-^KRVOFPRWcfJ^v, •^WGICAL SEtt\^ STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Ordo Psalmonira mihi magni saciamenti viJetur continere secretmn." — AuGUSTiNi in Ph. d. Enarratio. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, Tracing the Train of Tiiought by the aid of Parallelism ; with Notes and Dissertations on the Principal Difficulties in the Epistle. 8vo, 10s. 6d. " in every point of view it is a valuable adtlitiou to critical biWical literature, aud possesses many attractions." — Contemporary Review. THE SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF SCRIPTURE ; or, Scripture Parallelism Exemplified in an Analysis of the Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and other Passages of the Sacred Writings. 8vo, 8s. 6d. " Tlie book is worth study; it is evidently the work of no ordinary man, and is pervaded by a spirit at once scientific and devout." — Homilist. PREDESTINATION AND FREEWILL RECONCILED; or, Calvinism and Arminianism united in the Westminster Confession: An Eirenicon. With a Reply to Dr. Candlish's Criticism, and an Appendix on Christ's Preaching to "The Spirits in Prison." Second Edition. cSvo, 2s. 6d. "He wlio wishes for great intellectual gain at a small cost, cannot do better than buy this book, and study it from beginning to end." — London QiiarterJti Eericto. STUDIES BOOK OF PSALMS THE STKUCTlTvAL CONNECTION OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS, BOTH IN SINGLE PSALMS AND IN THE PSALTER AS AN OBOANIC WHOLE. JOHN'^^ORBES, D.D., LL.D., EMEKITUS-PROFKSSOK OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, ABERDEEN. EDITED BY THE llEV. JAMES FORREST, M.A. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1888. J PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBUBGH. LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND 00. DUBLIN, .... salms occurring in the Second and Third Books. The master-hand has, however, failed, and the defect cannot be remedied now. Prom p. 264 to the end, with the exception of what relates to the twenty-fourth Psalm, the text is compiled from material which was evidently intended to be revised and recast by the Author for publication. It has been put into such form as will show how Dr. Forbes wished to conclude the task he assigned himself. The book now offered to tlie public will, it is hoped, be sufficient to justify in the eyes of the critical scholar the remark of Augustine, chosen as its motto, " Ordo Psalmorum niihi magni sacramenti videtur continere secretum," and may perhaps induce other labourers in the same field to carry on, amend, and perfect the work. JAMES FORREST. The Manse, Lonmay, January 1888. CONTENTS. PAGE I.— Introduction, 1-18 Perennial interest of the Psalms : importance of studying their order, p. 1 — Sevenfold division : aids to trace internal ccmnec- tion and meaning, p. 2 — Intention of present grouping, and illustration of this, p. 3 — Two facts to be observed in estimating the significance of the Messianic Psalms ; keynote of Book I., 1'. 4 — PrincijDles of parallelism applied to Pss. xx.-xxii., p. 5 — Messianic import of Book II. : closing Ps. (Ixxii.) a prayer for fulfilment of proj^hecies made to David and to Abraham, p. 6 — Book III. shows the decline and fall of the earthly monarchy : Ps. xlv. the central Psalm of the three Amen Books, p. 7 — Inter- pretation put on this Psalm by the later Jews : closing Psalm of Book III. (Ixxxix.) brings us to the captivity ; Book IV. relates to that period ; its counterpart in Isa. xl.-lxvi. ; Book V. relates to the return, p. 8 — Has its counterpart in prophecies of Zecha- riah ; from this date establisliment of belief in a coming Messiah, p, 9 — The application directly to Christ of Psalms not primarily Messianic accounted for by line of argument pursued in these studies, e.g. Ps. cxviii. 22, p. 10 ; and Ps. cii., cited Heb. i. 10-12 — Sources of quotation in Heb. i. 6, p. 11 — Book VI. continues 7 (trtsvchronological order, and Book VII. a burst of praise of lansomed Church : aim of these studies, p. 12 — Hebrew habits of composition ; stress laid on Ps. ex. ; idea of the Messianic King, p. 13 — Delitzsch's opinion as to Ps. xvi. shown untenable, p. 14 — Pss. ii., xx.-xxii., and xl. primarily Messianic, also Ps. Ixxii. and Ps. ex., p. 15 — Insight of prophets and psalmists into the meaning of their inspired productions : illustrated by St. Peter's use of Ps. xvi. 10, 11, p. 16 — Dean Alford's comment on 1 Pet. i. 10-12 : the Psalms to be judged not as isolated pro- ductions, but as parts of the Church manual of devotion, p. 1 7 — Consec^uences of forgetting this, p. 18. vni CONTENTS. PAGE II. — Structural Connection of the Psalms, . . . 19-276 Errors of earlier and later commentators, p. 19 — Mistakes of recent critics shown Ly examination of some Psalms, e.g. Ps. xc. : the idea of a future life, p. 20 — Reason for silence as to this in the Mosaic dispensation, pp. 21-23 — Author, occasion, and teaching of Ps. xc. : text and structure, pp. 24-26 — The Messianic element in several Psalms also misinterpreted by majority of modern critics : development of Messianic idea in 0. T. progres- sive, p. 27 — Meaning attached to each revelation by the person who received it : the original promise, Gen. iii. 15, how under- stood by our first parents, pp. 28-30 — The two promises made to Abraham to be distinguished, p. 31^Revelation to Moses, Ex. xix. 5, 6, pp. 32, 33— To David, 2 Sam. vii. 5-16, pp. 34, 35, and Ps. ex., p. 36 — Revelation in this Psalm of kingly and priestly functions of the coming Messiah, involving a change in the Mosaic law, pp. 37, 38 — Objections considered, pp. 38, 39 — Dis- play of an individual, personal Messiah now made, and an ideal set up too high for a mortal, pp. 39-41 —Here is explanation of direct reference of Ps. xviii. 43, 44, and Ps. xvi. 10, 11, pp. 41, 42 —Of Ps. ii., pp. 43, 44— Of Ps. xxii., p. 45— Last words of David, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2-5, pp. 46, 47 — Striking similarity in Ps. Ixxii., p. 48— Arrangement and text of this Psalm, pp. 49, 50 — Discussion of ver. 15, pp. 51, 52 ; of ver. 17, pp. 53-63, especially with refer- ence to the two promises made to Abraham, pjD. 53-59, and whether there is any reference in the Psalm to Solomon, pp. 60, 61 — The educative influence of the Psalms on Israel for their great world-mission : two points to be noticed, pp. 61-63 — ■ Many problems soluble only jjy reaching the train of thought leading to the present order in the Psalter, p. 63 — The Psalter not a haphazard collection, p. 64 — Key found in Jewish attention to numbers : Alphabetical Psalms, p. 64 — Strophical arrangement and text of the first of these, Ps. xxv., pp. 65-67 — Exposition, pp. 67-72 — The second of them, Ps. xxxiv., jx 72 — The third alphabetic Ps. xxxvii., pp. 73-77 — The division of the Psalter into Books, pp. 78, 79 — Reasons for sevenfold division, p. 80 — Application of tests by rules of parallelism, e.cj. threefold division with gradational advance : 1st. to whole Psalter, pp. 80-82 ; 2nd. to the several Books : Book I., pp. 82, 83 ; Books I. and II. com- bined, pp. 83-85 ; Book III., p. 85 ; Books I., II., and III. com- bined, p. 86 — Examination of concluding Psalm of the three Books, Ps. Ixxxix. : text arrangement and exposition, pp. 87-100 — Connection of Book IV. with preceding Psalm in Book III., p. 100 — Keynote of Book struck in Ps. xc, and idea carried on in Pss. xci., xciii., xcvi., xcix., p. 101 — Ps. cii., pp. 102, 103 — Light CONTENTS. thrown on Heb. i. 6, pp. 103-109 — Purpose of Book IV., pp. 109, 110 — Its correspondence with Isaiah, pp. 110-112 — Dates of composition of its Psalms : antiquity of Pss. xc.-xcii., and their correspondences with Deuteronomy, pp. 113, 114— Text and analysis of Ps. xci., pp. 115-117— Of Ps. xcii., pp. 117-119 — The trilogy, Pss. xc.-xcii., pp. 120, 121 — Why Ps. xc. stands in Book IV., pp. 121-124— The trilogy, Pss. xciii.-xcv., pp. 124, 12.5 — Close connection of next four Pss. xcvi.-xcix., jjp. 125, 126 — Text of Ps. xcix. : correspondings of its three strophes with pre- ceding three Psalms, pp. 126-128 — The same shown to exist with trilogy, Pss. xc.-xcii., p. 128, and with trilogy, Pss. xciii.-xcv. ; the last seven Pss. xciii.-xcix, have one marked feature in common, pp. 129, 130 — Other ideas suggested by other combina- tions, pp. 130-132 — Arrangement showing purport of Book IV., l>ix 133, 134 — Connection between last six Psalms of this Book, pp. 135-137 — Arrangement, analysis, and text of Ps. ci., jip. 138- 140; of Ps. cii., pp. 140-144 ; and of Ps. ciii., with connection .shown between the three Pss. ci.-ciii., pp. 144-146 — Ps. cvii., con- nected both with Book IV. and Book V., pp. 146-148 — Its date ascertained, determines period in Israel's history recalled by Book v., pp. 148-150— Structure of Book V. : Arrangement of Ps. cvii. ; Davidic trilogy, Ps. cviii.-cx., with strophical arrange- ment and text, pp. 156-162 — Hallelujah trilogy, Pss. cxi.-cxiii., pp. 162-167 — Arrangement and text of the alphabetic Pss. cxi., cxii., pp. 162-166 ; and of Ps. cxiii., pp. 166, 167 — Arrangement and text of Ps. cxiv., p. 167— Of Ps. cxv., pp. 168-170— Of Ps. cxvi., pp. 170-173— Of Ps. cxvii., p. 173— Of Ps. cxviii., pp. 173- 178— "The Hallel," pp. 178, 179 — Marked resemblances in Pss. cxi.-cxviii., pp. 179, 180 — Difficulties solved by observing the position of these Psalms in the Psalter, especially the diffi- culty experienced in Ps. cxviii. 22, and by the separation of Ps. ex. from the body of Davidic Psalms in Books I. and II., pp. 180-184 — Correspondences between Ps. ex. and prophecies of Zechariah, pp. 184-187— Book VI, opens with Ps. cxviii. as its prelude, pp. 187, 188 — Ps. cxix. and the so-caUed Songs of Degrees, pp. 188-192 — Eeasons for drawing illustrations of the principles underlying these studies from the later Books, p. 192 — Earlier Psalms not chronologically arranged, p. 192 — Arrange- ment, text, and analysis of Ps. i., pp. 192-194— Of Ps. ii., pp. 194-197 — Connection between Pss. i. and ii., pp. 197-199 — Arrangement, text, and analysis of Pss. iii. and iv., pp. 199- 203 — Principles of Parallelism applied to the first group of 22 Psalms, p. 204 — Arrangement, text, and analysis of Ps. v., pp. 205-208 — Shades of meaning brought out by parallelistic arrange- ment of this Psalm, pp. 209, 210 — Arrangement, text, and analysis of Ps. vi., pp. 210, 211— Of Ps. vii., pp. 211-214— Of <^ CONTENTS. Ps. viii., pjj. 214-229 — Difficulties in reconciling this Psalm with the use made of it in the N. T. shown to arise from mis- conception of its purport, pp. 214-221 — This confirmed by a reference to the early chapters of Genesis, pp. 221, 222 — Legitimacy of the quotations from this Psalm in the N. T. vin- dicated, pp. 224-229— Analytical Table of Contents of the 1st Septenary of Pss. (ii.-viii.), showing their connection, pp. 229, 230— Strojihical arrangement, analysis, and text of Ps. ix., pp. 231-233— Of Ps. X., pp. 233, 234— Intimate connection yet distinct difference between Pss. ix. and x. shown, pp. 234-236 — Analytical Table of Contents of the 2nd Septenary of Pss. (ix.-xv.), pjx 236, 237— Key to the interpretation of the 3rd Septenary of Pss. (xvi.-xxii.), pp. 238, 239— Arrangement, analysis, and text of Ps. xvi., pp. 240, 241 — Ground for the contident expectation expressed in vers. 10, 11, pp. 241-243 — Arrangement, text, and analysis of Ps, xvii., pp. 243-245— Arrangement of Ps. xviii. It is shown to sum up the subjects of the two preceding Psalms of the trilogy, pp. 246, 247— Text and analysis of Ps. xviii., pp. 248-250— Expression in this Psalm leading to the true under- standing and purport of the Davidic Psalms, i)p. 250-252— Ps. cxix. shown to form the appropriate central member of the septenary Pss. xvi.-xxii. connecting the first trilogy Pss. xvi.- xviii. with the second Pss. xx.-xxii., pp. 252-254— Theory of Ewald and others shown untenable, p. 254— Arrangement and text of Ps. xix., pp. 254-256— Of Ps. xx., pj.. 256, 257— Of Ps. xxi., pp. 257, 258— Messianic import of Ps. xxii. further vindi- cated by its contents, as well as by its position in the Psalter, p. 259— Its arrangement and text, pp. 259-262— Subject of the 3rd Septenary displayed by an analytical Table of Contents, pj.. 262- 264— Structural connection of the second half of Book I., pp. 264-276— Connecting trilogy of the two lialves, p. 265— First heptade of second half, Pss. xx.-xxvi., p. 265— Interpretation of Ps. xxiv. 6, pp. 265-268- Text of Ps. xxi v. and choric arrange- ment, pp. 268-274 — Second heptade, pp. 274, 275 — Third heptade, p. 275— Pss. xlii. and xliii. not intended to form one Psalm, pp. 275, 270. INDEX TO TEXTS OF PSALMS. Psalm PAfiE i., . . . . 194 p«a ii., 196 „ iii., 201 „ iv., 203 „ v., 208 „ vi., 211 „ vii., 213 ,, viii., 223 „ ix., 231 „ X., 233 „ xvi., 241 „ xvii., 243 ,, xviii., 248 „ xix., 255 „ XX., 257 „ xxi., 258 „ xxii., 260 „ xxiv., 269 „ XXV., 65 „ XXX vii. 74 ilm Ixxxix. xc, xci., xcii., xcix., ci., cii., ciii., cviii., cix., ex., cxi., cxii., cxiii., cxiv., cxv., cxvi., cxvii., cxviii., 87 24 115 117 126 138 141 145 156 159 161 164 165 166 167 169 172 173 176 INTRODUCTION Of all the books of the Old Testament, the one to wliich we most frequently recur with ever-growing interest and delight is the Book of Psalms. Whatever tends to throw new light on its contents, or enables the reader to enter with more intelligence into its meaning and connection, may hope, how- ever imperfect, to meet with a favourable reception, and it is in this hope that the present studies in the Book of Psalms are offered to the public. They are imperfect and fragment- ary — very far from coming up to the ideal which I had formed, or even to what I believe I might have attained had not the engrossing occupations (till of late years) of a laborious situation prevented me from following out the line of investi- gation which had been opened up to my mind. Still, as the views which have been given me of God's word are to a considerable degree new, I thought it right, even after reaching the utmost limit assigned " by reason of strength " to man's life by the Psalmist, to sit down and put on record, in however unfinished a state, what I trust Mali prove suggestive to others, and stimulate some one to complete the imperfect outlines now furnished. Sufficient evidence, I think, has been given in the following pages of the truth of the profound conjecture of Augustine, — which I have chosen as a motto for my title-page, — that the very " order of the Psalms contains a holy mystery ; " and to prove to the Biblical student that a vein of precious ore has been struck, which will amply repay the labour of those who will prosecute the search farther. Like the golden candlestick with its seven branches, three on either side being united by a central branch, the Psalter A 2 ' STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. (besides its well-known division into five books) is sliown to form one grand organic whole, consisting of seven divisions (Book V. being divisible into three distinctly-marked portions) — three Amen Books, or Books of Faith, taking the lead in the Devotional Manual of the Jewish Church ; and three Hallelujah Books, or Books of Praise, forming its close ; while both are united by a Central Book (xc.-cvi.) of an interme- diate character, bearing as its signature one compounded of the distinctive signatures of the preceding and succeeding books, " Amen-Hallelujah " (Ps. cvi. 48). The place and number of the Aniens and Hallelujahs are found to be adjusted with remarkable precision, two Aniens closing each of the three Amen Books, and forming, with the single Amen of the Central Ijook, in all seven Amens ; while the Hallelujah Books, be- ginning each with the words, " give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good : for His mercy endureth for ever," close with Hallelujah Psalms, the whole number of Hallelujahs in the Psalter being twenty-four (in reference to the twenty-four orders of Levites and singers), allotted in significant propor- tions to each of the several books. Such nicety of arrangement and elaboration in the external form of the Psalter seemed designed for the same purpose as the study of Parallelism had before taught me was sub- served by the external arrangement in single Psalms of strophes and verses, as well as by the regular sequence of the Hebrew letters in the Alphabetical Psalms ^ — namely, to aid in tracing the internal connection and meaning. Availing myself of the clue thus offered, I have been enabled to trace the connection in various groups of Psalms, and even in whole books, in a manner sufficient, I trust, to satisfy unbiassed inquirers that we must not regard the Psalms merely as isolated productions, but that in the order in which we now possess them they have been arranged and connected together with very great care, so as to bring out and enforce certain important truths with a clearness and distinctness not to be mistaken. So long as each Psalm is viewed as a separate and unconnected composition, it is easy to explain away its mean- ' Sue luy Syvimeti-ical Structure of Scripture, pp. 91--114. INTKODUCTION. 3 ing, and to put upon its language very diverse and conflicting interpretations, according to the author, the occasion, and the age to which each critic may refer it. But when the Psalms are seen, in the form in which we now possess them, to have heen grouped together as parts of a connected series, in order to bring out and give expression to some definite idea or important truth, we gain a certainty, not otherwise to be attained, of the meaning to be put upon the whole series, as well as upon individual expressions in each Psalm, which might otherwise be ambiguous. To illustrate this in a point that has been much contested : — What is the teaching, if any, of the Psalter with regard to the coming and office of a Messiah ? All those Psalms which in the New Testament are quoted as prophetical of Christ have been, and, so long as we regard each Psalm as an isolated composition, may with some plausibility be, explained as referring solely to the existing king of the author's time, as, e.g.. Psalms ii. and xxii. to David, Psalms xlv. and Ixxii. to Solomon, Psalm Ixxxix. to Eehoboam or Jehoiachin, The presumption, nevertheless, we cannot but think, even looking at each Psalm singly, is on the opposite side, if we keep in mind the two revelations made to David from the very first with regard to his royal seed: 1. (2 Sam. vii. 12-16) that his " throne should be established for ever ; " and 2. (Ps. ex.) that the royal seed should culminate in One who was not only to be a king, but " a priest i'or ever after the order of Mel- chizedek," and to be so highly exalted above every human being that David styles him " my lord," and Jehovah seats him on His own right hand on His throne. But whatever may be thought of the original purport of these Psalms, when we look at the place which has been assigned them in the Psalter as now constituted (arranged certainly in its present form a considerable time before the Septuagint version), and to the order and connection in which they stand, it becomes impossible with any fairness to deny that they were intended to excite in the Jewish worshippers an expectation of the Messiah, and must have been the means for hundreds of years of preparing tliem for the coming of that 4 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. great seed of David in whom all the promises made to him were to be fulfilled. In order to judge aright of their significance in this respect, two things must be kept in mind: 1st, The very fact that after the extinction of the kingdom Psalms respecting the king in Israel were retained in the Devotional Manual of the Jewish Church, is inexplicable except on the ground of an unshaken expectation, still continuing, of a greater king yet to come than either a David or a Solomon ; and 2nd, The remarkable and prominent position assigned to these Psalms shows the high significance attached to them. In Book I. (after an introductory Psalm) the keynote of the first three books, not to say of the whole Psalter, is immediately struck by a Psalm (ii.) setting forth the inaugu- ration of a king whom Jehovah styles His son, and sets on His holy hill of Zion. The language of the Psalm, by whom- soever composed, could not have been meant for David, since the words, " Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee " (ver. 7), are evidently borrowed from the great promise made to David (in 2 Sam. vii. 1 2—1 6) with reference, not to himself, but to a " seed " to be set upon his throne when he should " sleep with his fathers," and of whom the Lord says, " I will be his Father, and he shall be my son" (ver. 1-4), Neither could the Psalm be meant for Solomon (the Peaceful), since the king designed is evidently to be a man of war, against whom " the nations and peoples rage, and their kings and rulers take counsel together " — whom he shall " break with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The Psalm, if we will take its words in their plain, obvious meaning, can apply to none but the Messiah ; for to what king else can the promise of Jehovah be referred without hyperbole, " Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inherit- ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession " (ver. 8) ? The king here invested with so universal dominion, the reflecting Israelite would naturally identify with the seed of Abraham, in whom " all the nations of the earth were to bless themselves." But the Messianic character of the book was still further INTRODUCTIOX. 5' signalized, to those familiarly acquainted with the principles of parallelistic arrangement, by the trilogy of Psalms (xx., xxi., xxii.) placed in the middle of the book (with nineteen on either side) to mark the central thought around which the whole book revolves. The three Psalms set forth the great conflict in which the king is to be engaged in behalf of his people, nay, of the whole world. Ps. xx. is the people's prayer for the successful issue of the contest, in which their interests are closely involved : " We will triumph in thy salvation" (ver. 5). Ps. xxi. expresses their thanksgiving for the anticipated victory, and the priceless boon which the king attains for himself and his people. " He asked life of Thee, Thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever " (ver. 4). Ps. xxii. sums wp both the preced- ing Psalms. The first two strophes of ten verses each (linked together by an interjaculatory prayer in ver. 11) describe the suffering and conflict in which the king, compassed about by fierce enemies on all sides, is " brought down into the dust of death," and, in the last extremity only, is " saved out of the lion's mouth" (ver. 21). In the final strophe of ten verses (vers. 22-31) "all the seed of Israel" is first called upon (in five verses) to " glorify the Lord " for the salvation obtained, and to come and partake of the sacrificial feast which the rescued sufferer institutes in remembrance of his deliverance, that they may "eat and be satisfied " (ver. 26), and their " heart live for ever." Nay, so universal and far-reaching is the victory achieved, that (in the remaining five verses) it is declared " all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord " (ver. 27) ; and such shall be the life-restoring and satisfying virtue of the feast prepared, that all, rich and poor alike, " the fat ones of the earth " as well as " they that go down to the dust," and " he that cannot keep his soul alive," " shall eat and worship " — each successive " generation de- claring unto a people that shall be born that He hath done it" (vers. 29-31). Unto whom else can such mighty results be meant to be ascribed, but to that " seed " of the woman who was to undo the curse of death brought on man, by bruising the serpent's head ? b STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. As Book I. began with the inauguration on his throne of the Lord's Anointed King and Son, and the predicted con- quest of all his opposing foes which David's warlike reign imperfectly prefigured, so Book II. closes with the companion picture (in Ps. Ixxii.) of the final establishment of Messiah's empire as a kingdom of " peace and righteousness " — of which Solomon's peaceful reign was a faint adumbratioi). The first two Amen Books are thus linked together, and their principal subject clearly indicated by its being placed first and last. But their connection and mutual bearing are still further signified by the note appended to their close, "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." The obvious meaning of these words, in the position they hold, is that David's highest aspirations — what formed " all his salvation and all his desire " (2 Sam. xxiii. 5) — will be answered when the consummation, anticipated in the immediately preceding Psalm, arrives. This necessitates us to regard Ps. Ixxii. as primarily, in the idea of the author, a prayer for the coming of that perfect kingdom of "righteousness and peace," the expectation of which had been awakened by the promises made by God to David, with the tacitly implied petition, no doubt secondarily, that Solomon's reign (whether the Psalm was written hy him or for him) might, in its imperfect measure, foreshadow it. The Messianic import of the Psalm is fully borne out by several expressions in it which can apply only to the Messiah, as, e.g., the universality of the King's dominion, and of the homage paid him by " all kings and all nations " (vers. 8-11), by the correct interpretation of the generally misconstrued terms of ver. 15, but above all by the closing words in ver, 17, " all nations shall Hess themselves in him " {i.e. adore him as the foundation and source of all their bless- ings) — M'ords which manifestly point back to the crowning blessing to Abraham (" In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves," Gen. xxii. 18), — vouchsafed to him in that supreme moment of his life when he had just exhibited the highest instance of faith and obedience ever shown by a mere man, and to which we cannot doubt the Saviour alluded when He said, "Abraham saw my day, and was glad" (John viii. 56). INTEODUCTION-. 7 When next we turn to Book III. (Ixxiii.-lxxxix.), we find strong confirmation that all three Amen Books are so arranged as to create an earnest expectation and longing for the coming of the Messianic King. With the closing Psalm (Ixxii.) of Book II., for which Solomon's reign gave occasion, the monarchy" in its visible form reached its culmination and highest earthly splendour. With Book III. begins its decline and fall. Dire forebodings of the final catastrophe follow each other in ominous succession (see particularly Psalms Ixxiv., Ixxix., Ixxx.), until at last in Psalm Ixxxix. the end of the earthly kingdom is close at hand, and the desponding lament is heard, " Thou hast cast off and rejected ; Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed ; Thou hast profaned his crown even to the ground " (vers. 38, 39), Yet, nevertheless, the Psalmist and the Church are only the more resolved to hold fast to the covenanted truth of God's word, " The mercies of Jehovah for ever will I sing " (ver. 1), and all the glorious promises made to David are repeated and dwelt upon at great length, and God's power and faithfulness invoked for their certain fulfilment (vers. 1-37). If, now, we regard all three Amen Books in their connection, not only does the Messianic King meet us at the begin- ning and end, but when we apply the parallelistic rule already referred to, we are struck with finding the central subject of the whole to be the same, marked in the clearest manner. The eighty-nine Psalms which constitute the three Amen Books are divided into two equal halves by Ps. xlv., there being two alphabets (2x22) of Psalms on the one side and two on the other. The purpose of those who finally arranged the Psalter cannot be mistaken in their selecting for the central position a Psalm beginning with the words, " My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter ; I speak the things which I have made touching the King" (Ps. xlv. 1). Thus the Messianic King meets us at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Amen Books, and the Hebrew word melech = " king," or malach = " is king," never again appears in the Psalter applied to the Messianic King ; henceforth the King is Jehovah. Re- garded even by itself, Ps. xlv. points to one " fairer than b STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the children of men," endowed with " grace, majesty, right- eousness, and the oil of gladness above his fellows," and to whom are ascribed a "throne [enduring] for ever and ever," and the title of " God " (ver. 6) — language, surely, which even in its first conception looks higher than to a Solomon or any merely human sovereign/ But whatever may have been its first import, so soon as it was chosen to form part of the devotional Psalm-Book of Israel, and placed in tlie remarkable relation it holds to the opening and closing Psalms of the Amen Books, the Messianic interpretation becomes alone admissible — which, too, is also that of the Chaldee Paraphrast, and even of the later Jews before, and some time after, the coming of Christ. With Ps. Ixxxix., the closing Psalm of the three Amen Books, is evidently meant to be concluded the series of earthly representatives of David's royal race, thus bringing us down to the commencement of the Babylonish captivity. The next. Book IV. (xc.-cvi.), ought therefore to refer to the captivity, and to have as its counterpart, or corresponding prophetical book, Isa. xl— Ixvi. with its consolatory purpose, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God " — an inference corroborated by the striking similarity of many of the Psalms in Book IV. to the later chapters of Isaiah (cf. Ps. xcvi. 1 with Isa. xlii. 10; Ps. xcviii. 4, 8, with Isa. xlix. 13 and Iv. 12). One whole line in Ps. xcviii. 3, "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God," is identical in the Hebrew with Isa. lii. 10. If this inference as to the place and purpose of Book IV. be correct, the next, Book V., ought to begin with the return from the Babylonish captivity. And that such is the case it bears on its very face. Ps. cvii. begins, " give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good : for His mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary ; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the ^ Even, therefore, if we must find an liistorical occasion for every Psalm (a very questionable assumption), it need be but as sufjgesting to the Psalmist a higher theme, which forms his direct subject. INTEODUCTION. 9 north and from the south " (vers. 1-3). Book V. con- sequently must have as its prophetical counterpart the post- exilic prophecy of Zechariah. We have thus at once an explanation supplied of the late place assigned in the Psalter to the greatest revelation made to David in Ps. ex. Now, when the denunciation pronounced by Ezekiel had taken full effect, " Take off the crown ; I will overturn, overturn, over- turn it ; this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him" (xxi. 26, 27), — now was the time that the prediction of a more spiritual reign would be better appreciated. Ps. ex. accordingly tinds its appropriate place in a post-exilic Book of Psalms, and a symbolical act illustrative of its import recorded in the book of a post-exilic prophet. To impress more vividly on the minds of his countrymen the truth and certain fulfil- ment of the great promise made in Ps ex., the prophet Zechariah is commanded to embody, as it were, its substance in a symbolical act, by making a crown of gold and setting it on the head of Joshua the high priest, and thus to address him, " Behold the man whose name is The BEANCH " (c£ iii. 8 and Jer. xxiii. 5) ; " and he shall build the temple of the Lord : even he shall build the temple of the Lord ; and he shall have the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne ; and he shall be a priest upon his throne : and the counsel of peace shall be between them both " (Zech. vi. 12,1 3). Here the king predicted is not only to be, as in Ps. ex., a priest also on his throne, but to show how transcendently superior to what any mere man could effect is the spiritual work that he is to accomplish for the Lord, it is added, He it is that " shall build the temple of the Lord " — counting as nothing, not worthy to be called a temple, the building whose " foundation the hands of Zerubbabel had laid, and his hands should also finish it " (Zech. iv. 9). The purport of the act and words of the prophet could not be plainer ; so that from this time forth at least, for the space of nearly 500 years, it seems impossible to deny that the coming of a Messiah must have been the universal belief and expectation of the nation, and the interpretation put upon their Scriptures by the people to whom they were addressed. 10 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The Psalms hitherto considered, which are quoted as Messianic in the New Testament, we believe to have been Messianic 'primarihj, both in the intention of the writers and according to the understanding of those who assigned them their place in the Psalter. But there are others, not Messianic in their general tenor, on the quotations from which, made in the New Testament, as pertaining to Christ, the line of argument pursued in these studies is found to throw light. One of these is the oft-quoted verse from Ps. cxviii. 22, " The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner." What is this stone? What the building referred to, and of what are they the symbols ? And who are the builders ? We have but to look to Zechariah (the relation between whose prophecies and the later Psalms has been already pointed out) to find a reply to all these queries. If we consult the commentators, such as Hengstenberg, Ewald, Hupfeld, Perowne, etc., Israel is the stone " despised by their heathen masters [the builders of the edifice of the world's power], but now, by the good hand of their God upon them, lifted into a place of honour, . . . chosen of God as the foundation-stone of that new spiritual building which Jehovah was about to erect ; that temple of the world, the foundation of which was to be laid in Zion." ^ But if the heathen are thus made the builders, how is this to be reconciled with the words of St. Peter, who distinctly charges the rejection of the stone on the Jews as the builders : " He is the stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner" (Acts iv. 11) ? In chap. i. of Hebrews there are seven passages cited from the Old Testament in proof of Christ's superiority to angels, the difficulties connected with two of which at least are so great as to have led some to maintain that the quotations are not adduced as 'proofs, but simply by way of illustration ^ of an admitted fact. One of these is the passage adduced in Heb. i. 10-12 from ^ Perowne on Ps. cxviii. 22. 2 See, for instance, Epistle to the Jlehreirs, by Professor A. B. Davidson, LL.D., p. 44. INTEODUCTION. 1 1 Ps. cii. 2")-27, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth," etc. Nothing can be more evident in turning to the Psalm than that the reference throughout is to Jehovah alone, and not to the Son, the Messiah. How then account for the writer to the Hebrews citing the words as so self-evidently applicable to Christ, as not to call for a word of comment from him for their elucidation ? Another passage, to the interpretation of which the con- nection of the books of Psalms in like manner lends the clue, is Heb. i. 6, "And when He again bringeth in the First-born into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." Here we are landed in a perfect maze of difficulties. In the first place, how came the writer to the Hebrews, in speaking of the occasion on which the angels are called upon to worship the Messiah, to designate him, in place of " the Christ," by the uncommon title of " the First-born," especially in reference to his superiority to the angels ? First- horn implies the existence of other brethren (Eom. viii. 29). It is not in respect of angels, but of men, that the writer himself tells us that Christ " is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. ii, 11). Again, the source from which the quotation is taken is much controverted. In Ps. xcvii. 7 we have words almost equivalent in the Septuagint version, " Worship Him, all ye His angels." But besides that the person of the verb is changed, whence comes the strange addition of the con- junction "And" with which the quotation is introduced? This difficulty, however, seems to be removed when we are referred to the identical words of the quotation in the Septuagint translation of Dent, xxxii. 43. But we are thus only landed in greater confusion. For on turning to the Hebrew original no such words are found, and the addition made in the Greek version is discovered to be only one of three passages (Isa. xliv. 23 ; Ps. xcvii. 7 ; and Ps. xxix. 1), so combined in the Greek version with the first line of Deut. xxxii. 43 as to form a manufactured parallelistic quatrain of four lines. The difficulty therefore still remains. How came this addition to be introduced into the Greek version of 12 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Moses' Song in Deuteronomy, and what led the writer to the Hebrews to prefer taking his quotation from this spurious addition instead of from the original Psalm ? Moreover, the same objection lies to the relevancy of the quotation from whichever source taken, as in the case of the preceding quotation in Heb. i. 10-12, since both the Psalm and Moses' Song refer exclusively to Jehovah and not to the Messiah. Does it not form some slight presumption in favour of the truth and value of the method pursued in these studies, if it shall be found to have supplied a satisfactory reply to all these difficulties ? Thus far the books of the Psalms have followed what may be called a qitasi-ehronologica]. arrangement. Book VI. still continues the same order, since it opens with the grand Te Deum (Ps. cxviii.) composed on occasion of the completion of the second temple. This again is succeeded by the great alphabetical Psalm (cxix., composed probably by Daniel, cf. vers. 9, 23, 46, 54, etc.) in praise of the law of God, which under the second temple received a prominence never before accorded to it ; after which follow the fifteen Psalms of Ascents, all of which, it is shown, apply exactly to the time of the re- building of the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah. Book VII. (cxxxvi.-cl.) forms a fitting conclusion to the Psalter. The prayer of the Eansomed Church of the Messiah melts away in the triumpliant burst of praise which closes the book. My aim in these studies has been to lay a sound foundation for the Christian interpretation and use of the Psalms, by avoiding the error of the older interpreters in reading in between the lines the additional knowledge which they re- ceived from the New Testament; and by beginning, on the contrary, with endeavouring to ascertain in each Psalm the meaning which the writers themselves, with the light which they possessed from previous revelations, must have attached to their own words, — and especially as that meaning is shown to have been understood, and is more clearly defined, by com- parison with the group with which the Psalm is associated by those who arranged the Psalter as we now possess it. Such INTRODUCTION. 1 3 evidently was the only meaning and teaching of the Psalms to the Jewish Church for centuries antecedent to the New Testa- ment period ; and such, therefore, must be the meaning of them with which we are to start in judging of the applica- tion of the quotations made from them by our Lord and His apostles. It may be asked, Will not the habit of symmetrical and parallelistic arrangement of ideas to which the Israelites were thus accustomed, modify in part the estimate we should form of the intelligence and insight of the Old Testament writers, and even readers, if we consider the accurate comparison of thoughts and connection of ideas to which they were necessarily com- pelled ? We are inclined to think that the importance due to this consideration has not received the attention which it deserves. And in the following studies it will be found that considerable stress has been laid upon the additional new light which the Divine revelation made to David in Ps. ex. must have cast both on the preceding Messianic announcements and on many of the Psalms subsequently indited. It will be shown from the internal evidence of Psalm ex. itself how beautifully appropriate to the time and circum- stances of David personally was the revelation now made to him ; thus forming an independent proof that David was the author of the Psalm, and that he was taught to look forward to the coming of an almighty king and " priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," whom he styles " my lord." This revelation lets in a clear light from the very com- mencement of the monarchy, on the idea which David and every intelligent Israelite must have formed of the Messianic King who was to accomplish God's high purposes for Israel, as one infinitely superior to himself or Solomon, or any common mortal ; and it threw the fulfilment into a far remote future, since no king of the tribe of Judah could be a priest so long as Moses' dispensation lasted, which limited the priesthood to the sons of Aaron exclusively. The idea of the Messiah as a wholly distinct person thus stands out clearly from the very first, and dissipates at once the mistaken notion of Dr. Delitzsch, that David " regarded 14 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. liimself as the Anointed — sicb specie Christi" ^ to the extent at least that he ever so identified himself with the Messiah as to imagine that he should never die, but " considered himself immortal, Ps. xvi." ^ Dr. Delitzsch must have forgotten that in the original notice given to David of the continuance of his race on the throne, it was distinctly told him that the first instalment of the promise in its lower sense was to be, not to himself, but to his seed which should proceed out of his bowels, " when thou shall sleep with thy fathers " (2 Sam. vii. 12). It is with reference to this original promise that St. Peter explains to us that David expressed the confident assurance, " Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, nor wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption," etc. (Ps. xvi. 10, 11) ; not cherishing the idea of ever-enduring life in this world, but of being raised to eternal life from the grave. St. Peter's words are, David " being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne " (2 Sam. vii. 12), he "foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of Christ" (Acts ii. 30, 31) — and of his own resurrection as included in it. Observe the degree of insight into God's communications which St. Peter here attributes to David, and the process of reasoning which he presupposes to have passed in David's mind in order to reach the conclusion he deduces from it. The promise made to David of a " seed " whose " throne should be established for ever," must have led him to identify his seed with the " seed " promised to the woman who was by His victory over the serpent to undo the sentence of death, and regain the gift of eternal life for man ; — and again with the " seed " promised to Abraham, who was to extend the blessing to " all the nations of the earth." Here the distinc- tion between the Messianic King, who is to obtain by his great conflict the boon of eternal life for himself and his people, and between David as a mere participator therein, is as ' Messianic Prophecies, Lectures by Franz Delitzsch, translated from the MS. by Samuel Ives Cartiss, § 19, 20, p. 47. T. & T. Clark, Edin. " Supra, § 23, p. 51. IKTRODUCTIOX. 1 5 evident as in trilogy Ps. xx— xxii., where the prize which he asks of God for all his suffering and conflict is, " Life he asked of Thee : Thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." In short, the primary and direct subject, in the intention of the Psalmist, we hold to be the Messiah in Ps, ii., Ps. XX. - xxii., and Ps. xl., whatever might have been the im- mediate occasion that called forth the Psalmist's thoughts. The prominent subject before the mind of all psalmists and prophets is ever the contest which is going on between the supremacy and purposes of Jehovah and the powers of evil. The tendency, therefore, with the prophet is ever to pass on from the present and immediate event to the final victory of God's great purposes and the consummation of all. A similar remark to those made on Dr. Delitzsch's view of David's Messianic Psalms we must extend to Solomon's Ps. Ixxii. His remarks on this Psalm are : " In the time of David and of Solomon, the hope of believers which was attaclied to the kingship of David had not yet fully broken with the present. At that time, with few exceptions, nothing was known of any other Messiah than the Anointed One of God, who was David or Solomon himself." Accordingly Dr. Delitzsch affirms that the words of Ps. Ixxii. " were all fulfilled in Solomon." ^ On the contrary, we maintain that such views are altogether inconsistent with the revelation made in Ps. ex. In Ps. Ixxii. the direct and primary subject is the Messiah, to whom alone the words of ver. 1 7 can apply, " And all nations shall hlcss themselves in him ; they shall call him blessed." It is the prayer of Solomon for the final establishment of that great kingdom of universal peace and righteousness which the ^ Need I say with reference to the remarks I have made on what appears to nie to be errors on the part of Dr. Delitzsch, that they are made in conse(iuence of tlie very high regard of the opinions generally of this deeply respected veteran, to whose criticisms on the Psalms and Isaiah particularly I have been so much indebted in common with every Biblical scholar. It is the weight so justly given to the authority of whatever falls from the pen of such a critic, that renders it necessary to enter a caveat against whatever tends to mislead, or to propagate mistaken ideas. 16 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Messiah was to introduce, — for his own kingdom only in tlie feeble measure in which his rule could foreshadow and hasten its coming. All this is in accordance with the teaching that Solomon received from his father. And the fulfilment in the higher and perfect sense alone lends point and significance to the epigraph which is subjoined to the doxology which closes Ps. Ixxii. and the 2nd Book of Psalms, " Ended [or fulfilled] are the prayers of Jesse the son of David." We would plead, therefore, with our modern critics to grant to the psalmists and prophets of the Old Testament a little more intelligence and insight into their own utterances than they seem inclined to allow them. The great function of this class whom the Spirit of God raised up was to explain the meaning and purposes of God's dealings with His people, that they might learn the lessons these were intended to teach them, and might be prepared to do their part, both in abstaining from whatever would obstruct, and in striving to promote the accomplishment of God's great purposes. They must therefore have been men accustomed to look before and behind them, and to take an enlarged and comprehensive view of God's kingdom. We claim this intelligence for them partly on St. Peter's authority, whose reasoning on the grounds upon which David based his hope of a resurrection to eternal life, expressed in Ps. xvi. 10, 11, has, as we have seen, consistency only when founded on the promise made to him in 2 Sam. vii., as St. Peter shows. Yet one of the latest of our commentaries on the Psalms,^ and one which contains many thoughtful and judicious observations, says of Ps. xvi. 10, "All that is implied in this verse is that the Psalmist, in that he has Jehovah at his right hand, is confident that he shall escape death, i.e. probably the violent death with which his adversaries menaced him." If this was all that David contemplated, what has his pro- phetic knowledge of a future Messiah, to which Peter refers, to do with his hope of present deliverance from death ? The ^ The Psalms, with Introductions aiul Critical Notes, by Rev. A. C. Jennings, M.A., assisted in part by Rev. W. H. Lowe, M.A., Cambridge. Macmillan & Co., 1877. IXTEODUCTIOX. 1 7 only reply we find is a reference to one of those tantalizing comments of Dean Alford, in which he says and straight un- says his words, leaving the difficulty in greater obscurity than he found it. Alford well remarks in Acts ii. 31, " The word 'jrpolScov distinctly asserts the prophetic consciousness of David in the composition of this Psalm. But of what sort this pro- phetic consciousness was, may be gathered from the same apostle, 1 Pet. i. 10-12. It was not a distinct hioioledge of the events which they foretold, but only a conscious reference in their mind to the great promises of the covenant, in the expression of which they were to be guided by the Holy Spirit of prophecy to say things pregnant with meaning, not patent to themselves but to us." Never has statement been more completely misrepresented than this of St. Peter generally is, as if he meant to assert that because some things in the prophetic utterances were obscure and indistinct to the prophets, the whole, or main part, was so. Though they sought and searched diligently, they knew not " the time, nor the manner of the time, that the Spirit of Christ that was in them did point to ; " but this they knew distinctly, that it testified beforehand " the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." And though they knew not the exact time or way when all this should take place, yet they knew distinctly that it was not to be in their own time , or that of their contemporaries that the fulfilment was to take place. To them " it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you [of the apostle's days], did they minister these things." To conclude, we are very much inclined to turn the tables against our modern critics, and to question whether the want of insight and discernment which they attribute to the ancient psalmists and prophets be not rather chargeable on themselves in not taking the connected and comprehensive view of the whole circumstances of God's ancient people which they ought. They judge of each Psalm too much as an isolated production, without taking into account the enlarged meaning which it immediately received on being introduced into the Public Manual of Devotion for the Church in all future time, and 18 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. thus being connected in living articulation with other Psalms. In like manner the prophecies are judged of too frequently by looking only at an isolated chapter, the tendency being on the part of the more advanced critics, wherever a difficulty occurs in tracing the connection, to split up a Psalm into " fragments," or in prophecy to suppose a break in the MS. here, or an interpolation there. To what other cause are we to refer the miserable state of confusion in which the two great prophecies of Isaiah appear in the commentaries of the present day ? Of the Immanuel prophecy no satisfactory explanation has been given by the critics, one main reason being, because they coniine their attention to chap, vii., instead of seeing that they must extend their view to the whole six chapters, vii. to xii.-^ With regard to the still more magnificent prophecy of the " Servant of the Lord " (Isa. xl. to Ixvi.), notwithstanding the great care which the author has taken from the first to map out his great subject into three distinct divisions or stages, and to mark out the transitions from the one to the other, the rational- istic critics have muddled up all three together, and thereby so confused their own minds and those of others as to render it difficult to trace out the beautiful arrangement and line of argument which runs through the whole. If spared to pass the present work through the press, I may attempt to clear away some of the mistaken ideas which render this prophecy a reproach to the present state of criticism. The short sketch now given of the line of argument pur- sued in these studies may, it is hoped, prepare the reader to follow with greater ease and interest the details in the book itself, from seeing beforehand their bearing on the whole. 1 Let me refer to my exposition of the whole prophecy in a publication too little known in this country, the Presbyterian Review for October 1886, pp. 690-713. C. Scribner's Sons, New York'; and T. k T. Clark, Edinburgh. MODERN CRITICISM. 19 THE STEUCTURAL CONNECTION OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS, BOTH IN SINGLE PSALMS AND IN THE PSALTER AS AN ORGANIC WHOLE. Recent interpreters of the Psalms have avoided the error of the older commentators, who confounded too much " the times and the seasons " by ascribing to the psalmists and their utter- ances the same fulness of knowledge and meaning which their words might have borne if indited in the time of the New Testament. The error arose from forgetfulness of the fact that the Holy Spirit ever accommodated His revelations to the state of enlightenment and progress, both of those whom He inspired and whom He addressed. The later interpreters begin properly with attempting to ascertain the authorship, date, and occasion of each Psalm, and lay down, as a standard for the interpretation of its phrases, the meaning which, so far as can be discovered, they would bear to the author and to the more intelligent of those to whom they were first addressed ; so that whatever further meaning the Spirit may have wrapped up in the words, must still be in exact conformity, and not in contradiction to this, — merely a higher development of the same truth, not one altogether diverse, and of which the first recipients could have had no idea. It may, however, reasonably be questioned whether the more recent critics have not gone to the opposite extreme, by restricting too much the sense in several of the Psalms, and attributing too little intelligence to the original authors. It must be borne in mind that the writers of the Old Testament 20 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. were the most advanced and spiritually-minded men of their time, and on that account selected by the Spirit of God for making those fresh revelations of His purposes and will which were gradually to sink into the minds and hearts of His people, and to prepare them for further light. Their intelligence, therefore, and not the general state of opinion of their age, should be our criterion in judging of their writings. Let me illustrate my meaning by examining a few of the P.salms to which their full significance seems not generally to be given. The earliest of all the Psalms, Ps. xc, entitled " a Prayer of Moses the man of God," ^ seems so far to have shared this fate, since otherwise we can scarcely explain the very general prevalence of the notion that the idea of 2, future life was all but unknown to Moses and the men of his age. No one, I think, can acquiesce in this conclusion who is aware how frequently the fate assigned to the souls of the departed forms the subject of the paintings in the tombs of Egypt, not to mention the strength of the belief in a final resurrection, which alone seemingly can account for the great care and cost expended on the embalming and preservation of the bodies of the dead, and the costly tombs prepared for their reception. Moses and those whom he brought out with him from Egypt must thus have been familiar with the idea of the continued existence of the spirits of the deceased, and their expected ultimate restoration to the bodies they inhabited on this earth. But how then, it may be objected, account for the silence of Moses on the subject in his writings, and for the omission by him of a sanction and motive for obedience to his laws, of which almost all other legislators have availed them- selves ? The true answer to this objection is not, I think, that which forms the foundation of Warburton's argument for the " Divine Legation of Moses." As Canon Mozley has well shown in his Lectures and other Theological Pajiers, there needed to be first introduced and taught an entirely different conception of a future life from that entertained by the pagan nations, to be of any avail for moral ends. Of what influence, * For the Mosaic authorship of the Psalm, see the arguments so well stated by Dr. Delitzsch. IDEA OF A FUTUEE LIFE. 21 as a motive for virtuous conduct, could be either the common legendary view of the souls of men after death wandering to and fro as unsubstantial ghosts and shadows in the dreary- realms of a subterranean world ; or the doctrine, taught in the mysteries to an initiated few, of the transmigration of souls into other human bodies, in which the individual lost all sense of personal identity ; or the still grosser and degrading form of the Egyptian doctrine of an endless cycle of migrations into the bodies of brute beasts (which was the fate allotted to all but a few choice spirits), until at length, in the indefinite vista of a far distant future, the soul was sufficiently purified ; or finally, the philosophical doctrine which, starting from the axiomatic position that what had a beginning must in its very nature be subject to dissolution, concludes that the soul, if it is immortal, must have been pre-existent and a part of God or the universal soul, and consequently at death will be absorbed into the Deity, and lose all individual and personal consciousness ? What was there in any of these ideas worth living for ? The human mind naturally turned from the dreary prospect to make the best of the present reality, " Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." An entirely new foundation had to be laid, and a process of preparation initiated, to fit men for a worthy conception of the eternal life which God had destined for them, when the time should come for " bringing life and immortality to* light through the gospel" (2 Tim. i. 10). It is only after the spiritual element in man's nature has been fostered and developed, and his dependence on God and his awful responsi- bility in this ivorld have been fully realized, that he is able to know his own greatness, and to see the fulness, nay, the necessity, of an eternal life to complete the Divine scheme in his creation. Such a schoolmaster was the Law, which gave man a knowledge of himself, awakened his conscience, en- lightened his perceptions, and acquainted him with the moral purposes of his creation, and with his own moral nature and capabilities. The true answer, therefore, to the question, why the Mosaic dispensation holds out no direct promise of a future life is, 22 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS, that it was but a provisional one, designed to prepare for the " better things to come." The grand blessing to be restored to man was eternal life which by sin he had forfeited, and that intimate and ever-enduring communion with his God which he had lost by the fall. That this blessing was some day to be regained through the seed of the woman had, indeed, been announced from the first, and the promise had been repeated to Abraham, that through one of his seed the blessing was to come upon all the families of the earth. This promise the law of Moses, which was 430 years after, could not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect (Gal. iii. 17) ; which it would have done had Moses made the attainment of eternal life dependent on obedience to the precepts of his law. This would have been entirely to pervert the faith of his disciples, by withdrawing their thoughts from the hope of a better covenant founded on better promises, and, indeed, to nullify altogether the promise, since no one could render that perfect obedience which the law required. Accordingly no express or direct promise of eternal life can be looked for in Moses' dispensation on condition of obedience to its in- junctions,^ any more than a direct promise is made by it for the forgiveness of sin. The sacrifices enjoined by the law were only of avail for the expiation of ceremonial transgres- sions, and the removal of external defilement : in no degree could they do away with moral guilt, seeing "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins " (Heb. X. 4). ISTevertheless, since the teaching of those primi- tive times was in a great degree symbolical, the consideration of God's mercy, in providing, through the appointment of animal sacrifices, a means of readmission to communion with God in the service of His outward sanctuary, so far as it had been interrupted through ceremonial defilement, awakened the hope of God's ultimately providing a more efficacious atone- ment for the sinner's guilt, and his readmission to the intimate communion lost by the fall. In like manner, the promise of long life and prosperity in this world, held out to ^ Length of days in the land of their earthly inheritance is the promise to Israel on condition of their obedience to God's commandments (Ex. xx. 12). IDEA OF A FUTURE LIFE. 23 Israel by the law on condition of their obedience to its com- mands, was calculated to strengthen in the minds of the more reflecting the expectation that the true and higher life of man, forfeited by his sin, would be restored by the fulfilment of the promise, that " the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent," who by wiles had seduced man to his ruin. While, therefore, the merely provisional and preparatory character of the Mosaic economy explains the absence of any direct revelation in it of a future life, and the rarity and indistinctness of the allusions thereto in the Old Testament, still there are not wanting, even in the earlier writings, hints of which the sincere inquirer could avail himself to confirm the " longing after immortality " natural to tlie human soul. Besides the express promise which stands at the threshold of revelation of the reversal of death at some future period through the woman's seed, the record is given of one of the race — Enoch — being taken to God without tasting death.^ And when, in the case of Moses himself, we reflect on the intimate and continuous fellowship vouchsafed to him with God, who condescended to speak with him "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. xxxiii. 11), we cannot believe that Moses would have imagined that the life thus highly honoured by his Maker was to end in nothingness, and himself to be, after a short space, as if he had never been. The hopes that this fellowship must have awakened of still more blessed and enduring communion with his God, could scarce fail to show traces of their existence in his meditations on the transiency of man's present life on earth, and however toned down so as not to cherish false expectations in the unreflecting, would awaken a corresponding echo in more spiritual and discerning minds. If with this view we examine Ps. xc, we shall discover, I think, an under-current of thought, indicative of hopes far higher and more permanent than this world could satisfy. The Psalm, as the generality of commentators think, was composed by Moses towards the close of the Israelites' forty 1 The hope thereby awakened being renewed at a later period by the transla- tion of Elijah. 