. 
 
 X X 2 
 
PSALM CXLVII. 
 
 5 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 For it is good to sing praises unto our God, 
 For it is sweet ; comely is the hymn of praise. 
 Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem, 
 
 He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel ; 
 Who healeth the broken in heart, 
 
 And bindeth up their wounds ; 
 Who telleth the number of the stars, 
 
 (And) calleth them all (by their) names. 
 Great is our Lord, and of great power. 
 
 I. Thisverse might perhaps be better 
 idered mth the change of a single 
 isonant : " Praise ye Jah, for He 
 jood : sing unto our God, for He 
 lovely ; comely is the hymn of 
 lise." Comp. cxxxv. 3, xxxiii. 1. 
 J. Doth BUILD UP. With reference 
 the rebuilding of the walls after the 
 ptivity, as in cxxii. 3. 
 Outcasts, lit. " those who are 
 ust out, driven away." It is the 
 ae word as in Is. xi. 12, Ivi. 8. 
 5. Broken in heart. As in 
 civ. 18, Is. Ixi. I. 
 
 1.. Who telleth the number, 
 " apportioneth a number to the 
 rs." This is adduced as a proof of 
 : omniscience and omnipotence of 
 d, and hence as a ground of con- 
 ation to His people, however they 
 y have been scattered, and how- 
 :r they may have been oppressed, 
 rely He must know, He must be 
 e to succour, human woe, to whom 
 s an easy thing to count those stars 
 ich are beyond man's arithmetic 
 en. XV. 5). 
 
 The argument is precisely the same 
 in Is. xl. 26 — 29, "Lift up your 
 :s and see : Who hath created these 
 ngs? It is He that bringeth out 
 ir host by number, who calleth them 
 
 all [by] name. For abundance of fower, 
 and because He is mighty in strength, 
 not oue faileth. Why sayest Thou, 
 O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My 
 way is hid from Jehovah, and my 
 cause is passed away from my God ? 
 Hast thou not known, hast thou not 
 heard ? An everlasting God is Je- 
 hovah, who created the ends of the 
 earth. He fainteth not, neither is 
 weary : there is no searching of His 
 understanding. He giveth to the 
 weary strength, and to them that 
 have no power He increaseth might," 
 &c. The passage in italics will 
 show how evidently the words of 
 the Prophet were in the mind of the 
 Psalmist. 
 
 Calleth them, &c., lit. "calleth 
 names to all of them," an expression 
 marking not only God's power in mar- 
 shalling them all as a host (Is. xl. 26), 
 but also the most intimate knowledge 
 and the most watchful care, as that 
 of a shepherd for his flock, John x. 3. 
 
 5. Of great power, Ht. "abound- 
 ing in power," as in Is. xl. 26, 
 "mighty in strength," though there 
 perhaps the epithet applies" to the 
 stars, unless indeed we may take the 
 use of the phrase here as deciding its 
 application there. 
 
PSALM CXL VII. 
 
 67 
 
 His understanding is infinite. 
 
 6 Jehovah setteth up the afflicted, 
 
 He casteth the wicked down to the ground. 
 
 7 Sing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving, 
 Play upon the harp unto our God ; 
 
 Who covereth the heaven with clouds. 
 
 Who prepareth rain for the earth. 
 
 Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains ; 
 (Who) giveth to the cattle their food, 
 
 (And) to the young ravens which cry. 
 Not in the strength of the horse doth He delight. 
 
 Not in the legs of a man doth He take pleasure ; 
 
 1 1 The pleasure of Jehovah is in them that fear Him, 
 
 In them that hope for His loving-kindness. 
 
 12 Laud Jehovah, O Jerusalem, 
 
 Praise thy God, O Zion ; 
 
 13 For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. 
 
 He hath blessed thy children in the midst of 
 thee ; 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 His understanding is infinite, 
 lit. " to (of) His understanding there 
 is no number," whereas both in 
 cxlv. 3 and Is. xl. 28 it is, "there is 
 no searching." Comp. Rom. xi. 33, 
 dye^txyiaa'TOL at 6S0I avTov. 
 
 6. The same Lord who with infinite 
 power and unsearchable wisdom rules 
 the stars in their courses, rules also 
 the world of man. The history of the 
 world is a mirror both of His love 
 and of His righteous anger. His rule 
 and His order are a correction of 
 man's anarchy and disorder. 
 
 7. A fresh burst of praise because 
 of God's fatherly care, as shown in 
 His provision for the wants of the 
 cattle and the fowls of the air. And 
 as He feeds the ravens (comp. Luke 
 xii. 24), which have neither store- 
 house nor bam, bat only cry to Him 
 for their food (Job xxxviii. 41), so 
 
 amongst men (ver. 10) His delight 
 not in those who trust in their ov 
 strength and swiftness, but in tho 
 who look to Him, fear //im, put th< 
 trust in Jlis goodness. 
 
 In ver. 8 the LXX. have adde 
 from civ. 14, " and herb for the se 
 vice of men," whence it has found ; 
 way into our P.B.V. But here tl 
 addition is out of place, and distur 
 the order of thought. It is not t 
 ver. 10, II, that man is introduced. 
 
 12. Again the Psalmist begins 1: 
 hymn of praise, and now with a dire 
 reference to the rebuilding of Jar 
 salem, and the bright prospect whi( 
 seemed to dawn upon the nation aft 
 its restoration. 
 
 13. Hath strengthened Tt 
 
 BARS OF THY GATES. The expre 
 sion might certainly denote figur 
 tively the security of the city, but 
 
5 PSALM CXL VII. 
 
 Who maketh thy border peace, 
 
 (And satisfieth thee with the fat of wheat ; 
 Who sendeth forth His commandment upon earth : 
 
 His word runneth very swiftly ; 
 Who giveth snow like wool, 
 
 (And) scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes ; 
 (Who) casteth forth His ice like morsels : 
 
 Who can stand before His frost ? 
 He sendeth His word and melteth them, 
 
 He causeth His wind to blow, (and the) waters 
 flow. 
 He declareth His word unto Jacob, 
 
 His statutes and His judgements unto Israel. 
 
 Psalm so evidently refers to the 
 rn from the Captivity and the re- 
 iing of Jerusalem (ver. 2), there 
 be little doubt that there is here a 
 ;t and literal reference to the 
 ng up of the gates as described in 
 . vii. I — 4. 
 
