'¦I gLoe ike/e Stiah fpr iAefoUimting of u. College in, tht$ CeloAy" Cift of Constance Grosvenor Alexander 1017 Shortly will he published in One 'Volume, Bvo, THE GREEK LITURGY OF ST JAMES, EDITED WITH AN ENGLISH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES; TOaETHEK WITH A LATIN YEESION OF THE SYRIAC COPY THE GREEK TEXT RESTORED TO ITS ORIGINAL PURITY AND ACCOMPANIED BY A LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. BY THE REV. y^. TROLL OPE, M. A. PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 38 Geoege Street, Sepicmher 1818, It is earnestly requested that all the Subscribers in arrear will remit without delay ; and as all the volumes for 1848 are now delivered, it is also requested that the subscriptions for 1849 may be forwarded. Two volumes will be ready about the end of this year. CLARK'S FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBEAEY. VOLUME XII, HENGSTENBEEG'S COMMENTABY ON THE PSALMS. EDINBUEGH : T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET; LONDON : SEELEY & CO. ; WAED & CO. ; JACKSON & 'WALrORD, i^C. DUBLIN : JOHN ROBEKTSON. NE-VV YORK : -WILEY & PUTNAM. — BOSTON ; CROCKER & BREWSTER. PHILADELPHIA ; J. W. MOORE. MDCCCXLYIII. COMMENTABY THE PSALMS, E. W. HENGSTENBERG, EE. AKD PEOEESSOE OF THEOLOGY IN BEELIN. VOL. III. TRANSLATED BY THE EEV, JOHN THOMSON, LEITH, AND mV. PATEIOK FAIRBAIRN, SALTON. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 88 GEORGE STREET. LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND 00. ; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. SEELEY AND CO. ; -WARD AND 00. ; JACKSON AND WALTORD, &C. DUBLIN ¦ JOHN ROBERTSON. MDCCCXLVIlI. PRINTED ET K'COSH, PARK. & DEWARS, DUNDEE. ^\tK40o ADVERTISEMENT. The present Volume of the Foreign Theological Library has been enlarged considerably beyond the regular size, in order to comprize the whole of the remainder of Hengstenberg on the Psalms. Of the portion contained in this volume, it may be proper to state that the translation, as far as the close of Psalm cxxvi., is by Mr Thomson, the remainder by Mr Fairbairn. The Treatises at the close have a separate paging, from its having been found convenient to print that part of the translation before the rest could be got ready for the press. By some accident the short general introduction to the group of Psalms, cxxxy.-ckIvI., was omitted at its proper place between Ps. cxxxiv. and cxxxv. ; and it has been inserted at the close of the group, at p. 546. The translators have not thought it necessary to append any notes or explanations of their own, with the exception of a brief statement at the close of the Treatises, for which the translator of that portion is alone responsible. errata. Iu Ps. cxx., p. 4ia ; Ps. cxxi., p, 411-!; Ps. cxxii., p. 426; Ps, cxxiii., p. 4.S2, /"or Pilgrims read Pilgrimages. the BOOK OF PSALMS. PSALM LXXIX. The main division of the Psalm contains twelve verses. These are divided, as is frequently the case, iilto three strophes, each consisting of four verses, Ver. 1-4 contains the representation of the misery : — the land of the Lord has been taken possession of by the heathen, the temple desecrated, Jerusalem laid in ruins, the servants of God have been put to death, the people of God become the objects of contempt to their neighbours. The second and third strophes contain the prayer. The conclusion, ver. 13, containing the result of the whole, gives expression to confi dence. The Psalm stands nearly related to the Ixxiv. ; the situation is the same, and they come a good deal in contact as regards the expression. Both Psalms refer to the Chaldean invasion. The Psalm before us proceeds on the supposition that the seventy- fourth had been previously composed, and supplements it. In the seventy-fourth Psalm the destruction of the sanctuary is pre-eminently and almost exclusively brought forward ; but in the seventy-ninth it is referred to very briefly, for the purpose of indicating the passages which connect the two Psalms, and other subjects are put in the foreground. There is no good reason for the assertion which has been made, that the Psalm before us must have been composed previously to the seventy- fourth, as the Temple is there spoken of as entirely destroyed, A 2 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. whereas it is only its desecration that is spoken of here. The desecration does not exclude its destruction ; the destruction is one of the forms of its desecration. Had the Psalmist design ed, in allusion to the seventy-fourth, to speak of the sanctuary in one single expression, he could not possibly have found a stronger term than this : the most dreadful thing that can befal the sanctuary is that it be desecrated. In saying this every thing that can be afiirmed of it is said. Several expositors, both ancient and modern, refer the Psalm to the time of flie Maccabees. But there are quite decisive grounds against this view. First, from the close resemblance to Ps. Ixxiv., the arguments which were there adverted to are of equal force here. There are no traces here of any reference to the special relations of the times of the Maccabees. And there are two circumstances which are not suitable to those times : the laying of Jerusalem in ruins, ver. 1, and the mention of nations and kingdoms in ver. 6 (comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 2), whereas in the time of the Maccabees Judah had to do only with a single king dom.'^ There are also two weighty external reasons. Jeremiah was acquainted with the Psalm, and made use of it (comp. at ver. 6), and in 1 Mace. vii. 16 and 17 it is quoted as forming at that time a portion of the sacred volume.* It is thus not neces sary here to avail ourselves of the general reasons which may be urged against the existence of Maccabean PsaJms." The title, " a Psalm of Asaph," is confirmed by the fact that the Psalm stands closely related to a whole class of Psalms which bear in their titles the name of Asaph. Those critics who re- a The remark of Venema renders it evident that even verses 2 and 3 will not suit the times of the Maccabees; "that the expressions, tJiey delivered the servants of God to birds and wild heasts, and there was notie to bury them, are to be taken in a, restricted sense, as used only of some, and in reference to the attempts and intentions of the enemies." b KaTa TOV \6yov ov 'iypa-^v crapKa^ butuiv k. t. X. The Syrian translation : " ac cording to the word which the propliet has written." This is the usual way of quoting Scripture : comp. Harless on Eph. iv. 8. Hitzig translates falsely : according to the words which a certain one wrote. The obscure productions of unknown authors are never quoted in this way. The fact that the author omits, in the passage from the Psalm, what does not suit his purpose, renders it evident that the Psalm was not com posed for the occasion there referred to ; comp. J. D. Michaelis. c Amyrald. ; besides it cannot be doubted that there were prophets at the time- of Ne- buchad. who were able to compose such poems ; whereas in the age of Antiochus there were none, at least none whose writings have reached posterity. PSALM LXXIX. VER. 1 — 8. 3 ject the titles are unable to explain this similarity admitted by themselves, which obtains among all the Asaphic Psalms, even among those which were composed at different eras. If we fol low the title the reason of this is clear as day. The descendants of Asaph looked upon themselves as the instruments by which the Asaph of David's time, their illustrious ancestor, continued to speak, and therefore they very naturally followed as closely in his footsteps as possible : the later descendants, moreover, would always have the compositions of their more early ancestors before their minds. The unity of the persons named in the titles is connected with the unity of character by which all these Psalms are pervaded. Any one who composed at his own hand, and did not look at his ancestor or the early or contemporaneous instru ments of that ancestor, could not have adopted it. Ver. 1-4. — Ver, 1. 0 God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance, they have polluted thy holy temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. Ver. 2. They have given the bodies of thy servants for food to the fowls of heaven, the fiesh of thy saints to the wild beasts of the earth. Ver. 3. They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusa lem, and there was no one to bury. Ver. 4. We have become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them' that are round about us. — On ver. 1, Calvin : " The Psalmist says, the order of nature is, as it were, inverted ; the heathen have come into the inheritance of God." - Berleb. : " Faith utters a similar complaint in its struggles : the heathen have made an inroad into my heart as thy inheritance." The pollution of the temple by the heathen presupposes its previous pollution by the Israelites : comp. Ex. v. 11, xxiii. 38. Ps. Ixxiv. 7, is parallel. On "ifi>i)-j in ver. 2, comp. at Ps. 1. 10. That the vij^ is to be understood of the earth and not of the land is obvious from the term in contrast heaven. — The expression, " and there was none to bury," points to a great and general desolation, such as did not exist at any other period except during the Chaldean inva sion. — Ver. 4 is from Ps. xliv. 13. Ver. 5-8. — Ver. 5. Hoiv long, 0 Lord, wilt thou he angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire! Ver. 6. Pour out thy floods of wrath upon the heathen who know thee not, and up on the kingdoms which do not call upon thy name. Ver. 7. A 2 4 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. For he devours Jacob, and they lay luaste his pasture. Ver. 8. Remember not against us the iniquities of our ancestors, make haste to surprise -us with thy tender mercies, for we have become very much reduced. — On " how long .... for ever," in ver. 5, comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 9 ; xiii. 1. On the second clause, Deut. xxix. 19. Ex. XX. 5.a — In ver. 6, the heathen and the kingdoms are not at all the heathen nations generally, but those who had risen up against Israel. The prayer rests upon what God does constantly. Judgment begins at the house of God, but it pro ceeds thence to those whom God has employed as the instruments of his punishment ; the storm of the wrath of God always re mains to fall at last upon the world at enmity with his church ; comp. Deut. xxxii. Ez. xxxviii. 39.*^ — The sing. ^^^ in ver. 7 denotes the one soul which animates the many membered body of the enemies of the church of God. All the nations and king doms referred to in ver. 6 served the king of Babylon. It is better to take •^•^ in the sense of pasture than of habitation : comp. the j-iij^-^j^ in ver. 13 : they eat up Israel, the poor flock, and lay waste his pasture, his land. Ver. 6 and 7 are repeated almost word for word in Jer. x. 25. It has been alleged in favour of Jeremiah being the original author, that the prophecy was uttered before the destruction. But this reason is of no weight. The prophecy, which designedly bears no particular date, was, at least in its present form, written after the destruc tion ; it contains much moreover which represents the destruc tion as an event which had already taken place, while other por tions of it again refer to it as still future, (a peculiarity which admits of explanation from the circumstance that the prophet is here giving a summary view and the substance of what had been spoken at different times) ; ver. 25 itself takes for granted that the heathen had already devoured Israel and laid waste his pas turage. On the other hand, and in favour of ihe priority of the Psalm before us, it may be urged that in all such cases there is "» Ven. : The Interrogative form conveys an insinuation that God ought not to de stroy utterly the whole people, as there remain among them so many pious, to be chas tised and purified (Dan. xi. 35), but not to.be desti-oyed. b Arnd : " The difference is this : God's wrath will burn for ever against unbelievers • with believers, however, when they deserve punishment Ms wrath burns fiercely indeed but not eternally, — he visits them with the rod and chastisement for a short while and with a view to then- improvement." PSALjM LXXIX. VER. 5 — 8. 5 a presumption in favour of Jeremiah borrowing — it being his usual manner to do so ; that in this chapter there are manifestly references to other Psalms, the preceding verse being borrowed from Ps. vi. 1, (comp. Kiiper p. 159) ; that in Jeremiah the words occur without any connection whatever, while in the Psalm before us the prayer that the Lord would pour out the flood of his wrath upon the heathen, is appended without anything inter vening to the complaint that his zeal is burning like fire against Israel — {he " pour out" refers back to " they have poured out," in ver. 3, (Mich, propter, sanguinem tuorum copiose effusum ef- funde, see Ps. Ixix. 24), — comp. ver. 10 ; that the diflcult singu lar ^'2'i^ is changed into the plural ; and finally, that the passage is expanded exactly in the style of Jeremiah in quotings passages, who can leave nothing short and round, — and they have eaten him and consumed him. — Qi^t^'i^'^ in '^^^- 8, where it stands alone, sig nifies nothing else than ancestors, not antiquity. The reference to Lev. xxvi. 45, which it is impossible not to observe, is altogether against the exposition, the former sins : " and I remember to them the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the heathen, that I might be their God," — God does not remember the sins of their ancestors, but according to his own promise, the covenant which he made with them. Comp. also Lev. xxvi. 39, where instead of " ances-" tors" we have " fathers :" they desired that they may not be treated according to this verse, but according to the 45th of this chapter, or rather, that after they had experienced the treatment referred to in the 39th verse, they might now also enjoy the 45th, comp. Lam. v. 7. The guilty fathers do not at all stand in op position to the innocent children. It is the uniform doctrine of scripture that no one is punished unless he be personally guilty, and that it is only in the ungodly children that the sin of the fathers which is represented as increased in them that is punish ed : comp. the Beitr. iii. p. 544 ss. The mention of the sins of . the fathers, so far from exculpating, indicates the depth and the magnitude of the guilt. Calvin : " They acknowledge an obstin- ancy of long standing, in which they have hardened themselves against God. And this acknowledgment corresponds to tW prophetic punishments. For sacred history testifies that the punishment of the captivity was postponed till God had experi- 6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. enced that their wickedness was incurable :" comp. Is. Ixv. 7. On Q-^p to surprise, comp. at Ps. xxi. 4. Ver. 9-12.— Ver. 9. Help us, 0 God, our Salvation, for thy name's glory's sake ; and deliver us and pardon our sins for thy name's sake. Ver. 10. Why should the heathen say, Where is their God ? May the vengeance, of the blood of thy servants which they have shed become known to the heathen before our eyes. Ver. 11. May the sighing of those who are hound come before thee. According to the greatness of thine arm preserve the dying. Ver 12. And recompense to our neighbours seven fold into their bosom their reproach wherewith they have re proached thee, 0 Lord. — In the 9th verse the church implores the Lord to redeem that pledge of similar future deeds, which she got in his early dealings. The name, and the honour of the name, i. e., his glory (comp. at Ps. xxix. 1, 2), are in reality the same : — for the sake of thy historically manifested glory (comp. at Ps. xxiii. 3), for the purpose of now verifying this in sight of the blaspheming enemies, and to their terror. — The first half of the 10th verse is word for word from Jo. ii. l7, and this passage again rests on Ex. xxxii. 12. Num. xiv. 13 ss. Deut. ix. 28. On comparing these passages, especially the one last quoted, it be comes obvious, that " Where is their God ?" signifies, " Where is his far-famed love towards his people 1 and where is his omnipo tence V The ground is not one of a mere external character : — the heathen would have had good reason to speak thus, and therefore God must not give them any occasion to do so ; he must make known his omnipotence, and his love, in delivering his people ; they cannot be for ever given over to misery : comp. the Christology iii. p. 657, &c. In the second clause, the ^*\^ is written without the Vau : comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 11. " Before our eyes," is from Deut. vi. 22. " The vengeance of the blood of thy servants" points back to " He will avenge the blood of his ser vants," in the conclusion of tlie Song of Moses, in Deut. xxxii. 43. — In ver. 11, the whole people appears under the emblem of a •prisoner. At the first clause we ought to add : as it once did in Egypt, Ex. ii. 23 — 25. The people of God have the privilege, in every trouble, of looking to the early deliverances as pledges of those yet to come ; and hence they possess a sure ground of con fidence. The world, when it prays, prays only as an experiment. PSALM LXXX. 7 having, no connection whatever with history. On " according to the greatness of thine arm," comp. Num. xiv. 19. Deut. iii. 24. Inward greatness is meant, energy. The nni'On i^ ^ ^°'"^ formed from the third fem. fut. (comp. in Balaam p. 120, &c.), very probably by the Psalmist himself Hence it cannot mean " death," but only " that which dies," " the dying." The sons of the dying are those who belong to him as a personified race, and thus the dying themselves, just like " the sons of the needy" in Ps. Ixxii. 4. — On " in their lap," ver. 12, comp. Is. Ixv. 6-7. Jer. xxxii. 18. Luke vi. 38. Their reproach, inasmuch as they say, Where is their God ? ver. 10. Ver. 13. And tve are thy people and sheep of thy pasture, therefore we shall praise thee for ever, recount thy praise through all generations. The verse is expressive of confidence : " we shall praise thee" being equivalent to " thou shalt give us occasion to do so;" comp. Ps. xliv. 8. In reference to "the sheep of thy pasture," comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 1. PSALM LXXX. The Psalmist prays for help on behalf of the oppressed church, particularly on behalf of Joseph and Benjamin, ver. 1-3, and describes, in mournful language, their oppression in ver. 4-7. In ver. 8-13, Israel appears under the image of a vine tree, which at first is carefully attended to, and had spread forth luxu riantly, but now had become altogether destroyed. In ver. 14- 19, the Psalmist prays that God would again take this vine tree under his gracious protection. Ver. 1-7 are evidently to be considered as an Introduction ; and the individual character of the Psalm is to be found in the figure of the vine tree. The formal arrangement is obvious, — so obvious, that light is thrown from this Psalm upon others, where otherwise there would have been ground for uncertainty ; and even from this Psalm alone, the significance of the numbers in the arrangement of the Psalms is placed beyond a doubt. The whole, inclusive of the significant title, contains twenty verses, two decades. The introduction con tains seven, and the main division twelve,— the numbers of the 8 THE BOOK OF fSALMS. covenant, and of the covenant people. The seven is divided into three and four, the preliminary complaint and the preliminary petition ; the twelve is divided into six and six, the expanded ' complaint, which comes in immediately after the preliminary one, and the expanded prayer, the first and the last verses of which are the same. The fundamental tone of the whole Psalm is given in the words : " 0 God, lead us back, and cause thy face to shine, and us to be delivered." These words occur three times, like the Mosaic bles sing to -which they allude, for the purpose of making a deeper impression upon the mind,* at the end of the first and of the se cond part of the Introduction, ver. 3 and 7, and at the end of the main division and of the whole, ver. 19 : the names of God in these same verses are arranged in an ascending series, — God, ver. 3 ; God of Hosts, ver. 7 ; Jehovah, God of Hosts, ver. 19. They are wanting at the end of the first part of the main division, because it is bound together by the unity of the figure of the vine tree : the twelve also is not so decidedly divided by the six, which is destitute of any meaning of its own, as is the seven by the three and the four. The beginning, moreover, of the second half of the main division is externally indicated by the address, " 0 God of Hosts," ver. 14, just as the beginning of the second part of the Introduction by the address, "Jehovah, God of Hosts," ver. 4, indicating the termination prescribed for the refrain, to which it had to advance by degrees. The Psalm is a remarkable testimony on behalf of the catholic spirit by which the true church of God has been always pervaded — an illustration of the apostolic saying, " when one member suf fers, all the members suffer along with it." Like the seventy- seventh Psalm, to which it is closely allied, it gives adequate ex pression to the painful feelings awakened in Judah's mind by the captivity of the ten tribes ; comp. the three times repeated " lead us back," ver. 3, 7, 19. The Septuagint have already with ac curacy written : inrep Tov-'Aaa-vplov. For it is incontrovertibly evident, from reasons which never would have been overlooked, had it not been for the perverse disposition to assign to the Psalms a Calvin : God did not design to dictate a vain repetition of words to his people ; but this support is frequently held out to them, when oppressed with evils, in order that nevertheless they may courageously arise. PSALM LXXX. 9 the latest possible date, that we cannot refer the Psalm with se veral interpreters, to the Chaldean invasion, nor yet, with others, to the times of the Maccabees, nor indeed to any suffering which befel Judah. 1. The vine tree appears as destroyed to a consi derable extent, and even as deprived partly of its branches, but still it is standing in the holy land : the people of the Lord ap pear, as is evident from the thrice-re,peated prayer, lead us back, partly as led away ; and yet they are also in possession of their own land, as is manifest from the title, " to the Chief Musician," which is wanting in Ps. lxs;iv. and Ixxix., and which marks out this Psalm as designed for a public service in the temple. By this the reference to the Chaldean destruction is wholly excluded. 2. In the very first verse, God is addressed by the title : he who leads Joseph like a flock. The idea is altogether untenable that Joseph, who appears always as the leader of the ten tribes, and who is spoken of, in Ps. Ixxviii. 67, in opposition to Judah, is here used for the whole of Israel, or for Judah, in whom Israel at the time existed. Even in Obed. ver. 18, the house of Joseph denotes the ten tribes (comp. Caspari), and, in like manner, in Amos vi. 6, Joseph is used only of the ten tribes ; comp. Ch. B. Michaelis. 3. In ver. 2, the tribes on whose behalf the help of God is supplicated are Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Every thing here depends upon determining whether, in the divi sion of the state into two kingdoms, the Benjamites adhered to Judah or to Joseph. The general view is in favour of the first. (Comp. for example Winer in his die, Gesenius in his Thesau rus.) It is, however, involved here in inextricable difficulties ; as if Benjamin belonged to the kingdom of Judah, and this Psalm refers to the misery of the whole people, there can be no reason assigned why Benjamin is named here, and not Judah. We, on the other hand, maintain that, with the exception of Jerusalem, which lay close on the boundaries of Judah, by whom it was con quered, and by whom, in common with Benjamin, it was inhabited (comp. Eaumer, p. 334), and of that portion of its environs which lay on the side of Benjamin, the declivity, namely, slanting clown, from the upper city, Benjamin adhered to Joseph. The presump tions are all in favour of this view. Benjamin and Joseph were bound together by ties of an ancient character. They were both the darling sons of beloved Eachel (Gen. xliv. 27-29), and were 10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. united to each other in the tenderest affection. Gen. xliii. 29 — 30-34. In travelling through the wilderness we find them as here united to each other ; comp. Num. ii. 17, &c., x. 21-24. It is clear, from 2 Sam. xix..21, that the bond of union between Joseph and Benjamin was very close even in David's time : in this passage Simei says that he comes first of the whole house of Joseph. Further, Benjamin is the very last tribe who can be supposed to have entertained any friendly feeling towards Judah, inasmuch as the honour and pre-eminence which belonged to it during the reign of Saul was transferred to Judah (comp. 1 Sam. xxii. 7) ; and history affords evidence that, even in David's time, there existed a spirit of deep-rooted hostility. Shimei, on the rebellion of Absalom, gave utterance to the spirit of the tribe ; the rebel Sheba (2 Sam. xxi. 1) belonged to Benjamin : and at the numbering of the people, with the exception of Levi, which, from the nature of the case, could not be included, the only tribe which was not numbered was Benjamin, undoubtedly because Joab did not choose to provoke its seditious spirit. If we turn now to the evidence in support of the opposite view, we find, as wholly favouring it, the passage 1 Kings xii. 21, according to which Eehoboam assembled the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. But a whole series of other passages demon strates that the author loosely, though, after all, with sufficient accuracy, as the real state of matters was universally known, em ployed the tribe of Benjamin to denote that small portion of the tribe which was incorporated with Judah, so that we are to supply as understood : so far as it remained faithful to Judah. Accord ing to 1 Kings xi. 13, 32. 36, xii. 20, it was only the single tribe of Judah that remained with the house of David ; and it is utterly preposterous to suppose that iu all these passages Benja min, which always occupied a place of distinguished honour among the tribes, is passed over in silence, on account of its littleness. In 1 Kings xii. 17, the only individuals not Jews who submitted to the government of Eehoboam are " the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah." This passage forms the connecting link between xii. 21 and the passages above quoted, and gives to the former the necessary limitation. Further, if we join Benja min to Judah, it will be impossible to make out the ten tribes ; for Simeon, who is commonly reckoned among them, manifestly PSALM LXXX. 11 cannot be counted. That tribe, according to Gen. xlix. 7, ought to be found like Leyi, broken up into pieces ; according to Jos. xix. 1, " its inheritance was in the midst of the tribe of Judah,'^ not certainly any contiguous portion of the land, but separate, single cities, lying at a distance from each other : comp. Bachiene i. 2, § 408. The Simeonites belong, assuredly, to " the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah," as their cities origi nally were situated within the tribe of Judah, and are enumerated in the list of these cities. Bach. § 409. They must necessarily have held fast by Judah, and probably did so very willingly : it was quite natural that they should amalgamate with Judah, and this is sufficient to explain the fact that they are nowhere men tioned as a part of the kingdom of Judah : on the division into two kingdoms they became extinct as a tribe. . This peculiar state of matters explains 1 Kings xi. 30, (fee, according to which the whole number of the tribes was twelve, of which one remained faithful to the house of David, and ten took part with Jeroboam. Now, if we leave out Simeon, it becomes necessary to take in Benjamin, in order to complete the number ten. — It is, therefore, evident that the three passages above quoted represent Israel only in a limited sense, whose leading tribes they name, in ac cordance with original historical relations, and agreeably to later usage ; and, therefore, the Psalm cannot be referred either to the Babylonian captivity or to the times of the Maccabees.'* Title : To the Chief Musician, on lilies, a testimony of Asaph, a Psalm. This title is formed in an original manner after those of the two Davidic Psalms, the sixtieth and the sixty-ninth. " To the Chief Musician " is important, because it shews that the Psalmist is here acting as the organ of the whole church. Instead of l^^ pointing out the object (comp. at title of Ps. vi.) we have ^j^ in the two fundamental passages. The lilies are an emblem of what is lovely (comp. at Ps. xlv.), here, as in Ps. Ixix., of the lovely salva tion of the Lord, his j-flj^lti^i : comp. n3^'5y")3 with which the re frain generally ends, the peculiarly prominent word of the Psalm, and the )-Tj-\j>')';yi in ver. 2. The jrnj^ which, on account of the ac cusative, cannot be connected with D'^iXy'^i^, signifies always law a Calvin: It would have been absurd to have passed over the tribe Judah, and the sacred city itself, and to have given the prominence to Joseph, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin, if the language had not been designed to apply specially to Israel. 12 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. (comp. at Ps. Ix. title), and generally denotes the divine law, as given in the Books of Moses ; in this way also it is used in the Asaphic Psalms Ixxviii. 5, Ixxxi. 5. That it is used in the same sense here also, that the Psalmist designates his poem a law, because he does not prescribe a way of salvation at his own hand, but merely points to the one which had already been de scribed in the law, and comes forward as its expounder, is evi dent from the reference to the title of Ps. Ix., where the original itself from which the Psalmist merely copies, is named mij?' and from the fact that the Psalm really throughout depends upon the law, especially the refrain which gives its fundamental tone. The particular application of ]-|>)^j^ is to be got from the word immediately preceding, on ihe lilies : "»a law which treats of the way of obtaining deliverance."" The f|Dt^^ fTTli^ "cor responds to the fp^^ S'^iti^l^' ^'^ instruction of Asaph in Psalms Ixxiv. and Ixxviii. ; but it is a stronger and more em phatic expression : comp. also. Hear, my people, my law in Ps. Ixxviii. 1. Ver. 1-3. — Ver. 1. 0 thou Shepherd of Israel give ear, who leadest Joseph as the sheep ; thou who sittest enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. Ver. 2. Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come for help to us. Ver. 3. 0 God, lead us back, and cause thy face to shine, and us to be delivered. — The "thou Shepherd of Israel," in ver. 1 (comp. at Ps. xxiii. 1), refers to Gen. xlviii. 15 ; xlix. 24, where in Joseph's blessing God is named the Shepherd of Israel. The expression, "who leadest Joseph," &c., is the development of the first clause, and marks directly that part of Israel who at this time stood particularly in need of the shejiherd care of God. In the second clause prominence is given to the omnipotence of God as the second foundation of the deliverance, just as in the first his care for his people had been especially dwelt upon. It is omnipotence that is indicated by, " thou sittest enthroned upon the cherubim :" comp. at Ps. xviii. 10. The cherubim of the sanctuary are the emblem of the earthly creation. God's sitting above these indicates that this sublunary world with all its powers is subject to him and serves him. " God of hosts " corresponds a Venema: that the pious, when placed in dreadful trouble, might be insb'ucted in the true way of obtaining deliverance and salvation. PSALM LXXX. VER. 4 — 7. 13 to this appellation of God, and denotes as exclusively God's dominion over the heavenly powers as the expression before us •denotes his dominion over those of earth. In reference to shine forth, comp. at Ps. 1. 2. Allusion is made, as appears, to the resplendent symbol of the presence of God during the march through the wilderness. In ver. 2, Benjamin " the little," stands between Ephraim and Manasseh. " Before them :" — that is^ leading them forward, at their head, as formerly before Israel in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire : comp. Deut. xiii. 21, 22, " and the Lord went before them," &c. Thy strength : — which now slumbers, — comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 65. — The " lead us back," in ver. 3, refers to that portion of the people who had been led into captivity, and who had been described with sufficient distinctness in the preceding clauses, and whom the Psalmist, sympathising with a suffering member, keeps throughout prominently before his eye. The usual sense of y^*^ in Hiph. is to leg,d back (comp. Gen. xxviii. 15, where Jacob, who in his exile beyond the Euphrates, and in his restoration to Canaan, typified the fate of his people, is addressed by God, I bring thee back to this place, Jer. xii. 15 ; xvi. 15 ; xxx. 3) : and there is no ground whatever to depart from this usual sense here, more especially as in the 12th and 13th verses we find a lamentation expressed in figu rative language over a considerable portion of the people who had been led into captivity. The sense to bring back to a former condition, to restore (Luther : comfort us), is of very rare occur rence, indeed occurs with certainty only in one passage, Dan. ix. 25 : comp. the Christology, p. 2, p. 456. " Cause thy face to shine," is demanded as a fulfilment of the Mosaic blessing, Num. vi. 25 : comp. at Ps. iv. 6 ; xxxi. 16. Ver. 4-7. — Ver. 4. 0 Ijord God, God of hosts, how long dost thou smoke against the prayer of thy people ? Ver. 5. Thou feedest them with tear-bread, and givest them drink in a greatmeasure full of tears. Ver. 6. Thou placestus for conten tion to our neighbours, and our enemies make merry. Ver. 7. 0 God, God of hosts, bring us back, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and us to he delivered. A heaping up of the names of God similar to that in ver. 4, occurs also in the first verse of the fiftieth Psalm, another of the Psalms of Asaph. In prayer, every thing depends upon God, in the full glory of his being, 14 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. walking before the soul. It is only into the bosom of such a God that it is worth while to pour out lamentations and prayers. " Jehovah," corresponding to " thou Shepherd of Israel," in ver. 1, points to the fulness of the love of God towards his people ; and " God, God of hosts" corresponding to " who sittest enthron ed upon the cherubim," to his infinite power to help them. The Elohim Zebaoth causes no difficulty if we only explain cor rectly Jehovah Zebaoth : comp. Ps. xxiv. 10. It is manifest from comparing the fundamental passage, Deut. xxix. 19, and the parallel Asaph, passage Ps. Ixxiv. 1, that the smoke comes into notice only as the attendant of fire. It is clear also from these passages that we must translate : against, not at the prayer of thy people. There is a significant reference to smoke as the standing symbol of prayer, and to its embodiment in the burnt offering : comp. Ps. cxii. 2. Eev. v. 8 ; viii. 3, 4. Is. vi. 4, " the house was full of smoke," Beitr. iii. 644. The smoke of prayer, according to Lev. xvi. 13, should smother the fire of the wrath of God : but instead of this, God opposes the smoke of his anger to the smoke of prayer. In ver. 5, tear-bread is not at all bread destroyed by tears, but bread composed of tears. This is mani fest from the parallel passages : comp. at Ps. xiii. 3, and the second clause : ¦ as the tears are drink there, they must be bread here. It cannot always be, that the Shepherd of Israel, of whom it is said, Ps. xxiii. 5, " thou preparest before me a table in presence of my enemies, .... my cup overfloweth," prepares nothing but tears for the food and the drink of his people. That were a very singular quid pro quo. The second clause can only be translated : thou causest them, to drink with a measure of tears. Fornpi^pfis constantly construed with the accusative of the per son and the thing ; but it never occurs with ^ before the thing. The "measure" "is thus the thing that is given to drink (the t^'i^ty' as the name of a measure occurs only in one other passage. Is. xl. 12 ; there is no need for defining its size, it was, at all events, large for tears) : " of tears" denotes the contents of the measure. — Ver. 6 alludes to Ps. xliv. 13, on which also Ps. Ixxix. 4 depends. The neighbours are always the petty tribes in the immediate neigh bourhood of Israel (several interpreters refer incorrectly to the As syrians and Egyptians), who always availed themselves of those occasions when Israel was oppressed by more powerful nations, to PSALM LXXX. VER. 8—13. 15 give vent to their hatred. The 'n'yf2 *^^ object, the butt of rage expressed in actions, but especially in bitter contempt, " where is now their God?" ^c. ' The "^j^^ as the dat. comm., i.e., according to the heart's desire. Ver. 8-13, — Ver. 8. Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt, thou 'didst remove the heathen and didst plant it. Ver. 9. Thou didst make room before it, and it struck its roots and filed the land. Ver. 10. The mountains were covered with its sha-, dow, and the cedars of God with its branches. Ver. 11. It sent its houghs to the sea and its shoots to the river. Ver. 12. Why then hast thou broken down its wall, so that everything that passes by plunders ii ? Ver. 13. The hoar out of the forest wastes it, and whatever stirs in the field feeds of it. — God can not leave off, far less destroy a work which he has once begun ; this is the truth, on which depends the significance of the con trast between the once and the now. The fundamental passage for the figurative representation is Gen. xlix. 22, where Joseph, to whom the eye of the Psalmist is continually directed, appears, in reference to his joyful prosperity, as a wall tree by a fountain, whose branches rose high above the walls. The difference is only this, that here instead of the fruit tree, the vine is intro duced, after the example of Isaiah in ch. v. 1-7, where Israel appears as the vineyard of the Lord. It is obvious from the fun damental passage, and from the expanded description which fol lows, that the point of comparison next to the abundance of beau tiful fruit is the luxuriant growth : comp. Hos. xiv. 7, " They shall grow as the vine." — That the ^^DH in ver. 8 is to be taken in its usual sense, to cause to depart, which it maintains even in Job xix. 10, is evident on comparing the Asaphic passage, from which it is immediately borrowed, Ps. Ixxviii. 52, and the funda mental passages, Ex. xii. 37 ; xv. 22, on which this depends. An affirmation may be made in regard to the spiritual, which could not be applied to the natural vine. " Thou didst remove the heathen" is taken from Ps. Ixxviii. 55, which again depends upon Ex. xxiii. 28 ; xxxiii. 2 ; xxxiv. 11. The sons of Asaph always follow in the footsteps of their father. The "plant" is from Ps. xliv. 2, to which allusion is also made in ver. 12. The Berleb. : " Shall all this be for nought and in vain ? Or hast thou plant ed it on this account, that the enemies might devour it V On 16 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. n32 in Ps. vii. " to clear," " to clear out," in ver. 10, comp. the Christol. iii. 404. It corresponds to " the clearing out of the stones" of Is. v. 2, and refers to the removal of the original inha bitants of the country. Instead of " it struck its roots," Luther has falsely, " Thou hast made it strike its roots."— The funda mental passages for verses 11 and 12 are Gen. xxviii. 14, where it is said in the promise to Jacob, " thou stretch out on the west and on the east, on the north and on the south," and especially Deut. xi. 24, " every place which the sole of your feet shall tread upon shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the west sea shall be your boundaries :"— comp. Josh. i. 4. God had in former times glori ously fulfilled the promises contained in these passages, p)*^^ and n^'DSi^ ^''® in reality both accusatives governed by -^^^ Ptl. ; the mountains which were covered with the shadow of the vine are the mountains on the south of Canaan, the hill coun try of Judah, particularly the southermost part of the same, the hill country of the Amorites, which at the commencement of Is rael's country met the traveller like a wall ; comp. Eaumer p. 48. " The wilderness of mountains" is introduced in Ps. lxxv. 7 as the southern boundary, in the same way as the mountains are here spoken of as the most southern portion of the land. The cedars of God (comp. at Ps. xxxvi. 6) which the boughs of the vine ascend and cover, are, as usual, those of Lebanon (comp. Ps. xxix. 5 ; xcii. 13 ; civ. 16), which formed the north boundary of Canaan : comp. Ps. xxix., where Lebanon and the wilderness of Kadesh stand opposed to each other as the northern and southern boundaries of Canaan. The sea is the Mediterranean, the river, Euphrates. From this antithesis the translation falls to the ground : and his boughs were cedars of God, — which would bring out a monstrous figure. — The n"^^ to pluck (else- ¦where only in Song of Sol. v. 1), applies not to the grapes but to the branches : — the luxuriance of the branches formed the subject of the preceding description ; and the opposite of that state is described in this clause, as it is in Is. v. 5, Ps. Ixxxix. 40, 41. All who pass by the way : Berleb. : " for example, Pul, Tiglath- pileser, Salmanasser, Senacherib." — The boar from the forest (comp. Jerem. v. 4) is according to the analogy of Ps. Ixviii. 30. Ez. xxix. 3, where the hippopotamos and the crocodile are em- PSALM LXXX. VER. 14 — 19. 17 blein of Pharaoh, and Ez. xvii., where the eagle indicates Ne- buchadnezar, descriptive not of the enemies generally, but of the king of Assyria. " Whatever stirs in the field " (;if is from the Asaph. Ps. 1. 11, the only other passage where it is used of beasts), denotes the whole mass of the nations serving under him." Ver. 14-19.— Ver. 14. 0 God, God of hosts, turn yet hack, look from heaven and behold and visit this vine. Ver. 15.. And maintain that which thy right hand has planted, and the Son whom thou hast made strong for thyself. Ver. 16. It is burned with fire, cut down, before the rebuke of thy countenance they perish. Ver. 17. May thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the Son of Man whom thou hast made strong for thyself. Ver. 18. We will not go hack, quicken thou us and we will call upon thy name, Ver. 19. Lord, God, God of hosts, lead us back, cause thy face to shine and us to be delivered. — The be ginning of the prayer in the main division, ver. 14 is connected with the beginning of the prayer in the introduction, ver. 1. The n32>-v^i'- 15, is the imper. of p^, to make firm, comp. the pro per noun, in''233' whom Jehovdh hath established. It is con strued first -with the accusative, and afterwards with ^5^, which denotes the care and the protection. Against the idea that it is to be considered as a noun, in the sense of a slip, it may be urged, that there is no such noun, that the reference to the 8th verse demands that it be the vine-tree that is here spoken of, and that the following verse refers to the vine as if it had pre viously been spoken of. The Son of the second clause is just the spiritual vine. The translation, a shoot, according to Gen. xlix. 22, is not only against ver. 17, but also against the sense, as it is not, any particular shoot, but the whole vine that is here spo ken of. The W2^ should be taken in its usual sense, to make strong (comp. the proper noun, Amaziah,) rather than in the sense of to choose, which depends upon the single and very doubt ful passage, Is. xliv. 14. The singular, of rare occurrence else where, here and in ver. 17, is accounted for by the allusion to the name of Benjamin, whom the Psalmist here considers as the representative of all Israel. Thy right hand and Son ought to a Berleb : The beasts represent, in the inner man, the destructive passions by which the vineyard of the soul is torn up and consumed. 18 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. read with italics, for the purpose of making this allusion obvious. The Son of the right hand is the Son who stands at the right hand of his earthly and his heavenly father, and who is, conse quently, protected by him : Gen. xliv. 20, " his father loves him," and Deut. xxxiii. 12, " the beloved of the Lord," are to be considered as explanations of the name. In so far as Jacob gave this significant name to his son, under the guidance and in spiration of God, it was a pledge of the divine love and help for him, and, at the same time, for all Israel, with whom he is inter woven. The subject in " they perish," in ver. 16, is the chil dren of Israel, the spiritual vine.''— Ver. 18 alludes to Ps. xliv. 18, " our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps declined from thy paths." Israel could not say so now ; they have de served their misery, they have turned aside to many ways, and, instead of the name of the Lord, they have called upon strange gods (comp. Ps. Ixxix. 6), but they promise better ; if the Lord will bring them back unto life (Ps. Ixxi. 20), they also will walk in a new life. The guilt of Israel is very tenderly touched. The Psalmist has no intention of acting the part of Job's friends, he follows the admonition of Job : " have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand of God is upon me." God has undertaken to rebuke, ver. 16, and therefore his servants may well be silent. PSALM LXXXI. The exhortation to celebrate the passover with joyful heart, ver. 1-3, is followed by the basis on which it rests, ver. 4-7 : the passover is the festival of Israel's deliverance, through their Lord and God, from great trouble and deep misery. While the first part points to what the Lord has done for Israel, the second describes the position which Israel ought to occupy towards their Lord : inasmuch as the Lord, who brought Israel out of Egypt, is thus alone Israel's God, sufficient for all his necessities. Israel ought therefore to serve him alone, and leave to the world its imaginary deities, — a preposition, however, to which Israel, a Calvin : " Let us learn, whenever the anger of God burns forth, even in the midst of the flames of the conflagi-ation to cast our griefs into the bosom of God, who wonder- fuUv revives his church from destruction. TSALM LXXXr. 19 alas, has not hitherto responded, — and hence the origin of all his troubles, ver. 8-12. Would that he would now become obe dient to the liOrd ! the salvation of his kingdom would be the consequence, ver. 13-16. In ver. 1-5 the Psalmist speaks, as is manifest from the con clusion of ver. 5, as the representative of the better self of the church, or, in the language of the Apocalypse, as its angel ; and in the 6th and following verses the speaker is the Lord. But that this distinction, which has commonly been a great deal too much spoken of, is one of no moment, is evident from the fact, that vers. 6 and 7 are nothing else than a continuation of ver. 5, and from the conclusion, vers. 15 and 16, where the address of the Lord, and the address of the Psalmist, who speaks in the spirit of the Lord, are immediately linked together. If we keep this in view, the formal arrangement of the Psalra becomes easy and simple. The Psalm falls into two main divi sions, an objective and a subjective one, which are even exter nally separated from each other by a Selah, at the end of ver. 7. The first, ver. 1-7, is completed in seven verses. This, as usual, is divided into a three and a four. The second main divi sion contains, in the first instance, only nine verses, and is di vided by a five and a four. The defect of the conclusion, how ever, is, as in the case in Ps. Ixxvii., compensated by the title. The arrangement, therefore, is exactly the same as that which obtains universally in Psalms which contain 17 verses. According to the title, " To the Chief Musician after the manner of Gath (comp. at title of Ps. viii.) by Asaph," the Psalm was composed by Asaph. We shewed already, at Ps. Ixxiv., that we must adhere to the Asaph who belonged to the age of David, in all the Psalms which bear this name, except in those cases in which the contents of the Psalm render this im possible. In the present instance this is not the case. " The contents," observes Koster, " are of a general character, and the freshness of tone indicates the great age of the Psalm." The verbal reasons which led Hitzig to assign it a very late date are of no consequence. He refers to the loose rjDin'' in ver. 5, and to the participle after ^^ in ver. 13. But that the retention of the f-y of the Hiph. (Ew. § 284), is not at all characteristic of the language of later times, is evident, among other passages. 20 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. from Ps. xlv. 17, and from 1 Sam. xxii. 47. These forms are throughout poetical, and are altogether independent of time. Poetry is fond of full and sonorous expressions. It can never be shewn that the position of the participle after -|^ is characteristic of a later idiom ; comp. 2 Sara, xviii. 12. In favour, however, of the Asaph of David's time, we have to urge the prophetic cha racter which our Psalm bears in common with the other produc tions of this bard, the " seer," the prophet among the Psalmists, Ps. 1., Ixxiii., Ixxviii. (even Hitzig believed that he heard in the warnings here the voice of the author of the seventy-eighth Psalm), and Ixxxii. To this we may add the striking connection between ver. 8 here, and Ps. 1. 7. Ver. 1-3. — Ver. 1. Sing aloud to God, who is our strength, make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Ver. 2. Raise the song, and give the timbrel, the lovely guitar with the harp. Ver. 3. Blow in the month the horn, at the full moon, on the day of our feast. — The exhortation to praise God with all the might depends for its significance, as the second part of the strophe shews, upon its pointing to the rich treasures of salvation which he has imparted to his people. — On " our strength," comp. as a commentary vers. 14, 15, and Ps. xlvi. 1. The Lord mani fested himself as the strength of his people on their deliverance from Egypt. — In ver. 3 the instruments are introduced in regard to their tone : timbrel stands instead of sound of the timbrel. Against the exposition " bring hither the timbrels," it may be urged, that, according to the title and verse 2d, those addressed are called upon both to sing and to play. — In verse 3 the month is the first and the chief month of the year, the month in which the passover occurred : comp. Ex. xii. 1,2: " And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be to you the chief of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you." " In the full moon " of the second clause defines ex actly the time within the sacred month which belonged to the festival. The general and special descriptions are connected with each other exactly in the same way in Lev. xxiii. 5 : "In the first month, on the 14th day of the month, is the passover to the Lord." In other passages throughout the law it is merely the general descriptions that occur ; thus, Ex. xxxiv, 18 : " The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep, seven days shalt thou PSALM LXXXI. VER. 1 — 3. 21 eat unleavened bread, at the time of the month Abib " (comp. on the passage the Beitr. iii. p. 361 ss. on Abib p. 364), Deut. xvi. 1 : " Observe the month Abib, for in the month Abib the Lord thy God brought thee out of Egypt :" comp. on the passage the Beitr. p. 365, According to the common construction, ty'^n ®iS" nifies the new moon ; throughout the Pentateuch, however, it invariably signifies a month ; and everywhere, even in the later scriptures, it retains this signification, with this difference, that sometimes the month stands for the festival peculiar to the month. And the following grounds are decisive the other way. 1. As it is undoubted that pjp^ signifies full moon, we have two festivals according to this view — a supposition very unlikely in itself, and the more so that no inward connection whatever is indicated be tween the new moon and the full moon festival. 2, The con tents of the Psalm shew that it was composed exclusively for use at the passover. The festival for which it was set apart was, according to ver. 5, instituted at the departure from Egypt, and according to verses 6, 7, and 10, stands in immediate reference to this deliverance ; — that the new moon of the month Abib was celebrated as a preparation for the passover is altogether an arbi trary assumption. 3. The horn (not at all the trumpets named in Num. x. 10) appears here only as one among many instruments, while the sound of drums for the new moons, and especially for the 7th of the month, was the peculiar and characteristic cere mony. Such an amount of musical power as is here desired was not suitable for this festival. 4. There is no doubt that our verse as supplementing the title fixes the character of the Psalm. This, however, it cannot do, if "j^'^n signify the new moon. In this case, in consequence of the indefinite nature, " in the new moon," which demands explanation from what follows, we have our atten tion directed exclusively to " in the full moon ;" and are thus left to waver in uncertainty, as the example of Gesenius shows, be tween the full moon of the passover and of the feast of taber nacles.* — The idea of those who, after the example of Luther (in our festival of booths), understand the feast of tabernacles, is confuted by the preceding context. By this reference, it becomes - It is clear from Prov. vii. 20, and also from the Syr. (See Gesen.), that nos denotes in general the full moon, and not at all, as has been supposed, specially the feast of ta bernacles. 22 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, altogether impossible to understand the Psalm. The expression " on the day of our feast" is also in favour of the passover. The passover, which celebrates the fundamental deed of God on be half of his church, is the feast : comp. the Christol. ii. p. 565. Beitr. iii. p. 80. The feast of tabernacles never has this name, not even in 2 Chron. v. 3. — The correct interpretation of this verse is destructive of the position taken up by Venema, that the Psalm was composed for the celebration of the passover under Hezekiah ; for this took place, according to 2 Chron, xxx. 2, con trary to the usual custom, in the second month. The account of this celebration, however, is so far of importance to ver. 1 — 3, as it shows that at that time music and singing formed a very im portant part of the celebration of the passover : comp. 2 Chron.' xxx. 21, 22. Ver. 4-7. — Ver. 4. For it is a law for Israel, a right for the God of Jacob. Ver. 5. Such a commandment he gave to Joseph, when he brought him over Egypt land, where I heard a language unknown to me. Ver. 6. / removed from the bur den his shoulder, his hands were set free from the burden-bas kets. Ver. 7. In the distress thou didst call and I delivered thee. I heard thee in the thunder-cover. I proved thee at the waters of strife. Selah. — In ver. 4, the law for Israel and the right for the God of Jacob correspond. God, by the deliverance which he has wrought out, has acquired a right to the thanks of Israel, and it is Israel's duty, by rendering obedience to the ap pointed law of the passover, to implement this right. Israel does not celebrate the passover at his own hand, he only pays to God what is his due, — a due demanded on the ground of mercies be stowed. It is this that distinguishes all festivals belonging to the true religion from those connected with religions that are false; the former depends throughout upon the foundation of a salvation imparted by God, and assumes the character of a right and a duty. The j,^«^|-j refers to the festivals in general. The individual expressions of festive joy spoken of in ver. 1-3 had not been expressly commanded in the law. They are, how ever, accidents which necessarily accompany the substance. — In ver. 5-7, the deed is more particularly described on which the light of God and the duty of Israel are founded. In reference to rrnj^ « testimony, next a law, comp. at Ps. xix. 7, Ixxviii. 5. PSALM LXXXI. VER. 4 — 7. 23 Joseph occupies the place of Israel here, because, during the whole period of the residence in the land of Egypt, the nation owed every thing to Joseph, " the crowned- one among his brethren," Gen. xlix. 26 ; their whole existence there was founded on the services which Joseph had rendered to Egypt; comp. Ex. i. 8, according to which, the oppression of Israel arose from the new king, who did not know Joseph. It was only during this period of his existence that Israel could bear the name of Joseph ; and it is altogether incorrect to generalize what is founded singly and entirely on the special circumstances connected with that period. The passage before us has assuredly nothing whatever to do with Ps. Ixxvii. 15 and Ixxx. i. The suffix in l]-\j^21 refers to Jo seph, " Out of Egypt" is the expression which commonly occurs in the Pentateuch ; comp. Ex. xi. 41, " All the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt," ver. 51, Num. xxii. 5, Deut. ix. 7 ; particularly in connection with the feast of the passover, comp. Ex. xxxiv. 18, " Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread as I have commanded thee at the time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib thou wentest out of Egypt." Here, how ever, the expression is " over Egypt," across, '^y in the same sense in which it occurs in Job xxix. 7, " When I went out to the gate over or across the city." This over is more expressive than out of. The marching out appears all the more glorious, inas much as the marching extended over the whole country, across Egypt. Num. xxxiii. 4 supplies the commentary, — " The chil dren of Israel went out with a high hand before all the Egyp tians ;" comp. Ex. xiv. 8." Many expositors have suffered them selves to be led astray by the ^^. They translate : when he (the Lord) went forth against the land of Egypt, with reference to Ex. xi. 4, " About midnight I go out in the land of Egypt." Against this, however, we may urge, besides the manifest refer ence to the passage from the Pentateuch above referred to, the obviously corresponding expression " who led thee out of the land of Egypt," in ver. 11. There is next added very suitably, accord ing to the first-mentioned rendering, " where I heard a language a Calvin: The people, led on by God, traversed freely the whole land of Egypt, a pas sage having been afforded them in consequence of the broken and ten-ified state of tbe inhabitants. 24 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. unknown to me," an expression which denotes more exactly the oppressive nature of their previous condition, and the unspeakable benefit arising from their deliverance ; comp. Ps. cxiv. 1, " When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from the people of strange language." Finally, in the continuation in ver. 6 and 7, the language refers entirely to the deliverance out of Egypt, and not at all to the destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians, to which there is nowhere else one single reference throughout the whole Psalm. The last words of the verse indicate, as has been already observed, what it was that rendered the departure of the Israel so very desirable. To dwell in the midst of a people of strange language, to serve a people from whom they were inwardly in a state of utter estrangement, must have been very painful and oppressive. The subject is Israel represented by the Psalmist. We cannot translate, " a language of such a one whom," " but a lan guage (of the kind that) I did not understand," " a language of unintelligibility for me;" comp. Bottcher, proben p. 51. Many expositors translate : the voice of one unknown to me (a God whom I till that time did not know) I heard then in Egypt, or I hear now, the oracle referred to in ver. 6-16. But a compa rison of the parallel passages, Ps. cxiv. 1, which is particularly decisive, Deut. xxviii. 49, " The Lord will bring upon thee a people from afar, .... a people whose language thou dost not understand," Is. xxxiii. 19, and Ju. v. 15, leaves no doubt whatever as to the correctness of the interpreta tion given above. Farther, the description of the miserable condition in which Israel existed in the land of Egypt is continued in ver. 6 and 7. To the unknown language here, corresponds the burden, the burden-basket there ; and to ihe marching out here the rescuing, the delivering there. Then the designation of Jehovah as one unknown, for the whole people, or for the individual to whom a revelation begins, is destitute of all real foundation and analogy. Finally, this translation, which proceeds from an entire misapprehension of the whole train of thought, must be rejected on etymological grounds. J-yQ^y" never signifies a particular discourse, but a way of speaking, a language ; comp. Bottcher. — As the difference in regard to the speaker (in ver, 6 and 7 it is the Lord that speaks, while pre vious to this the Psalmist, or Israel represented by him, had PSALM LXXXI. VER. 4 — 7. 