24 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. years' waudering in the wilderness. Meditating on the judgment which, on account of the repeated murujurings of the Israelites, had gone forth from the Lord, that death in the wilderness should be the penalty, and that not one of those from twenty years old and upwards who had come out of Egypt, save two, should enter the land of promise, Moses turns to the great lesson which God designed to teach by the original sentence of death pronounced on man and his exclusion from the paradise of God. The same lesson (he shows) God was now again to enforce on the Israelites by a similar sentence dooming them to death in the wilderness, and excluding them, like our first parents from Eden, from the land of Canaan ; in order, namely, to shut them up to faith in Himself : " Lord, Thou [and no earthly abode] hast been our dwelling- place in all generations " — our only enduring inheritance and source of life, for Thou alone " from everlasting to ever- lasting art God." The Psalm appears to be divided into three strophes or stanzas of 5, 7, 5 verses ; the first and last setting forth respectively (1-5) the doom of mortality pro- nounced by God against man's sin, and (13-17) a iwmjtr for its reversal; while the central strophe (7-12) dwells on the cffiMse which calls forth so severe a sentence, viz. God's anger against sin. PSALM XC. A PRAYER OF MOSES THE MAN OF GOD. I. Man^s earthly doom, mortality, comes from God, to lead bach to God. 1 /Lord, ThovT hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.^ 2 ) Before the mountains were brought forth, \ Or ever Thou gavest birth to the earth and the world, \ Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. ■^ The parallelism of the corresponding lines is marked (throughout these studies) by their being printed at an equal distance from the left-hand margin of the page. Thus vers. 1 and 2 form a quatrain (or four-lined stanza), the first and fourth lines of which correspond, the subject of both being the eternity of God ; while the two intermediate lines correspond, both declaring His priority to the world and to all the works of His hands. Vers. 4 and 5, again, form a quatrain, of which the first and third lines are parallel, setting forth the nothing- ness, in the sight of the eternal God, of the years and stability of man, since they " pass away " so quickly and suddenly (lines 2 and 4). PSALM XC. 25 3 Thou turnest frail man to dust, And saidst, Return, ye children of men. 4 /For a thousand years in Thy sight, they are but as yesterday, j For they pass away,^ and as a watch in the night. 5 \ Thou didst sweep them off as with a flood ; they are as a sleep. ^ In the morning— like grass that passeth away.^ II. Its cause — God's anger against sin — should '■'■ teach" sinners their true " wisdom" hope and preparation for eternity. 6 In the morning it sj^ringeth and passeth away ; In the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 7 / For we have been consumed in Thine anger, I And in Thy wrath have we been troubled. 8 \ Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, \Our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. For all our days have passed away in Thy wrath, We have spent our yeai'S as a thought. 10 ] The days of our years are threescore years and ten, Or if in case of strength, fourscore years ; Yet is their pride labour and son-ow ; ^For it has passed swiftly, and we have fled away. 11 / Who knoweth the power of Thine anger 1 I And, according to Thy fear. Thy wrath 1 12 \ So make us to know, as to number our days, VThat we may get a heart of wisdom. III. Prayer for reversal of the dcoin and restoration to Gods favour. 1.3 Eeturn, O Jehovah, how long ! And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants. 14 O satisfy us in the morning with Thy mercy. That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afllicted us. The years wherein we have seen evil. 16 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, And Thy glory upon their children, 17 And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be uj^on us ; And the work of our hands establish Thou upon us. Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it. 1 The verb in Hebrew is singular, as agreeing with the noun 'eleph, a thousand ; ef. Ps. xci. 7. 2 The rendering " groweth up " (denoting continuovs growth, though still retained in the Revised Version) seems unauthorized. The verb chCdaph always marks a change, or passing into another state. 26 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Stating the substance of each strophe a little more fully, the argument would appear to be this — Strophe i. 1-5. Shut out by our sins from Canaan as "our dwelling-place," as man at first from Eden by the sentence, " Return, ye children of men " (to the dust from whence ye were taken), we are in like manner shut up to God as our only imperishable " dwelling-place ;" for what is our life here (at the longest age only " a thousand years " ever granted to man) but "as yesterday," " as a watch," "as a sleep," or "like grass," — which last favourite Hebrew simile (still more vividly to mark the transiency of man's life, "scarce born, when dead ") is cut short abruptly with the strophe — In the morning— like grass that passeth away! — the unfinished simile being caught up ^ and completed in the next ver. 6. Strophe ii. 6-12, The structure of the strophe is somewhat peculiar. It consists of 7 verses, each even number, 6, 8, 10, 12, insisting on the transitoriness of man's doomed life, while the intercalated odd numbers, 7, 9, 11, assign the reason — God's righteous anger resting on man for his sin. This relation between the two thoughts culminates in the last two verses of the strophe, ver. 11 deploring the want of due appreciation on man's part of the fearful power of God's wrath, and ver. 1 2 ending with the prayer which this thought should call forth — So make us to know [the power of Thy wrath], as to number our cLays, That we may get a heart of wisdom. To a people like tlie Israelites, accustomed to symbolical teaching, the hope of a future and eternal life seems all but expressly taught in these verses. For those who were doomed to die in the wilderness what other wisdom was there to gain, by " numbering their days," but that which the fathers of their race had been taught by a similar experience ? These, as the ^ For some remarks on "Catchwords" in the Psahns, see my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, p. 126 ; but especially "Catchwords" in index to Bishop Wordsworth's Commentary on the Holy Bible. MESSIANIC IDEA IN OLD TESTAMENT. 2 / apostle to the Hebrews reasons, " not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and were led thereby to " desire a better country, that is an heavenly " (Heb. xi. 13 and 16). Strophe iii. 13-17. The concluding prayer of the last 5 verses for the reversal of the incurred doom, whatever lower application it might have to the continued temporal existence of Israel as a race, could to the older individuals of the generation addressed, so far as they themselves were con- cerned, have no rational meaning, if we exclude the hopes of a future life.^ But it is in respect to the Messianic element especially, in several of the Psalms, that we are inclined to question the correctness of the prevailing interpretation, and to consider that the Messiah was more directly present to the conscious- ness of the Psalmist than the majority of modern commen- tators are disposed to admit. Indeed, many in the present day maintain that Ps. ex. is the solitary exception in the Psalter in which the Messiah is the primary and direct sub- ject.^ But in order to form any correct or reliable judgment on the question, it will be necessary first to endeavour to trace the progressive develojjment of the Messianic idea in the Old Testament. By this we mean, not what we, with all the light which we derive from the New Testament and from the fulfilment of the prophecies in Christ Jesus, can perceive to be their full meaning, but what meaning those to whom they were delivered would reasonably attach to the successive revelations made to them respecting the promised redemption and the Messiah — ^ The additional significance which this Psalm receives frona the place which it holds (as beginning the 4th Book of Psalms) in the final arrangement of the Psalter, and the reasons for that place, will appear hereafter. ^ Thus even Dean Perowne says : "All the other prophetic Psalms, in their first intention at least, refer to David or Solomon, or some other Jewish monarch." We hope to be able to show that there are other Psalms which "in their first [and direct] intention" refer to the Messiah. The peculiarity in Psalm ex. is that neither in primary nor secondary intention does it refer to any other person, but singly and exclusively to the Messiah. 28 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. what, so far as we can gather, would be the expectations and the knowledge which they would convey to the prophets them- selves, and to the more intelligent and spiritually-minded of their contemporaries. To begin with the first original promise of redemption im- plied in the sentence pronounced on the serpent : " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall braise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen, iii. 15). Did "the seed" here signify to the earlier ages of the world one individual of the woman's off- spring by whom the victory over man's deadly foe was to be achieved for the whole race, or did they regard it as merely holding out to the seed generally, or vjhole race, the assurance that God would, by some means not specified, grant them the victory over their foe ? The former idea is the one which has been most prevalent in our older theology, viz. that the indi- vidual, 2oersonal Christ, as deliverer, was here revealed ; while our modern theologians incline to the view that by the seed was meant the race of man generally. In the older theology, the objective view of the promised salvation was more dwelt upon than the subjective ; God's part realized more than man's part ; the fulness and freeness of God's promise regarded per- haps too exclusively, without apprehending sufficiently man's responsibility to prepare his mind and will concurrently to receive it. The tendency now seems to be towards the opposite extreme. But it is worthy of observation how from the very first the terms in which the promises are conveyed combine both ideas ; and, pondered and examined with eager scrutiny, as would be the few and concise sentences in which the suc- cessive revelations of God's great purpose were couched,how they would lead the anxious inquirer to look, now to the objective side, to God, and to the provision which He was to make for the recovery of the fallen race of man ; and now to the sub- jective side, to the share which man liimself was called upon to contribute to the accomplishment of this all-important end. The true view accordingly, we are inclined to think, lies be- tween that of the older and that of the newer theologians. The very ambiguity in the terras employed, such as " seed," MESSIANIC IDEA IN OLD TESTAMENT. 29 seems intended to suggest both ideas, and the necessary and close connection between them, so that, on the one hand, the mind, when meditating on the depth of man's fall and the extent of the sin and misery which it has brought upon him, was led to feel that the race, if unassisted, could by no exertion of their own recover themselves, but must have their help laid upon One raised above the common level of humanity, mighty and able to save. Still, on the other hand, the word " seed," used as it more generally is to denote a collective body, sug- gested that those who were to be partakers of the deliverance were not to be altogether passive, but must take an active part in appropriating it to themselves and extending it to others. If we inquire what, to our first parents, would probably be the understanding of the mode of their deliverance intimated in the sentence passed upon the serpent, — whether by the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head they would understand one individual who should achieve the victory for all, or merely that the seed generally, in the col- lective sense, should gain the victory over their enemy, — it is difficult to decide with any certainty. The first and most obvious thought would appear to be that which Eve seems to have entertained, that she had received the fulfilment of the promise in the first seed which she got — named from this hope, Cain or Gotten, — fondly imagining that he would win back for himself and his parents, and for all the future race, the blessings which had been lost through the fall. Soon, however, this pleasing hope must have been dissipated, when Cain, so far from removing, added aggravated horror to the penalty of death entailed on the race by the murder of his brother Abel. But the important point for the subject of our inquiry con- nected with this first revelation, and to which we would beg to draw particular attention as being regulative of the meaning which would thence be affixed to the subsequent promises, is tiie light which this first promise casts, not on the mode, but on the nature of the deliverance promised — tvherein it con- sisted. The two evils which the Tempter had brought upon man were sin and death. Manifestly, therefore, deliverance oO STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. from sin and death must have been the hope awakened by tlie promise, along with restoration to the opposite blessings which had been forfeited, righteousness and life. It was a redemption affecting man's whole being, spiritual as well as physical. This evidently was the light in which Adam viewed it, and to which he gave enduring expression in the new name which, with reference to the promise, he gave to the woman who had first brought death into the world, of " Eve " or Life ; as, indeed, the sacred historian tells us that he called her, because she was constituted by God's promise "the mother of all living." Life, therefore, not merely temporal, but life never again to be lost, permanent and eternal, must, if the promise had any worthy meaning, have been the expectation awakened. The place which this first promise holds in the Bible is most significant. It stands at its very threshold, and gives the keynote to the whole of what follows. Every subsequent revelation of God's purposes for man is hereby signified to be a necessary step in the development of His original purpose, the restoration of the race to the eternal life which they had forfeited, and to the primitive righteousness from which they had fallen, Kemove from Genesis the account of the Fall and the promise of man's ultimate deliverance from its con- sequences, and we lose the key to the whole Bible. How then could we account for the omission of the numberless events of the generations which followed, and the singling out for record of only the few special facts on which the Pi'omise throws light, such as the thorough cleansing by a flood of a corrupted world, to begin anew with the descendants of one alone " seen righteous before God in his generation ; " or again, the selec- tion from amidst the idolatry which so soon again overspread the earth, first of a single patriarch, and subsequently of a peculiar nation sprung from him to be a " kingdom of priests and an holy nation " ? (Ex. xix. 6). The next distinct revelation which God gave of His designs of mercy to fallen man was the two promises given to Abraham — (1) " In thee shall all the families of the land be blessed " (Gen. xii. 3) ; and (2) " In thy seed shall all the nations of MESSIANIC IDEA IN OLD TESTAMENT. 31 the earth bless themselves" (Gen. xxii. 18). These promises evidently pointed back to the original promise, and affect the whole of mankind, the word " bless " manifestly referring to the original curse, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," and giving assurance of its removal from the race. The channel tliroagh which the blessing was to be conveyed is now defined to be Abraham's seed. But whether this seed was to be one individual, or the collective seed to spring from Abraham, is left undefined — designedly so, it would appear, in order to suggest the fulness and pregnancy of meaning which we now see to be contained in the words. In their truest and deepest meaning, the promises (since all are to find in them the lost blessings of righteousness and life) must have, as St. Paul has taught us, a spiritual meaning. " In thee, Abraham (Gal. iii. 9), as the father of believers and the model of the righteousness and life attendant on genuine faith, shall all be blessed." " In thy seed " may have, and as St. Paul shows (Gal. iii. 16-29) has, a double reference, includ- ing the collective as well as the individual seed of Abraham. His spiritual seed, who are to be the medium of blessings to the whole world, are a collective seed according to Gal. iii. 29, but who yet can be fitted for their high purpose only by their intimate union with the individucd "one seed, which is Christ" (ver. 16), through whom the blessing has been first procured. It is only by having " put on Christ," and become " all one in Christ Jesus," that God's people and Church of all nations become " Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise " (vers. 27-29), partakers themselves of the blessing, and fitted to communicate it to others. Still, in a lower sense, in " Abraham and his seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed," since through the literal Israel have been transmitted to us all God's revelations of Himself and of His ways, — " of tliem, as concerning the flesh, Christ came," who is our life, — and the literal seed of Abraham, the historic Israel, though now for a time cast away, are to be, when received back again, as " life from the dead " to the whole world.-' ' The distinction between the two promises to Abraham will be examini'd more fully when we come to Ps. Ixxii. 32 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The seed of Abraham at all events, however interpreted, even in its collective sense, was no longer the whole seed of man, but only a part of that seed through whom the lost blessings of righteousness and life were to be restored to the world, and they would therefore feel the responsibility laid upon them to aim after that righteousness and life which they could only be the means of conveying to others if they were first partakers themselves. The next remarkable stage in God's revelation of His designs by the hand of Moses would enforce this responsi- bility in an impressive manner on the chosen seed of Abraham, now hicreased to a great people. Moses is commanded to say unto them : " If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a Icingdoon of priests, and an holy nation " (Ex. xix. 5, 6). The purpose for which God made them a people — the mission, as we may call it, of Israel — is here expressly stated. (1) They were to be a kingdom, acknowledging God as their King, and whose great work it would be to bring all others into subjection to God ; and (2) that there might be no doubt as to the nature of the kingdom of which they were to be the ministers, they were to he priests^ — themselves to serve God, and lead others to serve Him — to sanctify themselves, that they might be fitted for sancti- fying others — and (3) to be " an holg nation unto the Lord." Nothing, too, could mark more expressively the closeness of the relation in which they were to stand to God, and the spirit of filial obedience in which Israel was set apart to serve the Lord as a son would his father, than the remarkable expression which Moses was commanded to employ in God's message to Pharaoh with regard to the emancipation of His people from the bondage of Egypt : " Israel is my son, my first-born." Thus far the expressions employed by Moses favoured the collective idea of seed, and led Israel to ponder diligently the duty and responsibility incumbent on them as God's chosen channel for conveying His blessings to the fallen race of man. 1 Compare Isa. Ixi. 6 : " But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord ; men shall call you The Ministers of our God." THE MESSIANIC IDEA, 33 But the great promise which Moses was eoiniuissioned to make to them for the future, when he himself should be taken from them, pointed, on the other hand, as distinctly to the necessity for a guide and leader to direct them, to mediate between them and God, and unto whom they were commanded to hearken in all things — and therefore pointed to an i7idi- vichial. In answer to their request that the Lord would no more speak to them with His own voice, Moses is instructed to say : " They have well spoken that which they have spoken. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy hrethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken" (Dent, xviii. 15). The terms of this promise must have led them to look forward to one special prophet, such as " there arose not again in Israel (until Christ), like uuto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face " (Deut. xxxiv. 1 0) ; one who was to redeem His people from oppression and bondage ; like Moses, the Mediator of a new law and covenant. Still even here the collective idea is conjoined with the individual. For, after the solemn warning given to them by the Lord to hearken unto all the words which the prophet should speak in His name, it is added : " But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which 1 have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die " (Deut. xviii. 20). Here evidently the great Prophet to be raised up like unto Moses, was to be but the culmination of a svccession of 2mj2}hets to be raised up from time to time to make known God's will, as His purposes and Israel's necessities required. Passing over the intimations given through Jacob and Balaam, let us come now to the age of David, and the re- markable further disclosures made to him. When proposing to build a temple for the Lord, the message was sent to David through Xathan the prophet — " Shalt thou build nie an house % . . . The Lord telleth thee, that He will make thee an house, ^nd when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall ])ro- ceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build G 34 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his Father, and he shall be my son . . . and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee : thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. vii. 5-16). Here, though the promise had undoubtedly a lower proxi- mate reference to Solomon, the everlasting duration of the promised throne must have led a spiritually - minded man like David to surmise in the words something higher than Solomon, or a succession of kings like Solomon, could realize, and to connect the promise of the seed given to him with the former promises — with the " seed " of the woman who was to bruise the head of the serpent, and restore to man the righteousness and life which he had lost — and with the " seed " of Abraham, in whom " all the nations of the earth were to bless themselves." The revelation now made to David would confirm to him what God's elevation of himself to the throne must already liave suggested, that for the accomplishment of Israel's high mission to the nations was needed " a leader and commander to the people," to head and direct all their movements. This leader, however, was not to be David himself (though the anointed of the Lord), but a seed to be raised up to him when he shoidd sleep with his fathers. Henceforth, therefore, the seed, would be seen by him to be no longer a collective (in the first and primary application), but an individual, in whom the promises were to find their principal fulfilment, and through whom the collective seed, whether of the woman or of Abraham, would attain to the destined blessings, and Israel, called by the Lord, " My son, my first-born," would find its high ideal realized in One who should stand in so intimate a relation to the Almighty that God could say, " I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever;" or, as paraphrased in Ps. Ixxxix. 27, "I will make him my First-born, Most High over the kings of the earth." What, or what manner of seed this should be who was to fulfil these high requirements, must have been a subject of frequent meditation and diligent search to David ; but it was PSALM ex. 35 after his grievous sin and fall most probably, when by sad experience he became more than ever convinced of the utter inadequacy of himself or any frail mortal to lead his people to fulfil their mission of being a " kimjdotn of ■priests " for others, and " a holy nation " unto the Lord, that we may suppose him iitted to receive the oracular announcement (ii'^'nm) of the eternal Kinrj and Priest revealed in Ps. ex. Here, for tlie bringing down of all enemies into submission to the Lord, he is given in prophetic vision to behold One more than human, so far exalted above himself that he styles him " my Lord ; " who must not only, as a kiiuj, participate in the power of the Almighty (Jehovah Himself saying to him, " Sit thou at my right hand "), Init must also be " a priest for ever," that he may sanctify as well as strengthen his people, and clothe them " in the beauties of holiness," and so make them willing " in the day of his power " to fight the battles of the Lord, and aid him in subduing every enemy unto God. That this Psalm is the composition of David respecting another tlian himself, and not tlie utterance of some unknown ])oet,-^ rests on authority which cannot be controverted with- out overthrowing the authority of Christ Himself (Matt. xxii. 43-45), since, as Dr. Delitzsch and Dean Perowne in their commentaries on this Psalm have well shown, Christ's argu- ment against the Pharisees would otherwise be invalid. The importance of vindicating for David the autliorship of Ps. ex., in view of the deductions we mean to draw from it, may excuse some further remarks. So universal among the Jews was the ascription of the Psalm to David, that not a doubt or hint of any other author had ever been mooted : other- wise our Lord's opponents, the Pharisees, would certainly have caught at any such reply, if known to them, when pressed by Jesus with the argument, " If David in spirit calls the Christ Lord, how is he then his son ? " Yet they were silent, and liad not a word to utter in reply (see Matt. xxii. 41-48). The miserable subterfuge which has been devised for them by ' Another of the groundless ideas (as appears to me) advocated by modciu critics, and which has led to the state of utter confusion and misapprehension in which they have landed Isaiah's magnificent prophecy (chap, xl.-lxvi.). 36 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. some naturalistic critics, that the Psalm was the fulsome address of some court poet or prophet to " my Lord " the king, the reigning sovereign of the day, which he blasphemously claims to be a Divine inspiration given to him, needs but to be mentioned to be rejected, and could never have found a place, had such been its origin and purport, in the I'ublic Manual of Devotion for the Church. But the claim so distinctly made for its being a "Divine inspiration " (" n^'um Jahvch ") furnishes an argument of the most cogent kind for David, and David specially, being the person who received it. All God's fresh communications to His creatures are exactly suited to their wants. Only when they have been awakened to feel the need of them, and are thus prepared to appreciate them aright, is it that He vouchsafes to supply their wants, and gives the necessary enlightenment. Now David had been selected as king in place of Saul, whom God had set aside. Wherefore ? Because he sought his own aggrandizement and ends, instead of promoting the great pur- pose for which God had called Israel as a peculiar people to Himself. This purpose David well knew was to be a " kingdom of priests " unto Himself — not only themselves to obey and worship Him, but to bring " all the natif)ns of the earth " into submission to His dominion and worship. To head and lead forward Israel to the accomplishment of this their high mission, he felt therefore to be the function of the king appointed over them. But the more David reflected on the utter inadequacy of any weak and sinful mortal like himself to accomplish this exalted end, the more he must have felt inclined to despair of any imperfect efforts he could put forth for the purpose. For the encouragement, therefore, of those called to the administration of the kingdom, but even more for their humbling, lest they should be exalted unduly by the dignity to which they were raised, the Lord reveals at the first establishment of the kingdom to His servant David His full knowledge of how little at the very best any merely luiman king could effect for the accomplishment of God's purposes, and how little He stood in need of man's services. For the accomplishment of the mighty work of training PSALM ex. 37 Israel to be a kingdom of priests to the world, there needed an eternal King and " priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," whom the Lord would raise up in His own due time, for whose coming and acceptance it was the duty of those temporarily entrusted as stewards with the administra- tion of the kingdom each in liis humble measure to prepare and train God's people. But precisely at the first foundation of David's kingdom the want of such a communication would be felt — and at that time, in accordance with God's usual accommodation of His revelations to the mind and instruction of His people, we are entitled to believe that the communication first was given. This revelation in Ps. c.\'. at once and designedly throws the expectations of David and his successors with regard to the priestly King who was to accomplish God's exalted }jurposes for Israel into a far remote future — so remote as to involve a complete "change" and setting aside of Moses' "law" (Heb. vii. 12), since under it no king of the tribe of Judali could be a priest (ver. 14), the office having been strictly and exclusively limited to the sons of Aaron by Aloses himself. (Jn this point there can be no dubiety or question on the part of those who believe in the veracity of Scripture (and for such only I write) as being the work of truthful men, incapable of deliberate falsification and fraud. We have in jSTum. xvi. a distinct narrative, with specification of persons, time, and cir- cumstances, of an insurrection raised against Moses and Aaron l>y Korah a Levite, in conjunction with others, claiming as the right of every Levite, beside the external service of the taber- nacle, " the priesthood also " (ver. 1 0). The settlement of the (juestion is referred to the Lord Himself, before whom each was enjoined to bring his censer, putting fire and incense therein. The Lord Himself gave the decision by sending forth " fire and consuming the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense" (ver. 35), and commanding Eleazar the priest to take tJieir brazen censers and to " beat them out for a covering of the altar, to be a memorial unto the children of Israel to the end that no stranger which is not of the seed of 38 STUDIES ON' THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Aaron come near to burn incense before the Lord " (vers. 39, 40). This narrative is either true or false. If true, the priests were from the very first distinguished and set apart from the rest of the Levites, and the theory of our later critics, who would have the distinction to have been first made after the deportation to Babylon, is utterly untenable. If untrue, the plea of " legal fiction," offered as justifying perhaps the inser- tion of later enactments as if original parts of an earlier code, is inapplicable to what purports to be a narrative of facts, that either did or did not take place. If they did not, the whole story must be regarded as a shameless imposture, a Hagada fabricated for the purpose of bolstering up the sacer- dotal pretensions and usurpations of the priestly order ; and with it go the truth and authority of the whole book, which contains such a falsification and forgery as could never proceed from the servants of a God of truth. The only attempt that has been made to lessen the force of the conclusion to be drawn from the king of Ps. ex. being also a priest, is the allegation that David occasionally acted as a priest by offering sacrifice. Thus in 2 Sam. vi. 13 and 17, 18, he is said to have "sacrificed an o.x and fatling," "burnt- offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord." The inference drawn from such expressions, that it was with his own hands and not through the mediation of the priests, is very precari- ous, as is evident from comparison with 1 Kings viii. 62, 63, where it is said that the " king (Solomon), and all Israel vjith Mm, offered sacrifice before the Lord, And Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep." But even though it were certain that David (especially in the unsettled state of re- ligious service that had long prevailed from the ark being separated from the tabernacle) had sacrificed with his own hands, I know no authority for asserting that sacrifice was so exclusively an act distinctive of the priests, in which they alone took part. The offerer not only provided the sacrifice, but killed it (see Lev. i. 5, 11, but particularly iv. 4), and flayed it and cut it in pieces (Lev, i. 6, 12) ; the sprinkling of the blood and laying the pieces on the altar being the part THE MESSIANIC IDEA. 39 specially assigned to tlie priest. All this took place in the court outside the tabernacle proper. The distinctive service reserved for the priests alone was the ministry within the holy place, the Levites, who had to carry the tabernacle and its furniture, being prohibited on pain of death from handling or even looking on the sacred vessels of the tabernacle, all of which were first carefully covered and wrapped up by the priests (Num. iv. 7—15). But the service which is especially marked out as distinctive of the priest, and in which none other was permitted to have any part, was the "burning of incense" (see 1 Chron. xxiii. 13). This accordingly, as we have seen, was the test assigned to determine the claims to " the priesthood " put forth by Korah and his company ; and the only attempt ever made by a king (in the case of Uzziali, 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21) to arrogate to himself the privilege was resisted by a whole body of priests, and was rebuked by the Lord Himself, who smote him with leprosy in the fore- head, so that he hasted to flee out of the temple, and dwelt henceforth as a leper in a several house by himself. We have then arrived at a most important stage in the development of the Messianic idea. In Ps. ex. is seen, standing out clearly and unmistakeably, an individual, 2}ersonal Messiah, higher than David, who acknowledged no superior among mere mortals, One " fairer," therefore, " than the sons of men," ordained to be "' a priest for ever," even as " his kingdom was to be established for ever." This idea, when once implanted in David's mind, and through him in that of God's people, could never again be effaced from their consciousness, but must, from this time forth, have formed the leading object of their hope and faith, and the standard by which they would interpret all former and future revelations concerning God's promised salvation. From this time it was no longer possible to waver with regard to the expectation of an individual Deliverer and Messiah. Now, and not at a later period (as erroneously stated by Delitzsch, and repeated with approbation by Dean Perowne in the commentary on Ps. Ixxii.), must have taken place " a decisive break between the Messianic hope and the existing state of things ; the image of the Messiah 40 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. was painted on the pure sky of the future, though of the immediate future,^ in colours furnished by the contradiction 'l)et\veen the existing kingdom and its idea, and (as the prospects of Israel darkened) it became more and more, so to speak, something super-earthly, superhuman, extending into the future, the invisible refuge and the invisible aim of a faith despairing of the present, and thereliy rendered more spiritual and more heavenly." Solomon could not be the royal priest intended. David never could have called Solomon " his loi^d ; " Solomon never had the presumption to imagine that he was to be " a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek ; " and the very name, assigned him by the Lord, of Solomon, or Feaceahle, for " I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days " (1 Chron. xxii. 9), precluded both father and son from identify- ing him with the warlike Priest and Conqueror of Ps. ex., who was " to judge among the heathen, fill the places with dead bodies, and wound the head over the wide earth." But if Ps. ex., it may be objected, brought into the pro- minence for which we contend the idea of a personal Messiah, far exalted above a David or Solomon, how come the allusions in the other Psalms ^ to such a Messiah to be at best but fijpiccd or secondary ? The notion on which this objection rests we regard as a hurtful error, and one which tends much to the misunderstanding of a portion of the Sacred Oracles which, from tlieir constant use in the public service of the sanctuary, conduced more than any other to mould the thouglits and expectations of God's ancient servants. The revelation made to David and to the Church in Ps. ex. of a super- human King and " Priest for ever " to arise of his seed, could not but affect and colour all his other utterances with regard to his seed and people, and must therefore modify very considerably the view to be taken of their reference and purport. ^ This is anotlier of the prevailing errors. I's. ex. throws the coining of the ]\Iessianic king and priest into a, far remote future - Ps. ex. "difl'ers from all the other prophetic Psalms, which, m r who hath no helper ; 13 May he have pity on the weak and needy. And the souls of the needy ones he will save. 14 From fraud and from violence he shall redeem their soul. And precious shall their blood be in his sight. IT) And may he live, and give to him [to the needy] of the gold of Sheba, And intercede for him continually ; All the day long may he bless him. Hi Let there be abundance of corn in the land on the toji of the moun- tains ; The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, And they shall spring forth from the city like grass of the earth. 17 May His name endure for ever ! So long as the sun shall his name shoot forth anew. Yea, let men bless themselves in him, All nations — may they call him blessed ! IS Blessed be Jehovah, God, the God of Israel, Who alone doeth wondrous things ! 19 And blessed be His glorious name for ever. And let the whole earth be tilled with His glory ! Amen and Amen. 20 Ended are the prayers of David the son of Jesse. Ill ver. 15 the "king," in place of the " needy," is made the subject (nominative) to all the verbs. This is the more rSALM LXXII. 51 natural construction. The king has been the subject to tlie last four preceding verbs, and naturally continues to be re- garded as such to those that follow, and which are all in the singular, rather than " the needy ones," which had been spoken of in the jDlural four times in the immediately preceding con- text, " the souls of the nccdi/ ones," " their soul," " their blood." ^ An examination of each separate clause of ver, 15 confirms this conclusion. 1. "And [or Yea] may he live." The usual rendering of I'-ichi - by " and he shall live " seems unwarrantable, it being in the Jussive form, and therefore to he translated as an Opta- tive like those that precede, and like them to be referred to the Jang. Besides, to a Hebrew the very form of this parti- cular verb would at once suggest a king as its subject, i/chV^ being the appropriate term in Hebrew to express what in English is expressed by " God save [the king] " {— Vivat, in Trench Vive le Eoi). Such is the rendering of the A.V. in 8 of the 13 other instances in which y^chi^ or ivichi'^ occurs in Scripture. Compare also Ps, xxi. 4, "He [tlie king] asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him, even length (if days for ever and ever;" and Ps. Ixi. 6, 7, "Thou wilt ])rolong the king's life, and his years as numy (jcnercdions. He shall abide before God /or ever." 2. " May he give him of the gold of Sheba." To refer these words to the needy as the donor, seems an unnatural inversion of the relations of the giver and receiver. Whence should the needy have gold to bestow ? The supposition becomes doubly improbable by the addition of "the gold of Sheba," which surely belonged, if we compare ver. 10, to the king alone to bestow. There seems to be a direct allusion to the expres- sion in Kev. iii. 1 8, " Because thou sayest, I am rich . . . and knowest not that thou art poor ... I counsel thee to liuy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou raayest be rich." 3. The next expression, "and intercede for him continu- ally," settles the question beyond dispute, since it can be used only of what the king is to do for others, not of what they are ' These plurals would have required the verbs to be Ip-IJOJl Vm. 2 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. to do for him. The Hebrew phrase (^bsnn, hithpallel, followed hy ny3, la ad) has in every other instance in which it occurs (13 in all, besides the present) the meaning of intercedin;/ in hehalf of another, and is always the act of a prophet or priest (with the single exception of Job xlii. 10, where, how- ever, the Lord Himself appointed Job as the intercessor for the transgression of his friends, see ver. 8) interceding with God as a mediator in behalf of another, and for the pardon of his sin — as, for instance, Moses interceding for the children of Israel when they had broken their covenant with God by worshipping the golden calf (Num. xxi. 7) — Samuel inter- ceding for the people's sin in asking a king (1 Sam, xii. 19), etc.i This determines at once that it cannot be the needy who are intended as interceding for the king as having sinned, but the king who intercedes for them, as is said, ver. 18, "The souls of the needy he will save." If we compare this expression, " intercedes for him," with the first, " may he live," the words of the writer to the Hebrews (vii. 25), if not a quotation, seem at least to contain a plain allusion to the verse before us : " Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever Uveth to make intercession for them." Nay, the phrase as now explained goes much farther, and all but proves the other points on which w^e insist, namely, that the king who forms the subject of the Psalm is, in the first intention of tlie writer, primarily and directly the Messiah, 1 To enable the student to judge for himself, I subjoin the instances of the occurrence of the phrase, viz. Gen. xx. 7 ; Num. xxi. 7 ; Deut. ix. 20 ; 1 Sam. vii. f), xii. 19 and 23 ; 1 Kings xiii. 6 ; Job xlii. 10 ; Ps. Ixxii. 15 ; Jer. vii. 16, xi. 14, xiv. 11, xlii. 2 and 20. And here let me draw attention to a remark for which I am indebted to my excellent friend the late Dr. John Duncan, Professor of Hebrew in the New College (Free Church), Edinburgh, that the first occur- rence of any remarkable term in the Bible is accompanied by a significant hint of its true application and meaning henceforth attached to it in Scripture, tlu^ primal idea forming the germ out of which the future developments issue. Tluis in Gen. xx. 7, where the phrase first occurs, the idea meant to be conveyed is distinctly defined: "Abraham is a prophet, and he shall pray [intercede] for thee [Abimelech], and flwu shalt live.'" So in Ps. Ixii. 13-15, "He shall save the souls of the needy, and precious shall their blood he in His sight." Because He lives (ver. 15) they shall live also, and He shall "intercede for him [for each] continually.^' PSALM LXXII. 5 or the ultimate king of David's race who is to fulfil the high ideal of God's promise to David and his house as contained in Ps. ex. To none other could the continual intercession in behalf of the poor, here attributed to the king, with full pro- priety apply but unto him who was to be a "priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." 4. The last expression in ver, 15 is, "all the day long may he bless him," To which of the two parties, the king or the poor, this act is to be referred as its author, the writer to the Hebrews again helps us to decide : " Without all contra- diction, the less is blessed of tlie better " (Heb. vii. 7). But the main point, as we have said, with which we are concerned — who, in the intention of the writer, is the primary and direct subject of the Psalm — seems unmistakeably to be determined by the last verse (17) — Yea, let men bless themselves in him I A II nations — may they call him blessed ! It seems impossible to mistake the plain reference here to the great promise made to " all nations " through the seed of Abraham, the words of which are, " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth Uess themselves " (Gen. xxii. 1 8) — words which in their full and true sense can apply to the Messiali, and to the j\Iessiah alone. To see this we must draw attention to the two promises made to Abraham, the distinction between which has been overlooked by commentators. The first promise was given to liim as Abram (the exalted father of a chosen nation), on tlie occasion of his showing his faith in God by leaving his " country, and kindred, and father's house," to go into a land that God was to show him, " not knowing whither he went " (Heb. xi. 8). The second was the blessing pronounced upon liim as Abraham (the father of a multitude, or spiritual seed comprising believers of all nations), on the occasion of liis exhibiting the highest instance of faith ever reached by a mere mortal, in giving up, as a sacrifice, without a word of remonstrance, his only and beloved son Isaac, on whose life all God's promises to him were suspended. It were strange 54 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. indeed if so wonderful an instance of faith as this last called forth no higher promise than the first, if the second was, as it is generally regarded, a mere repetition of the earlier promise, confirmed only by the addition of an oath on God's part. We have but to place the two promises in juxtaposition to see that every term in the later rises in intensity above the earlier : — " In tliee — shall all the families of the land — be blessed " (Gen. xii. 3). " In thy .seed — shall all the nations of the earth — bless themselves " (Gen. xxii. 18). The distinction between the two promises, wdiich would so forcibly strike the Israelite in interpreting the words literally, escapes the notice of the Christian accustomed to regard them rather in the spiritual ligbt in which they are presented by St. Paul. To an Israelite the words of the first promise, " In thee [i.e. Abram] shall all," etc., would appear to refer exclu- sively to his own countrymen alone, as being the " children of Abraham : " in the second promise alone could the Gentiles, as " the nations of the eartli," claim any interest. But St. Paul's extension of the first promise to all Christians, not Jews alone, but Gentiles also, as being the spiritual children of Abraham (Gal. iii. 29), has led us to overlook the palpable distinction between the two promises ; and the faulty render- ing by the same words in most modern versions (following the example of the Septuagint and Vulgate) of two of the terms in the promises, which are quite distinct in the original Hebrew, has added to the confusion. We must therefore endeavour to ascertain with p]'ecisiou the distinctive signification of the corresponding terms in each promise. And, first, with regard to the third term, expressive of the blessing in each, " be blessed " (Heb. nivrSkhu, passive conjugation), andj " bless themselves " (Heb. hithhdrSJchil, re- flexive conj.) : — What is to be understood by being " blessed in" a person? Gen. xlviii. 20 supplies the answer, where Jacob, in blessing the two sons of Josepli, says, " In thcr shall Israel hless, saying, God make thee as Epbraim and as Manasseb," i.e. bless thee in the same manner as they were blessed. Ephraim and Manasseb are made the examples or PSALM LXXII. 55 patterns of blessing after wliich others are to be blessed. In accordance with this, the words, " In thee [Abram] sliall all be blessed," must be explained to mean that Abram and Abram's faith are the pattern after which others are to receive God's blessing. Now " Abram " (we read Gen. xv. 6) " believed in the Lord ; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Such accordingly is St. Paul's explanation of this first promise in Gal. iii. 6—9, as extending to all who show like faith as Abram : " And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." In contradistinction to this, the expression, " blessing one- self in another," so far from placing oneself on a level witli the person referred to, regards him as the source and founda- tion of the blessing, which can only be received through dependence and trust in him ; as appears from the instances in which this form of the Hebrew verb (the hithpael, or reflexive) is used ; as — "He who hlesseth himself in the earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth " (Isa. Ixv. 16). " The nations shall bless themselves in Him, And in Him shall they glory " (Jer. iv. 2). Even in Deut. xxix. 19, where it is said of the man " whose heart turneth away from the Lord," that " he shall hlcss himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, thougli I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst," it is evident that the man makes the " imagination of his own heart" the source or foundation of his trust for blessing to himself.^ ^ The greater promise is repeated in identical terms to Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 4) as to Abraham, inasmuch as the entire surrender of himself to God must have been equally complete on his part, since without the young man's consent the aged father could never have been able to bind him and to lay him on the wood prepared for the sacrifice. Both blessings are transmitted to Jacob, but incorporated into one : "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed " (Gen. xxviii. 14). The verb accordingly is in the passive — which is the form alone applicable in the lesser blessing. 66 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The distinction now drawn will help to explain the signifi- cance designed by the change in the other terms of the respective blessings. The rise in meaning signified by the cliange of the verbal form " bless themselves in," requires a corresponding rise in the other terms. With regard to the first pair of terms, what, let us inquire, is the import of the change from " in thee " to " in thy seed " ? " In thee shall men be blessed " supposes an equality of blessedness, attain- able at least, with the person in whom they are to be blessed ; Avhereas "shall bless themselves" regards the pierson in whom they bless themselves to be so highly exalted above them that they look up to him as the source from whence their blessings tiow, and the object of their humble and confiding trust. " In thee^' therefore, if denoting a mere man, " shall bless them- selves " is inadmissible, since it would be directly opposed to the language of Scripture, which pronounces " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man " (Jer. xvii. 5). Hence " in thee," when the verbal term becomes " men shall bless themselves," must be changed into " in thy seed ; " and " thy seed," point- ing back, as doubtless it would, Abraham and his descendants to the primeval promise of the " seed " of the woman em- powered to reverse the curse of death, assumes ever more and more in successive revelations a superhuman character, so as to be all but identified with the Almighty : — as David's " seed " (2 Sam. vii. 12-16) exalted to a filial relationship with Jehovah, God being to him a "father," and he to Him a " son," whose " throne should be established for ever," — again, though David's son, yet styled by him "my lord," as being seated at the " right hand " of God and ordained by Him a "priest for ever" (Ps. ex. 1, 4) — even the highest dignity and titles, befitting the Eternal, being ascribed to him, " Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace " (Isa. ix. 6) — " this," in fine, being " his name whereby he shall be called. The Lord ouk PiiGHTEOUSNESs " (Jer. xxiii. 6). Lastly, as regards the change from " all the families of the land " into " all the nations of the earth : — " a faith, such as Abram's in its earlier stage, in God as the supreme Disposer PSALM LXXir. 57 of all, able and willing to bless and protect His worshippers, would suffice to combine " all the families of the (addmdh, or cultivable) land " of their possession, as it did the Israelites, into kindly and brotherly union with each other as one nation, though bitterly hating and being hated by all other nations. But to unite into one " all the nations" and the whole "earth" {crets), requires a far higher stage of faith. The bond which alone can effect this union and brotherhood must be faith in the universal Fatherhood of God as the one common Father of all, and in the universal Brotherhood of men, as manifested in a " seed " who was at the same time " Son of God " and " Son of man " — able both to save and sympathize with His brethren — the gift of a Father's love to all His children on earth, and who demonstrated His brotherly love towards our whole race by taking on Him our nature, and by His perfect self-surrender and self-sacrifice procuring salvation and endless blessedness for every race and nation. There is thus a clear distinction between the two promises, the first falling far short of the second, when the earlier pro- mise is construed strictly according to the letter. Still its terms might have excited higher hopes in the mind of Abra- ham, so as almost to include the higher promise ; and the believer, as his faith advances, grows in the conviction that God will never come short, but will exceed the expectation of His cliildren in the fulfilment of His promises. And such we believe to have been the case with Abraham, The words, " In thee shall all the families of the land be blessed," prescribe no limits which would exclude the hope of the highest blessings which God could bestow on the whole race ; and the growth of Abraham's faith, quickened by the birth of a son to himself notwithstanding " his own body being now as good as dead, and the deadness of Sarah's womb" (Eom. iv. 19), would seem to explain the promptness and unquestioning character of Abraham's obedience to the command which bade him offer up his son Isaac. Unbelief would have suggested that com- pliance Avith such a demand would entirely frustrate all the promises. But faith such as Abraham's drew the opposite conclusion, that the command now given was to be the very 58 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. means of fulfilling God's promise, however little he could understand the mode by which it was to be accomplished. Strongly, therefore, though flesh and blood recoiled against it, the spirit unhesitatingly accepted the command. Nor was the father of believers disappointed in his hope : " Abraham saw my day, and was glad" (John viii. 56). To what occasion can we with greater probability assign the deep insight into the divine plan of redemption, here ascribed by the Saviour Himself to Abraham, other than to the auspicious moment when his faith had reached its highest point of elevation by the voluntary surrender of his beloved son ? Sacrifice was the regular and God-ordained (see Gen. xv. 9, xxxv. 1) mode of worship and acceptable approach to God in patriarchal times. Wherever Abraham settled for a time, he erected an altar and called on the name of the Lord. Sacrifice included two syiiibolical acts representative of the offerer : first, the shedding the blood of the offering, signifying the deserved forfeiture of the offerer's life, in place of which the life of the innocent and sinless victim is accepted as an atonement ; and secondly, the presentation of the entire body of the sacrificial victim as a whole burnt-offering unto the Lord, symbolizing the offerer's presenting his " body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God " (Eom. xii, 1), as being now purged from sin. The offering required of Abraham was that of a life which he esteemed more precious than his own, the sacrifice of the very son of promise, on whose life depended the fulfil- ment of all God's promises. The demand, in short, was the greatest that could be made, that a father should give up the life of his son, his only son, whom he loved, and offer him up as a burnt-offering. And now, when he had all but consum- mated the sacrifice, his hand is arrested, and another sacrifice is substituted, provided by God Himself. What other infer- ence could Abraham draw but that no sacrifice which man could offer, though he should " give his first-born for the sin of his soul " (Micah vi. 7), would suffice — that a more effica- cious offering still was needed, which God Himself would provide ? That such was Abraham's understanding of the whole transaction — and that he saw in what had taken rSALM LXXII. 59 place a foreshadowing of a greater and more perfect sacrifice, which Jehovah Himself should provide — he testified by the name, " Jehovah-jireh " { = tlie Lord tv ill provide, Gen. xxii. 14), which he gave to the scene of this remarkable transaction, to keep alive the remembrance of it to succeeding generations. Such — • unless we err in associating with the highest manifestation of Abraham's faith the occasion of his highest inspiration, and vision of " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," when, as Christ attests, " Abraham saw my day and was glad "—or such like, would be the reflections awakened in Abraham's mind by the revelation vouchsafed to him of God's purposes of grace for a sinful world, to transmit to his posterity for the instruction of the early Church ; and if so, the more comprehensive mean- ing, which we claim for the second promise above the first, seems to be fully justified. The relevancy of the correct interpretation of this promise will be now apparent for the full understanding of the closing words of Ps. Ixxii. — Yea, let them bless themselves in him All nations— let them call him blessed (ver. 17). If the occasion and terms of the second promise made to Abraham compelled us to see in the "seed" promised to him, in whom " all nations " were to bless themselves, a greater than any mere son of man, the repetition of the same terms applied to the king who is the subject of Ps. Ixxii. compels us to the conclusion that Solomon cannot be its subject, but that a greater than Solomon is here. But, it may be asked, has then Ps. Ixxii. no reference to Solomon ? Have the " peace and righteousness " of the reign here portrayed, so contrasted with the warlike rule of David, no connection with him whose distinctive title was Solomon the Peaceful .? Does not the petition of Solomon for himself, as recorded in 1 Kings iii. 9, " Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people," find its exact counterpart in Ps. Ixxii. I, "Give Thy judgments to the 60 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. king " ? Is not Solomon here and his reign a type of Messiah and His reign, and therefore the 'primary subject ? If not, in what relation is it proposed to place the Psalm to Solomon and to the occasion which led to its composition ? In a relation, we reply, analogous to that in which we have already represented Ps. ii. to stand to David and his reign (see p. 4 sq.). The words in ver. 7 (as we there saw), " Thou art my son — this day have I hegottcn thee," being almost an exact repetition of God's promise to David respect- ing, not himself, but his " seed" in 2 Sam. vii. 14, "I will be his Father, and he shall be my son," proved that David himself could not be the direct subject of the Psalm, while the war- like qualities ascribed to the king (" Thou shalt break them [the heathen] with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel ") equally proved that the king to whom the Psalmist referred could not be the " Peaceful " Solomon. We were obliged therefore to conclude that the prominent figure placed before us in the foreground of I*s. ii. was the Messiah, against whom David, from his own experience,^ is led to see how much more inveterate and world-wide will be the resistance of all " peoples and kings of the earth " who will " set themselves against " Him who shall exhibit the perfect image and " righteousness " of the " Lord's Anointed." So in Ps. Ixxii., Solomon fixes his eye and thought, not on his own reign, and the peaceful character promised to it, as the main subject of his prayer, but on the advent of him of whom it had been revealed that he should be both king and " priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek ; " and prays, and teaches his people to pray, for the speedy realiza- tion of the universal " peace and righteousness " that were to flourish in his days " so long as the moon endureth," He prays for himself and his reign only in so far as he sets before his mind the Messiah and His reign, as the model and ^ As given in the two following and closely connected Psalms iii. and iv. (as we shall see afterwards), "Lord, how many are they that rise up against me ?" (Ps. iii. 1), on account of "my righteousness" (Ps, iv. 1), in striving to rule in God's fear. PSALM LXXII. 61 high ideal to be aimed after, whose image, in some imperfect degree, he hoped to reflect. Both Psalms are indeed typical, David's warlike rule foreshadowing in Ps. ii. the earlier, the peaceful reign of Solomon in Ps, Ixxii. the latter phase of Messiah's kingdom ; but in both the type forms but the background, while the Messiah constitutes the direct and primary subject consciously before the Psalmist's mind. But, further, in order to estimate aright the full import and significance of the Psalms to Israel, and their educative influence, so to speak, in impressing on tlie people the great promises made to their nation, and in training them for the discharge of their high vocation as a " kingdom of priests," to bring all nations to acknowledge and submit to the rule and righteousness of the great Lord and King of all the earth, — there are two points to which the reader's attention is requested. 