 'ith the latter part of the verse 
 p. the promise in Is. Ix. 17, 18, 
 will also make thy officers peace 
 violence shall no more be heard 
 ly land, wasting nor destruction 
 in thy borders, but thou shalt 
 thy walls Salvation, and thy gates 
 ie." 
 
 .. Fat ofwheat. See on Ixxxi. 16. 
 — 18. This repeated reference 
 lod's power as manifested in the 
 d is certainly remarkable, and is 
 icteristic of these later Psalms, 
 lay perhaps be accounted for by 
 Fact that never had so strong a 
 iction laid hold of the national 
 :, of the utter impotence of all 
 ;ods of the heathen, as after the 
 n from the Exile ; never, there- 
 so triumphant and living a sense 
 le dominion of Jehovah, not in 
 1 only, but throughout the uni- 
 
 15. His commandment, or "say- 
 ing," with reference perhaps to the 
 creative fiat, "And God said:" 
 comp. xxxiii. 9. God is said to 
 "send" this as His messenger, as in 
 evil. 20. 
 
 16. Snow like wool, &c. The 
 point of the comparison is probably 
 merely in the general resemblance of 
 the snow, frost, ice, to the different 
 objects mentioned, not in "the ease 
 with which God accomplishes the 
 greatest things as man does the least, 
 such as causing some locks of wool 
 to fly, or scattering a few ashes." 
 (Hengst.) 
 
 19. God's works in Nature are for 
 all men : " He maketh His sun to 
 rise on the evil and on the good, and 
 sendeth rain on the just and on the 
 unjust " (Matt. v. 45) ; but there is a 
 special privilege belonging to His 
 chosen people. They, and they alone 
 in the world, have received the lively 
 oracles of His mouth. Comp. Rom. 
 iii. I, 2, "What advantage then 
 hath the Jew ? . . . Much every way : 
 first, because that imto them were 
 committed the oracles of God." 
 
PSALM CXLVIII. 67 
 
 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation ; 
 
 And as for (His) judgements, they do not know then 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 PSALM CXLVni. 
 
 In this splendid Anthem the Psalmist calls upon the whole ere; 
 tion, in its two great divisions (according to the Hebrew conceptioi 
 of heaven and earth, to praise Jehovah. Things with and thinj 
 without life, beings rational and irrational, are summoned to join tl 
 mighty chorus. The Psalm is an expression of the loftiest devotio: 
 and embraces at the same time the most comprehensive view of tl 
 relation of the creature to the Creator. Whether it is exclusively tl 
 utterance of a heart filled to the full with the thought of the infinr 
 majesty of God, or whether it is also an anticipation, a prophet 
 forecast, of the final glory of creation, when, at the manifestation ( 
 the sons of God, the creation itself also shall be redeemed from tl 
 bondage of corruption (Rom. viii. 18 — 23), and the homage of prais 
 shall indeed be rendered by all things that are in heaven and eart 
 and under the earth, is a question i ito which we need not ente 
 The former seems to my mind the mc /e probable view. 
 
 Isaac Taylor says : " It is but faintly and afar off that the anciei 
 liturgies (except so far as they merely copied their originals) com 
 up to the majesty and the wide compass of the Hebrew worshi] 
 such as it is indicated in the 148th Psalm. Neither Ambrose, nc 
 Gregory, nor the Greeks, have reached or approached this level 
 and in tempering the boldness of their originals by admixtures c 
 what is more Christianlike and spiritual, the added elements sustai 
 an injury which is not compensated by what they bring forward £ 
 a purer or less earthly kind : feeble, indeed, is the tone of thes 
 anthems of the ancient Church ; sophisticated or artificial in thei 
 style. Nor would it be possible, — it has never yet seemed so, — t 
 Christianize the Hebrew anthems, retaining their power, their earth 
 
PSALM CXL VIII. 
 
 e richness, and their manifold splendours — which are the very 
 endours £tnd the true riches and the grandeur of God's world — 
 i withal attempered with expressions that touch to the quick the 
 rmest human sympathies. And as. the enhancement of all these 
 re is the nationality, there is that fire which is sure to kindle fire 
 true human hearts — 
 
 ' He showeth His word unto Jacob, 
 His statutes and His judgements unto Israel. 
 He hath not dealt so with any nation ; 
 As for His judgements, they have not known them.' 
 
 om the close of the 147th Psalm]." — Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry, 
 
 157, 158. 
 
 The earliest imitation of this Psalm is " The Song of the Three 
 ■Idren," interpolated by the LXX. into the. 3rd chapter of Daniel. 
 5 Hymn of Francis of Assisi, in which he calls upon the creatures 
 )raise God, propter honorabilem fratrem nost7~um solem, has also 
 n compared with it, though there is really no comparison between 
 
 two. The same Francis, who thus calls the sun our "honourable 
 ther," could also address a cricket as his sister, " Canta, soror 
 
 1 cicada, et Dominum creatorem tuum jubilo lauda.'' But neither 
 his Psalm, nor elsewhere in Scripture, is this brotherly and sisterly 
 ition of things inanimate and irrational to man recognised or 
 jlied. 
 
 'he Psalm consists of two equal parts : 
 
 I. The praise of God in heaven. Ver. 1^-6, 
 I. The praise of God on earth. Ver. 7 — 12. 
 
 1 Hallelujah ! 
 
 O praise Jehovah from the heavens. 
 Praise Him in the heights. 
 
 2 Praise ye Him, all His angels. 
 
 Praise Him, all His hosts. 
 
 From the heavens. This first prising all afterwards enumerated, 
 e is not to be restricted merely to angels, sun and moon, &c. 
 angels. It is the prelude com- 2. His hosts. Here, as is plain 
 
PSALM CXL VIIL 
 
 68 
 
 3 Praise Him, sun and moon, 
 
 Praise Him, all ye stars of light. 
 
 4 Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, 
 
 And ye waters, that be above the heavens. 
 
 5 Let them praise the Name of Jehovah, 
 
 For He commanded, and they were created ; 
 
 6 And He made them to stand (fast) for ever and ever. 
 
 He hath given them a decree, and they transgress 
 not. 
 
 7 O praise Jehovah from the earth, 
 
 Ye sea-monsters and all deeps ; 
 
 8 Fire and hail, snow and vapour, 
 
 Stormy wind fulfilling His word ; 
 
 9 Ye mountains, and all hills, 
 
 Fruit-trees, and all cedars ; 
 TO Beasts, and all cattle, 
 
 Creeping things, and winged fowl ; 
 1 1 Kings of the earth, and all peoples. 
 
 from the parallelism, "the angels," as 
 also in i Kings xxii. 19, though else- 
 where the expression is used of the 
 stars, and some would so understand 
 it here. 
 