25 spoken in the name and spirit of the Lord) is one merely of form, and as, in reality, verses 6 and 7 merely continue the train of thought of ver. 5 (when the Lord removed, or, then the Lord re moved) it is altogether inappropriate, by marks of quotation, to favour the idea of the beginning of a new address. Such a change as to speakers requires very little attention to be paid to it, es pecially in the Psalm of Asaph, as they are of a highly poetical cha,racter. At the first clause of ver. 6, comp. Ex. vi. 6, 7, " I the Lord bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians." The basket t^*^ is, according to the parallelism, the burden- basket. Baskets of this kind were found in the sepulchral vaults which have been opened in Thebes; of which Eosellini first fur nished drawings and descriptions : the Israelites used them for carrying from one place to another the clay and manufactured bricks : comp. Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 79, (fee." — On " I heard thee in the thunder-cover," in ver. 7, comp. Hab. iii. 4, " And there (in the lightning-flash which surrounds the Lord at his appearance) was the hiding of his power." As in that pas sage God is concealed in the lightning-flash (comp. Delitzsch), so is he here in the thunder, i. e., the thunder-cloud, " the dark ness," Ex. XX. 18, the storm. There is no need for assuming that the Psalmist alludes,, specially and exclusively, to Ex. xiv. 24, according to which, while the Egyptians were passing through the sea, the Lord looked upon their chariots from the pillar of fire and cloud, and thus completed the deliverance of the Is raelites. It is a common figure of poetry to represent the Lord as riding forth in a storm, mighty against his enemies, and on behalf of his people ; comp. Ps. Ixxvii. 16-18 ; Ps. xviii. 11 : — and hence the Psalmist has assuredly before his eyes the whole series of Egyptian plagues. At the last clause, / proved thee at the water of Merihah, Luther says correctly : " he makes mention of the waters of strife in order that he may remind them of their sins." The words do not properly belong to the train of thought in the preceding context, which is occu pied only with the salvation of God. They look in the first in- o Cal-rin : "We may now apply the subject to ourselves: inasmuch as God has not only removed our shoulders frora burdens of bricks, and our hands from kilns, but has redeemed us from the tyranny of Satan, and brought us up "from perdition, we are laid under much more solemn obligations than were the ancient people." 26 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. stance very like the expression of an idea which had started up uncalled for. This apparently arbitrary reference to Israel's un faithfulness and ingratitude prepares the way, however, for the following exhortation and complaint, and thus forms the connect ing link between the first and second portions of the Psalm. The proving at the waters of strife, Ez. xvii. 1, &c. (comp. on the rela tion which this narrative bears to that at Num. xx. 1, &c., the Beitr. iii. p. 378, &c.) is specially referred to, because it was Itere that the first proper act of rebellion took place on the part of the people who had only a short while ago beheld the glorious deeds of the Lord — the first manifestation of his real nature. The proving comes into notice here in reference to the well known re sult by which it was followed. Ver. 8-12. — Ver. 8. Hear my people, and let me swear solemnly to thee, if thou harkenest unto me. Ver. 9. Let there not he among thee another God ; and thou shalt not wor ship a God of the strangers. Ver. 10. / am the Lord thy God who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, I will fill it. Ver. 11. But my people does not listen to my voice, and Israel will not be mine. Ver. 12. So I have given them over to the wickedness of their heart, they walk in their own counsels. — On ver. 8, comp. Ps. 1. 7. On " my peo ple," Luther says : " You are my people, I have preserved, nour ished, and redeemed thee ; therefore listen to me." As qj^ is never a particle expressive of desire, it is necessary to supply : it will be well with thee, or something similar, — a construction rendered also probable by comparing ver. 13. Similar ellipses occur in Ex. xxxii. 32 ; Ps. xxvii. 17 (comp. at the passage), Luke xix. 42 ; xix. 9 (see Koenohl on the passages). — Ver. 9 and 10 depend on Ex. xx. 2, 3. It has been very unjustifiably maintained that the first commandment stands instead of the whole decalogue. This would deprive the thought of all point. It was only their fathers' God, their country's God, that had ma nifested himself in the past as Israel's Eedeemer (comp. Deut. xxxii. 12, " the Lord alone did lead him, and there was not with him one God of the stranger)," and thus he is still rich in help for them ; therefore they should even now serve this one God only. — Ver. 10 is in reality connected with ver 9 by a " Because." The expression, " who led thee out of the land of Egypt" is literally PSALM LXXXI. VER. 13 — 16. 27 from Deut. xx. 1. The words, " Open thy mouth wide, I will fill it," are equivalent to " I am rich for all thy necessities, even for thy boldest wishes," as is evident from their development in ver. 14-16. — In ver. 11, 12, the Lord complains that Israel had hitherto, to their own loss, failed to respond to the exhortations addressed to them in ver. 8 — 10, notwithstanding the solid foun dation on which these rested in their deliverance. Comp. Prov. i. 30, 31, " they would have none of my counsel, they despised all my censures : therefore they eat the fruit of their way and shall be satisfied with their own counsels." At ver. 11, Luther says : " It is something dreadful and terrible that he says my people Israel. If it had been a stranger to whom I had mani fested no particular deeds of kindness, &c." Allusion is made to Deut. xiii. 9, where it is said, in reference to him who should entice Israel to serve strange Gods : " thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him." Israel had singularly and shamefully reversed the matter : they had lent their ear to the enticer and renounced their own "God. The preterites denote the past stretching forward into the present. — At ver. 12, God lets every one take his own way ; the stiff-necked Israelites who would not have his truth and goodness, shall be given over to error and wickedness, to their own destruction ; comp. Eom. i. 24. 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. The ^ rn"l''"l'li> (not hardness but wickedness of heart) is here and everywhere else where it occurs, Is. iii. 17 ; vii. 24, taken from Deut. xxix. 19. To walk in their own counsels is to regulate the life according to them, according to the passions of their own corrupted hearts instead of the com mandments of the holy God, comp. Jer. vii. 24 ; Is. Ixv. 2 : " a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts." Ver. 13-16. Arnd. : " The blessed God in his great fatherly love and faithfulness cannot leave them, he must repeat his pro mise and call men again to him by the offer of his gracious deeds." — Ver. 13. Tf now my people did hear me, and Israel walked in my way. Ver. 14. I would soon bring down their enemies and turn my hand upon their adversaries. Ver. 15. The haters of the Lord would feign submission to him., and their time would continue for ever. Ver. 16. He would feed them with the fat of the wheat, and out of the rock would I satisfy thee with honey. 28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. —The i^n, ver. 13, denotes the condition notwithstanding the consciousness that it is not realized : if my people heard, which they do not : comp. Ewald, § 627. Is. xlviii. 18. The ways of the Lord form the contrast to their own stupid and ruinous plans, ver. 12. — The phrase " to turn the hand upon," ver. 14, is, when taken by itself, an indefinite one, to turn it to the object of trade or manufacture : comp. the Christol. ii. p. 338. Here, accord ing to the connection, it is the punishing hand ; and to turn it back denotes the speedy overpowering of the enemies, — as for merly in the days of old, ver. 6 and 7 : comp. particularly there Tn^'y- — The first half of ver. 15 depends on Deut. xxxiii. 29 : " thy enemies shall feign to thee" (comp. at Ps. xviii. 44.) The allusion to this passage shews that the ^^ is to be referred to Israel and accounts for the singular. On " the haters of the Lord," Luther : " Thou shouldst not think that I am favourable to them, for they are my enemies also. But they are too strong for thee and gain the upper hand because thou hast forsaken me. Had it not been for this, matters would have been very different. It is not the enemies that plague thee ; it is I : mine hand it is that oppresses thee when thine enemies oppress thee." It was the design to give great prominence to the thought so comfort ing for Israel and so well fitted to lead them to reconciliation with God, that their enemies are also the enemies of God, which led to the expression, " the haters of the Lord," instead of " my haters." The use of the third person in the first clause of ver. 16 is connected with this. But towards the conclusion, the usual form is resumed. On the second clause, comp. 2 Sam. vii. 24. The ]-)j^ signifies always time, nerer fortune. — On ver. 16, Luther : " For there are two things of which we stand in need, nourish ment and protection. Therefore, God now says, that if they turn to him he will not only be their man of war to fight for them, but also their husbandman : so that those who fear him and trust in him shall want nothing that pertains to this life." The first clause is from Deut. xxxii. 14 (the fat of ihe wheat is instead of the best of the wheat), the second clause from Deut. xxxii. 13, " and he caused Israel to suck honey from the rock, oil frora the flinty rock." That the honey from the rock is not at all what several very prosaicly have supposed, the honey which the bees had prepared in the crevices of the rocks, but something alto- PSALM LXXXII. 29 gether unusual and supernatural (out of the hard barren rock) is evident from the parallel clause in Deut., oil from the flinty rock, and also from the passage, Job. xxix. 6, which in like manner alludes to the passage in Deut. : " when I bathed my feet in milk and the hard rock was changed for me into streams of oil." PSALM LXXXII. God appears in the midst of his church for judgment upon the gods of the earth, the judges who bear his image, ver. 1, pun ishes them on account of their violation of justice, and exhorts them to a better conduct, ver. 2-4. Still they persevere in their want of understanding, in their walk in darkness, and every thing is in confusion, ver. 5. The definite sentence is there fore passed upon them, intimation of their destruction is made to them, ver. 6 and 7. In conclusion, the Psalmist expresses in ver. 8 his desire for the appearance of the Lord to judgment. The formal arrangement is very simple. The main division is complete in seven, which is again divided into a four and a three, the preceding judgment, and the final decision. To the main division, which is throughout of a prophetical character, there is appended a lyrical conclusion, in which the Psalmist expresses his wish for that which he had already announced as just impend ing. The question arises, whether the wicked rulers against whom the Psalm is directed are internal or external. The last view is the one generally entertained. The Psalm is considered as di rected " against the potentates of Asia about the time of the captivity ;" " the miserable, the poor," &c. are viewed as the Is raelites. But the only argument in favour of this view depends upon a false interpretation of ver. 6 and 8 ; and there are nu merous and decisive reasons in favour of the reference to inter nal relations. Just at the very beginning God appears for judg ment in the " congregation of God," and there calls to account the wicked judges who must therefore belong to it. The name Elohim and sons of God which is given to them, is never used in the Old Testament of heathen magistrates. It presupposes the kingdom of God. When there is no king there can be no vice- 30 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. king. Besides, in ver. 6, in reference to this title of honour, al lusion is made to expressions in the Pentateuch which are applied exclusively to Israelitish rulers. In reference to heathen rulers, it is matter of great difficulty that those in the Psalm are accused of nothing else than faulty administration of justice, partiality in favour of the wicked, the denial of the rights of the poor, and so on. The sins of the heathen judges lay entirely in another direc tion. And on the other hand, these very charges are brought forward in many passages against the Israelitish rulers, for ex ample. Is. iii. 13-15, a passage nearly related to our Psalm, and which may serve as a commentary to it : " the Lord standeth up to plead, and the Lord standeth to judge the people : the Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses," Ch. i. 17-24. Mich. iii. 1-4. Jer. xxii. 1, &c. If we compare carefully these passages and likewise the passages in the Pentateuch in which the Israelitish rulers are told their duties, such as Deut. i. 17, and also the ad dress of Jehosaphat to the rulers sent forth by him, it will not be possible with a good conscience to adopt the hypothesis of hea then rulers. These passages, and also the fundamental passages of the Pentateuch, are decisive against those who would refer the Psalm exclusively, or only especially, to kings. It has to do with the judges of the people, and with kings, if at all, only in so far as they are judges. If the Psalm was composed in the time of David, in favour of which supposition may be pleaded the pro phetic tone peculiar to the Asaph of that period, and against which no tenable ground can be advanced (even Hitzig must allow that there is no allusion of any kind, no late form or con necting particle, no term which could be pronounced as being decidedly of later origin to betray an author belonging to a later age), the Psalmist could not, in the first instance, assuredly have referred to the king,— a view which is confirmed by the express mention of " the princes," in ver. 7, as compared with " the ancients of his people and the princes thereof," in Is. iii. Still though the Psalm was in- the first instance called forth by exist ing relations, yet being destined for all ages, it undoubtedly ad mits of being applied to kings in the discharge of their duty as PSALM LXXXII. 31 judges, in so far as they are guilty of that perversion of right here imputed to them : comp.^ Jos. xxii. 1, ss. The following remarks are designed to lead to a deeper insight into the meaning of the Psalm. Nothing can be more unground ed than the assertion which in modern times has been repeatedly made, that the God of the Old Testament is a being altogether strange or foreign to finite beings. The Old Testament opposes this view at its very opening, with its doctrine of the creation of man after the image of God. With this doctrine in its com mencement, it cannot possibly teach in aiiy other part that there is an absolute opposition between God and man. Besides, in the Law of Moses, all those whose office it is to command, to judge, and to arbitrate, all those to whom in any respect rever ence and regard is due, are set apart as the representatives of God on earth. The foundation of this is found in the commandment, " honour thy father and mother," in the Decalogue. It was shewn in the Beitr. P. iii. p. 605, that this commandment belongs to the first table : thou shalt fear and honour God, first in himself, second in those who represent him on earth, and farther, that the parents are named in it only in an individualising manner, as re presentatives of all who are possessed of worth, and are worthy of esteem. The direction in Lev. xix. 32, rises on the foundation of this commandment, where respect for the aged appears as the immediate consequence of respect for God, whose eternity was de signed to be revered and honoured under the emblem of their old age ; also Ex. xxii. 27, according to which we are taught to re cognise in governors a reflection of the majesty of God : " thou shalt not revile God, nor curse the ruler of thy people," i. e., thou shalt not curse thy rulers (or in any one way dishonour him), for he bears the image of God, and every insult offered to such a repre sentative of God in his kingdom is an insult against God, in him God himself is honoured and revered : comp. 1 Chron. xxix. 23, " and Solomon sat upon the throne of Jehovah." But it was in connection with the office of judge that the stamp of divinity was most conspicuous, inasmuch as that office led the people under the foreground of an humble earthly tribunal to contemplate the background of a lofty divine judgment : " the judgment is God's," Deut. i. 17, whoever comes before it, comes before God, Ex. xxi. 6 ; xxii. 7, 8. 32 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The position assigned to the office of judge must, when pro perly considered, have exerted a practical influence of a twofold character. It must have filled those who were brought before its tribunal with a sacred reverence for an authority which maintained its right upon earth in the name of God. And on the part of the judges themselves it must have led them to take a lofty view of their calling, it must have called forth earnest efforts to practise the virtues of him whose place they occupied, him " who does not favour princes, and makes no distinction between rich and poor, for they are the work of his hands," Job xxxiv. 19, and it must have awakened a holy fear of becoming liable to his judgment. For there could be no doubt that as they judged in God's stead, the heavenly Judge would not suffer them to go unpunished should they misuse their office, but would in that case come forth from his place and utter his thundering cry, " how long !" This last idea is expressly brought forward in the law. In Deut. i. 17, solemn admonitions are addressed to judges, grounded on the lofty position assigned to their office. Comp. 2 Chron. xix. 6, 7, where Jehosaphat, with greater copiousness of detail, addresses the following admonitions to the judges, whom he commission ed : " Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man but for God, who is with you in the judgment : wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." The Psalm has no reference to the depth of human sinfulness except in so far as the judges lost sight of the above view, set before their minds rather the rights than the duties of their exalted station, and abused for the gratification of their pride what should have produced in them fear and trembling. The name Elohim, which should have continually reminded them of their heavenly Judge, served them as a shield for their own un righteousness. They held it up in the face of all complaints and objections. Every man who did not go in with their unrighteous ness, they branded as a rebel against God. The Psalmist raises his protest against this melancholy perversity. He shows the wicked judges what it was that they really had to do with the title Elohim. Asaph the seer lets them see, what the eye of PSALM LXXXII. 33 flesh did not see, God, God among the gods, and brings him out to their dismay from his place of concealment. There is a deviation so far from the language of the law of Moses, that there the name Elohim is applied only in general to the bench of judges as representing God, and here in the expression, " in the midst of the gods he judges," it is applied to individual jildges. This difference, however, which has frequently been misused in favour of completely untenable expositions, is so far from being of any importance, that even in the Pentateuch an individual person, although not a judge, if representing God, is dignified with the name Elohim. Moses, in Ex. iv. 16, as the re presentative of God for Aaron, is called his god ; and in like manner a god to Pharaoh, ch. vii. 1 : comp. Baumgarten on the passages. Luther, after giving a picture of the wickedness and profligacy of the great men of his time, remarks * " There existed also among. the Jewish people youths of this character, who kept continually in their mouths the saying of Moses in Ex. xxii. 9. They employed this saying as a cloak and shield for their wickedness, against the preachers and the prophets ; and gave themselves great airs while they said : wilt thou punish us and instruct us ? Dost thou not know that Moses calls us Gods 1 Thou art a rebel, thou speakest against the ordinance of God, thou preachest to the detriment of our honour. Now the prophet acknowledges and does not deny that they are gods, he will not be rebellious, or weaken their honour or authority, like the disobedient and re bellious people, or like the mad saints who make heretics and enthusiasts, but he draws a proper distinction between their power and the power of God. He allows that they are gods over men, but not over God himself. It is as if he said : It is true you are gods over us all, but not over him who is the God of us all. From this we see in what a high and glorious position God intends to maintain the office of the magistracy. For who will set himself against those on whom God bestows his own name ? Whoever despises them, despises at the same time the true Magistrate, God, who speaks and judges in them and through them, and calls their judgment his judgment. The Apostle Paul, Eom. xiii. 2, points out the consequences of this ; and experience amply confirms his statement. But again, just as on the one hand he restrains the discontent of the populace, and brings 34 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. them on account of it under the sword and under law, so does he on the other hand restrain the magistracy, that it shall not abuse such majesty and power for wickedness, but employ it in the pro motion and maintenance of peace. But yet only so far, that he will not permit the people to lift up their arm against it, or to seize the sword for the purpose of punishing and judging it. No, that they shall not do ; God has not commanded it. He himself, God, will punish wicked magistrates, he will be judge and master over them, he will get at them, better than any one else could, as he has done from the beginning of the world." Ver. 1-^. — Ver. 1. A Psalm of Asaph, God stands in the congregation of God, in the midst of the gods he judges. Ver. 2. " How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Ver. 3. Judge the poor and the fatherless, give their rights to the poor and needy. Ver. 4. Deliver the poor and the needy, rid them out of the hand of the wicked." — The fiftieth Psalm, which was also composed^ by Asaph, begins, like the one now before us, with an appearance of God for judg ment. The name Elohim, not Jehovah, designedly occurs in the first clause of ver. 1, because the judges also had been designated by this name : God judges the gods. The ^jjjis, "he is placed," " he comes forward," as in Is. iii. 13. The sphere of the judging is described in general terms in the first clause, and is more par ticularly defined in the second. The general description refers to the ground of this special judging act on the part of God : because Israel is his people, among whom he can suffer no unrighteous ness, no abuse of an office which bears his name, he must judge his degenerate office-bearers.^ n*)iT^ nii^' the congregation, of Jehovah, ^^"T^yi m^ the congregation of Israel (for ex ample Ps. Ixxiv. 2), j-j'^j^pT, the congregation, are standing ex-. pressions for the people of God. The Psalmist places '^i^ in stead of the Jehovah of the first expression, for the sake of the allusion to the second, and also because K^ is more allied to DTl^i^- Several deny the reference to Israel, and translate a Luther: He stands in his congregation, for theieong-regation is his own. This is a terrible word of threatening against these wicked gods or magistrates. For they must here understand that they are not placed over stocks and stones, nor over swine and dogs, but o-ver the congregation of God : they must therefore be afraid of acting against God himself when they act unjustly. PSALM LXXXII. VER. 1 — 4. 35 either : in the assembly of God, the assembly which God ap points, or that over which he presides, or : in the divine college of judges. But nii^ never signifies an assembly or a college, but always a community, a congregation. By Elohim several would understand the sons of God, the angels : God holds a judgment (upon the judges) in the midst of his heavenly court. But in this way the fundamental thought of the Psalm which seems placed at its head in marked antithetic expressions, God judges the Gods, is destroyed ; Elohim is never used for angels, (comp. at Ps. viii. 5, Gesen. ou the word), and there is no reason why it should be so used here, the same appellation applied to God and to the angels manifestly lea.ding to confusion ; it is impossible to tell in this case who is judged, or to whom the address in ver. 4-6 is directed ; and finally, ver. 6, where the judges are called gods, cannot possibly be separated from the words " in the midst of the gods." The judging refers, in the first instance, to the sharp accusation of ver. 2—^. Still in these cas6s where this is not attended to,^ it is completed in the defi nite sentence of death contained in ver. 6 and 7.. — Ver. 2 de pends on Lev. xix. 15 : Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judg ment, thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour : comp. Deut. ii 17 : Ye shall not respect persons in judgment. The ^•^ stands here in some measure as an ad verb, exactly as QiTtyij^ in Ps. Iviii. 1 : comp. at the passage. Gesenius in his Thesaurus has proved, in a thorough discussion which in fact exhausts the subject, that the phrase Q'l^Q t^tJ^J signifies, not " to lift up the face of any one," " to make him lift it up," but " to regard the face of any one," "to respect his person," " to be inclined towards him," " to favour him." The Selah standing here, as in Ps. iv. 4, between the prohibition and the command, leaves time to lay the first to heart. — The judging in ver. 3 denotes the opposite of not taking up their case, of sending them away unheard : comp. Is. i. 17 : judge the father less, plead for the widow. The poor, — comp. Ex. xxiii. 3. The fatherless, — comp. Ex. xxii. 21. Luther: " Every prince should = Mich. : Such is the great benignity and patience of the supreme Judge, that before pronouncing sentence he addresses to the criminals before his bar a serious admonition , with a view of bringing them, if possible, to a sound state of mind. 'c2 36 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, get these three verses, yea the whole Psalm, painted upon the walls of his room, upon his bed, over his table, and even upon his clothes. For here they will find what high, princely, noble virtue their situation demands ; so that assuredly worldly supre macy, next to the office of the ministry, is the highest service of God, and the most profitable duty upon earth." Ver. 5-7. — Ver. 5. They know not and understand not, in darkness they walk on, all the foundations of the earth are shaken. Ver. 6. I have said: Ye are gods and sons of the Most High all of you. Ver. 7. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. — At ver. 5 we must supply : " as they have hitherto done.; the divine reprehension and punish ment have produced no good effects." As God continues to speak in ver. 6 and 7, we must conceive of this complaint in re gard to the inefficacy of what he had hitherto announced, as pro ceeding from him. At " they know not and understand not," we are to supply the object from the context, as in all similar cases (comp. at Ps. xiv. 3), viz., the sacred duties of their office, which had been" inculcated upon them in ver. 2—4. Comp. Mich. iii. 1. " Is it for you to know judgment 1" The darkness indicates moral bewilderment, comp. Prov. ii. 13 : " They forsake the ways of uprightness, and walk in the ways of darkness." At the last clause we are by no means to supply therefore : the clause stands in the same relation as the other clauses to the criminality of the judges : every thing is ruined by them, — they ruin every thing. There is an implied comparison : every thing in the land is tossed upside down as in an earthquake. It is only in the comparison, and not in the reality, that the reference to the earth lies. — In the final judgment pronounced by God, ver. 6 and 7, the elevated station of judges is first acknowledged, on which they grounded their assertion that they were invested with absolute power, ver. 4, and then it is affirmed that this station by no means frees them from responsibility, or affords them any protection against that merited punishment which was just about immediately to befal them. The but in ver. 7 sup poses an indeed understood in ver. 6.'' I have said refers to cer- a Calvin : A concession in which the prophet shews the wicked judges, that they will derive no protection from that sacred character with which God has invested them. I acknowledge that you are God, &c. PSALM LXXXII. VER. 5 — 7, 37 tain generally well-known expressions in which the magistracy, and in particular the judicial office, is designated by the name Elohim, — the passages already quoted of the Mosaic law. The Elohim might here in itself be taken in the singular : ye are God, bearers of his image, as Gousset and others expound. But ver. 1 renders it necessary to translate : ye are gods. Our Saviour in terprets the passage in this way in Jo. x. 35. Along with the. fundamental passages to which it refers, and on which it certainly forms an advance, in so far as the name Elohim is applied to individuals, the passage before us is strikingly adapted to give a blow to that rigid dualism of God and man, in which the Pharasaic opposition to the God-man is rooted. The second ap pellation, " Sons of the Highest," indicates the intimate character of the relation in which earthly judges stand to the Judge in heaven. It was shewn at Ps. ii. 7, that it is in this sense that the sonship of God is spoken of every where throughout the Old Testament. Luther : " It may well make one wonder that he calls such wicked individuals as those whom he here rebukes so sharply, by the name of sons of God or sons of .the Highest, since children of God is an appellation which in Scripture is applied to holy believers. Answer ; it is just as great a wonder that he should bestow upon such wicked people his own name ; yea, it is rather a greater wonder that he should call them gods. But it all lies in the word : I have said. For we have often remarked that the word of God sanctifies and deifies all things to which it is applied. Wherefore we may call such situations as have had im pressed upon them the word of God, in every respect holy divine conditions, although the persons are not holy. Just as father, mother, preacher, minister, &c., are in every respect holy divine situations, although the persons who are, in them; may be knaves and rogues. Thus inasmuch as God stamps the office of magistry with his word, magistrates are correctly called gods, and the chil dren of God, on account of their divine condition, and the wotd of God, although they are really vile knaves, as he complains that they are." — The 7th verse does not at all refer in general to mortality anddeath — a reference which acquiredproperforce and significance only in New Testament times, when " and after that the judg ment," was brought clearly out as standing in immediate con nection. The idea meant to be conveyed is, in accordance with 38 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the Old Testament practice throughout, and especially that of the Psalms in similar cases, a threatening of violent death, of a cutting off in the midst of the days : comp. the heathen saying : ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni. This is evident from " ye shall fall" of the second clause (^33 is always used of a violent death, Ps. xci. 7 ; Ex. xix. 21 ; Jer. viii. 12, and in the full form, " to fall by the sword," in Jer. xxxix. 18, and in other passages), by which the general expression of the first clause, " ye sh'all die," which is accompanied only by the words " like men," is rendered definite. The expression, " like men," " after the manner of men" (comp. at Ps. xvii.), intimates to the gods of the earth, who fancied themselves to be above all other men, that as far as death is concerned, they are subject to the general lot of hu manity. The expression, " as one of the princes " (comp. 1 Kings xxii. 13 ; xix. 2. Obed. ver. 11), reminds them of the numerous examples in early times of similar dignitaries who were removed by the judgment of God. The connection shews that it is fallen princes that are meant. Any further reference (several exposi tors suppose that heathen princes are meant, who are not even once particularly alluded to, others warriors, — not to speak of still more arbitrary ideas) is altogether unknown to the context, is in no respect called for, and indeed is of no use whatever. The prophetic denunciation of the judgment of God is followed, in ver. 8, by an expression of earnest desire for its accomplish ment. — Lift up thyself, 0 God, judge the earth, for thou art Lord over all the nations. — The wish of the Psalmist, or of the church, in whose name he speaks, refers, in the first instance, to Israel ; yet, as the special exefcise of judgment on the part of God is only an instance of what is general, the Psalmist calls upon him to appear to judge the world : comp. at Ps. vii. 7, 8; Ivi. 7; lix. 5. The Lord appears also, in the parallel pas sage. Is. iii. 13, to judge the nations. The call made upon God to judge the earth is based upon the fact, that all its nations are subject to him, and responsible to him, no less than Israel, the peculiar J-y'^ni ^^ ^^^ Lord, and, therefore, the immediate object of his judgment, ^pj^ '^i'^ii the accusative is, " to possess," and with ^ "to have a possession:'' comp. Num. xviii. 20; Deut. xix. 14 ; Num. xxxiv. 29, (Bottcher is wrong, Proben. p. 184.) PSALM LXXXIII. 39 PSALM LXXXIII, The short prayer that God would help, ver. 1, is followed, in ver. 2-8, by a representation of the trouble which occasions the prayer : first, in ver. 2-4, the doings of the enemies, — they roar, they take crafty counsel, they aim at nothing less than the entire destruction of Israel — second, their number, in ver. 5-8, — no fewer than ten nations assembled around Ammon and Moab as the centre-point, are united against ^Israel. The representation of the distress is followed, in ver. 9-18, by the developed prayer. This prayer first reminds God of the wonderful assist ance which, in similar circumstances, he had vouchsafed to his people in the days of old, ver. 9-12 ; next it calls upon him to let loose the storm and the tempest of his wrath upon the enemies, ver. 13-15, and finally, by the destruction of the ene mies, to promote his own glory upon the earth, ver. 16-18. The formal arrangement admits of being ascertained with ease and certainty. If we cut off the title and the preliminary prayer in ver. 1 which in reality belongs to it, we have two main divi sions, w^iich are also externally separated by the Selah, viz., the representation of the trouble, ver. 2-8, and the prayer, ver. 9-16. The seven of the first is divided into a three and a four, the qua lity of the enemies, and their quantity ; the ten of the second by a seven, which again falls into a four and a three (the reversed relation of the three and the four of the first half) and a three. The ten hostile nations, in ver. 5-7, correspond to the number ten of the verses of the second half: there are as many verses of petitions as there are enemies ; while the number of individual peti tions of this half is complete in twelve, the signature of the peo ple of the covenant. This number ten of the nations is divided exactly in the same way as the verses : 4, 3, 3. In like manner, the number seven of the names of the enemies of the times -of old, who were annihilated by the omnipotence of God, at the be ginning of the second part, ver. 9-11, corresponds to the num ber seven of the verses of the first half, which speaks of the rage and the crowd of the enemies. Accident here cannot possibly exist. There is no room for doubt as to the historical occasion of th« 40 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Psalm. It refers to the war of Jehosaphat against the allied Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and other nations, and forms the earliest as to subject of a series of cognate Psalms. While it makes mention of the help of God in the midst of danger, the forty- seventh Psalm was sung, after the discomfiture of the enemy, on the field of battle, and the forty-eighth at the thanksgiving service in the temple. The following reasons may be urged in favour of this view — a view which has been taken by all commentators, except those who have been prevented from arriving at the truth by some prejudice, such as that all the Psalms of Asaph were com posed in David's time, or that the narrative at 2 Chron. xx. is not historically correct. 1. Here, as on that occasion, it is the same nations, upon the whole, that meet us. The Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, whom alone the author of Chro nicles expressly names, are not only mentioned in this Psalm, but are also introduced as those with whom the whole enterprise ori ginated. The others are grouped around these three ; and at the conclusion, the sons of Lot are expressly named as the instigators. Even the narrative in Chronicles decidedly indicated that these three were named merely as the centre of the undertaking, and that there were others concerned of less note, the mention of whom was not a matter of such consequence to the historian as it was to the Psalmist whose object was promoted by a heaping up of names. Not to mention that, according to Chronicles, the enemy formed such a mass that Israel had no strength to resist them, that the quantity of plunder indicated an enemy from a far country, who had set out, bag and baggage, it is expressly said, in ver. 1, " and with them others who dwelt remote from the Ammonites, beyond them," (comp. on £3i2173irnJ2 ^'Z^'"- ^-nd the annot.), and in ver. 2, " and they told Jehosaphat saying," There cometh a gyeat multitude against thee from beyond the sea, be-? yond Aram" (not out of Aram, for there is no copula;, out of the country east of that stripe which is bounded on the north by Syria, and on the south by the Dead Sea, therefore, from the de serts of Arabia, whose hordes had in former times made Palestine the object of their marauding assaults. 2. The union and con federacy of all the nations mentioned, ver. 3 and 5, is of great consequence. Such a confederacy of nations took place only at one period during the whole history, viz., in the time of Jehosa- PSALM LXXXIII. 41 phat. The remark of Koester, who finds it necessary to consider the confederacy of the nations as not a historical event, " they plunder us as if they had preconcerted a plan," shows to what arbitrary expedient those are obliged to have recourse who do not adopt the reference to this transaction. 3. According to ver. 4, the enemies kept their plans secret, and employed cunning preparatory to force. It is exactly in accordance with this, that, from 2 Chron. xx. 2, it appears that Jehosaphat obtained intelli gence of the undertaking of his enemies for the first timCj when they were already within his dominions, at Engedi : they could not possibly have made their hostile preparations with greater cunning and silence. The place, also, at which the enemies made their entrance, leads to the same result. Their marching south ward so as to go round the Dead Sea, while they might have quietly entered Canaan from the east, as Israel did in former times, could only have been adopted for the purpose of concealing their object. 5. According to ver. 4 and 12, the enemies had nothing less for their object than to do to Israel what Israel had formerly done to the Canaanites. It was no ordinary marauding expedition ; — the intention was completely to root out Israel, and to take entire possession of his lands. The enemies of Jeho saphat, according to 2 Chron. xx. 11, had the same object in view. That they had so is obvious from the quality of the booty which was found in their tents. They had set out, as Israel did of old, with bag and baggage. 5. The mention of the Amalekites among the enemies of Israel, in ver. 7, renders it impossible to come down to times later than that of Jehosaphat. The last re mains of the Amalekites were, according to 1 Chron. iv. 43, rooted out by the Simeonites, under Hezekiah. From that time, they disappear altogether from history. Ewald's assertion that Ama lek stands here " only as a name of infamy applied to parties well-known at the time," is to be considered as a miserable shift. 6, The Psalm must have been composed previous to the exten sion of the empire of the Assyrians over Western Asia. For the Assyrians named last, in the 8th verse, appear here in the very extraordinary character of an ally of the Sons of Lot. 7. Our Psalm, according to the title, was composed by Asaph. In ac cordance with this, we read, in 1 Chron. xx. 14, that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehasiel, of the^ sons of Asaph, in the 42 THB BOOK OF PSALMS. midst of the assembly. This Jehasiel is probably the author of the Psalm. 8. Our Psalm is a true picture of the state of feel ing which prevailed throughout the people during the danger under Jehosaphat. According to the history of Chronicles, they praised God at that time, in the midst of their danger, with loud voice, ver. 19 ; and here in the title, which is an appendage to that of Ps. xlviii., the Psalm is called a song of praise (comp. on y\^ at Ps. xiii. 9) ; and it is such in reality, although it bears the form of a prayer, — a song of triumph sung before the -vic tory, — no contest, no doubt, the distress is simply committed to God. In establishing the correct view, we, at the same time, virtu ally refute those of an erroneous nature, whose very existence, as well as that of the prejudice against the historical character of 2 Chron. xx. — a notion which even our Psalm, in common with Ps. xlvii. and xlviii. (comp. Keil on 2 Chron. p. 241 ss.) is suffi cient to put to shame, — is to be accounted for by the extent to which the abettors of the late origin of the Psalms have overshot their mark. The hypothesis that the Psalm refers to the occur rence at Neh. iv. 1 ss. is negatived by this, among other reasons, that it is scarcely possible to conceive anything less suitable to it than these " railleries of the neighbours," who had no further end in view than to hinder the building of the temple ; and still further by the consideration that the Samaritans, who were at that time the chief enemies, would not have been wanting, and that the Amalekites and the Assyrians would not have been mentioned. That the Persians are meant by the Assyrians is again a miserable subterfuge. In a case where nine nations are spoken of by their proper names, the tenth must be referred to in the same way : that the Persians took any part in that ma chination is a groundless assertion ; even had they done so, they would not have occupied such a subordinate place as is here as signed to the Assyrians. — The assertion first made by v. Til, aud subsequently repeated by Hitzig, that the Psalm refers to the incidents of 1 Mace. v. is negatived by the following considera tions : — At that time, there was no combination among the neighbouring nations ; each acted by itself : these nations at that time did not set out for the purpose of extirpating the Jews ge- nefrodly ; they only rose up against those who were dwelling in PSALM LXXXIII. VER. 2—4, 43 the midst of them : there is no passage where the Syrians are designated by the name of Assyrians ; they never were, like the Chaldeans and the Persians, the successors of the Assyrians in the dominion of Asia : the Syrians took no part in that confiict : the mention of Endor as the place of the discomfiture of the Canaanites, at ver. 10, shows that the Psalm must have been composed at a time when, in reference to the period of the Judges, there were other sources of information at hand than those which now exist. It is, therefore, not at all necessary to have recourse to those general grounds which are conclusive against the exist ence of Maccabean Psalms. The incidents, however, recorded in Neh. iv. and 1 Mace. v. are of importance so far, that they show how intense and permanent was the hatred of the neighbouring nations against " the people of God," and, consequently, go far to confirm the credibility of 2 Chron. xx., and the historical cha racter of ver. 2-8 of our Psalm. Amyraldus : " The Psalm may be applied now to the enemies of the Christian Church, of which Israel was the type. The most important and formidable of these are assuredly sin and Satan, from whom we most especially long to be delivered." Title : A Song of praise, a Psalm of Asaph. Ver. 1. 0 God, keep not silence, be not dumb, and he not still, 0 God. — That 'yfy^ signifies not rest, but silence, is evident from " thine enemies make a noise," in ver. 2, and from the following word, t^^'inn • comp. at Ps. xxviii. 1. The word also signifies to he silent, in Is. Ixii. 7, as is evident from the 6th verse. Ver. 2-4. — Ver. 2. For lo, thine enemies make a noise, and those who hate thee lift up the head. Ver. 3. They make cun ning plots against thy people, aud consult against thy concealed ones. Ver. 4. They say : come let us root them out, so that they shall not he a people, and that mention be no more made of the name of Israel. — On ver. 2. Calvin: "It is to be re marked that those who attack the church are called enemies of God, and it is no ordinary ground of confidence to have enemies in common with God." They lift up the head, — proudly, boldly, confidently ; comp. Judges viii. 28, " And Midian was humbled by the children of Israel, and did not any more lift up its head." — In the first clause of ver. 3, the translation generally given is : they make artfully the plots in the councils. But as Qi'T^^n in 44 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. other passages means to act cunningly, and '-^'q does not exactly indicate counsel or deliberation, it is better to consider y^'Q as standing in the accusative, just as y^ does in ver. 5, and iQty' in ^6r. 18, comp. Ew. § 483 : in reference to confidence comp. at Ps. Ixiv. 2, confidential intercourse which they carry on. The expression, "the hidden ones of God," instead of "those under his protection," is explained by Ps. xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 21. — ¦ On ver. 4, Calvin : " it is as if they had formed the daring pur pose of annulling the decree of God in which the eternal exist ence of the church lies founded." The i-j^jj^ i^ away from a peo ple, — so that they shall be no more a people : comp. Jer. xlviii. 2 ; Is. vii. 8. — There are five terms employed in these three verses, descriptive of the doings of the enemies. The number five as the signature of the half, of something unfinished, points to the second half strophe, which is occupied with enumerating the enemies. Ver. 5-8. — Ver. 5. For they have consulted from the heart together, they have formed a covenant against thee. Ver. 6. The tents of Edom and of the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Haga- rites. Ver. 7. Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek ; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre. Ver. 8. Even Assyria has joined them ; they stretch out their arm to the Sons of Lot. Selah. Calvin : " It is not a little profitable for us to see in this case, as in a glass, what, from the beginning, has been the experience of the Church of God, so that we need not be frightened too much when the whole world is against us. When We see that nothing new befals us, we are strengthened in patience by the example of the church of old, until God suddenly put forth his power, which alone is sufficient to subvert all the machinations of the world." Several expositors erroneously connect the 5th verse with what goes before — a flat and insipid rendering. The ^^ indicates a more full exhibition of the relations alluded to in the preceding verses ; and it is not co-ordinate with the i^ in ver. 2. The "^ stands like the -j^D in ver. 3, and the '^j^'iy in ver. 18, in the accusative. The expression " with the heart" supplies a commen tary to Ps. Ixiv. 5, 6, and denotes the earnestness and zeal of their plans ; the heart, with the whole fidness of its purposes, plans, and wickedness, is engaged in the matter. Several expositors refer erroneously to ^fj^ '^ with one heart, in 1 Chron. xii. PSALM LXXXIII. VER. 5 — 8. 45 38. — In enumerating the nations, the first seven are grouped to gether in such a manner that we find associated with the ring leaders, who are Edom, Moab, and Ammon, those nations who had been pressed into the service by them, — so that these three names should be looked upon as if printed in large characters. That the arrangement is to be explained in this way is evident from the otherwise inexplicable separation of Moab from Ammon. As the Edomites were not a wandering but a settled people, we must either understand by "tents" camp-tents, or " tents" is to be considered as a poetical expression for habitations, founded on the dwelling of the Israelites in the wilderness : comp. Jud. vii. 8 ; 1 Kings xii. 16. The Edomites, who are associated with the Ishmaelites, dwelt, according to Gen. xxv. 18, next to the Assy rians, and therefore, in the desert of Arabia. The attendants of Moab, the Hagarites, were a wandering Arabic tribe, to the east of Jordan, which, in the time of Saul, was dispossessed of its coun try by the tribe of Reuben : comp. 1 Chron. v. 10, 19-22. They removed, in all probability, farther south, into that part of Ara bia which adjoins Moab ; and they were, therefore, their natural allies in this league. On the right side of Ammon there was Gebal, in all probability an Idumean district, and on the left, Amalek, who appears here, as on a former occasion. Judges iii. 13, in a state of alliance with him : " and he (Eglon, the king of Moab) assembled around him the sons of Ammon and Amalek." — To the seven nations, who formed the main body, there are added other three. First, the Philistines, who are not, indeed, expressly named in Chronicles, but concerning whom it is taken for granted, that those who always embraced the opportunity of a war raised against the Israelites by other nations, would not lose this opportunity of gratifying their deep-seated hatred. The inhabitants of Tyre appear only as following in the train of the Philistines. The merchants were induced merely by cupidity to join in this movement, as the tradesmen of Tarsus did in Ez. xxxviii. 13. They are universally to be found wherever there is any thing to be earned. In Amos, also, i. 6-10, the Philistines and the Tyrians appear in compact with each other, and with the Edomites, in their purposes of hostility towards the Israelites ; and the passage in Joel iv. 4, &c., shows how natural is this ad dition of the Tyrians to the Philistines, where we find it repre- 46 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, sented in prophetic vision that the Philistines, along witli the Tyrians and Sidonians, avail themselves of the opportunity of a war raised against Israel by other nations to gratify their hatred and their cupidity. — The Assyrians are mentioned last, being at the greatest distance, and engaged only indirectly and partially in the enterprise. According to Gen. xxv. 18, they were the neighbours of the Arabian sons of the desert, yea, according to Gen xxv. 3, they had Arabic elements in the midst of themselves, so that it is, therefore, antecedently probable that they should be found taking part in this great movement of the Arabic tribes. The Assyrians finally, as the associates from the most remote east, stand opposed to the Philistines and the Tyrians from the west. The seven wicked nations are bounded by these on the east and the west. Last of all, the sons of Lot are mentioned as the pro per instigators and fire-brands of the war. The subject in " they stretch" is not the singular Assyrian, but- all the nations which had been named, with the self-evident exception of the sons of Lot themselves. It is only by adopting this view, which, indeed, is the most ob-vious one, as far as the language is concerned, that this conclusion receives its proper significance.^ Ver. 9-12.— Ver. 9. Do to them, as to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, in the valley of Kison. Ver. 10. Who were de stroyed at Endor, they were dung for the land. Ver. 11. Make them, their nobles, as Oreb and as Seeb, all their princes as Sebah and Zalmuna. Ver. 12. Who said : we will possess ourselves of the habitations of God. — Calvin : " The substance is, may God who has so often smitten his enemies, and delivered his timorous sheep out of the jaws of wolves, not leave them at this time unprotected against these forces." From the many examples of divine judgment upon the enemies, which constituted pledges of deliverance in this trouble, the Psalmist selects two, the victory over the Canaanites from Judges iv. and v., and the victory of Gideon over the Midianites from Judges vii. and viii. He begins with the latter as the more glorious of the two. But in expanding the general subject of the 9th verse, in ver. 10 and 11, the order is reversed. Ver. 10 is an appendage to the second (jlause ; ver. 11 expands the first. " Do to them as to Midian" a Venema : Finally, having enumerated the nations in order, the Psalmist adds who were tbe authors of the war and who allies . PSALM LXXXIII. VER. 13 15. 47 (instead of " as thou didst to Midian,"— the comparison being, as is frequently the case, merely referred to, not drawn out, comp. Ew. § 527) was fulfilled beyond what they asked or thought : the discomfiture of the enemies, as was the case with the Midian ites, took place by mutual destruction, — a means which has often proved of signal service to the kingdom of God : comp. 2 Chron. XX. 22, 23, with Judges vii. 22. The glorious victory over Midian appears also in Is. ix. 4, and Hab. iii, 7, as the emblem and pledge of glorious deliverances yet to come. The effort to exhibit the individuals named, standing as much apart as pos sible, "as Sisera, as Jabin," not "and Jabin," is explained by the reference to the seven nations. On "in the valley of Kison," comp. Judges iv. 7, 13 ; v. 21, — Endor in ver. 10 (comp. Eobin- son, vol. iii. 468. 77), which appears here as the proper place of the discomfiture of the Canaanites, is not expressly named in the book of Judges. In the second clause there is an abbreviated comparison, as is obvious from the other passages where this same comparison occurs, drawn out, for example, 2 Kings ix. 37, " and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field," Jer. ix. 21. Is. v. 25.— The " their nobles " in ver. 11, is expository of " them." Oreb and Seeb were, according to Judges vii. 25, the commanders of the Midianites, Sebah and Zalmunah, Judges viii. 5-10 ; xii. 18-21, their kings. — Ver. 12 points once more to the guilt of the enemies which made them worthy of a destruction similar to that which befel those of an earlier period. Elohim (not Jehovah) is selected for the purpose of making more distinct the criminality of the attempt. By the " habitations of God" is meant the whole land of Canaan : comp. 2 Chron, xx. 11, " they have come to cast us out of thy posses sion which thou hast given us to inherit," Ps. xlvii. 4. Ver. 13-15. — Ver. 13. My God, make them like the whirl, like the stubble before the wind. Ver, 14, As fire which burns up the forest, as flame which scorches the hills : Ver. 15. Do thou thus pursue them with thy tempest, and terrify them with thy storm,^ — The " like the whirl (comp. at Ps. Ixxvii. Venema : Having placed before our eyes the judgment of God upon the enemies, as illustrated by the example of antiquity, he now describes it in a sublimer style, with images drawn from wind, storm, and fire, and (ver 16-18) exhibits the scope and effect of these judgments, in order that men, overwhelmed with shame, may learn to reverence the mfgesty of Jehovah. 48 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 18), like the stubble," in ver. 13, is equivalent to " like the stubble which is whirled round and carried off:" comp. Is. xvii. 13, a passage which depends on the verse before us. — As fire, ver. 14, as destructively. The hills are mentioned, as is obvious from the parallel clause, in reference to what covers them. Ver. 16-18. — Ver. 16. Fill their faces with shame, and may they seek thy name, 0 Lord. Ver 17. Let them be put to shame and terrified for ever, and blush and perish. Ver. 18. Andmay they know that thou with thy name, 0 Lord, art above the most high over the whole earth. — The object aimed at is intimated in the words : may they seek thy name, and may they know thy name. " Fill their face with shame" serves as the basis of the first, and the contents of ver. 18, of the second : we can never be more confident of the destruction of our enemies, and of our own deliverance, than when these tend to promote the exaltation and the glory of God. In point of form, however, the second clause of ver. 16 is independent of, and co-ordinate with the first : — not : that they may seek. Otherwise, we destroy the number of petitions, twelve in all, seven in this paragraph, corresponding to the number seven of the 'verses of the preceding paragraph. — On " their faces," ver. 16, comp. Ps. Ixix. 7. " Thy name" is equivalent to "thee, rich in deeds, glorious." " May they seek thee" (Berleb : as humble suppliants) has no reference to " con version," but to the forced subjection of those who, like Pharaoh, are not able to hold out any longer against the inflictions of God. This is evident, also, from the following verse, where the Psalmist prays for the destruction of the enemies.'' It would be the height of folly to hope for the conversion of such enemies. — In the 16th verse, the acknowledgment is not a voluntary but a forced ac knowledgment : comp. Ps. lix. 13 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 46. The '-r^'^ is the accus., just as the ^ in ver, 5, and the y^Q in ver. 3, " as a C alvin : " It is, I acknowledge, the first step towards repentance, when men, humbled by chastisements, yield of their own accord ; but the prophet adverts merely to a forced and servile submission. For it often happens that the wicked, subdued by sufferings, give glory to God for a time. But because in a short whUe they exhibit a frantic rage, theh hypocrisy is thus sufficiently exposed, and the ferocity which lay concealed in their hearts becomes apparent. He wishes, therefore, that the wicked may be compeUed reluc tantly to acknowle'dge God : that at least their fury, at present breaking forth with un- punity, may be kept under restraint and within due bounds. PSALM LXXXIV. 49 to thy name," i. e., "for the sake of thy name :" thou who art rich in deeds, glorious. The name, the product of the deeds, is what belongs to the Lord, above all others who are called lords and gods : these are all nameless ; the names which they bear are mere names, shells without kernel. That we are not to give the first half of the verse a sense complete in itself — and know that thou alone hast the name Jehovah — is evident from the parallel and in all probability dependant passage. Is. xxxvii. 16, where Hezekiah says : Jehovah, Sabbaoth, God of Israel, thou art God Ha-elohim, alone for all the kingdoms of the earth, 2 Kings xix. 19.* The Eljou is the predicate here just as Elo him is there. PSALM LXXXIV. The Psalmist pronounces himself happy in the possession of the highest of all blessings, that of dwelling in the house of God, and that of communion "with him ; for inheritance follows adoption : to those who participate in this blessing, the Lord will by his salvation yet give occasion to praise him, ver. 1-4. He pronounces those happy (salvation to himself because he belongs to their number) who place their trust in God, and walk blamelessly : for their misery shall be turned into salvation, and the end of their way is praise and thanks, ver. 5-7. The prayer rises on the basis of the meditation : may God be gracious to his anointed, for his favour is the highest good, whoever possesses it is sure of salvation, ver. 8-12.- The whole Psalm contains 12 verses. It is divided into two strophes ; one of meditation, in seven verses, and the other of prayer, in five. The seven is divided into four and three : sal vation as the necessary consequence of dwelling in the house of the Lord, and salvation as the consequence of piety and blame- lessness. The five which points out the second strophe as sup plementary to the first is divided into an introduction and a con clusion, each of one verse, and a main body of three verses. The Selah stands where it is most necessary, at the end of the - Is. xxxvii. 