1. By the very delivery of a Psalm " to the chief musician " for the public service of the sanctuary, the Psalmist stamped upon the language a more comprehensive meaning, applicable to the interests of the whole Church. The words expressive, in their first utterance, of the personal thoughts and feelings of the Psalmist called forth by the particular occasion of their composition, became now applicable to all similar experiences of God's people. The individual / expanded virtually into the universal wc, although the / was generally retained, in order that each individual worshipper, when joining in the public service, might feel and express his own personal interest in the words uttered. The prayers and praises, the hopes and fears, and all the variety of sentiments and emotions to which the Psalms give expression, thus acquire a higher and more enlarged signification. The issues involved are no longer those of the king and people of the time, but those of all ages of the Church. The enemies are no longer those of David alone, but the enemies universally and in every age of God's people, and kingdom, and cause. As " the sweet Psalmist of Israel," and appointed by God to lead the devotions of His people, David would naturally select those of his effusions alone which seemed best fitted for 62 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. liis purpose, and in adapting tlieni for the use of the Church, would most probably strike out those individualizing traits of mere personal experience which characterized their first composition (and this may explain the difficulty found of ascertaining in many Psalms the occasion of their composition), retaining those only which had a bearing on the general interests of the whole community, or even altering them in part for this purpose. Maris hopes, and fears, and destiny, not David's (or other author's) fortunes, are the true subjects of the Psalms. This is clearly indicated by the Psalms with which the Psalter opens. Ps. i. " Blessed is the nian who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly," etc. The division of all mankind into two very opposite classes, the Righteous and the Un- righteous, is evidently the subject of the opening Psalm (vers. 1, 2), with the different success attendant on each even here (3, 4), and the future "judgment" awaiting them (5, 6), which will separate their destiny for ever. In Ps. ii. mankind as a whole is still more evidently involved. On the very face of the Psalm we have God appointing One whom He calls His Son as universal King, to whom all the nations are assigned as His " inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as His possession." None, high or low, are excepted ; " kings of the earth and rulers," with " the nations and the peoples," are represented as refusing to have the Lord's Anointed to rule over them, but all are warned to submit themselves on pain of utter destruction. Placed thus at the head of the Psalter are two Psalms that give the keynote to the whole, as referring to the concerns and destinies of the entire human race.-^ 2. But, secondly (and this is the point to which I now desire specially to direct the attention of the Biblical student), I have long felt convinced that we shall never adequately under- stand the Psalms as they are now presented to us in the word of God, until we regard them as one grand liturgical whole, and study them in the order and connection in which Ezra, 1 So in Ps. viii. (which, it will be shown, corresponds to Ps. ii.), " What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? " (ver. 4). PSALM LXXII. 63 or some other, under the guidance of the Spmt of God, finally arranged them as they now stand, not improbably having had to make considerable alterations and modifications on some of them in order to bring them into the marvellous order and connection which, on examination, we find them to present. It is only by studying the Psalms in the mutual light which they thus cast upon each other that we shall be enabled, as appears to me, to enter into the train of ideas, which through the constant use of them in the public service of the temple and synagogue they were designed to awaken in the minds of God's ancient people in order to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. Only thus shall we be enabled to solve many of the interesting problems which their present form suggests. Only by comprehending the train of thought which dictated their present order, can we render a satis- factory reason why, for instance, Moses' Psalm (xc.) should, instead of beginning the Psalter, be reserved till the opening of Book IV. ; or why Ps. ex., which contains the greatest revelation made to David, should be dissevered from the main body of his Psalms contained in Books I. and II., and be transferred to Book V., the opening Psalm of which (Ps. cvii.) shows that the majority of Psalms which follow relate to the times subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. Only when (like the Jews who divided the Psalter into five books, and grouped together a series of Psalms for special services, as the instances of the Greater and Lesser Hallels testify) we examine each individual Psalm in the relation which it bears to the group of Psalms of which it forms a part, and to the whole Psalter, shall we be able to understand how the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap, i, 1 0) could quote, without a note of comment, as referring to Christ, vers. 25-27 of Ps. cii., which in their original context evidently refer to Jehovah Himself ; and cite the words, " and let all the angels of God worship Him " (Deut. xxxii. 43 of the Septuagint transla- tion), as having reference to the " introduction of the First- begotten into the world " (Heb. i. 6).^ I hope to be able to show that the Psalter, in the order in ^ See p. 10 sq. 64 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. which we now possess it, does not consist of a number of unconnected Psahns strung together by a sort of haphazard (in the way suggested by Dr. Delitzsch in his Sijmbolce ad Psalmos illustrandos isagogiccc), according as some similar expressions occurring in two Psalms struck the compilers as a reason for placing them together ; but, on the contrary, I hope to furnish some reasons for the belief that the Psalms in their present order form a grand organic whole, arranged and connected together with consummate art. The key to tho arrangement I believe to be furnished in great measure by attention to the significance which the Hebrews attached to their sacred numbers and their various divisions and observed relations, of which, as I have shown in two former works,^ they made great use in the arrangement of their ideas. But before proceeding to apply these numerical relations to the Psalter as a whole, I must draw the reader's attention to three alphabetical Psalms in Book I., which first suggested the idea of a similar arrangement being probably applicable to groups of Psalms and to the whole I*salter. The alphabetical Psalms are so called from each successive verse or couplet of verses (or in Ps. cxix., every group of eight verses) being made to begin with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It has generally been held that these Psalms are destitute of any close connection or consecutive train of ideas, and that this artifice of composition has in consequence been employed merely for the sake of aiding the memory. I believe the purpose to be far higher — to aid in tracing the train of thought. The first complete alphabetical Psalm is Ps. xxv. It consists of 22 verses, the number of the alphabet; but since ver. 21 begins with n, the last letter of the alphabet, the 22nd verse is out of the order (beginning as it does with a, part of the verb ms, padah, he redeemed, exactly as ver. 22 of the next alphabetical Ps. xxxiv.). This reduces the number of letters (-) being omitted, as also in Ps. xxxiv.), and of verses marked l^y the alphabetical series, to 21, 1 The Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, nnd Analytical Commentary on the. Eomans. PSALM XXV. 65 that is, thrice seven, a number at once suggestive to a Hebrew of the designed division of the Psalm, viz. into 3 strophes consisting each of 7 verses, the first and last correspond- ing to each other, as containing David's prayer, while the central strophe contains God's answer to his prayer. We find accordingly in Strophe i. (1-7) a prayer of David for spiritual direction in his perplexity. Strophe ii. (8-14) the answer, as it were, from the Oracle of God (see Ps, xxviii. 2), to be sung probably by the priests within the sanctuary. Strophe iii. (15-21) David, encouraged by the gracious answer, becomes still more urgent in his supplication for speedy deliverance from his distress. To this last strophe is appended an additional verse (22) out of the alphabetical series, entreating full redemption for all Israel, and probably sung in chorus by the whole people. Each strophe is again subdivided into three parts, the seven as usual being resolved into 8-1-3 (as in the golden candle- stick, the central branch of which connects the two groups of three on either side). This division is particularly observable in the central strophe, in which the answer to David's prayer is interrupted by a short ejaculatory prayer of David in ver. 11. In this threefold division, as generally in Scripture, the first division will be found to have more of an introductory character, leading on to and summed up, as it were, in the middle division which contains the central subject ; and this again is developed and enlarged upon in the last division, which forms the result or conclusion of the whole. PSALM XXV. OF DAVID. I. Prayer of David in perplexity and distress. 1 X Unto Thee, Jehovah, do I lift up my soul. 2 3x my God, in Thee do I trust : Let me not be ashamed ; Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 3 3 Yea, none that wait ou Thee shall be ashamed : Ashamed shall they be who deal treacherously without cause. E 66 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 4 n Show me Thy ways, Jehovah ; Teach me Thy paths. 5 n Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me : For Thou art the God of my salvation ; On Thee do I wait all the day. () T Remember Thy tender compassions, Jehovah, and Thy MERCIES ; For they have been ever of old. 7 n The sins of my youtli, and my transgressions, remember not : According to Thy mercy remember Thou me. For Thy goodness' sake, Jehovah. II. God's gracious ansiver and promise} 8 D Good and upright is Jehovah : Therefore will He instruct sinners in the way. 9 '» The meek will He lead in judgment ; And the meek will He teach His way. 10 3 All the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth Unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. David. 11 ^ For Thy Name's sake, Jehovah, Pardon mine iniquity ; for it is great. • The answer to his prayer (which David realized by faith) is here, it seems to me, intended to be vividly presented to the senses, in the adaptation of the Psalm for public worship, by a representation similar to that in Ps. xxviii. There, David (or the worsliipper) having entered the court of the tabernacle, and having asked God to "hear when I lift up my hands towards Thy lioly Oiiu-le " (ver. 2), presents his prayer — 3 Draw me not away with the wicked, etc. 4 Give them according to their work and the wickedness of their endeavours ; Give them after the deed of their hands ; Kender to them their desert. The answer is heard, issuing as it were from the holy Oracle, uttered by the priests within the tabernacle as the representatives of Jehovah, in terms corie- sponding closely to the words of the prayer — 5 Because they regard not the works of Jehovah, Nor the deed of His hands, He shall pull them down, and not build them up. David immediately resumes, acknowledging the graciousness of the answer — 6 Blessed be Jehovah, for He hath heard the voice of my supplications. See Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 85, 86. PSALM XXV. 67 Aiisiver of Jehovah resumed. 12 J2 What man is he that f eai^eth Jehovah ? Him shall He instruct in the way that he should choose. 13 : His soul shall dwell at ease ; And his seed shall inherit the earth. 14 D The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him ; And His covenant to make them know it. III. DacicVs confident ^oaiting for fulfilment. 15 j; Mine eyes are ever toward Jehovah ; For He [it is] will pluck my feet out of the net. 16 2 Tui-n Tliee unto me, and be gracious unto me ; For I am desolate and afflicted. 17 V The troubles of my heart are enlarged : ^ bring me out of my distress. 18 -) Look upon mine affliction and my toil, And forgive all my sins. ID ") Look upon mine enemies, for they ai-e many ; And they hate me with cruel hatred. 20 ^ keep my soul, and deliver me ; Let me not be ashamed ; for I put my trust in Thee. 21 n Let integrity and upriglitness preserve me ; for I wait on Thee. 22 (s) Eedeem Israel, God, out of all his troubles. In each strophe the central verse contains, as it were, the essence of the whole strophe. In strophe i. David in a season evidently of great distress (vers. 16-18), when God appeared to have hid from him the way of salvation, in the first 3 verses expresses still his trust in Him, urging the plea that He can never put to shame such as wait on Hira. Then in the central verse (4), in imitation of Moses, who, when God, provoked by Israel's idolatry in making the golden calf, threatened to withdraw His guidance, interceded for himself and his people, " Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, sliow me now Thy way " (Ex. xxxiii. 1 3), so David con- ' Or more correctly — The troubles of my heart do Thou enlarge, And bring me out of my distresses. This is evidently a case where the Masoretes have wi'ongly divided the words by adding the 1 to the one word in place of prefixing it to the next; see Delitzsch. 68 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. centrates his request in tlie petition, " Shoiu me Thy ways, Jehovah, teach me Thy paths " (ver. 4). This prayer David then enforces by two topics — God's truth and mercy, " Lead me in Thy truth " (ver. 5), again and again calling on God to " remember," as if He had forgotten His promises; but appealing especially to His were?/, which he invokes repeatedly under different names, " Thy tender compassions and Thy mercies" (ver. 6); "according to Thy mercy," " for Thy goodness' sake " (ver. 7). The pleas thus urged are equivalent to an expostulation with God, " Show me Thy ways," for the ways to which I am at present left can surely not be Thy ways — Thy ways of truth and mercy ! Where is now Thy truth, and faithfulness to Thy servants, when Thou permittest the enemies of righteousness to triumph over them ? Where is now Thy mercy ? Is it clean gone for ever ? The central strophe ii. forms a complete answer to the prayer and expostulations. The topics are first taken up (as most commonly) in reverse order. 1. Where is Thy mercy ? " remember me for Thy goodness' sake ! " The answer is (ver. 8), " Good is Jehovah." 2. Where is now Thy tntth ? Answer (ver. 8), " Good and upright ( = true) is Jehovah," and " therefore will He instruct sinners," such as thou hast acknowledged thyself to be, in His ways. But (ver. 9) they must meekly submit to His guidance and teaching, and wait for the manifestation of His ways and judgment, without impatiently demanding. Where is His mercy ? Where is His truth ? "All the paths of Jehovah," however aflllictive and dark they may appear at the moment to the sufferer, " are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies " (ver. 1 0). Ver. 11.^ Here we have another beautifully significant reference (testifying David's intimate knowledge of the Mosaic 1 It might be objected that ver. 11, with its sudden outburst of prayer that escapes from David's lips, does not form a proper centre for strophe ii., which contains Jehovah's answer to David, so as to concentrate the essence of Jehovah's answer to David's prayer ; and yet what can be more truly so ? Surely the most precious answer of God to the cry of distrustful impatience for help is when the PSALM XXV. 69 record and its existence in his time) to the import of God's Name, as signified to Moses when he entreated for a further manifestation of God's glory, and received the promise, " I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before thee " (Ex. xxxiii, 19). "Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long- suffering," etc., summed up in the union of the two attributes, " abundant in Mercij ^ and Truth " (Ex. xxxiv, 6). " Eor Tliy mercT/ and truth's [ = Xame's] sake " (is now David's only plea), and which I ought not for a moment to have doubted, I pray Thee to " pardon mine iniquity ; for it is great." Vers. 12-14. Again the voice from within the tabernacle is heard. What man is he that showeth a submissive fear of God ? Such is the man that He will instruct in His ways, and show that all lead to his real good. All blessings shall be his. His own soul shall dwell in prosperity ; his seed shall inherit the earth. The Lord will admit him to secret communion with Himself, and manifest to him, in his experience, the blessings of His covenant. Strophe iii. In vers. 15-17, David, now strengthened in his faith by God's gracious answer to his prayer, professes his stedfast confidence which would wait meekly and persever- ingly for the promised deliverance of the Lord, " Mine eyes are crcr toward Jehovah," etc. ; but he prays that He would speedily deliver him, " Turn Thee unto me," etc., because of — and this is the plea on which he would most specially insist — the extremity of the sufferings to which he was reduced ;, " for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart. do Thou enlarge. bring me out of my distresses." Ver. 18. Nay, a third time he repeats this plea, and assigns to it the central place in the strophe, " Look upon mine affliction and my toil ; " but at the same time he again meekly acknowledges that these are the just punishment of his offences, " and forgive all my sins." To draw the more suppliant himself receives grace meekly to bow himself under God's reproof, and to prefer only the lowly plea, " For Thy Name's sake, Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity ; for it is great." I confess my sin, as if he had said, as deserving Thy severest reproof, and only ask forgiveness " For Thy Name's sake." 1 In the Hebrew the word is TDII) chesed, " mercy," the same as in the lOtli verse of the Psalm. 70 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. attention to these two as now his main petitions, and to ver. 18 as being the central verse of the strophe, the regular alphabetical sequence is broken through, and in place of p the next letter n is used, the same letter and even word, nxi, r^'eh, " Look upon," beginning ver. 1 8 as ver. 1 9 ; thus showing that ver. 1 9, with the succeeding verses, is but the develop- ment of the central verse.^ Vers. 19-21. There were two petitions in ver. 18. 1. " Look upon mine affliction and my toil ; " 2. " And forgive all my sins." The subject of the first (his affliction and toil) proceeded from his enemies ; of the second (his sins), from himself. The first is enlarged on in vers. 1 9 and 2 ; the second is now touched on and qualified in ver. 21 — Let integrity and uprightness preserve me : for 1 wait on Thee. Notwithstanding his sins, which he had confessed as justly meriting God's utmost wrath, he could yet appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the general sincerity and uprightness of that repentance, which by His grace he had been enabled to exercise, and of his endeavours, amidst all his imperfections, to serve God and humbly wait on Him. This plea is noticed (though slightly), since it had been mentioned in the answer of God, as necessary to entitle him to God's favour (ver. 10), " All the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies!' Slightly, we say : not that it is not most important, nay, an indispensable condition on the part of the suppliant, but because this was to form the main plea of the next Ps. xxvi., which is the sequel or complement of Ps. xxv. So ver. 1, ^ Mr. Thrupp in his Introduction to the Psalms, remarking on what I had stated in my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, adds a further reason for the doubling of the resh. The substance of his remarks is still more pointedly expressed by Bishop Wordsworth : "In order that the spirit of the Psalm may not be sacrificed to its alphabetical structure, and in order to excite attention by anomalies, and to bring out more forcibly the leynote of the Psalm, the koph is omitted in ver. 18 (where it might have been expected), and we have a double resh in vers. 18, 19, corresponding to the double aleph at the beginning of the Psalm. The double aleph brings out the assertion that the soul is looking up to God ; the double resh brings out the prayer, that God will look down on the soul." PSALM XXV. 71 " Judge me, Jeliovali ; for I have walked in mine integrity ; ver. 2, Examine me, Jehovah . . . ver. 3, For [not- withstanding my losing sight in a moment of darkness and distress of Thy mercy and truth, yet in the. habitual tenor of my life] Thy mercy ^ is before mine eyes ; and I have walked in Thy truth [as my guide]." For some further remarks on this Fsalm, particularly those tending to prove that the deviations from regularity in the alphabetical sequence, so far from arguing any corruption in the text, are strangely confirmative of its genuineness (since they are designedly introduced by the author himself for a higher purpose), I would refer to my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 99-102. On one of these, however, I must briefly touch, as it bears on our present subject, the use of numbers in tracing the relations of the Psalms to each other in the Psalter. The first and last verses of Ps. xxv. in one aspect stand apart from all the rest (1) in consisting of a single line and clause ; and (2) in being so far out of the alphabetical sequence, since ver. 2 appears to be marked in some degree as the commencement of the Psalm by its beginning also with the first letter of the alphabet n (its second word only begin- ning with n). Vers. 1 and 2 2 are thus isolated and brought into correspondence with each other. They enclose between them the whole Psalm, which is thus made to consist of 20 verses, i.e. twice 10 (the number of completeness), and of which they form a brief compendium or quintessence == I trust in Thee (ver. 1) ; therefore deliver me and my people Israel (ver. 22).' To mark this intended isolation of ver. 1, it might have been thought that some other letter (as in ver. 22) should have been chosen rather than x. But, as Hengstenberg ^ The same word nori) cMsed, mercy, is used as in Ps. xxv. 7 and 10, though the Authorized Version very improperly renders it by different English terms, thus concealing the allusive connection (as in Ex. xxxiv. 6) from the English reader. 2 Comp. Ps. xxxvii., which is reduced in like manner to 40 (four tens of) verses in place of 44, and 20 (two tens of) letters in place of 22 (y being concealed behind a prefixed ^ in ver. 28, and n behind a 1 in ver. 39) ; see p. 77. 72 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. remarks, it was necessary that the Psalm should " bear, as it were, on its front the signature of an alphabetical Psalm ; " besides, that s must occur in ver. 1 to make up the 2 1 (or 3x7) verses. We shall see afterwards the analogical use of this observa- tion in leading us to isolate Ps. i. and Ixxii, in the first two Books of Psalms, so as to bring the number of Psalms to 7 tens in both books, thus designated by the 7 as a united sacred whole, consisting Book I. of 4 tens, or 40 Psalms, Book 11. of 3 tens, or 30 Psalms, if we deduct Ps. i. as the introduction and Ps. Ixxii. as the close. Ps. xxxiv., the second of the alphabetical Psalms, has been formed exactly on the model of Ps. xxv., 1 being omitted in order to reduce the number of letters and verses to 3 x 7, but a 22nd verse being added, beginning in like manner with part of the same verb ms, to redeem — these being the sole departures in it from the regular alphabetical sequence. For the light thrown on the sequence of thought by the alphabetical arrangement, the reader is referred to Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 102-105. But the correctness of the arrangement assigned to Ps. xxv. and xxxiv. was next placed beyond doubt by the further examination of the third alphabetical Psalm (Ps. xxxvii.). It differs from the two former in y being the letter {ostensibly, but masked, behind a ?) omitted in place of i, and in each letter of the alphabet having two verses assigned to it, but with the remarkable exception of three verses, 7, 20, and 34, which have only one verse each, consisting, too, of three lines, while the other verses have mostly two. By counting, then, the letters (with the exception of the masked y and n), the Psalm will be found to be divisible, exactly like the two former, into three strophes of 7 letters each, which again are subdivided into 3, 1, 3, but with this demonstration of the correctness of the previous theory, that the unit in the centre is marked as standing alone, hy that letter having hut one single verse assigned to it. The object of David in this Psalm was to encourage believers, under one of the severest trials of their faith^ to PSALM XXV. 73 which they were exposed under the Old Testament dispensa- tion, from observing the apparent prosperity and triumph of the wicked. The first and last strophes are more hortatory. Ver. 1, "Fret not thyself," etc. ; ver. 27, "Depart from evil," etc., while the central is didactic, proving the reasonableness of the duty required. Strophe i. addresses (1) a warning, and (2) an encourage- ment to the righteous. 1st (negatively) as to the wicked, " Fret not " at their prosperity : for they shall soon be cut down (vers, 1, 2) ; 2nd (positively) as to thyself, " Trust in Jehovah and do good," assured that He will bring all finally to a happy and permanent issue for Thee (vers. 3-6) — both summed up in the central ver. 7, and enlarged on in vers. 8-13. Strophe ii. This exhortation is not weakened, but strengthened, by comparing the experience of the righteous and wicked, whether (1) of evil, "Fret not" — Vers. 14, 15— at their weapons threatening death. — They shall recoil on themselves. Vers. 16, 17— at their riches and might. — Better thy little with God upholding thee. Vers. 18, 19— at times of evil and famine. — Thou shalt be preserved and satisfied. Central 20. Envy them not, therefore, for their power and wealth. — " For the wicked shall perish and consume away." Nor (2) for their comparative experience of good ; for — Vers. 21-26. They borrow, and repay not ; but thou wilt have ever a little to give. — Thy steps are directed and upheld by God. — Such has been my experience from youth to old age. Strophe iii. I repeat then still more strongly my exhortation — Vers. 27-29. Depart from evil, and do good ; and so dwell securely in God's inheritance. Vers. 30, 31. But only if righteous in word, heart, and tvalk. Vers. 32, 33. For the Lord guardeth the righteous. Ver. 34. (Central thought) " Wait [then] on Jehovah, and keep His tvay^' and thou shalt be exalted, and see the wicked cut off. Vers. 35-40. This mine and the universal experience attest. 74 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The purport of the whole Psalm, it will be seen, might be summed up in the three central verses of the respective strophes — Ver. 7. Be still before Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him ; Fret not Thyself because of hiru who i^rospereth in his way. Ver. 20. For the wicked shall perish. Ver. 34. Wait on Jehovah, and keep His way, And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land ; When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. PSALM XXXVII. [a psalm] of DAVID. I. 1 X Fret not thyself because of the evil-doers, Be not envious against the workers of iniquity : 2 For like the grass they shall soon be cut down, And like the green herb shall they wither. 3 3 Trust in Jehovah, and do good ; Dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness.^ 4 Delight thyself also in Jehovah ; And He shall give thee the requests of thine heart. 5 3 Commit thy way unto Jehovah ; Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass : 6 And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, And thy judgment as the noon-day. 7 T Be still before Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him : Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. Because of the man who bringeth evil devices to pass. 8 n Cease from anger, and forsake wrath : Fret not thyself only to do evil. 9 For evil-doers shall be cut off : But those that wait upon Jehovah, they shall inherit the land. 10 "1 For yet a little while, and the wicked is not : Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he is not. 1 1 But the meek shall inherit the land ; And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 1 " Feed on ['delight in,' Gesenius] faithfulness." If, as the comparison with ver. 27, "do good, and [so] dwell for evermore," suggests, we connect "do good" with "dwell in the land," " feed on faithfulness " would mean on God'n faithfulness, as corresponding by parallelism with "Trust in Jehovah." Others render " Cherish faithfulness," or "Feed in security." PSALM XXXVII. / 12 T The wicked deviseth evil against the just, And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13 Jehovah shall laugh at him ; For He seeth that his day is coming. II. 14 n The sword ^ have the wicked drawn, And have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay the upright in walk. 15 n Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken. 16 tD Better is a little that the righteous hath. Than the abundance of many wicked. 1 7 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken : But Jehovah upholdeth the righteous. 18 ^ Jehovah knoweth the day.s of the jierfect ; And their inheritance shall be for ever. 19 They shall not be ashamed in the time of evil ; And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. 20 D For the wicked shall perish, And the enemies of Jehovah shall be as the excellency of the pastures : They have consumed ; in smoke have they consumed away. 21 ^ The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again ; But the righteous is ever gracious, and giving. 22 For those that are blessed of Him shall inherit the land ; And those that are cursed of Him shall be cut off. 23 J3 Of Jehovah it is that a man's steps are established ; And He has delight in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : For Jehovah upholdeth him with His hand. ^ The begimiing of strophe ii. is indicated not only by ver. 14 consisting of four lines in place of two, hut also by the same letter n repeated, and same word, beginning ver. 15. We have here a fine instance of that artifice of composition by which " the sound becomes an echo to the sense." In the same word, 2~)n, chirev, " sword," with which ver. 14 had begun, returning again at the begin- ning of ver. 15, we see, as it were, the recoil upon the wicked themselves of the Aveapon which they had unsheathed for the destruction of others. Compare the well-known instance of Pope— *' Up the high hill he heaves the huge round stone : The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground." 76 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 25 3 I have been young, and now am old ; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread. 26 All the day long is he gracious, and lendeth ; And his seed is blessed, III. 27 D Depart from evil, and do good; And dwell for evermore. 28 For Jehovah loveth judgment. And f orsaketh not His saints ; [;? y] For ever are they preserved : But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. 29 The righteous shall inherit the land. And dwell therein for ever. 30 S The mouth of the righteous uttereth wisdom, And his tongue speaketh of judgment. 31 The law of his God is in his heai't ; His steps do not falter. 32 V The wicked watcheth the righteous, And seeketh to slay him. 33 Jehovah will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged. 34 p Wait on Jehovah, and keep His way, And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land : When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 35 -| I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil : 36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not ; Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 37 tJ> Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : For there is a future to the man of peace. 38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together ; The future of the wicked is cut off. 39 ni But the salvation of the righteous is of Jehovah ; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. 40 And Jehovah has helped them, and rescued them : He will rescue them from the wicked, and save them, Because they have taken refuge in Him. The beginning of strophe iii. (as of strophe ii.) is distinctly indicated by the disproportionate length of stanza assigned (ostensibly) to the letter D, and by the apparent omission of PSALM xxxvir. 77 the letter y. The omission, however, is only apparent, the V^ in th)]}b, " for ever," being merely concealed behind the h = " for " prefixed (exactly as in ver. 3 9 n is concealed behind 1). All this is for a purpose. Ostensibly the number of letters is thus reduced to 20, or twice 10; and of verses to 40, or four times 10 (the number of completeness), exactly as we saw in Ps. xxv. the number of 20 obtained by concealing 3 behind n in ver. 2, and omitting n altogether. In the present Psalm, the 20 ostensible letters will be found to be synnnetrically divided by the 3 letters which have but a single verse assigned to them. Counting the letters always till we are stopped by one of these 3 letters, n, a, p, the arrangement is 3, 7, 7, 3. Thus every irregularity is satisfactorily accounted for. Two inferences seem fairly deducible from examination of this alphabetical Psalm. 1. The argument for the uncorrupted transmission of the text, which we drew from the examination of Ps. xxv. (see p. 71), is greatly strengthened by finding again in Ps. xxxvii. how scrupulously the copyists abstained from yielding to the temptation of restoring the Psalm (as on a casual examination it might appear) to its original perfection, by merely erasing the faulty b which seemed to have crept in before nhw in the middle of ver. 28, and the 1 before n in the first word of ver. 39 — which was all that was necessary to restore the unbroken sequence of the alphabet. 2. The expenditure of thought and nicety of arrangement needful for the symmetrical adjustment of single Psalms by the original authors, which the analysis of these Psalms argues as familiar to the Hebrew mind, will prepare the reader for examining with less misgiving the marvellous amount of re- flection and nicety of numerical and verbal adjustment which the arrangement of the Psalter as a connected whole will be found to disclose. As is well known, there is a distinctly marked arrangement of the Psalter into five books : Book I. comprising Pss. i.-xli. ; ' B}' restoring its rights to the y we have two stanzas (the second beginning with [For] "ever are they preserved "), each of four lines. 78 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Book II., Pss. xlii.-lxxii. ; Book III., Pss. Ixxiii.-lxxxix. ; Book IV., Pss. xc.-cvi. ; and Book V., Pss. cvii.-cl. : ^ the conclusiou of each of the first four books being marked off by a doxology. The reason usually assigned for the division into five is " to point to the correspondence with the five Books of Moses ; five, the signature of incompleteness [the half of the tcn\ denoting that each, the Book of the Law and the Book of Praise, is incomplete without the other. — Law, so far as it stands alone by itself, as something outward and objective, being but half perfect, which it becomes only when com- bined with, and inwardly ajDpropriated through, praise and devotion ; while by the five, stamped on the ' Book of Praises,' D"'^nn "iQD, is indicated, that not every kind of praise is worship acceptable to God, but only that which is based on the reve- lation contained in the Law, and is conformable to its prescriptions." ^ But alongside this qiiinary division there is another (still more general in the books of Scripture), the septeiuiry, ex- hibiting, too, its most common subdivision into 3-1-3. The first three books are grouped together by ending each with a doxology, in which the words " Blessed be the Lord ... for ever . . . Amen and Amen," occur in each ; the last three books begin each (see Pss. cvii., cxviii., and cxxxvi.) with — O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good : For His mercy endureth for ever, and end with Hallelujah Psalms, no hallelujah occurring in the intermediate Psalms. These three books which begin, and the three which close the Psalter, are separated, yet connected by, a central book (xc.-cvi.) which combines the characteristics of both the first three and the last three, since it ends (see Ps. cvi.) with the doxology of the first three, or Amen Books,^ but subjoins in addition the hallelujah of the last three. Its con- cluding Psalm, too (Ps. cvi.), strikes the keynote for all the 1 Now given in the Revised Version. - Stfihelin, Einleltung in die Kanonischen Biichcr. ^ But is distinguished from the Amen Books by having but one single Amen — constituting thus, with the 3 preceding couples, 7 Amens. PSALM XXXVII. V9 succeeding melodies, since it begins with a hallelujah, or invi- tation to " praise the Lord," followed by the words, occurring for the first time in the Psalter — O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, etc., these latter words forming the commencement of each of tbe three last books, while hallelujahs mark their conclusion. The following tabular arrangement will make this clear : — The Three Amen BooJcs. Book I. contains Pss. i. to xli., and ends wnth " Blessed be the Lord, etc. Amen and Amen." Book II. contains Pss, xlii. to Ixxii., and ends with " Blessed be the Lord, etc. Amen and Amen." Book III. contains Pss. Ixxiii. to Ixxxix., and ends with "Blessed be the Lord, etc. Amen and Amen." Central Booh. Book IV. contains Pss. xc. to cvi. It begins with the Psalm of Moses (Ps. xc.) and ends (Ps. cvi.) with " Blessed be the Lord, etc. Amen ; " but followed by, " Praise ye the Lord [Hallelujah]." The Three Hallelujah Boohs. Book V. — Ps. cvii. begins with " give thanks unto the Lord, for," etc., and Ps. cxvii. ends with " Praise ye the Lord [Hallelujah]." Book YI. — Ps. cxviii. begins with " give thanks unto the Lord, for," etc., and Ps. cxxxv. begins and ends with " Praise ye the Lord [Hallelujah]." Book VII. — Ps. cxxxvi. begins with " give thanks unto the Lord, for," etc., and Ps. cl. begins and ends with " Praise ye the Lord [Hallelujah]." ^ There are thus, in the whole Psalter, in all 7 Aniens, viz. 2 at the close of each of the first three books, and 1 at the close of Book IV. The hallelujahs are adjusted with equal precision and symmetry, there being in all 24, ^ For this division I am indebted to Burkii Gnomon Psalmorum. 80 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALKS, one for each of the 24 courses of priests or singers. Of these, 4 are assigned to the last three Psalms of Book IV. (its concluding Ps. cvi. both beginning and ending with hallelujah), and 20, or two tens, to the last three books. These 20 are so distributed that 10 are assigned to Books V. and VI., and 10 to Book VII., thus constituting the closing Book VII. the Hallelujah Book imr excellence ; its last 5 Psalms both beginning and ending each with hallelujah, while the concluding Ps. cL, in addition, calls on all in heaven and earth, 10 times in 5 verses, to praise God, and once more, in a 6th verse, " Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord." Of the 10 hallelujahs in Books V. and VI., 7 are assigned to Book V. and the 3 remaining to Ps. cxxxv., the last Psalm in Book VI., the end of which is thus distinctly marked off. The further use of the hallelujahs, in pointing out the significant connection of the Psalms in which they occur, will be seen when we come to examine the arrangement and grouping of the Psalms in each book. The central book of the last three (Book VI.), again, has its limits strictly defined by the Psalms which compose it. With the exception of its opening and concluding Psalms, it con- sists wholly of the great alphabetical Psalm, the cxix., and the remarkable group of the 15 Psalms of Degrees. These last, again, are arranged with much precision, the central Psalm (cxxvii.) being entitled Solomon's, with seven Psalms on either side of it, two in each series being entitled David's. This remarkable symmetry which pervades the Psalter in its external form seemed designed to point to a more import- ant symmetry and connection pervading it internally. The very terms by which we are thus led to discriminate the two leading groups, as the Amen and Hallelujah Books, point to progress from a lower to a higher stage, being in consonance with the advances of the spiritual life in the individual believer and in the Church. The Amen^ Books mark the ' Heb. 'amen = faithful, true. By this word the worshipper adds his Amen to the praises and prayers he otters, and expresses his confidence in the faithful- ness (nJIDN) ^mundh) of Him who hath promised — the books being thus INTEKNAL CONNECTIOX. 81 earlier stage which calls more for faith (owing to its severe trials by which Satan tries to terrify the inexperienced) in Him who is the Amen (the Faithful and True), and to indi- cate that this appeal to God's faithfulness has been their leading subject ; the closing Psalm of the three Amen Books, Ps. Ixxxix., reiterates 7 times God's 'emilndh, faithfulness (vers. 2, 3, 6, 9, 25, 34, 50); while the praises of the Hallelujah ^ Books are called forth by promises already ful- filled, at least in part, and deliverances experienced, which relate more to the later stage of the confirmed believer. Let us next proceed to test the correctness of this idea by some of those rules of parallelistic arrangement pervad- ing other portions of Scripture. One of the most common of these is the threefold division in which there is a grada- tional advance from the first to the third. Applying this principle of arrangement to the 150 Psalms " of the Psalter, we find it to consist of 3 fifties, or jubilee numbers, and each jubilee number to mark a new stage in advance. Thus — Ps. 1. is a call to "glorify" God (vers. 15 and 23), addressed by God to " Israel," " My people " (ver, 7) — to " My saints that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice " (ver. 5) — to "sacrifice unto God thanksgiving" (not the mere outward sacrifice of victims, but the sacrifice of the heart) for the deliverance He will send when they " call upon Him in the day of trouble" (ver. 15). Such is the true "sacrifice" and mode of "glorifying" God. For "whoso sacrificeth thanksgiving glorifieth me ; and whoso ordereth his way aright, I will make him to see the salvation of God" (ver. 25). Ps. c. is, on the contrary, a call by Israel to "all the denoted to be the Books of Faith, while those ending with hallelujahs are attested as specially the Books of Praise. ^ Heb. halleluyah — Praise ye Jab ! 2 That the number 150 (like the number 12 always preserved in Scripture in various enumerations of the tribes of Israel) is significant, appears from the Septuagint, which conjoins Pss. ix. and x. into one, and again Pss. cxiv. and cxv., yet readjusts afterwards the numbers, so as to make 150 in all, by dividing Ps. cxvi., and again cxlvii., into two parts or Psalms. The supernumerary Psalm which the Septuagint appends could evidently never have formed part of the Psalms for the public devotions of the sanctuary. 82 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. earth" to glorify God (ver. 1), to "come and know [acknow- ledge] that Jehovah, He is God " (ver. 3), to " enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise ; to give thanks unto Him, and bless His name " (ver. 4), that all may partake in His salvation. Ps. el. rises even above this, being a call for a universal hallelujah, " Let everytliing that hath breath praise Jehovah " (ver. 6) — a summons (now that God's salvation is complete) to all that are " in the sanctuary " below, to all that are " in the firmament of His power" above, to unite in one universal song of praise " for His mighty acts, according to His excel- lent greatness " (ver. 2). Let us next look at the several Books of Psalms to see whether the principles of numerical arrangement will assist us in discovering some of the leading ideas which their present order was designed to make prominent. One of these principles is, that if the number of verses, or other divisions of the whole composition, be uneven, the central division generally contains the central thought of the whole. Now Book I. consists of 41 Psalms. Consequently Pss. xx.-xxii., which form a connected trilogy, form also the centre or heart of Book I., there being 19 Psalms on either side. The subject of the three Psalms, as will be more fully shown afterwards, is the conflict which the King has to undergo, and the glorious victory which is to follow — Ps. XX. being the prayer for the Iviiig by his people, in whose welfare theirs is bound up (" we will rejoice in thy salvation," ver. 5), before his entering on " the day of trouble" (ver. 1, and compare xxii. 11); while Ps. xxi. is a thanksgiving hymn for the victory vouchsafed to him, and the prize he has obtained of long " life, even length of days for ever and ever," for himself and others. Both Psalms are summed up in Ps. xxii., which consists of 3 tens or decades, the first 2 (vers. 1-21) enlarging on the conflict of Ps. xx. (the same word " trouble " with which Ps. xxi. began being repeated in a central verse (xxii. 11), which unites the first 2 decades) ; while the last decade (vers. 22-31), corre- sponding to Ps. xxi., gives thanks for the deliverance vouch- INTEKNAL CONNECTION. 83 safed, and for the precious gifts of life and endless blessings obtained, not only for "the seed of Jacob" (vers. 22-26), but for " all the ends of the earth," and " all the kindreds of the nations" (vers. 27-31). The promised King of Israel thus forms the central picture in Book I., which began with placing before the eye of the worshippers, as the great object of their faith and trust, the " Anointed of the Lord," whom He was to " set upon His holy hill of Zion," as His " Son " and " King," and to whom He was to " give the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." Next let us look to the connection between Books I. and II. That some such connection exists, and that the two are meant to be paired together, has been generally concluded, not only from their containing, at least in the opinion of those who prefixed the titles, the great proportion of the Psalms of David and his contemporaries, but especially from the note appended to the last Psalm (Ixxii.) of Book II., " Ended are the prayers of David the son of Jesse," viz. when the promised King of Israel is come " whose throne shall be establislied for ever." That the coming and establishment of Messiah and his kingdom form the main subject of these two books is indi- cated first by what may be termed the most characteristic principle of parallelistic arrangement — the placing first and last the subject to which attention is intended principally to be drawn. By one mode of reckoning, the first Psalm was regarded as a general introduction to the whole Psalter, and the second Psalm became Ps. i., as we find it called in Acts xiii. 33, according to the reading adopted by Lachmann, Tregelles, and Tischendorf. In this view Ps. ii. strikes the keynote of the collection, the enthronization of " the Lord's Anointed," or Messiah, as His Son and King on the holy hill of Zion, but " ruling in the midst of his enemies ; " while at the close, in Ps. Ixxii., faith sees his kingdom at length established in " peace and righteousness," and his name destined to " endure for ever." Further, if by the application of another parallelistic rule we divide the 72 Psalms, of which these two books consist, 84 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. into three parts of 24^ Psalms each, we have depicted, in each successive 24th Psalm, the ever-advancing manifesta- tion of the King of Israel's might, and the increasing security accorded to Zion, " the city of the great King," and its people. Ps. xxiv. is generally considered to have been composed and sung on the occasion of David's bringing the ark of God from the house of Obededom to the city of David on Mount Zion. Now, therefore, when He to whom belong " the earth and the fulness thereof," and all its inhabitants, who " founded and upholdeth it," hath chosen Zion as His special dwelling- place, while the character, indeed, of those who are to be permitted to " stand in His holy place," and to " seek His face," constitutes the main (vers. 1-4) and central (vers. 5, 6) theme, still the security and permanence of the blessing vouchsafed to His worshippers form the climax and conclusion (vers. 7—10) of this triumphal ode. Who is this King who demands unbounded homage and reverence ? It is " Jehovah " Himself, " the Lord of hosts," " strong and mighty in battle " — who takes up His abode in Zion and ensures its security against all hostile attacks, and the permanence of its " gates " as " everlasting " — " doors that do last for aye." In Ps. xlviii. this enduring stability of Zion, " the city of the great King" (ver. 2), is confirmed by the signal defeat of one of the most formidable confederacies ^ ever planned for its destruction. In the graphic language of the Psalmist — 4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, They passed on together. 5 They, even they, saw, so they marvelled ; They were dismayed, they fled in haste. 6 Trembling took hold of them there, Pangs, as of a woman in travail. 1 The number 24 most probably having reference to the 24 orders of singers (as of priests) established by David "for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps for the service in the house of God," 1 Chron. xxv. - Either, according to some interpreters, of ten different nations, egged on by "the children of Lot " (Ps. Ixxxiii. 8) in the reign of Jehoshaphat (see 2 Chron. XX.), or, according to other interpreters, of Sennacherib with his attendant princes (see 2 Kings xix. 35). INTERNAL CONNECTION. 85 And " as we have heard " by the traditions of the past, " so have we seen in the city of Jehovah of Hosts." The deliver- ance now vouchsafed is an earnest of its unfaiHng security in the future. " God will establish it for ever." The Psalm concludes with a triumphant appeal to every one to survey and judge for himself of the impregnable strength of Zion — 12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her : Tell the towers thereof. 13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; That ye may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this God is our God for ever and ever : He Himself will be our guide even unto death. Finally, in Ps. Ixxii. our view is directed to the pro- mised seed of David, "the king's son," established in perfect peace, his kingdom reaching " from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth," " all kings falling down before him," men " springing forth from the city, like grass of the earth," " his name enduring for ever," " all men blessing them- selves in him, and all calling him blessed." The proofs now adduced seem sufiicient to show that one chief object proposed by the arrangement of Books I. and II. was to beget in the minds of the worshippers the expectation of a king promised to David of his race, greater than any that had yet appeared, to whom God was pre-eminently to be a Father, and he to be to Him a Son, and whose throne was to be established for ever. That the same object is still kept in view in Book III. appears from the very full enumeration of all the particulars of the promise given in its concluding Psalm (Ixxxix.), and from the Psalmist's professed resolution to hold fast his faith in the certainty of their ultimate fulfilment — 1 Of the mercies of the Lord for ever will I sing : With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations. 2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever, etc., notwithstanding the present apparent failure of the promises with which he concludes — 39 Thou hast abhorred the covenant of thy servant ; Thou hast profaned his crown even to the ground, etc. 86 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. But I had long been aware of the evidence thus furnished, that the promise of the Messiah to be born of David's race connected the first three books of the Psalter together, as being a principal topic in each, before it occurred to me to test further the correctness of my conclusion, by applying to the three Amen Books, regarded as a whole, the parallelistic numerical principle already applied to Book I., viz. 89 being an uneven number, what have the compilers signified to be the central subject of all three Amen Books by the Psalm to which they have assigned the central place ? — To my surprise, I found that they had notified this in the most signal manner by assigning this distinction to Ps. xlv., which cele- 1) rates the marriage union of the promised Messianic King to the virgin daughter of Zion. Por such evidently (whatever may have been the intention of the original writer) must have been the interpretation stamped upon the Psalm the moment it was admitted into the Book of Public Prayer and Praise of the Church (not for a mere temporary use, but for all ages), in the estimation both of those who inserted it and henceforth of all who joined in the service of the sanctuary. No other view can account for its admission. The central subject of the three Amen Books is thus signi- fied to \)Q " the things which " the " ready writer " indited " touching the Xing." Ps. xlv. forms the heart of the whole, there being two alphabets^ of Psalms (2 x 22 = 44) on the one side, and two alphabets (again 2 x 22 = 44) on the other, the prediction regarding the promised King of Israel standing thus prominently before the reader at the beginning (Ps. ii.), middle (Ps. xlv.), and end (Ps. Ixxxix.). ^ That the first twenty-two (Pss. i.-xxii. ) form a complete intimately connected whole or alphabet (there being 22 letters in the Hebrew Alphabet), will be shown afterwards. Whether the other twenty-twos are intended to indicate any internal connection, I must leave to others to investigate, merely remarking that besides the division into 4 twenty-twos, just pointed out in the three Amen Books, the three Hallelujah Books (Pss. cvii.-cl.) consist of 44 Psalms, or 2 x 22. One arrangement of the Psalter would thus be— I. 3 Amen Books, consisting of 22 -f- 22 Psalms— Ps. xlv.— 22 -f 22 Psalms. II. A Central Book, consisting of Pss. xc.-cvi. III. 3 Hallelujah Books, consisting of 22 -f 22 Psalms. PSALM LXXXIX. 87 The Messiah (let me repeat), and no mere mortal king of David's race, and Ins spiritual union with the virgin daughter of Zion as his bride, were evidently the subjects designed to be placed before the mind of the worshippers by those who inserted these Psalms into the Devotional Book of the Church, and arranged them in their present order ; and such, henceforth, being the subject for meditation and expecta- tion which this Psalm suggested to the Israelitish Church, must determine its import to us, and the interpretation which we are bound to assign it, whatever theory may be formed of the intention of the original composer. But if we were right, in view of the inappropriateness and extravagance of some of the expressions employed in Pss. ii. and Ixxii. when applied to David or Solomon, in concluding that not they, but the Messiah, must have been the direct and primary subject contemplated even by the original writer, equally, or even more so, must this have been the case with regard to Ps. xlv. We cannot conceive any devout, much less inspired, Israelite guilty of such fulsome adulation as to address to any king such as Solomon, still less Joram (Delitzsch), the M'ords, " Thy throne, God,^ is for ever and ever." Let us now examine Ps. Ixxxix., which recounts with great fulness the promises made to David of a king to be raised up of his seed whose " throne should be as the moon, established for ever" (vers. 36, 37), yet ending in apparent failure — the crown of God's Anointed being profaned to the ground. PSALM LXXXIX. MASCHIL OF ETHAN THE EZRAHITK. Part I.— God's Promises of Mercy and of an everlasting Throne to David, ensured by His Might and Faithfulness. Scheme (4+4) (5+5) verses, or (8+8) (10 + 10) lines. 1 Doctrinal bias alone could have led to the translation, " Thy throne is God." To make God the throne on which any one, much less a mere mortal, is to sit, is inadmissible. To Messiah the address, " Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever," finds its prelude and sufficient precedent in Ps. ex., where he is made to share the throne of Jehovah, " Sit thou on my right hand " (ver. 1), and his priesthood and throne are declared everlasting, "Thou art a [king and] priest for ever" (ver. 4) ; cf. also Isa. ix. 6, " His name shall be called Miglity God." STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Strophe 1. —The promises to their king, the Church on earth will ever holdfast (4 verses). The Mercies ^ of Jehovah for ever ^ will I sing : To all generations ^ will I make known Thy FaithfClness with my For I have said, For ever Mercy shall be built up ; [mouth. The heavens, Thou shalt establish Thy Faithfulness therein. " I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, For ever will I establish thy seed. And build up thy throne to all generations." Selah. 2. — and the holy ones in heaven will praise Jehovah, as certain to fulfil hy His supreme Might and Faithfulness (4 verses or 8 lines). 5 And the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O Jehovah ; Yea, Thy Faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. 6 For who in the sky can be compared unto Jehovah ? Who is like unto Jehovah among the sons of the gods ? 7 God is very terrible in the council of the holy ones. And to be feared above all that are round about Him, is 8 O God of hosts, who is like unto Thee 1 * [Jehovah.^ Mighty O Jah,^ and Thy Faithfulness is round about Thee. Strophe 3. — a Might lohich controls the sea, which smote Egypt of old, and whose are the heavens and earth (5 verses ar 10 lines). 9 Thou rulest the pride of the sea : When the waves thereof arise. Thou stillest them. 10 Thou didst crush Rahab * as one that is slain : With the arm of Thy strength Thou scatteredst Thine enemies. 1 1 Thine are the heavens, yea. Thine the earth : The world and its fulness. Thou didst found them. 12 North and south, 7'Aow didst create them : Tabor and Hermon shout for joy in Thy name. 13 Thou hast an arm with might : Strong is Thy hand, high is Thy right hand. 1 One great fault in the A.V. is the changing of the order of the words from the Hebrew, thereby, besides destroying the poetical character of the language, frequently hiding from the English reader the emphasis intended. The "mercies of Jehovah" are what the Psalmist will above all look to for deliverance from the present evils, while pleading His "might and faithfulness " as guaranteeing the fulfilment of all His promises. ^ The speaker, therefore, is the Church, not a single individual ; Hengstenberg. ^ To Dr. Briggs {Messianic Prophecy) I owe the rectification of the rhythm, the lines being all tetrameters. * Taken from Moses' song, "Who is like unto Thee, Jehovah !" Ex. xv. 11, and Jah from ver. 2, where first it occurs. Cf. also "Rahab " = Egypt, ver. 10 of this Psalm— all recalling that "by strength of hand He brought out " Israel from Egypt, Ex. xiii. 3. PSALM LXXXIX. . 89 Strophe 4. — a Faithfulness, combined toith "Justice and mercy^^ in which God's people can confide^ since " to Jehovah belongs our king^' ver. 18 (5 verses or 10 lines). 14 Justice and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne : Mercy and truth go before Thy face. 15 Blessed is the people that know the trumpet sound : Jehovah, in the light of Thy countenance they shall walk.^ 16 In Thy name shall they rejoice ^ all the day : And in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.^ 17 For Thou art the glory of their strength ; And in Thy favour Thou wilt exalt our horn. 18 For to Jehovah belongeth our shield, And to the Holy One of Israel our King. Part II. — For thus ran the Words of God's Promise, pledging His Might and Faithfulness for their Fulfilment to His Servants. Strophes 1 and 2 (or strophe and antistrophe). — That God's Might would give Might and supremacy to Israel's king, making him His First-horn and Most High over all (20 lines). 19 Then Thou didst speak in a vision Unto Thy saints, and didst say, 1 have laid help upon one that is mighty ; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 20 I have found David my servant ; With my holy oil have I anointed him : 21 With whom my hand shall be estabUshed ; Yea, mine arm shall strengthen him. 22 The enemy shall not exact upon him ; Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 23 And I will beat down his adversaries before him, And smite them that hate him. 24 And my Faithfulness and my mercy 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 cry unto me, Thou art my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation. 27 Yea, I will make him my First-born, Most High 2 over the kings of the earth. ' Futures, not j)resents (as Delitzsch, etc. ) — Though cast down at present, God will exalt His people. * "■Most High " (Heb. 'elydn) is a Divine name. The Messianic king is made an 'elydn to the kings of the earth, as Moses was made an 'Eldhtm (God) to Aaron, Ex, iv. 16. Dr. Briggs' Messianic Prophecy, p. 260. 90 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Strophes 3 and 4 {or strophe and antistrophe). — That God's Faithfulness would never fail, even though the Icing's children shovid prove v,nfaith- ful (20 lines). 28 For ever will I keep for him my mercy, And my covenant shall stand faithful to 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 judgments ; '31 If my statutes they profane, And keep not my commandments ; 32 Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. •53 But my mercy will I not utterly take from him, Nor prove false to my Faithfulness. 34 M)^ covenant will I not profane. Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 35 Once have I sworn by my holiness. Unto David will I not lie, 3f) His seed shall endure for ever. And his throne as the sun before me. 37 As the moon [which] is established for ever. And [is] a faithful witness in the sky. Selah. Part III. — And yet God's Promises seem to be made void, AND His Mercies forgotten. Strophes 1 a7id 2 {or strophe and antistrophe). — The throne of His servant being cast doivn, and his enemies excdted, and his days cut short (8 + 8 lines). 38 But Tho^i hast cast off and rejected. Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed. 39 Thou hast abhorred the covenant of Thy servant ; Thou hast profaned his crown to the ground. 40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges ; Thou hast made his strongholds a ruin. 41 All that pass by the way spoil 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 Yea, Thou turnest back the edge of his sword. And hast not made him to stand in the battle. 