 4. Heavens of heavens. A 
 superlative, according to the common 
 Hebrew idiom, denoting "the highest 
 heavens ; " comp. 2 Cor. xii. 2. 
 Others take it as a poetical way of 
 expressing the apparently boundless 
 depth of the heavens. 
 
 Waters . . . above the hea- 
 vens, as in Gen. i. 7. This is usually 
 explained of the clouds, though the 
 form of expression cannot be said to 
 favour such an explanation, nor yet 
 the statement in Genesis, that the 
 firmament or expanse was intended to 
 separate the waters above from the 
 waters below. Taken in their obvious 
 meaning, the words must point to the 
 existence of a vast heavenly sea or 
 reservoir However, it is quite out 
 
 of place, especially when dealing wit 
 language so evidently poetical as thi< 
 to raise any question as to its scientifi 
 accuracy. 
 
 6. And they transgress it not 
 lit. " and none of them transgresse 
 it ; " for the verb is in the singular 
 and therefore distributive. 
 
 7. The second great division c 
 created things, — that is, according t' 
 the Old Test, view, THE earth. 
 
 Sea-monsters, mentioned first, a 
 at the bottom of the scale in creation 
 as in Gen. i. 21. 
 
 8. Fire, i.e. "lightning," as ii 
 xviii. 12, where it is in like manne 
 joined with hail. 
 
 Vapour, or perhaps rathe 
 "smoke," answering to "fire" a 
 " snow " to "hail." 
 
 Stormy wind, as in cvii. 25. 
 
 II, 12. Man mentioned last, as thi 
 crown of all. The first step (see ver 
 7) and the last are the same as ii 
 
2 PSALM CXLIX. 
 
 Princes, and all judges of the earth ; 
 Both young men, and maidens, 
 
 Old men, and children : 
 Let them praise the Name of Jehovah, 
 For His Name only is exalted, 
 
 His majesty above earth and heaven. 
 And He hath lifted up the horn of His people, 
 A praise to all His beloved, 
 
 (Even) to the children of Israel, a people near 
 unto Hiiii. 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 n. i. In the intervening stages, with 
 usual poetic freedom, the order 
 Genesis is not adhered to. 
 ;3. Let them praise, exactly as 
 :he close of the first great division 
 he anthem, ver. 5 ; and in the same 
 f as there, the reason for the ex- 
 tation follovfs in the next clause, 
 t it is a different reason. It is no 
 ger because He has given them a 
 ree, bound them as passive uncon- 
 >us creatures by a lavr which they 
 inot transgress. (It is the fearful 
 stery of the reasonable will that it 
 ttansgress the law.) It is because 
 i Name is exalted, so that the eyes 
 men can see and the hearts and 
 gues of men confess it ; it is be- 
 se He has graciously revealed 
 nself to, and mightily succoured, 
 people whom He loves, the nation 
 
 who are near to Him. If it be said, 
 that what was designed to be a Uni- 
 versal Anthem is thus narrowed at its 
 close, it must be remembered that, 
 however largely the glory of God was 
 written on the visible creation, it was 
 only to the Jew that any direct revela- 
 tion of His character had been made. 
 
 14. Lifted up the horn. The 
 horn being the house of David. 
 
 A PRAISE. This may either be (i) 
 in apposition with the whole previous 
 sentence, viz. the lifting up of the 
 horn is "a praise," a glory, to His 
 beloved (comp. Is. Ixi. 3, 11, Ixii. 7) ; 
 or (2) in apposition with the subject 
 of the previous verb, God Himself is 
 "a praise {f.e. object of praise) to," 
 &c. 
 
 Near unto Him, as a holy people. 
 Pent. iv. 7. Comp. Lev. x. 3. 
 
 PSALM CXLIX. 
 
 The feelings expressed in this Psalm are perfectly in accordance 
 h the time and the circumstances to which we have already re- 
 red the whole of this closing group of Hallelujah Psalms, beginning 
 
PSALM CXLIX. 68; 
 
 with the 146th. It breathes the spirit of intense joy and eager hopi 
 which must have been in the very nature of things characteristic o 
 the period which succeeded the return from the Babylonish captivity 
 Men of strong faith and religious enthusiasm and fervent loyalt' 
 must have felt that in the very fact of the restoration of the peopli 
 to their own land was to be seen so signal a proof of the Divim 
 favour, that it could not but be regarded as a pledge of a glorioui 
 future yet in store for the nation. The burning sense of wrong, th( 
 purpose of a terrible revenge, which was the feeling uppermost whei 
 they had first escaped from their oppressors (as in Psalm cxxxvii.) 
 was soon changed into the hope of a series of magnificent victorie: 
 over all the nations of the world, and a setting up of a universa 
 dominion. It is such a hope which is expressed here. The old day 
 of the nation, and the old martial spirit, are revived. God is theii 
 King (vei-. 2), and they are His soldiers, going forth to wage Hii 
 battles, with His praises in their mouth and a two-edged sword it 
 their hands. A spirit which now seems sanguinary and revengefu! 
 had, it is not too much to say, its proper function under the OIc 
 Testament, and was not only natural but necessary, if that small 
 nation was to maintain itself against the powerful tribes by which it 
 was hemmed in on all sides. But it ought to require no proof thai 
 language like that of ver. 6 — 9 of this Psalm is no warrant for the 
 exhibition of a similar spirit in the Christian Church. 
 
 "The dream that it was possible to use such a prayer as this, 
 without a spiritual transubstantiation of the words, has made them 
 the signal for some of the greatest crimes with which the Church 
 has ever been stained. It was by means of this Psalm that Casper 
 Sciopius in his ' Clarion of the Sacred War' {Classicum Belli Sacri)^ 
 a work written, it has been said, not with ink but with blood, roused 
 and inflamed the Roman Catholic Princes to the Thirty Years' War. 
 It was by means of this Psalm that, in the Protestant community, 
 Thomas Miinzer fanned the flames of the War of the Peasants. We 
 see from these and other instances that when in her interpretation of 
 such a Psalm the Church forgets the words of the Apostle, 'the 
 weapons of our warfare are not carnal ' (2 Cor. x. 4), she falls back 
 upon the ground of the Old Testament, beyond which she has long 
 since advanced,— ground which even the Jews themselves do not ven- 
 ture to maintain, because they cannot altogether withdraw themselves 
 from the influence of the light which has dawned in Christianity, and 
 
4 PSALM CXLIX, 
 
 ich condemns the vindictive spirit. The Church of the Old Testa- 
 ;nt, which, as the people of Jehovah, was at the same time called to 
 ge a holy war, had a -right to express its hope of the universal con- 
 est and dominion promised to it, in such terms as those of this 
 aim ; but, since Jerusalem and the seat of the Old Testament 
 irship have perished, the national form of the Church has also for 
 5r been broken in pieces. The Church of Christ is built up among 
 d out of the nations ; but neither is the Church a nation, nor will 
 5r again one nation be the Church, kot-' i^oxiv. Therefore the 
 iristian must transpose the letter of this Psalm into the spirit of the 
 ;w Testament." — Delitzsch. 
 