30 is to be supplemented from both these passages : and all the kingdoms of the earth may experience that tlwu, O Lord, alone (art Ood). D 50 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. first part of the first strophe, and at the end of the introduction of the prayer- strophe. It is here that the parts, which ought to be kept separate, admit most easily of being read together. The name Jehovah occurs three times in the first and three times in the second strophe. Sabbaoth is added twice in each. If we add to the six repetitions of Jehovah the four repetitions of Elo him, which occurs generally in a subordinate position, so that Jehovah preponderates, we have altogether ten names of God. The ninth verse renders it evident that the speaker is the Anointed of the Lord. This fact can be reconciled with the title, which ascribes the Psalm to the sons of Korah, only by the snpposition that it was sung from the soul of the Anointed : comp. the Intro, to Ps. xl. and xliii., where the case is exactly the same. The Psalm gives very slight intimation as to the situation of the Anointed. That he was in a calamitous situation is obvious from the whole tendency of the Psalm, which is manifestly de signed to pour consolation into the soul of the sufferer, and in particular from " they shall still praise thee," in ver. 4, " going through the valley of tears," in ver. 6, and the prayer in ver. 8 and 9, which is that of a sufferer standing in need of divine assistance. It is intimated in ver. 7 that the sufferer particu larly is separated from the sanctuary. Farther, the Anointed stands in inward and near relation to the Lord, ver. 1-4 ; he is one who has his strength in the Lord, and trusts in him, vers. 5 and 12, and who has walked blamelessly, vers. 5 and 11, yea he stands as the teacher in Israel of these great virtues, ver. 6. These marks lead to David in his flight from Absalom ; they meet together as applicable no where else. This result obtained from the consideration of the Psalm itself is confirmed by com paring it with Ps. xiii. and xliii., in which the traces of that time, and the reference to these events, are still more apparent. These Psalms are so closely allied to the one before us, that it is impossible to consider them apart. They both bear a con siderable resemblance to it, even externally, as might be made to appear, — Pss. xiii. and xliii. stand at the head of the Korahite Elohim Psalms, and this Psalm at the head of the Korahite Je hovah Psalms, so that thus both are in a peculiarly close manjier connected together. And they possess the following points in PSALM LXXXIV. 61 common : — they were composed by the sons of Korah from the soul of the Anointed ; they are all characterized by an ardour of feeling, and a tender pathos, which here, as is also indicated by the title, assumes the form of a pathetic joy ; in all, the Anointed is in a state of suffering, and is separated from the sanctuary. The fundamental thought also of this Psalm occurs in Ps. xiii. 6, 8, where the Psalmist obtains comfort in his misery, and the hope of salvation because he becomes absorbed in a consciousness of possessing the favour of God. As to particular expressions comp. ver. 4 with Ps. xiii. 5, ver. 7 with Ps. xliii. 3, ver. 9 with Ps. xliii. 5.* The sons of Korah perform here as in Ps. xiii. xliii., for David in the time of Absalom, the same duty which David once per formed for Saul. They sang quietness and peace from their soul to his, giving back to him a part of what they themselves had re ceived from him the " teacher," ver. 6. They brought to his recollection the foundations of his hope : the. blessing of com munion with God yet remaining to him, which, as the fountain of all other blessings, must brighten his piety and his blameless walk in the estimation of all who regard God, and finally his suffering in joy. The contents are nearly allied to those of Ps. Ixiii., which was composed by David himself in the time of Absalom. There also we find hope in reference to the future rising on the basis of in ward union with God enjoyed by the Psalmist at present. It has been maintained as an argument against the composi tion of the Psalm in the time of David, that the sanctuary in ver. 1, 2, 3, 10, must have been a temple, a large building. But the mention of " habitations " of God, in ver. 1, does not imply this ; for even the tabernacle-temple was divided into several apartments, and the habitations and sanctuaries of the Lord are a Even Ewald acknowledges that Ps. xiii., xliii., and Ps. Ixxxiv., are inseparably con nected. " These Psalms are manifestly so similar, in colouring of language, in plan and structure, in overflowing fulness of rare figures, finally, in refined delicacy and tender ness of thought, and yet every thing in both poems is so enthely original, while nothing is the result of imitation from tbe other, that it is impossible to avoid coming to the con clusion that both are the product of the same poet." It is singular that with such ac knowledgments and concessions the inference so necessarUy flo-wing from them in favour of the titles should be disregarded. How comes it that in the titles those Psalms ai-e attributed to the same authors which on internal grounds are so intimately related, if these titles were composed upon mere conjecture? d2 52 THE BOOK OF PSALMo. mentioned in other Psalms which manifestly belong to the times of David, Ps. xliii. 3, Ixviii. 35. The same cannot be said of " courts " in ver. 2 and 10. The tabernacle, and therefore pro bably also the tent erected by David for the ark of the covenant on Mount Zion, had certainly only one court. But in poetical language we not unfrequently find courts used in the sense of the space before the sanctuary, where in reality there was only one court. Thus, for example, in Ps. Ixv. 4, which was composed by David ; again in Is. i. 12, " who hath required this of you that ye tread my courts," Ps. xcii. 13, c. 4 : the one of the two courts of Solomon's temple was the court of the Priests, and it therefore cannot be meant as included. Finally, it is only by adopting a false rendering that ver. 3 can be considered as making any men tion of birds' nests in the sanctuary ; the same may be said of ver. 5 ss., in regard to pilgrimages, — it is without any good rea son, besides, that it has been said of these that they did not exist in the time of David. An intimation that the sanctuary at that time existed in a tent, occurs in ver. 10. The reference to the tabernacle-house of God undoubtedly called forth in that passage the mention of the tents of wickedness, instead of its palaces. The Psalm has had the misfortune to be misunderstood in various ways, particularly by the modern expositors whose per ception of its meaning is upon the whole much more profound than was that of Luther. The main ground of the misunder standings is the falsely literal rendering of those passages in which mention is made of the house of the Lord. It is from this that has arisen the idea that there exists in the Psalm " an ex pression of earnest desire for the temple," in opposition to ver. 2, where the Psalmist rejoices as one who already enjoys the privi lege of near access to God, to ver. 3, according to which the bird has already found its house and the swallow its nest in the house of God, and to ver. 10 in connection with to ver. 9, &c. On the title " to the chief Musician after the manner (or ac cording to the harp, comp. at title of Ps. viii.) of Gath, by the sons of Korah, a Psalm," Arnd remarks : The Gittith was a spiritual musical instrument on which these Psalms were played, which sounded pleasantly and joyfully. For the ancients did not play all the Psalms upon the same instrument, but they varied according to the strain of each Psalm. What should we learn PSALM LXXXIV. VER. 1 — 4. 53 from this 1 That our heart, mouth, and tongue, should be the true spiritual musical instruments of God, the pleasant harps and the good sounding symbols, both mournful and joyful instruments according to the dispensation of God and the times." " To the Chief Musician," shews that the Psalm was intended for some thing more than what immediately gave occasion to it, that along with its individual application we must keep in view its applica tion for all the suffering people of God : comp. the Intro, at Ps. xiii. Ver. 1-4. — Ver. 1. How beloved are thy dwelling places, 0 Lord, ('Lord J of Hosts. Ver. 2. My soul longeth and even faintcth after the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh rejoice to the living God. Ver. 3. Even the bird has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she lays her young, thine altars, 0 Ijord of Hosts, my king and my God. Ver. 4. Blessed are those who dwell in thy house, they shall still praise thee. — The ¦7>i~yi in ver. 1 signifies always beloved and never lovely ; comp. at Ps. xlv. 1 ; and the second verse is in entire harmony with this, where the expression " how much loved they are (by me)" is expanded ; and also the parallel passage, Ps. xxvii. " One thing I desire of the Lord, that do I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord." The Psalmist loves the habitations of the Lord, because he is sure of finding safety and protection there : comp., among other passages, Ps. xxvii. 5. The term Sabbaoth points to this ground as one to which marked prominence is given in what follows. The Lord of Heaven is rich in salvation on behalf of his own people ; the man whom he takes' into his presence is protected, and that, too, although the whole world were to rise up against him : comp. Ps. xxvii. 1, " Nothing. can go entirely wrong with him whom the Most High has resolved to aid." — -The longing and fainting, in ver. 2, do not at all in dicate any desire completely unsatisfied at the time, but rather a spiritual hunger, which is immediately connected with satiety, a need which, as it has arisen from enjoyment, also calls for enjoy ment. This is evident from the rejoicing, which stands, as far as the grammatical interpretation is concerned, inseparably con nected with the longing and fainting, but which, in consequence of the erroneous view taken of the former, has been to no purpose, considered as equivalent to to cry aloud. ^3-^ is of frequent oc- 54 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. currence in the Psalms, and always signifies to rejoice. He who can rejoice in God must be in possession of the object .of his de sire. In proportion as the soul has already enjoyed the grace of God, does it earnestly long after it ; and in proportion as it longs after it does it rejoice in God. Amd : " This is the effect of holy desire, the fruit of holy longing after God, for God is so gra cious and condescending that he does not permit the heartfelt love and the holy desire which man bears towards him to pass unrewarded, but so gladdens the man that he refreshes him both in body and soul. There arises, therefore, out of heartfelt desire after God a heartfelt joy, or a true joy of the heart." The qj does not indicate a climax, but, as is frequently the case (comp., for example, Ps. cxxxvii. 1) is a mere particle of addition. The soul, heart, and fiesh are exceedingly appropriate, when used together, as expressive of the whole man, and therefore, as indicating the intensity of the desire (comp. at Ps. Ixiii. 1), and the second clause begins with " they rejoice," \o which the nomi native is soul, heart, and flesh. The " courts of the Lord" are the courts of the outward temple, which is also designated in ver. 1 as the habitations : the desire, however, is, not to be present in this temple corporeally, but spiritually, which is possible even in the case of external distance ; the servants of the Lord dwell always spiritually with him in -his temple, and are there cared for by him with fatherly love, comp. at Ps. xxvii. 4 ; xxxvi. 8 ; Ixv. 4, and the parallel passages referred to there. The court is spe cially spoken of here, as in Ps. Ixv. 4 ; xcii. 13, because in the " tabernacle of meeting" it formed the external place of concourse for the congregation ; it is, therefore, there also the spiritual seat of its members ; into it there flowed upon them out of the sanc tuary the stream of the grace and love of God. The 13-^ with ^^, to rejoice to God, who makes himself known in grace and love to the longing soul, in rejoice, in return or response, occurs only here. On ipj ^^ comp. at Ps. xiii. 2. — The simple thought of ver. 3 is this : the dwelling in thy house, confiding relationship to thee, secures thy grace, with confidence and protection. The " bird" and the swallow is the Psalmist himself, the -^-^-^'^ need not to be very exactly defined ; the connection in which it is used defines nothing except that from the parallel •y\ri^, and the ge neral sense of tlie passage, it must denote a little, helpless bird : PSALM LXXXIV. VER. 1 — 4. 55 comp. Ps. xi. 1, where David calls himself a " little bird," Ps. Ivi. Title (comp. Iv. 6), where he calls himself " the dumb dove of distant places," 1 Sam. xxvi. 20, where he calls himself a flea, and compares himself to a partridge on the mountains. There is an abbreviated comparison : like a little bird, which, after a long defenceless wandering, has found a house (Matth. viii. 20) in which it may dwell securely, a nest to which it may entrust with confidence its dearest possession, its young, thus have I, a poor wanderer, found safety and protection in thy house, 0 Lord. Jo. Arnd : " David gives thanks to the Lord for this, and says, my poor little soul, the terrified little bird has now found its right house, and its right nest, namely, thy altars ; and if I had not found this beautiful house of God, I must have been for ever flying about, out of the right way. I would have been like a lonely bird on the house-top, like an owl in the desert, Fs. cii., like a solitary turtle dove ; give not thy turtle dove into the hands of the enemies," says Ps. Ixxiv. The q^ does not connect the whole passage with -what goes before (comp. .Ew. § 622, Ps. Ixxxv. 12) ; not : even the bird has found, but : the bird has even found. Feeble man, in this hard, troublous world, destitute of the help and grace of God, is compared to the " little bird," and the "svvallow." The house, in an extended sense, is brought into notice as a place of safety for the bird, for the little bird itself, the nest as a place of safety for its most precious possession. On Ti^^ for " where" comp. Ew. § 589. The "^^ininiTTD Ht^ i^ the accus. as at 1 Kings xix. 10, 14. The plural refers to the altar of burtit- offering, and the altar of incense-offering : comp. Num. iii. 31. The altars are specially mentioned instead of the whole house, because there the relation to God was concentrated. There the soul brings forward its spiritual offerings, which constitute the soul even of material sacrifices, and hears the much-loved respon sive call of God, the assurance of his help, and his salvation, even when the body is not hear the altar. " My king and my God" (joined together in this manner only in Ps. v. 2) gives, in connec tion with Sabbaoth, the ground why the Psalmist considers it such a htippy thing for him that he has been permitted access to the altars of God, why the house of God is to him what its house and nest are to the little bird. How should he not feel infinitely Siafe whom his king and his God, he who guides the stars in their 56 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. courses, has taken him into his own dw^elling-place. Luther took a correct view of this verse, as is obvious from his " namely thine altars." Modern expositors, however, have gone astray, in con sequence of their having unfortunately taken up the idea that the Psalm contains the expression of the earnest longings after the temple of one separated frora it. They translate : " even the sparrows find an house, and the swallows a nest, for themselves, where they lay their young, in thine altars, Jehovah Sabbaoth,- my King and my God," and suppose the idea intended to be con veyed is : and are thus happier than I am, who am separated from thy sanctuary. But the thought obtained in this way is one, not withstanding the defence which has been made of it by De Wette and Maiirer, of a trivial character, and unworthy the holy earnest ness of Israelitish poetry ; a bird, certainly, Avas in no very en viable situation which had fixed its place of dwelling and its nest in the house of the Lord. The main thing, moreover, 1 am less fortunate than they is wanting, and added to the passage without any reason whatever. The " with thine altars," instead of " at," is very strange, and certainly the unusual ^-^^ would not have been used for the purpose of avoiding the ambiguity. The birds durst build their nest if generally in the sanctuary, yet certainly not in the neighbourhood of the altars. Finally, verse 4th is not at all suitable, if we suppose that ver. 3 contains a lamenta tion over absence from the sanctuary ; and even ver. 2 can only by a false interpretation be brought, in this case, into harmony with ver. 3. — ^The dwellers in the house of God, in ver. 4, are, as was formerly shown at Ps. xxvii. 4, not those who regularly repair to it, but the inmates (Jer. xx. 6) of God's house in a spiritual sense. As the Psalmist, according to what has been said before, belongs to their number, in praising their happiness, he praises at the same time his own : happy, therefore, also I. In the second clause, the ground of this praise is given: for they shall, still (even though for the present they may be in misery) praise him ; he will, by imparting to them his salvation, give them yet occasion to do so : comp. " he will praise me," for " he will get occasion to do so," Ps. 1. 15, 23, and also Ixxix 13. It is usually translated : always they praise thee. But with this construction the use of "c^j^ in the parallel passage, Ps. xiii. 6, is not attended to. Besides, -y^y never means alivays. Gen xlvi. 29 is to be trans- PSALM LXXXIV. VER. 1 — 4. 57 lated : and he wept still upon his neck when Israel spoke. In Euth i. 14, the -^y, " they wept still," refers back to ver. 9. The sons of Kprah now open up, in ver. 5-7, to the anointed of the Lord the second fountain of consolation, they point out to him the pledge of salvation which had been imparted to him through his trust in God and the blamelessness of his walk. — Ver. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose hearts (are) ways. Ver. 6. Going through the valley of tears, they make it a well ; the teacher is even covered with blessing. Ver. 7. They go from strength to strength, he appears before God in Zion. — Ver. 6 and 7 contain the grounds on which the declara tion of blessedness made in ver. 5 is founded : Blessed are they, for in passing through the valley of tears, &c. Ver. 5 contains two conditions of salvation. First, that a man has his strength ill God, has him as his strength. Jo. Arnd : " But what does having God for our strength mean ? It means that we place the trust of our heart, our confidence, help, and consolation only in him, and in no creature, be it power, skill, honour, or riches. That is a happy man who knows in his heart of no other strength, help, and comfort than of God." The second condition of salvation is, that a man has ways, made roads, in his heart. By this is designated zealous moral effort, blamelessness and right eousness. The heart of man in its natural condition, appears like a pathless wilderness, full of cliffs and precipices ; and re pentance is a levelling of the roads. The following passages are parallel : Ps. 1. 23, " whoso offereth praise (= has his strength in thee) and whoever .prepares a way, to him will I show the salvation of God ;" Prov. xvi. 17, " the highway of the upright (in opposition to, the pathlessness of the wicked) is far from evil &c." and Is. xl. 3. 4, " prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the heath a pathway for our God ; every valley is exalted, and every hill shall be made low, and every steep place shall be made plain, and the rugged place shall become a valley :" comp. the proof given in the Christol. iii. p. 395, that by the figurative language of the preparing of the ways we are to understand the zeal of moral effort as referred to in that passage. Both of these conditions of salvation are united, as they are here, in Ps. xxvi. : the second has prominence given to it, for example, in Ps. XV. ; Ps. xxiv. As in the 12th verse, " who trusts in thee" cor- 58 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. responds to " who has his strength in thee," " who walk blame lessly," in ver. 11, corresponds to " the ways in their hearts." Luther's translation is not sufficiently exact : who walk after thee from the heart ; those of recent date are entirely false : whose heart thinks upon the streets, the 'pilgrimages to Jerusalem. The pilgrimages are in no respect suitable if the connection be viewed correctly. fTi^D)D '^^^^ not mean ways generally, but made roads, it means streets, not once the streets, which is still much too vague. — The sense of ver. 6 is : to those whose mind is in this state, suffering is turned into joy, misery into salvation. " Wandering" is not, " although they wander," but " while they wander." The stat. constr. stands, while, at the same time, the preposition cannot be omitted : comp. at Ps. ii. 12. There is a reference to the second half of the preceding verse : those who have prepared the ways of their heart shall be prospered in regard to their outward ways. The valley, properly the depth, or the deep, is an emblem of a low and miserable condition. Iilto such a valley David found himself cast down from the height of his pro sperity in the time of Absalom. The old translators, with won derful agreement, give to ^^^ the sense of weeping ; and even the Massorah remarks that the ^ at the end stands instead of ;-j. Others, on the ground that the form with the j,^ never occurs, consider Baka as the name of a tree, which is mentioned in 2 Sara. V. 23, 24, and the parallel passage in Chron., according to the old translators, a mulberry tree, according to Celsus in Hierobot., a tree something like the balsam shrub. If we adopt this view^ we must consider that the reason why the valley of the Baca tree is men tioned is, that the tree has its name fioni weeping ;'' so that in reality the sense is the same as on the former view, — in the val ley of the tear-shrubs. The appellation of Zalmon in Ps. Ixviii. 14 is similar to this. Then, against the idea that the Baca tree grows only in dry places, that the valley of Baca, therefore, simply denotes such a place, it may be urged with effect that valleys are not usually dry, aud that the Baca tree, according to the only passage in Scripture where it is mentioned, grew in the very fruit ful valley of Eephaim, Is. xvii. 6. In this case, also, instead of, " they make" it a well," we would have expected, " they make it rich iu wells." But that whole reference to the Baca trees must, a Abul Fadl-, iu Celsus i, p. 3311, says of the Arabian Baca free : when its leaf is cut, a cerlain tear drops from it, white, wai-m, sharp, yet of no vhtue. PSALM LXXXIV. VER. 1 4. 59 in all probability, be given up. As nothing remains left of them except the name, the naming of them is flat and trifling enough. In the parallel, and, in all probability, fundamental passage, Ps. xxiii. 4, there occurs also an appellative : even though I walk through the Valley .of the shadow of death : comp. also Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. The sweet fountain of salvation stands in marked con trast to the bitter fountain of weeping. A valley of weep ing also occurs in Burkhardt ii. p. 977. Gesen. : " after you have advanced two hours, the valley for an hour gets the name of Wady Beka (eUCjJI)' ^"^ the valley of the weeping, and, according to tradition, it got the name because a Be-- douin wept, when, as his enemy was pursuing him, his dro medary fell down, and he therefore could not follow his com panion."^ We adopt, therefore, the vale of tears.^ David experienced what it was to wander in this valley of tears, when he went up by Mount Olivet and wept, 2 Sam. xv. 30. As the val ley of weeping is an image of misery, the fountain is an image of salvation. (Luther gives erroneously the plural instead of the singular.) 'J-hey make it, namely, inasmuch as they, by their faith and their righteousness, call down the grace of God upon them, or open the doors for the blessing. The q^ stands as in ver. 2. The pjtflj?'' i^ the fut. in Kal as at Lev. xiii. 45, Jer. xliii. 12. The verb signifies always in Kal to he covered, even in Lev. xiii. 45, Mich. iii. 7, with the accusative of the thing with which any one is covered, here J-\i^~ii, the plural,-pointing to the fulness and multiplicity of the blessing, fr^^j^ i^ the instructor, the teacher, 2 Kings xvii. 28, Is. xxx. 20, Prov. v. 13. The ob ject of the teaching is to be taken from ver. 5: who not only has his own strength in the Lord, and his ways in his own heart, but who also directs others to this, instructs them. This was David's high calling and earnest endeavour, as his Psalms testify ; comp., for example, Ps. xv., Ps. Ixii. 8. The correct view is to be found in Luther. The translation which has hitherto been the common one is altogether erroneous ; and the harvest-rain covers it with "- Burkhardt knew uolhicg of the Baca trees growing in this valley, and Gesenius in vain endeavours to propose them here contrary to the Arabic authorities. ^ Ven. ; A valley represents a depressed and abject condition ; a valley of tears mjist therefore represent such a condition in connection with much misery, aud affording very little consolation, or none at all. 60 THE-BOOK OF PSALiMS. blessing. For the fi")")J2 signifies always " teaching," or " teach er," never " rain," or " early rain," which is always nili; ^ith the single exception of Joetii. 23, where, however, nilti i^ nsed in the sense of the early rain, only on account of the similarity in sound to the TrSVZ^ which occurs immediately before in its or dinary sense ; comp. the Christol. on the passage. The j-jj^i^ occurs only once in Hiph., in Kal throughout quite generally. The ]-|l211 would not have stood without the preposition, had it not been that p^j^j; is so constantly used with the accusative of the thing with which one is covered, that there is no danger of mistake. The omission of the suffix referring to the valley would be harsh. — The ^ij-( in ver. 7 is power, might, ability ; comp. " In God we shall get ability, and he will tread down our enemies," in Ps. xl. 12. From strength to strength, the Berleb. ; from one degree of strength to another. Comp. Jer. ix. 2, Ps. cxliv. 3. The sub ject in pj^'^'i is, as is apparent, the teacher. The >-,^ in the phrase " to appear before God," elsewhere rarely used, is se lected with reference to the second clause ; from strength to strength, and finally to God in Zion. Everywhere the faithful appear then praising and giving thanks, after their sufferings have been brought to a close. Comp. ver. 4. That there is here a special reference to the violent separation of the Psalmist from the sanctuary, is evident on comparing Ps. xliii. 3." The prayer in ver. 8-14 follows the meditation. — Ver. 8. 0 Lord, God, God of hosts, hear my prayer, accept it, 0 God of Jacob. Selah. Ver. 9, Thou, our shield, behold now, 0 God, and look upon the face of thine anointed. Ver. 10. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand (elsewhere). I will rather lie at the threshold in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Ver. 11. For a sun and shield is the Lord, God, the Lord gives grace and glory, he denies no good to those who walk blamelessly. Ver. 12. 0 I^ord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusteth in thee. — " Our shield " iu ver. 9 (comp. at Ps. iii. 3) shews, as " God of Jacob " in ver. 8 had already done, that in the one person the whole people is ex posed to danger. It is emphatically placed foremost, because on " Lutber, after the example of the Septuagint, as if tbe reading were bs, translates " the God of Gods," and therefore'wholly misunderstands the passage. PSALM LXXXIV. VKR. 8 — 12. 61 it the assurance of the answer to the prayer depends. The trans lation, " look upon our shield," is altogether at fault. The 11th verse is sufficient proof against it. — On " behold," comp. 2 Kings xix. 16, " incline, 0 Lord, thine ear and hear, open, 0 Lord, thine eyes and behold," where the object to be heard and seen is more particularly described. " The whole forementioned state of things " is what must be supplied. The face of the anointed is his humble supplicatory face. " Thine anointed " contains in it the basis of the prayer : my face, because I am thine anoint ed, comp. Ps. xviii. 50, cxxxii. 10. — The Psalmist, in ver. 10, gives the reason why he turns to the Lord with beseeching prayer, why his highest wish is that he may help him : impart to me thy favour and help me, for to be in thy. favour is the highest of all good. The " for " by which the verse is connected with, the pre ceding one, is fatal to the idea, that it is not the Anointed that - is praying for himself, but the Psalmist that is praying for his king, and also to the supposition, that the expressions which refer to the house of God are to be interpreted externally. This view could not be held unless it were the case that the Psalmist, in the preceding context, had been praying for restoration to the outward sanctuary. Ver. 12, however, would not in this case be suitable. Than a thousand, — which are spent elsewhere, in the world, and in pursuit of its pleasures. At the expression, " I will rather lie at the door," like Lazarus at the door of the rich man, I will rather be content with the most despised place in the kingdom of God, the most distant relation to him and to his grace, we must suppose added, " if it cannot be otherwise, if God does not permit me to a nearer approach to him." There is not here any expression of unpretending modesty and humility, as Calvin" stipposes, but an expression of the very high sense which the Psalmist had of the value of the grace of God in salvation, above all the pleasures and all the means of support furnished by the world. Instead of the mere " dwelling," Luther has falsely sub stituted " long dwelling." We are to think of a dwelling whether as an inhabitant or as a client, and of ivickedness, as richly fur- a " A rare example of piety. For although many desire for themselves a place in the Church, yet ambition is so prevalent that few aie content to remain in the common number. For almost aU are so hui-ried on by the mad desire of rising higher, that they cannot remain at rest unless they occupy a prominent place." 62 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. nished with all human means as was the case with the enemies of David in the time of Absalom." We have the same thought in another form in Ps. iv. 7. — In the 11th verse, we have the reason assigned why the favour of God is the best gift ; whoever has him for a friend, receives in due season a fulness of gifts, and may therefore be comforted and happy even in misery. A sun and a shield, that is, deliverance and protection. Instead of the figure of the sun, the more common one in other passages is usu ally that of light; comp. especially Ps. xxvii. 1 ; still there oc cur the passages. Is. Ix. 19, 20, Mai. iii. 20, Eev. xxi. 23, of a kindred nature to the one before us. Arnd: As the natural sun is the light, life, and joy of all natural things, so God himself is the light of all those who dwell in his house, their salvation, aud the strength of their life. But the Lord is not only a sun, he is also a shield, — such a protection as covers the body and soul like a shield, so that no murderous weapon of the devil and of men can strike and mortally wound us." By grace is meant the ef fects and gifts of grace, deliverance from enemies, &c. On glory, comp. at Ps. xlix. 16 ; and on " walk in a blameless," for as a blameless man, at Ps. xv. 2. PSALM LXXXV. The contents of the Psalm are made up of a prayer on the part of the people, for deliverance during long protracted misery. The prayer rises first in ver. 1-4, upon the foundation of the early grace of God ; after this it is more fully developed in ver. 5-7, and thus the number seven of this first strophe is divided into a four and a three. The second strophe, which contains the promise of deliverance, consist exactly of the same length. Only there is wanting a verse at the conclusion, which, as in Ps. Ixxxi., is to be supplied from the title ; and we are thus reminded of Hab. iii. 19, where the usual appendage borrowed from the titles of the Psalms stands at the close. It has been generally supposed that the people gives thanks in a Ven. : It is not any tents, or tents of any kind, that are understood, but rich, power ful, glorious, and splendid tents. PSALM LXXXV. 63 ver. 1-3, for restoration from captivity ; and after this, in ver 7, prays to the Lord to complete the work which he' had begun, to remove entirely his anger from the people, and to put them in /wZi possession of deliverance. But the idea that vers. 1-3 refer to re storation from captivity, depends altogether upon a wrong transla tion of the phrase ]-|'^;i'5y' "^^ in ver. 1. This never means to bring back the prisoners, not even, to turn the captivity, but al ways to turn back to the prison, that is, to the misery (comp. at Ps. xiv. 7) ; and this translation is especially demanded here by the 'j2^i\y in ver. 4, and the ^I'iJ^^ in verse 6. The clause at the beginning " thou hast shewn thyself merciful to thy land," is altogether against the reference to the Babylonish captivity. " These words," remarks Claus with correctness, " appear much rather to suit a time when the people dwelt in their land, and had been visited with severe punishment." Further, the forgive ness and the shewing of favour in ver. 1-3, are of a universal character, and just as then the wrath is completely removed, so in ver. 4-7 the people still lie completely under wrath. Ver. 1-3 cannot therefore be considered as referring to events of recent oc currence, but to transactions of a remote age. Luther correctly gives : thou who hast been gracious in the days of old. The people cannot be considered as praying at ver. 4, &c., that the Lord would complete a work, which, according to ver. 1-3, had been begun, but that he would anew act at the present time as he had done iu the the days of old. The Psalm will not bear an historical exposition. The descrip tion of the distress out of which the people had been delivered, is conveyed in terms which are entirely general ; and in like man ner, there are no individual references in the representation of the relations of the present. In the confident expectations en tertained of deliverance, the prominence given to peace would seem to point to an oppression which had arisen from enemies ; while, on the other hand, " the land gives it increase," especially when viewed in connection with the fundamental passage. Lev. xxvi. 4, appears to indicate that the distress had arisen from a failure of the crops. We are hence entitled to draw the conclu sion that the Psalm was designed for the use of all times of pro tracted distress — of all times in which men did not witness the ful filment of the promise of Lev. xxvi. 3-1 3 ; the bringing to re- 6i THE BOOK OF PSALMS. membrance of which was evidently the design of the second part. The time of composition cannot be determined ; the title, " To the Chief Musician by the sons of Korah, a Psalm," gives as little clue to this as it does to the contents of the Psalm. The introduction, ver. 1-4, is entirely similar to the introduc tion in Ps. ix., and also in Ps. xl. : compare also Ps. Ixxxiii. 9-1. There cannot be given any more solid foundation for a prayer in which it is desired that God should do something, than to ap peal to v/hat he has already done, inasmuch as, just because he is the unchangeable God, those deeds which proceed from the ne cessity of his being, partake of a prophetic character. — Ver. 1. Thou didst manifest thyself gracious, 0 Lord, to thy land. Thou didst turn back to the prison house of Jacob. Ver. 2. Thou didst take away the iniquity of thy people, thou didst cover all their sins. Selah. Ver. 3. Thou didst take away all thy wrath, thou didst cease from the fury of thine anger. Ver. 4. Turn back therefore to us, 0 God, our Saviour, and cause thy wrath against us to cease. — Every man is left at liberty to think upon one of great examples of the divine compassion in the days of old. The pause after ver. 1, pointed out by the Selah, is in tended to bind ver. 2 and 3 closely together, and in this way to intimate that every thing said of the early grace of God was only designed to sefve the object of giving a basis to the prayer for new grace. The^i'^y;-; stands in ver, 3, absol. to cease from, as in Ez. xviii. 30, 32. It is evident from Ez. xiv. 6, that this usage is properly dependant upon an omission, — to turn back the face or the heart : compare on such frequent omissions of the object in Hiph. Ew. § 239. Maurer's translation, " thou hast stilled in part thine anger," is not only " unnatural," but is contradicted in one breath by the Psalmist: all their sins, all thy wrath. Al lusion is made to Ex. xxxii. 12, where Moses says to God : turn back from the fierceness of thy wrath. This prayer was at that time graciously heard.— The 'y^'Q^ with the accusative has always the sense of to turn back : compare at Ps. xiv. 7. The ^j^n be longs to the verb : make it in our case to cease ; compare "jj^i^Q, from beside him, so that it is no longer near him, in Ps. Ixxxix. 33. To connect the noun with the verb of indignation by the qv, is not usual. Ver. 5-7. — Ver. 5. Wilt thou then be angry with us for ever? PSALM LXXXV. VER. 5 — 11. 65 prolong thine anger to all generations ? Ver. 6. Wilt thou not turn hack, quicken us, and shall not thy people rejoice in thee ? Ver. 7. Let us behold, 0 Lord, thy mercy, and give us thy sal vation. — On ver. 5, Berleb. : " The question supplicates or is put in this mournful form, with a view to move the heart of God, who, in virtue of his fatherly love, could not possibly fail to return a favourable answer." Michaelis : " while thine anger on other occasions lasts only one moment," Ps. xxx. 5 : comp. Ex. xxxiv. 3, 6. — The ^Ttyj-) in ver. 6 cannot, from ver. 1 and 5, be con strued as an adverb, it rather stands in immediate connection with 13ii|-jJl '¦ on this word comp. Ps. Ixxx. 18 ; Deut. xxxii. 39 ; Hos. vi. 2. The return of God is the indispensable condition and means of quickening. The " thy people" contains the basis of the prayer. To rejoice in their God (comp. Ps. v. 11, xl. 16) is essential to the being of the people of God. Ver. 8-11. — Ver. 8. I will hear what God the Lord speaks. For he speaks peace to his pious ones, only that they return not to foolishness. Ver. 9. Truly salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Ver. 10. Mercy and truth meet each other, righteousness and peace embrace each other. Ver. 11. Truth springs from the earth, and righteous ness looks from heaven. — It is not the Psalmist that speaks in ver. 8, but the people, as in the fourth and following verses, and in the whole Psalm ; and the answer is got by the same party from whom the question and the prayer had proceeded, '^j^n is equi valent to " our God," comp. Ps. Ixviii. 20. The " for " contains the basis of the zeal and the joy (7 will hear) with which the people prepares to listen. The church has already observed, that the answer to her prayer is a favourable one. In reference to the speeches of God, the Berleb. Bible : " Dost thou ask how this happens ? Know that it happens in the simplest and surest of all ways, by his own holy and good spirit, when he imparts to the soul such good instruction and impression as that thus it ¦ learns to know his will. He speaks, therefore, nothing else than what already stands in the Bible, and only brings to remembrance what he had already said, and caused to be written. He ex plains it, ppints it out, and applies it to the condition of souls and to all circumstances." It has been already observed, that the address of God here is, in particular, nothing else than a re- E 66 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. petition of Lev. xxvi. 3-13. If that passage be compared, it will immediately be perceived, that by the peace nothing else is understood than protection against enemies, with which in that passage also the fertility of the land is conjoined as the second gift of a gracious God. The clause designed to be read with emphasis " to his saints," following up the expression of a previous verse, " to his people," and the still more definite clause, " and they may not return to foolishness," i. e., " but that only they do not return," indicate that as the fundamental promise, so here every thing expressly and repeatedly is made dependant on obedience to the commandments of God, and also that the promise drawn from it is throughout a conditional one, the new salvation rests throughout upon the foundation of the new obedience. Comp. Ps. Ixxx. 18. Inasmuch as this was always imperfect, the people of the Old Testament never obtained full possession of the blessings here promised. — The >!t^ in ver. 9 is the particle of assurance : comp. at Ps. Iviii. 12. — On the 10th and 11th verses many errors have been fallen into in regard to the subject matter, from not ob serving that the language from the relation in which the passage stands to the first part cannot possibly apply to any thing else than to the gifts of God : we have there what the Lord has for merly fulfilled and ought now to perform, and here what he is about to perform, exactly in accordance with " he speaks peace to his people," of ver. 8, and with the fundamental passage. — The mercy in ver. 10 is the tnercy of God, the truth therefore can be nothing but his truth. For both the mercy and the truth of God occur thus bound up together, (comp. for example Ps. xxv. 10 ; xl. 11 ; Ixi. 7), and if the truth were to be viewed in connection with men, it would be necessary to define it more exactly.'' The meeting each other, and the kissing, denote si multaneous appearance and friendly agreement. The righteous ness, as is evident frora the parallelism with the first clause, and ver. 11, is not subjective righteousness, but righteousness as the gift of God, the matter-of-fact proclamation of righteousness ; comp. at Ps. xxiii. 3. — The righteousness springs out of the earth, ver. 11, as to its consequences, in the rich increase, which God, always consistent in word and deed, gives to the land; a Coceeius : " the former denotes paternal love and its gifts, the opposites of anger, enmity, and condemnation, the latter the exhibition and the fulfilment of the promises." PSALM LXXXVI. 67 comp. " our land gives its increase," ver. 12, which' serves as a commentary. To " the righteousness looks down from heaven," that is, descending in blessings upon the people of God, we have there the corresponding clause, " the Lord gives what is good." Is. xiv. 8 is parallel and probably dependent upon this passage : " drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness, let the earth open, and let it bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up together." Ver. 12, 13. — Ver. 12. The Lord also gives what is good, and our land gives it increase. Ver. 13. Righteousness goes forth before him and makes her footsteps a way. — On the second half of the 12th verse comp. Ps. Ixvii. 6. Here as there the words are from Lev. xxvi. 4. — The way to the right interpreta tion of the second half of ver. 13 has been obstructed by per versely interpreting righteousness in a moral sense. Eighteous- ness makes her footsteps for a way (comp. Is. Ii. 10), and thus we are enabled to walk in the ways of righteousness and salva tion, comp. at Ps. xxiii. 3. PSALM LXXXVI. The Psalmist grounds his prayer for assistance upon the mercy and forgiving love of God towards his own people, according to which he cannot overlook their misery or permit their prayer to be unheard, ver. 1-5, then turning from what is the first of the enemies of trust in God in trouble, viz., doubt as to his willingness to help, to what is the second, viz., doubt as to hisability, he grounds it next upon the omnipotence and glory of God — so great that in future times all the heathen will do homage to him their creator, ver. 6-10? To these foundations there is added a third in ver. 11-13, the early inexpressible grace of God : inasmuch as God formerly delivered him from the jaws of death, how should he not now help him, and should not the Psalmist confidently hope for his assistance ? The prayer and the representation of the distress up to this point have been set forth only incidentally and in con nection with the representation of the grounds of the confidence ; now, however, that these last, had been completely given, they break forth in an independent and developed form, ver. 14-17, E 2 68 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. The Psalm is divided into two strophes. The number ten of the first is divided by a five, the number seven of the second by a four and a three. The first strophe gives the general grounds of confidence, and in the second the prayer follows upon the special grounds. The title, " a Prayer of David," is justified as far as the first part of it is concerned, by the circumstance that the Psalm, in point of form, bears throughout a devotional and supplicatory character ; it never sinks down from prayer to meditation, comp. on n^axi ^* ^^- ^"•j "where the meditation gives rise to ad dresses to God of unwonted frequency. It has been objected against the second part of the title that the Psalm, in consequence of the numerous borrowed passages which it contains, is mani festly the production of a later date. But the circumstance that the passages, with the exception of those from the Pentateuch, are all borrowed from the Davidic Psalms, and none from later productions, shews that we must keep by the era of David, and at the same time leads to the idea, — an idea which we shall find confirmed by subsequent examination, — that the borrowed pass ages originated not in feebleness but in design. The situation in the life of David may with certainty be ascer tained. The Psalmist finds himself in misery, deprived of all human help, ver. 1 ; his life is endangered by a band of proud, violent, ungodly men, ver. 2, 14, after God, at an early period, had shewn towards him great mercy, and had delivered his soul out of the deep hell, ver. 13. As the last passage manifestly refers to his deliverance from the hand of Saul, we are here limited to those dangers to which he was exposed in the time of Absalom. It is very probable that this Psalm was sung by the Sons of Korah from the soul of David, when they accompanied him in his banishment. This was manifestly the case with Ps. xiii., xGii., and Ixxxiv,, and the composition by the Sons of Korah, which it was necessary should be there expressly marked, as Ps. xiii. and xliii. open the series of the Korahitic Elohim-Psalms, and Ps. Ixxxiv. the series of the Kor. Jehovah-Psalms, is in the case before us determined with equal certainty by the position of the Psalm in the middle of the Korahitic Psalms, from which the title got its necessary supplement. TKe prayer, however, is David's, not PSALM LXXXVI. VER. 1 — 5. 69 only because it was intended for him, and was sung from his soul, the Korahites did no more than give back to him what they had got from him ; but also because the poem is throughout interwoven with quotations from the Davidic Psalms. This fact is much more easily explained if wd suppose one of the sons of Korah rather than David himself to have been the author. It must have gone to David's heart to have been comforted with words which he had either addressed to his own afflicted soul in troubles which the Lord had gloriously averted, or with which he had comforted others. The tenderness of feeling which charac terizes the other Psalms which the sons of Korah sang to their afflicted king, is so very marked in this case that it is impossible to overlook it. It hg,s been objected to the Psalm that the sentiment is not at all of a noble character, the poet boasts of his piety. This objection has been met in our remarks upon other Psalms, in re ference to which it has been in like manner brought forward ; comp. for example Ps. xvii. xviii. It is a very preposterous ob jection to be urged against one who founds his hope entirely upon the forgiving mercy of God, comp. ver. 5, 15. Ver. l-5.^Ver. 1. Incline, 0 Lord, thine ear, hear me, for I am miserable and poor. Ver. 2. Protect my soul, for I am pious, deliver thy servant, 0 thou my God, who trusts in thee. Ver. 3. Be gracious to me, 0 God, for I cry to thee continually. Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for to thee, 0 Lord, I draw my soul. Ver 5. For thou, 0 Lord, art good and for giving, and rich in mercy for all who call upon thee. — In ver. 1 the misery is not considered as forming of itself a sufficient basis for the prayer, — this basis is supplemented in what follows. I am miserable, and (what is equivalent to being one of thy ser vants) full of trust in thee, seeking help from thee alone, and thou art rich in goodness and forgiving mercy towards those who are thine. This goodness and compassion of God is the, proper ground of hope, comp. ver. 15 ; the piety and trust of the Psalmist merely denote the condition of its development. — Ver. 14 forms a commentary upon the " protect my soul " of ver.2. In reference to "i^pn comp. at Ps. iv. 3.^ — The " I draw my soul to a On " who trusts in thee," Calvin : " We know that some were endued with that measure of integrity that they have obtained among men the praise of the highest 70 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. thee," in ver. 4, is to be considered as understood with marks of quotation. It forms the beginning of Ps. xxv. — The " forgiving," in ver. 5 is related to the " good," as the species to the genus : God would not be good if he did not forgive to his people their sins of infirmity. Ver. 6-10. — Ver. 6. Accept, 0 God, my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplication. Ver. 7. In the day of my calamity I cry to thee, for thou wilt hear me. Ver. 8. There is none like to thee among the gods, O Lord, and there is nothing like thy work. Ver. 9. All the heathen whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, 0 Lord, and give the glory to thy name. Ver. 10. For thou art great and doest wonders, thou, 0 God alone. — The plural feminine from j-ililirTJ^' which does not elsewhere occur, is one constructed by the Psalmist for the purpose of imprinting still raore distinctly upon the word the character of weakness and entreaty. — In ver. 7, assurance of being heard is given as the basis of the cry to God in trouble : for thou shalt hear me, certainly not : would that thou wert will ing to hear me. The basis on which this confidence rests is given in ver. 8-10, in the reference there made to the glory and omni potence of God : no man can hinder his work, &c. — Before ver. 8, according to this remark, for is in reality to be supplied. The verse reads literally : there is not (a God) as thou (art) among the gods, and there are not (works) as (are) thine. The fundamental passages are Ex. xv. 11, " who is like thee, 0 Lord, araong the gods," and Deut. iii. 24, " where is there a god in heaven and upon the earth, who does according to thy works and according to thy great deeds. On " among the gods," Calvin : " Should any one assert that it is unseemly to compare God to the empty fictions, the answer is easy, the discourse is accommodated to the ignorance equity : as Aristides boasted that he had given occasion of grief to none. But because these men, along with the exceUency of then- vu-tues, were either filled with ambition or so inflated with pride, that they trusted in themselves rather than in God, it is not won derful that they paid the penalty of their vanity ; just as in reading profane histories we foolishly wonder how it happened that God.exposed honourable, gi-ave, and self-denying men to the multitude of the wicked ; whereas trusting to their own -virtue, they despised in their sacrUegious pride the grace of God. For whereas their vh-tue was tbe idol which they worshipped, they did not condescend to Uft their eyes to God. Therefore although we maintain a good conscience, and God can be appealed to as the highest attestator of our innocence, yet if we desire his aid, we must cast our hopes and our cai-es upon him." PSALM LXXXVI. VER. 6 — 10. 71 of men, because we know how daringly superstitious men raise their whims above the heavens. David casts contempt in a forcible manner upon their stupidity, inasmuch as they manu facture gods which in no way are attested to be gods." That thus, " among the gods," is to be understood as if it were " among the imaginary gods," is clear from the 9th verse, where even the heathen belong to the works of God, whose gods therefore have no domain left them on which to exercise any power. In the parallel passages, Ps. xviii. 31, " for who is God save the Lord," 2 Sam. vii. 22, " there is no God besides thee " (in a preceding clause as here : there is no God like thee), divinity and therefore existence is denied to all other gods. — In ver. 9, for the purpose of intimating the transcendant greatness of God, it is mentioned that at a future time all the heathen shall serve him ; comp. Zeph. ii. 11, " and men shall worship him, every one from his place, all the isles of the heathen," Zech. xiv. 9, 16, and the Christol. on the last passage. How should such a God not hear the supplication of his servant ! The expression, " whom thou hast made," incidentally refers to the ground of the hope of the future conversion of the heathen. To be and not to be conscious of being cannot always continue apart ; the creature must neces sarily, at a future period, return to a state of obedience to its Creator. Comp. Ps. xx. 28, where the announcement that the heathen shall, at a future period, do homage to the Lord, is founded on the fact that he alone is lawful King of the earth. We here see what a fulness of prophetical matter, and of joyful expectation of the dawning of the day of knowledge, even in the midst of the dark night of error which covered the earth, was furnished by the sound doctrines in regard to the creation, which meet us, as it were, at the very threshold of the sacred Scripture. The expression, " whom thou hast made," ought always to lift us to blessed confidence, as often as the state of the world before God, falls heavily upon our souls. The proper basis of the confi dence, however, is given in ver. 10. God, God alone is great, and does wonderful deeds, and this his greatness manifesting it self in wonderful deeds, cannot but produce a lasting impression. The heathen shall at a future time come and honour his name, the product of his deeds. The hammer of the greatness of God will break the rock of their hearts. 72 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Vers. 11-13. But the Lord has given to the Psalmist (0 that h-e did but lay them to heart) special pledges of acceptance and deliverance. He has already brought him once from death to life : how should he not now prevent his death ! The Psalmist not merely as one considering, but as one praying, makes mention of the former favour of God, and his heart is full of confidence. — Ver. 11. Teach me, 0 Lord, thy way, I will walk in thy truth, in cline my heart that I may fear thy name. Ver. 12. I will praise thee, 0 Lord my God, with my whole heart, and honour eternally thy name. Ver. 13. For thy grace has been great to wards me, and thou didst deliver my soul out of deep hell. — " Teach me thy way, 0 Lord," in ver. 11, is borrowed word for word from Ps. xxvii. 11. As the quotation here is undoubtedly designed, the way of the Lord must have the same meaning here which it has there — viz., his guidance, the way of salvation along which he leads his people. The Psalmist had already, in fulfil ment of the prayer of Ps. xxvii. 11, learned this way externally, but he prays, judiciously applying the sense ofPs. xxvii. 11, that the Lord would teach him inwardly also, still more perfectly this way, would lead him heartily and fully to appreciate the grace which had been vouchsafed to him as being the only ground on which hope can grow. The truth of God is always the truth (comp. Ps. xxx, 9) which belongs to God, the agreement between word and deed as manifested in the experience of his people, never the truth which he desires, and which is well-pleasing to him, or faithfulness towards him; comp. atPsxxv. 5. To waZA; inthe truth of God sig nifies, according to the fundamental passage, Ps. xxv. 3, to be al ways mindful of it. David had there represented walking in the truth of God, as the condition of deliverance, He is tenderly re minded of this here by the sons of Korah. They pray out of his soul ; as thou hast led me in thy truth, Ps. xxv. 5, as thou hast richly manifested this in my experience, so may I also turn to ray own words (Ps. xxvi. 3), walk in it, raeditate on it with my whole heart. That the fear of the Lord, for which the Psalmist prays in the last clause, is reverential gratitude for the manifestation of the glory of the Lord in his experience, is evident,not onlyfrom the second clause, but also from the first clause of ver. 12, which may be considered as a commentary on the expression. The /ear here corresponds to the praise there. The fear of the name of the PSALM LXXXVI. VER. 14 — 17. 73 Lord exists already in the Psalmist's heart, but he feels that it is not there in a perfect state ; he prays to the Lord, therefore, that he would unite his heart to fear his name, i. e., that he would fill it in all its parts with reverential gratitude, that he would en tirely remove from him the intervening ground between the torrid and the frigid zone ; comp. " I will praise thee with my whole heart," in ver. 12, Ps. xii. 2, James iv. 8. — Ver. 13 points more distinctly and clearly than the preceding one, to the mighty deli verance in the time of Saul, with allusion to Ps. Ivi. 13, where, in a Psalm of David's, composed at this tirae, we read : " for thou hast delivered my soul from death, so that I walk before God in the land of the living ;" comp. also Ps. xviii. 5, " the cords of hell compassed me about, the snares of death sarprjsed me." It is impossible to translate with Ew. " the deepest hell," but only " the under hell," or " the hell deep below ;" comp. Deut. xxxii. 22. Ver. 14-17 : the developed prayer, — Ver. 14. 0 God, the proud rise against me, and the hand of the violent stands against my soul, and they do not set thee before their eyes. Ver. 15. And thou, 0 Lord, art a God, compassionate and g-^acious, long-suffering, and of great' mercy and truth, Ver. 16. Turn thyself to me, and he gracious unto me, give thy strength to thy servant, and help the son of thine handmaid. Ver. 17. Perform to me a sign for good, that those may see it who hate me, and be ashamed, because thou. Lord, assistest me, and comfortest me. — Ver. 14 is copied quite literally from Ps. liv. 3. The effect in David's case must have been very striking, when those very same words were here put into his lips in this new distress, which had been used by himself so nobly on a for mer occasion. The " violent," who at that time sought after his soul, were now at rest in their graves. The most remarkable of the variations (these always occur in such cases), is that Q'i-f;, proud, occurs instead of QiTf, strangers, barbarians (comp. at Ps. xix. 13), and instead of the violent, the band of the violent, the plural form being retained, which points back to the original text. The conspiracy of Absalom is more exactly indicated by this expression than by the mere word violent. Even the Elo him is transposed from the original passage in which the Psalmist removes his refuge away from the earth, where he is defenceless, 74 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. to heaven, flees to God that he may undertake for him in opposition to men. — In ver. 15, the Psalmist turns back once more to the basis. He holds up before God the great comforting expression which had been made use of in Ex. xxxiv. 6. " Towards thine own " must be supplied ; comp. ver. 5. — The son of an hand- maid, ver. 16, is a home-born slave ; comp. Ex. xxiii. 12. As it is incumbent upon the servant that he serve the Lord, it is the duty of the Lord to help niaA protect the servant. — The si'^w which the Psalmist asks in ver. 17, is a matter-of-fact attestation of the divine favour. Neither the sense of the word nor the connection admits of a miraculous sign. What the Psalraist speaks of, ac cording to the preceding context, and the conclusion of the Psalm, is simply help and comfort, by which his enemies may see, that it is not without good ground that he calls God his God. For good, for prosperity, comp. Ps. xvi. 2. In the last words (not, while thou helpest me, in this case the tenses would not be preterites), the Psalmist grounds his prayer upon confidence, with an expres sion of which the Psalm appropriately closes. The preterites are to be explained by the strength of the faith which anticipates the future. PSALM LXXXVII, Zion, the much valued city of God, is protected and honoured by him, ver. 1-3. The fulness of the heathen shall one day en ter into it, find in it their true home, and all the fountains of their salvation, ver. 4-7. Ver. 1-3, the contents of which are general, are to be considered as forming the introduction. The main thought is that contained in ver. 4-7, the glorifying of Sion by the reception of the heathen into the number of its citizens ; and a well-defined form and arrangement of this thought forms the proper kernel of the Psalm, viz., " Sion, the birth-place of the nations," which occurs in everyone of the three verses (4-6), which are bounded by a Selah behind and before. The formal arrangement is, upon the whole, easily discerned ; the number seven of the verses is divided by a three and a four. (Ver. 7, as far as the main idea is concerned, is intimately con nected with ver. 3-6 ; it contains the praises of Sion as sung by PSALM LXXXVII. 