44 Thou hast made his brightness to cease. And his throne Thou hast cast down to the ground. 45 Thou hast cut short the days of his youth : Thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. PSALM LXXXIX. 91 Strophe 3. — the life of him, whose "throne should he established for ever,'' being no more enduring than others (6 lines). 46 How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou hide Thyself for ev'ev ? Shall Thy wrath burn like fire ? 47 Remember I am — what a fleeting life ! For what vanity hast Thou created all the children of men ! 48 Who is the man that can live and not see death ? That shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ? Selah. Strophe 4. — and himself svhjected to the reproaches of all the 2:>eople around " V^here is thy God?" cf Ps. xlii. 3 and 10 (6 lines). 49 "Where are Thy former Mercies, Lord, Which Thou swarest unto David in Thy Faithfulness ? 50 Eemember, O Lord, the reproach of Thy servants ; How I do bear in my bosom ... all the many people ; 51 Wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, Jehovah ; Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. 52 Blessed be Jehovah for Evermore ! Amen ! and Amen ! The Psalm falls evidently into three main parts or divi- sions. Part I. (1-18) expresses the Psalmist's resolve to hold fast his faith in the promises made to David. Part II. (19-37) recounts the promises at great length, originally given in 2 Sam. vii. 12-16. Part III. (38-51) laments their apparent failure. Each of these parts is again subdivided into four stanzas or strophes, the remarkably artistic symmetry of the whole arrangement assisting us greatly in the accurate analysis of the train of thought. Thus in Part I. strophe 2nd ends with founding the resolve to hold fast God's promise — on His Might and Faithfulness. These two attributes accordingly form the subjects respectively of strophes 3rd and 4th, and again in Part II. of each of its two principal subdivisions. These last, with vers. 38-45 in Part III., present remarkable instances of what is called the Introverted Parallelism, in which " the stanzas are so constructed that the first member shall be parallel with the last, the second with the penultimate, and so throughout, in an order that looks 92 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. inward, or to borrow a military phrase, from flanks to centre." ^ The strophe thus returns upon itself, or forms a double strophe (strophe and antistrophe). The corresponding parallel members are indicated by their equal distance from the left-hand margin. To assist the student in tracing the correspondence in the longer arrange- ments of the introverted parallelisms, the parallel verses are here brought into juxtaposition. In Part II. {N.B. — The first two lines of ver. 1 9 introduce God's words, and stand apart by themselves) — Vers. 19, 27. The exaltation of David. Vers. 20, 26. God's choice and consecration of David — and David's self- dedication and devotedness to God. Vers. 21, 25. God's " hand and arm " strengthening David's " hand and right hand." A'ers. 22, 24. The aggressions of the wicked warded off by God's faith- fulness and power. Ver. 23 (central ver.). Nay, themselves smitten down.- Vers. 28, 37. God's " mercy kept /o?* ever," and His " covenant /aiV/i/wZ " as " the moon is established /or ever," and "a faithful witness." Vers. 29, 36. David's " seed and throne " shall " endure for ever." Vers. 30, 35. Though His children prove unfaithful, yet God will not be unfaithful. Vers. 31, 34. Though God's " statutes they profane," yet His "covenant will He not profane." Vers. 32, 33. God's chastening in measure is made to correspond with His mercy and faithfulness, so that they can run parallel side by side.^ ^ See Jebb's Sacrtd Literature, p. 53, and my Symmetrical Structure of Sci-ij^- lure, pp. 39-41. ^ In the first introverted parallelism (vers. 19-27) it will further be observed that the verses seem to be arranged in triplets, vers. 19-21 setting forth more what God's favom- and " ha7id " are to do for David, to which correspond the last three verses, 25-27, describing how David is to reciprocate, by his " hands,^' and filial devotion and zeal in furthering his heavenly Father's glory and king- dom ; while the three central verses (22-24) refer more to the averting of evil from him by God's sustaining grace. 3 Vers. 28-37 and 38-45 evidently run in couplets. PSALM LXXXIX. 93 In Part Ul- cers. 38, 45. To God's rejection of His anointed corresponds the ^^ shame" cast upon him, and to God's wrath, as the cause, the cutting short of his days. [Cf. Ps. xc. 6-12.] Vers. 39, 44. "Crown" and "throne" "profaned" and "cast down " to the ground." Vers. 40, 43. His fences all made to fail. Vers. 41, 42. And his neighbours and enemies triumj^h over him.i In accordance with the double Amen in the Doxology denoting this to be the concluding Psalm of the three Amen Books, expressive of Israel's faith in Jehovah as " the Amen, faithful and true" (Eev. iii. 14), is the occurrence, 7 times repeated in this Psalm, of its cognate substantive 'emunah' (miDN) "faithfulness," applied to God.^ A careful study of this Psalm is most important, as furnishing the solution of several problems, 1. It shows the representative character of such men as David, as understood by the Israelites of old. It will be observed that the promises, which in the original communica- tion made to David by Nathan (2 Sam. vii. 12-16) refer to his seed, are in this Psalm described as if referring to David himself personally, and to be fulfilled in him as an individual. This is but an illustrative example of an idea which pervades ^ Vers. 28-37 and 38-45 evidently run in couplets. 2 These 7 (or sacred cycle of instances), with the 5 which are found in the pre- ceding Psalms (i.-lxxxviii.), make the number of times that 'emunah', "faith- fulness," occurs in the three Amen Books 12, the symbolic number of Israel, as if the whole "12 tribes instantly serving God day and night " (Acts xxvi. 7) avouched their faith in the "faithfulness " of Jehovah ; and if to these 12 we add the 10 times (the number symbolizing completeness) in which the word occurs in the succeeding Psalms, we have a complete alphabet (22 times) of its occurrence in the whole Psalter (just as we have 7 Amens and 24 Hallelujahs, besides what will shortly fall to be remarked as to "j^o. assigned with remark- able precision and symm.etry to the various books). These may be thought to be merely accidental coincidences ; but it is difficult to account for the precision of the numbers except on the supposition of studied purpose on the part of those who finally arranged the Psalter ; and if so, we have in this an additional guarantee for the extreme care taken to preserve the text incorrupt, when even its very words are numbered. 94 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the Old Testament, of the intimate union considered to exist between the father and his children, as [if they formed but a part of him, and continued his life. Thus what was strictly true, or only to be fully realized, in the case of the offspring, might be spoken of the father. To Abraham it was said by God, " Arise and walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee " (Gen. xiii. 1 7), although to Abraham himself He " gave none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on " (Acts vii. 5). Of Jacob and Esau, while yet babes struggling in their mother's womb, the answer given to Eebecca's inquiry was, " Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of 'peoples shall be separated from thy bowels" (Gen. xxv. 23). Jacob, or Israel, refers as frequently to the people as to their progenitor ; and Jacob's blessings, which he pronounced on his sons, view them as developed into the twelve tribes rather than as individuals. So in the Psalm before us the promises to be fulfilled in David's seed are spoken of as if made to David himself — yet also to his people, " to thy saints," accord- ing to the true reading in ver. 19 (20), ie. to all true believers in Israel ; while, finally, they culminate and find their ex- haustive fulfilment in the Messiah, who accordingly receives the name "David" in Jer. xxx. 9 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 24, 25. So intimate is the union considered to be, and so preg- nant the fulness attributed to the promises of the Lord, that such impersonal fulfilment was not supposed to exhaust the import of God's promises. The promise of the land made to Abraham, and repeated to Isaac and Jacob, and fulfilled to their descendants, had still to them a personal aspect, " To thcc will I give this land," in which each claimed his indi- vidual interest. God could not come short of the full truth of His words. They each looked for a land to be given to themselves personally. They might not indeed have been able to put their aspirations into the definite form into which the Epistle to the Hebrews translates their hopes, " These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they PSALM LXXXIX. 95 that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own" (Heb. xi. 13, 14, E.V.). They conchided, it might be ahnost unconsciously to themselves, that to whomsoever the ever-living Jehovah had become a God, He could never cease to be such. All with whom He has once entered into close relation must live for ever. With Job they were ready to say, " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him " (Job xiii. 15).^ This explains to ns such expressions as those of David, in which, identifying himself with his seed in the promise made by God, " I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever " (2 Sam. vii. 13), he claims it as given to himself. Thus, in Ps. xvi. 10, 11, we have supposed David (see before, p. 42), though as " a prophet knowing " that God's promise referred to his seed, still to claim for himself a share in the words, " Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption," etc. In this sense father and offspring, type and antitype, blend together, so that it may be difficult in some cases to determine how much we are to expand or restrict the application of the words. In the Psalm before us, what in the original promise in 2 Sam. vii. 14 seemed in its literal and proximate sense to apply only to Solomon, " I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men," etc., is in Ps. Ixxxix. 30 expanded so as to apply to all the royal seed of David, " If his children forsake my law," etc. And when on further consideration we see that the full meaning of the Psalm is exhausted only in the Messiah, as being God's " First-born, Most High over the kings of the earth," we seem entitled to extend the promise to His children, to all that are in Christ Jesus — that though chastened they shall not be utterly forsaken, and that His seed and Cluirch shall never fail. The view now given explains the reasoning of St. Paul in Gal. iii. 16-29, " Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, 1 We shall afterwards see that David, or whoever wrote the hejitade of Pss. xvi.-xxii., had attained to a very distinct hope of a future life beyond the grave. 96 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and to his seed," ver. 16. This seed (he argues), in whom " all the nations of the earth should be blessed " [Gentiles as well as Jews], could not be all the various " seeds " sprung from Abraham, carnal as well as spiritual, but must be " one seed," comprehending all, and therefore a spiritual seed. " He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one " (ver. 16). This " one seed " he first of all regards in its individual aspect as having reference to Christ, and therefore adds, " And to thy seed, which is Christ." But the " one seed " may equally be taken in its collective aspect, as including all that are in Christ, and consequently St. Paul adds in vers. 27-29, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." 2. Commentators take much trouble to discover, if possible, the original occasion on which a Psalm was composed, as considering that this must furnish an important criterion by which to judge of the import of the whole, and of the inter- pretation to be put upon particular expressions. The occasion which called forth Ps. Ixxxix. has by many been referred to the disastrous crisis on the death of Solomon, when ten of the tribes cast off their allegiance to the house of David, and Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Eehoboam and reduced him to a state of vassalage. Others, again, refer the occasion to the latter days of the Jewish monarchy, when the throne of David was tottering to its fall, and when the prospect for the future was so dark and threatening that it seemed God had forgotten His covenant and promise to David. But what is of far greater consequence than to ascertain, even if we could, the original occasion of a Psalm, is to note its import as determined by the place assigned to it in the final arrange- ment of the Psalter, and the teaching thus inculcated, for centuries, on the Church of Israel respecting the coming of their expected king Messiah, and his dignity and kingdom. Now, whatever may have been the original occasion of Ps. Ixxxix., its present position and connection, with all that pre- cedes and follows, point distinctly to the cessation of the outward visible kingdom by the deportation of the people to rSALM LXXXIX. 97 Babylon, This is signified, not only by the remarkable arrangement already pointed, out of the three Amen Books in which God's promised king occupied the prominent places of the beginning, middle, and end, — Ps. ii. setting forth the inauguration of the kingdom, Ps. xlv. bearing on its front the " things touching the king " as the central subject of the whole, and the concluding Psalm (Ixxxix.) deploring the seeming failure of all the high expectations formed, — but, as we shall see afterwards, by the central Book IV. (Pss. xc.-cvi.), which immediately follows Ps. Ixxxix., being intended to comfort the Israelites under their captivity in Babylon, by the assurance that Jehovah Himself is coming to reign, and to make " all the ends of the earth to see the salvation of our God." To the same conclusion lead many circumstances connected with the Psalm we are considering. With Ps. Ixxxix. ends all mention of the promised king of David's race ; while in it and the preceding Psalms, me lech (J\?JT), king, is 15 time"-; applied to the Davidic king of Israel, and 15 times also to Jehovah.^ On the contrary, wherever it afterwards occurs (5 times as me'lech = king, and 5 times in the verbal form as malach' = he has become king, or reigneth — 10 times in all), it refers uniformly to Jehovah Himself (Ps. xcv. 3, xcviii. 6, xcix. 4, cxlv. 1, cxlix. 2, xciii. 1, xcvi. 10, xcvii. 1, xcix. l,cxlvi. 10). This would seem to suggest that the promised Messiah, or anointed king of Israel, must be Jehovah. 3. In remarkable accordance with this is the application, to the promised king of David's line in Ps. Ixxxix., of the title 'Elyon (liyJ'), " Most High," which, wherever else it is applied to a person (31 times), the Israelites had been taught in their Scriptures uniformly to associate with the person of Jehovah 1 Two instances where the A.V. refers " king " to Jehovah, it is now very generally conceded, ought to be interpreted of the Davidic king of Israel. The first of these is Ps. xx. 9, where, as Delitzsch remarks, " the express object of the Psalm being to supplicate salvation for the king," the rendering ought to be, "Save the king, Jehovah ! May He hear us in the day we call." Besides, n^?On> i^^ king, is never applied absolutely as a divine title. The other instance is ver. 18 of the Psalm (Ixxxix.) before us, where both grammar and the argument of the Psalm require us to translate : " For to Jehovah belongeth our shield ; and to the Holy One of Israel our king." 98 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. alone. Twice only is it applied, not, however, to a person, but to Israel, or the whole body of God's people, to denote the close union and participation in supremacy over all nations to which God promised to admit them as His " peculiar people " and kingdom, viz. in Deut. xxvi. 18, 19, "The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be His peculiar people, as He hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all His command- ments : and to make thee most high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour." And to the same effect Deut. xxviii. 1. This title it is — along with another which God had given to Israel on their first calling to be His people, " Israel is my son, even my first-born" (Ex. iv. 22) — that is now applied to the Davidic king in Ps. Ixxxix. 27, "I will make him my First-born, Most High over tlie kings of the earth," to intimate / that it is in him first that these promises are to receive their fulfilment, and in and through him ultimately to his people. Eut who is this "Elyon, " Most High," who is to be king over all ? The next book (Pss. xc.-cvi.) informs us in a way which, to a people accustomed to the parallelistic connection and liturgical grouping of their Psalms, must have awakened strange surmisings in the minds of the more reflecting. The " Most High " is the title three times there applied to God in the ancient Psalms with which the book opens, Ps. xci. 1 and 9, Ps. xcii. 1, and again in Ps. xcvii. 9. This, coupled with the announcement which forms, as it were, the burden of the book, that Jehovah Himself is coming to reign as king, seemed to necessitate the conclusion that the king of whom Jehovah had said, " I will make him my First- born, Most High over the kings of the earth," must be so intimately associated with Jehovah as to be almost one and the same. This striking connection prepares us for the solution of two obscure passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 4. The first of these presents a difficulty which hitherto has baffled the efforts of all commentators to solve. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, designed to con- vince not merely believers in Jesus, but waverers and even HEBREWS I. 10-12. 99 sceptics among the Hebrews, the author adduces seven passages from the Jewish Scriptures in proof of his position, that the Messiah was exalted far above angels, the highest of created beings, as being in a distinctive sense Son of God, nay, creator of the heavens and earth, the everlasting God. The sixth, and strongest of these, bearing especially on His eternal existence, is contained in vers. 10-12, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands; they shall perish, but Thou continuest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment ; and as a mantle shalt Thou roll them up, and they shall be changed ; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." The quotation is taken from Ps. cii. 25-27. But when we turn to the psalm and compare these verses with the whole context, it is indisputable that they are addressed not to the Messiah, but to Jehovah Himself.^ How, then, came the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to apply the words to the Messiah, that, too, without a single word of comment added to justify the application? The true solution, I believe, alone is to be found in the connection between the 4th Book of the Psalms, in which this Ps. cii. occurs, and the three preceding books. The great subject of these, as we have seen, was to keep alive, in the hearts of all true worshippers, 1 The most strained attempts have been made hy various interpreters to get rid of this conclusion, all of which have been most effectually disposed of by Dr. Morison in a paper which appeared in the Expositor, vol. ii. 1874, pp. 421-423. Dr. Morison's ovm solution, however, is not less objectionable. He sees nothing for it but to cut the Gordian knot. "The inspired writer (he conceives) has already given his readers abundance of demonstration " of the divinity of the Messiah, and now, merely by way of " n?sthetical embellish- ment," he throws in "the grand words of the 102nd Psalm, as truly and admirably descriptive of the super-angelic glory " of the Messiah. Nothing but utter despair of saving otherwise the inspiration of the sacred writers could have led so judicious a critic to resort to so desperate a remedy — as if a con- summate master of argument such as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, fould, in labouring to convince the Jews of a point which ran counter to their most inveterate prejudices, have laid himself open to the retort, that the strongest passage he could adduce was utterly irrelevant to the point in ques- tion. Prof. A. B. Davidson, in his Hebrews (Handbooks for Bible Classes), sees no help for it but to hold that the whole seven passages (juoted from the Old Testament in Hebrews are not brought forward as proofs of the things said of the Son in vers. 1-3, but were merelv intended as " illustrations." 100 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the expectations of tlie Messiah, or anointed king of David's race, to whom God was to be a " Father, and he to be His son, to be set as His king on His holy hill of Zion " (Ps. ii.) ; who was to be " fairer than the children of men," addressed by the Divine name, and invested with everlasting dominion, " Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever " (Ps. xlv. 2,6); who should introduce a reign of universal righteousness and peace, when " all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations serve him," all " bless themselves in him, and all nations call him blessed" (Ps. Ixxii. 11, 17). And now once more in the closing Psalm (Ixxxix.) of the three Amen Books, all the promises of the " sure mercies of David " are called to mind of a seed to be raised up to him, whom the Lord was to make His " First-born, Most High over the kings of the earth," " His throne " to be " as the sun before me," and as " the moon established for ever" (vers. 27, 36, 37). Yet, — and the reflection would only be deepened by the failure in the past of any expectation, if such was ever enter- tained by the people, from the greatest or best of their kings, — reflecting on the weakness and perishableness of every mortal, the Psalmist in concluding asks. What man of woman born can ever fulfil such lofty promises and reign for ever ? For what vanity hast Thou created all the children of men ? Who is the man that can live and not see death 1 That shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ? (Ixxxix. 47, 48). How appropriate the reply of Book IV. as struck by its keynote in the Psalm of Moses, Ps. xc. ! To the eternal Jehovah Himself alone can we look. xc, 1 Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. 3 Man Thou turnest to dust ; And saidst, Return, ye children of men. Amidst all the enemies, and evils, and death by which man is assailed, whither shall he turn for refuge but unto the Lord alone ? CONNECTION OF BOOK IV. 101 xci. 1 He that sittetli down in the secret place of the j\Iost High, Under the shade of the Almighty shall he lodge. 2 I will say to Jehovah, My refuge and my fortress ! My God ! in Him will I trust. 9 The Most High hast thou made thy dwelling-place ! 10 There shall no evil befall thee. 13 Upon the lion and the adder shalt thou tread, etc. For the fulfilment of all the great promises with regard to tlie king who is to reign for ever, Jehovah Himself is announced in Psalm after Psalm of this book as taking to Himself the kingdom — xciii. 1 Jehovah reigneth :^ with majesty is He clad, xcvi. 10 Say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth. 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth exult 13 Before Jehovah, for He cometh ; For He cometh to judge the earth, xcvii. 1 /(/^ora/i re((7«t'M." let the earth exult ! 6 Worship Him, all ye gods, xcviii. 1 O sing unto Jehovah a new song. 3 He hath remembered His mercy and His faithfulness toward the house of Israel : All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 6 Make a joyful noise before the King Jehovah. xcix. 1 Jehovah reigneth : let the peoples tremble. And when we come to Ps. cii., we have (immediately fol- lowing on Ps. ci.) a Psalm setting forth David's resolve on his accession to the throne to rule in the fear of the Lord, pro- moting " the faithful of the land " (ver. 6), and " cutting off all the workers of iniquity " (ver. 8), " a prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord " — seemingly a captive in Babylon (perhaps Daniel as he pleads with the Lord (ver. 13) to " arise and have compassion upon Zion, for tlie set time is come ").^ The 1 Or as Deli tzsch renders it, "Jahveh is now king." The rendering of the Septuagint is, *0 Kvpios £jSaa-/xsua-£», The Lord has become king. The Hebrew verb (and tense) is the same as that commonly used to denote the beginning of a reign. Cf. "Adonijah reigneth" (1 Kings i. 18). Compare also 1 Khigs xxii. 41, 2 Kings iii. 1, xv. 13, 2 Chron. xxiv. 1, in all of which it is rendered in the A.V. " began to reign." 2 " The set (or appointed) time," iJJio, mo'ed, is a favourite expression with Daniel, viii. 19, xi. 27, 29, 35. 102 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. subject of the complaint which he makes in the name of the heir of David's throne, is the shortness and perishableness of man's life, his "days" being " consumed like smoke " (ver. 3), and "like a shadow that declineth" (ver. 11), while "Thou, Lord, shalt endure for ever" (ver. 12). The eternal Lord Himself therefore must arise and build up Zion, having " looked down from the height of His sanctuary," " to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death" (vers. 19, 20). And now once more, before he brings his Psalm and prayer to a close, he contrasts the short- ness of man's life, and the inadequacy of any mortal to save, with the eternity of the Lord, and His power alone to grant an abiding salvation, in the passage quoted by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews — 2B He afflicted on the way my strength. He cut short my days. 24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days : Thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure ; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed ; 27 But Thou art the same, And Thy years shall have no end, [and therefore] 28 The children of Thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before Thee. What may have been the thoughts and surmisings of believers under the Jewish dispensation with regard to the problem thus presented to them, it is hard to conjecture. An insoluble and self-contradictory enigma seemed to be propounded — of the eternal possession of a " throne established for ever " by a human king of David's race, who was to fulfil all the great Messianic promises of endless life and blessings to the human race, yet doomed, it appeared, to certain failure by the mor- tality incident to every son of man, and which accordingly led in Book IV. to the ascription of the kingdom, not to any mortal, but to Jehovah Himself, as He that was to come to take to Himself the throne, as alone beincr "from everlastimx HEBREWS I. 6. 103 to everlasting." How reconcile the two statements ? To an Israelite, the first article of whose creed was, " Hear, Israel, Jehovah our God, Jehovah is One ! " (Dent. vi. 4), " and there is none else," the contradiction seemed complete. But vv^hen at length Christ appeared, conjoining in Himself the two conflicting elements, — " Son of David according to the flesh, .but declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead " (Eom. i. 3, 4), — the enigma stood revealed. He who had been dead was now alive for ever- more, God and man united in one person ; David's son, yet David's lord. He whom God " appointed heir of all things " "was seen to be the same " through whom also He made the worlds " (Heb. i. 2) ; ^ and to Jews familiar with the connec- tion of Books III. and IV. of the Psalter, and the difficult problem therewith connected, there needed not a word of note or comment to point to its self-evident solution, or to justify the author of the Epistle in applying to Christ the words of Ps. cii., " Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the founda- tion of the earth," etc. 5. The connection between Ps. Ixxxix. and Book IV. of the Psalms throws much light upon another of the seven proof- passages adduced in Heb. i. to justify the author's contention that Christ is higher than the angels, viz., "And when He again ^ bringeth in the First-born into the world. He saith. And let all the angels of God worship him " (Heb. i. 6). One question raised with regard to this passage has been, Which introduction of Christ into the world is here meant ? — some considering that the reference is to His incarnation, others to His resurrection, and the majority to His second coming. A still more contested point has been, To what passage in the Old Testament did the writer here refer ? — most main- ' The -writer's authority for ascribing to the Christ this supreme dignity of being the Maker of God's universe (which many of his readers would have been ready to question) manifestly rests on Ps. cii. 24-27 as its ^^rooZ-passage. 2 Most commentators are now agreed that the attempted evasion of one of the difficulties connected with this passage by the transposition of the word "again " (as if merely introducing another quotation) is inadmissible on grammatical grounds, viz. as in the A.V., "And again, when he bringeth the First-begotten into the world," etc. 104 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. taining that the quotation must be from Deut. xxxii. 45, where the exact words occur in the LXX. translation, while others hold Ps. xcvii. 7 to be its source, where the words are slightly different, " Worship Him, all ye gods," or in the LXX., " all ye His angels." ^ In favour of Deuteronomy it is urged as decisive that the quotation is introduced in Hebrews by the word " And " (as part of the quotation) which occurs in Deuteronomy, but which could never have been inserted by any one quoting from the Psalm ; while the objection to Deuteronomy is that the words are a spurious addition to the text of the LXX., not being found in the original Hebrew, nor in any of the early versions. But a preliminary question of far greater importance, and which alone can settle the dispute, has been all but neglected, viz., What entitled the writer to the Hebrews to adduce these words in proof of his position that Christ was higher than the angels, whether the quotation was taken from Deuteronomy or from Ps. xcvii., since in both the reference is to Jehovah and not to the Messiah ? Xay, before the problem can be altogether satisfactorily solved, one or two minor difficulties must receive an answer. How came the writer to the Hebrews, in speaking of the occasion on which the angels are called upon to worship the Messiah, to designate him by the uncommon title of " First- born," especially in reference to his superiority to the angels ? " Pirst-born " implies the existence of other brethren (Eom. viii. 29). But it is not in respect of angels, but of men, that the writer tells us that " he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. ii. 11). ^ The word, in Hebrew is 'Eldhhn, literally " gods." No objection, however, can justly be taken to the sacred writer availing himself of a translation "angels," which was still more pointed and apposite to his purpose than the original. The Hebrew 'EWiim includes angels, but is still more comprehensive. In the Old- Testament 'Uldhtm (God, or gods) is applied to any one to whom God delegates a portion of the power and authority which belong properly to Himself alone, as to judges or rulers, Ex. xxi. 6, xxii. 8 (7), 9 (8), 28 (27) ; Ps. Ixxxii. 1, 2, 6 ; to Moses, Ex. vii. 1, "See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh ; " and frequently to idols or false gods, to whom men have falsely attributed divine power and honour. HEBEEWS I. 6. 105 And yet again, what led the writer, in place of Koa/io^^ (the term always employed by him elsewhere to denote the world), to substitute rr]v oiKov/xevrjv, which he uses only here and in Heb. ii. 5, where he is speaking of the same subject, " For not unto angels did he subject the world to come whereof we speak " ? Now, to all these queries an answer is furnished so soon as we advert to the connection already remarked on between Ps. Ixxxix. and the immediately succeeding Book IV. of the Psalms. To take the latter question first, we find the word r) oIkov/jL€V7} used 7 times in the 9 Psalms (Septuagint ver- sion) succeeding Ps. Ixxxix. (and never afterwards), that is, as often as in all the 88 preceding Psalms.^ This furnishes a strong presumption that the writer to the Hebrews had the Psalms of Book IV. in his mind in employing a word differing from his common usage, and consequently that his reference to " the worship of the angels " was taken from Ps. xcvii. 7, and not from Deuteronomy. But it is the writer's selection of the term " First-born " to designate the Messiah which determines the context to which we are to look for the source of his quotation, and for the validity of his proof. The term "first-born" is found nowhere else in the Old Testament applied to the Messiah but in Ps. Ixxxix. 27 alone.^ Here God declares that He will make the Messianic king of David's race His " First- born, Most High over the kings of the earth" (ver. 27), and 1 Koir^oj occurs 5 times in Hebrews, and in the time of the New Testament authors was so far the preponderating term for the world that it occurs more than 180 times to 15 times that yi oiKov/xivn is used. What renders the use of the latter in the instance before us more remarkable is that afterwards, in expressing the same idea in Heb. x. 5, but without any reference to the angels, the writer, in speaking of Christ's "entering into the world," no longer uses the word he formerly employed, but the one more familiar to him, tov xitrftov. - Thus ^2ri, teuel, for which the Septuagint translation is « tii»i>tjfe.iv» (the earth which God "created not in vain, but formed it to be inhaUted," Isa. xlv. 18), reaches its central position in Ps. Ixxxix. 11, since it occurs 7 times in all the preceding Psalms, and 7 times in the succeeding. * Unless an exception be made for Ex. iv. 22, "Israel is my son, my first- born," on the ground that Israel is so called as being a type of Him who as the true Israel (Isa. xlix. 3) was to fit the natural Israel for the accom- plishment of his appointed " warfare " and mission. 106 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. promises that " his throne shall be established for ever as the moon" (ver. 37). The difficulty is started in the conclusion of this Psalm, that no mere mortal can fulfil these lofty expectations ; for " what man is he that liveth and shall not see death?" (ver. 48), The answer is given in the immedi- ately succeeding Psalms of Book IV., that the king is to be Jehovah Himself (Ps. xciii. 1, xcvi. 10, xcvii. 1, xcix. 1, xcv. 3, xcviii. 6, xcix. 4, — 7 times repeated), " the Most High " (xci. 1, 9, xcii. 1 (2), xcvii. 9) ; and in one of these Psalms (xcvii. 7) the call is made upon the angels to pay Him Divine homage, " worship Him, all ye His angels " (LXX.). The legitimate inference, therefore, is that the promised king of David's race, the Messiah, is meant (by the Spirit who led to the existing arrangement of the Psalms) to be identified with Jehovah ; and that it is to him whom the Lord promised to make His " Pirst-born," that the angels are to pay worship ; so that the theme of these Psalms in Book IV. might with propriety be entitled, " The Introduction of the First-begotten into the world." ^ The legitimacy and truth of the inference, however enigmatical and inconceivable it might appear before- hand to a Jew, would, as we have already seen with regard to the quotation from Ps. cii., immediately flash conviction on the minds of the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews so soon as they recollected the incontestable proofs of the divinity of Jesus afforded by His acts and words, by His life and death, and by His resurrection and ascension — all demonstrating Him to be God as well as man — lord, as well as son of David. But, it will be asked, what reply can be given to the seem- ingly incontrovertible argument that the quotation must be from Deuteronomy, since the words are not only identical, but the quotation is introduced by the conjunction " and " (/ca/), which is explicable only as forming part of the citation ? The reply is, that no such words in all probability belong to the Septuagint version as it came from the hands of the original translators, since they are not found in the Hebrew text, nor in any of the early versions, but are in all likelihood a later inter- ^ See Bishop Horsley's Notes on Psalms xcv.-c. HEBREWS I. 6. 107 polation. We have a notorious instance of such an interpola- tion in the Septuagint version of Ps. xiv. (xiii. in the LXX.), taken from St. Paul's Epistle to the Eomans iii. 13-18. The apostle, in order to justify his charge against the Jews of equal sinfulness with the Gentiles, after citing the first verses of Ps. xiv., adds a cento of citations from various passages of the Old Testament (the sources of which I give), which he combines together artistically, so as to form two parallelistic quatrains — Their throat is an open sepulchre ; Ps. v. 9. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lijis ; Ps. cxl. 3. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : Ps. x. 7 (ix. 28). Their feet are swift to shed blood ; Isa. lix. 7. Destruction and misery are in their ways ; And the way of peace have they not known ; Isa. lix. 8. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Ps. xxxvi. 1 (xxxv. 2). All these we find bodily inserted in the extant copies of the LXX, version ; and if it would be rash to contend that these formed part of the version as it came originally from the hands of the translators, equally so, in the case before us, it is a precarious inference to draw that the words, " And let all the angels of God worship him," formed part of the original version of Deut, xxxii. in the Septuagint. But fortunately we can trace in the present instance the source of the interpolation which has taken place in the Septuagint version of Moses' song in Deut. xx.xii. The song was much in use for liturgical purposes, as appears from its being found with other canticles in a hymnal appended to the Alexandrine Codex. In order to form a grand finale to the hymn, ending off with a full-toned close, the first line of the last verse (43) is, in the Greek, expanded into four lines — ^vt^pskudriri ovpcti/ol eiixx ctvTUi, Kflti TrpoaKVVYiaoiTuaocv xvrZ vdcum ccyyiKai ©soS. 'Ev, 4, " Feather . . . wings," cf. — xxxii. 11. 6, "The pestilence" {qetcv), ef. — xxxii. 24. .. 8) "ShiUumath," cf. — xxxii. 35-41, ), 9, " Thy dwelling-place," cf. — xxxiii. 27. 1-^, ' "Adder . . . dragon," cf. — xxxii. 33. ItJ, " My salvation," cf. Ex. xiv. 13. 2 Which therefore ought to have been rendered "dwelling-place" (not " habitation," as in the Authorized Version and Revision) to enable the English reader to see the allusion and connection between the two Psalms. H 114 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. imagery is that of the exodus. " The terror by night " (ver. 5) reminds iis of that dread night when the death of the first-born raised a shriek of anguish in every dwelling of the Egyptians, or again when terror seized the Israelites " entangled in the land " at the waters of the Eed Sea on the approach of Pharaoh's host : " the pestilence that walketh in darkness," " the destruction that wasteth at noon-day " (ver. 6), and "the plague coming nigh the tent" (ver. 10), recall the many plagues and judgments which the murmurings of the Israelites called forth in the wilderness ; while Moses' exquisite simile (Deut. xxxii. 11, 12) — As an eagle stirretli wp her nest, riuttereth over her young, Spi'eadeth abroad her wings (k'^nuphdc), Taketh them, beareth them on her pinions ('eirai/iw'), So Jehovah alone did lead him — finds its echo in Ps. xci. 4 — With His pinions ('evmtho) shall He cover thee, And under His wings {k''7idphav) thou shalt find refuge. In fine, Ps. xc, is the " prayer " and cry of the troubled heart for the reversal of the severe judgment incurred by Israel's rebellion and sin, " satisfy us in the morning with Thy mercy " (ver. 14) ; " Mtike us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast humbled us" (ver. 15), to which Ps. xci. is the response by God, realized through faith, " With length of days will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation " (ver. 1 6) ; while Ps. xcii. completes the trilogy, written evidently as Israel's thanksgiving Psalm for the " day of rest " vouchsafed and Sabbath enjoyed in the land. As Moses had prayed (Ps. xc. 15), "Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast humbled us," the thankful acknow- ledgment is now made, "For Thou, Jehovah, hast made me (jlad in Thy work " (ver. 4, cf. xc. 1 5). PSALM XCI. 115 PSALM XCI. I. First Voice. He that sitteth down in the secret place of the Most High, >-, Under the shadow of the Almighty shall he lodge. ^ Second Voice. 2 I will say unto Jehovah, My refuge and my stronghold ! My God ! in Him will I trust. First Voice. 3 For He shall deliver thee From the snare of the fowler, From the destructive pestilence. 4 With His pinions He shall cover thee. And under His wings thou shalt find refuge. A shield and buckler is His truth. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, For the arrow that flieth by day ; 6 For the pestilence that in darkness walketh ; For the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand, To thee it shall not come nigh. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And the reward of the wicked shalt thou see. \ II. Second Voice. For Thou, Jehovah, art my refuge ! First Voice. The Most High hast thou made thy dwelling-place. ^ 10 There shall no evil befall thee. Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 1 "As God's guest, loving faith on man's part shall be met by faithful love on God's part. " Dr. Kay. 2 Ver. 9, in its two hemistichs, is a condensed repetition of vers. 1 and 2. Ver. 9a. "For Thou, Jehovah, art my refuge" = ver. 2, "I will say unto Jehovah my refuge." Ver. 96. "The Most High h.a.st thou made thy dwelling-iAaca" — ver. 1, " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Moxt High," 116 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 11 r For He shall give His angels charge over thee, \ To keep thee in all thy ways ; 12 y In 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 under foot the young lion and dragon. Third (Divine) Voice. 14 Because on nie he hath set his love, therefore will I deliver him : I will set him on high because he hath known my name. 15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him : "With him will I be in trouble ; I will rescue him, and honour him. 1 6 With length of days will I satisfy him, And show him my salvation. The remarkable changes of person in vers. 1 and 2, and again in the two hemistichs of ver. 9, have led to various attempts to explain them, or even to get rid of them, by altering the text. But the simplest and most natural explanation is to refer them to different voices or choruses, the one forming a response to the other. This explanation is strongly confirmed by our finding that the changes of person take place at tlie beginning and middle of the Psalm, thus dividing it into two equal strophes of 8 verses each. The analysis of the Psalm hereby indicated is — In ver. 1 the first voice or choir expresses the perfect security of which he may feel assured who places himself under the overshadowing protection of God's tabernacle. Ver. 2 contains the believer's acceptance of the promise for himself. On this the first voice enumerates, in three couplets of verses, the blessings he may in consequence expect from Jehovah — Vers. 3, 4 He will be thy deliverer — and defence. .5, (i Thou shalt be afraid of no alarm. 7, 8 Many shall fall around thee, but thou shalt be safe. On the pause at the end of strophe i. the believer reiterates his avowal of trust in God (ver. 9, hemistich a), which is immediately caught up (hemistich b) by the first voice encouraging him with promises of still more gracious protec- tion from Jehovah — PSALM XCII. 117 Ver. 10 No evil shall befall thee. 11, 12 For He will give His angels charge over thee. 13 Over every foe thou shalt triumph. All of which is confirmed in vers. 14-16, by Jehovah Himself promising to " answer" the believer's petitions (Ps. xc, 13-17), to " deliver him," and " set him on high" for " the days wherein He afflicted" him [or humhled him, cf. "humUed ^ thee" (Deut, viii. 3)], and "satisfy" him, as he had prayed, Ps. xc. 14. PSALM XCII. A PSALM, A SONG, FOR THE SABBATH DAY. (Division 4-7-4.) I. Praise for GocPs doings towards His jieople, 1 It is good to give thanks to Jehovah, And to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High ; 2 To show forth Thy mercy in the morning, And Thy faithfulness every night, 3 With a ten stringed instrument, and with the lute ; With a solemn strain upon the harp. 4 For Thou, O Jehovah, hast made me glad by Thy work ; In the doings of Thy hands will I sing for joy. II. v-Jnch, mysterious as they may seem in 'permitting a temporary triumph to the u-icked, vnll yet prove that God is most high 5 How great are Thy doings, O Jehovah ! Very deep are Thy thoughts. A brutish man knoweth not. And a fool doth not consider this. 7 When the wicked spring as the grass. And all the workers of iniquity have flourished ; It is that they shall be destroyed for ever. 8 But Thou art most high for ever, O Jehovah ! 9 For, lo. Thine enemies, O Jehovah, For, lo, thine enemies shall perish ; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 10 But Thou hast exalted like a wild ox my horn : I am anointed with fresh oil. 1 1 And mine eye hath seen [my desire] on mine enemies ; [my desire]. On those that rise up against me, evil-doers, mine ears shall hear ^ Same verb, (_3y, 'in-mn, in both. 118 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. III. and RIGHTEOUS, hj the enduring prosperity of the righteous, xhnlilce the wicked. 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree ; Like a cedar in Lebanon he shall grow. 13 Planted in the house of Jehovah, In the courts of our God they shall flourish. 14 They shall bear fruit in old age ; Full of sap and green shall they be ; 15 To show that Jehovah is upright, My Eock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. The Psalm is most artistically arranged by seven, the Sab- batical number, several times stamped upon it. 1. Ver. 8 is marked out by its consisting of a single line — with 7 verses before and 7 verses after it — as containing the central thought of the Psalm, that Jehovah is most high (literally height) above all. 2. Again, if we divide the Psalm according to the transi- tions of thought,^ ver. 8 forms the centre of 7 verses (5-11) constituting the middle strophe ; the whole Psalm being thus divided into three strophes (the first and last consisting of 4 verses each), showing the train of thought to be — Strophe i. (1-4). The Psalmist, or Church, enforces the duty and blessedness of giving praise because of God's work and doings in regard to His people. Strophe ii. (5-11) catches up^ and enlarges on the last words of strophe i., " How great are Thy doings, Jehovah ! How deep Thy thoughts," in delaying the complete redemp- tion of Thy servants (with allusion, as we shall see, to God's training of the Israelites in the wilderness (Ps. xc, xci.) and afterwards in Canaan), and permitting the wicked for a brief space to triumph, the " brutish man " being unable to see that the permission is but for a time, for the chastening and discipline of God's servants, and that the temporary ^ As they appear to several commentators and editors, as Koster, Tholuck, Bishop of Lincoln, Rev. Joseph F. Thrupp, Dr. Coit in Paragraph Bible, Cam bridge Paragraph Bible, etc. ^ Compare what is said on " Catchwords," p. 26. PSALM XCII. 119 prosperity of the wicked is preparing for their utter destruc- tion ; in order to manifest the power of God as "most high" in the casting down of His enemies, and exaltation of His worshippers. Strophe iii. (12-15) recurs (as usual in the threefold division) to strophe i. (4 verses in each), and gives thanks for the present experience, rising into assured confidence for the future, that, unlike the fading grass to which the wicked were likened (ver. 6), " the righteous shall flourish like the noblest of trees" (ver. 12), "as being planted in the courts of our God" (vers. 12, 13), "to show that Jehovah is upright" (ver. 15) in rewarding the just and punishing the unjust. 3. Counting next (not by verses but) by lines, it will be observed that ver. 8, a single line, forms the centre of 7 lines (vers. 7 and 9 consisting each of triplets), designed to con- centrate the attention on the central thought, the exaltation of God's power in His sudden overthrow of the proud oppressors of His people in the very height of their triumph. 4. Lastly, Jehovah occurs 7 times in all ; once in the central ver. 8, and three times in the preceding 7 verses, and three times in the succeeding 7. A sabbatical character is thus stamped upon the Psalm, as well as by the title which it bears, " a Psalm, or Song, for the Sabbath day," and accordingly the Talmud informs us that it was sung in the temple on the Sabbath at the offering of the lirst lamb in the morning, as it is, even at the present day, every Sabbath in the service of the synagogue. Still, the quiet rest of their Sabbaths, which Israel was permitted to enjoy in the promised land, was not the sole, nor apparently the principal, idea which the original composer of the Psalm had in view, as seems evident from the central stanza (7-9), in which the destruction of the enemies of Jehovah and His people is the thought dwelt upon. Viewed in connection with the two preceding Psalms, Ps. xcii. appears to be a thanksgiving hymn for " the day of the Sabbath " or " season of rest " vouchsafed to Israel after all their wanderings in the wilderness, and long protracted wars in getting possession of 120 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Canaan, when God "had given them rest from all their enemies," and the house of the Lord was established in the land. The manifold correspondences in the three Psalms (xc, xci., xcii.) prove that they are intended to form a trilogy or con- nected group. In Ps. xc. Moses impresses on Israel that their exclusion for a time from Canaan as their promised dwelling-place was to teach them the lesson they had forgotten, that the Lord was the true eternal " dwelling-place " of His people— O Lord, Thou hast been orir dwelling-place in all generations (ver. 1) ; which, when learned, would alone authorize the prayer — satisfy us in the morning with Thy mercy (ver. 14), and Make iis glad according to the days wherein Thou hast humbled us (ver. 15). Let T/i7j vjork appear unto Thy servants (ver. 16). In Ps. xci. faith appropriates, as sure of fulfilment, ^God's promises to those who trust in Him as the Most High — He that sitteth down (or drrellet/t) in the secret place of the Most High, Under the shadow of the Almighty shall he lodge (ver. 1). 1 will sing unto Jehovah, my refuge and my stronghold ! (ver. 2). The Most High hast thou made thy dwelling-place (ver. 9b). There shall no evil befall thee (ver. 10) : He shall call upon me, and I will answer him (ver. 15). With length of dai/s will I satisfj' him, And show him my salvation (ver. 16). In Ps. xcii. thanks and praise are rendered for the fulfil- ment both of the prayer of Ps. xc. and of the faith and pro- mises of Ps. xci. A dwelling-place and sanctuary have been granted Israel in the promised land — Planted in the house of Jehovah, In the courts of our God they shall flourish (ver. 13). " Length of days " has been bestowed — They shall still bear fruit in old age ; Full of sap, and green they shall be (ver. 14). PSALMS XC.-XCII. 121 God has shown Himself to be the " Most High," and " satis- fied them with His mercy in the morning " — Thou art Most High for ever, O Jehovah (ver. 8). It is good to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High (ver. 1) ; To show forth Thy morc>j in the morning (ver. 2). And acknowledgment is made that God has "made glad" His people, and " made His work appear unto His servants " — For Thou, O Jehovah, hast made me glad by Thy work (ver. 4). The subjects of the three Psalms accordingly are — 1. Of Ps. xc, a prayer for the reversal of judgment and the establishment of the promised blessings. 2. Of Ps. xci., self-dedication to God in confident expecta- tion of these blessings. 3. Of Ps. xcii., thanksgiving for. the attainment of these blessings and of the promised rest — its title, a " Song for the Day of Eest," including not merely the rest vouchsafed at the close of every returning week as a type and earnest of that eternal Sabbath of rest that awaiteth the people of God, but the rest given in part by Joshua, and afterwards more fully established by the quiet possession of the promised land (cf. Heb. iv. 3-9 and Ps. xcv. 11). But interesting as is the connection now pointed out between the three Psalms, xc, xci., and xcii., in their original and earlier use, still more interesting is the light which their position, assigned them at a later period, in the Psalter throws on the question : How comes the oldest Psalm in the whole collection, Ps. xc, instead of being placed at its head, to be reserved for the opening of Book IV. ? The purpose of this book supplies the answer. This, as before observed (p. 109 sq.), seems sufficiently plain. Enclosed as it is between Ps. Ixxxix. on the one side, lamenting the apparent failure of David's dynasty and kingdom, and Ps. cvii. on the other, rendering thanks for the return from the Babylonish captivity, the purpose of Book IV. seems manifestly signified to be the same as that of Isaiah's great Later Prophecy (xl.-lxvi.), to comfort Israel and sustain their faith under the impending judgment of exclusion from 122 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. their land, and a protracted period of suffering to which they were about to be subjected. The analogy between this and Israel's long sojourn in the wilderness under Moses, when excluded from the promised laud of Canaan, was obvious ; and rendered most appropriate the reference, and the place allotted to Moses's Psalm. That such a parallel is designed to be drawn, will be evident from a slight comparison of Pss. Ixxxix. and xc. By placing Ps. xc. immediately after Ps. Ixxxix., those who arranged the Psalter in its present order manifestly meant to suggest that the circumstances of God's people, and the hopes of deliverance which they might entertain under such a chastisement as their exile in Babylon, found a parallel in their earlier history. For — 1. The evils that afflicted them were the same, — the dis- appointment of their hopes, the shortening of life, and death as the consequence of transgression — Ps. Ixxxix. 47. Eemember how short my time is : "Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain 1 Ps. xc. 3. Thou tui-nest man to dust, And saidst, Return, ye children of men. 2. The cause was the same — Ps. Ixxxix. 46. Hoiv long, Lord ? Wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever % Shall Thy torath burn like fire ? Ps. xc. 13. Return, Lord, hoio long ? „ 7. For we are consumed by Thine anger, And by Thy wrath we are troubled. 3. And the only hope of deliverance is the same — Ps. Ixxxix. 1. Of the mercies of the Lord for ever will I sing. Ps. xc. 14. satisfy us early with Thy mercy. The Lord, in short, had been the alone " dwelling-place " of His people " in all generations." Sin and death had entered into the world by Adam, and Satan and the power of evil had gained the upper hand in the earth. But a promise has been made from the earliest times of a " seed " which should " bruise the head of the serpent," repeated to Abraham under the form of a " seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be PSALM XCII. 123 blessed," — through theh^ great enemy Death, and him that had the power of death, being put down utterly, and an inheritance of rest and blessedness being given to them. As a type and earnest of a better, heavenly, and enduring land, an earthly rest of Canaan (Ps. xciii.) was promised to the people of Abraham's seed whom God chose out to be "a kingdom of priests " to Himself, in order to bring all into holy submission to the Lord of all the earth. The delay in the execution of God's promise, Moses here, in Ps. xc, attributes to the want of regard which the men of his generation had to God (ver. 11), and of that "lear" of the Lord which is the only true "wisdom" (ver, 12). How appropriate, instructive, and consolatory was all this to Israel under the threatened exile in Babylon and exclusion from the Holy Land ! The lessons which these three Psalms were calculated to teach them, in these and in all similar circumstances, would be these — Ps. xc. Let us look back to the times of old, when God's promises seemed to fail to our forefathers, and they were excluded from the promised land for a time, as is now our fate. Did Moses and the Israelites then despair ? No : Moses pointed to the eternity and unchangeableness of the Lord, and prayed in faith that God's wrath might be removed from His people through His leading them " to know " and lay to heart " the power of His anger, so as to number their days and gain a heart of wisdom " (ver. 12), — that He would complete the "work" of their salvation (ver. 16), — "satisfy them early with His mercy" (ver. 14), — and "make them glad according to the days wherein He had humbled them" (ver. 15). Ps. xci. Nay, rising into undoubting confidence, the Psalmist, in Ps. xci., assures Israel, that if they " made the Lord their dwelling-place " (ver. 9), and " dwelt " by faith " in the secret place of the Most High " (ver. 1), they should have the omnipotence of " the Almighty " as their protection ; " no evil should befall them" (ver. 10), and all their enemies, open and secret, should fall before them (vers. 7, 8, 13). Ps. xcii. This promise, accordingly, was fulfilled to them, and celebrated in " a Song " of Praise on their " day of rest " granted them in the land of promise, when God " Most High " 124 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. (ver. 1) gave them cause to say, " Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work : I will triumph in the works of Thy hands " (ver. 4). Here was an earnest to the wise and under- standing, though the " brutish man" understood it not (ver. 6), that the short-lived prosperity of the wicked was but a prelude to their being " destroyed for ever " (ver. 7), and to the Lord being exalted as " Most High God evermore " (ver. 8), and to His " exalting " with Him (ver. 1 0), and prospering " the righteous " (ver. 12). The next three Psalms, xciii., xciv., xcv., form a trilogy still more explicitly pointing to the calamitous times coming upon Israel, and in which, as in the older trilogy, the principal subject of comfort held out to the people is to look to Jehovah as their alone stay and refuge. A correspondence, too, is perhaps designed between the individual Psalms in the two trilogies. Thus as in Ps. xc, on Israel's first calling as a nation, God's severe judgment in "sweeping them aivay as with ajiood" (ver. 5) led them to turn in prayer to the "everlasting God " (ver. 2) as their alone sure stay, to " establish the work of their hands " (ver. 17); so now in Ps. xciii., " the floods " of heathen enemies are allowed to " lift up their waves " (ver. 3) and threaten to overwhelm them, that they might be led to say to the Lord, " Thy throne is established of old : Thou art from everlasting " (ver. 2), and to look to the might of the eternal God as their alone safe " dwelling-place." In the central Psalms of each trilogy the reference seems to be more to the righteousness of God, as the Judge recompensing to each — to His friends and to His enemies — according to their dispositions towards Him. In Ps. xci., he that with confiding trustfulness commits himself to the Most High and " says of the Lord, My refuge ! my God ! in Him will I trust," receives the comforting assurance that " under the shade of the Almighty he shall abide" (ver. 1). Prom every evil he shall be delivered (vers. 3-7), and " with his eyes he shall behold and see the reward of the wicked " (ver. 8). So in Ps. xciv. the Lord is appealed to as the " God to whom vengeance belongeth " (ver. 1), the "judge of the earth " who will " render a reward to the proud " (ver. 2). It is but for the trial of the PSALM xcir. 125 faith of His people that " the wicked are permitted for a httle to triumph " (ver. 3). So soon as God's servants are taught to acknowledge, " Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest " (ver. 12), and are prepared to say, " My God is the rock of my refuge" (ver. 22), "judgment shall return unto righteousness" (ver. 15) ; and as for the wicked, God " shall bring upon them their own iniquity" (ver. 23). Finally, each trilogy closes with a " rest " provided for tlie people of God. In Ps. xcii. thanks are rendered to the Lord for " the day of Sabbath, or rest," vouchsafed to that younger generation of Israel who, taught by the chastisements which overtook their fathers for their distrust of God's power to subdue before them the Canaanites, endured the warfare necessary for the attainment of the promised inheritance. So now in Ps. xcv., that " a promise is made of entering into a rest" (Heb. iv. 1) higher than any hitherto enjoyed, Israel is called upon to acknowledge Jehovah as " a great King above all gods " (ver. 3),^ and specially to " worship and bow down before Jehovah as their Maker " (ver. 6) ; that is, as He who made them " the j^eojjle of His pasture " (ver. 7), and to beware lest they should " harden their hearts as of old, in the day of temptation in the wilderness " (ver. S), and provoke God again to swear " that they should not enter into my rest." The close connection between the next four Psalms (xcvi.- xcix.) will be seen from the marked alternate parallelism of their first verses — Ps. xcvi. O sing unto Jehovah a new song. Ps. xcvii. Jehovah is King : let the earth rejoice. Ps. xcviii. sing unto Jehovah a new song. Ps. xcix. Jehovah is King : let the peoples tremble. A call is here addressed to all to join in a " new song " to " Jehovah as King " — " neLU," as marking a new and higher stage in the redemptive history of Israel, and styled a " song," or joyful strain of praise, inasmuch as, though the captivity in Babylon entailed a suspension of the kingdom and princes of 1 Viz. of the heathen among whom they were about to be sent ; of. the next Psalm, xcvi. 3, " Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all the people^.'^ 126 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the house of David, Jehovah was about to take to Himself the kingdom. The call is addressed to all nations, Gentiles as well as Israelites (to " all the earth," xcvi. 1 ; to " the multitude of isles," xcvii. 1 ; to " all the earth," xcviii. 4 ; to " the peoples," xcix. 1) ; all being interested in the "salvation" (xcviii. 