 1 Hallelujah! 
 
 O sing to Jehovah a new song, 
 
 His praise ifi the congregation of (His) beloved. 
 
 2 Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him. 
 
 Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King ; 
 
 3 Let them praise His Name in (the) dance. 
 
 With tabret and harp let them play unto Him ; 
 
 4 For Jehovah hath pleasure in His people. 
 
 He beautifieth the afflicted with salvation. 
 
 5 Let (His) beloved exult with glory, 
 
 Let them sing aloud upon their beds ; 
 
 I. A NEW SONG. As expressive of 4. Hath pleasure, as has been 
 
 the new hopes and joys of a new shown by their restoration to their own 
 
 1, a new spring of the nation, a land. Comp. Is. liv. 7, 8. 
 
 w youth of the Church bursting forth Beautifieth. Comp., as having 
 
 o a new life. the same reference to the change in 
 
 (His) beloved, or " them that the condition of the nation, Is. Iv. S ; 
 
 'e Him ;" see onxvi. 10. A name Ix. 7, 9, 13 ; bd. 3. 
 
 )eated ver. 5 and 9, and therefore 5. With glory, or it might be 
 
 iracteristic of the Psalm. rendered "because of (the) glory (put 
 
 z. In their King. God again is upon them)." 
 
 .imed emphatically as the King of Upon their beds. Even there, 
 
 : nation, when they had no longer even when they have laid themselves 
 
 king sitting on David's throne. down to rest, let them break forth 
 
 ch a King will not leave them under into joyful songs at the thought of 
 
 eign rule ; He will break the yoke God's high favour shown to them, in 
 
 every oppressor from their neck. the anticipation of the victories which 
 
PSALM CL. 685 
 
 6 (With) the high (praises) of God in their mouth, 
 
 And a two-edged sword in their hand ; 
 
 7 To execute vengeance on the nations, 
 
 And punishments on the people ; 
 
 8 To bind their kings with chains, 
 
 And their nobles with iron fetters ; 
 
 9 To execute upon them (the) judgement written. 
 
 It is an honour for all His beloved. 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 they shall achieve. Comp. Hos. vii. 14. 
 
 6. A revival of the old military 
 spirit of the nation, of which we have 
 an instance Neh. iv. 17, " With the 
 one hand they did their work, and 
 with the other they held the sword." 
 But a still better parallel is 2 Mace. 
 XV. 27. 
 
 9. (The) Judgement written. 
 This has been explained by some to 
 have reference to the judgement writ- 
 ten in the law, or such judgements as 
 are threatened in the Old Test. ; or by 
 others as the "judgement written," one 
 in accordance with the Divine will as 
 vnritten in Scripture, as opposed to 
 selfish aims and passions. But per- 
 haps it is better to take it as de- 
 
 noting a judgement fixed, settled— 
 as committed to writing, so as to de- 
 note its permanent, unalterable charac- 
 ter — written thus by God Himself 
 As in Is. Ixv. 6, God says, ' ' Beholc 
 it is written before Me : I will nol 
 keep silence, but will recompense, 
 even recompense into their bosom. " 
 
 It is an honour. That is, the 
 subjection of the world described ir 
 the previous verses. But perhaps it is 
 better to take the pronoun as referring 
 to God : " He is a glory to all, " &c. ; 
 i.e. either (i) His gloiy and majestj 
 are reflected in His people ; or (2] 
 He is the author and fountain of their 
 glory ; or (3) He is the glorious object 
 of their praise. 
 
 PSALM CL. 
 
 Thk great closing Hallelujah, or Doxology, of the Psalter, in which 
 every kind of musical instrument is to bear its part as well as the 
 voice of man, in which not one nation only, but " everything that hath 
 breath " is invited to join. It is one of thoie Psalms which " declare 
 
6 PSALM CL. 
 
 :ir own intention as anthems, adapted for that public worship which 
 s the glory and delight of the Hebrew people ; a worship carrying 
 h it the soul of the multitude by its simple majesty and by the 
 vers of music, brought in their utmost force to recommend the de- 
 ions of earth in the ears of heaven." " Take it," says Isaac Taylor, 
 s a sample of this class, and bring the spectacle and the sounds into 
 ;, for the imagination to rest in. It was evidently to subserve the 
 ■poses of music that these thirteen verses are put together : it was 
 doubt to give effect first to the human voice, and then to the alter- 
 ions of instruments, — loud and tender and gay, — with the graceful 
 vements of the dance, that the anthem was composed and its chorus 
 ught out, 
 
 ' Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord ! 
 Praise ye the Lord ! ' 
 
 i so did the congregated thousands take up their part with a shout, 
 en as the voice of many waters.' " — Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry, 
 156, 157. 
 
 [ Hallelujah! 
 
 O praise God in His sanctuary, 
 
 Praise Him in the firmament of His might. 
 J Praise Him for His mighty acts, 
 
 Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. 
 ; Praise Him with the sound of the cornet, 
 
 Praise Him with lute and harp. 
 |. Praise Him with tabret and dance, 
 
 In His sanctuary. This may 3. Cornet, properly the curved 
 
 ;ither the earthly or the heavenly instrament made of a ram's horn (see 
 
 iple. The character of the Psalm on Ixxxi. 3), and distinct from the 
 
 liturgical anthem would seem to straight metal trumpet, though in the 
 
 ? that the former is meant ; the Talmud it is said that after the destruc- 
 
 llehsm would favour the latter. tion of the Temple the distinction of 
 
 xi. 4, where there is the same names was no longer observed, 
 
 iguity- 4- Tabret, or "tambourine." 
 