75 its new citizens.) If we search deeper, it is manifest that the numbering pervades the words as well as the verses. The whole is grouped round the 4th verse, which stands in the middle, and contains twelve words. The three preceding verses have the numbers 7, 7, 5, and the three following verses have exactly the same (in ver. 5 the ti^i^i ty'^^ is considered as one word, and in like manner the ;-i2""l7''^)- ^^ ^® consider the 7 and the 5 as the broken 12, the whole becomes characterised by the 7 and the 12, the signature of the covenant, and of the people of the covenant. The seven is, according to common rule, divided by the three and the four. Everything here agrees too harmoniously toge ther to admit of the arrangement being the result of chance. The view is one of considerable importance in more respects than one. Thus it attests the originality of the Title in ver. 1, and, consequently, of the titles generally ; for the title forms part of the artificial structure of the Psalm, a structure which falls to pieces as soon as the title is reraoved. In like manner it sets aside arbitrary attempts, such as that of Ewald, who magnanimously endeavours to cover over out of his own re sources, the pretended defect at the beginning of the Psalm. And it also explains, adequately, the very concise form of expression throughout the Psalms which certainly looks like one, the words of which had been numbered. The title furnishes no means for expounding historically the Psalm. For the song of the Sons of Korah, to whom it is as signed, was heard at very different times. Yet an historical ex position is demanded by the contents. For hopes such as those here expressed, suppose some actual occasion by which their flame, always glimmering under the ashes, might be kindled up in the soul of a prophet, or of a Psalmist who is particularly depend ent upon such actual occasions. These actual occasions are of a twofold character : either the depth of misery, the sad contrast between the idea of the people of God, and their appearance, which powerfully constrains heaven-enraptured souls to seek com pensation in the future, and opens their spiritual eye to behold the glory pointed out to them by God, (this is the history of the Messianic prospects immediately before the exile, during it, and shortly after its close), or some great present salvation, in which the believing soul sees a prelude and a pledge of the perfection of 76 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. salvation, and by which it is lifted up to the active exercise of hope in regard to it. The spirit and tone of the Psalm render it manifest that it was an occasion of the latter kind, as at Ps. Ixviii. Ixxii., that existed in the case before us ; the former is, ge nerally speaking, rather prophetic than lyric ; poetry is depend ant upon the popular tone of mind, and is drawn forth by it, while prophecy corrects it. The whole character of the Psalm agrees with the title, which designates it a Song of Praise. There are no traces of tears recently dried up in the clear countenance of the Psalmist, as there were, for example, in that of Jeremiah, when he began to sing the song of Israel's deliverance. Triumph ant joy pervades it frora beginning to end. If we endeavour to define raore closely the historical occasion, every thing leads us to the joyful events under Hezekiah, We cannot fix upon an earlier time. For before this time Babylon could not have been named, as itis here, as being, next to Egypt, the representative of the power of the world. Its rising grandeur became first known in the time of Hezekiah. In the forty-eighth Psalm, which was composed by David, Egypt and Cush still ap pear, ver. 31, 32, as the representatives of the might of the world : in Asia at that time it had no adequate representative. Further, the name Rahab, haughtiness, pride, by which Egypt is here designated, occurs for the first time in Is. xxx. 7, in a prophecy belonging to the time of the Assyrian oppression un der Hezekiah, and this passage is undoubtedly the fundaraental one on which the others, the passage before us and Ps. Ixxxix. 11, depend, — the name does not occur in Is. Ii. 9, 10 : comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 13. Isaiah indicates pretty clearly that he is the author of the name, when he says : therefore I call it Eahab. And in like manner, we cannot come down to a later time. The deliver ance under Hezekiah is the last great joyful event previous to the captivity ; and the name by which Egypt is here designated forbids us again to descend to a period later than that event. The name " haughtiness," " pride," was suitable only so long as Egypt continued to be a forraidable power (and that Eahab is to be explained in this way is manifest from Job ix. 13 ; xxvi. 12 ; Is. Ii. 9 ; comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 13, besides Is. xxx. 7) ; the word is never applied to a ferocious aquatic animal, a sea monster ; by the battle at Karkemish or Circesium on the Euphrates, the PSALM LXXXVII. 77 haughtiness of Egypt was humbled, its pride was broken. The name appears, indeed, in Ps. Ixxxix. 11, but only in reference to the haughtiness and pride of the past, the incarnation of which was Pharaoh in the time of Moses : but here the allusion is that even this still haughty and proud power shall take upon itself the yoke of the Lord, — Eahab, — Egypt, with all its haughtiness and pride. — Further, it is evident from Ps. xlvi., lxxv., Ixxvi., which were all composed at this time, that the Psalm-poetry received a mighty impulse from the events under Hezekiah, and was at that time awakened out of its long slumber. The first of these Psalms, like the one now before us, belongs to the sons of Korah, and shows that these men at that time were found among the organs by whom the joy of inspired men and the confidence of the people received their adequate expressions. This Korahitic Jehovah- Psalm is intimately connected with that Korahitic Elo- him-Psalm, not only in spirit and tone, which it possesses in com mon with Ps. xlvii. and xlviii., the ancient models after which the Korahitic Psalms of the time of Hezekiah were composed, but also in particular expressions, such as the praise of Zion (comp. Ps. xlvi. 4, 5,with ver. 1-3 here), the name " the city of God," which is given to it here (comp. ver. 4 there with ver. 3 here), and the words, " he establishes it," here in ver. 5, and there in ver. 5. — If we suppose the Psalm to have been composed on the occasion referred to, it will appear quite intelligible that the Psalmist should break out so suddenly at the beginning with praise of the security of Sion : he merely lends his mouth in this case to the full heart of the people ; verse second also, " The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob," is seen in its true light, for this preference for Sion was at that time verified — its gates remained closed upon the enemies, while all the rest of the coun try was subject to their sway, — the heart alone remained uninjured. In like manner, also, the expression in ver. 5, " He establishes it, the Most High," receives its foundation. — That tirae also was peculiarly well-fitted to develope the germ of the main-idea of our Psalm, the hope, namely, which always slumbered among the people, of the conversion of the heathen to God and to his king dom. The ancient promise, " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," had at that time found a prelude of its fulfil ment. The common enemy of the human race had been cast to the 78 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ground for the sake of Sion ; the heathen shared in a blessing which was in the first instance imparted to her. That they were not wholly hardened against this favour, but that they responded to the exhortations of Asaph, " Let them bring gifts to the Dreadful One," Ps. Ixxvi. 12, is evident from 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, " And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem." What time could be better fitted than this to awaken the hope of the future conversion of the heathen ? — Finally, if we assume the occasion referred to to have been the correct one, a surprising light is thrown upon the enumeration of the nations, which thus is saved from the appearance of arbitrarhiess. The nations enu merated are only such nations as were bound up in community of interest with Israel at that time and are hence the same as the " many" of Chronicles. The Egyptians formed always the chief object of attack to the Assyrians, and were severely threatened by Sennacherib. The Ethiopians at that time were closely bound up with the Egyptians (comp. Rosellini i. ii. p. 105), and Torhaka, king of the Ethiopians, was, according to Is. xxxvii. 9, in the train against Sennacherib. The king of Babylon, whose rising power the spiritual eye of the prophets had already before this time beheld in the fore-ground of the future, and whom they had represented to theraselves as the heir of the decaying Assyrian (corap., for example, Is. xxxix. 23, 17 ; Micah iv. 10), sent a pre sent, after the Assyrian catastrophe, to Hezekiah, and sought to enter into closer terms of friendship with him. Isaiah, in chap. xiv. 29, threatens the Philistines with dreadful misery from the Assyrians, and it is evident, from chap. xx. 1, that this threaten ing was fulfilled. — Rich Tyre would, in all probability, come in next after Judah. — Thus, therefore, every thing unites in favour of the assumption of the composition at the time referred to, in favour of which it may still be added that some passages remind us very strikingly of Isaiah. Title. By the sons of Korah, a Psalm, a Song of Praise. Ver. 1. His founded (city), upon the holy mountains. Ver. 2, The Lord loves the gates of Sion more than all dwellings of Jacob. ' Ver. 3. Glorious things are said of thee, thou city of God. — The suffix in lJ-\'7iD^' '^^^- !> refers not to Sion, which every where throughout the Psalm is plural, but to Him of whom the soul of the Psalmist, and of the people at that time, was so full PSALM LXXXVII. VER. 1 — 3. 79 that every one would immediately think of him, even when he was not expressly mentioned, the Lord ; comp. ver. 2 and 5, and Is. xiv. 32, liv. 11, where the founding of Sion by the Lord is, in like manner, raentioned. We cannot translate : his found ing, for the noun ^"flDi never occurs ; it must be : his founded (city), as a simple participle. The founding of Sion took place in a spiritual sense, when it was chosen to be the seat of the sanc tuary ; comp. the being born used of the spiritual birth in ver. 4-6. It was at that tirae that the place, though if had previously existed, received its true foundation. It is better to supply " is founded," out of " his founded city," than to insert the raere " is :" comp. -f|^h with ^ of that on which it is founded in Is. liv. 11, " I will found thee on sapphires." As in other passages Sion is always spoken of only as the holy mountain of the Lord (comp., for example, Ps. ii. 6, xliii. 3), and as the Psalmist, throughout the whole Psalm, has to do, not with the whole of Jerusalera, but only with Sion, Mount Sion here also raust be understood as alone meant. The Psalmist speaks of mountains, because Sion is one part of a mountain range, comp. Eobinson ii. 15. The whole was indebted for its dignity to this particular part. The sanctity of the moun tain range, of which Sion formed the kernel (the remaining por tion was merely the shell) denoted its separation from all the other mountains of the earth, its inapproachable character, its impregnable security against all the attacks of the world. For this sanctity it was indebted to the choice of God, fixing it as the seat of .his church upon the earth. The mountain is holy " as the mountain which the Lord chooses for his seat," Ps. Ixviii. 16. The praise which is here bestowed upon Sion belongs peculiarly to the church of God upon the earth. As it belonged to Sion only in so far as it was the seat of the church, so it belongs to the church only in so far as it is really the church. — On the ex pression, " The Lord loveth," in ver.-2, comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 68. The gates are specially mentioned because it was against them that the assaults of the enemies were in the first instance directed. If they remained safe, the whole city was safe : comp. Is. Ix. 18. — " There is spoken," in ver. 3, stands instead of " men speak." The mi^^i is the accusative ; comp. Ewald, | 552. The form of expression is designedly general : by God, by man, araong Is rael, among the heathens, Sion gets glorious praise. Glorious : 80 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, because the Lord protects thee, wonderfully maintains thee, shall at a future time wonderfully increase thy citizens ; comp. the glorious praise of Sion in Ps. xlviii. and xlvi. which may serve as a commentary. Of thee: — comp. on "^^-j with^ of the object Ew. § 521, 8. We may also translate, " in thee," the glorious things of God's wonderful protection and blessing' upon thee ; comp. Ps. xlviii. 3, " God is known in her palaces for a refuge." " Thou city of God" (comp. Ps. xlvi. 4. xlviii. 1) contains the ground of the fact that there is said something glorious of Sion or in Sion. Ver 4-7. — Ver. 4. / announce Rahab and Babylon as those who know me, behold Philistia and Tyre with Cush : this one was born there. Ver. 5. And of Sion it is said: every one is horn in her, and He establishes her, the Most High. Ver. 6. The Lord shall count in the writing down of the nations : this one was born there, Selah. Ver. 7. And singers and dancers : " all my fountains are in thee." At the time when these hopes were expressed, the number of the members of the kingdom of God had been very much melted down. The ten tribes had al ready been led away into captivity, and Judah remained alone in the land. In these circumstances the longing after the fulfilment of the old promises of a posterity to Abraham as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, must have been awakened with peculiar power, and must have seized -with especial ardour upon every thing, such as the above raentioned events in the tirae of Hezekiah, which furnished a foundation on which such a hope could rest, and brought into -view a compensation for the loss of Israel in the coming in of the heathen. In like manner in the present day, the melancholy condition of the church. among our selves makes us look with earnest longings towards heathen lands, and observe every sign which intimates that the Lord will there collect new merabers for his church. In the first half of ver. 4, the Lord speaks, and from the second half to the end the Psalm ist ; for it will not do to suppose that the Psalmist begins with "and" in ver. 5. The difference, however, is one purely formal, so that it would scarcely be proper to read the address of the Lord with inverted commas. The Psalmist who speaks in the spirit of the Lord, merely continues what the Lord had begun. The '^yi^T\ is to mention, to announce, as Ps. xx. 7 ; xlv. 17 ; Ixxi. 16 ; PSALM LXXXVII. VER. 4 — 7. 81 Ixxvii. 11 ; Jer, iv. 16. The^^'^'i'^ is as my knowers, such as know me, like iti^Dnv t^2J'^ *^ 9^ <'"' <^® a free man, Ex. xxi. 2. On lo'know the Lord, compare atPs. xxxvi. 10 ; Isaiah xix. 21 is parallel : " And the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day." The trans lation of Gesenius must be rejected : I will make them known to my (old) acquaintances. For the mere announcement is not suf ficient ; the quality must be pointed out. Is. xix. 19, &c.,is, for eixample, really, parallel, where Egypt and Assyria, instead of which we have here Babylon on the ground already mentioned, serve the Lord, and Israel is third in the covenant ; and also Is. xliv. 5, " this one shall say I am the Lord's, and this one shall call himself by the name of the God of Jacob, and this one shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." After " behold Philistia and Tyre with Cush," we must supply : this shall be said by thera ; compare "^^IJ^ in ver. 3, and •^j^t^'' in ver. 5. This supplementary clause is indi - cated by the quotation given of the words which these utter : this one was born there. Tyrus had already been named in Ps. xlv. 12, as a.mong the nations which shall in future times turn to the Lord and his kingdom. The Berleb. Bible : " The Syrians had already furnished workmen and materials for Solomon's temple, as a good type that they also would join in the fellowship of the Church of New Testament times, of which the Canaanitish woman formed the first fruits." On the conversion of the Cushites, compare Ps. Ixviii. 31 ; Ixxii. 10. Berleb : of which the eunuch of Queen Candace, Acts viii. 27, was the first fruits. " This one" does not refer to individuals, but to the ideal persons of the nations who had for merly been spoken of, and with whom the Psalmist has through out to do ; compare particularly, " when the people shall be re corded" in ver. 4. The "being born" stands here in anticipa tion of the New Testament doctrine of the second birth in a spiritual sense : besides the passage before us, it occurs only in Job xi. 12, " and the vain man shall be wise, and the wild ass born a man." Sion is the birth-place of the higher existence of the heathen, their spiritual mother city. They shall be there born anew as children of God and children of Abraham. — In ver. 5. The great favour which the Lord shews for Sion in making her the birth-place and the true home of theiheathen, is again touched 82 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ' upon for the purpose of placing it in connection with a second favour, that namely of strength and maintainence. It is in this connection, that what is new and advanced in the thought Hes. Calvin : " It often happens, that in proportion to the rapidity with which cities rise to distinguished eminence, is the shortness of the continuance of their prosperity. That it may not be thought that the prosperity of the church is of such a perishable and transitory nature, it is declared that the Most High hiraself will establish her. It is not surprising, as if it had been said, to find other cities shaken, and subjected from time to time to a variety of vicissitudes ; for they are carried round with the world iu its re volutions, and do not enjoy everlasting defenders. But it is the very reverse with the new Jerusalem, which, being founded upon the power of God, shall continue when even - heaven and earth shall have fallen into ruins." On '^^jf^ with ^ compare iii. 2 ; Ixxi. 10. We may also translate here, " to Sion," although in point of form the address is not directed to Sion. The \i^i^ '{^i'l^l is to be considered as one noun, and signifies each and every one (comp. Esth. i. 8 ; Lev. xvii. 10, 13), — man is added to man, nation to nation, comp. at ver. 4. He, he himself and no other, not a weak human being. The Most High — comp. Ps. xlvii. 2. — In ver. 6, which Luther has wholly misunderstood, -jg^ has its usual sense, to count, compare 2 Sara. xxiv. 10, where it is used of David numbering the people. The Lord numbers the nations 1, 2, 3, &c., and in doing so, in assigning in the case of each the reason why he counts it in, he makes the remarks : this one was born there. The ^"ij-^^ is not a noun (no such noun occurs), but an infinitive : in the noting down of the peoples-wot when he notes down, but when they are noted down. The Lord merely presides at the taking up of the lists, and intimates who are to be marked down. There lies at the foundation a reference to the usual enuraeration and citizen-rolls, compare Ez. xiii. 9, which gave a poor and misreable result as compared with the high ex pectations and hopes which had been called forth in the church of God at its commencement. There comes at last, however, a num bering which satisfies all these hopes. Whole hosts of nations shall be added to the kingdom of God. — Ver. 7 is so far separated from ver. 4-6, as is intimated by the Selah, as that there is no thing more said in it of ,Sion as the birth-place of the heathen ; PSALM LXXXVII. VER. 4 — 7. 83 it Is so far connected, however, as that the matter spoken of is still the relation of the heathen to Sion. It contains the words with which these new citizens of Sion praise it as the fountain of all their salvation : and singers and dancers (at the head of every great procession of the -heathen), speak thus: all my fountains are in thee. The mention of singers and dancers leads to a joy ful procession, in which the redeemed from the heathen, as Israel did on a former occasion after their passage through the Eed Sea, Ex.' XV.- 20, 21, express their- gratitude to the Lord and to his church. In such joyful processions the singers here first named occupy the chief-place ; compare at Ps. Ixviii. 25. What these did with their lips, the ring-dancers expressed in music and by mimicry ; compare Ps. cxlix. 3 ; cl. 4, " let them praise his name in the dance." As : the one no less than the other, "j'^n i^ * verbal noun from ^'\f\, compare ]Ti'^71h?2' the ring-dancers in Jud. xxi. 23, which, according to ver. 21, is to be derived from '^'^n- Ps. xxx. 11, and the example of David, 2 Sam. vi. 16, render it manifest that the ring-dance was not confined to young women, but was also engaged in by men. The fountains are the fountains of salvation which revive the thirsty soul and the thirsty land ; compare Ps. Ixxxiv. 6 ; Is. xii. 3, " with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." In Ezekiel, chap, xlvii. there flows a fountain proceeding out of the sanctuary in Sion, spreading the blessings of fertility and lifethrough the wilderness into the Dead Sea, the two emblems of the heathen wOrld. Com pare on the representations of the blessings of the kingdom of God by the emblem of a stream, at Ps xxxvi. 8 ; xlvi. 4. The '^^ can refer, as in ver. 3, only to Sion : in the Lord and thus in Sion his church, which he has made the depository of all his trea sures ; compare Is. xlv. 14. Calvin : " Now that we know that whatever has been foretold by the Spirit has been fulfilled, we are more than unthankful if experience superadded to the words of Scripture, does not still more confirm our faith. For it is not possible to say how gloriously Christ by his appearing has adorned the church. Then the true religion which had hitherto been con fined within the narrow boundaries of Judea, spread over the whole world. Then for the first time God, who had hitherto been known only by one family, was called upon in the different languages of all nations. Then the world, which had hitherto been f2 84 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. miserably rent in pieces by the innumerable sects of superstition and error, was gathered together into a holy unity of faith." PSALM LXXXVIII. The Psalmist, in ver. 1 and 2, prays suppliantly for help ; grounds this prayer, ver. 3-9, upon the fact that he is sunk in the deepest misery, and standing on the verge of complete de struction, at the gates of death ; and intimates in ver 10-12 that God cannot possibly give over his own people to this. After a short effort at renewed prayer, there follows a representation of the sufferings of the Psalmist, and with this the whole termi nates, ver. 13-18. The understanding of this Psalm is entirely dependant upon the correct view of its relation to Ps. Ixxxix. We shall there fore direct attention to this subject in the first instance. Seve ral expositors have noticed that the two Psalms stand intimately connected together f- no expositor, however, has sufficiently fol lowed out the traces which have been discovered. We maintain that the two Psalms together, like Psalms ix. and x., xiii. and xliii., and many other pairs of Psalms, form one whole consisting of two-parts. 1. The Title of Ps. Ixxxviii. furnishes more than one reason in favour of this. Its disproportionate length, so very striking, becomes explained at once as soon as it is viewed as belonging to one great whole. In the next place it is very striking that the last words of the title, " an instruction of He- man the Esrahite," correspond exactly to the title of Ps. Ixxxix., " an instruction of Ethan the Esrahite." By this we are un questionably led to the idea that the above are the titles of the two parts respectively, and that the preceding portion of the title of Ps. Ixxxviii. is the title of the whole. Finally, the •^I'^y placed, as it were, at the top of the title, is perfectly decisive. We have, on a former occasion, shown that this word does not denote a poem generally, but a song, a song of praise, comp. at Ps. xiii. 8, a Amyi-aldus on Ps. ixxxix. : It is common to this Psalm with the last, that although each names its author in the title, these authors are both unknown, ftnd besides in both Psalms there is contained a most vehement lamentation, accompanied with incredible ardour of soul. PSALM LXXXVIII. 85 Ixxxiii. title. Now if we refer the title entirely to Ps. Ixxxviii., it is impossible to tell what to raake of it. The Psalmist is so completely unmanned by a sense of his misery, that he can scarcely adopt the language of prayer, and certainly not that of praise. On the other hand, if we refer the title to the whole of both Psalms, the term is quite appropriate. Ps. Ixxxix. begins, with manifest reference to the title, with the words, " I will sing the grace of God," and bears from ver. 1 to ver. 38 throughout the character of a song of praise.* This character belongs to the whole, as soon as it is recognised as a whole. The introductory and concluding portions, dark in themselves, are illuminated by the light of a centre-sun. And the design of the whole then becomes manifest, namely, to give instruction how, in circum stances of great distress, to gain the victory over despair by praising God. 2. If we separate Ps. Ixxxviii. from Ps. Ixxxix., it stands alone in the whole book of Psalms. All expositors re mark with one voice, that such a comfortless complaint no where else occurs throughout its entire compass. Stier, for example, says : " the most mournful of all the plaintive Psalms, yea so wholly plaintive, without any ground of hope, that nothing like it is found in the whole Scriptures." The fact is all the more striking, that the Psalm begins with the words, " 0 Lord, thou the God of my salvation," after which one certainly might ex pect any thing else rather than a mere description of trouble, in which the darkness is thickest at the close, contrary to the usual practice, for in all other cases the sun breaks through the clouds at the end, if it had not done so before : — the peculiar feature of this Psalm is that it ends entirely in night. The importance of these facts is obvious from the circumstance that Muntinghe has been led by them to adopt the idea that the Psalm is merely a fragment "bf a larger one — an idea utterly destitute of probability, for we have no such thing as fragments either in the book of Psalms or indeed within the whole compass of the literature of the Old Testament. As soon as the connection between Ps. Ixxxviii. and Ixxxix. is acknowledged, the difficulty disappears. The Psalmist might, in this case, give free scope in the first part a Ven. : The subject matter of the Psalm, if you regard the lai-gest portion of it, is the cflebration of the grace and truth of God, especially in reference to the promise of the perpetuity of the kingdom of David. 86 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. to his pain and lamentation, in obedience to an irresistible im pulse of human nature, knowing that in the second part the rising sun of consoZaiton would dispel all this darkness. 3. The con cluding portion of Ps. Ixxxix., ver. 38-51, strikingly agrees with Ps. Ixxxviii. The situation is the same, that, viz., of one who had speedy destruction before his eyes, who stood at the gates pf death. The complaint is as deep and painful here as it is there. Ps. Ixxxix. 47, 48, ought especially to be compared with Ps. Ixxxviii. 10-12. 4. Jf we consider both Psalms as one, we ob tain, by counting the rich title of Ps. Ixxxviii., the significant number seventy. It may be urged against the unity of both Psalms, that in Ps. Ixxxviii. it is a private individual who speaks, but in Ps. Ixxxix. it is the people, or, according to the idea of others, an oppressed king of the family of David ; that in Ps. Ixxxix. the sufferings distinctly arise frora enemies, which in Ps. Ixxxviii., even although the assertion of some, " that the Psalmist is ill of a mortal dis ease," and the assertion of others, " that he is languishing in prison," be rejected, as arbitrary and unfounded, the description of the sufferings is of such a kind that it would apply in general to any great distress. But these remarks, in so far as they are founded in truth, agree perfectly well with the view given above as to the unity of the two Psalms — a unity which is not indi visible, but is made up of two parts ; — ;aud are consistent with the contents of the titles. The author has constructed the first part of the double whole in such a way, that it may not only serve a sorely oppressed people, but also every individual saint may find in it an adequate expression of his own feelings — an ar rangement which is exceedingly natural, inasmuch as in seasons of public distress the individual is too often little else than an image of the whole, and which has many analogies on its side, especially in the prophecies and lamentations of Jeremiah, in reading which one feels often inclined to ask whether the pro phet means himself or the people. The Psalmist therefore has carefully avoided every thing which referred definitely and ex clusively to the people, and in like manner every thing which might lead to any particular kind of trouble. There does not occur, however, any thing (and only this would be decisive against the unity) which in any measure contradicts the reference to the PSALM LXXXVIII. 87 whole community ; — in ver. 8, to which reference has been made, the acquaintances are neighbouring nations. After this, as soon as the people only speaks in Ps. Ixxxix., every objection is re moved. And that it is the people that speaks there, and not the anointed, is clear as day. The promise is there in ver. 20 ss. directed, not as in the fundamental passage 2 Sam. vii. to David, but to the people. The complaint as to difference be tween that promise and present experience, is raised, not on be half of David, but on behalf of the people. The difficulty is this, that the divine favour which, according to the Word of God, the people should have enjoyed through the family of David, had been withdrawn. David, and his Son, the anointed, are through out spoken of in the third person ; the people unquestionably comes forward as different in ver. 17, 18, 50, If we adopt the unity of the two Psatms, it becomes no very difficult matter to assign the date of the composition of the whole. It cannot have been composed earlier than the times imraediately preceding the Babylonish captivity : for the people stand here at the very brink of a precipice. It is even better to refer to the time of Zedekiah, than, with Venema, to the time immediately after the death of Josiah. The Psalm must have been composed before the captivity : for there is no trace of the destruction of the city and temple, which could scarcely have been omitted if it had taken place ; the kingdom of David is in a state of depres sion, and verging towards extreme old age, but still it exists (corap. especially ver. 45 and 51), and the prayer of the Psalmist is, that the Lord would deliver it from impending destruction ; according to ver. 43, the anointed of the Lord gtill carried on wars, although unfortunate ones. Assumptions such as those, which refer the composition of the Psalm to the times of the Mac cabees, render it necessary to have recourse to the desperate ex pedient of understanding the expressions, " David," " his son," " the anointed of the Lord," as meaning, not the royal -family of David, but the royal nation — an assertion which does not require one word to be thrown away upon it. The Title runs : A Song of Praise, a Psalm by the Sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician, upon the distress of oppres sion, — An Instruction by Heman, the Esrahite, — The expres sion, "to the Chief Musician," amounts to a notice that we. 88 ' THE BOOK OF PSALMS. have before us a proper church-song. The fTi2j>") r\7hD h^ has been already explained at Ps. xiv., vol. i. p. 206. That " of the sickness" is to be interpreted of sickness in a figurative sense as equivalent tp severe suffering — a sense in which the word is frequently used, as, for example. Is. i. 5 ; Ps. liii. Title — is evi dent frora the term which is appended as an explanation, JTiJj^^, denoting the afflicting cause : comp. ver. 8, 15, Ps. xc. 15, cii. 23, cxix. 75, or that in which the distress consists of it. If we connect these words with the y\)^ of the beginning we have a description of the design of the Psalm : to comfort, in severe suf fering, by the praise of God. Let us now direct our attention to the special title of Ps. Ixxxviii. It bears the name of Instruction or a didactic Psalm (at Ps. xxxii. Title), and the Psalm gives direction not to allow our sorrows to prey upon ourselves, but to pour them out before God — the A B C of all sufferers. If they follow this direction, they may be again spoken with. He who has learned to complain to God, will soon learn to hope in God. As the authors of the whole Psalm had already been said to be the Sons of Korah (comp. at Ps. xiii.), it is obvious that Heman the Esrahite, who is named here, and Etham the Esra hite, who is named in Ps. Ixxxix. should not be considered as the proper authors of the parts marked by their name, but as men into whose mouths the contents of these parts were put. The ^ is here, as in other passages, the ^ auctoris ; but it denotes the imaginary, and not the real author — a sense in which ' it may naturally be understood in those cases in which the real author had either been named or otherwise indicated, as in Ps. Ixxxvi, The reasons which induced the Sons of Korah to introduce these names of Heman and Etham need not remain doubtful. There is no doubt that these two men were the famous musicians of the time of David, who are so often named next after Asaph. Etham is the same as Jeduthun, who is in several passages named in an exactly similar relation as third next to Asaph and Heman. The attempt which Berthold makes in his Intro, iii. i. p. 1975 ss. to prove them different persons,-strikes in the opposite direction. Etham is probably the proper noun, and Jeduthun (the praise- man, corap. fTYiin'^ in 1 Chron. xvi. 41, xxv. 3, Ges. on the word), an ideal name, devised by David, — and hence we may ex- dlain the variety in the form : comp. Ps. xxxix. Title. These PSALM LXXXVIII. 89 men were not at all ordinary musicians : they were also, what they must have been to enable them to be founders of the sacred music, divinely inspired sages. In 1 Kings iv. 31, it is said of Solomon : " And he was wiser than all men, than Etham the Esrahite, and Heman, and Kalkol, and Dardah," and in 1 Chron. xxv. 5, Heman is called " the king's seer in the words of God." Both, however, were not composers of Psalms. The Sons ot Korah were at this time desirous, on the one hand, of honour ing their own poem, and of strengthening its impression by pre fixing to it the names of these celebrated men next after their own, and, on the other hand, of perpetuating the memory of these men, who appeared to such disadvantage, compared with their " brother" (I Chron. vi. 24) Asaph, who is so often named in the titles of the Psalms ; — they wished " to raise up seed" to the childless and sages. In doing so, they had the example of David before their eyes, who, in Ps xxxix. Title, had named Jeduthun for the purpose of honouring him, and handing his name down to posterity, not indeed as the author, but as the chief musician (comp. at the passage), and also the example of their ancestors, who had on several occasions sung from the soul of David : comp, for example, Ps. xiii., xliii,, Ixxxiv., Ixxxvi. — Heman is here, and Ethan in Ps. Ixxxix., called the Esrahite. We learn the import of the term in 1 Chron. ii. 5, "' and the sons of Serah : Simri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darah" (we have the same names in 1 Kings v. 11, with the unimportant difference of Dar dah instead of Darah). The ^ is hence an Al. prothet., and Ethan and Heman were naraed Esrahites, because they be longed to the family of Serah, the son of Judah, which they adorned by their famous names. It is certain that they were not the descendants of Serah, the son of Judah. The whole music connected with the worship of God in David's time, and in later periods, was in the hands of Levites ; and this every child knew, so that nobody could think of tracing the descent of the famous chief musicians of David to the tribe of Judah. Heman, according to the express and well-defined intimations given in 1 Chron. vi. 18 ss., xv. 27, was a Levite of the family of the Koha- thites, the grandchild of Samuel, whose spirit passed over to the " seer in the words of God," through his son Joel ; Ethan, ac cording to 1 Chron, vi. 29-32 (comp. xv. 17, 19) was a Levite 90 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. of the family of the Merarites, a son of Kisis, 1 Chron. vi. 29, or, according to another form of the name of Kusaja, XV. 17," as Asaph, according to 1 Chron. vi. 24-28, was a Levite of the family of the Gershonites. Hence Heman and Ethan could have been reckoned as belonging to the family of Serah, only in the sense that they dwelt in this family, as " stran gers and sojourners " (corap. Jud. xvii. 7), and were incorporated with it, as citizens. And there are not wanting exaraples of Levites being spoken of as belonging to the family of which, in their capacity as citizens, they formed part. Thus Samuel the Levite, 1 Sam. i. 1, is called an Ephraimite ; and, in Jud. xvii. 7, there . follows immediately after the words " of the family of Judah," the remark, " who was a Levite, and he sojourned there;" comp. Beitr. P. iii. p. 60. Heman and Ethan were hence adopted sons of Serah's, who brought hira, however, more honour than did all his real children. From the above induction it is clear, that Movers on Chron. p. 237, was too precipitate in find ing the accounts of Heman and Ethan to be contraditory ac counts, which are quite consistent with each other, when rightly understood, and that Keil on Chron. p. 164, and Gesen. in his Thes. under Heman, were, in like, too precipitate in denying the identity of the persons in the different passages. It is not possible to discover any formal arrangement extend ing throughout both Psalms ; and any forced attempts to do so are the less called for, as these Psalms, which are of great length, do not require, in accordance with the usual practice, any such arrangement ; comp. at Ps. Ixxviii. The Psalmist has satisfied himself with including the whole within the remarkable number 70, and giving to each separate part an artificial arrangeraent, in which the nurabers 7 and 10 play the chief parts. Thus the main division in Ps. Ixxxviii. consists of seven verses, which are divided into a four and a three, ver. 3-9, and 10-12. Ver. 1, 2. — Ver 1. Lord God, my saviour, I cry in the day time, in the night before thee. Ver. 2. Let my prayer come be fore thee, incline thine ear to my cry. — On the " my salvation- a In 1 Kings v. 11, Ethan and Heman are called sous of Machol. There is, however, no contradiction between this and the notice given in Cbi-on. Machol is not a proper name ; it never occurs as such ; we must ti-anslate : sons of the dance ; Seller .- skilfid in leading down the sacred dance : comp. " daughters of music," Eccl. xii. 4. PSALM LXXXVIII VER. 3 — 9, 91 God," Calvin : " In thus addressing God he lays bridle and bit on the excess of his pain, he shuts the door of despair, and strengthens himself to carry the cross." The extremely concise character of the second half of the verse is explained by the cir cumstance, that the words are numbered for the purpose of inti mating beforehand the 7, as the signature of the whole Psalm. The two clauses are to be supplemented from each other ; in the first, before thee; and in the second, I cry. The fundamental passage is Ps. xxii. 2 : " My God, I cry in the day time and thou answerest not, and in the night season and I am not silenced." According to this passage the q'^i here must stand for ^fy/^, or ^¦^12. It certainly does not occur thus in any other passage, but there are many analogies in its favour (comp. Ew. § 492), and the short form might the more readily be used here as j-j'^i';)^ follows. Forced translations, such as " at the time when I am during the night before thee," are foundered by the fact that q-^^ in parallel in f^^i^ can only mean day.'^ The Psalmist grounds, in ver. 3-9, his petition that he may be finally heard in the prayer which he unceasingly addresses to God, without having hitherto obtained any answer, upon the greatness of his distress. Ver. 3. For my soul is filled with suffering, and my life is near to sheol. Ver. 4. I am reckoned with them that go down to the grave, I am as a man to whom there is no strength. Ver. 5. Among the dead free, like the slain, who lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Ver. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in deeps. Ver. 7. Thy wrath lieth upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. Ver. 8. Thou hast removed my acquaintances from me, I am shut up and do not go out. Ver. 9. Mine eye languisheth because of misery, I cry to thee, 0 Lord, every day, I stretch out to thee my hands. — Instead of " my life stretches to sheol," in ver. 3, Ps. cvii. 18, has " to the gates of death." The first clause of ver. 4 is from Ps. xxviii. 1, with the change of iji^'jy'ji^i a On " before thee" Calvin : " Nor is the particle, before thee, superfluous ; all men alike complain in their grief; but this is far from pouring out their gi-oans in tlie presence of God: nay, they must seek some hiding-place where they may murmur against God, and find fault with his severity ; others utter openly theh clamorous words. Hence we see what a rare virtue it is to place God before us, and to direct to him our prayers," 92 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. into 'i]-i^'{y'n> With them, i. e., as them, or like them. The men without strength (not is strength, for to whom there is no strength, Ew. § 608), are, according to the connection, the dead. It is only on this interpretation that we can explain the as. The Psalmist was already without strength ; but he is rather exactly like a dead than like a living man on the brink of the grave. — In " free among the dead," in ver. 5, the Psalmist overlooks the small difference which still exists between him and the dead, and reckons himself among the latter, as he does also in ver. 6 ; ver. 4, and the remaining portion of ver. 5, shew that the sense is, " already as good as dead, and, therefore, free from thee." Free dom, in connection with earthly relations, is, generally speaking, a great good. Yet, with good human masters, there have been cases in which the slave did not choose to avail himself of the freedom to which the divine law entitled him ; comp. Deut. xv. 16, " I will not go out from thee, because I love thine house, and I am happy with thee." But, with the heavenly master, freedom is pre-eminently an evil ; to be the servant of God is the highest happiness ; corap. Ps. Ixxxvi. 16. For his service is joy, because his yoke is easy and his burden is light, his command ments are more precious than gold, yea, than much fine gold, are sweeter than honey and the honey comb (comp. the praise of the divine commandraents in Ps. xix.) ; and, what is of special conse quence here, God gives to his servants a great reward, Ps. xix. 12 ; he not only demands service from them, he also cares for them with tender fatherly love, feeds them at his table, and holds his protecting hand over them ; comp. Ps. xxiii. Over against these rich blessings, which the service of God brings with it, there is the mere naked freedom remaining for those who have been removed from the service of God — a poor thing. Allusion is made, as is obvious, to Job iii. 19, " and the servant is (there in the world of spirits) free from his master ;" it may be a fortu nate thing to become free from an earthly master, but to be free from the heavenly master is assuredly misery. Great difficulty has been experienced in interpreting the words before us. Hence have proceeded such translations as : among the dead is my couch, or among the dead I ara sick, weak, or laid prostrate. The etymology is decidedly against this : the sense of freedom is the fundamental and the only sense of the root \2^cn in He • PSALM LXXXVIII. VER. 3 — 9. ' 93 brew (Havernick on Ez. xxvii. 20). In Ez. in the above men tioned place ty'sn '^li^ is " glorious coverings ;" comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 25, where iti^QJ-f >^^ich generally denotes not the " set free," but the " free man," signifies a " free Iprd ;" magnificence can not be wanting. In 2 Kings xv. 5, 2 Chron. xxvi, 21, j^^^ n^ty'Qn ^^ nWQ'n is ^ house of freedom, a house where the lepers dwelt, those who were likened to the dead, struck off from the roll of the servants of God. This is manifest from the remark which follows in Chron. : " for he, Uzziah, was cut off from the house of the Lord," had lost his place there where all the servants of the Lord dwell (comp. at Ps. Ixxxiv. and the parallel passages), in con sequence of which Uzziah lost his command over his fellow-servants, which was handed over to his son Jotham, This strikingly harmonious parallel passage furnishes the second proof in favour of the above translation. The third lies in the expression, " those whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand," which agrees remarkably well with the first clause as un derstood by us, and serves to. explain it exactly as in the above quoted passage of Chron., "to dwell in the house of freedom," is explained by "to be cut off from the house of the Lord." The comparison with the dead is followed by that with the slain, be cause the Psalmist was threatened with violent deprivation of life. " To be cut off from the hand of God," his helping and protecting hand, is to be made away with in a violent manner, in consequence of violent destruction to be no longer the object of God's helping grace ; compare at the parallel passage, Ps. xxxi. 22, " I am cut off from thine eyes," cut off, and consequently withdrawn from thy gracious look. We have already, at Ps. vii. 5, adverted to the idea which lies at the foundation of the whole verse that the dead are no longer the objects of the loving care of God. In Old Testament times it had a mournful truth. The darkness of the intermediate state previous to the appearing of Christ, had not yet been illuminated by the morning of divine grace — the paradise of which the Lord spoke to the thief was first opened up at his death — the interraediate state under the - Old Testament was indeed not distinctly known as such ; the clear view of the resurrection was first opened up by him who is the resurrection and the life. It was under the New Testament that it was first said of the grave : " it is to me a chamber where 94 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. I lie on roses, because by thy death I conquer death and the grave." The servants of God at that time could not but shudder when they stood immediately over the abyss of death and looked into the utter darkness, ',' the darkness of death without order." — The grave of deep places, in ver 6, is sheol, deep under the earth, compare on -^i^ of sheol at Ps. xxviii. 1, the " lower places of the earth," in parallel with "sheol," in Ps. Ixiii. 9, Ez. xxvi. 20, and "the lowest hell" in Ps. Ixxxvi. 13. The " dark places" are as usually (compare at Ps. Ixxiv. 20) the dark places of sheol. The Psalmist, a living corpse, is as good as brought to that place. On j-fl'^jjj^' in other passages J-ilV^^?12 water-deeps, compare at Ps. Ixix. 2. — The " waves" in ver. 7 are the tumultuous sea-waves of trouble and pain, compare at the fundamental passage, Ps. xiii. 7. The 'T"i"^i'(i)'?D is the ace. according to thy waves — with thera, corapare Ew. § 485. The Selah is appended to j^^yxj, in order to give prominence to that word which is intended to explain- the title. The want of the suffix, otherwise strange, may also be accounted for by a reference to this explanation. — The complaint of the estrangement of acquaintances and friends in consequence of suffering, ver. 8, meets us frequently in ¦ the Psalms, compare at Ps. xxvii. 10 ; xxxviii. 11 ; Ixix. 8. (Job xix. 13). What is true of personal is also true of national relations ; like causes produce like effects. The expression, " thou hast made me an abomination to thera" (the plural has an intensive force — as it -were a whole assemblage of abomination) alludes to Gen. xliii. 32, xlvi. 34, (compare Ex. viii. 22), according to which Israel was an abomination to the Egyptians, and therefore contains a slight intimation of a national reference. The last words, " I am shut up and do not go out," must necessarily be considered as referring to the acquaintances, and cannot be viewed in connection with a reference to Lam. iii. 7, 9, " shut up by misfortune, lean find no way of escape," but " shut up by public reproach, which keeps me in the house like a prisoner, I do not go out, I stir not from the door," with reference to Ps. xxxi. 11, " they who see me in the street flee from me," and especially to Job xxxi. 34, where Job is expressing his willingness to suffer in case of his guilt what he must now suffer unwillingly, says, " I should be afraid before a great multitude, and the contempt of families should terrify me, and I will be silent and not go out of doors," — On PSALM LXXXVIII. VER. 10 — 12. 95 ^^¦^ in ver. 9, compare Deut. xxvii. 65. Instead of " the eye," Luther without any reason has the " person," compare at Ps. vi. 7 ; Ixix. 3. On " I stretch out my hands," Arnd : I sigh with my heart, pray with my mouth, and supplicate with my hand, like a child which stretches out both its hands to its mother." Ver. 10-12. The Psalmist, who is now within one single step of death, represents to God, that if he delay any longer to help him, he will deprive himself of the possibility of manifesting his glory to which his very being prompts him, and of the praise of his own people, which is very pleasant to him, compare at Ps. vi. 5. For it is to the living only and not to the dead that he can shew wonders ; and it is the living only that can praise him : — " Make haste therefore and help me, ere I go to the land of dark ness when I shall he lost to thee. — Ver, 10. Wilt thou then do wonders to the dead, or will shadows stand up andpraise thee, Selah. Ver. 11. Will thy mercy be recounted in the grave, thy faithfulness in destruction. Ver. 12. Will thy wonders he known in darkness, and thy righteousness in the land of forget fulness!' — That God cannot shew wonders to the dead (ver. 10) is a strong reason why he should, while his people are still in life, manifest on their behalf his wondrous power. The existence of the Christian church furnishes a mighty proof that he has done this ; the maintenance of Israel in a time when every thing seemed to proclaim entire destruction, proceeds on the suppositionthathe does this. The j^^g stands collectively, compare at Ps. Ixxvii. 11. The mention of wonders points to the national reference of the Psalm. The Rephaim were a Canaanitish giant-race, whose name was applied to the shades of the lower world. Contactwith these is something terrible for the sufferer ; the spirits of the de ceased are representedto the imagination as possessed of a gigantic form, compare 1 Sam. xxviii. 13, where the witch of Endor, on the appearance of Samuel, says, " I behold Gods ascending out of the earth." Beitr, ii. p. 261. Against other attempted deri vations it may be urged that they do not explain the fact, that this term applied to the dead is only used in poetry ; that it is in the highest degree improbable that a word written exactly similar should have two derivations and significations ; and ^q'^ signifies to heal and nothing else, and that it is altogether foreign to the Hebrew to consider Eephaim a term applied to the shades 96 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. as bearing an agreeable sense. The Q^p is not to be considered as signifying to raise again from the dead, (that would be contra dictory to the true doctrines, which is never done in the Old Testament) but to rise up, compare Ps. Ixxviii. 6. The language refers to what takes place in death, not after death. The ^T^i also could scarcely want the copulative. The Selah gives God as it were time to weigh the weighty reason, and then the de velopment follows. — Inthe grave and in destruction, ver. 11, = in the place of destruction, sheol, the mercy and the faithfulness of €rod could not be praised so much as by his own people on earth, when he manifests these graces in delivering thera from impending death (compare at Ps. xxx. 9), partly because of the want of opportunity for its manifestation, and partly because of the want of ability to praise him. — The " land of forgetfulness' in ver. 12, is not the land where one is forgotten (Ps. xxx. 12), but the land where one forgets, Luther : " where one remembers nothing," compare Eccl. ix. 5, 6-10, " there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave." God does no wonderful works to the dead, because they would not be known by them. The great wonder of the resurrection is not excluded, because the language used applies only to those wonders which are performed to such as remain in a state of death. And that the Psalmist does not acknowledge this, is not to be explained by "thedifference between seasons of faith and despondency in the human soul which is found existing even in the present day." For it is a didactic poem that we have here before us. Such a poem may descend very low to suffering ; but it must always remain above it. Ver. 13-18. — Ver. 13. The Psalmist, in ver. 13, prepares for prayer, makes even an effort at it in ver, 14, and soon sinks back, ver. 15-18, into lamentation, which reaches its summit in the last words. — Ver. 13. But I cry to thee, 0 Lord, and in the morning my prayer shall anticipate thee, Ver. 14. Why, 0 Lord, dost thou cast off my soul, hidest thy face from me. Ver. 15. I am miserable and ready to expire from my youth. I hear thy terrors. I will despair. Ver. 16. Thy wrath goes over me, thy terrors annihilate me. Ver. 17. They surround me like water the whole day, they are round me altogether.. Ver. 18. Thou hast removed from me friend and neighbour, PSALM LXXXVIII. VER, 13 — 18. 97 mine acquaintances — the place of darkness. — " In the morning," in ver. 13, denotes the great earnestness in prayer : comp. at Ps. v. 3, Ivii. 8. The Q-jp is to surprise, comp. at Ps. xxi. 3. — On ver. 14, Calvin: "Although these lamentations at first sight exhibit expres sions of pain without any consolation, they nevertheless contain tacit prayers. For he does not proudly contend with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities." On " why dost thou cast off," (comp. Ps. xiii. 2), Arnd : " Thus it is when the cross lasts long, conflicts arise about casting off. But there is no casting off; there is only a waiting for the hour of help, the hour of the Lord." — In ver. 15th, there is no reason for departing from the usual sense of ¦^yj youth. (Luther falsely : that I am thus cast off). When a great affliction befals us, we cannot regard it as standing alone, we look upon it as the last step of a ladder, which we began to ascend as soon as we came into the world, so when we meet with any great deliverance, we think upon all the mer cies which we have experienced from our youth. In the funeral hymn : " And now I have ended life's hard course," we read : " In every year from tender youth, I have learned how hard's the road to heaven," Israel, who must first occur to our thoughts, says, in Ps. cxxix. 1, in language which corresponds exactly to the clause before us," " they have oft oppressed me from my youth up." The oppression in Egypt befel Israel in his youth (comp. Hos. xi. 1) in consequence of which he was brought to the very verge of destruction, so that he might with truth say, " I am mi serable and ready to expire from my youth," just as the anti type, the Lord who was born in a stable (=: Egypt), was soon sought after by Herod {= Pharaoh) that he might be put to death, and was exposed to the danger of his life on many occa sions on the part of his enemies. The terrors of God are the terrors which he sends. The J-f^lQi^ is from ^tQ, to despair, to expire. The form has its usual sense. The Psalmist is so far gone that he resolves to give himself over to despair, to give up that opposition to it which he cannot any longer maintain. — In ver. 16, the form iJ^rirTS^?' ^iiich nowhere else occurs, is formed out of the Piel, which occurs elsewhere, by the Psalmist himself, for the purpose of alluding to the ]-|lJ-)iJ22 of Lev. xxv. 23, " the land shall not be sold for annihilation (so that the right of the possessor shall not be wholly annihilated) for the land is m,ine, for G 98 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ye are strangers and sojourners with me." God appears — this is the force of the allusion — to be failing, contrary to his own law, inasmuch as he is completely alienating his property, so that the possibility of redemption is excluded." — In ver. 18, the usual translation is : my acquaintances are darkness, i. e., have disappeared. But we must rather, with J. D. Michaelis and others, explain : my companions — the place of darkness i. e., the dark kingdom of the dead is instead of all my companions, has come near to me, while they have gone back. The fol lowing considerations may be adduced in support of this : — tJiy'riD signifies always, even in Is. xxix. 15, xiii. 16, not darkness, but a dark place, and it occurs in this sense, and is even applied to the darkness of sheol in ver. 6 ; according to the usual translation, the ver. does not close with a thought of suffi cient strength, but with merely a fiat repetition of ver. 8, whereas, according to our translation, the Psalm ends with an energetic expression of its main thought — the immediate vicinity of death — the darkness is thickest at the end, just as it is in the morning before the rising of the sun ; and, finally, there is a strikingly parallel passage in Job xvii. 14, " I call the grave my father, and the worm ray mother and sister." PSALM LXXXIX. The Psalmist, in language of joy and praise, calls to remem brance first the promise of God which secured the perpetual exis tence of the royal family of David, and consequently the preserva tion of the people, ver. 1-37, then complains that the present state of matters forms a sad contrast to this promise, ver. 38-45, and finally prays to God that he would remove this contrast, ver. 46- 51. In reference to other introductory matter, compare at Ps. Ixxxviii. Ver. 1-4. The Church resolves that she will eternally praise the mercy and the faithfulness of the Lord, because these shall a Ewald takes another view : he, however, has nothing except a false rendering of Hos. iv. 18 to refer to in support of his view of the import of the form. That passage should be translated : they love the " prayer," as a description of their insatiable avarice, which always puts " give" into their month., PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 1 — 4. 99 eternally be manifested to the family of David, and through that family to the people, in virtue of the promise which God gave to David that he would eternally defend his family, eternally main tain his throne. — Ver. 1. I will sing eternally the mercies of the Lord, I will make known with my mouth thy truth from gene ration to ..generation. Ver.2. For I say : eternally shall thy mercy be built, the heaven — thou maintainest thy truth in it, Ver. 3. " 1 have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David my servant. Ver. 4. For ever I will maintain thy seed and build thy throne from generation to generation." Selah, — The mercies of the Lord, ver. 1, are, according to the con text, especially the manifestations of his love towards the family of David, (compare ver. 49, and "the mercies of David," Is. Iv. 3), and the faithfulness of God is that by which he fulfils these promises made to this family. The determination to praise for ever these manifestations of the love and faithfulness of God, shews that it is not one single individual that speaks, but the congregation of the Lord, convinced of its own eternal duration. It is the work of faith to go forth on the supposition of eternal duration at a time when every thing visible proclaims near de struction, and to give expression to the determination to praise for ever the love and the faithfulness of God at a time when every thing appears to declare that he has changed his love into hatred, and lias broken his promises. The q'^w here and in ver. 2, 37 is for Q^^J;^ compare at Ps. Ixi. 4. — The determination to praise for ever the mercy and the faithfulness of God is founded on the conviction that these will stand the trial. Ver. 2. Mercy appears here under the figure of a building in continual progres sion, in opposition to one which is left unfinished and falls into ruins. The faithfulness is established in the heavens, in order that it may partake of their eternity, be like them eternal ; com pare ver. 36, 37, on the eternity of the heavens at Ps. Ixxii. 5, and a similar figurative expression, Ps. cxix. 89, " thy word stands fast in heaven." The heavens have emphatically the foremost place assigned to them in the collocation of the words. — In ver. 3 and 4, the foundation of the firm hope of the eternal continuance of the mercy and the faithfulness of God is the promise of God to David in 2 Sam. vii. ; in reality we ought to supply "for thou didst say." This promise, on which see G 2 100 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the remarks made in this commentary at Ps. xviii. 