2, 3) " to be wrought," as is evident from the expression, " ye kindreds ^ of the peoples " (xcvi. 7), alluding to the promise to Abraham, " in whom all families ^ of the earth were to be blessed " (Gen. xii. 3). The call upon all is to " sing " and " rejoice ; " but while joy is to be the predominating feeling, the admonition is added to " rejoice with trembling " (xcvi. 9, xcix. 1). Accordingly in the first three Psalms (xcvi.— xcviii.) one of the attributes of Jehovah calculated to call forth these emotions (the might, the righteousness, smd the mercy and faith- fulness of the Lord) is dwelt upon successively in each Psalm as its special subject ; and all are again summed up in Ps. xcix., one in each of its three stanzas ; each in its turn tending to enhance the crowning attribute of all, Holiness, which forms the close, or refrain, in each stanza of Ps. xcix. — " Holy is He ! " PSALM XCIX. I. 1 Jehovah is King — let the people tremble : He is seated on the cherubim — let the earth be moved : 2 Jehovah is great in Zion — and He is exalted above all the peoples. 3 Let them praise Thy Name, Great and terrible : Holy is He. n. 4 The King's strength ^ also loveth judgment ; Thou hast established equity : Judgment and righteousness Thou hast executed in Jacob. 5 Exalt ye Jehovah our God, And worship at His footstool : Holy is He. 1 The word in the Hebrew variously rendered "kindreds" and families " being the same. ^ This verse connects strophe ii. with strophe i. The "strength of the King " (in strophe ii.) must be conjoined (strophe ii.) vfith. judgment and righteousness. PSALM XCIX. 127 III. 6 Moses and Aaron among His priests, And Samuel among them that call upon His Name : They called upon Jehovah, and He answered them. 7 In the cloudy jiillar He spake unto them ; They kept His testimonies, and the ordinance He gave them. 8 Jehovah our God, Thou didst answer them. A forgiving God wast Thou to them. Yet taking vengeance on their deeds. 9 Exalt ye Jehovah our God, And worship at His holy hill : For Holy is Jehovah our God. The correspondence between each of these three strophes and the three preceding Psahns will be seen by the following comparison — Psalm xcvl Psalm xcix. Strophe i. God's great might. 3 Let them praise Thy Name great bless His 2 Sing unto Jehovah Name. 4 Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. 7 Give unto Jehovah glory and strength. 9 Fear before Him, all the earth. and terrible. He is high above all peoples. The king's strength (of strophe i.) also loveth judgment. Psalm xcvii. Strophe n. God^s righteousness. 2 Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne. 7 Worship Him, all ye gods. 4 Judgment and righteousness Thou hast executed in Jacob. 5 Worship at His footstool. Psalm xcviii. Strophe in. God's mercy a7id faithfulness. 3 He hath remembered His mercy and His faithfulness. 2 Jehovah hath made known His salvation [yet a] righteousness [that] He hath openly showed in the sight of the heathen. 6 They called upon Jehovah, and He answered them [when inter- ceding^ for Israel]. A forgiv- ing God wast Thou to them, yet talcing vengeance on their deeds. ^ Moses's two pleas, when interceding for pardon of Israel's apostasy, were an appeal to God's mercy and faithfidness. See Ex. xxxii. 13 and xxxiii. 13, 16 ; and the same two attributes hold a prominent place in the proclamation of God's name on that occasion, "abundant in mercy and truth," Ex. xxxiv. 6. 128 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. That we do not err in considering that these three attri- butes of Jehovah are designed to be thus severally dis- tinguished, while, nev^ertheless, necessary to be combined in His character as King, is further evidenced by Ps. xcviii., where all three are united in its opening verses, and yet a separate verse is assigned to each. Thus ver. 1 reproduces the fear-inspiring " strength " of Ps. xcvi. (" His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory "), and ver. 2 the " righteousness " of Ps. xcvii. (" His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen"). To these now in ver. 3 is added (as a special subject of the Psalm) the still higher attribute of God's grace and mercy, "He hath remem- bered His mercy and His faithfulness toward the house of Israel," etc. But new light breaks in upon the inquirer as he proceeds to compare Scripture with Scripture. If we now look back to the preceding trilogies (xc.-xcii., and xciii.-xcv.), the same three attributes of Jehovah, and in the same order, will be seen to be those to which reference is more especially made. In the trilogy xc.-xcii., God's power (in contrast with man's " strength" which is at best but " labour and sorrow," ver. 10) is specially insisted on in Ps. xc. as "turning man to destruction," ver. 3, " sweeping them away as with a flood," ver. 5, yet too little heeded, for " who knoweth [layeth to lieart] the povjer of Thine anger," ver. 11, but which, if won over to be on our side, would " establish the work of our hands upon us," ver. 17. Ps. xci. again respects the righteousness of God, which recompenses to man according to his requital to God (cf. Ps. xviii, 24-26), the true connection of its opening words being, as we saw (p. 115), in the words of Dr. Kay, "Loving faith on man's part shall be met by faithful love on God's part." If thou " say unto Jehovah, My refuge : in Him will I trust," ver. 2, then " surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler," etc., ver. 3. " The Most High hast thou made thy dwelling-place " (ver. 9), " There shall no evil befall thee " (ver. 1 0). Nay, Jehovah Himself is introduced in the last strophe (14-16), assuring His faithful servant of His ATTRIBUTES OF JEHOVAH THE KING. 129 righteous requital. " Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him" (ver. 14). Lastly, in Ps. xcii. the mercy (loving-kindness) and the faithfulness'^ of Jehovah are expressly mentioned as the subjects of praise (ver. 2). In the succeeding trilogy, xciii.-xcv., the same three attri- butes, and in the self-same order, form the subject respectively of its three Psalms. In Ps. xciii. it is " with strength " that "the Lord is clothed" (ver. 1). His " throne is established " (ver. 2). " Than the mighty waves of the sea, mightier on high is the Lord " (ver. 4). Ps. xciv. bears on its face in its first words the righteousness of God as the attribute to which it gives prominence : " Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth " (ver. 1). " Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth : render a reward to the proud" (ver. 2). In Ps. xcv. it is no less evident that God's mercy and faith- fulness are the Divine perfections of which Israel is specially reminded. " Let us make a joyful noise to the Roch of our salvation" (ver. 1). " Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker" [that is, who made us His people] (ver. 6). " For He is our God : and we are the 2^^^ople of His 2Jnstiirc, and the sheep of His hand " (ver. 7). And now these three attributes are again, as we have seen, taken up in the same order in Ps. xcvi.— xcviii., and finally all are combined in the threefold division of Ps. xcix., marked out by the refrain, " Holy is He." The last seven Psalms (xciii.-xcix.), thus linked together by a triplicate series of topics (founded apparently on the older trilogy, xc.-xcii.), have another marked feature in common, uniting them together into one connected group. All evidently point to a coming of Jehovah as King, to set up an undivided throne on the earth, to which all are required implicitly to submit. To mark this as their common subject, the first of the series (xciii.) and the last (xcix.) both begin with the announcement, " Jehovah is King ! " and the central ' The two words are identically the same in Hebrew as in Ps. xcviii. 3. I 130 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Psalm (xcvi.) enjoins the announcement to be proclaimed to the Gentiles, " Say among the heathen, Jehovah is King " ^ (ver. 1 0). This unity of subject, and like order of topics, in these seven Psalms point ostensibly to one author ; and if so, to whom with greater probability than to Isaiah, whether we look to the correspondence of many of the expressions (already remarked, pp. 110-112) with those in Isaiah's writings, -or more especially if we consider the concluding Ps. xcix. with its triple refrain, " Holy is He " ? There can scarce be a question, we think, that the original source from which the refrain is taken is the remarkable vision vouchsafed to Isaiah on his call to the prophetic office (chap. vi.). To whom then more naturally can we ascribe this " terrestrial echo of the seraphic Trisagion " than to him on whose ear must so long have dwelt the voices in the heavenly vision vouchsafed to him, of the seraphic choir repeating continuously, as they cried one to another, " Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! is the Lord God of Hosts " ? This inference is strongly borne out when we remember that the favourite title (almost confined to Isaiah) by which the prophet delights to designate Jehovah is " the Holy One of Israel," which occurs more than 12 times in the earlier prophecies and as often in the latter (xl.-lxvi.), — a strong proof, by the way, in a writer of such undoubted originality as the author of the last 27 chapters, of his identity with the author of the earlier prophecies. While, however, these Psalms form a heptade, or sacred cycle of seven, the whole series (xc.-xcix.), it will be observed, forms a decade, or ten, the number of completeness. But we have, not yet exhausted the varied liturgical arrangements or groups, each with its distinct character and significance, which these Psalms present. Let us look back again to Pss. xcvi. to xcix. While these form a group by themselves, this is not the only relation in which they stand. Perhaps w^e cannot find a better example than the series ^ Dean Perowne, with others, has observed that there is a close connection between these seven I'sahns. In his introductory remarks on Ps. xcix. he says, " This is the last of the series of Pioyal Psalms, of Psalms which celebrate the coininsr of Jehovah as King. The first of the series is the 93rd." PSALMS XCV.-C. 131 of Psalms in Book IV. furnishes of the varied combinations which Hebrew parallelism admits of, according to the different ideas to which special prominence was meant to be given, as occasion required, in the liturgical services of the sanctuary. When the divine attributes, appropriate to Jehovah as King of all the earth, formed the subject designed for meditation, the four Pss. xcvi.— xcix. would be selected for the service of the day. But, again, by enclosing this group by the Psalms on either side (Pss. xcv. and c.) a new combination was formed, the predominant ideas in which were, the responsibility of Israel when the advent of Jehovah as King should be manifested, on the one hand, themselves (Ps. xcv.) to " worship and bow down " (ver. 6) and listen to His voice, lest they should fail to " enter into His rest " (ver. 11) ; and, on the other hand, the invitation (Ps. c.) which they were to address to the Gentiles (" all ye lands," ver. 1) to unite with them in acknowledging " Jehovah " as the alone living and true " God " (ver. 3). Ps. xcv. 1. O come, let us sing unto Jehovah ; Let lis make a joyful noise to the Eock of our salvation. (Ps. xcvi. 1. O sing unto Jehovah a new song. Ps. xcvii. 1. Jehovah reigneth : let the earth rejoice. \ Ps. xcviii. 1. O sing unto Jehovah a new song. \ Ps. xcix. 1 . Jehovah reigneth : let the peoples tremble. Ps. c. 1. Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all ye lands : Come before His presence with singing. For such manifestly was the lesson designed to be enforced by the striking correspondence, yet antithesis, which the parallelism of the opening and closing Psalms of the liturgical service thus formed reveals, between Pss. xcv. and c. Tlie corre- spondence in the expressions of each it is impossible to overlook — Psalm xcv. Psalm c. Let us make a joyful noise to the ] Make a joyful noise unto Je- Eock of our salvation. hovah. Let us come before His presence 2 Come before His presence with with thanksgiving. singing. Let us kneel before Jehovah our 3 It is He that hath made res. Maker. We are the people of His pasture, 3 We are His people, and the sheep and the sheep of His hand. of His pasture. 132 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. But the difference between the two Psalms has not been so generally observed. It was the strict comparison to which the parallelistic arrangement compels the student, that first opened my eyes to the clear distinction between them. Ps. xcv. is a call to Israel to receive with faith and rejoicing Jehovah, who is about to make a fuller revelation of Himself, and to " kneel before the Lord our Maker : for He is mir God" etc. Ps. c. is, on the contrary, a call hy Israel to the Gentiles ("all ye lands," ver. 1) to renounce all idols, and to acknowledge Jehovah as the true God. Hence the significant change from Ps. xcv. in Ps. c, " Know ye that Jehovah, He is [not our God, but] God," that is, the alone living and true God. " It is He that hath made us [a people, cf. Ps. cxlix. 2 ; Deut. xxxii. 6], and not we ourselves ; we are His people," etc. (ver. 3), and therefore He can with equal ease make you His people. Come, then, and join with us. " Enter His gates with thanksgiving," etc. (ver. 4). But, from the contrast now remarked between the two Psalms, it follows that, in this aspect, Ps. c. ought to be separated from Ps. xcv., which is addressed to Israel, and to be joined to the group Pss. xcvi.-xcix., since all of these (as we have seeo, p. 125 sq.) refer to the Gentiles. This relation, accordingly, we find recognised in the larger parallelistic arrangement in which these five Psalms (xcvi.-c.) stand when isolated by themselves. When we look at the place they hold in Book IV. (xc.-cvi.) considered as a whole, these five, it will be seen, form the centre ; the six Psalms on either side relating to Israel alone, while these relate also to the Gentiles.^ ^ Both arrangements, it might he arguctl, cannot he correct, since, hy tlie one, Ps. xcv. is intimately connected with Pss. xcvi.-c, while, by the other, it is torn asunder from them. But this is one of the great advantages and beauties of parallelism, that it admits frequently of two or more arrangements, which run side by side with each other, following each its own line of argument and presenting the subject in a different aspect, yet each kept perfectly distinct and without confusion. For examples, see in my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, the threefold division of which the decalogue admits, in addition to the twofold, or more usual division into two tables, and which throws a new and unexpected light on the connection between the two tables, and on the filial and brotherly spirit which should animate our obedience to both ; see also the two- PURPORT OF BOOK IV. 133 The following table will show more clearly the arrangement of the seventeen Psalms of Book IV., the purport of the whole being to " comfort " Israel under the Babylonish captivity by setting before them the lessons which it was intended to teach them, and to fit them to teach to the Gentiles : — These G relate to Israel. These 5 to the Gentiles also. These 6 relate to Israel. xc. xciii. ■"^ xcvi. xcviii. Cl. civ. xci. xciv. xcvii. xcix. cii. cv. xcii. xcv. c. ciii. cvi. The first 6 Psalms, as we have seen, form two trilogies, referring to Israel. Pss. xc.-xcii. refer to the Israelites' earlier history, to the disciplinary training under Moses, fold arrangements of the Beatitudes and of the Lord's Prayer, and the lessons taught us by each separate arrangement. So, in Isa. i. 16, 17, at first sight we feel inclined, with Kennicott and Bishop Lowth, to correct as an oversight the Masoretic punctuation which separates by a Soph-Pasuq, or pause at the end of a verse, the manifest couple, "Cease to do evil ; learn to do well," especially when we observe the series of connected couples which follow : — Cease to do evil ; learn to do well. Seek judgment ; Right the oppressed. Judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow. "What then induced the Masoretes to separate so markedly between the first couple as to place " Cease to do evil " at the end of ver. 16, and to begin a new verse (17) with "Learn to do well"? Manifestly, to draw attention to the other aspect of the parallelism, by which all the injunctions in ver. 16 refer to the negative side of the reformation enjoined, summed up finally in "Cease to do evil," while " Learn to do well" presents the, positive side, and embraces all the particulars afterwards specified. See also a defence (against Ewald and Bertheau) of the Masoretic punctuation of Judg. v. 14, 15, in my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, p. 278. Query. Does not this explain the double Masoretic punctuation in the decalogue, Ex. xx. ? At the end of ver. 3 we find J l-l^'Py, seemingly to give the option of considering ver. 3 as the end of the first commandment, if the punctuation t ""J" be adopted ; or, by the alternative ''3", of connecting vers. 4-6 as a part and continuation of the first commandment (as adopted by the Eomish Church, the erroneousness of which I have shown in Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 141, 150). So the double punctuation at the end of vers. 13, 14 seems intended to mark, that while in one view the 6th and 7th are distinct commandments, yet in another they form the 8th with "Thou shalt not steal," the threefold i^o.fticular instances of one general command- ment = Thou shalt do no evil to thy neighbour, followed by two forbidding to injure him either by word (9th commandment) or by thought (10th command- ment). 134 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. whicli finally issued in the enjoyment of a " Day of Eest " in Canaan. Pss. xciii.-xcv. apply this parallel to the disci- plinary chastisement now appointed to Israel in Babylon, and encourage them not to " fear the floods " (xciii. 3) of mighty enemies threatening to overwhelm them, and instead of desponding to count those " blessed whom the Lord chasteneth" (xciv. 12), nay, to rejoice in "the Eock of their salvation " (xcv. 1), and to " bow down and kneel before the Lord " (ver. 6) in meek submission, seeing that they " harden not their hearts ; " the happy issue of which would be that they would enter into a higher "rest" (ver. 11) awaiting the people of God. i'urther, in the 5 intermediate Psalms (xcvi.-c.) the believing portion of Israel are encouraged to regard their dispersion among the Gentiles as a new stage in Israel's history, calling for " a new song unto the Lord," as preparing them for the accomplishment of their high calling to be " a kingdom of priests and an holy nation " unto the Lord (Ex. xix. 6), themselves to serve, and to bring all other nations into subjection to Jehovah, in fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves." They are called upon to rejoice that they shall thus be privileged to " show forth the Lord's salva- tion " (xcvi. 2), and "declare His glory among the heathen" (ver. 3), by manifesting the supremacy of Jehovah's character and attributes as " King" and "Most High" (xci. 1, 9, xcii. 1, xcvii. 9) above all. The greatness of His " Steength " (xcvi. 6, 7), His " EiGHTEOUSNESS and Judgment" (xcvii. 2), and His "Mercy and Faithfulness" (xcviii. 3), all combined, conspiring together to enhance the reverence and worship due to the "Holy One of Israel" (xcix. 3, 5, 9). The series most appropriately concludes with an earnest invitation (c), addressed by Israel to the Gentiles, to " know [acknowledge] that Jehovah, He is God " (ver. 3), and to join in His service (ver. 2) and worship (ver. 4), urging once more as the most per- suasive of the pleas — for their compliance with the invitation — For the Lord is good : His mercy is everlasting ; And His faithfulness endureth to all generations. PSALMS CI.-CVI. 185 PSALMS CI.-CVI. The last 6 Psalms of Book IV. revert again to Israel, and consist of two trilogies, the first (ci.-ciii.) relating more to Israel's king, and the second (civ.-cvi.) to Israel as a people. In Ps. ci. (which begins the first trilogy) we have, in the pious resolves of David for the administration of his kingdom, the high ideal that must be realized by Israel's king if he is to lead forward Israel to their high destiny, viz. himself to " walk with a perfect heart " (ver. 2) before the Lord, and to purify and establish Zion by encouraging " the faithful " (ver. 6), and discountenancing " all the wicked of the land," so as to " cut off all evil-doers from the city of the Lord " (ver. 8). But in Ps. cii., alas ! Zion is laid desolate and in ruins, and we have a " prayer " in the person of an " afflicted "■ representative of the royal house of David, whom God had " lifted up and cast down " (ver. 1 0), taught by sad experience the incompetence and weakness of every mortal, who is perishable " like grass " (ver. 4), and the necessity therefore, if David's race and people are not to be overpowered and them- selves "cut off" by the wicked, for the everlasting Lord whose "years have no end" (ver. 27), Himself to "arise and have mercy upon Zion " (ver. 1 3), and to bring " the nations and kings of the earth to fear " (ver. 15), to " 'praise, " (ver. 18), and "to serve the Lord" (ver. 22); for thus only "the children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee" (ver. 28).^ ^ The presumption, arising from Ps. cii. being placed between two Psalms both entitled "Of David," that it refers to the same subject, and that it is in the character of a descendant of the royal house that "the afflicted pours forth his prayer and complaint, " receive confirmation from the marked resemblance between the circumstances of the suppliant in Ps. cii. with those in Ps. Ixxxix. As in Ps. Ixxxix. the "anointed" of the Lord, after recounting the lofty promises made to David's race, "I will make him my first-born, most high over the kings of the earth" (ver. 27), has to complain, "But thou hast cast off ; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground " (vers, 38, 39) ; so the suppliant in Ps. cii. 10 complains, " Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down." As in Ps. Ixxxix., the sufferer recalls to God's remembrance that he has to "bear the reproach of the mighty, wherewith Thine enemies have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed" (vers. 50, 51) ; so in Ps. cii. 8, "mine enemies 136 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS, Tims only, moreover, shall they be prepared to join in David's noble thanksgiving song. Ps. ciii. " Bless the Lord," who alone can " forgive iniquities " (ver. 3), " redeem life from destruction " (ver. 4), and "renew like the eagle's the youth" (ver. 5) of His servants, vouchsafing, as of old to " Moses and the children of Israel " (ver. 7), His mercy and grace, showing a father's pity to his children, as remembering that their " days are as grass" (vers. 13-15), and manifesting that His is the "kingdom" that "ruleth over all" (ver. 19), in whose praise let the mightiest of " His hosts," and " all His works in all places of His dominion," unite. " Bless the Lord, my soul" (vers. 20-22). That the last three Psalms of Book IV. (civ.-cvi.) form a connected series or trilogy, is signified by their each ending with hallelujah, which occurs now for the first time in the Psalter ; and by their peculiar structure, first pointed out by Hengstenberg. Each Psalm consists of 7 divisions or reproacli me all the day." The cause assigned for his sufferings in Ps. Ixxxix., "Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed" (ver. 38), " Shall Thy wrath burn like fire?" (ver. 46), is the same in Ps. cii. 10, "Because of Thine indignation and wrath, Thou hast cast me down." But the point on which the sufferer specially dwells in Ps. Ixxxix. as an obstacle, apparently insurmountable, to the fulfilment of God's promises to David's race, is the mortality to which he and all men are subject. "Remem- ber how short my time is ; wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain ? What man is he that liveth and shall not see death ? " (vers. 47, 48). "The covenant of His servant" He would seem to have "made void" (ver. 39). "The days of his youth Thou hast shortened" (ver. 45). It is the very same complaint that forms the chief engrossing thought in Ps. cii., and to which again and again he returns. "My days are consumed like smoke" (ver. 3). "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass " (ver. 4). "My days are like a shadow that declineth" (ver. 11). "He shortened my days. I said, my God, take me not away in the midst of my days " (vers. 23, 24). From the utter despair and hopelessness which this thought would create, he can find no escape but to cast himself in faith on the eternity and unchangeableness of Jehovah, as able to carry out His purposes for Israel in a way unsearchable by human reason. "But Thou, Lord, shalt endure for ever; Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion" (vers. 12, 13) ; and again, " Thy years are throughout all genera- tions. Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens, etc. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure. Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end : [Therefore] the children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee " (vers. 24-28). PSALMS CI.-CVI. 137 strophes. lu each the central division is a single verse round which the other 6 strophes are grouped (3 on either side), and which forms the cardinal point on which the subject of each turns. In the first two Psahus (civ., cv.) this verse is the centre of the whole number of verses (ver. 1 8 in civ,, and ver. 23 in cv.) as well as of strophes; in the last two (cv., cvi.) the central verse is the same, viz. ver. 23, making the first three strophes, or iirst half of the Psalm, to end with the alphabetical number 22. Such nicety of arrange- ment can hardly be accidental. The purport of all three Psalms is to comfort the Israelites under the long dark night of the P)abylonish captivity, the gloom of which begins to be lightened by some streaks of approaching dawn as Book IV. draws to a close, evoking a prayer for their final deliver- ance. " He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto Thy holy name" (Ps, cvi. 46, 47). But these words, with which the last Psalm of Book IV. concludes, show that the Israelites are still in a foreign land. It is not until a new book begins that the joyful day of return is ushered in by the thanks- giving song of praise with which Book V. opens in Ps. cvii. Meanwhile they are encouraged in the three concluding Psalms of Book IV. to look forward to deliverance by arguments deduced. Ps. civ. from Creation and Providence = li God so care for the humblest of His creatures (centre ver. 18), how much more for His people ? (cf. Matt. vi. 3 0). Ps. cv. from Iiedemption = li God redeemed His people from Egypt (central ver. 23), is "His covenant" not "for ever " ? (ver. 8). Ps. cvi, from Grace =zli God listened to Moses' intercession (central ver. 23), and forgave Israel's great sin, will He not hear similar supplications now? [e.g. Dan. ix. 3-19].^ The strophical arrangement of the last six Psalms will assist in tracing the connection of ideas in each. * See for all three Psalms Hengstenberg's Commentary, and Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 282-298. 138 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. In Ps, ci. we have the pious resolves of the king of Israel (probably David) for the government of his kingdom. From the resemblance of the ejaculatory prayer in ver, 2, " Oh! when wilt Thou come unto me ? " to David's anxious inquiry, " How shall the ark of the Lord come unto me ? " (2 Sam, vi. 9), when he was deterred by God's severe judgment on Uzzali from carrying out his desire of bringing the ark of God to Zion, several commentators have referred this Psalm to the same occasion. But the last words of the Psalm forbid this. Zion could not have been named " the city of the Lord " (ver. 8) until the ark of God was placed within its gates. The more probable explanation of David's prayer is, that like Moses, who after the forty days' " communing with Him " vouchsafed by the Lord (Ex, xxxi, 18), was thereby incited only the more to long for still more intimate communion, and to pray, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory" (Ex. xxxiii. 13) ; so David, now that the outward, formal presence of God had been granted him by the ark having taken up its abode in his new city, pleads further for the fulfilment of the promise, " In all places where I record my name, / ivill come to thee and bless thee " (Ex. xx. 24) — the occasion perhaps being when he was meditating to build a house for the Lord, after He had given him " rest from all his enemies round about " (2 Sam, vii, 1). The question would press itself upon him, How shall he, a poor frail mortal, frame his life and conduct in a manner befitting the high and responsible position to which God had raised him ? In reflecting on the duties required of him, he could not but feel the need of a grace and strength not his own for their due fulfilment, which finds expression in the earnest cry, " Oh ! when wilt Thou come to me ? " What, then, were the duties incumbent on the king of Israel as the vicegerent of the Almighty, seated "on the throne of the Lord"? (1 Chron. i. 23). These, according to the usual Biblical ideas, are three- fold— I. Vers. 1, 2, as regards God — to act " godly." II. Vers. 3, 4, as regards ourselves — to act " soberly." III. Vers. 5-8, as regards others— to act " righteously." rsALM CI. 139 Strophe i. (vers. 1, 2). The Tsahnist resolves to make his first and great object to glorify Jelwvah, as being the true King of Israel, of whom he himself is but the earthly representative, ver. 1, puhlidy, by confession of the mouth praising and mag- nifying His divine attributes of " mercy and judgment ; " and, ver. 2, privately, making them the pattern for his personal administration, so as to " act wisely " and " with a perfect heart " within his house before the Lord, if only His presence is vouchsafed to him. His first thought (ver. 1) and his last (ver. 8) is that it is with " Jehovah " as supreme, aud with " the city of J Kiiowu" that he has to do. Strophe ii. (vers. 3, 4). As regards his duties to hirnself, of self-restraint and regulation in thought, in act, in heart and approval, he expresses his resolution, negatively and positively, alternately, what he " will not " and what he " will " do. Strophe iii. (vers. 5-8). In his treatment of others, he begins and ends (vers. 5, 8) with the fixed determination to " destroy " and show no quarter to high-handed offenders. Who shall " dwell " and who shall " not dwell " with him as members of his household, their character as to faithfulness shall determine (vers. 6a, 7a) ; who shall " minister " before liim in public offices of trust, their perfect truthfulness, or their untruthfulness, shall form the test (vers. 6h, 1h). PSALM CI. OF DAVID. A PSALM. I. Duti/ to God. 1 Of mercy and judgment will I sing ; Unto Thee, O Jehovah, will I hymn. 2 I will act wisely in a perfect way. Oh ! when wilt Thou come unto me ? I will walk with a perfect heart within my house. II. Duty to oneself. 3 I will not set before mine eyes any base thing : \_Negative.'\ The act of unfaithfulness I hate : [^Positive.'] It shall not cleave unto me. \_Negatice.'] 4 A froward heart shall depart from me ; [PosiVif e.] "Wickedness I will not know. [^Negative.l 140 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. III. Duty to others. 5 Whoso alandereth in seci^et his neighbour, him will I destroy : Whoso hath a high look and a proud heart, him will I not suSer. 6 Mine eyes shall be ujion the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me : He that walketh in a perfect way, even he shall minister unto me. 7 He shall not dwell within my house that worketh deceit : He that telleth lies shall not be established before mine eyes. 8 Morning by morning will I destroy all the wicked of the land ; That I may cut off from the city of Jehovah all workers of iniquity. PSALM CTI. In this Psalm we have the prayer of one whom the Lord had " lifted up and cast down " (ver. 1 0) in the character apparently of one of David's seed, if we may judge from its being placed between two of David's Psalms, and from the similarity of many of its expressions to those in Ps. Ixxxix. This scion of David's House or Israel, as an individual, by the severe experience of the captivity in Babylon, had been taught to feel man's weakness and perishableness, and to look to the eternal God alone, whose "years are throughout all genera- tions" (ver. 24) — who, though "earth and heavens perish and be changed" (vers. 25, 26), is Himself unchangeable — as alone able to fulfil His gracious promises of redemption. It consists of 3 strophes of 11, 11, and 6 verses. Strophe i. (vers. 1-11). In the depth of the sufferer's afflic- tion he beseeches God to hear him and to restore to him the light of His countenance (vers. 1, 2), on 3 pleas of 3 verses each, because he is — Vers. 3-5. Ready to perish, as being reduced to extreme personal distress. Vers. 6-8. Deserted and left solitary by friends, and reproached by enemies. Vers. 9-11. Suffering under God's anger, and perishable as grass. Strophe ii. (vers. 12-22). Ptenouncing, therefore, all dependence on the flesh, he turns to the Eternal God in the next 11 verses (divided into 4—3-4 verses), when a glorious prospect unfolds itself to the eye of faith, brightening more and more unto the perfect day, each stage furnishing a new plea for God's hastening the fulfilment, that men may PSALM CII. 141 " fear " (ver. 15), may " praise " (ver. 18), and may " serve the Lord" (ver. 22), from seeing the greatness of His power and mercy to those that have been humbled by affliction. Vers. 12-15. Day begins to break. The dawn is at hand. God shall "arise," shedding the beams of His mercy on Zion. The time fixed in the counsels of God has arrived, and Zion's children are looking with more intense longing for the glorious display of God's might in her deliverance, which shall lead " the nations and kings of the earth to Fear the name of the Lord" (ver. 15). Vers. 16-18. And now when Zion shall have been rebuilt — when God has appeared in His glory — generation unto generation shall repeat how graciously He has heard the prayer of the destitute, and children's children shall continue to " Pkaise the Lord" (ver. 18). Vers. 19-22. Nay, the grand consummation of God's coun- sels for a fallen world draws nigh. God has looked down on earth to burst the prison-bonds of sin and death, and all " peoples and kingdoms shall be gathered " into the city of God "to Serve the Lord " (ver. 22). Strophe iii. (vers. 23-28) gathers up and concentrates, as it were, in one focus the two preceding strophes. The Psalmist's helpless distress is but slightly touched, no longer in renewal of his plaint, but, from the confession wrought by God's afflic- tive discipline, of man's utter weakness, in order to magnify the more the eternity of the Lord's might and mercy, and the assurance that " the children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee " (ver. 28). PSALM OIL Prayer of an afflicted one, when he is overwhelmed, And i^oureth out his comi^laint before Jehovah. I. (11 verses). Prayer to he heard because of the very helplcss?iess of the suferer. 1 O Jehovah, hear my prayer, And let my cry come unto Thee. 2 Hide not Thy face from me : In the day that I am in distress, incline Thine ear unto me : In the day that I call, make haste to answer me. 142 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 3 For my days are consumed in smoke, And my bones are burned up as a firebrand. 4 Smitten as grass, and withered, is my heart ; For I have forgotten to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, My bone cleaves to my flesh. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness ; I have become as an owl of the ruins. 7 I watch, and am become As a sparrow alone on the house-top, 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day : They that are mad against me curse 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 lifted me up, and cast me down. 1 1 My days are like a shadow that declineth ; And I am withered like grass. II. (11 verses). Assurance of being heard, so soon as it leads to God and His glory. 12 But Thou, Jehovah, sittest enthroned for ever, And Thy memorial is unto all generations. 1 3 Thou wilt arise, wilt have compassion upon Zion : For time to have pity upon her, for the set time is come. 14 For Thy servants take pleasure in hei' stones, And on her dust they have pity. 15 So the nations shall Fear the Name of Jehovah, And all the kings of the earth Thy glory ; 16 Because Jehovah hath built up Zion, Hath appeared in His glory ; 17 Hath regarded the prayer of the destitute. And not despised their prayer. 18 This shall be written for the generation to come, And a people which shall be created shall Praise JAH ; 19 Because He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary ; From heaven Jehovah looked on the earth ; 20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner. To loose those that are appointed to death ; 21 That man may declare in Zion the name of Jehovah, And His praise in Jerusalem ; 22 When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to Serve Jehovah. PSALM CII. 143 III. (6 verses). Yes — the confession tcroucjht of man's vanity, and God's unchangeaUeness, ensures deliverance. 23 He humbled on the way my strength ; He cut short my days. 24 So that I say, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast Thou laid the foundations of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure ; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment : As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed : 27 But Thou art the same. And Thy years shall have no end. 28 The children of Thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before Thee.^ The words of ver. 23, " He Jmmhlcd on the luay my strength ^ i^rd), He cut short iny days," and their connection with ver. 24, " so that I say," etc., seem to receive light from Dent. viii. 2, 16, 17 (to which allusion would appear to be ■^ Attention to the parallelism of the corresponding verses in vers. 23-28 helps to bring out more clearly the train of thought. In vers. 23, 28, the "humbling" (23a) M^as in order to " establishing " (28Z/), the "cutting short " (236) in order to " continuing " (28a.). For in vers. 24, 27, the humbling and cutting short leads the creature to feel its perishableness and instability (24), and to look to God's eternity and un- changeableness (27) ; Since (vers. 2.5, 26) all is His work, and the mightiest of His created things, the heavens and earth, are perishable and changeable, while He shall endure for ever. 2 The meaning is much the same, whether with the A.V. we adopt the marginal reading, "my strength," or the textual, which is, "He humbled on the way by His strength." The objection to this last reading is that the verb is left alone without any object expressed, unless we make "my days" the object to both verbs, " He humbled (afflicted) on the way— He cut short my days." The word rendered in ver. 24 in the A.V., and by most interpreters, " I said," is, in the Hebrew, the Imperfect ; here (it would seem) to be regarded as sub- junctive, to mark its dependence on the preceding verbs, " He humbled my strength, He cut short my days— so that I say (or, in order that I might say)." So, nearly, Jilendelssohn seems to have taken it, " Erlieget auf dem Wege nieiue kraftz sind uieine T;ige obgekiirzt : sojleh'ich." 144 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. made, as marked by tlie corresponding words wliicli I have italicized in both quotations), " Eemember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humhle thee " (ver. 2), " who fed thee with manna, . . . that He might Jiumhle thee," lest " thou say in thine heart, My 2^oiver [or strength, Tia] and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." In both there is reference to the ivay by which God had led Israel, for in Ps. cii., though an individual would seem to be the speaker, yet it is merely as the leader and representative of Israel. In both God humUed him by the way, and in both it is for the purpose of leading him to the confession, that he has no strength of his own to upliold his life, but must look to the eternal God alone as the source of all power, and be taught, by the humbling discipline experienced, what he should " say " or not say — in Deuteronomy, negatively, lest "thou say in thine heart. My power hath gotten me this ; " in Ps. cii., jjositively, " so that I say," all power to give or take life is Thine ; " my God, take me not away in the midst of my days; Thy years are throughout all generations " (ver. 24). PSALM cm. This beautiful Psalm, when or by whomsoever composed, forms a most suitable conclusion to the trilogy ci.-ciii. The connection of thought in the three Psalms, when viewed in relation to each other, would seem to be this — Ps. ci. Man may form the best and holiest resolutions in all sincerity and firmness of purpose. Ps. cii. But soon experience of the creature's frailty and insufficiency in himself will constrain him to see and acknowledge that on the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah alone must be built all hopes of strength and con- tinuance. Ps. ciii. And the conviction thus wrought, if duly im- proved, will terminate in grateful praise to Jehovah for the PSALM cm. 145 blessings of His " healing, redeeming, and renewing " grace to the true Israel of God. In this Psalm we have 10 ^ verses (1-10) subdivided into 5 and 5, in which the Psalmist stirs up his soul to bless God for all His mercies — Vers. 1-5, to himself and each individual soul ; Vers. 6-10, to His people Israel ; and 12^ verses (11-22), setting forth the character and dispositions both of the Giver and of the worthy receivers of the mercies ; but subdivided into 3 times 4 verses — Vers. 11-14 characterizing the mercies as those of a father, infinitely great and tender to those that have been brought to fear Him, Vers. 15-18, their very perishableness calling forth "everlasting mercy," continued to "children's children, to such as keeji His covenant," Vers. 19-22, from the Almighty Sovereign of all, in praise to whom let all the mightiest as well as weakest in heaven and earth unite. PSALM cm. OF DAVID. 1 Bless, O my soul, Jehovah ; And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless, O my soul, Jehovah, And forget not all His benefits ; 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquity ; Who healeth all thy diseases ; 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 reneweth itself like the eagle's. 6 Jehovah executeth righteous acts. And judgment for all that are oppressed. 7 He made known His ways unto Moses, His doings unto the children of Israel. 1 T'ejj^ — perhaps as the number of covq^leieness, — to mark the fulness of tlio blessings. 2 !r«,'e?w,— perhaps in relation to the 12 tribes of /c>rae/. K 146 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 8 Merciful and gracious is Jehovah, Long-suffering and abundant in mercy. 9 He will not always chide ; Neither will He keep anger for ever. 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins, Nor rewarded us after our iniquities. 11 For as high as heaven is above the earth, So mighty is His mercy over them that fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west. So far hath He removed from us our transgressions. 13 Like as a father pitieth his childi^en, So Jehovah pitieth them that fear Him. 14 For He knoweth our frame ; He is mindful that we are dust. 15 Frail man !— his days are as grass ; As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; And the place thereof shall know it no more. 17 But the mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting. Yea, even to everlasting, upon them that fear Him And His righteousness unto 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, Ye mighty in strength, that execute His word, Listening to the voice of His word. 21 Bless Jehovah, all ye His hosts. Ye ministers of His that execute His pleasure. 22 Bless Jehovah, all ye His works. In all places of His dominion : Bless, O my soul, Jehovah ! Book V.^ of Psalms. The remarks of Dr. Delitzscli (and Hengstenberg) on the connection of Ps. cvii. (which begins Book V.) with the preceding Psahiis of Book IV. are so exactly in consonance with the view I have been led to take of the connection which subsists between all the parts of the Psalter in the form and 1 For the strophical arrangement of Pss. civ.-cvi., which ends Book IV., see Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, § xxii. CONNECTION OF PS. CVII. WITH BOOK IV. 147 order in which it has been transmitted to us, that I cannot do better than transcribe them : — " With this Psalm begins the fifth book. With Ps. cvi. closed the fourth book, the first Psalm of which, Ps. xc, bewailed the manifestation of God's wrath in the case of the generation of the desert, and, in the presence of the prevailing death, took refuge in God the Eternal and Unchangeable One. Ps. cvi., which closes the book, has ' in the wilderness ' (vers. 14, 26, "•tI'iq?^ hammidlibdr) as its favourite word, and makes confession of the sins of Israel on the way to Canaan. Now, just as at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy Israel stands on the threshold of the land of promise, so at the beginning of this fifth book of the Psalter we see Israel restored to the soil of its fatherland. There it is the Israel redeemed out of Egypt, here it is the Israel redeemed out of the lands of the exile. " We must not therefore be surprised if Pss. cvi. and cvii. are closely connected, in spite of the fact that the boundary of the two books lies between them. ' Ps. cvii. stands in close relationship to Ps. cvi. The similarity of the beginning [" give thanks unto the Lord," etc.] at once points back to this Psalm. Thanks are here given in ver. 3 for what was there desired in ver. 47. The praise of the Lord, which was promised in Ps. cvi. 47 in the case of redemption being vouchsafed, is here presented to Llim after redemption vouchsafed.' This observation of Hengstenberg is fully confirmed. The Pss. civ.— cvii. really to a certain extent form a tetralogy ; Ps. civ. derives its material from the history of the creation, Ps. cv. from the preparatory and early history of Israel, Ps. cvi. from the history of Israel in Egypt in the desert and in the land of promise down to the exile, and Ps. cvii. from the time of the restoration. " Nevertheless the connection of Ps. civ. with cv.-cvii. is by far not so close as that of these three Psalms among them- selves. These three anonymous Psalms form a trilogy in the strictest sense ; they are a tripartite whole from the hand of one author. God's wondrous deeds of loving-kindness and compassion towards Israel from the time of their forefathers 148 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. down to the redemption out of Egypt according to the promise, and giving them possession of Canaan, are the theme of Ps. cv. The theme of Ps. cvi. is the sinful conduct of Israel from Egypt onwards during the journey through the desert, and then in the land of promise, by which they brought about the fulfilment of the threat of exile (ver. 27) ; but even there God's mercy was not suffered to go unattested (ver. 46). The- theme of Ps. cvii., finally, is the sacrifice of praise that is due to Him who redeemed them out of exile and all kinds of destruction. "We may compare Ps. cv. 44, ' He gave them the lands of the heathen ;' cvi. 27, [He threatened] ' to cast forth their seed among the heathen, and to scatter them in the lands ; ' and cvii. 3, ' out of the lands hath He brought them together, out of east and west, out of north and south.' The designed similarity of the expression, the internal connection, and the progression in accordance with a definite plan, are not to be mistaken here. In other respects, too, these three Psalms are intimately interwoven. In them Egypt is called the ' land of Ham' (cv. 23, 27, cvi. 22), and Israel 'the chosen ones of Jahve '(cv. 6, 43, cvi. 5, cf. 23), etc. . . . Everything therefore favours the assertion that Pss. cv., cvi., and cvii. are a ' trefoil ' (trifolnim), — two Hodu-Psalms [i.e. beginning with nin, hddil, ' give thanks '] and a Hallelujah Psalm in the middle." Tliese remarks of Delitzsch and Hengstenberg bring out in ;in instance not to be mistaken what we have endeavoured to .show from examination of former Psalms : that not only there are groups of Psalms which, if we would enter into their full import, must be considered in the relations in which they are placed to each other ; but also that of these Psalms there are some so adjusted as to admit of varied combinations, so as to form part of different groups for liturgical purposes, accord- ing to the view intended for the time to be made prominent (see p. 131). Ps. cvii. forms the opening Psalm of Book V. Its first three verses point so plainly to the return from the Babylonish captivity, that the majority of commentators have assigned this as the date and occasion of its composition. Some have gone PS. evil. 149 even so far as to explain every part of the Psalm as referring to the circumstances of the restoration, and interpret the various pictures given of the loving-kincluess of God in deliver- ing those who call upon Him in the extremity of distress as parables or figures -under which the miseries of the exile are depicted. The recoil from this strained interpretation has led other commentators to the opposite extreme, and in their zeal to controvert it they have denied that the Psalm " is historical, or designed to celebrate the return from the Babylonish captivity ; the four or five groups or pictures" of sufferers delivered in the last extremity being quite general, and merely " samples taken from the broad and varied record of human experience." -^ All this may be true, and yet it in no way invalidates the conclusion drawn from the first three verses, which clearly mark the historical occasion which called forth the composition of the Psalm, " give tlianhs unto the Lord. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." These words stand apart at the head of the Psalm, perfectly independent of the analogous instances of redemption described in the sequel, and define distinctly the circumstances of those who are called upon to join in the song of thanks- giving, as having been redeemed out of all the countries round about and restored to their own land. Such language could have been applied to Israel at no earlier stage of their history than the restoration. But all hesitation must vanish when we observe the unmistakeable allusions to the words italicized above in Ps. cvii. to those now italicized in Ps. cvi., He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy (ver. 10), "He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanJcs unto Thy holy Name " (cvi. 46, 47). The position of Ps. cvii. in the Psalter, as opening Book V. (if we have been correct in assigning Book IV. to the period of the Babylonish captivity), determines the place in ' Dean Perowne, " Introduction to Ps. cvii.** 150 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Israel's history, designed to be recalled by Book V., to be that immediately following the restoration, when the first and main object of public concern was the rebuilding of the temple. This was the subject of Cyrus's decree, as we read in the first words of Ezra i. 2-4 ; and in the second month of the second year after their arrival, the foundation of the temple was laid under the presidency of Zerubbabel their prince and Joshua their high priest. The adversaries of Israel, however, were successful in arresting its progress for some fifteen years, when, in consequence of a second decree issued by Darius, they were permitted to resume the building under the encourage- ment of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and on its completion the dedication of the house was kept with great solemnity and rejoicing. To celebrate this occasion the series of 12 Psalms (cvii.— cxviii.), which we are now about to consider, seems to have been arranged and in part composed. They are 12 in number — to signify the reconstitution of all Israel ; for although the greater part of those who returned consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, still there were members of all the 12 tribes who united themselves to their brethren. Accordingly the writer of the Book of Ezra almost always designates the people as "Israel" (some 39 times), and states particularly that " at the dedication of the house of God a sin-offering was made for all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel " (vi. 1 7) ; and again, on Ezra's going up to Jerusalem about 60 years after- wards, in the reign of Artaxerxes, the additional children of the captivity who came up with him " offered burnt-offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel . . . and twelve he-goats for a sin-offering" (viii. 35). The series is most appropriately introduced by a thanks- giving hymn (Ps. cvii.) for the redemption of Israel from the Babylonish captivity, and closed by a corresponding song of praise (Ps. cxviii.), the theme of which is a thanksgiving for the completion of the second temple.^ Enclosed between these is an inner series of 10 Psalms (cviii.-cxvii.), beginning with a Davidic trilogy (Pss. cviii.-cx.), which forms, as it were, ^ See the tabular arrangement, p. 153 sq. STRUCTURE OF BOOK V. 151 the keynote or overture to the 7 succeeding melodies (Pss. cxi.-cxvii.). This heptade is most distinctly marked, and arranged according to the more usual division of the 7 (3-1-3), since it consists of 3 Psalms beginning with hallelujah (cxi.— cxiii,), and 3 ending with hallelujah (cxv.-cxvii.), grouped around a central Psalm (cxiv.), which is distinguished from the rest by having no hallelujah either at the beginning or end. Psalm cviii., the first of the Davidic trilogy, is made up of two portions of old Psalms of David joined together (Pss. Ivii. 7-11, and Ix. 5-12), in order to recall anew the promises made to Israel and their king of the full possession of their destined inheritance, and the subjugation of their enemies. This is followed by Ps. cix., in which David commits the avenging of his cause to God against a wicked and treacherous enemy who " fought against him without a cause " (ver. 3) when he was in deep distress, and prays to God, " Help me, Lord my God : save me according to Thy mercy," from the utter destruction that threatened to overwhelm him, " that they may know that this is Thy hand: that Thou, Lord, hast done it" (vers. 26, 27). The trilogy is closed by the crowning revelation and blessing granted to David as king of Israel, of a descendant to be raised up to him so far surpassing aught that was human, that David styles him " my Lord," and God seats him on His throne at His own right hand, and not only assures to him a final triumph over all his adversaries, but with the solemn sanction of an oath invests him with the united dignity of King and " Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," for the accomplishment of God's declared purpose for Israel to be to Himself "a kingdom oi priests" (Ex. xix. 6). The 7 Psalms which follow, with their 7 hallelujahs,^ have as their central subject, in Ps. cxiv., Israel's exodus or deliver- ^ To complete the 7 hallelujahs (since, to denote the distinctive character of Ps. cxiv. as central, no hallelujah occurs in it), Ps. cxiii. ends, as well as begins, with hallelujah. It is thus marked out as forming the close of the first trilogy of Psalms by having two hallelujahs ; just as in Gen. 1. the close of each triad of days (the 3rd and the 6th day) is marked by having two creative acts assigned to it (cf. vers. 9-13, and vers. 24-31), and "good" tw?ce(vers. 10 and 12, and vers. 25 and 31). 152 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ance from the Babylonish captivity, which is here likened to the older exodus from Egypt, and the wonders of Almighty power which accompanied the earlier deliverance are recalled for their present encouragement. Eound this central Psalm are grouped two triads of Psalms. The first triad (Pss. cxi.-cxiii.) gives praise more for what God is in Himself, and has just shown Himself to he to Israel, as an earnest of what He still further will do for His people — Ps. cxi. depicts Him as beiug possessed of a " righteousness that endureth for ever " (ver. 3), " gracious and full of compassion " (ver. 4), " ever mindful of His covenant " (ver. 5), and that "hath commanded His covenant for ever" (ver. 9). Ps. cxii. represents Him as requiring in him who would participate in His blessings, that he shall reflect the character of Him who created him in His image ^ — that he shall become possessed like Him of a " righteousness that endureth for ever " (vers. 3 and 9), be " gracious and full of compassion " (ver. 4), and as the Lord's " commandments are sure, estab- lished for ever and ever " (Ps. cxi. 7, 8), so (Ps. cxii. 7, 8) "his heart be fixed, established, and not afraid, until" in recompense God give him to " see his desire upon his enemies," while "the desire of the wicked shall perish" (ver. 10). And finally, as completing the first trilogy, Ps, cxiii. praises God as glorious and exalted, yet condescending to "raise the poor out of the dust " (ver. 7), " and to make the barren woman [Zion, cf. Isa. liv. 1] to keep house and be a joyful mother of children " (ver. 9). The second triad, or last three Psalms of the he^Dtade (cxv.- cxvii.), while all three ascribe the " glory " of Israel's deliver- ance to the "mercy" and "truth" of Jehovah alone (ex v. 1, cxvi. 1 and 10, cxvii. 2), inculcate at the same time the requital which the Lord expects in return. Ps. cxv. deprecates giving any share of the " glory " due 1 The correspondence in outward form of the two Psalms (each line in both beginning with the same letter successively of the alphabet) points to a like inward exactness of correspondence in character, required by God between His servants and Himself. STRUCTUEE OF BOOK V. 153 to God's " mercy and truth " (ver. 1) to idols, in which there is no truth nor trust (vers. 4-8), and enjoins on all to "trust in the Lord " (vers. 9-11); and to "praise" and "bless" the mercy of the Lord, who already " hath been mindful of us," and " will bless " and " increase more and more " His people (vers. 12-18). In Ps. cxvi. this requital Israel professes already in part to have made, and expresses the desire still further to " render unto the Lord for all His benefits " (ver. 12) — by the " Love " (ver. 1) which the experience of His mercy has called forth (vers. 1-9) ; and by the "Belief" (ver. 10), or trust in Him, which has been called forth by the experience of the truth of the Lord (in contrast to whom " all men are liars," ver. 11). Ps. cxvii. closes the triad with an invitation to " all nations and peoples " to unite in praising, and participating in, the " mcrey and truth of the Lord" towards Israel. These Psalms all lead up to the grand " Te Benin" or Triumphal Song of Praise, Ps. cxviii., with which this series concludes. The structural connection of the whole of this magnificent liturgical service will be more clearly seen from the following tabular arrangement : — Psalm cvii. Thanksgiving for the redemption of Israel from the Babylonish captivity. Trilogy of Davidic Psalms, to call to remembrance the promises made to Israel and their king. I Psalm cviii. Recounts the promise of the entire inheritance (vers. 7, 8), and subjugation of every — the most inveterate foe, made to Israel's king (vers. 9-13) ; Psalm cix. "Who yet shall incur causeless persecution from the wicked, calling for righteous retribution (1-11) — judgment without mercy ; to him who showed no mercy (12-20), and mercy to deliver the sufferer, in order that the adversaries may see God's " hand " in it and " be ashamed," and God's " servant rejoice " (21-31) ; Psalm ex. Who, finally, shall be exalted as " lord " over all, and with his willing host of priestly warriors, as king and " priest for ever," subdue all enemies to himself. Tsalm CXI. w <1 ^ Psalm cxii. f=l ^■l Psalm cxiii. 154 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The seven Hallelnjah Psalms call to praise the Lord; For His past work of redemption, "giving to His people the heritage of the heathen " (central ver. 8), as an earnest for the future, since " He will remember for ever His covenant " (vers. 5, 9). For the " blessedness " (1) and " everlasting remem- brance " (central ver. 6) bestowed in recompense on the " righteous " (2, 3, 5, 6, 9) who " fear Him " (1), while " the desire of the wicked shall perish " (10). For the condescending mercy of the Most High in <^ raising up " the poor and needy," and giving to " the barren that did not bear" (Isa. liv. 1), " to be a joyful mother of children." Psalm cxiv. The exodus recently experienced, while it recalls the past, foretokens a new and more glorious exodus to come ; /Psalm cxv. m For the accomplishment of which we pray, not for aught in ourselves, but "for Thy mercy and Thy He will remember for ever His covenant. 6 3 The ijower of His work He showed to His people, 7 In giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 J2 The works of His hands are truth and judgment ; 3 Faithful are all His precepts. 8 D Established for ever and ever ; ]j Being done in truth and uprightness. III. 9 a Redemption He sent to His people ; V He hath commanded for ever His covenant : p Holy and to be feared is His name. 10 "I The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah : t^ A good understanding have all they that do those things : n His praise standeth fast for ever.^ PSALM CXII. Hallelujah ! I. 1 i< Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah, 2 That in His commandments delighteth greatly ! 2 i Mighty upon earth shall be his seed, T The generation of the upright shall be blessed. 3 n Wealth and riches are in his house ; 1 And his righteousness standeth fast for ever. II. 4 f There ariseth in the darkness light to the upright : n Gracious, and compassionate, and righteous is he. 5 L3 Well is it for the man that dealeth graciously and lendeth : ^ He shall maintain his cause in judgment. 6 3 For he shall not be moved for ever : p In everlasting remembrance shall be the righteous. 7 D Because of evil tidings he shall not be afraid : 3 Fixed is his heart, trusting in Jehovah. 8 D Established is his heart, it shall not be afraid, j; Until he see his desire upon his adversaries. ^ Since God's "covenant is for ever," Israel's " wisdom " is to fear (i), obey (B>), and praise (n) Him (ver. 10). 166 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. III. 9 a He hath dispersed, he hath given to the needy ; V His righteousness standeth fast for ever ; p His horn shall be exalted in glory. 