 [RMAMENT OF His MIGHT, i.e. The Hebrew toph is the same as the 
 
 leaven in which His kingly power Arab, duff; and the Spanish adufe is 
 
 majesty are displayed. Comp. derived through the Moorish from the 
 
 i. 34. same root. 
 
PSALM CL. 
 
 687 
 
 Praise Him upon the strings and pipe, 
 
 5 Praise Him upon the clear cymbals, 
 
 Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. 
 
 6 Let everything that hath breath praise Jah ! 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 Strings. This is probably the 
 meaning, as in Syriac. 
 
 Pipe, properly "shepherd's flute," 
 Gen. iv. 2i ; but not elsewhere men- 
 tioned as an instrument employed in 
 sacred music. 
 
 J. Cymbals. The Hebrew word 
 is by its form intended to describe 
 the clanging of these instruments. It 
 occurs in sacred music, 2 Sam. vi. 5- 
 The distinction between the two kinds 
 
 mentioned is, probably, that the first, 
 as smaller, had a clear, high sound ; 
 the latter, as larger, a deep, loud 
 sound. Others render " castanets." 
 
 6. Let everything that hath 
 BREATH, and, above all, the voice of 
 man, as opposed to the dead instru- 
 ments mentioned before. 
 
 What more fitting close than this of 
 the great " Book of Praises " ? 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Aaron, anointing of, 635. 
 
 Abraham, seed of, 308. 
 
 Absalom, Psalms written with refer- 
 ence to, iii., iv., xi., xxiii., xxvi., 
 xxvii., xxviii., Ixi., Ixiii. 
 
 Adder, the wicked compared to the, 
 
 239- 
 Addison's paraphrase of Ps. xix., 79. 
 Addison's Spectator quoted, 533. 
 Adonai, Divine name, 286, 308, 553- 
 Adonai, used seven times in Ps. 
 
 Ixxxvi., 419. 
 AduUam, cave of, 235. 
 Adversary, an, or "Satan,"' 540. 
 Afflicted, the, 43. 
 After the m.anner of Maidens, 6, 
 Ahithophel, possible allusion to, 51, 
 
 224. 
 Alamoth, 6, 184. 
 Andrewes, Bishop, favourite prayer, 
 
 650. 
 Angel of Jehovah, 128, 131. 
 Angels, 453. 
 Anger of God, 29. 
 Anglo-Saxon Version quoted, 59, 
 
 186, 188 
 Anointed, Thine, 632. 
 Ark of Thy strength, 631. 
 Ark, Psalms referring to the removal 
 
 of the, 20, 48, 58, 95, 130, 187, 
 
 253, 261, 507, 628, 657. 
 Amdt quoted, 271, 284. 
 Arrogant, the, 333. 
 Asaph, author of twelve Pss., 8. bee 
 
 ako 202. 
 Assembly, place of, 344. 
 Asshur, 406. 
 
 Assyrian invasion, 183, 189, 353. 
 Athanasius, anecdote of, 642. 
 Avenger, 38. 
 
 B. 
 
 Babylonish Captivity, return of tl 
 
 Exiles from, 415, 612. 
 Babylon, song of the exile in, 610. 
 Baca, 413. 
 
 Bands in the death, 333. 
 Basalt, or Basanites, origin of tern 
 
 288. 
 Bashan's strong ones, 90, 172, 283. 
 Basket, the, 396. 
 Beast of the reed, 292. 
 Beloved, His, 684. 
 Beloved, Thy, 64, 203, 250, 437. 
 Benjamin, little, 292. 
 Bernard, last words of, 117- 
 Bind, to, explanation of the ■word,5i 
 Bloodthirsty man, 26. 
 'ii\a.-aX.,UndesignedCoincidences,oyioiti 
 
 225, 379- 
 Blunt, Veracity of the Books of Mose 
 
 quoted, 511. 
 Boar out of the wood, 390. 
 Book of life, 305. 
 Book, the, 154. 
 Bottle, a, in the smoke, 591. 
 Bottle for tears, 233. 
 Bow, deceitful, 377. 
 Bow of brass, 75. 
 Bread of the mighty, 372. 
 Breath, 149. 
 Brook of God, the, 272. 
 Broom (the shrub), 602. 
 Burden, peculiarity of the word, 231 
 Byron quoted, 356. 
 
 Y Y 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Calvin on the Messianic view of the 
 Pss. 179, 315 ; quoted, 171, 315, 
 363, 418, 488, 496, 665. 
 
 Caterpillar, 375, 513. 
 
 Cedars of God, 389. 
 
 Chaff, wicked compared to, 14, 151. 
 
 Chaldean invasion, Ps. Ixxiv. may 
 refer to, 341. Also Ps. Ixxix., 
 381. 
 
 Chaldee paraphrast, 177. 
 
 Chariots, 289. 
 
 Charmer, a, 240. 
 
 Chastisement not always a sign of 
 anger, 29. 
 
 Cheek-bones, smiting on the, 21. 
 
 Cherub, upon a, 72. 
 
 Children, God's, spoken of collec- 
 tively not individually, 336. 
 
 Children of men, 137. 
 
 Cholera, Ps. xci. used ai a preserva- 
 tive against, 452. 
 
 Christ, application of Ps. ii. to, 17 ; 
 subjugation of all things to, 39 ; 
 vicarious sufferings of, 87 ; pro- 
 phecy of, 93 ; the Good Shepherd, 
 64 ; part of Ps. Ixviii. applied to, 
 290 ; Solomon, an imperfect type 
 of, 322; prophecy of in Ps. Ixxxvii., 
 425 ; Melchizedek, type of, 545. 
 
 Clap their hands, 476. 
 
 Compass the altar, 103, 488. 
 
 Congregation of the righteous, 14, 
 
 133- 
 Conies, SOS- 
 Comet, 686. 
 
 Creation, God's glory in, 77- 
 Creation, Ps. civ., a Divine ode of, 
 
 496. 
 Cup, the, 572. 
 Cusli, Ethiopia, 320. 
 Cush, the Benjamite, 32. 
 Cymbals, 687. 
 
 D. 
 
 Daughter, King's, 181. 
 
 Daughters of Judah, 193. 
 