28-47 (vol. i. p. 310-323), upon which also Ps. xxi., Ixi., cxxxii., Ixxii., ex., depend, forms the proper centre-point of the Psalm. It is merely alluded to here shortly and summarily, but it is entered upon at large in the 19th and following verses. As surely as this promise culminates in Christ, so surely is it significant to us, corap. at Ps. Ixi. ; and we may learn from this Psalm not only in general how in the church's most troublous times we may conquer that fear with which the visible aspect of affairs fills us, by cling ing to those promises which the Lord has given her, but may also be ourselves comforted with that consolation which is adminis tered here to the Old Testaraent Church. The promise of God to David extends to all ages, even to the end of the world." In a promise every thing depends upon the person who pro mises. The question therefore occurs : has he the will and the power to fulfil the promise 1 and where it is men who promise, the answer to this question is never very consolatory, often very mournful. Hence the Psalmist, before unfolding farther the con tents of the promise, proceeds in ver. 5-18 to praise ihe glory of God, especially his omnipotence and faithfulness. This inde pendent portion of the Psalm is very artificially arranged. The whole consists of 14 verses. The praise of God is completed in 10, ver. 5-14. To this there is added a declaration as to the happiness of the people who have such a God, ver. 15-18. The ten is divided into a three and a seven, — the introduction and the proper treatise. The three of the introduction and the four of the conclusion make up a seven, which corresponds to the seven of the main division. The unbroken seven is enclosed within the broken one. First, ver. 5-7 : The omnipotence and faithfulness of God are devoutly praised even by the angels, his heavenly congregation. — Ver. 5. And the heavens praise thy wonders, 0 Lord, and thy truth in the assembly of the saints. Ver. 6. For who in the ii On " I have sworn," Arnd : " -who does not see here how great is the friendship and how faithful is the love which God bears to man, and how deep the lofty majesty of God condescends when he swears to man? And why does he do this ? In order that he may make his promise sure, that he may strengthen our faith and help our weakness ;— so desirous is God that we should believe on him and not doubt his promise. In Heb. vi. such causes are assigned. 0 blessed people, for whose sake God swears ! O miserable people, who will not believe God even when he swears !" PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 5 — 7. 101 clouds is like to the Lord, who comes like to God among the sons of God? Ver. 7. God is very terrible in the confidence of the saints, and dreadful for all who are round about him. — And the heavens praise, ver. 5 : — and therefore it is clear of what mighty importance, what a precious treasure, this promise is, the author of which is praised even by the angels, (not where fore or truly). Ps. xxix. 1, 2, is a parallel, and in all probability the fundamental passage, where in like manner the praise of God by the angels appears as an evidence for the infinite greatness of God. Heaven is in opposition to earth. The second clause shews that it comes into notice in regard to its inhabitants, the angels. The wonders are named as works of omnipotence ; comp. ver. 8, where we have as here wonders and faithfulness, might and faithfulness. In the second clause " they praise," must be supplied from the first. The angels have, as in the fundamental passage Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3, the name of the " holy ones," i. e., the sacred and the glorious (comp. at Ps. xxii. 3), for the purpose of pointing to their dignity, which serves for a basis on which to lay the glory of God, to whom they are devoutly subordinate. The holy ones in heaven stand opposed to the weak mortals of earth whose praise has not much to say. The expression, " the assembly of holy ones," points to the congregation of God upon the earth, which, in its weakness, sings his praise. — In ver, 6, 7, the fact that even the holy ones praise God, is grounded on the infinite superiority of God above the most glorious creatures.* In ver. 6, piT^y cloud, the singular only here, and in ver. 37, in other passages, O^DrTti)" is employed poetically for the heavens. On the Bne Elim, sons of God : comp. at Ps. xxix. 1. The agreement in this very singular expression, shews that the Psalmist had this passage distinctly before his eyes. The thrice repeated Jehovah, also, in ver. 5 and 6, is assuredly designed. — In ver. 7, the ^^ stands in reference to its appellative sense, the strong one. " The confidence of the holy ones " (comp. at Ixxxiii, 3, Iv. 14), denotes the confidential community to whom God vouchsafes to intrust his secrets, Job i. 6, ii. 1, though not his deepest ones, 1 Pet. i. 12. Notwithstanding this, there always remains an infinite dis- a Ven. : " The duty rendered to God by the inhabitants of heaven is confirmed and illustrated by the infinite superiority and exceUence of God, in which he very fai- excels them, so that there is no room for even any comparison between them and God," 102 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. tance between him and them; comp. Job iv, 18, xv. 15. God does not cease to be, even to his holy ones, the object of fear. As the -pi;^ is masculine, and does not exactly denote assembly, the ;-(^-, cannot be an adjective, " in the great assembly of the holy ones," but only an adverb, "very much," as at Ps. Ixii. 2 ; comp. -yy^'Q in Ps. xlviii. 1. Those who are around God in heaven stand opposed to those who are so on earth ; comp. Ps. Ixxvi. 11. Ver. 8-14. — The Psalmist praises first, in general, the might and the faithfulness of God, ver. 8, occupies hiraself next, in detail, first with the might of God, ver. 9-13, dwelling at the greatest length upon it, because it is at this point that his most painful doubt arises, and afterwards at the close with the moral attribute, the truth (corresponding to the faithfulness) which forms the conclusion, ver. 14. In depicting the omnipo tence of God, prominence is given first, ver. 9, to the dominion of God over the sea, because it presents, with its tumults, the emblem of the power of the world, by which Israel was op pressed, the Psalmist passing from the figure to the reality, ver. 10 ; next, the dominion of God over the solid land is adverted to, in opposition to the sea, with which the description had be gun ; and lastly, the conclusion, ver. 13, consists of a general as cription of praise to God for his power. — Ver. 8. 0 Lord, God of Hosts, who is mighty as thou art, 0 Lord, and thy faithful ness is round about thee. Ver. 9. Thou rulest over the pride of the sea, when its waves swell thou stillest them. Ver. 10. Thou crushesi Rahab, like one slain, by thy mighty arm thou destroyest thine enemies. Ver. 11. Thine is the heaven, thine also the earth, the world and its fulness thou hast founded them. Ver. 12. The north and the south thou hast created. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy name. Ver. 13. Thine is a mighty arm, strong is thy hand, high is thy right hand. Ver. 14. Justice and judgment are the ground (on which) thy throne (stands), tnercy and truth go before thy face. — On f-j'i, in ver. 8, comp. at Ps. Ixviii. 4. The Jah as the concentration of Jehovah, is the more emphatic word. The second vocative, moreover, would have no significance if Jehovah stood. The spirit, impressed with a sense of God, feels the necessity of repeating frequently that name of God, in which his being is comprehended ; comp., for PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 8 — 14. 103 example, ver. 6. The faithfulness of God is round about him, stirrounds him as his attendants, so that he never appears with out it. — In ver. 9, the Jii^^i is not " the lifting up," but the " pride," as " thou rulest " shews ; comp. ]-\"i^^ in Ps, xlvi. 3. The figurative expression is chosen with reference to what it re presents, the pride of the sea of the people. A reference to this also explains the fact, that in such representations of the omni potence of God, the subjugation of the waves of the sea is dwelt upon with peculiar delight ; comp. at Ps. xlvi. 3, Ixv. 7. It has been already intimated in the summary, that the whole arrange ment of the clauses of this paragraph can only be explained on the supposition, that the Psalmist regards the sea a symbol of the power of the world.''" The ^'^'j^ is a noun abbreviated from the infinitive of ^'jy'^ ; comp. the j,^i'^ of Job xx. 6. — From the ordinary sea the Psalmist turns, in ver. 10, to the sea of the na tions. He mentions Egypt first as a particularly powerful and famous humbled enemy of God and his people in past times ; after this, as Egypt got its main overthrow in the sea, the figure and the reality meet together ; and after this he turns generally to the enemies of God. By the name Eahab, here applied to Egypt (comp. at Ps. Ixxxvii. 4), attention is directed to its appellative sense, pride, haughtiness, fri^j, which had already been used of the ordinary sea. The expression, " like one slain," is to be considered as equivalent to, so that the proud, haughty person sinks down to the feebleness of a slain man ;'' comp. Ps. Ixxxviii. 5. — On ^^n land, in opposition to sea, as ¦w-^^, earth, in opposition to heaven, comp. at the fundamental a Calvin: " And thus when the world is in a state of the greatest excitement, the Lord can immediately bring aU things into a tranquil condition." Arnd : " It is indeed a mighty power on the part of God which holds the sea ; and the man who has not seen the sea, has not seen the smallest portion of the power and wonders of God. As now God rules over the sea, he rules also over the whole world, which indeed is a very boisterous sea when the persecutors rise against the church like great waves and billows ; but he stills them so that they must not destroy Cbrist's poor little sheep. Yea, he also rules in our heart ; when it is as unquiet and impetuous as the sea, so that the great billows of conflict, trouble, anguish, despair, strike against the beai-t, then shall we know that the Lord rules over such hellish floods. Therefore in such troubles we should pray : 0 Lord, thou who rulest over the impetuous sea, art able to render quiet and soft even my little restless heart." •> Arnd : " The Son of God has not only slain and laid low the Egyptians, and all outward enemies, but also the hellish Egyptians of our sins, which pursue us in gi-eat numbers, and whose captain is the devil." 104 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. passage, Ps. xxiv. 1, 2. — Ver. 12 describes the dominion of God over the earth in its whole extent. After the north, and the right hand = the south, Tabor lying on the one side of Jordan, and Hermon on the other, can only be considered as representa tives of east and west ; comp. Ps. xiii. 6. They were well fitted to represent these on account of the manifest traces of the creat ing power of God which they bear. They rejoice, because their very existence is a matter-of-fact praise. In thy name, — over it, over the deeds of thy glory which have been done on them ; comp. ver. 16, and on " the name of God," for exaraple, at Ps. xliv. 5. — In ver. 13, according to the connection of arm, hand, and right hand, according to " thy mighty arm," in ver. 10, and according to ver. 21. we cannot explain : thine is might with power, but only : thine is an arm with strength, a strong power ful arm. — In ver. 14, 'n^f^ is not foundation, basis, — this sense is neither ascertained nor suitable ; what should it mean 1 thy king dom stands through righteousness ] who would overthrow it then, if God were not righteous "? — but as always the site, the soil on which the building rests : the dominion of God, is the sense, is situated on the domain of justice and righteousness. The Q-jp signifies to go before, to come before, Qi^^ Q-jp occurs in the sense of to come before the face, Ps. xvii. 12, xcv. 2. It is not, therefore : mercy and truth step before thee, or stand before thee, but : they go before thee ; comp. at Ps. Ixxxv. 13. Ver. 15-18. Happy the people who hiive such a God, a God of oranipotence, faithfulness, and righteousness ! Salvation can never fail to be imparted to such a people. For this holy and awful God is, as he has solemnly said and sworn, the protection of his anointed one. — Ver. 15. Happy the people which know the joyful sound: O Lord, in the light of thy countenance they shall walk. Ver. 16. In thy name they rejoice always, and through thy righteousness they are glorious. Ver. 17. For thou art their mighty ornament, and by thy favour thou exali- est our horn. Ver, 18. For our shield is the Lord's, and our King is the Holy One of Israel's. — At the expression, " who know the joyful sound," ver. 15, we must supply from the pre ceding verse, " in the presence or before the face of such a God ;" who knows to rejoice to thee. The joyful sound is that which Israel shouted to God, his king and saviour, with the mouth PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 15 — 18. 105 and trumpets (comp. Num. x. 1 ss.), at the regular periodical festivals, and on extraordinary occasions, such as in war ; comp. Num, x. 9, Jos. vi, 5, 20, 1 Sam. iv. 5, 6, 2 Sam. vi. 15, the treatise " on Balaam," at Num. xxiii. 28, where Balaam says of Israel, " the shout of a king is in the midst of him. " We are not justified, with many, in limiting the joyful sound to the festivals, or in interpreting it exclusively of the sound of the trumpet, comp. at Ps. xxvii. 6. The relation of the two clauses of the verse to each other, as is also the case in Ps. Ixxxiv. 4, is that of cause and consequence, not :. who walk, but : who shall walk in the light of thy countenance, in the splendour of thy grace ; comp. at Ps. iv. 6 ; xliv. 3 ; xliii, 3. The face of the Lord is itself the light which brightly illuminates their other wise dark way. Arnd : " There is great loveliness in the coun tenance of a joyful virtuous man. There is greater loveliness still in the countenance of an angel. But the highest loveliness is in the countenance of God. Just as parents look joyfully upon their little children, and when they are learning to walk guide them with their countenance and eye, so does the merciful God to those who love him." — In ver. 16, "in thy name," as is mani fest from the parallel clause, "through thy righteousness "is to be understood as equivalent to " over it," " over thy glory mani fested in guiding them," comp. at ver. 12. The righteousness of God is also here that property by which he gives to every one his own, salvation to his people. The •^j^l"!"' is not " they are proud," but " they are high," " lifted up as the right hand of God itself," ver. 13, corap. " thou liftest up," ver. 17 and Ps. xxvii. 6. — As it is undoubted that p'-i^sn can only signify " an ornament " (comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 61, the Christol. on Zech. xii. 7), and fj^ only " strength," " might," we can only translate in ver. 17 : for thou art their mighty ornament ; comp. " the arm of thy strength," for " thy strong arm," in ver. 10, " the ark of thy strength," instead of "the strong ark," Ps. cxxxii. 8. The yt2^\j looks back to fj^]-| in ver. 13. On "thou liftest up our horn," comp. at Ps. lxxv. 10 ; xcii. 10. The Keri )CiT\T\ " *^nr horn is high," has been introduced only by an unseasonable comparison of'^j^T^'i in ver. 16, and of Qi-ij-| in ver. 24. — In ver. 18 the confidence which had been expressed in the preceding verses is grounded upon the mighty assistance of the Lord. How can he do other- 106 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. wise than be surety for him, when Israel's king is his anointed, and Israel's guardian is his guarded one 1 The *^ denotes here, as in Ps. xlvii. 9, " for the shields of the earth are the Lord's," Him to whom the king belongs. The common translation is : for the Lord is our shield, the Holy One of Israel our king. But •^ never stands in this way before a nominative, and the thought is not sufficiently suitable, as the joyful confidence in the salva tion of God expressed in ver. 15-18 is in this way wholly dis joined from the person of the anointed, around which the whole Psalm revolves. In reference to the appellation of God, " the Holy One of Israel," comp. at Ps. Ixxi. 22 ; Ixxviii. 41. There follows, in prosecution of the subject entered upon in ver. 3 and 4, a more full development in two sections, of the glorious promise made to the anointed, and in him to the people, ver. 19-38. First in ver. 19-28, it is represented that God -liad promised perpetual deliverance to the people in him, perpetual victory over its enemies, perpetual dominion ; and after that the objection is met that this promise may, in consequence of the sins of the anointed, become altogether null : God has already explained that the promise is in its nature an unconditional one, that he will punish the sins of his chosen family, but that he will never withdra,w his favour from it, and from the people in it, ver. 29-37. Ver. 19-28. — Ver. 19. At that time thou did speak in the appearance (to Nathan) to thy holy ones, and didst say : I have laid help upon a man of war, I have lifted a young man out of the people. Ver. 20. / have found David my servant, with my holy oil I anointed him. Ver. 21. With him my hand shall he constant, yea my arm shall strengthen him. Ver. 22. The enemy shall not oppress him, and the wicked shall not afflict him. Ver. 23. And I beat down before him his opponents, and his haters I will strike. Ver. 24. And my truth and mercy are with him, and through my name his horn shall he exalted. Ver. 25. And I put his hand upon the sea, and upon the rivers his right hand. Ver. 26. He shall also thus address me : Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Ver. 27. I will also make him my first horn, most high over ihe kings of the earth. Ver. 28. I will perpetually secure for him my merey, and my covenant shall remain continually withhim. — That the PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 19 — 28. 107 paragraph ends here, and that ver. 29 belongs to what follows, is evident from the circumstance that there it is the seed of the anointed that is spoken of, while here it is only one person that always meets us, the ideal person of the anointed, the royal family of David represented by him. — The " at that time," in ver. 19, connects the paragraph with ver. 3 and 4. 'j'Tjni appearance is the term applied to the revelation of God made to and by Nathan in 1 Chron. xvii. 15, comp. the wv\f^ in 2 Sam. vii. 17. In its original form the promise was directed to David. But it is made very manifest in 1 Chron. xvii. 15, and 2 Sam. vii. 10, that it was intended not only for him but also for the people. This view of the promise, as intended for the people, is the oVily one that is kept before our eye throughout the whole of the Psalm ; and in accord ance with this, the people, as the original recipient of the revelation, are termed '• thy holy ones," and in harmony with it David, in what follows, is spoken of in the third person. All the old translators, many MSS. and editions give ^'i^DIl in the plural. The singular owes its existence, as in Ps. xvi. 10, to an exegetical difficulty. It was felt to be impossible to reconcile the plural with the application to David or Nathan ; and to one or other of these, all interpre ters, without exception, down even to modern times, have applied the expression, without observing that in the following part of the Psalm it is the people that complains that God does not ap- pBar to be keeping his promise, and that it is the people that prays that he would fulfil his promise. When one goes deep into the root of the matter, the singular is seen to be unsuitable. The address cannot be made to David, for he is never addressed throughout the remaining portion of the Psalm. The Psalmist has given no ground for changing the address, which histori cally was directed to David through Nathan, into an address to Nathan, so that he should be considered as the person meant by the holy one ; it would be considered as a step backwards, inasmuch as the language employed in the Psalm does not refer to a decree of God received inwardly, but to one openly promulgated; and there is, moreover, no ostensible reason why Nathan should be termed the holy one of God. His piety has nothing to do with the matter. The divine revelation made through Nathan first goes backward in ver. 19, 20, to what had taken place long ago, the first choice of David by Samuel, 108 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and there is next connected with this in the 22d and following verses, the promise for the future which rests upon this as its basis. The expression " I have laid help" is notto be understood as equivalent to " I have provided help," but it means : I have on behalf of you, my holy ones, laid help upon hira, raade hira the depository of ray help, or constituted him a helper ; compare Jud, xiii. 5, when it is said of Samson : he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. On the term, " a man of war," compare 2 Sam. xvii. 10, all Israel knoweth that thy father is a man of war. David was a powerful young man, (compare Ps. Ixxviii. 31, 63 — Luther falsely a chosen one), at the time when his selection became pos.^essed of vitality in his deed of heroism against Goliath. Still we must not lirait ourselves to David as an individual. We-raust rather consider him as the representa tive of his eternally youthful heroic seed, a seed which reached its summit of perfection in Christ (Jesus = him on whom God has laid help), compare ver. 45. — " I have found" in ver. 20, intimates that the choice of David was not a blind arbitrary act lifting him out of the mass of the people, but a step taken in consequence of a fixed divine purpose. For the sake of impressing this upon the people, God, according to the history of the choice of David, put on the appearance of seeking and finding. The anointing of David with the holy oil was, according to 1 Sam. xvi. 13, the form under which the gifts of the Spirit were imparted to him, which were developed in the most glorious forms in Christ who at the same time was anointed in him, — " With whom my hand shall be esta blished" in ver, 21 (compare ver. 37 : Ps. Ixxviii. 37), is to be con sidered as equivalent to "my hand shall be continually withhim," ver. 24, 1 Sam. xviii, 12, 14, 2 Sam, v. 10. — In ver. 22 the ^.^i^Jn is " to act like a creditor,' fTjyi^' " to oppress." The second clause is quite literally taken from 2 Sam. vii. 10, " neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as in the beginning." What is there said of the people is applied here to the anointed, who receives every thing for the coraraunity, and without whom the community receives nothing. — In ver. 25, the hand is that which takes possession of any thing. The article in the sea, in the river, stands generically as in Is. xliii. 2. The sea and the rivers generally are meant as in Ps. xxiv. 2. The Psalmist en larges the promise, as the language of prophecy had already done. PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 29 — 37- 109 with special reference to Ps. Ixxii. 8, " he has dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth." As de cisive against the limited application to the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates, may be mentioned the parallel passages al ready referred to in Ps. Ixxii., and in 'the prophets, the clause, " the highest over the kings of the earth" in ver. 27 and the plural " the rivers," which cannot be explained by connecting the Tigris with the Euphrates, for no such connection ever occurs. — On " He will call me my father," ver. 26, compare 2 Sam. vii. 14, and the investigations at Ps. ii. 7. — The first-begotten in ver. 27, as in Ex. iv. 22, where Israel, and Heb. i. 6, where Christ the true David is thus named, is at the sametime the only begotten. In the second clause, what is said in Deut. xxviii. 1 (compare xxvi. 19) of the people, " and the Lord thy God make thee higher than all the nations of the earth," is transferred to the anointed in whom and through whom the people were to obtain their lofty destination. Here also we raust ascend to Christ, corapare Ps. Ixxii. 11, 12 ; it was only a feeble type of the fulfilraent that was witnessed in David, compare 1 Chron. xiv. 17, Ver. 29-37. — Ver. 29. And I set upon eternity his seed, and his throne like the days of heaven. Ver. 30. If his sons forsake my law and walk not in my statutes. Ver. 31. If they profane my ordinances and observe not my commandments. Ver. 32. I visit with the rod their iniquity, and with stripes their sin. Ver. 33. But my mercy I will not withdraw from him, nor break my faithfulness. Ver. 34. / will not profane my cove nant, and I will not alter what has gone out of my lips. Ver. 35. One thing have I sworn in my holiness, I will not lie to David. Ver. 36. His seed shall be eternal, and his throne as the sun before me. Ver. 37. As the moon he shall he established for ever, and the witness in the clouds is perpetual. — At the be ginning and at the end of this paragraph there is an assurance of the perpetuity of the kingdom of David. And in the middle of it, the Psalmist removes every thing which appeared to endanger that perpetuity, by dwelling upon the one verse, 2 Sam. vii. 14, what had obtained a very peculiar importance in consequence of the history, the manifest dreadful sins of the family of David, which seemed to imply total rejection. — On ver. 29, compare 2 Sam, vii, 12 ; Ps. Ixxii. 5, 7, 17. The expression as "the days of heaven" is taken 110 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. from Deut. xi. 21, where there is promised to the people in case they remain faithful to the covenant, a continuance " on earth as the days of heaven.'.' — In ver. 30 and 31 the strongest possible descriptions of sin are designedly chosen in order to express the thought" that the substance of the covenant is altogether indepen dent of human conditions, that even the greatest unfaithfulness on the part of man does not alter the faithfulness of God. — In ver. 32, the words themselves do by no means convey the idea of a slight punishment ; and neither can this be said of the fundamen tal passage, 2 Sam. vii. 14, " if he (the seed of David his race) errs, I will visit him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men," i.e., with such punishments as all men (be cause All are sinners) are exposed to, grace shall not reraove him from this the common lot of men, he has no commission to sin, contrary to Prov. xxiii. 13, 14, " withdraw not thy son from chas tisement, if thou smitest him with the rod he shall not die, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell." The alleviating limitation is here first given in ver. 33, as it is in the fundamental passage in ver. 15. The alleviation, however, is not to be misunderstood' as if it referred to individuals contrary to the nature of the thing, and contrary to the history, according to which annihilating judg ments did descend upon the rebellious members of the family of David ; but the opposition is of the punishment of sin in the in dividual, and of grace continually remaining to the family. We must not fail to notice that in ver. 33 it is not said : I will not withdraw my mercy from them, the sinners, but from him the family as such. Now that the kingdom has passed from the sin ful to the holy seed of David, the direct application of this para graph has ceased. The case provided for in the promise cannot again occur. Still there exist between Christ and his church a case analogous to that between David and his seed. As David's family was chosen in him (compare 1 Kings xi. 36, 2 Kings viii. 19, Is. xxxvii. 35, 2 Chron. vi. 42), so that it - always remained in possession of the favour of God, notwithstanding the fall and rejection of many of its individual members, in like manner the church is chosen in Christ and the sins of its members may hurt themselves but cannot injure it. Notwithstanding the fall of a whole generation, it always flourishes again and under the most inexorable judgments which are not removed by the appear- PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 29 — 37. Ill ance of Christ, but rendered more severe, compassionate grace is always concealed. —In reference to the "yff^ with ^ in ver. 33, comp. at Ps. xliv. 17. — The ^^^n in "''^r. 34 signifies, as it always does, to profane. The covenant sworn by God was a holy one, comp. at Ps. Iv. 20, and " in my holiness " at ver. 35. That -is holy which God, the Holy One, promises, de sires, and has agreed to. " I will not profane" refers back to " if they profane," in ver. 31. The second clause rests on Deut xxiii. 24 (comp. Num. xxx. 13), " whatever has gone out of thy lips thou shalt perform and do." God desires, on the part of his peo ple, truth and fidelity towards himself only on the ground of his own truth and fidelity towards them. All the commands of him who has said, " Be ye holy /or I am holy," are also promises. — In ver 35, the f^HK is not once (this sense, in this case, would be generally uncertain, and it is still more uncertain whether once could be taken as equivalent to once for all), but one thing, as at Ps. xxvii. 4, — if I have anywhere sworn anything to him, I have sworn this. The thing sworn, and, according to the second clause(on which we may compare Num, xxiii. 19 ; 1 Sam. xv. 29), the thing to be kept inviolate, follows in ver, 36 and 37. On " in my holiness," (Gesenius, manifestly falsely : in my sanctuary) comp. Ps. Ix. 6, — The " before me," in ver 36, is " under the sheltering covering of my favour." — The constant witness, in ver. 37, is the moon. As God has connected with his own duration the continued existence of the family of David, so has he, in like manner, given a constant witness which would convict him of un faithfulness, should he permit this family to fall to the ground. As long as the church of God beholds the moon shining, which no more goes out in darkness than the other witness and pledge, the sun, she may be full of comfort and joy, — -he promises to her David life and victory, even though he seems to be laid on his death-bed, and the sons of wickedness shout over him as one al ready dead. Many expositors give the totally false rendering : the witness in the clouds, God himself is to be depended on : — the still more arbitrary view is not for one raoment to be thought of, which refers to the rainbow, with which the family of David had nothing to do. God cannot be named as his own witness, and \f^^^ in parallel with »")^>i cannot signify " to be depended upon," but only " constant," as in ver. 28. 112 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. With the joyful assurance of the everlasting continuance of the family of David, and, therefore, of her own deliverance, the church proceeds to contemplate the actual state of matters at the present moment. (Ps. xliv. 9, and follo^ving verses, are exactly similar.) The contradiction between the present state of matters and this assurance gives occasion to the church to utter a painful lamen tation, ver. 38—45. She soon turns, however, frora the lamenta tion to the prayer, ver. 46-51, that the Lord would remove the appearance, of contradiction. — ^The whole has fourteen verses, the first paragraph twice four and the second twice three (comp. j-j'^^ in ver. 48), the four of lamentation is both times supplemented by three of prayer so as to form seven. Ver. 38-45. — Ver. 38. And thou easiest off and rejectest, art angry with thine anointed. Ver. 39. Thou destroyest the covenant of thy servant ; thou profanest on the ground his crown. Ver. 40. Thou tearest down all his hedges, thou layest in ruins all his strong works. Ver. 41. All who pass by rob him, he was a reproach to our neighbours. Ver. 42. Thou dost exalt the right hand of his enemies, thou lettest all his foes re joice. Ver. 43. Thou causest also the strength of his sword to turn hack, and dost not stand by him in battle. Ver. 44. Thou robbest him of his purity, and easiest his throne to the ground. Ver. 45. Thou shortenest the days of his youth, thou eoverest him with shame. Selah. — It is to be observed that all the objec tions of the Psalmist are directed to the one point, that the family of David is apparently in danger of utter destruction. It is not any thing that had hitherto happened, considered in itself, that dis quiets him — all might have happened only in terms of ver. 32 — but as foreboding a yet more dreadful future. He is contending only &g2L\n&t appearances, and knows in God that he is contending only against appearances, yet the contest is, on that account, all the harder ; the signs are very threatening, and, were it not for God and his word, he would be forced to regard it as folly still to hope. No difficulty would ever have been felt by expositors with the lamentation, if it had been viewed as, what it really is, the basis of the following prayer, and if, at the same time, attention had been directed to the light which breaks in upon its darkness out of the preceding praise of God. — The expression " Thou profanest his crown," in ver. 39, is to be explained by the fact, that the PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 38 — 45, 113 crown was the official badge of the king, as^the anointed of the Lord. There stood also upon it, though in an invisible form, whatwas visible on that of thfe high priest, "holiness to the Lord," Ex. xxviii. 36, xxix. 6. In reference to w>"ii^^ " on the ground," comp. at Ps. Ixxiv. 7. — In the first clause of ver. 40, the king appears, under the image of a vineyard, whose protecting walls have been thrown down, and in the second, of a city whose fortifications (for this is the proper meaning of *^^J^J2) have been demolished, comp. Job xvi. 14. The sense is : thou hast left him defenceless and helpless. That we cannot translate " Thou breakest down all the walls of his city," is clear from this, that 'TDISi is never used of the walls of a city, but always of the en closures of a vineyard or sheep-fold, and also from comparing the parallel passage, Ps. Ixxx. 12, " W^hy hast thou broken down its wall (i, e,, the wall of thy vineyard) V It is quite obvious that this is the fundamental passage. In that passage " its wall" (its fence) is an expression for which preparation had been made, as the language used had all referred to the Lord's vine, and allusion had been made to Is. v. 5. The expression in the 41st verse, " all who pass by the way," is also borrowed from the eightieth Psalm. Those quotations in the Psalm before us from the eightieth Psalm, quotations which it is impossible to mistake, show that we formed a right judgment as to the age of that Psalm. Had it referred, ac cording to the assumption of several, to the Chaldean catastrophe, it would have been later than the Psalm before us. The sense of destruction, ruin, is commonly given here to nnHQ- -^nt this sense is not well ascertained, and the ordinary sense, terror, is also here very suitable : thou causest his fortifications to be terrified before the enemy, and to be removed ; comp. Jer. xlviii. 1, " the fortification is confounded and dismayed," — In ver. 41, " the passers by" are the nations of the Asiatic kings who visite.d' Judah in marching through against the king of Egypt (comp. at the fundamental passage), the neighbours, the surrounding nations who, on a former occasion, approached David and Solomon with reverence, and paid tribute ; comp. 2 Sam. viii. 2 ; 1 Kings, v. 1 ; now they despise the anointed of the Lord in his disgracefully degraded condition, comp. Ps. Ixxx. 6 ; Ixxxviii. 8. — In ver. 42 the Psalmist complains that the anointed of the Lord missed the fulfilment of the II 114 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. prayer, " let not mine enemies triumph over me," which ap peared to have been secured to him for all eternity. But it is well for him that he derives all the sufferings of the anointed singly and alone from the Lord, and considers human enemies only as instruments in his hands, This is the first foundation of the hope of deliverance. — The expression, " thou causest his sword to turn back" in ver. 43, is illustrated by 2 Sam. i. 22, "the sword of Saul returned not empty." The sword returns back ashamed when it does not pierce. The rock or the stone (comp. at Ps. xviii. 2) of his sword, is his sword which, according to the promise, ver. 22 and 23, and through me&ns of the rock of salva tion, ver. 27, should have been unchangeably firra and sure. The whole meaning is : the edge of his sword is as it were unaccountably turned away. The ¦^'^\j means always a stone, even in Jos. v. 2, 3. — In the first clause of ver. 44, the suffix is to be supplemented out of what precedes, comp. the j-\ijj^ in Ps. Ixxxviii. 7: thou hast caused him to cease from his purity, thou hast robbed him of his splendour, comp. Ez. xxxiv. 10. The explanation, thou hast robbed from his splendour a part of it, gives a flat, and hence in the connection an unsuitable meaning. — " Thou hast shortened the days of his youth," in ver. 45, is equivalent to, thou hast made him, thine anointed, old before the time, whereas according to ver. 19 he should have been eternally young. The youth is alluded to as the season of strength, comp. Job xxxiii. 25. Old age, as the season of feebleness, here referred to in connection with the anointed, is in other passages spoken of in connection with the church in the sarae view, comp. at Ps. Ixxi. 9, 18, Hos. vii. 9, " Old age whitens his hair, and he knows it not." In Christ the family of David returned to the strength of youth, which had apparently vanished. " Its flesh became again as that of a little child." Several expositors altogether erroneously refer to this or that Jewish king before the captivity, who reigned only a short while. The Psalmist has to do throughout, not with a single individual, but with the whole race. Ver. 46-51. — Ver. 46. How long, 0 Lord, wilt thou hide thyself for ever, shall thine anger burn like fire ? Ver. 47. Re member how short my life is, wherefore hast thou created all the children of men in vain? Ver. 48. Where is the man who lives and does not see death ? who delivers his soul from the PSALM LXXXIX. VER. 46 — 51. 115 hand of sheol ? Selah. Ver. 49. Where are thy early tender mercies, 0 Lord, which thou didst swear to David in thy faith fulness ? Ver. 50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy ser vant, that I bear in my bosom all the many nations. Ver. 51, That thine enemies reproach, 0 Lord, that they reproach the footsteps of thine anointed. — On " how long — always," in ver. 46, comp. at Ps. xiii. 1 ; Ixxix. 5.* — In ver. 47 and 48, the prayer that God would not further withhold his favour from his anointed, and from the church in him, is founded on the shortness of human life, as is the case very often with similar prayers in the book of Job, for example, vii. 6, " remember that my life is a breath, mine eye will not return to see good," xiv. 1, s., comp. at Ps. xxxix., Ixxviii. 39. It would be hard if God were to fill up entirely with sufferings, in the case of his own people, the short span of time which man has to live.'' The first clause of ver. 47 is to be explained : remember, I, what life, i. e., what I have to live, how short my existence is ; comp. the fundamental passage, Ps. xxxix. 5, " behold as an hand-breadth thou makest my days, and my life is as non-existence before thee." Some hasty critics would read instead of i^^i ^illb^- 0 Lord. But the Psalmist is not so prodigal of his addresses to God, and the hjj,^ cannot be dispensed with, more especially as the ^^f^, properly exist ence, or bontinuance, does not exactly point out human life. Even in the fundamental passage the language used does not apply to human life generally, but to the life of the Psalmist, who speaks here in the name of every individual member of the church. In the second clause nj^ ^j^ stands in its usual sense, why ; ^"^^ij adverbially, in vain, as Ps. cxxvii. 1, 2. We should supposed added : as would be the case, wert thou to give » Arnd : " Is it not an odd thing that when we see a fire break out we are terrified and run, and every man looks after what is iiis own, yet no, man wiU be terrified at tbe fire of the wrath of God ? "Whereas .every man should rather help to quench the wrath of God by prayer and true repentance, and after this consider that he has a gracious God, and one who is not angry with him. And if this were so it would be well with us all, and the common fire of the wrath of God would be extinguished." b Arnd: Thou wUt be long angry, and our life is so short. And truly, beloved Christians, there is a high, immeasureable, noble way and disposition in the most high God, there is such great long-suffering and compassion with hira, that when a man holds up before him his nothingness and his deep miseiy, he does not punish us as we have weU deserved, but thinks, what should I do with poor dust and ashes, why should I be angry with dust." h2 116 the BOOK OF PSALMS, over man in perpetuity to misery. The expression, therefore, " why hast thou," &c., is in reality as much as " yet will not have been made in vain." Even here the rich background of salvation after death is concealed before the eye of the Psalm ist. It raust first be made perfectly manifest in Christ. — The former tender mercies are those which God manifested to David in the early part of his history, and which were pledges of the fu ture, all the more on this account that God had sworn his favour in perpetuity to David. In the second clause the former (tender mercies) are not the object directly contemplated ; it is only the idea of the general favour of God that is there placed before the mind." — That the many nations in the second clause of ver. 50 are referred to in connection with the reproach which they cast upon the people of God is clear from the first clause. But to supply grammatically the reproach from the preceding clause, f all (the reproach) of the many nations" is hard and flat : — : such a resumption of the st. constr. in a subsequent clause is altogether without example ; Job xxvi. 10, to which Ewald re fers, has nothing to the point. The Church of the Lord has, as it were, many nations in its bosom (Ps. Ixxix. 1), in the reproach which she suffers from them. — Ver. 51 is still dependant upon " remember " in ver. 50. The "^Xi^^, is that, comp. Ewald § 597. It is emphatically shewn that the enemies of the king, as he is the anointed of God, are the enemies of God. The footsteps of thine anointed (Ps. Ixxvii. 20)— him wherever he goes and wherever he stands. Ver. 52 does not at all belong to the Psalm, but contains the doxology which concludes the third book. Hitherto the arrange ment of the Psalms has presented no difficulty. The first book contains the Davidic Jehovah-Psalms ; the second the Elohim Psalms of the singers of David, the sons of Korah, Ps. xlii.-xlix., Asaph, Ps. 1., then his own Elohim Psalms ; the third book, the Jehovah Psalms of his singers, Asaph, Ps. Ixxiii.-lxxxiii., the sons of Korah, Ps. Ixxxiv. Ixxxix. The Elohim-Psalms are de signedly enclosed on both sides by the Jehovah-Psalms. a Calvin : " God had attested the faithfulness of his word by clear proofs, and therefore believers present before him both the promise and its numerous effects." PSALM XC. 117 PSALM XC. The Psalm consists of two main divisions, one of meditation, which is complete in ten, and one of prayer in seven. The ten of the first part is divided by a five, the seven of the second by a two and a five. The formal arrangement is simple, is exactly carried through, and is easily seen. The point from which the Psalraist sets out is furnished by the view which he takes of the transitory and perishable nature of hu man existence, and the pain with which he contemplates the nullity of life on earth. The Psalmist, or rather the Church in whose name he speaks, meditating upon the distress before God and in his light, is first driven thereby to cling inwardly and firmly to God, who, as the Eternal and therefore the Almighty, is the sole ground of hope for perishable and therefore feeble creatures ; inside the narrow boundaries with which our being is enclosed, God alone can protect, help, and gladden : 0 Lord, thou art a dwelling-place to us, for thou art eternal, but we are perishable, ver. 1-5. But the perishable nature of man's existence furnishes to meditation another important view : it teaches us the depths of our sinful corruption, and the greatness of the wrath of God against us : death, to which our short existence is a prey, is the wages of sin, ver. 6-10. The prayer of the second part rising upon the basis of the me ditation of the first, is first connected with the thought to which prorainence had been given in the second strophe, (because the prayer to be based upon the first strophe is dependant upon the fulfilment of the one to be referred to the second) : May God grant that we may know his wrath, reflected to us as in a mirror in the transitory nature of our being, in its entire magnitude, and our own sins in all their depths, and that thus we may have a wise heart, which is afraid of sin, and lays hold" upon the com-- mandments of God, ver. 11, 12. After this the second prayer rises, ver. 13 — 17, (it being supposed that the first has been fulfilled), on the basis of ver. 1-5. "Be thou our dwelling place," here, grows out of "thou art our dwelling place," there. May God remove the misery in the miserable, the severe sufferings with which he has oppressed., 118 the BOOK OF PSALMS. the short existence of his people, and show himself again ^fraciowa toward them. The Psalm is described in the title as a prayer. This descrip tion shews, as Amyraldus saw, that the kernel of the Psalm is the second part, and that the design of the first is to prepare the way for the second, and lay down a basis on which it may rest. For n'^Qn denotes only prayer in the proper sense, supplicatory prayer ; and Delitsch maintains without any ground at Heb. iii. 1, that it denotes " prayer in its widest, most comprehensive sense, all kinds of addresses to God," 1 Tim. ii. 1. It occurs only in the titles of such Psalms as xvii., Ixxxvi., cii., cxlii., in which prayer even in point of form constitutes the most prominent part ; and even in the prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, the " accept the prayer of our distress" in ver, 2, forms the middle point round which every thing else is grouped. Assuredly the title points to a high privilege enjoyed by the people of divine revelation. The heathen, in view of the perishable nature of earthly existence, can only hang down their hands and utter cheerless lamentations : but the congregation of the Lord lifts up its hands in prayer to the merciful Father on high. Luther : " Although now Moses in the discharge of his duty kills, inasmuch as he shews us sin in connec tion with its punishment ; yet as he calls this Psalra a prayer, he gives us to understand the medicine against death. And in this he excels in two ways all heathen writings. He amplifies death, or represents it as great, and yet so terrifies that he shews at the same tirae the hope of comfort, in order that those -«'ho are teni- fied may not be brought to despair He takes parti cular care so to act as that he may teach men to fear God, in .order that when they are terrified before the wrath of God and before death, they may humble themselves before God and may thus be partakers of his grace. For it is impossible that a man be moved to fear G-od unless the wrath of God be revealed to him, which cannot be except through the revelation of sin." All the fountains of consolation, which Eevelation furnishes in view of the transitory nature of human life, are assuredly not opened up in our Psalm. It points only to the grace with which God re freshes his own people within the narrow boundary of this life ; and the view beyond, full of salvation and grace, remains cut off. This fact is so troublesome to most of the old expositors, to whom PSALM XC. 119 among the moderns we may add Meyer and Stier, that they have made every effort to remove it. But it remains in spite of all these attempts, attempts which cannot be made without destroy ing the clear train of thought, and, therefore, the practical power of the Psalm. And where is the good reason for endeavouring violently to set this fact aside 1 The Psalm teaches us many great truths in a forcible and impressive manner both of death and of the grace of God., Death it represents as the proof, exhibited in stern realities, of the fact that God is our only Saviour, — a fact well fitted to lead us to cling closely to him, — and as the wages of sin and the herald summoning us to repentance. It speaks o^ the grace of God towards those who give ear to the calls of this herald. Why then force upon it another truth of which it says nothing, which it does not deny, and for which it certaiply every where prepares the ground out of which it may grow 1 For the knowledge of God" as eternal omnipotence and love is the founda tion of the hope of eternal life ; it pledges his power and his will to impart it to his own people. Compare vol. ii. page 52. The title designates the Psalm as a, prayer of Moses the man of God. The last designation is no empty title, it points to the dignity of the jperson as affording a security for the importance of his word. Luther : " As one who has such a duty assigned to him by God, so that we should believe in him and in his instructions no less than in God himself." The designation considered in it self may very well have orignated with Moses. Luther: "As when Paul calls himself the servant of the Lord, Eom. i. 1, it is not pride but a necessary recommendation of his office." David designates himself in the titles of Ps. xviii. and xxxvi. as the ser vant of the Lord, (compare the remarks made there), and in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 he calls himself " the man who was highly exalted, the anointed of the God of Jacob." Notwithstanding as this de signation does not occur in the books of Moses, so far as they were written by him, but only in the addition made by another hand, viz., the title of the blessing pronounced on the tribes in Deut. xxxiii. 1, (compare the designation of Moses in the mouth of a cotemporary. Josh. xiv. 6), and as the same is the case with - Luther : " But when thou seest that the prophets and other holy men call upon God who is still beyond everything that man can see, wilt thou not see that they by such caUing upon God, acknowledge that there is another life after this one — a life either of grace or of wrath." 120 the BOOK OF PSALMS, the corresponding designation, " the servant of the Lord" in Deut. xxxiv. 5 (corapare the Beitr. P. iii., p. 158), it is probable, (al though the grounds are by means decisive), that the title was added by another person. The paragraph, ver. 13-15, serves to determine more exactly the time when the Psalm was composed. According to it, the people had already sighed for a long time under the pressure of severe suffering, and now pray that God at last would change this suffering into joy, and would again make himself known in his glory. This leads us towards the end of the 38 years' punish ment in the wilderness. The fulfilment of the prayer lies in the glorious events of the 40th year, and of the time of Joshua. There are important internal reasons which may be urged in favour of the composition of the Psalm by Moses, as announced in the title. The poem bears throughout the character of high antiquity ; there is uo other Psalm which so decidedly conveys the impression of being the original expression of the feelings to which it gives utterance.^ There is, moreover, no other Psalm which stands so much by itself, in regard to its fundamental tone and peculiarities, for which parallel passages furnish so little kin dred matter in characteristic peculiarities. On the other hand, there occurs a series of striking allusions to the Pentateuch, espe cially to the poetical passages, and, above all others, to Deut. xxxii. (comp. the exposition), allusions which are of another kind than those which occur in other passages in the Psalms, and which do not bear like them the character of borrowing. Luther, in the following quotation, intimates that even here the deep seriousness of the lawgiver may be seen : " Just as Moses acts in teaching the law, so does he in this prayer. For he preaches death, sin, and condemnation, in order that he may alarm the proud who are se cure in their sins, and that he may set before their eye their sin and evil, concealing, hiding nothing." The strong prominence » Amyraldus : But as this ode is most ancient, so it bears strong marks of the genius and character of antiquity. It is gi-ave, full of majesty and authority, some what concise, adorned with various comparisons, splendid with figures, but these rare and little used, and for the understanding of which (here is needed an extraordinary at tention of mind." Ewald : "The poem has something uncommonly striking, solemn, sinking into the depth of the Godhead. In contents and language it is throughout ori ginal aud powerful ; and as it is undoubtedly very old, it would have been universaUy considered as con-ectly derived from Moses, had we luio^n exactly the reasons which guided the coUector." PSALM XC. 121 given to the doctrine of death as the vjages of sin is especially characteristic, a doctrine which is not of frequent occurrence in Scripture, and especially not so in the Psalms, and which is pro claimed as distinctly and impressively as it is here, only in the Pentateuch, Gen. ii, and iii., and in those ordinances of the ceremonial law which threaten death. The reasons which have been adduced against the composition of the Psalm by Moses are of very little weight. The objection that ver. 10, where the length of human life is limited to seventy, or, at the most, eighty years, stands opposed to Deut. xxxiv. 7, according to which Moses reached the age of 120, is disposed of by the remark that Moses, throughout the whole Psalra, does not speak in his own name, but in that of the people. It is obvious from Deut. xiv. 22, 23, that among the Israelites at that time the exceptions to the general rule, as to the duration of human life, were much fewer than at ordinary times. Koester's assertion that ver. 15 supposes a long period of suffering, and scarcely applies to the Israelites in the wilderness, who rather-beheld the glorious deeds of Jehovah, is disposed of as soon as we direct our attention to " that terrible oath with which God struck them in Num. xiv." Eight-and-thirty years spent amidst the gradual destruction of men lying under the curse, were well-fitted to call forth the prayer, " Make us glad according to the days in which thou hast afflicted us, the years during which we have seen evil ;" they are sufficient to explain " the melancholy view of life" which here meets us, and the dread earnestness " with which he instructs us of our melancholy necessities ;" no glass was raore suitable than this forgiving a view of the common condition of human life. Finally, the assertion that the Psalm could not have been composed by Moses, because it resembles the other Psalms in language and general poetical structure, is an a priori assertion, which may be met, with at least as much force, by another, that Moses, " the fountain out of which all the prophets have drunk divine wisdom," gave at first the tone no less for prophecy, Deut. xxxii. and xxxiii., than for Psalm-poetry. How little able modern criticism is to erect a new edifice, in room of one which it has arbitrarily destroyed, is evident even here, from the utter want of unanimity among those who doubt the composition of the Psalm by Moses, in determining its age. 122 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. According to Ewald, the Psalm is very old, and certainly older than the age of David ; according to Hitzig, it is much later ; he places it in the year 150 of the Selencidae ! Koster and Maurer will have it placed between these two dates, a little after the return from the captivity ; on which Maurer very appropriately, and with great simplicity, remarks, " Yet this is very doubtful." The first part, that of meditation, ver. 1-5 : the transitory nature of human life points us to God as our only refuge. Ver. 1. 0 Lord, thou art a dwelling-place to us for ever and ever. Ver. 2. For before the mountains were brought forth and thou didst create the earth and the land, and from eternity to eter nity, thou art, 0 God. Ver. 3. Thou turnest man so that he is beat to pieces and sayest : Turn, ye children of men. Ver. 4. For a thousand years are before thee as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Ver. 5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood, they are as a sleep, in the morning it vanishes like grass. — Ver. 1 contains the theme : we have no other helper and saviour except thee, 0 Lord ; ver. 2-5 its basis. The ^WQ ii^s only one sense, that of habitation, which it main tains even when it is used of the caves and dens of the wilderness ; and those translators are far wrong who set aside this expression, which is so peculiar, and must, therefore, have been selected with express design, and supply its place by refuge : — ^in the whole of Scripture the word is applied to God, only here, in Ps. xci. 9, and in Deut. xxxiii. 27, " God is a dwelling-place of old, and underneath are the everlasting arms," — the feminine form is used there n31J^72' the masculine here as at Deut. xxvi. 15. Even in Paul Gerhardt, God is named, " My house in whom I safely dwell." Isaiah iv. 6 shows where the point of comparison lies : " And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade before the heat, and for a place of refuge, and a covert from the storm and from rain." It was probably the houseless wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness which raade thera sensible of the value of a habitation, that suggested the use of the figure. Instead of " thou art," many translators give " thou wast," and refer the whole verse to the grace of God which had been enjoyed by the people in early times, and especially by the patriarchs. But this translation is not required either by the preterite, " which often denotes ge neral truths, which are rendered manifest by experience, and PSALM XC. VER. 1 — 5. 123 are in this way defined," Ew. § 262, or by the yy^ "^f^, which is used as frequently of the future as it is of the past, corap., for example, Ps. xlix. 11. And against it we may urge, first, that by this translation the connection with what follows is de stroyed : thou art our dwelling-place, for thou art eternal, and, therefore, almighty ; but we are transitory, and, therefore, weak and helpless ; and second, that it is only in " thou art our dwell ing-place," that we can find a right basis for " be thou our dwell ing-place" in ver. 13-17. God is also a dwelling-place in Deut. xxxiii. 27. Finally, at the time of Moses, the history of the people had been too short as yet to admit of the expression, from " generation to generation" being suitable as applied to the past. — Ver. 2 is in reality connected with ver. 1 by the for. The eternity of God serves in so far as a basis to the proposition " that he is the only saviour ;" as to be eternal and to be God are inseparably bound together. Just as in the following verses the conclusion as to human weakness is silently drawn from the short ness of huraan life, so here the omnipotence of God is deduced from his eternity. Thus Luther in his day : " If we look at it in a right way, it includes all the properties of the Godhead. For inasmuch as he is eternal,, it follows that he is immortal, omnipo tent, blessed, and wise." The mountains are named first, be cause of all other created things they give, by their immoveable fastness, the deepest impression of originality ; comp. " the eter nal hills," in Gen. xlix. 26, '• the mountains of old and the eter nal hills," of Deut. xxxiii. 15, Num. xxiii. 7, Hab. iii. 6. w««^^ the earth is in opposition to heaven, '^^ji the fruit-bearing land, (comp. at Ps. xxiv. 1, Ixxxix. 11), — a purely poetical word, the corresponding term in the Pentateuch being pi^y'^,'^ — ^is the oppo site of " the sea." In regard to ^VinjTl' ^^ter setting aside the arbitrary change ^^'injl' ^nd the altogether ungrounded assump tion of Ewald, that " to move in a circle" stands poetically instead of "to be in thestate ofbeingborn," or "being originated," we have only two remaining explanations, which require to be considered, the one that it is the third person singular, " and. the earth and the land were brought forth" (comp. Gen.i. 11, 12), and the other, that itis the second masculine, the address being directedto God, "and thou hast brought forth." In favour of this last we urge that it is only accord ing to it that we see any reason for the difference between v-^s^ 124 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, and ^'2t\ — the earth was created by God on the second, and the land on the third day ; and the earth is fruit-bearing only as ^^i^ — that in this case, to be brought forth, and to bring forth, are placed most naturally together, as cause and effect (comp. Deut. xxxii. 