10 1 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved ; ■^ His teeth he shall gnash, and melt away : n The desire of the wicked shall perish. Ps, cxiii. is marked as the third or concluding Psalm of the first trilogy by beginning and ending with hallelujah, and, as Hengstenberg remarks, by its consisting of 3 strophes, each with 3 verses (and 6 lines), and a threefold call in the first three to praise " the Name of Jehovah." Strophe i. Praise Jehovah — as to His Name, evermore and everywhere. Strophe ii. Praise Jehovah — as exalted and glorious, yet condescending. Strophe iii. Praise Jehovah — as merciful and bounteous to His poor and oppressed people, and to the long - forsaken daughter of Zion again to become "a joyful mother of children." PSALM CXIII. Hallelujah 1 I. 6 lines. 1 Praise, O ye servants of Jehovah, Praise the Name of Jehovah. 2 May the Name of Jehovah be blessed From this time forth and for evermore. 3 From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same. Praised be the Name of Jehovah. II. 6 lines. 4 High above all nations is Jehovah, Above the heavens is His glory. 5 Who is like unto Jehovah our God 1 Who sitteth throned on high, 6 Who bendeth down low to look On the heavens and on the earth ! III. 6 lines. 7 Who raiseth up from the dust the feeble. From the dunghill He lifteth up the needy ; . PSALM CXIV. 167 8 To set him with princes, Even with the Prince of His people. 9 Who maketh her that was barren to keep house, A joyful mother of children.^ Hallelujah ! Ps. cxiv. consists of 4 strophes, each consisting of 2 verses, and 4 lines. This strikingly beautiful and graphic Psalm, while it depicts the irresistible power and majesty of the Almighty, manifested formerly in the early deliverance of His people from Egypt, and now once more reproduced in their recent deliver- ance from P)abylon,^ seems yet, by tlie turn the Psalmist gives to his expression in the last quatrain, " At the presence of the Lord, tremble, earth ! " to point to a yet grander manifesta- tion to come, of the redemptive might of Jehovah described in singular terms by the contemporary prophet Haggai, ii. 6, " Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land." PSALM CXIV. 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 looked, and fled ; Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, The hills like the young of the flock. 5 What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest ? Thou Jordan, that thou tumest back ? 6 Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams ? Ye hills, like the young of the flock 1 7 At the presence of the Lord — tremble, thou earth, At the presence of the God of Jacob ; 8 Who turneth the rock into a pool of waters, The flintstone into a fountain of waters. 1 Compare Isa. liv. 1, "Sing, barren, thou that didst not bear," etc. ^ According to the present position of the Psalm — whether composed at an earlier period, or for the present occasion, as the paragogic additions, ver. 8, would seem to indicate (cf. Ps. cxiii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). ^ Cf. Ex. xix. 6, "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom oi priests." 168 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS, Ps. cxv. consists of 5 strophes (scheme 3, 4, 4, 4, 3), which, with Koster, Ewald, Tholuck, etc., I am inclined to distribute among different choirs. In strophe i. (vers. 1-3, 3 verses, to which strophe v. corresponds) the congregation prays Jehovah to keep His people, not for any merit in them, but in vindication of His own Name, for His " Mercy and Truth's sake " (impugned by the taunts of the heathen, "Where is now their God ?"), by showing Himself the all-powerful God of heaven. This is followed by 3 strophes, of 4 verses each, strophes ii. and iv, proceeding from the priests, while the central strophe iii. would be sung, the first line of each verse by a single voice, and the second in response by the whole choir. In strophe ii. the priests enlarge on the un-^nt^7i-fulness and un-^rzts^- worthiness of the idols, which have the semblance of " mouth, eyes, ears," etc., and yet are utterly powerless to make use of them themselves, or to help others. This pre- pares for the central thought of the Psalm, strophe iii., the acknowledgment of the utter weakness and folly of their worshippers in trusting for help to what their own hands have made, and the consequent call on all ranks in Israel to " trust in Jehovah " alone. In strophe iv. the priests again, now that the " Truth " and trustworthiness of Jehovah has been recognised, in con- trast with the untruthfulness and untrustworthiness of idols, turn to the other side of Jehovah's character. His " Mercy," in part already manifested in the tokens of returning favour which He has shown to Israel (" Jehovah hath been mindful of us "), as a guarantee that He will go on to bless all classes in Israel (vers. 12, 13), — in confidence of which they pro- nounce directly (vers. 14, 15) their priestly benediction on the people in terms reminding them of the Melchizedek- blessing promised in Ps. ex. 4. In strophe v. the close, as frequently, corresponds and reverts to the opening. In strophe i. the congregation prayed for God's help and protection to His people. Strophe v. expresses their faith in their prayer being granted. Jehovah, whose rule all the hosts of heaven obey, gave the " eaith " to PSALM CXV. 169 be the possession of man, only in order that His praise may be established in it, as already in " the heavens." Eemember- iug this, and that He cannot, therefore, permit His people (chosen for this very purpose as " a kingdom of priests " to bring all unto Him) to be overpowered and put to death by their idolatrous enemies, Israel resolves to despond no more, but with hopeful and thankful hearts to " bless Jah from this time forth and for evermore." PSALM CXV. I. The Congregation. 1 Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, But unto Thy Name ' give glory, For Thy Mercy, for Thy Truth's sake. 2 "Wherefore shoukl the nations say, " Where now is their God ? " 3 But our God is in the heavens ; Whatsoever He pleased He hath done. II. The Priests. 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 see not ; 6 Ears have they, but they hear not ; A nose have they, but they smell not ; 7 They liave hands, but they handle not ; They have feet, but they walk not ; No sound make they with their throat. III. Single voice and Choir alternate. 8 Like unto them shall be they that make them,^ Every one that trusteth in them. 9 O Israel, trust thou in Jehovah ; He is their help and their shield. ^ '* The Lord descended . . . and proclaimed the Name of the Lord — plenteous in mercy and truth," Ex. xxxiv. 5, 6. 2 PhiUppson, I find, also joins ver. 8 to 9-11, as forming the transition from the idolti to those who put their trust in them. So Ewald in the later edition of his Dichter dts alten Bundes. 170 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 10 O house of Aaron, trust ye in Jehovali ; He is their help and their shield. 11 Ye that fear Jehovab, trust in Jehovah ; He is their help and their shiekl. IV. The Priests. 12 Jehovah hath been mindful of us ; He 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. 14 May Jehovah increase you more and more, You and your children ! 15 Blessed be ye of Jehovah, The Maker of heaven and earth ! ^ V. The Congregation. 16 The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah, And the earth hath He given to the children of men. 17 The dead praise not Jah, Neither any that go down into silence. 18 But we, we will bless Jah, From this time forth and for evermore. Hallelujah ! Ps. cxvi. We are indebted to the Septuagint^ for preserving the true division of this Psalm, which has been mistaken by many of the modern commentators (Koster, Ewald, Tholuck, Hupfeld, Perowne, etc.). It consists of 2 strophes, one of 9 verses (4-1—4) and the other of 10 (5 + 5), the key- words of which are those with which they begin. Ver. 1. "I LovE,"^ because of Jehovah's "Mercy" vouch- safed in hearing and delivering me when I called. Ver. 10. "I Believe,"^ because of Jehovah's "Teuth" in showing Himself faithful to His word of promise, unlike "men," ^ The ^vorcls of Melchizedek's blessing to Abram are, " Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth" (Gen. xiv. 19). '^ The LXX. divides the Psalm into two, beginning a new Psalm with ver. 10. ^ TinnS, 'ahavti, I love, i.e. I am full of love. ^ "TlJDSn, he'emanti, I believe. Both verbs are stative. PSALM CXYI. 171 whom I foiiud to be "all liars" (ver. 11) — not to be trusted ; cf. Ps. cxviii. 8, 9. Both strophes end with the requital which the Psalmist engages to make for God's Mercy and Truth. Por the Mercy shown, he will prove his " Love " by his " soul returning to rest " in quiet dependence on God, and by " loalking heforc the Lord ^ in the lands of the living " (vers. 7 and 9), For His Truth, which He has made good to him, the Psalmist will give the proof of his abiding " Belief " in it, by " speaking " aloud (ver. 10), and publicly declaring his faith — "calling upon the Name of the Lord" (vers. 13 and 17), and "paying his vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people " (vers. 14 and 18). Ps. cxvi. is thus the return which the Psalmist makes for the answer to his prayer in Ps. cxv., in which appeal was made to God to hear His people in their distress, in vindica- tion of the glory of His own Name, for His " Mercy and Tkutii's sake" (ver. 1). Strophe i. (vers. 1-9) has accordingly as its centre, in ver. 5, that attribute of Jehovah which called forth in the Psalmist's heart the emotion of " Love," to which he first gives utterance, " Gracious is the Lord and merciful" yet with righteousness conjoined. In the two couplets of verses on either side, the first two (vers. 1-4) point more to the sufferer's past experience, and to the Love and resolution which it called forth, ever to " call upon the Lord " in all circumstances ; the last two (vers. 6-9), more to the state of quiet dependence on God for the future, and living and acting as ever under His eye. Strophe ii. (vers. 10-19) consists of 10 verses, subdivided into 5 and 5. In the first 5 (vers. 10-14) he declares how thorough is his " Belief " — for he " must speak " it, from his experience of God's "Truth" enhanced the more by the failure of all help expected from man (vers. 10, 11, and cf. cxviii. 8, 9) ; for which the sole return he can make is by the public acknowledgment that his " salvation " is due to God alone, and ^ Gen. xvii. 1, "Tlie Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, Walk before me, and be thou perfect." Comp. 1 Kings ii. 4, viii. 25, ix. 4. 172 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. by paying liis vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people (vers. 12-14). In the next 5 verses (vers. 15—19), once more he repeats again, first, his obligations (vers. 15, 16) for the "precious" care God takes of " His saints," and for " loosing " the bonds which his enemies put on him — thereby binding him more devotedly as " servant " to himself ; and then, in nearly identical terms, he repeats the return he has resolved to "render unto the Lord for all His benefits" (vers. 17—19). PSALM CXVI. I. 1 I LOVE [Him] — for Jehovah will hear ^ My voice, my supplications. 2 Because He inclined His ear unto me, Therefore as long as I live I will call upon Him. 3 The cords of death compassed me, And the straits of Sheol caught me : Straitness and sorrow did I find. 4 Then on the Name of Jehovah I call : Oh now ! Jehovah, deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is Jehovah, and righteous ; Yea, our God is compassionate. 6 Jehovah preserveth the simple : I was brought low — and He saveth me. 7 Return, O my soul, unto thy rest ; For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee. 8 Because Thou hast delivered my soul from death, Mine eyes from tears. My feet from falling. 9 I will walk before Jehovah In the lands of the living. II. 10 I BELIEVE [in Him] — for I will speak — ^ I was greatly afflicted. ^ There seems to be a designed parallelism in the corresponding first verse of each strophe between the imperfects yotJ'"' ^3 in ver. 1, "for Jehovah toiU hear," and "IHIS ^2 in ver. 10, " for I will speak." ^ The import of ver. 10 will be seen to be the same as the Septuagint render- ing : Wi/TTiuira S/o IXaXnira, "I believed, therefore did I speak," quoted by St. Paul, 2 Cor. iv. 13. The strength of the Psalmist's faith in either case being represented as the constraining cause for his speaking. PSALM CXVII. ITS' 111 said in my alai'm, " All men are liars." 12 How shall I repay Jehovah For all His bountiful dealings with me ? 1 3 I will take the cup of salvation, And i;pon the Name of Jehovah will I call. 14 My vows unto Jehovah will I pay, Oh now, in presence of all His jjeople. 15 Precious in the sight of Jehovah Is the death of His saints. 16 Oh now, O Jehovah, for I am Thy servant ; I am Thy servant, the son of Thine handmaid : Thou hast loosed my bonds. 17 Unto Thee will I sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving, '^ And upon the Name of Jehovah will I call. 18 My vows unto Jehovah will I pay, Oh now, in the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of Jehovah's house, In the midst of Thee, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah ! Ps. cxvii. completes the second trilogy (as well as the heptade of Psalms) by inviting the Gentiles to come and participate in the possession and praise of the " Mercy " and " Truth " vouchsafed to God's people. PSALM CXVII. 1 Praise Jehovah, all ye nations : \ Laud Him, all ye peoples. 2 For exceeding great toward us is His Mercy, And the Truth of Jehovah [endureth] for ever. Hallelujah ! Ps. cxviii. forms the grand finale to this magnificent liturgical service. As most commentators now agree, it was composed as a thanksgiving hymn on occasion of the build- ing of the second temple, and, as we hope to show, on occasion of its completion. It seems to have been intended to be sung by a festive procession, the first two strophes (vers. 1-14) before arriving at the temple, the third on approaching the gates, and the fourth after entering the court of the temple. Like some of the preceding series, it ^ Compare "Sacrifice imto God thanksgiving," Ps. 1. 14 and 33. 174 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. appears from the interlocutory form to have been chanted in parts by different choirs (see especially strophe iv.). The " I " is either Israel as a whole, or Zerubbabel as their leader and representative. In vers. 23-27 the plural form of the pronoun (" our," " us ") is used. In regard to the strophical division we are left in no doubt. The recurrence of the refrain in vers. 14, 21, and 28> taken from Moses' triumphal song on the shore of the Eed Sea,^ at once points out to the student of parallelism its division by 7. Ver. 28 (completing 4x7) properly forms the conclusion, as indicated by its words being taken from the second portion of the same 2nd verse of Ex. xv. Ver. 29 is but a repetition of ver. 1, that the Psalm may end, as it began, with thanksgiving to Jehovah for His mercy. Strophe i. (vers. 1-7) begins with a call on all classes to render thanks to the Lord for the merciful deliverance vouchsafed (vers. 1-4), to which Israel (as their Leader) respond by expressing their gratitude and confiding faith, from the help already experienced, that Jehovah will finally give them the victory over all their enemies (vers. 5-7). Strophe ii. (vers. 8-14). In the next 7 verses the con- fession is made that the disappointment in the trust placed in Cyrus and his princes, followed so soon by opposition and obstruction from the enemies who " compassed them about " on their return to Jerusalem, has, together with the help received from the Lord, taught them to look to Jehovah above as their " strength and salvation." Strophe iii. (vers. 15—21). And now that the procession approaches the ascent to the hill of God, they recall, amid all their rejoicings, what is the character of those who may draw near to the presence of the Holy One of Israel. " Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? " " Who shall abide in Thy tabernacle ? " " He that worketh rigJdcousness." " He that ^ The words of Ex. xv. 2 are — My strength and song is Jah, And He is become my salvation ; This is my God, and I will praise Him ; My father's God, and I will exalt Him. PSALM CXVIII. 175 hath clean hands and a pure heart : he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (Ps. xv. 1, 2, xxiv. 3-5). Taking up, accordingly, the words of the song which Isaiah (chap, xxvi.) puts into the mouth of Judah, " Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in " (ver. 2), in the day when they can with truth say, " In the way of Thy judgments, Lord, have we waited for Thee" (ver. 8), "Lord, in trouble have they (' the nation ') visited Thee, they poured out a prayer when Thy chastening was upon them" (ver. 16), • — so Israel now pleads tliat such has been the effect of the LorcVs sore chastening of them (ver. 18), and feels emboldened to prefer the petition (ver. 19), "Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will enter into them — I will give thanks to Jah;" to this ver. 20 is the reply from the priests within, " This is the gate of Jehovah, the righteous may enter in by it." On this, once more in the words of Moses' song, thanks are returned to the Lord for the gracious answer to Israel's prayer, " I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me, and art become my salvation " (ver. 2 1). Strophe iv. (vers. 22-28). And now, finally, when the pro- cession has entered the temple, looking round on the holy edifice, on which the copestone has at length been placed, the whole body of worshippers burst forth into one united song of praise, " The stone which the builders despised is become the head stone of the corner," etc. (vers. 22-24), the central verse, 25, being still more fully intoned, "We beseech Thee, O Jehovah, save now 1 We beseech Thee, Jehovah, send now prosperity ! " On this (vers. 26, 27) the priests pronounce their blessing on the leader and his whole train, inviting to the acknow- ledgment that " Jehovah [alone] is God," ^ who " has shone upon us " [in allusion to the priestly benediction, " the Lord ' The unmeaning rendering of tlie A.V. (if we substitute Jehovah for " the Lord") — "God is Jehovah," in place of "Jehovah is God" — is a crucial instance to show how much of the meaning of Scripture is lost to the English reader by the substitution of "the Lord" for Jehovah — with the distinctive meaning of the name kept in view, as it ought ever to be. The error is corrected in the Revised Version. 176 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. make His face sliinc upon thee," Num. vi. 25], and com- manding to " bind the sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the altar" (ver. 27) — that is, either (as Delitzsch) the vast multitude of victims reaching up to the very horns of the altar ; or better, as Perowne, " since on the other inter- l^retation there is nothing appropriate in the mention of the horns of the altar, ' Bind the victim with cords till it is sacrificed, and. its blood sprinkled on the liorns of the altar.' " In accordance with the priests' invitation, Israel (or their leader in their name) make the solemn confession of their faith (now indelibly stamped on Israel's mind and heart by the severe discipline of the captivity), using once more the words of Moses' song, " Thou art my God, and I will give Thee thanks ; Thou art my God, and I will exalt Thee " (Ex. XV. 2). The whole " closes, in correspondence with its beginning, with a Hodii [0 give thanks], in which all voices join " (Delitzsch). PSALM CXVIII. I. 1 O GIVE THANKS UNTO JeHOVAH ; FOR He IS GOOD : FOR His mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let Israel now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. 3 Let the house of Aaron now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. 4 Let them now that fear Jehovah sa}-, That His mercy endureth for ever. 5 Out of the straits ^ I called uiwn Jah : Jah answered me in a large place. 6 Jehovah is on my side, I will not fear : What can man do unto me ? 7 Jehovah is on my side, among them that help me ; Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. IL 8 It is better to trust in Jehovah, Than to put confidence in man. 9 It is better to trust in Jehovah, Than to put confidence in princes. 1 Cf. Ps. cxvi. 3, "the straitH of Sheol," PSALM cxviir. 177 10 All nations compassed me about : In the Name of Jehovah [it is] that I cut them off. 11 They compassed me about ; yea, they encompassed me : In the Name of Jehovah [it is] that I cut them off. 12 They compassed me about like bees ; They were quenched like a fire of thorns : In the Name of Jehovah [it is] that I cut them off. 13 Thou didst thrust sore at me, that I might fall : But Jehovah helped me. 14 " My strength and song is Jah, And He is become my salvation." — [From Ex. xv. 2.] III. 15 The voice of rejoicing 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 declare the doings of Jah. 18 Chastened me sore hath Jah : But He hath not given me over to death. 19 " Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will enter into them, I will give thanks to Jah." 20 " This is the gate of Jehovah, The righteous may enter in by it." 21 I will give thanks unto Thee : for Thou hast answered me^ And " art become my salvation." — [From Ex. xv. 2.] IV. 22 The stone which the builders despised Is become the head of the corner. 23 This is Jehovah's doing ; It is marvellous in our eyes. 24 This is the day which Jehovah hath made ; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 We beseech Thee, O Jehovah, save now : We beseech Thee, O Jehovah, send now prosperity. 26 " Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah : We have blessed you out of the house of Jehovah. 27 Jehovah is God, and hath shone upon us : Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." 1 Referring to the confession in vers. 15, 16, that their "salvation" was due to " the right hand of Jehovah " that "doeth valiantly." Compare in Hebrew, niJ'J? (vers. 15, 16) with ■'B^yD (ver. 17). M 178 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 28 "Thou art my God, and I will give Thee thanks ; Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee."— [From Ex. xv. 2.] 29 GIVE TnANKS UNTO Jehovah ; FOR He is good : For His mercy endureth for ever. It has been remarked as a further proof of the care taken for the preservation of the text by the symmetrical number- ing of the verses and strophes, that the recurrence of the covenant - name of God in Ps. cxviii. is also regulated by number. In the first half (strophes i. and ii.), before the approach to the temple, Jehovah occurs 10 times (the number of completeness), in the latter half 12 times (the number of the tribes of Israel), forming together 22, a com- plete alphabet of times (cf. Ps. ciii. p. 145 n.) ; while Jah occurs 3 times in the former half and 3 times in the latter — together 6 times, which added to the 22 form 28, or 4 sevens, coinciding with the 4 sevens of the strophes. Now, unless we can make up our minds to believe that all these are merely accidental coincidences, they prove a nicety of finish in these sacred hymns, and an accuracy of preserva- tion, which tend to guarantee the correctness of the text as we now have it. The concentrated form Jah occurs first in Moses' song (Ex. XV.) on the further shore of the Eed Sea, and, wherever employed afterwards, seems to denote specially the redc7nptive might of the Lord. In this Psalm and in Ps. cxv., where it occurs twice, the use of this form appears designed to allude to the recent Exodus from Babylon. Compare the Exodus, Ps. cxiv. The latter half of these 1 2 Psalms, viz. Pss. cxiii.-cxviii., forms the Hallel sung at the three great feasts. " Paulus Burgensis styles these six ' the Great Hallel of the Jews,' 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 Ps. cxxxvi. In the family celebration of the Passover the Hallel is divided into two parts, the one half, Pss. cxiii., cxiv., being sung before the repast, before the emptying of the second festal cup ; and THE HALLEL. 1V9 the Other half, Pss. cxv.-cxviii., after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup, to which the v/jLVijaavre^ [' when they had sung a hymn'], Matt. xxvi. 30, Mark xiv. 26, may refer." (Delitzsch on Ps. cxiii.) There are some marked features of resemblance between the Psalms of the series we are considering, which incline to refer the composition of the last eight to the same occasion or even author, particularly the frequent tlirecfolcl repetition of the same or similar expressions. Thus — 1. In the closely connected pair of Alphabetical Psalms, " His righteousness endureth for ever " occurs three times, cxi. 3, cxii. 3, D. 2. " Trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield," occurs- three times in Ps. cxv. 9, 10, 11, with a threefold address to " Israel," to " the house of Aaron," and to those " that fear the Lord." 3. In Ps. cxviii. 2, 3, 4, we have the threefold address — " Let Israel now say, . . . that His mercy endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, . that His mercy endureth for ever. Let them now that fear the Lord say, that His mercy enchireth for ever." 4. In Ps. cxviii. 15, 16 — Ver. 15. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. Ver. IG. The right hand of the Lord is exalted ; The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 5. In the first 3 verses of Ps. cxiii. (the last of the first triad of the seven Psalms, cxi.-cxvii., see the tabular arrangement, p. 153), praise is three times given to "thei\a??ic of the Lord" — Ver. 1. Praise the Name of the Lord. Ver. 2. Blessed is the Name of the Lord, Ver. 3. The Lord's Name is to be praised. It is in accordance with this apparently, (1) that in this first triad of Psalms (cxi.-cxiii.) the name Jehovah, the distinctive title of Israel's God, is 12 times repeated (6 times in the two Alphabetical Psalms and C times in Ps. cxiii.), as if on the 180 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. part of each of the 12 tribes of Israel to avouch Jehovah to be their God; (2) that in the first Psalm of the second triad, Ps. cxv. (where, again, God's name occurs 12 times, Jehovah 10 times, and Jah twice), in answer to the taunt of their enemies and oppressors, " Where is now their God?" (ver. 2), the prayer is addressed to Jehovah to vindicate the honour — not theirs, but that of His own Name — Ver. 1. Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, But unto thy Name give glory ; (3) that in Ps. cxvi., three times the same line (in identical words in Hebrew) is repeated, vers. 4, 13, 17 — And on the Name of Jehovah I call ; and (4) that in the concluding thanksgiving Psalm, cxviii., the Psalmist three times ascribes power for the discomfiture of all enemies to the Name of Jehovah — Vers. 10, 11, 12. In the name of Jehovah it is that I cut them off. The place which the Psalms we have been examining hold in the Psalter will enable us to understand better the points which have occasioned some difficulty. As we saw that the preceding Book IV. (Pss. xc.-cvi.) had as its prophetical ac- companiment Isaiah's later prophecy (xl.-lxvi.), so the present series of 12 Psalms, as being connected with the completion of the second temple, finds its prophetical counterpart in the post-exilic prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, who were raised lip specially to encourage the people to proceed with the building of the temple. Zechariah in particular throws much light on a passage in Ps. cxviii. 22, " The stone which the builders rejected [despised] is become the head stone of the corner," to which reference is made in several passages of the New Testament, and the import of which has been generally misapprehended by commentators. Thus Hengstenberg says, " The figure [of ' the stone '] in ver. 22 becomes clear as soon as we acknowledge the national reference of the Psalm. The whole Psalm is taken up with the happy change which had taken place in the circumstances of the people of God. The sense, therefore, can only be : the people of God, whom the rSALM CXVIII. 22. 181 world-powers have despised, have been exalted by the influence of their God to the rank of a people that shall reign over the M'orld. Jer. li. 26 is parallel, where it is said of Babylon, the great counterpart of Israel, the representative of the world- power, ' They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation,' for the buildiug of the edifice of universal dominion." ^ The fatal objection to this view is that the builders are interpreted as denoting the heathen powers, whereas the imi- versally acknowledged interpretation of the Jews regarded the rulers of Israel as the builders, as is evident from St. Peter's charging it home upon them (Acts iv. 11), " This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head stone of the corner." We have but to look to Zech. iii., iv., to understand the reference made by the Psalmist. In chap. iii. 9 we read, " Behold the stone which I [the Lord] have laid before Joshua " the high priest. This must be the cojKstone of the temple, for the foundation-stone had been laid at least fifteen years before (see Ezra iii. 10) ; but in consequence of the long delay that ensued, and the obstructions thrown in the way by their powerful enemies, the builders despaired of their ever being able to complete the edifice, and ridiculed the over-sanguine haste of those that had prepared the top-stone for crowning the building. They " despised the day of small things" (Zech. iv. 10), and no doubt asked derisively, "There is your 07ie solitary stone, but where are all the others on which it is to rest ? " In reply, the prophet is commanded to say, " Behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua ; on one stone [be it, that it is ' one,' and solitary] are seven eyes " (iii. 9) ; " those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run too and fro through the whole earth " (iv. 1 0). He will ^ Hengstenberg (in the sequel) attempts to prove that the "head stone of the corner" and the foundation-stone are one and the same, in direct contradiction to the passage which he has just quoted from Jeremiah, who expressly distin- guishes them ; and then, by a still more strained interpretation, he would force the same signification upon Zech. iv. 7, " Zerubbabel shall bring forth the head stone thereof" — the distinction between which and the foundation-stone is so unmistakeably established by ver. 9. 182 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. guard it, and, when the destined time comes, will see to its appropriate " gravings " (iii. 9) to fit it for its place. Hengstenberg, however (with others), maintains that the stone here referred to is the foundatmi-stone, and in like manner that " the stone," which is said in Ps. cxviii. 22 to have " become the Jiead stone of the corner," means merely " the 7iiain foundation-stone," being but the repetition or equivalent of Isa. xxviii. 16, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." He sums up with the categorical asser- tion, " The Scripture knows nothing of a top-stone." Now, not only Jeremiah, as has been remarked, clearly distinguishes the two in chap. li. 26, " They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations," but Zechariah shows unmistakeably in chap. iv. 7, 9, that by " the liead stone " he means that which is to crown the building. If any doubt could remain as to the import of ver. 7, as relating to some- thing yet to be done, " He [Zerubbabel] shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it," it is wholly removed by ver. 9, " The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house [some 15 years ago] ; his hands shall also finish it." Both stones were evidently corner-stones ; the foundation-stone, in order to unite together and compact the two walls of the building, as appears from St. Paul's application of the figure in Eph. ii. 20, 21 — Christ, as " the chief corner-stone," uniting both Jews and Gentiles ; and the copestone, in order to consolidate and rivet together both walls securely at top. Christ is manifestly the antitype of both, the Author and the Finisher of the temple, the Alpha and the Omega, the foundation-stone and the copestone, and to this double reference his own words, after quoting Ps. cxviii. 22 against the chief priests, manifestly point, "Whosoever shall fall on this stone [the foundation-stone] shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it [the top-stone] shall fall, it will grind him to powder " (Matt. xxi. 44). But there is another question on which Zechariah will be found to throw considerable light. How comes Ps. ex. to be separated from the great body of David's Psalms contained in THE POSITION OF PSALM GX, 183 Books I, and II., and to be placed among tliose which we have seen reason to refer to so late a period as the return from the Babylonish captivity ? It seems to be a general opinion that the Psalms contained in the first two Books formed an early collection, including all the Psalms of David that could be found at the time of its compilation, and that this is intimated by the notice appended to its close (after Ps. Ixxii.), " Ended are the prayers of David, the son of Jesse." But is it reason- able to suppose that the most remarkable of David's Psalms, the crowning revelation of all received by him from God, and the Psalm which of all others pertained more to the people of Israel than to David personally, should ever have fallen into disuse or neglect, or have been omitted from the manual of public devotion for the Church ? The principle which dic- tated the arrangement of the Books of the Psalter we have seen to be a very different one from that usually entertained. If the first three Books, as we have endeavoured to prove, have as their main subject " the things touching the king " (xlv. 1), still, though hinting at something higher, they do not decidedly ascribe to the king wdiat no merely human and mortal man could accomplish, until in the closing Ps. Ixxxix. the seemingly fatal objection is started against any king of David's race ever being able to fulfil the lofty promises held forth, " What man is he that liveth and shall not see death ? " (ver. 48) ; and this leads henceforth in all the succeeding Psalms to Jehovah, and Jehovah alone being styled " King." In the orderly arrangement of the Psalms, therefore, according to the development of thought, it would seem an anachronism to introduce in the earlier books a Psalm which unmistakeably ascribes a superhuman character to the Messianic King pro- mised to Israel, and an everlasting reign and priesthood, which must supersede the economy established by their great law- giver Moses. But when the succession of earthly kings was effectually broken, Israel was in some measure prepared to appreciate the spiritual advance implied in this Psalm ; and when we associate with this 4th Book of the Psalter the prophecies of Zechariah as its fitting accompaniment and interpreter, we shall see that no more appropriate place could 184 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Lave been found for Ps. ex. than that now assigned to it. In Zech. vi. 9-15, we read that the prophet was commanded to take from a deputation of Jews, who had brought gold and silver from Babylon to aid in the erection of the temple, a portion of the precious metals sufficient to make circlets of silver and gold to form a crown, and to set it on the head of Joshua the high priest (by this symbolical act denoting the union of king and high priest in one person), and thus to address him : " Beliold a man whose name is the Bkanch [already an accepted title of the Messiah (see Isa. iv. 2 ; Jer. xxii. 5, 6)] ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of Jehovah. Even he it is that shall build the temple of Jehovah ; and he shall bear majesty, and shall sit and rule upon his throne : and he shall be a priest upon his throne ; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both," — between the king and the priest, — the claims of both, righteousness and mercy, being satisfied and meeting together in one person. The crown being made from materials brought from a heathen nation, symbolized the extension of the dominion promised to the King of Israel, that he was to have also " the heathen for his inheritance," and peoples that were "afar off" as his subjects (see ver. 15). By this symbolical act all the lofty hopes and expectations of Israel connected with the Messiah would be revived afresh, and strong confirmation given to the great promise contained in Ps. ex. as still awaiting fulfilment, to which the whole transaction bears unmistakeable allusion. It will thus be seen how appropriate is the place assigned to Ps. ex., in transferring it to Book v., from the additional light which this symbolical act casts upon its import. Even had it been possible before, by a forced interpretation, to explain the king of whom it speaks of any existing occupant of the Davidic throne, from this time forth the words of the Psalm could be referred to none but the Messianic King yet to come. From the examination now made of the prophecies of Zechariah, and their bearing upon the interpretation of the previous prophecies of the Messiah both in the Psalms and the prophets, we gain a vantage-ground which sets us above ZECHAEIAH AND MESSIANIC PROPHECY. 185 all doubtful questionings as to the interpretation to be put upon this or that individual prophecy regarded separately by itself. The symbolical transaction recorded in Zech. vi. 9—15, of setting a crown on the head of Joshua the high priest, and addressing him as typifying the " Branch " [from David's stem], in terms manifestly corresponding to those of Ps. ex., as one who was to combine in his own person both offices of king and priest, proves that in the view of the prophet the promise of Ps. ex. had not yet received its fulfilment in David or any of his successors, and that Israel had still to look to the future for the coming of Him whom Jehovah was to place next Himself, and to ordain as a Priest for ever, on his throne. At this distant period, more than 500 years before the coming of Christ, Messianic prophecy is thus proved to have reached the clear, unmistakeable expectation of a personal Messiah, far transcending any- thing realized by a merely human king of David's race. From this period, at least, it seems impossible for any critic, who duly weighs the prophecy of Zechariah with any fairness, to deny that such, for five, centuries hefore Christ, must have been the teaching to Israel and the expectation entertained by every intelligent believer. We have to explain the existence of such a universal belief at the time Christ appeared. As a fact, we know that such did exist, and that all the prin- cipal passages which we now consider to be predictive of Christ were interpreted by the Eabbins to refer to the Messiah, and that so generally diffused was the expectation of his coming at the time he appeared, and of the full revela- tion he was to make of God's purposes, that even a Samaritan woman could say, " I know that Messias cometh : when he is come, he will tell us all things" (John iv. 25). But, further, we see from this passage of Zechariah the higher and more spiritual conception of the Messiah's person and kingdom, which the reiterated assertion in Zech. vi. 12, 13 was calculated to convey, that "He [' The Branch ' predicted to arise from the decayed stem of Jesse] should build the temple of Jehovah : even he it is who shall build the temple of Jehovah." Before the eyes of the restored 186 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. exiles stood already completed, or all but completed, the material temple, the building of which Joshua and Zerubbabel, with the encouragement of the prophets, had been so eager to promote; but as if this edifice was altogether unworthy, in comparison, of receiving the name of a temple, the lioyal Priest is announced as he that was to build the true temple, such as was alone worthy to be the abode of the Lord God of Hosts, The house which the hands of the builders had aided in rearing they were thus taught to regard as but a shadow and figure of a greater edifice " not made with hands," which the Messiah was to build as an earnest and foretoken of " better things to come." And the higher significance thus attached to all that was said of the temple they must, if they would be consistent, extend to all the expressions and Divine promises in the group of 12 Psalms, arranged to celebrate the comple- tions of the second temple. This the last words of Ps. cvii., with which the series opens, prepare them to do : " Whoso is wise, and will understand these things, even they shall under- stand the loving -kindness of the Lord." It was not to re-establish merely the former state of things that Jehovah had inflicted on His people the severe discipline of the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, but to prepare for the introduction of a new and more spiritual dispensation. The Davidic trilogy (Pss. cviii.-cx.), by which the succeeding septenary (Pss. cxi.— cxvii.) is introduced, bears unmistakeably a Messianic character from Ps. ex., with which it concludes. And the middle Ps. cxiv. of the septenary (round which, as their animating heart and central point, they all converge), while in its immediate literal meaning it celebrates, in terms bor- rowed from the older exodus from Egypt, the wonders of the deliverance so lately vouchsafed in the exodus from Babylon, would at the same time, from the light which the contem- poraneous prophecies of Zechariah and Haggai (cf. ii. 9) cast on the circumstances, tend to direct the thoughts and hopes of Israel to a greater deliverance and exodus from the bondage of death and sin to be effected by the Messiah, who as King and " Priest for ever on his throne " was to build the true temple to the Lord (Zech. vi. 12, 13). Consequently the BOOK YJ. 187 " mercy and truth " of God, which form the leading subjects of the last triad of the septenary (Ps. cxv. 1, cxvi. 1 and 10, cxvii. 1), and which had been manifested to Israel in their exodus from Babylon, must (since " all nations and all peoples," Ps. cxvii. 1, are called upon to " praise the Lord " for them) contemplate the manifestation of the higher deliver- ance to be effected by the Messiah, in wliom " all the nations of the earth were to bless themselves." Book VI. Book VI. opens with Ps. cxviii. as a prelude to the 17 Psalms of which it consists. In the double use ^ made of this Psalm, as of Ps. cvii. with which Book V. opened, we have a good instance to show how parallelism admits of two different lines of argument running alongside of each other, yet kept perfectly distinct, so as to fix the attention on an entirely different truth. These two Psalms are, as we have seen, con- joined together, forming a most appropriate opening and conclusion to the grand liturgical service of tioelve Psalms arranged to celebrate the completion of the second temple, which was to constitute henceforth a centre of union to the tioelve tribes of Israel — marking, too, the happy termination of the long period of severe judgments in which the visible emblem of God's presence and favour had been withdrawn from His people. Yet, according to another arrangement, the two Psalms are disjoined, and made to form the opening hymn each of a new book of Psalms, marking successively a new stage in Israel's redemptive history. Ps. cvii. gives thanks for the redemption that had been so lately experienced from a long captivity in a foreign land. It forms an appropriate prelude to the 10 Psalms of Book V., which encourage Israel to look forward to the accomplish- ment of their high mission as " a kingdom of priests" to the Lord. This it does by recalling, in the first three Psalms (cviii.-cx.), the promises of the possession of the destined inheritance, and subjugation of all enemies, made to him who ' Vide p. 150. 188 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. was to be their leader as King and " P^^iest for ever ; " and, in the heptade of Hallelujah Psalms which follow (cxi.-cxvii.), by invitin"), rdsh'd, *' wicked, unrighteous," according to Gesenius ; or according to Delitzsch, " lax, loose [from God], godless. " PSALM V. 207 To those 4 sins other 3 are added in ver. 1 0, making up to- gether another seven, for which he invokes the Lord's righteous condemnation. It will be observed, that while in strophe i. the prominence is given to the sins against Jehovah as a sin- hating God, by placing first 4 sins against Him, followed by 3 against man, in strophe ii., where the invocation is to the righteous King to judge between man and man, the sins charged against the Psalmist's enemies naturally precede and are 4 in number, while the lesser nnmber 3 follows, comprising the evil " counsels," " transgressions," and " rebellion " against God. Still the climax of the impeachment is reached in the last of the 14 charges, that the rebellion of the insurgents against David as the Lord's Anointed is in reality a casting off their allegiance to the Lord Himself as King, " For they have rebelled against Thee." In the total enumeration of all the 14 sins regarded as a whole, the prominence, it will be seen, is assigned to the 7 sins against God, by their being placed first and last, while the 7 against man are placed more obscurely in the middle.^ Before concluding, however, we would remark tliat there is, as we frequently find, a gathering up of both pleas and com- bining them together. In ver. 11, David again brings forward the subject of the former strophe i., his " trust " in the " mercy " of Jehovah, as the only ground of his justification, and for his not being " held guilty " with others. Still, the prayer to God, " let all that trust in Thee rejoice," is in truth but a further plea for the manifestation of God's righteousness, which requires that he should " compass with favour " them " that love His name," in order to lead all to the assurance and confession — Ver. 12. For Thou, Jehovah, wilt bless the righteous. ^ See " Epanodos " in Jebb's iSacrecZ Litiraturf., p. 335 f. , or in Scripture Parallelism, p. 42 f. 208 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. PSALM V. TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN ON NEHILOTH. A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 To my words give ear, Jehovah ; Consider my meditation. 2 Hearken to the voice of my cry, My King, and my God : For unto Thee will I pray. I. Prayer to Jehovah as his God. 3 Jehovah ! in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice ; In the morning will I set in order ^ for Thee, and will look out. 4 aFor Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness ; / bEvil shall not abide with Thee. 5 ) cThe boastful shall not stand in Thy sight : \ &Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 6 V cThou shalt destroy them tha.t speak lies : aThe bloody and deceitful man Jehovah abhorreth. 7 But as for me, in the abundance of Thy mercy I shall ^ come into Thine house : I shall - worship towards Thy holy temple in Thy fear. II. Prayer to Jehovah as his King. 8 Jehovah ! lead me in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies : Make Thy way plain before my face. 9 For in their mouth is no faithfulness ; Their inward part is a yawning gulf ; An open sepulchre is their throat ; With their tongue they iiatter. 10 Hold them guilty, God : Let them fall by their own counsels ; In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out ; For they have rebelled against Thee. 11 But let all that trust in Thee rejoice : Let them ever shout for joy, and do Thou defend them : And let them exult in Thee that love Thy name. 12 For Thou, Jehovah, wilt bless the righteous : With favour wilt Thou compass him as with a buckler. 1 " Set in order" {'dralch) is the word used for laying the wood in order for the sacrifice, and the pieces of the sacrifice, and the shewhread. His prayer is thus represented to be a spiritual sacrifice. 2 Or "will." PSALM V. 209 Before leaving this Psalm, we would beg to draw the attention of the Biblical student to the excellent opportunity offered by every enumeration of particulars in Scripture for studying the distinctive shades of meaning in the various expressions employed, since, unless some other parallelistic arrangement interfere (as in vers. 6 and 9), the different terms are almost always arranged (as indeed the rules of good composition require) in the form of a climax or anti-climax (of. Ps. i. 1). In vers. 4-6 it will be observed how each term rising in intensity marks the growing displeasure of the Almighty as He regards the increasing depravity of the wicked. In the first three stages, a, h, c, of their degeneracy the expressions are all negative to mark the withholding from them of all countenance : " Thou hast no pleasure in them ; " " they shall not abide with Thee," much less " stand in Thy sight." The succeeding three, h, c, a, are all positicc : " Thou liatest," " Thou shalt destroy," " Jehovah abhorreth." In ver. 10, in like manner, the petitions in David's prayer against the wicked form a climax : " Hold them guilty," " Let them fall," " Thrust them out;" while in contrast, in ver. 11, the gladness which he anticipates as given to those that " trust in God," beginning on the quiet "rejoicing" of the heart, breaks forth at length into "shouts of joy" and gestures of "exultation." Again, in vers. 4—6 the progress of sin is detailed, sinners being described — 1st, in their relation to God (as in Ps. i.), by the general term " wicked " or " unrighteous ; " 2nd, as " evil " (wrong-doers) ; 3rd, next as " boasting " of their evil ; 4th, as exhibiting it in their habitual practice, " workers of iniquity" (vers. 4, 5). In the three sins against their fellow- men, enumerated in ver. 6, " speaking lies " and " deceit " are placed first and last, while the more heinous sin of " blood- shed " is put in the less conspicuous place in the middle, because lying and deceit formed the characteristic features of the present rebellion ; which was got up by Absalom and his counsellors under the specious pretence of justice and liberality to the people, which it was insinuated were neglected by David. Compare 2 Sam. xv. 4, " Absalom said, that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit ot 210 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice ! " etc. Hence, too, in ver. 9, in the four sins specified against their fellow-men, prominence is again given to this feature of the rebellion by placing first and last, " in their mouth is no faithfulness," " with their tongue they flatter " (literally, speak smoothly) ; while the inward corrupted sources from which these proceed are placed in the middle. In Pss. vi. and vii. we have the two pleas which were com- bined in Ps. V. urged separately. In Ps, vi. David appeals to Jehovah in faith as his merciful God ; in Ps. vii. as his righteous King and Judge. In Ps. vi. a deeper source of suffering and more intense distress than any yet disclosed are opened up to us. David sees in his troubles a merited chastisement for his sins ; but the power of faith, in raising up even from the greatest extremity, is vividly represented by the sudden outburst of triumphant confidence reached in the concluding strophe in answer to the humble confession and prayer of the sufferer. The strophical arrangement is 3-4-3. The beginning of each strophe is marked by imperatives, " Jehovah, rebuke me not" (ver. 1); "Eeturn, deliver, save" (ver. 4); "Depart from me" (ver. 8). In strophe i. (1-3) he earnestly deprecates the continuance of God's anger, and entreats His mercy to remove his distress, which has weakened both body and soul. In strophe ii. (4—7) he enforces his supplication by the plea that God's own glory is concerned in his deliverance, since death is near, in which there can be no praise of Him, and he is wasted away and all but exhausted by his sufferings. Strophe iii. (8-10). Faith at length has triumphed. Out of the depths of penitential sorrow he receives internally the assurance of Jehovah's restored favour and blessing ; and in undoubting confidence he warns off his enemies, and predicts their sudden and utter discomfiture. God, who had so "long " (ver. 3) hid His face from him, has now "returned" again (ver. 4) to him, and therefore shall his enemies " be turned back" (ver. 10), and the " sore trouble " (vers. 2, 3) which they had occasioned to him shall be righteously recompensed to themselves (ver. 10). PSALM VI. 211 PSALM VL FOR THE PRECENTOR, WITH AN ACCOMPANIMENT OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS UPON THE OCTAVE. A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 Jehovah, in Thine anger rebuke me not, Neither in Thy hot displeasure chastise me. 2 Be gracious unto me, Jehovah ; for I am weak : Heal me, Jehovah, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is sore troubled : But Thou, O Jehovah, how long 1 II. 4 Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul : Oh save me for Thy mercy's sake. 5 For in death there is no remembrance of Thee : In the grave who shall give Thee thanks 1 6 I am weary with my groaning ; Every night make I my bed to swim : With my tears I water my couch. 7 Mine eye wasteth away because of grief ; It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries. III. 8 Depart from me, aU 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 troubled : They shall be turned back, they shall be ashamed suddenly. Ps. vii., according to the title, was called forth by the slanderous words of one of Saul's followers, who calumniated David to the king as plotting against his life. The numerous coincidences of expression between the Psalm and chapters xxiv. and xxvi. of 1 Sam., seem to determine the period of Saul's persecution as that to which the composition of the Psalm is to be referred. Like Ps. v., it begins with an introduction of two verses, in the first of which the two subjects are stated which are after- wards expanded in two strophes — (A) David's confidence, (B) his prayer — that the righteous God will save the righteous 212 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and punish the wicked/ These two subjects are then taken up, but in inverse order (as frequently), and expanded in two strophes, B in vers. 3-9, and A in vers. 10-16, consisting of 7 verses each ; the whole concluding wdth a promise of thanks- giving and praise to Jehovah, when his prayer and confident expectation are answered, in a single verse (17), which corresponds to the introduction (vers. 1, 2). The division between the two strophes takes place between vers. 9 and 10, as will be seen from ver. 9 being still prayer, while ver. 10 expresses confidence in God's protection and salvation. The 7 verses of the strophes, however, are further sub- divided ; B into 3 and 4 verses, as indicated by Selah, and A into 4 and 3, the 3 verses in the one strophe corresponding to the 3 verses in the other, and the 4 verses to the 4. 1. It requires but the slightest inspection to see that vers. 3-5 and 14-16 both relate to man especially — contrasting the conduct of David to his enemy and the recompense to be meted out to it by a righteous Judge (3-4), with his enemy's malicious designs against David and the recompense that will deservedly fall upon them from the Lord (14-16); while in the intermediate vers. 6-9 and 10-13, the appeal is to G^orf'.s judgment and righteous requital." 2. There is a close resemblance in the substance of the corresponding verses of the prayer, and confidence in the result. Thus in B, the strophe of prayer, vers. 3 -5 begin, " If I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands," and the substance of the 3 verses might be thus stated : If such be the case, may the just requital be made to me. In A, the 1 " Faith and Prayer are the arms with which this formidable temptation (the persecution of the tongue to a tender and ingenuous spirit) must be encountered, and may be overcome. The former assures us that God can 'save and deliver' us from it; the latter induces Him so to do." Home's com- mentary on Ps. vii. ^ In Ps. vii. the principal subject is David's " righteousness towards ??2a5(,, " see " Analytical Table " of the connection of Pss. ii.-viii. Consequently the prominence is given to it by placing it first and last, whilst God's retributive righteousness takes the intermediate place ; contrast the opposite arrangement in vers. 4-6, 9, 10, in Ps. v. PSALM VII. 213 strophe of confidence, vers. 14-16 begin in like manner, " Behold, he travaileth with iniquity" and their substance might be stated in parallel terms : — such being the case, the just requital shcdl be made to him. jAgain, in B the prayer of vers. 6-9 is — that the righteous God may avenge the righteous and punish the wicked. In A, the confidence expressed in vers. 10-13 is — that the righteous God luill avenge the righteous and punish the wicked. PSALM VII. SIIIGGAION OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG UNTO JEHOVAH CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH THE BENJAMITE. T A. Jehovah my God, in Thee have I taken refuge : B. Save me from all that pursue ^ me, and deliver me ; 2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. B. Prayer — expanded in 7 verses. 3 Jehovah my God, if I have done ^ this ; If there be iniquity in my hands ; ^ 4 If I have rewarded ^ evil to him that was at jaeace with me (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy) ; 5 Let the enemy pursue ^ my soul, and overtake it ; Yea, let him tread down to the earth my life, And lay my glory in the dust. Selah. i'i Arise, Jehovah, in Thine anger. Lift up Thyself against the rage of mine adversaries ; And awake for me ! Thou hast commanded judgment. 7 And the congi-egation of the peoples shall compass Thee about : And over them return Thou on high. 8 Jehovah shall judge the peoples : Give sentence for me, Jehovah, According to my righteousness,^ and according to mine integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end ; And establish Thou the righteous : ^ For a Trier of hearts and reins is the righteous God. 1 1 Sam. xxvi. 18, "Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have / done? or what evil is in mine hand." 2 1 Sam. xxiv. 17, "Thou art more righteous than I ; for Thou hast reicardcd me good, whereas I have rewarded Thee evil," 214 STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. A. Confidence — expanded in 7 10 My shield is upon God, Who saveth the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous Judge, And a God who hath anger every day. 12 If one will not turn, His sword He will whet ; His bow He hath bent, and made it ready. 13 Yea, for him He hath prepared the weapons of death ; His arrows He maketh burning bolts. 14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity. And he shall conceive mischief, and bring forth deception. 15 A i^it he hath dug, and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the pitfall he was making. 16 His mischief shall return upon his own head. And upon his own pate shall his violence come down. 17 1 will give thanks unto Jehovah according to His righteousness ; And will sing praise to the name of Jehovali Most High. PSALM VIII. No Psalm has been more generally misinterpreted tlian Ps. viii., and none perhaps presents greater difficulties to reconcile with the use made of it in the New Testament. The older expositors, looking to the quotations from it in the New Testament, regarded it as directly prophetical of Christ, interpreting the words " man " and " the Son of man " in Heb. ii. 6 as expressly pointing to the Messiah, notwithstand- ing that they thus plainly contradict the interpretation put upon the words in vers. 8, 9, which evidently oppose man to Christ, affirming of man, " But now we see not yet all things subjected to him ; " but of Jesus, on the contrary, " But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, crowned with glory and honour." They urged, however, further in confirmation of the Psalm being applicable to Christ alone, the use made by St. Paul, in 1 Cor. XV. 2 7, of his quotation of Ps. viii. 6, " Thou hast put all things under his feet." These words the apostle interprets as embracing the whole world of God's creation, and so univer- sally that He alone " is excepted who did subject all things unto Him," a statement so all - comprehensive that it can apply to Him alone who is to be Lord of all. The same is PSALM VIII. 215 the interpretation put upon the words by the writer to the Hebrews in terms equally strong, " For in that He subjected all things unto Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him" (Heb. ii. 8). Still there meets us the difficulty on the other hand, if such universality of dominion can legitimately be deduced from the words of the Psalmist, how incongruous seemingly, and inconsistent with the grandeur of such a thought, is the immediately succeeding enumeration of the objects placed under man's dominion, " All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Many of the later expositors, seeing the difficulties con- nected with the earlier interpretations, have gone to the opposite extreme, and consider that the Psalm has no reference to the loss and future restoration to man of the dominion at first destined for him, but refers solely, according to the mind of the author of the Psalm, to man's present sovereignty over all the inferior animals, marred indeed by man's fall, but still retained so far as to justify the words here employed. Thus, for instance, Dean Perowne, one of the best and most judicious of late interpreters, says, " It has been often asked whether David, in ascribing such dignity as he does here to man, was speaking of man in his present condition, degraded from his high supremacy by the fall, or of man as originally made in the image of God and gifted with dominion over the lower creation. Now the language of the Psalm certainly points to the present. There is no hint in it of any difference between man's original destiny and his present condition (between the ideal and the actual)." If so, what can the Psalmist mean by the expressions, " What is man that Thou rememberest him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him ? " These words in Biblical usage refer to those who for a time seem to have been forgotten and forsaken, and are again " remembered " and " visited " by God ; as when it is said, " God remembered Noah, liachel, His covenant with Abraham," etc. (Gen. viii. 1, XXX. 22; Ex. ii. 24); and "the Lord visited Sarah" (Gen. xxi. 1); "God will surely visit you" (Gen. 1.24); "They 2 1 G STUDIES OX THE BOOK OF PSALMS. heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel " (Ex. iv. 31). "Remembering" "visiting" cannot apply to t\\Q first bestowal of blessings. Dr. Perowne acknowledges that " the Ode is the lyric echo of the first chapter of Genesis," and refers to the sovereignty destined for man at his first creation. Does David give no hint of this being lost and only at a future period to be regained, when, in recalling the supremacy destined for man, he more than once changes the tenses of the verbs descriptive of this supremacy from the Perfect (or indeed Past) to the Imperfect (or Future, marking that it had not yet been 'perfected or attained) ? What is man that Thou rememberest him ? And the son of man that Thou visitest him % And yet Thou madest him but little lower than God, And with glory and majesty Thou wilt crown him. Thou ^vilt give him to rule over the works of Thy hands ; All things Thou hast put ^ under his feet. Could David in meditating on this passage in Genesis, in which God declared the high destiny He designed for man, have forgotten the disastrous sequel which so soon followed, that, so far from man exercising or improving the dominion thus originally bestowed upon him, the very first thing he did was to subject himself and his reason and conscience to one of the very lowest of the inferior animals, a " serpent " crawling in the dust! Could he have forgotten that the very first thing his people, the children of Israel, did, after being " remembered " and " visited " by God and delivered by His mighty hand from the oppression of a nation who bowed down in worship to every sort of animal, beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, from the sacred bull or Apis, down to scarabsei or beetles, was to make to themselves a golden calf, and by the mouth of Aaron their high priest to proclaim, " These be thy gods, Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt " ? (Ex. xxxii. 