 David, his hope of a future life, 64, 
 
 68 ; personal affection to God, 
 
 261 ; assertion of innocence, 73, 
 
 102 ; as a prophet, 64. 
 "Dawn, Hind of the," 7. 
 Death differently viewed by O. T. 
 
 and N. T. saints, 30. 
 Death of the Son, 7. 
 Death, the bands of, 71. 
 Defend (cover), 28. 
 Degrees, songs of, 600. 
 Delitzsch quoted, 358, 624, 636, 638, 
 
 668. 
 Deserts, the, 284. 
 " Destroy not," 7. 
 Dew of Hermon, 635, 636. 
 " Dew of Thy young men," 552. 
 Divine names, use ofi 162. 
 Dog^ have come, &c. , 90. 
 Djnne quoted, 121, 256, 258. 
 Doings of men, 66. 
 Doubter, forbearance to the, 330. 
 Doubts, in reference to God, 421. 
 Doubts, modern, 329. 
 Dove of the Terebinths, 7. 
 " Dove, the silent," 7. 
 Dove's wings, simile of, 287. 
 Doxologies, 159, 323, 685. 
 Drink offerings of blood, 62. 
 Dwelling-place, God a, 447. 
 
 Eagle, fable of the, 493. 
 
 Ears hast Thou opened, 154. 
 
 Earth, 448. 
 
 Edomites, Joab's victory over the, 
 
 246. 
 Elohim, title of God, 162, 668. 
 Enchanters or "whisperers," 239. 
 Endor, 407. 
 Engedi, cave of, 235. 
 Ephraim, children of, 368. 
 Ephratah, 630. 
 Ethan, identical with Jeduthun, 148, 
 
 434- 
 Ethan the Ezrabite, 8, 148. 
 Euripides quoted, 621. 
 Ewaid quoted, 147. 
 Excellent, the, 62. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Fainted, literal meaning of the word, 
 
 530- 
 Faithful witness, the, 439. 
 Fa^rar, Ti-c.jBampton Lectures, quoted, 
 
 336. 
 Fatness, 138, 262. 
 Fat of wheat, 678. 
 Fear and faith, co-existence of, 282. 
 Feet, lift up thy, ^43. 
 Flood, Shibboleth, 298. 
 Flood, the Deluge, 112. 
 Foolish men, why so called, 532. 
 Fool, the, 57. 
 Footstool, 478. 
 Fountain of life, 138. 
 Future life little understood under 
 
 the O. T. dispensation, 30, 39, 50, 
 
 64, 68, 115, 157, 199, 338. 
 
 G. 
 
 Galileo, passage from Ps. civ. quoted 
 
 in Gall., 302 ; controversy with, 
 
 501. 
 Gates in the, 43, 619. 
 Gave shine, 363. 
 Gebal, 406. 
 Gerhardt, Paul, 234. 
 Gittith, upon the, 6, 37, 411. 
 Glory and honour, 39. 
 Glory, my, 22, 33, 63. 
 God, holiness of, 478. 
 God of Gods, 202. 
 God of my righteousness, 22. 
 God's above all, 465. 
 God's all ye, 473. 
 God save the king, whence taken, 
 
 84. 
 Gods, name of, applied to the judges 
 
 of Israel, 400. 
 God's ye are, 402. 
 God, the living, 165. 
 Goal, next of kin, 343. 
 Gog and Magog, 189. 
 Gog, land of, 190. 
 Graciousness, Thy, 75. 
 Grass on the housetops, 623. 
 
 H. 
 
 Habakkuk, resemblance between Ps. 
 Ixxvii., 358, 
 
 Haggarenes, the, 406. 
 
 " Hallel, the," 561. 
 
 ' ' Hallel, the great, " 642. 
 
 Hallelujah Psalms, 515, 557, 672. 
 
 Hannah, the song of, 349. 
 
 Hare, Archdeacon, quoted, 669. 
 
 Harvest, Ps. Ixv., written on the oc- 
 casion of, 267. 
 
 Heart, my, 63. 
 
 Heathen, the, 278, 382. 
 
 Hebrews, the writer of, quotes Ps. 
 viii., 37 ; xlv., 177. 
 
 Hell. See Sheol. 
 
 Hengstenburg quoted, 446. 
 
 Hermons, the, 167. 
 
 High Priest's blessing, 277, 283. 
 
 Hind of the Dawn, the, 7, 88. 
 
 Hodu-Psalms, 508. 
 
 Holy One of Israel, 313. 
 
 Holy ones, the Angels, 435. 
 
 Holy Spirit, not fully understood by 
 O. T. saints, 213. 
 
 Holy Temple, 49. 
 
 Holy vestments, 551. 
 
 Homer quoted, 647. 
 
 Horn, 352. 
 
 Horns and hoofs, 306. 
 
 Horror, 226. 
 
 Hosannah, the great, 574, 579. 
 
 Hosts, His, means " the angels," 681. 
 
 Huss, anecdote of, 117. 
 
 Hyssop, 212. 
 
 I. 
 
 Imprecations in the Psalms, 303, 538. 
 
 See Vengeance. 
 Incense, 276. 
 
 Indignation, righteous, 219. 
 Infatuation, 249. 
 Iniquity of my heels, 197. 
 Innocence asserted, 33, 65, 73, I02. 
 Inscriptions of the Pss., 5. 
 Isaiah, expressions coincident with, 
 
 183, 189. 
 Ishmaelites, the, 406. 
 
iV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Israelite, our difficulty in understand- 
 ing the feelings of a true, 243. 
 
 J- 
 
 Jackals, place of, 174. 
 
 Jacob, pride of, 188. 
 
 Jeduthun, after the manner of, 256, 
 
 360. 
 Jeduthun, for, 148, 256. 
 Jehoiachin alluded to, 433. 
 Jehovah, Elohim, 162, 185, 243. 
 Jehovah, God (Elohim), 414. 
 Jehovah, God of Hosts, 185. 
 Jehovistic Psalms, 56. 
 Jeremiah, Pss. probably vfritten by, 
 
 296, 306, 309, 341. 
 Jeremiah, quotes from Ps. Ixxix., 
 
 381. 
 Jerome of Prague, last words of, 117. 
 Jewish liturgy, III. 
 Joost de Moor, anecdote of, 127. 
 Josephus, 96. 
 Judas Iscariot, Ps. xli., supposed to 
 
 refer to, 158 ; Ps. lix. supposed to 
 
 refer to, 541. 
 Judgement, in the, 14. 
 Judges of the earth, 18. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kadesh, H2. 
 
 Kedar, 602. 
 
 King Jehovah as, 458, 471. 
 
 King, my, title given to God, 25. 
 
 Kiss the Son, 18. 
 