18 : " the rock that bore thee thou hast despised, and thou has forgotten God who brought thee forth :" God in this passage is, in like manner, termed ^^"ipiTD' ^^^^ reference, in the first instance, to Israel) ; finally, that, according to this explana tion, it is very appropriately implied, that the being of God is not an existence merely, prior to all created things, but is the existence of the creator, prior to that of his creature, and all the more so, that his eternity is here alluded to on account of his omnipotence, which is really associated with it. Comp. Schleier- macher Glaubenl, i. § 67 : " the eternity of God is to be under stood only as the omnipotent eternity, as that in God, which, along with all that is temporal, limits also time itself." The *^^ is not to be taken with Calvin, Ewald, and others, as a predi cate : thou art God ; but like i^l^^, in ver. 1, as an address : thou art, 0 God. As in the following verses man's feebleness and helplessness are deduced from the brevity of his life, so, from the eternity of God, his exclusive Godhead is here deduced, just as in Is. xliv. 6, " I am the first, and I am the last, and (there fore), besides me there is no God." If we take ^^ as the pre dicate, the whole train of thought is destroyed : thou art our only refuge, for thou art eternal, and, therefore, omnipotent ; but we are short-lived, and, therefore, feeble, wholly unable to bring about our own deliverance. — In ver. 3, in opposition to the eter nity of God, which renders hira fit to be the habitation of his people, we have brought forward the transitory life of men, which drives them, feeble creatures, to this habitation as their onlyrefuge. The i^3"7, according to most expositors, is a substantive, a poeti cal term for the "dust," properly what is beat to pieces. But as ^^-j only occurs as an adj. in the sense of crushed, beat to pieces, and as, according to the other construction, one would expect, in stead of ^^, rather ^^, we must rather consider that the " even to a thing broken to pieces," is equivalent to " even to such a condi tion." Junius has already given : eo usque, ut sit contritus. The expression is exactly analogous : "even to perishing," for " till he comes to the condition of our perishing," in Num. xxiv. 20 ; PSALM XC. VER. 1 5, 125 comp. Balaam, p. 190. The "return" of the second clause has its exact meaning assigned to it out of the expressipn of, the first, " thou turnest him back so that he is beaten to pieces," and by the passage in Gen. iii. 19 undeniably alluded to here, " till thou return to the dust from which thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," exactly as in Ps. civ. 29, " they return to their dust," Job x. 9, " thou wilt bring me to the dust," xxxiv. 15, Ps. ciii. 14. Luther expl ins otherwise, and is followed by Tholuck : " It proceeds on this, that like as men daily die because of sin, so others are daily born always in the same condition as those who have died." But be sides the positive grounds which have been adduced on behalf of the translation given above, we may urge the '\'y\'\^ against this view ; no return can be attributed to the new generation which comes in the room of the old. Many expositors, and among the last of these Meyer and Stier, explain the words of the return of the spirit of God. But in this case the whole connection of the first part would be broken, and the prayer of the second part, grounded upon the meditation here, would be unintelligible. Ac cording to this, the language here can apply only to the short and perishable nature of man's being. For it is upon it that the prayer there is grounded, that God would not embitter, by extra ordinary sufferings, the span of time allotted to man. The ob jection to our translation, that it is tautological (comp., for ex ample, Ps. cii. 26), and expresses what is perfectly well known, needs no refutation. It is evidently not this that has led to its rejection, but something wholly different, as Stier has openly ac knowledged : " Should not Moses, the man of God, have known what is after death 1 Or if he knew it, is there any other pas sage in this Psalm in which it is expressed V — Luther has given more correctly the sense of ver. 4 than most modern expositors : " Moses exhorts us to rise above time, and to look upon our life with the eyes of God, so shall we assuredly say, that all the life of man is scarcely one hour long, even though it last the longest." The " for " shews that the verse serves to ground the assertion indirectly contained in ver. 3, as to the perishable and brief life of man. To man his life appears long ; comp. " teach us to num ber our days," of ver. 12. He who has the number of seventy years before hira, supposes that an eternity has been measured 126 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. out to him. The Psalmist destroys, with a powerful stroke, such an illusion : " for how short is human life when it is seen with thine eyes, who seest all things as they are, and measurest the extent of our life by a correct standard ? To thee a thousand years are what one day is to man, a night-watch. If we lived then, instead of our poor seventy, which, at the best, is all that is measured out to us, a thousand years, what would these be be fore thee V This divine estimate of the length of human life is made by all who have looked with a steady and clear eye upon eternity ; they cannot sufficiently wonder at the stupidity of those before whom such a short human life stretches out into the infinite ; the years dwindle down, in their estimation, to days and hours; comp. the noble poem of J. Neander, " How swiftly passes human life," the most beautiful of all the Christian imitations of our Psalra. — According to the coraraon view, the shortness of human life is shewn by comparing it with the eternity of God, whereas, according to the exposition given above, the eternity of God is noticed only indirectly, inasmuch as, just because he is the Eternal, that tirae which is long to raan appears short to him : a thousand years are in thine eyes what yesterday or a night-watch is in ours. (Bengel : as to a very rich man a thou sand sovereigns are as one penny ; so, to the eternal God, a thousand years are as one day.) It is decisive against the direct reference to God, that the years are by no means described as the years of God, but it is rather said, as a thousand years are before hira. Then, on this construction, the " for " also occasions a difficulty, such, for example, as manifestly meets us in Koester's paraphrase : this cannot be otherwise, as thou art alone (?) eter nal. The construction, as we give it, is exactly the same as an admonition to measure time, not by the human but by the divine standard, as in 2 Pet. iii. 8, " be not ignorant that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The Lord looks upon time with altogether different eyes from those who live in time ; what seems long to you is short to hira; .a divine day is like a thousand human years, and a thousand human years are like one divine day. — The 15 llj)'^ is " when it passes by," — the future expressing what is just ending, Ew. § 264. The night-watch which fleets past to those who are asleep like a moraent, is added, as a second step in the PSALM XC. VER. 1 — 5. 127 climax, to the day which is spread out at greater length over labour. It is clear that, in ancient times, the night was di-vided into three watches ; in Judges vii. 19, mention is made of the middle watch. And Ex. xiv. 24, where the morning watch is spoken of, renders it evident that this division existed in the time of Moses. — In the fifth verse the Psalmist proceeds in the ' description of the transitory nature of huraan life. The Q-^f, to flow as a stream (in Ps. Ixxvii. 17, hence Q-^f, a storm of rain), is here to carry away with a stream, to carry off with the tear ing rapidity with which a storm of rain, in conjunction with the flood which it has occasioned, carries away every thing ; for, ac cording to the sense of the noun and the verb, the flood must be noticed here, not as in itself, but as the product of a storm of rain ; comp. the -^^p Q-^f, " a rain-torrent of a wall," which car ries away walls, in Is. xxv. 4. Luther : " It is a fine full figure, by which is illustrated how the whole human family is driven away, as when a sweeping torrent of rain carries every thing be fore it, one race or generation after another is hurried away like a roaring flood." Jo. Arnd : " When thou seest a torrent sweep past, thus say, behold there my life flows past, and the water which has gone past never returns." Perhaps the Psalmist al ludes to the deluge, in which he sees a figure of the common lot of men. — On " they are a sleep," Luther : " We know that sleep is such a thing that it ceases ere we can perceive it or mark it ; for, before we are aware that we have slept, sleep is gone and ended. Wherefore truly our life is nothing else than a sleep and a dream, for before we are rightly conscious of being alive, we cease to live." Comp. Ps. Ixxiii. 20, " like a dream on awak ing," Ps. xxxvii. 6, " only as an image walks man." The sleep and the morning stand opposed to each other. The expression, " as grass," is incidently thrust in as the medium of connecting the first and the second part of the Psalm. It is taken up again at the beginning of the last clause in ver. 6, and dwelt upon at greater length. The subject in h^n'' is not the grass (De Wette and others : in the morning like grass which perishes), but the figurative sleep, man. Otherwise the clause, " as the grass," would cease to be the incidental expression which alone it can be here, and would form a part of ver. 6. The translation is much more to be rejected ; in the morning it is like the plant which 128 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. springs up. This destroys the obvious opposition between the sleep and the morning (by which the interpretation of the sleep, as the sleep of death, is set aside), and has, besides, against it, the fact that f^)-\, in Kal, has never the sense of to spring up. In the only other passage besides the one before us, which Ges. has adduced in favour of this sense, it has been set aside by Delitzsh, Hab. i. 11. The second section of the' meditative part is ver. 6-10 : death is the wages of sin. Ver. 6. In the morning he blooms and — perishes, in the evening he is cut down and withers. Ver. 7. For we disappear by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are ter rified. Ver. 8. For thou settest our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. Ver. 9. For all our days are spent in thy wrath, we complete our years like a thought. Ver. 10. Our life-time, it lasts seventy years, and if any one by strength, eighty years, and their strength is suffering and wickedness ; for it is soon worn out and we fiee away. — On ver. 6, Jo. Arnd : " When thou seest a garden in blossom, it is as if God took a flower in his hand and said, behold this is what thou art, and thy whole life." The subject in 'w>"i\ji, ^^j-\ and ^y^ is also here, as in n'^i-ji in ver. 5, man, the figurative flower, comp. Job xiv. 2, " like a flower he withers and is cut down," Ps. ciii. 15, " as for man his days are as grass, like a flower of the ;field so he flourisheth ; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more." The blossom of man is so short that it does not deserve to have a whole member of a verse devoted to it. H,ence the expression, "and it perishes," forms, as it were, a part of the first, and is more fully expanded in the se cond. The translation, " and springs up," is all the less admissible that the springing up raust precede the blossoraing. The ^^'^>21 is the Pil. from ^ij^. As God is throughout addressed, he can not be the subject ; we must consider the verb as used imperson ally, comp. 2 Kings xxii. 38, xxi. 36 ; Ez. xii. 7. In reality, however, God undoubtedly is the agent who cuts down. To be cut off, which alone the form of the verb can denote, is more suit able than to fade, which several would violently thrust in in its stead, because it points, as does also the " to be terrified" of the following verse, to the violent nature of the destruction. In the parallel passages which have been appealed to, Ps. xxxvii. 2, and PSALM XC. VER. 6 — 10. ' 129 Job. xiv. 2 , th« language in like manner refers to cutting down, and not to fading. — In ver, 7, the Psalmist ascends from the me lancholy fact which he had described in the 6th verse to its yet more melancholy cause ; that man's life is so short is the con sequence of the wrath of God, which he has drawn down upon himself by his sins, comp. Gen. ii. 17 ; Eom. v, 12. According to the passage before us, the terrible judgraents by which those who proudly rebelled against the Lord in the time of Moses, were annihilated (comp., for example. Num. xvi.), are only a reflec tion and an image of the common lot of humanity ; there hap pened then, visibly and impressively, what is always going on secretly and unobservedly. The wrath of God eats away our life until after a little while it has completely consumed it. It is a remarkable peculiarity of revelation, that in this way it throws the blame of death upon men ; for verse 8th shows that the wrath of God presupposes and has for its foundation the guilt of men. If we do not see in death the wages of sin, our melancholy existence must necessarily awaken perplexing thoughts of God, and stifle all noble and child-like love towards him. The '^'2 is to disappear, to be annihilated. We are terrified, namely, before that dreadful death which destroys us ; compare Ps. civ. 29, and the noun f7^ni of sudden death, Ps, Ixxviii. 33, Is. Ixv. 23. — The expression " thou placest our sins before thee," in ver. 8 stands in opposi tion to an overlooking, either arising from want of power to ob serve, (compare Jer. xvi. 17 ; Heb. iv. 13), or from want of hat red of sin, proceeding from that easy goodnature which rationalism ascribes to God, Instead of j^^ the Keri has the correct reading. In the second clause, the reading 13J273^ *"*'^ secret, our secret sin, is better supported than the plural y^'jy^'^, compare Job XX. 11, a reading which the parallel passage alone has intro duced. The term " our secret sin," intimates that the domain of sin is much more extensive than that of human knowledge, either that of others or our own, and therefore points to the depth of human depravity. Even for the believer, sin has many dark parts, so that even he, in cases where he is not conscious of any guilt, cannot be sure that he is free from guilt, but must wait the judgment of God, " which shall bring to light the hidden works of darkness and render manifest the counsel of the heart," corapare Ps- xix. 12 ; 1 Cor, iv. 4, 5. Luther : " We should by all I 130 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. means especially mark this saying, that no man can know or see all his sins, especially if you regard the greatness of original sin. And it is no wonder. For who can sufficiently describe the single sin of unchastity which yet is known to every one 1 How much less can any one sufficiently know other difficult and subtile spiri- tual sins, such as impatience in adversity, blasphemy, and mur muring against God, &c. 1 0 what a deep abyss is unbelief alone ! On this account Moses well calls sin a secret thing, whose great ness no mind can comprehend. For as the wrath of God is, and as death is, so also is sin, an inconceivable infinite." The-^^^Q according to most expositors signifies here Ught, But Gfin. i. makes a distinction between ¦^'ij^ light and ^lt^j2 ^ luminary, and the ascertained sense is here wholly suitable : the luminary of the countenance, because the divine countenance illuminates what was concealed, so that it lies clear and open. — The pj^g in ver. 9 is to turn round, to turn away, compare Jer. vi. 4. All our days disappear, so that it is soon over with our whole life. " Through thine anger" belongs in reality also to the second clause. In this the pj'^^ is not " to bring," but " to bring to an end." The j-]^pj cannot signify a conversation, a tale : for the word always denotes something inward (comp. Gousset in Gesen.), and is never used of a conversation with another. As little can it denote a pure thought, for the noun in the two other passages where it occurs, Ez. ii. 10, Job., xxxvii. 2, stands for something loud, and the verb properly denotes not the pure thought, but what is intermediate between thought and discourse. The Psalraist compares human existence as regards its transitory nature, to a soliloquy which generally bears the character of some* thing transitory and broken. The mind does not advance be yond single half-uttered words and sentences, and soon retires again into the region of pure thought. To such a transitory murmur and ejaculation is that huraan life corapared which stupid dreamers look upon as an eternity. — As " the days of the years," in ver. 10, is a phrase of constant occurrence, particu larly in the Pentateuch for "a lifetime" (comp. Gen. xxv. 7, xlvii. 8, 9), and as Q'^j^^ ^iso occurs in ver. 9 and 12, for " the whole extent of human life," the idea of Calvin is to be rejected, that "the days of the years" is an emphatic expression, "be cause though time is divided into small portions, the number it- PSALM XC. VER. 6 — 10, 131 self deceives us so that we expect to live a very long time." The remark, however, of Michaelis is correct, " the nominative abso lute is not without emphasis, because it calls forth expectation," and also that of Koster, " the expression retarding the current of thought is intended to render prominent the contrast between the apparently numerous days of life, and their short sum at the end." The expression " are in thera," is, " they contain the sum of seventy years in them." " And if with strength," is better explained by "if there is any one furnished with strength, — with a particularly strong constitution," than by " if they, the days are furnished with strength." As n'^i^^ is also " strength," " power," we must reject such explanations as " if it comes high," (Luther's), and " if very strong." Luther : " Men almost reach this time of life, therefore he sets it down as a common terminus and usual boundary. For what is beyond this is not worth being called a life, because then every thing that be longs to life ceases ; men use neither meat nor drink with plea sure, are scarcely fit for any trade or work, and are kept at them only to their torment." And their pride is only suffering and wickedness. The '2Th occurs only here : the noun, how ever ^j-j"^ occurs in the sense of pride in Job ix. 13, xxvi. 12, ¦ and the adjective 2n"1 proud in Ps. xl. 4. The pride of the T T days, that of which they are proud or may be proud, is either the strong period of life — Calvin, " the sense is, that before men sink into old age, and while they are still in the very blossom of youth, they are involved in those many troubles, cares, pains, and anxieties to which mortal life is exposed" — or, the best, the most favourable condition of life, Luther, " when it is delightful." It has been shewn in the treatise on Balaam, thats«^^ always means wickedness, p. 112, ss. ; Delitzsch, on Hab, i. 3, iii. 7, has opposed this -without sufficient ground. Here the wickedness de notes wha,t must be suffered from the wickedness of others, as in the case of Abel from Cain. The confession of Jacob before Pharoah in Gen. xlvii. 19, and also that of Lamech, Gen. v. 29, agree with what is here said as to the condition of human life. Luther : " The whole of life therefore is trouble and labour, with the single exception that these evils are alleviated by faith and hope in the divine compassion inthe case of those who have been born again, and are new creatures." For we are driven rapidly i2 132 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. avjay and we flee hence. This affirmation is by no means suit able as the basis of what immediately precedes. We must hence separate it by a semicolon, and connect the " for'-' with the main subject of the verse. " And their pride, &c.," can be considered only as an offshoot thought, the subject of the Psalra being not the misery hut the transitory nature of human life. The f^ is usually translated, it goes away, it passes away. But as ¦j^ in the only other passage where it occurs with certainty (Ps. Ixxi. 6 is doubtful). Num. xi. 31, (a remarkable connection with the lan guage of the Pentateuch) has the sense of" to bring," " to drive ;" and as there is no suitable subject in the preceding clause to 'j^ in the sense of to pass away — the ^;-j-^ cannot be the subject, as here manifestly the language applies to the brevity, of human life — ^it is more suitable to take the verb impersonally, and translate "we are driven away," comp. " we are cut off" in ver. 6. In reality, however, it is God that drives away just as there it is God that cuts off. The 'ty^n is an adverb, suddenly. To the sudden driving away, the fleeing corresponds suitably, /eein^r as its consequence. In the first strophe of the second main division, ver. 11, 12, there are appended to the doctrine of death as the wages of sin, the painful complaint that this relation in all its depths is so little known, and the prayer to God that he would cause this relation to be better known, and lead the heart to repentance. Ver. 11. Who knows the might of thine anger, and thy fury in proportion to thy fear ? Ver. 12. To number our days, this do thou teach us, in order that we may obtain a wise heart, — On ver. 11, Luther : " From this point he shews why and for whose sake he had given this narrative, for the sake, namely, of unfeel ing sinners, in order that they may be brought to a sense of their misery. For this is the greatest misery that we men live in siich great manifold innumerable distresses, have such a short life, and are in perpetual danger, yea, certain prospect of eternal death, and yet do not feel all this nor know it sufficiently. Who can sufficiently express such stupidity !" The expression " who knows the power of thy wrath," equivalent to " thy wrath as it is made known in the brevity of our existence, the power of death in all its strength," is in the first instance an expression of painful' Im- mentation over the inconceivable delusion of men ; it however contains within it the heart-felt wish that it raay be other- PSALM XC-. VER. 11, 12. 133 wise, and the prayer that God would alter it, which in ver. 12 rises out of the lamentation. The j^-jvi there refers manifestly to the j;-j^i here, Luther : " This complaint also contains a prayer in it. For Moses wishes that such pestilential security may be torn out of his heart, and out of the hearts of all men, and that all hearts may be animated by faith, so that men may believe that such a thing is true and may be alarmed at such great wrath of God." " As thy fear'' is to baunderstood as equivalent to " in proportion as is demanded by that fear of thee, that piety which is becoming in thy people." Several explain after the example of Venema : according to thy dreadfulness, according to the infinite measure of which in God, are his wrath against sin and his punish ment of sin. But " the fear of God" is a phrase of constant oc currence in the sense of " fear before God," (compare Deut. ii. 25, Ps. V. 7), and on the other hand there is only one passage which can be referred to in the sense of dreadfulness— viz., Ez. i. 18, a writerwho supplies so many anomalous expressipns, and even in this one passage the above sense depends upon a false exposition, com pare Gesen. Thes. — For what object the Psalmist in ver. 12 wishes his days to be numbered, appears from the reference of the j^'T^n to the j^'T^s of the preceding verse, according to which to number the days and to know the wrath of God must be strictly con nected together. May God, the sense is, lead us to lay rightly to heart the brevity of our life, thus cause us to know the great ness of his wrath, the depth of our corruption, and in this way lead us to repentance. Luther : " Such a thing would never have come into my mind as to pray for this, if I had not seen that Moses prayed here for it with all earnestness and valour. For I thought that the hearts of all men were as full of fear and terror as mine is. But if we carefully examine we shall find there are scarcely ten in ten thousand moved by these things as they ought to be ; all the others live as if there were no God, and no death. This is the greatest misery, and the one to be most deeply de plored, that men even in death dream of life. There are certainly to be found some men of experience who feel this misery very se verely without any such prayer, but the greater part do not feel it ; for these generally live in such a way that they value their moment of life as if it were an eternal existence. The prayer which Moses here pens is necessary for these." The p on which 134 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. SO much ingenuity has been expended, serves to mark the impor tance of this knowledge to be imparted only through the favour of God, Arnd : " We are here told that this knowledge comes not from flesh and blood, but from God." " Thus teach us," is equiva lent to " this teach us." The ^;23T is not to be translated ac cording to Ewald, § 621, by " and to bring," but § 618, " that we may bring." For as the prayer here is closely connected with the meditation in ver, 6-10, it can refer directly only to the kn'owlcidge of the relation represented there ; and the desire for a wise heart can only come into notice as the effect of this know ledge. The ^'^'2'n never signifies " to carry away," " to obtain," but always " to make," " to bring." The most natural con struction is to supply with Abenesra '[^^"ipi or "^^^j i"'lo ^'^'" inward parts OT into us. The translation "that we may bring forward as the best offering" would be admissible only if ^^^n were a word commonly applied to sacrifices, which it is not ; only in this case-'r^ would be wanting. Stisskind and Stier are without any good reason inclined to find in this passage an intimation of immortality : " for in what should that wisdom consist which arises frora a knowledge of the brevity of our life, if not in the effort after a raore extended duration V The wisdom which is got from a consideration of the brevity of our life, and of the wrath of God manifested in that brevity, consists in fearing God and eschewing evil. Job xxviii. 28, in keeping the words of his covenant and doing accordingly, Deut. xxix. 9, and thus preparing for him the way to fulfil the prayer in ver. 13-17, that he would, at least within the boundary of our brief life-time, manifest his favour, and withdraw his punishing hand. In ver. 13-17, the second prayer : after the knowledge of the brevity of our existence, and of the greatness of his wrath, and upon ihe ground of this, and of the repentance called forth by it, may God impart to his church favour and deliverance inside this narrow existence, instead of the punishment and misery which she is now suffering. — Ver. 13. Turn back, 0 Lord, how long ! and let it repent thee of thy servants! Ver. 14. Satisfy us in the morning with thy mercy, arid grant that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Ver. 15. Make us glad like to ihe days in which thou didst afflict us, the years when we saw evil. PSALM XC. VER. 13 — 17. 135 • Ver, 16. Show to thy servants thy doing, and thy glory to their children, Ver. 17, And may the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and the work of our hand confirm upon us, yea, the work of our hand .confirm ! — The " turn back," in ver. 13, is to be supplemented out of " let it repent thee " of the second clause, " of the wrath which now lies upon thy servants" (comp. Ex. xxxii. 12, " Turn back from the fierceness of thy wrath, and let it repent thee of the evil concerning thy people," Jer. iv. 28), and also out of the relation to what goes before, where the church had prayed that he would make her turn back from the wicked ness of her heart. The Qf-j^ has, in Niph. and Hithp., only a double sense, to comfort one's self. Gen. xxvii. 42, xxxvii. 35, and to repent. Num. xxiii. 19, Deut. xxxii. 36, "And it re pented him of his servants," QHifY' l^lli^ h'^ — °n which Ps. cxxxv. 14 depends — and Ex. xxxii, 12, 14, " And it repented the Lord of the evil which he had said he would do to his peo ple," — to this Jo. ii. 13 refers, the preceding passage is taken from the Pentateuch — Jud. ii. 18, Jer. xv. 6. Those senses flow.easily from the fundamental sense, the quieting of the excited affection : not so, however, a third one, which has been arbitra rily adopted, and applied here in more ways than one, " to have compassion on." Of the two ascertained senses, the one to repent is the only one that is suitable here ; and it is alsp confirmed by the two remarkably accordant parallel passages from the Pentateuch, Ex. xxxii. 12, and Deut. xxxii. 36 — in the former passage, the Niph. is a very marked point of connection, and the same may be said of " for thy servant " in the second, to which the " of evil for thy people " in the first serves as a commentary. In reference to the sense, Calvin cor rectly remarks : " According to the usual phraseology of Scrip ture, God is said to repent, when, after dissipating sadness and giving again occasion for joy, he appears as if he had changed ;" comp; on the repentance of God, the Beitr. P. iii. p. 453 ss. — In reference to " in the morning," in ver. 14, comp. at Ps. lix. 16. — In reference to the stat. constr. j^yt^i^ and jy^y^ in ver. 15, comp. ¦ Ew. § 500. The jy\iy very remarkably occurs only here and in Deut. xxxii. 7 ; in other passages it is always Qij^"*- There it occurs in like manner as here, in connection with frij^, and manifestly this connection has occasioned the peculiar termi nation. Jo. Arnd : " For we have seen it in those who have 136 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. lived before us. How didst thou gladden Noah after the flood. Lot after the destruction of Sodom, Jacob after his distress i n the famine, Joseph after his imprisonment, and the children of Israel after the captivity ! These are all glasses in which we find this word written : after trouble God again makes glad." — The doing of God is, according to the connection and the parallel, only a salutary doing. The Psalmist prays, in the first instance, only that God would make himself known very visibly in his deeds. The assertion, " The poet is longing after some parti cular mighty deed of God," has no foundation in the words ; comp., for example, Ps. xcii. 4, " For thou makest me glad, 0 Lord, by thy deed ; I rejoice over the works of thy hand." If it were so, we must conceive him to be thinking upon the posses sion of Canaan ; comp. xliv. 1. — In reference to the beauty of the -Lord, in ver. 17, comp. at Ps. xxvii. 4 ; may it he upon us is equivalent to, may it be made known in our experience. By " the work of the hands," according to the parallel passages of the Pentateuch, we cannot suppose any particular undertaking, but only the collective doings to be meant; comp. Deut. xiv. 29, " that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands which thou doest," xvi. 13, xxiv. 19, xxviii. 12, xxx. 9. " To confirm" is " to bring about," " to accomplish." The ^^i^j^, — because the promoting comes from above. PSALM XCI. The Psalm contains, in representation of the truth, " if God be for me, every thing else may be against me," the expression of joyful confidence in the protection and help of God in all troubles and dangers. " The whole object is to bring to a right trust in God," Beri. B. The formal arrangement is easy and obvious. First, an Intro duction, ver. 1 and 2, which proposes the theme, and communi cates the contents of the whole Psalra. Next, there are two strophes, each of seven verses, containing the development, ex ternally separated by the circumstance that, at the conclusion of the first part (ver. 9), the Psalmist repeats what he had said at the conclusion, of the Introduction, and thus finishes off this part as a whole. The seven are both times divided by a four and a PSALM XCI. 137 three, a division which strikes as particularly well marked in the second strophe, where the three last verses contain an address ot God, in which he assures the righteous man of his salvation, and with which the whole suitably ends. But there is also raanifestly a break in the first strophe at ver. 7. The seven, as the signa ture of the whole, appears not only in the number of the verses, but also in the number of the names of God. Jehovah occurs seven times. The character of the Psalm is entirely general ; for it ap- ¦ plies to the whole church, at all events, no less than it does to its individual believing members, and, as shall hereafter be.shown, to the former in the first instance. But there is also wanting, it may be observed, every mark by which the date can be certainly determined : — the matter assumes another appearance, if we regard the whole as one group, to which the opening verses form the introduction. Several expositors have incorrectly assumed the occasion to have been a destructive disease. How God affords protection at such an emergency, is indeed brought prominently forward in ver. 6, and perhaps with the design that the church should use this Psalm among others in seasons of pestilence, as it has done at all times : among all the Psalms, no one is more suitable for this purpose. But this reference, so far from being the exclusive, is not even once the preponderating one, which it would have been had the Psalra been called forth by such an occasion. Ac cording to a correct exposition, it occurs only in the verse above referred to. And even here it is oppression arising from enemies that occupies the fore-ground, as is usually the case in the Psalm, among the dangersagainst which the protection of God is sufficient. The alternation of thou and I in the Psalm has led many ex positors to divide it among alternating choruses. But that this is " not the case is clear from the fact that in this way we are obliged to tear asunder what is manifestly connected together ; thus in the Introduction, where the first portion in the first verse must belong to the first chorus, and the second in the second verse to the se cond chorus, next in ver. 9, where the change occurs in one and the same verse, and where the first portion alloted to a particular chorus is remarkably distinguished for its being far too short and 138 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. bald. The fact, however, upon which this hypothesis leans may be far more easily explained by supposing that the Psalmist speaks at one time from his own person to the soul of the right eous one who is in danger, and revives its courage, while at an other time he expresses confidence from the soul of the righteous man ; and thus in that pleasant alternation which forms the cha racteristic peculiarity of the Psalm, he employs at one time the thou in the character of teacher, and at another time the /, in the character of scholar. If we take a right view of the / through out the Psalm, keeping our attention not so much upon the per son of the Psalmist as upon those who were intended to appropriate the Psalm to themselves, the difference between the thou and the / will be felt as less raarked and will occasion scarcely any diffi culty. Under the thou an I is everywhere concealed ; for the Psalmist teaches what the person for whose use the Psalm was designed ought to acknowledge : and in like manner, under the / there is a thou ; for the person using the Psalm adopts language put into his mouth by the Psalraist, who is only a thou in dis guise. The call of instruction in Scripture, (this is the meaning of the alternation), ought always to be responded to by the ac knowledgment of the hearer. Ver. 1, 2. — Ver. 1. He who sits in the covert of the Most High, spends the night under the shade of the Almighty : Ver. 2. / say to the Lord : my confidence and my fortress, my God, in thee I trust. — The Psalraist, whom God has taken under his care, is perfectly safe under his protection. Instead of / say, one might have expected he says, which indeed the Septuagint and many others have taken the liberty of substituting, incorrectly, however, if the translation was intended to be an exact one, for -^j2^ can only be the first person future. The Psalmist, how ever, springs from the tone of the teacher to that of the scholar. Those who find themselves in difficulties here, and at the same time are not willing to make any change upon the -^j^N' sepa rate the two verses; and make the first an independent one : the man who sits under the protection of the Most High spends the night under the shade of the Almighty. But it is impossible to separate the synonymous parallel clauses of this verse. To spend the night is in no respect stronger than to dwell ; and the " continually," " well," and " safely," are arbitrary additions. On PSALM XCI. VER. 3—9. 139 " in the covert," comp. Ps". xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 20, 1 Sam. xix. 2. Arnd : " The defence of God means a place of concealment, a secret little place where a man hides and covers himself in public general troubles. And the Holy Ghost intends thus to comfort us, if a man can conceal a friend in a secret hidden place in the time of trouble, much more can God. " The names of God, " the Most High," " the Almighty," represent the basis of that un bounded confidence in the protection of God which the Psalmist intended to express in ver. 2. Who can do any real injury to the man who .stands under the protection of Omnipotence, as it exists in a personal God. On shade = protection, comp. at Ps. xxxvi. 7 ; Ivii. 1. On iDmo comp. Ps. Ixxi. 7, and on TlTian I^s. xviii. 2. Ver. 3-9. — Ver. 3. For he delivers thee from the snare of the fowler, from the pestilence of wickedness, Ver 4. With his wings he covers thee, and under his mings thou mayest trust. Ver. 5. Thou needest not he afraid of the terror of night, nor of the arrow thatfieeth by day, Ver. 6. Of the pestilence which walketh in darkness, of the disease which wasteth at mid-day. Ver. 7. Thousands fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, yet it shall not strike thee. Ver. 8, Only with thine eye shalt thou see it, and behold the recompence of the wicked. Ver. 9. For thou. Lord, art my confidence, thou makest the Most High thy habitation. — The snare of the fowler is a terra designating the cunning and power of enemies, employed also in Ps. cxxiv. 7. Security, in the highest sense, is in these words promised to the believer against the plots of Satan, as the most dangerous and destructive enemy, comp. 2 Tim. ii. 26. ,The pj'^pj denotes wickedness here as in Ps. Ivii, 1 ; lii. 2', 7 ; xciv. 20. , The plural strengthens the expression, and denotes the whole mass of wickedness. The pestilence of wickedness is the pestilen tial ruin which it threatens. Even in Hos. xiii. 14, the pestilence is a figurative expression for destruction, and in Is. xxviii. 2, the storm of the disease is a ruinous storm like a disease. Accord ing to the common translation 'yy^ is pestilence in the proper sense, and JiT^n in the sense of misery, occupies the place of an adjective ; thus Luther : " from the destructive pestilence." But according to our translation J^y\'^ corresponds to '\^p\ ; not only in the first half of this verse, but also in vers. 4 and 5, the Ian- 140 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. guage is still of the oppression of enemies, and the pestilence is spoken of for the first time in verse 6 ; by this translation, there fore, the arrangement of the Psalm is destroyed. — In ver. 4 the plDpj]-) is to be translated " thou mayest trust, ' " thou findest security," comp. " thou mayest not be afraid," of ver. 5. The parallel, and probably the fundamental passage is Ps. xxxvi. 7, comp. also Ps. Ixi. 4, and Euth ii. 12. In reference to " his truth," comp. at Ps. Ivii. 3. — It is obvious from the parallelism, that the terror of the night is, in the first instance and especially, to be understood of stratagems of enemies : in the verse before us, what men prepare by day and by night, and in the following verse what sickn'ess does. It becomes manifest on comparing the passage, Prov. iii. 23-26, which so strikingly agrees with our Psalm, especially in that very peculiar expression, " thy foot shall not stumble," that the Psalraist had it distinctly in his eye. It is there said, " when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid, yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet : thou raayest not be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh." Comp. also the Song of Sol. iii. 8, where every one of the warriors around Solomon's bed has his sword at his side, " because of fear in the night," possible hostile stratagem, for it is this only that can be met by the sword. Job xxi. 9, XV. 21. It is not the Psalmist, but merely a part of his expositors, that lead us here into " an unsafe spiritual region." The Old Testament knows nothing of spectres. The arrow is the arrow of the enemy (comp. Ps. Iviii. 7) ; and there is just as little reason for thinking of the sun-stroke, or of any thing of a like nature here, as there was in the first clause for thinking of spectres. As oppression from enemies always stands so much in the foreground throughout the Old Testament, there is the. less reason for construing figuratively what literally refers to it. Berleb. B. : " even when it looks dark in the heart when the enemy comes easily upon us." — In ver. 6 the darkness is named first, because in the darkness of night all evils assume an aggra vated character, especially wide spread disease, whose dangerous character makes it allied to the darkness of night, with which it is represented by the imagination as closely connected. — In ver. 7 the subject , of 'jjy^i is not specially disease, but evil, or destruc tion in general. The words are as much connected with ver. 2-5 PSALM XCI. VER. 10 — 16. 141 as with ver. 6. The expression leads rather to warlike relations than to the spreading of a contagion, comp. Ps. xxvii. 3. In reference to the thought comp. Ps. xxxii. 6. — In ver. 8 many ex positors take p-^ as a particle of assurance, only = surely, corap, at Ps. xxxii. 5. Then the thousand and the ten thousand in ver. 7 are to be regarded as the enemies of the Psalmist (or of the Church in whose name he speaks), whose destruction implies his deliverance. Ps. xcii. 11 is in favour of this view, where what the eye sees is just the destruction of the enemies. We may also explain otherwise : " only thou shalt see it with thine eyes," in opposition to it coming upon him in ver. 7. — In reference to thy habitation in ver. 9, comp. at Ps. xc. 1. Ver, 10-16. — Ver. 10. There shall no evil befal thee, and no plague shall come near thy dwelling. Ver. 11. For he gives his angels charge over thee, that they guard thee'in all thy ways. Ver. 12. They shall bear thee up irt their Jiands that thou dash not thy foot upon a stone. Ver. 13. Thou slialt trample upon the lions and the adders, tread on the young lions and ihe dragons. Ver. 14. Because he cleaves to me, I will deliver him,, I will set him on high, because he knows my name. Ver. 15. He calls upon me, I will answer him ; I am with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him, Ver. 16. I will satisfy him with long life, and will cause him to see my salva tion. — rin the second clause of ver. 10 allusion is to all appearance made to Ex. xii. 23, the exemption of Israel at the infliction of judgment upon the Egyptians. — In ver. 11, the p]>)2 with ^ is " to give charge in reference to any thing," as Num. viii. 20. The angels appeared in-*similar circumstances in ancient tiraes, Gen. .xxviii. 12, " behold a ladder stood upon the earth, and its head reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascended and descended upon it," where we find a figurative representation of what was to happen to the whole chosen family and its individual mem bers at all times. There is neither here, nor any where else in Scripture, the least mention made of guardian angels. The com missions of God are entrusted to the whole angelic host; tand there is the less room for thinking here of guardian angels at tached to individuals, as the Psalmist, throughout the whole Psalm, has his eye especially upon the whole community, although what is said is, at the same time, so expressed, as to be suitable 142 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. also to individual members. — In ver. 12, the stone is spoken of in prosecution of the figure of the way. We can neither here, nor in the fundamental passage, Prov. iii. 23, translate " thy foot strikes not," but only " thou strike not thy foot." For the hjj is always transitive. The language in both of the two verses does not apply to dangers which one seeks, but only to such dan gers as meet the righteous man unsought, in his course through life. The artifice of the tempter in Matth. iv. 6, consisted in keeping this out of view. — The lions and the serpents, in ver. 13, represent the two kinds of dangers to which the righteous man is exposed, viz., open violence and secret cunning. The Berleb. B. " as the Israelites, when they travelled through the wilderness, Deut. viii. 15, Samson, Judges xiv. 5, 6, David, 1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35, and Daniel, Dan. vi. 23, gained" victories over lions ; such power of victory was specially promised to the disciples of Christ, Luke x. 19."^In the first clause of ver. 16, expositors are too ready with the obvious remark, that the pro mise of long life is specially an Old Testament one. This pro mise, as is manifest from the fundamental passages of the Pen tateuch, even Ex. xx. 12, and Deut. v. 16, w-here Israel is addressed, refers, in the first instance, to the whole church, and in so far we cannot limit the promise to Old Testament times. But even in regard to individuals (Berleb. B. : such as Abra ham, Gen. xxv. 8, Job xiii. 17, David, 1 Chron. xxiii. 1), would we not be ashamed at the sight of a venerable old man in Christ, if we did not recognise, in a long life spent in the favour of God, a blessing of God ? The difference between the Old and the New Testament, in this respect, is this, that, in the former, the other form in which God iraparts blessings to his people, namely, by taking them early to himself, was less kno-wn, although, in ancient times, the history of Enoch, as a significant type, gave intimation concerning it. On the second clause, comp. Ps. 1. 23. PSALM XCII. The Psalmist, or rather the church, in whose name he speaks, expresses readiness to praise God, ver. 1-4, and then praises, proceeding to this duty, first, in general, the greatness of God in PSALM CXII. 14S> the annihilation of the wicked, ver. 5-7, He next paints this more fully, ver. 9-15, and also as intimately connected -with it, the salvation of the righteous. The Psalm divides into two strophes, each of seven verses, the first of which is divided by 4, 3, and the second by 3, 4, The first contains the introduction and the thesis ; the second the development. In the middle, in ver. 9, we have an intercalary verse, which makes itself known as such by its brevity, and which, like a high fortress, rules the second part, and brings to gether, in a few weighty words, its contents. The seven appears as the signature of the whole even in the names of God. The theme is the same as in Ps. xxxvii., xlix., Ixxiii., God's retributive righteousness, which brings destruction to the wicked and salvation to the righteous. But the way and manner of treatment are different. The Psalmist does not come forward here teaching and exhorting, as he does in Ps. xxxvii. and xlix., nor in view of the church contending and conquering, as in Ps. Ixxiii. ; with holy skill he leads, as it were, the saints into the midst of the praise of God, and teaches them, by it, to gain the victory in their conflicts. The Psalm is fundamentally, as is manifest particularly from its conclusion, ver. 16, of a consoling and soothing character; the consolation, however, is imparted in the form of the praise of God, to which the Psalmist exhorts the church. According to the title, " a Psalm, a song of praise for the Sab bath-day," the Psalm was intended for use in the public worship of God on the Sabbath, on which day, according to Lev. xxiii. 3, there was held " a holy convocation ;" as Ps. Ixxxi. was intended to be used at the Passover. According to its contents, it is ma nifestly well adapted for such an use. On the Sabbath-day men ought " to rest from their own works," in order to consider the works of God leisurely and together ; comp. ver. 5, " how great are thy works, 0 Lord." Among these works, however, one of the greatest, not less great than the creation of the heavens and the earth, is his preservation of his church in th'e midst of the evil world. It is in accordance also with the title that the Psalm bears altogether a general character, and contains no notice of special relations. Finally, also, there is the fact, that the Psalm refers, in the first instance, to the whole church, while, at the 144 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. same time, every thing is designedly so arranged, as to render it suitable also to individuals. That it is the church, in the first in stance, that speaks, is evident frora the fourth verse, according to which, the speaker proposes to praise God with a multi plicity of instruments, from the " our God," in ver. 14, and from the reference, in ver. 10, to the fundamental passages which apply to Israel, and in ver. 12-14, to the symbol of the temple. The Psalm, by its formal arrangement, is manifestly nearly re lated to Ps. xci. — in both there are 16 verses, in both two strophes each of seven verses, divided by 3 and 4, and in both Jehovah occurs seven times. There is a resemblance also in other respects — the subject-matter and the tone, which is that of soft tenderness, never rising above a certain height — the connec tion between the application at once to the whole church and to individuals — and, finally, the agreement between ver. 11 of the one Psalm, and ver. 8 of the other. That the Psalm before us was composed later than Ps. Ixxiii. is obvious from ver. 6, when compared with Ps. Ixxiii. 22. More exact information as to the date of composition, will be gathered from Ps. xciii., which, with it, makes up one pair. Ver. 1-7. — Ver. 1. It is good to praise the Lord, and to sing to thy name, 0 thou Most High, Ver. 2. To make knovjn in the morning thy mercy, and thy faithfulness in the nights, Ver. 3. Upon the ten strings and upon the harp, with musing upon the guitar. Ver. 4. For thou makest me glad, 0 Lord,, by thy doings, over the works of thy hands I rejoice. Ver. 5. How great are thy works, O Lord, very deep are thy thoughts. Ver. 6. A stupid man knows not this, a fool understands it not. Ver. 7. When the wicked spring up like grass, and all evil-doers flourish, it is the case that they shall he recompensed for ever and eternally. — The " (already) in the raorning," (comp. Ixxxviii. 13, Ivii. 8, V. 3), and the " (still) in the nights " (comp. at Ps. xvi. 7), indicate the great zeal in praising God, for his mercy and truth, corresponding to the glory of the manifestations of these perfections. This general reference is undoubted. But, per haps, the mention of morning and evening refers specially to the morning and evening sacrifice, and indicates that the Psalm was intended to be sung at the bringing forward of these on the Sab-» PSALM XCII. VER. 1 — 7. 145 bath-day. This is all the more probable, as the third verse also refers manifestly to the public festival. The mercy and faith fulness of God are those properties which guarantee help to his people, and which are manifested in their deliverance. The cir cumstance that these are mentioned- at the very beginning of the Psalm, shews that, even from the beginning, we have to do, not with a general praise of God, but with praise in some well- defined connection ; and also sets aside the false constructions of ver. 5. In ver.- 3, mention is first made generally of instruments of ten strings (ten instead of the bodily incorporated ten) ; for ver. 1 reaches to the ten here ; corap. Ps. xxxiii., whose introduction is nearly allied to ours, and was probably modelled after it'. Next we have especially the (ten stringed) harp, and the (ten stringed) guitar. On " musing upon the guitar," comp. at Ps. ix. 16. For the sake of the symmetry, the not very obvious term I'^ij^ is used. It denotes the musing upon the guitar as the substratum of the praise, the means by which it obtains a standing. — The mention of the mercy and the griace in the 2d verse shews that at " the doing of God," in ver. 4 (comp. at Ps. xc. 16), and " the worts of his hands," we are not at all to think of the creation of the heavens and earth, but singly and alone of his salva tion-bringing doings on behalf of his people, the wonders of their deliverance. — The Psalmist begins in ver. 5 the praise of God, which had been announced, and the motives to which had been mentioned in ver. 1-3. What kind of works and thanks the Psalmist means is particularly intimated in ver. 7, which should be distinguished from vers. 5 and 6 by inverted commas. It is the works and counsels of God for the deliverance of his people, a deliverance which is secured by the destruction of the wicked, their enemies ; comp. Ps. xl. 6, " thy thoughts towards us, no thing is to be compared to thee ; I will declare and speak of them, they are not to be numbered." The depth of the thoughts of God, in parallel with the greatness of his works, is not at all their darkness — this is only one consequence pointing to the basis, which is mentioned as such in ver. 6 — but their glory and inexhaustible riches, comp. Job xi. 8, Is. Iv. 9, Eom. xi. 33. — This depth is seen especially in this, that the apparent end of the thoughts of God is so often seen to be the real beginning of their realization. When every thing appears to be gone, and K 146 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. wickedness completely to triumph, the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked suddenly break forth. — On ver. 6 comp. Ps. Ixxiii. 22. Were God's thoughts less deep and glorious, did he repay the wicked at every particular transgres sion imraediately with his punishraent, and did he bestow salva tion immediately upon the righteous according to the canon which Job's friends with their limited views had laid down, the go vernment of the world would becorae plain even to the dark eye of ungodliness. But its depth makes it a secret, the understanding of which very often in times of conflict is withheld even from the pious, as is manifest from the example of Job and the author of the seventy-third Psalm, and in which there is always much that may be learned. He who has got a deep insight into this secret, and has seen that the conduct of God towards his people is always and only grace, even though often under the deepest covering, and that his conduct towards the wicked is always only wrath, even when they flourish and blossom, he alone can cry out, " 0 the depth of the riches," &c., and to him these works of God ap pear greater and more glorious still than the works of creation. — On ver. 7 comp. Ps. xxxvii. 38. The annihilation of the wicked comes into notice' here as the basis of the deliverance of th^ righteous, which is the proper theme of the Psalm. Arnd : " Nothing except it be of God can stand, whether it be skill, or riches, or honour, or power. It rises and flourishes to appearance, but in the end it is only a thistle-bush and a noxious weed, good for nothing but the fire." Ver. 8. And thou art height in Eternity, 0 Lord. This verse forms the suramit-point of the Psalm. God is the concrete and the personal height, = " he is holy," in Ps. xxii. 3, never depth, as is imagined always by ungodliness, and in times of conflict also by the godly ; the appearance of depth is rather the highest height ; God is strongest when he appears to our short-sighted eye as weak. The man who can only hold fast this one truth, that God is eternally height, will never despond under the cross, and will, laugh at the triumph of the wicked. Not to be able any longer to form this thought is the essence of despair. If God be still height to us, we may well be joyful and in comfort however low we lie. In ver. 9-15 there follow the facts in which God shews himself as the eternal height. PSALM xcii. VER. 9 — 15. 147 Ver. 9-15. — Ver. 9. For behold thine enemies, 0 Lord, for behold thine enemies perish, all evil-doers are scattered. Ver. 10. And thou exaltest, like that of the buffalo, my horn, I sprinkle with fresh oil. Ver. 11. And mine eye looks upon mine enemies, of those who lift themselves up against me, evil doers, mine ears hear. Ver. 12. The righteous springs up like the palm-tree, like the cedar on Lebanon he grows, Ver. 13. They are planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of our God they flourish. Ver. 14. They get forward even in old age, they are full of sap and flourishing. Ver. 15. To shew that the Lord is righteous, my rock, in him there is no unrighteous ness. — The " for " in ver. 9 connects the whole strophe with ver. 8. The " behold " points to the clearly obvious facts. The enemies of the Lord are at the same time the enemies of the righteous man ; and it is as such that they are mentioned here. 0 Lord, thou personal Height. They separate themselves, — they are driven asunder, in the state of separation still more in capable of hurting, comp. Job iv. 11. — In ver. 10 we cannot trans late " but," but only " and thou exaltest." The lifting up of the righteous stands in immediate connection with the ruin of the wicked, and is its consequence. " Thou exaltest," looks back to ver. 8. God as the Height makes his people high. " As the buffalo," stands concisely for " as the horns of the buffalo on high," or, " so that they are like the horns of the buffalo." The fundamental passages are Num. xxiii. 22, xxiv. 8, where it is said of Israel, " his strength is as of a unicorn," and Deut. xxxiii. 17, " the horns of the buffalo are his horns, with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth." Parallel passages are Ps. lxxv. 4, 10, Ixxxix. 17. Thou exaltest my horn, — enablest me to rise up with spirit, with a sense of strength, and in an attitude of attack. In the second clause a nuraber of arbitrary interpretations are set aside by the remark that 'y^'2 jQtyi is the constant expression for " to pour out oil." The verb is transitive, as it always is. The object, the head (comp. Ps. xxiii. 5, "thou anointest my head with oil"), might very naturally be omitted, as it was only the head that was anointed, comp, at Ps. xxiii. 5, xlv. 7. The " growing green" stands figu ratively for " fresh," as in ver. 14, it is applied to the man whose condition is represented by the oil of joy. In the fresh oil, '2 K 148 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the verdant olive tree is as it were still seen, Ps. lii. 8, — The doubled ^ in ver, 11 cannot be considered as pointing out the object. For it is only nt^'^' ^nd not at all tS^'in that occurs with 2 in the sense of " to look upon any thing with pleasure," and ^j^llf never stands with ^ of the object : it would not even be suitable in this sense, for the Psalmist does not hear his ene mies with pleasure, he hears of them. We must therefore take ;i both tiraes in the sense of " on." It is only said in general that there is a looking and a hearing on, or in regard to, the ene mies — what that is, there is no occasion for particularly describ ing. The " evil-doers' stand in apposition, equivalent to who or because they are evil-doers, and therefore subject to the wrath of God. — Ver. 12-14 gives an interpretation of the symbols of the sanctuary. The holy candlestick, the symbol of the Church of God, the people of the covenant (comp. Beitr. iii. p. 645), had the form of a tree with flowers and fruit (comp. Bahr Symb. i. p. 446 ss.), for the purpose of denoting the joyful prosperity of the Church of God. Figures of flowers were found on the two curtains of the sanctuary and of the court of the tabernacle, Bahr, p. 376. Flowers and blossoms were specially the insignia of the priesthood to denote its joyful prosperity, Bahr, p. 365. The temple of Solomon was adorned in the interior with palms and opening blossoms (comp. Keil on the temple of Solomon, p. 143), as the symbol of the increase, the blossoming, and the prosperity of the kingdom of God. The reference to these symbols is all the more suitable, as the Psalm before us also refers in the first instance to the whole of the church. What is said of it, how ever, applies also to every one of its individual members. — The subject in ver. 13 is " the righteous " as resembling palms and cedars, or rather as the spiritual palms and cedars. Hitzig's assertion, that we must rather, according to the adjectives in ver. 14, understand that olive-trees are meant, is inconsistent with the reference to the symbols of the sanctuary. Even palms and cedars are always green. Schubert says of the former (Travels, ii. p. 138) : " the palm-tree retains even in heat and drought its roof of foliage." — The obvious synonymous parallel in ver. 13 shews that we cannot translate with Luther : " Those who are planted in the house of our Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." By the house of the Lord we can only understand PSALM XCIII. 149 the external sanctuary ; in it, however, the servants of God dwell spiritually with him, and are cared for by him with paternal love ; comp. Ps. Ixxxiv. 3 : on the "courts" at the same passage. There lies at the bottom an abbreviated comparison : these spi ritual trees flourish in the house of God as the natural trees when they are planted in a rich soil. Is. v. 1, or by rivers of water, Ps. i. 3. — Ver. 15 rests upon Deut. xxxii. 4, " the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and with out iniquity, just and right is he." Believers must always at least agree in this ancient praise of the uprightness and faithful ness of God, even although many things often happen to lead them wrong. On the " uprightness " comp. at Ps. xxv. 8. God shews himself upright inasmuch as he manifests himself rich in help to his people. The expression " my rock," which refers to the divine unchangeableness, and veracity, and faithfulness (comp. at Ps. xviii. 