4). And when he looked to the nations around, particularly to the Philistines with whom at first he ^ Prophetic Perfect, for Future, as understood by the Jews. See Heb. ii. 8 " But now we see not yet all things put under him." PSALM VIII. 217 had so much to do, and saw them worshipping a Dagon or Fish-god, could he describe man as retaining and exercising the dominion, over all the creatures and works of God's hand, with which his Maker had originally invested him ? How natural and appropriate, in David's mouth, was the addition of what seems to us at first sight out of place, and an instance of bathos — after having said, " All things Thou hast put under his feet " — that he should enumerate the various species of lower creatures, " All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea," etc., over which man's dominion was ordained to extend — in order to warn his countrymen against their propensity to follow the idolatrous practices of the heathen around them in worshipping the creature in place of the Creator. Herein he but followed the example of Moses, who found it necessary to warn the Israelites in words strikingly similar, and of which David's seem the echo, " Take ye good heed unto yourselves . . . lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged foivl that flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth ; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be drawn to worship them and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven " (Deut. iv. 15-19). The fundamental error, however, lies in interpreting the Psalm at all of the present. Take the very first words — O Jehovah our Lord, How mighty is Thy name in all the earth ! By the " name " of Jehovah is meant that which is known, or rather, what is recognised and acknowledged, of His true nature and glory. Now, with what propriety could David, looking to the then present state of the world, affirm that God's name was acknowledged as " mighty in all the earth " ? 218 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Was it so even in his own small territory ? How much less in all the idolatrous nations round about him, where the name of the Lord was blasphemed every day, and His glory given to the works of His hands ! If the Psalm was written, as is probable, on occasion of some victory gained over one of the powerful enemies who hated and opposed Israel, specially on account of their worship of Jehovah, and the exclusive claims which they advanced for Him as the only living and true God, we can easily understand how David, regarding the victory which Jehovah had just given to the weak over the strong, as an earnest of the dominion over the whole earth which God promised to his seed as king of Zion, to whom He was to " give the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession," could in prophetic ecstasy exclaim, " Jehovah our Sovereign, how gloriously mighty is Thy name in all the earth ! " The Psalm is evidently pre- dictive of what was to be, not descriptive of what already is. This is in exact accordance with the immediate following joair of Psalms, ix. and x., the tenor of which shows us what was the (moral) nature of the lost dominion the Psalmist had in view as needful to be regained, and in which, with far-seeing eye, David beholds the kingdom of God universally established, and all idolatry vanished from the face of the earth ! " The heatJicn are sunk down in the pit that they made" (ix. 15); "The Lord is king for ever and ever ; the heathen are perished out of His land " (X. 16). The predictive character of the Psalm would seem to furnish an easy solution of the grand difficulty which the imperative fndh} in the last line of ver. 1, has caused to all interpreters. Looking forward to the time when he anticipates that the name of Jehovah shall be universally reverenced, it is most natural for David to interject a prayer that the time may be speedily brought about ; and the last words of ver. 1 ought, I think (making the relative ('dsMr) refer to the nearest ante- cedent), to be translated, " How mighty is Thy name in all ' In the A.V. rendered "who kast set." The marginal note in the Revision is, "The Hebrew is obscure." PSALM VIII. 219 the earth, In which, Oh do Thou set Thy glory above the heavens ! " ^ But a greater mistake still has been committed in taking the central for the principal subject, and in making the power and dignity conferred upon man the point on which the Psalmist principally insists. Attention to the structure of the Psalm leads to the correct view of its import. One of the principal rules in parallelism, and which is at the same time a dictate of common sense, is that when a writer begins and ends with a subject, by placing it first and last, he intends thereby to give it prominence as the main or leading topic to which he desires to draw attention ; while the central subject, 1 For the relative ^ashir, signifyiug where, in which, see Num. xx. 13, xxii. 26 ; Deut. viii. 15 ; Ps. Ixxxiv. 3 ; and for " God's glory being above the heavens," cf. Ps. cxiii. 4, " High above all nations is Jehovah ; above the heavens His glory;" Ps. cxlviii. 13, "His glory is above the earth and heavens;" and Ps. Ivii. 6, 12, " Be Thon exalted above the heavens, God, Above all the earth Thy glory." For the meaning given to nathan 'al, see Deut. xxviii. 1, "will set thee above ;" Gen. xli. 41, "I have set thee over." The only commentators, I believe, who have retained the normal use of t^nah are Gesenius and Dr. Kay, the former of whom translates the passage, " Quam fjloriam tuam pone {etiam) super ccelos," "which Thy glory set Thou (also) above the heavens," with an awkward confusion of relative and antecedent in the same clause. Dr. Kay's rendering is, " who mightest have set Thy grandeur upon the heavens." In his note he says: ^' Lit. 'who — Oh set Thou;' or 'whereas — Oh set Thou.' Tenah is clearly an imperative." Dr. Delitzsch's remark is fatal to both renderings : " Such a use of the imperative after "ItJ'X is unheard of. Moreover, the thought thus obtained is one that runs counter to the fundamental tone, and to the circumstances of the Psalm. For the primary thought of the Psalm is this, that the God whose glory the heavens reflect [see ver. 3 (Heb. 4)] has also glorified Himself in the earth [or, as the rendering which I propose — has given an earnest of it, which calls forth the Psalmist's prayer for its full accomplishment] and in man : and the situation of the poet is this, that he has the moon and stars before his eyes : how then could he wish that heaven to be made glorious, whose glory is shining into his eyes ! " Delitzsch's own interpretation, however, is equally at fault. He regards njn {f^nCth) as an infinitive like mi in Gen. xlvi. 3, and would translate the words, " Thou, whose raying of Thy glory is upon the heavens." But this necessi- tates placing "It^X in a "genitival relation" with "]*1in njD, which Delitzsch himself is obliged to confess is " still remarkable " [sonderbar, strange, singular], adding Hitzig's strong condemnation of it: " Hitzig considers that no reason- able man would think and write thus" — to which Delitzsch's sole reply is the Tu quoque retort, " but thereby at the same time utterly condemns his own conjecture " ! 220 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. tlioiigh occupying a most important place — forming as it were the very heart of the composition, and giving animation and force to the whole — is still subordinate and subsidiary to the main iDroposition, being placed in a less conspicuous position. Now in the Psalm before us, it is the name and power of Jehovah that are placed first and last, " Jehovah our Lord, how mighty is Thy name in all the earth ! " (vers. 1 and 9), while the dignity and power bestowed on man hold only the secondary place in the middle verse (ver. 5). That the might of Jehovah is the principal subject on which the Psalmist has his view fixed, is plain from the reiterated expression which lie gives to it. The word 'addir, rendered " excellent " in the Authorized Version, has one well-ascertained meaning, in all the twenty-six passages of Scripture in which it occurs, of " mighty." ^ In accordance with this are — (1) the epithet chosen to characterize Jehovah, " our Lord (or sovereign) ; " (2) the mode in which He manifests His name, by " ordain- ing strength ; " and (3) the instruments selected for exhibiting that strength. Those to whom Jehovah imparts strength, regarded in themselves, are weaklings, mere " babes and sucklings " (in ver. 4, 'Snosh, frail, or mortal, man) ; but it is on this very account that they have been chosen " because of His adversaries, to still the enemy and self -avenger," — that the victory may redound the more to the glory of God's name, through the power being seen to be wholly of God. The relation of the central idea to the principal subject will now be evident, and the argument of the Psalm might be thus expressed : — The mighty poioer of God, gloriously displayed as it is in the grandeur of the heavens, is still more gloriously exhibited on earth hy the victory ivhich God will give to frail man over the mighty poivers of evil — if he i^elies on God's might. ' Thus in Ex. xv. 10, where ^addir first occurs, it is said of Pharaoh's chariots and host and his chosen captains, " They sank as lead in the mighty waters." In Ps. xciii. 4 the Assyrian hosts are likened to " migJdy waves of the sea ;" but "mightier" still, it is added, " is the Lord on high." In 1 Sam. iv. 8, when the ark of God was brought into the camp of Israel, the Philistines exclaimed in terror, " "Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods ? " 'Addir is used to designate the "nobles " (A.V.), but it is as being the "mighty" of the land, etc. PSALM VIII. 221 In short, the great theme of Ps. viii. is the same as that which struck St. Paul so forcibly on seeing it accomplished in Christ, " God's power made perfect in weakness," and to which he has given so eloquent expression in 1 Cor. i. 26-28 : " Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and base things of tlie world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." Our Lord Him- self not only quoted the very words of the Psalm, " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise " (from the Septuagint translation), in rebuke of the Pharisees, who would have had Him to refuse the natural outburst of praise that was called forth from the children in the temple by all the wonderful things that He had done ; but He dis- closes their true spiritual meaning when, with seeming allusion to the words of P.s. viii., He says, " I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto hahcs " (Matt. xi. 25) ; and again in the reason which He assigns for His gracious invitation to children, " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of sucli [in spirit] is the kingdom of God" (Luke xviii. 16). In further confirmation of our contention that the purport of the Psalm has been misconceived by those who take its purpose to be to magnify the grace of God in bestow- ing on man dominion over the creation here below, and conferring power on him to subdue all under himself, we must draw special attention to the words in ver. 2, the force of which seems to have been overlooked, " because of Thine adversaries, to still the enemy and self-avenger." It is the Lord's own power evidently that is here in question, and which has to be vindicated. It is " because of Thine adver- saries, Lord," that it is said, " Thou hast ordained strength " to the weak. An " enemy " has crept in — one who, having 222 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. cast off allegiance to God and incurred His wrath, malignantly desires to mar God's new creation, and to involve them in the same condemnation with himself, in which he was but too successful ; and it is to quell the power and pride of His foe, and in vindication of His own might, that the Lord is to give the victory to man in his weakness over the proud insolence of " the enemy and self -avenger." Whence this rather remark- able expression, " the enemy and self-avenger " ? Its employ- ment in a Psalm which is confessedly a meditation on the first chapter of Genesis — and if our view is correct also on chap, iii., where the " dominion " conferred was lost through the subtlety of the serpent — would seem to receive light from the early chapters of Genesis. In these we find a warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and the origin of the opposition between them attributed to the Almighty, as making the cause His own, " I will put enmity ^ between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed " (Gen. iii. 1 5). We have next a sketch of the two opposing seeds in Cain and Abel, etc. The distinction between them reaches its culmination in the seventh generation of each, Enoch "the seventh from Adam " (Jude 14) being declared to be a son of God, as having walked so closely with God that " God took him " to Himself (Gen. v. 24) ; whereas the daring presumption of Cain's race reached its culmination in the seventh generation in Lamech, who, by his boastful exclamation, "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold " (Gen. iv. 24), arrogated to himself the prerogative of being Ms oion, or " sc//-avenger ; " which the Almighty claims as being exclusively His: " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord " (Rom. xii. 19).' The strophical arrangement of the Psalm is simple. Vers. 1 and 9, as the statement and conclusion of the theme ^ The 'two nouns for *• enmity" and "enemy" in Hebrew are derived from one and the same verb. 2 These references show how familiarly known in David's time must have been the Book of Genesis, without which indeed, and specially the account of man's fall and the promise of redemption as the key-word, the whole Bible and its purpose would be unintelligible. PSALM VIII. 223 proposed, enclose between thera its illustration and proof in 7 verses (2-8). The 7 verses, as usual, consist of 2 triplets with a central verse : the first triplet (2-4) setting forth the weak and lowly condition in himself of man to whom strength is to be given ; the central verse (5), the exaltation and supremacy destined for him by God ; and the second triplet (6-8), the particulars of this supremacy — ver. 6, generally, over " all things " — ver. 7, in earth (beasts tame and wild) — ver. 8, in the air and in the sea. PSALM VIII. FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN ; SET TO THE GITTITII.^ A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 O Jehovah our Lord, How mighty is Thy Name in all the earth, In which — Oh set Thou Thy glory above the heavens ! 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast established strength, because of Thine adversaries, That Thou mightest still the enemy and self-avenger. 3 Wlien I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, 4 What is mortal man that Thou rememberest him ! And the son of man that Thou visitest him ! 5 And yet Thou madest him but little lower than God, And with glory and honour Thou wilt crown Him ! G Thou wilt make him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands, All thmgs Thou hast put under his feet : 1 If the Gittith refers, as the Targum interprets it, to a "harp which David brought from Gath," we may suppose that he would so call it in allusion to the victory which God gave to him as a " strij)ling " over the giant champion of the Philistines, Goliath of Gath. If so, it would be specially appropriate as an accompaniment to a Psalm which magnifies the might of God in "ordaining strength " to the weak to "still the enemy and self-avenger." The same idea makes it suitable for the other two Psalms which bear this title. Ps. Ixxxi. calls on Israel to "sing aloud unto God our strength " (ver. 1), who "freed their hands from the task-baskets" of Egypt (ver. 6) ; and now, would they but "hearken unto me," God assures them, " I should soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries " (vers. 13, 14). In Ps. Ixxxiv. the feeblest of God's creatures, "the sparrow and the swallow," find God's house a safe shelter for their "young" (ver. 3). "Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee" (ver. 5). " They go from strength to strength" (ver. 7). "0 Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee " (ver. 12). 224 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 7 All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field ; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 Jehovah our Lord, How mighty is Thy Name in all the earth ! The legitimacy of the quotations in the New Testament from the Psalm, for the purpose for which they are adduced, will now be evident. It seems impossible with any fairness to defend the use made of vers. 4-6 by the writer to the Hebrews in chap. ii. 5-9 on the ground of mere allusion, — or "accommodation" as it is called, — as if the words were quoted only by way of illustration. The writer manifestly adduces the Psalm in order to prove that not unto angels [but unto man] " did He subject the world to come whereof we speak" (ii. 5), i.e. the new order of things brought in by Christ. Now if the Psalm speaks of the sovereignty alreacb/ possessed " in his present condition " in the time of David, then it flatly contradicts the objection made in the Epistle, " But now we see not yet all things subjected to him " (ver. 8).^ If, on the contrary, as we have endeavoured to show, David is speaking of the sovereignty originally destined for man, but which he so soon forfeited, and, in full assurance that no enemy could ultimately be able to frustrate God's purpose, is looking forward with predictive confidence to the time, when all things shall be put under man's feet by the redemption provided through the Messiah, the use made of 1 There are, however, two discrepancies between the common interpretation of the 5th verse of the Psalm, and the view of its import apparently taken in Hebrews. The rendering, " Thou madest him but little lower than God," is evidently, as Delitzsch says, the first step in the exaltation of man, whereas in Heb. ii. 9, " We behold him who hath been made a little lower than angels," is the first step in the humiliation of the Son of God. Again, as Professor A. B. Davidson remarks [Handbook, Ep. to the Hebrews), "the whole scope" of the reasoning " requires that ' a little ' must be taken in the temporal sense = ' for a little while.' " This raises the question whether such is not according to the more correct rendering of David's words in the Psalm. It is doubtful whether the Piel of IDn, and its Septuagint rendering iiXxTTuircc;, can bear the meaning to " make originally lower," or whether they do not denote to "lower," or bring down from an originally higher condition to a lower, i.e. to degrade. In Eccles. iv. 8 PSALM YIII. 225 the quotation in Hebrews is fully justified. The same is true of St. Paul's quotations in 1 Cor. xv. 27 and Eph. i. 22. It is through Christ's taking upon Him our nature and becoming man that God fulfils His original purpose of grant- ing to the creature made in His own image supremacy over all His works. To the man Christ Jesus, now ascended up on high, " all power is given in heaven and in earth " (Matt, xxviii. 18), "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him" (1 Pet. iii. 22). The same authority and power which He, as Head, enjoys. He imparts to His members, making them " a kingdom and priests unto His God and Father " (Eev. i. 6), granting to him that overcometh to "sit with Him on His throne" (Ptev. iii. 21), and giving to His redeemed even to " judge angels " (1 Cor. vi. 3). Such was the purpose and full import in the mind of the Spirit of the words which the Psalmist was inspired to utter. Xot that it is necessary to suppose that the Psalmist saw or consciously realized the full import of the expressions which he was led to employ. Still they must be in the same line of thought, and contain in themselves the germ of the ideas afterwards more fully developed in the New Testament, which would not be the case in the instance before us, if all that was meant by the words of the Psalm referred merely to the " dominion over the lower creation " still retained by man " in (the ouly other instance of the Hebrew verb) it is rendered, "For whom do I bereave ['deprive,' R. V.] ray soul of good ?" That toj;^, me-'at, may mean «'for a little while," see Ps. xxxvii. 10 ; Job xxiv. 24 ; Ruth ii. 7. The rendering of Ps. viii. 5 would then be— And Thou didst lower him for a little from [his likeness to] God, or with the necessary changes on the R.V., And Thou madest him for a little lower than God, But with glory and honour Thou wUt crown him. This rendering would remove all discrepancy between the Psalm and the use made of it in Heb. ii. 9 ; and David's argument implies, if it does not expressly affirm, man's fall and loss for a time of the dominion with which God at first endowed him. 22 G STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. his present condition," and not to "his high supremacy from which he was degraded by the fall," ^ As Dr. A. B. Davidson has well said in his commentary on Heb. ii. 9, " There is no such thing as nature poetry or nature writing in the Old Testament : everything there is uttered from the sphere of redemption, which is not antagonistic to the sphere of nature, but assumes this latter sphere into itself." But the force of the argument, that the dominion which Ps. viii. had in view for man was not a natural, but a moral supremacy, strong as it is when deduced from the Psalm considered by itself, becomes irresistible when we view the Psalm in relation to the other Psalms of the series with which it is connected. And 1. In its striking relation to Ps. ii., to which, as we have seen, it forms the corresponding member in the heptade, Ps, ii.-viii. In Psalm ii. we have the " Son of God," in Ps. viii. the " son of man," invested with universal dominion. The inference which the parallelism between the two Psalms suggests is, that the dominion, undoubtedly moral in the former, is also moral in the latter ; and as it is a dominion that has been lost and cast off in Ps. ii. 3, that the dominion in Ps. viii. is one to be restored, not the natural dominion of man over the inferior creatures still retained.^ Further, in both Psalms opposition is made to God's purpose — in Ps. ii. by innumerable enemies, "the heathen, the peoples, the kings of the earth, the rulers," the adversaries of " the Lord " being also the adversaries of " His Anointed," all of whom, however, are to be subjected to him as his " inheritance," power being given to him to " break with a rod ' Dean Perownc, Argument of Psalm viii. ^ In Ps. ii. the Son of God is an individual, a king of the royal seed of David; in Ps. viii., Man, or the Son of Man, is a collective, for whom sovereignty over God's works had been destined at his creation. "Was not the parallel calculated to raise the further suggestion that the Son of Goil to spring from David's race must be so far identified with the Son of Man SIS to he the means, as his Head and King, of restoring to man his lost dominion ? PSALM Yiir. 227 of iron " those who refuse submission. In Ps. viii., in like manner, there are the Lord's " adversaries," styled also " the enemy and self-avenger," whom by " strength ordained out of the mouth of babes and sucklings " He is to " still," " all things being put under man's feet," that the power may be seen to be not of man, but of God. The parallelism leads us to identify the adversaries in Ps. viii. with the adversaries in Ps. ii., as being that portion of men who are the enemies of God and goodness, " the heathen," the idolaters who would " cast off " the authority of " the Lord and His Anointed " — in short, " the sons of men " as opposed to " the sons of God " (Gen. vi. 2) ; and " man," or "the sons of man," in Ps. viii. 4, with that portion of the race who look to God alone for rein- statement in their lost privileges ; and consequently to regard the dominion to be restored to the latter to be a moral, not a natural supremacy. 2. The result thus reached as to the moral character of the enemy, and dominion bestowed on man, is still more clearly signified by the striking connection which exists between Ps. viii. and the two Psalms between which it stands. The last words with which Ps. vii. closes are — I will sing j^i'aise to the name of the Lord Most High ; almost the first words with which Ps. ix. opens are — • I will sing praise to Thy name, O Thou Most High ; and the Psalm which stands between them, Ps. viii., both opens and closes with the words — O Lord our Tjord, how mightj' is Thy name in all the earth 1 When now we examine the grounds on which glory is expected in these two Psalms to accrue to God's name, we find in Ps. vii. that it is from the surely antici- pated overthrow of the adversaries who have set them- selves against the Lord's servant David. The enemy is described as " travailing with iniquity and conceiving mis- chief," but the evil that he devises the Psalmist is enabled by y^ 228 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. faith to foresee and predict as turned against himself (vers. 15, 16). He has fallen into the pitfall he was making. His mischief shall return upon his own head, And upon his own pate shall his violence come down (vers. 15, 16). And it is for this assured discomfiture that the Psalmist promises to return thanks and praise — - I will give thanks unto Jehovah according to His righteousness ; And will sing praise to the Name of Jehovah Most High (ver. 17). It is for a victory to he gained (not a dominion all along- possessed by man) that the Psalmist is to magnify God's name. Must not those who gave its present position to Ps. viii., which begins with magnifying the name of God, have meant those who joined in the worship of the sanctuary to regard the reason for magnifying God's name to be tlie same as that in Ps. vii. ? But this assurance is made doubly sure when we find that Ps. viii. ends with the same words as those with which it began, and is immediately followed by another, Ps. ix. catching up the same words, " I will sing praise to Thy name, Thou Most High ! " It is indeed on account of a victory that has just been granted to David that he gives thanks; but he cannot rest in the present, but regards the victory just vouch- safed as a foretaste and pledge of the full and final dominion and victory over all the enemies of the righteous, promised to him in his seed — Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Their name hast Thou blotted out for ever and ever. The enemy — they ai'e brought to an end — desolations for ever (vers. 5, 6). And again — Sunk down are the heathen in the pit they had made ; In the net that they had hid is their own foot taken (ver. 15). PSALM VIII. 229 In the closely connected Ps. x. the anticipated consummation is thus described — Jehovah is King for ever and ever : The heathen are perished out of His land (ver. 16). Adistinction,too,is drawn in both these alphabetically connected I'salms, between the two classes or seeds into which " man " is divided, by the term specifically given to the heathen in the verse with which each Psalm is brought to a close — Let the heathen know that they are but mortal men (Ps. ix. 20). And to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That the mortal man of the earth may no more terrify (Ps. x. 18). The connection in which Ps. viii. is thus placed with the Psalms which precede and follow it strongly confirms the various points for which we contend as to its interpretation. 1. It determines in what respect " the name of the Lord " is pronounced to be " mighty in all the earth," viz. by a victory which He grants to the righteous over their enemies, througli a strength founded for them in their utmost weak- ness, even to " babes and sucklings ; " so that the victory or " dominion " intended is moral, not natural. 2. It determines that the " dominion " is not yet attained, that " the Lord's name is" not yet "mighty in all the earth ; " in other words, that the Psalm is predictive of what is to be, not descriptive of what already is. 3. That the " dominion " bestowed is not given to " man " generally considered, but that there is a marked distinction between the two classes or races of man ; on the one hand, the "man of the earth" (x. 18), "the enemy and self-avenger" (viii. 2), the " wicked," the " nations that forget God" (ix, 17) ; and, on the other, "the humble" (ix. 12), "the needy" (ix. 18), "the poor" (x. 2), etc. This distinction we shall after- wards find to be most important, as forming the very basis and leading idea of the next heptade of Pss. ix.-xv. A short analytical table of the contents of Pss. ii.-viii, will assist in following their connection. The 1st Septenary, Ps. ii.-viii., has for its subject — 230 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Man victorious over all opposition through Faith, if accompanied with corresponding Righteousness. Ps. ii. Through Faith in the promised King and Son of God who is to be invested with universal dominion ("Ask of me," etc., ver. 8) as King in Zion, though opposed at first by all " nations and kings " — and being assured of victory for himself and all his followers ("Blessed are all they that put their trust [Faith] in him " (ver. 12)). ^iicli, must the true loorshipper he prepared with David to say, is Ps. iii. My Faith in God's "salvation" (vers. 8, 6, 8), however many enemies " set themselves against me " (ver. 6) ; Ps. iv. And the Righteousness towards God which it produces — "my righteousness" (ver. 1), "godly" (ver. 3); the one being declared vain if without the other, " Otfer sacrifices of righteousness, and [so] put your trust in Jehovah " (ver. 5). Ps. V. Such, I appeal to Thee as "my King" and as "my God " (ver. 2), is ivers. 3-7. My Faith toward Thee as " my God " — in whose "Mercy" I trust, and "worship in fear towards Thy holy temple " (ver. 7). !vers. 8-12. And Righteousness towards Thee as "my King" — whose "righteousness" (ver. 8) must defend "the righteous" (ver. 12) against all his enemies. Ps. vi. My Faith (vers. 8, 9) in Thy " mercy " (vers. 2, 4) to save me from the " workers of iniquity " (ver. 8) notwith- .standing my sin, and Thy just " anger and chastise- ment " (ver. 1), seeing I can appeal to Thee for Ps. vii. My Righteousness towards man — (vers. 3, 4, 10, 11, 17) , — "A trier of hearts is the righteous God" (ver. 9), and ^ a "righteous Judge" (ver. 11) ; and I can already see by faith mine enemy " fallen " (ver. 15), and cause given me to " sing praise to the name of Jehovah " (ver. 17) — as the pledge of the destined overthrow of the enemy of God and man, and of God's "name being mighty in all the earth" (viii. 1). — This I confidently anticipate. Ps. viii. Through Faith in the Son of Man being reinvested with universal dominion (" Thou hast put all things under his feet," ver. 8) in fulfilment of God's original purpose for man which cannot be frustrated, and in God's glory being en- hanced by " strength ordained " for man in his utmost weak- ness when restored to righteousness, to " still the enemy and the self -avenger " (ver. 2). rsALM IX. 231 In the next Septenary, Ps. ix.-xv., Pss. ix. and x. form a pair, like Pss. iii. and iv., yet ought not to be united and made one Psalm as in the Septuagint version. To see the connection, yet distinction, between the two, we give first their strophical division, prefaced by a short analysis of their contents. Ps. ix. is divided into two equal and corresponding parts of 10 verses each, subdivided into 4-2—4 verses. "Vers. 1—4. David praises the Lord for the vindication of his righteous cause against his enemies. Vers. 5—6. And for the thoroughness of the destruction of his heathen foes now experienced. Vers. 7-10. Which creates confidence for the future in the continuance of God's righteous judgment. To this correspond the next 10 verses. Vers. 11-14. David calls on all to praise the Lord — now that, according to His promise (Deut. xii. 10), He has chosen Zion (vers. 11, 14) as " the place to cause His name to dwell there " — for that He has not forgotten " the cry of the poor," the words of which are given in vers. 13, 14. Vers. 15, 16. Again in the two central verses, the thorough- ness is insisted on of the destruction of the heathen foes, by which the Lord has now made Himself known. Vers. 17-20. Which creates confidence for the future in the continuance of God's righteous judgment, and complete answer to " the expectation of the meek," the words of which are siven in vers. 19, 20. PSALM IX. TO THE PRECENTOR ON MUTHLABBEN. A FSALM OF DAVID. I. 1 K I "will give thanks to Jehovali with my whole heart ; s I will tell of all Thy marvellous works. 2 s I will be glad and exult in Thee : i( I will sing praise to Thy name, Most High ! 232 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 3 2 Because mine enemies are turned back, Stumble and perish at Thy presence. 4 For Thou hast maintained my right and my cause ; Thou satest on the throne, a righteous judge. 5 3 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Their name hast Thou blotted out for ever and ever. 6 The enemy, they are brought to an end — desolations for ever ; And the cities Thou hast destroyed, their very memory is peri,slied. 7 1 And Jehovah sits enthroned for ever : He hath established for judgment His throne ; 8 1 And He Himself will judge the world in righteousness, He will minister judgment to the peoples in uprightness. 9 1 So may Jehovah be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble. 10 1 And may those trust in Thee that know Thy name; Because Thou didst not forsake them that seek Thee, Jehovah. II. 1 1 T Sing praise to Jehovah, who dwelleth in Zion : Declare among the peoples His doings. 12 For he that maketh inquisition for blood hath remembered them : He hath not forgotten the cry of the poor. 13 n "Be gracious unto me, Jehovah! Look on mine affliction from them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death ; 14 That I may tell of all Thy praise In the gates of the daughter of Zion : That I may rejoice in Thy salvation." 1 5 to Sunk down are the heathen in the pit that they had made : In the net which they had hid is their own foot taken. 1 6 Jehovah hath made Himself known : judgment He hath executed, In the work of His own hands snaring the wicked. Higgaion Selah. 17 ■» The wicked shall be turned into hell, All the heathen that forget God. 18 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten : The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. PSALM X. 233 19 p Arise, Jehovah ! Let not mortal man jirevail ; Let the heathen be judged in Thy j^resence. 20 Put fear into them, O Jehovah ! Let the heathen know that they are but mortal men. Selah.^ Ps. X. begins (ver. 1) with an expostulation addressed to Jehovah for " standing afar off," and permitting the wicked man to triumph. This is enforced in 10 verses, setting forth in the first 5 (2—6) his proud self-confidence, and in the next 5 (7—11) his outrageous violence and disregard of man and God, the end of each stanza being marked off by what the wicked " hath said in his heart" (vers. 6, 11). The address to "Jehovah," with which the Psalm opened, is again resumed in the last 7 verses (12-18), subdivided into 4 and 3, as marked by the recurrence of Jehovah (vers. 12, 16), the first 4 verses being a prayer to Jehovah to " arise " and deliver the afflicted, for the vindication of His own honour, rising, in the last 3 verses, into the confident assurance that Jehovah, as the Eternal " King," will " hear " and cause " that the man of the earth shall no more terrify." PSALM X. 1 h Why, O Jehovah, standest Thou afar off? Why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble ? 2 Through the pride of the wicked man the poor is set on fire : Let them be taken in the devices which they have imagined. 3 For the wicked boasteth in his soul's desire, And he blesses the defrauded — he contemneth Jehovah. 4 The wicked in his scornfulness [saith] — "He will not inquire : There is no God." Such are all his thoughts. ^ Selah (see p. 200) gives time to meditate on the prayer just offered in vers. 19, 20, and thus prepares for the intensified form in which the prayer breaks forth, expostulating (Ps. x. 1) with Jehovah for "standing afar off" and per- mitting the wicked to vent their malice against His servants. In like manner, after the words of ver. 16, the Psalmist means by Selah to mark the certainty of God's judgment, as if he had said, " Yes — the wicked shall he turned into hell," etc. 234 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 6 His ways are at all times firm ; Far above are Thy judgments out of his sight : As for all his adversaries, he puflFeth at them. 6 He hath said in his heart, " I shall not be moved : To all generations I shall not be in evil." 7 Of cursing his mouth is full, and of deceit and oppression Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. 8 He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages : In the secret places doth he murder the innocent : His eyes are privily set against the helpless. 9 He lurketh in the covert as a lion in his lair : He lui-keth to catch the poor : He catcheth the poor, drawing him into his net. ] And being crushed, he sinketh down, And the helpless fall by his strong ones. 11 He hath said in his heart, " God hath forgotten : He hath hidden His face ; He hath never seen it." 12 p Arise, Jehovah ; God, lift up Thine hand : Forget not the poor. 1.3 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God ? Wherefore say in his heart, " Thou wilt not inquire." 14 -| Thou hast seen ; for Thou beholdest mischief and spite, To take it into Thy hand. To Thee the helpless commits it ; Thou art the helper of the fatherless. 1 5 tj» Break Thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man : Thou wilt seek out his wickedness till Thou find none. 1 6 Jehovah is King for ever and ever : Perished are the heathen out of His land. 1 7 n The desire of the meek Thou hast heard, O Jehovah ! Thou wilt establish their heart, Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear, 18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may no more terrify. That the two Psalms (ix., x.) were intended to be connected as a pah' is evident — 1. From Selah, at the end of Ps. ix., implying a sequel (see note, p. 233), and from Ps. x. having no title. 2. From the recurrence of similar expressions in each ; e.g. PSALM X. 235 " times of trouble," ix. 9 and x. 1 ; " the oppressed" (dal'h), ix. 9 and x. 18; "forget not the poor," ix. 12 and x, 12; " Arise," ix. 19 and x. 12, etc. 3. From an important alphabetical arrangement which is carried through both Psalms — the couplets, of which Ps, ix. wholly consists, beginning in seven instances with the letters of the first half of the alphabet, while Ps. x. begins with ? (lamcdh), the first letter of the last half of the alphabet, and ends with the last four letters. There is, however, a distinct difference between the two Psalms. Ps. ix. is almost all thanksgiving ; Ps. x., prayer. The former refers more to national triumph over heathen nations ; the latter, to the unscrupulous violence and injustice of a powerful party in the State. Each Psalm could thus l:>e used separately on very different occasions. Yet in another aspect both Psalms could be blended into one, when the subject for praise and prayer was the assured final victory of Jehovah and the faithful portion of Israel over all enemies, whether foreign or domestic — the heathen peoples and the heathenish-minded in Israel being classed together. This occasional combination of the two Psalms seems manifestly intended, by the adver- saries triumphed over being designated in Ps. x. 16 "the heathen," as in Ps. ix. 5, 17, 19, 20. Jehovah is King for ever and ever : Perished are the heathen out of His laud (Ps. x. 16). In this case, when the two Psalms were to be joined to- gether in one liturgical service, Ps. ix. 19 down to Ps. x. 16 would all be regarded as one prayer, denominated in Ps. ix. 1 8 " the expectation of the poor," and now in Ps. x. 1 7 declared (in faith) to be answered, " The desire of the meek Thou hast heard." The words with which the prayer begins in Ps. ix. 19, "Arise, Jehovah ! " are caught up again (after the 10 verses, 2-11, dwelling on the arrogant boasting and reckless violence of the wicked as pleas for God's interference) and repeated in x. 1 2, " Arise, Jehovah ! " ^ The beginning and burden of the ^ The substitution in Ps. ix.l9 of p {qSph), where the alphabetical sequence leads us to expect 3 (caph), seems intended to draw attention to the connection 236 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. prayer was, "Let not mortal man prevail" (ix. 19); the assured result with which Ps. x. 18 terminates is, "That the mortal man of the earth shall no more terrify." The poor prayed, " Let the heathen be judged in Thy presence " (ix. 19) ; the result assured by God's arising as Judge is, " Perished are the heathen out of His land" (x. 16). The connection thus traced between Pss. ix. and x. as form- ino- a pair suggested a similar connection between those that follow. We have accordingly 3 pairs of Psalms, the first of each pair expressing the Psalmist's firm faith in the Lord — notwithstanding the opposing circumstances in the second of each pair which tend to shake it. All 3 pairs are then summed up in Ps. xv., which closes the septenary. The 2nd Septenary, Ps. ix.-xv., has for its subject — Man— hut the righteous only wlio trusts for aid in ''the Lord which divelUlh in Zion"" (ix. 11, 14, xiv. 7, xv. l,5)shall be victorious over everjj eneiuy. ]\Iore fully : Man — but not the man who prides himself on his own might (x. 2-6), but " the poor " (^jy, 'ant), ix. 12, x. 2, 9, 12, xii. 5, xiv. 6 ; " the meek " (i3j?, 'anav), ix. 18, x. 17 ; " the needy " (|V3S, 'evyon), — not " the heathen that forget God," ix. 17, who must be taught to "know that they are anel repetition of the direct form of prayer resumed in x. 12, by the repetition of the same letter and word (noip), all the intermediate letters between 3 and p being omitted, with the exception of the ^ (x. 1), which connects the two Psalms. (For a similar substitution, and for a like purpose, compare the substitution in Ps. XXV. of the letter -| for p, and of the same word in ver. 18 as that which follows in ver. 19 ; see p. 70.) From what has been shown as to the departure in the Alphabetical Psalms from the strict sequence of the letters (in pp. 70, 71, and more fully in my Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, pp. 96, 99-101, and 113, 114), I am inclined to believe that the deviations from the regular succession of the letters in the present instance formed part of the original design of the Psalmist. The explanation of the inner meaning and connection I must leave to others to discover. Let me merely suggest that the break in the succession in Ps. ix. after the first 3 letters, till the succession is resumed in ver. 11, may be intended to mark the division of the Psalm into two equal and corresponding parts of 10 verses each —perhaps all the 4 Waws (l) of vers. 7-10, corresponding to the 4 'Alephs {■^) with which each line of its first couplet begins, are intended to indicate the termination of Part I. PSALMS IX.-XV. 237 but mortal men," ix. 20 — not "the man of the earth," x. 18 — of " flatterhig lips and tongue that speaketh great things," xii. 3, and of " abominable works," xiv. 1 ; but — the righteous in vjord and in deed : — as finally summed up in xv., " he that speaketh truth," and " workcfh righteousness," xv. 2, shall alone " dwell in the holy hill of Zion," and " never be moved," xv. 1, 5. Ps. ix. I will praise (strophe i.), and (strophe ii.) call on others to "sing praise to Jehovah who dwelleth in Zion " — in confident faith that in accordance with the earnest now given " the wicked shall be turned into hell, all the heathen that forget God," ver. 17, and that the righteous shall finally triumph. Ps. X. Notwithstanding that Thou seemest for a time to " stand afar off," ver. 1, and lettest the wicked to triumph ; yet Thou wilt "arise," ver. 12, and "Jehovah be King for ever and \ ever," ver. 16. Ps. xi. "In the Loixl jDut I my trust," ver. 1 — let faint-hearted coun- sellors suggest what they may, vers. 1-3, assured that the Lord's " tlii'one is in heaven," ver. 4, and that He only " trieth the right- eous," ver. 5 (7 verses, divided into 3-1-3). Ps. xii. Notwithstanding that " the godly ceaseth," ver. 1, and that the words of the wicked are " flattering and speaketh great things," vers. 2-4 ; for the " words of the Lord are pure words," ver. 6, giving assurance that He " will arise for the \ oppression of the poor," ver. 5. s. xiii. Nay, my faith will the more " trust in Thy mercy and rejoice in Thy salvation," ver. 5, that Thou seemest so "long to forget," ver. 1, and " lettest mine enemy be exalted over me," ver. 2. Ps. xiv. Notwithstanding that of them " that do good there be none " vers. 1, 3, and that the works of the children of men are "corrupt and abominable," ver. 1, extorting, by the climax of trial now reached, the prayer from the afflicted, " Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion I " ver. 7. Ps. XV. For with the Lord who hath now chosen Zion for His abode, not the man "of flattering lips that speaketh great things," xii. 2-4 — not " the loorkers of iniquity," xiv. 4 — " shall dwell in His holy hill," xv. 1 ; but " he that ivorketh righteousness," and " speaketh the truth in his heart," ver. 2. The wicked indeed " hath said in his heart, / shall not he moved^^ x. 6 ; but only " he that walketh uprightly " " shall never he moved" xv. 2, 5. 238 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. We now come to Septenary 3 (xvi.-xxii.). And in order to appreciate aright the lesson which it was designed to enforce, we must, in addition to the remarks already made with regard to the " seed " promised to be raised up to David, keep in mind the light which could not fail to be cast upon this promise by comparison with the preceding revelations made in God's word respecting a promised " seed." Of these there are two which held a pre-eminently conspicuous place — the promise to the great progenitor of Israel, Abraham, of uni- versal import, " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves," which again pointed back to another of equally universal interest, the primeval promise made to the first parents of the human race, of a " seed " of the woman who should " bruise the head " of the enemy who had by his wiles brought the curse of death upon man. This comparison would at once make manifest to David and to every spiritually- minded Israelite what was the great work which the promised seed of David had to accomplish for Israel and for " all the nations of the earth," — namely, in the words of the Apostle John, "to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John iii. 8). The great evil which the serpent had brought upon man was DEATH, by seducing him into sin. Life therefore was the great boon which the promised king and " priest for ever " of David's race was to procure for man by entering into conflict with his great enemy, whose head he should bruise, though he himself should suffer severely in the contest, as signified by the words to the serpent, " Thou shalt bruise his heel." This conflict with its result forms evidently the theme of the last three Psalms of the septenary (xx.-xxii.). In the first of these (Ps. xx.) we have the prayer put into the mouth of Israel for the king when about to enter into "the day of trouble " (ver, 1), and which they are taught to feel and acknowledge he is to encounter, as their " leader and com- mander," for their deliverance : " We will triumph in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners " (ver. 5). Ps. xxi. is the people's thanksgiving for the victory obtained, and for the great blessing which he has PSALMS XVI.-XXII. 239 gained for himself and for tliem as the prize of his victory. What M'as this blessing ? The words are very precise : " Life he asked of Thee, Thou gavest it him : even length of days for EVER AND EVER " (ver. 4).^ Ps. xxii. sums up both pre- ceding Psalms, the first two decades (1-10 and 12-21, with their connecting intercalary ver. 11) setting forth the conflict, and the last decade (22-31) its blessed result, "Let your hearts live for ever" (ver. 26), both for the "seed of Israel" (22-26) and for "all the ends of the earth" (27-31). The final trilogy of the 3rd Septenary is thus seen clearly to set forth the gift of eternal life, " even length of days for ever and ever " (xxi. 4), as the great blessing which the pro- mised king is to gain for the whole race of man, and the final victory over all the powers of evil. This throws back light on the first trilogy (xvi.-xviii.) of the septenary, and vouches for the correctness of the interpretation which finds in Pss. xvi. and xvii. David's assured hope and claim, for himself as an individual believer, of participation in the eternal life which his promised seed is to gain for all, " Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy right hand there are pleasures for eve?'?no?'e " (Ps. xvi. 10, 11) ; and again in Ps. xvii. 14, 15, while " the men of the world " have their " portion in this life," " as for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, lolicn I aivakc, with Thy likeness." ^ So momentous a result David coukl never have expected from any deliver- ance to be granted to himself personally, or to any merely human successor to his throne. The words bear a worthy meaning only when referred to him in whom he had been assured his seed was to culminate, who was to "sit at tlie right hand " of the Lord, being made king and " priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." That Pss. XX. and xxi. may have been used as a litany on occasion of a war in which the king was engaged against the enemies of the Lord and His people, is not improbable. Still the successful issue of any such contest could never have been designated as it is in Ps. xxi. 4, except as an earnest of the final victory which the Lord was to grant to " His Anointed," to whom He was to "give the nations for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession" (Ps. ii. 6-8). 240 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The right pomt of view being thus gained, as we believe, from which to regard this septenary, Ps. xvi. (it will be seen) begins with a verse of one single line as the introit, enunciat- ing in its two brief clauses the subject or argument of the Psalm — (A..) Prayer of David ior preservation to God [EL — Mighty to save]; founded on the — (B.) Plea : his trust in God. This plea is first enforced and enlarged upon in 5 verses (2-6). So entire is his trust in the Lord, that he has taken Him as his sole good, in whom alone he has delight, and in His saints whom he counts " the excellent " (literally, the truly " great " or " mighty ^ in the earth," as opposed to the " men of the [fleeting] world,^ whose portion is in this life ; " see Ps. xvii. 14), with whom alone he will associate, rejecting all converse with those, or their rites, who " exchange the Lord for another god," — having perfect satisfaction in the Lord as his inheritance. Eeturning therefore, in the last 5 verses (7—11), to his prayer for 'prc&ervation, David rises at once into thanksgiving to the Lord for the grace given him to follow His counsel in choosing Him as his trust and heritage — a choice of whose wisdom his calm reflections in the night-watches renders him assured. Therefore heart and flesh repose in perfect confidence. His prayer, he feels, must be answered. " I shall not be moved." Having made the eternal God his refuge, death itself cannot overcome him, " Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol : Thou wilt show me the path of life," and admit me to " Thy presence," where are " fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore." ^ Vaihinger remarks on the title EL, by which, in ver. 1, David addresses God, as being " most appropriately chosen, designating Him as the M'ujhty One who lias power to help." His saints, therefore, are the only "mighty ones" who shall endure and "shall not be moved" (Ps. xvi. 8, and cf. Ps. xv. 5). ^ n^n cJieled. PSALM XVI. 241 PSALM XVI. MICHTAM OF DAVID. 1 A. Preserve me, O God : B. for in Thee do i put my trust. B. Plea — David's trust and devotion of himself to God 2 I have said unto Jehovah, Thou art my Lord ; I have no good beyond Thee. 3 As for the saints that are in the earth, They are the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 4 Multiplied shall be their sorrows that exchange the Lord for another Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, [god : Nor take their names upon my lips. 5 Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot. 6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; Yea, I have a goodly heritage. A. Vkxy-ek for preservation, for which he blesses God for the [/race given him to depend on Him. 7 I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel : Yea, my reins instruct me in the night-seasons. 8 I have set Jehovah always before me : Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; My flesh also shall dwell in safety : 10 For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption. 1 1 Thou wilt show me the path of life : In Thy presence is fulness of joy ; In Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Xo words scarcely could express more clearly than those contained in the last two verses, David's expectation for himself of a life beyond the grave.^ If it be asked on what foundation David rested so confident an expectation, I think we must refer it to his meditation on the promises which God had made to the fathers and to himself. This evidently is the view taken by St. I'eter (on his first address to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, • See pp. 16, 20 scq. Q 242 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Acts ii.) in his exposition of Ps. xvi.^ St. Peter's words are — " Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn wiih an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins He would set One upon His throne ; he, foreseeing this, spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was He left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption " (Acts ii. 30, 31). It was as " a prophet " that David is here said to have spoken, and with conscious reference to Christ, looking forward to the fulfilment of the promise God had made to him, that of his " seed " was to spring the great deliverer who was to accomplish the predictions, made from the earliest times, of the " seed " of the woman, who should reverse the doom of death occasioned by the wiles of the serpent, and, as further revealed to Abraham, to restore through his seed the forfeited blessing of life to " all the nations of the earth." The " holy- one," indeed, to whom God is asked to " show the path of life," is, as the whole tenor of the Psalm shows, David him- self ; but it is with a distinct conscious reference to Christ, as the author of this eternal life, that David gives so con- fident expression to his faith, and claims for himself ^ par- ticipation in the blessing which he expected Him to procure (Ps. xxi. 4). The force of St. Peter's reasoning does not depend on the rendering to be given to shachath, whether " pit," as some hold to be the only correct rendering, or " corruption " {hiacpOopd, which does not mean, as an English reader is apt to imagine, putrefaction, but destruction). Christ (his argument is) did not, like David and other mortals, see {i.e. experience, or succumb to, the power of) the pit, or destruction, since He voluntarily, and only momentarily, submitted to it in order to triumph over 1 This exposition we may with high probability ascribe to Christ's own teach- ing to the apostles after His resurrection, when He opened their mind that they might " understand the Scriptures " on " the things written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning" Him (Luke xxiv. 44, 45); especially as we find St. Paul giving the same exposition of the Psalm in almost identical terms in Acts xiii. 35-37. '^ And for others, if the textual reading, " Thy holy ones " (in reference to ver. 3), be adopted. PSALM XVII. 243 and break its power for ever. St. Paul's words show this clearly to be the view of the apostles. Literally (he allows) Christ saw death and corruption, since he says that He was " raised up from the dead, now no more to retitrn to corruption [or destruction] " (Acts xiii. 34). But inasmuch as He rose again so immediately from death, " seeing that it was not possible that He should be holden of it" (Acts ii. 24), the apostle sees no inconsistency in immediately adding, " He whom God raised up saw no corruption " (Acts xiii. 37), — no more than there was any real inconsistency between Christ's words, " The child is not dead, but sleepeth," and the message from the ruler's house, " Thy daughter is dead '* (Mark v. 35, 39). Ps. xvii. forms the complement of Ps. xvi., to which it stands in the same relation that we found Ps. iv. to bear to Ps. iii. In Ps. xvi., as in Ps. iii., David appeals to Jehovah as his God in whom alone he has Faith, or trust, and whom he has chosen as his only " good " and " portion ; " in Ps. xvii. he appeals to Jehovah as his righteous Judge, whose it is to uphold the righteous cause of His servant, since the sincerity of his faith has been proved by its being accompanied by its appropriate fruit of Pv,ighteousness. The subjects of the two Psalms are then combined and summed up in the third member of the trilogy, Ps. xviii., in the same manner as Pss. iii. and iv. are summed up in Ps. v., and, as we shall find in., the next trilogy, Pss. xx. and xxi. summed up in Ps. xxii.. PSALM XVII. A PRAYER OF DAVID.. Introit. 1 A. Hear the right, O Jehovah, Attend unto my cry ; ■ Give ear unto my prayer, A. That goeth not out of feigned li^js. A. Plea. 4 verses, 2 Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence ; Let Thine eyes look upon equity. 244 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 3 Thou liast proved mine heart ; Tliou hast visited me in the night ; Thou hast tried me, and iindest nothing : I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.^ 4 As for the woi'ks of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the ways of the violent. 5 My steps have held fast to Thy j^aths ; My feet have not slipped. B. Prayer. 4 verses. 6 I have called upon Thee ; for Thou wilt answer me, O God : Incline Thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 7 Show Thy marvellous loving-kindness, O Thou that savest them which put their trust in Thee From those that rise up against them, by Thy right hand. 8 Keep me as the apple of the eye ; Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings, 9 From the wicked that spoil me. My deadly enemies, that compass me about. A. Plea enforced. 3 verses. 10 They are enclosed in their own fat : With their mouth they speak proudly. 1 1 They have now compassed us in our steps ; They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth ; 12 He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. B. Prayer enforced. 3 verses. 13 Arise, O Jehovah ; confront him, cast him down : Deliver my soul from the wicked by Thy sword : 11: From men by Thy hand, O Jehovah, From men of the world, whose portion is in this life, And whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure : They are satisfied with children. And leave the rest of their substance to their babes. 