 Kitto, Bible Illustrations, quoted, 
 
 343- 
 Korah, history of, 411. 
 Korah, sons of, authors of eight 
 
 Psalms, 8. 
 
 Lamp, my, 74. 
 Last words of our Lord, 117 
 Law, book of the, 14. 
 Law, the, 80, 143. 
 
 Leighton quoted, 121. 
 
 Let"us break their bonds, 16. 
 
 Leviathan, 346. 
 
 Life, book of, 305. 
 
 Life, God the fountain of, 138. 
 
 Life, long, promise of, as a temporal 
 
 blessing, 454. 
 Lifting up, 352. 
 Light and Truth, 168. 
 Lighten mine eyes, 55. 
 Light, in Thy, 138. 
 Light, name applied to God, 104, 
 
 449- 
 Light of God's countenance, 23, 235. 
 Lilies, according to the, 387. 
 Lilies, on the, 178. 
 Lily of the Testimony, 7, 248. 
 Living God, 165, 412. 
 Lord of the whole earth, 472. 
 i-,ord, our, 37. 
 Loving-kindness, attribute of God, 
 
 138. 573- 
 Luther, anecdote of, 624 ; quoted, 
 608. 
 
 M. 
 
 Maccabees, Pss. written in the time 
 
 of, 170, 173, 273, 340, 380. 
 Machalath, 220. 
 Machilta quoted, 16. 
 Man, description of a perfect, 60. 
 Man, meaning of Hebrew word, 39. 
 Marriage songs, 175. 
 Maschil, 6, 121, 164, 178, 342, 661. 
 Meditate, 14, 16. 
 Melancthon, last words of, 117. 
 Melodies denoted by titles, 7. 
 Men of the world, 67. 
 Meribah, 466. 
 Meroe, city of, 320. 
 Meshech, 602. 
 
 Messiah, name taken from Ps.ii., 18. 
 Messiah, prophecy of, 322. 
 Michtam, 6, 61, 231, 248. 
 Midian, 407. 
 Midrash Tehillim, 315. 
 Mighty One of Jacob, 629. 
 Milton quoted, 119, 501. 
 Miry swamp, 152. 
 Miserable, 157, 401. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Mizar, 167. 
 Mizmor, 6, 41, 474. 
 Monsters, the, 346. 
 Moses among the priests, 478. 
 Moses, author of Ps. xc, 8. 
 Moth, hke the, 150. 
 Mountains of God, 137. 
 Mountains of prey, 355. 
 Mountains, on the, 321. 
 Mourning, 132. 
 Musician, to the chief, 5. 
 
 N. 
 
 Name, God's holy, 28, 114, 193, 224. 
 Nations, all the, 243. See, 278. 
 Neighbour, Heb. use of word; 52. 
 Net, the, 276. 
 Night watches, 263. 
 North, sides of the, 190. 
 
 O. 
 
 Octave, on the, 29, 52. 
 
 "Oculus Sperans," "The Eye of 
 
 Hope," name given to Ps. cxxiii., 
 
 608. 
 Oil to make the face shine, 503. 
 Olive, the, emblem of vigorous, 
 
 healthy life, 219, 621. 
 Only One, my, 91. 
 Oracles, 136. 
 Order, set in, 26. 
 Oreb and Zeeb, 407. 
 Outgoings, 271. 
 Overwhelmed, 664. 
 Overwhelmed, literal meaning of 
 
 word, 254. 
 Ovid quoted, 237, 501, 534- 
 Owl, in Arabic called "Mother of 
 
 the ruins," 486. 
 Oxen, wild, 91. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palm, the, 457- 
 
 Parable, a, or dark saymg, 196. 
 
 Pasture, 384. 
 
 Path of Life, the, 64. 
 
 Peace, 317. 
 Pelican, a, 486. 
 Pericles, quotation from, 193. 
 Petrarch, anecdote of, 100. 
 Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia, 428. 
 " Piercing my hands," &c., 90. 
 Pilgrim, songs, 600, 605. 
 Pindar quoted, 549. 
 Pipe, the, 687. 
 Pit, the, 301. 
 Plautus quoted, 609. 
 Plumptre quoted, 410, 577- 
 Poet and prophet, close affinity be- 
 tween, 52. 
 Poetry of the Hebrews, I. 
 Polycarp, last words of, 1 1 7- 
 Poole, Edmund, anecdote of, 626. 
 Praise, to give, 5- 
 "Prayer, and my," 132. 
 Prayer, answers to, considered, 528, 
 
 529. 
 Pride of Jacob, the, 188. 
 Princess Anne, anecdote of, 56. 
 Prophet, David as a, 64. 
 Prophet, meaning of the word, 510. 
 Prosperity of the wicked, difficulties 
 
 suggested by, 327. 
 Proverb, a, 173. 
 Psalm, a, 274. 
 Psalms — 
 
 Alphabetical, ix., x., xxv., xxxiv., 
 xxxvii., cxi, cxii., cxix., cxlv. 
 
 cxl., the only, called "Praise" or 
 Hymn. 
 
 Inscriptions of the, 7. 
 
 of the Captivity, 4. 
 
 Penitential, vi., xxxii., xxxviii., 
 li., cii., cxxx., cxliii. 
 
 Pilgrim, cxx. to cxxxiv. 
 
 Quails, how brought by an east and 
 
 south wind, 372. 
 Quails, possible allusion to in Ps. 
 
 Ixviii., 286. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbinical writers, 18 
 Rahab, 427. 
 
 215. 
 
VI 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Raiseth up, phrase used twice in the 
 
 Pss., 674. 
 Ram's horn, why the trumpet is made 
 
 of, 393- 
 Ready to forgive, 420. 
 Rebellious, 290. 
 
 Redeem, meaning of word, 343. 
 Remembrance, to bring to, 307. 
 Rest, my, passage quoted in Epistle 
 
 to the Hebrews, 467. 
 Ridafat, the, 548. 
 Right hand, 172. 
 Righteousness — 
 
 Connection between salvation and, 
 
 97- 
 
 Gates of, 577. 
 
 His, 93. 
 
 In Thy, 27. 
 
 Meaning of word, 312. 
 
 O. T. meaning of, 97. 
 
 Paths of, 94. 
 
 Thy, 215. 
 Robertson quoted, 94, 164, 165, 166. 
 Rock of our Salvation, 485. 
 Rolling thing, as a, 408. 
 Roll of the book, 1 54. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saba, 330. 
 
 Sabaoth, 243. 
 