2), at the fundamental passage equivalent to faithfulness (comp. thy faithfulness here in ver. 2), stands in the second clause in the same relation as "Jehovah" does in the first, to which it stands in several ways in strict reference, comp. at Ps. xviii. 2. " In whom there is no unrighteousness" corresponds to " upright." The •( in ^^>i stands with a certain emphasis, comp. on this use of the copulative Gesen. Thes. i. p. 396, c. c. Instead of the rare form j-jl^'^Jj^ (comp. Job V. 16), the Kri has the usual nn^lj^- PSALM XCIII. The might of the world threatens to shake the earth, and, with it, the kingdom of God. But the Psalmist places, in opposition to its blustering rage, the Lord, whom he beholds coming " in his kingdom," clothed with majesty, girt with strength, — in op position to their modern throne, the eternal throne of the Lord, ver. 1, 2. The might-of the world roars like the tumultuous sea, but the Lord on high is more glorious than the sea with its swell ing waves, ver. 3, 4. The sum is in ver. 5 : the Lord's promises are to be depended upon, he will always protect his house. The reference, which it is impossible not to notice, in which " glorious in the height is the Lord," in ver. 4, stands to " thou art height 'in eternity, 0 Lord," in Ps. xcii. 8, the kernel and 150 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. middle point of that whole Psalm, has already led commentators to notice a near connection with Ps. xcii. Next, there is " the tautological nature of the language, the sense being spread over two clauses, the first of which sinks down to the vocative of Je hovah " (Hitzig), in ver. 3, to be compared with Ps. xcii. 9. We h^ive still further the circumstance, that the number five of the verses of our Psalm, the signature of the half makes up, with the fifteen of Ps. xcii., the number 20, and that the five times repeated Jehovah (Jehovah is spoken of and addressed in alter nate verses), makes up, with the seven repetitions of Ps. xcii., the number 12. These facts shew that our Psalms form one pair of Psalras, an idea which is decidedly favoured by the contents ; both Psalms minister consolation to the church, exposed to dan ger by the might of the world. In regard to the date of composition, our Psalm presupposes a powerful pressure from the might of the world against the king dom of God, and, consequently, cannot be dated earlier than the Assyrian catastrophe. And that we cannot descend later than this era is evident from the very apparent dependence of the Psalra upon Ps. xlvi. The temple appears in ver. 5 as threa tened. The result here obtained applies equally, not only to Ps., xcii., but also to Ps. xci. ; comp. the introduction to Ps. xcii. More exact particulars can be obtained, wherever they are gene rally possible, oiily out of the following Psalms. In reference to the contents, Calvin : " The might of God is set forth as the ground of confidence, whereas, generally, fear and trembling arise from it, so that we do not sufficiently clothe God with his might, but rob him of his dominion." Ver. 1, 2. — Ver. 1, The Lord reigneth, he clotheth himself with majesty, he clothed himself, the Lord girdeth himself with power, therefore the earth stands firm, it does not move, Ver. 2. Thy throne is firmly grounded of old, from eternity thou art. — " The Lord reigneth," in ver. 1, alludes to the form used at the proclamation of the coramencement of the reign of earthly sovereigns, comp. 2 Sam. xv. 10, 1 Kings i. 11, 13, 2 Kings ix. 13. This allusion makes it plain that the language does not apply to the constant government of God, but to a new glorious mariifestaiion of his dominion, as it were a new ascent of the throne ; Michaelis correctly : rex factus est. We are led to the PSALM XCIII. VER. 1 — 2. 151 same result, also, by the parallel passages, Ps. xcvi. 10, xcvii. 1, xcix. 1, where the same form occurs ; the language in all these passages refers to the coming of the Lord in his kingdom. In like manner, in Is. xxiv. 23, where the discourse is likewise of the kingdom of glory : " the moon is ashamed, and the sun is ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on mount Zion, and at Je rusalera, and before his ancients there in glory," comp. Obed, ver. 21, Zech. xiv. 9, aud especially Eev. xi. 17, xix. 6. Be sides this, the -itb^ntl' " ^^ girds hiraself," not " he is girded," can only be referred to a future manifestation of the glory of God. In face,, therefore, of the high-handed proclamation of the might' of the world, that it shall now, more than ever, lord it over the earth and the kingdom of God, in face of the cry, " the Assyrian or the Babylonian reigneth," the Psalmist raises his cry, " Jehovah reigneth ;" he announces that the dominion of the Lord, so far from being overthrown by such feeble onsets, is now about, for the first time, to become manifest in its full glory. His cry, "the Lord reigneth," found the beginning of its verifica tion at the destruction of Babylon and the deliverance of Israel ; as to its full iraport, however, it is Messianic, — in Christ the Lord has truly come to reign, and he shall reign still more gloriously in the future ; comp. the above mentioned passages in Eev. This cry, " the- Lord reigneth," his servants always raise still against -the fierce onsets of the world against the church, with which it gains nothing more than that it thereby calls forth a new glorious revelation of his dominion. It is the holy war-cry of the church in face of the world. The remarks of Calvin upon this are well deserving of consideration : " all acknowledge with the mouth what the prophet h6re teaches, but how few place this shield, as is meet, in front of the might of the world, so that they fear nothing, be it ever so terrible." The preterites are explained by the circumstance, that the Psalmist, as a seer, has the future before his eyes. He sees, with pleasure, how the Lord enters upon his kingdom, makes use of the rod of majesty, and girds on the sword of strength, in face of the haughty world. The '^'^ is " to put on," as in Is. Ii. 9. The majesty with which the Lord clothes himself, forms the opposition, the antidote against the majesty and pride of the world ; comp. Ps. Ixxxix. 9, xlvi. 4. The second "^"^ cannot be referred to the preceding one : majesty 152 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. he puts on, the Lord puts on. For, in this case, there would be nothing but a flat repetition. And we cannot construe : the Lord puts on power, he is girded (therewith), for the ¦jy is con nected by the accusative with "^f^^j-i;-]. The easiest plan is to suppose that the Psalmist begins the sentence, " he puts on strength " (comp. the 'j^ t^l^ in Is- Ii- 9), and then suddenly changes it, because the strength corresponding to the sword ap pears still better as a girdle (comp. at Ps. xlv. 3, Ixxvi. 10) ; he pruts on — girds on strength. The hj^, also, deduces the conse quence surely to be determined from what precedes : Mich, unde etiam. The globe (comp. on ^^]-\ at Ps. xc. 2), together -with the kingdom of God upon it, is, by the plunderers of the world, shaken to its deepest foundations ; comp. Ps. xlvi. 2, 3, 6. But by the coming of the Lord in his kingdom it shall be again estab lished. He will display, in preserving it, the same omnipotence which he displayed in creating it ; comp. Ps. civ. 5, " he has founded the earth, it moves not for ever." This allusion to cre ation is peculiarly suitable in a hymn which was intended to be used on the Sabbath-day. The beginning and the end of the verse occur word for word again in Ps, xcvi. 10. On the clause, " it shall not move," comp. Ps. xlvi. 5. — In ver, 2 the Psalmist places the newly erected throne of wickedness, Ps. xciv. 20, over against the eternal throne of God, which shall survive the former as long as it has preceded it. The Y\^^ is " he establishes," " he grounds firm;" comp. 2 Sam. vii. 13, 16, 1 Kings ii. 45. The f^j^ is properly " from there," or " then," next " from of old ;" Prov. viii. 22, Is. xlviii. 3, 5, 7. The throne of wickedness has no " then ;" it is of yesterday, like a mushroom sprung out of the earth. The eternity is not the bare but the omnipotent eternity, comp. at Ps. xc. 2. He who is in this way the first is also the last. Is. xii. 4, xliv.,6, Eev. i. 17; he remains when all the powers of the earth fall in the dust. Ver. 3, 4. — Ver. 3, The floods lift up, 0 Lord, the floods lift up their voice, the floods lift up their din. Ver. 4. Than the voices of many waters, than the glorious waves of the sea, more glorious in the height is the Lord. — There can be no doubt that the sea comes into notice here as the symbol of worldly power. There was no need, as Maurer desiderates, of its being expressly marked out as such. For it is the standing emblem, comp. at psalSi xciii. ver. 5. 153 Ps. Ixxxix. 9, and also Ps. cvii. 23 ss. ; and in our Psalm, the design of which is to impart consolation in the conflicts occa sioned by the threatening power of the world, it is everywhere before the eye of the Psalmist. The fundamental passage here, also, is Ps. xlvi. By the floods are meant the waters of the sea ; comp. Jon. ii. 4, and probably, also, Ps. xxiv. 2, where the floods are parallel with the seas. That we are here chiefly to think of these is obvious, from the circurastance, that the sea is the usual symbol of the tumultuous mass of nations, and also frora the 4th verse, where the Psalraist expressly explains, that by the " many glorious waters,"^" floods" in ver. 3, are to be understood " the waves of the sea." The ^y^, properly the " collision of the waves," corresponds to the Qi'^i'tt^T^ in ver. 4, the " breakers.'' On " the Lord in majesty is more glorious than the voice," &c., in ver. 4, comp. " more glorious art thou than mountains of prey," in Ps. Ixxvi. 4. The voice of the floods is thus expressly brought forward with reference to the voice of the Lord, the thunder, as the outward proof of his glory, infinitely exalted above that of the sea; comp. Ps. xxix. As the thunder sounds louder than the loudest noise of the sea, so the Lord is infinitely more glorious than the sea, infinitely more glorious than the power of the world symbolized by it ;* and that nation, whose God is the Lord, would be foolish indeed, if it were to tremble before the might of the world. It requires only to open its ear to the thunder to be comforted. Ver. 5. Thy testimonies are very surely to be depended upon, holiness, 0 Lord, becomes thy house for ever. — On " the testi mony " and " the testimonies " of the Lord, as expressive of the Mosaic Law, compare at the fundamental passage, Ps. xix. 7, " the testimony of the Lord is sure," Ps. xxv. 10, Ix. Title, Ixxx. Title, cxix. 24. Here, according to the connection, we can only think of the promises of the law, comp. Ps. xciv. 12, " blessed is the man whom thou instructest and teachest out of thy law," by which assurance is given to his people of everlast ing existence and of deliverance from all troubles. It follows from the glory of the Lord, as described in ver. 1-4, that these promises are unconditionally sure. The correct interpretation a Tbe symbolical action of our Lord, Mark iv. 87 ss,, depends on passages such as the one now before us. 154 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. which many commentators have failed to see, (Luther : thy word is right doctrine), lies at the foundation of the passages in the Apocalypse, xix. 9, xxi. 5, xxii. 6. The Berleb. Bible: "David in this gives as it were a reproof to the soul tliat it does not suf ficiently put faith in the testimonies which God has given it, as to how he himself shall lead it, as if he said : how often has he not assured us that those who commit themselves to hira, shall suffer no want 1 These testimonies are well worth being confided in, and yet we trust thera not." The holiness which becomes the house of such a God, (comp. Ps. xxxiii. 1), must be preserved for it by hiraself It is becoming in God that he take care that it be not desecrated by impious hand, comp, Ps. Ixxiv., Ixxix. 1.' He can at tiraes in punishraent of the sins of his people give it up to be laid waste by the ungodly world, but he must always see to it that it rise like a Phoenix again upon the ashes, so that its holiness is again restored to it. And he has seen to this. In room of the flrst house destroyed by the Chaldeans, there arose the second; and the second was not destroyed till it had become a mere shell without a kernel, and a glorious new erection of the house of God had come into life in the Christian Church. The world did not destroy it ; but God himself took down the poor provisional building, when the proper one was completed ; and this last one shall preserve its sanctity at all times in spite of all the assaults of the destruction loving world. The fundamental passage is Ps. xxiii. 6 : "I dwell in the house of the Lord for ever," ^"^j^^, D'^'CP properly " for length of days." The iraport in both pas sages is essentially the same. For the house on behalf of whose preservation the Psalraist here expresses his confident hope is the house where the Lord dwells with his people and they with him ; and it comes into view only in connection with this property. The preservation of the house for its o-wn sake is not what is spoken of, but only in so far as it is the seat of the church ; it is therefore the preservation of the church that lies near the Psalmist's heart. The coraraon translation is : the maintenance of holiness becomes thy house, it is becoming that it should be held holy by us. By this rais-translation the point of the Psalm is destroyed. There are to be urged against it : that the thought in the connec- ^ Amyrald. "Thy house shall by thy sacred august presence remain for ever unde- filed, nor shall it be violated or polluted by the insolence of thine enemies." PSALM XCIV. 155 tion is wholly a strange one, — the design of the Psalm is evidently to impart confident reliance on the protection of the Lord in op pressions from the world — that in Ps. xciii., xcii., and even in xci., the subject spoken of is what God does for his people, not what they should do for him ; besides this we have the analogous conclusion in Ps. xcii., the parallelism, the fundamental pas sage Ps. xxiii. 6, and also "the for length of days," and finally the xy-Tp, which does not signify maintenance of holiness but holiness. PSALM XCIV. The Psalmist, or rather the church, begins with the expression of confidence in the appearance of God for help and vengeance, ver. 1. On the ground of this there next rises the prayer that God would rise up against the proud enemies, to which there is added the description of their unreasonable and God-denying un godliness, ver. 2-7. Upon this there follows the emphatic refuta tion of those among" the people in whom the ungodly assertion al luded to at the close, " that the Lord does not see, the God of Israel does not observe," had found an entrance, ver, 8-11. In opposition to these the Psalmist pronounces those men happy who continue in the firm faith of the help of the Lord : he will interest himself at his own time on behalf of his people, ver. 12- 15. He declares that in every suffering the Lord is his consola tion and his confidence, ver. 16-23, If we separate the first verse, as is obvious from itself that we must do, as soon as we get at the correct interpretation of ^iq>^j-j, it becomes manifest that the Psalm in regard to number is an alphabetical one. The raain division consists of 12 verses. Up to this point there is prayer, description of trouble, rejection of despair ; and after that, hope. The 22 therefore is divided by a 10 and a l2. That the Psalra does not refer to the internal difference between the wicked and the righteous, but to the relation to heathen enemies, is evident from the 5th verse, according to which the wicked distress the people of the Lord and oppress his inheri tance, from the 14th verse, according to which the Lord will 156 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. not forget his people, and will not forsake his inheritance, from the 10th verse, according to which the punishment of the impious heathen is what the ungodly part of the people deny, and the pious hope for in faith, and finally from the mention of " the throne of iniquity," in ver. 20, apparently favoured by God, by which we can understand only the heathen power. That the Psalm is intimately connected with the series of Psalms of which it forms a part (Ps. xci.-c), is manifest from the anadiplosis characteristic of these Psalms, ver. 1, 3-23 (compare the introduction to Ps. xciii.), frora the sympathy expressed with the expectation peculiar to them of a joyful revelation of God, ver. 1, from the soft tone never rising above a certain height, and from their quiet tenderness, as well as the simple language which flows on easily without any great difficulty. There is hence a limit fixed, beyond which we cannot go in de termining the date of the coraposition, by the 93d Psalm, which, as was shewn, cannot have been composed at all events later than the Assyrian catastrophe. We are led to the same result also, by the mention here made of the throne of iniquity, which shews that the Asiatic power had at that tirae already arisen and taken up a hostile position against the kingdom of God. The plaintive tone, ver. 6, according to which Israel finds herself in the situation of a widow and an orphan, ver. 14, according to which the Lord appears to have yiholhj forsaken his people, ver. 17, according to which the people is near destruction, leads us away from the time of the Assyrians in which prophets and psalmists are from the beginning full of joyful and triumphant hope, to that of the Chal deans. But that we cannot advance too far into this period is manifest from the circumstance that no mention whatever is made here of the destruction of the city and temple, and of the lead ing away into captivity and of the dispersion. Yea, if we observe that the descriptions of the severe oppression of the power of the world is altogether general, and remember that Habakkuk, a con siderable time before the Chaldean invasion, under Josiah, saw it present in spirit, and gave expression, in the language not only of prophecy but also of poetry, to those considerations which were fitted to minister comfort and support on its approach, we shall consider it as not improbable that even our Psalm formed part of that rich spiritual provision which the spirit of God prepared for PSALM XCIV. VER. 1. 157 the church before it entered upon that painful journey. It is an tecedently probable that the voice of the spiritual " watchman of Zion, which made known so distinctly and so earnestly this ca tastrophe long before its arrival, had called forth a response from the midst of the church, — that prophecy was not unaccompanied by psalmody ; this is all the more probable, as the third chapter of Habakkuk shews us the former in a state of transition to the latter. The tone and character of the Psalra appear ranch more intelligible if we assign it to the eve of this catastrophe, than if we assign it to the catastrophe itself. There occur in it, and this may be said of the whole series to which it belongs, no traces of excite ment, no attempts at conflicting with despair, as these meet us in those Psalms which were composed in the midst of the terrible sufferings of the Chaldean catastrophe. Finally, the special originating point of the Psalm does not deprive it of any of its universal truth — Luther remarks: " This Psalm, as may be easily apprehended, is a prayer of all the pious children of God, and of spiritual people, against all their perse cutors, so that it may be used by all pious godly people from the beginning till the end of the world. Ver. 1. The God of vengeance, the Lord, the God of venge ance shines, Luther : " He puts down God of vengeance twice as those are wont to do who speak vehemently, and with great earnestness ; these men say a thing repeatedly that they may move God." Even the plural, properly " the God of vengeances," strengthens the expression. It indicates that there is in God a whole fulness of vengeance for his injured church. The fundamen tal passage is Deut. xxxii, 35 : "Vengeance is mine and recom pense." That God is the God of vengeance forms the sure foun dation on which the confident hope of his appearing rests. This is the eternally powerful root from which springs the rod of help for the church, Arnd : " Therefore should the people of God rejoice and be glad because they have such a mighty, strong, and righteous God, who inquires after their blood and avenges it," The viQiri is usually taken as an imperative do thou, God of vengeance, shine forth. But it must rather be taken as a preterite, after the example of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, The imperative would be ru^isipr, as in Ps. Ixxx. 1 ; as in the fundamental passage, Deut. xxxiii. 2 (comp. at Ps. 1. 2), the 158 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. form which stands here is the preterite, it is all the more unlikely to have been erroneously taken here for the imperative ; the pre terite is also the form which occurs in Ps. 1. 2, " from Sion — God shines:" Ps. xciii., xcvii., xcix. also begin with the preterite, "the Lord reigneth," comp. Ps. xcvi. 10. In these passages " the Lord reigneth," and in the Psalm before us, " the Lord shines," are presented to the noisy onsets of the world. The firm, confident expectation of an immediate, great manifestation of the Lord, is the distinguishing feature of the whole series of Psalms. The Psalmist looks down from the height of this expectation upon suffering ; next, he descends into the deep, in order that, with strength thus received, he may again gradually mount up on high laden with his lieavy burden ; or : ere he descends into the dark ness, he kindles at the candlestick of the divine word, this pit- lamp which alone can enlighten it. Ver. 2-7. — Ver. 2. Rise up thou. Judge of the earth, recom pense a reward to the proud. Ver. 3. How long shall the wicked, 0 Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph. Ver. 4. They sputter, speak impudent things, they brag, all the evil doers. Ver. 5. Thy people, 0 Lord, they crush and oppress thine inheritance. Ver. 6. Widow and stranger they put to death, and they murder the orphan. Ver. 7. And say : the Lord sees not, and the God of Jacob observes not. — On the " lift thyself up," i. e., " show thyself raighty," at ver. 2, comp. at Ps. vii. 6. Luther : " Because he only is judge and avenger, the pious pray that he would lift himself up, that is, that he would set himself on high on his seat as judge and show his work, not allow himself to be so oppressed as if he were nothing." On ^j^J comp. at Ps. vii. 4, to present gifts = to recompense. The fundamental passage is Ps. xxviii. 4, " give them their gifts," comp. also Ps. Ixxix. 12. In reference to the D*i^;|, Luther : " He means here the proud, not only those who are haughty in heart, but also those who have got the upper hand and the victory in persecution, as if they had conquered and suppressed the godly." — The expression, " they sputter," in ver. 4, depends on Ps. lix. 7, " behold they sputter with their mouth." The' Psalraist delights to make use of the words which former holy men of God had uttered in refer ence to troubles and dangers which God had already averted. What the wicked did sputter out, is not expressly raentioned in PSALM XCIV. VER, 2 — 7. 159 the fundamental passage ; it is sufficient first to indicate the quantity, and after that, for the first time, the quality. Hence, we do not need to supply pj^'r} here, in which case even " they speak" would be flat. In reference to " they speak impudence," comp. at the fundamental passage, Ps. lxxv. 5. The Hiph. of "ITSt^ occurs only here, and, in all probability, was formed by the Psalmist himself from the four Hithp. in Ps. xviii. 25, 26. We must, however, all the more on this account, keep by the above- ascertained sense of "^j^t^' '" speak. The Hithp. denotes zealous, vehement, impassioned speaking, comp. Ew. § 124. The trans lation, " they rise up," is not only etymolpgically ungrounded, but is less suitable, even in the parallelism, as the first clause refers only to speaking. Ver. 5 treats for the first time of deeds. On "the evil-doers" comp. Ps xcii. 7, 9. — They oppress, ver. 5, as formerly Pharaoh in Egypt did, comp. Gen. xv. 13 ; Ex.i. 12. — The 6th verse is not to be understood literally : it is obvious from the mention of " the strangers" that there is an abbreviated com parison, — thy people, who are as helpless as the widow, §"c. The murdering also does not suit domestic relations, and the heathen enemies did not make the personce miserahiles the chief objects of their rage. The figurative expression here, as well as the in dividualizing one in Ps. Ixviii. 5, owes its origin to those passages 'in the law in which the widow and the fatherless are mentioned as objects of the tender care of God, and as such are specially com mitted to the loving treatment of Israel, for example, Deut. x. 18, " He defends the right of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger," Ex. xxii. 20 ss. " Thou shalt neither vex a stran ger nor oppress him ... ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them ! For if they cry to me, I will hear their cry. And my anger waxes hot, and I kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows and your children orphans.'' There is great emphasis in the reference to these passages. They contain a rich fulness of comfort for the afflicted people. If orphans in the proper sense are the objects of the loving care of God, he must also take under the same care his own destitute people. If he avenges the widows on their oppres sors, he must also visit his widowed church on its oppression. Does he punish the wicked among Israel who oppress the miser able.? he must also punish the wicked heathen who oppress his 160 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. own people in their affliction. — On ver. 7, comp. Ps. x. 11, 13, xiv. 1, lix. 7. Ver. 8-11.— Ver. 8. Yet mark, ye fools among the people, and, ye stupid, when will ye become wise ? Ver. 9. He who planted the ear shall he not hear ? He who formed the eye shall he not see ? Ver. 10. He who summons the heathen shall he not punish ? he who teaches men knowledge. Ver. 11. The Lord knows the thoughts of men that they are vain. — The Psalmist, in ver. 8, casts up the want of knowledge which the ignorance of God v^ill imply to those, ver. 7, to whom it belongs : but he does not adT dress himself to those who first started the objection, the blind heathen, who could only become wise to their cost, but to the foolish araong the people, among Israel, comp. Judges v. 9, among whom the assertion of the heathen found a response. That we cannot translate " ye foolish people," understanding the address to be directed to the heathen, is clear from the circumstance — that the Psalraist has before his eyes those who are capable of being instructed from creation — it would be in vain to instruct the heathen from creation, — from the opposition of the other in telligent part of the people, in ver. 12, 13, finally, from the way and manner in which the heathen are spoken of in ver. 10. On Qi-^j;^ comp. Ps. Ixxiii. 22 ; on the whole verse, Ps. xcii. 7 :-— Berleb : " Ye foolish ' expresses wonder : how sensible you are in that you disown your God, which, nevertheless, above every thing else, shows your ignorance. You have not even the spark of wisdom to believe in an all-seeing God. Eeflect upon your stupi dity and blindness ! learn to mark how Satan mocks and deceives you !" — On ver. 9, Luther remarks : " He would thus give away what he does not possess hiraself." Arnd : " Learn to know God frora the powers of your own body and soul. He who has made an understanding heart, should he not himself understand ? he who has created a righteous heart, should he not hiraself be righteous ? he who has made a compassionate heart, should he not hiraself have a father-heart?" We cannot translate he who has planted. The discourse is about a work of God which is in daily progress. Should he not hear and see every thing, and, therefore, also the scorn of the wicked, the sighs and sufferings of his own people. — In the first clause of ver. 10, the power of God over the spirits of the heathen, by which he lets his voice be heard in their PSALM XCIV. VER. 8—11. 161 innermost depths, manifesting, as it does, that his being is ele vated above all limits, is employed to show the folly of the asser tion that he does not punish their deeds from ignorance of their crimes. The "^^^ occurs in the sense of to summon, to warn, a sense which it bears more frequently than that of punishment. It occurs in ver. 12, exactly in the same way, comp. Ps. ii. 10, and Prov. ix. 7, " he that reproveth a sinner begetteth to himself shame." Gen. xx. is in reality parallel, where the heathen Abi melech receives a similar warning frora God, corap. especially ver. 6, " I held thee back frora sinning against me," but particularly Eom. i. 20, ii. 14, 15. As the doctrine of an influence exercised by God upon the consciences of the heathen, from which the con clusion is here drawn that he beholds and punishes their deeds, is of rare occurrence in the Old Testament — a fact to be explained by the very depraved condition of the heathen around the Israel ites, among whom few traces of such an influence could be seen — another translation has been thought of : shall not he who for merly chastised the heathen punish them also now ? But the "formerly," or the "always," and the " now" would need in this case to be more distinctly marked. Even the " warning " suits much better in the parallel. For in the second clause, from an undeniable, subtile, and inward operation of God in reference to the heathen, a conclusion is drawn as to the folly of denying an opjeration of a more tangible and external kind. Shall not he to whom the heathen owe all their power of judging know and punish also their deeds. — In ver. 10 the proposition that God knows, and proportionally punishes the thoughts of men, and specially the plans of the. wicked for the destruction of the right eous, is proved from the general relation of men to God : they are vanity, but he is Jehovah, Jahveh, the pure absolute Exist ence ; comp. on the sense of Jahveh, Beitr : 2 P. 233 ss. Is. xl. 17 is parallel : " all the heathen are as nothing before him." The common translation is : the Lord knows the thoughts of the hea then that they (the thoughts) are vain, avail nothing. But this translation destroys the connection. The connection requires that something be said in opposition to the affirmation that God does not see, does not know, and, consequently, does not punish. The knowing comes into notice only as the condition of the pun ishing. The masc. pronoun piiSn 'S also against it. The mascu- L 162 THE BOOK OF PSALM.S, line cannot be placed here, instead of the feminiuje, as the usual form, Ew. § 184 c, because a masc. noun preceded, and ambi guity would thus be occasioned. Even in the parallel passages, Ps. xxxix. 5, 11, " all men are only vanity," Ixii. 9, " only va nity are the children of men," ^y^ is used of men themselves. Ver, 12-15. — Ver. 12. Blessedness to the man whom thou, 0 Lord, admonishest, and teachest him out of thy law. Ver. 13. To give him rest against the days of adversity till the pit shall he dug for the wicked. Ver. 14. For the Lord will not reject his people ; and his inheritance he will not forsake. Ver. 15. For to righteousness the right will return, and all the righteous shall follow it. — Those who allow themselves to be admonished and taught by the Lord, in ver. 12, stand in opposition to the foolish among the people, who go to school with the blind un godly heathen. The object of the instruction appears from the connection, and especially from ver. 13-15. Luther : " That the plans and doings of the ungodly are vain and do not last, al though they are very confident of success, and carry things with such a high hand that they boast, sing, talk, gossip, and applaud. Here sense and nature can do nothing, and know not that such a way is nothing. For nature judges as it feels, and thinks no farther : it cannot see things which are future, and are as yet not in existence, it hangs upon the present. Therefore he says God must here be a raaster, and teach this. And blessed are those to whom he teaches it." The law appears here as the means which God uses in this instruction, the fountain out of which he draws it, and then satisfies with it by his Spirit the thirsty soul. It comes into notice in connection with its doctrine of -recompense (comp. for example the passages to which the Psalmist himself had alluded in ver. 6), and its rich consolatory promises for the people of the Lord, whose end is always salvation, comp. for ex ample Deut. xxxii. Lev. xxvi. — The Lord procures rest before or against the day of adversity, ver. 13, inasmuch as by his instruc tion and consolation he brings it about that these do not any more inwardly distress the righteous, and lead him to murmur, to despair, or to fall away. Comp. Ps. cxii. 8, " his heart is estab lished, he is not afraid till he see his desire upon his enemies," Ps. xlix. 5, " wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my treaders down compasses me about ?"^-In PSALM XCIV. VER. 16—23. 163 ver. 14 we have the basis of the declaration as to the blessedness of those who meet adversity in patience and quiet : the Lord may perhaps forsake his people /or a time (comp. Ju vi. 13, Is. ii. 6), as a righteous punishment for forsaking him, Deut, xxxii, 15, but not for ever, — he again at his own time takes under his care his people and inheritance oppressed by the heathen, ver. 5. Arnd : " Lebanius, a sophist, asked a Christian : what is your carpenter's son doing? The Christian replied: he is making a coffin for Julian the tyrant. Immediately after this he was killed in battle and brought home in a coffin." — The right, ver. 15, which at present is inverted, Hab. i. 14, inasmuch as the wicked have the upper hand, the wicked devour the raan who is more righteous than he, Hab. i. 13, is brought hack at the proper time to right eousness, is again administered according to its rule. Arnd : " When a man suppresses the right, it is as if the sun were ex tinguished with water, and yet the sun is greater than the sea." The suffix in 1'1¦l^^^ can only refer to the right brought back to righteousness. The righteous accompany it with the joy of their heart and with happy shouts : comp. the song of triumph of the church of the Lord over the fall of the King of Babylon in Is. xiv. Ver. 16-23. — Ver. 16. Who rises up for me against the evil- doers ? Who stands up for me against the workers of iniquity ? Ver. 17. Had not the Lord been my help, my soul had soon inhabited silence, Ver. 18. // I say " my foot slides," thy mercy, 0 Lord, holds me up. Ver. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy consolations delight my soul. Ver. 20. 7s the throne of wickedness in covenant with thee, which maketh misery as a law ? Ver. 21. They storm at ihe soul of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood. Ver. 22. But the Lord is my tower, and my God the rock of my confidence. Ver. 23. And he recompenses to ihem iheir unrighteousness, and will requite ihem because of their wickedness, the Lord our God will requite them. — Ver. 17 gives the answer to the question in ver. 16 : the Lord is the only help of the Psalmist, of his church, — without him the church would be irremediably destroyed, comp. Ps. xxv. 16, " Lord, have mercy upon me, for I am soli tary." For me = for my help. " With the wicked," in con flict with them. On ijjijin to put oneself down in a place, to step forward, comp. at Ps. ii. 2. — The TytTH i" ^^^- ^7, like the L 2 164 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ^^fyyi in the Davidic Psalms, is silence, comp. at Ps. Ixii. 1. Silence is what reigns in the noiseless kingdom of the dead, comp. Ps. xxxi. 17, non does not denote the place of silence either here or in Ps. Ixii. 1. Silence itself appears poetically as a habitation. We must translate : my soul would soon inhabit silence (comp. in reference to the '^'ij'o^ Ps. Ixxxi. 14, and to the pvaeterite Ew. § 135), not : has already inhabited, for that the tai>M cannot signify. — In reference to the sliding of the foot in ver. 18, comp. at Ps. Ixvi. 9. Mercy upholds the Psalmist inwardly, or trust in mercy sets him up, for the outward help has not yet made its ap pearance, comp. ver. 17, 19.^ — On ver. 19, Luther : " He speaks of the many thoughts which one has in such a state of despair, how he could or might come out of it. Then he thinks this way and that way, and visits all holes and corners, but finds none. He therefore now says : when I was in such torture, and was killing myself with my own thoughts, when I sought comfort here and there and found none, then didst thou come with thy consolation and didst delight me." — In ver. 20 the '-f'-)^]-^'i is not Pti. but Kal, and the construction with the accusative is to be explained by observing that "to be bound together," here stands instead of " to be in covenant,' comp. Ew. § 282. On ^y)f^ " wickedness," comp. at Ps. xci. 3. As a law,- — properly " upon law," the ^^^ being not unfrequently a reference to the rule which this particular case follows, comp. Ges. Thes. p. 1025. Ew. § 217. Is. x. 1, ought to be compared as a parallel passage to the whole verse. The sceptre of the wicked, in Ps. cxxv. 3, corresponds to tlie throne of iniquity : for the sceptre of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous. Many translate : which meditates mis chief contrary to the law (Maurer : quae id agit ut omnes leges nostras perfringat). But '^j^^, suffering, is the standing ex pression for the misery which comes upon men as the result of violence and wickedness ; and that itis to be taken in this sense here, is evident from ver. 21, which is to be considered as con taining the developed sense, and therefore as a commentary, and also from the whole remaining contents of the Psalms, the sub ject of which generally is the suffering of the righteous. — On ver. 23, Luther : " He -ivho believes this, and is taught of God, can be patient, can let the ungodly rage, an^i look forward to the end, and wait the time." PSALM xcv. 165 PSALM XCV. The Psalmist exhorts the church of the Lord , to praise with full heart God who alone is God, the Lord of the whole earth, ver. l-v5, devoutly to fall down before him, ver. 6, not to harden the heart, which ought to be obedient to him, as their fathers did once in the wilderness, and thereby shutr.themselves out from the land of promise, ver-. 7-11. The whole is complete in ten, which is divided by the five. In the middle there is an intercalary verse, which forras as it were the beating heart of the Psalm, contains the result gathered out of the first half, and forms the point of transition to the second. A false division has often been occasioned by laying too great stress on the fact that the Lord is introduced speaking in ver. 8-11. This is really a raatter of no importance ; and there is hence no sufficient reason for violently applying this change to regulate the formal division. The emphatic allusion to the example of the fathers, who, by their hardness of heart, shut themselves out from the land of promise, and especially the fact that the Psalm terminates with this allusion, have long ago given rise to the idea that the Psalm must have been composed in circumstances similar to those of the Israelites in the wilderness, in view of a glorious manifestation of the salvation of the Lord. This view is confirmed by the fact that this expectation is peculiar to the chain of Psalms, of which the Psalm before us forms one link, comp. at Ps. xciv. 1. All doubt disappears on comparing Ps. xcvi., which is bound up with our Psalm so as to form one pair ; comp. the introduction to that Psalm. The reference also to the Messianic salvation was clearly and profoundly acknowledged by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews : whose Xejwv iv AafilB, however, is not to be viewed as a testimony for the special Davidic origin of the Psalm, but only as a designation of the whole taken from the author of the greater part. We have tlierefore here before us an Old Testament " Eejoice ye pious." Behind the darkness of the approaching Chaldean catastrophe the Prophets perceived the approach, and the Psalm,- ists led on by thera excited the expectation of a" clear light; 166 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and hence took occasion to address earnest admonitions to the people to seek, by unreservedly giving themselves to the Lord, participation in this light, which is accompanied side by side with a consuming fire for the rebellious. As formerly in the wilderness, so here also the people appear on the way to their rest. For the great body who did not follow the admonition of the Psalmist, and did not know the time of their visitation, the Psalra is really an awfully fulfilled prophecy. The Psalm has its full significance for the Christian Church, in asmuch as we stand in the same relation to the second coming of theLord, of whose time and hourwe know nothing, Matth. xxiv. 36, and which shall come on us as a thief in the night and as travail upon a woman with child, as the people of the Old Testament did to the first. The Psalm, raoreover, has a peculiar significance for our times, in which there is so much to call up the thought that we are on the eve of some great catastrophe, and are about to meet the coming of the Lord with steps of majesty, " To day, if ye will hear his voice," sounds with peculiarly impressive tones in our ears. Ver. 1-5. — Ver. 1. Come, let us rejoice io the Lord, let us shoui with joy to the rock of our salvation. Ver. 2. Let us an ticipate his presence with songs of praise, let us shout io him with songs. Ver. 3. For a great God is the Lord, and a great King over all gods. Ver. 4. In whose hands are the foundations of ihe earth, and his are the heights of ihe mountains. Ver. 5. His is tlie sea, and he has made it, and his hands have spread out ihe dry land. — That the exhortation to praise God in ver. 1 and 2 does not refer to a mere outward act of worship, but de mands the surrender of the heart, which is the fountain equally of true love to God and of obedience to his comraandments, is evi dent from the negative of the second corresponding to the positive of the first part of the Psalm : harden not your heart, &c. God is called the Rock of salvation as being its unchangeable foundation and faithful author ; comp. at Ps. xviii. 2 — Ps. Ixii. 7, xcii. 16, xciv. 22. — In reference to the Q-jp to anticipate, in ver. 2 (Vulg. praeoc- cuperaus faciem ejus) corap. Ps. xxi. 3, Ixxix. 8, Ixxxviii. 13, "in the morning my prayer shall anticipate thee," and on the whole phrase CiD Q"TS ^'so Ps. xvii. 13, Ixxxix. 14. Calvin : " He demands haste in order that he may testify to believers that they should fulfil PSALM XCV, VER. 1 — 5. 107 this their duty with pleasure and zeal. This exhortation presup poses that indolence which is natural to us when God calls us to render thanks." Ps. Ivii. 8, for example, is really parallel, where the Psalmist promises that he shall always awaken the morning with his thanks and praise. The common translation, " let us come before thy face," is a mistake, and cannot be defended etymologically. — That ver. 3 does not lead to the supposition of the real existence of the heathen deities is evident from Ps. xcvi. 4, 5, where the corresponding expression, " for great is the Lord and very glorious, dreadful above all gods," is followed by, " for all the Gods of the nations are nothing, but the Lord has raade the heavens." The words are to be explained frora the contrast intended to be drawn to the way of the -world, which grants to Jehovah only the importance of a small God, and places him far beneath its own gods. In like manner, in ver. 4, 5, they are de nied not only the place of supremacy, but even existence itself For the Lord has every thing, they therefore have nothing ; and a God who has nothing has no existence. Finally, what is here said as to what God is, is said in reference to the approaching glorious mani festation of this his being ; because as shall be the case speedily through the unveiling of the glory of the Lord, his wonder and his salvation, Ps. xcvi. 2, 3, shall come to light, &c. — That the Psalm ist in ver. 4 and 5 brings forward only the dominion of the Lord over the earth is clear from Ps. xcvi. 5, where as a supplementary idea heaven is spoken of In reference to the earth, the deepest depths and the highest heights are first placed in opposition in ver. 4, and after that in ver. 5, the sea and the dry land. "^pniD is what is sought for, the concealed deep, in opposition to what meets the eye ; comp. Qinn "Iptl *^^ searching of the fiood, the innermost bottom of the sea, in Job xxxviii. and Jer. xxxi. 37, " when the heavens above were measured, and the foundations of the earth were searched (or explored)." " On ;iQj^i;-|, a noun formed from the 3 fem. fut. in Hiph., properly " that which makes weary," " the stretch," comp. the author's treatise on Balaara in Num. xxiii. 22, " The stretchings of the mountains" in parallel with " the searchings of the earth," is a poetical expression for the highest summits of the mountains, which can be reached only by a stretch or effort. However deep man may penetrate into the depths, or however high be may ascend into the heights, he is 168 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. still within the dominion of God — he cannot go beyond his boundaries. Ver. 6. Come, let us worship and fall done, let us kneel before ihe Lord our Creator. We have here before us the culminating point of the Psalm, the festive moment of devotion " when the bells ring in curia regis," This joy where the heart is full of it seeks also its bodily expression.'' Still even this is only desired as the ex pression of what fills the heart. This ismanifest from wh&t folloius, where as the consequences of kneeling and falling down, it appears that the worshipper listens to the voice of God and does not harden his heart. Hence in the shell of the kneeling there must be coii^ tained the kernel of unreserved surrender, which manifests itself in willing obedience. God is called the Creator of Israel as the author of his being, in every respect generally human, and speci ally Israelitish ; comp. in reference to the latter the fundamen tal passage, Deut. xxxii. 6, and the 7th verse of this Psalm. The 5th verse shews that the former is not to be excluded. Ver. 7-11. — Ver. 7. For he is our God, and we the people of his pasture, and sheep of his hand. To-day, if ye will listen to his voice ! Ver. 8. Harden not your heart like Meribah, like ihe day of Massa in the wilderness. Ver. 9. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and still saw my doing. Ver. 10. Forty years was I disgusted with that people and said: they are people of erring heart, and they know not my ways. Ver. 11. So that I swore in my wrath : they shall not come to my rest. — In reference to the people of his pasture in ver. 7, comp. at Ps. Ixxx. 12, Ixxiv. 1. Sheep of his hand are such as he guides and protects with his hand, comp. Ps. xxiii. 3, 4, c. 3. The " to-day" stands emphatically foremost, intimating that the present is a tirae of great decision. As the q^ is always a con ditional, and never an optative particle (comp. at Ps, Ixxxi. 8), we cannot translate " would that you heard," but must rather, as also with the q^ in ver. 11, supply the proposition, " thus he will bless you his people. ' The q^ occurs not unfrequently in this way, for example, Ps. Ixxxi. 8, " Hear, 0 my people, and let me a Calvin : " This also is to be observed, that the Psalmist not only treats of the grati tude of the heart, but also demands an outward profession of piety. For it is expressed in these words that the faithful do not perform their duty unless they offer themselves up as a sacrifice to God openly, by kneeling and other signs," PSALM XCV. VER, 7 — 11. 169 testify to thee, 0 Israel, if thou will hearken unto me," where we must supply, " it will go well with you." In Zech. vi. 15, " and it happens, if ye listen to the voice of the Lord your God," there must be supplied, " ye shall share in all these good things, and Messiah will take away your sins as your high priest, and give you prosperity as your King," compare the Christol. on the pas sage. But the fundamental passage, Ex. xxiii, 21, 22, is much more worth comparing, where the clause wanting is added : " be ware of him (the angel whom the Lord will send before you, and who wiU lead you to Canaan), and listen to his voice ... for if thou shalt listen to his voice, I will do all that I say, and I will be come an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thy ad versaries." This earnest voice which went forth on a /ormer occa sion, goes forth now again at a new critical moraent to Israel, on the eve of a new leading through the wilderness into Canaan, through suffering to salvation. Would that they now laid it better to heart! Against connecting the clause with what /oZZows (Luther : to-day, if you will hear his voice, you will not harden your hearts), we have besides that fundamental passage and the parallel pas sage, Ps. Ixxxi. 8, the accents, the change of person and the ^jyi^ with y which can never mean " to hear souiething," but " to lis ten to something. " The whole verse has in reality a hortatory character : listen to-day to his voice, that thus his blessing may be imparted to you, in harmony with what follows, and in parallel with the " come, let us rejoice" of the first part, and as the more full development of this, " come, let us worship" of the 6th verse — not only our verse but the whole paragraph, ver. 7-11, is pointed out as such by the " for : " for, inasmuch as he is our God, &c., listen to his voice, that thus it may go well with you, harden not your heart, &c., and thus render to him the worship which he de sires, which consists not only in a mere bending of the knee, which even the irrational beasts can render, but in an unqualified sur render of the heart. — In ver. 8, " as Meribah, as the day of Mas- sah," stands concisely for " as it happened at Meribah and on the day of Massah." Allusion is made to Ex. xvii. 1, ss.; not however to Num. XX. 1, ss. For it is only in the former passage that the place has the name Massah and Meribah, comp. Beitr. 3., p. 379. Israel's offence at that place was neither their first nor their most remark able offence. That it is selected frora the number of all the rest and 170 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. made to stand as representative of them, is to be explained alone from the quality of the two names which are monuments of their striving with the Lord and of their tempting him. In reference to Tli^t^in.the sense of where, ver. 9. comp. at Ixxxiv. 3. That the last words of the verse are not, with many expositors, to be referred to the punishment, of which mention is first made in ver. 11, but that they are intended to heighten the guilt, to bring the crimi nality more into view, is evident frora the fundamental passage. Num. xiv. 22, " for dl the men who saw my glory and my signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and still tempted me these ten times, and did not hearken to my voice." The q^, also, points to the aggravating circumstances connected with the proving. The more manifestly God makes himself known, so much the more disgraceful is it, when we are in trouble, to put him first to the proof : as if he must first show himself beyond his true Godhead. — The expression, " I was disgusted," in ver. 10, does not denote the punishment, but points to the greatness of the sin. For whole forty years the Israelites acted in such a mannera that their God could only look upon thera with displea sure and aversion. By the -^y^, race, is meant here the whole generation, in opposition to separate corrupt individuals, comp. Deut. i. 35, " There shall not one of these men of this evil gene ration see the good land, ' &c., ii. 14, " till the whole generation of the men of war be dead. By the want of the article, this con trast is rendered more prominent. The second clause serves the same ohject as " still they saw my work,' in ver. 9. The con duct of Israel was thus inexcusable, inasmuch as they had the ways of God, that is, his glorious conduct, before their eyes, from which they might have learned better ; but they perceived this only with their bodily eyes, and did not lay it to heart. The fun damental passage serves for illustration, Deut. xxix. 3, " And the Lord did not give you an heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, till this day ;" before this the discourse had been of the great wonders and signs of the Lord on behalf of his people, and of his gracious guidance, corresponding to " his ways" here. — On the -y^i^, so that, in ver. 11, comp. Ew. § 327. The oath here a Calvin : The circumstance that God struggled so long with their -wickedness with out effect aggravates its guilt. For it sometimes happens that petulance will boil up for a little and immediately afterwards subside. PSALM XCVI. 171 spoken of went forth, when, after the sending forth of the spies, the rebelliousness of the Israelites rose to formal revolt. The Q^ is taken from the fundamental passage. Num. xiv. 23, " if they -shall see the land which I sware unto their fathers," ver. 30, " If ye shall corae into the land for which I have lifted up my hand to make you dwell in it," Deut. i. 35, " if oneof these men, this wicked generation, shall see the good land," &c. The nni3?D' a place of rest, and their rest, comp. at Ps. xxiii. 2, must, ac cording to the fundamental passage, where the land corresponds to it, and according to Deut. xii. 9, " For ye are not yet come to the place of rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord thy God gives thee," have the former sense. The close of the Psalm is serious and gloomy. The Psalmist anticipates that the melan choly example of the past will be repeated in the fdture yet once more, that Israel will yet another time fail to know the time of his visitation. PSALM XCVI. Let the whole earth praise the Lord, who has bestowed upon it glorious salvation, ver. 1-3, for he is in his glory worthy of this praise, ver. 4-6, May all the families of the heathen wor ship and reverence the Lord, ver.~7-9. For he has entered upon his dominion over all the earth, and all nations stand under his righteous and salutary government, to the joy of the whole world, ver. 10-12. At the conclusion, in ver. 13, there is the sum of the whole Psalm : the Lord cometh to judge the earth. The thrice-repeated " give," in ver. 7 and 8, corresponding to the thrice-repeated " sing" of the beginning, divides the Psalm into two halves, each of six verses. These are divided again into two strophes of three verses. The three is raarked out as the fundamental number by the three-fold " sing" and " give." The formal arrangement announces that the Psalm, along with the one that precedes it, forms one pair. The extra verse here corresponds to one deficient in the preceding Psalm ; the eleven and the thirteen together make up twenty-four, double the signi ficant twelve, so that the numbers of the individual Psalms de signedly devoid of meaning make up, when taken together, a 172 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. significant number. The contents also lead us tothe same result, the relation of Ps. xcv. to Ps. xcvi. The connection of both is seen in Is. ii. 5, where, on the announcement of the reception of the heathen into the kingdom of God, ver. 2-4, there follows an exhortation to Israel, not to exclude himself by his sin frora the glorious salvation of the future, in which the whole earth shall participate. The only difference is, that the arrangement here is inverted. The salvation, for which the Psalmist exhorts the heathen to praise the Lord, is a future one, and appears as pre sent only in so far as the Psalmist transposes himself into the future — the present is not real but ideal. This is clear from the nature of the thing, as, during the whole existence of the Old Testament dispensation, such a salvation encompassing the whole earth never existed, and the dominion of the Lord over the whole earth here represented as having arrived every where else, ap pears as the object of desire and hope, and more particularly from the 12th verse, where the prophet leaves the point of view of the ideal, and passes on to that of the real present : then shall rejoice. From this fully ascertained fact that the Psalmist, trans fers himself here into the future, in reference to the salvation spoken of, and that with so much earnestness, that he throughout addresses the heathen living iu it, and exhorts the heathen who, in his own day, knew nothing of the Lord, to thank him for a salvation for which at the time there had not been made the least preparation, it follows that he may very well have adopted the sarae procedure also in Ps. xciv., in reference to the misery with which Israel was threatened, and which was to precede the deve lopment of that salvation. Further, if it cannot be denied that the Psalmist here transfers himself into the future, with what truth can the genuineness of the second part of Isaiah be objected to, on the ground that the prophet's point of view is not that of Isaiah, inasmuch as it belongs to prophecy, to look upon the fu ture as present much more than it does to lyric poetry, which could be induced to adopt such a style only in imitation of pro phecy. There can be no doubt (comp. the induction of proof at ver. 1) that the Psalmist was stimulated by the second part of Isaiah to corapose this poem, that the Psalm is a testimony of that inward movement of soul which was excited among the people by these PSALM XCVI. VER. 1 — 6. 173 prophecies, at a time when they were advancing with rapid strides to a period of severe suffering. It is the less possible to overlook this connection between the poetry of the Psalms and prophecy, as we observe in prophecy itself a transition to Psalm-poetry. We may compare, for example. Is. xii. and Hab. iii. The exhortation " sing to the Lord a new song," could only be responded to by the heathen after the salvation which forms the subject of the poem had arisen. Behind the exhortation, how ever, addressed to the heathen, to praise God, there lies concealed another addressed to the Israelites. The church of the Lord should be raised by this Psalm to joyful hope, should be awakened to an active zeal to serve with uprightness the Lord who had formed such a mighty purpose with her. She beheld indeed the heathen preparing to destroy the kingdom of the Lord in the small corner which still remained to her. But at the same time she beheld at a greater distance with the eye of the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord hiraself coming, in the full glory of his being, to judge the whole earth, to judge the world in righteousness, and the nations in faithfulness. As the promise which forms the basis of our Psalm is as yet unfulfilled in its whole extent, the whole fulness of the heathen have not yet entered into the kingdom of God, the Psalm is fraught with importance to us, not only in regard to its general thought, but even as to its very language. It is a missionary- hymn for all ages of the church ; and it becomes raore and more appropriate to our times in proportion as the heathen begin to respond to the call, " Sing to the Lord a new song," and in proportion as we find in the melancholy condition of the church at home occasion to look with a hopeful eye towards the heathen world. On the relation of the Psalm to 1 Chron. xvi. 23 ss., comp. at Ps. cvi. Ver. 1-6. — Ver. 1. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing all ihe world. Ver. 2. Sing io ihe Lord ; praise his name ; make known from day io day his salvation, Ver. 3. Recount among the heathen his glory, among all the nations his wonders. Ver. 4. For great is the Lord, and very glorious, dreadful above all gods, Ver. 5. For all ihe gods of the nations are null, and ihe Lord has made the heavens. Ver. 6. Majesty and 174 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. glory are before him, might and beauty in his sanctuary. — On the " new song," ver. 1, comp. at Ps. xxxiii. 3. The first clause, however, is not at all borrowed from this passage, but from Is. xiii. 10, " Sing unto ihe Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth." This is clear from the literal agreement; from the circumstance that the following words of Isaiah are re-echoed in the second clause here : that the exhortation is here, as in Isaiah, addressed to the heathen, which is not the case in Ps. xxxiii., that the whole contents of the Psalm, as also those of Ps. xcviii., which begins with the same words, are nearly allied to the second part of Isaiah ; that in our Psalm, as also in Isaiah, the irrational creation is, imme diately after the rational, exhorted to praise God, and that the sea and its fulness, in ver. 11, is literally borrowed from Is. xiii. 10. The verbal reference to Isaiah is designedly placed at the beginning, for the purpose of pointing out the prophetical foun tain from which the lyric stream has flowed. The new song oc curs in a more developed form in Eev. v. 9", 10. On the last clause of ver. 2, comp. Is. lii. 7, " how beautiful upon the moun tains are the feet of the messenger of joy, who maketh known salvation, who saith to Zion, thy king reigneth " (the Lord reigneth here in ver. 10), and also ver. 10, " all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God." The "I'^y^, in its reference to the future Messianic salvation, is peculiar to the second part of Isaiah: "p^^, also, is one of the favourite expressions of that writer. " From day to day " points to the greatness and the permanent character of the salvation ; Calvin : " may this salvation not be frail or transitory." The exhortation, " make known," in ver. 3, which is addressed to the heathen themselves, for no others had been spoken of, and the fundamental passages, are clear against the translation, " they make known " (imper.). Is. Ix. 6, " all they of Seba shall corae and make known the praise of the Lord," and especially Ixvi. 18, 19, " the time comes for assem bling all heathen and tongues, and they come and see my glory, and I point them out and send from them runners to the heathen to Tarsus," &c. There also the heathen are the messengers of salvation to the heathen ; those who have themselves seen the glory of the Lord go out to make it known to others. His glory, which is now unveiled, so that all flesh sees it at once, Is. xl, 5. PSALM XCVI. VER. 1 — 6. 