1,5 As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. The arrangement of the Psalm is similar to that of Ps. xvi. It begins with a single verse of an introit, stating the two subjects on which the rest of the Psalm enlarges. The whole 1 Perhaps more correctly as Delitzscli : " Thought I evil, it doth not pass my mouth." Cf. Prov. xxx. 32, " If thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth." psAor XYii. 245 Psalm is indeed a "prayer," as it is designated in the title, and accordingly the first word is one of prayer, " Hear." Still the point on which the emphasis is laid is the pleas adduced ibr God's hearing David's prayer, the right of his cause, " Hear the right," and the sincerity of his heart and purpose as God's servant, " my prayer goeth not out of feigned lips ; " for in the four lines of which the introit consists, the pleas occupy the principal place, being placed first and last, while the " cry " and " prayer " hold but the secondary place in the two inter- mediate lines. Accordingly in the division of the Psalm which follows, into two strophes of 4 verses each (2-5 and 6-9), and other two strophes of 3 verses each (10—12 and 13—15), the enforcement of the pleas occupies the first place, followed up by the prayers. In vers. 2-5, David appeals to God as the righteous Judge, who has tried him and found nothing — nothing in his heart : " Thou hast proved my heart ; " nothing in his tongue : " I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress ; " nothing in his hand : " As for the works of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the ways "of the violent." On this plea he founds, in the next strophe of 4 verses (6-9), his prayer to God to " hear " and " answer " him, and deliver him from his " deadly enemies that compass him about." To enforce his plea and prayer in the two concluding strophes of 3 verses each, in the first (10—12) he dwells on the pride and murderous virulence of his foes thirsting for the blood of himself and his associates : "They have compassed us in our steps : they set themselves to cast us down to the earth." Upon this, in the final strophe, he prays with in- tensified earnestness to Jehovah to " arise " and interpose for the encouragement of righteousness and the discouragement of the ungodly, to "cast down," and thus deliver His servant from the " men of the world, whose portion is in this life," and to whom He has permitted to have all that their hearts can desire, — whose prosperity, nevertheless, he would not for a moment exchange for the blessed hope which he ends his prayer with avowing, " I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness." 246 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. PSALM xviir. In this grand Hymn of Praise it is difficult to decide on the correct division of the strophes, which are differently arranged by commentators ; but the division into two main portions is fortunately marked out decisively by what forms a very general feature (too little attended to) in the parallelistic arrangements of Hebrew poetry — a central member, around which the other verses are grouped. Here vers. 25, 26 form the centre, expressive of the Lord's uniform rule in His treat- ment of His creatures, viz. as the " Lord God of recom- penses " (Jer, li. 56), who " renders to everyone according to the fruit of his doings." The Psalm, it will thus be seen, falls into two equal divisions of 24 verses each. In the first half, David expresses his grateful sense of God's " preserving " care of him in the perilous circumstances of his imst life, by recompensing him according to his righteousness in His sight (vers. 1-24) ; and in the second half (vers, 27-50), he declares his confidence of His protection in the future, to be continued to him and to his seed, in " delivering him from the strivings of the people," making him "the head of the nations," and " subduing the peoples under him, in fulfilment of the promises He has made to David and to his seed for evermore" (cf. 2 Sam. vii. 12-16). This relieves the latter portion of the Psalm from the charge brought against it, as usually interpreted, of prolixity — of being in great measure but a repetition of the former half ; and the distinction is borne out by the remarkable change in the use of the tenses — the Perfect (or Past) being the predominant tense in the first half, while it rarely occurs in the latter half, in which the Imperfect (or Future) tense is employed more than thirty times. Attention to this division will also show that Ps. xviii. sums up the subjects of the two preceding Psalms of the trilogy. The Faith of Ps. xvi. of Jehovah's " preserving " care finds expression in the sevenfold epithets applied to Him in the opening words of Ps. xviii., divided as usual into 3-1-3 — Jehovah is my rock — aud my fortress — and my deliverer ; My God is vaj fortress, in Ilim will I trust ; My shield, and the horn of my salvation — my high tower ; PSALM XVIII. 247 as well as in the direct avowal, " in Him will I trust ; " " 1 will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised ; so shall I be saved from mine enemies " (ver. 3). Equally pronounced is the Faith in the latter half of the Psalm : " For Thou wilt save the afflicted people " (ver. 27); "Thou wilt light my lamp " (ver. 28) ; God "is a shield unto all them that trust in Him " (ver. 30) ; "I will pursue mine enemies, and over- take them " (ver. 3 7), etc. Again, the appeal in Ps. xvii. in behalf of the sincerity of David's EiCxHTEOUSNESS, addressed to Jehovah as the righteous Judge, to " hear the right " (ver. 1), finds its corre- sponding equivalent in Ps. xviii. 20-24, in which David begins and ends with claiming God's treatment of him as an attestation on His part to the genuineness of His servant's ElGHTEOUSNESS Jehovali rewarded me according to my righteousness (ver. 20). Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteousness (ver. 24). This proof of God's retributive righteousness, which would be the more strongly brought home to the writer's mind by the contrasted proof in an opposite direction in the disastrous end of his predecessor Saul, David, in order to impress it strongly on his descendants and on Israel, generalizes in the next two verses (25, 26) into a universal maxim or rule of God's government, as "the Lord God of recompenses" — With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful ; With the perfect man Thou wilt show Thyself perfect ; With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure ; And with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward. To these two verses he assigns the central place in the Psalm, around which as a pivot the thoughts of this magnificent hymn are made to revolve, — the truth of which had been exemplified in his own personal experience, depicted in the first half of the Psalm, — and which, in the second half, he confidently predicts will be equally realized in the fulfilment of God's promises " to David and to his seed for evermore ; " yet if so be that they observe the condition announced by the Lord to David, that "thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me" (2 Chron. vi. 16) '■iS STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. PSALM XVIII. For the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul : And he said, 1 I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength. 2 Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer ; My God is my fastness, in Him will I trust ; My shield, and the 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. 4 The cords of death compassed me. And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5 The cords of Sheol were round about me ; The snares of death came upon me. 6 In my distress I called upon Jehovah, And cried unto my God : He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry before Him came into His ears. 7 Then the earth shook and trembled ; The foundations also of the mountains moved And were shaken, because He was wroth. 8 There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, And fire out of His mouth devoured : Coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down : And thick darkness was under His feet. 10 And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; Yea, He flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness His hiding-place ; His pavilion round about Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 12 At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed ; Hailstones and coals of fire. 13 Jehovah also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice ; Hailstones and coals of fire. 14 And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them ; Yea, lightnings manifold, and discomfited them. 15 Then the channels of waters appeared. And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Thy rebuke, O Jehovah, At the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils. PSALM XVIII. 249 16 He sent from on high, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. 1 7 He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from them that hated me : for they wei-e too mighty for me. 1 8 They came upon me in the day of my calamity : But Jehovah was my stay. 19 He brought me forth also into a large place ; He deUvered me, because He delighted in me. 20 Jehovah rewarded me according to my righteousness ; According to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all His judgments were before me. And I put not away His statutes from me. 23 I was also joerfect with Him, And I kept myself from mine iniquity. 24 Therefore hath Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteous- According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. [ness 25 With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful ; 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 wilt save the afflicted people ; But the haughty eyes Thou wilt bring down. 28 For Thou wilt hght my lamp : Jehovah my God will lighten my darkness. 29 For by Thee I shall run upon a troop ; And by my God shall I leap over a wall. 30 As for God, His way is perfect : The word of Jehovah is tried ; He is a shield unto all them that trust in Him. 31 For who is God save Jehovah 1 And who is a rock beside our God ? 32 The God that girdeth me with strength, And maketh my way perfect ; 33 That maketh my feet like hinds' feet. And setteth me upon my high places ; 34 That teacheth my hands to war, So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. 35 Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation ; And Thy right hand holdeth me up, And Thy gentleness maketh me great. ^6 Thou enlargest my steps under me. And my feet have not slipped. 250 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 37 I will pursue mine enemies, and overtake them ; Neither will I turn again till they are consumed. 38 I will smite them through, that they shall not be able to rise : They shall fall under my feet. 39 For Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle ; Thou wilt subdue under me those that rise up against me. 40 Thou hast also made mine enemies turn their backs unto me, And them that hate me I will cut off. 41 They shall cry, but there is none to save ; Even unto Jehovah, but He hath not answered them. 42 So that I shall beat them small as the dust before the wind ; ^ As the mire of the streets shall I cast them out. 43 Thou wilt deliver me from the strivings of the people ; Thou wilt make me the head of the nations : A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me : The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. 45 The strangers shall fade away, And shall come trembling out of their close places. 46 Jehovah liveth ; and blessed be my Eock ; And exalted be the God of my salvation ; 47 Even the God that executeth vengeance for me, And subdueth peoples under me. 48 He rescueth me from mine enemies ; Yea, Thou liftest me up above them that rise up against me : Thou deliverest me from the violent man. 49 Therefore I will give thanks unto Thee, O Jehovah, among the And will sing praises unto Thy name. [nations, 50 Great deliverance giveth He to His king ; And showeth loving-kindness to His anointed, To David, and to his seed for evermore. la this Psalm (composed probably towards the close of David's days, since in the history of his life it is followed immediately by " the last words of David ") there are several expressions which lead us to the true understanding and purport of David's Psalms, as not so much the expression of his own personal sentiments and feelings as an individual, as of the king and leader of the whole community of Israel, — endowed also with the gift of sacred song as " the sweet Psalmist of Israel," — to keep alive in them the remembrance, and prepare them for the fulfilment of the exalted mission rsALM XVIII. 251 appointed them at their first calling to be a " kingdom of priests " unto the Lord. 1. In the title prefixed to the Psalm, David is denominated " the servant of the Lord " — a dignity almost peculiar to Moses, to whom it is assigned 20 times as the leader ordained by God for the deliverance of His people from the bondage and idolatry of Egypt, and twice afterwards extended to Joshua as his successor, commissioned to complete his work by leading the Israelites across the Jordan into the possession of the land. It was on the occasion of God's sending Nathan to David with the great promise, " Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee," that he was com- manded to address him twice by the title of " servant of the Lord," as "being appointed to carry out, like Moses, God's purposes for Israel, " Go and tell my servant David " (2 Sam. vii. 5) ; " Now therefore thus shalt thou say to my servant David" (ver. 8). So highly prized by David was the honour thus conferred upon him, that in the thanksgiving prayer which he poured forth when he " went in and sat before the Lord," he repeated no fewer than 10 times the greatly appreciated title, "Thy servant" (cf. 2 Sam. vii. 18-29; 2 Chron. xvii. 16-27). The intended reference in Ps. xviii. to the similarity of David's calling as " the servant of the Lord " to that of Moses, every Hebrew would at once perceive by the employment, to express God's interposition for the deliverance of David, of the uncommon verb mdshdh^ " He dre^v me out of many waters " (ver. 16) — a verb which occurs nowhere else in the Bible except in Ex. ii. 10, where the reason assigned by Pharaoh's daughter for giving the name to her adopted son is, " She called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew (mdshdh) him out of the water." 2. That it is in his public and official capacity as leader of God's people that David here regards himself and the wonder- ful deliverances often vouchsafed to him, results further from the high-wrought description of God's interposing in his behalf (vers. 4-19), and delivering him from the hand of all his enemies, being so evidently borrowed from the Lord's " send- ^ A Coptic word ? see Speaker's Commentary. 252 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ing forth from on high and drawing" Moses and Israel " out of many waters" (ver. 16), and "delivering them from the strong enemy" (ver. 17). 3. God's favour, however, and protection extended to David and to his people were but preludes and pledges of the greater promises and mightier deliverance which He was to accomplish through his seed. To these he looks forward as destined to be fulfilled when he " should sleep vjith his fathers" (2 Sam. vii. 12), as is evident from his employing to describe their fulfilment language which he could never without the most extreme exaggeration have meant to apply to himself personally — Thou wilt make me the head of the nations : A people whom I have not known shall serve me (ver. 43). It was to him alone in whom (it was revealed to Abraham) " all the nations of the earth should bless themselves " (Gen. xxii. 18), and who (He had now revealed to David) was to be of his seed as well as Abraham's, that the words of ver. 49 could with any propriety apply — Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, Jehovah, among the nations,^ And will sing praises unto Thy name. We have but to look to the concluding words of the Psalm to see that this must be David's view — Great deliverance giveth He to His king ; To David and to his seed for evermore. The appropriateness of Ps. xix. to form the central mem- ber of the seven Psalms (xvi.— xxii.), connecting together the first trilogy (xvi.-xviii.) with the concluding trilogy (xx.— xxii.), will now be apparent. The first trilogy sets forth the divine promises and blessings granted to David and his people Israel ; the latter trilogy celebrates the higher deliver- ^ St. Paiil, in Eom. xv. 8, 9, explains these words as being fulfilled in Christ beiug "made a minister of circumcision for the truth of God, that He might confirm the promises given unto the fathers, and that the Geutiles might glorify God for His mercy." PSALM XIX. -Zoo ance and blessings to be procured by bis seed " to all the ends of the earth" (Ps. xxii. 27). Ps. xix. is the mediating link between the two trilogies. In it a parallel is drawn between the two revelations which God has already made of Himself and His perfections in the natural and in the spiritual world — in the works of His hands (vers. 1-6) and in the law which He gave to His people Israel. The two are compared together, both as to their points of resemblance and of differ- ence. Both agree in diffusing light and life, and vivifying warmth ; the one, to the physical world, by the sun whose circuit is from the one end of the heaven to the other, " and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof " (ver. 6) ; the other, to the spiritual world, "restoring [reviving] the soul, enlightening the eyes, and rejoicing the heart " (vers. 7, 8). The former affects more the body and the bodily senses, while the latter animates the soul and the higher nature of man. The one is outward, revealing the natural attributes of God, His power and wisdom ; while the other is inward, revealing, in addition, the moral perfections of Jehovah, His holiness, mercy, and truth. The superiority is thus evidently claimed on the whole for the law. Still prominence is given to two aspects of the former revelation to which nothing is found to correspond in the latter, as if to indicate that there is still a defect in the law, which points forward to a higher and more perfect revelation of God's glory yet to be made — the pro- minence given to the universality and to the clearness of the first revelation. These glorious heavens speak to all, in language, inaudible indeed, but intelligible to every race and generation of mankind : " Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world " (ver. 4), — suggesting, therefore, since "God's tender mercies are over all His works," that His spiritual revelation cannot fall short (except for a teruporary purpose) in this respect, and that the time is coming when it shall be equally universal ; and that " all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord" (Ps. xxii. 27). St. Paul's argument, therefore, for ex- tending the preaching of the gospel to all nations, deduced from the words, " Their line is gone out through all the earth. 254 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and their words to the end of the world," is more than a mere " accommodation." The other defect of God's revelation of Himself through the law, compared with the clearness of the revelation He makes of His attributes in the natural world (wherein " the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity," Eom. i. 20), is more distinctly hinted at in the Psalm. A marked contrast seems designed to be drawn between the splendour of the glorious sun which God has set above in the heavens, from whose all-illuminating and vivify- ing heat " there is nothing hid " (ver. 6), and the obscurity of the light and want of life-inspiring energy to be found in the law, wliich calls forth from David the lament, " Who can discern his errors ? clear Thou me from hidden faults. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; let them not have dominion over me" (vers. 12, 13). Is there not here indicated a feeling of a want yet to be supplied, to which the succeeding trilogy (xx.-xxii.) gives further expression, and a presentiment of a " sun of righteousness to arise with healing in his wings " (Mai. iv. 2) in the spiritual firmament, that should regenerate and brighten the world, and prove the true life and light of men ? The parallel now drawn between the two principal divisions of Ps. xix. sufficiently refutes the theory of Ewald and others, that the Psalm is made up of two fragments of separate Psalms composed at different periods, and brought together merely by a later compiler. Besides the difference of subjects, an argument against the identity of authorship is attempted to be drawn from the difference of structure and of rhythm between the two divisions, 6 verses only being assigned to the first division, which consists of tetrameters with an admixture of trimeters, while 8 verses are given to the last division, which consists wholly of pentameters. There is, however, a remarkable correspondence and studied symmetry of structure between the two divisions when more closely examined, which could only have proceeded from oneness of authorship. Each division consists of two strophes, counting by the PSALM XIX. 255 iiumLer of verses, while the distinction of subject between the two divisions is marked by the difference of numbers assigned to each ; yet the numbers of each being equally divided between its strophes (into 3 and 3 in the first division, and into 4 and 4 in the second) mark that the first two strophes belong together to God's revelation of Himself in nature, and the last two strophes to His revelation of Himself in the law. When, however, we reckon by the number of lines, we find that the two divisions have been made exactly to agree, each consisting of 14 lines. The purpose is obvious — to mark and draw attention to the correspondence and parallelism between the two revelations which we have attempted to trace above. The varied rhythm is in accordance with the change of subject, and is a common feature in the Psalms. In the case before us, as Dr. Delitzsch remarks, " the heart of the poet begins to beat with quickened joy as he comes to speak of God's word and the revelation of His will." The pentameter, or five-toned line, may have been chosen as charactei'istic of the law,-^ the symbolic number of which is five, according to the Eabbins, PSALM XIX. FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN. A PSALM OF DAVID. Strophe i. 3 verses, 6 lines. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God ; And the firmament showeth His handy-work. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night showeth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language ; Their voice cannot be heard. Strophe ii. 3 verses, 8 li7ies. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun ; 5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. ^The great alphabetical Psalm iu praise of the law, Ps. cxix., is also in penta- meters. 256 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, And his circuit unto the ends of it : And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Strophe iii. 4 verses, 8 lines. 7 The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul : The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simjjle : 8 The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart : The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes : 9 The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever : The judgments of Jehovah are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much line gold ; Sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb. Strophe iv. 4 verses, 6 lines. 11 Moreover, by them is Thy servant warned : in keeping of them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors ? clear Thou me from hidden faults. lo Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; let them not have dominion over me : Then shall I be perfect, and clear from great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be accept- In Thy sight, O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer. [able Little more need be added to what was said above (p. 5) M'ith regard to Pss. xx. and xxi. The strophical arrangement of Ps. xx. seems to be 4-1-4, the first four verses being a prayer for the salvation of the king in the approaching conflict, " Jehovah answer thee ; " the last four (6-9) expressing the confident assurance that Jehovah will save His anointed, " He will answer him from His holy heaven : " botli strophes enclosing a central verse (5), in which the people express their entire sympathy in the " desire and counsel " of their king, in the salvation and victories of whom theirs are closely bound up. The Selah after ver. 3 probably marks a pause in the music while the sacrifice is being offered. In ver. 9 the Authorized and Pte vised Versions err in following the Masoretic punctuation ; both rhythm and sense require to render — O Jehovah — save— the king ! He will answer us— in the day — we call. The lines are trimeters ; and the subject of the Psalm is a prayer for the salvation of the kin'^. PSALM XXI. 257 PSALM XX. FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAX. A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 Jehovah answer thee in the day of trouble ; The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high ; 2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, And out of Zion .strengthen thee. .3 Remember all thy offerings, And thy burnt sacrifice accept. Selah. 4 Grant thee thy heart's desire, And all thy counsel fulfil. .") We will triumph in Thy salvation, And in the name of our God we will set u]* our banners : Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions. G Now know I that Jehovah saveth His anointed : He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; But we will make mention of the name of Jehovah our God. 8 They are bowed down and fallen ; But v)e are risen, and stand upright. !) O Jehovah, save the King : He will answer us when we call. Ps. xxi. seems to consist of two strophes of 6 verses each (subdivided into 2 + 2 + 2) enclosing a central verse (7) expressing the reason of the blessings conferred on the king, viz. his confiding trust in God's mercy. In the first strophe (1-6) Jehovah is addressed; in the last (8-13) the King is addressed, the only exception being that in the last verse the address . is turned to Him from whom the victory and all blessings are expected, praying Him to continue to manifest His saving strength to the king, that His people may the more magnify His power. Ver. 4 is evidently founded on God's promise to David (2 Sam. vii. 16), "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee : thy throne shall be estab- lished for ever," supplemented and further explained by the subsequent revelation in Ps. ex. While, therefore, Ps. xxi. could be sung on occasion of any victory, over the enemies of the Lord and His people, granted to each successive occupant of David's throne, it was but as an earnest and anticipation of li 258 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. their ultimate fulfilment that the words of ver. 4 could be used — Life he asked of Thee, Thou gavest it hiiii, Even length of days for ever and ever. These words pointed on the thoughts and aspirations of the worshippers to a blessing which none but One who was King and " Priest for ever " could procure and impart. 1\SALM XXL FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN. A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 O Jehovah, in Thy strength shall the King rejoice ; And in Thy salvation how greatly sliall he exult ! 2 His heart's desire hast Thou given him, And the request of his lips Thou hast not withholden. Selah. 3 For Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness : Thou settest on his head a crown of fine gold. 4 Life he asked of Thee, Thou gavest it him. Even length of days for and ever. 5 ( Treat is his glory in Thy salvation : Honour and majesty dost Thou lay upon him. 6 For Thou makest him most blessed for ever : Thou makest him glad with joy in Thy presence. 7 For the King trusteth in Jehovah ; And, through the mercy of the Most High, he shall not l)e moved. S Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies ; Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. !) Thou slialt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of Thine angei- : Jeliovah shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them.^ 10 Their fruit slialt Thou destroy from the earth. And their seed from among the children of men. 1 1 For they intended against Thee evil ; They intended a device, which they are not able to perform. 12 For Thou shalt make them turn their back. With Thy bowstrings Thou shalt make ready against the face of 13 Be Thou exalted, O Jehovah, in Thy strength : [them. So will we sing and praise Thy power. 1 " Observe the rhythmical structure: two long lines [pentameters] (ver. 9 («) and (6)) followed by two short ones [trimeters] (ver. 10 (a) and (6)). The first describe the process of destruction, the last the consummation." — Dean Perowne. PSALM XXII. 259 The diredhj Messianic import of Ps. xxii., even when con- sidered as an isolated l^sahn, was, we trust, sufficiently vindicated in p. 45, as the most reasonable interpretation of the author's view in its first composition, particularly when we advert to the momentous results for " Israel " and for " all tlie ends of the earth," which the sufferer in the last 1 verses attributes to his deliverance — that those who partake of the sacrificial feast which he is to institute on the occasion, " shall eat and be satisfied," and their " heart live for ever." All without exception, rich and poor, " the fat ones of the earth," as well as " they that are going down to the dust," " even he that cannot keep his soul alive," are invited to partake ; and tlie blessing is to extend, not to one, but to all genera- tions. The salvation of the sufferer from death is to be the salvation of the whole world. Of whom could any writer mean to predicate so lofty things, but of that " seed " in whom " all the nations of the earth were to bless them- selves " ? This conclusion is strongly confirmed by the prominent place and connection which is assigned to this Psalm in the final arrangement of the Psalter. Not only is it the conclud- ing Psalm of a trilogy of Psalms which form the centre and very heart of Book I. of Psalms, but it forms the culmination of three septenaries of Psalms, setting forth the victory pro- mised to man, the 1st Septenary, over all opposition through faith, if accompanied by righteousness; the 2nd, over every enemy, but available to the righteous alone ; and the 3rd, over death itself Moreover, if Ps. i. be counted in, it concludes an alphabet of Psalms (22), or, in brief, a summary of all for whicli the worshipper offers prayer and praise. Ps. xxii. is divided into three strophes of 10 verses each. Strophes i. and ii., both setting before us a sufi'erer in the deepest distress, are bound together by an intercalary verse (11) of ejaculatory prayer, and conclude with the deliverance of the suppliant (assured by faith) in the last extremity (ver. 21). Strophe iii. foretells the blessed results of the deliver- ance, both to Israel and to " all the nations of the earth." The arrangement may be thus represented— 260 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Strophe i. (5 + 5). Complaint of the Svfferer. Verses 1 -5. Forsaken by Cxod. Inward affliction. 6-10. Rei^roached by men. Outward affliction. 1 1 . Ejaculatory prayer. Strophe ii. (7 + 3 = 8 + 1 + 3 + 8). Extremity of the sufferer''s ^^ trouble." It consists of three triplets (12-14, 16-18, 19-21), the intensity of suffering increasing progressively in the last verse of each. The 1st and 2nd triplets are connected by an intercalary verse (15),^ since both dwell simply on the suferings, and are thus distinguished from the last triplet (19-21), which breaks out into prayer for delicerance — answered in the last extremity. Versps r 12-14. In ver. 14. Bones racked — heart melted. Approaching 1 ) 15. extremity. :-5 ) 16-18. In ver. 18. "Parting his garments." Increasing ' extremity. 3{ 19-^1. In ver. 21. "Lion's mouth — wild oxen's Utmost horns." (Prayer answered in) extremity. Strophe iii. (5 + 5). Blessed results of this great salvation. Verses. 22-26. To Israel and the Church of God. 27-31. To all the nations of the earth (7 long lines. Delitzscli, " Pen- tameters "). PSALM XXII. TO THE PRECENTOR, " t)N THE HIND OF THE MORNING."^ A PSALM OF DAVID. I. Com2^laint of the Sufferer. 1 My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? Why so far from my salvation ^ are the words of my roaring ? ' Binding them together, just as the intercalary ver. 11 bound together strophes i. and ii. as being connected in sense. ^ " On the Hind of the Morning" in the title seems so exactly to describe tlie subject of the Psalm ("the Hind [here beset by bulls, dogs, etc.] being the emblem of one persecuted to the death, cf. Isa. xiii. 14 ; — the morning-daion of light breaking in suddenly on darkness, Isa. Iviii. 8." — Dr. Kay's Psalms), that we may reasonably regard the melody (composed in all likelihood expressly for the Psalm) to liave derived from it its name, as in the case of the "Old Hundredth Psalm," where the name of Psalm and tune coincide. So probably "Upon lonath-elem-rechokim," Ps. Ivi. ^ See Ps. xxxv. 3, " Say unto my soul, I am thy saImtio7i." See also Ixii. 2, 7, and Ixxxix. 27. PSALM xxir. 261 2 O my God, I cry in the day-time, but Thou answerest not ; And in the night season, and am not silent. ."> Yet Thou art holy, enthroned above the praises of Israel. 4 In Thee did our fathers trust : They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. 5 Unto Thee they cried, and were delivered : In Thee did they trust, and were not put to shame. (5 But as for me, I am a worm, and no 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. S "Commit thyself to Jehovah ! [said he] Let Him deliver him : Let Him deliver him, seeing He delighteth in him." !) But Thou art He that took me out of the womb ; Thou didst make me trust, when I was upon my mother's breasts. 10 On Thee was I cast from the womb : From my mother's belly Thou art my God. 1 1 Be not far from me, For trouble is near ; For there is none to help. II. Extremity of the Sufferer^ s troahle. 12 Many bulls have compassed me : Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me wath their mouths. As a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 Like water am I poured out. And all my bones are out of joint : My heart is like wax ; It is melted in the midst of my bowels. 1.") Dried up like a potsherd is my strength ; And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; And Thou layest me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have com^Dassed me ; The assembly of evil-doers have enclosed me : Piercing my hands and my feet. 17 I counted all my bones ; They look, they stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them. And upon my vesture they cast lots. 19 But be not Thou far off, O Jehovah : O Thou my succour, haste Thee to help me. 20 Deliver from the sword my soul ; From the power of the dog my darling. 21 Save me from the lion's mouth : And from the horns of the wild oxen — Thou hast answered me. 262 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. III. The blessed results of this great salvation. '22 I will declare Thy name unto my brethren : In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. 2;; " 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 desjoised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted ; Neither hath He hid His face from him ; But when he cried unto Him, He heard." 25 Of Thee cameth my praise in the great congregation : My vows will I pay before them that fear Him. :^6 The meek shall eat and be satisfied ; They shall praise Jehovah that seek Him : Let your heart live for ever. 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto Jehovah ; And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. 28 For Jehovah's is the kingdom ; and He is the ruler over the nations. 29 All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and worshipped before Him : Bow down shall all that are going down to dust, even he that cannot keep his soul alive. :H() a seed shall serve Him ; it shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation [to come]. :^1 They shall come, and declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done it.^ The 3rd Septenary, Pss. xvi.-xxii., has for its subject — The righteous victorious, through the Messiah, over death and every trouble. Psalm xvi. (Faith). As my Gud— my plea is that I put my trust iu Thee, having taken Thee as my sole " good and portion (vers. 2-6), and therefore pray and rejoice in the assurance that Thou wilt preserve me," and " not leave my soul to Sheol, but wilt show me the path of life " (7-11). Psalm xvii. (Righteousness). As my righteous King— my plea is "Hear the right." "Thou hast tried me, and findest nothing" (2-5) ; and mine enemies in proud self-confidence thirst for my blood (10-12). Therefore " I have called upon Thee " to save me " from the wicked " (6-9), " whose portion is in this life," and who " are satisfied with children," and to give me the better portion, to "be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness" (13-15). 1 The rhythm requires this division of the lines. rsALMS xvi.-xxii. 263 Psalm xviii. sums up (as Ps. xxii.) the two preceding Psalms. Past— First half (vers. 1-24), 24 verses. Already in my past experience — as " my God" in whom " I trust " (ver. 2), Thou didst deliver me from " the snares of death " (5) ; and as my righteous Kinrj, " from my strong enemy " (17), " re- warding me according to my righteousness " (20, 24). Central verses, 25, 26. In accordance with Thy rule, as "the Lord God of recompenses." Future— Second half (vers. 27-50), 24 verses. Thus giving the assurance, for the future, of the fulfilment of Thy promises "to David and to his seed for evermore" (50), that as " my God " Thou wilt " lighten my darkness " (28), and prove " a shield unto all them that trust in Thee " (30) ; and as my righteous lung, " deliver me from the strivings of the people, and make me [in my seed] the head of the nations " (43). Central Psalm. Psalm xix. For universal as is the revelation of God's glory in the natural world to all nations, " nothing being hid from the heat" (6) and light of His sun, which circles from one end of heaven to the other, equally universal (the parallel suggests) shall be the all-warming, all-reviving heat and light of God's revelation of Himself in His "law," "rejoicing the heart, enhghtening the eyes" (8), when the "sun of righteousness" shall arise in the spiritual heavens. The victory, however, for man, with all its glorious results, is not to be attained without a deadly conflict, in which the promised " seed " who is to " bruise the head " of man's great foe must encounter innumerable enemies, " nations, peoples, with their kings and rulers," being all combined together " against the Lord's Anointed " (Ps. ii.), like " bulls of Bashan, dogs and lions," besetting him round about tf» " devour hira " (Ps. xxii.). Psalm XX. For our king's jireservation, then, " in the day of trouble " (ver. 1), we offer up our prayers (1-4), in whose "salvation" as ours " we will triumph " (5), and confide in its bestowal by the Lord (6-9). Psalm xxi. And return thanks (in anticipation) for his assured " sal- vation " (1, 5), and the priceless blessing which he is to obtain for himself and us, " life and length of days for ever and ever " (1-6), because his trust is in Jehovah (7), who will put down his every enemy, that His own " power" may be " exalted" (8-13). 204 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Psalm xxii. Extreme, indeed (as revealed in vision to Thy servant), must be the conflict and sufferings of the Lord's Anointed by which this salvation is to be purchased : forsaken by God, scorned by men (vers. 1-10), by merciless enemies " brought into the dust of death," and saved only in the last extremity (12-21), he shall call forth praises unto Jehovah, not only from " the seed of Israel " (22-26), but from " all the ends of the earth," who " shall turn unto the Lord," whose henceforth shall be "the kingdom;" and all, high and low, even those "that are going down to the dust and cannot keep their soul alive," " shall eat" of the feast that he pre- pares for them, generation recounting to generation of the great work that the Lord " hath done " (27-31). Thus far only have I examined the Psahns in sequence so as to be able with any confidence to pronounce on the con- nection as parts of one grand whole.^ What follows is merely conjectural hints for the completion of the order of Book I. The Book begins with Ps. i. pronouncing " Blessed " the man who in regard to himself is righteous, but adding as the necessary complement in Ps. xli. that he must be merciful to others, " Blessed is he that considereth the poor " (ver. 1). Ps. i. is then followed by three heptades^ of Psalms (ii.-xxii.) forming an alphabet of Psalms, and in so far lead- ing to the idea that these 22 Psalms form the first half of Book I. ; but still more decidedly, since Pss. xx.-xxii. form the centre of the Book, there being 19 Psalms on either side of it. Accordingly, omitting Ps. xli. as parallel to Ps. i., I found, counting backward, that it was preceded by a heptade of Psalms (xxxiv.-xl.) having for its centre Ps. xxxvii. This heptade is again preceded by another having for its centre ^ To any student desirous of prosecuting the subject further, I would recommend from my own personal experience to begin with a consecutive series of Psalms, and to study the structural and strophical arrangement of eacli Psalm by itself, until its scope and leading idea have been thoroughly grasped. When this has been caught and expressed in one simple sentence, it will be comparatively easy to discover the connection between the Psalms of the series. ^ The view above given of the arrangement of Pss. ii.-xxii. as forming three heptades, I find to have been also held by Canon Wordsworth in vol. vii. of liis Commentary 07i the Old Testament. Before I had seen this Commentary I had corresponded on the subject with Dr. Kay, who first called my attention to the coincidence. The same view occurring to two minds independently, lends no small weight to the probability of its being correct. PSALM XXIV. 265 Ps. XXX. This left only 4 Psalms more (xxiii.-xxvi.), suggesting that the trilogy, Pss. xx.-xxii., was intended to be twice counted, both as closing the first half and again as (JXJening the second half of Book I. The connection between the tw^o halves to which this leads seems to be as follows. Pss. xx.-xxii., as the closing trilogy of the first half, give the assurance that Messiah shall obtain for all the gift of " Life for evermore " in the fierce conflict he is to undergo with the powers of evil, represented under the figures of " bulls of Bashan," '•' dogs," " lions," " wild oxen " (Ps. xxii.). As the opening trilogy of the second half, they give the com- forting assurance to the believer, that though he too as a defenceless sheep may expect to be persecuted like his lord, the Messiah, yet his final salvation is secure. God Himself is his Shepherd — he shall not want — his soul when fainting shall be restored again — though he walk through the valley of death, he need fear no evil — for he will be brought to " dwell in the house of the Lord for ever " (Ps. xxiii.). This arrangement makes Ps. xxiii. the centre of the first heptade of the second half ; and Pss. xxiv.-xxvi. the second trilogy. The " dwelling in the house of the Lord for evermore " is evidently caught up in Ps. xxiv., where now for the first time the Lord hath taken up His permanent abode, having placed His ark in Zion, which He has chosen for His " resting-place for ever " (Ps. cxxxii. 14), and made a secure dwelling place for His people, for He has taken up His own abode in it as " the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle " (Ps. xxiv. 8). Ps. xxiv., since it ends with Selah (= Pause), is thus marked as closely connected with Ps. xxv. The chief subject of Ps. xxiv. is " who shall [be permitted to] ascend into the Hill of the Lord ? " and the principal condition, as regards God, is, he " who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity," that is, to idolatry or whatever opposes God. There is still evidently considerable hesitation as to the right interpretation of the second hemistich of ver. 6 in Ps. xxiv. The Old Testament Pievisers supply the words inserted 2G6 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ill brackets, " That seek thy face, [0 God of] Jacob," ^ for which the sole authority in the Hebrew text, as stated by Kennicott, is that of two MSS. ; and they relegate to the margin what seems the only admissible interpretation of the words as they stand, " even Jacob " — or better, perhaps, com- pleting the one hemistich from the other according to the principles of parallelism — This is the generation of them that seek after Him ; They that seek Thy face — these are Jacob. The objection manifestly which has prejudiced so many com- mentators against the acceptance of the simple interpretation of the words is the presumption that, if the intention of the Psalmist had been to designate the spiritual character of the true servants of Jehovah, the word which he would have chosen for the purpose would have been " Israel," the new name which the patriarch obtained when " he strove with God and prevailed," and not " Jacob " (the supplanter), suggesting the crafty, self-seeking character of the deceiver and supplanter of his brother. The appropriate term of the two to denote the spiritual character of God's people is that selected by St. Paul, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel" (Eom. ix. 6). Unless, therefore, it can be shown that in the passage before us there was a peculiar propriety in using the appellation " Jacob," and which rendered unsuitable the employment of " Israel," the doubt will still remain which has influenced so many eminent critics (Ewald, Hupfeld, Olshausen, Bottcher, Perowne) to question the correctness of the textual reading. The solution of the difficulty will, we believe, be found by adverting to two expressions in the Psalm which point to the occasion in Jacob's life to which the Psalmist means particu- larly to direct attention. These are : " They that seek thy face " (ver. 6), and " he shall receive a Uessing from the Lord " (ver. 5). The reference is to that critical point in Jacob's history when, in his dread of his brother Esau's resentment, he sought the face or favour of his God and found it ; and in answer to his persevering wrestling with his ^ The rendering of the Authorized Version, it must be granted, was meaning- less. PSALM XXIV. 6. . 2G7 mysterious adversary, and importunate prayer, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me " — " he received the Ucssinrj from the Lord." In remembrance of the memorable scene, Jacob " called the name of the place Peniel," i.e. " the face of God ;" for, said he, " I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. xxxii, 24-30). Jacob's first thought on that eventful night, in his terror at the approaching meeting with his brother, was to seek the fiice of man, the favour of his brother Esau : " I will appease liim [Heb. his face] with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face ; peradventure he will accept me [Heb. lift up my /ace]" (ver. 20). Better thoughts, however, soon prevailed. Instead of resting his hopes of safety in seeking to propitiate the face of man, he sought a higher face or presence, and all that night " there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day," whom Jacob would not let go until he should bless him. His name, accordingly, was changed from Jacob (the " supplanter " of his fellow-man) to Israel (striver with God), " for thou hast striven with God and M-ith men, and hast prevailed." After receivnig his new name, we read that Jacob asked his mysterious opponent, " Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name ? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [the face of God] ; for," said he, " I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." So full was Jacob's mind of the happy result of his wrestling with his visitant of the night, and being permitted to see his face turned propitiously towards him, that next day, after his amicable meeting with his brother, he pressed him to accept of his present, which Esau had at first refused, because, as Jacob told him, he recognised in his friendly reception of him the full accomplishment of the promise and blessing pronounced upon him on the preceding night, and his restoration to God's favour, and saw not so much his brother's face rendered pro- pitious to him, as the face of his God. " Eeceive my present, forasmuch as I have seen thy/«ec, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me " (xxxiii. 1 0). 268 STU-DIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The remarkable reiteration of the word "face" iu the record of this most momentous crisis in the life of the Israelites' fore- father Jacob, when he received the blessing with his new name from God's representative angel, and in commemoration called the name of the place " the face of God " (Peniel), could not but be recalled to the mind of every Hebrew by the allusion in the Psalm to " seeking GocVs face^' when coupled with the name of " Jacob," and " receiving a blessing ; " and the lesson designed by the Psalmist would at once be apprehended, that if they in their difficulties sought the face of the Lord, they would in like manner receive a blessing from the Lord, and would vindicate their title to the honoured name of Jacob. The encouragement to follow the example of their forefather lay especially in this, that it was as Jacob, and before he had received the name of Israel, that their progenitor was blessed. Whoever therefore sought the face of the Lord, even though he had not yet found Him, was assured that, like Jacob, he would receive the Lord's blessing, however great might have been his previous shortcomings, if he wrestled for it with his whole might, and with like resolve not to let Him go until He blessed him. Jacoh therefore, not Israel, is the proper word in this connection. In memory of the remarkable adventure of that night Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, the face of God. He had sought God's face and found it ; and now the Psalmist encourages all, however unworthy heretofore, to seek, like Jacob, God's face, that they may, like him, " receive a bless- ing from the Lord," and gain a right to the new and higher name of Israel, that they might have, as princes, power with God and man, and prevail. A few remarks in conclusion may not be out of place as to the division of the Psalm, which I regard as furnishing one of the most distinct examples of Psalms sung by responsive choirs, though the existence of such is denied by several commentators. The Psalm, I consider, was divided into seven parts, sung by seven choirs or voices, the fourth or central one being the verse on which we have been commenting, as denoting the character of those who would be acceptable worshippers, and privileged to approach the presence of the great and holy God, who was PSALM XXIV. 2G9 now about to take up His abode in Zion. The division of the Psalm, according to this view, will be as follows : — PSALM XXIY. A PSALM OF DAVID. C!hoir I. 1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fuhiess thereof ; The world, and they that dwell therein : 2 For He hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods. Choir II. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord 'i And M-ho shall stand in His holy place ? Choir III. 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, And hath not sworn deceitfully. 5 He shaU receive a blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. - Choir IY. Hiy/i Priests, Zadok and Abiathar, with perhaps David himself. (i This is the generation of them that seek after him ; THEY that seek THY FACE — THESE ARE JACOB. Choir V. Priests and Levites ^cithout, bearing the Ark. 7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; And the King of glory shall come in. Choir VI. Priests icithin. 8 WHio is the King of glory ? Choir VII. The whole Assembly/. The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Repetition by the last three Choirs. 270 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Choir V. 9 Lift up yoiu- heads, ye gates ; Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; And the King of glory shall come in. Choir VI. 10 Who is this King of glory l Choir VII. The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. The occasion on which the Psahn was composed was, as most commentators are agreed, tlie bringing up of the ark of God by David to Mount Zion. When all the tribes had com- bined in tendering their allegiance to David, and "anointed him king over all Israel," " he and his men went to Jeru- salem, and took the stronghold of Zion " (2 Sam. v. 6, 7), which up to that period had been in possession of the Jebus- ites, the former inhabitants of the land. David's first care was to render the city impregnable by strong walls and forti- fications against any future attempts of the enemy to retake it, so that it might form a secure and permanent residence for his royal descendants. Like Jacob, however (as we have seen by tracing the thought of ver. 6 to the original passage to which it alludes), David was not content with looking for protection to what man could do, but sought to have access to the " face of God," to which he could resort in every hour of trouble, that he might " receive a blessing from the Lord, and right- eousness from the God of his salvation." He was still sur- rounded by numerous and powerful enemies, whose opposition atid power must be brought into submission to Israel and their king, if they were to accomplish the high mission to which, on their first calling as a people, they were appointed — to be a "kingdom of priests unto the Lord" — to bring all into subjection and obedience to His rule and service, and to fulfil their destiny as the seed of Abraham, in wliom " all tlie nations of the earth were to be blessed." These, we believe, were the reflections which dictated the words of the Psalm before us, in which David begins and ends PSALM XXIY. 271 with directing the thoughts of liis people to the universality of the power and dominion of Jehovah as the Creator and Upholder of " the world and those that dwell therein " (ver. 1), and as " the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," " the Lord of [the heavenly] hosts, the King of glory " (vers. 8 and 10); and who is therefore able to endow His ])eople with all might to fulfil the high destiny which He has designed for them. But in subserviency to the almighty aid they were to look to from Him who was now about to take up His abode in their midst, David reminds them in the intermediate stanzas of the dispositions required on their part, that they must strive to correspond to the holy title which their great leader Moses had given them, — of " Jeshurun," the righteous people, — or, if they had not yet proved their right to this honourable name, at least, like their forefather Jacob, to be " seeking the face of God," that they might " receive a Ijlessing from the Lord, and righkousness from the God of their salvation." Accordingly the first choir begins (vers. 1, 2) with ascribing the possession and stability of the earth and all that is therein to the Lord. This immediately raises the all-important ques- tion proposed by the second choir, " Who shall be permitted, as acceptable w^orshippers, to appear before this great and mighty ( Tod ? " (ver. 3), to which the third choir in vers. 4, 5 replies, that those only who in deed, heart, and word sincerely and earnestly strive to bring themselves into living communion with God can look for His blessing. These, or at least such as are scehing after God — seeking the FACE of Gocl, the fourth and central voice, proceeding, we may suppose, from the high priests Zadok and Abiathar (and perhaps David), pronounces authoritatively, are those alone who possess the character indispensable by every true wor- shipper. By this time the procession has reached the gates of the city of Zion, within which David had prepared and conse- crated a tabernacle for its reception. A fifth choir of priests and Levites, probably bearing the ark, now addresses a summons to the gates to lift up their heads for the admission of the 272 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. King of glory (ver. 7). The challenge immediately follows Irom the guardians of the sanctuary within, " Who is the King of glory ? " to which the response is returned in one universal acclaim by the whole attendant multitude — " The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And now the programme, so far as the more public cere- monial and the chanting of the hymn by seven separate choirs were concerned, was completed. Yet once more, before the more select company were admitted within the gates of Zion, in order to form an impressive close to the public ceremonial of the day, the summons, the challenge, and the response are repeated by the last three choirs in vers. 9, 10, with scarce any change but a slight variation in the response to the challenge. The symmetry of the whole arrangement, and particularly the striking parallelism which it brings out between the first three and the last three choirs, in each of which a question holds the central place, and is followed by the reply in the third member, speak strongly for the unity of the Psalm. Ewald, however, followed by Mr. Cheyne, maintains that it is made up of two Psalms, or fragments of Psalms, originally unconnected. Ewald's argument for the disjunction is that in vers. 1-G Zipn is already the established " holy place " of the Lord, whereas in vers. 7—10 it is to become such only when it receives into it the ark of the Lord. The conclusion seems based on a very insufficient foundation. Even supposing the Psalm to have been composed in view of David's first attempt to bring the ark of God to Zion, when we consider how careful David was to ascertain the mind of the Lord before taking any important step in life (cf. 1 Sam. xxiii, 9-12, XXX. 8; 2 Sam. ii. 1, v. 19, 23), and that he must have satisfied himself that his purpose was in accordance with God's will,i he would seem to have been fully warranted in applying ^ This, indeed, David's words in summoning together "all the congregation of Israel, with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and the priests and Levites," would seem to imply : " If it seem good unto you, and if it be of the Lord our God, let us again bring the ark of our God unto us" (1 Chron. xiii. 2, 3). PSALM XXIV. 273 the epithets (though by auticipation) " the hill of tlie Lord " and " His liohj place " to jMount Zion and the tabernacle, which were about to be hallowed by the abiding presence of the Lord. But much more when David saw, from the blessings showered upon " the house of Obed-edom and all that he had," in consequence of the residence of the ark in his house, that his sin and error lay, not in the desire to have the presence of the ark, but in the neglect, on the part of himself and the Levites, of the injunctions of God's law, and of the holy rever- ence required of all who approached the symbol of the Lord's presence, the propriety became apparent — nay, the imperative duty — to stamp a sacred character by these epithets on tlie place which was so soon to be honoured by the Lord making it " His habitation and resting-place for ever " (Ps. cxxxii. 1:3, 14), and to impress on all the holy awe and sanctity with which it was to be regarded and approached. But further, we claim David's own authority for our con- tention. We hold, with Delitzsch and others, that Ps. ci. was written by David in the interval between his first unsuccess- ful attempt to bring the ark of God home to Mount Zion and its final accomplishment. On the disastrous failure of his lirst attempt, awed by the sudden death of Uzzah, he exclaimed : " How shall the ark of the Lord come unto me [the unholy one] ? " The same ardent desire finds its echo in Ps. ci. 2, " Oh, when wilt Thou come unto me ? " — and while he forms the determined resolve to " walk with a perfect heart within his house," and to favour only " the faithful," and discounten- ance " all the wicked of the land," he holds so fast the assur- ance that the Lord will not refuse him the blessing of His presence for which he longs, but will grant it in His own due time, that he does not scruple to call his city Zion, " the city of the Lord," as if already He had taken up His abode in it : " Morning by morning will I destroy all the wicked of the land ; to cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord " (Ps. ci. 8). It was gratifying to find, after I had completed the above arrangement, the strong confirmation of the correctness of my s 274 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS. idea of the sevenfold division of the Psalm, by finding in Josephus, Antiq. vii. 4. 2, " David transferred the ark to him- self, the priests carrying it, while seven choirs of singers, who were set in order by the king, took the lead " ^ in the cere- monial of the day. As we have already said, the principal condition, according to Ps. xxiv., required of him who wonld " ascend into the Hill of the Lord," is that he " hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity." To this evidently corresponds the claim on David's part in Ps. xxv., " Unto Thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul." True, at times he forgot this, and impatiently asked, " Where now are Thy ways of mercy ^ and truth ? " Accordingly, though occasionally he forgot it, David in Ps. XX vi. — the last Psalm of the trilogy — appeals to God that habitually " Thy mercy is before mine eyes, and I have M^alked in Thy Truth " (ver. 3). The next heptade (Pss. xxvii.-xxxiii.) removes the believer's fears of his weakness, showing that all strength comes from the Lord. In its first trilogy we find tlie assurance, " The Lord is the strength of my life " (Ps. xxvii. 1), "Wait on the Lord; be strong" (ver. 14); "The Lord is my strength" (Ps. xxviii. 7) ; " The Lord is their strength " (ver. 8). In Ps. xxix. the irresistible power of God is presented in the most appalling and awe-inspiring form exhibited in nature, when the voice of the Lord bursts forth in a storm of thunder and lightning, causing the very mountains to tremble, and " stripping bare the forests " (ver. 9). Ps. xxx., the central Psalm of the heptade, shows how David had for- gotten this, " I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved " (ver. 6) ; but the Lord quickly reminded him of his error, " Thou, Lord, of Thg favour, madest my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face ; I was troubled " (vers. 7, 8). P)ut there is a worse cause of failure of strength than man's natural infirmity, which appears in the last trilogy of this heptade (Pss. xxxi.-xxxiii.), viz. sin. " My strength faileth because of mine inicfiiity, and my bones ^ See Remarks on Ps. xxv., pp. 68-71. CONCLUDING PSALMS OF BOOK L AND PSS. XLIL, XLIIL 2 To are wasted away" (Ps. xxxi. 11). How can this be met? By looking to " the marvellous loving-kindness of the Lord " (ver. 22); " Be strong ... all ye that wait for the Lord " (ver. 25). "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven . . . Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile " (Ps. xxxii. 1; 2), because he hath made a free and unreserved confession of his sin, " I acknowledged my sin unto Thee . . . and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin " (ver. 5). Therefore, " Be ye not as the horse or mule," obstinate, which must be compelled, " else they will not come near unto thee " (ver. 9). The " righteous " (ver. 4) are not those who have never sinned, but " he that trusteth in the Lord " for forgiveness. "Mercy shall compass him about" (ver. 10). "liejoice [then] in the Lord, ye righteous" (ver. 11, and Ps. xxxiii. 1). " Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy : to deliver their soul from death" (Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19). The heptade, Pss. xxxiv.-xL, meets that severe trial which arises from the triumph of the wicked over the righteous by sliowing that it is only temporary, its central Psalm being Ps. xxxvii. To wliat I have already written, I venture to add this concluding remark on the connection between the two opening I'salms of the 2nd Book, Pss. xlii. and xliii. Our modern critics have confidently asserted that these form one Psalm. Xow, if this be so, we cannot but be astonished at the obtuseness of the ancient Israelite critics in not seeing it. But is it so ? We think not. For it is not possible that the unity of the two, which seems so palpable to the modern critics, could have existed without being at least remarked on by the ancient Eabbins. Unity of form by no means proves unity of authorship. Besides this, by merging these two Psalms into one, you destroy the beautiful heptade (Pss. xlii.— xlviii.) which converges round Ps. xlv. as its centre, and also reduce the number of the Psalms below 150, which even the LXX. had been careful to preserve, to the meaning- less number 149. 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