 Sacrifice, meaning of term, 154. 
 
 Sacrifices — 
 
 Burnt offering, 215. 
 
 Evening, 658. 
 
 of righteousness, 23, 216. 
 
 of shouting, 105. 
 
 of thanksgiving, 206. 
 
 Peace offerings, 204. 
 St. Augustine, 212, 291. 
 St. Columba, anecdote of, 128. 
 St. Francis d'Assisi, life of, quoted, 
 
 662. 
 St. Paul quotes from the Psalms, 77, 
 
 79, 121, 175, 210, 296. 
 St. Vincent de Paul, anecdote of, 
 
 308. 
 Saints, the, 62. 
 Salem, 354. 
 Salt, valley of, 247, 
 
 Salvation, my, 257. 
 
 Sanctuary, desecration of the, 344. 
 
 Sanctuary, the, 336. 
 
 Saul, references to, 48, 130, 222, 235, 
 
 241. 
 Savary, Letters on Egypt, quoted, 
 
 609. 
 Seba, 320. 
 
 Secret of the Lord, loi. 
 Selah, 7- 
 
 Sennacherib, annals of, 19. 
 Sennacherib, references to, 182, 192, 
 
 267, 273. 
 Servant of Jehovah, 70. 
 Shadow of Thy wing, 137, 236. 
 Sheba, 319. 
 
 Shechem and Succoth, 251. 
 •Sheminith, 6. 
 Sheol, 43, 71, 115, 199, 264, 660. 
 
 See Unseen world. 
 Shepherd, my, 94 
 Shepherd of Israel, 387. 
 Shield, a, 20, 28. 
 Shield, our, 245. 
 Shiggaion, 6. 
 Shiloh, 378. 
 Shoe, my, 252. 
 Sides of the north, 190. 
 Sin, contrition for, 207, 210. 
 Sin, nature of, 121, 211. 
 Sin, various words used for, 121, 209. 
 Singers, David's, 8. 
 Sirion, Sidonian name for Hermoii, 
 
 III. 
 Snares, 50. 
 Snow, like wool, 678. 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, destruction 
 
 of, 50. 
 Solomon, author of two Pss., 8, 13, 
 
 314- 
 Solomon, Ps. xlv. supposed to refer 
 
 to, 176 ; cxxvii. referred to, 617. 
 Song, a, 6. 
 
 Song of Deborah, 283, 285. 
 Song of Degrees, 6, 600. 
 Song of Loves, 6. 
 Song of Solomon, 177. 
 Song of tlie Ascents, 6. 
 Songs of God, iii. 
 Son of man, title taken from Ps. ii., 
 
 18. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Sons of men, 22. 
 
 Sophocles quoted, 287, 620. 
 
 Soul or life, 197. 
 
 Spanish Armada, destruction of, 
 
 192. 
 Speculum Regis, name applied to Ps. 
 
 ci., 481. 
 Spirit, soul, and body, 63. 
 Stanley, Dean, quoted, 1 12, 185, 190, 
 
 318, 363, 364, 370, 427, 613. 
 Stone, a, 578. 
 
 Stork, meaning of name, 503. 
 Succoth, 251. 
 Sucklings, 38. 
 Sun and Moon, 318. 
 Sun, God called a, 415. 
 Sunstroke, 604. 
 Super Maria, 97. 
 Sympathy, 202. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tab'erah, " burning," 371. 
 
 Tabernacle, 59, 169, 354. 
 
 Tabernacles, feast of, 377, 574. 
 
 Tabor and Hermon, 436. 
 
 Tabret, 686. 
 
 Talmud quoted, 7, 317, 670. 
 
 Targum quoted, 7, 255, 315, 636. 
 
 Tarshish, 319. 
 
 Taylor, Isaac, quoted, 445, 679, 685. 
 
 "Teaching, for," 5. 
 
 Temple — 
 
 Dedication of the, 113. 
 
 Heavenly, 71. 
 
 Holy, 49. 
 
 or Tabernacle, 105. 
 
 second, anthem composed for, 675. 
 Tennyson's Lo'os Eaters quoted, 617. 
 Terence quoted, 609. 
 Thebes, mural paintings at, 375. 
 Thompson, Archbp. of York, quoted, 
 
 448. 
 Thucydides quoted, 193. 
 Thunderstorm, description of, 71, 109. 
 Treachery of a guest, 158. 
 Tree, figure of a, 14, T42. 
 Tribe, the, 343. 
 Trieth, explanation of word, 50, 75> 
 
 102. 
 
 Trifolium of Praise, Ps. cxlvii. called 
 
 a, 675. 
 Trust, 270. 
 Truth, 211. 
 Tyre, daughter of, 181. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ungodly, punishment of the, 336. 
 
 Unite my heart, 422. 
 
 Unseen world, the, 43, 63, 115, 199, 
 
 264, 422. 
 Urim and Thuttimim, 168. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaihinger quoted, 382. 
 Vale of weeping, 413. 
 Vanity, a breath, 149, 462. 
 Vaughan, Rev. D. J., quoted, 497. 
 Vengeance, prayers for, 133, 303, 
 
 558. 654- 
 Vestments, holy, in. 
 Villages, 46. 
 Vine, a, 389, 621. 
 Vinegar or sour wine, 303. 
 Virgil quoted, 487, 531, 621. 
 Vulgate quoted, 60. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wash me, 209. 
 
 Wash my hands, 103. 
 
 Wa-ih-pot, my, 252. 
 
 Watch in the night, 448. 
 
 Weaned child, figure of, 627. 
 
 When I awake, 68. 
 
 Whewell, Astronomy, <2r=<:., quoted, 
 
 39- 
 Wicked man, character of the, pour- 
 
 trayed, 136. 
 Wicked, prosperity of, in this world, 
 
 327- 
 Wings, in the shadow of Thy, 67, 
 
 236, 263. 
 Wings, Thy, 254. 
 Wordsworth quoted, 78, 196, 
 Workers of iniquity, 26. 
 
VUl 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 World, men of the, 68. 
 
 World, the unseen. See Unseen 
 
 world. 
 World, use of term, 440. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Vesterday, 448. 
 
 Vork, Archbishop of, quoted, 447, 449. 
 
 Zaimon, 288. 
 
 Zion, city of, 428. 
 
 Zion, on, 17, 42. 
 
 Zion, removal of the ark to, 58 
 
 279. 
 Zoan, 369. 
 Zunz, reference to, 62, 
 
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