175 " For," ver. 4, is " as his glory and his wonders shew." The first half is literally from Ps. xlviii. 1. The second half alludes to Ps. xlvii. 2. Ps. xcv. 3, xcvii. 9, xcix. 2, are parallel. The gods are those whom the heathen had hitherto served. Dread ful, at the time when the Psalm was composed, was the pressure of these Elohim against Jehovah and his people, of the many against the one ; but the Psalmist looks upon this pressure with joyful composure, he knows that the One will eventually gain the victory. Calvin : " The true worshippers of God had, at that time, a great and severe conflict with the mass of superstition with which the whole world was filled. For the true God was concealed in Judea, as it were, in a dark corner As each country had its own particular gods, they obtained also in other places acknowledgment, only the true God was deprived of his honour It follows that, from the unanimity of the multi tude, nothing can be concluded in favour of the truth of a reli gion. Even innumerable men may therefore," &c. The angels whom Stier would still understand by the Elohim, are excluded by ver. 5, and also by the retrospective nature of the expression. The Qi^*(^if^ is, as is evident from Job xiii. 4, Zech. xi, 17," not an adjective, but a substantive : nullities. This expression, ac cording to Hoffman (Prophecy and its fulfilment, i. p. 120), who maintains the real existence of the heathen deities, must have, not an absolute, but only a relative sense : " if they would stand in opposition to God the Creator, or if men associate them with him, they are Ql'^i^^-" But, in opposition to this, we have the two fundamental passages of the Pentateuch, Lev. xix. 4, " ye shall not turn you to the Elilim, and ye shall not make to your selves molten gods ;" xxvi. 1, " ye shall make no Elilim and carved image, and a molten image ye shall not set up," — passages, at the foundation of which there lies the supposition, that the heathen gods have no other than a material existence, and in which, consequently, the basis is laid down on which raay rest the assertion of their nullity. In the passage. Is. xii. 24, which serves as an exposition of the Elilim, " behold ye are of nothing," is preceded by " ye do neither good nor evil," as proving that the non-existence of the idols is an absolute one. It is on the sup position that the idols have no existence except the images that the whole vigorous controversy rests, which is carried on through- 176 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. out the second part of Isaiah against idol-wor.^liip. In the New Testament, the non-existence of heathen gods is expressly taught, 1 Cor. viii. 4-6. 1 Cor. x. 19-21, does not prove any thing in reference to their real existence, which, in ver. 19, is distinctly denied, but in reference to the demoniac back-ground, which is concealed behind the fore-ground of the null idolatry. Individual idols are the product of human imagination and of human hands, but the system, as a whole, stands under the di rection and the influence of the powers of darkness, of which, besides this particular passage, according to the whole tenor of scripture doctrine, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt ; comp. the Beitr. on the Pentateuch, i. p, 248. The exclusive deity of the Lord is here founded on the creation of the heaven, as in Ps. xcv. 4, and on his power over the earth. — On ¦^'^|-j and •^"^;-[, majesty and glory, in ver. 6, comp. at Ps. xlv. 3. Beforehim, — as his inseparable attendants, comp. Job xii. 14. On j-)'^^gj-|, ornament, glory, at Ps, Ixxi. 8. The ;-j'^'^)-y, which is substituted instead of it, in Chronicles, refers to the festival connected with the use of the Psalm on that occasion, and to the musical estab lishment of David, corap. ver. 4 ss. 37 ss. The question whether the sanctuary of the Lord is the heavenly (comp., for example, Ps. xxix. 9, Ps. xi. 4, Is. vi.) or the earthly sanctuary, is an im proper one. The sanctuary of the Lord is wherever he is. The " his place " of Chron, is a good exposition. Even the earthly sanctuary is, by its inhabitant, high and lifted up : comp. at Ps. Ixxviii. 69. Ver. 7-12. — Ver. 7. Give to the Lord, ye generations of the people, give to the Lord glory and might. Ver. 8. Give to the Lord the glory of his name, bring offerings and come into his courts. Ver. 9. Worship ihe Lord in holy beauty, tremble be' forehim, all lands. Ver. 10. Say to ihe Lord: ihe Lord reigneth, therefore the earth stands firm., ii moves not, he judges the nations in righteousness. Ver. 11. Lei the heaven rejoice and the earth shout, let the sea roar and its fulness. Ver. 12. Lei ihe field rejoice, and every thing which is in it, then shall all ihe trees of the forest shout for joy. — On ver. 7-9, comp. Ps. xxix. 1, 2,' " give to the Lord ye sons of God, give to the Lord glory and power; give to the Lord the glory of his name, worship the Lord in holy beauty." The quotations from this PSALM XCVI. VER. 7 — 12. 177 Davidic Psalm is a literal one, with the difference that two clauses are added, and that, in place of the sons of God, the tribes of the heathen are addressed, with marked reference to Gen. xii. 3, " and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee." The quotation from Ps. xxix. is not at all a quotation from meraory. It lays down a strong basis for the announceraent there made, as to the conversion of all the heathen. He whom the angels above praise with their song, must also, in future days, be praised by the harmonious song of the inhabitants of this earth. What God already is in heaven, is, according to the words, " as in heaven so also upon the earth," a prophecy of what he shall in future days be on the earth. The difference between heaven and earth can only be a temporary one. The manifestation of the holy arm of the Lord must remove that difference in his own time. The HTOIS k^ti^i is nsed of the bringing of gifts of alle giance to earthly sovereigns, in 2 Sam. viii. 2, " and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts ;" comp. at Ps. Ixviii. 29, Ixxii. 10, Ixxvi. 11. The courts, Ps. xcii. 14, c. 4. — The trembling, ver. 9, is the natural feeling induced by a sight of the glory of God, even in those who have nothing to fear ; comp. " may both joy and trembling be now found in me," in the sacramental hymn, " Adorn thyself 0 blessed soul." The trembling, more than any thing else, points to the glory of the approaching revelation of God, and hence stands very appropri ately at the end of the whole exhortation to praise and worship God. — In ver. 10, there is the revelation of the Lord, which fills the whole earth with praise and worship, and which the heathen who first receive it, are with joyful lips to impart to other hea thens.* The verse rests upon Ps. xciii. 1, " The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty, he is clothed, the Lord girdeth him self with power, therefore the earth standeth firm, it does not move." The government of the Lord shall again make firm the earth, which had been shaken to its innermost basis by the sins of men (comp. Ps. lxxv. 3, " the earth with all its inhabitants is dissolved," as it were, loosened, in consequence of the con- a Venema : As this exhortation (ver. 7-9 ) takes for granted that the God of Israel had made himself known, even amongthe Gentiles, and is based on that manifestation, the Psalm'ist immediately subjoins that this would be done, or had been done, by means of an exhortation to proclaim God as king. M 178 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. querors of the world), shall restore to it order, salvation, and peace ; nation shall no longer lift up the sword against nation, and they shall not learn war any more," Is. ii. In Ps. xciii. the establishing of the earth follows through the oranipotence of God ; and here by his righteous and righteousness promoting judgment : so that the two passages thus mutually supplement each other. It is only the righteous omnipotence and the omnipotent right eousness that can produce such effects. On " the Lord reign eth," = " he has entered upon his kingdora," corap. besides the passages already quoted at Ps. xciii.. Is. xxiv. 23, also Is. Ivii. 7, " who saith to Zion : thy God reigneth." The pre-existence of such fundamental passages is presupposed by the frequent repetition of the expression before us. These alone are sufficient to set aside the reference to any fact which had already taken place iu the time of the Psalraist. The last clause attributes to the Lord what is elsewhere generally said of the Messiah, comp. for ex ample Is. xi., Ps. Ixxii. The Lord shall even by the '-'God- warrior," Is. ix. 5, judge the nations in righteousness. — The '^^ shews that the futures in ver. 11, and in the first half of ver. 12, are to be taken as optatives. The exhortation, however, has for its basis the expectation that what is desired shall happen ; and the transition to the expression of this in the second half of ver; 12 is a soft and easy one. The fundamental passages are Is. xliv. 23, Iv. 12. There is ho necessity for supposing a reference to a participation by the creation itself, as in Eom. viii. 21. The living creatures in this case would have been named first. The earth standing in the middle is in contrast on the one hand to the heaven, and on the other to the sea. The field and the forest stand over against each other, on the dry land, as in Ps. xcviii. 8, floods and mountains. — The expression, " then shall re joice," in ver, 12, shews that the exhortation " let the heaven rejoice," &c., was spoken from an ideal present, — a point of view which the Psalmist here leaves, comp. the f^ in Is. xxxv. 5, 6, Ps. cxxvi. 2." Ver. 13, Before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes io judge the earth, he shall judge ihe world in righteousness, and ihe nations in faithfulness. — The repeated " for he conies," which so significantly expresses the joyful expectation of a glorious good, a Already Mui.-; ; This p.irticle denotes future time, ar,l looks far forwai'd. PSALM XCVII. 179 for which the heart of the Psalmist in his bosom so ardently longed, is omitted in Chronicles, which is characteristic of the version of the poem given there. It is also wanting at the con clusion of Ps. xcviii. For such an expression of emotion does not admit of repetition, and would appear artificial. The taQtZ^j as is manifest from the fundamental passage Is. ii. 4, particu larly frora the construction with 'ji;^' ^nd the parallel n'''3irf' ^^s not the sense of " to reign," but that of " to judge." The judg ing, however, is such as affords raatter of joy to the righteous, ver. 1, it is not a retributive but a gracious judging, by which controversies are adjusted and prevented, and the law of love is introduced into the lives of the people, comp. the fundamental passage.* The language does not apply to the "judgment of the world" as the " punishment of idolatry.'' The faithfulness of God stands in contrast to the faithlessness of raan, their want of trust-worthiness, and their deceit, the reign of which on the earth can be destroyed only by God acting out his own faithful ness, and setting it up as a model. PSALM XCVII. The Lord appears for judgraent in terrible raajesty, ver. 1-3, and this judgment is exercised by him : all nations behold his glory, ver. 4-6. This serves to put to shame the worshippers of false gods, but it affords to Zion heartfelt joy, for her God shows himself therein as the God of the whole earth, as infinitely exalted above the gods whom the world serves, ver. 7-9. In looking for ward to such a future, may Sion, in the midst of trying trouble, continue to hate what is evil, ver. 10-12. The twelve verses of the Psalm fall into two halves, each of which consists of two strophes of three verses. In the first we have the appearing of God and his deeds, and in the second we learn how these should be received by men on their approach, and how believers in looking at them should conduct them selves. The text here consists of the words of Isaiah, " the Lord n Calvin : " Hence it follows that it is only by the light of the justice and the ti-uth of God that the depravity and hypocrisy natural to men are dissipated and cleared away." 180 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, reigneth," placed at the head of the Psalm, and to which the Psalmist looks on the eve of a time of great oppression, as to a clear light, which shines at the end of a long dark cavern, and which he opposes to the cry of the world, which may be soon expected, " the king of Babylon reigns," or " Bell and Nebo reign." He brings forward, however, a new view of the reign of the Lord. The language here does not apply to the conversion of the worshippers of idols to the living God, but singly and alone to judgment on the idolatrous world, by which its pride will be completely humbled, and with which Sion's salvation is connected. This figure of the indignant judge meets us in the whole of the first half Nothing but shame is the portion of the worshippers of idols in ver. 7. Sion, according to ver. 8, only hears of it and is glad. The beginning of the fulfilment of the hopes expressed here took place at the destruction of Babylon, and the deliverance of Israel connected with it ; comp. Is. xlvi. These hopes, however, in their main import, are Messianic. The appearance of Christ was of the nature of a judgment even for those among the heathen who became obedient to the gospel ; the nullity of their whole previous existence became thereby apparent, and, in place of their pride and high-minded contempt of Sion, there appeared deep shame. While, however, behind the judgraent, which is alone brought prominently forward in our Psalm, the grace was con cealed, which comes clearly forward in other passages, and espe cially in the preceding Psalm, the view which is here the only predominant one, comes forward, in other passages, alone in its power, for those who, like Julian for example, will know nothing of " the Lord reigneth." Even in our day the hopes here ex pressed are in the act of fulfilment. The exclamation, " the Lord reigneth," always sounds forth anew ; the church will continue to call it out to the naked and to the clothed -«'orld, to the worship pers of wooden and of imaginary gods, till it shall have reached to full and absolute truth, and all the kingdoms of the earth have become the kingdom of the Lord and his anointed . The prophetic character of the Psalm has been acknowledged in many ways. There has always been an inclination to gene ralize its contents. Thus, according to Koster and Maurer, the import of ver. 1-6 is merely : " Jehovah is king and judge of the PSALM XCVII. 181 world." This view depends upon an incorrect sense of the clause, " the Lord reigneth," and is negatived by the reference to the appearances at the giving of the law, and to the fundaraental passages in Ps. xviii. and in Micah. This reference shows that the language applies to a future appearance of the Lord to judg ment. Finally, " Sion hears, &c.," in ver. 8, leads very decidedly to facts or events. According to Ewald, Ps. xciii. and the one before us are "joy ous-leaping overflowings of the clear, far-looking, lively disposi tion " of the times immediately after the return from the captivity, " songs of praise upon the now well-grounded and eternally- abiding dominion of Jahve ;" he interprets historically ver. 4 ss. and refers these to the divine manifestation which had just taken place. This construction may be easily disposed of ; it destroys the organization of the Psalm, overlooks the real ground of the transition frora the preter. to the fut. (compare ver. 4), and receives its fatal blow from the weapon which Amy raldus wielded against the reference made by several exposi tors* to the victories of David. Still, even though the Psalm be considered as purely prophetic, it cannot belong to the times shortly after the return from the captivity. The disposition of the people was not then so " bright and full of life," that the Psalm could be considered as its product. The deliverance at that time was far behind their expectation, and the prophets had enough to do to combat the despondency and the murmuring obstinacy which got possession of men's minds. But (what is de cisive), our Psalm leans throughout, and to a greater extent than the preceding and following Psalms, upon quotations frora the more ancient sacred scriptures ; it may be said to be distinc tively a piece of Mosaic work ; it points, by this intelligent string of old sayings, to the coraprehensive character of the approaching revelation of the Lord, in which all the traits of the earlier his tory and prophecy were about to meet. Now all these numerous references are taken from writings earlier than the captivity ; a " These contained truly great and brilliant materials for celebrating divine virtues in splendid and magnificent words. Yet if they are compared with the magnificent things c ontaiued in this Psalm, the difference is such, as if a comparison were instituted would be the case if such a triumph were decreed to a general for having stormed a little town, as was celebrated by Julius Cajsar upon conquering Gahl, There ia, most assuredly, no proportion between these things." 182 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. and there is all the less probability in this being accidental, as the whole series of Psalms, of which the one before us forms a part (Ps. xci.-c), leads to the same result. The more exact consideration of the allusions and quotations in this Psalm, and of the whole little collection to which it be longs, is of importance in another point of view. It shews how false is the idea which Ewald, in particular, has pushed to ex tremities, of a general loss of sacred literature. We can follow, in this Psalm, the references from verse to verse ; no yerse re mains without its manifest fundamental passage. This can be explained only by the fact, that the sacred writings have come down to us entire. Ver. 1-6. — Ver. 1. The Lord reigneth, lei the earth rejoice, let the multitude of ihe islands be glad. Ver. 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and right are the basis of his throne, Ver. 3. Fire goes before him and burns up his enemies round about. Ver. 4. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw and trembled. Ver. 5. The moun tains melt like wax before the Lord, before ihe Lord of the whole earth. Ver. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all nations see his glory. — In reference to the abrupta regni a deo suscepti proclamatio, " the Lord reigneth," in ver. 1, comp. at Ps. xciii. 1, xcvi. 10, and " may the earth rejoice," at Ps. xcvi. 11. The exhortation to the earth to triumph, and to the islands to rejoice, leads, at first sight, to the inference, that the reign of the Lord will bring salvation also to the heathen.'' But such exhortations not unfrequently occur in cases where refer ence is made directly only to salvation for Sion (comp. Deut. xxxii. 43, at Ps. xviii. 49, Ps. xlvii.) ; and, in our Psalm, the heathen nowhere appear as the objects of salvation, but as the objects of judgment on the part of God. The expresfsion, " let the earth rejoice," assuredly opens up, indirectly, even for the heathen, a joyous prospect. For it takes for granted, that the God of Israel is the God of the whole earth, who must have compassion upon all, whose deeds on behalf of any par- a Calvin : " By inviting men to joy be sufficiently declares, that wherever God reigns, salvation and full felicity, at the same time, shine forth. In calling, however, the whole ¦world to a common joy, he medns that the kingdom of God, which at that time had been shut up within the nai-row boundaries of Judea, would become much more wide, as it would extend even to the Gentik's." PSALM XCVII, VER. 1 — 6. 183 ticular part are always prophecies for the whole, who can only ,bless his people in order that all the nations of the earth raay be blessed in thera. The Qi*ij^ on the basis of Gen. x. 5, and espe cially of Ps. Ixxii. 10, is a favourite expression of Isaiah, parti cularly in the second part, (in the first part xxiv. 15), who dwells with peculiar delight upon the relation of the heathen world to the approaching glorious revelations of the Lord. Chapter xliv. 10, 12, is particularly appropriate where the islands and their inhabi tants are exhorted to sing to the Lord because of his deeds on behalf of Israel, while in other passages the islands themselves appear as participators of the salvation. — The first clause of ver. 2 is taken from Deut. v. 19, " these words spake the Lord to the whole congregation on the mount out of the midst of the fire of the cloud and of the darkness," corap. Ex. xix. 16, 18, Ps. xviii. 9, 11. The appearances at the giving of the law had a symboli cal character. They were intended to fill the heart with holy awe in presence of the heavenly judge, revealing as they did behind the foreground of words of rebuke, a background of deeds of retribution, corap. Ps. 1. 3. This prophecy contained in the'se appearances is now in the way of being fulfilled The Lord appears surrounded by dark clouds which make known his wrath and hold out to view the breaking forth of a storm of lightning and thunder. The appear ances at the giving of the law form in particular a commentary on the words of the Ten Commandraents : " Thou shalt have no other Gods before me : thou shalt not make any graven image thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." Ver 7 of this Psalm is to be compared with this. The wrath of God then threatened in words and in symbol to the worshippers of false gods and images, is here made manifest. The second half of the verse, "righteousness and right are the basis of his throne," is from Ps. Ixxxix. 14. If the dominion of God exists on the domain of right and righteousness, the heathen raay well tremble, because they have trampled right and righteousness under foot in their relations to the Israelites : a n^Aieows judgment is for them a destroying judgment.— The first clause of ver. 3 is from Ps. 1. 3, " fire burns before him;" corap. what is observed on that pas sage upon fire as a syrabol of the divine wrath. In the second clause, the expression, " and burns up his enemies round about,' 184 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. is to be understood only virtually, " as soon as they present them selves before him," (comp. at Ps. xviii. 8, Delitzsch on Hab. iii. 5), for ver. 1-3 have to do only with the appearance of the Lord ; in itself the effects which flow from it are first described in ver. 4-6.— Ver. 4. is from Ps. Ixxvii. 18, " lightnings lightened the world, the earth trembled and shook." The reference to the fun damental passage has here and in ver. 5 occasioned the transition from the future to the preterite, which stands as a prophet, pret. Even this transition shews that our passage is borrowed, and that Ps. Ivii. 18 is the original passage. On j-||-|^'^ comp. Ps. Ivii. 16. — On ver. 5 comp. Micha i. 4, " and the mountains flowed down under hira and the valleys were cleft, as wax before the fire." The preter. stands there also proph. The words which there belong to the declaration of the judgraent upon Israel are here employed as part of the description of the judgment upon the heathen world, of which that upon Israel was a matter-of-fact prophecy, corap. 1 Pet. iv. 17. The mountains are named indi vidually as being the foremost and the highest parts of the earth. Berleb : " Even the mountains of human height and pride, the heights of human intellect and vanity, and also the kingdoms of the world." The expression, " the Lord of the whole earth," is from Micah iv. 13.— The first half of ver. 6 is fromPs. 1. 6. The heavens make known the righteousness of God there, in so far as his judging word making known his righteousness, and here in so far as his judging deed proceeds from them. Arnd : " The heavens made known his righteousness when brimstone and fire were rained from heaven upon Sodom." The righteousness of God is here also the attribute according to which he gives to every one his own, to his people salvation, to his and their ene mies destruction. The second clause is from Is. xl. 5, " and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it ;" comp. Ixvi. 18, xxxv. 2. All nations behold the glory, — the glory of the Lord in the revelations of his being, through the deeds of righteousness and grace. Ver. 7-12. — Ver. 7. All who worship images shall be ashamed, and boast themselves of nullities, worship him all ye gods. Ver. 8. Sion hears ii and is glad, the daughters of Ju dah shoui for joy, because of thy judgments, 0 Lord. Ver. 9. For thou, Lord, art ihe Most High over ihe whole earth, highly PSALM XCVII. VER, 7 — 12. 185 exalted over all gods. Ver. 10. Ye who love ihe Lord hate what is evil, he preserveth ihe souls of his saints, he delivereih them from the hand of the wicked. Ver. 11. Light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright joy. Ver. 12. Rejoice, ye righteous in the Lord, and praise his holy memorial. — On ver. 7, comp. Is. xiii. 17 : " they turn back (in consequence of the glo rious future revelation of the Lord), and are ashamed, that trust in the image, that say to the molten work, thou, art our God," xliv. 9. linjTtt^n iSj according to Ps. xcvi. 9, the imperat., not the preter. The exhortation, according to the Psalmist, here also, as there, is addressed to the heathen. The false gods are called upon to worship through the medium of their servants. The gods are also, in other passages, frequently viewed poeti cally, as gifted moraentarily with life and feeling (comp. the im- _ mediately preceding Q'l'^^'^Ji^, and the observations made at Ps. xcvi. 5), only for the purpose of exhibiting the Lord as triuraph- ing over them ; comp. Ex. xii. 12, Num. xxxiii. 4, " and upon their gods has the Lord executed judgment ;" Is. xix. 1, " be hold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt, and the gods of the Egyptians are moved at his presence." The Septuagint could not understand this representation, and substi tuted angels instead of gods, to whom what was said could apply only by an inference, as a majori ad minus ; if the proud gods of the heathen cannot measure themselves with the Lord, how much less may the angels, Heb. i. 6. As decisive against the direct reference to the angels, may be mentioned the whole connection and tendency of the Psalm, which is to enspirit the people of God in prospect of the approaching victory of the false gods, and also the usus loquendi, as Elohim never signifies angels. — In ver. 8, we have the contrary effect, which the appearance of the Lord to judgment produces on Sion. This verse depends upon ver. 11 of the 48th Psalm, which celebrates the great deliverance un der Jehosaphat, which shall again live in the deliverance of the future ; " Mount Sion rejoices, the daughters of Judah shout be cause of thy judgments," to which passage, also, Isaiah alludes in chap. xl. 9. Hears it, namely, that the Lord judges, as he did on a former occasion, under the king, whose name was so gloriously verified. The daughters of Judah are only in opposi tion to Sion, the remaining cities of Judah, On the words which 186 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. allude to the name of Jehosaphat, " because of thy judgments, 0 Lord," we are not to comp. Ps. xcvi. 13. The discourse there is of an entirely different judgraent. — On the first half of ver. 9, comp. Ps. Ixxxiii, 18, from which it is taken word for word : our passages serves to confirm the interpretation there given. On the second half, comp. Ps. xlvii. 9, " the princes of the nations are gathered together to the nation of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth are God's : he is highly exalted." The conclusion is borrowed from both Psalms. It is very remarkable that the Psalmist alludes, in a manner full of meaning, to the three Psalms which, according to our view, refer to the deliver ance under Jehosaphat, and which have been separated from each other by modern criticism. Our view is thus strongly con firmed : — The " evil" in the exhortation, founded on the pro phecy in ver. 10, is neither idolatry, nor, as Calvin supposes, spe cially revenge, but wickedness and unrighteousness ; comp. Ps. xxxiv. 13, Eom. xii. 9, 2 Tim. ii. 19. The prosperity of wicked ness easily seduces to wickedness, because it shakes our faith in God, and in his providence, and therefore throws down the only floodgate which can restrain the fioods of wickedness. In oppo sition to this temptation, the Psalmist points the servants of the Lord to the salvation of the future. Before " he preserveth," there is, in reality, a " for " to be understood. — A sure standard by which -to interpret ver. 11, is furnished by the parallel pas sage, Ps. cxii. 4, " light arises, pj-^f, for the upright in darkness." This shews that " to be sown," is " to be scattered abroad," the point of comparison being only the richness of the gift." — The first half of ver. 12 is from Ps. xxxii. 11, which, in that passage, also forms the conclusion ; and the second half from Ps. xxx. 4. PSALM XCVIII. In the first strophe, ver. 1-3, after a short exhortation to praise the Lord, the object of the praise is given, — the Lord has redeemed his people in a wonderful manner. The second strophe, ver. 4-6, shews how this praise is to be rendered: all means a Ven.: " Now light is said to be scattered when the rising sun spreads his rays plentifully in every direction." PSALM XCVIII. VER. 1 — 3. 187 which, in every place, are within reach, ought to be employed for this purpose. The third stanza says by whom the praise should be given : by the whole earth. The Psalm is the only one which is entitled •^^'jj^' ^ Psalm without any addition. This struck several of the old translators ; the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Syriac added " by David," the Chaldee, " a. prophetical Psalra." This common name of all the Psalms manifestly cannot be employed here in its general, it raust be used in a peculiarly modified sense. Such a sense is to be obtained only in one way. Our Psalm stands to the preceding one in the sarae relation that Hab. chap. iii. does to chap. i. and ii., and as Is. xiii. 40-12 does to ver. 13-17, with this difference that the arrangeraent there is the reverse of that here : the Psalra before us is the lyric accompaniment to the more decidedly prophe tical Psalm which precedes. As the Psalm in the Psalm, therefore, it bears the narae of "^T^tlD' ^^^ originality of which is attested by the doubled "^-^j^t ^nd the ^"^Qt in '^or. 5 and 6 : it is manifestly with reference to the title that such strong prominence is given to the -^J3f In favour of this view we may urge first, the contents, of the two Psalms, second, the analogy of the title of Ps. c, which is related to Ps. xcix., exactly as ours is to Ps, xcvii., and third, the formal arrangement which exhibits our Psalm as making up one whole with the preceding one. Both Psalms fall into strophes of three verses. Of these strophes there are in all seven, of which, according to the usual division' of the seven, four belong to the prophetical, three to the pre-eminently lyrical part. The doctrinal contents of the Psalra, according to what has been said, must be confined to those of the preceding Psalra : it sets forth like it the. appearance of the Lord in his kingdom, in so far as it shall bring salvation directly to the house of Israel, and only towards the conclusion points, as an addition, to Ps. xcvi., to salvation for the whole earth as closely bound up with this; Ver. 1-3. The object of the praise of the Lord. — Ver. 1. Sing to ihe Lord a new song, for he does wonders, his right hand and his holy arm helped him. Ver. 2. The Lord makes known his salvation, before ihe eyes of ihe heathen he unveils his righteous ness. Ver. 3. He lias remembered his mercy and his faithfulness to the house of Israel, all ihe ends of the earth have seen ihe sal- 188 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. vation of our God. — The point of view in the whole Psalm is an ideal one, the time of the already-appeared salvation, of the al ready-begun kingdom of the Lord. The new song ought to be sung for first time after those wonders which form the object of it have actually happened. The beginning, " Sing to the Lord a new song," is from Ps. xcvi. The exhortation here also is directed not to Israel, but to the whole earth, which is expressly named. This is manifest from the last strophe, which is devoted to the more immediate object of the Psalmist, while the " sing" here is only preliminary, as an introduction to the mention of the object. What the wonders are that are treated of is evident partly from the reference to the fundamental passages of Isaiah already quoted, partly from the prophetic part, and partly from ver. 3. The cir cumstance that the object there is so exactly defined once more, shows that we have before us not an arbitrarily rent whole — in this case the exact defining of the object would have been left en tirely to Ps, xcvii. — but a pair of Psalms, the second member of which is intended to have as sure and independent a standing of its own as the first. " His right hand helped him," is from Isaiah' lix. 16 : " And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, then his own right hand helped him, and his righteousness upheld him," and Ixiii. 5 : " And I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was no assistance, then mine own arm helped rae, and my wrath up held me." This verbal reference, at the very beginning, shows that we have before us, as in Ps. xcvii., the lyrical echo of the prophetic announcements of the second part of Isaiah. Here, as in the fundamental passage, the arm of the Lord, with which he helps himself in bringing salvation to Sion, stands opposed to the use of the ordinary means of help in the church of God.^ The expression is very consolatory, because it shows us that we need not despair, even though these means of help be sealed up, even though everywhere there meet us nothing but weakness and feebleness, though a glance at the cut-down trunk of Jesse is enough to make us quite spiritless. Corap. Jud. vii. 2, where the Lord says to Gideon : The people that are with thee are too ii Calvin : " In both passages, the arm of God is opposed to ordinary means, which, although they do hot derogate from the power of God, in some measure, like a veil, hide his face." P.SALM XCVIII, VER. 4 — 6. 189 many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, and say. Mine own hand hath saved me." " His holy arm" is from Is. lii. 10 : " And the Lord has made bare his holy arm" (in the deliverance of Sion) comp. xl. 10, Ii. 9. The " holy " is awful, infinitely removed above every creature, corap. at Ps. xxii, 3. — Ver. 2 and 3 depend upon Isaiah lii. 10 : " The Lord has made bare his holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God." The references to this passage run through the three verses which mark out the object of the song of praise, and the whole strophe must manifestly be regarded as an expansion of that fundamental prophetical passage. His righteousness : comp. Ps. xcvii. 6. For the people of the Lord, salvation is the expres sion of his righteousness, which . gives to every one his own : he has promised them salvation ; comp. " his faithfulness," in ver. 3 and Eom. xv. 8, 9. — The first half of ver. 3 alludes to Is. Ixiii. 7, Mercy and faithfulness : comp. Ps. xcii. 3. The salvation which all the ends of the earth see is, in the first instance, the salvation of Sion. For the discourse is of this in Ps. xcvii. and also in the fundaraental passage. The heathen, however, shall be ad mitted into participation of this salvation. Ver. 4-6. As in the preceding strophe we had why, so here we have how we should praise the Lord. — Ver. 4. Shoui unto ihe Lord, all ihe earth, break out and rejoice and sing. Ver. 5. Sing to the Lord with ihe guitar, with the guitar and the voice of song. Ver. 6. With trumpets and the voice of the clarionet, rejoice before the Lord the King, — The first half of ver. 4 is literally from ver. 1 of Ps. Ixvi., a Psalm which belongs to the time of Hezekiah, only that Qi^Vi^'? is there ; comp. also Ps. xlvii. 1, " rejoice with hands, all nations shout unto God with ju bilee-voice," and the observations made at that verse on the ex hortations addressed to the whole world to' rejoice over the sal vation of Israel. " To break out in joy," ;-jj-^ f^^jg, is pecu liar to Isaiah, comp. xiv. 7, xliv. 23 : " break out, ye mountains, in joy" (the material fundamental passage), xlix. 13, liv. 1 ; still more so, however, is the " break out and rejoice," comp. lii. 9 : " break out and rejoice together, ye ruins of Jerusalem," — the formal fundamental passage. On y^j^il comp. Ps. xlvii. 6. — The ni?2t ^1p is from Is. Ii. 3. — On " before the Lord the 190 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. King, comp. Is. vi. 5. It looks back to the expression, " the Lord reigneth," '-t^yj^, in Ps. xcvii. 1, and is equivalent to " be fore the Lord who has now set up his kingdom, and brought the whole earth under his subjection." In the last strophe, ver. 7-9, who should rejoice : in the pre ceding one the intensity, here the extent of the joy. — Ver. 7. Let the sea roar and its fulness, ihe world, and ihem who dwell upon it. Ver. 8. Let ihe streams clap their hands, and ihe mountains rejoice together, Ver. 9. Before the Lord, because he comes io judge ihe earth, he will judge the earth in righteousness, and the nations in uprightness. — The first clause of ver. 7 is from Ps. xcvi. 11. The roaring suits the fulness of the sea as well as the sea itself : it is used. Job xxxix. 25, of the loud shout of the human voice. In so far as it is applied to the sea it denotes its solemn roar. The second clause is literally frora Ps. xxiv. 1, — The clapping of the hands is an expression of joy, comp. for example Ps. xlvii. 1, and was employed as such especially at the commenceraent of the reign of earthly kings, comp. 2 Kings xi. 12 : " and they clapped the hands, and said long live the king." The fundamental passage is Is. Iv. 12, — the only one, moreover, where, by a bold poetical figure, the clapping of hands is ascribed to inanimate objects: "the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." Instead of the streams here, the trees are there ; the mountains which follow here are named there imraediately before. — The reason why the -whole earth should rejoice is given in ver. 9 : he comes to judge the whole earth, and to bring it by his righteous government from a state of sorrow into a state of salvation and joy. Corap. at Ps. xcvi. 13. PSALM XCIX. The Psalra begins in ver. 1 with the joyful cry, " the Lord reigneth," depicts in ver. 2-5 how the appearing in his kingdom delivers his people from the state of oppression in which they had hitherto been, and exhorts them to praise devoutly the Lord from M'hom such glorious things are to be expected. He points PSALM XCIX, 191 in ver. 6-9 to the means which secure a participation in tli« blessings of the future, the dangers which threaten this partici pation : heartfelt trust in the Lord, and obedience to his com mandments, are as the history of antiquity, the example of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, shews the way to salvation, frora which sin excludes, while it brings into the domain of an avenging God ; — and concludes with a renewed exhortation devoutly to praise the Lord, who appears great and awful no less in effecting the salvation itself, than in appointing the conditions connected with its enjoyment. If we separate ver. 1 as containing the theme, the Psalm con sists of two strophes, each of four verses, which are manifestly distinguished from each other by " exalt the Lord our God," &c., in ver. 5 and ver. 9. That these strophes again fall into half strophes, each containing a pair of verses, is evident from the circumstance that the " he is holy," which occurs three times after the example of the original passage in Is. vi., besides being at the end of the two strophes, stands also in the raiddle of the first, and divides its two halves from each other. The full in sight into the formal arrangement of the Psalra is got when the following Psalm, which forms with it one pair, is added to it. W^e then obtain, whether the two ruling verses are added or not, 14 verses or 12 ; three strophes of four verses, or seven half- strophes of two. The Psalm is the inverse of " repent, for the kingdom of hea ven is at hand," Is. xl. 3-5, " the kingdom of heaven is at hand, therefore repent," an old testament, " with zeal ye sons of men.'' Among the series of Psalms, Ps. xci.-c, it is most closely con nected with Ps. xcv. In common with that Psalm, it sets especi ally before the eye of the church high demands proceeding from the approaching appearance jof the Lord in his kingdom, and also after the model of Ps. Ixxviii. teaches by history, and finally ends with a solemn warning to those who do not prepare their hearts and take heed to their ways. According to ver. 1 and 5 our Psalm was composed at a time when the ark of the covenant was still in existence, and therefore before the Chaldean invasion. This undoubted fact is of import ance in determining the age of the whole series, and of course also of the second part of Isaiah. 192 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, Ver. 1. The Lord reigneth, ihe nations tremble, he who sitteth upon ihe cherubim, the earth shakes. — On " the Lord reigneth," comp. Ps. xciii. 1, xcvi. 10, xcvii. 1. The futures are not opta tives, but are to be taken prophetically as at Ps. xciii. 1, xcvi. 10. Otherwise, instead of j^i^n, we would have had the abbreviated future. The character of the whole Psalm is prophetic. The trembling of the people and the moving of the earth are expres sions of fear and reverence " before the Lord appearing in his kingdom; comp. " trerable before him all ye lands" in Ps, xcvi. 9. By alluding to the future trembling of the people the Psalmist designs to furnish a means of strength to the church trembling at the present and the immediately future periods ; the nations who now proudly rise up against the Lord and his kingdom, and before whom the heart of the people is moved like the moving of the trees before the wind.b The church of the Lord may have trouble and sorrow for a time, but the promise of Deut. ii. 25, will always in the end be fulfilled : " I will this day begin to give thy terror and thy fear over the nations which are under the whole heaven who hear of thy report and tremble and quake before thee." When.her king appears it is the world's turn to tremble. Perhaps allusion is raade to the other sense of f^*^ " to be angry," Ps. iv. 4. The Qij^J^ stands poetically without an article. That the nations generally are raeant is evident from the parallel, " the earth," and the last verse of Ps. xcviii., and also. Ps. xcvi. 7-10. Before the second clause, we must supply " the Lord reigneth ;" and " who sitteth upon the cherubims" equivalent to the God of the whole earth," Ps. xcvii. 5, (comp. at Ps. Ixxx. 1) belongs in reality to both clauses. The two clauses, therefore, are equivalent to " the Lord who sits upon the cherubim reigneth, therefore the nations tremble, the earth moves." The translation, "he sits upon the cherubim," essentially disfigures the sense, and could have been a Amyr. : " That fear which proceeds from simple reverence as well as that -which arises from apprehension of evU, produces bodily shaking. Thus this exhortation (?¦) may concern believing as -well as unbelieving nations." b Calvin : For, inasmuch as the Jews -wer^ beset by enemies on all sides, it -svas of great consequence that the power of God should be extolled among them, that tbey might know that they would be al-ways safe under his protection against the hatred and fury of them all that God will make known such power in the deliverance of his elect people as will throw into confusion all nations, and that they will feel it, however much they may rage to their own ruin." PSALM XCIX, VER, 2 — 5. 193 favoured only by those who took a false view of " the Lord reigneth," and referred it to his constant dominion instead of to his appearing in his kingdora. It is not the omnipotence of God in general, but the fact that this omnipotent God reigneth, that is the cause of the trembling of the people. The expression " sitting upon the cherubim" is a phrase of constant occurrence as an epithet applied to Jehovah, comp. 1 Sam. iv. 4, 2 Sam. vi. 2, 2 Kings xix. 15, and other passages. This use of the expres sion " sitting upon the cherubim" indicates that the symbol of the presence of the Lord among his people was still in existence. It occurs nowhere else except in reference to the ark of the covenant. Ver. 2-5. — Ver. 2. The Lord is in Sion great, and he is ex alted above all nations. Ver. 3. They shall praise thy name great and terrible : holy is he. Ver. 4. And the strength of the king vjho loveth right : thou liast founded rectitude, right, and righteousness in Jacob hast thou executed. Ver. 5. Exalt the Lord our God, and pray at his footstool : holy is he. — On ver. 2 comp. Ps. xlviii. 1". The discourse is not of the greatness of the Lord in general, but of that greatness which he acquires by the glorious revelation of the future.'' The subject in " they shall praise" in ver. 3 is the nations — (not " may they praise" — this is opposed by the prophetic character of the Psalm, which stands in contrast to the lyric nature of Ps. c.) The nations had been last spoken of, and if the subject had been changed there would have been some intimation of it given. In the lyric part, the ex hortation " to praise the Lord, &c.," which depends upon the previous announcement made in the passage before us, is directed to the whole earth ; and even in other passages the deeds of the Lord on behalf of Israel very frequently appear as the object of praise for all nations, as in Ps. xcviii. 3, 4; comp. also Ps. Ixxxvi, 9, " all nations shall come and worship before thee, 0 Lord, and give glory to thy name," The expression, " shall praise thy name," is equivalent to " shall praise thee glorious by thy deeds." The " great and terrible" is from Deut. x, 17, " for the Lord thy God is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God and terrible," comp, xxviii. 58, " that thou fear this name a Ven. : " He shews that he is the exalted and most powerful King and avenger of bis people in Jemsalem, and superior to and S3t over all the natious of the earth." N 194 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. the glorious and the terrible." The " holy is he" forms tltebasi* of the pre-annoimcement contained in the preceding clause. The holiness of the Lord, comp. Ps. xxii. 3, guarantees the praise oi all, nations, for the glorious deeds by which this shall be called forth., That the " He" does not refer to the name but to the Lord him self is clear from ver. 5 and 9, and frora the reference to the " holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts" of the fundamental passage. It is for the sake of conformity to ver. 5 and 9, and the reference to the fundamental passage, that the address here is given up. But for this, the expression would have been : for thou art holy. — In ver. 4, "they shall praise thy holy name," is more exactly de veloped. The name appears as the product of the deeds of omni potent righteousness or of the righteous omnipotence of God on behalf of his people. This verse as regards construction is de signedly made entirely dependant upon the preceding one : " and (they shall praise) the strength of the King who loves right," in order that it may not be supposed that the occurrence of the " holy is He " gives rise to a new strophe. Ewald, nevertheless, has leapt over this hedge. The fj^ means nothing else than strength, not splendour or fame, &c. (comp. at Ps. xxix. 1), and occurs even in this sense in other passages of this series of Psalms, Ps. xciii. 1, xci. 6, 7. Oh " who loveth right," comp. Ps. xxxiii. 5, xxxvii. 28, " for the Lord loveth right and forsaketh not his saints, they shall be preserved for ever, and the seed of the wicked shall be r.ooted out." The remaining part of the verse is, in reality, connected -with what precedes by a " for," or by a semicolon : he represents the facts by which the Lord has shewn himself as the omnipotent righteousness, or in reality shall shew hiraself ; the import being, for thou hast delivered thy con gregation by a righteous judgment from the unrighteous oppres sion of the world, and hast risen up with mighty arm for the glorious deliverance of the children of God. To found or to establish righteousness (comp. Ps. Ixviii. 10), is to bring his. righteous way to a firm standing : this happens when God, judges righteously, comp. at Ps. lxxv. 2, Iviii. 1, xcvi. 10. The last words allude to 2 Sam. viii. 15 : " and David was king over all Israel, and executed right and righteousness to his whole people." What was there said of Israel's visible king shall be performed in future times in all its truth by his invisible true King, — comp... PSALM XCIX. VER. 6—9, 195 " and the strength of the King." — On " exalt," in ver. 5, comp. Ps. xxx. I, xxxiv. 3. The exhortation to worship occurs also in Pg. xcv. 6, xcvi. 9, xcvii. 7. The footstool of the Lord is every where the ark of the covenant, which he who sitteth upon the cherubim touched as it were with his feet, comp. 1 Chron. xxviii. 2, " to build an house where the ark of the Lord rested, and the footstool of our God," Ps. cxxxii. 7, Lam. ii. 1, " the pla'ee of my foot," Is. Ix. 13. Even Is. Ixvi. 1 forms an excep tion only in appearance, because it is only in opiposition to the usiial way of speaking, and in marked reference to it, that the earth is there called the footstool of the Lord : heaven, not, as you suppose, the place above the cherttbim, is my throne, the earth, not the ark of ihe covenant, according to coraraon language, - is my footstool. In the passage before us we cannot leave the common sense, on account of the "sitting upon the cherubim," in ver. 1, — comp. also his holy mountain in ver. 9. The ninniyT? is an expression of constant occurrence, with the ^ of the object to whom worship is due ; and it occurs in this way in Ps. xcvi. 9, xcvii. 7 ; we must translate here also " his footstool " (ace), " his holy mountain," in ver. 9, and must reject the translation " at it " as arbitrary. Worship is due to the ark of the covenant in so far as the Lord sits enthroned upon it, and makes himself known there. Is. xlv. 14 is similar where Sion is worshipped, and supplication is made to her, on account of the God who is present in her. Ver. 6—9. — Ver. 6. Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name : they call upon the Lord, and he hears ihem. Ver. 7. In the cloudy-pillar he speaks to them, they kept his testimonies, and he gave ihem ihe law.^Ver. 8. 0 Lord our God, thou didst hear them, thou wast a forgiving God to them, and an avenging God because of their iniquity. Ver. 9. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship his holy mountain : for holy is ihe Lord our God. — In ver. 8. it is shewn by the great representatives of the people in the past, that the first condition of participating in the glorious salvation of the future is calling upon God from living faith in him, and heartfelt trust in his compassion. That the particip. and the future here and in the first half of ver. 7 are to be explained by a lively realization of the past (contrary to Hitzig), and that the n2 196 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. sense is only poetically transfeiTcd from the past to the present, which ought to be instructed by it, is evident from the second half of ver. 7 and 8. The observations made at Ps. liv. 4 are applicable to the 3,. Not only Moses, but also Samuel, is num bered among the priests, next after Aaron. That we have here merely a merismos, that is Moses, Aaron and Samuel, were among the priests, and those who called upon his name, is evi dent from the D'''i^"lp repeated from the preceding word, they called, which refers to Moses and Aaron as well as to Samuel, although the caUing is ascribed literally only to Samuel. Aaron only was a priest in the usual sense. At the foundation, how ever, of this there is another spiritual idiom, that, namely, ac cording to which all are called priests who possess what consti tutes the essence of the ordinary priestly office (although not the externals), inward connection with God, free access to the throne of grace, and the gift and power of intercessory prayer. This figurative idiom occurs even in the law itself, comp. Ex. xix. 6, where it is said to all Israel : " Ye shall be to me a kingdora of priests, a holy people." The law hence acknowledges an ideal , priesthood along with the ordinary one. That in certain circum stances those who possessed this ideal priesthood were warranted in exercising all the functions of the ordinary priesthood, is evi dent from the exaraple of Samuel, and in a certain measure also from the example of Moses, who acted as a priest during the seven days of the consecration of the common priests. Lev. viii. 1 ss. Here, however, it is only the calling upon God that is considered as the essential part of the priestly office. This is evident from the circumstance that in the last clause the " they call," comprehends both "the being a priest" and the calling; hence the expression " araong those who call upon his name," can be nothing more than an explanation of among his priests. Ex. xvii., for example, shews that Moses exercised this priestly function, when by his intercession for the people he decided the contest against Amalek, Ex. xxxii. 31, 32, Ps. cvi. 23. Samuel fulfilled this calling especially when the Israelites were oppressed by the Philistines, comp. 1 Sam. vii. 9, " and Samuel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him." The idea that the last words allude directly to this passage is all the more probable, as we have already found an allusion in ver. 4, which it is irapos- PSALM XCIX. VER, 6 — 9, 197 sible to mistake, to the books of Samuel. The lesson, therefore, here imparted to Israel is : if you wish to participate in the sal vation of the future, call upon the Lord, after the. example of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, for hearing invariably follows call ing ; in "Lord come" there always lies a slumbering, "Here, Son." — From the pillar of cloud God spoke not only to Moses, Ex. xxxiii. 9, " and when Moses came into the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tent, and the Loid talked with Moses," and again, shortly before his death, Deut. xxxi. 15, but also to Aaron. Num. xii. 5. On the occasion there related it was indeed in anger but in anger beyond which grace was concealed. Samuel received divine revelations in another form ; but as the matter was common to him with Moses and Aaron, the. form which was peculiar to these is transferred to hira ; or the speaking of God in the pillar of cloud may be con sidered as a figurative expression of divine revelation generally, taken from one of its original forms. " He gave the law to them," is a repetition of " he spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud," just as " they call upon him," in ver. 7, is a repetition of " among his priests and them that call upon his name," serving the purpose of placing faithfulness towards revelations already obtained in intimate connection with the obtaining of new revelations, and of representing the former as the indispensable condition of the latter ; as if it had been " he revealed himself to thera because they had acted faithfully towards what they already received." Frora the expression, " he gave the law to them," it follows that the clause, "he spoke to thera in the pillar of cloud," is intended to refer to the communication of laws, precepts, injunctions, corap. Ex. xxv. 22, " and I corae to meet with thee there, and to speak Avith thee all that I shall give thee in commandment to the children of Israel." In reference to his testimonies, comp. at Ps. xciii. 5. " He gave the law to them," is from Ex. xv. 25, where Moses, as a reward for his faithfulness to the Lord, and especially for having maintained his faith in temptation, receives from him the injunction to make the bitter water sweet. This fundamental passage shews that the usual translation, " and the law which he gave them," is false. This translation, besides, destroys the train of thought in the verse, as it has above been developed, and robs the words of their import. The passage 198 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. already quoted, for example, shews how Moses obtained the law as a reward for his faithful following of the commandments of the Lord, and Num. xii. 5, how Aaron did so : had not his ob servance of the testimonies of the Lord distinguished him from the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, he as well as they would have been destroyed. Samuel obtained, for example, divine instructions as to how he ought to conduct himself in con nection with the impetuous desire of the people for a king, 1 Sam. viii. 6 ss., and also towards Saul, 1 Sam. xv. The whole verse proceeds upon the view that the communication of new precepts and rules of life shall be bound up with the future glorious reve lation of the Lord. The people are here told how they may ob tain participation in this. Participation in the new covenant is the reward of faithfulness to the old. If we observe the com mandments of God we shall receive the comraandments of God, and with them salvation. — The two first clauses of ver, 8 merely resume what had been said, for the purpose of connecting with it the last clause, which contains the peculiar point : thou didst hear them assuredly, thou wast to them a forgiving God, but at the sarae tirae — woe to us if we bring thy wrath upon us — an avenger of their iniquity. That the thought of our verse lay very near the Psalmist's heart is clear not only from the circum stance that the Psalm ends with it, but also from this, that the address is impassionately directed to Jehovah. The second part of Isaiah contains all the particulars into which the thought of our verse is drawn out ; the maxim, " there is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked," which separates the three books of the second part from each other, is fully developed. The " our God" is emphatic, and intimates that the history is at the same time a prophecy. The suffix in Df^i^j^, which is a repetition of Q^j^i in ver. 6, refers to those previously named. On the other hand, the suffixes in q^^ and in D]-\l^"i^j; refer to the people. For the personal history of the three individuals named affords no remarkable examples of tbe forgiving mercy of God, and the Psalmist, in the passage before us, can only refer to clear and well-marked cases f the forgiveness appears here as the conse- a Ven. : " God may be here said to have foi;given these men their sins, but what emphasis wciild this have? and for -what end would it be said? For the expression itakes for granted, that these men provoked God in some singular way, so that God, ia PSALM XCIX. VER. 6— '9. 199 quence of the hearing, this again as the result of the calling mentioned in the preceding clauses ; but this calling refers not to the personal circumstances of the individuals named, but it is their intercession on behalf of the people, which had for its ob ject to remove the divine wrath lying upon them ; the wrath leads to serious offences, not to sins of infirmity ; only the for mer can be understood by m^i^j^,' — the word, which is used of the actions of men only in a bad sense, denotes always only sins properly so called, never mere inadvertencies (comp. at Ps. xiv. 1) ; in Ps. liii. it is explained by ^yrj, and here this sense is de manded, by the manifest opposition to the " forgiving :" a for giving God wast thou to thera (for their infirmities), and an avenging one for their iniquities. It is evident, therefore, that the Q]-\l^iVi^ does not suit the three individuals who are named. The sins of Moses and Aaron were altogether sins of infirmity, the result of the sins of the people, and their punishment was in tended to strike at them, comp. Deut. i. 37, iii. 26, iv. 21, Beitr. : the history makes no mention, even of sins of infirmity, in the case of Samuel. The transition to the people is all the more easy, as the persons named had a representative character, for they did not pray for themselves but for the people, obtained hearing and forgiveness on their behalf, and as they are here set np as an example for the people. The whole verse is a para phrase of Ex. xxxiv. 7, from which the ^'5^3 in particular is taken. " Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the chil dren, and upon the children's children," corresponds to the last clause. ^